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Author Topic: Top 5 2016 Discoveries - Things You Learned  (Read 4511 times)

Sandy

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Re: Top 5 2016 Discoveries - Things You Learned
« Reply #10 on: January 08, 2017, 02:25:00 PM »
1. Less is more. I can absorb and enjoy the movies I do get to see, instead of bemoaning the ones I don't.
2. This may seem contradictory to #1, but I learned that taking time out for myself to see movies and read is of great importance to me and my well being.
3. I am brave enough to watch horror movies alone.
4. I'll borrow 1SO's #4 and say, I too was thinking I'd lessen my time on the forum this past year, but I'm continually drawn back, because you are all the people I want to spend my down time with. You speak my language and you are great friends. :)
5. Not only this past year, but becoming more and more clear; the more films I watch and the more I learn here, the less I feel I know about the world. It's a wonder and I'm happy just to be along for the ride.

Totoro

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Re: Top 5 2016 Discoveries - Things You Learned
« Reply #11 on: January 09, 2017, 02:00:03 AM »
1. Youtube is a thriving cinematic community with fertile ground for even more audiovisual innovation. DIY filmmaking is a legitimate movement and needs to be respected/curated as such.

2. DCU. Not even once.

3. The difference between good and bad documentary filmmaking relies completely on how it organizes an argument. For an example: the difference between OJ: MADE IN AMERICA & 13TH is night and day - the former shows how history is complicated through the many differing views - even the various intellectuals disagree with each other on OJ in his placement of history. 13TH, on the other hand, is pretty straightforward - it doles out information like a sermon, relying solely on appealing emotion and didacticism to get Its Very Important Message across. Both have good intentions, but one demands you to think about it and form your own opinion, the other just tells you what its opinion is.

4. I kind of despise Hollywood now.

5. Watch what you want to watch - forget those damn Top 1000 lists or whatever, they can be awfully limiting and damning by way of exclusion to certain parts of world and women directed cinema.

DarkeningHumour

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Re: Top 5 2016 Discoveries - Things You Learned
« Reply #12 on: January 09, 2017, 03:40:13 AM »
1. Youtube is a thriving cinematic community with fertile ground for even more audiovisual innovation. DIY filmmaking is a legitimate movement and needs to be respected/curated as such.

That begs the question: In the uncharted swamp that is Youtube, how does one find one's way to the dry land of good quality videos?
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1SO

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Re: Top 5 2016 Discoveries - Things You Learned
« Reply #13 on: January 09, 2017, 09:16:26 AM »
2. DCU. Not even once.
Is this referring to the D.C. Universe of films?

valmz

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Re: Top 5 2016 Discoveries - Things You Learned
« Reply #14 on: January 09, 2017, 11:44:10 PM »
5. Watch what you want to watch - forget those damn Top 1000 lists or whatever, they can be awfully limiting and damning by way of exclusion to certain parts of world and women directed cinema.
But don't forget about the top (whatever #) lists of actual people who have watched what they wanted to watch. Those are where you find the things that get lost in a combined list...

Totoro

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Re: Top 5 2016 Discoveries - Things You Learned
« Reply #15 on: January 10, 2017, 12:11:00 AM »
1. Youtube is a thriving cinematic community with fertile ground for even more audiovisual innovation. DIY filmmaking is a legitimate movement and needs to be respected/curated as such.

That begs the question: In the uncharted swamp that is Youtube, how does one find one's way to the dry land of good quality videos?

I'd start with Casey Neistat, Vlogbrothers, Nerdwriter1, and see where you go from there.

oldkid

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Re: Top 5 2016 Discoveries - Things You Learned
« Reply #16 on: January 10, 2017, 01:58:35 AM »
1. I am becoming a different person.  I suppose we all are every year, but this year I have been forcing the changes.  And I realize that I am so much my habits that I don't know who I am, or if I am really someone other than my habits.  There's a lot involved, but it has something to do with this forum and my movie-watching.  I am dependent on both, and I can't tell now if that's a good thing or not.  All I know is that I am a better person, a wiser person and a more knowledgeable person because of this forum.  I don't know if my relationship with movies makes me a better person or is just a crutch for me to lean on in hard times (like the last 10 years).  I guess I will find out.

2. I am drawn to current films, like in the last ten years.  These films are not better than older films, but I am more likely to watch them because they aren't as much hard work.

3. One of my favorite category of film is what I call "poetic film" or movies that are meditative or literary.  While I can't watch them all the time, I like where my mind goes when I watch them.  They make me think more healthy thoughts.  I might seek out more film like this.

4. I'm starting to tire of movie franchises, but I'm more enthusiastic about mini-series', or tv series with a single season that have a conclusion.  They often act like long films, and this kind of storytelling intrigues me.   

