5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Movies

Our thoughts about the famous Cracked.com.

5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Movies

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Wed Mar 16, 2016 7:02 pm

  • 9

Image
User avatar
Deathclaw_Puncher
Knight Writer
Knight Writer
 
Posts: 12452
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 9:42 pm
Location: Fair Oaks, CA
Show rep
Title: Queen of the Furrets

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby SandTea » Wed Mar 16, 2016 7:54 pm

There is something to authors relying on personal life or having a type of person in mind when writing certain characters or writing wish fulfillment, etc but this is just cracked being cracked. Connecting disparate dots for you just cause they can.

For that reason I am now positing that michael bay once had a glorious love affair with an explosion and is just trying to recapture that moment. That jj abrams took acid and thought the strange lights he saw for no reason were god and so puts them in all his movies. Hitchcock has an anxiety disorder. And so on, and so on
  • 4

"Draw me not without reason; sheath me not without honor."
User avatar
SandTea
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1257
Joined: Sun Mar 15, 2015 5:01 pm
Show rep
Title: 3rdAeolus

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby Kivutar » Wed Mar 16, 2016 10:04 pm

I was disappointed because I thought it would be legit explanations of little-known parts of director's lives and explorations of those experiences in film. Turned out it was the same old "Teehee, he must have a fetish, hurr hurr".

In fairness, that might be the work of Title Guy.
  • 9

Then the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes."

Hosea 3:1
User avatar
Kivutar
Champion
Champion
 
Posts: 1425
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2015 3:52 am
Location: Right behind you
Show rep
Title: Great Librarian

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby NathanLoiselle » Wed Mar 16, 2016 11:45 pm

The article came off as "Damn! I gotta pay my amazingly cheap-ass coke habit this week. Better write a lame-ass article then."
  • 3

User avatar
NathanLoiselle
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 4484
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:49 am
Location: You'll Never Know!
Show rep

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby Marcuse » Thu Mar 17, 2016 12:25 am

This one kind of didn't leave much reaction for me.

It's pretty common knowledge that Whedon loves to torture his characters, and given he writes female protagonists very often then it's reasonable to expect he'll do that more to them. I don't think it reveals a fetish for torturing women as much as it demonstrates a writer's willingness to put characters through hell.

He even writes about that in Firefly. The episode War Stories (which incidentally has two male characters literally tortured for most of it) contains a description of the fictional work of Shan Yu, who wrote:

Live with a man 40 years. Share his house, his meals. Speak on every subject. Then tie him up, and hold him over the volcano's edge. And on that day, you will finally meet the man.


If you extrapolate that as the writer's opinion of his characters, then it makes sense for him to torture his characters so we can find out who they are. He maybe takes it to extremes sometimes, but it is undeniably effective.

That seemed to be the only point really worth noting, as the rest of them seemed to just be "writers write what they know" and "Shyamalan is a self absorbed ass". Again, these are things we know already but are less interesting and nerd-baity than the Whedon point. I don't want to accuse the author of trying to court controversy, but the Whedon point seems to be included purely to generate butthurt nerd rage.
  • 8

User avatar
Marcuse
TCS Sithlord
TCS Sithlord
 
Posts: 6592
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:00 pm
Show rep

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby archaeologydalek » Thu Mar 17, 2016 2:47 am

REDACTED
  • 1

Last edited by archaeologydalek on Wed Apr 13, 2016 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
archaeologydalek
Frequent Poster
Frequent Poster
 
Posts: 220
Joined: Mon Nov 25, 2013 1:36 pm
Show rep

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby NathanLoiselle » Thu Mar 17, 2016 2:58 am

NERD RAGE
  • 3

User avatar
NathanLoiselle
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 4484
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2014 3:49 am
Location: You'll Never Know!
Show rep

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby gisambards » Thu Mar 17, 2016 3:00 am

It really annoys me when Joss Whedon is accused of sexism over his treatment of female characters. I can't remember if this is the first time it's been brought up on Cracked, but I've definitely seen the argument elsewhere. It annoys me on two levels:
Firstly, when the guy writes action-oriented stuff with women in leading roles, what do people expect to happen? Your leading character has to face adversity regardless of their gender, otherwise what's the point?
And secondly, why attack Joss Whedon of all people, who is by far the most notable male feminist working in the entertainment industry? Whedon has been giving the world strong, non-sexualised female protagonists for decades now - he's one of my biggest idols in terms of writing great women - so it's infuriating to see people who claim to be feminists attack him.
It does make you wonder what these people actually want the media to be like - what examples they would give of media they see as genuinely feminist.
  • 11

User avatar
gisambards
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 2088
Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2015 11:45 pm
Show rep

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby ghijkmnop » Thu Mar 17, 2016 4:03 am

Redacted
  • 7

Last edited by ghijkmnop on Mon Mar 18, 2019 3:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Delete my account
ghijkmnop
Time Waster
Time Waster
 
Posts: 1962
Joined: Thu May 28, 2015 8:22 am
Show rep
Title: Prisoner of TCS

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby Marcuse » Thu Mar 17, 2016 8:33 am

archaeologydalek wrote:
Marcuse wrote:I don't want to accuse the author of trying to court controversy, but the Whedon point seems to be included purely to generate butthurt nerd rage.


You know that you can read the thread where this article was pitched, right? You can see the entries she pitched, the feedback she received, and her final write-up? It's not some shadowy cabal that made that entry happen. It's her interpretation.


I could, if I thought it was worth the time to do so. Sadly PWOT doesn't like me much.

