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The other thing that always strikes me when rewatching Blade Runner, is just how much time to breathe every little scene is given. Maybe a little too much time

The other thing that always strikes me when rewatching Blade Runner, is just how much time to breathe every little scene is given. Maybe a little too much time in some of the longer director's cuts, but it's a really stark contrast to a lot of lesser films, that try and pack as many story beats as they can into their runtime.

esafak 1mo ago
Most new sci-fi/action movies are like that. Ones that cater to younger viewers are so bad I've had to walk out of movie theaters because I felt my senses were under assault. Fortunately there are traditional directors like Villeneuve.
- dylan604 1mo ago
  It's not just sci-fi/action. There have been many articles written about the increase in edit cadence in all movies. One of the biggest comments about older films is how "slow" movies were. One of the examples I've seen goes something like: Wide shot of bank of elevators. Man walks up to elevator to push the button. Cut to close up of dial showing which floor the elevator is on showing the indicator moving back to first floor. A ding is heard indicating the elevator has arrived. Cut to wide shot showing doors opening, people exiting, man entering elevator. Cut to interior of elevator to see man choose floor and doors close. Now, you see the man walk to the elevator bank, hit the button, and then cut to the doors opening as man exits.
  - swiftcoder 1mo ago
    [dead]
- jcims 1mo ago
  I rarely watch movies, I had to leave Elvis for this exact reason. It was relentless.
mixmastamyk 1mo ago
Was the norm in the 70s, and into the early 80s. My memory is that the turning point to quick cuts was after MTV and music videos became popular (1982+). I remember old folks complaining about the “attention span” of young people. Watching the old movies today, I do think that the 70s films are too slow and 90s+ films too aggressive with cuts. Would be nice to balance, or have important scenes breathe while others get chopped. Most movies are too long these days as well. The film itself was criticized as “Blade Crawler” back in the day.
- hnlmorg 1mo ago
  I think a lot of the change can be contributed to FX becoming cheaper, easier and better. It created a race to the bottom for the most visually spectacular movie. And when it’s cheaper, you can throw more in at the same budget. Then the next movie has to throw even more in to outdo their predecessor. Though I’m not disagreeing that culturally we have been on a steep downwards decline with regards to our attention span.
  - mixmastamyk 1mo ago
    Ok, though we were discussing scene length, as measured by the stopwatch, not specific content.
    - deleted 1mo ago
      [deleted]
    - hnlmorg 1mo ago
      It’s all correlates to the same outcome Runtime = scene length * content And since movie runtimes have remained relatively consistent but content has increased, that means scene length has to decrease.
      - IAmBroom 1mo ago
        Runtimes are increasing. Hell, "The Hobbit" is 3 overlong movies.
hnlmorg 1mo ago
I completely agree regarding modern movies. I recently watched the Borderlands movie and while it had its obvious faults, the biggest flaw in my opinion was the jarring pace that one scene would switch into the next. That movie had a short runtime so could easily have been extended to let each scene breathe a little more and I think that alone would have drawn people in the world building a lot better. I do think with SciFi, the world-building aspect needs to be front and centre, otherwise it’s impossible to switch off the “well that couldn’t happen in real life” part of your brain.
- kstenerud 1mo ago
  Another annoying one is lazy and simplistic morality, which just ruins the story. Arcane had huge potential, great pacing, interesting characters, but failed on that front.
  - account42 1mo ago
    In general, modern media rarely lets the viewer make his own judgement about the morality of the situation. You're usually given a sermon rather than philosophical conundrum for your to think about.
    - kstenerud 1mo ago
      One of the reasons why I liked The Good Place so much was because they did playful treatments on various philosophical points, without spoon feeding a solution.
    - IAmBroom 1mo ago
      Star Wars makes it clear The Empire does bad things on the regular, but it never, ever proves that the "state religion" of Resistance's elite warriors is a good thing (beyond opposing the Empire's bad thing).
      - hnlmorg 1mo ago
        One of the recent TV spin offs did look to address that nuance. Unfortunately it completely butchered the story line with weird tails of space-witches and one dimensional characters. The one thing I did think the prequel movies did well, perhaps the only thing, was how it painted a world where absolute greed allowed an environment for space-nazis to thrive. Though real life sadly demonstrates that corruption doesn’t need to happen in the shadows to succeed.
kstenerud 1mo ago
While this is true, there is a limit where they're just painfully slow. Vanishing Point and 2001 come to mind.
- account42 1mo ago
  And yet 2001 (which is an extreme outlier even for that era) remains more memorable than most films made after the namesake year.

