Sorry for taking so long to get back to you on this. I had to really think about it to come up with a good, straightforward answer.
The most important ingredient to making a successful movie, play or show is passion. You must have people that are driven, sometimes irrationally, to pour their work into the project. Most people dont believe it, but it takes such an incredible amount of work to create something really great only the deeply dedicated can follow through.
Pixar works because the people there love making their movies. They rush into the office before dawn because they cant wait to start. They sweat out the details not because they have to, but because they have fun doing it. And the first thing they say when they think theyve finished a character or a scene is okay, now how do we make it better. They are their movies biggest fans, they want to see the finished product more than anyone else.
At HBO they have focused their business on finding projects created by teams with the passion to make great shows. Tom Hanks is extremely passionate about honoring those who served in World War II and in Americas space program that passion showed through in both Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon. He made those programs because he wanted to tell those stories.
Bob Iger sits at his desk and doesnt really care what stories he wants to tell. He has hour after hour of programming space to fill and his only concern is seeing 30 seconds bits of it for as much as possible. It doesnt really matter what people are watching, or why, or even in what numbers only as long as some company wants to pay for a bit of the action.
Shows become a business project the least amount of investment for the greatest possible return. People are there to create; they are there to collect a pay check. They dont think of it as their show, its a product that fits a corporate marketing program. It must be brought in on time, on budget to be a success. No one really cares what it is; they just hope it sells well enough so they have a job next week. Short cuts are taken, the hard work goes undone.
In short, making movies is really a cottage industry theyre part art, part craft that relay on skilled people to create them. But too often that have become mass produced, industrial products. Giant media corporations, with quarterly targets and interchangeable employees, can not produce works filled with individual passion.
