The Pandora Effect

I can still remember the day I went to see James Cameron's 'AVATAR'. I think I'd just turned 16. It was one of those defining movie outings. I'd seen J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK on my 13th birthday and now I was going to see Avatar.

Our family tended to stick to age restrictions growing up. My parents were good that way. And I didn't, and I still don't resent that about my childhood. It turned every few years into a coming-of-age experience. Like a Viking Warrior walking through the flames to enter manhood I got to watch certain movies when I was old enough to handle them. Call me old-fashioned, but I think that's the way it's supposed to be done. Too often, I've seen young kids in today's generation, behaving violently, flinging the F-word around like it's everyone's nickname, or using crude innuendos when they speak. And I'm sitting there thinking, 'Man, I didn't know half that kind of language when I was your age.' Am I wrong? Maybe kids today shouldn't have to deal with that kind of sick knowledge.

Anyway... Back to Avatar.

For more information check out the Wiki-link below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(2009_film)

But basically the film revolves around an ex-marine named Jake Sully who also happens to be a paraplegic. Who better to send to the mythical planet 'Pandora' to inhabit the fully functioning body of a Na'vi alien, known as an Avatar, then this guy right?

What essentially happens is that Jake begins to enjoy his new body so much, not to mention the beautiful Na'vi princess, that he goes rogue and decides to help the Na'vi fight off the human invaders to protect Pandora. The humans, on the other hand, are after a special kind of mineral, worth billions back on earth, which is why they're willing to destroy the Na'vis' sacred home ground. Now Jake must learn, not only to become one of the Na'vi, but also to become their leader if he is to beat this formidable army led by Colonel Miles Quaritch. Basically the story of John Smith and Pocahontas in space. The graphics and CGI, however, are eye-popping, and the world that James Cameron has created is so intricate and astounding that the latest news promises us not one, not two, but three additional chapters to the Pandora saga, to give us and James enough time to explore this paradise. 

It makes for an epic. I realised the problem however when I first went to go see Avatar in the cinema.

Like I said, it's too much for too long. Not that I didn't enjoy it. Don't get me wrong, Avatar is freaking amazing! Let me explain:

There are two stories running throughout Avatar, and they are seen in Jake Sully's two conflicting lives. One, in the body of an Avatar, and another in his paraplegic human body. From his wheelchair, Jake witnesses the human's desperate quest for the minerals on Pandora. He offers them insight into the Na'vi tribe, gleaned from his time spent as an Avatar. His loyalties are to earth, and to the other members of his team. But as an Avatar, Jake leads a different life. He learns the ways of Pandora, and of the tribe. He discovers a power and a confidence within himself that he never understood as a human. Most importantly, he falls in love with Neytiri, the beautiful future priestess to the Na'vi tribe.

Neytiri is charged with teaching Jake the ways of her people, so it's not surprising when their relationship soon blossoms into romance. I remember, in the scene where Jake finally confesses his love for Neytiri, as he kissed her, someone in the audience yelled out, "Well it's about time!" 

Everyone laughed.

We'd been gawking at glowing tree branches, alien dragons, and tall blue people for the last hour and a half. All we wanted was for the plot to get a move on. We wanted to see the big moment. Because at the end of the day, no matter how many CGI specimens of alien life you throw at the audience, the only thing they really care about are the characters. The heart of the story. We want to see Jake kiss Neytiri, we want to see Jake overcome his fear, we want to see the Colonel being speared with a shaft from his own helicopter, (sorry, spoiler...) and out of that, victory being achieved for the Na'vi tribe.

Am I saying that the director of Avatar failed to create an exciting film? Hardly. I am saying that the characters weren't intriguing enough? Nope. Am I saying that the plot was weak? Not necessarily. What I am saying though is that sometimes a story can be lost in a swamp of CGI.

Here's what Harrison Ford, who will be starring in the new "STAR WARS The Force Awakens" had to say to Time Magazine about CGI:

"Well, we walk the line of a wholly digital green screen movie. We did not do that, there’s a great advantage to building physical sets. Both in spending and they help ensure you’re keeping it to a human scale. I think one of the problems with the CGI is that you can, if you need 100 villains and you’re only a few keystrokes from having 1000, and what the hell, it’s the same price. What happens is you overwhelm the human experience with kinetics and you lose what I refer to as scale. What needs to be preserved is the emotional experience a human being can identify with." - Harrison Ford

http://time.com/4132998/star-wars-the-force-awakens-harrison-ford-prequels/

What do you think? Is CGI truly the future of the movies? Or is there a heart, a core to filmmaking that perhaps we're missing? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Have an awesome Wednesday! 

