Hacker News Reader

Comment by dominotw | Hacker News Reader

> Chris Nolan poisoned movies by making sure you can never make out what people are saying.

why did he do that?

It's mostly that Nolan makes camera and sound decisions based on the theater experience which assumes a certain visual scale, projector dynamic range, surround sound system, and so on. Because the format and equipment utilized in a high end movie theater is significantly more capable than everyday home televisions, these choices often lead to a poor viewing experience at home. All these issues could be resolved technically, but home theater formats are kind of a mess in general.

Unfortunately that's not it at all. He's widely quoted as considering dialogue to be just another sound effect.

It is that, just not only that. You saying dialogue is "just another sound effect" collapses all nuance out of a broader artistic preference on Nolan's part for authentic performance recording and diegetic sound (of which the dialogue is one part of many). You may not care about this-vs-that filmmaking choice, but they are intentional decisions with a rationale. In a movie theater setting, the problems introduced by these choices aren't as acute because there is a physical and spatial separation between speakers dedicated to primary dialogue vs environmental sounds, etc. The same is true for scenes being "too dark" or characters being framed too widely to read their performance because it was framed for IMAX not an iPhone.

You saying dialogue is "just another sound effect" collapses all nuance out of a broader artistic preference on Nolan's part for authentic performance recording and diegetic sound

I see

... Also you gotta be one of the 40% of the population that lives in a Nielsen "A" market to have an IMAX theater, a lot of us are stuck with really bad movie theaters that are worse than a good home theater. Like if I burn out a speaker I'll probably fix it, a movie theater might have a burned out center for months and only get an occasional complaint about it. After the pandemic just the thought of a popcorn-and-coke mess would make my skin crawl.

I've been turning up the brightness really high with certain video games for a really long time because, as a player, it's just not fun to not be able to see something I'm supposed to interact with. A creative product that isn't just something you do for itself doesn't just belong to the creator but also belongs to the audience... You can do what you like but don't expect anyone to fund it or exhibit it or buy it. If Hollywood put 1% of the energy into connecting with audiences that it does into winning Oscars things would be quite different.

Nolan doesn't want you to focus on the dialog, he says. He considers dialog to be just another sound effect. He's an overrated bozo who either needs more cocaine, or less.

See also: idiot directors who shake the camera constantly because it's "realistic," neglecting hundreds of millions of years of evolution geared towards stabilizing vision while moving.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com