Chrysalis: An Urban Web Series

Day 4: Principal Photography Final Shoot Day

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Today involved the most complicated action sequences, including a big gunfight in the middle of Mosher Street. In the pouring rain.

Thanks to a wonderful friend of mine (who I’ve known since he was a baby) we shot a robbery/shoot out in a tiny rowhouse apartment in the heart of West Baltimore’s drug district. AND, a major gunfight involving six different actors, two cars, and one monster truck-style, tricked out Chevy Suburban.

We lost a lot of blood. Literally. The rain kept washing away the blood off of my actors and their gunshot wounds.

But, thanks to a superb make up artist, a talented DP, and the patience of neighbors and the local Police Department, we shot an amazing gunfight scene in the pouring rain.

The cast and crew really did a great job. We spent our final day in West Baltimore, and culminated a 4-day shoot with good cheer and a few hilarious, behind-the-scenes moments not sufficient for work.  (Well, your work anyway. LOL.)

Well done, good people. Well done.

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Why "The Town" Is Such a Good Film

The Town is not just about a group of bank robbers in a town famous for its gifted bank robbers. This movie is about the primal dynamic that exists between Man and Woman. Yes, there’s a lot of heist action, and heat from the law, but it’s a lot about how men and women need each other to survive. (It’s also a little about how men rely upon each other, as explored through Doug’s relationship with best friend, Jem. But, that is a whole other conversation.) The Town subtley hones in on that age-old interdependence between man and woman, and leaves the audience feeling a myriad of powerful emotions along the way.

Movies often reflect our own world; display a refraction of our current reality. The Town does this with cinematic flair, and dialogue that leaves its mark. Ben Affleck’s stunning turn in the director’s chair affected me in a major way, with the story of a man who wants to break free of a life that is drowning him.  Doug MacRay, portrayed by Affleck, had already been looking to get out of the life of crime he was living when he meets the woman who helps him to finally break free. Claire is the bank manager unwittingly held hostage during one of Doug’s bank heists. She is the only person who can send Doug and his gang to prison, but thanks to the douchebaggery of Frawley, the FBI agent leading the case, she isn’t too eager to cooperate with the federal lawmen after them.

Doug still feels compelled to keep an eye on Claire, just in case she has a change of heart, and soon finds himself drawn to her. After getting to know each other, Doug and Claire find a natural attraction develop between them. She is everything that he needs: innocent, in need of protection, and very much unlike his world. Claire welcomes the needed strong arm of protection that Doug offers, and falls in love with him because of it. They fit together like a lock and key. However, the pull of Doug’s life comes over him like waves tugging him back out with the tide. His former girlfriend, and his best friend’s sister, Krista (portrayed by Blake Lively) needs him too; in the same way that Claire does. She goes out of her way to try and keep him, even using her body as her weapon of choice. Yet, Doug has already decided that he needs to break free of Krista, and the world in which she lives.

Of course, this is a heist movie and there is a huge score to be had. One last robbery to give Doug the money he needs to escape, with Claire. But, Krista proves to be at the end of her rope and when her begging doesn’t work on Doug, she is more than willing to cooperate with the lawmen that are after Doug and his gang.

Krista gives insight to a phenomenon that pervades our culture. She like so many women, are in the position of ‘use or be used.’ And, it’s usually both. The women in this film have little to no power. It’s reflective of society. Women are to be protected. Claire is kidnapped to ensure the escape of Doug’s gang, used by the feds to catch the bank robbers, or being used by Doug (Yes, he is using her.) as a way to escape his current life. Krista is left to fend for herself in that world of crime and poverty where the men treat the women like objects. 

Even her own brother, Jem, is quick to use her and her daughter as a way to keep Doug from leaving town. Krista tries to utilize the only power she thinks she has: sex. But that doesn’t work because she doesn’t have the most important thing Doug needs: a way out. He’s already moved on to another woman to use. So, in the end, Krista plays herself and becomes the mastermind behind her own undoing. She’s even smart enough to recognize this when she utters the most memorable line in the film for me to Agent Frawley: “Why is it I’m always the one who gets used?” You can’t fault her for trying. She’s playing the cards she was dealt. Her hand just wasn’t as good as Claire’s.

Gender roles are what they are. It’s a man’s world. Women are more often than not, limited by their circumstances. The deck is stacked against them. So many women try so very hard to change that, yet fail to realize that it’s not the game that’s flawed. It’s the way they play the game that’s screwing them over. It’s the smart woman that figures this out, and devises a way to play the game, at the same rules, yet come out on top without being used. That’s the dynamic. Men and women will forever be engaged in this dance of use and be used.

This is why The Town is such a good film. It not only explores the primal theme of survival in harsh times, it simultaneously delves into that long-standing love/hate relationship between man and woman. That makes for an action-packed, drama-filled film that keeps your heart racing from beginning to end.

Understanding Inception

Disclaimer: The following is an exercise in cerebral masturbation. Proceed at your own risk.

Warning: If you haven’t seen the film, shame on you. It’s a work of art. Go see it, and read no further. Come back after you’ve watched the film.

If you’ve seen the film, you already have an idea of what you think it’s all about. And, although it’s clever that many reviewers are comparing themes addressed in Inception to that of the process of filmmaking, I believe there’s more to it than that. Here’s what I think: Inception addresses themes of understanding oneself, and recognizing the artistic process of creating and perceiving. As an artist, scientist, teacher, and philosopherInception blew my mind.

