Whether its music videos, TV shows or movies with a million jump cuts. It's just insane and does nothing for me dramatically or artistically. One thing that differentiates in my mind "Laughing With" video is how few cuts it has, it has some of those lingering shots of Regina at the piano and to me that's far more moving then your typical video of a 100 cuts. Then there is your average new movie at the multiplex, usually filled with enough jump cuts to make you very nauseous after 15 minutes.

Even taking the better shows like "Lost" or "Battlestar Galactica", the favorite scenes for me are the long cuts, not the scenes with a 100 cuts in them.

Who is with me on this? Or am I just not "with it" with the MTV generation?

If you haven't seen this, rent it in your local blockbuster.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0269746/
The movie has very very few cuts. Static camera, a scene have 5+ minutes in average without a single cut. Then we can talk
I understand what you're trying to say. Those dynamic cuts can be annoying but some movies wouldn't work without them. I'm not a fan of action movies but they would be (even more) pointless without dynamic camera and short scenes. Applied to Battlestar Galactica: action sequence - dynamic cuts, Baltar & Six having their "imaginary" conversation - not so much.
Also Dance Anthem - lively song: a lot of cuts, Laughing With - not a lively song: few cuts (though, not that few that I would notice it, pretty average video in that matter in my opinion).

quote:

Originally posted by Appt:
If you haven't seen this, rent it in your local blockbuster.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0269746/
The movie has very very few cuts. Static camera, a scene have 5+ minutes in average without a single cut. Then we can talk
I understand what you're trying to say. Those dynamic cuts can be annoying but some movies wouldn't work without them. I'm not a fan of action movies but they would be (even more) pointless without dynamic camera and short scenes. Applied to Battlestar Galactica: action sequence - dynamic cuts, Baltar & Six having their "imaginary" conversation - not so much.
Also Dance Anthem - lively song: a lot of cuts, Laughing With - not a lively song: few cuts (though, not that few that I would notice it, pretty average video in that matter in my opinion).

Thanks I just added that film to my Netflix queue. I remember a Korean film I watched not long ago that also had many 1-2 minute long cuts. I love that kind of thing, but our ADD culture just can't seem to back off with the jump cuts. Just look at most young kids these days, they're all hyperactive. It's truly scary.

Yeah, many people have short attention span problems these days. Too much information to digest too little time to do so... With the movies/videos/adverts I think it's a shock treatment. It's evoking all sorts of emotions and it's doing it quickly and universally. The consumer doesn't even have to think about the content to get the "message". On the other hand with long static scenes half of the poeple get bored, a quarter doesn't get it and only a quarter actually feels and gets the "message". It's that simple. To be fair, fast cuts even nausea for real artistic reasons? - japanese anime.

quote:

Originally posted by Appt:
Yeah, many people have short attention span problems these days. Too much information to digest too little time to do so... With the movies/videos/adverts I think it's a shock treatment. It's evoking all sorts of emotions and it's doing it quickly and universally. The consumer doesn't even have to think about the content to get the "message". On the other hand with long static scenes half of the poeple get bored, a quarter doesn't get it and only a quarter actually feels and gets the "message". It's that simple. To be fair, fast cuts even nausea for real artistic reasons? - japanese anime.

I don't have any problem with certain animes that are filled with fast cuts like "FLCL", that's part of the humorous quotient. But even with anime, I'm sick of amount of cuts. Take an older series like "Neon Genesis Evangelion", it has a lot of long cuts which allows the story to sink in to the viewer in ways newer series can't match.

Or taking another music example, Roxette had a greatest hits CD called "Don't Bore Us - get to the Chorus!"

If that doesn't say everything right there.

did you like Michael Clayton? That movie doesn't have too many cuts. I've seen it like 8 times it's so good. I love the end credits.

quote:

Originally posted by Swimming Pool Noises:
did you like Michael Clayton? That movie doesn't have too many cuts. I've seen it like 8 times it's so good. I love the end credits.

