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Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

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Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest problem with movies is none of the labor has been automated much. You still need an entire film and sound crew. You still need a cast of actors and a director and a screenwriter and a composer. You still need to raise money, producers, etc. Sure, video & sound editing have had a lot of automation improvements via software - but that's pretty much it. One person can make a game with a bunch of cheap pre-ma…

There are many examples of making a film on a budget of almost nothing. Clerks, Evil Dead, the Sweding movement, most all of Tik Tok… You can make a compelling story via flip book.

"Almost nothing" in movie terms means "the cost of a house". Not "almost nothing" on a normal human scale.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#163
I find much better content on TV than in movies these days. My favourite format is probably the mini-series, where a self contained story is told properly, with no openings for a second season or franchise opportunity.

One of the best and strangest TV shows I have watched is The Leftovers. If you want something different check it out. Season 3 is sublime.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#164

I worked for a while with a guy who'd worked at the BBC for many years. His reasoning for why movies are more boring was simple: money. A production team is looking to distribute their movie in as many channels as possible, and with the broadest appeal possible. As a result, you see a film made with the broad strokes but lacking in subtlety. If a film might be challenging because of the subject matter, the complexity…

> His reasoning for why movies are more boring was simple: money.

If you look back at the best movies throughout history, a lot of them were made outside the Hollywood system. It's easy to think that movies today are worse than Apocalypse Now or Star Wars, while forgetting that those movies also couldn't get made in their day.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#165
post #11

> Basically what this means is they are teaching people really sht lessons now, and if this sort of thing continues for too long, it's going to produce an entire generation of shtty people. Out of curiosity, how much influence do movies/tv shows have in shaping society? Could it be that the seemingly casual link between movies and culture be opposite? Or, in other words: B (bad movies) = "this sort of thing continues…

I’d see this as an already well established field we call either “propaganda” or “advertisement. No need to go real deep, with a “follow the money” approach, the amounts that are spent im product placement and effort to shape narratives through work of art speak for themselves.

This gets pondered everywhere but product placement was worse in the beginning of television like the "The Colgate Comedy Hour" and it's abbreviations from Coke etc. or the characters from sponsors directly integrated into the plot of a tv show. Imagine your favorite character going into the kitchen making a coffee and the coffee salesperson comes in and makes a 5-minute pitch. You can say about modern advertisement what you want but it was way more subliminal in the beginning.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#166

For me the noticeable thing about modern movies is the pace. It's like something must happen all the time, if there isn't something moving or someone talking, it isn't a modern movie. I feel like been conditioned to not be able to watch older movies anymore, my brain is just like "huh why isn't something happening?".

There was this film called "2001: A Space Odyssey". You won't be able to stand it.

The Gods Must Be Crazy has even less.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#167
post #24

Another enormous gripe I have with modern movies, other than the (lack of) interesting moral lessons from OP, is the sound design. Loud explosions and music, with quiet, mumbled lines[1]. I'm forced to watch every movie with subtitles on, or to miss a good chunk of the dialogue. And I'd go beyond that, and blame the mumbled lines for our lack of interesting quotes. It's a lot harder to have unexpected turns of phrase…

Can you give examples? I've heard this before but have never noticed it myself. Is it possible you have hearing loss that you're unaware of?

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#168

For me the noticeable thing about modern movies is the pace. It's like something must happen all the time, if there isn't something moving or someone talking, it isn't a modern movie. I feel like been conditioned to not be able to watch older movies anymore, my brain is just like "huh why isn't something happening?".

Gotta keep the audience from looking at their phones.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#169

One thing I've noticed is that is seems more recent movies lack character observations. Everything is done is in service of the plot. I think it was in Doctor No there was a conversation between Q, M and Bond. Bond's favourite weapon was the Beretta, and Q explained their downsides. Bond was ordered to use the Walther (IIRC) as a replacement. It was in a box. At the end of the scene, Bond picks up the box, surreptiti…

Are you sure you aren’t just remembering fondly movies you saw when you were younger? Both those scenes are huge tropes/clichés.

But that's completely besides the point.

Tropes are nothing more than patterns we can observe in multiple stories. Clichés are tropes used extremely frequently. There's nothing inherently wrong about either of those things, it's only the way they're being used, the execution, that can be good or bad.

The James Bond one manages to add a touch of comedy, gives more information to the viewer about the characters who the characters are and how well they know each other, and makes the viewer remain attentive in what would otherwise be a fairly boring exposition scene. It has become used over and over again in various precisely because of how effective it is.

Re: Modern movies teach us awful lessons [video]

#170

This just doesn't ring true to me, at all. Is the Youtube algorithm directing people to make vaguely fascist feeling, "bring back the good old days", 'kids today', 'civilization is doomed' content aimed at young males? Or is that just a natural cycle that repeats throughout history? The biggest film in history was "Birth of a Nation" until it was replaced by "Gone with the Wind", "Star Wars" may have been a rebellion…

Nostalgia that is the most natural thing in the world is defined as 'fascist' now?

OP is replying to a video titled 'why modern movies suck'. So OP is not referring to nostalgia. It's more a reaction to 'old times wow, now sucks'.

If the video was titled 'Why I love these old films', then your reply makes sense.

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