What fascinates you about movies?

[Yeti4928]

For me:

Subtle and not-so-subtle messages/view points/metaphors.

A director's personality/sensibilities shining through no matter the kind of film it is.

Some things make me really curious as to what the discussions were like between the cast and crew.

Most actresses/actors pretty much believe they are the character. At least in the moment.

A good amount of what you see in live action movies is technically real.

I heard something like 40% of the time, certain cast and crew members end up fooling around or dating.

[L-Rouge]

use of colour, I always try to see, especially in visual effects, how colour is used.

I love my trek. the first three movies of 30 years ago have amazing colours. as does the reboots. Into Darkness's palette is jaw dropping, it drew me into the world. such an atmosphere!.

Music. which is probably a generic answer. but Music can make an average movie amazing!.

Sound Design. I also enjoy listening to how objects are generated, sonically. Star Trek again is a prime example. Recenetly Baltasar Kormakur's "Everest" had the most phenomenal sound design. the initial storm blast in the penultimate scene made a precarious and ultimately sadening scene real.

[Al_The_Strange]

Camera work (angles, lighting, movements, framing, color schemes, etc. Some of my favorite movies are the ones that have more unusual camera angles, extremely long cuts, or just plain beautiful photography).

Storytelling (a plot that moves, characters to care about. I loathe movies that don't have forward momentum).

Practical stunts/effects (really good fight scene choreography and vehicle stunts will entice me).

Good visual effects (I used to be obsessed with CGI - maybe not so much anymore since it's everywhere now, but I like good effects that are used well).

There are other things I can admire in any number of films - acting, writing, plotting, pacing, editing, etc - I think I'd sum it all up as whether or not a film effectively blends style and substance. Most of my favorite movies have great blends of both. My least-favorites, not so much.

There are plenty of movies that move me based on subject matter or the nature of a given story, but if a movie doesn't have anything deep to it, I wouldn't knock it either.

Some movies I appreciate more because of the intense behind-the-scenes drama (like Apocalypse Now or The Abyss - both sounded like pure hell to make), or because of how devoted filmmakers/actors were.

There's probably other things, but that's all I got for now.

[Packerfan75]

Our own ability to suspend our disbelief.
How can we consistently talk ourselves into believing that what we're seeing is real? It's a movie on a screen with scripts, sets, graphics, musical scores, entire crews and actors (some of which we've seen many times before) and yet we can let it all go and play make believe for a couple hours and pretend it's real to the point where we can feel real feelings of happiness, sadness, fear, or anger. Thinking about that fascinates me.

[Al_The_Strange]

Originally Posted by L-Rouge

Music. which is probably a generic answer. but Music can make an average movie amazing!

Ah yes, music is another one for me. I have so many film scores and VA soundtracks, it's obscene.

[L-Rouge]

Originally Posted by Yeti4928

For me:

Subtle and not-so-subtle messages/view points/metaphors.

.

Have you seen Girl with a Pearl Earring, had amazing symbology, esp with regards to the earring itself being handed over..watch the movie for full context!

[Mandalorian]

Originally Posted by Packerfan75

Our own ability to suspend our disbelief.
How can we consistently talk ourselves into believing that what we're seeing is real? It's a movie on a screen with scripts, sets, graphics, musical scores, entire crews and actors (some of which we've seen many times before) and yet we can let it all go and play make believe for a couple hours and pretend it's real to the point where we can feel real feelings of happiness, sadness, fear, or anger. Thinking about that fascinates me.

I could make a long list of reasons, but this is a great one that encapsulates a lot of it for me. Film allows us to visualize literally whatever we can dream of. The only limit nowadays, with the multitude of technological advancements, is the human imagination. And it's even more encouraging that they will only continue to advance.

[L.J.]

Any movie that can transport us out of our own world and let us experiance other things that are maybe out of our reach. Also to films that help us to understand elements of our history better.

