The Number One Hollywood Trick We All See

No matter what movie you press play on, there is one thing that these movies have in common, which is a wet ground on a sunny day, during a high chase scene or a fight scene amongst your favorite superheroes' everyone notices but skips that part when being engulfed in a scene. One morning I decided to watch a movie instead of watching my local news station or watching Martin on BET for the one-millionth time. I can always rely on Netflix to set the mood while I write.

I needed some background noise, so I decided to watch Training Day, one of my favorite Denzel Washington movies. I've watched this movie so many times that I can regurgitate it in front of a room full of people. As I gave my eyes a break from my laptop, I decided to redirect them to the TV and lip-sync one of my favorite scenes. Officer Hoyt, played by Ethan Hawke, is a new rookie for the narcotics department and paired with Alonzo, played by Denzel Washington, for a ride along with/hands-on training that all rookies go through.

Most narcotics detectives bring new rookies inside the office to meet the team and feel the department. On that day, their first interaction was at a café. Hoyt arrives nervous, Alonzo offers him some food, Hoyt declines, Alonzo reads his newspaper, Hoyt attempts to break the awkward silence which annoys the hell out of Alonzo. Instead of getting the silence, he needs to read his paper, and he allows Hoyt to "entertain him" with a story. After Hoyt describes the most boring traffic stop to Alonzo, they then leave the café. Now, most narcotic detectives drive in a typical cop car. Hoyt wasn't expecting a black Monte Carlo. One question that I continuously ask myself but never bothered to find the answer for is, "why is the ground wet, and it's not raining?"

I tend to over-analyze movie scenes; many focus on the main characters I tend to focus on the character's surroundings. I noticed in that scene that I didn't see an umbrella, rain boots, or clouds that indicated that it rained or it was going to rain. I didn't hear a fake newscaster over the radio mention that there will be a chance of rain or if the rain had stayed for a few seconds and moved to another part of town. I see it mostly in movies that obtained a dark alley, and someone chased to run into a dead-end—potholes and puddles on a dark, chilly night in New York. After a while, I started to get upset with these directors; I assumed they were all lazy and lacked creativity because they all had wet ground and no rain. I finally had enough to look at this redundant problem, so I decided to Google why this happens in every movie. My findings were surprising. Laziness and lack of creativity had nothing to do with why they did this. It's a simple camera trick that has a unique explanation.

"Wet pavement not only looks better on camera but, in the same way, that it's driving in the rain at night, the water diffuses reflections and helps eliminate shadows caused by filing equipment."

Some have taken to Quora with this same concern, and another user explained it eloquently.

"A wet ground looks better on screen than a dry one. The light bounces beautifully off the wet pavement creating a shimmering reflection."

It just adds a special touch throughout the movie. If I can correlate it to anything, I would say that the water on the ground is like the twelfth man at Lumen Field, the Seattle Seahawks' home. One of the loudest, most obnoxious stadiums in the NFL, it adds a unique element to the experience. The same applies when Denzel is in a shootout or John Wick fighting for his life in the middle of Manhattan while riding a horse. Water is just an easier way to blur out the crew without using high technology that probably costs a fortune. It helps with the cost, at least from a logical standpoint.

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