The Next Generation of Cinema.

It's a statistically charted fact that movies are getting worse. The old studio system is clutching for sure things only to find gems like "Skyline". They can't even get a winner with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in "The Tourist." There are many more, and better examples, but why is this happening? Are we witnessing the death of large studio cinema as we know it?

I believe that we need only to look to reality television to see why cinema is beginning to struggle. Audiences are considerably less amused by invented stories than they are watching crab fishers slide around an icy deck for an hour, and it's because those crab fishermen are REAL. Jim Gilmore and Joe Pine detailed this phenomenon in their book "Authenticity." Most people living today have grown up in media soaked environments- Televisions and radios, later computers, and now smart phones... We have become well trained in identifying authenticity and reality over the years. Every day the falseness of our surroundings makes us long even more for "real" things.

Hollywood hasn't changed a damn thing, and that's exactly the problem. The next generation of cinema will not lose the big budget film, but rather grow in a new way. I believe that documentaries will find a more aggressive and active role in filmmaking and in society. Most documentaries tend to take an 'observer' role -fly on the wall style- and tell a story that requires the audiences reaction. However, whistle-blowing an warning aren't enough for audiences... we are smart and we want to see what is being done in response to the threat that a film identifies. We've begun to see ACTIVE roles of the documentary filmmakers in their approach to problems. The Cove is the story of what filmmakers went through to tell you WHY you should care about dolphin slaughter. Super Size Me wasn't just about the fast food industry, director Morgan Spurlock caused health damage to his own body to illustrate his point to his audience. Catfish follows filmmakers discovering who the scary person at the other end of Facebook actually is, and in a very REAL way we get to discover the lonely stranger at the other end of the internet. Born to be Wild doesn't just warn of orphaned animals from poaching, it follows the rehabilitation of the animals and the hardships their caretakers go through.

What all these films share is that they refuse to sit back and show you the problem without DOING something about it. Active documentaries like this will strike a chord with audiences everywhere. Not just warnings, but REAL action with REAL results will strike chords with audiences everywhere. To make easy easier- digital camera equipment these days will allow amazing access to every corner of the world where someone has a story worth telling- as the story happens! As time goes on production quality will grow, and production time will drop. At this point these stories will be from action to the audiences with all the polish of feature films- and maybe, just maybe, the audience will join in.

First Draft of Reality...

I just finished the first draft of my film about my time in Afghanistan. It's still very rough and nowhere near release quality, but the fact that I have a complete film is very comforting. I have no idea who will end up seeing the final film, and where it will take me. I can only hope that my intent not be lost in the process.

In the meantime it's a very good reminder that you are rarely judged for the things you begin, but you're always remembered for the things you complete. Nobody cares what you think or feel about much of anything; they care what you do. My thoughts and feelings about Afghanistan are pretty much irrelevant, but this film has meaning. I am DOING something. I am CREATING meaning from events. The actions that happen everywhere have meaning, but translating that into film is doing something ABOUT the meaning that I see. Any way you cut it, it's honest, and it felt good to make... here's hoping the industry gets it.

If MLK was a General.

The term war is defined as a conflict carried out by force of arms. To have a war it is necessary to display divisions between people. Our country, their country- classic war. Rich and poor- class war. Black and white- race war. In all the history of war the most sweeping victories have come at the hands of warriors that use non-violence, and symbolic action. The widely agreed master of war, Sun Tzu, reinforces this idea in "The Art of War", illustrating how the best battle is the one never fought. Today we remember Martin Luther King Jr's victories in the war for race equality. His use of non-violence was utterly effective, in not just in removing racial laws, but posthumously creating laws to protect our people from discrimination in as many forms as we find it to exist. Today we pause to be grateful to the sacrifices made by MLK and those he lead to equality, but it is difficult to ignore so many more injustices in our world today. while we can't ignore the presence of luck, it's hard to attribute our success to anything but our positive relationships.

