The Creative Process

I just finished teaching a group of young filmmakers at Freshi Film Camp / Hollywood - Freshi's annual filmmaking experience for young filmmakers. It's a small camp, in which we divided the group into two teams by age. I had the teens, ranging from 14-17 years old.

One of the reasons I liked filmmaking as a teen was related to the opportunity to be a leader - and to lead a team. I really wasn't involved in team sports, so I created my own teams through my filmmaking projects (or attempts at filmmaking projects - it really was about getting together and being creative).

At the film camp, I worked with five teens - two were on a cultural exchange from Palestine; one was a passionate young filmmaker on his 4th camp with us (over two years!); his friend, an aspiring director; and still another came in from across the country. They all had visions and expectations of what they wanted to accomplish - but for some, it was the first opportunity to work with a team of like-minded people. From my personal experience, creative collaboration can be volatile and frustrating. The filmmakers experienced some of those moments - but in the end they succeeded and completed their film. Somehow, all the drama makes the achievement that much more satisfying.

Watching the kids reminded me of the love-hate relationship I have with the creative process. I hate the drama along the way - but I love the result of the "creative tension" that accompanies so many great projects.

Moon Landing

Monday will be the 40th anniversary of the Moon Landing - July 20th.

It never fails to amaze me that there are a number of people who believe that the moon landing never happened. One blog I recently ran across expressed doubt that such a feat could have been accomplished at the time, considering that computer technology was so primitive. The author spoke about so-called photographic anomalies, and brushes aside NASA's explanations. He concludes by recalling an incident a couple of years ago in which a "tv reporter" (in reality, an overly aggressive conspiracy theorist) harassed Apollo 11 crew member Buzz Aldrin, insisting that he swear on a bible that he landed on the moon. Buzz hit the guy. If you've ever seen the video, you wouldn't blame him. But in this blog, it seems as if the innocent reporter was accosted by the lying astronaut.

Naturally, there's a long line of comments following his blog entry, adding many other dimensions to the so-called conspiracy: a Zionist conspiracy, a Satanic conspiracy, a front for secret "black" projects.

The reality? We succeeded. We really did land on the moon. Just ask the tens of thousands of people across the country who worked on the project and made it happen. Human beings can accomplish amazing things against incredible odds.

A Documentary Thought

While editing "Bollywood Steps," it occured to me a little while ago that editing a documentary is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle in which the image in changing, and the pieces are constantly changing shape.

More Advancements in Interactive Technology

Natal and the Milo Project weren't the only technological wonders on display at E3. Here's a new technology from Sony that will soon enhance it's Playstation Console:

In this case, the magic isn't so much creating the illusion of personal interactivity, but in enhancing the immersive technology that makes advanced gaming so addictive. In Sony's approach, we won't lose a controller entirely. Here, the complicated controller is reduced to a sensor that will work intuitively based upon moving the sensor through the air. A battle in the massive multiplayer game "Worlds of Warcraft" could no longer be a question of moving a few fingers on a keyboard or controller, but reflect real-world, full body actions mimiced by an onscreen alterego.

Of course, that would seem to make gaming a much more physical experience. Now THERE'S a solution to childhood obesity!

Another Viewpoint on Milo

I wanted to add this article from Gamer.Blorge to the resources in the previous post. This claims that most of what appears in the "Milo" video is "smoke and mirrors."

As I've previously mentioned, the voice recognition is not as advanced as it seems to be - it is very much an illusion - but based on sophisticated input, as I mentioned in the last post.

Also, there's commentary that the "behind closed doors" demo as E3 was very controlled and perhaps manipulated. I'm sure it was. That's why is was behind closed doors. To that criticism, I would respond, "Still not bad for just a few months of development."

At the very least, this is a concept that is firing imaginations around the world. "Milo" or not, I suspect that we'll see applications of this sort of technology exploding across the entertainment industry very shortly.

This is, above all, a vision of the future - and one that isn't really that far off.

More on Milo

I found this interview on the Eurogamer.net website with the head of Lionhead, Peter Molyneux, about the development of the "Milo" project. Molyneux provided more details than the E3 presentation.

