I think there is something I’ve noticed about modern cinema that now that I’ve noticed it, I can no longer unsee it. And suddenly, it’s all over the place, in every movie I watch and every TV show I watch as well. I recognize that it’s possible that most of these shows follow the same blueprint because they’re looking to make as much money while driving as much traffic as possible to their movies and TV shows.
And then, thanks to this mad dash to make money, so many things are being changed and handled differently. Stories are still being told, but the styles that are being employed now have reflected a major part of modern-day that, if care is not taken, could cause a major injury to the industry in the near future.
And now, what’s this discovery of mine? I’ve noticed that most modern movies and shows are now being shot with the idea that they could be posted as reels across social media platforms. In other news, movies are shot in such a way that if you convert their format into something landscape to fit the scrolling format of the smartphone, everything will be squeezed to the center of the screen, and you won’t be missing much.
Now, this is not for every particular scene of every particular movie and show. I’ve noticed that such things only happen in key moments of the movie or show, especially moments that would be good as adverts. You’ll find that almost every scene they make is set in the center of the screen. This gives the viewer only one thing to focus on, and also makes it easier for the editor to cut out the surrounding frame that is just nothing but air.
And that is also my issue with it. Because by choosing to limit as many things as possible that can be on the screen, we end up having a lot of empty spaces on the screen that have nothing but background noise and activities. In the past, scenes could have multiple faces at a time, filling up the screen, and all of them would be doing things at once. But that’s unable to happen now, because even if there are multiple faces on the screen, it will change once dialogue comes in.
I don’t know if this was a case of giving the people what they need, because I don’t recall needing this. They’re simply doing this to maximize viewers on social media and earn that monetization money while also driving people to go and watch the full versions on the platforms. Is this bad? Not necessarily, because they’re doing it for customers like you and me to better enjoy the videos and reels they put up on their social media handles without losing much of the action. I just don’t know what to feel about it.
Because now that I’ve noticed it, I can’t go back to the time before I saw this. And now, I’ve brought it to you as well.
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