In America, there is always this ongoing debate about sex & violence. Opponents of censorship always point out the hypocrisy of parents becoming enraged by sex, love, and general intimacy in cinema. Yet, these same parents are soft on bemoaning extreme violence served by the same people. So you have to ask why is one alright (or not as bad) and not the other. From a logical standpoint, if you had to choose, I'm sure most people will say its better to make a life than to take one, but that's not the case when it comes to movies. Well there are a few factors that once you understand it will make complete rational sense.
The 1st and far-reaching is that America is founded by Puritans. These people hate sex, and anything associated with it is sinful and detracts from God. This may carry over to older crowds who prefer the idea of a stork delivering you a baby on your window sill. It can apply to the 50's TV ethos of sleeping in separate beds even though you're happily married. But personally I've never been raised with this mindset, but I've always hated sex in movies, and felt it didn't work.
My theory is group consciousness. When a large group of people gather together they share a common state of mind. That's how church and concerts work. People feed off of one another, that's why when you see someone yawn, you start doing it. It's also why they say "laughter is contagious", which is what led to the creation of the "laugh track" for TV shows. Even if a joke isn't that funny, if you hear people laughing, you probably will give a chuckle too.
Which leads to sex & violence. Essentially, in a movie theater the collective mind is not prepared to engage in sex, but it is prepared to engage in violence. Sex is intimate and personal, something to be shared between 2 people. To ask a large group in a movie theater to participate in the emotion of sex, love and passion, is tantamount to inviting them to an orgy. Now, while most people may experiment sexually, if given the opportunity to engage in an orgy, most people would likely decline. Case in point, I offer this Seinfeld scene where he recoils at the offer of a threesome.
With that said, this only applies to movie theaters, once you are in the privacy of your home they don't apply. If you have a sex scene for a movie, it's better left for the director's cut on the DVD. The only way sex works in a theater is if its comical. Comedy supersedes all trauma, b/c it can be brushed off if it becomes controversial to the psyche.
Now violence on the other hand has always been apart of the "American way". Violence is how we achieved our goals. We created "manifest destiny" in opposition to "uniform destiny". It plays to our most base emotion of taking w/out asking. Even when it came to cavemen, if they wanted to have sex, it was probably preceded by violence. [Picture a woman being clocked over the head with a club and being drug to a cave]. In a movie theater violence incites mob mentality, and everyone wants to be apart of the group. Child psychologist note this even among children who pick on others even when they don't really have a problem with a particular child. Everyone follows the lead of the alpha child, b/c its better to kick someone, than to be the person being kicked. These same rules apply to cinema, but the movie itself is the alpha child. So while we may hate violence, it actually, in a morbid way, is a form of camaraderie and a tool for bringing us together.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
DEVELOPING UR STYLE
I have found that the easiest way to develop your voice and style is to dissect all the things that you like. 9X out of 10, what you like is what you want to do or achieve. You have to critically figure out the most minute detail that appeals to you, figure out why you like it and develop it into you oeuvre. To figure out the things I like I made a list (its always good to make lists) of all my favorite films at that moment or in general. Then you figure out what all these films have in common. Even if you don't think they do... THEY DO! You may not see it at first, and it may take you weeks or months to figure it out, but there is something in common with all the things you like, once you figure it out, you are on your way.
When I was 16 I made a list of all my favorite films at the time. They included. Menace II Society, Resevoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Natural Born Killers, and Goodfellas. Outside of the fact that all these films were extremely violent and dealt with gangsters, what I was really attracted to was they all had ensemble casts. I like films that have tons of characters, who had great dialogue. Now you can say these films all deal with violence, gangsters, and subcultures. If you were looking at this list that may be the 1st thing that jumps out at you, but it was the cast for me, so don't accept the answers that pop out at you until it FEELS RIGHT, trust me you'll know. Just don't lie to yourself, I want to emphazie that, b/c alot of times when things seem difficult you may look for the easy way out and that will only hinder your craft in the end, you have to be relentless in your pursuit, no matter how stupid you may feel. I'll give you an example.
Back when I couldn't afford to go to the movies or have cable, I watched music videos to get my fill of cinema. I would come up with entire music videos in my head, edits and all. I would tape music videos and watch them over and over, memorizing the shots and trying to figure out how they did it behind the scenes. I loved Hype Williams the most and the video for Nas' Street Dreams was a parody of the film Casino. This had the best colors and cinematography I had ever seen, but the best shot in the video to me was the one that wasn't intended to be that cool. Look below it's at 00:36-00:40 it was just as Nas walks to his car before it blows up. The shot is of his feet walking and he walks from the fore ground and gets in the car.
