Why do we work so hard to setup an opinion of a show before we see it?- Page 2
Why do we work so hard to setup an opinion of a show before we see it?
#25re: Why do we work so hard to setup an opinion of a show before we see it?
Posted: 3/31/07 at 6:31pm
I agree with n69n. I don't work hard at all to set up an opinion of a show or movie before I see it.
Sometimes it happens and it's unavoidable. If I'm particularly interested in the production, or if I have a friend or two involved in it... then I end up knowing more than the average audience member going in. That's called a "bias." Most of us like to think we can sort through a lot of advance information, clips, photos, recordings, etc., and think we can still walk into the theatre with an open mind.
Nope. It's not possible. And if you think you can do that, you're fooling yourself. I'm not saying it's right or wrong to learn or know much about a production before you see it, but you should understand that you cannot and will not be experiencing it with a fresh opinion. You've already formed opinions about the various elements you've been exposed to. A simple, unavoidable fact.
I try not to do this, if at all possible, because I think it spoils the freshness of the "first time experience."
I should also say that very rarely do people shell out money to see something they know absolutely NOTHING about. At the very least they know who's in it, or who wrote or directed it. And usually at least a one-sentence summary of what it's supposed to be about. And already, the prejudging begins in our minds, just based on that. The more we know, the closer we come to writing our full review in our heads, before the lights even dim.
Again, to know everything about a production before you even see it, and to going in with an open mind...
It's not possible.
You may go in "ever hopeful" that it will be good, you may try to mentally erase any negative thoughts you have, but you've reacted to the information presented to you in advance, good or bad.
No getting around it.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#26re: Why do we work so hard to setup an opinion of a show before we see it?
Posted: 3/31/07 at 6:38pmA show like HIGH FIDELITY closes because the producers didn't have a nickel of advanced sales to run on should the show open to bad reviews, which it did. It had nothing to do with the word of mouth around here.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Videos