Back in the Saddle Again

It's been a long time since I've written a post and frankly, I'm feeling a little hesitant starting back up. The blog world is cluttered with chatty cathys gabbing about everything from what they ate to where they shit. So how do you get heard in a room with no walls and a million people shouting? Most likely, you don't. And frankly, that's okay. Long tail theory be damned, no one is going to read this. But if nothing else, its a place for me to clear my mind, hone my skill, and document my thought process.

Last night I went to a packed screening of Blade Runner at the MOMA and I'm really glad I did. Seeing that movie on the "big screen" was a completely revelatory experience. A lot of the film's mood and tone is lost when watched on a television or worse, a computer screen. Blade Runner is a slow, deliberate, thoughtful science fiction film with details that are easy to lose when watching at home with distractions such as phones, computers, friends, food, etc. It's a movie that demands concentration for proper digestion. To give it less than that is to lose some of the subtle details of the marketplace where some of the film's best scenes occur, the elaborate noir costumes, and even the plot. The images and their aural counterpart are designed to overwhelm the viewer, and its power to do so is greatly diminished when consumed incorrectly.

With the visceral power of the four-wall experience, I think its important for filmmakers to not to just harness the power of the internet, but harness the power of the theater as well. Sure, this isn't cheap and it's a headache to figure out on your own. But isn't this part of the reason why we make movies? Otherwise, what's to distinguish film from the larger more amorphous label "content"? I like to think of the content/film distinction as being similar to a rectangle and a square. Film is content, but content is not film. Look at your average Youtube video, webseries, or comedy short. While these can all be well-written, funny, brash, true, articulate and the like, they're not "Blade Runner", and for the most part, they don't aim to be. While internet distribution is a key tool to gain awareness, funding, and fans--it's all still second to a true theatrical experience. This is why I want to make movies. This is what I am striving for. The opportunity not only to share my work democratically, as the internet allows, but also to experience the joy of seeing film projected as it should be -- on a 50ft screen in Dolby 5.1.