🔷 Open Thread

[KentXie]

Saw it last night, very good entertainment though maybe not MacFarlane at his comedic best (some slow points, overwritten and unfunny dialogue, flopping one liners). Still great fun.

One bit of the way Boston was portrayed disturbed me a bit - cars, cars, cars. Main character works at a car rental. Girlfriend drives to work ("no space in the garage today")... from the South End to the FiDi. Even the Hatch Shell is portrayed as having an adjacent parking lot (and I don't mean Storrow at rush hour). Car chases over the Zakim (which somehow leads to Fenway Park).

Anyway - I don't know how much has been written about Hollywood's obsession with cars as facilitating plotlines. I know I've read a few things on this. But it seems very clear that the Hollywood standard is car, car, car - based on familiar tropes (car chases, etc) and audience familiarity (most people drive).

Thoughts?

I think it makes more sense with driving than walking. By driving, it allows the location to change quickly between scenes. It would be weird to have, for example, three scenes that would occur within 5 minutes, in which each individual walked. If they walked, people would assume that, either a large portion of the walk was left out, or the locations are incredibly close. Having a car allows the audience to think logically, okay so the two work fairly far apart or far enough that the two can't just check up on each other (a major factor since John gets caught skipping work).

The usage of the parking lot and car at the Hatch Shell was to emphasize Rex's wealth. Who in their right mind wouldn't drive their fancy car everywhere, especially to impress a girl, if you had the wealth to do it.

Kidnapping wouldn't really be kidnapping if they ran and walked. How many kidnappings have you seen, real or fictional, where the person wasn't using a vehicle?

 

[kz1000ps]

A good lens hood can reduce lens flare. Day or night. Still, it's not fool proof....

...Some photographers prefer the lens flare as it's "real," and it adds to the effect of the photo. In some cases that can be true, but it's one situation where I fully support some post processing work.

I like lens flares by day, hate them by night. And I'll second the lens hood; they take up a lot of room in your bag but they can make a world's difference. Plus they're relatively cheap (~$40).

 

[Shepard]

I think it makes more sense with driving than walking. By driving, it allows the location to change quickly between scenes. It would be weird to have, for example, three scenes that would occur within 5 minutes, in which each individual walked. If they walked, people would assume that, either a large portion of the walk was left out, or the locations are incredibly close. Having a car allows the audience to think logically, okay so the two work fairly far apart or far enough that the two can't just check up on each other (a major factor since John gets caught skipping work).

The usage of the parking lot and car at the Hatch Shell was to emphasize Rex's wealth. Who in their right mind wouldn't drive their fancy car everywhere, especially to impress a girl, if you had the wealth to do it.

Kidnapping wouldn't really be kidnapping if they ran and walked. How many kidnappings have you seen, real or fictional, where the person wasn't using a vehicle?

Red line breakdowns aside, couldn't subway riding be equally effective at establishing distance and changing scenery?

(As an aside, I would love to see a Boston film the includes, for whatever reason, some character racing the B line on foot - that's comedy right there.)

 

[czsz]

I think possibly because few recent films are made in Boston because they're meant to be set in Boston -- but rather because tax credits make it cheaper to film here, or because people like Wahlberg want to work closer to home -- most of these films involve relatable scripts that could work in Anycity, USA, and that relatable city will, inevitably, include people getting around the way most Americans do -- by car.

By contrast, Good Will Hunting, which was meant to be set nowhere other than Boston, has scenes where Matt Damon takes the T home.

 

[Shepard]

I think you hit the nail on the head. Definitely makes it feel like Anycity, USA courtesy of Anyscript, Hollywood.

 

[Commuting Boston Student]

Red line breakdowns aside, couldn't subway riding be equally effective at establishing distance and changing scenery?

(As an aside, I would love to see a Boston film the includes, for whatever reason, some character racing the B line on foot - that's comedy right there.)

No, no, have someone racing the Silver Line.

And winning.

 

[CSTH]

There's this. And there's this.

Also, of course, this: http://goo.gl/maps/Fuhr

 

[Ron Newman]

Good Will Hunting, which was meant to be set nowhere other than Boston, has scenes where Matt Damon takes the T home.

But also a scene where he and Robin Williams walk directly out of Bunker Hill Community College into the Public Garden.

 

[Beton Brut]

Also, of course, this: http://goo.gl/maps/Fuhr

Boston City Hall in single-serving size.

 

[czsz]

But also a scene where he and Robin Williams walk directly out of Bunker Hill Community College into the Public Garden.

Yeah, that's a jarring transition. But I forget - is the conversation seamless, or is there a jump? I mean, just because they cut from one setting to another doesn't necessarily imply there wasn't a long trip in between.

Also, for what it's worth, don't forget there's a film titled after a T stop ("Next Stop Wonderland"). How many films have you seen with even a scene filmed on BART or SEPTA?

 

[Ron Newman]

'Speed' was filmed partly on the LA subway.

 

[KentXie]

Red line breakdowns aside, couldn't subway riding be equally effective at establishing distance and changing scenery?

(As an aside, I would love to see a Boston film the includes, for whatever reason, some character racing the B line on foot - that's comedy right there.)

It could be possible they didn't want to shut down a train line just to do filming (even if they filmed it on Sunday with a smaller impact). It could also be because of the permits they have to go acquire to film inside the station.

Besides it not like it's inaccurate. While Boston ranks high in the % of people who commute by public transportation, biking or walking, 2/3 of the city still commute by driving.

 

[choo]

They took the T in the departed. and it supported cell phones!

 

[KentXie]

I also want to state that a car rental isn't strange either. Zipcar stations are located all over Boston and a lot of college students in Boston do have memberships with them, including me. I feel like using a car rental office was just Seth MacFarlane's attempt on a modernized version of a dead-end job, contrasting Lori's higher skilled and higher paying job.

 

[choo]

safe to say that this is by far the analytic conversation centered on a movie that starred a pot smoking teddy bear in history.

What about how TED exposed the social norms around the conventions of modern marriage {insert bong hit here}

 

[czsz]

'Speed' was filmed partly on the LA subway.

Similar phenomenon led to this choice, except they were looking for "anysubway" instead of "anyplace". They wanted to make a movie generically involving certain forms of transportation, and it didn't matter where it was set, so they chose LA, close to the studios, and filmed its subway, even though no one takes the LA subway (it also probably helps that no one taking the LA subway means it's easy to film in it).

 

[blade_bltz]

Pursuit of Happyness featured BART very prominently, all the way to the grungy bathrooms that a semi-homeless Will Smith used for shelter.

Ironically, all or most of the bathrooms are now permanently closed - presumably as an anti-homeless measure...

 

[Beton Brut]

Clint Eastwood rides the MUNI is the first Dirty Harry.

I was living in Rhode Island when I saw Next Stop Wonderland. The entire film is a carnival of continuity errors.

 

[czsz]

Would have thought Boston would do better on this:

 

[Shepard]

When will the "lazy infographic" craze finally end? This is a completely meaningless map/chart. Watch out, San Jose, here comes Springfield!