SAR_13_along_the_way

Above: FP 30K SAR BL training. Start it, do it, consolidate it.

“A cinematographer is a visual psychiatrist, moving an audience…making them think the way you want them to think, painting pictures in the dark.” Gordon Willis on Jon Fauer's 'Film and Digital Times'

"I’m Gordon Willis. I’m a Director of Photography." Gordon Willis, ASC

"The largest grip/electric truck the world has ever seen backed down Mr. Willis’ precariously steep driveway. One slip of the brakes, and his very large, beautiful  house would be toothpicks. Gordon was watching, looking amused. “What’s with all this stuff?” he asked. Ken Perham,  gaffer, explained that he was under strict orders from Tibor not to scratch, blemish or scrape anything,hence lighting with big HMI PARs from outside, with no heavy metallic feet  touching the inside of the house. “Too complicated,” said Gordon. “Just bring in one Kinoflo.” So, one 4-bank 4-foot daylight Kinoflo it was. After it was all over, Gordon asked the electric crew to turn the light off. “Aha,” he said, “that’s better, isn’t it—no light at all.”" Jon Fauer in 'Remembering Gordon Willis, ASC'

" […] media violence is causing its citizens to accept violence as a viable alternative. Governments around the globe, try as they might, have not been able to [ protect ] citizens [ from media violence ]. And they will never truly be able to control violent crime unless they stop infecting their children. One common response to any concern about media violence is, "We have adequate controls. They are called the 'off switch'. If you don't like it, just turn it off." Unfortunately, this is a tragically inadequate response to the problem. In today's society the family structure is breaking down and even in intact families there is enormous economic and social pressure for mothers to work. Single mothers, broken homes, latchkey kids, and parental neglect are increasingly the norm. The worst thing about the "off switch" solution is that it is so blatantly, profoundly racist in its effect, if not its intent, […] Bronson James, a black Texas-based radio commentator whose show I was on, observed that this is identical to the genocidal process in which for centuries the white man used alcohol in a systematic policy to destroy the culture of the American Indian. For a variety of cultural and genetic reasons, the Indians were predisposed toward alcoholism, and we dumped it into them as a crucial part of the process that ultimately destroyed their civilization. The pumping of media violence […] today is equally genocidal. Media violence-enabling […] is the moral equivalent of shouting, "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre. As a result, murder is the number-one cause of death among black male teens, and 25 percent of all black males in their twenties are in jail, on probation, or on parole. If this isn't genocide, then it is close.

What makes the "off switch" solution so racist is that, if these murders and incarceration rates were happening to the sons of white upper- and middle-class America, you can bet that we would have seen some drastic action by now. Viewed in this light, I think that most individuals would agree that the "just turn it off' solution probably rates right up there with "let them eat cake" and "I was just following orders" as all-time offensive statements. In developmental psychology there is a general understanding that an individual must master the twin areas of sexuality and aggression (Freud's Eros and Thanatos) in order to have truly achieved adulthood. In the same way, the maturation of the human race necessitates our collective mastery of these two areas. In recent years we have made significant progress in the field of sexology, […] After nuclear holocaust, the next major threat to our existence is the violent decay of our civilisation due to violence-enabling in the [...] media." Dave Grossman in 'On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society', chapter: 'Introduction to the paperback edition', Page 23 'Just Turn It Off, or Let Them Eat Cake' (first published in 1995)

Gordon Willis interview here: http://www.fdtimes.com/2014/05/20/remembering-gordon-willis-asc/

SAR_11_along_the_way

Above: FP 30K Sunday-morning SAR BL training. Training-thought: ignorance lies at the foundation of bad-running-behaviour-and-injury, " [ the ] ignorance of believing in a truly existent self." (quoted from 'The Buddhist Way of Healing' by Dolkar Khangkar in 'Buddha's Medicine', first published in 2008 on YouTube, link below). It leads to the worshipping of (stiff- and greedy-man-made) lifeless monuments ( "'Course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough..." ) -- which -- like the (quoted above) Noah Cross character in Roman Polanski's/Robert Towne's 'Chinatown' (1974) -- point the way to resistance-to-change. We need training to be healthy, in balance. We need to stay flexible -- to be able to keep on training (health and flexibility are two sides of the same coin); stiffness is a symptom of ignorance and at the roots of injury!

