How fake it all is

Does anyone else get irritated by the lack of realism on television or movies as much as i do?

I Like to watch a good show or movie just like anyone else, but i cannot help but notice the smallest things and really contemplate the level of realism involved.

A good example would be on a television show, where lets say two guys just went and seen a movie, and then something embarrassing happens to them at the theaters. Then the scene ends and then the next scene begins with these same two guys walking into the door at home and suddenly begin to talk about what just happened at the theaters. For me i"m just sitting here thinking to myself, what happened in between the time it took them to leave the theaters and go home. Why didn't they talk about the incident after leaving the theaters during the drive home?

I try to to work out all the possibilities sometimes. Using the above example, i might try and figure out scenario's in which it could of been a real situation. Maybe the theater was next door i might say, or maybe there was some complications on the way home that prevented them from talking about the situation until that very scene began.

I sit here and wonder if actors ever feel embarrassment performing really emotional scenes which are completely fake. I try to put myself in the actors place sometimes in one of these scenes that i'm watching, where someone is getting really emotional (crying for example), and wondering how impossible it would be for me to do something which is so clearly fake to me.

The thing i find most disrupting, is the fact that i have a hard time even sitting down with specific family members to watch television shows or movies sometimes. I embarrass around them by watching scenes (in a movie or tv show) that i think they might find embarrassing. I feel they are embarrassed by what they are viewing and somehow looking at my direction (and somehow blaming me) after viewing something like this.

Of course i do realize everything is for the money and it's all fake for a reason, but i still can't help think these things.

It is probably the realist inside me, but i cannot help but hate how fake it all is.

I wonder can anyone relate ?

Completely!
I find myself always thinking about the fact that these people are actors. For example sometimes in sit-coms when someone cracks a funny line I will look at the other characters in the background (who aren't really part of the show) to see their reaction, like break a smile and quickly resume a serious face. I sometimes wonder how many takes it took them to do a particular scene. In movies I think about which part was performed by a stunt-man or was CG'd.
To a point, it almost detaches me from the emotion the movie or show is trying to evoke. If I start thinking so critically I'll end up not feeling sorry for the character who just lost his wife in a terrible car crash, because I know the guy is backstage having a sandwich...
But if the movie is good I can ignore most of this and enjoy the it, although if something is performed poorly I can't help but think about it.

Also, about the seeing movies and shows with other people... I absolutely hate doing it. I can't enjoy a movie or show with someone else because, just like you, I end up focusing on the person or (more rarely) people around me. "What are they thinking, why are they reacting that way; I should react that way as well otherwise they'll think I'm weird". Then I feel completely self-conscious and will end up feeling uncomfortable physically. Sometimes I don't even want to move in a more comfortable position because it might attract the attention of others (my only hope is there is a loud, action-filled scene coming up next... )

I also feel slightly embarrassed when I watch some things. Sometimes it's for the same reasons as you Himeros, like thinking about what the actors must think or feel while they're doing an awkward scene. But sometimes, if I find that I'm into the movie, and the character has to do something hard or awkward in the social aspect, I will be extremely uncomfortable. Even if I'm watching it alone. I end up changing the channel even, because it hurts to watch. I know that the whole point of it is to give you a sense of the uncomfortable feelings the character must feel, but I can't even handle that.

I guess it goes to show just how extra hard it really is for someone with avpd to be in these social situations that movies portray.

I've also noticed that. It doesn't seem to "jump out" at me as much when I'm watching cartoons (the Simpsons, Beavis & Butthead) because I'm not really expecting it to be realistic. I get that "fake" feeling whenever I happen to see a professional wrestling match, too. I mean, 1) Nobody talks like that if they're in a real fight. "I'll hit you so hard you'll starve to death rolling." Come on; seriously. 2) Nobody fights like that except professional wrestlers who are following a script and 6th grade boys who want to prove they're tough by doing a suplex on that weird kid in class who doesn't talk much. There are several interviews with ex-wrestlers who admit that everything was planned out, right down to the tables made out of compressed sawdust that they smashed over their opponent's head.

Anyway, back on topic here, it's not like I can't sit down and enjoy a sitcom once in a while, but I could sit through the whole episode and find tons of things that are just there for plot purposes.

