As a movie lover, I’ve been unhappy with lots of modern movies. I’ve had a hard time putting my finger on it. But one of the things I’ve noticed since going back to watch some of my older favorites is how ‘clean’ and clear the action is. We can talk about the horrors of shakycam and increasingly schizophrenic cut lengths, but the poor quality of modern blocking and staging appears to be one of the major reasons things are less clear.

When you go back and look at Spielberg’s handling of framing, you start realizing why a lot of modern framing and blocking creates more confusion rather than helping be part of the exposition itself. CinemaStix does a great job showing how expertly Spielberg accomplishes this – and why he’s probably the greatest master of these techniques. He even mentions the Steven Soderbergh re-work of Raiders of the Lost Ark with different music/etc.