undefined | Better HN

0 pointsacdha3y ago0 comments

There is definitely an element of conditioning here. People have grown accustomed to frenetic action and the studios like it because it’s easier than hiring good writers – especially since they’re hoping for global sales and humor, subtly, and nuance are hard to translate – but that’s a learned preference based on what dominates the market. If different things came back on the market people would get used to them, too.

0 comments

9 comments · 2 top-level

SketchySeaBeast3y ago· 4 in thread

Older movies are full of filler too, but it's generally less exciting filler - looooong shots of a car driving through the countryside or plot beats that could be 1 minute stretching to 10 without having any reason to be as long as they are. Over time movies have learned to cut a lot of fat.

cld84833y ago

It's about conveying atmosphere and mood, not conveying plot-points as rapidly as possible.

Same reason a book might spend two pages describing a lazy dog laying on a porch swatting flies with his tail, instead of cutting straight to who said/did what.

SketchySeaBeast3y ago

OK, so movies have gotten better at setting the mood without derailing the story's momentum.

5 more replies

JohnFen3y ago

> Over time movies have learned to cut a lot of fat.

Sometimes those scenes are fat. Poorly made movies are certainly not just a modern phenomenon.

But sometimes it's critical that those scenes are as they are.

SketchySeaBeast3y ago

I'm not saying it's true 100% of the time, but I've noticed that older movies tend to have more fat and when they do it's more egregious.

Throughout this discussion I've realized that this whole conversation is fraught with survivorship bias - we imagine generic marvel movies or the fast and the furious stuff when we think of modern movies, but when we think of the past we really only consider the classics. We haven't yet seen what modern movies will qualify as classic.

1 more reply

mschuster913y ago· 3 in thread

> especially since they’re hoping for global sales

On top of that, a lot of actually interesting content has the potential to cause shitstorms. Like, especially anything LGBT and women's rights won't fly in China, Russia, Arabia and lots of Asian countries. Black lead actors lead to massive shitstorms from the far-right in the USA and parts of Europe [1] - and so, producers leave all that "potentially troubling for sales" content out.

Everything "mainstream" is just the same bullshit now, white- and dumbwashed.

[1] Black Panther and the 3rd Star Wars trilogy were surrounded by some of the most vile harassment campaigns I've seen, for example

cld84833y ago

> [1] Black Panther and the 3rd Star Wars trilogy were surrounded by some of the most vile harassment campaigns I've seen, for example

Or, movie studios have exaggerated the impact of (real, but not very numerous) internet trolls to protect their own egos from valid criticisms. The third Star Wars trilogy was an incoherent mess. And for reasons I still don't understand, the end of Black Panther was released in a rough half-rendered state. But the people making these films don't want to hear criticism of their baby, so online critics get dehumanized as "trolls". Rare instances of real trolling from the likes of 4chan get highlighted and blown out of proportion as a defense mechanism.

mschuster913y ago

I agree that the SW trilogy was a mess, but that does not excuse Black actors being blasted with n-bombs and other slurs on Twitter and other social media, nor does it excuse the amount of sexist comments against Daisy Ridley.

For BP, it was the same. The whine from the far-right about "who wants to see <N-word>s in movies", "we're being ethnically replaced", "this is our future" etc. was unacceptable.

1 more reply

acdhaOP3y ago

Thanks for expanding that idea - completely agree, and this doesn’t need anyone at the studio to be a villain, it’s just standard corporate paperclip maximization at work.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

9 comments · 2 top-level

SketchySeaBeast3y ago· 4 in thread

cld84833y ago

It's about conveying atmosphere and mood, not conveying plot-points as rapidly as possible.

Same reason a book might spend two pages describing a lazy dog laying on a porch swatting flies with his tail, instead of cutting straight to who said/did what.

SketchySeaBeast3y ago

OK, so movies have gotten better at setting the mood without derailing the story's momentum.

5 more replies

JohnFen3y ago

> Over time movies have learned to cut a lot of fat.

Sometimes those scenes are fat. Poorly made movies are certainly not just a modern phenomenon.

But sometimes it's critical that those scenes are as they are.

SketchySeaBeast3y ago

I'm not saying it's true 100% of the time, but I've noticed that older movies tend to have more fat and when they do it's more egregious.

1 more reply

mschuster913y ago· 3 in thread

> especially since they’re hoping for global sales

Everything "mainstream" is just the same bullshit now, white- and dumbwashed.

[1] Black Panther and the 3rd Star Wars trilogy were surrounded by some of the most vile harassment campaigns I've seen, for example

cld84833y ago

> [1] Black Panther and the 3rd Star Wars trilogy were surrounded by some of the most vile harassment campaigns I've seen, for example

mschuster913y ago

For BP, it was the same. The whine from the far-right about "who wants to see <N-word>s in movies", "we're being ethnically replaced", "this is our future" etc. was unacceptable.

1 more reply

acdhaOP3y ago

Thanks for expanding that idea - completely agree, and this doesn’t need anyone at the studio to be a villain, it’s just standard corporate paperclip maximization at work.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse