Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey discussed streaming services' shift toward quicker pacing in films during a town hall event. Chalamet highlighted Netflix's guideline to place major action sequences at the beginning to retain viewers. McConaughey lamented the shortening of traditional Act One structures in scripts and series.
In bonus footage from “A CNN & Variety Town Hall Event: Timothée Chalamet and Matthew McConaughey,” the actors addressed how studios are adapting to shorter attention spans influenced by mobile device use.
McConaughey expressed concern over the erosion of Act One in storytelling. “In this day of shorter attention spans and vertical 12-second spots, are we losing the patience for Act 1?” he said. “Because it’s the first thing that gets cut. It’s the first thing a studio wants to get rid of. I’m seeing Act 2, more and more, start on freakin’ page 12 [of a script]. I’m seeing 10-part series where — bam! — Act 1’s over 32 minutes into the opening episode, and you’re off on the conflict right away. It feels abbreviated to me.”
Chalamet referenced a Netflix production guideline that prioritizes major action set pieces early in films. “Where they want their biggest action set pieces up front,” he noted. “The logic used to be: Save your big action set piece for the end of a movie. You save the fireworks for the end. But now they want something up front.”
This approach was echoed in Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s interview about their Netflix film “The Rip.” Damon described the traditional structure: “You usually have three set pieces. One in the first act, one in the second, one in the third. 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.’”
Despite these trends, Chalamet observed a counter-movement toward more deliberate pacing. “I also think there’s sort of a reverse thing going on where people are desiring things that are more patient and that pull you in,” he said. He cited an article noting Gen Z as a larger moviegoing audience than millennials and pointed to the success of this year’s “Frankenstein,” which drew viewers without rapid pacing. Chalamet balanced his views: “Some people want to be entertained quickly. I’m really right in the middle, because I admire people [saying], ‘Hey, we gotta keep movie theaters alive. We gotta keep this genre alive.’ And another part of me feels like, if people want to see it — like “Barbie,” like “Oppenheimer” — they’re going to go see it and go out of their way to be loud and proud about it.” He added with a laugh, “I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore’ — all respect to the ballet and opera people out there.”
The extended footage is available on Variety’s YouTube channel or the CNN app.
