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

[http://users.livejournal.com/_fustian/]

The effect is used to great effect in Peter Jackson's "Forgotten Silver", to prove New Zealand flew before America.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Zigackly.

[fuschia17.livejournal.com]

How do they know when there's a commercial break?

[sjl.livejournal.com]

They ask the guys that are filming them, of course! :P

[spaetlese.livejournal.com]

ABSOLUTELY!! Drives me batty :(

[spaetlese.livejournal.com]

Adam Baldwin is hot as both Casey and Jayne. Nothing wrong with a thing there! ;p

[spaetlese.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that they're not allowed to portray CPR. I guess because if they don't do it perfecftly they could be held responsible if someone copies and fucks it up?

[bunnikins.livejournal.com]

I hate it when action occurs in water that either should be or clearly is filthy - and it's crystal clear when they cut to the underwater scenes. Like when people are wading through sewers waist deep in brown murk, but when they wrestle with the bad guy in said murk they have no trouble seeing the gun he kicks away to retrieve it at a dramatic moment. And said gun usually works despite said murk, too.

Also, not a regularly used annoyance thankfully, but I had to be physically restrained from standing up to lecture the screen at several points during The Ninth Gate, namely the parts where Depp's supposed 'rare book dealer' character shoves ancient books in his shoulder bag to transport them, smokes and drinks over them, and *cracks the spine* to make copies of Ye Olde Satanic Clues.

[mireille21.livejournal.com]

Ditto, except in Bladerunner when it was used delibaewrately and well to effect.

I *know* how these security cameras and videos work, and usually they're only taking one frame every couple of seconds for a start, so the whole idea of half the stuff they do with video surveillance pictures just drives me crazy!!!!

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

TV and movies are full of CPR, portrayed with varying levels of inaccuracy. The 2007 Doctor Who story Smith and Jones has Martha performing CPR on the Doctor, remembering he has two hearts, and so giving 'em both a good pumping in turn by crunching down on his ribs. Ouch.

[ghoath.livejournal.com]

woah this comment thread is way to long to read what other people said, which is a shame.

My big one is the pictures getting cleaned up thing. If they do that on a show, I completely lose the plot; yelling at the TV.
Now when I even see the adverts for Spooks I yell.
Getting the serial number off a granade pin, from a camera phone shot that was pointing up to the sky...no way!


PS I think you should redo this as a poll; it would be interesting to see the distribution of results.

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

Problem is, it's too big to do as a poll!

Though I may be able to fudge something.

[cumbernotathome.livejournal.com]

Again on computers, it always irks me a little when some fantastic computer-whiz is knocking up something quickly (hacking into something is very common, but there are other similar scenarios), and then we see on the monitor some simple gui showing the audience "computer is hard at work doing what the computer-expert just said they were going to make it do; oh look it's done now", with embellishments that are specific to whatever is being done. i.e. there either already was a GUI program for doing this, or the hacker decided to write one on the way, there and then. A very common sub-type is the number of corporations and government agencies that, according to film and TV, seem to have elements in their servers' interface software specifically to let hackers know when they've successfully bypassed the security mechanisms.

[sjkasabi.livejournal.com]

I hate the compulsory bit in fight sequences where someone falls over a ledge and dangles from one arm and then pulls themselves back up and shows no sign of a dislocated shoulder thereafter. Grr!

Thanks for the opportunity to share that :)