A question

[yendi]

Billy Joel's song "The Entertainer" peaked at #34 on the charts.

Would it have climbed higher on the charts if the length had been cut form 3:48 to 3:05?

Comments

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Not even Billy Joel could be that meta. (But I also wouldn't be surprised if he considered making the song exactly that length. Sort of like Luc Besson's thing of making sure that if a character says something's going to take x amount of time, the scene's edited so it does take x amount of time.)

[yendi]

I wish more folks would do Besson's thing -- I hate the MacGruber trope of hearing "ten seconds," and then seeing a full minute of action take place before the bomb goes off.

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

The only time that's justifiable is if a lot of things are happening in that ten seconds, so they use (a) slow motion to stretch it out so you see everything, or (b) use editing to show things that are happening simultaneously during those ten seconds. (There's also (c) in anime, where they repeat something dramatic three times from different angles for emphasis.)

I've sometimes counted seconds in my head while watching things. I've also held my breath while characters are underwater holding their breath, and they're often submerged for longer than humanly possible before coming up for air.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

I'll let myself be all OMG I DO THIS TOO, at least about the breath-holding. I first did that with Kirk's dive in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

I also like the way Leverage shows actions happening almost simultaneously, with those run-the-camera-around-the-corner camera moves.

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

STIV is one where I've done that.

Haven't seen Leverage.

[yendi]

I highly recommend it. It's far from perfect (especially if you want realism in terms of tech), but it's an enjoyable show about con artists, and has some great characters, gimmicks, and easter eggs.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

The editing on that's probably harder than it looks, and since time in a film is so elastic it's easy to stretch time so you see more than is possible without it being jarring, but yeah, time can be stretched too much.

In The Silence of the Lambs, there's not near enough time for Lecter to do what he does to the guards in Memphis, but the filmmakers deliberately made it that involved because that was the first time the audience had seen Lecter's handiwork, and they wanted it to have as much impact as possible. But that led to a college dorm mate of mine hating the film because, again, not enough time for Lecter to do that!

[shellefly.livejournal.com]

Of course it would have! So says Billy, so say we all.

[yendi]

I should never doubt him! Especially when it comes to stuff from before Storm Front.

[nishar.livejournal.com]

I think it would have went further if he had his old band Attila backing this song. :P

[allah-sulu.livejournal.com]

Heh. My wife found that LP a few years ago.

[nishar.livejournal.com]

I found an old cassette in a pawn shop. I had bought a few older Billy Joel cds and the dude working there broke out a pristine copy and said, "You like Billy Joel? Try out this old cd he made before he was the piano man." Then he played the casette and I had to buy it. For acid rock, it's not that bad.

[ckd]

According to Wikipedia, the 7" single was indeed marked "3:05" even though it was 3:48.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Clever of them.

[captain18.livejournal.com]

I see what you did there.