One of the worst possible things to do when you really like a book or a movie is to find out everything there is to know about how it came to be. To read about the actors, or about what drug the author was on while they wrote it. What does it mean to me to know that Stephen King was so drunk and coked up that he doesn't remember writing The Shining? Does that make The Shining better or worse? People are so desperate to know everything about something they like, but I believe knowing it all takes away from the entertainment value of the thing itself.
For example, Ben told me that his dad avoided all reviews and articles and interviews about the Lord of the Rings movies. Doing so made the movies more real for him. Meanwhile, me, Ben and many others spent hours watching the DVDs extras to see how the movie was made.
I bring this up because on Thursday I stood in line for three hours in 92 degree New York City heat to see The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. As previous posts can confirm, I love The Daily Show. I love Jon Stewart. Well, loved. Because being there and seeing how they film it and what they do during commercial break time and how the studio really looks ruined it for me. After taking the ferry back across the river to New Jersey and arriving at home after a Diner dinner, I said, "I can't ever watch The Daily Show again."
Learning about what parts of a book are based on real experiences, what parts of the movie stunt doubles were used, or that your favorite TV personalities have a TV personality... well, it's like wanting to learn how magic tricks are done. You feel more in-the-loop, but it's not fun anymore.
As our ferry scooted between Circle Line tour boats and Manhatten was left behind us, I thought of the Wizard of Oz. That sometimes you really should pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
2 comments:
Welcome to being a TVproduction major. I know how they make everything, and now when I watch anything I get really stressed out because I know how much work it took to get the show from filming to production to air.
In July 1999, I went to my first music concert that involved a famous group: America. I had grown up listening to their songs ("A Horse With No Name," "Ventura Highway" and many more). They were part of who I was. Having never seen the actual musicians playing those songs, I often thought of them as originating in some sort of mystical ether (there is a very surreal element to their songs). They were part of my imagination. However, when I went to that concert, and I saw the actual (original) musicians playing "my" mystical songs in the real world (exactly as they sound on the radio, no less), a lifetime of magic disappeared. Ever since then, whenever I hear any of those songs, instead of associating them with my memories and fantasies, I must now continually try not to picture aging people singing them in a for-profit atmosphere. I have been only partially successful.
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