Life in Technicolor

The other day on set, I watched a complicated and important shot being set up.  I watched as the Director of Photography organized the lights and their cues, as the director blocked the shot, as the Steadicam operator practiced his long and difficult path, and as the star and supporting cast practiced their blocking.  Watching how the Steadicam weaved in the action, I realized the camera had the energy of another character in the shot.  Getting the shot from a stationary camera would make it a completely different moment with a different energy.  There was only one way to perfectly capture the feeling of the moment and that shot, and it was through the exact path that the Steadicam was taking.  As the Assistant Director called action and as I watched all the elements together, I felt transported into the camera.  I had a surreal moment of simultaneously feeling as if I were watching the shot on the big screen in a movie theatre and feeling as if I were living inside the screen, transported into the scene as it came to life through some trick of magic.

It was a beautiful shot that captured the joy of living life to its fullest, full of the richest colors possible, and soaking it all in.  And watching it was a magical moment that encapsulated what I love about film and filmmaking.

Of course, we don't always get to live life on such a grand scale and with the benefit of lights and cameras and sets and costumes.  But on the ride home, still buzzing from the energy, it made me think of all the colors and light and beauty that surround us every day in ordinary life if we stop to notice and soak it in.  I grew up in a city that's criticized for being landlocked and relatively flat, in a state known for corn fields.  There's no significant body of water, and certainly no one thinks of water when they think of Indy.  I live now in a city known for skyscrapers and a lack of trees and greenery.  No one thinks of beautiful woods when they think of New York City.  But last fall, I took photos (posted below) of the rich colors I found in the heart of downtown Indianapolis on the canal there and in the woods in a park in Queens in NYC easily accessible by subway.   Maybe if we always look for the unexpected beauty spots around us, even in a city like New York, we can always live in as much color and energy in real life as that shot so magically captured.