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Joe Blevins 
"Don't I look handsome?"
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 Posted - 08/01/2010 : 17:03:52
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Have you checked out Movie Midpoints yet? If not, you really ought to. The site's premise is simple. I'll let them explain.
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How many of these films can you identify, based solely on the visual clues contained within a single frame - the "middle frame"? A link to the name of the movie is provided with each day's midpoint image. (But try not to peek before you've made a guess.)
Basically, they show you the exact middle frame of a film, and you try to identify the movie based on that image. On one level, it simply works as a movie trivia game of sorts. But beyond that, it's an offbeat new way of examining movies and making even those that are very well-known to us seem weirdly unfamiliar. Let's face it, middles don't get the same level of attention as BEGINNINGS or ENDINGS. The middle is the most challenging part of any movie, for both the filmmakers and the audience. It's the place where just about any story starts to sag a bit. The excitement of the opening moments has worn off (if only a little), the conclusion is not yet in sight, and we have to wade through the ups and downs of the plot in our journey from point A to point B. Beginnings and endings get all the glamour, but middles are the real workhorses of storytelling. There's a whole movie, in fact, called The Big Crime Wave which deals with a writer-director who can concoct beginnings and endings but can't ever seem to come up with middles. I wonder if this site would inspire or depress him.
Anyway, some of the middle frames on display here are quite amusing out of context. Sometimes, the main characters are on camera. Quite often, they're not. Very occasionally, the exact midpoint is a moment when nobody happens to be on camera at that particular split second, and all we see is an empty room.
OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST
* How nice to know that "The Middle of the Film" in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life really is the middle of the film.
* The middle frame for The Graduate seems too good to be true.
* Intentionally or not, the middle frame for The Breakfast Club looks like a Mondrian painting.
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Salopian 
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 08/01/2010 : 17:08:22
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Interesting. Thanks for highlighting it. I only got one on the front page.  |
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benj clews 
"...."
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Posted - 08/01/2010 : 17:18:21
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| #189 is strangely the perfect summary of the vast majority of Adam Sandler's career output. |
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Salopian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 08/01/2010 : 17:26:27
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quote:
Originally posted by benj clews
#189 is strangely the perfect summary of the vast majority of Adam Sandler's career output.
LOL. #196 is good too: it could not possibly be any other film, even though it does not show any people or even really a scene. |
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benj clews
"...."
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Posted - 08/01/2010 : 17:30:31
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Originally posted by Salopian
#196 is good too: it could not possibly be any other film, even though it does not show any people or even really a scene.
Yeah- that's the whole plot right there. They could use that as the poster  |
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 08/01/2010 : 17:46:00
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I'm terrible at guessing these, by the way. On the first page alone, there's a movie which I not only own on DVD but which I consider one of my top 10 favorites of all time, and I didn't come close to guessing it.
Incidentally, here's what I mean about The Breakfast Club and Mondrian. |
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Salopian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 08/01/2010 : 18:45:57
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quote:
Originally posted by Joe Blevins
Incidentally, here's what I mean about The Breakfast Club and Mondrian.
, or should I say     ?
It's a shame that it's only presented as a game, i.e. you cannot also look up a film to see its frame. |
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MOVIE MIDPOINTS