Absolutely. I think I've always had this. I stopped watching TV altogether a few years ago, with exception of the news on the state channels.
Even on the Discovery Channel(s) and NGC they are nowadays throwing this popular theme into the mix. Edgy narration, fast music and quick cuts, repeating things over and over again in slow motion and all that crap. I hate that. The artificial and commercial feel about TV just makes me sick, it is just unbearable.

Most of it applies to normal people as well. The way they talk about everyday life, parties, music, cars etc. It's all about money and unimportant small things. Its really no different than what is on TV, it's fake too.

Cartoons are kind of ok, they are more like neutral (though not all).

I'm also constantly thinking about how they filmed and did effect stuff in movies. I pay much more attention to form than content. Colors and composition, symbolical things etc. If that is missing I usually stop watching.

Now I don't even own a TV. Get all my news from the internet and occasionally download good TV shows and films.

Yes I absolutely despise the nonsense that is broadcast these days. It really is an insult to my intelligence.

The things I despise most are these comedy shows that give the impression of spontaneity, but if you really anaylse the conversations they are completely unnatural and are leading up to a scripted punchline.

I think this is a characteristic of people like us. We tend to over-analyse things instead of just sitting back and enjoying it like everyone else.

I can relate.

I often jump back in forth in my mind, 'this is tv" , I wonder who wrote that line" I often see actors instead of the movie. I have to try really hard and then it seems unentertaining, and I feel manipulated.
Plus any propaganda of commercials like:
CitiBank Credit Card, Live Richly. I am like oh man what are they doing to our minds???

I started off in college doing commercial design. I could not look myself in the mirror. I could have been rich, but for what, brainwashing people? So I went with Library Science.

I dont what tv. Rarely a movie. Sounds like I am off my rocker but I swear I am not.

I can relate to the part of watching the movie with other people, well, my experience of the movie gets greatly degraded, because i cant really get inside the movie, i feel some embarrasment too when i am actually getting a feel for the things the movie wants us to feel, as if im shy about being watched being manipulated (if that makes sense).

I try not to focus on whats not real, but sometimes the realism is broken to hard and I cant ignore it, thats when i cant enjoy it anymore and consider it a bad movie or tv show.

I think both the brittish and the american versions of 'the office' are superb, they make it look so real, except maybe jim halpert and the gestures he used to make all the time in season 2. Of course the brittish version seems more realistic, the first time i watched it I was blown away by it. It really gave me a feel of it being a documentary, while i knew it was not.

I really hate it when i notice sitcoms:

- re-using old seinfeld or friends jokes.
- making a big fuzz about someone saying 'i love you' to another (to which the other side will respond with something unexpected like thank you, or oh thats nice, or lets get something to eat).
- using extremely rapid conversations (like the gilmore girls).
- forcing the use of 'funny' words like kosher, jambalaya, puke, chihuahua, well.. any word that you feel didnt belong there but they forced it because its considered 'funny' by a panel of expert writers.
- exaggerated long islandish jewish accents (or any accent for that matter).

Well, i dont like sitcoms anymore, they are a dying species.

Many TV shows and movies just folllow a recipee that has proved successfull in the past. Major networks and studios have troubles with taking risks and prefer targeting the lowest common denominator and get stable money back instead of risking having a huge success or a huge failure.

Most Tv(and radio) ads in US/Can. are painful for the brain. I just mute them out 'cause I feel so insulted by how much an idiot ads agencies think I am. Good advertisements have to be found on internet. Either they have been banned, didn't make the air or are from other parts of the world...

I love the mute button. But I find that others can mute without using a remote.. I can do this, unless they play the same one over and over again. Then I push the mute button.

Go Redwings!!!!

NEVER!

I have an uncle who basicly dispises movies and tv shows exclusively because of their lack of realism and the fact there is nothing to learn from it.
It always made me sad, because I love the art of cinema. Granted, if all you watch is hollywood blockbusters then I'm sorry to say but you're making wrong choices. Blockbuster movies tend to trade realism for spectacular, no-brain-needed scenes. But in the independent world and sometimes through the big machines in hollywood and hard to finance european scene there is a movie that is pure magic. It trades realism to tackle deep emotion(whatever it may be).

As much as going to the louvre or D. Sofia Museum and looking at old paintings won't teach you anything, neither to the movies. But if you learn to enjoy the nuances of the art, it can bring you a lot of joy.

I find that cinema, if done properly is the hardest of the arts, because it includes many arts(writing, acting, photography, etc).