There are a ton of movies/shows that have folks corresponding on their phone, but most of the time it seems like the viewer experience is overlooked.

I am getting old. But even with my glasses on, the print is so small you can't see anything. So you lose all context of what the hell is going on.

Best way to do this is to have the character look at their phone and then do the overlay in the screen that shows the text messages. Much more engaging and pleasant then squinting, rewinding, squinting again and pausing.

I'm trying to watch Drop right now and I'm having trouble seeing what's being sent or received. When most of your movie includes characters texting…this is a problem.

/rant

https://www.berkeleyeye.com/

Haven't seen the film in question, but the BBC Sherlock series handled this in some really cool ways.

Related really good video:

This is a peeve of mine as well. Up there with strangers just mugging down/or talking romantically face to face in the morning after sleeping together for the first time, without first brushing or at least gargling some mouth wash. And along similar lines, people quickly brushing their teeth and barely spitting and then just setting their toothbrush down.

What about cooking or ordering food/drinks then having a conversation and leaving it all untouched as they leave

If we're here to rant. Can you please stop giving actors empty coffee to go cups to drink out of. The drinking motion with a zero weight cup looks unnatural and it sounds empty when it gets put back on the table.

Murder Hornet said:

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What about cooking or ordering food/drinks then having a conversation and leaving it all untouched as they leave

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in the 90s the mom would make a humongous breakfast just for the family to take one bite of toast and head out for the day

Taking someone's necklace just by pulling it off their neck.

OP should watch the new War of the Worlds movie - he'll love it!

Or telling a bartender, "give me a beer" when in real life they would ask you what kind or maybe just ignore you.

Please also stop having actors look like they're taking drinks from cups that obviously have no liquid in them. Half the time the actor doesn't even swallow. It's the dumbest.

It happens most with paper coffee cups with the lid on. The cup is usually also so obviously light as to have no liquid in it at all. Then they set it down on the table with a sound of an empty cup.

lol just saw we complained about the same thing!

Murder Hornet said:

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What about cooking or ordering food/drinks then having a conversation and leaving it all untouched as they leave

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Let me write all this down.

You can easily see the text she's sending here. Probably because it's in Excel

At least the shaky camera for every action scene nonsense was ended after 2013 or so (looking at you Jason Boerne movies!!!). And especially the scenes where we got 4-different quick cut shaky camera angles of NOTHING HAPPENING (like a character walking down the street)....

Everyone hangs up the phone without saying, "Good-bye."

BadMoonRisin said:

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The Blue Goose said:

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Please also stop having actors look like they're taking drinks from cups that obviously have no liquid in them. Half the time the actor doesn't even swallow. It's the dumbest.

It happens most with paper coffee cups with the lid on. The cup is usually also so obviously light as to have no liquid in it at all. Then they set it down on the table with a sound of an empty cup.

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I hate when a character will go to a bar, order a beer, not drink it once or maybe take a sip, and then pay, leaving the with a mostly full beer sitting there.

WHO DOES THAT?!

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Yep, hell, any time a character just has 1 or 2 beers, I go into a fit. Who the F does that?

The Wilhelm scream. Even in serious/dramatic movies it's still used.

Why?

Please stop with the "Two days earlier" after the show/movie opens in the middle of a big violent scene where the protagonist appears to be at death's door.

While we're at it, enough with the flashbacks. Not everyone wants to watch "Lost" over and over.

How about when they show a character in a movie or show texting with a friend or family member but there's no previous texts between them? It's always the first time they've ever texted them.

EMY92 said:

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big-ag said:

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How about when they show a character in a movie or show texting with a friend or family member but there's no previous texts between them? It's always the first time they've ever texted them.

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That would be just about everyone I text with. Text, conclude that conversation - DELETE.

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WHAT ARE YOU HIDNG?

Are you a hitman?

Guys asks girl out on date, she says yes, but they don't set the time or where they are going.

Mega Lops said:

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Moviemakers REALLY need to stop the unnatural expository dialogue which shoehorns the situation into a scene.

Remember, the principle of "Show, don't tell" is key here.

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The 2nd screen viewing forces this awful trend.

YouBet said:

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EMY92 said:

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big-ag said:

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How about when they show a character in a movie or show texting with a friend or family member but there's no previous texts between them? It's always the first time they've ever texted them.

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That would be just about everyone I text with. Text, conclude that conversation - DELETE.

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WHAT ARE YOU HIDNG?

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This has always bugged me in movies as well.

My ex father-in-law actually clears his entire phone on a regular basis. I lost count of how many times I would text or call him and he thought I was a scammer because he no longer had my number. Had to go through a whole process of eventually facetiming him every time this happened to convince him it was me. Very annoying. Completely cleared his contacts and message history repeatedly, so he would have no history of previous texts, like these movies ha.

He definitely has bodies somewhere on his property.

The Milkman said:

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Mega Lops said:

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Moviemakers REALLY need to stop the unnatural expository dialogue which shoehorns the situation into a scene.

Remember, the principle of "Show, don't tell" is key here.

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The 2nd screen viewing forces this awful trend.

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Just listened to a podcast by AJ Benza last week where he was talking about this specifically on Netflix where they're adding unnecessary dialogue now because they know people are screwing around on their phones while watching the show and if they don't add auditory cues, people will lose the plot.

My wife does this all the time. Followed by the inevitable, ... what happened?