{"id":1468,"date":"2020-08-18T22:04:48","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T05:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scot.fun\/damentals\/?p=1468"},"modified":"2020-08-18T22:04:52","modified_gmt":"2020-08-19T05:04:52","slug":"would-anyone-notice-if-entertaiment-sucked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scot.fun\/damentals\/would-anyone-notice-if-entertaiment-sucked\/","title":{"rendered":"Would Anyone Notice if Entertaiment Sucked?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People use you for your assets, but they love you for your flaws<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Most of the time showbiz people hyperfocus on the wrong details. If you call yourself a perfectionist, then you are hyperfocusing on the wrong details. Prolific people don’t have time to call themselves perfectionists, and perfection is not even what your audience wants – they want more of the good, real stuff!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, then we’re in a balancing act of trying to serve quality entertainment with some messiness. The science, the craft, and the magic of developing great stuff is knowing which parts are important, and unfortunately there’s no formula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a concept that can help though, it’s called “Value Engineering.” In value engineering, you try to reduce costs of production as low as possible without reducing perceived value. For a fast food company that sells billions of potatoes per day, they can geek it down to putting 5 fewer fries in every small fry order. That saves them a lot of money in the big picture. For a board game maker, it could be a conversation like “we love these cards, but if we use the lighter cardboard and the cheaper printing, how much money could we save in a year and would anyone notice.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Would anyone notice?” is a very tough question…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I see entertainment pros who go too far in both directions. Some folks think audiences are stupid and basic, or at least it’s not worth the trouble… and some people get really hung up on getting the very best microphone and using it perfectly… then end up having no life in their performance. Or, they get paralyzed worried that the audience will see thru them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The part that makes the whole thing extra murky is it’s not a question of whether they’ll complain. So, they might be completely silent about your lack of value, but they’ll feel it. You probably won’t say anything about a wrinkly shirt on your neighbor, or a hollow chocolate bunny, or a ticket to a movie theater using generic tickets, but you’ll feel it. Part of you will notice “this is not premium”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might be a feature; not a bug<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By taking an empathetic view at your entertainment for your audience, you might find that some of the holes in your creation are portholes. They might think it’s funny that all your character names start with “G” by accident. Sometimes you luck out like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning for flaws<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you define clearly your brand<\/a> or the experience of your stuff, you can make bold decisions about where to put the flaws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Scot Nery’s Boobietrap<\/a>, we know that the hand soap in the bathroom being too thick to easily pump out of the dispensers is weird, but also kinda funny. We would rather have extra bubble machines than have the stairs to the stage be clean. For a show with 30 people involved every week, this doesn’t seem like a trade-off we’d have to make, but it is. And every organization with any resources has to do similar. We know if we are serving cupcakes for an anniversary show, every single food safety protocol must be followed, but if I get hurt during the show, that’s okay and probably fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People use you for your assets, but they love you for your flaws. Most of the time showbiz people hyperfocus on the wrong details. If you call yourself a perfectionist, then you are hyperfocusing on the wrong details. Prolific people don’t have time to call themselves perfectionists, and perfection is not even what your audience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":1488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158666434799935_26707174888":"","twitter_aToyMjM4MTQzMDs=_22381430":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.scot.fun\/damentals\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/captp.jpg?fit=2000%2C1423&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc33gc-nG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3307,"url":"https:\/\/www.scot.fun\/damentals\/oh-contact-forms-how-i-dislike-thees\/","url_meta":{"origin":1468,"position":0},"title":"Oh Contact Forms, How I Dislike Thees","author":"scot","date":"June 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"People like putting contact forms on their sites. 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