I think it’s unavoidable; whatever it is you do for a living, you observe others doing the same thing and you judge. I once had a friend who was an architect, and every building we would pass was too busy, too vertical, too…glassy-and-stony, and so on. One guy was a bartender, and the last place you wanted to be with him was a bar in his off-hours. “Geez, could you put MORE tonic in that, you hack!?”
With me it’s movies and TV. Long before I wrote for a living, I had spent 15 years in video production. So I am always noticing lighting, shot composition, camera moves, etc. Trust me, this is not a point of pride. It’s sort of an OCD thing that too often takes away from the experience.
When watching a film on a Friday night, I tend to drive people around me crazy with arcane observations (often accompanied by rewinding the DVD to illustrate) about some aspect of story structure. I once had a fantasy about doing film reviews for some alt-weekly somewhere. But you need to live somewhere large enough and cosmo enough to get early screenings. Sorry friends, Charleston is not that place.
Also, I tend to be very forgiving. I “get what the director was trying to do,” even if I don’t love the results. Real critics are paid to take a stand, however bitchy. I suppose, as Mr. Burns lamented on The Simpsons, I’m too nice.
Anyway, a small (!) circle of friends does take pity on my film affliction and asks my opinion from time to time. So I make mental notes when something really stands out, and once in a while I may share them with you. Tune in tomorrow!
I also drive people crazy with movies and TV shows, but my observations are with continuity. Too often I’m apt to comment when a glass goes from 3/4 full to 1/4 full to 3/8 to 5/6 to 1/2 when cutting between two characters sitting at a table. I know they used to hire people just for these continuity errors on the set, but with people’s attention spans shrinking to moth-on-a-lightbulb time spans I guess the studios figured it was a waste of money! What a shame…I coulda had a real career ahead of me!
Mike B.
Good one…that must be your video editing training rearing it’s ugly head and messing with your viewing experience. That, or you’re just anal retentive!!
Thanks for the comment!
Michael Lively