'The real issue is that Hollywood establishes visual conventions that people come to regard as the standards against which other art should be judged'

Yes, that is the real issue. If you want to know how deeply Hollywood imagery is ingrained in our imaginations, take your average common-or-garden alien as an example. There all kinds of aliens, but the real standard was defined by steve spielberg in 'Close Encounters' - small cute-looking aliens with large heads, big cute eyes and long tapered arms. How many times have we seen similar aliens on X-files, and all the other TV shows of the 80s/90s?

Yet, before speilberg came along, aliens were invariably horrible monsters of one kind or another. He was the first one to make them 'acceptable' as harmless funny little creatures. If there were an alien invasion tomorrow, half the population would be outraged because the aliens don't look like speilberg's version.

Speilberg also defined the now-accepted convention of 'blue light' - that's the effect you see in movies when a spacecraft is outside a door/window - blindingly over-exposed blue light that seeps through the cracks in the walls and shutters.

And don't even get me started on dinosaurs...... 

Don't get me wrong. I think speilberg is a genius in his own way, but he's definitely supplied our collective imagination with fixed imagery which is difficult to deny.... even when we know better.

mac