Suspension of disbelief

[dalekboy]

Films and tv shows usually rely on suspension of disbelief.

To me, if one is going to maintain the suspension of disbelief, you have to obey all the ordinary everyday rules that people know and understand. One can believe an massive alien invasion with giant biomechanoid floating death cannons, so long as the world rules beyond that are consistent. But if a human character, in avoiding one of these cannons, jumps off a ten storey building without any sort of aid, or interruptions to their fall, and land unharmed and run off - that's the deal breaker. One knows that's not possible, and suddenly one is left questioning that moment, and by default, the rest of the film.

I mentioned in a post yesterday that I hate it in films and tv when medics use the defibrillator paddles on a woman to try and restart her heart, and they are using them through material - bras, tank tops, etc. - rather than on bare skin. It pulls me right out of the moment, because I know it's not right.

I also mentioned hating when people can just break passwords when they have no information on the person, which has become really common in shows. Any computer whizz can break any password, within a relatively short time.

Another one I hate is when someone who is driving spends time looking at the their passenger rather than paying attention to the road. Quick glances are fine, but when they're maintaining eye contact for whole big chunks of conversation it annoys me. If you regularly did it in real life there's no way you wouldn't crash.

king_espresso mentioned that he hates when people don't wear ear protection on board military helicopters, which is a great one. Well, except now I'll be looking for it and getting annoyed by it.

kaths brought up the way people type madly on computer keyboards to do things that the rest of us would do with a mouse. We're in the internet age, everyone uses computers, we know they don't work this way.

kaths also mentioned the way they can zoom in on a small section of a photo, blow up that section, sharpen/clean it up, and suddenly have a incredibly clear and detailed picture. It's the equivalent of being able to blow up my icon for this post to read all the book titles.

So what about you? What regularly used, unrealistic film and tv conceits pull you out of the moment?

Comments

[sjl.livejournal.com]

Point.

How about the ability (this is an extension of the infinite digital zoom mentioned earlier) for cameras to see around corners? Or through walls. Or BEHIND themselves. Or behind objects that are deliberately placed to block the camera's vision ...

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

I got the impression that the scriptwriter had asked a researcher to go find some answers, and then put the largely correct answers into the script in the same way as you would Trek-style technobabble. :)

[fuschia17.livejournal.com]

My biggest peeve that I can think of is there is a critical situation as in the Torchwood episode "They keep killing Suzie" Where they have a limited time to warn the woman in danger and instead of telling the woman while she has time to turn around and come back they call someone else to help them get out instead! (Trying not to make this too spoilery)

and another pet peeve which can be applied to tv shows in general is the "time limit" i.e. "you only have several minutes to the bomb exploding" scenario - it gets to the last countdown of a minute and a few minutes later after initially hesitating the protagonist has of course saved the day, just in the nick of time. What's even worse is usually during the course of this 60 seconds there's an argument between characters telling them to hurry up.

Or another variation is there is a dire situation where someone has been driving/travelling all night and if they don't get help by a certain time they will die... Help gives chase and they only take half as long to arrive and always with a couple of minutes to spare. Not that you want bad guys to win, and as Dr Who points out, time isn't a straight line, it's a wibbly wobbly ball, but still...

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

Maybe they wait till the action is on another person and then nip to the loo?

Or do they do the multi-frame stuff all the time? I have to say I never got into it.

[fuschia17.livejournal.com]

Maybe that would send production costs too high... But they had to procure the food in the first place...

Or the actors have a clause in their contracts about eating - i.e. they've spent too darn long dieting to the size they are, they can't afford the extra kilojules!

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

The commentary on Mummy 2 has Sommers saying that the light is wrong, but he chose to do it that way so the audience would have a visual reference for the light approaching the building. I can accept that reasoning even if the physics are wrong, because it's an artistic choice. That said, having a big mountain behind the building with the sunlight creeping down it would give you the same reference.

I bloody hated the blimp with jet engines. Seriously hated it. Still do.

Still on Mummy 2, when characters go against everything they represent for no good reason. Anck Su Namun running away and leaving Imhotep to die betrays the core motivation for everything both characters go through over the two movies. If she had died trying to save him instead, you've stayed true to that, and him consigning himself to Hell still works.

Van Helsing has a number of scenes where normal humans take incredible hits only to get straight back up again. It was also a rubbish film.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

I've listened to commentaries where directors have commented on particular actors eating in a scene, and saying about how much they ended up eating over umpteen takes. I suspect some actors learn to take it easy on the food.

[fuschia17.livejournal.com]

Hee, I never really watched it either. All I can say is that would be one rollercoaster 24 hours if you can't go to the loo - and that's without the action!

But could you imagine if the manly heroes in action films are in the middle of saving the world, and say - Stop, everyone stop - I have to go to the toilet!

