Talking during movie trailers

[Amaris]

I have huge amounts of control, and can be just as placid and silent as anyone, if not moreso. Why, however, would I choose to do so in a movie theater, where I'm in a collective audience that will laugh, cheer, gasp, and cry? It may be a cultural thing, but movies in a theater are a collective, human experience. That's the worst time to stifle your emotions like some kind of automaton.

A movie theater isn't a concert. I go to a movie theater to watch a movie -- not take part in a collective human experience. I just want to watch the film. I would love nothing more than to watch a film in a completely empty theater.

A movie theater is a shared experience. When you get a hundred or more people into the same room, watching a huge screen, together, and getting pulled into the movie, that's exactly what happens. Now, culturally, you see it differently, but it doesn't make it any less valid for me to clap, cheer, cry, laugh, and gasp, while watching a film. If you want absolute quiet and restraint, you can rent the DVD and watch it in your living room. I don't expect absolute quiet in a crowd.

 

[Miss Chicken]

There are some movies that one prefers to see on a large screen and going to a movie is cheaper than buying it on DVD.

 

[Amaris]

There are some movies that one prefers to see on a large screen and going to a movie is cheaper than buying it on DVD.

If you go to the theater, you're going to have to deal with being in a public area, with other people watching the same movie that you're watching. If you prefer to see it on the big screen, then you may simply have to put up with everything that goes with it, within the realm of reasonable human response. Unless you rent out an entire theater for yourself, you can't really have it both ways.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

We Canadians, along with our Tasmanian brothers and sisters, are just more reserved than you uncouth Americans.

Maybe that's why so many Canadian films are depressing.

 

[Miss Chicken]

There are some movies that one prefers to see on a large screen and going to a movie is cheaper than buying it on DVD.

If you go to the theater, you're going to have to deal with being in a public area, with other people watching the same movie that you're watching. If you prefer to see it on the big screen, then you may simply have to put up with everything that goes with it, within the realm of reasonable human response. Unless you rent out an entire theater for yourself, you can't really have it both ways.

The woman who told me off should have had the same opinion. She should have just accepted people talking during commercials. If she didn't like it she could have looked at the trailer on the internet or on TV, I haven't never ever told someone to shut-up in a cinema and I never would - all I have said is that people in Tasmania do not cheer, or clap, or laugh loudly and that I grateful that they don't. If someone did I wouldn't tell them to shut-up.

I once sat during a movie (The White Countess). There were two elderly women behind me I don't think that they realised that some of the movie was going to be subtitled. One of the ladies seemed to have an eyesight or reading problem and kept asking what was being said. In the end the other woman read it all out to her. I bit my lip and put up with it. I would bite my lip and put up with someone who laughed too loudly or who was clapping. I put up with very young children, though I must admit children are usually very well behaved in Tasmanian cinemas. I think noisier children would be taken to the weekly Mums and Bubs sessions (which is Men in Black 3 this week).

However I much prefer people to be quiet as possible during the actual movie and I consider it great that the vast majority of Tasmanians actually do stay quiet during a movie. I appreciate the fact that we are socially conditioned to be quiet once the movie starts.

 

[RoJoHen]

The idea that trailers are "just commercials" is a totally new one for me, too. Commercials are 15-30 second things that air during TV breaks. Maybe they'll be for upcoming movies, maybe they'll be for laundry detergent. Either way, chances are I've already seen it about a billion times already.

Movie trailers, to me anyway, are brand new. I never know what trailers are going to play before a film, and I expect all of them to be things I've never seen before. Now, granted, with the internet a lot of us tend to see trailers earlier than their theatrical release date, which has changed things a bit. But for me, watching the trailers before a film is one of my favorite parts of the movie-going experience. It's like watching the commercials during the Super Bowl! Half the time they're better than the actual game!

 

[Miss Chicken]

We don't have anything similar to Superbowl Commercials in Australia.

