The fifth and final season of Strange things Descends into the big red zone N ready to meet the highest expectations, which They can also feel frustrated because of us. To do this, it is appropriate to rescue some statements from the Duffer brothers, regarding the premiere in 2017 of the second part of the film. Eighties nostalgia series, With whom they were intended Shed some light on an issue That, although it may seem trite to many, will, in any way, define our experience as viewers: how we watch episodes on television.
Far from being just a whim of the creators, it is recommended to take into account some tips that It will improve the presentation of the chapters For the series, so you can see it in the best possible way of how it was conceived during planning, filming and editing. This is something that can be achieved by following the simple yet powerful advice he gave Matt Dover During an interview with eagle: “The key is there Disable anything that has the word “motion” in it“‘TruMotion’, ‘Smooth Motion’…” he pointed out, not beating around the bush.
“When I go to my friends’ houses, I’m constantly fixing their TVs. We and everyone in Hollywood, It takes a lot of time, effort and money to make things look good. He continued: “When you see it in someone’s home, it looks like it was filmed on an iPhone.” His brother Ross He still doesn’t understand what he saw a few years ago Comic Con: “It’s shocking! The settings on every TV were wrong. Didn’t a bunch of nerds install this? “What’s wrong with them?”
Avoid the “soap opera effect” or “soap opera effect”
With this obsession in mind – and with Netflix about to release the most anticipated season of its prized series – here comes a reminder: If you want to watch… Strange things How do they want you to see it, the first step is Review your smart TV settings. The first enemy is of course the so-called ‘MSmoothing the movement‘ —’Auto Motion Plus’ on Samsung, ‘TruMotion’ on LG, and ‘MotionFlow’ on Sony — that artificial smoothing that adds frames that don’t exist, changes the original 24fps cadence and It turns any series into something that looks like it was recorded on a home camera. There’s enough reason for Hollywood to hate this feature, it ruins texture and erases a lot of photographic work.
The Duffers are not alone. Tom CruiseChristopher McQuarrie, Scorsese, Nolan and Patty Jenkins have publicly asked viewers to deactivate it. And from that crusade was born ‘Cinema mode’ or ‘Output mode‘a setting present in many current models from LG, Samsung, Panasonic or Philips that eliminates all additional processing: smoothing, overbrightness, oversaturation, interpolation… Its task is simple: Let the work look as the director intended.
How to activate cinema mode
activation Cinema mode It is not a complicated task and can be done in a few steps:
- Access the “Menu”.Settings’ also ‘Settings’ From your TV.
- Enter “Picture modeswhere options such as “Dynamic,” “Standard,” “Sports,” or “Movies” appear.
- He chooses ‘cinema’, ‘film‘, ‘Real cinema‘ or ‘Output mode‘if your TV includes it.
- The TV will adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation and disable motion processing, although you can adjust these values depending on the lighting in your room.
- If your model has Ambient light sensorActivate it to automatically adapt the image to the environment.
Some TVs and platforms such as HBO Max also Amazon Prime You can activate this mode automatically when you start playing the movie.
Other settings
Beyond Cinema mode, there are a series of basic settings to review for any series or film, especially dark or atmospheric productions such as Strange things:
- Disable any function with “Motion”, “Flow”, “Smooth”, “Plus”, “Clarity” Or something like that. At Samsung it would be Auto Motion Plus, at LG TruMotion, at Sony MotionFlow… Each brand gives it a different name.
- Manually transfer contrast and brightness To prevent shadows from being obscured or faces from burning.
- Disable modes ‘mobile’ also ‘clear’Designed for stores, not for fantasy viewing.
- Reduce over processing: Features, extreme sharpness, or phosphorescent colors detract from their nature.
- Allow control of ambient lighting If your model includes this: Adjust the image according to the actual lighting in the room.
The idea is that your TV turns off Invents Visual information and playback of what has been recorded simply, without further ado.
What we learned from ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘House of Dragons’
After two years of Duffers researching the issue, the issue came to the fore as a result of upset over an episode of another hit series, in this case from HBO. The events occurred in April 2019The series was well known game of thrones and the episode in question is the famous 8×03 entitled The long nightwhich It generated a wave of complaints due to excessive darkness.
At the time, its creators justified the visual final look because the series was intended for theatrical release, not a platform.The compression system is unable to render all shades of dark gray What does it take to go from dark gray to black,” noted director of photography Paul Torrents after the broadcast on his account
History repeats itself in Dragon Houseespecially in 1×07, also directed by the same director, Miguel Sapochnik, where even with the curtains drawn and maximum brightness there were viewers unable to distinguish what was happening on the screen. It wasn’t just a creative problem: It was also a problem of internal adaptation.
Final tip: Remove “Motion Smoothing” once and for all
After reviewing all of these examples, the conclusion is the same one that Hollywood creators have been repeating for years: If you want to watch Season 5 of… Strange thingsstart by uninstalling anything that contains the word “motion.” This simple adjustment makes the difference between a cinematic image and a separation that sounds like a recording recorded on a mobile phone. Do it for the Duffers. Do it for your eyes. Do so in the final season of one of Netflix’s biggest series.