I like good police dramas; ‘The Killing’ (Danish version), ‘The Bridge’ (Swedes?), ‘The Money Heist’ (Spanish), and many others. And things like ‘Breaking Bad’ (best of the best in my opinion). I think I’ve written about each in this blog.
Now I’m watching an Amazon Prime series (Bosch), a US police drama because, it seems, I’ve already watched just about everything else.
It’s good and I am enjoying it. Excellent characters and acting across the board along with an excellent and original storyline.
But why, oh why, in EVERY single drama I’ve ever seen are the obligatory scenes of ‘protests’ always so unconvincing?
It seems there’s a must in contemporary scriptwriting to include protests scenes involving ‘social justice warriors’.
I know the drill. I used to direct.
They hire extras and make up a bunch of prop signs and ‘stage a protest’.
If everything else is so good (acting, characters, etc.) and they feel so obligated to stage scenes of social justice warriors protesting, WHY are they always so unconvincing, including the casting and acting of the principle actors of the protest? Why do they always give it such short shrift, assign to ‘Second Unit B roll directors’ or whatever.
Is it because all these protests and movements are so fake and sponsored by unseen vested interests hiring paid bad actors to begin with?
It’s hard to believe Hollywood is so honest. Or so stupid.
Well, not really.
Just sayin’.
The Video Whisperer 
@Steve Hickley
So true, plus it has an impact on how we are perceived by the public.Take Nightcrawlers. Okay, it’s a satire, but police reporters just don’t work that way. They’d be out of business (or in jail) within a week.
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Yep, as a photographer shooting pr/press for much of my working life, extras pretending to be press photographers always annoys me. I say pretend because there’s no acting involved. Why don’t they watch news footage and look at how people actually work in those situations or get someone on set to show them how to hold a camera convincingly at least?
It’s like someone says ‘you’re playing a photographer/cameraman today, just stand there and hold this camera’ and off they go ( holding the camera very awkwardly).
.
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You’re right, but what is bothering me (as videographer) even more is the appearance of the press. Reporters are inevitably dumb, rude and corrupted bastards. Cameramen light an entire conference room with a headlight and you hardly ever see a soundman. My favourite one is in Armageddon. Having saved the world, the heroes pass by a row of news cameramen. Those guys jump up and leave their gear alone for applauding. “20 men to be fired the same day”, was my thought.;-)
Apparently there is a huge lack of real world-advisors in the industry.
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