Movies...

drhowarddrfine said:
Absolutely hated that. There's a scene where the Bill Gates is meeting with IBM for the first time and one of the guys steps out of character to face the camera and impart how important the moment is. It totally breaks "the third wall", I didn't like the acting and direction already, and I immediately switched it off at that point.

Fun fact, the guy who played Steve Jobs is Noah Wyle who is the lead on "The Pitt".
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I liked that scene; yeah it totally broke the flow, but I thought it was cool (iirc he zooms out from a sitting chair to scene switch), and I haven't seen any other media do something like that for story-telling :p
 
Just remember, Bill had some help from his mum... for some strange reason those movies never mention that, I guess they must have just plain forgot.😄

"Bill Gates' mother, Mary Gates, was involved with IBM through her role on the board of the United Way, where she met IBM's chairman, John Opel. This connection helped Microsoft secure a crucial contract with IBM to develop an operating system for its first personal computer."

Wikipedia

Which just goes to show, it never hurts to have you mum being friendly with the CEO of the company you're trying to sell your stuff to... 😁
 
drhowarddrfine said:
You're right--my mistake--but not in the physical sense. It's the direct addressing of the viewer that makes it the fourth wall. The third wall is the presence of the production itself.
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It's not a matter of opinion or perspective; it's an idiom, an established expression. The correct phrasing is "to break the fourth wall." The graphical layout is just an explanation of the origin of the idiom and a visual way of remembering which wall it is. Of course, you are free to use any expression as wrongly as you want. Maybe it's an error that you deem fundamental to your sense of self, and I respect that.
 
AlfredoLlaquet said:
It's not a matter of opinion or perspective; it's an idiom, an established expression. The correct phrasing is "to break the fourth wall." The graphical layout is just an explanation of the origin of the idiom and a visual way of remembering which wall it is. Of course, you are free to use any expression as wrongly as you want. Maybe it's an error that you deem fundamental to your sense of self, and I respect that.
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Presumably, but now that I think about it, I thought the 4th wall was the one that separates the press (4th estate) from the reader. As in most of the time you're not really supposed to be consciously aware of the creator of the news article, TV program or whatever. But, if they do something that draws attention to that, it breaks the wall that obscures them from the person trying to enjoy whatever it is.

But, that's just how I think of it.
 
hedwards When you are watching a stage play from the audience and the play is set in, say, an apartment, you'll see the back wall of the apartment, the left wall and the right wall. Those are three walls. The missing fourth wall is the one missing so you can watch the play but the actors must pretend the fourth wall is there and there is no audience but, should the actor step into that space and address the audience, that would be breaking the fourth wall and is usually not done because it breaks the contract with the audience--the illusion of reality.

I mis-typed "the third wall" earlier and there is such a thing when an actor removes himself from the business on stage and, hence, the play itself but not so far as to interact with the audience. He may go off to the side and give a speech that doesn't involve the other action onstage.

But these are deeper technicalities I would let him explain but we're not speaking right now. He asked me, "To be or not to be?" and I replied, "What kind of question is that?"
 
drhowarddrfine said:
hedwards When you are watching a stage play from the audience and the play is set in, say, an apartment, you'll see the back wall of the apartment, the left wall and the right wall. Those are three walls. The missing fourth wall is the one missing so you can watch the play but the actors must pretend the fourth wall is there and there is no audience but, should the actor step into that space and address the audience, that would be breaking the fourth wall and is usually not done because it breaks the contract with the audience--the illusion of reality.

I mis-typed "the third wall" earlier and there is such a thing when an actor removes himself from the business on stage and, hence, the play itself but not so far as to interact with the audience. He may go off to the side and give a speech that doesn't involve the other action onstage.

But these are deeper technicalities I would let him explain but we're not speaking right now. He asked me, "To be or not to be?" and I replied, "What kind of question is that?"
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I know, I just think that it's pretty weird how it gets extended to things that have nothing to do with the stage.
 
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