# Movie involving 4 simultaneous conversations?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-involving-4-simultaneous-conversations/148559>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 14, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-involving-4-simultaneous-conversations/148559 "2003-01-14T19:04:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ressl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Ressl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ressl)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-involving-4-simultaneous-conversations/148559/1 "2003-01-14T19:04:24Z")

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Someone referred a movie to me but I cannot recall the title.  
The entire movie involved 4 scenes all going on at once but in different parts of the screen. The audio would switch and at times the picture would get larger relative to the others in respect to which one the plot currently focused. All the others kept going though, you could see them all play out and interact continously as it developed.  
Has anyone heard of a movie like this and would know the title for it?

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**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-involving-4-simultaneous-conversations/148559/2 "2003-01-14T19:07:20Z")

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It’s called “Timecode” - I heard it was mediocre, but certainly an interesting concept.

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**Author:** ![Skijumper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3e96dc/32.png) [@Skijumper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skijumper)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-involving-4-simultaneous-conversations/148559/3 "2003-01-14T19:17:05Z")

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I recall “The Boston Strangler” being presented in a similar fashion.

More on split screens [here](http://archive.salon.com/ent/tv/feature/2002/05/14/24_split/index.html).

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**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-involving-4-simultaneous-conversations/148559/4 "2003-01-14T19:40:22Z")

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IIRC, Timecode didn’t change the size of the boxes, but other than that is matches the description. HBO Signature was running it for a while – it was boring.

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**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-involving-4-simultaneous-conversations/148559/5 "2003-01-14T20:03:22Z")

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Timecode has an intriguing premise - four separate views (on-screen all the time) all in a single take (I think) with the audio mixing in and out of them, doing a more or less ad-libbed script.

Problem is, it’s dull and the characters are completely uninteresting. Never watch Hollywood make a movie about Hollywood.

I think it could be used to a different effect. I think a neat sci-fi/horror movie such as ‘Aliens’ could be made from the simultaneous points of view of different people checking out a derelict spaceship or something.