I went to see It’s Complicated this past weekend. Before the film, several trailers ran, among them two for romantic comedies. I’m a sucker for a good romantic comedy and fully recognize they are very formulaic. But why do the makers of trailers feel they need to tell us the entire story rather than simply entice us with the premise of a film? I know within 30 seconds whether I want to see a particular film and, if I do want to see it, I don’t want to see anymore of the story at that point and invariably try to look away.
Posts Tagged ‘US media’
Trailer Trashing
Thursday, December 31st, 2009Defining News from Different POVs
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009The US media have long been criticized for taking a myopic view of world events. Reporting became less insular following the events of 9/11. But how and what US media choose to report still leaves foreign news organizations aghast. For the most part, we don’t know what we’re missing; although the Internet does provide inquiring minds access to other news outlets.
I sometimes find it interesting to see how a major news event in the US is presented elsewhere. So I was intrigued by a work I came across during a recent visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
As part of “The Pictures Generation, 1974-1984” special exhibition (April 21-August 2, 2009), artist Sarah Charlesworth reproduced the front page from 45 newspapers across the globe on April 21, 1978. All text other than that on the mast heads has been removed, leaving only the front page photos.
On this particular date, Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, who was being held in captivity by the Red Brigade, was pictured holding a newspaper in an effort to prove he was still alive following previous reports of his assassination.
Presenting only the front page photos eliminates any language barriers and allows Charlesworth to quickly convey the relative weight given the story around the world. Check it out.
