- cross-posted to:
- movies@piefed.social
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Why pick a major you hate??
Well they should fail then I guess.
There’s a difference between a movie you want to go see in a theater and the film assigned as classwork by a professor.
Same as if you were told you had to read a book by an author you don’t care for in a writing style that doesn’t click with you snd maybe even from a different time with framing that doesn’t exist today.
It’s work.
Maybe desire to play with a phone and use social media might be an issue, but at least some of these same kids that have a hard time sitting through a film would have doodled, started falling asleep or just daydreamed instead.
I watched both “Dune” from Denis Villeneuve yesterday, back to back, thats gotta be 4h straight. Went to pee once
That’s like saying math students are having trouble sitting through a calculus class. All that means is the better, more deserving ones who put the work in will be successful. A tale as old as time.
Or it means that the education system is tailored for one specific learning style and that those with different styles or a neurodivergency are shit out of luck.
Or the more likely, it’s a bunch of new students who’ve grown up watching everything in portrait mode and short bursts with Subway Runner or someone cutting soap for some reason on half the screen.
I’m absolutely not an expert and not qualified here. But if we accept that you’re 100% right and need way more broad options, is it even possible to solve this at scale? (I’m assuming we’re all talking about the US since our education is atrocious). 350M Americans spread out across 3.5M sq miles - only smaller in landmass than China, Canada, and Russia, but with substantially LESS uninhabitable land and a relatively large population. That means our population density is nearly ¼ of China’s.
How many different learning styles do we support? Do they each get their own tailored schools, each with their own full staff? How do you equally support the 1/5 of the country (60M+) that live in all those spread out rural communities? And what time scale can we even fix this problem on, understanding that we’re in the midst of a teacher shortage as it is?
I think proper spending on education absolutely is part of this equation, but someone will have to gut our military spending, so that’s hurdle number one. But regardless, tax dollars being a limited resource… I wonder how much spending doing this right would cost. For a full educational overhaul.
Not really.
I’ve seen similar complaints about reading assignments for college students as well. The stamina to focus on one piece of work for an extended period of time isn’t there compared to a generation ago.
You might have had some students not be able to focus before. Now it is almost the entire class.
No wonder most of of what’s being released is utter garbage by people with no life experience and anything to say.
Love that people complain about the length of movies while simultaneously happily siting through eight, hour+ long episodes of Stranger Things over two evenings.
Especially when many hours could have easily been left on the cutting room floor of most streaming shows, but they need to streeetch the runtime so that the writers can meet their contractual, or whatever other internal requirements.
I read the other day that Netflix goes out of their way to restate the premises vocally and frequently as possible, and has as much plot duplication as possible so that people can still enjoy it while they’re watching their phones.
Love that people complain about the length of movies while simultaneously happily siting through eight, hour+ long episodes of Stranger Things over two evenings.
Because a movie is a constant continuation, where as each episode has a hard end and you can stop and decide if you want to continue or stop.
Except that if you look at the stats, most Netflix viewers binge watch (88% here), and most engage in long binges (70% here reported 5 episodes or more at a time), binge watching is by all accounts ‘the norm’ for streaming service users.
So while you may be able to ‘decide if you want to continue or stop’ the statistics show that the vast majority of people end up watching much, much longer than a movie runtime - which was my point.
Doesn’t mean people are attentive throughout though. I think it were Netflix execs that are currently pushing writers to constantly reiterate plot points because people aren’t paying attention.
People tend to be more willing to do a lot of something if it’s broken up into smaller parts.
As an example, my great-grandmother used to always cut desserts and appetizers into smaller sizes if she noticed they weren’t being eaten. No one would take a large slice of cake but lots of people would take a small slice and then another small slice after. My grandmother took that advice from her and so did my mom, and it really does work very well. Same applies to movies and tv shows.
My favorite is when they they say something like “it starts getting good in season 3”. Like I’m going to watch tens of hours of a show that kind of sucks just to see if it actually starts getting good or not?
Of course, the reality is that they aren’t really watching the show like I would - as in, they aren’t sitting down and giving it their undivided attention. The show is on, but they’re also on their phones the entire time, or it’s on in the background and they are doing something else, or whatever. Probably one of the reasons why the show feels like it’s full of filler - they need to make sure that someone that’s only sort of paying attention can still follow what’s going on.
I’m pretty sure that’s actually true.
