Hollywood operating system
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The Hollywood operating system, or Hollywood OS, refers to any fictional computer operating system clichéd in movies and television. The name itself is a misnomer, as the term actually references computer hardware, operating systems, internetworking and various applications ancillary to computers. These systems usually share common functions with real operating systems, but tend to be able to perform these functions at faster speeds with a more aesthetic graphical user interface (GUI), and are exceptionally more functional than today's software. For instance, a Hollywood OS may have be able to download extremely large files in mere seconds, display error messages in large, flashing red text, interface with any computer, whether terrestrial or alien (as in Independence Day), and allow any user to intrude into extremely secure government computers with ease. They also tend to have sound effects unnecessarily accompanying every event, no matter how trivial. Some versions do not make use of a computer mouse, with virtually everything being done by keyboard or alternative input device.
These systems will often either shut down, substantially slow down, and/or stop performing necessary functions as a plot device.
The system can also do tasks that are virtually impossible (at least without the aid of advanced artificial intelligence), such as the ability to zoom in on any detail of a photograph to an excessive resolution (for examples, see the TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Las Vegas).
The interface often utilizes flying or scrolling numbers or other characters when a character accesses a large quantity of information (see The Matrix and Hackers). The interface may also contain parts of different real life operating systems on one system. For example, in Office Space the predominant GUI which is shown looks like Apple's System 7; however, when the main character goes to shut down his computer, a command prompt is clearly visible which is not a part of the Mac OS but instead more commonly associated with Microsoft's MS-DOS and Windows operating systems.
Text displayed on the screen is often unusually big. In many movies they project the image from the screen onto the face of the actor - this is impossible in reality because the image would have no way to be focussed and normal computer monitors are simply not bright enough.
[edit] Reasons for inaccuracies
- Visibility: Because TVs have lower resolution than computer monitors, a movie with a computer screen showing realistic sized fonts just couldn't be read on TV. It might be possible to read it on a movie screen, but it would still require that viewers attend to much finer visual details than is usually required in a cinema.
- Entertainment: The output from computers is often quite uninteresting, whereas movies are for entertainment purposes. For example, a program to compare fingerprints might not have a visual interface at all, but only spit out the number of features which match on two fingerprints. To make this process interesting, two different color fingerprints can be rotated and scaled to match and then superimposed on one another.
- Time savings: Waiting for programs to run and downloads to occur takes time, which is quite limited in movies. They could show the time changing on a clock to indicate that time has passed, but even that would take some time. Instead, they just speed most operations up dramatically.
- Actors: Many actors would be unable to type commands or other text accurately while giving their performance to the camera. In most cases the actual computer will display the text that the script calls for no matter what keys the actor presses. This accounts for the notable fact that most computer users depicted in film and TV seem to be able to type surprisingly quickly and accurately.
- Video synchronisation: Real computer screens typically refresh at between 60 to 80 frames per second. Television cameras scan the scene at 50 or 60 frames per second and movie cameras only take a picture 24 times per second. It is likely that such rates would cause annoying flickering in the final production -- so the images shown by computers are often added in post-production. Furthermore, the bright lighting used on the set of a movie or TV production may 'wash out' the relatively dim image on the computer screen. Such a 'wash out' might make it impossible for the actor to use a real computer in any meaningful manner.
