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dubcanada | 3 months ago

I don't particularly disagree with you, but do you have evidence that modern movies are calibrated and written to allow for someone to sit on their phones the entire time and understand?

Largely seems like some movies are written to be mass consumed and some are not. No different then a movie from the 90s. Our attention span is decreasing a lot obviously, but it's never been that long.

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chao-|3 months ago

I remember seeing something like that referenced a while ago, and went back and found it:

https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-49/essays/casual-viewing/

>Several screenwriters who’ve worked for the streamer told me a common note from company executives is “have this character announce what they’re doing so that viewers who have this program on in the background can follow along.”

I don't necessarily agree that it means all movies (or even most) are doing this, but it is some evidence that at least some are.

mandevil|3 months ago

A couple of months ago I started listening to the Scriptnotes podcast, by Craig Mazin (showrunner for Chernobyl and Last of Us, also wrote for Scary Movie and Hangover sequels) and John August (Go, Charlie's Angels, Big Fish, etc.). They discussed receiving notes like that from executives on their scripts- that there needed to be a line of dialog here to explain, rather than just using the visual to explain, so that someone on their phone could follow along.

There are, of course, ways that writers and directors get to ignore executive feedback, have a bunch of recent hits already is one, do your movie outside the studio system is another, have it in your contract because you gave up some money or whatever is a third. This is why some movies are still made in older ways, but from what they said that feedback is pretty universal now.

staticman2|3 months ago

This is not a good distinction between modern and older TV.

In the past the note would have been "Include the line of dialogue so someone folding laundry can follow it."

Or "Include the line of dialogue so someone channel surfing who just started watching can follow the plot."