"Understanding is such a liquid path. Like walking on water. And words are drops.Their meaning changing like seasons. And yet in the circle they make while dancing i hear the truth. Self is not one of them." Rutger Hauer, commenting on his YouTube Channel (published 3 years ago, link below)

 "Dancing is especially known, by its circulation of the blood, to keep off the disease of old age." Ezra Pound and Ernest Fenollosa in 'The Classic Noh Theater of Japan', first published in the U.S.A. in 1917 (page 29)

"The only thing harder than getting a new idea into the [...] mind is to get an old one out." B.H. Liddell Hart as quoted in 'Changing Minds in the Army: why it is so difficult and what to do about it', first published in October 2013 (page 1)

"Individuals pay particular attention to information that supports their beliefs and either ignore or discount the value of evidence that contradicts their beliefs. [ When encountering information contrary to their own beliefs or opinions ] they face a condition known as cognitive dissonance, or the state of tension arising from holding two cognition's that are psychologically inconsistent. Researsers using images from MRI scans found that when subjects were confronted with dissonant information, they often used the reasoning areas of their brain not to analyse new data or information, but rather to develop a narrative that preserves their initial frames of reference. Once the narrative is created, the emotional areas of the brain happily light up. […] Individuals, when faced with dissonant information, use their reasoning skills to "twirl the cognitive kaleidoscope until they get the conclusions they want." The resulting release of neutrotransmitters gives strong reinforcement for justification of their existing  perspective. Conformation bias emerges as information is interpreted in a way to confirm old preconceptions and dismiss new contradictory evidence." Stephen J. Gerras, Leonard Wong in 'Changing Minds in the Army: why it is so difficult and what to do about it' (page 19, 'Conformation Bias')

"Oddly enough, the relationship between having smarts and having the propensity to change one's mind is counterintuitive. In his highly regarded book, The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt asserts that intelligence quotient (IQ) is the biggest predictor of how well people argue, but only in terms of how well they support their own position. […] Smart people tend to excel at buttressing their own cases but often fail at exploring the issue fully to appreciate other perspectives and perhaps change their minds." Stephen J. Gerras, Leonard Wong in 'Changing Minds in the Army: why it is so difficult and what to do about it' (page 10, 'Nature and Nurture')

" [ Alex Simon: ] Brian De Palma made an interesting comment once about his group that hung out in the Malibu Colony during the ‘70s: him, Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola, Margot Kidder, that once the era of the blockbuster started after the mid-70s, and people began making astronomical amounts of money, as opposed to just making a comfortable living, that’s when the fractures started, in terms of their relationships with each other. [ 'Chinatown' screenwriter Robert Towne: ] That’s quite possibly true. I think the promise of making money split a lot of us up. [ AS ] Who’ve you remained friendly with over the years? [ RT ] You mean those of us who are still alive? (laughs) Well, I don’t see him much, but I’m friendly with Jack, very friendly with Warren (Beatty). [ AS ] Do you talk to Polanski at all? [ RT ] Oh yeah, we’re still very friendly. I forgot to mention him. I’ve managed to see him once a year or every couple years when I go to Europe." From: 'Robert Towne: The Hollywood Interview' by Alex Simon, first published Februari 2, 2014

'Robert Towne: The Hollywood Interview': http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.nl/2009/10/robert-towne-hollywood-interview.html

YouTube-Film-Factory-Shorts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVbqSkFgg1o

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avidyā_(Buddhism)

US Army War College/Strategic Studies Institute publication: http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=1179

SAR_12_along_the_way

Above: Todays 30K Best-Level SAR training footprint comes from the other side of the "[...] luminous drawbridge trough which the story has to reach the audience and the audience has to acces the story..."  -- holding the 35- and 16mm Kodak Vision 3 filmstock, while standing at editing-desk: "Food should be something to chew on, right?"¹

"It is our natural birthright to be fit and healthy. Unfortunately, science and medicine have largely missed this point. Researchers look boldly to the future, to new medicines, genetic screening, and surgical procedures, yet never ask the question, "Why do we need theses advances?" and "Is there a simpler, better way to health and wellness?" If they were to ask these questions, they would realise that the key to the puzzle is to start at the beginning. Our health researchers, who currently lack a framework from which to assess the staggering volume of information they generate every day, flounder with basic questions: "What should we eat?" "How much and what types of exercise should we do?" "How can we live a healthy life?" Although these may seem like sound questions for health researchers to ask, the answers constantly change in response to politics, lobbying and the media. As a result, their recommendations are not based on science, but rather lobbying and political manoeuvring. [F] ew people make a real attempt to fix this mess. But who can really blame them. After all, it's hard as hell to make money off healthy people… unless you sell bicycles, running shoes or teach dance classes." 

Robb Wolf in 'The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet' on page 34 'Stop! Savannah Time!' (first published in 2010)

On- and off-site references:

http://bartvanbroekhoven.com/en-US/running/95-sar-6-along-the-way

http://bartvanbroekhoven.com/en-US/running/69-footprint-sar-3

http://bartvanbroekhoven.com/en-US/running/81-sar-14-14-epilogue-secured

http://bartvanbroekhoven.com/en-US/running/101-sar-11-along-the-way

http://bartvanbroekhoven.com/en-US/running/100-sar-10-along-the-way

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour

https://maps.google.nl/maps?client=safari&q=kennemerduinen&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&ei=V3-HU9fdIKqa1AXRioGgBA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexibility (anatomy)

http://normanhollyn.wordpress.com/2008/04/13/walter-murch-talks-about-standing/

_____________

¹ Peter de Bie, in an interview we conducted in 2007 for our upcoming film 'Here Comes Big Trouble' (photographed on the filmfootage above, shot in 2007 in IJmuiden, The Netherlands)

SAR_10_along_the_way

Above: FP 30K SAR BL training. Identical to running… " [ a ] movie flows trough real time, like a river carrying you toward your destination. If you ask a question or think about something other than the movie, you're out of the river and up on the bank -- out of the flow. This is seldom good."  -- Howard Suber ' The Power of Film ' (page 168).

Structure: How reality affects story:

 "When I examined what the structure [ of the film 'Au Revoir les Enfants' ] should be, I thought it was important, little by little, to see the war breaking in. The central story is the arrival of this new boy and how he and Julien become friends; there's hostility at first and then step by step we see the birth of a friendship between two children who are equally curious about certain things, probably a little smarter than the rest of the students, and how they find their affinities." Louis Malle in 'Malle on Malle', edited by Philip French (Chapter 5, 'Coming Home', page 170 - 172)

Story: attempted quest for unity by the character(s):

" [...] "I don't want to bother you much with what happened to me personally," he began, showing in this remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their audience would best like to hear; "yet to understand the effect of it on me you ought to know how I got out there, what I saw, how I went up that river to the place where I first met the poor chap. It was the farthest point of navigation and the culminating point of my experience. It seemed somehow to throw a kind of light on everything about me -- and into my thoughts. It was sombre enough, too -- and pitiful -- not extraordinary in any way -- not very clear either. No, not very clear. And it seemed to throw a kind of light." Joseph Conrad 'Heart of Darkness', first published in 1899 (page 11)

As adapted in the 'Apocalypse Now' screenplay (John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola, narration written by Michael Herr):

               EXT. MILITARY COMPOUND - DAY

               A darkly painted Huey lands in a guarded military compound 
               somewhere in Nah Trang.  The two enlisted men jump out of 
               the helicopter, leading Willard, who seems in much better 
               shape.  As he gets out he sees a platoon of new men drilling 
               in the hot hazy sun.  They are clean and pale.

                                     MEN (Chanting)
                         I wanna go to Vietnam.
                         I wanna kill a Vietcong-

                                     WILLARD (V.O.)
                         I was going to the worst place in 
                         the world, and I didn't even know 
                         it yet.  Weeks away and hundreds 
                         of miles up river that snaked 
                         through the war like a circuit 
                         cable...plugged straight into Kurtz.

               He follows the escort across the fields as the platoon 
               drills.

                                     WILLARD (V.O.)
                         It was no accident that I got to 
                         be the caretaker of Colonel Walter 
                         E. Kurtz's memory, any more that 
                         being back in Saigon was an 
                         accident.  There was no way to 
                         tell his story without telling my 
                         own.  And if his story is really a 
                         confession, then so is mine.

               They approach a civilian-type luxury trailer.  It is 
               surrounded by concertina wire, and its windows have grenade 
               protection, but it still seems out of place in this austere 
               military base.

               CLOSER ON WILLARD

               He stands before the door for a moment, as the M.P.s 
               guarding the trailer check his papers.