Movie/TV clichés

[Hot Pepsi]

Yup, some cheap b-roll and a voiceover and you've got yourself an ad.

I did a voiceover recording about three weeks ago where everyone - writer, producer, engineer, and talent - was in their own homes. The producer said he can't imagine the business ever being the same again. He's like 'why would a V/O artist get in a cab, drive downtown, sit around for two hours and then cab it home again when they could just set up a good quality mic in their basement? And why am I renting all that studio space any more?'

Indeed, as that stuff gets cheaper and better, there will be no need for dedicated “studios” for most audio things.

We will probably see soundproof rooms built into houses.

[Various Artist]

God no, it has to be divisible by 3 as well, otherwise what would be the point?

Also, any alarms or timers I set, the digits have to add up to 9. (i.e. this morning's alarm was 5.22. Numbers are allowed to add up to 18, e.g 5.58, because 1+8).
I can't imagine the chaos that would ensue if this rule were broken.

This is amazing. I feel so much more normal now you've shared that jwdd, thanks.


I apologise to all who were confused and/or doubted my sanity/basic maths skill due to that rogue "13" before.
Reading my post again, I assume it wasn't so much a breakdown in my arithmetic (i.e. multiplying 3 and not getting 12), but rather my subconscious logic was that obviously the volume couldn't be on 9 or 15 (in order to jump to 12) because that's just wrong – so I automatically substituted a starting point of 10 (a safe even number) and leapt to 13 from there.

Obviously if you're purely dealing in multiples of 3, though, I acknowledge you could never have landed on 10 in the first place...

[WOM]

Yup, some cheap b-roll and a voiceover and you've got yourself an ad.

I did a voiceover recording about three weeks ago where everyone - writer, producer, engineer, and talent - was in their own homes. The producer said he can't imagine the business ever being the same again. He's like 'why would a V/O artist get in a cab, drive downtown, sit around for two hours and then cab it home again when they could just set up a good quality mic in their basement? And why am I renting all that studio space any more?'

[San Bernardhinault]

There was a massive wave of explicit “in these troubled times [any brand at all]is here for you” ads.

Since then there have been a bunch of restaurants showing everything getting cleaned, or Amazon workers wearing masks.

Noticeable that there are lots more ads for things like pharma and healthcare and ambulance chasers and public service; much fewer for consumer goods: presumably a consequence of ad budgets collapsing.

Also noticed a few new ads with no or few people in them. Lots more CGI or clever cuts that can be done by someone at home rather than needing any film crew.

[WOM]

I may as well ask here: have commercials in the countries where posters live become significantly more Covid-influenced, whether in protagonists wearing masks, socially distancing, direct references to the virus etc? In Spain there has been a lot of this.

For sure. A lot of the first stuff was simply produced over Zoom / Skype. The piano-music 'we're all in this together' wave of ads is passing quickly and stuff is looking more normal. My agency shot a few spots last week with a total of 5 people on set - which is the legal limit - and it looks look a full crew setup.

But yeah, you would be remiss in not mentioning 'the current situation'. Everything I'm writing now is couched in terms of 'when you're ready to get back out there, we're ready for you' sort of thing. We don't want to be seen pushing people out into the 'unsafe', but we also know we're in business.

[ursus arctos]

We have had a lot of PSA-like adverts saluting health workers and/or describing what brands are doing to help

There also seems to have been a decrease in use of the groups of attractive young people drinking beer on a beach or rooftop trope

[San Bernardhinault]

My volume is generally set to about 18 for regular network TV, but about 25 or so for network dramas (although their mixing is terrible and you get a sonic overload during music and action stuff, and can hardly hear the mumbly mumblecore bollocks during the dialogue - which is the only but you really want to hear). If I'm using Netflix or Amazon I need to ramp the volume up into the 40s.

Adverts may not be louder in terms of "peak" volume, but I think they're all mixed with every channel pushed up to 10 so that it's full on all the time and becomes so tiresome and tiring that I put the TV on mute. I'm not sure if this is their goal - to be so offensive that I start completely ignoring the ads altogether and then forget to unmute when the show restarts too so I also start ignoring that and instead stick my head in my phone and realise I really didn't want to be watching in the first place.