The Milo game actually involves two characters: Milo (or Miley, the girl) and Kate, his dog. In effect, this will in some ways share certain elements with the Sims games in that Milo's happiness and evolution will depend upon the help and opportunities you provide. Unlike The Sims, your interaction will be seemingly "one-on-one" with Milo - you'll talk to him, and he'll respond.

Molyneux makes no claims about Milo's sophistication. In the interview, he says,

"Milo can recognise the emotions on your face and the emotions in your voice. He can recognise certain words you say. You can have conversations with him, you can read stories to him. We're trying to bring all these things together. Some of them are tricks - I'll be absolutely honest with you - to make you believe Milo's real."

At Molyneux's suggestion, the reporter tells Milo a random joke. Milo giggles. But did he "understand?"

"Now, he didn't really understand every word you said, but from the tone of your voice he guessed you were telling a joke."

While Milo is incredibly sophisticated, it's ability to "understand" is really a matter of reading audio and visual clues from the player, rather than understanding in great detail the meaning of the communication - much the same way that a good fortune teller can anticipate a proper response from facial expressions and body language.

If you're interested in the "Milo Project," this is interview is a good place to explore the concept. You can also visit the website for Lionhead Studios, developer of Milo. There's not much there about Milo, but they have set up this public forum.

MILO: The Next Big Thing?

I just saw a video of a upcoming product from Microsoft.  Now, normally a product announcement from Microsoft invites scorn and doubt, but I can't help being fascinated with this one.  It's an addition to the XBOX 360 game console, and works with the new "NATAL" system, which allows the system to be used without game controllers.  According to the demos, the system will simply recognize your body as it moves and behave accordingly. It also has a voice recognition  feature that is advanced enough to respond quickly and accurately.  Does it work?  time will tell - but even if this is five years down the road (they claim it's about a year to eighteen months out....but that's Microsoft), it's extraordinary.  So far, it seems like an exciting improvement on the Nintendo Wii.  If that's all it was, I wouldn't bother writing here about it (notice how long it's been since my last entry).

THIS is the reason I'm excited:

If this can work as shown - this will not only change the nature of gaming, but of entertainment as well.  This might seem a bit creepy as first (one of the common descriptions of Milo, by the way), but what he (it!) represents is mind-exapnding.

Interacting with sophisticated artificial intelligence like this opens up so many new avenues, the list is nearly endless.  

Imagine an immersive version of the "Sims" games, in which you interact directly with Sims - not in the nonsense language of the game, but in plain English! 

Imagine kids questioning Julius Caeser as he stands in the Forum in Rome, or George Washington, or, for that matter, Martin Luther King.  History will (almost) come alive as a classroom - or an individual student - develops a personal relationship with historical figures.

Instead of simply watching a horror movie, imagine interacting with the characters in the production.  Say hello to Hannibal Lector!

I look forward to seeing the progress of this technology. As the saying goes, "it could change everything."

Other related links:

Project NATAL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oACt9R9z37U&feature=related

Live Demo at E3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTtlM0v7iLs&NR=1

The Great Flood

My first "disaster" was a flash flood that hit our New Hyde Park neighborhood during a torrential rainfall when I was about ten years old.  By flood standards, it wasn't much - the water level probably did reach more than a foot or so.  Most houses didn't flood.  In fact, only our house, which happened to be the lowest house in an otherwise flat street, suffered a river of sorts that seeped through the front door and the garage door and cascaded down into our basement.  My parents wouldn't let me go out into the water like some of my friends - so I guess the flood came in to me.

I remember watching the basement in amazement, unaware, like any kid,  of the concept of water damage.  I also felt oddly privileged to know that we were the only house with real flooding.   I knew it would give me a measure of celebrity with my friends.  I could see it immediately:  "You had a flood outside your house?  I had a flood INSIDE my house!"  They would gather around in amazement.   Nobody - NOBODY - could say they had a basement waterfall.  

Hey, I take fame where I can get it.

How I Could Have Been Damaged

When I was growing up, before a good part of the protective bubble that envelops nearly every American kid, there were a number of ways I could have been damaged (and was, in some cases!)

