Movies Aren't Meant For A Few

Southwest Airlines came out a few years ago with a catchy slogan for a company peddling travel, "Wanna Get Away?"  Every single time I saw these commercials, I was continually reminded of what I love about movies.

You see, that really is what a vacation is, the ability to experience something outside of the day in, day out grind of life.  And ever since I was just a kid, that is what the movie has been for me.  Never really was I a fan of the movie that exposed the reality of the human condition.  I tend to enjoy the ability to ignore that dose of reality in hopes that someday everything might just be as rosy and awesome and I want them to be.

For me, a movie was a mechanism for creating happiness, pulling me outside of what makes the dole drums of life just so damn dull.  It just so happened that I grew up at a time when these movies were being made at a feverish pace, and with some of the best form possible.  There were these two guys, I am sure you may recognize them, by the names of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas that were developing and producing some of the most memorable and well told stories of our time.

Granted, these films in most occasions were not going to philosophically challenge the audience to look inside of their being to truly understand what made them human.  In fact, they did the very opposite, allowing them to hover over their conscious reality to enjoy being something they never could be.  And that is what I love.....absolutely love about movies.  A 2 hour vacation, accessible to all, almost always showing how bad the human race can be, but proving again and again that those who practice good shall triumph.

::Coughs::  Yes, this movie philosophy has been ridiculed ad nauseam, and goes against every spine of reality.  Who cares, it's a movie, it's meant to make you feel good.  And that is something that Arm and I had in common from day one when we met in film school.  Surrounded by very talented and creative individuals, we realized that many had the goal of expressing their own creativity, being able to put their vision imprinted into their skull onto the screen for others to enjoy, with very little conscious of the audience and how they consume it.

This attitude goes against the very grain of what a movie is.  To me, the movie wasn't meant to be an edifice built on selfish expression.  It is, was, and will be a medium to be enjoyed by the masses.  As a filmmaker, if you are asking more questions about how your film can fulfill your vision, and less about how do I get my purpose to the audience, you are doing yourself, and everyone else a disservice.

Picasso wasn't only a genius because of his abstract method of portraying the human condition through the canvas, he was a genius because he was able to do so through a vast audience.  That is what makes Spielberg a prodigy, because he was able to tell a story, often moral or religious in nature, without seeming moral or religious.

When Arm asked me to help him in any way shape or form to develop and bring NEL to the forefront of media production, I cannot express how excited I was for the opportunity to associate myself with someone as talented as Amardeep, who shared the same intrinsic vision as I.  To not only create a product that spoke to the good natured sole of the human race throughout the world, but also could be enjoyed by a mass audience. 

When it comes down to it, if you have a great message that nobody can understand or relate to, how great is it?