The fastest way to earn the attention of your audience is to speak truth. It generally needs to be important truth to keep interest, but truth that is relevant to the hearer can be just as powerful. I don't mean relevant in the culturally pervasive understanding of relativism. When I say relevant I mean related, pertinent, applicable, significant, or important.
Nostalgia is often a form of relevant truth. A scene of a hot Fourth of July at a family reunion with hotdogs and hamburgers and baseball and fireworks after dark will strike up a sense of nostalgia with viewers that experienced that sort of celebration. Since it’s truth that demands the audiences respect, this personal-seeming truth that is nostalgia can be a very powerful tool in the hand of the filmmaker.
This won’t help a filmmaker, but I’ve been told the sense of smell is the strongest nostalgia trigger. I think music is a close second.
Jim
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
"Brevity is the Soul of wit."
I felt a strong sense of irony after writing the post Long vs. Boring. I needed to cut that post. Let me try again:
Every scene, every line, every angle, every shot, every frame must have a purpose. Cut any of the preceding if they serve no purpose. Cut for purpose, not for length. A film can be long and still be interesting. When the elements of the film lose purpose, then the film will lose interest.
(Compare The Godfather to Duel for an example of this)
Jim
Every scene, every line, every angle, every shot, every frame must have a purpose. Cut any of the preceding if they serve no purpose. Cut for purpose, not for length. A film can be long and still be interesting. When the elements of the film lose purpose, then the film will lose interest.
(Compare The Godfather to Duel for an example of this)
Jim
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Memorials Matter
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. - Phil. 4:8
This verse is usually thought of in light of maintaining pure thoughts, having uplifting conversations, and being Christ-like in current and future dealings. But I want to take a minute and think about it in terms of remembering history also.
Generally speaking, we remember the good things about our experiences. There are exceptions, obviously, but whether intentionally or unintentionally, most of our times spent reminiscing are on the fun, the funny, and the exciting. This goes for people too. When someone passes, it's in bad taste to spend time on their shortcomings, and rather we prefer to honor their memory by lauding the good.
But what if someone wasn't admirable? What if their actions were not praiseworthy?
Well, then the question becomes how is that person being remembered? Is it an honest appraisal, recognizing that their actions were not just, were not noble, and therefore discretely let that person's memory fade? Or do we paint a false picture of that person by only praising, only honoring, and only celebrating their accomplishments (for good or bad)?
Ted Kennedy died today. I don't believe that he should be honored. I believe historical context is a very powerful tool, and that by honoring him, we are implicitly suggesting that he is worthy of being honored. That his memory is admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy. And if we are holding him up as a standard of greatness, then we are suggesting that people strive to be like him. If we are teaching people to behave (womanizing, alcoholic, homicidal) and believe (abortion, evolution, other tenants liberalism) as Ted Kennedy did, then we are in serious trouble.
Jim
This verse is usually thought of in light of maintaining pure thoughts, having uplifting conversations, and being Christ-like in current and future dealings. But I want to take a minute and think about it in terms of remembering history also.
Generally speaking, we remember the good things about our experiences. There are exceptions, obviously, but whether intentionally or unintentionally, most of our times spent reminiscing are on the fun, the funny, and the exciting. This goes for people too. When someone passes, it's in bad taste to spend time on their shortcomings, and rather we prefer to honor their memory by lauding the good.
But what if someone wasn't admirable? What if their actions were not praiseworthy?
Well, then the question becomes how is that person being remembered? Is it an honest appraisal, recognizing that their actions were not just, were not noble, and therefore discretely let that person's memory fade? Or do we paint a false picture of that person by only praising, only honoring, and only celebrating their accomplishments (for good or bad)?
Ted Kennedy died today. I don't believe that he should be honored. I believe historical context is a very powerful tool, and that by honoring him, we are implicitly suggesting that he is worthy of being honored. That his memory is admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy. And if we are holding him up as a standard of greatness, then we are suggesting that people strive to be like him. If we are teaching people to behave (womanizing, alcoholic, homicidal) and believe (abortion, evolution, other tenants liberalism) as Ted Kennedy did, then we are in serious trouble.
Jim
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Long vs. Boring
"Cut it till it hurts, then cut out some more." A very wise man once said that to aspiring directors, a reminder that every shot in a movie must serve a purpose. Just because you have a beautiful, picturesque, wide screen pan of the ocean crashing against the rocks, doesn't mean your audience needs (or wants) to see it.
This is much harder to do than it sounds. It does hurt to take out a scene that took hours and hours to make. As a director, it does hurt to lose that gorgeous ocean shot. I know first hand how hard it is. No doubt, so does the audience of some of my boring movies.
If you leave these unnecessary shots in, you lose the audience. It's not just that your movie will be longer with them in, it will be boring with them. But don't confuse long with boring.
The Godfather is long. Duel is boring.
The Godfather has lots of "scenic" shots and slow pans and angles from one stationary camera. Yet each one means something in a noticeable, understandable way. The slow pace is dictated by the personas of the characters, and perpetuated by the length of the shots. Because the shot itself communicates more than just what the characters are doing, the length doesn't become tedious. It's a long movie, interesting movie.