I had a toy called the SST - it consisted of a little vehicle that was revved up by pulling a plastic rip cord through a central wheel, and then letting it go down the street.  If you didn't position your hand holding the vehicle just right, you could get a nasty friction burn between your thumb and forefinger.

My Stingray, the bike of choice then, had to be redesigned in the following years after my model.  It featured a gear shift on the center bar.  Apparently it was in just the wrong position if a boy should slip forward and end up straddling the gear shift.  Happily, that never happened to me!

Most kids at the time played with gunpowder - in the form of cap guns - and the rolls of ammunition, which consisted of  bits of gunpowder encased in  little paper bubbles  The roll would be fed through a cap gun, which would set each off with a loud bang and a puff of smoke.  Of course, after a while, we just took the rolls of ammunition, set them down on the curb, and just set them off  by pounding rocks on them.  All we wanted was the boom.  It's a good thing it didn't occur to us to perform a little surgery and collect all the little drops of gunpowder into something more potent.

Of course, it wasn't always the toy that was dangerous.  At one time, I attempted to take apart an old radio - while it was plugged into the wall (actually, it was plugged into the side of the house outside, where I could go about my mischief undisturbed).   As a result, I remember precisely where I was when I learned, with a jolt, about the dangers of electrocution.  Some years later in junior, not surprisingly,  I earned my single worst shop class grade in the Electrical class.

Personality Recognition

One of the more fascinating aspects of re-connecting with my childhood friends on Facebook is realizing, over time, that I still can sense the kid I knew so many years ago.  Through chat and other Facebook correspondence with a number of old friends, some of which I have only fleeting memories.  Yet, there are certain characteristics that touch a distant chord or recognition. 

One friend's absurdist sense of humor seems very familiar.  Though I would be hard pressed to actually remember specific examples from our childhood, it's one of his identifying characteristics.  Another friend shared some traumatic experiences he had after I moved away.  Though I had absolutely no connection to him during those times, through his story I recognized his compassionate personality.  Of course, at eleven years old, I didn't understand those traits, but as an adult, I remember the common sensibilities that brought us together.

Finally, there's one kid of which I remember very little beyond his name and one or two specific memories, perhaps dating back as far as first grade.    But in corresponding with him, I remembered the basics - a nice kid with a particularly friendly personality.  

Though I can see the common threads of my own personality through my lifetime, It still seems surprising to recognize this friends at such a fundamental level.

Worlds Unknown

As part of my work with Freshi Films, we went to the Tri-State Camp Conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey - a trade show that caters to the summer camp industry.  Summer camps are a huge business back east, out here in Los Angeles, is largely unknown, aside from some scattered specialty camps and camps for the less fortunate.  

The conference included an exhibit hall filled with all matter of services for summer camps, from insurance to inflatable slides, to food service, to t-shirts, to sports, to medical services and supplies, and even portable docks for your lakeside camp.  Companies have developed and succeeded for decades aimed at one primary, and very regional industry. 

I couldn't help but think of how many trade shows are held around the country and the world that service businesses and industries that are largely unknown, unless you have a direct interest.  We hear about some in the news occasionally - electronics, toys, books, guns - but so many remain unreported outside of industry publications.  How many conferences are held each year that the "outside" world ignores, but hold a critical role in a particular industry?  

At the conference, I met the owner of the day camp that I attended as a little boy - and that his father had founded fifty years before.  From my western perspective, it seems almost inconceivable that a summer camp could be a viable business, but, like so much else, our culture is entirely removed from the summer camp tradition.  Or, perhaps, we're just one big never-ending summer camp!

The Sky is Falling

The Bubble is Bursting.

The chickens are coming home to roost.

What goes up must come down.

When another door closes, another opens.

Crisis = Opportunity (this is usually attributed to the Chinese, but I found this interesting analysis from "The Straight Dope" - it seems that this may be an incorrect Western interpretation.  It's still a good attitude though, especially now...

Comrades

To adults, kids lives sometimes seem simplistic, but our own memories prove otherwise.  The very fact that I'm able to interact with childhood friends with whom I haven't had any meaningful contact since we were eleven years old indicates a level of sophistication we sometimes forget. 

