- 12 minutes ago
When a great idea, becomes everyone's idea.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00In this diverse and convoluted thing we call life, it's still quite a lovely thought to know that something new
00:05that you don't even know you want or need is about to enter your life and change it.
00:10Be it a change in diet, those brand spanking new trainers, or maybe even a hairstyle, trends have become part
00:16of human nature.
00:17Movie making is no exception to this rule, and throughout the generations we've found fresh ideas that wow us into
00:24a state of awe, and that success brings the studio's profit.
00:29The industry will latch onto whatever new crazes it can get its claws into, fill their screens to the brim
00:35with them, and then disappear into the dark abyss never to be seen again.
00:40But we remember, and soon you will too.
00:43So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture here with Movie Crazes You Forgot Were A Thing.
00:493D Movies
00:50For a long time, 3D movies were seen as something of a novelty.
00:54A way of poking fun at each other for wearing goofy red and blue glasses, whilst trying to dodge things
00:59jumping at you from the screen.
01:01Avatar, however, shattered this perception in 2009 and gave birth to a new way of moviegoing.
01:06Slick, trendy black glasses and an experience that was new and novel, we could now live in the world being
01:12painted around us.
01:13The trend continued over the subsequent years with The Hobbit, Marvel and Star Wars all enhancing their worlds with this
01:19immersive venture.
01:20Crucially, 3D was being used as the primary selling point for some movies, and audiences were actively reacting to that
01:26by buying tickets.
01:28Now, though, we've become so neutralised to the idea of 3D that a film can't be sold simply on the
01:33premise of being able to add depth to your picture.
01:36Most big summer blockbusters offer this experience as a given, and in doing so, the fuss that was caused over
01:41ten years ago by those blue aliens of Pandora appears to have subsided.
01:44Filming TV is cool, but you know what else is cool? Protecting your privacy online.
01:50Scan the QR code or click the link in the description and get up to 76% off a two
01:55-year NordVPN plan, plus three months free if you sign up today.
02:00I'd make that deal. Damn good deal.
02:02Parodies
02:03When a spoof is done right, it can be a thing of pure beauty.
02:07See Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and Spaceballs as two examples of what can be achieved when the correct levels of
02:13wit and self-awareness are combined with, you know, making the film actually funny.
02:17A string of god-awful spoofs started to raid the box office in the mid-2000s, ranging from the bad,
02:22like the epic movie, to the downright offensive, meet the Spartans.
02:26It's not that the acting was particularly bad, it's that these films seemed to be designed for someone with the
02:31attention span of a gnat, which made their popularity near-miraculous.
02:35We devolve from a monster putting on a show-stealing performance of Putting on the Ritz to fart and incest
02:41jokes, and not even the funny ones.
02:43Scary Movie and Walk Hard, The Dewey Cox Story aside, the quality of the spoof has been in a low
02:48ebb for nearly three decades,
02:50and now that the paying public are regularly being spoiled with new original comedy movies, the day of the parodies
02:56seems to be done.
02:57Found Footage
02:58In an age where it's near-universal to carry around a recording device, Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield use the footage
03:06captured on these devices to incite honest dread and panic.
03:10Pure genius!
03:11The ability to move the camera with pace and frenetic energy whilst also incorporating our ever-changing technological advances,
03:18like Xbox's Kinect being a staple of the fourth Paranormal film, make for some must-see viewing.
03:24Or at least it did in the late 2000s.
03:26Then, the wheels fell off.
03:28Paranormal Activity squeezed out three sequels and a few spin-offs whilst Cloverfield sensed the end was nigh,
03:34and leaned into the thriller and sci-fi elements of their material instead of the found footage.
03:39The truth is, now we are fully aware that these real people being shot are actors, and that element of
03:44realism has taken a catastrophic hit.
03:46And even though it is a thoroughly underrated filming technique that can really spice up a well-conceptualised movie,
03:53it's far less likely to be getting any big-hitting movies released in that style anytime soon.
03:58People have just had enough of it.
03:59Shaky Cam
04:00When filming a fight or battle scene, a cameraman will quickly find out that it is quite difficult to stay
04:06steady with an assortment of flailing actors and extras buzzing around them.
04:10The usage of the effect has attracted its fair share of hate over the years,
04:15but it's fair to say that it more than contributes to the intense and unpredictable nature of most of the
04:21scenes it is used in.
04:22We're at a point in cinema now where action films have leant so hard on the trope that it almost
04:28feels unusual if a fight scene is shot in a stable way.
04:32Think about it, it's hard to differentiate between which action films that do and do not use this way of
04:36shooting,
04:37as for the most part, we've gotten so used to shaky cam, it's no longer just a craze, it's the
04:42norm.
04:42The sheer effort and dedication that goes into choreographing an intimate fight between two actors or stuntmen is then stitched
04:48together with the added variable of a handheld cameraman,
04:51who has to try and keep up and not lose the fine work that has just been formulated.
04:55It is a craze that you forgot about, but one that is definitely still around.
04:59Raunchy Teen Comedies
05:00In the early noughties, something quite peculiar happened.
05:03A glut of ideas involving young adults trying to get their end away whilst also coming to terms with what
05:08the future will hold for them swept the globe.
