Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Charlie Rose

It's gotta be one of my favorite shows. Anyways, they have this guy on tonight who wrote a book about the big stakes of instinctual decision making, those decisions made upon first impressions, decisions made quickly - the exact opposite of slow, deliberate decision making.

One of the most fascinating examples he gave was that prior to the Iraq war, the US Army conducted a war game between the mighty US Army and a simulated Saddam Iraq army. The general who played Saddam ended up sinking half of the US fleet in the water, nearly 20,000 soldiers killed in the first couple of days. Unbelievable, right? Well, this author interviewed the guy who more or less explained making super fast, quick, intelligent decisions, while the US Army acted slow and deliberate and was caught completely off balance during the exercise. It was as if the general went to the hurry up offense and the defense couldn't react. I find this fascinating.

How this applies to filmmaking? DO NOT spend $30,000 on a 581! Avoid cumbersome beaurcracy at all times. Stay loose, flexible, cheap, and FAST. And chances are, you'll make something that flies under the radar and knocks the socks off the audience with it's freshness and raw creativity.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Greg- Nate here, I really like your blog.

You're talking about Malcolm Gladwell, author of "Blink", right? Brilliant writer; his New Yorker articles are unfailingly fresh and original.

If I could link your two recent posts together: the problem with the UN is that the sheer volume of competing interests in the UN make lengthy deliberations a necessity before it acts, and this stilted, bureacratic process interferes with the "Blink" ability to make a gut decision and take action. They fiddled to no end during Bosnia and Rwanda, and they are doing it again in Sudan. Whatever one thinks about the US and the current administration, there might be some virtue to the world knowing the Texan sheriff acts on first impressions, however accurate they may be.

Since your a film guy, Greg: think Dirty Harry. The system protected the psychopath sniper with an assortment of "rights of the accused" and police protocols, which ended up tying Harry's hands and preventing him from making the right split-second decisions he needed to fight this criminal. Dirty Harry was a total "Blink" guy, and a better cop for it.