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BiggerBoat posted:Here's sort of a dumb (irrational) one. Movies never deal with traffic, not being able to find a parking space, dead cell phones, a late bus, not being able to find WiFi or hail a cab, having UPS gently caress up a delivery, dealing with a storm, having a paid bill come up as unpaid and all sorts of poo poo like that unless it's directly relevant to the plot. Which I sort of understand because watching a dude looking for a parking spot would probably be pretty boring but, conversely, watching cops and criminals breeze through L.A. traffic, always finding a parking spot in downtown Manhattan or ever having their phones not work doesn't reflect reality and affects my suspension of disbelief on occasion. I learned from 24 that you can get from any point in LA to any other point in LA within 15 minutes.
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Jun 25, 2013 23:23
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Cream_Filling posted:The same goes for most other green screen stuff - it makes things a lot harder for actors and often that shows in a much worse performance (maybe Star Wars counts here, though it might just be Lucas's poor directing). Also because doing good CGI isn't that much cheaper than practical effects. Lucas' direction was pretty terrible, but I'm sure that the actor suffers when they have literally nothing to react to in the scene. They're just running through this big blue void being told "okay, there's a guy over there, swing at him! Now shoot the guy over where Andy's standing! Now duck under the invisible pole!" You can see it really blatantly in Revenge of the Sith when Obi-Wan is facing off with that (CGI) four armed robot dude -- his facial expression as the robot pulls out the lightsabers is the kind of face you make when you're pretending to be astonished by a present you already knew about, or something, because he's being told to react appropriately something threatening happening in an empty area of space in front of him. Like imagine what it must have been like for Natalie Portman, who is actually a pretty good actress, when she had to shoot this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkhjN6xUG4M&t=120s Sagebrush has a new favorite as of 23:38 on Jun 25, 2013 |
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Jun 25, 2013 23:36
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BiggerBoat posted:Here's sort of a dumb (irrational) one. Movies never deal with traffic, not being able to find a parking space, dead cell phones, a late bus, not being able to find WiFi or hail a cab, having UPS gently caress up a delivery, dealing with a storm, having a paid bill come up as unpaid and all sorts of poo poo like that unless it's directly relevant to the plot. The one I always notice is paying a taxi driver. Just drop the exact right amount into his hand and he drives away without checking. It would be less jarring if they just didn't show payment at all.
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Jun 26, 2013 02:41
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The Duke of Ben posted:CGI effects for things we've been able to do for decades very well in movies always bothers me. Gunshots is a prime example, ... Not to harp on this, but from what I understand you can't just go slapping squibs on everyone. On a set, I think squibbed actors have to be trained stuntpeople. Not so with CGI, though -- just run the scene through After Effects (the thinking goes) and you can make do with normal fifty-dollars-a-day extras. I think this might just be increasingly-cheap technology finding a niche to remove the need for specialists ... but I will admit that even a good CGI blood-spray never can match good practical effects.
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Jun 26, 2013 02:51
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Tiggum posted:The one I always notice is paying a taxi driver. Just drop the exact right amount into his hand and he drives away without checking. It would be less jarring if they just didn't show payment at all. Reminds me of "Would you go out with me?" "Sure! Pick me up at 7!" You're missin' a few of the 5 W's there, buddy
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Jun 26, 2013 03:03
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null_pointer posted:Not to harp on this, but from what I understand you can't just go slapping squibs on everyone. On a set, I think squibbed actors have to be trained stuntpeople. Not so with CGI, though -- just run the scene through After Effects (the thinking goes) and you can make do with normal fifty-dollars-a-day extras. Seems like is also really useful when comes to going across the ratings board and uncut releases. It is going to be a lot easier to edit it down to a pg13 when you can just change a variable versus editing around squibs.
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Jun 26, 2013 03:07
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No one wants to watch the boring minutia of everyday life. Why waste any movie time giving a guy change from his taxi ride? Who really gives a poo poo?
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Jun 26, 2013 03:54
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BiggerBoat posted:Here's sort of a dumb (irrational) one. Movies never deal with traffic, not being able to find a parking space, dead cell phones, a late bus, not being able to find WiFi or hail a cab, having UPS gently caress up a delivery, dealing with a storm, having a paid bill come up as unpaid and all sorts of poo poo like that unless it's directly relevant to the plot. Which I sort of understand because watching a dude looking for a parking spot would probably be pretty boring but, conversely, watching cops and criminals breeze through L.A. traffic, always finding a parking spot in downtown Manhattan or ever having their phones not work doesn't reflect reality and affects my suspension of disbelief on occasion. Pretty much the entire plot of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_%28film%29 is about his phone not working and traffic, if I remember correctly (I probably don't because it was a lovely movie).