esafak 1mo ago

Most new sci-fi/action movies are like that. Ones that cater to younger viewers are so bad I've had to walk out of movie theaters because I felt my senses were under assault. Fortunately there are traditional directors like Villeneuve.

dylan604 1mo ago
It's not just sci-fi/action. There have been many articles written about the increase in edit cadence in all movies. One of the biggest comments about older films is how "slow" movies were. One of the examples I've seen goes something like: Wide shot of bank of elevators. Man walks up to elevator to push the button. Cut to close up of dial showing which floor the elevator is on showing the indicator moving back to first floor. A ding is heard indicating the elevator has arrived. Cut to wide shot showing doors opening, people exiting, man entering elevator. Cut to interior of elevator to see man choose floor and doors close. Now, you see the man walk to the elevator bank, hit the button, and then cut to the doors opening as man exits.
- swiftcoder 1mo ago
  [dead]
jcims 1mo ago
I rarely watch movies, I had to leave Elvis for this exact reason. It was relentless.

mixmastamyk 1mo ago

Was the norm in the 70s, and into the early 80s. My memory is that the turning point to quick cuts was after MTV and music videos became popular (1982+). I remember old folks complaining about the “attention span” of young people. Watching the old movies today, I do think that the 70s films are too slow and 90s+ films too aggressive with cuts. Would be nice to balance, or have important scenes breathe while others get chopped. Most movies are too long these days as well. The film itself was criticized as “Blade Crawler” back in the day.

hnlmorg 1mo ago
I think a lot of the change can be contributed to FX becoming cheaper, easier and better. It created a race to the bottom for the most visually spectacular movie. And when it’s cheaper, you can throw more in at the same budget. Then the next movie has to throw even more in to outdo their predecessor. Though I’m not disagreeing that culturally we have been on a steep downwards decline with regards to our attention span.
- mixmastamyk 1mo ago
  Ok, though we were discussing scene length, as measured by the stopwatch, not specific content.
  - deleted 1mo ago
    [deleted]
  - hnlmorg 1mo ago
    It’s all correlates to the same outcome Runtime = scene length * content And since movie runtimes have remained relatively consistent but content has increased, that means scene length has to decrease.
    - IAmBroom 1mo ago
      Runtimes are increasing. Hell, "The Hobbit" is 3 overlong movies.

hnlmorg 1mo ago

I completely agree regarding modern movies. I recently watched the Borderlands movie and while it had its obvious faults, the biggest flaw in my opinion was the jarring pace that one scene would switch into the next. That movie had a short runtime so could easily have been extended to let each scene breathe a little more and I think that alone would have drawn people in the world building a lot better. I do think with SciFi, the world-building aspect needs to be front and centre, otherwise it’s impossible to switch off the “well that couldn’t happen in real life” part of your brain.

kstenerud 1mo ago
Another annoying one is lazy and simplistic morality, which just ruins the story. Arcane had huge potential, great pacing, interesting characters, but failed on that front.
- account42 1mo ago
  In general, modern media rarely lets the viewer make his own judgement about the morality of the situation. You're usually given a sermon rather than philosophical conundrum for your to think about.
  - kstenerud 1mo ago
    One of the reasons why I liked The Good Place so much was because they did playful treatments on various philosophical points, without spoon feeding a solution.
  - IAmBroom 1mo ago
    Star Wars makes it clear The Empire does bad things on the regular, but it never, ever proves that the "state religion" of Resistance's elite warriors is a good thing (beyond opposing the Empire's bad thing).
    - hnlmorg 1mo ago
      One of the recent TV spin offs did look to address that nuance. Unfortunately it completely butchered the story line with weird tails of space-witches and one dimensional characters. The one thing I did think the prequel movies did well, perhaps the only thing, was how it painted a world where absolute greed allowed an environment for space-nazis to thrive. Though real life sadly demonstrates that corruption doesn’t need to happen in the shadows to succeed.

kstenerud 1mo ago

While this is true, there is a limit where they're just painfully slow. Vanishing Point and 2001 come to mind.

account42 1mo ago
And yet 2001 (which is an extreme outlier even for that era) remains more memorable than most films made after the namesake year.