The Movie Experience

There’s an enormous aspect of art that I think, while prevalent in everything from graphic arts to music, is almost always overlooked when it comes to film.  This aspect would be “interpretation.”  Allow me to explain: in music, although we could argue endlessly about what constitutes “good music,” a song is usually written about a certain experience, thought, or feeling from the songwriter’s point of view.  The song, whether good or bad, is usually written in such a way that it is either greatly generalized or overly vague so that it’s meaning is “up for interpretation.”  Basically, as I’m sure you know, that means that pretty much anyone who listens to that particular song can find a way to relate the lyrics of the song to their own experiences, thoughts, and feelings.  It’s a beautiful thing, and in my opinion, the whole idea and the whole point of art should be to create something that is constructed in a way that it provokes this kind of personal response in people’s minds, no matter what medium you utilize.

While this whole idea of personal interpretation is still an important part in pretty much every artistic medium out there, the one place that I feel that it’s slowly slipped away from is in film.  Once people got used to whole idea of “motion pictures” in the early 1900’s, surrealism and expressionism in the movies slowly started to take hold.  However, as we’ve moved into modern eras of film, somehow hardcore realism has taken the forefront in mainstream media.  Actually, I should backtrack and say that it’s the illusion of realism that has taken the forefront, because if a movie was completely like real life, no one would have any interest in it.

While I can see that there is a place for realism in film and a certain entertaining quality to it, it just seems to me that we’re missing out on the vast capabilities of visual art.  We are now more equipped than ever before to use a visual medium to simulate and provoke certain feelings and to convey the emotions and abstract images in our heads in a way that they make sense to others, or in a way that others can make sense of them in their own way.

It seems like nearly every mainstream movie that has come out in the past few decades has been done completely by-the-book.  By that, I mean that there are a handful of plots that are constantly recycled, and every time, each of these plots has a very specific purpose and a specific idea that they are trying to get across.  In no way am I condemning the use of film to express your opinions (or, put simply, to propagandize).  I’m guilty of it myself.  It just feels to me that, for a long time, the film industry has ignored individuality on some level.

When I go to see a movie, I’m taking into the theater my own personal emotional baggage, for lack of a better description.  Maybe I’m overly stressed and I’m looking to escape from reality for an hour or two.  Maybe I’m working on literally dozens of projects at once and I need to take a break and focus my mind on one particular thing to ground myself.  Maybe I don’t have a care in the world and I’m looking for something to cure me of my boredom.  All of these are frequent mindsets that I settle into before immersing myself in a movie, and depending on which one I’m currently in, the experience of watching that movie could be completely different for me.  That could mean I have a certain thought or emotion that resounds in my head after viewing it, or it could mean that I’ve devised my own interpretation of what the movie meant to me.

It’s that sense of individuality, the idea that the purpose of a film is more than just your own agenda and that each person’s own unique experience is what it’s all about, that’s sadly missing from the movie world today.

Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying

(photo courtesy of Kristin Wood)

I recently went up to Asheville, North Carolina, with my wife to visit her friend, and the only night we were there, we went to downtown Asheville to see something that I only heard referred to as “the drum circle.”  Basically what this was, ironically, was a circle of guys with different types of drums, mostly giant tribal-esque toms, who banged on these drums from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM, nonstop.  “Banged” is not actually a very accurate word to describe this ritual – these guys were obviously very skilled and their playing actually did sound very cool.

But to me, the most interesting part of the whole thing was not the drummers, but rather everyone else there.  Immediatley surrounding this circle of drummers and filling the entire park where they were drumming was a huge crowd of people, all dancing about so eccentrically that it seemed like something you would only see on TV.  Really it was crazy.

The more I watched this insane event, I began to really think: here are all these people, dancing around and making complete idiots out of themselves, and at the same time, they don’t care one single bit about how idiotic their antics may seem to anyone else, and the most compelling part about it was that not one single person there even remotely felt the need explain themselves or justify their actions to anyone.  They weren’t here to prove a point or to make a statement, they weren’t here with some spiritual or religious excuse for themselves, they weren’t here because they were going to get something from it – they weren’t here for any other reason than to just have fun.  I’m sure there were the obvious few who took part in this ritual for the attention or recognition, but I just felt like the majority of them were there because it made them feel good about themselves to express their feelings or it made them forget about their problems because they were having fun dancing around like rag dolls.

This probably sounds really strange or nonsensical, probably because it’s really hard for me to put into words the beauty of what I was witnessing, but it was just incredible to watch something that I could never fathom wanting to ever take part in, but something that was just the epitomy of happiness and contention in human beings without reaching out or giving in to any unreasonable fantasies or any false hopes or promises that society and free market tactics tell you are necessities if you want to be happy or content in life.