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Jun 26, 2013 04:18
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The Purge. loudness of gunshots. The movie is in a big house and about half of it is people hunting each other. There are scenes of the husband shooting a shotgun like Times, a handgun going off 12 times next to people's ears and then the scene cuts the wife walking around a silent house. Guns are loud as gently caress and ignoring the hearing problems you would have from a gun fired at point blank range by your ear, the wife and other thugs would undoubtedly hear the gunshots and should be hauling rear end over there.
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Jun 26, 2013 05:12
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Cream_Filling posted:Blood squibs often have more punch because the actors all react to them, especially the person getting "shot," because they're loud as hell and can be physically punishing if you're the one wearing them. Same with fake gunshots. Though I'd say that people shooting blanks is still pretty different looking from live ammunition due to recoil, etc. I've tried squibs on a "stuntman for a day" kind of teambuilding thing at work. We used a belt with a metal plate on it, the squib was taped to the plate and I wore a white shirt on top for effect. It didn't hurt as such, but it did have a significant kick. And we probably used tiny, less powerful squibs than those used by professionals. I can imagine a full-sized blood squib would actually hurt quite a bit.
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Jun 26, 2013 10:41
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Pope Mobile posted:I learned from 24 that you can get from any point in LA to any other point in LA within 15 minutes. I learned from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves that you can get from Dover to Nottingham via Hadrian's Wall on foot in a single day. Hint for movie makers - if you're going to use impressive scenery shots to represent a journey, don't shoot them at famous landmarks.
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Jun 26, 2013 11:36
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KozmoNaut posted:
In Saving Private Ryan they used non-pyrotechnic squibs fired with compressed air, so the actors could be much closer together and still have squibs be going off. That really seems to reduce the safety concerns.
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Jun 26, 2013 14:58
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Phanatic posted:In Saving Private Ryan they used non-pyrotechnic squibs fired with compressed air, so the actors could be much closer together and still have squibs be going off. That really seems to reduce the safety concerns. In the remake of Dawn of the Dead, they had a few really cool systems for headshots, since you can't put squibs there. One was a wig with a fake piece of brain on a cable that was pulled out at high speed, pulling the whole thing open. The other was a compressed air tank thing filled with gore that was positioned behind the actor's head that shot brains all over the walls.
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Jun 26, 2013 18:18
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Coffee And Pie posted:In the remake of Dawn of the Dead, they had a few really cool systems for headshots, since you can't put squibs there. One was a wig with a fake piece of brain on a cable that was pulled out at high speed, pulling the whole thing open. The other was a compressed air tank thing filled with gore that was positioned behind the actor's head that shot brains all over the walls. Then there's The Godfather Part II where somehow Moe Greene gets shot in the eye, through his glasses, as an in-camera effect. kazil posted:No one wants to watch the boring minutia of everyday life. There's a long list of reasons why paying attention to such things might be the right move in a movie. Just to start with, looking at how a character handles everyday stuff reveals much about their personality. Do they have enough cash to just throw a bill at the guy and walk away without worrying about change? Are they frazzled and can't get the money right? Are they forgetful? Are they meticulous in their attention to detail, or in a hurry, or just trying to cheat their way out of the fare by giving the wrong note and then just running away? Look at a film like Die Hard. It's a network of boring minutiae: stressful plane journeys, cigarettes, Twinkies.
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Jun 26, 2013 19:54
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kazil posted:No one wants to watch the boring minutia of everyday life. I know. I said as much. You're looking for the Rationally Irritating movie thread, I think. Movies that deal with that sort of modern, every day frustration can be interesting. I even named a couple. Not a movie, but Seinfeld is another example of a way to make the frustration of every day life interesting. My Cousin Vinnie is another one. I just think it'd be refreshing if, for once, Johnny Protaganist got stuck in traffic, couldn't find a parking place, had a dead cell phone, etc. I'm not trying to be rational here.
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Jun 26, 2013 20:13
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qntm posted:Then there's The Godfather Part II where somehow Moe Greene gets shot in the eye, through his glasses, as an in-camera effect. I see your point, but a lot of times, when you're in the process of writing a film, you need to condense things down to what is absolutely essential for that character development. Do we need to learn about Character A's frazzledness right now while he's in the cab, or is it something that we could do in less time and more plot relevant later on? Some films have a style that can get away with showing the mundanity of things, sure, but for the most part you're trying to keep things moving as fast as possible, so unless a scene is very relevant and important, you want to cut that poo poo out. That's why it gets cut out in a lot of films, because it's not part of the story that the writers/director want to tell, and therefore *does not belong in that film.*
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Jun 26, 2013 20:17
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kazil posted:No one wants to watch the boring minutia of everyday life. Did you know there's a film of Ulysses?
