Dune understands how content works in 2020s
… and that’s why it doesn’t try to tell everything on screen.
In 1984, there was another Dune movie by David Lynch.
It didn’t work out despite a good director and a popular cast.
Lynch would erase his name from it if he could.
The movie had two potential audiences with opposite expectations.
- Dune fans were expecting to watch the story they already knew.
- Newcomers were expecting to watch and understand the story.
A movie made for the first group could focus on the main story. But it would never sell enough tickets to balance out the budget necessary for such a colossal world.
Lynch chose the only possible way: he made it for the newcomers.
So, he had to explain everything during the movie.
He tried to compensate this with overwhelming voice overs.
The movie turned into a mish-mash of explanations and storylines impossible to follow after a few minutes.
If you haven’t yet, you should see the weirdly overlaid face of Princess Irulan floating in space and telling you the backstory.
- So, what does this have to do with YouTube?
Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 “Dune: Part 1” has a more tranquil storytelling. He doesn’t rush anything.
He doesn’t try to explain the Dune universe.
Why?
Does it work without the audience knowing anything about it? Hardly. (If you disagree, I have a screenshot below for you)
Villeneuve doesn’t explain too much, because he understands how the audience thinks today, and it’s fundamentally different from 1984.
Denis Villeneuve and Christopher Nolan: they are similar in many ways. Both tell complicated stories within interesting worlds with gigantic settings but calm storylines.
Both Villeneuve and Nolan make little effort to explain the story from scratch. They focus on their own part.
They share the burden with the audience.
In Tenet, Nolan made little effort to explain “entropy”, although it was essential to understand the story.
He assumed that if the audience wanted to understand the movie, they would. He was right.
In Blade Runner 2049, Villeneuve made little effort for references to the original, even though the audience was new to the story: there were 35 years between two movies.
He assumed that if the audience wanted to learn about the original Blade Runner, they would. He was right, too.
Because they both understand what the 21st century audience does: they research.
The 21st century audience likes to research and learn, and they have the tools for it.
Both Nolan and Villeneuve know that if someone in the audience wants a detailed understanding, they will have it before the content.
On the contrary, imagine yourself in 1984: no internet search, no forums, no Reddit, no YouTube. The only way to understand a new story is the trailer and the movie itself.
Will you read a 896 pages novel for a movie? Probably not. Can you find someone who can explain it to you in an expert way? Probably not.
The burden was on the storytellers of the pre-internet era.
Today’s audience has resources. They can research anything if they want to.
Today’s content, be it a movie or a game or a series or a website or an Instagram ad, has to focus on its own role, and shape the journey of its audience.
No material lives in isolation now — everything exists in a flow.
Those who understand this create the best experiences for their audiences — both in art, and in marketing.
