By John Susman, writer/director of Making the Man
(from the 2008 Newport Beach Film Festival)
I was in the middle of Career Day at my kids' school when I realized how frightening my film, Making the Man, actually was. No, I had not made a horror film. My film, however, plays with the subject of reality and our perception of the truth, and how little many of us do to question what we see.
So it was with shock and horror that I watched class after class of middle-schoolers not laugh at that part of my film where countless others had before them. I have watched my film at several film festivals, friends' living rooms, and with audiences young, old and mixed - but never with a class of 30 middle-schoolers. Sure, they laughed at the broad humor, the faux pas, the slapstick, but there, at the critical juncture - the money shots - they were not laughing. They sat. They stared. They accepted. And that was scary. That made me wonder. Kids accept stuff. Okay, I guess I sort of knew that, but to observe it in such a blunt, in-your-face way, was a shock. They've watched thousands of hours of TV, movies and Internet. They are more sophisticated than we ever were. But at they same time, they are naive.
They watch commercials, and they believe pretty much what they see. They accept. This I know from personal experience.
I can't tell you the number of times I have been asked by my kids (as smart as they are) to buy them a Swedish Tempur-Pedic Sleep System. Why? They have perfectly good mattresses. Somebody, please help me!
Of course, we adults are just as guilty and lazy about what we see. We read it in the paper, so it must be true. The reviews of that movie were lousy, so I won't go see it (the critics must know something!). I got that e-mail about exploding gas tanks, and they said it was checked out by Snopes, so it must be true!
Unfortunately, we are just as guilty in telling "the truth." We shape our stories, our personal anecdotes, our biographies and resumes, so that we look our best - even better than our best! We filter, we edit, we rearrange the truth. It's human nature. It's PhotoShop storytelling. Airbrush out the defects, the blemishes, the warts. Make the eyes green, the hair blonde and the body svelte.
So why am I complaining? I'm not, really. Different audiences will give you different reactions. They don't all laugh at the same things. But kids are honest. Brutally honest. If they don't like something, they won't bs. They have no hidden agenda (except maybe candy). If they do like something, they'll tell you so as well. And if they don't understand something, they will also tell you that.
How many news programs have we seen where we know there's only one camera, and yet the interview cuts back and forth between the interviewer and the interviewee, the interviewer never stumbles, never makes a mistake, never says "um" - and it all looks so polished, so perfect. I've always had a problem with that, even though I admire how well it's done. The technique can be captivating, convincing and incredibly dramatic. |
