Saturday, January 9, 2010

On suspension of disbelief.

A question:

Is it easier for you to suspend disbelief--whether it's in story, setting, character, or technical elements--in theatre, or in film? What does it take to bring you out of the moment, and what brings you back in (or, just keeps you there the whole time)?

More info on what prompted this a bit later on. For now...what say you?

2 comments:

  1. I would say film, where it's generally more of a "closed" environment than theatre - dark room, sense that you are the only one watching it, generally inside a place.

    Theatre has more variables that tie you to the outside world (performance space, live actors, sense of audience, etc).

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  2. Funny, it tends to work the opposite way for me. Because film is a literal medium, I tend to give plays a lot more room to be imperfect in their reality. For me, a film that fails to establish its ground reality will be much more off-putting than a similar story told on stage with a similar flaw.

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