One year ago today I was a Marine in Afghanistan setting up the southernmost outpost in the whole country. Three months past my end of active service, I was not enthusiastic about this first tour to this part of the world, but I saw something that I could no longer call "war". Today's combat is surrounded with cameras and media scrutiny. The light of truth has been shining brighter and brighter on the horrors of mans inhumanity to man. Abu Ghrab and Guantanamo - although terrifying- have taught the world what horrors our great country is still capable of. Walking through the fields of our longest "war" I saw anything but inhumanity. We provided medical care. We played with children. We drank tea and laughed with the men. We found bombs, and arrested the culprits ONLY with adequate evidence- no detainees were abused under our care. As a result, every member of my company came home alive. In an area where every other company around us suffered multiple casualties and fatalities, we lost no one... We had no casualties.

On this day I call to any peace loving Americans to believe it is possible for our military to act with the moral righteousness MLK preached of. Encourage pride in absorbing their enemies violence in the name of a warriors ultimate goal: peace. Let yourself hope that through the mutual suffering of troops and Jihadistst, the people of Afghanistan will see that our country's heart lies not in harming them or exploiting them, but in improving their lives, and that through education we can all see that there is no division between our people. Where no division exists- there is no war.

How Can Your iPhone Solve The Healthcare Issues in America?

In a recent conversation aboard my flight home to see my mother in Ohio I began to recreationally muse about the root of societies problems. There’s a thousand different ways to break down the turbulent cycles, and troubles that curl back on themselves and pound us into our belief that the world is full of evil scary things. We believe ourselves to be helpless to the onslaught, and unable to fight back against the myriad of troubles plaguing us. We all know the world is pretty messed up, but nobody seems to have great solutions.

We all know that fixing large issues would have compounding benefits. If the food industry served healthier food there would be fewer health problems, and less National Healthcare spending, and more money to spend on education, and then less crime due to a highly educated population. Chains of positive effects like this can be fun to think about, but the fact is that jumping in with an approach like this is going to threaten someone. Mcdonalds employs millions worldwide- be it directly or indirectly. So, if you go after their business as something to be exterminated then you are directly threatening the well being of everyone associated with that industry. Whatever we chose to do, we can all agree on the mutual benefits of chains like these… if only we could get them started.

One of the major downfalls to starting this type of chain is the money system and the concept of “value”. If you talk to a business person you will find they tend to think in terms of money. “Where’s the money in healthy people?” “Where’s the money in healthy food?” “Where’s the money in education spending?” However, there is a remarkable business effect that occurs when these people begin to ignore money and instead pursue things of value. Apple released the iPhone, and allowed ANYONE who wanted to write applications for it. A business person might have looked at this and said, “why don’t you write all the apps people will need, and sell them all yourself? You will make more money that way!” But, the value in allowing everyone to explore the technology in their own way and find the things THEY wanted to do has allowed for some pretty remarkable breakthroughs. Apple, as a side effect, has far more money due to everyone uniting on their platform. Google is another major corporation that has pursued things of value, and thought of money second. Initially, their investors were confused as to where their revenue would come from… I’ve studied the company and I don’t even fully understand it… however, one can’t argue with the results. When companies go after valuable things- they will eventually find money in them. This pursuit of value before money idea is a legitimate business strategy that, when your ‘thing’ is valuable, yields remarkable results.

There is money in terminally unwell patients. Medication, doctor bills, insurance, HMO’s etc. etc. Because of this, the system has continued to function this way. Nobody has yet considered that there would be value in caring for someone and teaching them to get healthy and stay healthy. It’s easier to sell medication at $22/ pill than it is to motivate someone to eat better and exercise- just to sell them a pair of running shoes. The only ones with a vested interest in healthy patients are the insurance companies. If an Insurance company could find a way to REWARD for being healthy instead of punish for being unhealthy, then people could find a light at the end of the tunnel. Much like the Google or Apple models I believe that there is VALUE in healthy people, and where there is value- money is sure to follow.

Playing Games Without Enemies.