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Jun 26, 2013 20:48
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Okay, maybe this is a Rational Irritation, but I hate it when characters sacrifice themselves pointlessly for no reason. As in whatever they could have accomplished could have been done without dying, or their death negates their efforts throughout the movie. It is just so stupid that I shake with anger at it. Like Deep Blue Sea: Susan, the head scientist, is researching a cure for Alzheimer's Disorder, which involves giant super-intelligent sharks. Lots of people end up dying, but it might be worth it if she can escape with the research! She even says as much, risking life and limb to get discs with data, and when those are destroyed only she can reconstruct the research. But at the end she 'sacrifices' herself unnecessarily to stop the sharks, in effect sacrificing every paitent and their families. Why? Turns out the focus groups hated her, so they re-shot the ending.
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Jun 27, 2013 15:27
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I agree that the way people handle a situation tells a lot about their character and that certain situations can be a good way to develop it, but there's some things that nobody cares about. For example, you never see someone just get up to use the bathroom on a sitcom and come back, it's always used to drive the plot. Similarly, nobody mishears someone or says "what did you say?" in the course of a conversation.
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Jun 27, 2013 15:29
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Computer things that make hi tech beeping noises so you know they're doing things. Computers do not beep boop when you type unless you are making the beep boops yourself. Like in Judge Dredd, they focused in on the iris computer camera thing the blonde boy has many times so we obviously know it's a computer type thing right? There's no loving need to put in some random beep boop tech noises. None. None at all.
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Jun 28, 2013 00:57
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Coffee And Pie posted:In the remake of Dawn of the Dead, they had a few really cool systems for headshots, since you can't put squibs there. One was a wig with a fake piece of brain on a cable that was pulled out at high speed, pulling the whole thing open. The other was a compressed air tank thing filled with gore that was positioned behind the actor's head that shot brains all over the walls. I like the movies where they freeze the camera, swap out the actor for a wax head filled with pig intestines mounted on a dummy wearing the same clothes, and blow that up with a firecracker.
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Jun 28, 2013 01:04
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Is there a specific term for when a stock sound effect becomes movie shorthand for a visual effect or thing? I'm thinking like the beep boop computer sound effect, that twinkle sound used to indicate something shiny, or that scrapy sound for drawing something sharp.
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Jun 28, 2013 02:16
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Big Grunty Secret posted:I agree that the way people handle a situation tells a lot about their character and that certain situations can be a good way to develop it, but there's some things that nobody cares about. For example, you never see someone just get up to use the bathroom on a sitcom and come back, it's always used to drive the plot. Similarly, nobody mishears someone or says "what did you say?" in the course of a conversation. Archer. 
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Jun 28, 2013 02:30
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In Archer it's usually played for humor, though, so I don't think it counts as much. A lot of these niggling complaints are the kind of thing you don't think about until after the movie is over. When you're watching, you don't go "man it's a good thing everyone has perfect hearing" unless they're talking over helicopters and explosions. It is irrationally irritating, of course, but it's justified by being a matter of convenience. It's unrealistic, sure, but I've never seen a realistic movie in my life.
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Jun 28, 2013 02:46
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Cream_Filling posted:Is there a specific term for when a stock sound effect becomes movie shorthand for a visual effect or thing? I'm thinking like the beep boop computer sound effect, that twinkle sound used to indicate something shiny, or that scrapy sound for drawing something sharp. There's Castle Thunder, which has been reused for about 80 years, and "Paging Dr. Davis" which is used in the background of pretty much any hospital scene. And of course every riverbank has a loon, every mountaintop has a red-tailed hawk, etc.
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Jun 28, 2013 03:04
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I was looking for the technical term for it, if one exists at all. Something in regards to the symbolism that gets attributed to a single sound.
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Jun 28, 2013 03:13
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hyperhazard posted:There's Castle Thunder, which has been reused for about 80 years, and "Paging Dr. Davis" which is used in the background of pretty much any hospital scene. Don't forget the wilhelm scream!
