Movies. The favorite of pastimes, especially during the pandemic, and a childhood memory of many. The scent of popcorn as you walk into the theater, the joy of walking through the theater looking for the perfect seat, and the thrill of the trailers running because the movie is so close.

This past year has been full of movies that many people wholeheartedly loved, like Ghostbusters Afterlife, DUNE, Red Notice, Sing 2, Venom- Let there be Carnage, Eternals, and a class favorite- Spiderman No Way Home. These movies, new releases, sequels to others, remakes, and more, are all films that any student at Carroll could name.   

Everyone knows the feelings that a movie can bring, and a decent one can bring on all the feelings- happiness, sadness, fear, anger, etc, all capped off with an ending that does the movie justice. 

But that brings up the question- what makes a good movie? A starstudded cast? An action-packed plot?    

According to Bob Johnston, a good movie has more to it than that.  

“The filmmakers need two things to happen​ successfully for the audience to get pulled into a film,” said Johnston, “There needs to be clear and easy-to-follow conflict and room in the story for the audience’s imagination to operate and fill in the blanks. Conflict is something that everyone can relate to in our own lives, and allowing the audience’s imagination to be active and guess what will happen or to allow the audience to be a part of the film unfolding in their minds is very important.”

If a film wants to be enjoyable and successful, it has to leave some space for the audience to put in their own ideas and inferences. 

Mr. Johnston is the leader of the short film club, and he specializes in shorter movies and pictures. To some people, a 5-minute movie would be hard to make because you have to develop the characters and plot in a very short time. However, according to Johnston, a 50-minute movie is harder. 

“I think the 50-minute film is harder. You need 50 minutes of a script, 50 minutes of edited video and audio, a larger cast, crew, credits, and more time to create all of that” said Johnston.  

He also mentioned something that is a rather large buzzkill for audiences while watching a movie. 

“Predictability is the worst in my opinion. Writing cliches into a script, guessing what will happen next because it is a movie trope, figuring out the ending before it happens always ruins a movie for me especially.” 

The topic of ‘what makes a good movie?’ is a rather controversial one, as a movie could be the greatest film ever created to one person, and the worst motion picture ever to someone else.  

“This is a very subjective question because what is good for one person may not be good for another. What I teach in my classes is that the video informs the audience about what is happening, but the audio tells you how to feel about what you are seeing. So the best way to give the audience the full range of emotions is to have a compelling sound design, soundtrack, and score for the film.”

Movies. That one topic that everyone knows something about, from Marvel to Star Wars,  fantasies, and documentaries, it’s the genre that everyone can enjoy.

However, the question about what a good movie is, it seems, is completely up to the person watching it.