Our lives are narrower in scope at that age, but still dominated by playground politics and social maneuvering.  We can spot weaknesses and strengths, and experience a whole range of passions.

I still think of a certain childhood friend as a comrade - one of my first friends outside of my immediate neighborhood - the first friendship based wholly on shared interests and an attitude about the world around us. When I saw him again over thirty years later, we not only shared memories, but I found that I recognized his personality.  I knew his degree of sensitivity, and the sense of humor that likely formed our early friendship.

As I reconnect with other early childhood friends on Facebook - and I've now reconnected with most of them - I recall that kid that I once was - and now realize that I'm fundamentally still that same kid.

Documentary Spirit!

I'm currently editing my documentary, "Bollywood Steps," and I'm in the midst one of the most interesting stages in a production, next to actually shooting the film.  Editing a large project like this isn't easy - I had 30-35 hours of video to go through before I began the process.  Even then, I'm not entirely sure how it all will fit together.  I have an idea, of course - but I don't see the "magic" until I start piecing together all the parts of this multi-layed audio-visual puzzle.  Only then can I start to see in intimate detail the patterns that make an entertaining and watchable film - the personalities of the subjects, the unexpected stories that emerge when I start piecing together hours of interviews with all the subjects of the film, and the visual "poetry" that's really critical in a film that features so much dance. I'm starting to see the spirit of the documentary - the energy that, hopefully, reflects what I saw and felt during the 8-9 months I was in production.

The World Vs. Me

I can't really determine what my earliest memories are of my hometown in New Hyde Park.  We lived in the same house from the time I was about a year old to my eleventh year, when we moved away.  Since we didn't move during that initial period in my life, I didn't experience the extraordinary events that form those detailed early memories (for example, the 1964-65 World's Fair, for which I hold my earliest memories). 

Instead, like any small child in a stable world, my universe slowly revealed itself to me, from my home, to my backyard, to my neighbors and beyond.  I rode my bike further and further from my home, until my friends and I took increasingly "daring" expeditions beyond our immediate world and across major boulevards. Those adventures were at once both scary and exciting, but because I was taking those expeditions with a squadron of friends, I don't think we ever questioned our missions: to the toy store, the homes of friends near our school (to which I usually took a school bus), or just up into the neighborhood to unfamiliar territory.  We were still young enough, and our world innocent enough, that we didn't yet know to question ourselves or our friends on moral grounds.  We just did what we thought was alright to do, and usually, it worked out okay.

Of course, as the world unfolded, my knowledge of how to physically survive in that world sometimes lagged.  I remember taking my gravity-powered go-kart to the top of a local street and speeding downward at full speed, dashing through intersections without a care - until a car just missed me as I zipped by.  That's a pretty heady experience - seeing your nine-year-old life flash before your eyes as a car screeches on its brakes and I kept going, moving too fast to stop with my makeshift brake, which was just a piece of wood rubbing against one of my baby-carriage tires.

I didn't quite tell the manufacturer (my dad) what happened, but we did make some modifications to the braking system before my next go-karting experiment.

Disturbing Movies #1

Here are four lesser-known, darker-themed movies about youth that I recommend - in no particular order. 

1) "Kes" (1969) is about a boy growing up in a working class mining community in Yorkshire, England.  If you've seen the movie "Billy Elliot,"this is a rougher, bleaker and more authentic portrait of a society in transition ("Billy Elliot" was heavily influenced by this film).  The British Film Institute considers "Kes" one of the ten greatest British films of all time.  Due, perhaps, to heavy regional accents, this film is virtually unknown in the USA - you will need to order this one overseas, and have the ability to play DVD's from other regions.  Or, I can lend you my copy.  If you know me. Directed by Ken Loach.

2) "Over the Edge" (1979) is, once again, about a society in transition.  This time, it's smack in the middle of modern USA suburbia, where a planned community didn't plan for the teens in its midst, resulting, ultimately, in chaos.  It's about teens as a social footnote, and it's also a interesting portrait of 1970's teenage angst.  There's also a great contemporary soundtrack of the time, and a pretty effective cast of alienated kids, including Matt Dillon in his first role. Directed by Jonathan Kaplan.

