Looking at shows differently now

[Jan]

Anybody else notice that they're more aware of the structure of what they're watching on TV and in movies since reading the scripts?

Last night I was watching 'House, MD' and was accutely conscious every time they showed the arial shot of the hospital. "Establishing shot, exterior of hospital", thought I (with that show, there are so many that I *really* wish they'd find different views). I find that I'm more conscious of camera angles and movements, too. I notice when we SEE something or when the camera does something interesting in a tilt or pan.

It's not distracting usually (unless I'm really bored and find it more interesting to reconstruct the script instead of follow the story) but more of a new appreciation of how things are made.

Anybody else?

Jan

[Spoo Junky]

I think about establishing shots sometimes too, and the camera angles and all. In a way, it takes away some of the awe from special effects.

I've often wondered, when actors, directors, etc. watch tv or movies, can they just sit back and enjoy the story, or are the technical aspects distracting? Or are they often thinking about how they would have done some scenes differently. After all, they are exposed to all that stuff much more than we are. I find I'm not as interested with construction sites as I used to be because I know what they are doing and why and it just becomes, Ya, whatever! I suppose, like us, if the story is good enough they can get into it after awhile.

[WorkerCaste]

Count me in. The process started for me long before I knew who JMS was, but the "conversation" with JMS through his postings and now through the script books has accellerated the whole thing. I was fascinated by S/FX and animation, so I knew some about those things. That led into camera work and lighting, but the myriad ways all that gets put into the service of story is something that I've learned a lot more about since B5 began.

Establishing shots - establishing shots from library - two shots -- close ups. Now I often look at how they're being used. Like Jan, I don't get distracted by it unless the work isn't really grabbing me. Then I start cataloging what I would have done differently.

I don't expect I'll ever become knowledgable enough to become jaded, but I can certainly see Spoo Junky's point. Once upon a time I did lighting and sound for concerts. That effectively ended my desire to ge see big concerts. Everytime they missed a spot or lighting que, or when the vocals were getting lost in the instruments, it would really annoy me. Especially when paying $20 or $30 (it WAS a while ago ) for the privilege of seeing people do their jobs poorly. I can see it happening in almost any profession. I can also see it happening with critics.

[Jan]

I can see it happening in almost any profession.

I think it's the classic three edged sword. On the one hand, the more I know about _____FITB_____, I can better appreciate when it's done well. When it's done poorly, I can better understand what went wrong and I'm likely to be more forgiving...unless the same situation happens again. Then they hear about it.

Back to the subject of scripts, though, I was surprised when I first started reading them that I didn't have any trouble following the story at all. I thought the format would be distracting but I don't recall that happening.

Jan

[WorkerCaste]

Jan, just out of curiousity, have you read a script before seeing it on TV or at the movies. I was wondering how readin the script colored perceptions when watching. All my experience is the other way around. I have no trouble at all following the scripts, and the production notation actually seems to help fill in the visual information, but I've always read ones that I've seen before.

[Jan]

Jan, just out of curiousity, have you read a script before seeing it on TV or at the movies. I was wondering how readin the script colored perceptions when watching.

Interesting question. I think it's only happened once. I'd picked up the script for one of JMS's 'Murder, She Wrote episodes either "Incident in Lot 7" or another (I think) "The Wind Around the Tower" and there was a strong sense of deja-vu when I finally saw the episodes. The length of time between reading and watching was substantial, though, so I can't say that there was much difference between that and if I'd seen the episode before.

One thing maybe. It must have been in 'Wind', because there was a scene that was filmed was somewhat differently from what had been described in the script. I had a moment of 'wait, this is all wrong' but I didn't realize the cause at the time I was watching the episode. It was later that evening that I realized that I had the script and had read it before.

I've got some scripts that I'd sure love to try that experiment on, that's for sure!

Jan

[ZenoParadoxus]

One of my degrees is Communication Arts - Radio, TV, Film, so I have the training/ability to watch the same thing multiple times and "filter" it differently each time.

For example, my first time through a movie or TV show, I try not to interpret anything and just experience it. The second and subsequent times, I can consciously pay attention to certain elements (say cinematography or lighting). It strongly jolts me if I should notice a boom mic, for example, during the first watching, since it will cause me to "notice" it again and again.

Another thing that I tend to notice is older films which have timing marks for reel changes. Before most theaters installed platter systems (where the entire film is on one large horizontal platter in a continuous loop), the end of each reel was marked (typically at 10 and 2 seconds) with a circular mark scratched into the actual print (GAH!!!!). Even though the mark is only one frame out of 24/sec, I can still see them (I wish I couldn't!). There are some movies that I have seen so many times (Bladerunner) that I know the reel changes by heart...

Zeno

[MarkG]

II've often wondered, when actors, directors, etc. watch tv or movies, can they just sit back and enjoy the story, or are the technical aspects distracting?

Yes. With really good movies with stories that suck me in I can just watch them as movies, but most I get distracted by the technical side and figuring out how the story will work out. Also, here in the UK I quite often see actors I've worked with in TV shows and it's then hard to pretend they're not acting .

'Sixth Sense', for example, I got the 'big twist' within ten seconds of the pivotal line, because it was so Hollywood-obvious... I also thought the movie was technically pretty poor (e.g. weird choice of shots, stuttering pans). 'Babylon 5' generally worked, though I remember, for example, one episode of the show with a really long Steadicam shot where I was thinking 'that's a really long Steadicam shot' rather than following the story; I think one of the reasons why it works better for me than most is that you often know early on in an episode how the story is going to end, but JMS gets you there by an unexpected route.

[WorkerCaste]

Another thing that I tend to notice is older films which have timing marks for reel changes. Before most theaters installed platter systems (where the entire film is on one large horizontal platter in a continuous loop), the end of each reel was marked (typically at 10 and 2 seconds) with a circular mark scratched into the actual print (GAH!!!!). Even though the mark is only one frame out of 24/sec, I can still see them (I wish I couldn't!). There are some movies that I have seen so many times (Bladerunner) that I know the reel changes by heart...

Oh, the good ol' days! I used to bench film and put those marks in. An old theater with twin 35MM carbon arc projectors. What fun!