[FlipperWasIrish]

A well told story.

[Ray Jackson]

Naked women.

[Captain Flint]

The world each movie creates that I can get lost in for a couple hours. Well choreographed fight scenes always get my attention as well.

[Spencer_Kain92]

the ability they have to truly affect me whether it's fear, raw emotion, or putting me on the edge of my seat with action or thrills. the way they pull me into their world for a couple of hours so I can escape my own world.

[SororityRow]

It's a time capsule for you to relieve your favourite characters dramatic and entertaining moments.

I just love movies. Their creation is fascinating.

[Jett Rink]

The soundtrack, and lighting. And the feeling you get when you watch a movie on the big screen. There is something special about that.

[Coenskubrick]

There is not just one thing.

-They can make you feel emotions and get lost in the world
-They can make you think about concepts or ideas you normally wouldn't or ones you do in a different way
-They can be great fun, pretty, unique experiences
-They can raise awareness of issues and help improve them in some cases
-They are a reflection of your own experiences and can help you in self reflection as well as reflecting upon the behaviour of others and understanding that
-They are a demonstration of what can be achieved through imagination and hard work
-The process behind them; I am a student filmmaker myself and I am in love with the process (well there are a few things I don't like but that's the same with anything), mastering techniques, innovations, problem solving, you name it, it's a part of filmmaking. It's both an art and a science and I can't imagine a better career than the one I am currently hoping to get into.

[Moviefan2k4]

For me, movies really represent the next stage of storytelling as a medium. It started with oral traditions, then literature, radio, and now TV and film. Some say that such a visually-reliant form makes people lazy, but I respectfully disagree. While some things are better executed in our own imaginations, others work best when we can actually see them. A good example is the idea of flight, with characters like Superman or the Green Lantern. You can dream of what its like to soar through the clouds, with no fear of death...but to experience it would be one of the most freeing things in the world. We haven't figured out how to perfectly accomplish that yet, but movies allow us to get fairly close.

[Michael24]

I generally respond to movies more viscerally than cerebrally, so I tend to just like whatever entertains me. Or I guess I could say satisfies me, since some movies might not be accurately described as "entertaining." I'm not much for message movies, as I usually find them too obvious or heavy-handed. I've always felt that movies should stick with you emotionally and that if you have to spend hours thinking about or discussing "what it meant" then it failed to do its job. Just my opinion, though. I know some people love heavy discussion of potential messages or metaphors, but that's just never been my approach to film.

On a technical level, I like cinematography and lighting, and I really like good, symphonic film scores. I like some electronic scores, but not when they are just droning wallpaper or repetitive drum beats. (Give me a Magnificent Seven over a Batman Begins any day.) I also love an honest to goodness theme, which has sadly become a rarity these days. Where was Iron Man's theme? Where was Thor's? Or Hulk's? At least Captain America got one that was memorable and hummable as you're leaving the theater. A lot of filmmakers these days, especially newer ones, almost seem afraid to let film music do its job, and instead ask for generic wallpaper they then bury at low volume in the background hoping it won't be heard.

[Ultra_Violence]

Cinematography. I find myself picking films to watch based on the DP rather than the director or actors involved.

[dgoswald]

I'm fascinated by the ability of film to manipulate our emotions and thought processes. I don't mean that to come across as a negative BTW. It's great how the confluence of moving images, music, and mood can cause a particular reaction. That's some next level alchemy!

