5 ms·

That only speaks of how severely the attention span of the average person has plummeted in recent decades. It's impossible to sit through a movie without enough

That only speaks of how severely the attention span of the average person has plummeted in recent decades. It's impossible to sit through a movie without enough dopamine-inducing distractions or MTV-style jump cuts every few seconds.

mkaic 4y ago
Definitely disagree with this take. I'd argue that all it means is that filmmakers have learned to make more exciting films. Cinema is a young art form and hasn't even been around for 200 year, it's no surprise to me that the movies of today are fundamentally different and more engaging than movies from last century.
- _5uxp 4y ago
  They are more dumb tho, scripts and dialogues are so much simple. They rarely give you the feeling of once a lifetime seeing experience. Most of them have too much CGI and sometimes not even looking rea at all.
  - ssully 4y ago
    Sorry, but you are just generalizing based on the top blockbuster movies. Films have never been more diverse in their style and quality and, in my opinion, offer something for everyone. If you are looking for movies that focus on strong dialogue and character work those movies are still being made and are fantastic.
    - JohnFen 4y ago
      But they all seem to be locked up in streaming services and the like.
    - somenameforme 4y ago
      Mind if I pick your brain? I enjoy compelling era pieces, though some fantasy or sci-fi is also great. I dislike identity politics and infantilizing exposition. By contrast I enjoy subtle metaphor and stories with nuance. My favorite films would include Das Boot, I Claudius, and Seventeen Moments of Spring. For something more contemporary, I also enjoyed The Expanse. Any recommendations? Films or series in any language are okay.
      - artificial 4y ago
        Trumbo, Lincoln, Let The Right One In (Swedish). Raised by Wolves (tv).
        somenameforme 4y ago
        Great! I'll look into these.
      - ssully 4y ago
        In terms of recent releases, Banshees of Inisherin was the first thing that sprung to mind.
- permo-w 4y ago
  more exciting != better
- JohnFen 4y ago
  > filmmakers have learned to make more exciting films Filmmakers have learned how to optimize for a very specific kind of "excitement", but I disagree that movies are more exciting now than they used to be. The most exciting and engaging movies I can think of are all pretty old.
- somenameforme 4y ago
  There's a fun little fact most don't know. The typical meme is that modern movies suck, but they're being made that way to pander to "the masses." But the numbers don't support this! When you see headlines like record breaking sales, it's measured in gross revenue. When you actually look at tickets sold, movies have been dying for decades. Here are the data (US only): https://www.the-numbers.com/market/ https://www.the-numbers.com/market/ Peak movies in terms of both tickets sold and total real revenue was 2002. Everything since then has been a rapid decline, paired with lots of inflation and ticket prices going up even faster than inflation. I'd also add that those data don't consider another aspect. Since 2002 the US population has increased by more than 45 million. Seeing ticket sales plummet alongside this is especially telling! So, while you may personally find what passes for a movie now a days as "more engaging", even "the masses" would beg to differ!
  - cld8483 4y ago
    > The typical meme is that modern movies suck, but they're being made that way to pander to "the masses." But the numbers don't support this! When you see headlines like record breaking sales, it's measured in gross revenue. When you actually look at tickets sold, movies have been dying for decades. Alternative read: the industry is dying so they double down on pandering in an ultimately futile attempt to bail out the sinking ship. Consider anime: It has been a dying art ever since Japan's economic stagnation/recession in the early 90s. So the anime industry (generally, with some exceptions) turned hard into pandering to their most base fans, lonely dudes. Lots of waifu characters designed to sell body pillows and trash like that. This hasn't improved quality and sales continue to slump, but they're still trying.
- kipchak 4y ago
  Oddly, the rate of change seems to be a fairly consistent rate of change at around 3 frames per shot per year since 1930[1], with changes like MTV, the reduction of the role of the studio in the 60s and more creative freedom having not much change in the overall rate. Non-English films have also for some reason only had a 40% decrease in shot lengths over the same period. My hunch is that video literacy has increased as people are exposed to video with faster cuts than their parents, and we'll reach a bottom eventually. A rough comparison can be made to the word count of NYT best seller books steadily decreasing.[2] [1]http://cutting.psych.cornell.edu/pubs/cutting&candanProj15.pdf http://cutting.psych.cornell.edu/pubs/cutting&candanProj15.p... [2]https://wordsrated.com/bestselling-books-have-never-been-shorter/ https://wordsrated.com/bestselling-books-have-never-been-sho...
scrollaway 4y ago
Your post has it all in just two sentences: Maximum cynicism, "kids these days", "movies these days", randomly bringing up MTV, whinging about attention span, bringing up dopamine. Really .. can you at least try to not be so cynical about the present? Everybody's walking around with a star trek device in their pocket that has all of the world's knowledge, can remote call anyone on earth, and can translate any language into any other. Oh yes, and some movies suck. I bet if you look at the past few years of releases you'll find some you like, too.
- ssully 4y ago
  [flagged]
- permo-w 4y ago
  you’re right, we are living in an era of incredible technology, and there are still plenty of good films nowadays, but you’re arguing with an imaginary figure you’ve invented. pretty much all they said was that attention spans are shorter nowadays - observably true - and that modern films cater to that - which the profit motive ensures that isn’t “maximum cynicism” or “whinging” or even an attack on modern life why are you jumping to such an argumentative posture? is this a debate you’ve had elsewhere that infuriated you?

mkaic 4y ago

Definitely disagree with this take. I'd argue that all it means is that filmmakers have learned to make more exciting films. Cinema is a young art form and hasn't even been around for 200 year, it's no surprise to me that the movies of today are fundamentally different and more engaging than movies from last century.

