Established establishing is the term for when a director has so little going on in their movie that they pad it with nigh-unto-endless establishing shots (shots of scenery and cityscapes) just to reach at least a 75-minute run time. The thing these "directors" never seem to understand is that an establishing shot is supposed to establish a context or relationship between that shot and the subsequent scene.
Examples in the Tiradesverse[]
- The Room - This was so egregious that they would actually cut away from a scene to show a random shot of San Francisco and then go right back to the very same scene
- Birdemic - At least 438 shots of a guy driving his car and parking it
- A Talking Cat!?! - There were 57 establishing shots in this 83-minute movie
- Bloodrayne - There were over a dozen shots of people riding horses through mountainous areas
- Godzilla (1998) - About 438 shots of helicopters flying around NYC
- Yor, the Hunter from the Future - Several shots of phallic-shaped rock structures
- A Talking Pony!?! - 74 shots of trees, rocks, and water, as well as five different montages of Juliet riding Horatio
- Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny - At the beginning of the Thumbelina sequence, there's a long portion of a girl at a theme park that has nothing to do with the plot. Not to mention the multitude of establishing shots of the beach and random people and attractions at the theme park.
- An Easter Bunny Puppy - Do you really need to ask about a David DeCoteau movie?
- Jem and the Holograms - Google Maps. Google Maps everywhere.