Radixhound

This is an overdue post about the things that I started reflecting about after watching the movie DareDevil – Director’s cut. I’m starting at the end because it’s the most interesting at the moment – the little things are what makes it big.

What happened with the theatrical release of DareDevil was that the producer and other people involved on the project wanted the running time of the movie to be under or around 90 minutes. I don’t really know why they would want to do that, I personally feel ripped off if a movie is too short. Bring on the 3 hour long flicks is what I say. That’s beside the point. This is not to say that you can’t make a good movie with a short running time. It just depends if the story can handle it.

The consequence of this decision was that they started to cut out what they considered to be the ‘fluff’. The cut out all the scenes that didn’t advance the primary plot line in some way. What was left was a very concise fast moving story. But it was devoid of small interesting details.

When it came to the director’s cut, a bunch of side stories were added, supporting cast had more screen time, and there were more quiet moments exploring little details. These little details didn’t necessarily fit in with the core of the story or move forward the main plot line, but in many ways they are what made it good.

The same idea can be applied to software development.

I just watched the director’s cut of DareDevil. I never saw the theatrical release and I sure am glad I didn’t. This movie was a good movie. I wouldn’t put it up next to Spider-Man, but I would definitely include it in my list of comic book movies that ‘got it’.

I was prompted to blog about this because there are important lessons to be taken away from this. I look and see that some really talented people got together and made a great movie, then it got cut up and a lousy movie was released to the theatres. I think a lot can be taken away from thinking about what happened, why it happened and what actually makes a great movie.

I want to blog about this more later when I have the chance, but for now I want to put down the things that are jumping out at me:

1. The producer had a different vision from the director, and he held the money.
2. The end-user’s expectations weren’t understood and met.
3. Story is KING.
4. It’s the little things that make it big.

I want to translate these ideas into understanding what makes good software, because the challenges involved with making a movie are the same types of challenges involved in making software. Stay tuned kids.