“
An M.I.T. neuroscientist named Ann Graybiel told me that she and her colleagues began exploring habits more than a decade ago by putting their wired rats into a T-shaped maze with chocolate at one end. The maze was structured so that each animal was positioned behind a barrier that opened after a loud click. The first time a rat was placed in the maze, it would usually wander slowly up and down the center aisle after the barrier slid away, sniffing in corners and scratching at walls. It appeared to smell the chocolate but couldn’t figure out how to find it. There was no discernible pattern in the rat’s meanderings and no indication it was working hard to find the treat.
The probes in the rats’ heads, however, told a different story. While each animal wandered through the maze, its brain was working furiously. Every time a rat sniffed the air or scratched a wall, the neurosensors inside the animal’s head exploded with activity. As the scientists repeated the experiment, again and again, the rats eventually stopped sniffing corners and making wrong turns and began to zip through the maze with more and more speed. And within their brains, something unexpected occurred: as each rat learned how to complete the maze more quickly, its mental activity decreased. As the path became more and more automatic — as it became a habit — the rats started thinking less and less.
” —- Charles Duhigg, via How Companies Learn Your Secrets
[…] Tell me this doesn’t explain everything about everything. via alexbaca
Bingo. via the browncoat
I need to find a way to work this M.I.T. story into FToM :P I think it’s easy to assume that people get addicted to the freedom of travel and the romantic idea of new places; but, the truth is, at least on a cross country bicycle trip through the United States, things are flat and quiet… the small towns you see over and over and over again don’t look all that different than the small town you grew up in.
But, like this quote says, it’s all new to you - and it makes no difference if the fields of tall-grass look *exactly* the same as the fields of tall-grass behind your house, they are a new place, and although you can’t feel the furiously active neurosensors in your mind in the way you can feel the wind on your face, something is different inside you… you feel, not “alive”, because that can mean too many things to too many people, but you feel awake.
And that might be the hardest part of coming home… the winding down.
(via mikeambs)
“IFP’s unique year-long mentorship program supports first-time feature directors when they need it most: through the completion, marketing and distribution of their films. Focusing exclusively on low-budget features (under $1million), this highly immersive program provides filmmakers with the technical, creative and strategic tools necessary to launch their films – and their careers. Through the Labs, IFP works to ensure that talented emerging voices receive the support, resources, and industry exposure necessary to reach audiences. Open to all first time feature documentary and narrative directors with films in post-production.” —
via NoFilmSchool, IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Labs
On this weekend’s to-do list: finish filling out the application for IFP’s documentary lab program. I’m really just at the stage now where I need a lot of help with sound design, which I mentioned recently here. But, of course, the attention of IFP definitely wouldn’t hurt the film’s momentum going forward. Fingers crossed.
I need help with recommendations on people here in Los Angeles who do sound design. Much of For Thousands of Miles, of course, takes place outside, but it is also told as a memory, so there is a lot of room for subtle play with otherwise natural sounds. The foley work has been a part of post that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time, I need someone meticulous that I can trust. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.
(Source: ftomfilm)
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photo and caption via Vu Bui
Watched mike’s film rough cut For Thousands of Miles. Made notes but wow great stuff!!!
Lan and Vu talked me - aka, peer pressured me - into playing the current edit of FToM. Vu had just purchased a brand new Moleskin journal, I guess he had never owned one before, and this page of notes on the film was the first thing he decided to write down. This brings the total number of people who seen a fairly close-to-final edit to: 7. I’ve received some really terrific feedback from these small mostly one-on-one screenings and I’m excited to make a handful of changes to the timeline before opening up screenings to other people.
“The decision to use voice over must be a well thought out one, and one made long before the script is finalized. Voice overs are the voice of the mind, and it must correspondingly have the gravity of that impossible weight. Use it wisely.” —
- Frank Darabont
This entire post was a very enjoyable read, but this quote is especially fitting to something I keep coming back to in FToM. *fingers crossed*