Film students who can no longer sit through films • Hacker News Board

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#161

Post by zdragnar » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 9:42 PM UTC

WCSTombs wrote: post #150

prhn wrote: post #119

I don't dispute the shortening of attentions spans, which seems to be directly related to new forms of entertainment young people consume. However. Films across the generations are very different in terms of how they lay out a narrative. Watch any film before 1980 and you'll start to see a pattern that the pacing and evolution of the narrative is generally very, very slow. Art is highly contextualized by the period i…

> If I were a film professor today, hell even 20 years ago, I would not expect a modern film student to sit through that whole thing. Sorry, but this to me sounds completely insane. We're not even talking about the general population here, but people who are ostensibly serious about the art and craft of film making. And the bar is being set at literally just watching the movie, and not even some obscure marathon of a…

What seems to be missing for me at least is that I doubt I would have done well being assigned entire films on top of my regular course load worth of studies.

Paying attention to a film enough to emotionally connect with the content, take notes, synthesize an academic understanding of subtle things like the use of lighting, sound, camera work, etc while also doing the other several hours worth of homework from my other classes would be pretty daunting.

Much easier to get the clif notes from the Internet and fake it... though I had CS, math and Mandarin courses which were way way heavier on the homework side of things than most other classes I took, so maybe I'm overthinking it.

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#162

Post by technothrasher » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 9:49 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #33

Counterpoint from the article: > A handful of professors told me they hadn’t noticed any change. Some students have always found old movies to be slow, Lynn Spigel, a professor of screen cultures at Northwestern University, told me. “But the ones who are really dedicated to learning film always were into it, and they still are.” The article doesn't actually give any evidence attention spans are shortened. Many of the…

> interminably long suspense sequences that are literally just someone walking through a dark environment while spooky music plays.

The few film studies classes I took in high school and college taught me so much about the hows and whys of film, that I can't possibly now watch a sequence like that and think "just someone walking through a dark environment". So much going on in those scenes that you'll miss if you're not interested in looking. That's not to say that everyone will be interested in, say, how the scene is framed, choice of camera focus and depth of field, where the lighting is coming from, or where the characters placed in relation to each other, but it's all there to observe and enjoy if you like it.

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#163

Post by bronlund » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 9:49 PM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #125

bronlund wrote: post #29

There is no attention-span crisis, it’s just that the younger generation find a lot of stuff utterly boring. If they do something they love, they have no issue focusing for hours and hours.

Drug addicts can enjoy drugs for hours and hours /s

They can make movies more enjoyable too! I think you are on to something :)

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#164

Post by dunham » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 9:50 PM UTC

ksymph wrote: post #27

Why would someone study film if they're not interested in it? People have been bored by movies nearly as long as movies have existed; but historically I don't think those people would go into college to study it. What changed? It's not like there's a lot of money in film, so I struggle to understand the motivations there.

When I was in school a lot of the CS students would take a telecommunications minor because they needed a minor and it was "easy". It included a film class.

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#165

Post by crazygringo » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 9:52 PM UTC

viccis wrote: post #156

crazygringo wrote: post #33

Counterpoint from the article: > A handful of professors told me they hadn’t noticed any change. Some students have always found old movies to be slow, Lynn Spigel, a professor of screen cultures at Northwestern University, told me. “But the ones who are really dedicated to learning film always were into it, and they still are.” The article doesn't actually give any evidence attention spans are shortened. Many of the…

>I love movies. But I also make liberal use of 2x speed "I love pizza. But I also slather it in hot sauce to disguise the flavor"

More like "I love pizza. But I don't eat the crust around the edge. Because that leaves me more room to eat more of the main part which I love more."

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#166

Post by magicalhippo » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 9:54 PM UTC

prhn wrote: post #119

I don't dispute the shortening of attentions spans, which seems to be directly related to new forms of entertainment young people consume. However. Films across the generations are very different in terms of how they lay out a narrative. Watch any film before 1980 and you'll start to see a pattern that the pacing and evolution of the narrative is generally very, very slow. Art is highly contextualized by the period i…

> If I were a film professor today, hell even 20 years ago, I would not expect a modern film student to sit through that whole thing.

Our local cinematheque has just had a 70mm festival, where they of course screened Lawrence of Arabia. All screenings were sold out. My mom went to see another screening at the same time, and commented on how many young people were going to see Lawrence. The past couple of years there has been a strong uptick[1] here of younger people flocking to see older films.

[1]: https://www.nrk.no/kultur/analog-film-trender-blant-unge-1.1...

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#167

Post by steve1977 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 10:01 PM UTC

watwut wrote: post #99

steve1977 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it a loss of attention span, or is the 2-hour feature film simply an outdated format for the current generation? Why would you think it's an outdated format for the current generation if not for their loss of attention span?

Because they can focus on different movies. Americans few decades ago found internarional movies boring, did not focused, but could focus on American movies.

> Because they can focus on different movies.

Not sure if I can follow. What kind of different movies? Different 2-hour feature films? The article didn't mentioned as much I think.

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#168

Post by Fricken » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 10:16 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #151

watwut wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they can focus on different movies. Americans few decades ago found internarional movies boring, did not focused, but could focus on American movies.

I don't think people can focus on any movies anymore, period. I used to host movie night for the friend group, because I was the one with a decent home theater setup, but we stopped because people just can't get through movies anymore. Same with family. We'd always put on a movie at night when family were over for a visit, but we don't anymore. Within 5 minutes of the movie starting, everyone's on their phones or get…

I was a film student in the 90s, I would watch a dozen films over a weekend. Now, if I want to sit through a film and give it my full attention I have to either go to a movie theatre or break the movie up into a series of bite-sized segments. If I want to get lost in a book I have to go camping somewhere away from any cell towers.

I don't think film students today are less interested in film. Their attention spans are shot.

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#169

Post by IshKebab » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 10:18 PM UTC

vitaelabitur wrote: post #82

IshKebab wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah given some are saying there's no difference, I'd probably put this down to "kids these days" that literally every generation imagines.

The word you are looking for, if you are looking for one, is declinism.

I wasn't but I'm glad you told me, thanks!

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#170

Post by labrador » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 10:25 PM UTC

My take is that with the modern availability of so many high quality films, we (I) no longer have patience to sit through a mediocre films. the opportunity cost is too high.