When they get the little things wrong, that's most disturbing at all...

[capri0mni]

I first started noticing it during the ads for the DVD release of The Grudge 2: There's a shot of the heroine crying, and the tear is flowing down from directly below her pupil -- right down the middle of her cheek (I googled, but I can't find an image of it).

It just looks wrong to me, because my tears always flow out through the corners of my eyes: either down the sides of my nose, or down the sides of my face, and that's always what I've seen on other people, irl, when they cry, too (even if it's just from chopping onions). But I figured: "It's a horror movie, maybe they want it to look creepy."

But I noticed the same down-the-middle-of-the-cheek thing happened a lot in Veronica Mars, last night, too (well, it happened at least once).

What is this? Some Hollywood version of "pretty" tears? Doesn't look particularly pretty to me -- just evidence of people not paying attention to the real world around them (and that those particular tears were brought to us courtesy of the Props Department, rather than acting skill).

Oh, dear. I've just got hold of a new Pet Peeve, haven't I? Oh well.

Comments

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's because eventually the tear will be *felt* on the cheek most often. I know I feel tears on my cheeks rather than down the side of my nose. So maybe it's come from that?

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That could be it. Knowing the capillary action of water, eventually, the tears get all over the place, and the cheeks may be more sensitive to touch than the sides of the nose...

What's really an icky feeling is lying on my back and crying, and having the tears get inside my ears... What's that nasty trick with sticking a spit-covered finger in someone's ear? It's kinda like that...

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

It could be a Hollywood thing. When the camera is focusing close on her face, tears running down the outer edge of her eye won't be that visible on camera. Tears running down the inner corner will just give her an unglamourous runny-nosed look. There's probably also an aspect of needing to put the fake tears someplace where they won't smear her makeup too much.

For what it's worth, Japanese comic book artists tend to draw tears 'beading up' along the lower eyelid and spilling over at the outer corner to run down the cheekbone. (There's also a visual reserved for goofier and more 'cartoony' depictions, where wiggly lines depicting a virtual river of tears are drawn down the face beneath the entire eye.) I'll find some examples of these once I'm home on my own computer.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Tears running down the inner corner will just give her an unglamourous runny-nosed look. There's probably also an aspect of needing to put the fake tears someplace where they won't smear her makeup too much.

Now, I'm going to be on the lookout for gender differences. If male actors, who aren't expected to be "pretty," and who don't wear eye makeup as much (Johnny Depp excluded) tend to sniffle and wipe their noses a whole lot more than females actors, I'll chalk it up to Hollywood. But if their tears flow down the centers of their cheeks just as often, I'll chalk it up to the whims of gravity, as lizziebelle suggests below...

And now I'm wondering if wearing makeup does change the fluid mechanics of tears. I mean, does wearing mascara on your lower eyelashes make it easer for tears to migrate away from the tear ducts? 'Cause I've never worn mascara (willingly -- there was that one time, when my college dorm mates ambushed me for a "glamourous" makeover :::shudder:::).

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Well, I have to say that *I've* had tears well up and then spill from the middle of my eye. They may *form* at the corner, but they fall from wherever gravity pulls at them. At least, that's been my experience. :)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

but they fall from wherever gravity pulls at them.

Yeah. That's true. Maybe it's nver happened (or doesn't happen much) with me, because I tend to squinch my eyes shut as soon as I feel tears forming -- a habit acquired after living with allergies -- which probably keeps them squeezed out at the corners.