I kept saying "this is the best shot in the video" but I couldn't figure out why, and I became obsessed with it. I watched it over and over, seriously, I watched this 4 second shot for an hour straight trying to figure out why I like it so much. I watched it on fast forward and rewind, slo-motion, frame by frame, and slo-motion rewinding... every way! I'm completely serious I watched it close up, and sitting far back, I watched it laying on my side and laying upside down with my head hanging off the couch, I just couldn't get it. Then I watched it at slo-mo at 1/8, then 1/4, and finally 1/2 speed. THEN I SAW IT! The cam. is at ground level and it glides to the right. At the bottom of the frame are the rocks, in the middle ground is the car, and in the background is the house. All 3 of these things are moving at a different speed as the camera moves and that's what made me love the shot so much. Then I remembered where I had also seen it, it was Michael Bay movies. It was in the chase scene in Bad Boys and The Rock, and more recently in Hot Fuzz. look at 04:59
It was the movement of the different depths of field at once that I loved. So I started thinking how can I use that and take it to the next level. I came up with putting a body cam on a person, then putting that person on a dolly cam like the floating shots that Spike Lee does all the time. Haven't personally done it yet, but I can guarantee the results will be extremely visceral and unlike anything you've ever seen.
I just use this as a case in point to say don't deny what you like, b/c at first I told myself it was stupid to think Nas walking to his car was the best shot, especially after seeing the entire video. So you have to decode why you like the things that you like, and apply them to what you want to do. Another quick example is Davinci's Last Supper. I always thought the pic was extremely weird and had a weird vibe to it in the way everybody was placed. It wasn't until the DaVinci Code came out that I discovered "mirroring" and that the painting could be superimposed on top of itself to create more meaning. I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate that into cinema.
When I was 16 I made a list of all my favorite films at the time. They included. Menace II Society, Resevoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Natural Born Killers, and Goodfellas. Outside of the fact that all these films were extremely violent and dealt with gangsters, what I was really attracted to was they all had ensemble casts. I like films that have tons of characters, who had great dialogue. Now you can say these films all deal with violence, gangsters, and subcultures. If you were looking at this list that may be the 1st thing that jumps out at you, but it was the cast for me, so don't accept the answers that pop out at you until it FEELS RIGHT, trust me you'll know. Just don't lie to yourself, I want to emphazie that, b/c alot of times when things seem difficult you may look for the easy way out and that will only hinder your craft in the end, you have to be relentless in your pursuit, no matter how stupid you may feel. I'll give you an example.
Back when I couldn't afford to go to the movies or have cable, I watched music videos to get my fill of cinema. I would come up with entire music videos in my head, edits and all. I would tape music videos and watch them over and over, memorizing the shots and trying to figure out how they did it behind the scenes. I loved Hype Williams the most and the video for Nas' Street Dreams was a parody of the film Casino. This had the best colors and cinematography I had ever seen, but the best shot in the video to me was the one that wasn't intended to be that cool. Look below it's at 00:36-00:40 it was just as Nas walks to his car before it blows up. The shot is of his feet walking and he walks from the fore ground and gets in the car.
I kept saying "this is the best shot in the video" but I couldn't figure out why, and I became obsessed with it. I watched it over and over, seriously, I watched this 4 second shot for an hour straight trying to figure out why I like it so much. I watched it on fast forward and rewind, slo-motion, frame by frame, and slo-motion rewinding... every way! I'm completely serious I watched it close up, and sitting far back, I watched it laying on my side and laying upside down with my head hanging off the couch, I just couldn't get it. Then I watched it at slo-mo at 1/8, then 1/4, and finally 1/2 speed. THEN I SAW IT! The cam. is at ground level and it glides to the right. At the bottom of the frame are the rocks, in the middle ground is the car, and in the background is the house. All 3 of these things are moving at a different speed as the camera moves and that's what made me love the shot so much. Then I remembered where I had also seen it, it was Michael Bay movies. It was in the chase scene in Bad Boys and The Rock, and more recently in Hot Fuzz. look at 04:59
It was the movement of the different depths of field at once that I loved. So I started thinking how can I use that and take it to the next level. I came up with putting a body cam on a person, then putting that person on a dolly cam like the floating shots that Spike Lee does all the time. Haven't personally done it yet, but I can guarantee the results will be extremely visceral and unlike anything you've ever seen.