I just thought it was kind of fascinating.

Silence Is Golden

I think I pretty much haven’t talked about anything but music on here, so I will lay out some basic info about myself to set up this anecdote: I am a huge skeptic and a hardcore libertarian, meaning, very basically, that I believe in freedom and human rights, and I believe that I have the right to think, believe, and do whatever I want to as long as I don’t impede on someone else’s right or ability to exercise that same freedom.  Plain and simple.  And that also makes it easy for me, because with pretty much any political or ethical issue, I have a clear, black and white position on.  I also use a ton of commas and run-on sentences, in case you haven’t noticed yet.

That being said, there are still a very small number of things that I still don’t have a set opinion on.  Most of these things are unsettled merely because I don’t know enough about the issue to make a judgement, but at the same time there are a few things that I know a ton about or, such as this particular issue, that are entirely arbitrary with no point whatsoever.  Now, here is my issue: when you go to a movie theater and pay $8-$10 for a ticket, are you paying for the ideal, uninterrupted movie experience, or are you paying to go into the theater and do whatever you want, i.e. talk, giggle, comment on the film audibly, and similar disrupting behavior.

It’s a very simple question, yet quite a perplexing one to me.  Also, I do understand that there are rules set in place by the theater asking/telling you to keep your mouth shut and your phone off so as not to disturb anyone, but whether or not you are breaking any established rules is beside the point; I am only interested to the bare morality of it, the ethical question of whether it is right or wrong.

Comment if you have any ideas, and I, too, could argue for either side of this issue for hours, but I think I finally made the conclusion that it is wrong to interrupt someone’s experience, and that their $8-$10 is paying for the viewing of a film, not an open forum with a movie playing in the room.  I also have to add that this does not mean that I will stop goofing off in theaters, only that I have determined that it’s wrong when I do it.  Hey, the first step to rehabilitation is admitting you have a problem!

Updated Top Ten Best Albums

A while back, I put something up on MySpace about my top ten albums, meaning CD’s that are nearly infallible, or otherwise awesome, from start to finish.  Since then, I’ve felt the need to make a few changes, so here is my updated countdown.

1. Manchester Orchestra – Nobody Sings Anymore

Unfortunately, this masterpiece was never officially released, although a few songs from it were released later on an EP entitled You Brainstorm, I Brainstorm, But Brilliance Needs A Good Editor. The band’s reason for this is that they now have a different sound and are not the same band anymore, but for those of us lucky few (thousand) who have been able to get a hold of their real first album, it’s really amazing.

2. Brand New – Deja Entendu

Brand New just always gets it right, but most people will agree, Deja Entendu gets it the right-est.  Coming from an album like the heavy punk-driven Your Favorite Weapon to this was quite a leap, but it was a leap in the right direction.  Simply, it’s a classic.

3. Jack’s Mannequin – The Glass Passenger

To get the full experience of this album, you really need to get all of the b-sides and bonus tracks to go along with it.  Andrew McMahon really managed to emerge from his leukemia recovery with an album that explored his feelings about it without sacrificing the simple, catchy love songs and increasingly clever pop-piano ballads.

4. Taking Back Sunday – Where You Want To Be

Just glancing over the lyrics of any given song on this album will amaze you, and the screeching, emotional vocals just makes it that much more awesome.  Taking Back Sunday is one of my favorite bands of all time, and some of my favorite songs are from their other albums, but with Where You Want To Be, they just seem to get it all just right.

5. Dashboard Confessional – The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most

With all of the newer Dashboard that seems to have been infected with public radio, sometimes it’s best to take it back to the roots, back to the angst-filled yelling and slightly out-of-tune acoustic guitar that made Chris Carrabba the icon that he is now.  This album is just simply gorgeous.

6. Something Corporate – North

It’s funny – on their own, most of the songs on North get kind of boring after a while, but when you go back and listen to the album as a whole, they are suddenly rejuvenated.  It’s kind of eerie, actually.  And the departure from their first CD marks the way for both Jack’s Mannequin and Firescape, two other great bands.

7. Cartel – Chroma

I mentioned before that Cartel is one of the bands that I’ve recently rediscovered, and yes, it has quickly made its way into my top ten.  Maybe it’s partially in support of a local band (they are from Conyers I believe), but Will Pugh sure can sing, and the songs are incredibly catchy.

8. Northstar – Broken Parachute

This album will probably always be in my top ten because Nick Torres is somehow able to marry every type of music that I love into one.  This album is actually just a collection of b-sides that was recently released, yet although I probably listen to thier last album, Pollyana, a hell of a lot more, Broken Parachute just really shows that range a lot more.  I might also recommend checking out Nick Torres’ new band, Cassino.

