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Tom Cruise's much-needed advice for making movies look normal on TV is going viral again

He explains how to fix the "soap opera effect" that makes movies feel all wrong because it's not intuitive at all.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore (left), Canva (right)

You don't have to suffer with the soap opera effect.

Have you ever gotten a new TV and tried to watch a movie, only to find that your fancy, high-definition television makes movies look like soap operas? Or maybe you've been at a friends house and noticed that their television makes movies look weird—somehow less real and yet more real at the same time—totally ruining the movie-watching experience?

Those of us who are fans of cinema-quality film can find ourselves driven mad trying to figure out what settings to change to make movies look normal. We're not the problem, though. Television manufacturers have made it notoriously hard and completely unintuitive to figure out how to change the default setting that creates the "soap opera effect."

Actor Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie created a PSA in 2018 explaining what causes movies to look so strange on newer TVs and how to change the settings to fix it. It comes down to "video interpolation" and "motion smoothing," but that doesn't mean much when you're looking through the settings of your TV to try make movies look like movies.

They offer a simple solution: Just Google "Turn off motion smoothing [insert your TV brand here]."

The reason they can't just give a blanket solution is because every TV manufacturer—Samsung, LG, Vizio, Sony, etc.—has a different name for the setting (TruMotion, Auto Motion Plus and so on), and the setting is found under different menus on different TVs. Splendid.

Why no one who manufactures and tests televisions noticed that the feature made movies look weird and why no one realized that turning the feature on as the default and then making it hard to find and change would be a problem are questions for the ages. The default settings might be great for sports viewing but for TV shows and movies, yuck.

If you're confused or curious about what exactly is happening to create the soap opera effect, Vulture has a brief but excellent explainer video:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

As the video explains, it has to do with frames per second and the way televisions process the images at various frame rates. The motion smoothing feature is actually inserting extra frames in order to "smooth" the way motion looks on the screen, but the effect on movies just feels "wrong."

Having an example can help, but even in a side-by-side of a normal movie-watching experience vs. one with motion smoothing, the difference is hard to see, especially if you're on a mobile or computer screen. It's when you're experiencing the full larger screen movie experience that the difference is obvious, but here's a side-by-side comparison:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Oddly enough, people might assume that because the motion-smoothing effect seems to have a better "quality" and higher resolution that it's somehow better. For movies, it's really not. The way movies are created, they are designed to be viewed without that feature. Some people might prefer it, but for some of us watching a movie with motion smoothing is like the visual equivalent of fingernails across a chalkboard.

Thank you, Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie for verifying that new TVs make movies look weird and attempting to save us from the abomination of it all.

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The new Doctor Who says of course her character can still be a role model for boys.

She's got a good point.

When "Doctor Who" announced the casting of Jodie Whittaker in the title role, some people kind of freaked out.

The series, which debuted in 1963, follows a time-traveling alien around the galaxy to solve crimes and right wrongs. Up until now, the titular character has been portrayed by multiple actors, all of whom were men. Whittaker made her debut as the Doctor at the end of the December 2017 season finale. The controversial casting decision was met with a mixed reaction among fans, which prompted the BBC to go on the record with its official ruling: The Doctor is an alien from the planet Gallifrey and yes, can switch gender.

Pretty silly, isn't it?

Jodie Whittaker attends Comic Con 2018. Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images.

During her San Diego Comic Con debut, a questioner asked if Whittaker had a message for young boys who are fans of the show.

Just last year, Peter Davison, who played the Doctor between 1981 and 1984, expressed his uneasiness with the casting of Whittaker, or any other woman in the role, saying, "If I feel any doubts [about Whittaker's casting], it’s the loss of a role model for boys, who I think Doctor Who is vitally important for. So I feel a bit sad about that, but I understand the argument that you need to open it up."

Now, of course, there's no shortage of male role models for little boys to look up to. That aside, who's to say that boys can't find inspiration in a female Doctor?

When asked about the debate, Whittaker said she doesn't see the issue. "It's OK to look up to women," she said.

Terri Schwartz, Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, and Mandip Gill speak onstage during the Doctor Who panel at the 2018 San Diego Comic Con. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.

Representation does matter, but there's no reason boys should have to feel put off by a woman playing the Doctor.

Girls are expected to draw their inspiration from male characters without a problem. TV shows, movies, and video games have had a history of centering male protagonists. That's still the case, even today. Boys should be equally capable of drawing inspiration from girls and women.

Of course there's a need to be able to see yourself in the entertainment you consume, but boys aren't going to be finding themselves without heroes who look like them anytime soon.

In all, it's actually the perfect time for a woman to take on the role of Doctor. After 50-some odd years, you've got to keep changing things up to keep the show fresh, right?

Watch the brand new trailer for the upcoming season of "Doctor Who" below.

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Ask yourself these 5 questions when you see a Muslim character in a movie.

It's no secret that Hollywood has a diversity and representation problem.

For years, Hollywood has produced television shows and movies that often portray Muslims, South Asians, and Middle Eastern people with harmful stereotypes.

