Hollywood makes texting exciting

Typing on screens is, as we know, pretty boring to watch. But Hollywood has lately gotten a lot smarter about depicting this ubiquitous technology on screen. A radically new film convention, what we might call the "beyond screen text message", is emerging right before our eyes.

Tony Zhou of Every Frame a Painting, has cut together a funny and enlightening video essay on texting and the internet on film. We all remember at the clunky early conventions.

Cut away to a phone with an absurdly large font or a character reading a text out loud like a doofus. But lately, text messages are popping up directly on screen - an idea so obvious, in retrospect you have to wonder what took Hollywood so long.

The "beyond screen text message" is both cheaper and more dramatically effective. The most fascinating part of Zhou's video essay is when he traces the origins of the floating text message and catalogues its variations.