A closer look at the absence of smartphones in blockbuster movies. Get 10% off your first purchase at Squarespace.com by using the offer code “nerdwriter”!
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Why Are There So Few Smartphones In Popular Movies?
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It dates the movie. Remember old movies when the business guy brings out that fat ass phone and looks ridiculous
Mr incredbles were set in the 60's though
People don't want to be mocked for their over use of phones in their day to day lives when they are being entertained. It can seem a bit preachy if they use phones in a way that makes a person question the amount of time spent on their phones or using social media. Pretty easy to figure that out.
What annoys me is how all the phone screens are always so damn clean!
And Then there are annoying people who used smartphones in cinemas….
do the kimoyo beads in black panther not count? they basically use them to facetime
I don't understand why you wouldn't include video calls in your final assessment.
Only time will tell but I think the Emoji Movie will the most iconic film of the 21st century.
What I often think about is how films made in the 80's and 90's couldn't be made today because of the advent of smartphones. I imagine scenes where people are waiting by the home phone or a window hoping that special someone would call/arrive. A lot of mystery and tension would be removed if you'd already seen that person post an Instagram Story or a selfie on Facebook just 2 hours before, not to mention the little bubbles that pop-up in Apple's iMessage that let you know people have not only read your text but are now responding.
A film like Home Alone, for example, wouldn't work at all today. The McAllister's of today would likely have a smart home with a Ring alarm, a Nest thermostat they control from their phone, and Alexa-controlled garage doors and locks. And there wouldn't be a mad rush to get back home as Kevin's mom could see everything happening from their indoor and outdoor security cameras, control how much TV Kevin could watch by enabling parental controls on their Apple TV or Roku, and use Uber Eats and Amazon Prime to deliver food and household items. No need for a lone, dangerous trip to the local grocery store to get milk, a toothbrush, and fabric softner. And clearly Kevin could text his mom with updates about how he's doing.
For better or worse our lives are so much easier thanks to today's technology that certain scenarios like being left home alone wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
Maybe they don't consider it quite cinematic. You can do a lot of thing with a phone, but they won't really look very distinc from each other visually, so usually it ain't very entertaining to show someone using a phone
Watches movie on smartphone
Well shiiii
Great video!
The last thing a studio needs is to remind is to use our phones. Simple as that.
As soon as I see a phone onscreen, I know it’s an ad.
its a shitload of money to use Samsung, Apple or even Motorola or Google for that matter ,why bother
There's no way (at least no one invented it yet) to show smartphone usage exiting on camera. Same as sitting behind a computer. And you know why if you ever tried to sit next to someone using it. Even movies about hackers are not about sitting in front of a monitor and that's like 99.99% of hacking. Also there are many restrictions. For example you can't show face and screen on the same frame.
Interesting, but I think that if the theme of the film is not about the effects of social media, it really would be very boring and not cinematic. But the main reason is because the cell phone and the Internet get you out of a lot of problems and hardships. And sometimes as a writer you always have to write around that. That's why they always have to lose them, be in places with no signal, or what they do most nowadays, adapt movies to times when this technology didn't exist…
PS: Tony had that old cell phone, because it was the one Cap mailed to him at the end of Civil War…
I would argue that we dont see people use phones because it has absolutely no place in most of these stories. Is Thanos just going to stop and scroll through his cell phone? Absolutely not, theres no place for that in the story.
I think this is just overthinking the obvious
You should definitely not have excluded cameras. Sure, they're not used in a way that we necessarily hate. It's pretty much in the zeitgeist to complain about people not living in the moment and instead opting to waste their time taking the perfect picture or video for Instagram ETC. Still, pretty much all of the uses mentioned don't fit in that category, but you do mention that later for the only use that you'd decided to include. Great video!
what’s the deal with Iron Man’s flip phone?
Every Frame a Painting made a great essay about text messages in movies. I like that both addressed these modern issues.
Want to know how audiences feel about smart phones and social media? Look at the reception of the emoji movie.
Your channel is hot garbage
Reminds me of this segment in Seinfeld where George says the character goes to work, eats, reads and the tv executive retorts in shock: "Do you read on TV"? Nobody wants to see people read on television same probably goes with mobile phones.
“…i decided to take a closer look…”
should’ve contacted The Closer Look for this vid :)))))
Wow! New videos from "Now you See it" AND Nerdwriter! It really IS Friday!!
Eh. You also don't see people in movies eat, go to the bathroom, blow their nose, sleep, nap, read, watch TV, or other mundane activities. It would be boring to do so. Hardly a revelation.
To be fair most of those movies have no real reason to feature smart phones. They are mostly super hero movies and I don't think any of us watch avenger to watch a bunch of super heroes staring at screens
I hate this already. It’s so hypocritical.
I think a big problem is Cell phones just fix too many problems in a lot of movies (pretty much any horror/fear related movies). This makes it so most stories either have to explain away why they don't use the device, or just omit the existence of them.
The best adventures don't happen near cell towers.
My biggest annoyance is when mobile phones produce speed dial tones when calling out in movies… Stalp this! Kill it with fire.