when i grow up, i wanna be a film director

Ahhh...the movies. Movies are the greatest. I don't remember the first movie I ever saw, maybe it was an animated one -- some kind of fairy tale that started my love for the dreams-do-come-true syndrome that classifies my life. My dad would take me to see the Disney classics, but maybe there weren't as many movies then, because I don't remember going to the movies that often. (I watched a lot of television, 'cause that I remember!) Daddy took me to the Star Wars premier at the Uptown Theater in DC (funny how I remember that, huh?); and I wasn't into sci-fi, but I remember thinking Princess Leia was cool, and that Chewbacca & R2D2 were my favorite characters. Mark Hamill was cute, but Harrison Ford was hot! C3PO got on my nerves and I was afraid of Darth Vader.

I remember the first film that ever scared me. It wasn't even a scary movie; it was more along the lines of historical fiction, I guess, and I really don't remember it. (It's fuzzy, but there may have been a bloody man being drug along behind a wagon, leaving his woman in tears.) The name of that film was Thomasine & Bushrod. My cousin, Phyllis, and I were stowaways on my other cousin, Carol's date. I was only about six years old then, but I knew that night, that whatever kind of fear I felt after seeing that movie, I didn't ever want to feel again. That fear kept me from sleeping for a long time! And even though my younger cousin, Crystal, went to see Jaws when she was six & was unfettered, horror movies for me were sworn off before I'd ever even seen one. No, I'm not a wimp, but I still pass on the scary stuff. Take me to a thriller instead -- that's scary enough.

The point here, is that movies pull at your emotions when they are done well, and those memories can live on for a long while. Granted, what is memorable or good to a six-year old compared with what is memorable and good to a thirty-six year old is different, to say the least. But the defining factor is that the storyline has the power to captivate the audience, but only if it is told well. That power lies within the hands of the director.

David Fincher, director of the last movie I saw, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," uses inference effectively in several instances: to depict his aging, and to imply what Benjamin views and experiences throughout his life. Not to take anything from the winner or any other nominee, but if I had a vote in the Academy Awards, Fincher would have won (because my vote would have weighed more heavily than anyone else's, not because I didn't see the other movies), but I digress. Of course, the screenplay has a lot to do with how the story is told, but great directors choose what to show and what to infer, in order to pull the strongest emotion from the audience. To have the audience leave a theater imagining themselves on screen, or reinventing the end of the story as a result of watching a film, should be the ultimate compliment to a great director... after all, if the telling of the story wasn't that compelling, why else would it provoke such thought?

The attraction of a well-directed film is like nothing else to me. Direction is even more important in my opinion than the film being well-written, because the whole story is wasted if the lines are delivered incorrectly, or the set is unbelievable. Great directors can even make bad actors appear Oscar-worthy -- by exploiting the talent of the good actors, of course. (And we'll have to leave the list of who I think is good or bad at acting for another day, 'cause I think I may want to be an actress when I grow up, too -- and I don't want to lose you). The director tells the story. And when the story is told well, the captive viewer can really tell if the script is off. Have you ever heard a poorly-written line get delivered and thought, "nobody would say that!"? I sit in theaters & run just-spoken lines over and over in my head thinking how the intent could have been better portrayed if the actor had only put more inflection in his voice; or that the movie would have been so much better if only they'd had so-and-so do such-and-such when that that was said to her instead of just sitting there, or whatever the case may be.

As I watch movies, I imagine how I would direct the scenes. When I read good books, I visualize how I would direct the screenplay. I replay conversations I have had with my friends, co-workers, and family members in the camcorder of my mind as if I could change their outcomes. Seriously, the revamped versions are so much better than the originals. I wish I could show them to you! Hollywood, Toronto, Bollywood, Detroit (or wherever the film capital is nowadays) could really use my talent. I'm a beast!

Yeah, I think I'll be a great film director ...when I grow up.