Newton’s Cradle

For years we’ve been hearing that the tools for making movies are becoming more available to the average guy. Digital cameras, desktop editing, DIY grip gear, a few china balls, some friends, and lots of practice … and you’re a frikkin studio.

Well, it’s true.

A while back, my partners and I made a short film called Quiet for a ridiculously small budget. It played in a lot of film festivals and went on to be named one of the top ten shorts of the year by Film Threat.

And so we thought – if we can make a good short that’s 17 minutes long for almost no money, why aren’t we making features?

We can make a feature film with high production values for a budget that wouldn’t pay for 1 minute of a studio feature film.  And, since we don’t have to worry about grossing a hundred million dollars before we can pay back our investors, we can aim our movie at a specific audience rather than trying to please everyone.

We’re making the kind of movie I’ve always wanted to see – a movie about smart things for smart people, which provides intellectual stimulation while also giving a visceral rush.  If we do it right, this movie will still be playing in college dorms in twenty years.

Come along for the ride and let’s see if we can answer the question – can a movie for smart people make it in a dumbed-down world?

-Steve

And it’s not just because I’m producing it!

Newton’s Cradle explores territory that’s near to my heart- the plastic nature of reality.

For most of my life, I’ve been fascinated by the fact  that not only can perception alter a person’s experience of the world, but someone’s cognitive processes and categorizations can shape their reality as well.    The way we think about things, the way we classify our perceptions and experiences, that can all change from person to person, and so each person experiences a different world.  But through communication, we can shape the way others think about things, change the way they classify concepts, and so by communicating with others we’re shaping their reality as well.

Most people readily accept that this happens with abstract ideas, such as politics or art, but it also happens with fundamental physical experiences as well.  When I first started college I majored in physics, and after an early class in particle dynamics I attended a baseball game.  My experience of the game was fundamentally different than it had been before.  The concepts of how the ball moved off the bat and through the air when pitched or thrown had been communicated to me, and I could sense how the pieces all interacted.   I had the same experience driving a car – suddenly aware of friction and inertia in ways I had never been before. My experience of reality was different from the guy next to me.  Combine this with the philosophy classes I was also taking and the classic book The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn (required reading at my school), and I was ready to learn that conceptual change applies to the experience of physical reality as well as ideas.

So when Steve, Marshall and I  started discussing what we’d like to do as a nanobudget feature project, the idea of a “perception infection”  (a phrase we’ve thankfully lost!) that changed the essence of reality had a strong appeal for me.  It neatly tied in a number of my interests – physics, memetics, communication of ideas.  I couldn’t resist it!

And so, many drafts of the script later, here we are with Newton’s Cradle ready to begin production and start exploring what it means to change your perceptions and your thoughts.   Our writer Bryan Tranel has found brilliant ways to communicate these ideas and make them fun and exciting, and I can’t wait to see the finished movie.  First, though, we have to make it!