This article can also be viewed at https://medium.com/non-monetized-together/my-third-idea-for-a-film-genre-7217b8862b45

Just in case you’re wondering, here’s a link to my first idea and here’s a link to my second idea.

The video for the NZCA Lines and VIAA song For Your Love is one of the most emotionally powerful videos I’ve seen in a long time. It prompted feelings I may have never felt before when watching a movie. I asked myself, what is it about this video, directed by Florence Winter Hill, that allowed those feelings to develop?

Link to music video

And the answer I found was a strange one. What sets this video apart from most other films is that we don’t know anything about the characters.

The two “main characters” are depicted as silhouettes, so they could be anybody. The other characters all show up only once apiece and we don’t know anything about any of them. Rather, their purpose of being in the video is to symbolize emotions. Emotions such as excitement, passion, longing, and celebration.

How does this allow the music video to succeed? Because it heightens these emotions to the point where they come across as feeling different than they do in the real world. Filmmakers may put a lot of time and effort into making characters seem real and getting the audience to relate to the characters’ emotions, but let’s be honest, real-world emotions are a drag. They’re linked to the random chances of your life situation. They’re grounded and reasonable. They’re messy and sometimes confusing. They can ruin your day or even your life, but they will only satisfy the former.

This music video presents an escapist fantasy where none of that gets in the way. The people in this video do not come across as human beings with their own inner lives. They only exist to express the video’s themes and to coordinate the video to the music. And because of that, the video feels more emotionally intense than anything I experience in my own real life.

So how could this approach to filmmaking become its own genre?

My vision is of a movie that contains dramatic character interactions, but always at a distance from the characters. The audience is not to know anything about the characters. The film will also show the consequences of the characters’ actions. An example of this would be the film showing an announcement of a bill being passed, followed by a scene depicting an anonymous person’s everyday life under this new law, which would then lead to a shot from a moving vehicle capturing the law’s effect on the city.

Whose perspective would the film be shot from? Surely not from any of the characters. I’m envisioning the film instead being shot from the perspective of the land and of the space inhabited by the land. I think this will allow the films in this genre to feel like the music video I linked earlier.

So if you have writer’s block, why not try making a “distance drama?” By combining drama, symbolism, and escapism, your film can maximize its emotional power.

#Cinema #Emotions #Filmmaking #Dramas #Creativity

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Photo by johnhain on Pixabay

You can also view this article on https://medium.com/illumination/overcoming-life-challenges-by-working-on-emotions-348e13e40ec0?source=friends_link&sk=27f30551226ea96415db5e6f2069990d

I have some papers with important messages displayed on a wall in my bedroom. These messages are designed to help me navigate life’s challenges and allow myself to feel happier.

One of the papers says, “deal with the world as it is, not as it must or should be.” I can see how this motto applies when people lose their temper after disagreeing with each other. In this case, an example for “dealing with the world as it is” would be to resolve the disagreement peacefully and respectfully. When people show their anger, they lose sight of that goal. Then, it’s no longer about coming across as someone that others would want to accept. Instead, it completely becomes about having things their way.

The statement “deal with the world as it is, not as it must or should be” does not necessarily advocate submitting to the status quo. You may find that your beliefs and values are at odds with the establishment, who are defining what “must or should be” the way to do things.

Another paper lists five components of emotional intelligence:

1. Knowing your emotions

2. Managing your emotions

3. Recognizing emotions in others

4. Managing emotions in others

5. Motivating ourselves to achieve our goals

I like to conceptualize this list’s fifth item as a tool to manage the first four items. Some form of motivation can definitely be useful considering how challenging it can be to keep track of four things at once. What makes it especially hard is that sometimes when applying one of the skills in the list, you may find that it makes an impact on how a different skill on the list should be carried out. This could mean that even if you already think you had one of the components handled, you may need to return to it and revise your decision in a way that cooperates with other components.

This is a perfect example of why emotional intelligence is such a demanding skill. No wonder people don’t always succeed at it. It’s important to decide what matters the most to you and consistently use it as motivation to succeed at emotional intelligence.

Another one of the papers has four tips: speak with honesty, don’t take anything personally, don’t make assumptions, and always do your best. The older I get, the more obvious it is that following these instructions will reduce miscommunication and conflict. I also think they are the keys to a successful online community, so I set them as standards for Non-Monetized Together.

Thank you for reading this article. I appreciate your comments, but before you respond, please remember that I’m not some sort of self-help guide or expert. I’m a student in life, just like you. It wasn’t me who wrote the messages on my wall, either. I just found them useful and I wanted to share them with you.

#SelfCare #Emotions #Relationships #Reminders #OvercomingChallenges

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Medium comments:

“deal with the world as it is, not as it must or should be”

The old is/ought problem.

You can't get an ought from an is.

Unfortunely, many people seem to have 12 million opinions on what things ought to be, and never looking at what acutally is.

I totally agree with you Kevin. It is much better to accept thw world and act one's best in it, rather than trying to change reality to suit ones own wants and desires.

Michael Zwierzanski

Dev Asangbam/Unsplash

This was originally posted onto Medium on December 15, 2022 (https://medium.com/non-monetized-together/the-type-of-statement-that-will-invalidate-you-immediately-738b062b6572?source=friends_link&sk=57b9f71c307ebf2d83660a1c0af37d86)

#Emotions #Intentions #SocialInteractions #SelfRighteousness #Insincerity

So far writing for this blog, I haven’t released any stories that derive their value mainly from being emotional. I always make sure my articles have a better reason for existing than just to communicate emotions. Yet I don’t think this means that expressing one’s emotions is a bad thing, like everybody else seems to think.

You know society has its blinders on when people frequently get away with saying that they find it hilarious, epic, or satisfying when somebody gets upset. All without immediately being perceived as a villain.

It wouldn’t be odd or notable if people were just saying those things to be cruel. But many people say it as a sign of self-righteousness! This typically occurs when there is some sort of previous context where the target has done something that they didn’t like.

This article isn’t going to be about how people should care for each other and respect people’s feelings, as I know that many of these people aren’t in the mood for that.

Instead, I’ll focus on how these statements are painfully self-unaware and contradictory when they’re being used to legitimize oneself. How? Because by saying them, people invalidate all their other statements on the topic, aside from “I don’t care.”

It’s basically saying that their goal was to upset people all along, or at least that they view it as a satisfying outcome. They are openly admitting that their other points never had any other sort of value all along, while at the same time, pretending otherwise.

So, if they want to be self-righteous, too bad — they just discredited anything useful or meaningful they said on the topic, and anybody else pretending otherwise is caught up in the charade.

It’s not as bad if they’re not trying to assert morality. We’ve all been in situations where, due to heightened emotions, we’ve treated somebody with less empathy than we normally would have. In those cases, gloating at someone else’s emotions is understandable.

My point is that you can’t make those comments and claim the moral high ground. Once you say something like that, nobody with good intentions has any reason to join your side. Your efforts get corrupted immediately.

It’s time to start approaching those statements as an embarrassing example of self-destruction. We should let everyone know that nobody can take them seriously without being objectively wrong.

Medium comments:

Very nicely written and a good read 😇.

The Silent Monk

Glad to hear that

Kevin the Nonmonetized

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