[Weekly Update] Where do you sit in the theaters

Important notice:
I'll be away from office in November, video for that month will be exported in October ahead of time. That means new Patreon supporters will not have their names listed in November videos. Instead, they'll be listed in the December video. I'll figure a way to indicate people who supported both months.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Anyway, we are going to talk about that one time I sat in the front of the movie theater and had an amazing experience. But first, let's do some house keeping.

CHANNEL UPDATE

Our Last Video:
Hope you enjoyed our latest video on Chinese-Japanese collaborations. After 3 video about the two countries, I have finally said what I wanted to say. And yet, I feel like I barely said enough. That's why, whenever Dead to Rights comes out to home media, we'll truly wrap up this topic by talking about how imperialism corrupted Japan, and what we can do in the future.

October Videos:
October videos are nearly complete. We have the cynical tutorial on how to spot a bad critic, which you can see the preview posted on our Discord server. Our Halloween video, as promised, will be a video analyzing Kwaidan. The editing is nearly complete, and preview will be shared sometime next month.

November Videos:
For November, we'll have a video on The Legend, a Tamil language medical + action unintentional comedy, written, produced and starring the son of a wealthy family who owns a popular Indian department store chain... Any bad movie connoisseur can smell the stench from that summary.
Unfortunately, because Ashiap Man also starts a wealthy dude (specifically, a YouTuber from a wealthy family who is famous for being popular...), I'll delay that video to next year, so that we don't have two similar videos back to back.
Instead, we'll just have a casual chat about Godzilla Minus One, specifically about how the film fools us into seeing better CGI than it actually has, and the one flaw regarding the film's central plot.

MEDIA TALK

A while back I went to the movie theater to see the new Fantastic Four movie. I forgot for what reason, but I picked a seat that's quite close to the front. Not quite right in front of the screen, but still first row after the disability seatings. That fateful decision made the movie experience so much better.

You see, the film's primary antagonist is Galactus, an unbelievably silly looking space god. Conceptually it is terrifying. A gigantic being who devours planets to satiate his hunger. A god who's older than the universe itself. It is Lovecraftian. But it also has a freaking tuning fork glue to his bucket head. And he wears bright and reddish-purple.

After the 2007 backlash in Rise of the Silver Surfer, where Galactus was depicted as a planet eating cloud monster, Marvel has no choice but to depict Galactus fatefully this time. Since you can't rely on character design to make him look imposing, the film relies on cinematography. And boy, I'm glad I was sitting on the front row.

Since I was in the front, my line of sight, when levelled, lines up only with the bottom of the frame. For this one shot, I could felt myself raising my head to see this giant towering over me, as it towers over The Fantastic Four. The composition is slightly awkward. The framing did not leave any headroom for Galactus, as if he is simply too big to fit into the frame. And holy moly, it was actually scary.

It's so rare to see this kind of composition these days, where the main characters are so small, you can barely even tell where they are. Seeing it on streaming simply does not do it justice.

Adding to this immersion is the fact that there is no one in front of me. There is no seats directly in front either. I was not protected from the aura farming MFer. The next shot sees the Fantastic Four taking a step back, seemingly in fear and ready to run.

I don't have megalophobia. But in that moment, I understand why some people may find that scary. Bravo.

Sometimes we are snobby and think we prefer to engage with movies intellectually. Then, once in a while, a movie comes and stunts you with imageries like this. It's a rare treat, especially these days. But Fantastic Four did it, and that's something I don't think enough people talk about. The large screen can be impactful, but only if you make your movie for the big screen.

Anyway, shorter update this week, but I hope the story is a fun read. What's your memorable theater experience lately? Did you see Sinners in IMAX? Did the large image bring you a similar awe? I'll see you in our next update.