9. Augustana – All the Stars and Boulevards

This is probably one of the most important albums on this list because it’s the one that got me interested in good music in the first place, minus Linkin Park.  The piano riffs are just as incredible as Dan Layus’s voice – I find it fascinating for some reason, very much in the same way that I find John Nolan’s voice fascinating.

10. Weezer – Weezer (The Blue Album)

C’mon, “My Name Is Jonas,” “Say It Ain’t So,” and “The Sweater Song” – how can anyone disagree with that?

Rediscovery

Because I’m so incredibly stuck up and picky when it comes to good music, I’m only recently rediscovering bands like Cartel, Yellowcard, Ok Go, the old All-American Rejects, Anberlin…you get the idea. For the longest time its been strictly Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, Something Corporate, and Jack’s Mannequin, and if you trace those four back far enough, that could technically be only two different bands.  I can’t stand anything on the radio.  Even bands that I used to like, now that they are on the radio, I can’t stand them.  But the hatred of the “radio music” culture and business is a whole different thing, and of course there are a few exceptions, like Fall Out Boy (back in the day), Secondhand Serenade, and Coldplay to name a few, and not to mention half of my newly-discovered jems.

I’m not surprised by my lack of observation – in fact, since then, I’ve learned to listen to songs and CD’s more than once before I judge them.  When I first listened to Jack’s Mannequin, I couldn’t stand them.  Now I pray to Andrew McMahon.  And strangely, I’ve found it a good rule of thumb that if I don’t like a CD at first, I will probably end up liking it a lot, and if I do like it at first, it will probably get old really quick.

So now I’m on the never-ending journey of making my way through my entire iPod in an attempt to rediscover any music that I may have shrugged off before my realization.  Yep, everything from Abba to Zappa.  Ok, I wouldn’t actually be caught dead with Abba on there, but there is some Zappa that I’ve never actually listened to.  Who knows, maybe he’ll be the next big thing.

Woody Allen’s Watchmen

This is great. Really. Make sure you go through all six of them.

Red Hot

I’m a digital guy.  So is Sidney Lumet.  Lumet is not one of favorite directors per say, at least not creative-wise, but the guy is almost ninety years old, and he’s been making films for more than fifty of those years.  His resume starts with the now-famous 12 Angry Men, and includes a few big films like Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon, and, more recently, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.  Needless to say, he knows what he’s doing.  On top of that, he is also a really smart guy and he really understands the technical side of the film world better than most people do.

Anyway, when digital photography started to creep into filmmaking and a lot of the “greats,” including Speilberg and Scorsese, vowed to stick with 35mm film, Lumet did not hesitate to jump on board.  He gives some very in-depth explanations on the benefits of using digital video rather than film, but in a nutshell it is something like this: all of the colors we see are essentially light, which is electromagnetic energy.  When this light is burned into a frame of film, it is using a chemical process, and then in order to be projected back to view or transfer it, these chemicals are now being converted back into electromagnetic energy.  Because of this process, the colors of the image you capture aren’t the true colors of the light, like what we see.  Of course color correction is an important element in creating a final look for a film, but still, the colors that you capture or reproduce are never the true colors that we see.

Digital cameras, on the other hand, capture light in a much different way.  Digital sensors, especially newer cameras with 3-CCD imaging systems, are able to capture light as digital data in such efficient ways that the light information is almost exactly the same as the way we see it.  The is acheived because the light never changes from electromagnetic energy – the recording surface on a tape or hard disk is electromagnetic as well.

That’s the technical explanation; basically, while a film camera captures a flat image with no additional information, a digital camera can capture an image exactly as we see it, and on top of that, all of the channels of that image, such as red, green, and blue, the highlights, midtones, and shadows, can all be altered individually without affecting the other channels.  You can simulate this with film in color correction, but you don’t truly have all of the separate information to work with.  Plus, it’s much cheaper to shoot on digital than it is to shoot on film!

All of this just to say that I do and always will prefer to shoot on digital.

By the way, if you aren’t listening to this band right now, you need to fix that:

First Post

After much debate, research, experimentation, and procrastination, I’ve finally worked up the patience to put together this blog. It’s nothing monumental or life-changing. Just a place for me to throw some thoughts out into the world wide web when I feel like it. Also, assuming I actually make something of myself in the film industry, I wouldn’t mind having my career documented, so when it comes time to write an auto biography, all I have to do is compile all my posts, and viola. Book. Seems like a good strategy to me.

With all that said…

…this album is going to rock my socks.  Period.  Look out, music industry.