We want Films that Connect above films that Engage.

I was speaking with another artist yesterday. We spoke about films we connected with. She asked 'What is it that we connect with and why do some films have it when others don't?'

Most would jump quickly to the answer that it's all about the story.  When talking about connection I think this is the wrong answer. I've connected with good stories just as often I've not connected with good stories. Story is the key to 'audience engagement' not connection. Story draws you in and holds your attention from beginning to end.  There are hundreds of courses and books on story structure and how to best engage audience attention but none that I have seen discuss making connections.  Story along with design, drama, character, cinematography, action, editing, music and sound are all elements for audience engagement but they are not directly key to audience connection.

Connection can be measured by resonance. When a film, painting or novel effects you or stays with you then it is 'resonating' with you. You are seeing the ideas and reliving the feelings stimulated by that art throughout your day, week, month or year. You can see that art in your news, on the train, when playing with your kids or buying your lunch. When a piece of art resonates with you soon you see that art in everything and therefore, as is the wonderful result of connection, everything becomes art.

Connection is important.  Engagement holds us only for the time we're looking at a work. Connection  not only stays with us but also enriches how we experience the world around us.

I was in Hamish McKay gallery over the weekend where I spoke to the curator about the Andy Warhol exhibition coming to Te Papa. He was excited about plans for his own exhibition which would show Warhol alongside NZ artist and Warhol contemporary Billy Apple.  Together these artist were on the cutting edge.  Pop art made us re look at the world and ask what is art? Is this row of Campbell soup cans at my supermarket art? Just being alive to the question makes the world a richer place. Their art connected.  What about Fight Club or The Matrix? We all remember how excited we were leaving the cinema after those films but more importantly the world around us got a little more interesting because of them.

So we can measure and define connection. Then surely we can create it.   It's important here to stress that connection can be created. Some would like to think that it's luck.  In fact large studios can afford to throw good stories at an audience based on a gamble that at least a few will connect with someone. This approach is wasteful and unsustainable. This approach is lazy and fearful. We can actively and consciously create art that connects. We can do it well and we can do it more often.