Last night I was watching the film Limitless when I realised the truth behind the words of Katherine Hayles article Hyper and Deep attention: The Generational Divide in cognitive modes that was discussed in our first Media 1 lecture on Monday. The movie features Bradley Cooper and follows his life after his introduction to a new street drug named NTZ that allows him to access more receptors in his brain and therefore reach his full level of intelligence. The reason I am discussing this particular film is due to the shots of the film were fast moving, zooming in and out of things quickly. This is of course intended to imitate the alertness felt after consuming the drug, however at times I was forced to close my eyes to avoid feeling ill from so much movement. If I were to compare this modern film to one filmed in the 80’s or 90’s I would find a dramatic variance in shot times. This, as explained by Katherine Hayles, is an example of the cognitive change and the demand for higher levels of visual stimulation.

I myself have often slipped off into boredom whilst watching the long still shots of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (one of my dads favourite old American cowboy movies) which was released in 1969, where many of the sections of filming was done through a single camera shot rather than lots of different shots combined together to heighten stimulation of the movie, much preferring the newest Marvel action movies.

Examples of deep attentive filming can be seen through documentaries. Where the specimens are watched through long shots, giving the audience (generally meant for the older population) a long time to register what is happening in each shot. the shots are slowed down so as the audience can watch closely and concentrate on each thing occurring in it. Long shots in documentaries also have a dramatic effect however, as the tension builds in the ‘calm before the storm’ of animals in their natural habits hunting food.