Understanding the Film

I'm reading a book called "Understanding the Film," a very helpful book for me, despite being written in the 70's. What it ultimately is teaching is how to watch film well. And the way to do that is to begin to perceive what you are seeing. Look at each scene, each picture that is shown to you, and question why it is there, what purpose does it serve.

Thanks to the coaching this author has given me, I've taken the idea of perceiving and applied it to life. I've tried to perceive so many more things than I normally do. And it takes effort. I have to consciously remind myself to do it, and then I'm tired afterward. It's a beatdown to live well.

Here are some quotes from the book:

Hollywood will continue to produce the kinds of movies we demonstrate that we want to see unless-or until- we demand something else.

"The task I am trying to achieve is, above all, to make you see." D.W. Griffith

Film shows us what it is like to be human.