Storying – Page 8 – MindSoulStory

Perfect Aim – For Meaninglessness?

His “…biggest concern for the project was to maintain for the viewer a sense of complete randomness and meaninglessness.”

A sentence caught my eye and I just had to mention it here. This is an excerpt from the Dec 2009 issue of Videography magazine. In his description of a new music video produced for the song, “Heaven Can Wait”, a duet between Beck and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Director Keith Scofield is describing his goal and techniques for the music video.

The author says that Scofield’s “…biggest concern for the project was to maintain for the viewer a sense of complete randomness and meaninglessness.” Later, while editing, the Director says that, “…he had to make sure that viewers would not be able to accidentally find meaning or a narrative thread…”

Those comments just struck me as funny, or sad, or something. Not that I don’t understand the purpose of deliberately disorienting visual styles and editing and such, but I guess I prefer to think that they do serve to communicate something as part of a greater narrative thread – meaninglessness as an observation or feeling within a greater story – rather than as ends in themselves.

I have been through enough seasons in my life that felt random, futile, and meaningless to have discovered that those needn’t be the end of our stories, no matter how real or final or all-defining they may seem while we are in the midst of them.

Against the Avatar Tide

I wanted to stand up and say, “The Emperor Cameron has no clothes!”

OK, I don’t want to offend you if you really loved Avatar and agree with those who say it’s one of the greatest films ever made. I would just like to argue for a higher standard. Certainly it will be one of the highest grossing films ever (though no one talks about total audience, which likely is not the highest ever, given inflation of ticket prices.) And, it is visually and sonically amazing. The visual achievement alone does make it a landmark film.

I’ll try to speak to my point.

A great film is a complete film. That is, a film is more than its visuals or technological advances or music or script or acting or editing or directing. A truly great film is created when all of those elements come together into one coherent whole. By this standard, Avatar misses the mark for me. Honestly, when I left the theater (yes, I saw it in 3D) I was saying to myself, “All that money and nothing for a script writer!”

Were there any characters that were not clichéd stereotypes out of a hundred other movies that you’ve seen? And what’s with the creative names for things: ‘unobtanium’, ‘banshees’? This is the best the writers could come up with for creating an exotic future world? I hate to say it, but the first thing that popped into my mind when Sully was introduced to the banshees was another epic adventure film, Dinotopia! My kids watched it over and over on VHS. Cameron totally ripped off the whole deal with the Skybax (sp?) for Avatar.

Were there any events that you could not predict miles away? Were there any crises that you felt in any way would not work out for the heroes? Other than on the most superficial level, I didn’t really buy the romance between this noble indigenous princess with all the knowledge of the natural and spiritual world and the moron from another planet? What was she thinking? I know what Sully was thinking ’cause she’s a hot, basically naked, princess. (I’ll give Cameron credit for actually having Sully’s character change over time, but in the most predictable way.)

It’s OK if you loved it and want to see it over and over. To me, it’s like an amusement park ride.

However, I actually believe that it is possible to make a really expensive film, with killer effects that have never been seen before, that is really popular, and at the same time not insult the intelligence of your audience. I mean, you have every tech guru on the planet working on the visuals, why not put a crack team of writers on the script too? Peter Jackson did it with the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. He had real literature as his starting point, and he chose to honor it. I’m not just all about weird indie films as the highest expression of the art. There are other examples, even within Hollywood. I just think James Cameron doesn’t respect the audience and got caught up with his toys. So, he made half the film that he could have made.

Personally, I can’t wait to see what a real, complete artistic team will be able to do with the technology Cameron and his team developed. It’s an incredible toolset, and in the hands of real artists it will bring us more than just eye-candy.

Just as an aside, here’s an article from the LA Times that explains any naysayers as reactionary conservatives. Thought it was funny.

Iranian Filmmakers Keep Focus on the Turmoil

Wonder about the power of the arts to influence culture? I suppose that, in media-saturated cultures like the U.S. and Europe, it’s hard to pinpoint influences of individual works of art. But here’s an article about the effects (or feared effects) of filmmakers in a closed society.

Iranian Filmmakers Keep Focus on the Turmoil – NYTimes.com.