Doesn’t surprise me at all, really. Seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy too, because if you make a show like that, then someone who sits down and actually tries to watch it is more likely to start getting bored and starts to get out that second screen.
The other issue, particularly with movies, is a lot of this stuff is created with the idea of making it easier to translate to other languages, hence things like the overly simplified dialog.
Not to completely invalidate your point but streaming shows are pretty formulaic in terms of pacing, with convenient break intervals, and are seldom very deep. Films are harder to break up around a bathroom trip or decide to put on hold until another day.
Not to completely invalidate your point but have you ever noticed the [pause] button when you’re watching a movie?
The exception is for cinema films, and any cinema film over two hours long (which is very rare) will generally have an intermission. Not that we were limiting the discussion to cinema entertainment anyway.
thumbnail of The Brutalist (4 hrs long) okay perhaps not the best example
That may be true, but the example in the article, Jules et Jim, is under 2 hours long.
I’m not a film student but I assume that long, comparatively difficult films by Tarkovsky, Ozu, etc are a lot of what the film students are watching and I would imagine that the professors are commentating on more recent developments
And not exactly 4 hours of easy watching.
You want to re-calibrate from the constant barrage of content? Find a way to watch The Wrath of God its a good movie that opens with a series of 30 second set shots of water flowing. Its like anti-transformers level of stillness
Hey chadGPT, summarize this Fellini for me.
Great question, let’s dig into this! Federico Fellini’s 8½ is a sequel to his previous hit film Se7en, and its protagonists are a group of eight friends. One of the friends becomes a father, and his baby counts as the “½” in the title. The group gets into various crazy adventures, such as being a failed film director, fantasising about hot women, having mommy issues, and hating religion. The overall message may be summarised as: friendship is magic.
Do you have any further questions on French New Wave films?
I only ever had Facebook, Twitter and Reddit and just couldn’t get into Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, etc. so this is really perplexing to me. It just can’t be true can it?
I also can’t stand using a phone while watching a TV show (paid streaming, no ads) or a movie. It’s sad to me that people are unwilling to immerse themselves in something for just a while.
Did you have an iPad/phone shoved in front of you during mealtime, or when waiting for a sibling during their sports practice or game, or while waiting at the doctors office, or if your parents had guests or were visiting a friend, or in literally every single potential moment of boredom that could be filled with learning patience, reflection and just enjoying silence?
Because that’s the new normal for a whole generation of kids.
I have young kids in gen alpha, bought them up with quite minimal screen time, and the behavioural differences between them and their peers that have been bought up with heavy screen use iPad as the primary tool of choice is stark and very concerning for those kids’ future.
And lemme tell you, none of the parents I gently tried to encourage the importance of boredom with over the years changed their behaviour much. As soon as it became a regular tool to deal with an child needing attention it became a very hard thing to part with.
It distresses me to see this trend. It’s like some parents have a reflex to stick a tablet in front of their kid, even if the kid doesn’t need it or ask for it.
I work with a 4 year old kid who loves looking out windows. When he has free time, he often goes to look through them, even though there’s nothing particular interesting going on out there. He’s a chill little dude, completely mute, and I’ve never seen him angry. I’ve been told he likes to sit in a big chair on his front porch and watch everything and everyone go by, like a little old man on a summer day.
Yet every morning he comes in, he walks in holding a tablet. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I’m fairly certain this kid would be happy staring out a window for the whole 15 or so minutes it takes to arrive.
I always loved staring out the window in the car - I loved long rides because of it, showing little to no interest in whatever our destination was. It gave my mind the space to wander, to ponder, to go on imaginative flights of fancy that helped me learn to organize my thoughts. It’s upsetting that kids are being deprived of such moments nowadays.
To be fair those older movies are long as fuck. I watched something with 10 minute long opening credits the other day. I had to skip it.
Umm actually ☝️🤓
90 minutes was thought to be how long someone could go between toilet visits, so movies were around that long until home video started. Alright cinema used to have intervals too, they should bring that back.
I don’t want to sound rude, but have you actually looked at the chart?
I have 😁 It was said to be the ideal time on average but you can’t stop filmmakers going over.
I remember watching 2001, a space odyssey, and being thoroughly underwhelmed by it. Visually stunning, but if I hadn’t also read the book, I’d have had absolutely no idea what was happening for most of the film.
Watching it builds character
The Truffaut film referenced is an hour and 45 minutes.