Thanks, I just added it to my Netflix. Have you ever seen "The Fountain" by Darren Aronofsky? That to me is true beauty in cinema, with lots of long cuts.

quote:

Originally posted by Appt:
Yeah, many people have short attention span problems these days. Too much information to digest too little time to do so... With the movies/videos/adverts I think it's a shock treatment. It's evoking all sorts of emotions and it's doing it quickly and universally. The consumer doesn't even have to think about the content to get the "message".

sorry for getting off topic in this thread, but this slightly relates to what you're talking about so....

this, what you mention shortly Appt is so true I think...I think there's something strange going on today with all the media and information that we take in every day. there's just SO MUCH. compare how much information (ads, tv, internet, newspapers) one takes in during a day and compare this information to what a simple peasant/similar would take in during a day just a century back. me, i have thought a lot about this lately because I feel like I'm always in my head, taking in information, processing it, and I forget to just *feel* the world around me. and then i end up in a state where i cant take in anything at all cus my brain is just overloaded and i have serious problems concentrating.

then i think about the insane amounts of caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, etc we put in to our bodies, DAILY. and i just feel like...eh, something's fucked up here... and yet...

fuck, i shouldnt be posting when im drunk...

Yaya - that's why its important to detoxify from those substances. I mainly drink water, and avoid coffee. I drink coffee maybe one cup a week for flavor. Once you get all those toxic substances out of your body, it frees up your mind.

quote:

Originally posted by Yaya:
my brain is just overloaded and i have serious problems concentrating.

I hear ya. That's why I don't read any books (except for school stuff) during school year. I just feel like I'm overloading my brain with leisure stuff and that there's no space for studying...

btw MusicLover_2007, have you ever tried the detox when you only drink water (no food) for a day every month? I wanted to try it but I'm not sure if I can manage and if I just dont't feel worse afterwards.

(Fountain wasn't bad but it was a disappointment after Requiem for a dream, it seemed meaningless in comparison)

Appt - I actually drink water every day all year long. My detox involves abstaining from junk like chips.

Wow - your not the first person to not like Fountain very much.

GRANTED, I'm a huge fan, and a proponent, of various forms of comedy that effectively use the fast cut cinematography method. A decent example most people might know is the jump-scene cuts in Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, etc. Where mundane scenes are made to look intense and hardcore via hasty zoom-ins, and quick editing. So in a nutshell, this technique can VERY EFFECTIVELY be applied to achieve purposes that could not be achieved otherwise. That is one of the unique attributes to mediums such as movies and youtube videos. They are able to use different means by which to convey their intended message.

THAT SAID, I have always been a huge fan of Stanley Kubrick movies. Kubrick, before being a filmmaker, was a photographer. So if you notice in his movies, he has very long scenes with just one shot, and that shot was made to be as visually interesting as possible. Like in the classic "A Clockwork Orange". Now, "2001: A Space Odyssey" has always been one of the most divisive movie classics, for this reason, though it's applied very differently here. I won't go on about it, but suffice to say, the movie is boring as fuck to some, and a masterpiece to others.
Personally, I find it to be both a masterpiece, and boring as fuck.

ALSO, this is one reason I'm a fan of M. Night Shamaloylianlian [sp, obv] movies- though I haven't seen The 6th Sense. Films like Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village very deftly utilize long shots with mere dialog filling the time. It's somber, thought provoking, often beautiful [like Kubrick's shots], and is very effective.

Granted, I'm a cinematography whore, but all the same.

quote:

Originally posted by Sgtcampsalot:
GRANTED, I'm a huge fan, and a proponent, of various forms of comedy that effectively use the fast cut cinematography method. A decent example most people might know is the jump-scene cuts in Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, etc. Where mundane scenes are made to look intense and hardcore via hasty zoom-ins, and quick editing. So in a nutshell, this technique can VERY EFFECTIVELY be applied to achieve purposes that could not be achieved otherwise. That is one of the unique attributes to mediums such as movies and youtube videos. They are able to use different means by which to convey their intended message.

The message being Pegg is a fan of B action movies and pays homage to it in Hot Fuzz, Spaced, Shaun of the dead etc. He basically do parodies. He uses the technique to make the scenes look like they've been cut out of B movies. He ridicules it.

(btw I love Simon Pegg! Spaced is one of the best things television ever offered )

Sgtcampsalot:

Yes that's why I'm a huge fan of Kubrick films. They don't insult the intelligence of the viewer and have lots of long cuts. The problem with Shyamalan is that he has a good visual language, but his storytelling sucks.

More great Kubrick films(with lots of tasty long cuts):

Barry Lyndon
Eyes Wide Shut
The Shining