According to Jack Shaheen, a writer focusing on Arab representation in cinema, Muslim and Arab characters are often confined to three archetypes. He called them "the three B's": bombers, billionaires, and belly dancers. And sometimes, in addition to swinging their hips as belly dancers, some of the women are depicted as living under oppression in black abayas and burqas.

It's quite easy to find shows that fit the bill. The grand majority of Muslim characters in "Homeland" are either suicide bombers or Arab billionaires. Even in beloved children's movies, like "Aladdin," the characters are based in a "faraway place / Where the caravan camels roam / Where they cut off your ear / If they don't like your face / It's barbaric, but hey, it's home!"

But it's time to change the outdated and redundant negative typecasting of Muslim and Middle Eastern characters.

A new test has been introduced to measure how Muslims and Arabs are portrayed in television and film.

The Riz Test is a concept formed by a small group of film buffs that were inspired by a speech that Riz Ahmed, known for "The Night Of," made to the U.K. Parliament about the Bechdel test and media representation.

"We're passionate film buffs but we're tired of the same old stereotypes and tropes being perpetuated in Films and TV shows," the group wrote in a tweet.

Like the Bechdel test, which measures how women are portrayed in fiction, The Riz Test has a quite simple criteria.

The Riz Test asks the viewer to consider five questions if their film or show includes one identifiable Muslim character:

  1. Talking about, the victim of, or the perpetrator of Islamist terrorism?
  2. Presented as irrationally angry?
  3. Presented as superstitious, culturally backwards, or anti-modern?
  4. Presented as a threat to a Western way of life?
  5. If the character is male, is he presented as misogynistic? If female, is she presented as oppressed by her male counterparts?

There have been some great improvements in recent years. A few television shows have featured Muslim characters that don't fall into the traps of The Riz Test, such as "The Bold Type's" Adena El Amin character and "Queer Eye's" Tan France.

It's important now, more than ever, to include accurate representation and portrayal of Muslims and Arabs on the big screen.

Hollywood is often a reflection of the society that we live in, and sometimes, it serves as an introduction to the unknown.

In the United States in 2017, Muslims only made up 1.1% of the general population, and not a lot of Americans have ever befriended a Muslim in real life. This means that most of the understanding Americans have about Islam, Muslims, Arabs and their society often come from what they see on television, films, and the news cycle. And with 80% of the media coverage on Islam and Muslims being negative, it's no wonder there's still a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment and misunderstanding across the country.

Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images.

But accurate portrayals isn't just about improving the way Americans view Muslims; it's also about benefiting our society as a whole.

As Ahmed said in his Parliament speech, "If we fail to represent, I think we're in danger of losing out in three ways, the three E's: (1) We're going to lose people to extremism, (2) we're going to lose out on an expansive idea of who we are as individuals and as a community, and (3) we're going to really lose out on the economic benefits that proper representation can bring to our economy."

In other words, the time is now for Hollywood to generate diverse and accurate portrayals of Muslims and Arabs on the big screen.

You can watch Riz Ahmed's speech below:

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Actors will respect women on Lena Waithe's set during sex scenes — or else.

Producer, writer, and all-around wonderful human Lena Waithe recently participated in a roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter.

Chatting with other producers, Waithe — the mastermind behind Showtime's "The Chi" — explored a variety of Hollywood hot topics, like how to write sensitive storylines, "pitching while black," and which creators should be able to tell which stories.

Photo by Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images.

At one point, discussions swirled around the sensitivities and standards of filming sex scenes.

As Waithe explained, the #MeToo movement has pushed her to think more critically about how those scenes are filmed and what she can do to ensure everyone feels respected on set.

"I've been very involved in Time's Up and that movement, and for season two [of "The Chi"], we're making sure that women feel safe on the set, and we're hyper-aware of what that means because there are sex scenes there," she said.  

And if any actor crosses a line, Waithe explained, their time on the show will come to a grisly end:

"We want to make sure we're talking to these actresses and also talking to our male actors and making sure they're aware. Because I don't play. I'm like, 'Look, [the show takes place in] the city of Chicago; people die every day. So if you wanna play that game and be disrespectful or misbehave on-set with an actress or anyone, I will happily call Showtime and say, 'This person has to go,' and you will get shot up and it'll be a wonderful finale.'"

Waithe has been blazing trails in Hollywood for women, the LGBTQ community, and people of color.

In 2017, Waithe became the first black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing for her work on "Master of None." Her latest endeavor, "The Chi" — a show about black people made by black people — explores the racial and social dynamics at play on the south side of her hometown, Chicago.

On May 7 of this year, Waithe — who is openly gay — made waves for rocking the updated LGBTQ pride rainbow on a cape at the Met Gala. "Can't no one tell a black story, particularly a queer story, the way I can," Waithe recently explained to Vanity Fair. "Because I see the God in us."

Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images.

Now, Waithe is doing what every power player should be doing: ensuring everyone working on her projects feels safe, respected, and empowered.

"I think the biggest thing is just to create a barrier around not just women, but anyone who's othered in any way, shape, or form — to make sure they have a place to go or someone to call if they're in an uncomfortable place or abusive situation," Waith told Vox in January 2018. "They need a line of defense, and I think Time's Up really has the potential to be that."

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