Sherlock Holmes needs to meet Mike Holmes's electrician

[seryn]

I am attempting to watch the DVD of the newish movie Sherlock Holmes. The one with that actor who's always getting arrested for something, Robert Downy something. He's not very British.

I say I am attempting to watch this, but it's a struggle. It's filmed in the fucking dark. We've turned the brightness up to max where the subtitles glow like they've been irradiated by several nuclear blasts and you still can't see shit of the details that Holmes (during that scene specifically) was saying are so very crucial.

There really is no excuse for this. I cannot imagine how watching this movie in a theater would be anything other than a snooze fest because I can't hear what they're saying (only understanding because of the subtitles) and I can't see anything that's going on. Movie theaters do not stop and turn up the brightness.

If the production company cannot afford decent lighting so things show up in the recording, then maybe they should hire cheaper actors or wait until they have appropriate financing.

Comments

[scheherezhad]

I have this same problem with television shows all the time, now. It feels like I can't see half the scenes in most shows if I watch them on my tv, no matter how I adjust my settings. Watching stuff on my laptop is usually just fine. Maybe low-light scenes show up significantly better on newer sets than mine, I don't know. This tv is 9 years old and still works perfectly well, and I don't replace expensive stuff like that until I have no choice. (Although as many shows as I watch online now, there's a pretty good chance I won't even bother to replace it when it eventually dies.)

But yes, it would be very nice if visual media would back the hell off of this "darkness = edgy and cool" kick and learn to light stuff again. :/

[seryn]

LCD screens are inherently brighter than tube sets. If your TV is 9 years old, it's not a flat panel LCD for sure. But no, I don't think it's your TV.

Yes, absolutely there's a serious problem. I don't notice it so much with TV but I did several years ago (when our TV was new too... so that couldn't have been it) and I think we just stopped watching the shows with the ridiculously stupid lighting.

Maybe we should try putting the DVD up on the LCD monitor instead. It's a smaller screen but I can turn the brightness way up since we keep it at about 3% for normal viewing..