A change of scene - movies
If you want to change your universe, then surely one of the best ways to do it is to sit in a dark room, devoid of distraction, and watch adventure, excitement, action, romance and drama unfold in front of you in spectacular technicolor, to a rousing soundtrack, eating popcorn. People have even started sporting glasses to allow them to see things in three dee and immerse themselves even more. And buying larger sizes of popcorn. With the 'bucket' now the standard size, can the 'barrel', 'bin' or 'skip' be far behind?
Life on the screen, even in two dimensions, can be much more attractive than life in the aisles, especially if you have just run out of popcorn. Glamorous and heroic types leap into action, fall in love and step in time with the plot, the music or the werewolves depending on your taste in flicks. Even if the film is unrelentingly dire, the will be something about the way the hero wears a sweater while staring moodily out of a window into the rain that makes you think 'hummn, nice chunky sweater'. Even 'the horse whisperer', a film so without merit that when having to sit through it I was rather hoping that the vet would turn up and shoot me, has pleasant scenery.
It is captivating, to gaze into an oblong of excitement where people have adventurous and glamorous lives, seemingly unencumbered by the fits of rage that grip any normal person whenever they accidentally see one of those BT adverts on the telly.
And it's quite right and proper to be transported somewhere else for the length of the film, this is, after all, an escapist media. It's when people take the movie home with them that things start getting interesting, and sometimes a bit weird.
It can be as simple as using your iPod to lay down a soundtrack to your life, complete with theme tune and specific sounds for particular activities. Who would not, given the opportunity, want to have music composed for them to accompany, for instance, a montage of images of squeezing veg and deliberating over wine while on a visit to the supermarket. And would that drive to the garden centre not be a bit more interesting with some bespoke chase music? I once drove through the centre of London with the theme to 'The Professionals' on a loop and it was bloody terrific.
The worst offenders, even worse than the sort of people who like to talk about continuity errors on Internet message boards, are the sci if and fantasy fans who dress up as characters from their favourite movie and go to conventions. What strikes me as odd is that you get loads of different characters from loads of different franchises all mingling together, it's like the ultimate crossover event.
The problem is though that the bar has been set incredibly high. Ever since Carrie Fisher put on that gold bikini, there has only been one acceptable choice of costume for anyone at least half decent looking at a science fiction convention. The problem is that Carrie Fisher was indulging in quite a lot of drugs back when they shot Return of the Jedi, the sort that keep you thin. She was not indulging in quite a lot of cake, the sort that result in comments like ' are you sure you are on the right end of that 'slave Leia' chain.
But at least plump Leia's make the effort, and this is appreciated. On the other hand, painting yourself blue head to toe and repeatedly correcting people that you are from Pandora, actually, will not stop them yelling 'smurf!' at you at every opportunity.
Life on the screen, even in two dimensions, can be much more attractive than life in the aisles, especially if you have just run out of popcorn. Glamorous and heroic types leap into action, fall in love and step in time with the plot, the music or the werewolves depending on your taste in flicks. Even if the film is unrelentingly dire, the will be something about the way the hero wears a sweater while staring moodily out of a window into the rain that makes you think 'hummn, nice chunky sweater'. Even 'the horse whisperer', a film so without merit that when having to sit through it I was rather hoping that the vet would turn up and shoot me, has pleasant scenery.
It is captivating, to gaze into an oblong of excitement where people have adventurous and glamorous lives, seemingly unencumbered by the fits of rage that grip any normal person whenever they accidentally see one of those BT adverts on the telly.
And it's quite right and proper to be transported somewhere else for the length of the film, this is, after all, an escapist media. It's when people take the movie home with them that things start getting interesting, and sometimes a bit weird.
It can be as simple as using your iPod to lay down a soundtrack to your life, complete with theme tune and specific sounds for particular activities. Who would not, given the opportunity, want to have music composed for them to accompany, for instance, a montage of images of squeezing veg and deliberating over wine while on a visit to the supermarket. And would that drive to the garden centre not be a bit more interesting with some bespoke chase music? I once drove through the centre of London with the theme to 'The Professionals' on a loop and it was bloody terrific.
The worst offenders, even worse than the sort of people who like to talk about continuity errors on Internet message boards, are the sci if and fantasy fans who dress up as characters from their favourite movie and go to conventions. What strikes me as odd is that you get loads of different characters from loads of different franchises all mingling together, it's like the ultimate crossover event.
The problem is though that the bar has been set incredibly high. Ever since Carrie Fisher put on that gold bikini, there has only been one acceptable choice of costume for anyone at least half decent looking at a science fiction convention. The problem is that Carrie Fisher was indulging in quite a lot of drugs back when they shot Return of the Jedi, the sort that keep you thin. She was not indulging in quite a lot of cake, the sort that result in comments like ' are you sure you are on the right end of that 'slave Leia' chain.
But at least plump Leia's make the effort, and this is appreciated. On the other hand, painting yourself blue head to toe and repeatedly correcting people that you are from Pandora, actually, will not stop them yelling 'smurf!' at you at every opportunity.
Labels: Fans, Movies, Science fiction
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