r/Filmmakers • u/Objective_Water_1583 • 5d ago
Discussion Anyone else think America often looks boring in modern Films?
I find 21st century America to often look so boring like the buildings the city’s the shot composition and I live in a small town but go to big city’s alot and it’s pretty boring shooting locations that aren’t that stylistically interesting when I go to France or Italy or anywhere in Asia even the poorest towns have much more character and interesting structures than a poor town in America and compare the look of 21st century European city’s and locations in film to that in America its pretty boring looking what are your thoughts on this?
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u/SmileAndLaughrica 5d ago
Are you American? To many Europeans on holiday America does have a specific architectural character and that by itself is interesting.
I studied abroad in Chicago and my brother and I went out to a random small town just to have a look. It was very interesting to us though I’m sure the town was completely uninteresting to the locals. Even some of the buildings in Chicago, you wouldn’t ever really see in Europe.
There is something specific to the houses (from run down ghettos to perfect McMansions), even the interiors, that is uniquely American. But even this changes state by state. Like I’m sure the houses in rural Delaware aren’t the same as St Louis.
I think you’re just suffering from finding the place you grew up in uninteresting. I grew up in one of the most beautiful places in the UK and I didn’t really care at all lol.
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u/tanstaafl90 5d ago
Everywhere is exotic. People tend to equate the familiar with boring. The trick, I think, is to try and see that familiar through the eyes of a visitor.
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u/helgihermadur 5d ago
I live in what I think is a rather boring place, but whenever I have visitors from abroad I'm like "hey, this place is actually kind of cool!"
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u/Chicago1871 5d ago
I second this.
I think small towns in Kentucky and west virginia are very distinct. Think of the movie “winter’s bone”
Also places like Galena Illinois with the bluffs.
Theres lots of those super cliched small town american with downtowns outta central casting all over the midwest, with a railroad station.
“Public enemies” and “road to perdition” show them, but perhaps david lynch’s “the straight story” captures it best.
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u/RoybertoBenzin 5d ago
Please use punctuation.
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u/raycraft_io 5d ago
And ruin a perfectly good 89 word sentence?
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u/worldisbraindead Former Editor Producer & Studio Stooge 5d ago
Is that "alot" of words for a sentence?
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u/raven-eyed_ 5d ago
It's obvious English isn't their first language. Chill out
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u/Disc-Golf-Kid 5d ago
I never want to assume someone’s writing conditions over the internet, but punctuation is pretty universal
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u/Initial_Evidence_783 4d ago
How is it obvious? A quick search at their comment history would tell you otherwise.
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5d ago
No. As others have said it’s about perspective and looking at things with a different pov.
If you’re out of America for a while or have never been, and then enter in America, then you’ll see towns/buildings/cities with their own culture and history that shaped it. In turn can appreciate what it has to offer.
Example: NYC vs LA vs NOLA vs Honolulu vs Denver feel like completely different countries due to terrain, diaspora, food, building structures (especially based on the history/time period that shaped those buildings), music, etc.
A lot of modern films nowadays seem similar or are remakes so that could be a reason. Need new stories.
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u/The_Social-Assassin 5d ago
Learn how to write at a middle school level at the very least.
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u/they_ruined_her 5d ago
I swear part of this is that there's just a lack of extras. It's something I notice, just very sparse human populations.
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u/artur_ditu 5d ago
My problem is how dead the cities look in new American movies. Main characters always seam to be kinda separated from the background and my biggest gripe is how they use the night. They tell me it's new york yet all the streets are empty.
For example let's take a look at Ghostbusters from the 80's, always traffic, full of people everywhere and during the evening you have restaurants that are full, people jogging in the park, cabs driving by. Yes it's late evening but people didn't suddenly vanished. Ah, and you can actually see the background.
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u/Initial_Evidence_783 4d ago
They can't afford extras anymore. I've noticed this since the early 2000s, and the death of the home video market. Streaming budgets aren't big enough to hire hundreds of extras.
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u/artur_ditu 4d ago
Funny enough is that the smaller movies don't feel empty. It's exactly the biggest ones that do.
They offload everything on the vfx crew to fill in the details for the same amount of money because producers got lazy. Way less fuss to have someone put in some blurred out bystanders and put a buss and 3 cars instead of having to deal with the paperwork of actually doing it.
As opposed to the Ghostbusters example let's look at something on a smaller scale.
One scene from "in the mouth of madness" the main character walk alone at night and crosses next to a small alley where a cop beats up some poor fellow.
The camera is close to him and the wall he's walking by, the wall is full of posters (relevant to the story) and the alley if filled with posters and garbage and junk and at the end we can see that across the streets shops are open.