What movie had 10 minutes of opening credits? Back when credits were at the open, it used to be about 30 seconds of credits.
I saw It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World recently and the whole movie was like 1 hour too long at minimum, with 10 minutes to both start and end the movie. Funny, but way too long.
Even its title is too long, you could cut about 50% of those words and not lose any meaning.
Plenty movies from the 40s and 50s ran all the credits at the beginning along with an overture. IMO the overture is one of the best parts of older movies, which often had amazing, sweeping soundtracks
Please name one. Never seen one that had more than 2 minutes of opening credit even if you include the extra symphonic stuff as “credits” (we don’t count previews toward runtimes now, so not sure it’s a fair comparison). Maybe one or two had a dedicated symphonic opening but that was exceedingly rare
Star Trek the Motion Picture has like a 10 minute opening credits
Reading your reaction to everyone else’s comments, did you read the part where I said credits and an overture? What’s got you so wound up over this? You’ll notice I never said 10 minutes like that first guy, but most movies have way longer opening titles than 30 seconds, which is what you said…
Which Lawrence of Arabia version from the 40s or 50s (your words) are you referring to?
If you mean the famous 60s film…. Yes, it has a minute of credits and another 4 or 5 for the overture. Not credits.
Again, still looking for examples of extended credit sequences. Overtures are basically the same as intermissions. That’s a totally different beast.
Even if you want to lump them together, we’re still at the “one or two” I mentioned. Huge Hollywood blockbusters. Exceedingly rare.
I literally said overture in the comment that’s got you all bothered
Oh boy. I just reread your edited comments. It’s hard to keep up when you edit like that
But yes, I would still care to hear your 40s and 50s examples. If you have one where overture+credits approaches 10 minutes, I’d be shocked. As we’ve discussed, some examples in the 60s can hit 5 minutes, but that’s about the most I’ve seen
Watched planet of the apes the other day and it had a good amount of opening credits. Couldn’t tell you the length off the top of my head
4 minutes. That’s a great example of the rare symphonic opening I was referencing.
But that’s also not the 40s or 50s.
The Outsiders had a stupidly long intro if my memory is correct. I remember taking the tape out to check if maybe it was at the end and the credits were rolling.
Lawrence of Arabia.
Why do people keep naming 60s films with 4 minutes of musical intros when I’m asking for 40s and 50s films with 10 minute credit intros lol?
Edit: overture is the word I was looking for, not “musical intro”. But that’s not a thing that happened in early cinema (barring Chaplin, who had strict control of scores - would be interested if someone else cares to google that)
4 minutes? Not the version I saw in theatre, my friend. Mind you, it’s not exactly what you wanted either, even though it was longer than ten minutes of music at the start: a lot of it was playing while the screen was black, then at a certain point every theme in the music came together, the glorious visuals started up, and I knew I was in for a masterpiece.
Only 10 minutes credits? That’s weak.
To be fair you’ve already probability seem the best parts stolen, cut and pasted into modern day rehash money grabs. Enjoy your souless ai slop where the actors repeat the obvious plot over and over? Perhaps you would care for another transformer or fast and furious film? The cinematic filmography chopped so it fits vertically on a cell phone screen! But hey at least the actors repeat the main plot points so you know whats going on.
What about three-hour films?
Some modern ones are absolute garbage, but some are worth the bladder pain!
I don’t think he knows about Second Disc, PattyMcB
What does “intermission” mean?
I think two-hour movies are soon to be a thing of the past. But, will people pay premium prices to watch a one-hour TV episode on the big screen? One hour is all anyone can handle anymore, and then only if they can also look at their phones, they get the shakes if they can’t look at their phones.
When we switch to XR/AR goggles worn every waking moment, that will be the end of movie theaters, and so many other things. Only a few will survive, like drive-ins today.
I don’t think it’s just the old man in me saying we’re heading in a bad direction.
The only ones as a group avoiding this are the “elite”. The filthy rich don’t let their kids use this tech. Their kids go to schools like they were before smartphones. Pencil, paper, and good grades required to pass. I mean the billionaires, there’s a huge difference between $100 million, which is rich to we poors, and $1 billion+. We down here tend to group them all together, but they are not the same. One-hundred million is the new middle class.
One hour, bah. I don’t understand why people complain about 1 minute youtube shorts. That seems about the right length.
