Suspension of disbelief

Apr 30, 2009 13:14

Films and tv shows usually rely on suspension of disbelief.
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tv, movies, unimportant but annoying, perception shift

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Comments 103

tommmo April 30 2009, 04:04:16 UTC
the way they can zoom in on a small section of a photo, blow up that section, sharpen/clean it up, and suddenly have a incredibly clear and detailed picture

This one drives me nuts. I'm pretty sure I've even seen one or two instances where they manage to digitally alter the angle of the shot.

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ariaflame April 30 2009, 04:09:32 UTC
I think the recent Red Dwarf episode that had them using multiple reflections to get a phone number was taking the piss out of this.

But yes, licence plates, people's faces. There's only so much that can be done to clarify an image. If the original resolution isn't good enough then you can't magically resolve it.

I'd talk about the apparently tiny time it takes to get DNA samples etc. back but mostly I just go 'meh' and accept it, like wormholes, as being necessary to get everything in on time (though I do like it in some shows where they have the characters moaning about the long time it takes to get results back)

Not sure what else annoys me. Will think about it.

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dalekboy April 30 2009, 04:10:56 UTC
They sent this up in the latest Red Dwarf, where they get what they need by zooming in on reflection of reflections of reflections, etc. in a photo.

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ariaflame April 30 2009, 04:11:34 UTC
Jinx!

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ariaflame April 30 2009, 04:11:10 UTC
Actually, occasionally they do, but either for a site comic gag, or because there's some reason for action in there.

I can think of at least three off the top of my head.

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ariaflame April 30 2009, 04:18:05 UTC
As dalekboy said, from what I gather, if it doesn't advance the plot, or contribute to character development, it's good to end up on the cutting room floor, or even better, not to waste film at all.

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dalekboy April 30 2009, 04:30:21 UTC
Yep!

First time I struck this one was in Flatliners, when Julia Roberts needed the defibrillator, and they didn't cut her top. Pulled me right out of the moment, and the movie, especially because these people are medical students! If I knew this was wrong, they certainly should have!

I later read that the actress refused to go topless, or allow a body double for the shot, and it really annoyed me. She'd read the damned script when she agreed to the role, if she wasn't prepared to allow a section of it to be shot properly, then she shouldn't have taken the part.

I've brought this one up before, and had one or two people suggest I just wanted to see her breasts. I really couldn't care less for Julia Roberts boobs, the internet is full of more breasts than I could ever hope to see in my entire lifetime.

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gemfyre April 30 2009, 06:38:08 UTC
At least they did it properly in The Abyss.

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waylanderpk April 30 2009, 04:13:12 UTC
A few of my unfavorite things -
Outrunning explosions, the ONLY time this is OK is if your in the Millennium Falcon (though i suppose a movie with the Flash in it would
also be ok). A quick Google will tell you that even the lowest energy explosion is going to be tens of meters per second, even an olympic sprinter isn't going to outrun one of those without, say a 100m head start.

I also hate the zoom in, presto clear image, thats some pretty advanced software that can guess what information is missing.

Exploding cars, unless they have been shot with some incendiary weapon or bazooka type thingey.

Barbarians other Fantasy characters with Californian accents and tan lines.

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dalekboy April 30 2009, 04:32:16 UTC
I quite forgot exploding cars!

The funny thing is, I've become so used to it that when a car doesn't explode, I'm a bit thrown.

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kaelajael April 30 2009, 06:49:19 UTC
Many, many years ago in...The Flying Doctors, I think it was...there was a storyline of two brothers who were a little like Dumb and Dumber, and they were involved in something that required they ditch their car. They pushed it over the edge steep hill and when it landed at the bottom and nothing happened, the comment was along the lines of "But they ALWAYS blow up in the movies."

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mild spoiler for Three Kings strangedave April 30 2009, 07:01:13 UTC
There is that awseome scene in Three Kings where the rocket hits the tanker, and you are so expecting it to be a massive explosion - and the tanker is full of milk, not petrol, and everyone just ends up knee deep in milk. A really nice bit of playing with your expectations, and an incredible image.

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smofbabe April 30 2009, 04:15:09 UTC
My least favorite computer-impossibility moment is in INDEPENDENCE DAY, when Jeff Goldblum's character manages to hack into the alien ship's computer. As a friend of mine said when we first saw it, "Yeah, that's gonna happen. We can't even get Windows and MacOS to talk to each other ( ... )

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dalekboy April 30 2009, 04:35:30 UTC
Actually the apartment thing is one occasionally gets me, too. I'll be sitting there watching people who are meant to be dirt poor, living in a huge place!

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angriest April 30 2009, 04:41:18 UTC
They actually managed to explain that one away in Friends, which I always appreciated.

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dalekboy April 30 2009, 04:42:39 UTC
What was the explanation?

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