Is it too unrealistic to have a smoking scene indoors in modern times?

+1 I quit a couple of years ago, and still cannot stand the company of anti-amokers. If it didn't feel like a witch hunt I'd be okay.

As for original post, depends on the scene. If the cigarette wasn't there and the plot still moves along then cut it. If you need that cigarette (to blow something up, to cause one cough that'll kill the actor) then keep it.
 
FWIW - Camel is celebrating its 100th birthday this year ..

- Cigarette smoking is the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the U.S. It kills 443,000 Americans and costs $96 billion in health care bills each year.
- 90 percent of adult smokers began at or before age 18, and another 3,500 U.S. kids smoke their first cigarette each day.
- Camel has a long history of marketing cigarettes to kids -- and getting in legal trouble for it. Camel even targeted kids with a cartoon character, Joe Camel.
- Camel is one of the three most popular cigarette brands among youth.

My 2 cents.
Cheers.
 
There also seems to be a shift in the perception of the people who smoke these days. Nothing against smokers, but this image of a smoker being a James Dean type of rebel has shifted into a smoker being more of a loser than a rebel for much of the western audience. Teenagers smoke to look like they're older but it really makes them look like little kids with something to prove. Older people who smoke come off as the kind of person without the will power to quit, or someone who smokes to replace an even more dangerous addiction. I think these perceptions are only going to increase as time goes on, unless you're making your film for a Southeast Asian audience who've become the last market for the tobacco companies.
 
use electronic cigs, have the actor puff on it then have him put it in his pocket, it will get the effect you want, but in a modern way. Although, im with frank on this, I have always liked to see a super cool actor light a smoke. But there's only a handful that make it look really cool, Travolta in pulp fiction made me want to have a smoke right then and there.
 
Well my instincts tell me that if I have the actor use an electronic sig, that it will look more cheesy than ever. Really cannot see that looking good in any way at all.
 
Allan Black said:
FWIW - Camel is celebrating its 100th birthday this year ..

- Cigarette smoking is the No. 1 cause of preventable death in the U.S. It kills 443,000 Americans and costs $96 billion in health care bills each year.
- 90 percent of adult smokers began at or before age 18, and another 3,500 U.S. kids smoke their first cigarette each day.
- Camel has a long history of marketing cigarettes to kids -- and getting in legal trouble for it. Camel even targeted kids with a cartoon character, Joe Camel.
- Camel is one of the three most popular cigarette brands among youth.

My 2 cents.
Cheers.
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Oddly, when I was young, I used to smoke Camels, Chesterfields, and Pall Malls, unfiltered... most of my contemporaries went for Marlboro. Since most 'kids' were going for the filtered variety, there were fewer questions when I showed up with a note from my mother for a carton of Camels...

After cigarettes hit the the high price mark of 45 cents a pack... I quit...
 
Shouldn't be smoking unless they are doing it secretively. People smoke in clubs in the UK, but it's just a big came of cat and mouse with the staff. I just got back from South Korea where everyone was smoking in the clubs there - I wasn't 18 before smoking got banned inside so i'd never experienced it before. It was nuts!
 
ironpony said:
Well my instincts tell me that if I have the actor use an electronic sig, that it will look more cheesy than ever. Really cannot see that looking good in any way at all.
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If you have some one approach him with a strange stare and have him say a line like, what!! I'm trying to quit. that wouldn't be to cheesy I think.
 
ironpony said:
I have an idea for a scene in a nightclub for a suspense thriller. But I think the scene would be more effective if the characters were smoking, but in America no indoor building seems to permit it anymore. It's a movie so artistic license is allowed but would the audiences believe it or find it convincing?
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I'm sure Mad Men was set in the past so that they could get advertising revenue from the tobacco and alcohol corps.
 
Andrius Simutis said:
There also seems to be a shift in the perception of the people who smoke these days. Nothing against smokers, but this image of a smoker being a James Dean type of rebel has shifted into a smoker being more of a loser than a rebel for much of the western audience. Teenagers smoke to look like they're older but it really makes them look like little kids with something to prove. Older people who smoke come off as the kind of person without the will power to quit, or someone who smokes to replace an even more dangerous addiction. I think these perceptions are only going to increase as time goes on, unless you're making your film for a Southeast Asian audience who've become the last market for the tobacco companies.
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Ha! I just noticed that this comment has been down voted as unhelpful. Sorry, smokers...it just ain't that glamorous to smoke anymore.
 
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