Thursday, January 28, 2010

Plot Update Banners Help Audiences Reach New Low


Alarms go off. A computer voice calmly says, "Warning, full database selected." I burst out laughing. Yes - I saw Surrogates. Just as I was about to count my lucky stars that my old and klunky, consumer class computer isn't sophisticated enough to fire up a siren every time I hit Ctrl-A something even better happened. The movie began displaying written statements of what had just been said - outloud - and updating the audience on the plot's arc.

Here's a tip: If you're directing a movie and you can't tell the story without writing the dialog and the action on the screen, you're doing it wrong.

Speaking of doing it wrong, this device has three wires coming out of it, the screen says its plugged in, why is this woman trying to screw it into the bloody desk? Epic story telling fail. As an aside, I can't help but wonder how the top-secret-doomsday-device is so effortlessly plug and play.

This third shot was confusing. Is the director actually recapping what just happened or is this an unbelievably detailed computer warning message which coincidentally describes the near unfathomable events of the story? Either way it doesn't hide the star trek themed man/robot infographic (whose icons, by the way, really are from a star trek video game I played when I was fifteen).

If you laughed as hard as I did during this movie you'll love Day Breakers.

As another aside, I animated the mokey's robotic arm at the beginning of the film in 2006 for a documentary named Robosapien. I'm glad to have been a part (uncredited) of this film.

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