Matrix, The - No Shadow When Neo "Frees His Mind" and Falls on His Face
When Neo is being trained to "free his mind" and tries to "make his first jump," he plummets to the ground. Clearly the ground is made on a computer because of the rubber/bounce effect, but he has no shadow! Notice a few seconds later when he is just laying on the ground, he does have a shadow. They should have digitally added a shadow.
This rule of "Unnesicary information" applies in other parts of the movie.
During the scene with the "Woman in the Red Dress", most of the people are dressed identically. Also, most of the extras in this scene are twins/triplets, so you get the feeling that in order to save time/mem., the programmer (Tank) cut corners and made alot of the same people.
I'm wondering whether or not anyone noticed that Neo's orientation changes as he falls. At first, he is falling as though his shoulders are parallel to the direction of the street. Then, when he falls flat on his face he is rotated 90 degrees such that his body is parallel to the direction of the street. Yes, I know he could have changed direction but there are no hints of this as he is falling - whenever you see him fall, he remains in the same position, and then mysteriously turns without us seeing it. Admit it, it's a slipup!
My impression of this scene was that it was a regular 'Matrix' type program that they altered for training. Obviously they didn't need to rework the whole program...just the part that would prevent someone from being smashed when they first hit. That being the intent...why bother with shadows? After the initial hit, the program would return to it's original programming...and therefore the shadows come back.
Mad-Man, let's not forget, from the time that Neo bounces to the time when he falls flat on his face, we can't see any bit of him. Now when's the last time that you jumped on a trampoline(In a wierd position, not straight up and down) and came back in the same position? Try it, it doesn't work.
No-one takes ownership of the Agent Training program, but Mouse does tell us that he created the Lady In Red - she could have been imported into the program by a different creator.
I think the only slip-up in this scene is the 90-degree rotation of Neo. As far as only Neo not having a shadow, consider a computer game with a photorealistic background but a shadowless sprite - the rest of the "city" was just a backdrop for the main purpose of the program.
if you notice that neo has no shadow because the most of the sunlight is being blocked by one of the buildings he is falling between. this can be seen when the camera is watching neo fall down. if you pay attention at the end of the scene though, neo does have a shadow because he is so close to the ground.
I don't understand why they would on purposely not include shawdows just because it is an agent training program when they took the time to add the effect of "wind" when neo and trinity are in the sceen where they are on a white background and the racks of guns come flying in. I think it is a slip-up based on other events in other training programs.
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