It's no secret that watching a film at home is a different experience than watching it in the theatre. The siren call of social media, texts, or whatever you like to do on your phone is often too tempting to ignore, even if you try to lock in while watching at home. Netflix knows this, and according to Matt Damon, are changing the way their movies are shown in order to keep interest and inform viewers of what's going on even while on their phones.
Speaking on the Joe Rogan podcast (via Variety), Matt Damon explained how Netflix deviates from the standard way of making action movies. "You usually have three set pieces. One in the first act, one in the second, one in the third," he said. "You spend most of your money on that one in the third act. That's your finale. And now they're like, 'Can we get a big one in the first five minutes? We want people to stay. And it wouldn't be terrible if you reiterated the plot three or four times in the dialogue because people are on their phones while they're watching.'"
Ben Affleck, who also stars in the Netflix action movie The Rip alongside Damon, didn't believe it was necessary to draw in audiences through this method. "But then you look at Adolescence, and it didn't do any of that shit. And it's fucking great. And it's dark too. It's tragic and intense. [It's about] this guy who finds out his kid is accused of murder. There are long shots of the back of their heads. They get in the car, nobody says anything."
So, while it may sound all doom and gloom when you think of films and TV series being made with phones in mind, there are always some projects that respect their audience enough to believe they're properly watching. If you want to see how The Rip handles this, you can check out our review here.