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

I didn't get the impression that went against her character. She hadn't before that point ever delibrately risked herself for him that I can remember.

[fuschia17.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Jane in Firefly does clean his weapons... ? Or am I imagining it?

Although I have liked the series Chuck, and they do show Casey (also played by Adam Baldwin) cleaning his guns once or twice.

There's starting to be a theme there... hmmm

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

That happens. It always annoyed me with Trek, too. Because they just used to write something like TECH in the script, and the production boys would do the rest. It meant that the writer didn't understand the danger, or the solution. And to me, that's bad writing.

No-one expects a writer to become an expert in fifty different disciplines to write a show, but from a story and character perspective, they do need to at least understand the basics of what is happening.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

Got any examples, cos I can't think of any.

[fuschia17.livejournal.com]

But back to the original point: several takes later, why not use at least one take if the character's made such a noise about wanting/getting - and being given - the food in the first place?

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

At least they did it properly in The Abyss.

[sjl.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember that the 24 hours is based upon the time you spend watching the show, assuming there are commercial breaks.

So, obviously, they go to the toilet during the commercial breaks, just like everybody else.

[sjl.livejournal.com]

Second or third hand, and I can't remember what it was in reference to. Sorry. (I remember the bitchfest about it, just not the subject of the bitchfest.)

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

Oh! Volcanoes. Movies volcanoes are bound to emit both pyroclastic flows AND liquid lava flows. In real life it's either/or. You can have a safe, non-explosive Hawaiian type volcano with it's pretty glowing red lava, or you can have an Andesitic type volcano which creates a massive boom and great clouds of ash but very little in the way of lava flow.

You're not going to outrun a pyroclastic cloud. You're not even gonna beat it if you're driving.
Your car will not drive over lava unscathed.

Dante's Peak has a lot to answer for.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

Star Trek Next Gen used to regularly have problems where characters were being exposed to radiation due to a shield failure or something. And you'd have the computer saying things like, "Two minutes to lethal exposure."

At the thirty second mark, they'd get the shield back up, and everyone was perfectly fine. They've still been exposed to high doses of radiation! They're still going to get very sick and need treatment. And if someone was already sick or weak, then they'll probably die, because people have different tolerances.

[kaelajael.livejournal.com]

Many, many years ago in...The Flying Doctors, I think it was...there was a storyline of two brothers who were a little like Dumb and Dumber, and they were involved in something that required they ditch their car. They pushed it over the edge steep hill and when it landed at the bottom and nothing happened, the comment was along the lines of "But they ALWAYS blow up in the movies."

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

yeah some of us do use the command line or keyboard shortcuts an awful lot, even for things most people would use a mouse for, but TV still manages to make it that little bit too much too be believable on occasion.

There is also the issue where anyone doing something technical and fancy, like hacking or breaking codes, usually has a big fancy display with lots of mysterious fancy graphics (Swordfish a particular offender here), when this is exactly the sort of thing that is done with a plain command line most of the time.

Weirdest example of them getting it sort of *right* - in Matrix 2, trinity breaks into a computer using an actual, real, known exploit to break in, and using (one real, one fictitious but plausible) command line tools to exploit it - which is just hilarious, becaue it would be realistic except she is just about doing a somersault as she types it in two seconds or something, making it still hilariously unrealistic.

Also, people that are supposed to be evil geniuses, or even the worlds smartest man (in Watchmen) seem completely ignorant of basic computer security, like choosing a good password.

[kaelajael.livejournal.com]

One of my biggest beefs with Star Trek was the security on the transporters. Anyone and everyone including children and total strangers unfamiliar with Starfleet technology could and would over ride it and lock out the command.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

At the start of the first film, she tells Imhotep to save himself when the Magi are coming. When he tries to stay, she tells him that only he can resurrect her and when the guards come, she stabs herself.

Now you can argue that she knows Imhotep will save her and she feels she's at no risk, but that's still a hell of a thing to do for someone you don't love.

The voiceover at the start also says that they were willing to risk their lives for their love. So to me, it's pretty conclusive from a character standpoint.

[narrelle.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Jane cleans his guns. Metaphorically speaking.

Actually, Mike in 'Spaced' cleans his weapons on a regular basis. Really, in this case.

mild spoiler for Three Kings

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

There is that awseome scene in Three Kings where the rocket hits the tanker, and you are so expecting it to be a massive explosion - and the tanker is full of milk, not petrol, and everyone just ends up knee deep in milk. A really nice bit of playing with your expectations, and an incredible image.

[narrelle.livejournal.com]

I would like to recommend The Boxcutters' Podcast and their interview with Dr David Ranson (who advises tv shows on forensics-type-stuff) for his comments and insights on exactly how TV forensics is nothing like Actual Life. You can find it here: http://boxcutters.net/blog/2009/01/19/ep-165-dr-david-ranson-leverage-production-update/ or on iTunes.