Playing games has a function in every living thing that plays. Cats learn how to kill the birds they leave on your doorstep by pouncing on toys. Dogs learn to physically defend themselves and their family by play fighting with other dogs. Humans are no exception to this rule. Sports serve to teach us teamwork- like puppies ganging up on each other we teach our children to work together in teams. All of humanities greatest achievements involved immense amounts people all working together for years to accomplish a goal. I'm talking about building pyramids, sending men to the moon, and yes even war. War might be mans greatest smudge on history, but in war's aftermath both "teams" (countries) tend to bond internally over the mutual suffering caused. It's the same reason why men punch each other in the face, and then become best friends.

I've talked a lot about technology's effect on society, and how, only now, technology is uniting humanity. But, technology can be a frightening beast. It speeds along, changing at an exponential rate. It both threatens to leave us in its wake, and demands more intrusion into the way we live. It can be a frustrating, fast moving, constantly changing to try to keep up. Also, technology has had the unfortunate habit of diverging… by this I mean that technology becomes more complex and diverse. Think about blueray, DVD, VHS and beta-max... or that cathode ray tube television you still have gathering dust. This has caused society to approach new ideas slowly and with caution.

However, Consider just the past year in technology. Facebook has done so incredibly well that Hollywood made a movie about it. A piece of web software changed every ones lives so much that some people made an entire movie about how the world birthed said website. The smart phone has become a new standard. With smart phones technology is converging. People are more comfortable consuming newer technology faster, and the smart phone is the magic tool that lets them keep up. It's a digital Swiss army knife for the modern age that can fit in your pocket. With these magic bricks of technology you can talk, work, and yep- PLAY… with anyone in the world.

Okay, so- technology has converged into smart phones and social media, so what? What are we converging to, right? Think about how things like Facebook and Twitter have changed the way we interact with each other. Restaurants tweet the daily specials instantly to only the people that care enough to subscribe- no wasted advertising. My dad had to go on dates, sometimes with total strangers that he couldn't stalk on Facebook before hand, but my generation has Facebook where I can poke the girl I like from anywhere that gets 3g coverage. If she likes me she can respond, and if I'm not so lucky then she can ignore me without consequence. The effect of this is relevant in Facebook's success. Facebook is about bringing people together and that is THE reason it is successful. Bringing people together has become the goal that steers a previously destructive business model up toward economic harmony. Where the money flows the business will grow, and growing it is.

What does this imply about the gaming industry? Video games used to be for geeks in their mothers basement. They used to not only separate us, but encourage us to stay separate- World of Warcraft is demonized by those outside the community for it's "life replacement" effect on players. In reality WoW was only introducing people to a safe community where they were accepted (or at least paid attention to by other people <- @ trolls). Facebook games like Farmville are about cooperating with your real life friends in a game, and mobsters is about one upping your buddies. The successful games create communities. The better the community member feels about being in that community- the more people join that community. Business knows this as the "viral effect" or the "positive spiral".

So what happens if we take all these ingredients and pour them together? Take a piece of technology, like an iPhone, that allows you to interact with anyone plugged into the web. Create a game on this ultra accessible platform that rewards players for working as a TEAM and build a community. Unlike WoW- players can be rewarded for being in new locations, or being with new people, or trying new things. Industry would have a vested financial interest in advertising- try the new dinner get 10% off and 50xp. Put on your new sneakers to run 3 miles and get 500xp and a badge. Check in on top of Everest and get a super mega rare cool badge! The game can now reinforce the traits in people that allow us to accomplish all great things- the reward of doing going to our world. Now our play can encourage us to be good to each other, and be good to ourselves.