5. I am having a hard time telling the difference between TV and movies.  I have always watched my movies or shows primarily on a laptop, so it doesn't usually make much difference to me whether a show got shown in a theatre or not.  And since some movies can be just as long as a single season of television, or be episodic, I am often confused why we make a distinction.
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smirnoff

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Re: Top 5 2016 Discoveries - Things You Learned
« Reply #17 on: January 10, 2017, 02:54:18 AM »
5. I am having a hard time telling the difference between TV and movies.  I have always watched my movies or shows primarily on a laptop, so it doesn't usually make much difference to me whether a show got shown in a theatre or not.  And since some movies can be just as long as a single season of television, or be episodic, I am often confused why we make a distinction.

Movies are better at climaxing. TV is better at build up.

The nature of a tv show is that it is ongoing. They always have to keep something aside so that there can be a next episode... a next season. They can never really commit to stuffing everything in a cannon and blasting it over the horizon. Not unless they're prepared to end the show right then... which 99% of the time they're not ready to do. This keeping something aside has only become more pronounced now that shows have forgone their episodic nature. Now each episode dovetails so precisely into the next you absolutely have to address the fallout of a big event. Whereas shows like xfiles used to have an undefined passage of time between cases into which most of the fallout of a previous episode would be washed off and reset. What you get now is episode after episode of buildup, and season finales than can only muster half a climax because they're already onto laying the groundwork for the next season.

The finality built into a movies lets them go thermonuclear in 2 hours or less. Inception obliterates 4 or 5 worlds in the last 5 minutes. Movies ftw.  8)

DarkeningHumour

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Re: Top 5 2016 Discoveries - Things You Learned
« Reply #18 on: January 10, 2017, 03:49:02 AM »
2. I am drawn to current films, like in the last ten years.  These films are not better than older films, but I am more likely to watch them because they aren't as much hard work.

Cue diatribe about movies not being supposed to be work.

4. I'm starting to tire of movie franchises, but I'm more enthusiastic about mini-series', or tv series with a single season that have a conclusion.  They often act like long films, and this kind of storytelling intrigues me.   

I like those one season shows a lot but they have this annoying tendency to almost always be book adaptations. Why is that annoying you ask? The producers or whoever appear to have a semblance of good taste and choose good books to adapt. Those books are brought to my attention and I read them because I want to watch the show later. Then I don't watch the show because I don't care anymore; I know the story. It happened three times this year. They need to start adapting books I don't care about.

5. I am having a hard time telling the difference between TV and movies.  I have always watched my movies or shows primarily on a laptop, so it doesn't usually make much difference to me whether a show got shown in a theatre or not.  And since some movies can be just as long as a single season of television, or be episodic, I am often confused why we make a distinction.

Cue « movies are completely separate from TV and should not even be uttered about in the same sentence » diatribe.

1. All I know is that I am a better person, a wiser person and a more knowledgeable person because of this forum.

That is probably true of everyone here, but wouldn't it be amazing if we learned in a couple of years that someone because a serial killer because of the forum? « I used to be a normal guy: job, family, friends. I really liked movies though. I started going to this online forum and now here I am, a dozen murders later, my feet are soaked in blood, my socks are ruined, I am holding someone's tong in my left hand and I am starting to think about my choices in life. »

No, is that just me?

5. I am having a hard time telling the difference between TV and movies.  I have always watched my movies or shows primarily on a laptop, so it doesn't usually make much difference to me whether a show got shown in a theatre or not.  And since some movies can be just as long as a single season of television, or be episodic, I am often confused why we make a distinction.

Movies are better at climaxing. TV is better at build up.

The nature of a tv show is that it is ongoing. They always have to keep something aside so that there can be a next episode... a next season. They can never really commit to stuffing everything in a cannon and blasting it over the horizon. Not unless they're prepared to end the show right then... which 99% of the time they're not ready to do. This keeping something aside has only become more pronounced now that shows have forgone their episodic nature. Now each episode dovetails so precisely into the next you absolutely have to address the fallout of a big event. Whereas shows like xfiles used to have an undefined passage of time between cases into which most of the fallout of a previous episode would be washed off and reset. What you get now is episode after episode of buildup, and season finales than can only muster half a climax because they're already onto laying the groundwork for the next season.

The finality built into a movies lets them go thermonuclear in 2 hours or less. Inception obliterates 4 or 5 worlds in the last 5 minutes. Movies ftw.  8)

The problem with your argument is that the 99% of series you address are mostly bad TV. In an age where the 1% that does its job right is in fact a ton of series, because there's just series left and right these days, worrying about the 99% seems just like a waste of time to me. There are one season self-contained shows that create magnificent climaxes. There are other shows that do too but last more than one season. As they have become shorter shows have become more packed and plot-heavy. Sure, there is a lot of setting things up going on, but think about all the climaxes you got in a Breaking Bad season. There are shows that had me thinking they were going to drag a plot point along the entire season, or would wait at least six more episodes for that one big reveal, but they didn't. They went in heavy from the start and then just came up with new stuff to do for the rest of the season without having the quality plummet.
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oldkid

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Re: Top 5 2016 Discoveries - Things You Learned
« Reply #19 on: January 10, 2017, 01:14:54 PM »

3. I am brave enough to watch horror movies alone.

Big step!
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky