Enemy of art is the absence of limitations.

Monday: Dialogue, Lines, or Quotes

"The enemy of art is the absence of limitations." (Orson Welles)

Movies of yesteryear had more limitations, so filmmakers were creative with how they portrayed certain scenes. Hitchcock brought terror to his audience without showing graphic violence or gore. And in D.W. Griffith's silent film, Way Down East (1920), no crude language or vulgar images were necessary for the audience to grasp the meaning of a scoundrel's hand on an innocent girl's knee.

Too many of today's filmmakers buy into a no-holds-barred-push-the-envelope mentality and fall short in the creative department.

If filmmakers combined today's technology with yesteryear's stricter codes, we could have some incredibly creative films.

Pages for Reviews

I organized my film reviews for easier reference... see the above tabs:

• My "Take" (Reviews) -- An alphabetical listing with links to movie reviews published on this blog.
• My ClearPlay Movie Reviews -- An alphabetical listing with links to movie reviews I've written for ClearPlay, published on their website.
• Note: ClearPlay is a legal filtering company that has been around for nearly two decades. With ClearPlay, you can set what level of filtering you want for various content such as profanity, nudity, and violence. Filters are available through streaming, or with their patented Blu-Ray and DVD player. 

Stay tuned for more reviews to come!

Movie Soundtrack Earworms

Friday: Comic Relief

We watched Moana (2016) last Sunday, and I've had at least one song from the soundtrack caught in my head every day since. Moana earworms.

It started Monday morning with You're Welcome, a catchy tune sung by the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson). I mentioned the frustration to my husband, so he sang lyrics of Shiny, another song from the movie, in hopes that changing the tune would get the first song out of my head.

Nope. It only turned my earworm into a medley of both songs.

I looked up ways to get rid of earworms:

• Chew gum.
• Sing another song. 
• Listen to another song.
• Chat with someone.
• Meditate.
• Visualize changing the channel inside your head to another song.
• Look up the lyrics.
• Listen to the song all the way through.
• Read a book.
• Do a puzzle.
• Relax. The earworm will pass.

That last one annoys me the most... the earworm will pass? Maybe someday, but it's now day six. I've tried every one of those suggestions and somehow only succeeded in adding yet another Moana tune to the medley, How Far I'll Go.

Maybe writing this blog post will help. Maybe it will pass those Shiny earworms on to you. You better believe it... yes, that's How Far I'll Go. And if you find those songs stuck in your head... well... what can I say except you're welcome! ...

... And thank you!

Dwayne Johnson - You're Welcome (from Moana)

Creativity Inside the Box

Monday: Dialogue, Lines, or Quotes

M. Night Shyamalan, writer and director of The Sixth Sense (1999), said,

"I believe in the process of limitations forcing creativity. It's important to have walls to work against."

I enjoy blog challenges because creativity flows from limiting posts to topics based on specific writing prompts and guidelines. Limitations spawn creativity.

We like to believe anything is possible and want to dream big, so it's easy to assume having no boundaries is a good thing. We hear the slogan "think outside the box" and forget how the very factors that seemingly box us in--boundaries, limitations, guidelines, deadlines--actually generate creativity. Thinking inside the box sparks ideas.

For instance, the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge gives guidelines to post with a specific letter on certain days throughout the month of April. Since this is a film blog, I added another boundary... each post needed to include at least one movie reference. And another limitation came by following a theme, Food in Film.

The letter K proved difficult, but thinking of my boundaries...

• food 
• starting with the letter K
• appearing in a movie

...gave birth to one of my favorite posts during the challenge: Food in Film: Kibble.

This was my third year of participating in and completing the A to Z Challenge. Each year thinking inside the box stimulated additional ideas for future A to Z posts. Based on that growing list of ideas, I have film-related themes for 12 more of the yearly challenge!

Shyamalan's words ring true, "It's important to have walls to work against." Limitations generate creativity.


(Click here for links to all my A to Z posts, or click on the tab above.)