“But, it had never occurred to me that everything I’m saying about creating a thing and trying to perceive it at the same time…relates to the filmmaking process.” –Christopher Nolan ¹

There are so many theories circulating regarding the meaning of the film Inception. Upon my first viewing, my theory was solid in my mind during the warehouse scene in which Eames demonstrates to Arthur that he“musn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.”

The entire film is a dream. Dom Cobb has been dreaming, and everyone in the film is a projection of his subconscious. Dom and Mal explored dream sharing, dreams within dreams, and she realized that even though they thought they woke up from several dream layers, she and Dom were still asleep. Until she jumped off the building. (She’s awake somewhere and waiting for him to wake up.)

The one thing that solidified this idea for me was the line that Mal (a projection of Dom’s subconscious at the time) uttered in the infamous hotel room: “No creeping doubts? Not feeling persecuted, Dom? Chased around the globe by fictitious corporations…” Even his own subconscious is trying to tell him he’s still dreaming.

Each character is an aspect of his own subconsciousness, of his identity. Ariadne is his most recent fragment, and throughout the film, her goal has been to expose Dom to the rest of the team, to himself, really. Think about it, Dom is the one who used “inception” on Mal to save her from the dream world. He’s clever enough to know deep down inside that he’s still dreaming. (But, I think Dom is okay with that in the end. He let Mal go, and he “returns” home and finally allows himself to be “reunited” with his children.)

But, really, this is just a theory. It’s my interpretation. Just as you look at a work of art and see and feel one thing, and I look at the same work of art and see and feel something else, Inception is a different experience for everyone. Even for Christopher Nolan.

Nolan is the artist, and as such, I’m inclined to think that in many ways, he is Dom Cobb. And, in many ways, we all are. Inception is our story. This is why Inception is so beautiful and brilliant. It’s a well-layered, emotionally resonant and relevant story, that’s universally relatable. (And, intellectually stimulating.) “If you’re going to do a massive movie, though, you’ve got to be able to unlock that more universal experience for yourself as well as for the audience.” –Christopher Nolan ² This is the stuff artists dream of achieving.

“They say we only use a fraction of the true potential of our brains… but they’re talking about when we’re awake. While we dream, the mind performs wonders.” ~Cobb

“In a dream your mind continuously does that… It creates and perceives a world simultaneously. So well that you don’t feel your brain doing the creating.” ~Cobb

As an artist, I’ve been striving toward this both consciously and unconsciously. Creating and perceiving simultaneously. The opening up of the flood gates of the creative mind, allowing pure creation to exist free from restraints, is the closest thing to Nirvana. These restraints are usually fears; of judgment (external and internal), of invalidation, imperfection, second-guessing, failure, success… You get the picture.

As a scientist, I’ve always been fascinated by the human brain. I’ve always considered it akin to a computer. The mind has infinite power, capable of simultaneously maintaining human homeostasis, governing thought, processing information, creating and communicating ideas, etc. The human brain is exponentially capable of so much.

As a teacher, I subscribe to the theory that metacognition is the epitome of learning. Being aware of learning as it happens is a high, if not the highest, level of understanding.

As an epistemologist, I continue to study Russell, Ryle, Gettier, Piaget, Vygotsky, Skinner, Kohlberg, and even Einstein. I do thoroughly enjoy analyzing knowledge and how it relates to truth, belief, and the concept of the human understanding of reality.

As it relates to epistemology, the entire film is an exercise in introspection. Dom Cobb is on a constant loop of self-observation, reasoning, and examining his own thoughts of what he believes to be truth. Believe it or not, the sciences of knowledge and human development pervade Nolan’s script. Cobb is, in fact, obsessed with understanding human thought and behavior. Eames, seems to be a connoisseur regarding human understanding and the development of ideas. His insight subtly drives the mission toward inception of the idea intended for Fischer to adopt. (But, according to my theory that Eames is simply a projection of Cobb, it’s still Cobb who is the connoisseur.)

So, viewing Inception was a brainy orgasm of sorts for me. All these concepts are explored and expounded upon in a visually stunning and emotionally riveting film-watching experience.

After seeing the film a second time, something in my mind clicked, and a door unlocked on my vault of ideas. The door that had been locked (due to several of the aforementioned fears) was opened, and a small crash of waves of creativity washed ashore in my mind regarding my latest script. I realized something: The act of creating is something that I have no control over, and to attempt to control it is the equivalent of locking it away.

I believe the artist’s best way to create is to do so as if in a dream, to live in that moment of creating and perceiving as if in a dream, to allow the ideas to form naturally from the subconscious. I want to be standing in the center of that circle that Cobb drew for Ariadne when he explained how the mind performs when we dream.

That’s what Inception is about. Inception is a work of art reflective of Nolan’s desire to create and perceive simultaneously. “That’s the whole thing you’re trying to do: You’re literally presenting this thing in which you’ve put words into people’s mouths, and you’re trying to watch it as if you’re fresh to it.” –Christopher Nolan ³

Artists are dreamers. We have to remember that. We are the dreamers.

Notes:

1. Warner Bros. Entertainment. Inception The Shooting Script. p. 19. California: Insight Editions, 2010. Print.

2. Warner Bros. Entertainment. Inception The Shooting Script. p. 11. California: Insight Editions, 2010. Print.

3. Warner Bros. Entertainment. Inception The Shooting Script. p. 19. California: Insight Editions, 2010. Print.