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A Possible View of INCEPTION

One of the best ways to learn how to do something well is by studying the works of masters. As a filmmaker, that means I study great directors and writers.

SPOILER ALERT!

Christopher Nolan is one of the directors I’ve been studying. Every movie I’ve seen of his is good. A few of them have achieved greatness.

Last week I watched INCEPTION. INCEPTION is about a man who has a technology allowing him to enter other people’s minds through their dreams. In fact, much of the movie takes place in these dream worlds. And, I think it’s here that Nolan’s genius shines.

Rather than thinking of INCEPTION as a movie, an isolated story to be viewed as a universe unto itself, think of it, instead as a dream within Nolan’s mind shared by all who watch it.

I believe this is Nolan’s intent. In fact, I think it answers the question posed in the final scene. In the final scene Cobb (DiCaprio’s character) finally returns home to the United States, to his home, to his children. The kids are just outside the door, playing in the backyard. Cobb spins the top on the table. (We’ve been told that Cobb spins the top to know if he’s in a dream or not. If he’s in a dream, the top will spin forever. If he’s in the real world, the top eventually topples.) As he walks out to see his kids for the first time in years, Nolan points the camera at the spinning top and we’re left with the question, “Is Cobb trapped in a dream?”

Instead, look at it this way: We are sharing Nolan’s dream. Nolan is embodied in the character of Cobb, which we know because DiCaprio is attired, even to his haircut and goatee. I’d be willing to bet that their mannerisms are slightly similar as well, but never having met Nolan, I can’t say for sure.

Again, in one of the early scenes of the movie, Cobb stands at a window looking out into the ocean, planning his next move. But, the window pane is shaped like a slightly stylized Legendary (one of the companies that produced the movie) logo.

Back to the final scene. The top spinning at the end can be telling us that Cobb is still trapped in a dream. It can also tell us that we’re in Christopher Nolan’s dream. As we stair at the spinning top, we realize that and awake, and then the credits roll.

This blending of reality and fantasy is typical, at least in the way Nolan’s films have been marketed. The fact that he embedded such a nuanced idea in the movie makes him a master of the art form, in my mind.

Of course, it’s art and art is defined by the one who experiences. Please, let me know what you think about this.

Early Readers

I’ve sent a very rough draft of A GROWING CITY out to some early readers. I haven’t heard back yet, but that’s pretty normal. It usually takes a couple weeks. Plus, the more time they spend on it, the more they’re thinking about it and the better the notes get. (They’re probably just procrastinating on reading it, like I would, but that’s cool too, since no one’s getting paid yet. Of course, I thought one early reader was procrastinating and I got some of the best notes from him I’ve ever gotten, so…)

The strange thing about waiting is that my artist’s mind plays tricks on me. For instance, my first thoughts were neither, “They’re really digging into it and giving great notes,” nor “They’re really busy people who have to carve out time to do me a favor.”

No. My first thought was, “They hate it and they’re afraid to tell me,” and “It’s so bad they didn’t even finish it and the reason they’re not telling me is because they no longer want to associate with me in any way.”

The funny thing is, I know that third paragraph isn’t true. Anyone I send out my script to is professional. If they think the script sucks, they’re good enough to tell me. They’re awesome people just for volunteering to read it! Reading someone’s script who’s trying to break into Hollywood is a real rare thing and invaluable in helping me improve my craft.

And so, early readers, if you’re reading this, YOU ARE AWESOME! I can’t thank you enough. But, rest assured, when A GROWING CITY gets made, your names will be in the credits. Also, I owe you a beverage-of-your-choice.

New Spiritus Vult Logo

Sometimes I’ve got to take a break from the script, just to clear my mind so I can view it again with fresh(er) eyes. But, don’t be fooled, I’ve still got plenty of other tasks on my to-do list.

One such task is the recreation of the Spiritus Vult (my production company) logo. When I first made the logo, I used Apple Motion and I really had no idea what looked good and why. I mean, the logo worked well enough. But, +Cameron Kaiser, good friend of mine, told me my titles could use some work.

When he came to visit last weekend, he showed me what he meant and how I might improve it. He was right. I spent the next day, and for the better part of this morning, completely rethinking and rebuilding the logo in Adobe AfterEffects 5.5.

(Special thanks to the folks at www.videocopilot.net for the detailed guides.)

Nanite Construction

The first scene in A GROWING CITY is the construction of a nanite. A nanite is a robot built on a molecular level. (Nanotechnology was named because it works on the nanometer scale. A nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter.) They are so small that, should we ever actually get them to work, they could be inside a human body, removing plaque from arteries, for instance, without the patient even noticing.

In A GROWING CITY I use them for an entirely different purpose.

I will be taking some artistic license with the construction of the nanites, since the way people are theorizing their actual construction isn’t quite as visually stimulating.

That said, with the look and feel of the nanites, I’d like to actually get them looking somewhat realistic. The direction I’m leaning is making them look more robotic than insect-like. This is for a couple reasons: 1) The company in A GROWING CITY wants to avoid people associating their nanotech with anything biological because that kind of thing makes people paranoid; 2) It’s much cheaper to create and render a robotic/metallic nanite than one with more of a natural shape.

Got some thoughts? Let me know.

For your viewing pleasure, I’ve attached a search I did for an Scanning Electron Microscope, which is what you’d need to actually see a nanite. Enjoy:
http://goo.gl/ImYZ0