Green Lens Media

Tag: green blog

  • Coalition of the Willing: Inspired Work, Inspiring Work

    I have a complicated relationship with film.

    For the most part, I love it. I love that it can inspire, empower and liberate people. As a medium, it is limitless – it can tell stories previously untold, tap emotions previously untapped and explore parts of the world previously unexplored.

    But here’s my problem: commercial film rarely ever does.

    Yes, Ryan Gosling is stunning. And so is Emma Stone. Alright, I get it.

    But why are we making a movie about it? That part, I don’t get.

    With all the fandoms, poster boys, Jennifer, and plotless excuses for movies popping up everywhere, I can’t help but feel disillusioned by film. But every once in a while, a movie comes along to remind me that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone haven’t completely taken over. On one of my many afternoons spent idly browsing Vimeo for inspiration, I stumbled upon a film by Knife Party that reinstated my faith in the wonders of the medium.

    Coalition of the Willing, is, as the title suggests, the collective brainchild of a brilliant coalition. The film addresses an issue burning with actuality (pun intended!) – the issue of global warming. And yet…there are no pie charts, bar graphs or visuals of receding ice caps viewed from outer space.

    That’s the beautiful thing about this film. It succeeds not despite but because of the lack of statistics and infographics in its storytelling. Because when you really think about it, global warming isn’t an issue that’s as far away and distant as the statistics and satellite images often used to represent it.

    It’s personal. It’s a choice.

    Throughout the film, the visuals follow man and mankind. Our evolution, our changing times, our history, our politics, our sociology. Visually, it is absolutely stunning. I felt myself being increasingly drawn into the world of the film – our world – and it wasn’t difficult to understand why the movie walked away with the Best Short Award at the 2012 San Francisco Green Film Festival.

    The stunning animation and smooth flow of the film transports the viewer back in time, employing the memorable image of a ’50s businessman turning into a hippie to chronicle the radical individualism of the ’60s. As the colours get brighter and the backdrops increasingly complex, the individualism fades into consumerism and the whole movement eventually culminates in a lack of regard for the world around us. The status quo.

    Although humanity took a turn for the worse, the film isn’t pessimistic about it. Not in the least. There is a palpable vibrance in its visuals, a quirky hopefulness in its scoring and an awareness of the power of individual efforts. It connects the past with the present, muses about the many changes that humanity has undergone, and, above all, provides hope for the future. Its look, feel and message work together to do what film fundamentally ought to do: awaken and stimulate the minds absorbing it. The film brings the concept of coalition to life and itself stands a testament to the wonders achievable through creative minds coming together.

  • The 9 Lives Rule For Humans

    Welcome to the first post of the new Green Lens Media blog. I’m going to kick off this blog by telling you our story.

    Why does Green Lens Media do what it does?

    I have always been drawn to activities that produce new emotions in people. As a young kid I put on puppet shows in the living room because it made the adults smile. In junior high I wrote plays for some History assignments because it brought what I thought could be old and dusty topics to life. In high school I made a lot of videos for fun and for class assignments because I loved to see people find humor, or sadness, or new meaning in an idea they hadn’t thought of before in the way I had. I captured the world on my trips, from high school through college and to today, because I want to share the experience with others, and see the reactions it stirs, which may be totally different than my own.

    Green Lens does what it does because when you affect someone at their core, emotional level, you have the ability to inspire new understandings, concepts, even purposes — those feelings make people feel confident, reflect, and grow. Let’s face it — it just feels plain good.

    Stories have a way of pulling in audiences, since we are naturally engineered to be curious and to enjoy learning about things we don’t know. This is especially true when we can relate in a variety of ways to the characters in stories; in some sense they can be extensions of ourselves in another world. Go to a party and find usually the big groups are congregating around the guy telling a good story. Storytelling, through spoken language, has been going on a very, very long time, dating back before the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Ancient Egyptians, the Neolithic period, all the way back to at least the Old Stone Age with its cave paintings. Did cave art come before or after oral storytelling? I don’t know, but I don’t think it matters for this discussion, because in either case, cave people heard stories by mouth (grunt?) or by looking at pictures others had drawn on walls with bloody bones. Basically, we are visual and auditory learning addicts.

    Nothing humanizes story more in the digital age than video, as you get your story told the exact way you want it told, over and over, and you use visuals and sound together to do it. I, and everybody here at Green Lens, affects people through this video medium. We are dreamers, and we make movies.

    What do we do specifically?

    We create high quality video production projects for clients and ourselves. We are also advocates for the environmental movement and industry, and promote good stewardship of the environment. We educate people through our films, as well as through our love for in-person filmmaking training, which is another aspect to our business. I will share more about these fronts in future posts, but I want to conclude this post by coming back around to the blog and the audiences it is written for.

    This blog is for storytellers, and those who strive through art to create positive progress in society and culture.
    This blog is for filmmakers who put hard effort into their films.
    This blog is for filmmakers who expect the best quality accessible (physically, financially) at the time for their film.
    This blog is for environmentalists, and those wanting to learn more about how we can live better.
    This blog is for the admins who run and build schools, the lifeblood of innovation in our society.
    This blog is for students: of filmmaking, writing, education, sustainable living, and without sounding too cliché, LIFE.

    My hope is in following this blog you will find facts, opinions, and great variety. I will do the best that a full time entrepreneur/film producer/editor/trainer can do to keep it fresh and frequent as well as keep my sanity. I am always one for collaboration and constructive criticism, so if you think I’m wrong about something or agree, or have a better tool or way to do something, please speak up! I only know what I know, not what I don’t, but I attend many tech, film, and business meetups for a reason — we are all still learning, all the time. We all are discovering each other’s stories. I have learned a great deal out in the real world post-college, and I anticipate that remaining a permanent condition of my being. If humanity were a cat, curiosity would not kill it; curiosity gives us something new, and new things are what living is all about.

    Focus of the day:
    Why do you do what you do?

    Eco-tip:
    CFL light bulbs are an important part of our energy solution in the home, but they do contain a small amount of mercury. Make sure to dispose of broken ones responsibly, same as you should do with batteries. Don’t be like this fellow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnm6AmaUzvs

    Film-tip: When purchasing SD, CF, or other types of media cards for tapeless cameras, invest in good brands, high speed rates (30 MB/s), and high class gradings (at least Class 5, 6 is better). A few dollars more for a reliable production is a safer and better shoot.