Modern movies are a glorious thing, but they’re also fraught with problems. Modern movies are falling into a set of weird choices and weird habits that can make movie-watching something of a nightmare. Since there are so many problems with movies, I decided to address two of them here, and we’ll come back to that topic in another article.
The first problem I have is a bad audio mix. What I mean by this? Let’s say you open your mailbox and you have a couple of Netflix movies sitting there (I almost did this example driving to Blockbuster, but then I remembered it was 2016). You put the Blu-Ray/DVD in the player of your choice and you sit down and you have to turn the volume down because there’s a lot of explosions and stuff like that. Then people start talking and you have to find the remote because they might be whispering! Then another explosion and now you’re deaf because the damn thing was so loud it pierced your ears. This can be annoying. Hell, it’s one of the easiest ways to get me out of a movie, to be honest. So why is this happening? Well, when the audio from movies is mixed down, they mix it down for a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound setup because that’s the optimal way to watch a movie. You see, in 5.1 surround sound, each speaker has its own job of it. The center speaker handles dialogue, the 2 side speakers are for explosions and “bwaam” noises in Christopher Nolan movies, the subwoofer is for “dat bass,” and lastly the 2 (or 4 if you have 7.1) satellite speakers. they are for surround sound. effects. That’s really cool and all, but I’m not in a position to buy a 5.1 surround sound setup. I’m a very poor college student who can only afford to eat ramen noodles 4 times a week (the other times I eat the carton the ramen came in. I have a sad life). I set up my dad’s stereo from the ’80s to be my “hi-fi” audio setup that replaces my TV’s stereo sound with slightly less horrible stereo sound. So when the DVD/Blu-Ray player outputs a 5.1 signal, my poor stereo speakers can only play the 2 front side speakers. That’s why the explosions are so loud. The dialogue goes to a non-existent center speaker, which is why it comes out so low.
So what is the solution? Add two dialogue tracks. One mixed in some good old fashioned stereo and the other mixed in 5.1/7.1 fancy pants goodness. This way I can set the volume to a comfortable volume and leave it there. This may sound like a super easy fix, but I would hazard a guess that mixing audio is a very difficult task and not an easy one to accomplish. However, I think it’s worth it and shows that movie studios are willing to go the extra mile for those who still want to see their favorite movies, but might not be the most well off.
Well, we’ve done an audio issue, so let’s end this article with a visual issue. These are probably the two biggest problems I have with modern movies today. Shaky Cam and jump cuts. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a shaky camera, I’m sorry I have to be the one to tell you. It’s basically the worst form of visual storytelling imaginable. That’s not the most revealing description, is it? OK, the shaky cam is exactly what it sounds like. It’s basically the director telling the cameraman to shake the camera as hard as he can. This is to make the action seem frantic. It sounds stupid, but it’s real. The problem with shaky camera is that it gets worse with terrible, fast, jumpy editing. This is also just what it sounds like. It’s the use of a million and a half different cuts to convey frenetic action. However, in reality, it often makes the scene impossible to understand. These are just the tools of the incredibly lazy. Using these two tools together makes movie action scenes a chore that is difficult to watch and impossible to understand. You have to actively try to put the pieces together when the actors are getting beaten up, because the shot never shows it. You hear a flurry of sound effects and see a blurry mess of hands and faces, but it’s just audio and visual crap that the director is trying to pass off as awesome action.
The solution to this problem is actually quite simple. Hire better managers. Directors who are good at their job will make the action look good without the use of cheap tricks and quick editing. There are fantastic directors when it comes to filming action. Take the Wachowski brothers. Sure, they’ve done a couple of bad things in the last two years, but the first Matrix movie is incredibly well directed. There are uses of wide shots, so we know exactly what’s going on, there’s just the right amount of slow motion so that we really feel it when characters get hit. The score is used perfectly, so when the hero takes a heavy hit, the music slows down and becomes quieter. The Subway scene in the matrix sums it all up.
Contrast this from Alex Cross. The camera is literally shaking. You don’t see the hits connecting. You see the main character punch the villain and then after a cut you see the villain react. This is probably to cover up the fact that the actors weren’t choreographed correctly.
If you can get a director who knows how to shoot action scenes, and who knows what you want the actors to do and how to choreograph them to do it, then you don’t need a terribly shaky camera to cover anything up. . You don’t need to skip edits because you want the audience to see your work.
There you go. These are the 2 biggest problems I see with movies right now. I’ll be back to do another article on 2 more problems with movies.
