I could not watch the TV movie Help.

jonbeeza

jonbeeza

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Just been trying to watch the TV movie Help, staring two of my favourite actors, Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham.
I just could not watch it, the background kept getting thrown out of focus. Then continuous focus then de focus, throwing faces out of focus.

It kept hurting my eyes and my brain. Pity really, as I was looking forward to watching it.
 
A bit like someone continuously using f/1.8 , just because it's there.
 
Not seen it, but I can get what you mean - similarly in the late 90's/early 00's there was a horrible trend of 'shakey cam' even for what should be steady cam scenes [no action, but the camera would shake eratically every 20 seconds or so] - the directors imagined this made the drama feel more realistic, but all it did was give viewers nausea
 
That constant focusing annoys me too. More pet hates are the current trend for some movies to be in just about total darkness to the point I just can't see anything, and movies that seem to have been shot though a couple of layers of tights distorting all the colours.
 
I'm just worried who The Snug is. He sounds like the kind of guy who wont take too kindly to being stumbled into.

Best say "Sorry" and back out gracefully.
 
Cagey75 said:
Is that not what this whole section is?
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I always think of this section as the place on the forum where you can post a thread about the time you went upstairs and when you got there couldn't remember why. Fellow forumers will then find a way of bringing Brexit into it whilst others will insist the UK govt has murdered 12.4 million people in the middle east this year. Oh, and Trump will crop up too and someone will explain how to take up floorboards and put them down again.

I sometimes think it doesn't matter what the thread title or the apparent initial subject is. If the thread goes on long enough and isn't locked by the mods every topic will be covered, sooner or later.
 
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woof woof said:
I always think of this section as the place on the forum where you can post a thread about the time you went upstairs and when you got there couldn't remember why. Fellow forumers will then find a way of bringing Brexit into it whilst others will insist the UK govt has murdered 12.4 million people in the middle east this year. Oh, and Trump will crop up too and someone will explain how to take up floorboards and put them down again.

I sometimes think it doesn't matter what the thread title or the apparent initial subject is. If the thread goes on long enough and isn't locked by the mods every topic will be covered, sooner or later.
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Heh, an Irish snug is for real a bit like that, starts off with talk about the weather, moves through the local scandal gossips on to talk about work and who had the hardest time of it over the decades, politics, fishing and climate change may enter the ring at any point, and then on to death, who knows the most people in the latest obituaries and how long they think they have left themselves
 
I watched it and I am also a massive fan of Stephen Graham.
The focusing didn't bother me as I understood the film making proccess (I'm not saying you didn't).
The reason it's used is to emphasise the main person talking just like in the scene where Jodie Comers character was talking to her mum (played by another actoress imho is underated, Lesley Sharpe) and she was in the background out of focus.
There were a couple of things that annoyed me but I understood the reasons from a dramatic point of view.
 
hashcake said:
I watched it and I am also a massive fan of Stephen Graham.
The focusing didn't bother me as I understood the film making proccess (I'm not saying you didn't).
The reason it's used is to emphasise the main person talking just like in the scene where Jodie Comers character was talking to her mum (played by another actoress imho is underated, Lesley Sharpe) and she was in the background out of focus.
There were a couple of things that annoyed me but I understood the reasons from a dramatic point of view.
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Yes I know it works in such an instance as people talking, but defocusing the electric wiring that Tony was working on, was annoying. I wanted to see what he was doing.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
How brilliantly ironic.
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The resident fbpe cabal are ever present and pervasive and never sleep or miss an opportunity to dive in and repeat their mantra. You just can't stop. Even when finding yourself upstairs and not remembering why the thought that Brexit is the greatest modern evil remains clear and constant. Go on. See if you can go a week without winging about Brexit. There's a challenge for you.
 
woof woof said:
The resident fbpe cabal are ever present and pervasive and never sleep or miss an opportunity to dive in and repeat their mantra. You just can't stop. Even when finding yourself upstairs and not remembering why the thought that Brexit is the greatest modern evil remains clear and constant. Go on. See if you can go a week without winging about Brexit. There's a challenge for you.
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Absolutely NO ONE mentioned it in this thread. Until you.
 
I only mentioned how annoying it was, when they focus certain parts of the image out of focus. I don't think there was a need, as it really was distracting.
I know it was mentioned above, that " The reason it's used is to emphasise the main person talking". Although, I would have liked to have seen who they were talking to, at all times. But I suppose it is just like photographs, we all see images differently. Anyway, I stopped watching it after a while, it annoyed me so much.

I suppose it is just like a photographer, if I don't like their photos, I won't bother to look at their images. I will simply avoid watching any films, or programs made by the person who made the the TV film help. Although, not sure if that would be the director or camera operator. Or would the director have told the camera operator, to have recorded the scenes in such a way?
 
I know the defocusing technique is used a lot when filming period dramas, obviously to hide the modern background.
 
jonbeeza said:
Yes I know it works in such an instance as people talking, but defocusing the electric wiring that Tony was working on, was annoying. I wanted to see what he was doing.
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I'm a bit confused as it seemed obvious that he was trying to kill the alarm system so he could escape.
 
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