[Sporting]

I may as well ask here: have commercials in the countries where posters live become significantly more Covid-influenced, whether in protagonists wearing masks, socially distancing, direct references to the virus etc? In Spain there has been a lot of this.

[WOM]

It's sort of hacky and old-school to believe that you can blast your audience into paying attention to your ad / brand.

My issue is with the levels in shows. They go from a whispery scene to a shouty scene to a bar scene with background music and the volume levels are all over the map.

[ursus arctos]

There is actually a law to prevent that being the case here, but it is rarely (if ever) enforced.

WOM may have some inside knowledge.

[Sporting]

So I'm the only one who has to adjust the volume up or down at least 10 times per episode?

No. And why are adverts always louder?

[WOM]

So I'm the only one who has to adjust the volume up or down at least 10 times per episode?

[Simon G]

7? 7?? 7???

I can’t think of a worse number to have the volume set at, that is just wrong, wrong I tell you.

Blame Toshiba. It's their weird sound settings on their smart TVs.

[Jah Womble]

When I said '7', what I really meant was '27' - but now I have the volume set at '36' or '42' because '27' has become almost inaudible.

However, I have to reset the volume to '20' before I go to bed - for the simple reason that I re-tune to 6Music in the morning, and the radio channels on my Virgin Media TV are bloody loud by comparison. (To think that, just a few years ago, it used to be '10' for the radio...)

(Various - your 'math' is way off.)

[tracteurgarcon]

My tv volume tends to be on 7 in the evening. During the day it can range anywhere from 12-25 depending on how loud the kids are being.

7? 7?? 7???

I can’t think of a worse number to have the volume set at, that is just wrong, wrong I tell you.

[jwdd27]

God no, it has to be divisible by 3 as well, otherwise what would be the point?

Also, any alarms or timers I set, the digits have to add up to 9. (i.e. this morning's alarm was 5.22. Numbers are allowed to add up to 18, e.g 5.58, because 1+8).
I can't imagine the chaos that would ensue if this rule were broken.

[Sporting]

13?

[Various Artist]

3? Three?? You monster. That'd mean it ending up on things like... like 3. And 9. And 13. Ugh.

[jwdd27]

The volume can only be moved up and down in increments of 3. Everyone knows that.

[pebblethefish]

I'm sure I've said this before on another thread but...

You lot are weird

[Various Artist]

Good to see that you are adhering to the “volumes can only be set to multiples of 5 (or on rare occasions, even numbers) rule.

Haha, it would feel 'wrong' setting my TV volume to an odd number, unless it's a multiple of 5.

And I would feel deeply uncomfortable setting my computer's to an odd number, unless it's 1 and I just want to have the audio barely there e.g. late at night. Otherwise it's 2, 4, 6, 8, and only occasionally 10 or 12 or higher

If I get up to those sort of levels – such that quantity of the small volume bars on-screen isn't readily countable at a glance – and want to adjust the volume, I often have to reduce it right back to 6 or 4 first to make sure that it's definitely on an even number before I nudge it back to, say, 10.

[Simon G]

My tv volume tends to be on 7 in the evening. During the day it can range anywhere from 12-25 depending on how loud the kids are being.

[Jah Womble]

I'll concede that I had a strange '7' or '2' rule-of-thumb for some while. No idea why.

[tracteurgarcon]

Totally down with the 'mumblefest' observation. My hearing definitely isn't what it once was, either, but even so, I'm cranking the volume up to 50+ for some of these shows (ie, compared to the average '25' of several years ago - and yes, I'm using the same TV).

Good to see that you are adhering to the “volumes can only be set to multiples of 5 (or on rare occasions, even numbers) rule.

[Jah Womble]

Totally down with the 'mumblefest' observation. My hearing definitely isn't what it once was, either, but even so, I'm cranking the volume up to 50+ for some of these shows (ie, compared to the average '25' of several years ago - and yes, I'm using the same TV).