[Weekly Update] July 12, 2021

ABOUT THE CHANNEL

• Sorry for the lack of video last week. Progress is being held up by a slow sponsor response. Now that the Euro Cup is over, hopefully everyone is back to work and I can start editing the video.
• I'm pretty much working on two videos simultaneously at the moment. Don't be surprised if they are released like 2 days apart from each other.
• I also won't know which video gets released first. This is how messy everything is right now. If you want to avoid any spoilers: Go watch Eat Drink Man Woman by Ang Lee. It's a superb film and my (hopefully) next video will contain some spoilers.
• Afterward, we have a video talking about the cinema of India. And after that, we have Infra-Man on the docket.

ABOUT MEDIA

• What's your favourite movie gimmick?
• Let's start with my least favourite: 3D glasses. To the surprise of no one, I wear glasses. I'm practically blind without them. So the idea of turning my four eyes into six eyes is absolutely asinine.
• What's worse is with all that annoyance, you get very little out of it. Very few movies ever managed to utilized 3D in a meaningful way. Tron Legacy is probably the only one I can appreciate. That movie uses 2D for real life and 3D for the digital world, it feels appropriate, sort of like how Memento plays with color.
• Otherwise, you just get a worse movie experience by having to deal with a darker screen and an extra pair of eyes you have to adjust occasionally.
• The fact that I need 3D to be meaningful to justify its own existence, means that, in my mind, it is still a gimmick, like found footage, like breaking the fourth wall. Simply put, there isn't one movie I watched where I thought "this would've been better in 3D".
• Perhaps in the future when 3D tech don't require glasses, it'll be more popular. But as it is now, it's less a gimmick and more an annoyance to me.
• I have a similar feeling towards high frame rate. This is a small gimmick that's dead before it arrives. The only two instances I remember ulitilzing high frame rate is The Hobbit and Gemini Man. Both suck.
• Like 3D, I have never watched a film where I wish it has a higher frame rate. Maybe a sports event, and definitely for video games, but not a movie. The whole idea of chasing "realism" with film is such a first year university misconception to begin with. Who wants a movie to be real? I go to the movie precisely because I want to escape the real world, bruh.
• The annoying thing is, TV nowadays try to shove HFR in our face with all sorts of AI frame interpretation. Every time I visit someone, I want to turn off their TV HFR mode because of it. I know I'm a big snob. But let's be honest, most of you here would agree with me.
• Let's talk about one that I don't dislike: 4D Chair. You know, the chair that shakes you around when you are in the middle of a movie. It sounds awful, but only if you use them with the wrong movie.
• Most Hollywood films demands immersion. When you are watching Mission Impossible and the chair shakes, it doesn't bring you into the world, it just reminds you that you are watching a movie.
• But when watching, say, Fast & Furious, then it is like a rollercoaster. It's pretty fun. The novelty does wore off fairly quickly. So it's not something I'd try constantly. But I do wonder, would it work well with Indian cinema? Most movies from India don't demand the same level of immersions. Having the chair bump and pump at the same beat as the music sounds pretty neat.
• But by far my most favourite gimmick is one I have never experienced. There was a brief time around late 50s and early 60s, when filmmakers turn cinema into a funhouse.
• The Tingler (1959) was screened with a vibrating seat that tingles along with the movie. But here is the thing, only a few chair does that, and you have no idea if your chair will or not. Viewers aren't notified of this, either. So when the tingly monster shows up on screen, and your chair starts to tickle you, it is a complete surprise!
• I can just imagine someone telling their friend that they feel a tingle, and their friend tell them they are just imagining it. It messes with your mind.
• Other weird funhouse gimmick includes flying skeletons. Basically skeletons hanging on wires and flew across the theatre. Kids who knew this will happen would break stuff to toss at the skeletons.
• There is also Mr. Sardonicus (1961). Towards the end of the film, a host would appear on screen and ask the audience to vote for the fate of the character, to choose between two endings. Of course, the movie only has one ending, and it's pretty clear which ending you are supposed to vote for.
• These gimmicks are fun, because that's what movie, in its most basic form, is supposed to be: an entertainment. It's a shared experience with others, and these gimmick allows us to share that moment via interaction with the movie, as well as with the people around us. It's the reason we still go to cinema for dates.
• With movies become increasingly a lonesome experience, I hope we get a funhouse revival one day. I would love to experience watching a movie and having fun with people around me.
• Hopefully the pandemic will end soon, and I can start by going to the theatre again.

And that's the update for this week. Once again, sorry for not having a video ready. I'll talk to the sponsors a bit more to see when I can start posting stuff. I'll keep you posted!