I do know we have to put up with the same trailers too many times in Tasmania. The Prometheus one has been running for two months and has aired before The Hunger Games, Battleship, Dark Shadows and The Avengers and probably other movies as well. It is also on TV now. I sometimes end up seeing a trailer 6 to 8 times at the cinema.

This is partly because we only have about 10 different movies a month in Hobart (across the three cinemas).

 

[RandyS]

Anyone talking during the film itself should be killed. Horribly.

Shawn?

 

[Shazam!]

http://cinemascream.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/code_of_conduct.jpg

 

[Thestral]

What could possibly be wrong with knitting? And I definitely take my shoes off, if I'm wearing flip-flops that is.

 

[gblews]

I see absolutely nothing wrong with talking during the previews. I don't fault anyone for doing it and would not accept anyone trying to shush me if I were doing it. Anyone that interested in seeing the trailer noice-free should hop on the internet.

 

[Trekker4747]

Because seeing a trailer on the internet is the same thing as seeing in a theater right? ... Right?

I'd say the issue here is less her talking and more talking at a regular conversation level.

 

[Kegg]

Trailers are often the most depressing part of moviegoing. Just this week I went to see The Raid, and I had foisted upon me a cliched trailer for some melodramatic horror film I already forgot the name to, reminded that Men in Black III is a real thing, and also given an up-close look at the fact Seth MacFarlane is moving into live-action comedy (which was just as uncomfortable as that trailer for that Steve Carrell/Tina Fey movie I saw both times I caught Avatar in theatres). When the most interesting trailer is the new Recall movie, something I still feel pretty lukewarm about... yeah.

The amount of bad thriller trailers, bad horror trailers, and worst of all, bad comedy trailers are among the most annoying things about going to the cinema (uh-oh! What hi-jinks will Adam Sandler and/or Will Ferrell have/will/can get themselves into/out of? Cue music.)

And this is ignoring the non-film advertisements - the inevitable beer trailers, the 'drink responsibly' ads sponsored by the same people who made the beer trailers (I wonder what 'smoke responsibly' ads would be like) and some other advertisements assuring you that a fun filled life of endless startlement and joy in a remade Dublin as a city of lights is just a few carefully chosen products away.

So yeah, it's a pretty excreable experience, precisely the film equivalent of watching TV commericals only being unable to fastforward them, and I don't really care if anyone speaks during it (although seldom have seen people do so.)

The idea that trailers are "just commercials" is a totally new one for me, too.

Trailers are not short films. They are presentations of product with the expectation of interesting you to pay money to experience the entire product. They are longer than TV commericals by design, but not at all different in intent.

 

[Amaris]

Also, by god, I'm going to eat my nachos and drink my diet Sprite while I'm watching the movie. I paid for them, and the theater sold them to me. If you have a problem, then take it up with them!

(though I am considerate in that I try to chew softly)

 

[Gov Kodos]

The fucking idiots who can't decide, if they have enough shit yet, and keep coming back out of the row to get something else. That's the set of morons who need to be schooled in behavior management.

 

[Amaris]

The fucking idiots who can't decide, if they have enough shit yet, and keep coming back out of the row to get something else. That's the set of morons who need to be schooled in behavior management.

Yeah, it's better to get everything at once, only going to get a drink refill when there's a lull in the movie. Still, I don't get too upset, because I know that it's possible someone just has to use the restroom, and some people need to use the restroom often, as something they can't control.

 

[Skywalker]

I've got no problem with people laughing when they're supposed to laugh (or gasping when they're supposed to gasp, etc.) The filmmakers put those moments in there to elicit a response from the audience. It's when people chat during the movie that I get annoyed. Fortunately I've only had that happen a couple of times.

 

[RandyS]

You guys want to know how to avoid all these complaints? Wait six months and rent the DVD. I do it alot.

See? There ARE advantages to being in a wheelchair and unable to drive, and having a girlfriend who only likes going to the movies "once in a while".

 

[Trekker4747]

Watching a movie at home hardly brings with it the same experience as watching it in the theater.

 

[RandyS]

Watching a movie at home hardly brings with it the same experience as watching it in the theater.

True, but some of us don't have the choice.