Modern movies are a glorious thing, but they are also fraught with problems. Modern movies are falling into a set of weird choices and weird habits that can turn movie watching into something of a nightmare. Since there are so many issues with movies, I decided to address two of them here, and we will return to this topic in another article.

The first problem I have is poor audio mixing. What I mean by this? Let’s say you open your mailbox and you have a couple of Netflix movies in there (I almost did this example driving to Blockbuster, but then I remembered it was 2016). He puts the Blu-Ray / DVD into the player of his choice and sits down and has to turn down the volume because there are a lot of explosions and things like that. Then people start talking and you have to find the remote control, because they might as well be whispering! Then another explosion and now you’re deaf because the damn thing was so piercing and loud. This can be annoying. Hell, it’s one of the easiest ways to get me out of a movie, to be honest. So why does this happen? Well, when you mix audio from movies, you mix it up to get a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound setting because that’s the optimal way to watch a movie. You see, in 5.1 surround sound each speaker has its own job. The center speaker handles the dialogue, the 2 side speakers are for explosions and “bwaam” noises in Christopher Nolan movies, the subwoofer is for “dat bass” and lastly the 2 (or 4 if you have 7.1) satellite speakers. they are for surround sound. effects. That’s really cool and all, but I’m not in a position to buy a 5.1 surround sound setup. I am a very poor college student who can only afford to eat ramen noodles 4 times a week (the other times as the cardboard went into the ramen. I have a sad life). I set up my dad’s stereo as in the ’80s to be my “hi-fi” audio setup that replaces the stereo sound from my TV with slightly less ghastly stereo sound. So when the DVD / Blu-Ray player outputs a 5.1 signal, my poor stereo speakers can only replicate the 2 front speakers. This is why the explosions are so strong. Dialogue goes to a non-existent center speaker, which is why it comes out so quiet.

So what is the solution? Add two dialogue tracks. One mixed in a nice super old-fashioned stereo and the other mixed in the fancy 5.1 / 7.1 pants goodness. This way I can adjust the volume to a comfortable volume and leave it there. This may seem like a super easy solution, but I’d risk guessing that mixing audio is a very difficult task and not an easy one to accomplish. However, I think it’s worth it, and it shows that movie studios are willing to go the extra mile for those who still want to see their favorite movies, but are perhaps not the wealthiest.

Well, we’ve done an audio problem, so let’s end this article with a visual problem. These are probably the two biggest problems I have with modern movies today. Shaky Cam and jump cuts. For those of you unfamiliar with shaky camera as a concept, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you. Basically, it is the worst form of visual storytelling imaginable. That’s not the most revealing description, is it? Well, the shaky camera is exactly what it sounds like. Basically, the director tells the cameraman to shake the camera as hard as he can. This is to make the action seem frantic. It sounds stupid, true, but it’s a real thing. The problem with shaky camera is that it gets worse with terrible, fast, and jittery editing. This is also what it looks like. It’s the use of a million and a half different cuts to convey frenzied action. However, in reality, it often makes the scene impossible to understand. These are just the tools of the incredibly lazy. Using these two tools together makes action scenes in a movie difficult to watch and impossible to understand. You have to actively try to rebuild when the actors are getting hit, because the shot never shows it. You hear a burst of sound effects and see a blur of hands and faces, but it’s just visual and audio garbage that the director is trying to pass off as incredible action.

The solution to this problem is quite simple. Hire better directors. Directors who are good at their job will make the action look good without the use of cheap tricks and quick editing. There are fantastic directors when it comes to filming action. Take the Wachowski brothers. Sure, they’ve done a few stinky things in recent years, but the first Matrix movie is incredibly well-directed. There are uses for wide shots so we know exactly what’s going on, there’s just the right amount of slow motion so we really feel it when characters get hit. The score is used to perfection, so when the hero is hit hard, the music slows down and becomes quieter. The Subway scene in the matrix encapsulates all of that.

Contrast this from Alex Cross. The camera is literally shaking. You don’t see the hits connect. You see the main character hit the villain and then after a cut you see the villain react. This is probably to cover up the fact that the actors were not choreographed properly.

If you can get a director who knows how to shoot action scenes, as well as who knows what he wants the actors to do, and how to choreograph them to do that, then you don’t need a terrible shake camera to cover up anything. . You don’t need jump edits because you want the audience to see your work.

There you go. These are the 2 biggest problems I see with movies right now. I’ll be back to do another article on 2 more problems with movies.