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Film students who can no longer sit through films

theatlantic.com

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Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#71

Post by mmooss »

actionfromafar wrote: post #11

This actually made me a little angry, to my surprise. :-D I thought film student was almost like a holy calling, an opportunity that passed me by. Clearly, it's just the equivalent to another biz management course to some of these students.

If you have that passion, you should study film - it's never too late, and your passion will take you much further than the people just taking courses. You won't regret it.

It's like people in IT who went to some technical degree factory and got a certification, compared to those who took apart their parent's computer, figured out how to install Linux, hacked their own drivers and apps, etc.

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#72

Post by crazygringo »

brailsafe wrote: post #57
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…

> But I also make liberal use of 2x speed and +5s during interminably long suspense sequences that are literally just someone walking through a dark environment while spooky music plays. Do you do this for movies you're watching on your own for enjoyment or that you're required to watch for some reason? I'm not particularly interested in film, and have adhd, but can't think of a time where I've ever done this, so it'…

See my reply here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46838651

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#74

Post by sowbug »

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.

"... go into college ..." makes it sound like more of an active decision than it is for many students who treat it as four more years of high school. It's not surprising that such students might pick a major that sounds more fun (movies!!) than subjects they already find tedious (more math, more history, more foreign language).

I wish I'd taken a year off after high school to get a job and at least pretend to earn a living. I wonder whether I might have embraced college more if I had.

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#75

Post by WalterBright »

Cpoll wrote: post #56
treelover wrote: post #20

Is it a loss of attention span, or is the 2-hour feature film simply an outdated format for the current generation? The information density of a slow 1970s drama is incredibly low compared to the multi-stream environment they grew up in. They aren't necessarily 'dumber'; their brains are just optimized for high-frequency information processing, whereas cinema is optimized for immersion.

Is information density a meaningful metric for movies? I'm reminded of Kubrick's long pauses, or the space scenes in 2001, which are there to set the tone or give the viewer time to consider the situation, not to deliver information.

It came out when I was a kid, and I loved every second of those long boring sequences in it. 2001 was totally unique. I've probably seen it more times than any other movie. Once my college dorm went to see it in 70mm. Great memories.

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#76

Post by semilin »

bronlund wrote: post #64
semilin wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is reductive. It's true that interest conquers inattention, but the attention span crisis really represents a prioritization of exploitation over exploration. That is to say that many people are far less able to seek value in things which require more effort in the finding (e.g., long-form media such as books and movies). You could reasonably argue that this is not a real problem, but it is undeniably happening.

This is just not true. My daughter, who finds school boring to the point of depression, has no problem spending hours reading the complete Akira manga in a foreign language. The crisis you are talking about is not in the people, but in the system.

It can be both. I went through a very similar experience with school -- it was miserably boring to me, and I found solace in valuable and educational experiences I sought out myself at home. In this way I empathize strongly and I agree that the schooling system is massively flawed in this regard.

Still, from my just-as-anecdotal observations, it seems to me that social media addiction exacerbates the issues. I and many peers of mine fell out of reading for fun around the beginning of high school, and this was due in part to both technology and burnout from school. Screen addiction can be an obstruction to activities that one actually loves doing, just as school can.

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#77

Post by taude »

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.

Career prospects with better odds becoming a Hollywood film director than a Junior Developer in software in the age of AI? ;). (I joke, I joke.)

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#78

Post by elpocko »

llbbdd wrote: post #54
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…

You're not the first person I've seen say that they do that with movies and I just can't put myself in your shoes. If there's nothing to pay attention to during those sequences then the whole movie isn't worth it, if I felt like juggling the fast forward for a movie I would just turn it off. It's like cropping the intentional negative space around a painting or skipping over dramatic silence in a musical piece. Tensi…

I skip forward whenever someone starts singing, or there's a prolonged dance scene, or pointless montages with music. For example the Zion dance party in The Matrix Reloaded. Or the many movies showing people dancing at the wedding party for several minutes.

Taylor Sheridan shows: let's show a bit of nature with some country music playing for 20-30 seconds for no reason at all -- five times in a 42 minutes episode.

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#79

Post by mmooss »

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 think you're projecting your personal perferences onto everyone else:

> genuinely excruciatingly slow and boring

> there's nothing to pay attention to ... suffering through boredom

They are genuinely that way for you, which is fine. Others feel differently and that's just as genuine and valid. For many, the film school movies are works of genius, wonders to behold and genuinely enjoy. Where you see 'nothing to pay attention to', others may see and feel quite a bit.

I can't acquire the sophistication to understand everything in the world - there is not nealry enough time in life. But if I don't have the understanding to taste the wonders of fine wine doesn't mean they don't exist or that the $10 bottle is just as good. I'm just missing out and others know more - that's most of life (and I listen to them and try to learn a little).

Re: Film students who can no longer sit through films

#80

Post by bronlund »

alecco wrote: post #69
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.

Multiple teachers in my family report there is an attention crisis. And worse, the kids are addicted to their screens and even show signs of withdrawal in class. One case required professional intervention and the parents didn't seem bothered about it.

Just because the kids aren’t paying attention to the teachers, doesn’t mean they are having problem focusing. They are probably learning more from their screens, than from the teachers. When the only book in town was the bible and the only guy who had it was the priest, it made sense to have him front and center giving out all the answers. This is not the reality anymore and now kids can probably learn better by themselves. You should look into the work of Sugata Mitra.
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