Friday 11am- Timecode and Gamer

I was worried and confused at the outset of Timecode. My fear wasn't so much that a dizzying narrative would shock or astound me or that an interesting character would be killed off suddenly and unexpectedly. Rather, I was concerned that I would ruin the movie. I thought I would ruin the movie for myself by focusing too much on a particular quarter of the screen and ignoring or overlooking relevant events playing out on the other quarters. So I began the movie by quickly shifting my eyes from quadrant to quadrant, trying to take in every frame at every second. Eventually I realized that by trying to avoid “messing up” the movie, I was actually messing it up. Because I was trying to hard to take in everything I was actually taking in nothing. At this point I understood that the viewer would benefit most by taking a control approach and focusing his attention on whatever he wanted. I spent a little bit of time following the frame that the soundtrack emphasized but eventually moved on to whatever I found the most interesting at any particular point in time. By taking this approach I appreciated the film much more and had a much greater understanding of it.

I also feel like I should mention the movie Gamer briefly. I saw it this weekend, and while it was by no means breathtaking, original, or revolutionary, it was interesting and somewhat relevant. The way the movie world's technology gave “gamers” full control over real “slayers” in the real world and the means by which the gamers watched their avatars respond to their actions seemed particularly reminiscent of topics we've discussed in class. Then again, a lot of people call Gamer a stripped-down, less meaningful and more hypocritical copy of the Matrix, so that shouldn't be overly surprising.