[Foggy]

Cinematography, things like what lens or shot type get the ball rolling, why shoot something that way, what is the impact? So many various ways to shoot a scene and tell something, but the most interesting thing to me will always be movement and stillness. Big tracking shot, whirling cameras movements, it's always seems hard to keep a scene going with all movement, so you need to be taken on a ride. But stillness, the exact opposite forces you to look at something for a long amount of time, scour the frame and really see what's going through a characters head. It's also interesting to see all the reactions you can get from very little, stillness can create tension, horror, suspense, comedy, drama. A still shot of film can even move you to tears. For all the fancy camera movements, the most effective ones are the ones that don't move at all, I think the best example is:

Nicole Kidman Close Up in Birth - YouTube

Which goes swiftly into Acting and Performance. I see it all the time, all young filmmakers forget their actors, to the most extraordinary degree. Come in and so your line. I think the worst case was we were filming this long take with a dolly and track and the actor had a long monologue at something pitched like an Alcoholics Anonymous program, and the guy monologuing ran out of time before the shot met it's end so natural began repeating what he had said to fill the space, and the director was so focused on the look of the film that she never even noticed. The actors are probably the most important thing to a films success, and it's so hard for many people to see because they're busy wanting to show their technical prowess, but instead, the audience isn't going to know the lighting, they're not going to care how nicely composited your shot is or notice that your sound is crisp and clear, obviously they're important to do, but they're definitely going to notice with the wet blanket on screen. So take that, and make that, make it compelling, fill the frame with everything you want to see and the audience to get. Your actor is everything that pushes a film from pretty pictures to storytelling.

I'll also give a quick shout out to sound and editing. Sound is always interesting when it comes to bigger films, because it's strange how much of the spectacle needs sound effects, or at least some music. The extraordinary lengths people will go to create not realistic sounds, but heightened sounds, hyperealistic sounds, just incredible and really underappreciated work. Editing interesting to me because it's such a large part of the process, people take it as just an extra job to be done. But really it's putting the entire film together and making it and shaping it. The most interesting is the less is more mantra, kill your darlings, if the pacing isn't working lob out that huge set piece that took half your pre-production and production time getting right. There's tons of examples where it's been done right or wrong, I think Django Unchained could have lobed 20 minutes off it's runtime easy, but where it's been done right was The Raid 2. Massive gang war scene that took up a lot of planning and hard work to get right, ultimately has nothing tangible to do with anything with the plot or even the videogame vibe of the movie, so it was fully taken out and the film benefits greatly.

Genre and themes:

Crime - Always intriguing seeing why people do bad things, what strays some one to be evil? What affect it has on good people? What does evil do to the one committing it? The twisted morals of criminals, the law and honour among them, what sets those rules in place? What can cause them to break them? What guilt does to people? But also on some meta level, why is it so easy to sell the experience of doing something bad to an audience? On what level would I do this stuff?

Identity - Split this one into two, coming of age is an obvious one, following rite of passage, what makes you you? That sense of nostalgia, looking back seeing how you've grown up. But also identity in a cultural sense, like how the world has been affected by massive events, the 2008 recession, the current refuge crisis, 9/11, and how that shapes the films we watch.

Oppression - How is the world stopping you? What the constricting nature of social norms? How we are all hiding secrets? How we lash out against the world? How the world shapes around certain things and stops others?

Hierarchies - The social ladder? Why some are better than others? The order of things? What happens when the order is disturbed? Why others soar while others suffer? Why one might affect the other? Why some one would want to reach the top? What does someone who has it all want next? Why do we all want what the guy at the top of the food chain has?

Murphy's Law - When things go bad to worse. It's pretty the essential thing to any successful screenplay. Cause and effect, if something goes wrong, what can someone do next? How can they solve that issue? What's the risk of doing something do to something else? The best screenplays will always pit it from chances of certain death to chances of near death, and guess that goes into the power of the human spirit.

Bias - Specific perspective. How films make you view things in a certain way. This is always happening, you emotions are in constant turmoil and are controlled by filmmakers. But it always interests me when filmmakers make you root for the wrong thing, or something you original saw as good twists and is suddenly bad. And the moment or even entire films that are unbiased, allow you to do all the work. Where everything feels dire. What's to blame? What's the cause? Are we all bad? Is this just the way we are? Who's right in a certain situation? Who's would I side with? What would I do? What can I learn from these people's problems?