-Adino

"B.E.G." - Don't Let Doubt Kill Your Dreams

Nearly a year and a half ago, I wrote and directed a short film entitled "B.E.G."

The concept behind it was simple, and it was birthed out of a conversation I once had with a friend. For some reason, which I can't remember, we began discussing the rise of unemployment in South Africa. You see, we'd begun to notice that there were a lot more street-side beggars in recent times then there had been while we were growing up. As I tend to do, I began day dreaming...

I said what I was thinking out loud: "What if," I asked, "in a post-apocalyptic world, begging was a kind of job you had. As if you could be employed as a beggar, and some business or world super power controlled these beggars?" A good question, I thought. So I immediately sat down to write the screenplay. Because of my feverish desire to make a movie and to have people see it, I hurried production, and within six months I had written, shot, and edited the film. You can watch it below:

https://www.facebook.com/B.E.G.TheMovie/

What was so incredible about the experience was all the support that we got; not only from our audience of 100 people at the premier, but also from all our sponsors, and those who loaned us the equipment and editing software to finish the project. It was a stepping stone in ways I won't even begin to tell you in this blog post, opening up a host of new opportunities. I am proud to have worked with such an amazingly talented cast and crew. 

As amazing as the whole journey was, the film has not received a great deal of viewership on the web, although the number of likes on our Facebook page has been slowly climbing to this day. Forgive my weak attempt at bragging. On Monday morning I received this email:

Which led me to this comment:

I've attached the link to his article below:

https://friendsofyelshir.wordpress.com/2015/11/26/b-e-g-the-movie/

For me this was one of those moments like, "Phew, I suppose if I'm going to dish it out I'd better learn how to take it." Not that this comment was in anyway overcritical, in fact, I quite agree with the observations made on this blog about my film. But it was also a case of, "Wow, someone's actually taken the time to use my film as subject matter for their blog, in a similar capacity to how I use other people's films for my blog!"

And, like I said in a recent Facebook post to the cast and crew of my film, it shows we actually achieved something pretty big. Maybe I'm reading too much into this one comment, but I don't think so. Maybe I am just hyped that somebody actually commented on our film, but I think the heart of what I'm getting at is this:

I'm excited to see that what I originally set out to do, I did. We did. We posed a question. We told a story. Essentially that is the heart and soul of film. I'm reminded of something I read in "Creativity Inc." the story of Pixar animation studios by Ed Catmull. In the book, he talks about the way his team at Pixar views every new project as an 'ugly baby'.
In other words, a film when it starts out is not yet fully grown. It is still in its infancy, learning to walk, learning to talk. According to Ed Catmull, all stories, all movies should be treated this way, as if they are ugly babies. It is our responsibility as filmmakers and story tellers to nurture the story.

Now I suspect I may have released this film into the big, wide world without having properly let it grow. In many ways, "B.E.G." was still in its infancy. The soul of the film was there, but it had not yet matured into what I believe it could have eventually become. Who knows? Perhaps someday it will find its feet. And as I've said before, it was the springboard for many new adventures and creative pursuits. In some ways, I owe my current job to the making of that film. It opened up a vast network of connections for me personally.
We live and learn. Let me put something into perspective for you before I sign out. Each member of our cast was between the ages of 14 and 17. I, at the time I wrote the screenplay, was 18. The score for "B.E.G." was all original music composed by my 15 year old sister Phoebe. The footage was shot on a Panasonic 5000, if I remember correctly, by yours truly, having never worked with such a complex - not to mention heavy - camera in my life. I also, at the time, had never used Final Cut Pro before, which meant I was essentially learning the software on the job. In a nut shell, "B.E.G." was a major learning curb for everyone involved, and like I said earlier, I couldn't be prouder. The team that was assembled, gave a hundred and ten percent. Props to them! Obviously, we made some kind of impact, and that for me was a victory of note. You might call it an Everest moment.

In a metaphorical sense, our little indie-film crawled towards the right viewer(s). It was then picked up, looked over, and said of, "Interesting... Needs some work..." And of course, it did, but so do all creative endeavours. That's what separates those who tell their stories from the people who don't; the willingness to grow. My encouragement to you would be to nurture your dreams, let them grow, build them into the fully-fledged monuments you know they can be, and then unleash them on the world. Doubt is the greatest threat to your dreams. Don't let it drag you down.

As Walt Disney famously said:

Regards,

Adino Poggiali-Trapani