Welcome to the 21st century, where everything is fast, easy and cheap! Why go to school? Look up a tutorial on Youtube! In person therapy? No, BetterHelp is the way to go now. Creativity, passion, talent? None of that, just look at other creators are doing! At the end of the day, everything’s already been done… right?

Never-ending accessibility has made humans comfortable, and I wouldn’t say it’s in a positive way. As the years go by, technology advances and wows us, while we lose the capability to think for ourselves without even noticing. We consume worldwide media non-stop, to the point where art begins to look the same, regardless of where artists are from. Movies share the same concepts, only variating casts (well… if you’re lucky). Music starts to sound like one artist made all of the songs in the Top 100, and there’s no escaping it.

Working in a “creative” field, I see it on my day-to-day basis. I say “creative” because nowadays there’s basically a formula for how to make art and, for a lot of people, that formula does not include creativity anymore. Filmmaking is the process by which a motion picture is produced, and there’s a lot that goes into it; writing, cinematography, acting, lighting, editing and much, much more.

In prior decades there used to be a clear distinction between the truly talented, passionate filmmakers and those who were mostly tagging along simply for the fun of it (or for the big bucks to be made). Today, if you’re not an avid movie-goer or a part of the industry, those lines are incredibly blurry. The content being put out is sometimes so similar from each other (without critiquing the quality of it) that it’s hard to tell who knows and loves what they’re doing as a filmmaker, and who inspired themselves in someone else’s work to the point of copying it. We’ve gotten so used to the idea of “everything’s been done already” that we’ve stopped attempting to be original.

Scrolling through social media and observing people tell stories of their lives, most of the comments will include something along the lines of “I’ve never had an original thought in my life”, but that’s simply what you’ve made yourself believe. Every human experience is different from someone else’s, regardless of the similarities. The way you think, the way you act, the way you process things will never be 100% the same as another persons. However, we’ve slowly started feeling okay being the same as others, and we see that in every aspect of our lives. What we do, how we dress, the art that we make, the media that we consume, the list is endless.

There’s relief in numbers, we tend to feel safe when we’re not put in the spotlight, and I believe that’s led to being comfortable in being mediocre. We’ve become scared of being different, settled for what the norm is, and it’s subsequently altered everything we once knew. If the content we put out is similar, slightly better or slightly worse than what everyone else is doing, then perfect! Audiences won’t be able to tell the difference between me or the 20 other artists creating similar projects, so if they love it then good for all of us! And if they hate it, well at least we’re all going down together.

The way I see it is, do you want your content to be enjoyed for the next 3 months, or the next 30 years? We all want different things and are on the path to reaching individual goals, so the answer will be different for everyone. However, if you’re already putting work into something, why not also put love into it?

I applaud filmmakers like Julia Ducournau (Raw 2016, Titane 2021) and Ari Aster (Hereditary 2018, Midsommar 2019), because in an era of films that appease all audiences, they’ve dared to do the opposite. They’ve made names for themselves by making audiences tear up while wanting to look away, chills covering their whole bodies as disturbing images flash on the screen. They understand that what they make is not for everyone, and many will widely criticize it, but they’ve fully embraced it and made something enigmatic out of it. I wish we saw that more often.

So I invite you, reader, to do the same. Before following trends, ask yourself, are you doing it because you enjoy it or because you feel comfortable? Is there more to you than what you’re displaying because of fear of being inconsistent with the norm? And if so, who gives a fuck? At the end of the day, those who stand out will be the memorable ones.