Film pet peeves

[Gilberto]

Yeah, soda water is mostly a mixer, I think. And if your friend left his club soda in your apartment for months, Tracy, I don't guess he liked it too much.

I guess it's just a generic thing to say, instead of ordering a Coke or some kind of specific product, but the fact that it's done to single out that they don't drink (usually because they're a recovering alcoholic) is what annoys me.

Here's a related pet peeve that Dane and I were talking about: In movies, when they want to show you that a guy is a douchebag fat cat he always has a decanter of aged scotch in his office. This is another thing I've never seen in real life, but it happens all the time in movies.

And on side note: have you seen any movies besides Star Wars, Brooks?

[broox]

Have you breathed anything besides oxygen? Has your heart pumped anything besides blood?

In all fairness, in this very thread I have already established that I've seen the LOTR movies. Also, I have seen one of the American Pie movies. I'm not sure which one.

On the subject of drinking, I can't count how many times in TV and movies I've seen someone come home and go straight to their mini bar and pour themselves a drink, just like Gilberto said. It's especially common with cops in tv. I personally don't know anyone that has a bar and pours themselves a drink straight away when they get home, but then again I don't really know that many people.

[lynn]

I know one person who has a bar like that at his house; the barman I mentioned earlier. But it's in his basement which he uses to host parties, not upstairs where his kids could get at it.

[wilson]

I keep my booze in a gas can. I drink straight from it when I get home in full view of neighbors, so that they will know the kind of stupidity I am capable of.

[lynn]

And fear you, FEAR YOU!!!!

[Gilberto]

Yeah, the bar in the house thing is a TV set builder's myth. A guy that has to have a drink the second he gets home isn't classy enough to have a bar. As a man who used to have several drinks at the end of the day I can tell you that all it takes is swinging by the liquor store on the way home.

This leads to another general peeve, which is basically how much nicer everything is on TV. Everyone's house is a palace with way too much room and way too nice furniture. Even the poor people, when they go "how do you live in such squalor?" their house is nicer than mine.

[lynn]

I was thinking about this when I was comparing the two versions of Fame the other day. In the old one the paint is peeling and the rooms are tiny and you have to share them. I was thinking, now that looks like school the way I remember it.
I think that was one of the complaints about Paranormal Activity, how nice their house was. I wonder if that's why they worked in that plot point about the demon giving them success, to counter that complaint?

[Gilberto]

I think in the first one they slipped in the bit about him being a day trader to explain the nice house and why he is apparently always there. But that's a typical house for a movie; it makes me nuts.

I get it: Larger spaces are easier to film in. Having tried to shoot scenes in a craphole I get the logistics of it. And if you're building a set, why build one that looks like a craphole?

On the subject of schools, I used to watch the OC, and they had a coffee shop in the high school and everything. Maybe that's just California. Maybe Tracy can shed some light on that. But it really shows how movies and TV place more emphasis on aesthetics than they used to.

The sad part is how kids watching these things are getting a warped view of what success is. Everyone on TV has a mansion and everything is the best brand new thing and their lives always seem inferior. It really is a testament to how everything is just a commercial.

[lynn]

Our school was far too sensible to ply us with stimulants. They just gave us sugar at lunch time, for a price of course.
But the school thing is one of my pet peeves, they don't even consider casting someone under 18 for high school shows or movies. Again, watching the old Fame, you could tell those extras were teens, all the acne and youthfulness of the teens. They probably just got extras from the real school. But you can hardly believe those girls dancing around in their undies throughout the movies are anywhere even under 20. It makes me annoyed, because that's what teens watch and aspire to. They're growing them up too quickly. The boys in my class weren't built like that, because boys don't grow muscles like that when they're teens (typically). The girls didn't have boobs like that (except my best friend did). It's all wrong. Why not use real teens?

[Gilberto]

You know why? Because you can't make kids do what they get the actors to do on these shows. They have to get adults because of all the making out and nudity, but they're playing young kids. It's pretty twisted actually. Then kids think they're not only supposed to look like that, but act like that.

Not that kids are stupid. They know the difference between movies and real life. But movies are idealized versions of real life. Is that the ideal we're trying to teach them?

[lynn]

Yeah some of the stuff we see "teens" do on tv would be illegal if they cast age appropriate actors do to it. That's just wrong.

[drivebyluna]

Jan 28, 2012 9:41:18 GMT -5 Gilberto said:

I think in the first one they slipped in the bit about him being a day trader to explain the nice house and why he is apparently always there. But that's a typical house for a movie; it makes me nuts.

I get it: Larger spaces are easier to film in. Having tried to shoot scenes in a craphole I get the logistics of it. And if you're building a set, why build one that looks like a craphole?

On the subject of schools, I used to watch the OC, and they had a coffee shop in the high school and everything. Maybe that's just California. Maybe Tracy can shed some light on that. But it really shows how movies and TV place more emphasis on aesthetics than they used to.

The sad part is how kids watching these things are getting a warped view of what success is. Everyone on TV has a mansion and everything is the best brand new thing and their lives always seem inferior. It really is a testament to how everything is just a commercial.

No california schools don't have coffee shops. In fact most of them are run down and in need of a coat of paint.

I always hated how college dorm rooms on TV were like 3x the normal size of a normal dorm. I mean, I've heard of some "luxury" dorms and a school in SoCal is repurposing foreclosed McMansions and turning them into off campus housing but still.

[broox]

Here's one that drives me crazy: the reverse cymbal. Tv shows use it excessively, really really excessively. The worst offender is "the biggest loser." On that show you can hear it every 2 or 3 seconds, especially during the "weigh in." You can also hear it in crime shows and history channel "mega disaster" type shows. Basically whenever they want to convey suspense they throw that sound effect in. It drives me crazy.

Here's some examples if you don't know what I'm talking about:

www.pond5.com/sound-effects/1/reverse-cymbal.html

[wilson]

They should replace that with the good ol' slide whistle!

[Gilberto]

Some of them sound like the THX sound. I like these, maybe I'll start putting them on TVAMD.