05:10The breakthrough came almost 20 years earlier with 1982's Porky's, and if Porky's started it, then American Pie perfected it
05:18by 1999.
05:19Managing to represent a generation that had been greatly influenced by porn and their own peers,
05:24four dorky mates seek to lose their virginities by their prom night.
05:28It was a hit and spelled an era where sex, gross-out comedy, and the losers coming good were a
05:34winning combination.
05:34But it wasn't long before oversaturation and culture changes began to take an effect on the popularity of the genre.
05:41It tanked at least for a while before being reborn in the fire of modern moviemaking standards.
05:47Teen comedies these days tend to be a lot more woke, with Booksmart claiming critical success in early 2019 and
05:53Good Boys opening to a warm reception too.
05:56Mockumentary Comedies
05:57Ricky Gervais is to blame for this one.
05:59His overwhelmingly successful series The Office amassed an audience so dedicated that the big screen had to take notice and
06:05buy into the genre.
06:07And with the mockumentary comes three unavoidable names.
06:10Sasha, Barron, and Cohen.
06:13Cohen had dabbled in the art of mockumentary with his epic interviews with Donald Trump and the Beckhams as Ali
06:19G in Da Ali G Show.
06:20However, he took things to a whole new level when he was commissioned to bring another of his TV sensations,
06:26Borat, to the big screen.
06:27And then everything continued to spiral.
06:29Later, Cohen's dictator showed the cracks that had been emerging due to the increasing number of follow-up attempts by
06:35other studios and creators.
06:37Unfortunately, post-Bruno, the genre hasn't been quite up to scratch with Tour de Pharmacy and pop star Never Stop
06:43Never Stopping proving to be futile efforts.
06:45Cohen and Gervais caught lightning in a bottle, and it looks like the only hope for this dying art may
06:49have been Taika Waititi's What We Do in the Shadows film and series, really.
06:53Werewolves, not werewolves.
06:55POV
06:55James Cameron's Terminator took advantage of the POV style, notably shooting many of Arnie's scenes through the vantage point of
07:02the cyborg.
07:03The effect can also be located in the high-octane, night-vision-wielding, arse-kicking, in Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass
07:10Dished Out by Hit Girl, and of course, in the beloved video game adaptation Doom.
07:14GoPro-style filming hit new peaks with the release of Hardcore Henry, a film almost entirely shot in POV, and
07:21whilst visually the outcome was spectacular, the critics weren't convinced with a healthy dose of mixed reviews.
07:27In a society where we're offered the chance to step into another world for a small fee, it looks as
07:31though we draw the line at having to spend an entire film in someone else's shoes, as not many films
07:35have gone back to that well since Henry's exploits.
07:38Ships at Sea Films
07:39Sea life has long been explored in the art of film.
07:42The utter size of the open water and our mitigated potential for all manner of weird and wonderful stories have
07:48made for everything from horrors from the deep in Jaws to the coastal comedies such as Baywatch.
07:54Titanic did the movies about large vessels at the sea what Mick Jagger did for skinny jeans.
07:59James Cameron's epic went on to break all the global box office records, and other studios smelt cash in the
08:04water.
08:04The late 90s and early noughties saw a wave of films about people on boats having trouble in the big
08:10blue.
08:10Deep Rising, The Perfect Storm, The Lost Voyage, Ghost Ship, and Poseidon all trying to lure audiences back for a
08:17sniff of what they enjoyed so much in Titanic.
08:19But they didn't quite succeed in giving their films characters you cared about like Rose and Jack.
08:23There have been exceptions to the lull, like Captain Phillips and In the Heart of the Sea, but Hollywood is
08:29definitely not as obsessed as it once was.
08:31Art House Movie Posters
08:33Your movie is sold based on how well its marketing is, and no piece of marketing works quite as well
08:38as a specifically designed poster.
08:40If you look at how the MCU has gone about promoting its work, you'll see how the onus has shifted
08:45from brooding, almost metallic imagery of the first Iron Man,
08:49to the more vibrant, visceral options we had almost 10 years later in Infinity War.
08:53This is due to the audience's tastes shifting and demanding a lighter and brighter design to get them into the
08:58cinema.
08:59Although today's posters are quite pleasing on the eye, they simply don't compare to the now retro options of yesteryear.
09:04A clockwork orange with its plain white background pierced by Alex brandishing a knife through the centre,
09:10Apocalypse Now plotting a seemingly melting Marlon Brando front and centre, whilst Apache helicopters flock like birds around them.
09:17They really don't make posters like they used to, except for maybe Quentin Tarantino.
09:21Works of art, instead of works of pure marketing, are really a thing of the past.
09:25Westerns
09:26In terms of forgetting that this was a thing, let's be honest, it's highly unlikely that you did.
09:31Westerns dominated the box office and made John Wayne, Robert Redford, and Clint Eastwood household names for generations to come.
09:37What we do forget is just how big this era was, since it spanned almost 30 years of unbridled popularity.
09:44Storytelling was simple and compelling, well-constructed heroes taking on dastardly villains and horseback action, and showdowns aplenty.
09:51They also boasted incredible cinematography, and the likes of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and The Good, The Bad
09:57and The Ugly are irreplaceable classics.
09:59But with time comes change, and this has never been more prevalent than with the dying of the western genre.
10:04There you go.
Comments