A Bad Connection

What do ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, ‘Cast Away’, ’12 Monkeys’, and ‘The Matrix’ have in common? ‘Cloud Atlas’, that’s what. It’s a German Drama/Science Fiction film of sorts that got released recently. Well, 2012 recently. 

With a stellar cast ensemble such as this one, I was hoping to see something truly brilliant. My flame of hope however got extinguished very abruptly once I noticed that the plot clearly got lost somewhere between, uhm, the clouds. 

The lead cast of this movie are: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant, and Susan Sarandon, to name the more known actors. Then there are also, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy, Keith David, Zhou Xun and David Gyasi.

There are moments of interpretative brightness coming from the actors when tapping into the psyches of their characters, but mostly it feels like an exercise in futility, and none of it really seems to - connect, not only them with each other, but with you the viewer too. 

Hugo Weaving appears to at times quite literally do a reinterpretation of a slightly more devilish Agent Smith, whereas Hanks appears to still be lost on an island, only this time, he's on quite a few. It’s all a bit out there, but, ‘Heil Zeitgeist’, I guess.  

It definitely seems to be far easier winning an Oscar with no clothes on rather than doing so wearing any, if you had to analyse Berry’s labored efforts. Less shouldn’t be more, not in the dropping-your-knickers-in-front-of-the-camera sense anyway. Apparently if you want to ride the gravy train of acting success, flashing your privates is all that will do. No wonder authentic performances in general are falling by the way side.

The big idea:

It all just seems like a bit of a repeat of the same old message: 'The powerful that exploits the weak for their own personal economical gain, the more connected you are, the more powerful. The more powerful, why, the skies the limit. The concept of ‘everything is connected’, also seems to get lost in the many sub-plots, including the watered down one of: ‘What was, will be, what is, already was’, and round-and-round we go.

Unfortunately, the world on this atlas seems to be spinning out of control in a manner that is just excessively farfetched, not allowing any real plot to thicken at all, least of all to communicate anything sound. It's a very extravagant, yet watered down attempt to portray re-incarnation, or saying that what we do now can have ripple effects in the future.

It just proofs once again that just because you are being different, doesn’t mean you are special, the one message ‘Cloud Atlas’ does succeed in communicating.    

Fortunately, the make-up for this movie was not half bad, but again, also reminiscent of Star Trek, and therefore - again, uninspiring.

What you can align yourself with in a more positive way, is the concept of love that metaphorically gets portrayed in the form of music, and that music is an unique universal language that we all seem to speak. This idea gets woven quite well into the film, and throughout it. Almost like a thread in a tapestry. I found it refreshing. 

If love is indeed the music that connects us all and everything else, then I believe it’s the only connection worth having.

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire.

Aim for the stars, and you' land on the trees. If you should land on some building's roof however, make sure you are inside a car and then drive it dangerously close the edges, you'll definitely get people to sit up. Exactly what Continental Tyres did with their commercial when they introduced themselves to the South African market during the early 90's. 

Never before was a commercial done like this, (an approach that tends to make you win at Cannes), something Continental also achieved. They won a silver that year. Not only did they encapsulate and portray all the benefits one would like to associate with a reliable tyre, but they did so in an innovative manner, and in the process, took their advertising to a whole new level. (Hats off to the creatives for pulling this one off. Terry Murphy was the copywriter and Roddy Louther the Art-Director.)

The commercial was shot on the 24th floor of a building in the central part of Johannesburg. 'Zi Germans', in true fashion, managed to keep everything German. I'm not sure if there was some deal that happened behind the scenes, and if that was the reason they used an Opel too, either way, the intention of what they wanted to achieve was clear: 'Let's make it super'.

I remember this ad simply because it used to scare the living daylights out of me. Who in their right mind was that crazy to go and drive a car on top of building and at an alarming speed too? Little did I realize back then what remarkable things you can achieve with moving-camera, nor was I aware that later on in life I will be introduced to the fascinating world of stunts, stunt-rigging and now also advertising, in the process learning and picking up some fascinating techniques, including some of that which were used in this ad. (Lots of cable rigging systems I'm sure).

With this effort of theirs, Continental made a great ad. It was fresh, market related and gutsy. Their final product is proof of how rewarding it can be when you manage find a great concept and then execute it in a, fresh, out-the-box manner. Now, If that's not advertising, I'm not sure what is.

Who's telling your story?

'Tell me something', Christie a buddy of mine says to me the other day, 'When it comes to writing somebody else's life story, you'll agree that some people have more engaging ones than others. Right?' 'Right', I say, wondering where exactly this nonchalant question might be leading to. 'So if you were asked to write a story about somebody who,lets say, lived a fairly boring life, that would be futile? I mean, sure you can spice it up with a bit of writer's flair, but ultimately you're sitting with a dull story.' 'Right', I say hesitantly, feeling a tingle of heat creeping up the side of my neck. 'And you wouldn't want to lie to your readers now would you?' 'Yes. I mean no, no I wouldn't.' That was three times I've been agreeing with him and I'm waiting for the final slam-dunk and a 'guilty as charged' verdict following soon. 'So how do you do it then? How do you make that dull, boring story come to life? What's the secret?'

That was it? I felt like I've been let off the hook. Don't get me wrong, I was grateful, but I soon realized that the answer to the question he was asking was more complex than just a normal straightforward one, one I couldn't give to him right there and then. It bothered me. Later that evening, after I got home, I was sitting behind my desk and reflecting on my day, Christie's question popped into my mind again. How do you bring a story to life?  For some reason, I thought about Volkswagen.

When Volkswagen makes an ad, there's usually a great story involved. They are renowned for their classic, simple-styled, yet always inspiring ads. As a boy growing up, I remember there was one in particular that grabbed my attention. It was shot back in the 80's and was part of their Memories campaign. It was awesome. Still is.

At 1 minute 30 seconds, it's longer than your average commercial. Why we have such short commercials today, I don't know. Perhaps on-air time was cheaper back in the 80's, or perhaps there was a greater emphasis on taking your time when you have a great story to tell. I would say that when you want to touch peoples lives significantly enough with your advertising so they would want to choose to align themselves positively with your brand, taking a bit more time to show them something of good quality is probably the better idea. 

Memories was a great campaign because it did exactly that, it took the time to reflect on the events that played itself off in all of our lives. They positioned their brand in the middle of it all, demonstrated great strategic insight by doing so and left us all with a memorable story.

To say my life story is better than yours will be wrong. I've never been in your shoes so I simply can't know. You can pretend to do so when you're writing, do as much research and interview as many people as you like to try and get as close as possible to the emotional nuances that make up someone's life, but it will never be the same as actually living through those moments yourself.

Sometimes, someone comes along that tells a story so well, you feel like it resonates with your own. It's not your story, but it could have been. It draws you in, makes you feel alive, almost like the world knows about you, or at least somewhere, someone knows and understands something important about you. A core value. Perhaps a dream or a belief. You feel touched, strengthened, out there somebody cares. It's a great feeling. Who ever they are, they've It inspired you. You reassess your situation, look deep inside, and find new courage and to get back into the game of life. Sounds so simple, doesn't it? And yet it's not. Thing is if you do pull it off, brother, that's the start of a great story right there.