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Jun 28, 2013 03:17
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LeJackal posted:Okay, maybe this is a Rational Irritation, but I hate it when characters sacrifice themselves pointlessly for no reason. As in whatever they could have accomplished could have been done without dying, or their death negates their efforts throughout the movie. It is just so stupid that I shake with anger at it. To be fair, she was a bitch. And I haven't seen the movie in a while but I think she's responsible for the massacre the sharks went on.
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Jun 28, 2013 03:30
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Cream_Filling posted:I was looking for the technical term for it, if one exists at all. Something in regards to the symbolism that gets attributed to a single sound. I think 'stock sound' is as close as you can get, though that usually applies to specific sound bytes.
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Jun 28, 2013 03:32
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Cream_Filling posted:I was looking for the technical term for it, if one exists at all. Something in regards to the symbolism that gets attributed to a single sound. I've seen it casually referred to as "movie shorthand." I'm sure there's a cuter phrase for it though.
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Jun 28, 2013 03:32
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Terminal Entropy posted:Don't forget the wilhelm scream! And it's babby brother the howie scream. Mostly just remember that one from Starcraft but I guess it's been in movies.
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Jun 28, 2013 03:38
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Gaunab posted:To be fair, she was a bitch. And I haven't seen the movie in a while but I think she's responsible for the massacre the sharks went on. This is the 'focus group' response in action. Sure, she was indirectly responsible for everybody getting killed. She wasn't a bitch about it though. Also, again, by sacrificing herself she left a cook and a diver as the only survivors. The cure died with her.
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Jun 28, 2013 03:44
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Sagebrush posted:I like the movies where they freeze the camera, swap out the actor for a wax head filled with pig intestines mounted on a dummy wearing the same clothes, and blow that up with a firecracker. Fun fact: the head explosion in the original Dawn of the Dead was done by clearing the set and shooting the fake head with a real life shotgun. I swear I'm not a psycho, I only know this stuff because I was really into special effects and zombie movies as a kid.
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Jun 28, 2013 03:49
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Coffee And Pie posted:Fun fact: the head explosion in the original Dawn of the Dead was done by clearing the set and shooting the fake head with a real life shotgun. The fake head was suppose to be used in the original ending were Fran drives her head into the spinning helicopter blades
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Jun 28, 2013 04:09
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LeJackal posted:This is the 'focus group' response in action. Sure, she was indirectly responsible for everybody getting killed. She wasn't a bitch about it though. Also, again, by sacrificing herself she left a cook and a diver as the only survivors. The cure died with her. I don't always like focus group changes, but it was one of the few I agreed with. They probably should have just changed how the sharks escaped in the first place. Even if they kept the original ending, people would be complaining about how she indirectly killed an entire science facility and faced no consequences. Honestly it's been over 10 years since I've seen that movie though and this is the irrationally irritating movie thread.
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Jun 28, 2013 04:15
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Seriously, I wasn't even really paying attention when my sister watched that movie and that woman was absolutely unbearable. Maybe her death was supposed to redeem her but all I could feel was grateful.
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Jun 28, 2013 04:18
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Gaunab posted:I don't always like focus group changes, but it was one of the few I agreed with. LL survived thanks to the focus groups. The system works.
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Jun 28, 2013 04:29
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Wedemeyer posted:Computer things that make hi tech beeping noises so you know they're doing things. Computers do not beep boop when you type unless you are making the beep boops yourself. Some people have that setting on their phone where it beeps every time you press something. I don't know how they can stand it though, it's really annoying. CJacobs posted:A lot of these niggling complaints are the kind of thing you don't think about until after the movie is over. When you're watching, you don't go "man it's a good thing everyone has perfect hearing" unless they're talking over helicopters and explosions. Nah, some of them you definitely notice during the movie. Like, I always notice when people pay a taxi driver and he just drives away without counting the money or when people end a phone call without saying goodbye. Although that one's not really unrealistic because people do that in real life all the time, it's just really annoying.
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Jun 28, 2013 05:54
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Cream_Filling posted:like the beep boop computer sound effect, that twinkle sound used to indicate something shiny, or that scrapy sound for drawing something sharp. And like how that rattlesnake sound is used for snakes, spiders, scorpions, aliens, punkinheads, Things, pretty much any kind of icky scary animal monster.
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Jun 28, 2013 06:31
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hyperhazard posted:And of course every riverbank has a loon, every mountaintop has a red-tailed hawk, etc. I have a personal fondness for movies that use a kookaburra to signify "jungle." Because nothing says "Amazonian Rainforest" like something indigenous to Australia and New Guinea: http://www.wimp.com/kookaburrabird/ (Or as MST3k called it "The Ooh Ooh Ahh Ahh bird")
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Jun 28, 2013 08:56
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