movies : which one has priority? form or content

[greatdarius]

So there were always arguments about movies and also the difference between these too. the reason I write this topic was from an argument . we are making a short movie and we are seeking about priority of these two main elements , content or form . many people I know voted on content but I think opposite , I think first its important to describe an image's look then too talk about it so you have to describe the form of your story first , is it about love , is it about friendship , about bad critics, then talk about how it is .

other people say to me that : no that's wrong cause the philosophy of movies is to make people impressed by symbols and story. like life of pi , or interstellar . now I ask you what do you think .

[dungeom]

Content is priority in most cases ofc, no form will save you if your content is weak. It's 101. Very very few movies were able to pull themselves based only on form. Things like image looks etc is all cosmetics and can be redone 10000 times, it's not that important on a grand scale. It's only important if that's the whole idea of your movie - if it's all about image looks.

 

Why you even think about those things, it's...it's not important if you know what and how exactly you are going to make your specific project. If you are directing teenage slasher, why you care? You need an axe and beautiful chicks. If you are doing some investigation/mystery - the story itself, setting, suspense. Maybe all your movie is some abstract mathematical industrial "music clip" then probably form will matter more, i dunno.

 

And why not both, why you must choose priorities? Look at the last quentin - both amazing form and content. Simple commoners enjoy the story itself, the characters, actors, while movie critics also enjoy the quality and aesthetic of everything else.

 

Anyway, in the moment when you know exactly what you will do, this question won't make sense because content and form will have priorities based on your specific case. Your movie will dictate you what it needs the most. If it's the silent love story of two kids living on a hill, where almost whole movie is nice views of setting sun and piano playing, birds flying...etc you will need to have a great picture in the first place, good editing, nice actors, cause basically you wont have any content and it's one of those boring to death stupid visual movies like "life of pi" that pretend to be smart but in reality they are really dumb and aimed at common folk at the malls after burger.

 

What has priority - quality or quantity? Does this question makes sense? No it doesn't.