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It seems I am the only person this has happened to, but I want to confirm it.
I saw Signs yesterday afternoon with my two daughters and husband. In every scene that had characters talking but not with any close-up shots, we could see the boom microphone hanging down in the shot. And I mean REALLY see it. It hung down about a third of the height of the screen. And it would move to whichever actor was speaking. All told, I'd say that microphone was visible for close to half the movie when you count up all the scenes it was in.
After a few shots of this boom mic, people figured out what it was, and we'd all giggle when it came on screen because it just looked so OBVIOUS hanging there and moving around. I wasn't sure whether to find it funny and unique (an experience to tell about later), or to be ticked that the suspension of disbelief was so much harder. I mean, really, it's kinda tough to be totally scared when Mel Gibson is telling Joaquin Phoenix about something scary about to happen when there's this obvious set microphone bopping back and forth from one guy to the other right over their heads!
I assume this didn't happen to anyone else? Has anyone ever heard of this happening -- and so OBVIOUSLY? Does anyone know how they mass produce copies of movies for theatres? Could it have been cut wrong from the get-go?
My husband seemed to think the projectionist just had the tracking wrong...because the movie usually spreads out past the screen anyway, but I've been to movies where the tracking has been off (Austin Powers last week, for instance), and you can't see any mics. You just see the seam of the film at the wrong spot, and the bottom is cut off and is at the top of the screen instead.
I just can't imagine any film director sending off copies of his film ON PURPOSE with the boom mic hanging down 1/3 of the screen in EVERY OTHER SCENE, hoping that a thousand projectionists in a thousand theatres will track the thing right so you can't see the microphones.
Someone help me out. This was too weird for words....
Or is it just...a sign???
Linda