The Journey

My day was mostly writing today; I am on a schedule now and I fell behind already! Doesn’t sound very relaxing, does it? But this is the 970th post which is really a lot of practice. And as I’ll keep it up - for practice’s sake - I also have begun a project to which I will try my skills.

Besides the movies my son and I watch as we’re treadmilling two time a week, I have been to two movies at theaters this week alone. Today I saw Spiderman in 3D - the glasses have really improved! And I think that I couldn’t have chosen a better movie for 3D viewing than Spiderman as his many leaps off the top of NYC buildings and flying around town is pretty thrilling.

I do go to the movies in the afternoon when it’s hot outside and far from fighting the crowds, I’ve literally had the theater to myself: a private showing as it were. Or perhaps it’s just the movies I’m choosing. Watching the previews I don’t see many upcoming movies that seem attractive to me except one where Brad Pitt’s dog has PTSD! The violence, and flashing lights of too many quick cuts, not to mention the story line’s of so many other films is just not compelling to me.

Also I think movies are longer than they used to be: the Odyssey was 3 hours, Spiderman 2.5 hours, and the Goro Miyazaki film was over 2 hours too. Of course the Odyssey I found captivating, but I think I fell asleep for just a moment in the other two. They are a tad long and for such length the connection to the audience is difficult to maintain.

The book I’m reading as I’m writing my own movie talks about how to structure a movie in terms of 3 acts. Of course, Act I is the introduction to the place, time, and the hero and what the hero is after. But in that time it’s good if the audience ends up caring if the hero of the movie manages to get what the hero is after. And so one learns who the hero is and what the hero is after. Of course, some understanding of the barriers the hero faces is essential as well. All of that in the first 30 minutes.

Act 2 then is the further development of how the hero manages to change their direction to optimize arriving at their goal usually with a big dramatic moment towards the end of that act so that Act 3 can begin to resolve and tie up loose ends to finish the movie. Of course this is bare structure, rather simple minded.

The movies I’ve seen do seem to follow this structure. The first 30 minutes sets the audience up nicely; knowing what we’re getting into is always good. But I think what I’ve noticed is that Act 2 where barriers are encountered, epiphanies had, obstacles avoided, and new directions imagined and taken ends up way too long. In both of the movies I saw they could not sustain the connection with their one person audience.

I suppose there are a lot of reasons for this. Movies are so technical these days that it takes nearly a city of people to produce them. I like to read the credits and I’m just amazed these days as how many people are involved in a single movie. And so once so many are hired to do their technical jobs I imagine the urge to do more scenes once you get going is unavoidable.

Not just movies but people are changing as well. I mean the portion of the population that is drawn to these extremely violent movies with eye popping light shows in fast cuts have to be very different from someone like me. But then there is a whole new world of people who have been raised with cell phones given to them in the stroller! Then the addiction to social media by so many is more flickering lights which leaves those who enjoy reading being separated into a minority! It that true? That’s what I hear.

You’d think readers would have an easier time purchasing a movie ticket on line, but a big theater’s web page is a very distracting place. And you need to be one of those who played with cell phones in the crib just to purchase a ticket beforehand as the navigation is trecherous: I feel like I’m Odysseus on an eight year journey just to get a ticket!