Professionalism

Once during a particularly lonely night in NIFM Faridabad, angry over an exam I didn’t particularly want to pass, frustrated over choices I made that were incredibly stupid, and above all, unable to sleep because of all the anxiety, I decided to play a movie as white noise while I tried to study.

I played Mean Girls.

I figured it was a nice movie, there were no surprises there, the dialogue is sparkling and witty, the delivery is sharp and on point. Just nice. A feel good movie. So I stared into my material and had the movie playing in the background on my laptop.

I have watched and re-watched Mean Girls many times but I remember this re-watch particularly well because it was that night that made me appreciate how professional some people were in the art of film-making. I could tell exactly which scenes were playing from the audio alone. The little dramatic changes were magnified. I didn’t need to watch it to know when the acts shifted from the little music and sounds. I stopped studying and made it a game of my own to not watch it at all but just absorb the movie aurally.

Ever since that night, I have been sensitized to this aspect of film-making: how some films deserve to win all the accolades and positive criticisms because they are just so good. People think it is the camera quality, the high definition visuals, the budget, the premise, the pretty people and everything else. But while these bits are important and eye-catching, they are actually a very superficial part of what makes a film good.

I remember watching Psycho one time. That movie was made in 1960. I didn’t like the movie at all because I’m not a fan of horror/thriller as a genre but I loved the movie at the same time because dear lawd, that was quality filmmaking! The angles made sense, the characters played their parts, the whole thing was designed to titillate your senses the way the director wanted to. It was captivating. 

See, in the end, your senses require more than pretty clothes and pretty faces. The direction that actors get make so much difference. I notice this with Britney Spears and Taylor Swift a ton; they’re awkward and weird when they face the camera on their own but under proper direction, they are simply magic. Or Robert Pattinson in Twillight versus everything else he is in!

I don’t really know film-making so I don’t know what goes on and what needs to go down. But of the little I have managed to learn to notice on my own, the end visuals really is honestly the least of it all. Authenticity of script in terms of both story-line and dialogue, easter eggs, costumes, expressions of actors, audio and (my gawd) the background audio of it all, the soundtrack – I mean, think My Heart Will Go On and Titanic! – the minor characters, location scouting, angles of camera… 

Everything is quite interesting if it is done right. I’m not even interested in film-making but when even I can figure out how impressive these things are, I wonder what else gets done and what needs to get done. It should be very interesting. Maybe I should talk to Tenzin one of these days and get her opinion on it all. Now there’s a mental note for me.

In any case, I passed the exam, so all’s well that ends well, I guess.

NB: I am watching Squid Game 2 at the moment so it's too soon to comment and Spoilers still apply I guess but they used Con Te Partiro in ep 1! 'What's Operatic Pop doing in Squid Game?' I thought. But as it turned out, it made sense. It worked! How?! Ugh. Brilliant filmmaking.