Movie's and the Media(especially TV)

Considering movie's like Groundhog Day, Up Close and Personal, Anchorman, and the litany of TV sitcoms and dramas about Television Newsrooms it's no wonder some people think of the media as vultures.

However, I think you could take any industry from Doctors, Lawyers, Cops and Bankers to the movie making industry itself and find objections to real life. Ask members of any given profession how their job is portrayed in the movies and they will tell you how silly they think they appear on the silver screen or the boob-toob. And the technical imppossibilities? Well, it is the movies.

Personally I think we the media are so close to our profession that we examine things in such detail that we cringe when we see the rolling sat truck going live or the polished reporter counting down to a LIVE SHOT!

"Five, Four, Three...I'm live at..."

But cops do the same thing about shows like CSI, and movies like Lethal Weapon.

Doctors probably cringe at some of the stuff on ER and HOUSE, MD.

And have you ever seen Top Gun or Days of Thunder? Two great Tom Cruise Movies that I could watch a million times over and barely get tired of, but they are a far cry from depicting true to life events, as they could really happen.

The fact is that movie's have to take creative liberty with most aspects of real life to make them interesting to the ordinary viewer. They have to spice it up a bit to hold on to the audiences or they wouldn't make any money. There are plenty of movie's out there that get plain boring and don't make any money because they don't hold the viewers because they tried to make it too real. (I am searching my brain for an example)

Can you imagine if we would have had to endure a scene in 'Up Close and Personal' where they actually put the mast up, hook up the cables, sent bars and tone while tuning the shot, did a mic check, adjusted their lighting, and practiced their lines just before going live. Even I wouldn't stick around to watch that crap.

Those details aren't important no matter what kind of job you are portraying.

Am I defending Hollywood's use of the media as carnivorous packs out for blood? NO. But they could do a better job of making us look more professional, but what fun would that be!!