Webspinna Battle - A Battle of the Ages

Team Members:
Travis Clark
Michael Comp

The process of preparing for the Webspinna Battle took some time. We were unsure as to what it was that we would “fight” about. We discussed ideas like Harry Potter, Twilight, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones (that idea was crossed of the list quickly) and more but nothing sparked our creative minds. It was then in our desperation that it came, Old Movie culture vs New Movie culture. What has changed and are those changes good?

The culture around movies has changed considerably since their debut. Movies back in the day were a special event. People would dress up in their best, go to a nice restaurant with their date, and have a good, yet very formal, time at the Movie Theatre. Movies were determined to be successful, or not, over a number of weeks. Movies nowadays are determined as successful on their opening weekend, if not their opening showing. Going to the movie theater is a daily event. Movies are in practically every household in the form of a DVD that was bought at the store, rented from a machine, or downloaded from the internet. Movie going is a much more casual experience. Do people still go out to dinner and a movie as a date? Sure they do but the experience is different now. The differences may not be for the better or for the worse but they are different.

One of our influences for this choice of “Old Movie Culture vs New Movie Culture” was the movie, Midnight in Paris. It’s a movie about a writer who finds a way to travel between the present and the roaring 20’s. Nostalgia plays a big part in the movie while the writer is caught between his love with the past and the present. The two are so different yet there are many times where we can find a compromise between them. The past informs the present and future. However it is unhealthy for someone to live in the past. Living in the past leads to people missing the great stuff that is around them now. One must look to the past to see where one can best go forward but one cannot stay there.

It is just as unhealthy to look only in the present and not the past. How can anyone do anything new when they don’t know what has been done? How can mistakes be corrected if no one cares to see what went wrong and correct them? The past and present go hand in hand. Both necessary and good.