Jul

16

At the Movies

Filed Under The Mystery 

SPACER

Suppose you were a MovieMaker. (Writer, director, producer. You get all three credits.) Think of your favorite movie. For my purposes here, think of a movie that has the whole human drama-comedy, and isn’t just computer-generated special effects. Something like Juno, that movie last year wherein a bright and funny high schooler talks her nerdy classmate into a little experimentation with the naughty bits and ends up with a loaf in the oven, so to speak. This is followed by a lot of seriocomedy involving parental adjustments, dysfunctional possible adoptive parents, etc.. In the end - especially in a movie as well made as Juno - the perfect time is had by all.

SPACER

SPACER

Suppose you made that movie. Now suppose you could become one of the characters in that movie, and, in some sense, “live” the movie whenever it’s projected. Once the movie starts, though, you wouldn’t recall that you were the MovieMaker or much of anything about how the movie got made. Still, let’s say there would be a nagging conviction that either you had some part in making it, or, that it would help your character, somehow, to know how or why it was made, and who wrote the darn script, and who directed it. (Perhaps you can already see where I’m going with this.)

If you can, put yourself, as a thought experiment, in the movie as it’s playing. In a certain sense, your actions and choices and responses to the actions and choices of other characters have already been done and made, when the movie was filmed. So, in that certain sense, you would have no choice at all, except to just let the movie keep playing. It might seem like you were making choices and acting and responding, but actually the movie would just be “happening” and you’d just find yourself apparently spontaneously choosing whatever you choose and doing whatever you do in the movie.

Suppose you decided to rebel. Suppose you decided that you weren’t just a character in the movie, that you could “separate” yourself from the movie, as it played, and decide your life had a different meaning and purpose from what the MovieMaker created and filmed.

It’s interesting - at least to me - to imagine the effect this idea of being separate from the movie might have on the movie and the characters. In one way, it would have to be said it might have no effect in the big picture, pun intended. After all we’re talking about a movie that’s already made and is playing on the screen. But, I can imagine how frustrating it could be to the character who wants things to be different than they are. Psychological pain and suffering. Depression. A feeling of being trapped in somebody else’s life.

Imagine the movie has ended. But, there are DVD Extras.

In one of the extra features your character is attending a seminar. At the seminar, the speaker is telling you, and the rest of the characters, that they can change the movie after all. By magic. Cool! Just what you were hoping to hear, and the speaker is very convincing and does some magic tricks to show that magic works. This special feature then jump cuts to a year later. You’re back to suffering, because it turns out you haven’t been able to change the movie, at least noticeably. For some reason the magic didn’t work for you.

In the next special feature, you’re at another seminar. At this seminar the speaker is saying something very different. The speaker is telling you and the other characters that the idea you can change the movie is kind of silly, even a bit insane. How can you change What Is? The movie has already been made. How could you think that you are some kind of separate, “independent” self that’s apart from your character in the movie?

At first this is more depressing than ever, until the speaker points out that once you accept this rather obvious reality - What Is - you can actually just let the movie play out and enjoy being in it. What a relief! You don’t have any responsibility to change anything or “make something out of your life” or do or even think about anything beyond what happens next. 

Indeed, freed from the psychological pressure and anxiety of trying to be something other than your character in What Is, you might see how amazing the movie (and all the characters) really are. You might get a kick out of it, a laugh about it, even the parts where your own character is having a hard time of it.

But, hold on a second: It turns out that these DVD Extras were filmed at the same time as the movie! By the same MovieMaker. It’s all good! Even the extras about being told you could change the movie, by one speaker character, then being told trying to change the movie is goofy, by another speaker character.

Then, imagine this: You’re watching the credits, and it turns out you were the MovieMaker! Remember?

Comments

3 Responses to “At the Movies”

  1. john on July 17th, 2008 7:28 am

    Hey just too cool I like the making the movie thing. I think the movie is already made and if you fight it too hard to change you just wind up depressed and pissed off at the maker. I love living my movie and watching it unfold before my eyes before my imagination gets the best of me. I like trying all the things taht are put in front of m and don’t mind not succeeding at some and finsihing others. Got to try it all.
    Keep it coming
    John.

  2. Steve on July 18th, 2008 11:46 am

    Thanks, John! I can say, from personal knowledge and experience, that YOU are one helluva MovieMaker.

    Steve@the23rdfloor.com

  3. On the Other Hand … : the 23rd Floor on July 25th, 2008 11:11 am

    [...] At the Movies [...]

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