Breaking the Fourth Wall

[jackfaire]

There are times this can be done. If your character often looks at the camera and talks to the audience then any breaking of the fourth wall is worked into the show.

However when it's a serious show has played it as a serious show for four seasons and now in the fifth season you have an established character throw a grin and a wink at the camera to make it clear, "That's for you audience" Seriously dude your harshing my vibe.

[DrFaroohk]

What show?

[jackfaire]

Las Vegas Fifth Season there is an episode where a couple of times Mike says somthing then looks right at the camera and smiles.

[Ginger Tea]

Ferris Bueler's day off was probably my first introduction to breaking the forth wall directly (aside from voice overs like the bastard cut of Blade Runner)

Waynes World had a few obvious ones like when they were bitching about product placement yet visibly holding drinks with the logo to be seen and the opening a pizza box long enough to be seen.

Although I've not watched this show or ever heard of it till now, to say if it was a bad thing depending on the context of the scene.

[Gravekeeper]

Really depends on the mood of the show. If you've got a serious show that's played it straight for a few seasons, then yeah it will fall flat. Unless you're intentionally making a gag episode ( ala Stargate SG-1 ).

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Or like in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" when they were at Holden's place and he stated "A JAy and Silent Bob movie? Who would ever watch that?"

And all three of them looked at the camera with a smirk.

There are times and places where such is fitting. But not everywhere as it seems to be happening.

Can you imagine if "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" did that? It would have made an (at times) annoying show even more so.

[jackfaire]

*Nods* If you have never seen Las Vegas it is a very serious show sometimes deadly so. Yeah there is comedy but never of the fourth wall breaking variety and they didn't even set it up or anything it's just twice he said something then smiled for the camera it felt completely out of place and was never explained.

Basically it was like they couldn't get a take without him smiling at the camera each time he finished his lines and so they went with it.

[DrFaroohk]

Lol that'd be funny with some drama show.

Lawyer: "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I will show you overwhelming evidence that my client was nowhere near the Circle K at the time of the fire."

Prosecutor: "TIME OUT! <looks at camera> Wow, I'd better figure out a way of coming up with more evidence soon or this case is down the tubes!"

[Ginger Tea]

or have them see a cut scene from a previous episode )

[Greenday]

Kurt Russel has an instance of this in Death Proof. If I recall correctly, he did it without being told to but it worked so well with the movie, they kept it in.

I feel like it was done in Fight Club, but that may just be because Edward Norton narrates throughout practically the whole movie.

[AdminAssistant]

Kurt Russel has an instance of this in Death Proof. If I recall correctly, he did it without being told to but it worked so well with the movie, they kept it in.

Yeah, that was awesome.

Basically, after Rose McGowan gets in his car, he looks at the camera, smirks, then gets in. Creepy, but perfect for the character. The Grindhouse movies were so (deliberately) campy that things like that worked.

[Hyena Dandy]

I dunno. Las Vegas struck me as a sort of... Like, there were times I would buy it as a show that could break the fourth wall. You know, I'm not surprised that you said it was that one.

But I can see how its frustrating. I dunno, I only saw a couple episodes. And I may be confusing it with something else. But it was one of those shows where it was occasionally JUST... I dunno... Odd enough that I could buy it. But at the same time, maybe if I watched it more, I would find it more jarring.

[blas87]

In the earlier seasons of Sex and the City, along with narrating every show, Carrie would occasionally look at the camera and ask a question or make a statement, although the Fourth Wall thing stopped after a few seasons.

[Ipecac Drano]

The Fourth Wall goes back many millennia. The ancient Greeks would use it from time to time.

[AdminAssistant]

The Fourth Wall goes back many millennia. The ancient Greeks would use it from time to time.

The practice of actors addressing the audience indeed goes back to the murky depths of history. In ancient Greek tragedies/comedies, the chorus would often speak directly to the audience. Elizabethan/Jacobean plays have the aside, which was made grandiose during the Restoration. During the 'actor/manager' phase (17th-18th century, see also: David Garrick), the lead actor of the company would generally stand downstage center and speak eloquently, and the rest of the cast would literally act around him. Everything was played out to the audience because 1) that was good rhetoric and 2) theatres had shitty acoustics and this was before the invention of the microphone. If Actor A was pissed at Actor B, he would move in such a way that required actor B to turn his back to the audience, causing them to lose sight of his face and not be able to hear him. Voila, Actor B was just "upstaged" by Actor A.

The term "fourth wall" arises from 19th century naturalism, when directors would literally build a fourth wall between the set and the audience, block and rehearse the piece with no consideration given to the audience, and then remove the wall for performances. Instead of 'cheating out' to the audience and moving in such a way that the audience could always see their faces and hear their voices, the actors would move more 'naturally,' standing with their backs to the audience, etc. That particular method of staging did not survive naturalism, however, today most realist theatre maintains the convention of an imaginary wall between the actors and audience.

See also: willing suspension of disbelief, aesthetic distance