Life Isn't Measured In Minutes, But In Moments

I love going to the movies, I love the excitement of buying the ticket, popcorn and then finding a seat before the lights go down. I love the dolby surround sound starting up, the trailers and making a mental note of what to come back and see. I love the lowering of the lights and everyone going quiet as the film finally starts and then being completely absorbed into the screen for a couple of hours. There is really nothing like it, even just writing that I have got myself excited about it so I will plan on going to see something this weekend.

Around Oscar time I'll always like to head out to see most of the films that are up for nomination. Normally so I can sit back and agree or shout out "fix, Angelina was so much better than Kate Winslet" or something similar! I don't always agree with the Oscars though as i think there are so many films that are completely ignored but this is the way of Hollywood and I admit I always get wrapped up in the glamour of it. The only problem is that most films that are up for nomination have so much Oscar hype surrounding them for the weeks leading up that I always feel slightly let down once I have watched them, as if I must have missed something and wonder why everyone was going so crazy about it. This year however I saw Slumdog Millionaire and loved it, a great story and what a team of film makers coming together for the music and the local knowledge that had to go into making such a film and this was completely well worth the hype. However a film I liked slightly more than that was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Production Design by Donald Graham Burt and his team was amazing and happily rewarded with all types of awards from the UK BAFTA and the Oscar. It was a truly remarkable film in all aspects from depth of story to the costume design, the acting and special effects. This was a great example of many talented people coming together and it was not being influenced by one department more than another but as a large team of creatives all doing remarkable jobs in their own right.

What I liked so much about the Production Design is how seamlessly you are moved across different decades. Part of the intricacy in design is to allow the viewer to focus in on how Brad Pitt's character Benjamin Button is aging, or should that be becoming more youthful, without being instantly hit with a change in year. Although this has to be depicted Donald Burt has delicately presented this to you by slight changes and this subconsciously tells you how many years have passed and what is going on in the world at that time e.g. world war, roaring 60's etc.. Effortlessly you are transported through the years with key elements such as a large clock pulling you back to tell you time is passing. In the picture above you can see an example of the amazing thought in detail within the set. The bible verse hanging from the wall which subconsciously explains Benjamin's Buttons situation, the caring embodied cloth for the bibles shows the compassion of the people there, they are all important story & character telling elements. With such a strong story line it would be easy to over design and not work in harmony with the director of lighting, camera etc. and this would create a disconnection within the visual of the film. With The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttonthe film goes almost the other way and you will often find the Production Design borders on minimalist and this in itself has helped to dictated emotions being played out within scenes. Also there is great skill with how the same style has been carried through scenes of different eras even when you are taken back to modern day it has the same elegance as the story set 80 years earlier.

I do think that the story is also very thought provoking and definitely makes you question the viewpoint western society has started developing over recent years on judging others on age and ourselves for aging and gaining more wrinkles. We have become far too concerned with these things and that to age is a fault. Aging is natural and is also something we cannot change and so we should only be worried about the things we can change rather than things we can't.