Duel has shot after shot of a car moving down the highway. This serves an essential purpose early in the movie to establish the solitude and emptiness of countryside, and heightens the terror for the car facing the semi all alone. Forty-five minutes later, the audience has gotten the point that it's a lonely highway. After an hour of wide-angle shots of a semi and a car on a two-lane highway still trying to communicate the same thing I learned half an hour ago, I'm bored.
Jim
This is much harder to do than it sounds. It does hurt to take out a scene that took hours and hours to make. As a director, it does hurt to lose that gorgeous ocean shot. I know first hand how hard it is. No doubt, so does the audience of some of my boring movies.
If you leave these unnecessary shots in, you lose the audience. It's not just that your movie will be longer with them in, it will be boring with them. But don't confuse long with boring.
The Godfather is long. Duel is boring.
The Godfather has lots of "scenic" shots and slow pans and angles from one stationary camera. Yet each one means something in a noticeable, understandable way. The slow pace is dictated by the personas of the characters, and perpetuated by the length of the shots. Because the shot itself communicates more than just what the characters are doing, the length doesn't become tedious. It's a long movie, interesting movie.
Duel has shot after shot of a car moving down the highway. This serves an essential purpose early in the movie to establish the solitude and emptiness of countryside, and heightens the terror for the car facing the semi all alone. Forty-five minutes later, the audience has gotten the point that it's a lonely highway. After an hour of wide-angle shots of a semi and a car on a two-lane highway still trying to communicate the same thing I learned half an hour ago, I'm bored.
Jim
Monday, August 24, 2009
Let's begin!
Welcome to the Heraldic Production Company blog! With this, the inaugural post, I feel compelled to explain who we are, to layout our mission, and to establish the purpose for this daily communication.
Who we are: Your author today is Jim Spena, movie lover, amateur critic, and aspiring director. Sharing the posting duties with me on this blog will be my two partners in culture change, Dave Ballew and Jared Lightle. I will allow them to further introduce themselves in their own posts, but for today, the most important things that you need to know about us are: we love Jesus Christ, we believe that the principles of conservatism are founded in the wisdom of scripture, we hate the assault upon Biblical Christianity that is daily carried forward by liberalism, and we plan to re-capture our nations hearts and minds to the things of Christ by engaging the culture around us.
Our mission: To advance God’s kingdom. First, we must help fellow believers to have proper worldviews that are built firmly upon Biblical understanding. Second, we must engage the culture and attack the lies that have blinded and led astray millions. Entertainment is a powerful tool for influencing opinion, and there is no more frequented, loved, or influential medium in modern culture than the feature film. Yet, this tool for culture change has been largely ignored by Christians. We plan to take back this arena and “take every frame captive for Christ.” Our goal for each film will be: To entertain through the medium of film in a way that elevates thought and inspires emotion by weaving stories that accurately reflect God's truth and beauty.
The blog: Networking with fellow believers will certainly be a very important part of accomplishing our goals, but this is not the driving purpose of this blog. Writing is an excellent way to express and develop thoughts, and through this exchange of musings we hope to better develop our own understandings of God’s word, His creation, and His will for our endeavor into film making. If our ideas create an online audience, than that will be a blessing and an additional benefit.
Well, there's the context for the blog. What follows might be film criticisms, scriptural debates, philosophical questions, political discussions, cultural comments, movie ideas, or anything else on our minds. We hope that it will be edifying, God glorifying, and stretching intellectually for you and us.
Jim
Who we are: Your author today is Jim Spena, movie lover, amateur critic, and aspiring director. Sharing the posting duties with me on this blog will be my two partners in culture change, Dave Ballew and Jared Lightle. I will allow them to further introduce themselves in their own posts, but for today, the most important things that you need to know about us are: we love Jesus Christ, we believe that the principles of conservatism are founded in the wisdom of scripture, we hate the assault upon Biblical Christianity that is daily carried forward by liberalism, and we plan to re-capture our nations hearts and minds to the things of Christ by engaging the culture around us.
Our mission: To advance God’s kingdom. First, we must help fellow believers to have proper worldviews that are built firmly upon Biblical understanding. Second, we must engage the culture and attack the lies that have blinded and led astray millions. Entertainment is a powerful tool for influencing opinion, and there is no more frequented, loved, or influential medium in modern culture than the feature film. Yet, this tool for culture change has been largely ignored by Christians. We plan to take back this arena and “take every frame captive for Christ.” Our goal for each film will be: To entertain through the medium of film in a way that elevates thought and inspires emotion by weaving stories that accurately reflect God's truth and beauty.
The blog: Networking with fellow believers will certainly be a very important part of accomplishing our goals, but this is not the driving purpose of this blog. Writing is an excellent way to express and develop thoughts, and through this exchange of musings we hope to better develop our own understandings of God’s word, His creation, and His will for our endeavor into film making. If our ideas create an online audience, than that will be a blessing and an additional benefit.
Well, there's the context for the blog. What follows might be film criticisms, scriptural debates, philosophical questions, political discussions, cultural comments, movie ideas, or anything else on our minds. We hope that it will be edifying, God glorifying, and stretching intellectually for you and us.
Jim
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