What's all this shouting?
I don't have very good selective attention.
Although there are times when I can focus on one thing and ignore everything else, there are also times when I can't. I have particular trouble with sound. There are just some noises that I can't filter out, and that annoys the hell out of me. For instance, the sound of someone crunching their way through a bag of crisps (potato chips for those outside the UK). More often than not, that sound cuts through me like a knife. Transpose that noise into a fairly quiet location, and it becomes worse. A cinema for example. There are few things that wind me up as much as someone crunching through a movie. It's like that person has decided that the soundtrack has something missing, and chooses to add a 'crunch track'. Because as everybody knows, nothing heightens tension like the sound of someone eating. Nothing quite so evocative as the munch of popcorn.
The assumption (whether conscious or not) seems to be that the sound of the film isn't as important as the visual aspect - demonstrated by the fact that someone who stood up blocking part of the screen might not survive until the end of the film. I'm a fan of movie soundtracks. Not necessarily just the music, but the ambient noises, the talking, the sound effects. Someone has put a lot of effort into this for my entertainment, and I won't belittle their work by not listening. And I object to not being able to fully appreciate their work because someone in the cinema fancies a snack.
I know. I'm 'highly strung'. I freely admit it. It's not at all annoying to me when I'm eating crisps. People are not being malicious by choosing to eat the noisiest foods known to man. And although I would like the whole world to revolve around me, I'm grown up enough to know it's not going to happen. But I never understood why cinemas, whose job it is to show movies for my gratification, started selling snack foods that made so much noise. That is until I was told it was the concessions that make cinemas their money, not just the ticket sales. Then it all became clear. Capitalism at work. Fabulous. Guess why I prefer watching DVDs in the quiet of my own home...
I guess everyone has a sense they rely on, or appreciate, more than the others. Mine would be sound. Music, talking, the sound of the sea, or a river flowing by. If a picture paints a thousand words, to me a sound evokes a thousand images. It's just the way I was put together. And I only wish I could change that every now and then...
Although there are times when I can focus on one thing and ignore everything else, there are also times when I can't. I have particular trouble with sound. There are just some noises that I can't filter out, and that annoys the hell out of me. For instance, the sound of someone crunching their way through a bag of crisps (potato chips for those outside the UK). More often than not, that sound cuts through me like a knife. Transpose that noise into a fairly quiet location, and it becomes worse. A cinema for example. There are few things that wind me up as much as someone crunching through a movie. It's like that person has decided that the soundtrack has something missing, and chooses to add a 'crunch track'. Because as everybody knows, nothing heightens tension like the sound of someone eating. Nothing quite so evocative as the munch of popcorn.
The assumption (whether conscious or not) seems to be that the sound of the film isn't as important as the visual aspect - demonstrated by the fact that someone who stood up blocking part of the screen might not survive until the end of the film. I'm a fan of movie soundtracks. Not necessarily just the music, but the ambient noises, the talking, the sound effects. Someone has put a lot of effort into this for my entertainment, and I won't belittle their work by not listening. And I object to not being able to fully appreciate their work because someone in the cinema fancies a snack.
I know. I'm 'highly strung'. I freely admit it. It's not at all annoying to me when I'm eating crisps. People are not being malicious by choosing to eat the noisiest foods known to man. And although I would like the whole world to revolve around me, I'm grown up enough to know it's not going to happen. But I never understood why cinemas, whose job it is to show movies for my gratification, started selling snack foods that made so much noise. That is until I was told it was the concessions that make cinemas their money, not just the ticket sales. Then it all became clear. Capitalism at work. Fabulous. Guess why I prefer watching DVDs in the quiet of my own home...
I guess everyone has a sense they rely on, or appreciate, more than the others. Mine would be sound. Music, talking, the sound of the sea, or a river flowing by. If a picture paints a thousand words, to me a sound evokes a thousand images. It's just the way I was put together. And I only wish I could change that every now and then...
posted by Rob Langley at 12:14 am
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