The Fault of Canadian Cinema

In the past six years I have seen a lot of Canadian movies and they all seem to have one thing in common: a distinct Canadian style.  I can spot Canadian film and television a mile away by the way it looks.  Unfortunately, this Canadian does not seem to be appreciated by… well by anybody.  The result of this lacking appreciation seems to be that no one wants to watch a Canadian product.  It seems that everyone is drawn to the product of our more affluent neighbors to the south and no matter what we produce we just can't seem to compete.

I will take a moment to point out that there are exceptions to the rule and I know out there some Canadian films don't rank in my above statements.  It is a very broad brush I paint with. I am okay with that because I'm speaking to a majority right now.

Moving back on target, I don't understand why our film product is perceived as substandard.  Nor do I understand why we continue to make the same product and expect different results.  We as an affluent country have the means, the technology, the natural environment and for goodness we certainly have the talent on both sides of the camera to produce something different.  This is a point that I have raised many times with my friends, colleagues and, acquaintances and it seems everyone agrees: When will we make movies that compete against our American counter parts? 

Believe it or not I am the last person on the planet who wants to lose or give up any of my Canadian identity.  At the same time I am an artist who would like to see the work of my country competing on a world class stage.  All too often I see a great Canadian film crash because of our distinct style.  I for one am tired of it.  

I'm no genius, but when I look at marketing and gaining an audience it seems simple to me.  If everyone is selling big bright red juicy apples and people are buying them then anyone competing against them apples has one of two choices to make a dollar.

One: if your apples don't look as big, as bright as red and as juicy as the other guy's find a unique angle to market your apples so that people see value in something different.

Two: if number one is not working, then start selling big bright red juicy apples also.  This way you can compete in the market place.  Once you have a loyal following at your fruit stand, start trying to sell your other apples too.  In doing so you are now more competitive in the market place.

From where I sit, our apples are not big, bright red and juicy. Nobody seems to be buying them.  Hey Canada filmmakers, when you going to start selling big, bright red juicy apples?

Performance

Earlier today I had a thought about what I wanted to blog about tonight.  It was about "Creative Ideas" - how someone comes up with something, that to so many may be inane, but they follow through with it and then it becomes cool, popular, a 'thing', etc.  The idea came to me while I was in rehearsal and I thought that is something to chew on a bit....

Forget that, I'll have to come back to it.  As I said, it came to me in rehearsal, and following the rehearsal, I went on stage and did a reading of the thing I was rehearsing.  I have just travelled home, following that performance, and I am all jazzed.  I wanted to throw my emotional state out on this page with a "sympathetic audience" (a line from the play), because well, I believe that you will understand.  Now although you are not here with me to chat over a coffee and get all existential with me I have a sense of unspoken camaraderie with you my reader, a connection.  It is through the release of emotion and our connection that magic can happen so....

Adrenaline is pumping through my veins.  As I walked down the subway platform I felt elevated, not above anyone there, just different.  I said to myself, "I am fortunate for having found and chosen to follow that which inspires me, that which gives me joy, and that which allows me to feel so alive."  I wanted to run up and down and scream for joy, to dance with glee, to pull a little bit of the old Snoopy shuffle.

If you don't know my reference:  Classic happy Snoopy dance, as depicted in Peanuts cartoon by Charles M. Schultz

Let me be clear that tonight was an extra special night for me.  It has been a slow year, acting has not exactly been on the plate, it has been a down time in career, unlike the past few which have been on the high time.  So when Andrew Lamb, a director I have wanted to work with for a while called, and said would I join him up on stage...well I did a happy dance when I got off the phone.  All of that to say tonight was special because I got to act.  I was up in front of audience for a reading of a new Canadian play.  I was working with other wonderful talent, I had been directed by a director I wanted to work with and most of all I got to have fun doing what I love...for the first time in a long time.  (little fist pump whohoo)

I have a good friend and business partner, Stevie Jay, and we have agreed that good theatre needs a black box (and sometimes not even that), an audience, and good story telling - that is it.  Everything else can add to it, but it is extra.  Tonight at the reading it is all we had.  It was 'just' a reading.  We rehearsed it twice through this afternoon, took a break for dinner and up we went script in hand.  So much fun.

So there I am in a small space reading away, portraying the limited character I have created off of a few reads, telling this story, which by the way is very well written by play wright Adam Bailey, and I look up.  I look out into the audience and use them as the character they are in this piece and all I can see are faces of people who are completely engaged.  People who have been transported to the world we three actors and a playwright have created.  Souls that are so wrapped up in the story that for a brief time they are able to let go of everything else.  Spirits who are living a different reality in this moment which I am helping to create.  There was one particular moment that my character's pride is rising with the story he is recounting, he is stepping out of the mire onto solid land. On a physical level I had been sitting slightly slumped over and as I said this little speech I began to sit more upright.  I was amazed to see several audience members who were slouched in there chairs begin to rise with me, to sit more upright and live that moment simultaneously.

Yes it is my perception, and there could be a million reasons why several people, began to sit more upright in pace with me as I did so.  But I believe they sat up with me because they were engaged, they were transported and for some maybe they felt pride and experienced something as I told my piece of that story.  It is a rush to see the effect I can have on people (we all have that power when we share our feelings - go tell your lover how you really feel and see what happens).  I am so happy that I get to actively tell story and produce that effect on many people, to reach out and touch other humans, to bring something to them, something they may be talking about right now.  All I can say is WOW!  And I know that feeling is understood by every artist out there.  Thanks for letting me share.

