An Apple iPhone Conspiracy

My iPhone is getting remarkably slower as the days pass. I'm convinced this is a ploy by apple -- to make me buy a new iPhone.

I was always the type who'd get given some old phone and hold onto it until it broke. But when I saw the iPhone, I liked it. It seemed useful for me as a filmmaker. And it is. I'm always using the notepad app and I use a few other little useful things. Plus the email function is very important.I have an iPhone 3G. You know the one I mean; the old one. Old used to mean a guy with a cane who spoke of war stories. Now old means the same thing as new except it's called something different.

My iPhone is nearly empty. I'm not into games and stuff. Nothing is on it. Yet it's slowing, rapidly. And the few apps I do use stop updating after a while unless you update the iPhone software. So I upload the software.

But then my phone dramatically slows. My instinct is 'this is ridiculous' but everyone elses instincts seem to be 'get the newer iPhone.' It seems insane to me. This is how things go now. We replace and update things by necessity, because that's how it is. They've added a hundred onto the price of a new Xbox just because you can plug a few extra things in it.

My phone is the same thing it was two years ago, except it hardly works. I haven't damaged it, it's just what they do-- get us addicted and then slow things down so we need the new one. I am getting a bit conspiratorial in my old age; but I feel ripped off. I feel we're all ripped off, all the time, and we just fall for it. We buy shiny new things that should last for fifty years but they last for a year and then we're happy to move on. A guy said to me the other day, "I'm on my 4th Xbox 360". How can that NOT be insane? 

Why should I have to buy a new phone? I mean; I have to ----- it currently takes me two minutes just to read a text message. Something needs to be done. I hope someone out there believes my conspiracy theories otherwise they may indeed lock me up!

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Blogger Without A Cause

I'm approaching 500 blog posts. That's crazy. Where have I found the energy to write 500 blog articles in under two years? Is that creativity or just mindless productivity? I think I am driven by the feeling that my previous blog article wasn't good enough. I always want to do better. But then, that motivation silences me as often as it encourages me.

When I don't feel pressure, I write comedy. When I do feel pressure I write advice or motivational stuff. Next time you see me giving screenwriting tips or endorsing positive thinking, you'll realise they're mainly for my own benefit.

You're 'on' or 'off' when you write. Sometimes you're 'off' for three months but you still blog through it and hope no-one will notice. But when you're on it's easy; every post is a blast and everyone gives you awards. When it's tough, a single comment from a bitter or jealous or angry reader will floor you for a week. And it's just a blog!! But as a writer, no writing you do is 'just' anything, it's all important. That means a constant state of heightened awareness. Or vulnerability. You all hold the power to make or break a blogger's heart just by the type of comment you make.

When I write a screenplay, the judgement is held off for a couple of years until someone walks out of the cinema muttering about wasted time. But with the internet, it's instantaneous.

Approaching 500 posts, I can't pretend this is meaningless or all for fun. If it was about fun I'd just go ice skating. So what does it all mean? Why am I here writing all the time? Can a person be relevant or interesting when they write so much? Who is reading, and why?

I feel like readers stick around because once in every twenty five articles I write, I nail something that resonates with them. I guess that's worth it, because most of my life I'm looking for writing, films, people and music that resonates with me; and I know how impossible that is. It's all too easy to go two years without finding a song that means something to you. So I'm glad when anyone gets anything from this blog.

So, the 500th will be coming soon. Order the cake.

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Do you want to take part in the next KITFR Blogathon?

I am going to run another blogathon --- I email a bunch of different bloggers a theme/idea, and on a chosen date, we all post our articles. If you want to be involved, please email me; and be sure to let me know your blog url too! This is NOT film-related; so anyone who blogs can be involved!

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GOOD ACTING - When An Actor Is In More Than One Place

A lot of people wake up one day and say 'I'm going to be an actor.' It means nothing, thousands do it. Most have an abundance of training; but so often, it means nothing. The training helps, it gives you technique and tools; but it means very little if it doesn't go deeper.

When you cast an actor in a film; the résumé is important to some people and the look is definitely a factor; but you're looking for someone with a bit of wisdom, with a story in their eyes. Robert Downey Jr isn't just a man acting out scenes from a page; he's a carriage for something more meaningful. His comedy has a sadness to it and his darker scenes have a lightness to them. He's able to be in two places at once because that's how his life is. He doesn't just play what's on the page, he plays what's inside himself. He does this whether he's in a little indie film or in a superhero movie.

The thing about real life is that we are in ten places at one time. If I'm at a party having a good time; I'm also worried about my drunken friend in the corner, and I'm a bit sad that my friend who died 4 years ago can't be there and I'm also dreaming about a beach holiday. If it was a scene in a movie; a great actor would be in all those places but a bad actor would just be at the party.

And this is what you can't teach. Some actors just want the red carpet. Some are too aware of themselves. Some just want to escape their lives. But you want to cast the ones who don't have blank expressions and don't look at things from one perspective. You want performers who bring it all to the table.

The most successful actors often have an ease about them which we assume is because of their riches and celebrity, and I'm sure that's a part of it; but more than that I feel that they have mastered themselves. Becoming a great actor is a personal development project. The more you get to know who you are and what triggers your emotions, the better you'll be. The training helps, but a lot of it needs to be figured out by the actors themselves.

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127 HOURS - A Life-Changer

At its core, 127 HOURS has some simple messages: call your parents, let them know you love them. Commit to things. And if you're inclined to disappear, let the people who love you know where you are. Why? Because when you're caught between a rock and a hard place; these are the only things that matter.

We know these things because Aron Ralston says so. He's the guy who really spent 127 hours  stuck in one place with the near certainty of his death.

Movies have a tendency to get bigger and crazier and louder. But life isn't like that. Life is really simple; it's about showing up and being a good person. That's what being wedged in by rocks reminds you. Aron wouldn't change that experience for anything. It's like the lightning flash of insight that Michael J. Fox got when he left the neurologists office in New York all those years ago after being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. It wasn't the premieres and free parties that mattered; it was his wife and kid. We forget that.

The story of 127 HOURS is no mystery. He cuts off his arm in order to survive. I gave away the ending. But endings are always certain. You're gonna die and I'm gonna die, I'm certain of that, but it's not the ending that matters-- it's all the pain and joy in between.

And Danny Boyle's latest movie is full of pain. When bones break and arms are sliced into; you feel it. Richard Pryke and Ian Tapp didn't win Academy Awards for sound re-recording mixing for nothing. They made SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE sound real, and they did it again in this one. When Aron slices up his arm, you feel it in your body. The people sitting near you come alive -- whether they throw their arms in front of their faces or whether they lean further towards the screen; everyone reacts. It's gruesome. But it's real. This is pain and you have to keep watching because only by being present for pain do we see the true beauty of pleasure.

There's a moment about half way through when Aron is talking into his camera that will break your heart. Because he talks about wishing he'd called his Mother back and he talks about what a selfish ass he is and you realise he's talking about you too. The difference is that you can be a better person without chopping your arm off.

I don't know how 127 HOURS will feel on a second viewing and I don't know how it will feel on a DVD, so I hope you go to the cinema to see it. THE KING'S SPEECH is a solid movie and THE SOCIAL NETWORK is super slick, but 127 HOURS reminds us of the truly unparalleled simplicity and genius of the cinema.

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