But please note I'm not accusing the author of anything more than trying to write an article with a hook. Every piece of work needs something to bring in the readers, and I've read enough pieces from Cracked that have touched upon hot button issues in popular culture to think that the people who manage things are at the very least aware that controversy/rage = higher page views. So, I suppose I'm suggesting three things:

1. The Whedon part is pretty nerdragey
2. Nerdrage = more page views
3. This is how ad revenue generated business works and it's reasonable to expect people to do this kind of thing.

My problem with the Whedon argument is that it bring precisely nothing additional to the table than we already knew, and indeed could have been more detailed by including the kind of information I added. Or maybe if the author had done things like listening to Whedon's DVD commentary for Firefly episodes where he talks about being raised in a primarily female environment, so that's his context when he writes characters. Both of these things explain why Whedon writes female protagonists and puts them through hell without resorting to some vaguely creepy justification that doesn't seem to have as strong a basis.
  • 6

User avatar
Marcuse
TCS Sithlord
TCS Sithlord
 
Posts: 6592
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:00 pm
Show rep

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby archaeologydalek » Thu Mar 17, 2016 12:24 pm

REDACTED
  • 6

Last edited by archaeologydalek on Wed Apr 13, 2016 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
archaeologydalek
Frequent Poster
Frequent Poster
 
Posts: 220
Joined: Mon Nov 25, 2013 1:36 pm
Show rep

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby Marcuse » Thu Mar 17, 2016 12:49 pm

ArcheologyDalek wrote:In that case, we've reached an impasse. I can't definitively prove that this entry was written and pitched by the author with good intentions - I can see it being pitched, at least proving that it wasn't added later by the editors as nerdrage fodder - whilst you can't prove that it wasn't. Rest assured, however, that my forthcoming articles that touch on racism, homophobia, and anti-feminist memes were all written with the best intentions.


Okay, but my opinion wasn't that the piece had been added by editors to bait. I think it can and probably does have that effect, because it's presenting an old opinion in a decidedly commonplace fashion, and I wonder if the author felt bringing up such an obvious topic of nerdrage would be a good hook to the article. I'm not accusing anyone of malice, more than I am suggesting this piece seems to have the effect of something I find annoying, especially for a topic where it would certainly benefit from a more in-depth analysis and discussion and there is pertinent information on the subject extant within the subject's work.

In addition, I really think it's a minefield for me to go into the author's intentions when it comes to writing the article beyond what's being presented in the article itself. I'm kind of uncomfortable with searching out the discussions she might have had prior to writing the article and pitching it, because I feel like while that might provide some insight, it would skirt close enough to looking more at the author than the work for me to be comfortable doing so. I'm not out to refute the opinion of the person behind the work, I'm merely critiquing the piece itself, which communicates to me in the way I have related. But it's really important to note that I'm not trying to malign the author.

Edit: Alright, rereading my initial post, I'll admit I may have overstated my case by saying it was included purely to generate nerdrage. I would still argue that it does have that effect.
  • 7

User avatar
Marcuse
TCS Sithlord
TCS Sithlord
 
Posts: 6592
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 8:00 pm
Show rep

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby D-LOGAN » Thu Mar 17, 2016 8:48 pm

I like Tara. I'm actually down as a co-writer for one of her articles, even though my entry was cut. Still feel kinda weird about that to be honest, like I snuck into a movie without paying for a ticket. IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THEY FIND ME OUT!!! Anyway as I say, she's always been very nice to me, there's been loads of times when I was working on article and it was taking ages when she'd offer an entry suggestion. None got used, but I always think that's a cool thing to do. Plus it tends to give a little surge to get back working on it when you feel like you've hit a wall so to speak.

I should probably make more of an effort to do the same truth be told, lend a hand to others like, but ... I'm just so damn busy ... what with this whole social life of mine... what with all my ... friends and assorted lovers and whatnot, there just aren't enough hours in the day! I'll start being helpful tomorrow ... or the day after.
  • 11

Not just yet, I'm still tender from before.
User avatar
D-LOGAN
TCS Junkie
TCS Junkie
 
Posts: 3590
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 7:08 pm
Location: Éire
Show rep
Title: ALL PRAISE UNTO MIGHTY KEK!

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby archaeologydalek » Thu Mar 17, 2016 11:45 pm

REDACTED
  • 9

Last edited by archaeologydalek on Wed Apr 13, 2016 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
archaeologydalek
Frequent Poster
Frequent Poster
 
Posts: 220
Joined: Mon Nov 25, 2013 1:36 pm
Show rep

Re: 5 Awful Personal Secrets Filmmakers Revealed In Their Mo

Postby Kate » Fri Mar 18, 2016 3:13 pm

Well now we know who the new Cracked overlord will be and we can start building our shrines early O.o

Like Marcuse said, it's pretty important to be able to discuss how an article comes across and be able to separate that from criticism of the author as a person. That's difficult to do because an article is basically a thesis and if you disagree with it for X reason, you can come away with the conclusion that the author has argued Y, or is probably trying to Z. If this was any other site on the web, we wouldn't be talking about how awesome (ETA: or in the case of some particularly hated Cracked authors, awful) Tara is and would just be focused on the article itself (and maybe even, funnily enough, what its creator could be showing about themselves with it), as it should be.

I am glad Tara is awesome. And, I found this mildly entertaining and pretty standard Cracked material.
  • 8

JT's Art Thread - JamesT's awesome stuff.
User avatar
Kate
Gul DuKate
Gul DuKate
 
Posts: 2961
Joined: Sun Apr 14, 2013 10:08 am
Location: Assembling Future Kate
Show rep
Title: Sheepwoman

Next

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests