By and large we are conditioned by the film industry to believe only things with massive budgets are worth watching. I will be the first to admit such films have a high rewatchable factor. This would be the reason FX glommed onto the Marvel comic book movies and some other channels glommed onto the Harry Potter films.

There is an oddity in this juxtaposition. Ordinarily big budget movies have a high rewatchable factor for the exact same reason critics dump on them. Lots of stuff blowing up and hard bodied action heroes with incredible fight scenes. Yet the Harry Potter films have almost none of that and they have a high rewatchable factor. They will be on various family oriented channels for decades to come.

Before Bruce Lee showed up fight scenes in action movies were either amazingly cheesy or they ended with that over the shoulder camera shot of a punch with a head snapping back called “the Duke” stunt. Today they are almost a ballet. Anyone who doubts the ballet comment needs to check out the Scarlett Johansson fight scene in Iron Man 2. Roles for women have definitely changed. The girl next door tom boy who can both baby sit your kids and kick your butt has become a staple of big budget films.

One thing which leads to the low rewatchable factor of lesser budget movies is that many tend to be “who done it?” or single journey stories. They may be great movies with incredible acting, but they are one and done for most movie watchers. I watched a great example of this the other night, Fontera.  This movie is an example of just how good a low budget film can be. I highly recommend it.

Some low budget films manage to obtain a high rewatchable factor. I haven’t figured out what it is about these stories, if there is something common, that gives them such a high rewatchable factor. Juno is one such low budget film. Ellen Page wisecracking all the way through that movie makes it a joy to watch time and again. There is also that one priceless scene between her mother and father where mom asks dad if he really believes _that_ boy thought of this all on his own. The pause half way out of the chair then the shaking of his head as he sits back down _totally_ sells it.

I think it was during an interview with Stephen King where someone asked him why so many of his books get made into movies. I don’t remember the exact wording of his response, but the gist of it was “A book should be a movie.” This is true. Too many of us forget this. Actually, too many of us follow the bad example.

What do I mean by “too many of us follow the bad example?” Simple. You try to write books like the action movies with high rewatchable factors. Okay, Harry Potter is not a bad example, but the movies based on comic books are. If you are an artist creating a comic book they are good examples but if you are simply putting words on a page they are very bad examples.

The logic behind it is easy to understand even if it is amazingly flawed. These movies made hundreds of millions of dollars, if I want a movie deal I have to emulate them so I can make hundreds of millions of dollars. Not really. The odds of a writer making hundreds of millions from a single book are far lower than the odds of someone with a retirement plan consisting of scratch off lottery tickets actually being able to retire.

Yes, there are authors out there who make millions of dollars from their current title. In most cases those authors have a “platform” built up over many years with many titles. For every writer who finds and agent and strikes it big there are hundreds who get fleeced by fake agents/agencies/services and many thousands who go nowhere. The reason behind it isn’t luck, education or timing. The reason is the rewatchable factor.

Be honest. Of all the books you have read, just how many have you read more than once? How many have you read repeatedly? If your work does not lend itself to a high rewatchable factor you stand little chance of building a platform. Each work will have to stand on its own getting only tepid support from existing customers as it competes with the other 1 million or so new titles released that same year.

I got into the “Wheel of Time” series by Robert Jordan late in the game. They had already started putting out boxed sets of the paperbacks when I purchased a couple at a book store. The early boxed sets, perhaps through book 5, had a high rewatchable factor. I know this because I read them many times. Each winter I would start the series over again, especially if a new title was “almost out.” The the writing went to shit and I quit reading the series. Really don’t care how it ends. Here is an example of an author who tried to milk it. The last book or so he actually wrote for the series got a bit better, but from book 6 until then it was pretty obvious he was padding the story to add more titles.

Herein lies the danger of both a series and a high rewatchable factor. In truth, herein lies the danger of having a platform especially if you have a publisher.

To be continued