Film phenomena, syndromes and effects

Roger Corman phenomenon
Shooting at a location using the same camera angle and lighting even when the shots are supposed to represent different days and times. Gives film an overall sameness. See it: Bucket of Blood

Author! Author! syndrome
Named after obscure Al Pacino movie in which he plays a famous playwright except they never show any bits of his plays; like having a song in a movie that's supposed to be a hit song but they never play the song. Similar to Macguffin. See it: PI, in which the protagonist genius has figured out how to predict the stock market but they never say how.

Home Depot phenomenon
Every tiny little product has a theme or a design whether it's a knob or a moulding or a bracket. When you put everything together, you have 30 pieces of over-designed elements fighting with each other trying to attract attention to themselves. Example: reason why most of Mike Ford's work (see earlier post) wouldn't make good props.

Close Encounters effect
Trying to make something look huge by only showing tiny little lights that imply gigantic shapes. Example: I'm going to try to make the red room look bigger using the Close Encounters effect. That's why I'm buying so many light bulbs.

Shopper syndrome
Working some gadget or item into your film so you have an excuse to buy it.

Versatile disc conundrum
DVD you want to watch just once is available for purchase on Amazon but not for rent on Netflix.

Noisefilm blog effect
Blogging to avoid work on your film because all the remaining shots require some kind of hard-to-make prop or difficult-to-reach location.