A key quote:

‘During the reign of the Shah, “we went to see films not just to learn about national cinema but to look for hidden references to tyranny and domination,” said Hamid Dabashi, the Hagop Kevorkian professor of Iranian studies and comparative literature at Columbia University, who has written extensively about Iranian cinema. Professor Dabashi said that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was well aware of the influence of film in a nation where art and artists were esteemed in all corners of society.

“He remembers well how arts, literature and poetry were very much the modus operandi of the 1970s, which led to the revolution,” he said. “It has always had a tremendous influence and it has always been there.”’

Today, the current regime is doing everything it can to contain the ideas expressed in the arts. This has driven many filmmakers out of Iran.

The supreme leader held a meeting of film directors late last month, lecturing them on how film was not really art but was a tool of political propaganda. He said that the Oscars (like the Nobel Prizes) “do not have any value and artists should never work to make movies with the purpose of winning such prizes.”

Are we just about reaching for prizes, for box-office returns, or are we making our art to influence our culture in revolutionary ways?

Art, Creation and Christ

“…no one looks at a painting and begins talking to it to find out why the painting made itself. Behind every painting, there is a painter…”

There is a powerful love demonstrated in Creation and creative acts. This article [via Pioneers Media Archive – Art, Creation and Christ] from Pioneers.org tells of the connection two people made in Hungary. Zoli, a young man who recently attempted suicide, is also an artist. As their conversation progresses, the author makes the observation, “…no one looks at a painting and begins talking to it to find out why the painting made itself. Behind every painting, there is a painter…”

I think this is one of God’s greatest gifts to us – the ability to express the inexpressible, to communicate in multiple languages: sound, light, space, touch, color, smell. All of them are channels given to us by our Creator and each has a unique ability to reflect something of His character and action and love for His Creation.

I’m thinking of people I may know, like Zoli, who need to be told that they are beautiful creations, loved, and reflecting the image of God, no matter their circumstances.

Artists, It’s Up To You

“…it is up to you, men and women who have given your lives to art, to declare with all the wealth of your ingenuity that in Christ the world is redeemed.”

Scott McClellan posted an interesting blog article in Collide Magazine this week. He references a letter Pope John Paul II wrote to encourage artists in the Church. Scott was quoting from a book that references the letter. I appreciated the few quotes Scott included, such as:

… In Christ, God has reconciled the world to himself. All believers are called to bear witness to this; but it is up to you, men and women who have given your lives to art, to declare with all the wealth of your ingenuity that in Christ the world is redeemed.

You can read Scott’s post in Collide Magazine on-line: Collide Magazine » Blog Archive » It’s Up To You.

I have a copy of the Pope’s letter, kindly sent to me by my friend Byron Spradlin. The Pope gave his address on Easter Sunday, 1999. He began with these words, “To all who are passionately dedicated to the search for new “epiphanies” of beauty so that through their creative work as artists they may offer these as gifts to the world.” You can read the whole text here.

It’s great to have a lot of voices out there encouraging artists. Sometimes it seems as though faith communities still don’t get it, or at least don’t get artists (and vice versa).

For my part, I’m about extending the vision beyond our own local faith communities to see how artists can bring their stories to the ends of the earth and to learn the stories that God has given to other cultures. Art makes the transcendent concrete and it has the capability to cross cultural barriers in ways our texts and practices often can’t. How far can you take your creative expression?

Films In Sarajevo: Where Is Redemption?

“Fatalism, Pride, Pain, Mockery, Shame, Apathy… These are the recurring themes in the films that I have been attending at this year’s film festival here in Sarajevo.”

I recently read this blog article from a woman in the Balkans and her thoughts about the place of art in culture. What messages are spoken in our music, films, painting, and dance? They certainly reflect our various stories and can tell of hope and despair, sometimes in the same moment.

“Fatalism, Pride, Pain, Mockery, Shame, Apathy… These are the recurring themes in the films that I have been attending at this year’s film festival here in Sarajevo. After three days of faithfully showing up to my ticketed seat, the heavier I feel inside when I walk out, as if my spirit is hiding from the uncertainty and oppression I am taking in with my eye and ear gates.

First of all, I love where I live, and I truly love these people. I understand them, even though they would say that I have no idea, that I’m just another American trying to come here and help. But behind that, I hear the voice of rejection, abandonment and fear. So attending this film festival has reconfirmed to me that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.”

Read more here: films-in-sarajevo-where-is-redemption