The writing of many dramatic scenes has been changed by the presence of cell phones.
I was watching an old 70's crime drama recently, where a woman was grabbed off the street and stuffed into the trunk of a car, which then sped away.
Me: "She should call the police."
My Brain: "Cell phones weren't exactly common in 1975."
Me: "Oh, right..."
Cell phones make calling for help too easy, they're the Star Trek communicator of 2005. On Star Trek, if you got in a jam, all you had to do was yell for Scotty and he'd beam you up.
"Hey, Scotty - I gotta use the bathroom, but they don't use Quilted Northern down here. Beam me directly to ToiletRoom4."
So the writers had to come up with all sorts of reasons why they couldn't yell for Scotty. a) The primitive types surprised them and took their communicators. b) The high tech enemies were jamming the signal. c) Cosmic Storm interference. It was always something, because simply beaming the landing party out of any jam removed all drama.
We have to do the same thing with cell phones, in writing for the present day. Especially troublesome are the camera-web-texting-GPS phones. If someone is trying to give you false information, you can look it up online.
"Ha!" You say. "Toledo is NOT the capital of Ohio. Where are you really from, bub?"
The too-useful phone has to get smashed or the battery dies or there's no signal, etc. These extra steps don't really serve the story, they just solve nagging questions from readers.
I was watching an old 70's crime drama recently, where a woman was grabbed off the street and stuffed into the trunk of a car, which then sped away.
Me: "She should call the police."
My Brain: "Cell phones weren't exactly common in 1975."
Me: "Oh, right..."
Cell phones make calling for help too easy, they're the Star Trek communicator of 2005. On Star Trek, if you got in a jam, all you had to do was yell for Scotty and he'd beam you up.
"Hey, Scotty - I gotta use the bathroom, but they don't use Quilted Northern down here. Beam me directly to ToiletRoom4."
So the writers had to come up with all sorts of reasons why they couldn't yell for Scotty. a) The primitive types surprised them and took their communicators. b) The high tech enemies were jamming the signal. c) Cosmic Storm interference. It was always something, because simply beaming the landing party out of any jam removed all drama.
We have to do the same thing with cell phones, in writing for the present day. Especially troublesome are the camera-web-texting-GPS phones. If someone is trying to give you false information, you can look it up online.
"Ha!" You say. "Toledo is NOT the capital of Ohio. Where are you really from, bub?"
The too-useful phone has to get smashed or the battery dies or there's no signal, etc. These extra steps don't really serve the story, they just solve nagging questions from readers.
You ended with:
ReplyDelete"they just solve the nagging questions from the readers" . . . preceeded by a nod at: Columbus, ehem, Ohio.
No one ever talks about Ohio. Ohio. Ohio. Ohio. Such a blah state.
So I've heard.
I just adore playing these mind games with you Etch-A. What would I do without a blogger friend like you???
Ohio is great. I was born there, making it greater.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, my folks live in Cleveland, which I've never cared for. Cleveland, that is. I love my folks!
We might end up living in Dayton one day though... Cindy has a strange obsession about the place...
Without me... you'd have 1 fewer silly comments on your blog?
ReplyDeleteSometimes I expect an email from you saying "Please stop commenting on my blog. Thank you."
For those of us whose cell phone batteries die after less than a day of use, it usually doesn't even occur to me that something just ain't right, that they should be whipping out their Boost Mobile and answering that sage question "Where You At?"
ReplyDelete_Dayton_?!?
ReplyDeleteI know a few million other places that might be better . . . althought they do have a kick ass Airforce Museum.
So I've heard.
& thanks for having my back on the lemon meringue [which looks like (mer ANG gee) to me, not (mer ane), curse the stupid French 4ever].
Hey--I should blog that . . .
I used to laugh because nothing on Star Trek ever seemed to work the way it should.
ReplyDeleteHolodeck? Trapped inside with the safety off
Need help? Communicator Jammed/broken/interference
Enemy in sights? Whoops! Weapons just spontaneously exploded.
I thought it was far fetched that all that advanced tech was so unreliable...then I realised how often my mobile didn't work, my computer crashed, my ISP was down.
In the future...nothing works!