Film4 - We don't care about films

[Steve Crook]

Whatever has happened to Film4?

It used to be a great channel, screening some interesting films in a good and responsible way as well as supporting some good film-makers.



I don't like the way they now put advert breaks in the middle of their films but they are usually quite well placed during natural breaks in the story.



I recorded the remake of The Italian Job and watched it last night.

Just a few minutes before the end, during the big confrontation scene where everyone's giving their reasons for having done what they did - they go to a split screen! They squeezed the film into the left hand half of the screen and ran some ads for forthcoming attractions in the right hand half of the screen!



Not only that, they even gave a voice over to explain what was coming soon so that talked over some of the denouement



If it had been a more important film, I would have been really



Steve

[Dame Starry]

And for what? Just to save a few seconds of the commercial break I suppose (cue "kerching" sound effect).



Sadly this seems to be the general direction in which British TV is heading.

It's a subject that's getting familiar on this site and precisely the reason why I'm weaning myself of of TV - that and the constant need to include music in every production. My hearing is deteriorating and I have enough problems hearing the general dialogue without trying to 'filter' it out of the music.



It's all to do with money and 'mind over matter'; the TV companies don't mind and the viewers, obviously, don't matter any more.



DS x.

[DB7]

name='Steve Crook']Whatever has happened to Film4?

Surely this is the trade off with going free-to-air? The channel has now got to be more commercial and rely heavily on advertising?

[CaptainWaggett]

I don't think the adverts are that bad. The afternoon films (the only ones I watch!) tend to have 3 advert breaks, which I fast-forward through anyway. It's true that they sometimes talk over the credits but it's not the end of the world and it's about the only channel that one can guarentee will broadcast a decent amount of older films (even if I'm getting a little bored of Arsenal Stadium Mystery!)

[Dame Starry]

name='CaptainWaggett']It's true that they sometimes talk over the credits but it's not the end of the world

Steve wasn't complaining about the adverts or about them talking over the credits, he was complaining about them talking over the end of the actual film!



DS x.

[CaptainWaggett]

"I don't like the way they now put advert breaks in the middle of their films ".

[Dame Starry]

name='CaptainWaggett']"I don't like the way they now put advert breaks in the middle of their films ".

To quote the full sentence:

"I don't like the way they now put advert breaks in the middle of their films but they are usually quite well placed during natural breaks in the story."

DS x.

[Moor Larkin]

name='Steve Crook'] during the big confrontation scene where everyone's giving their reasons for having done what they did - they go to a split screen! They squeezed the film into the left hand half of the screen and ran some ads for forthcoming attractions in the right hand half of the screen!

Sounds like a cock-up.

[Steve Crook]

name='Dame Starry;131939]

name='CaptainWaggett'']"I don't like the way they now put advert breaks in the middle of their films ".

To quote the full sentence:

"I don't like the way they now put advert breaks in the middle of their films but they are usually quite well placed during natural breaks in the story."

DS x.

Thanks Dame,

You are right. It wasn't the ad breaks I was really complaining about but them going to split screen - and talking over the dialogue on screen some minutes before the end of the film, well before the credits started to roll.



Yes, it does sound like a cock-up Moor, but not one I would expect from a channel that used to claim that they cared about film and used to do so much to support British films



Steve

[Gazza]

I find that sort of thing so disrespectful. To the film and the audience.



The BBC aren't cutting into the actual film (yet) but the credits are squeezed into a quarter-screen box. Watched Chicken Run with my neice last night and wanted to check some voices in the credits. Ha, some chance.

[Brief Encounter]

They could show a wider variety of the 40s/50s Brit films. Still I suppose at least stuff like 'The Man in Grey' is being shown again.

[Tony Pendrey]

At leat Film 4 haven't (yet) resorted to the tricks that Channel 5 get up to. They will take out great chunks of a film to make it fit into their available slot.