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Friday, October 04, 2024
'Fans are going to retaliate:' Studios are creating superfan focus groups, and can we just not?
The Mary Sue: It is another day online which means another frustrating move by studios and outlets. According to Variety, Hollywood is battling “toxic” fandoms. Actually, you’re battling about 6 YouTubers you let continually drive a narrative who you refuse to call out. The response to the toxicity is frustrating.
2 comments:
Carly Tamborello
said...
I agree with this article that calling focus groups of self-proclaimed fans is probably not the best way to go. I do think there are some times that responding to fan input can be valuable, particularly with adaptations––for instance, when people were so upset with the creepy, uncanny-valley-esque original design for Sonic the Hedgehog in the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog movie, it was fan responses that drove the creators to change the character’s design, which made the movie much more successful and fans across the board happier. However, it’s true that fan environments can easily become toxic spaces when they are overrun with people who only care about making themselves heard (and often have the worst takes). So I totally agree that randomly picking a few vocal fans and dropping them in the room with the actual storytellers, and then potentially catering to their every demand, is a supremely bad idea for the creative process. This is the wrong way to cultivate trust and serve the story.
The idea of a “toxic superfan” is relatively new—before internet forums, swatting and doxxing, there wasn’t much you could do to harm celebrities and actors from the comfort of your home. Today, however, it’s become extremely dangerous. This issue is especially prevalent on reality shows, where the people onscreen have received little to no media training and are often painted as villains to help boost ratings. On RuPaul's Drag Race, nearly every season has a queen who gets the “villain” edit. Through creative use of sound effects and carefully edited interview segments, the production team is able to craft a personality that the audience loves to hate. This in itself is problematic, but the reality is far worse. These queens (like the Vixen, Mistress Isabelle Brooks, Dayabetty, Kandy Muse, etc.) receive thousands of death threats and hate comments daily. As performers, it impacts their ability to book jobs and make a living doing what they love.
2 comments:
I agree with this article that calling focus groups of self-proclaimed fans is probably not the best way to go. I do think there are some times that responding to fan input can be valuable, particularly with adaptations––for instance, when people were so upset with the creepy, uncanny-valley-esque original design for Sonic the Hedgehog in the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog movie, it was fan responses that drove the creators to change the character’s design, which made the movie much more successful and fans across the board happier. However, it’s true that fan environments can easily become toxic spaces when they are overrun with people who only care about making themselves heard (and often have the worst takes). So I totally agree that randomly picking a few vocal fans and dropping them in the room with the actual storytellers, and then potentially catering to their every demand, is a supremely bad idea for the creative process. This is the wrong way to cultivate trust and serve the story.
The idea of a “toxic superfan” is relatively new—before internet forums, swatting and doxxing, there wasn’t much you could do to harm celebrities and actors from the comfort of your home. Today, however, it’s become extremely dangerous. This issue is especially prevalent on reality shows, where the people onscreen have received little to no media training and are often painted as villains to help boost ratings. On RuPaul's Drag Race, nearly every season has a queen who gets the “villain” edit. Through creative use of sound effects and carefully edited interview segments, the production team is able to craft a personality that the audience loves to hate. This in itself is problematic, but the reality is far worse. These queens (like the Vixen, Mistress Isabelle Brooks, Dayabetty, Kandy Muse, etc.) receive thousands of death threats and hate comments daily. As performers, it impacts their ability to book jobs and make a living doing what they love.
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