As you open the Web, you will occasionally see a picture with a catchy tag for a series of photos on a related subject. I came across one that had a slideshow on green screen movie effects, so I did what exactly what the creators wanted me to do; curious, I clicked * Of course, it’s a way to put advertising into a brain, even subliminally—the corners of the eye take in the advertisements posted near, above, or below the “Next Slide ==>” bar. One tries not to look, but…
After going through a half dozen photos of Hollywood’s use of green screens, I decided to wake from my stupor and click myself back to reality. I just wonder now whether or not I’m too enamored of green screen reality to see the world as it “really” is. And what of those undeveloped minds that accept green screen reality as “reality”? Will they form their knowledge of the world through green screen technology?
What I saw by clicking was for a few moments at least a fascinating slide show. I had wondered how the big ships, harbor, and people were placed in the Titanic’s opening scenes or how those spectacular waterfalls were placed onscreen for Rivendell. Yeah. Green screens. Ah! The reality of unreality! Does it then make me view reality as unreal?
“Don’t worry about the young minds,” I say, “they will face realities as they occur. Reality with consequences forces itself on everyone at some time. Give the kids a break. Let them enjoy a green-screen life. Didn’t I in my youth accept a low-tech science fiction of Buster Crabbe’s Flash Gordon, Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still (the original), and even the first Star Trek series? Everyone has suspended disbelief at times. Our brains do it every night when we dream.”
Do you remember the opening lines of Emily Dickinson’s “There Is No Frigate like a Book”? No?
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
The best “unreality” Emily had available occurred in books. She did, however, pose for a daguerreotype portrait now held by Amherst College. So, I assume she knew that images could transport people across the planet. What, it occurs to me to wonder, would she think about the green-screen reality of Cameron’s Titanic, a ship whose size dwarfs a 19th-century frigate by as much as that frigate dwarfs a rowboat? There is no frigate like a green-screen ship in a 200-million-dollar film!
The modern “frigates” of green screen technology outpace the coursers Emily knew. We can race into unreality and immerse ourselves in it in our living rooms. Our familiarity with suspended disbelief is so ingrained that we speak of Hollywood’s productions as though they “are” reality. Film characters “are” characters regardless of their unreal nature; thus, the Marvel and DC movie successes and the frequency of terms like “hulk” and “superman” with their movie nuances. We have to suspend our belief to accept Bond-like spies and detectives swinging perilously from skyscrapers green-screened into our view.
Suspending disbelief is a longstanding practice of the human brain. We’ve been telling stories for a long time, all of them using metaphors and similes to project a verbal slide show onto our brains. * Why? Are “they” right when “they” say there’s a need for escapism? Is reality too real to handle without some relief we find in suspending disbelief? Or is life so boring and one world or universe so limiting that we’re driven, like Tennyson’s Ulysses, “to strive, to seek, to find…” any substitute reality, even one projected onto a green screen? Was the slide show I viewed this morning my voyage on a “frigate”? Or, rather, was my clicking on “Next Slide ==>” my desire to see how the frigate works? If I want to suspend belief, I board the green screen frigate; if I want to know how the green screen frigate toys with my sense of reality, I click on the slides. But now, having seen how Hollywood uses green screens to create reality, I have lost a substitute reality I was comfortable with in my suspension of disbelief. Losing “unreal reality,” I’m forced to face “real reality.”
Since I know that I have suspended my disbelief to participate in unrealities in both books and films, I had a desire to understand why I would do so. Was “reality,” that is, the “real reality,” calling me back?
And when I enter a green-screen world, does my suspension of disbelief indicate an immaturity I can’t recognize? Are there more mature people who refuse to participate in such suspensions? To some degree, yes, but only “to some degree.”
I know someone who doesn’t like science fiction. The same person watches dramatizations of murders, romance, and political intrigue. Is there a difference between a brain that accepts the “realities” of science fiction and one that accepts, say, the realities of Pride and Prejudice or some “based on a true story” portrayal shown on Lifetime or Netflix? I might argue that to throw a single adjective into any story makes an unreality shaped by the author's personal green screen.
If one looks at the so-called basic plots, one sees that regardless of green screen or actual setting or the fictional form as short story or novel, we are rather limited when it comes to suspending disbelief. The characters in green screen films still emote as “real people” emote, still face dilemmas as “real people” face dilemmas, and still think in the manner humans are inclined to think, logically or illogically.
All this because I chose to click on a slideshow! Now, I’m not sure why I perceive “reality” as “real,” or why I accept “unreality” as “real.” Don’t I naturally green-screen all the events of my life by providing a context that might not be factual? Don’t I see everything before me against a background of homegrown attitudes, accumulated knowledge, and desires? Now that I come to think about it, all I observe appears against a personal background. Maybe I’m the green screen.
*https://www.history-a2z.com/green-screen-photos-show-us-how-hollywood-really-works/
**The Conversation Online. The world’s oldest story? Astronomers say global myths about ‘seven sisters’ stars may reach back 100,000 years. Online at: https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-oldest-story-astronomers-say-global-myths-about-seven-sisters-stars-may-reach-back-100-000-years-151568 Accessed December 23, 2020.
