around movie making

[navi tasan]

1) We had a long conversation around movie making.
2) Our team has a lot of energy around movie making.

Do these make sense?

I think in #1 'around movie making' is supposed to mean 'about movie making' and in #2 it is supposed to mean 'when it comes to movie making'.

A friend had written something like #2 in a letter. I thought he was trying to be as brief as possible and had taken a 'short-cut' (using 'around' instead of 'when it comes to') I asked AI about the sentence and it didn't find it incorrect, but said it was:

Possible in modern informal/business-style English, but vague.
“Around” is often used loosely today (“conversation around art,” “culture around startups”).

I find 'around movie making' weird in both sentences.

I was wondering what your take would be? Do you find the sentences strange? Do they mean what I think they mean?

 

[Tarheel]

I suggest sticking to "about" (1). As for the second one, try: Our team is very interested in movie making. Or something like that.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes it makes some sense but it's a poor choice of preposition. We'd have to hear the actual example that you heard, in its natural context, to speculate why your friend decided to use 'around' instead of 'about'.

Generally, if you talk 'around' a topic, it suggests that for some reason you're not really getting to the heart of it.

 

[Annabel Lee]

2) Our team has a lot of energy around movie making.

I think the use of "around" is acceptable in (2) in a context where the intended meaning is "When our team makes movies, it has a lot of energy" or "Making movies makes our team energtic." That's how I naturally understand the sentence.