What Jedi Mind tricks did you learn??

[ShadowDog]

The whole obscured shot thing can be annoying too.  It really got on my nerves during last week's Caprica.  I was like "Hey cameraman!  They're in the center of the room, why the fuck are you hiding in the corner behind some shit so we can only see half their faces!  Come on!  Come out!  Don't be scared!"

But I do see your point.  Hollywood sometimes can be too clean and too perfect so it feels more like a museum than a movie.

[Cosmic Muse]

Spielberg founded his whole career on obscured action buffeted reaction shots of onlookers, which it's why it's so weird that Jurassic Park is just glory shot after glory shot of well-lit, unobscured dinosaurs. I'd love to see what Lucas and Spielberg could do if somebody took all their money away. It would probably be a great film.

You should check out a 70's T.V. movie Spielberg did called The Duel. I ow it on DVD and it's one of his best early works predating Jaws. The concept of one guy facing the wrath of an unseen truck driver in his old, beat up rig was such a silly concept, but Spielberg made it work brilliantly.

[Sharktopus]

Spielberg founded his whole career on obscured action buffeted reaction shots of onlookers, which it's why it's so weird that Jurassic Park is just glory shot after glory shot of well-lit, unobscured dinosaurs. I'd love to see what Lucas and Spielberg could do if somebody took all their money away. It would probably be a great film.

You should check out a 70's T.V. movie Spielberg did called The Duel. I ow it on DVD and it's one of his best early works predating Jaws. The concept of one guy facing the wrath of an unseen truck driver in his old, beat up rig was such a silly concept, but Spielberg made it work brilliantly.

I've been meaning to see that for some time.

Of course, if Spielberg made it today, the truck would transform into a giant CGI death machine and the guy would be played by Shia. (And maybe there'd be an unecessarily tacked-on afterword of crusty old WWII survivors in a cemetery.)

[Cosmic Muse]

I've been meaning to see that for some time.

Of course, if Spielberg made it today, the truck would transform into a giant CGI death machine and the guy would be played by Shia. (And maybe there'd be an unecessarily tacked-on afterword of crusty old WWII survivors in a cemetery.)

The one thing that's dramatically the most effective thing about Duel's antagonist is that you never see who the pissed off driver is in the entirety of the film. It sort of turned the inanimate truck into some sort of malevolent element. I believe today Spielberg would have shown us who the driver was.

[Sharktopus]

I've been meaning to see that for some time.

Of course, if Spielberg made it today, the truck would transform into a giant CGI death machine and the guy would be played by Shia. (And maybe there'd be an unecessarily tacked-on afterword of crusty old WWII survivors in a cemetery.)

The one thing that's dramatically the most effective thing about Duel's antagonist is that you never see who the pissed off driver is in the entirety of the film. It sort of turned the inanimate truck into some sort of malevolent element. I believe today Spielberg would have shown us who the driver was.

And it would look suspiciously like your avatar. 

[D.B. Barnes]

I've been meaning to see that for some time.

Of course, if Spielberg made it today, the truck would transform into a giant CGI death machine and the guy would be played by Shia. (And maybe there'd be an unecessarily tacked-on afterword of crusty old WWII survivors in a cemetery.)

The one thing that's dramatically the most effective thing about Duel's antagonist is that you never see who the pissed off driver is in the entirety of the film. It sort of turned the inanimate truck into some sort of malevolent element. I believe today Spielberg would have shown us who the driver was.

And it would look suspiciously like your avatar. 

And there would be a 45-second shot of Dennis Weaver staring at it from a distance.

[Invisible NanoGhost]

Spielberg founded his whole career on obscured action buffeted reaction shots of onlookers, which it's why it's so weird that Jurassic Park is just glory shot after glory shot of well-lit, unobscured dinosaurs. I'd love to see what Lucas and Spielberg could do if somebody took all their money away. It would probably be a great film.

You should check out a 70's T.V. movie Spielberg did called The Duel. I ow it on DVD and it's one of his best early works predating Jaws. The concept of one guy facing the wrath of an unseen truck driver in his old, beat up rig was such a silly concept, but Spielberg made it work brilliantly.

That was a great movie.  I remember seeing it the first time it was shown.  Dennis Weaver also did a great job of playing the part of the guy in the car.  And as I remember it, the Dennis Weaver character did act pretty much the way I would have behaved in a similar situation.  There were very few moments where he'd do something utterly stupid simply because the writers were more interested in "effects" than "storyline".

[Cosmic Muse]

That was a great movie.  I remember seeing it the first time it was shown.  Dennis Weaver also did a great job of playing the part of the guy in the car.  And as I remember it, the Dennis Weaver character did act pretty much the way I would have behaved in a similar situation.  There were very few moments where he'd do something utterly stupid simply because the writers were more interested in "effects" than "storyline".

This is why big budgets and corporatization of movie making is a bane on quality. Just look at what happened to Raimi's Spider-man franchise. Seriously, Raimi's formula for the movies he was making was rock solid, but corporate tampering botched it up. Despite Spidey 3 making money, the franchise Raimi built is dead in the water.

[ShadowDog]

This is why a stripped down movie like The Others scared me way more than a big budget dud like House On Haunted Hill or whatever it was called.  Both movies came out about the same time but the big money one couldn't scare Shaggy.