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0 pointssangnoir3y ago0 comments

Seeing how the sausage is made almost always results in disillusionment regardless of the industry.

Some of the magic was taken away when I learned that certain scenes a movie I liked required dozens of takes: it felt too mechanical/industrial and went against my romantic notions of how art is made. This is not far off from the pose-repose-inspect cycle you noted, but has a much larger supporting crew (and budget) and far longer hours.

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3 comments · 2 top-level

Gordonjcp3y ago· 1 in thread

Are you kidding?

How you stitch each of those together into a seamless ever-changing story *is* the magic, especially when you know how it's done.

Everything happens in tiny almost imperceptible 1/24th of a second steps, and yet eye-blink instant can make the difference between you believing a scene and not believing it.

Next time you watch a film or a TV programme, try to see how the trick is done. Watch for how people are positioned so that their eyelines cross when they're talking. Watch how when you cut from one shot to another, there's a movement in the shot that you leave, that matches the shot that you enter. This fools you into not "seeing the join". As you turn your head to look around you blink subconsciously, so your brain is used to dealing with cutting between scenes. How you do that to tell a story is a phenomenally powerful and beautiful art.

sangnoirOP3y ago

> How you stitch each of those together into a seamless ever-changing story is the magic...

Unfortunately, it is a lesser magic to the one I naively believed in: that of genius directors who have fully-formed visions they bring on screen, and world class actors who need 2 or 3 takes tops. It was all very idealized, and in my defense, I was very young.

Now I enjoy deconstructing tools of trade on some movies on a second watch: paying attention to camera angles, composition, color grading and sound. The only thing I regret is learning about the Wilhelm scream, because it always destroys my suspension of disbelief, and I hear it more often than I'd like.

altacc3y ago

Most art is the result of numerous trial & error. Most finished works of creativity/art, be it visual, music, poetry or prose, are preceded by numerous sketches, drafts, discarded attempts and edits. Creativity is a process and requires work. I think this is important to know as so many people think that they aren't artistic or creative as they can't immediately create something wonderful. But those that can seem to create spontaneous art have practiced a lot to develop that skill. It is possible to practice creativity in order to develop more.

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