Annoying Things Filmmakers Do When Watching Films

Any of my friends can attest to the annoying things I do as an aspiring filmmaker when watching a film, whether it be at the local movie theater or simply watching a Netflix series at home. It’s virtually impossible for me to simply watch a film and turn off all the training and skills that have been embedded in me for the last several years. I’m sure my fellow filmmakers can relate to some of the many annoying things filmmakers do when watching films.

1. Predict The Ending
This is by far probably the most annoying thing someone can do when watching a film. Nine times out of ten, I keep my predictions to myself to prevent ruining the entire film for my friends, however, sometimes it’s just entirely too hard to contain. In response to my (sometimes but not always) accurate predictions, I’m faced with the question of “how could you possibly know how that was going to end?”, but as we know, the only way to truly learn film is to study it and learn how it’s structured and formulated. Once you learn the structure, endings are often predictable.

2. Point Out Mistakes
This is another annoying habit I possess. However, some friends have come to embrace this one, even asking me to interrupt them during the movie to share the mistakes with them so they can see the errors also. Part of the art of filmmaking is training the eye to detect errors in your own film and peer films, however, that also means it filters over when watching films for leisure also.

3. Analyze Shots Used
As someone who has studied different types of shots and when they’re significant, I absolutely appreciate a good shot. In addition, I’m just as quick to point out and question the motives behind a bad shot. Most of my non-film friends don’t understand this, despite their efforts to attempt to understand, so it’s always great to have a fellow filmmaker friend join me for a movie once in a while to share these appreciations and concerns about shots used.

4. Insist on Watching the Credits
So many filmmakers intentional add extra snippets to the end of the credits for viewers to watch, especially if they’re planning to have a sequel, however, too many people walk out of the theater immediately after the film ends! Anybody who has seen a film with me knows that I insist on waiting until the credits are over, not just because of the potential additional footage that may be shown but because I like to stop and appreciate all the men and women who worked on the film. Very few people understand the immense amount of work that gets put into a single film, so I enjoy seeing the different names and jobs for each individual film.

All of these annoying habits carry both positive and negative aspects. Sometimes it’s nice to just watch a movie and not over analyze and see mistakes. There have been a few times where I’ve seen mistakes and actually fast forwarded to avoid the back and forth where the scarf position changes between scenes or something similar. However, these are skills I’ve worked hard to learn while it’s sometimes annoying, it’s satisfying to know that these skills are starting to come more naturally.