Things move slowly during this post Thanksgiving pre Xmas season. Everyone gets busy. Weather sucks. Our bodies still have the DNA that says to hibernate in the winter making it tough to stay motivated and active. Working on productions seems to fall to the wayside for many. Part of my plan is to get to do stuff that is smaller in scale, less people needed. 
Thus far, the only upside to the lack of productivity has been getting caught up on some movie watching. I’ve been a bit more regular on the 1 movie a night promise. Sadly, I keep picking movies that are not that great, but I like them. From re-watching Star Wars Episodes II and III (not as bad as I remember) and the dreaded Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I needed to wash my bad movie pallette with deeper contemplations, so bring on the Cloud Atlas, Beginners, and Before Midnight.
My taste in movies resembles my eclectic tastes in music. I used to drive someone nuts because a mixed CD from me meant you could go from Def Leppard to Miles Davis to Britney Spears to Prince to Bob Dylan within the first 20 minutes. And THEN it would get weird.
I have no favorite genre, not for music or movies. All that matters to me is that I care, that I feel something. One of the things I gleaned from the unintentional George Lucas fest this week was his singular style. High art direction, low human emotion with some of the poorest movie dialogue in 100 years. I think he collaborated well with the technicians, but not the people.
Movies are a representation of life, whether fantastical or intensely real. A lot of great artists get lost when they become successful. The harder, more relatable stresses of everyday life become lost on them. When you yourself no longer have the basic struggles of the daily grind, how do you make it palatable to the masses? There are some human truths that never change no matter how much money you have, of course. Being able to recreate them on film in a way people identify with is another matter.
Maybe that is the sword for those of us who are not on the inside of the industry. Making what we feel, that we know others feel, a part of what we do; that’s what will separate us from the machine.
“I can see my rainbow calling me through the misty breeze of my waterfall.”
– Jimi Hendrix
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