What if all this playing together taught us to work together even better? We've been blowing each other up pretty good these last several thousand years, and now that's kind of out-dated http://bit.ly/gxslLw ... So what if games could be the practice we need for everyone to get really good at this working together thing? People seem to be able to do anything we unite to do, so what if we started getting experience points for solving all the crap that we dont like about our world? Wouldn't we all just be playing a game with no enemies?

watch this:

http://kotaku.com/5479125/points-for-toothbrushing-the-gaming-speech-everyone-is-talking-about

This is a link to the beta of my website for the mobile game I've been developing since my return from Afghanistan:

www.zombieapocalypsemobile.com

The Girls Gone Wild Effect and Why Porn Means Peace

Most adults have seen a Girls Gone Wild commercial at some point in time. The first time I saw it I wondered, “how why would a pretty girl like that want to show her boobs to some guy with a video camera inside an RV outside of a club?” The only conclusion I could come to that made sense was this: pretty girls can never be sure of the motivations of those around them, however they, like everyone else, have the strong need for positive human connection. The best way that these young girls have learned to get male attention is with their bodies, and this essentially becomes almost an advertising short cut. Pretty girls dress nicely to facilitate finding the “special someone”. Showing ones boobs on camera is more attention grabbing, and has a much larger audience. Like a bird displaying it’s feather and call- I guarantee you more men have seen these women through these videos than will ever meet them face to face.

Reality television has come to fill a similar niche in society, but there are deeper implications to the recently rise in reality programming. “I want to have my own reality show,” has quickly become a trend of the times. Reality shows are being rolled out at an alarming rate, but what does this say about what’s going on in the world? Some would argue that now we all think we’re so important that we should be on TV, which would be arrogant and entitled of the general public. However, I believe that this is a strong sign of showing how desperately people want to be able to form these positive connections with other people. Families are allowing cameras into their houses to share their lives with the world. That doesn’t wreak of depravity- it wreaks of an unparalleled openness. This is a massive indicator that society is ready to start trusting one another.

Porn is the most extreme case of this. The amount of porn being made and its acceptance in society has dramatically risen over the past several years. Before, sex was a very taboo subject, but now it’s not uncommon to see vibrator commercials or sex pill commercials. Sex tapes are a way to become famous in and of themselves. Porn even has its own annual awards show. Again, I don’t believe this to be a sign of depravity- like the roman empire, but we aren’t condemned to failure. This surge of naked people is just another indication of people being ready to open up to one another. These people happen to have chosen sex and cameras as a way to show the world that they’re ready to let us in to their lives.

We’ve all been ready to trust each other. We all want to be able to trust each other. We’re stopping ourselves only out of distrust for each other, and so the cycle continues. The only thing missing is the awareness that our capacity to care for one another is our best asset as a species.

War Is sooo Last Millenium

The methods by which war has been conducted over the past two millennia have shifted only in scale… until recently. Large armies got better tools but the idea of annihilating the opponent into surrender has not changed. However, the most recent wars being fought are the FIRST of a new breed.

You have heard the phrase ‘hearts and minds’ over and over again. Some argued this policy as a show for the press during the Vietnam War where hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were killed. However, those in command were not stupid and they recognized the effects of bad press on continuing to fight that way. The phrase was even uttered “the television lost the Vietnam War.” Total war was no longer a viable option and recent commanders have been forced to explore new methods to victory. These new strategies have been reworked over and over in the theatres of Afghanistan and Iraq. The resulting action would be more so described as waging peace than waging war. However, when the feedback from this is analyzed commanders are finding waging peace more effective in achieving their goals. Their casualty rates are lower. Their supplies don’t get cut off. Extra men aren’t needed to pick up the slack under the strain of heavy combat. Missions succeed. For the first time in history we are witnessing what it is to have an army of peace, although still armed and prepared to kill.

The reality of what’s going on is US military personnel die trying to make friends with the locals. These men aren’t on their way to destroy the locals. These men are on their way to meetings with local farmers, checking on sick and injured children, delivering supplies to families in need. Even the local populations of these far off lands feel obligated to recognize our peoples sacrifice. When asked about recently KIA marines, locals would express great sympathy. This was not a deception, but frustrated at the price a foreigner so willingly paid just to meet with them. I return the sympathies for the lives lost at the end of our countries rifles, and I hope that our generation is the one to do justice to all of the sacrifices ever made in the name of securing peace.

-in memory of Rick Centanni

http://www.rickcentanni.com/