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The contagious visual blandness of Netflix

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Re: The contagious visual blandness of Netflix

#121

Post by ajmurmann »

hef19898 wrote: post #52
ducharmdev wrote: post #37

Personally it's poor writing & bad camera work that bugs me more than anything. Sure this digital style is apparent, but I guess it doesn't fundamentally ruin a movie for me (whereas the other two factors do).

There seems to be a major difference between Netflix US and their international productions. The later European one are, IMHO, somewhere between good and great in writing, production, acting. Those are usually done by Netflix and some local partner. Every once in a while I come across a Netflix US thing, and it feels like having grabed something of a direct-to-DVD sale...

There was an article about a year ago that explains this. There was an internal, political battle between a lady who produced most of the Netflix originals that really hurt it out of the park like House of Cards and The Queens Gambit and folks who wanted more, but cheaper production. Well, she got fired. The international stuff AFAIK is just licensed by Netflix.

I rotate every few months through streaming services and none what's new like a locust swarm. Haven't subscribed to Netflix in over six months, but can't find enough to justify subscribing again.

Re: The contagious visual blandness of Netflix

#122

Post by tridao »

entropie wrote: post #99

I've said it and I say it again, most or some of the reasons why it looks weird to us (people who grow up with a TV) come down to camera quality. Most TV camera setups were about lighting and the needed amount. Since a few years cameras are so good, we have almost real blacks and real whites sometimes even in the same frame and its naturally filmed and does not look like total shit. We have crazy aperture sizes and w…

Couldn't have put it better (about lighting). I'm from the younger generation and have always kinda felt that movies from the 90s are too bright

Re: The contagious visual blandness of Netflix

#123

Post by mtsr »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #104
jblakey wrote: post #78

On a related note, why is Netflix's interface so locked down? Why would it be bad for me to turn off autoplay for trailers? Why can't I say "never show me this show again, I'm never going to watch it"? And why, in this age of AI, and they still putting white text over a white background? That last one, especially, made me say "do people at Netflix eat their own dogfood"?

Are there third party frontends? Why can't you just pay them, authenticate, and use whatever frontend or player you want? I suspect that the answer is ads. The Netflix app is an ad billboard on your phone and TV. Also, copyright and DRM. Edit: I wonder if draconian copyright laws are ultimately to blame here. Nobody is allowed to provide such a service. This is getting a bit off topic though since this article is spe…

I’d probably call it promoted content, but yes, that seems a likely explanation.

And quite possible the ads-driven version, but I’ve never looked at that.

Re: The contagious visual blandness of Netflix

#124

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

jblakey wrote: post #78

On a related note, why is Netflix's interface so locked down? Why would it be bad for me to turn off autoplay for trailers? Why can't I say "never show me this show again, I'm never going to watch it"? And why, in this age of AI, and they still putting white text over a white background? That last one, especially, made me say "do people at Netflix eat their own dogfood"?

They're preparing to pivot to telescreen development.

Re: The contagious visual blandness of Netflix

#125

Post by dagw »

sho_hn wrote: post #14
Tenoke wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looked pretty good and it was a great adaptation. It also didn't really look that much like their other shows (many of which are indeed extremely mediocre) and it sounds like you just have some anti-netflix bias.

I'd say it sounds like I made a superficial judgement based on the trailers, which is exactly true as described! Would you say the finished product has more visual flair than the trailers indicate? It may be they intentionally picked shots or changed the trailer footage to fit in with the brand guidelines.

Focusing on whether or not it has "visual flair" or not seems to be slightly missing the point. For what it's worth I found the visuals solid, but not mind blowing, and yes it does feel quite 'Netflix' in places. However beyond that, Sandman is probably the best example of a virtually panel by panel comic book to live action adaptation I've seen.

Just getting to watch David Thewlis as John Dee stealing every scene he's in and seeing what Gaiman managed to do with his second chance at doing 24 Hour Diner is easily worth the price of admission. Add to that the pitch perfect recreation of The Sound of Her Wings, and the surprisingly well done Dream of a Thousand Cats and Calliope and you have show that more than makes up for some of its missteps (I thought the collectors convention didn't work anywhere near as well as it did in the comics for example). If you don't want to watch the whole thing, I recommend giving episodes 4-6 + 11 a go.

Re: The contagious visual blandness of Netflix

#126

Post by tshaddox »

drexlspivey wrote: post #85
masurus wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Film has become vastly inferior to digital both in stills and cinema if we're talking about technical aspects like dynamic range and colour accuracy. The problem is, just like with CGI which has gotten pretty good at modelling light transport, it feels off because it's too clean and clear. Digital it's too good at capturing reality. Film introduces a bunch of artefacts and limitations that 'look' nicer than accuratel…

Can you do an 8K remaster of a movie shot in 4K digital? With film you can just rescan the negative with a higher resolution.

I suspect that getting objective improvements from a 4K to 8K film scan would require extremely well-produced film and probably a large-format film like 70mm.

Re: The contagious visual blandness of Netflix

#127

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

mtsr wrote: post #123
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there third party frontends? Why can't you just pay them, authenticate, and use whatever frontend or player you want? I suspect that the answer is ads. The Netflix app is an ad billboard on your phone and TV. Also, copyright and DRM. Edit: I wonder if draconian copyright laws are ultimately to blame here. Nobody is allowed to provide such a service. This is getting a bit off topic though since this article is spe…

I’d probably call it promoted content, but yes, that seems a likely explanation. And quite possible the ads-driven version, but I’ve never looked at that.

It's an ad though. They aren't going to advertise a new dishwasher but they are taking money from somebody to promote something.

Re: The contagious visual blandness of Netflix

#128

Post by imachine1980_ »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #106
johnchristopher wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why can't I say "never show me this show again, I'm never going to watch it"? Maybe someone is paying Netflix to suggest this movie (edit:content) to you ?

I've never heard this is the case, and if there was a secret deal that this was the case I think it would have been leaked years ago, but also it would be difficult for this to be the case and not have it be public knowledge because accounting details of large companies are something that is often inspected by news organizations and others on the lookout for something to complain about. But maybe it can be that it is…

My interpretation >Maybe someone is paying Netflix to suggest this movie to you ? Answer:you We like have control, but we tend to prefer don't have control and have good enough decision makes for us

Re: The contagious visual blandness of Netflix

#129

Post by dmit »

PKop wrote: post #4

It's hinted at here, but film produces a much better overall look than digital. It is just that digital is way cheaper and easier to work with. There is certainly more versatility in what you can create in post production with digital but the base look of what is captured is more beautiful on film, and this is the same with photographs. Look at high quality old images captured on film, they blow most digital images o…

> film produces a much better overall look than digital

To add one more data point to all the other sibling comments, Vince Gilligan (a self-described huge fan of film) talked on one of the Better Call Saul podcasts about how they did a blind test, and the consensus was that digital looked better. This was around five years ago.

Re: The contagious visual blandness of Netflix

#130

Post by Nextgrid »

jblakey wrote: post #78

On a related note, why is Netflix's interface so locked down? Why would it be bad for me to turn off autoplay for trailers? Why can't I say "never show me this show again, I'm never going to watch it"? And why, in this age of AI, and they still putting white text over a white background? That last one, especially, made me say "do people at Netflix eat their own dogfood"?

"Growth & engagement".
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