Damon & Affleck Talk Movie Attention Spans
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are out promoting “The Rip,” the action thriller which just hit Netflix, and say that the way people are consuming films now – especially on streaming – is quite different.
The new film, directed by Joe Carnahan, sees the pair on a team of Miami cops who turn on each other after discovering $20 million in a derelict stash house.
Appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience, Damon says films require a “very different level of attention” now than they did before, to accommodate shorter attention spans and distracted viewing at home.
As a result, it’s impacted the way movies are being made. As they’ve both just worked for Netflix, they use them as an example:
“The standard way to make an action movie that we learned was, you usually have three set pieces. One in the first act, one in the second, one in the third. And the kinda ramp up to the big one with all the explosions. You spend most of your money on that one in the third act. That’s your finale.
And now they’re like, ‘Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay tuned in.’ And it wouldn’t be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they’re watching.’”
This matches with prior reports that writers on streaming films have been reportedly told characters need to explain what they do in dialogue – a lot more ‘tell’ along with ‘show’. Affleck then points out one recent success story that broke that mold in the TV realm:
“But then you look at Adolescence, and it didn’t do any of that sh*t. And it’s f*cking great. And it’s dark too. It’s tragic and intense. [It’s about] this guy who finds out his kid is accused of murder, and there are long shots of the back of their heads. They get in the car, nobody says anything.”
Affleck says that the series “demonstrates you don’t have to do” tricks to keep people invested. “The Rip” meanwhile, which scored a pretty good 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, is now up on Netflix.