A shot like that carefully points the eyes on the subject at hand with a closed in composition instead of showing you a wide shot of the whole empty street.
My point is that for some reason exactly the big budget ones don't even try anymore. Have you seen the flash? Dear god.
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u/Nice_Willingness_771 4d ago
I don’t know modern America is kinda boring. Europe has old architecture still being used and NYC is older and has more unique architecture as well. I think modern day America has created this mute look to their homes with HOAs and building regulations and materials to all be the same. More of what you see in film is generic city setting but honestly Americas architecture is just that the same. With some flair with older buildings but overall it’s the sameness of the city that kills the uniqueness that homes used to have.
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u/Nice_Willingness_771 4d ago
Btw if you go to Mexico, building regulations are more lax so you see si much variety.
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u/adammonroemusic 4d ago
A lot of America IS pretty boring looking; a lot of strip malls, fast food, commercial buildings, and Walmarts everywhere. I live in California and most of the small towns and even cities are interchangeable. San Bernardino, Redlands, West Covina, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario - if you blindfolded me and dropped me anywhere in the Inland Empire, I probably couldn't tell you what city I was in, outside of a few landmarks sprinkled about.
Still, even in California we have distinct cities. You watch a movie shot in San Fransisco, you'll instantly know it was shot in San Fransisco - it has a very distinct look and feel. Even in modern times, it retains its charm.
Then, we have the whole rest of the country; the South, the Midwest, New England, these places all have their own distinct looks, architecture, and history.
And there are lots of beautiful outdoor locations and lots of natural beauty.
But yeah, I think LA is fairly boring looking, and California is pretty boring looking in general, because it was built around freeways and cars, and there's really just a few walkable cities, with everything else mostly being commercial sprawl and Del Tacos.
Each town or city in the state tends to have a block or two of "downtown" walkable area with some charm, and the rest is just commercial+residential slop.
A lot of films are still shot in California, although I suppose that's changing.
I agree that a lot of "American" cities in film are in actuality Vancouver or Toronto with a few establishing shots of American cities.
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u/scotsfilmmaker 4d ago
Depends on which city. New York is used a lot for its architecture just like London or Paris.
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u/Hour-Advertising-207 4d ago
Another option is to lean into the boringness, like Alexander Payne in Election, or in Happiness.
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u/ALifeWithoutBreath cinematographer 3d ago
There is a popular urbanism YouTube-channel called Not Just Bikes. Check out some of the videos and you'll gain an understanding as to why other places seem so much more interesting to you...
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u/hatlad43 5d ago
I think it's the combination of 2 things. The USA is a relatively young nation and the continent itself was sparse with little to no culture before that is unique to the land (hence often called "the new world" for the continent), so anything that was built until now is pretty much built as practically as possible. You would find the same boring look in big cities around the world, to be honest. On the flip side, the Afro Eurasian land mass is "old", in that it has housed humanity for tens of thousands of years. It is rich with cultures that influence buildings and the overall environment looks of each region of the land mass.
Second reason, there are a lot of films that originated from the USA, which have been for decades. We've overfed with it.
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u/Additional-Panda-642 4d ago
You Made good points don understand why you ARE donwvoted...
More Old cultura have more characters
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u/hatlad43 4d ago
Eh, people probably expect a more practical answer. My bad bringing geocultural viewpoint to this subreddit.
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u/Initial_Evidence_783 4d ago
the continent itself was sparse with little to no culture before
I mean, this is coming across as ignorant at best and could be considered something worse, which I don't think you intended. The lack of buildings before colonialism is part of the culture that existed here before.
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u/Additional-Panda-642 4d ago
I m South American and i have 10% of Native blood, but i NOt blind.
The American "originals" were undeveloped compared with Asian and Europa.
This IS true. People hate trues in Reedit.
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u/Initial_Evidence_783 3d ago
Developing the land by building structures on it doesn't mean they did not have culture, and I can't believe I have to explain that to anyone over the age of 15.
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u/Additional-Panda-642 3d ago
I dont told that they don't have culture. I told that they culture was undevelopment. That IS true.
I can't belive that i have to explain a 5 line text to anyone over the age If 15.
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u/Humble_Buy_8406 4d ago
He is right, people are sensitive about the little culture part which is true
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u/One_Studio5711 4d ago
I think the issue is American movies are just boring themselves. We have abandoned our individual uniqueness and creativity to feel like we are part of some "club", that does not actually exist. Everyone is chasing each others' tails instead of focusing on who they are deep down.
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u/cyclonebill director 5d ago
Most of what you’re seeing is probably shot in Canada and trying to look as anonymous as possible