Film studies 101 often showed The Birth of a Nation to lay the foundation for what’s to become of Hollywood. First silent feature film. Historical and technological, the later much faster.
Visual impact with hoodies KKK’s riding into the sunset to rescue an America on the decline. “If you don’t fight like Hell, you wouldn’t have a country”…sounds familiar?
Long coat, cold air ” …tear down this wall”, except more Grifter than Gipper.
Then, any film crew member would know better NOT to sit in that empty Director’s chair, no matter how long the shoot has been, and how tired grips have felt. It’s a sine qua non. Script, sight and sound all in sync, or magically altered back in the editing room.
Today’s films (or for that matter, digital books) could be produced anywhere in collaboration with an international crew, as long as they have an internet connection.
A convergence of opportunities. Unfortunately, creativity and content have yet to catch up with Moore’s Law.
We “amused ourselves to death” with the small screen, silver screen and social media screen. If we don’t see it appear on screen, we tend not to believe it (as opposed to “have it in writing” as in years past).
“zip code?”
” Remove your card”….
“Select the grade.”
Ouch!
Samsung is doing well with its screen technology. It will soon expand out here in Round Rock, Tx. There seems to be no turning back. Not with a digital native generation . The Jan 6 commission got this. It shows clips etc… as opposed to long Watergate summer.
Human acceptance of technology (adoption) tends to clip human acceptance of fellow human being. Take the Birth of a Nation as an example. Films have moved on from its 1915 original screening i.e., Black and White, hours long etc…
But we still struggle with BLM’s and George Floyd aftermath. The concept of equality resides still in the Ivory Tower never siphoned down to Main Street.
Back then, it’s Boston NAACP chapter that protested the film. Today, it’s still Boston that champions Climate Change initiatives, MIT with robotic technologies on Route 128. East-Coast education for a Confederate mind.
So we have culture wars. We face decline and division: class, gender, politics and religion. All stove pipes.
In Hurt’s Locker and Virgin Suicide, we found female directors worthy of Oscars.
50 years of rising to the challenge ( of equal opportunities for men and women).
Don’t sit on that chair, unless you are the one, and don’t say “Cut” or “Action” unless you are damn sure make-ups, script, grips, lighting, camera, sound and clapper are all set.
We, the film tribal people, all share a common heritage: action heroes, sidekicks, Bogart watching the plane take off, the Sicilian mandolin sound track of the Godfather, and the blow up of the Challenger on live TV.
All those sight and sound strike a responsive chord, carrying us back to The Way We Were. A sense of nostalgia and melancholy. Of selective memory and a glorious past (that can no longer be Make Great Again-able).
Many technologists of religion, gizmology, politics are in search of a legal theory (per Judge Carter) at a precinct level, unhooded.
But underneath lays a birthing and development of a Nation, still prejudiced at the core. Ask Vincent Chin’s mom whose son was beaten to death on his bachelor’s night in Detroit some 4 decades ago. Ask a Floridian mom how Zimmerman who killed her son yet got away scotch free. And now at Tops to top it all. 18-year-old out-of-towner rode into town to mow down his purportedly “replacement”.
Until we see the Death of a Nation ( as opposed to its current schizophrenia ), we won’t get a Phoenix-rising nation, beacon of the world and city on the Hill.
Cut. Cut. Cut. (BTW, did someone promise “I will march with you”, only to collect your credit card plus fees to the tune of a quarter of a billion-dollar. Hard to fathom the depth of mayhem, caused all by one man, still at 44% approval as of today’s poll).
No wonder, as long as money talks, it can buy experts in all sorts of domain, from legal experts (Eastman) to communication experts (Fox), from religion/philosophy (Bannon – who thought 2016 campaign had tanked after the rant tape with Bill Bush came out) to local election volunteers (NV and AZ). Heck, back in Luther’s 1517, it could get you a one-way ticket (indulgence) out of purgatory, or in Kushner 2021, a spot on the pardon list.
We live in fear, paranoid and anxiety. Yet our imaginary fear doesn’t reflect what’s out there in reality. Yet, through mass hysteria, manufactured consent and a conspiracy mindset (“the Other”) we end up on the same page (but not the same script) in a movie called a Rebirth of a Nation.
Not unlike its original version in Black and White. Just as long and despicable as its original, only this time, it’s in plain sight, unhooded for the world to see. After all, it’s digital age, where tweets, texts, emails, cursing, hoarding, killing and selfies are all out there in the cloud, retrievable for analysts to slow mo (NYTimes piece on the Proud Boys).
BTW, what’s that SVN flag was doing on top of the Capitol dome on that fateful day? Somehow, the guy, his son and their Southern flag – now charged with federal crimes- were beaten to the summit by nimbler and light-weight rice-paddy folks, however misled on the days led to it, the media echo chamber, run on ill-gotten money and disinformation.
Back in the editing room, many wish they had studied films 101, to edit out and sanitize sight and sound. In the cloud. Out in the open, cold air.
Inside, with heat on and remote control, sit in that director’s chair, we both know who it was that peppered the day with nudges and nuances, hoping against hope: “from the bottom of our heart, we love you”. Til next shoot.
Thang Nguyen 555 