_5uxp 4y ago
They are more dumb tho, scripts and dialogues are so much simple. They rarely give you the feeling of once a lifetime seeing experience. Most of them have too much CGI and sometimes not even looking rea at all.
- ssully 4y ago
  Sorry, but you are just generalizing based on the top blockbuster movies. Films have never been more diverse in their style and quality and, in my opinion, offer something for everyone. If you are looking for movies that focus on strong dialogue and character work those movies are still being made and are fantastic.
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    But they all seem to be locked up in streaming services and the like.
  - somenameforme 4y ago
    Mind if I pick your brain? I enjoy compelling era pieces, though some fantasy or sci-fi is also great. I dislike identity politics and infantilizing exposition. By contrast I enjoy subtle metaphor and stories with nuance. My favorite films would include Das Boot, I Claudius, and Seventeen Moments of Spring. For something more contemporary, I also enjoyed The Expanse. Any recommendations? Films or series in any language are okay.
    - artificial 4y ago
      Trumbo, Lincoln, Let The Right One In (Swedish). Raised by Wolves (tv).
      - somenameforme 4y ago
        Great! I'll look into these.
    - ssully 4y ago
      In terms of recent releases, Banshees of Inisherin was the first thing that sprung to mind.
permo-w 4y ago
more exciting != better
JohnFen 4y ago
> filmmakers have learned to make more exciting films Filmmakers have learned how to optimize for a very specific kind of "excitement", but I disagree that movies are more exciting now than they used to be. The most exciting and engaging movies I can think of are all pretty old.
somenameforme 4y ago
There's a fun little fact most don't know. The typical meme is that modern movies suck, but they're being made that way to pander to "the masses." But the numbers don't support this! When you see headlines like record breaking sales, it's measured in gross revenue. When you actually look at tickets sold, movies have been dying for decades. Here are the data (US only): https://www.the-numbers.com/market/ https://www.the-numbers.com/market/ Peak movies in terms of both tickets sold and total real revenue was 2002. Everything since then has been a rapid decline, paired with lots of inflation and ticket prices going up even faster than inflation. I'd also add that those data don't consider another aspect. Since 2002 the US population has increased by more than 45 million. Seeing ticket sales plummet alongside this is especially telling! So, while you may personally find what passes for a movie now a days as "more engaging", even "the masses" would beg to differ!
- cld8483 4y ago
  > The typical meme is that modern movies suck, but they're being made that way to pander to "the masses." But the numbers don't support this! When you see headlines like record breaking sales, it's measured in gross revenue. When you actually look at tickets sold, movies have been dying for decades. Alternative read: the industry is dying so they double down on pandering in an ultimately futile attempt to bail out the sinking ship. Consider anime: It has been a dying art ever since Japan's economic stagnation/recession in the early 90s. So the anime industry (generally, with some exceptions) turned hard into pandering to their most base fans, lonely dudes. Lots of waifu characters designed to sell body pillows and trash like that. This hasn't improved quality and sales continue to slump, but they're still trying.
kipchak 4y ago
Oddly, the rate of change seems to be a fairly consistent rate of change at around 3 frames per shot per year since 1930[1], with changes like MTV, the reduction of the role of the studio in the 60s and more creative freedom having not much change in the overall rate. Non-English films have also for some reason only had a 40% decrease in shot lengths over the same period. My hunch is that video literacy has increased as people are exposed to video with faster cuts than their parents, and we'll reach a bottom eventually. A rough comparison can be made to the word count of NYT best seller books steadily decreasing.[2] [1]http://cutting.psych.cornell.edu/pubs/cutting&candanProj15.pdf http://cutting.psych.cornell.edu/pubs/cutting&candanProj15.p... [2]https://wordsrated.com/bestselling-books-have-never-been-shorter/ https://wordsrated.com/bestselling-books-have-never-been-sho...

scrollaway 4y ago

Your post has it all in just two sentences: Maximum cynicism, "kids these days", "movies these days", randomly bringing up MTV, whinging about attention span, bringing up dopamine. Really .. can you at least try to not be so cynical about the present? Everybody's walking around with a star trek device in their pocket that has all of the world's knowledge, can remote call anyone on earth, and can translate any language into any other. Oh yes, and some movies suck. I bet if you look at the past few years of releases you'll find some you like, too.

ssully 4y ago
[flagged]
permo-w 4y ago
you’re right, we are living in an era of incredible technology, and there are still plenty of good films nowadays, but you’re arguing with an imaginary figure you’ve invented. pretty much all they said was that attention spans are shorter nowadays - observably true - and that modern films cater to that - which the profit motive ensures that isn’t “maximum cynicism” or “whinging” or even an attack on modern life why are you jumping to such an argumentative posture? is this a debate you’ve had elsewhere that infuriated you?