Director of films, documentaries, commercials, drama, video essays and online content. Writer, musician and cartoonist when he feels like it. Director's Cut editor of Brian De Palma's Raising Cain.
8 Comments
Bang on. That’s one of my least favorite movie cliches … right up there with introducing a character by having his supervisor read his dossier aloud to him when they both already know what’s in it … and shouting “NOoooooo!” when something terrible happens.
Whenever Dustin Hoffman does this in “The Graduate” — he’s alone at this point — all I can ever think of is: “Hey, dummy, now you’ll have to completely remake the bed!”
That and the “I have sex with my bra on because my contract states that I will not be filmed topless… at least not under my current contract”
A clever director can get around this conundrum by having the leading lady perform the sex scene fully dressed. Problem solved.
Like your blog Peet, it’s good stuff.
Ok, while we’re on the topic of bad movie cliches? My favourite is how in almost every movie nowadays, just after a person falls over, or runs their bike into a tree, or walks into a door, or whatever… they always have to jump up and say “I’M OKAY!” I have seen these scenes EVERYWHERE, it’s a real fad. Keep an eye out and you’ll start noticing them too…
the movie cliche i hate most of all (also because it’s perhaps the most frequent one) is that in ABSOLUTELY ALL scenes at night the streets have been neatly sprayed with water.
cause the lights reflect so nice that way
I have a real love-hate relationship with movie cliches. Night scenes bathed in blue “moonlight” irritate the hell out of me, but I always get a kick out of a cheesy line of dialogue like: “It’s quiet here. Almost… too quiet.” And the inevitable shriek of feedback whenever a timid character grabs a stage microphone always puts a big smile on my face.
Some of these cliches just feel so “right†that it almost feels unnatural when they don’t occur in real life. I once shot a scene where someone before the camera had to flip a coin, and I made a big deal out of it that the sound man had to properly record the metal “ping.†Everyone on the set knew what I was talking about and we collectively held our breath during the first take. Of course, there was no “ping.†Go ahead, try it at home. There’s no way you’ll hear it. It’s at moments like these that you realize we’re more conditioned by the movies than we’d like to admit.
You kind of need the sounds to know what is going on. E.g. when somebody is using a keypad lock or something and you need to hear the thing go blip blip blip blip. A movie with real life sounds would be to quiet I guess.
To get back to topic, I think the whole taking a shave and wipe the foam off your face with a towel and that’s that is really really annoying. I have to wash my face like 3-4 times to loose the feeling of having my face full of that white stuff.
Bang on. That’s one of my least favorite movie cliches … right up there with introducing a character by having his supervisor read his dossier aloud to him when they both already know what’s in it … and shouting “NOoooooo!” when something terrible happens.
Whenever Dustin Hoffman does this in “The Graduate” — he’s alone at this point — all I can ever think of is: “Hey, dummy, now you’ll have to completely remake the bed!”
That and the “I have sex with my bra on because my contract states that I will not be filmed topless… at least not under my current contract”
A clever director can get around this conundrum by having the leading lady perform the sex scene fully dressed. Problem solved.
Like your blog Peet, it’s good stuff.
Ok, while we’re on the topic of bad movie cliches? My favourite is how in almost every movie nowadays, just after a person falls over, or runs their bike into a tree, or walks into a door, or whatever… they always have to jump up and say “I’M OKAY!” I have seen these scenes EVERYWHERE, it’s a real fad. Keep an eye out and you’ll start noticing them too…
the movie cliche i hate most of all (also because it’s perhaps the most frequent one) is that in ABSOLUTELY ALL scenes at night the streets have been neatly sprayed with water.
cause the lights reflect so nice that way
I have a real love-hate relationship with movie cliches. Night scenes bathed in blue “moonlight” irritate the hell out of me, but I always get a kick out of a cheesy line of dialogue like: “It’s quiet here. Almost… too quiet.” And the inevitable shriek of feedback whenever a timid character grabs a stage microphone always puts a big smile on my face.
Some of these cliches just feel so “right†that it almost feels unnatural when they don’t occur in real life. I once shot a scene where someone before the camera had to flip a coin, and I made a big deal out of it that the sound man had to properly record the metal “ping.†Everyone on the set knew what I was talking about and we collectively held our breath during the first take. Of course, there was no “ping.†Go ahead, try it at home. There’s no way you’ll hear it. It’s at moments like these that you realize we’re more conditioned by the movies than we’d like to admit.
You kind of need the sounds to know what is going on. E.g. when somebody is using a keypad lock or something and you need to hear the thing go blip blip blip blip. A movie with real life sounds would be to quiet I guess.
To get back to topic, I think the whole taking a shave and wipe the foam off your face with a towel and that’s that is really really annoying. I have to wash my face like 3-4 times to loose the feeling of having my face full of that white stuff.