I just use this as a case in point to say don't deny what you like, b/c at first I told myself it was stupid to think Nas walking to his car was the best shot, especially after seeing the entire video. So you have to decode why you like the things that you like, and apply them to what you want to do. Another quick example is Davinci's Last Supper. I always thought the pic was extremely weird and had a weird vibe to it in the way everybody was placed. It wasn't until the DaVinci Code came out that I discovered "mirroring" and that the painting could be superimposed on top of itself to create more meaning. I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate that into cinema.
1st THINGS 1st
You must determine which type of artist you want to become. If you want to make films like Jim Jarmusch w/ Dead Man, don't complain about it not making $. If you want to make films like Michael Bay, don't try to sell your films as a revolution in cinematic thinking. It doesn't matter if you want to be famous (i.e. rich) by being unconventional, or make counter cultural works that attack mainstream conventions. Determine all the things you want to do first. Then put them into a list. Then prioritize that list. Then determine the best plan of action to achieve these goals. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT, start out by stating what can and can't be done, start with what you want to do, then figure out how to do it. People in the industry make statements like "you can't make a film for less that $35M". Well, that statement is only true if you are apart of the old system and established way of thinking.
Here's an example:
Robert Rodriguez made El Mariachi for $7K. He started out by saying "how can I make a $7K film look like $7M." He determined he would have to write, direct, edit, produce, and create the sound for the film, or it would have never been done. See where I'm going. If he started out by listening to industry insiders they would have said, "There is no way one person can write, direct, edit, produce, and create the sound for the film." He figured out what he WANTED to do, not what "COULD" be done.
MY ARTISTIC GOAL
I want to be an artist that makes entertaining films across every genre that appeal to a global audience on a cultural level. I want these films to be entertaining on the surface but have massive subtext if studied or dissected. I do not want to be didactic or preachy. I DO NOT want viewers to embody or become the characters that I create, but be aware that they are being told a story BY ME, the storyteller.
TASKS
1: In order to appeal to global cultural taste, you must understand global markets. There are 3 major markets to study. Asian, European, and American. Asian films rely more on mood and atmosphere. European films rely more on theme and character while American films stress character and story. All stories have all of these elements. The secret then is to formulate in the pre-production stage how to shoot scenes so that once they are edited for certain markets they can be tailored to that regions preference.
OPPOSITION
you may say that this is pandering or compromising as an artist, but it is not. My goal as an artist is to tell a story. If I go to Japan and talk about the cold winters of Chicago, bumpy roads and cold deserted streets they may have no clue what I'm talking about b/c they are immersed in a culture that has a winter but doesn't get sub zero temp. and the fact that large cities are so crowded the idea of deserted streets is hard to conceive of. Think of the opening scene of Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise. Everyone in America knows that NY is the city that never sleeps and times square is the busiest, most crowded place in the US, the fact that he wakes up to see it deserted with not one single person in sight was an amazing sight to behold and we all got the relevance of it. Outside of America this may have flown over the heads of anyone who has no idea what times square is like and it would likely require a line or two about how it is always overcrowded. It's all about how you tell the story, it's not pandering.
2: Playing both sides is extremely difficult, there are very few examples of films that have great entertainment value, but large subtext underneath. The best examples I can think of are The Matrix films, LOTR trilogy and the Planet of The Apes series. This leads me to believe that most films of this caliber are usually allegories and extremely relevant when they are created. Therefore my films must be extremely steeped in modern times and part of the zeitgeist.
OPPOSITION:
This may be difficult to achieve when it comes to "small" films. But then again it may just be determined by the theme and the storyteller discovering it's universal aspect for the world and relating it thematically.
3: Selling myself as an artist will also be difficult. The only few directors I can think of offhand who excel at this are Scorcese, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, and M. Night Shyamalan. This is b/c their films are all part of an Oeuvre. I must determine what my thematic oeuvre is and play to it. It is consistently said that viewers go to a film and "become" the character that they are viewing, and also that viewers don't want to "know" they are watching a movie. I do not want to achieve this, I want people to know that they are watching a story being told to them and that they similar to the characters, but they should not be role-playing. In order to do this I want to take them out of picture but engross them in it so much they can't take their eyes off of it. This is best achieved by transcending the medium of cinema as "real" and exposing its manipulation to the degree that it is accepted by the viewer.
