Say those three little words and you’ve said a mouthful.
In its heyday, that line of motion picture advertising copy was designed to take you somewhere — straight to the box office. Made iconic by the late, great voice-over wizard, Don LaFontaine, we all laugh at the cliche it’s become. Don laughed too, all the way to the bank! In countless movie trailers, those words made us watch. We were captivated. Good old Don sold lots of movies. I wrote lots of those scripts.
What made those three words so powerful? Credit is certainly due to Mr. LaFontaine. But also, the words themselves cast a powerful spell. Remember as a kid, when you heard the words “Once upon a time…”? They had that “open sesame” effect. A door opened and you were willing to go wherever those words led. You let yourself follow breadcrumbs into the woods. You let yourself walk through a looking glass. You let yourself believe.
Words are Wands
When my daughter Ana was in elementary school and teachers found out what I did for a living — that I wrote trailers and movie posters — they invited me into the classroom to teach the kids to do the same. I mean, these kids were already little media geniuses and all deep into Harry Potter. The first thing I taught them is what I wish everyone knew: that their words are their magic wands. Words don’t have to be pedigreed or filigreed, like Abra Cadabra or Alarte Ascendare. No. Plain old words can be super powerful. Even muggle words like “in a world” have the power to cast mighty spells.
In observing Hollywood’s impact on culture, I’d argue that when those three words —“in a world” — are strung together, they not only cast a spell. They become a teleportation device. We’re lured to the box office and beyond — compelled into other dimensions, infinite possibilities of experience held within the 2-dimensional framework of a story on a screen.
Spell Binding
The worlds we inhabit in our screens are absolute wonderlands — and our eyes are the portals for experiencing those places. I still dream of the scene in Mary Poppins when they jumped into the chalk drawings Bert drew on the sidewalk. That scene was my version of heaven. If I could have jumped into those chalk drawings, or better yet, into the screen itself, I would have given at least my whole year’s allowance. Screw my obligatory Sunday School money that came out of my weekly allowance. I would have gone to hell just to have that slice of heaven.
We have always been drawn into different worlds, because every one of us is a storyteller. In fact, every one of us is a story. Escaping into others’ stories is often our go-to, because the 3D world, in spite of its infinite delights, takes a lot out of us. When cinema entered the human scene a mere 130 years ago, we became captives to its light. Who can blame us? The dream machine that is cinema brought us to life in such a profound way that we haven’t really looked back. I want to time-travel back to this mind-blowing period soon as we wander through the Mirror House!
Ok yes, there are downsides to screen time — duh. We all know there are. Our screens are forever flickering at us, tempting us, waiting to cage and devour us, like the notorious witch in her candy cottage. But I think we would do well to rethink this relationship with the screen, and rewrite our own screen story.
Can We Redeem the Screen?
Sure, we can vilify ourselves all day long for being hooked on screens, but does that break our habit? Not very often. What we generally do is give ourselves another thing to feel shitty about. Then we escape the shitty feeling by taking refuge in our screens, or something worse.
Here’s my theory: if we can figure out what we love about our screen experiences, we will be able to take the experiences we love from the screen and add those qualities to our real lives. As we move through the different rooms of this Mirror House, we will explore more about how to make that happen.
Let’s start right here, in this “room” and acknowledge our experience. Whether we’re gazing into a screen or at a sunset, we are living life. Our one wild and precious life, as Mary Oliver beautifully expressed it. We are looking for ourselves in whatever world we occupy. We are seeking qualities that we can make meaning with, that can amount to something, that we can treasure. Of course, sometimes we default to just blindly following the most convenient shiny object, but if we recognize and identify the qualities we really want more of in our lives, we can bring ourselves back to seeking those, wherever our attention goes.
A Whole New World…
Unbelievable sights
Indescribable feeling
Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling
Through an endless diamond sky
Don’t these lyrics from Aladdin capture the magic ride our screens allow us to experience? Who can blame us for being glued to them?
I suggest that through our fascination with — or even addiction to— screens, we can look at the beautiful impulse of our own human nature at play: to be alive, to learn, to feel, to relate, to love. All of us humans want that. When we really know this, we can untangle a number of emotional knots, some of which may have us bound and tied to our devices.
None of this has to be done overnight. It just takes some practice. And it doesn’t have to be dreary practice! I find novelty is the key — just finding new ways to do the stuff we do is one of the greatest assets to be human. Novelty unlocks — no, kicks open —the door to joy. Nonviolently. That’s what I think anyway. (No animals were harmed in the kicking open of the door!)
Also, mirrors can be fun. We can use the mirror of life, our external experiences and references, to invoke curiosity about our inner impulses. In the Mirror House, we can summon our own powers to break the so-called “curse” of the screen.
In a world where all of us have the power to cast spells, may we use that magic to bring ourselves and each other to life.
Questions:
What screen worlds do you enjoy living in the most? Why? What do you bring back from those worlds to your 3D world?
Qi-Tip: Re-entry to 3D World
Because I’ve studied and taught Qigong for most of my adult life, which has been a long and hopefully longer one, I thought I’d bring this great practice into the mix. This little exercise may help you come back to your own life if you find yourself lost in screen worlds for too long!
Here’s an audio file too, so you don’t have to read while you do it!
Sit in a chair with a fairly firm seat and back.
Sit back in the chair to feel its support below and behind you.
Sense your skeleton on the chair. Feel yourself breathe.
Notice how your bones are the “tent poles” for your soft tissue.
Let the soft tissue get even softer, so that it drapes over the tent poles.
Allow your breath to just naturally respond to this. It may change rhythm as you do.
Take your time to unwind the knots in the soft tissue. Starting at the crown of your head, imagine all your soft bits melting into your chair. Pay special attention to the eyes, jaw, face, shoulders, chest.
Now feel how the breath inhabits you.
On your next inhale, feel the breath press your back against the chair.
As you feel that pressure, feel the sides of the body expand with the breath.
Sense the pressure wave of the breath below you, where the pelvis meets the seat of the chair.
Allow the pressure wave of breath to extend to the crown of your head.
Notice that you are breathing in 3D. Feel the 360 degrees of your breath: front, back, sides, top, bottom.
You are now in the breath, and the breath is in you. I hope this leaves you feeling a bit lighter and brighter — and more alive!
I love so many things about film but I really enjoy transporting myself to those old pictures from the 1930’s and 1940’s.. it’s like time traveling and I absolutely love falling into those stories, listening to the different cadence of how people spoke then, the different car horn sounds and music. Cinema is magic and I absolutely love it.