Describing a movie

[Kishi]

Hi,

When I'm watching a movie, I want to describe what is going on in it. Which tense I should use ? Present tense or past tense?

I think the present tense would be used but I'm not sure I forgot about this.

Thanks

K.

[colloquium]

Both are possible.

For instance when people tell stories the present tense is often used.

So this man walks into a bar and is punched in the face...

I think it's often similar when people describe movies.

[susiedqq]

Describing it at the same time as you are watching it, you can use the present time:

Fred is walking into the store and he sees this girl.

If you are speaking about the movie after you have seen it, you can say:

He walked into the store and saw this girl.

or - you can combine the two:

He walked into the store and sees this girl . . .

[Raymott]

Describing it at the same time as you are watching it, you can use the present time:

Fred is walking into the store and he sees this girl.

If you are speaking about the movie after you have seen it, you can say:

He walked into the store and saw this girl.

or - you can combine the two:

He walked into the store and sees this girl . . .

And if you've seen it before, you can use the future tense:
"Fred's going to walk to the store now, and he's going to see this girl."
But you can lose friends this way.

[Kishi]

So in case I describe a clip (about magic tricks ) at the same time as I am watching it.

The magician plays a video that was taped long long time ago (he definitely can not exist at that time), after a few minutes of playing, he appears in that video and talks about this magic trick

How to describe whats going on in this video with the correct tense

I'm so confused because this is not real, at the time in the video, he might be just a baby or not even born