3) "Pixote" (1981) is about the life of a street kid in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  It's probably the most intense film of its kind - and even today, is a difficult film to take, if you're squeamish about such things.   There are millions of desperate kids living hopeless lives on streets around the world.  Unlike some other films on the same subject, this doesn't soft pedal the huge odds these kids face.  Directed by Hector Babanco.

4)  "Lord of the Flies" (1963) is a faithful adaption of the classic book by William Golding (as opposed to the bizarre 1990 American version) about a group of English schoolboys who descent in savagery while stranded on an island without adult supervision.  Though this film sometimes seems stiffly acted (the kids were cast mostly from British expatriates in America), it's  a fascinating bit of independent filmmaking by Peter Brook.  I had to watch this film numerous times in junior high and high school. so it's become ingrained...

Work at Home

One of the nice things about what I do for a living is that I sometimes work from home.  During a week when I found myself having to travel in the midst of rush hour, this is a welcome relief.  Of course, if all I did was work at home, I'd never get through my audio books.   I might have to revert more to the old-school books.  The paper kind - not the imitation "Kindle" kind.

Traffic

On the way from downtown Los Angeles to Valencia today, I sat in traffic for and hour and a half.  In the early morning, my traffic-free commute in the opposite direction was about 35 minutes.  Even with all sorts of portable entertainment (thanks to my Iphone and it's Ipod feature) and my car's XM satellite system, which offers a wide range of stations ranging from music to audio feeds from CNN and CNN Headline News, the experience is still insanely frustrating.  

I could have taken the train, but I had a mid-day meeting that required the use of my car.  I'm very fortunate in Valencia that I live only a mile or two from our inter-city Metrolink system.  It brings me right into Union Station downtown, from which I take a shuttle to Little Tokyo, where I work occasionally.   Having decent, convenient mass transit is rare in LA.  The City of Los Angeles' Metrorail system, which extends to various corners of the city, is nevertheless missing from the most heavily traveled corridors of the city.   Even the limitations of travel within downtown Los Angles made the train option unworkable for me in this case.

I'm going to look on Itunes and see if I can find a good thriller.  Hard to find a good, but very effective in these situations.

Facebook

Over 150 million users are on Facebook - that's equal to half the population of the United States (though users are all over the world).  Once again, the world has become much smaller - and much more intimate.  I'm rapidly resuming contact with individuals from most phases of my life, from childhood onward.

The concept of community has been evolving rapidly since dawn of the internet - just a few short years ago, "experts" were mourning the end of traditional communities.  Our personal communities can now extend worldwide, and may have some of the same qualities of the traditional neighborhood.  Of course, this world can never, by nature, replace human contact.  You can't go out and socialize with friends thousands of miles away.  You can talk - even face to face - with good friends. 

It's worth keeping this all in perspective.  If we're to look at all forms of communications over the past 150 years, this is something that is still very much in its infancy.  We've likely seen just a hint of the fundamental changes in store for our society in the decades ahead.

East Coast / West Coast Cultures

Anyone who has spend time on both the east and west coasts of the United States acknowledges that there is a tangible "cultural" difference between the two worlds. On both coasts, I grew up in similar areas, but they couldn't be more distinct.  When I came out to California, I recognized that the school system didn't value education in quite the same way as the system - or rather, the school - I'd experienced in New York.  My public school in New York, with all of its enrichment programs, could only be duplicated in a private school in Los Angeles.  And I knew it - even at eleven years old.  We're also somewhat of a transitory society in Los Angeles.   I see little of the ongoing (though infrequent) connections individuals back east seem to have had.  We don't seem to follow prescribed paths (though that is probably more related to family history), unlike virtually all of my early friends in the east.  I'm not sure if that's good or bad - or whether that would have changed my own career path, but I think choices tended to be more practical - lawyers, doctors, accountants, and teachers.  Those sorts of choices were probably encouraged in my crowd in California, but not as strongly as elsewhere.  Of those that I'm aware of, many of my Los Angeles school friends became entrepreneurs of one type or another, or artists of various kinds.  I don't see a similar pattern, or sense of practicality as easterners tend to have (at least where I came from).  After all, the choices that I and my latter friends made about our futures really made career development a much longer process.