OPPOSITION:
this can backfire with people saying my films are weird and/or stupid. The secret is selling myself and how I tell stories, that way when people go to a theater or buy my films they have already prepared themselves for something unorthodox. A good way of implementing this goal is to start with other popular works and put my signature on them, such as a comic book character or remake. This way I can acclimate my audience on what to expect in the future.
Here's an example:
Robert Rodriguez made El Mariachi for $7K. He started out by saying "how can I make a $7K film look like $7M." He determined he would have to write, direct, edit, produce, and create the sound for the film, or it would have never been done. See where I'm going. If he started out by listening to industry insiders they would have said, "There is no way one person can write, direct, edit, produce, and create the sound for the film." He figured out what he WANTED to do, not what "COULD" be done.
MY ARTISTIC GOAL
I want to be an artist that makes entertaining films across every genre that appeal to a global audience on a cultural level. I want these films to be entertaining on the surface but have massive subtext if studied or dissected. I do not want to be didactic or preachy. I DO NOT want viewers to embody or become the characters that I create, but be aware that they are being told a story BY ME, the storyteller.
TASKS
1: In order to appeal to global cultural taste, you must understand global markets. There are 3 major markets to study. Asian, European, and American. Asian films rely more on mood and atmosphere. European films rely more on theme and character while American films stress character and story. All stories have all of these elements. The secret then is to formulate in the pre-production stage how to shoot scenes so that once they are edited for certain markets they can be tailored to that regions preference.
OPPOSITION
you may say that this is pandering or compromising as an artist, but it is not. My goal as an artist is to tell a story. If I go to Japan and talk about the cold winters of Chicago, bumpy roads and cold deserted streets they may have no clue what I'm talking about b/c they are immersed in a culture that has a winter but doesn't get sub zero temp. and the fact that large cities are so crowded the idea of deserted streets is hard to conceive of. Think of the opening scene of Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise. Everyone in America knows that NY is the city that never sleeps and times square is the busiest, most crowded place in the US, the fact that he wakes up to see it deserted with not one single person in sight was an amazing sight to behold and we all got the relevance of it. Outside of America this may have flown over the heads of anyone who has no idea what times square is like and it would likely require a line or two about how it is always overcrowded. It's all about how you tell the story, it's not pandering.
2: Playing both sides is extremely difficult, there are very few examples of films that have great entertainment value, but large subtext underneath. The best examples I can think of are The Matrix films, LOTR trilogy and the Planet of The Apes series. This leads me to believe that most films of this caliber are usually allegories and extremely relevant when they are created. Therefore my films must be extremely steeped in modern times and part of the zeitgeist.
OPPOSITION:
This may be difficult to achieve when it comes to "small" films. But then again it may just be determined by the theme and the storyteller discovering it's universal aspect for the world and relating it thematically.
3: Selling myself as an artist will also be difficult. The only few directors I can think of offhand who excel at this are Scorcese, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, and M. Night Shyamalan. This is b/c their films are all part of an Oeuvre. I must determine what my thematic oeuvre is and play to it. It is consistently said that viewers go to a film and "become" the character that they are viewing, and also that viewers don't want to "know" they are watching a movie. I do not want to achieve this, I want people to know that they are watching a story being told to them and that they similar to the characters, but they should not be role-playing. In order to do this I want to take them out of picture but engross them in it so much they can't take their eyes off of it. This is best achieved by transcending the medium of cinema as "real" and exposing its manipulation to the degree that it is accepted by the viewer.
OPPOSITION:
this can backfire with people saying my films are weird and/or stupid. The secret is selling myself and how I tell stories, that way when people go to a theater or buy my films they have already prepared themselves for something unorthodox. A good way of implementing this goal is to start with other popular works and put my signature on them, such as a comic book character or remake. This way I can acclimate my audience on what to expect in the future.
MY GOAL
I want to start out 1st by saying this blog is written primarily for myself, with the intention of inspiring or educating anyone who happens to become interested. I state this b/c at times these blogs may ramble or seem incoherent, and I want to put out the disclaimer that they are not drafted (at this time) for the general public. They may be updated, edited, or corrected at any point in time. Eventually, these will comprise a book that I am writing on developing personal style. While it may focus primarily on film it's my hope that it can and will inspire any artist of any medium. Since I am a struggling artist like many I simply use my self and my own examples as best case scenarios. With that said I don't feel I should deny anyone who may be inspired or in turn feel the need to inspire me. Therefore I publish it for all to see. Enjoy, and BE CREATIVE.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
