For the most part, comp lits will forgive certain things involving the peripheral use of computers in film – heck, it gives them […]
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For the most part, comp lits will forgive certain things involving the peripheral use of computers in film – heck, it gives them something to make fun of later. But if you try and make a movie that revolves around computers, then the gloves are off. Everything better be right, or there will be trouble. So, for moviemakers, it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. If you make a movie about computers and you dumb it down for the masses, then a certain demographic that can provide your flick with some credibility (the computer geeks) will eat you alive (and with the massive word of mouth power the net now holds, that's a bad thing). If you keep it real for the engineers, then the bulk of the Cineplex-going herd will give a big, collective "duh, huh?"
So what's to be done? Well, there are a number of things you can do. And most of them were done in Hackers. Let's make a list (lists are good)...
Problem One: You can't use the standard GUI interface today's operating systems have. Mostly, this is because you can't make them big enough or simple enough. When you're filming a close up shot of a computer screen, and you need the viewers to get what you're trying to show them, then the text better be big and there shouldn't be any distracting extras. This whole issue becomes twice as important when you think about shrinking the picture down for a television format.
Solution: If you have to make your own graphical user interface, go the distance. Make it way out there. At least the elite will know you're having fun. In Hackers, there isn't anything even approaching a normal computer screen.
Problem Two: Most people don't want to see gibberish or boring text lists. Unfortunately that's what you see a lot of when you're doing serious work on a computer.
Solution: Abstract everything. In Hackers anything that would normally be crunchy and screens upon screen of scrolling alphanumeric soup was abstracted. Are the kids dipping into a company mainframe? No command prompts, just fractal ferns, waving gently into infinity.
The results were pretty cool in my opinion, but it wasn't enough to win a wide audience. The few still think it's goofy and inaccurate and the many didn't get it. That, however, often perfectly describes a bottom shelf movie.