After going through a half dozen photos of Hollywood’s use of green screens, I decided to wake from my stupor and click myself back to reality. I just wonder now whether or not I’m too enamored of green screen reality to see the world as it “really” is. And what of those undeveloped minds that accept green screen reality as “reality”? Will they form their knowledge of the world through green screen technology?
What I saw by clicking was for a few moments at least a fascinating slide show. I had wondered how the big ships, harbor, and people were placed in the Titanic’s opening scenes or how those spectacular waterfalls were placed onscreen for Rivendell. Yeah. Green screens. Ah! The reality of unreality! Does it then make me view reality as unreal?
“Don’t worry about the young minds,” I say, “they will face realities as they occur. Reality with consequences forces itself on everyone at some time. Give the kids a break. Let them enjoy a green-screen life. Didn’t I in my youth accept a low-tech science fiction of Buster Crabbe’s Flash Gordon, Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still (the original), and even the first Star Trek series? Everyone has suspended disbelief at times. Our brains do it every night when we dream.”
Do you remember the opening lines of Emily Dickinson’s “There Is No Frigate like a Book”? No?
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
The best “unreality” Emily had available occurred in books. She did, however, pose for a daguerreotype portrait now held by Amherst College. So, I assume she knew that images could transport people across the planet. What, it occurs to me to wonder, would she think about the green-screen reality of Cameron’s Titanic, a ship whose size dwarfs a 19th-century frigate by as much as that frigate dwarfs a rowboat? There is no frigate like a green-screen ship in a 200-million-dollar film!
The modern “frigates” of green screen technology outpace the coursers Emily knew. We can race into unreality and immerse ourselves in it in our living rooms. Our familiarity with suspended disbelief is so ingrained that we speak of Hollywood’s productions as though they “are” reality. Film characters “are” characters regardless of their unreal nature; thus, the Marvel and DC movie successes and the frequency of terms like “hulk” and “superman” with their movie nuances. We have to suspend our belief to accept Bond-like spies and detectives swinging perilously from skyscrapers green-screened into our view.
Suspending disbelief is a longstanding practice of the human brain. We’ve been telling stories for a long time, all of them using metaphors and similes to project a verbal slide show onto our brains. * Why? Are “they” right when “they” say there’s a need for escapism? Is reality too real to handle without some relief we find in suspending disbelief? Or is life so boring and one world or universe so limiting that we’re driven, like Tennyson’s Ulysses, “to strive, to seek, to find…” any substitute reality, even one projected onto a green screen? Was the slide show I viewed this morning my voyage on a “frigate”? Or, rather, was my clicking on “Next Slide ==>” my desire to see how the frigate works? If I want to suspend belief, I board the green screen frigate; if I want to know how the green screen frigate toys with my sense of reality, I click on the slides. But now, having seen how Hollywood uses green screens to create reality, I have lost a substitute reality I was comfortable with in my suspension of disbelief. Losing “unreal reality,” I’m forced to face “real reality.”
Since I know that I have suspended my disbelief to participate in unrealities in both books and films, I had a desire to understand why I would do so. Was “reality,” that is, the “real reality,” calling me back?
And when I enter a green-screen world, does my suspension of disbelief indicate an immaturity I can’t recognize? Are there more mature people who refuse to participate in such suspensions? To some degree, yes, but only “to some degree.”
I know someone who doesn’t like science fiction. The same person watches dramatizations of murders, romance, and political intrigue. Is there a difference between a brain that accepts the “realities” of science fiction and one that accepts, say, the realities of Pride and Prejudice or some “based on a true story” portrayal shown on Lifetime or Netflix? I might argue that to throw a single adjective into any story makes an unreality shaped by the author's personal green screen.
If one looks at the so-called basic plots, one sees that regardless of green screen or actual setting or the fictional form as short story or novel, we are rather limited when it comes to suspending disbelief. The characters in green screen films still emote as “real people” emote, still face dilemmas as “real people” face dilemmas, and still think in the manner humans are inclined to think, logically or illogically.
All this because I chose to click on a slideshow! Now, I’m not sure why I perceive “reality” as “real,” or why I accept “unreality” as “real.” Don’t I naturally green-screen all the events of my life by providing a context that might not be factual? Don’t I see everything before me against a background of homegrown attitudes, accumulated knowledge, and desires? Now that I come to think about it, all I observe appears against a personal background. Maybe I’m the green screen.
*https://www.history-a2z.com/green-screen-photos-show-us-how-hollywood-really-works/
**The Conversation Online. The world’s oldest story? Astronomers say global myths about ‘seven sisters’ stars may reach back 100,000 years. Online at: https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-oldest-story-astronomers-say-global-myths-about-seven-sisters-stars-may-reach-back-100-000-years-151568 Accessed December 23, 2020.
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