Thanksgiving

"I have to little"
"I'm so close, if there was just a little bit more."
"I got a job, just not the one I want."
"I know I could do that, why is s/he doing it?"
"I just don't make enough."
"If I had..."

These are all statements I hear, and I catch myself saying, that express a state of having and wanting more.  Each one implies that what is possessed is not enough.

So today as I reflect on these words, I wonder how they reflect on my acting.  I see very powerful connections.

There is a challenge to change perceptions in my world; to that end I offer this:

"Today is Thanksgiving. I am very grateful and thankful for that which I have.  It covers all my necessities in this world and gives me the inspiration to push for more.  It is more than enough and I am happy for it.  Thank you universe."

Are We Wrong?

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong." - Joseph Chilton Pearce

from the pages of TAT Journal, Issue 6

I read these words today and began thinking.  What does this mean? To live creative life, lose fear of wrong?  Hmmm.  I have pondered it all day. 

What does it mean to be wrong?  This is the state where my opinion or thought is not accepted by other people.  That whether my thought, mathematically, socially, morally, or anything else, is  different from the general consensus  then I am wrong. It means I am going against. Okay, that seems fine.  There have been times in history when those who were wrong were eventually able to prove they were right - there was much persecution and challenge along the way - but when they finally go there all was well (Capernicus, Galileo, Tesla....)  These people all knew when to stand behind their opinions - things begin to make sense.

If we are wrong we often will fight tooth and nail to be right.  Being right means acceptance, it means fitting in and from that an easy path.  Who would not want to be right.  So without these things we are ostracized, looked down on, ridiculed and so on.  In order to avoid these things we fight.  

Fighting for me takes a lot of energy.  I channel everything into it and as a by product of that I typically shut down everything else becoming single focussed.  I do this out of fear, fear of not being accepted, fear of being wrong, fear of not having value - for if my statement has no value then how do I?  With all that fear running through me and all my energy dedicated to proving (fighting) that I am right when do I act creatively? And so it makes sense and I think it is an exceptionally insightful statement.

If I lose my fear of being wrong, I can accept the challenges that come with being wrong.  I can then open myself to other points of view, I can see alternatives and be open to receive offers and different opinions.  As an actor I read that list and recognize these are the skills I need to effectively interact on stage and screen.  So let me echo the words of Joseph Chilton Pearce once more

To Live A Creative Life,

We MUST Lose Our Fear Of Being Wrong!

Seamless Art

This week I watched a few movies starring great actors, Daniel Day Lewis and Johnny Depp.  
Regardless of your opinion of these two people, they are recognized by the majority, as people who define the craft of acting.  

What amazed me while I watched these films is how seamless it all felt.  I am not sure that is the best word for it, but it is the one that I use and it is the one that came to my mind while I watched. What I mean by seamless, is that there never appeared to be a struggle or a glitch, there was no point when I thought "ahh that is where the actor had to work at that piece".  The character in the end had no seams in them. The analogy is that actors put on a costume called character and I was unable to see the seams of the costume and thus was drawn in enough to view the actor as that character.  When I sat back to reflect on this fact I was struck with the idea that it all seems so easy; this acting thing. From there I was taken to a point in my past and a discussion that came up.

Friend:  "Acting is easy, any one can do it. Just get up, memorize some lines and say them in front of people."
Me:  "Yes, anyone can act, but it takes a special person, an artist to do it well and make a living at it."

The argument I put forth is simple.  Everyone can act and everyone has.  If you take the time to watch children at play you will see what I mean. When kids play, they play for keeps.  They will tell you the rules of the game, they will set the scenario, they will give you your role and then they will go there.  I really mean go there. A child will dive in, head first and come to a state where they truly believe and buy into the role they are playing.  Anyone who breaks that reality and does not play to the fullest, well they get thrown out. Kids get mad at each other for not playing good enough, for breaking the reality, for not fulfilling their role and fights ensue.  This is the reality of childhood and it is the foundation for great acting.  We go all the way in, and everybody who is with us on stage or screen has to do the same or there is no show.

Now somewhere along the line kids loose this ability to play so deeply.  Not everyone, but many.  A mother chides them for not growing up and playing too much, a friend laughs at them or picks on them, a teacher says that it is not a good idea...so many reasons.  When these reasons start to sink in then the walls go up and the fear of diving in and being chastised, ridiculed, picked on, singled out, etc. takes over and the play weakens.  This is now one less actor in the world.

Those of us who choose acting, step into the ridicule every day, we face the thoughts and memories of people who have given us a version of "no" and we work really hard to find the ability to dive in head first without hesitation to believe everything that is laid out in a script for us to play with.  We have a million different methods to do this, and each of us finds our own keys, we do our homework if you will and we entertain you.  For those out there that are viewed as the greats, they are special individuals who open that deepest box (or maybe they were lucky and never had there vision tainted, it does happen occasionally) and go all the way, beyond what others who are good can do.  These are the actors who to me appear seamless, that they are so far in, I cannot see the stitches where the costume attach to the actor.  What amazes me more than anything is how easy it all looks when we watch but how much work I know went into getting there.

Something to strive for definitely.