What I Have to Offer
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On the 30th of September 2011, in front of a sell-out theatre at the BFI in London, Charlie Kaufman delivered the final lecture in BAFTA's 2011 Screenwriters' Lecture Series.
Produced by Eliot Rausch and Phos Pictures, “What I have to Offer” takes arguably the most powerful excerpt from Kaufman’s speech, and sets it to a montage of sometimes unbearably moving images.
Produced by Eliot Rausch and Phos Pictures, “What I have to Offer” takes arguably the most powerful excerpt from Kaufman’s speech, and sets it to a montage of sometimes unbearably moving images.
Jul 4, 2012 10:54 PM
Re: What I have to Offer
I kept hearing Bill Hicks in my head as I watched this. "'He's going for the lonely, trapped dollar - big dollar.' No, I'm not doing that. Fucking kill yourself, you fucking, scum of the earth, people in marketing." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo
And yet, he was describing the very people who bought tickets to his concerts and shucked out bills for his tapes and CDs. Let's say you are the person who would very much like to have a self-filling coffee cup. People who also would want this watch news clips online between 5am and 6:30am and 12am and 3am. Therefore, when you watch your news clips, you will see an ad for a $4.99 self-filling coffee cup. Are you being manipulated? Yeah, you are. Is your life better with a self-filling coffee cup instead of the $4.99? Probably. Did the coffee cup maker win? Yep - they matched product to customer for big sales. Did local coffee makers around you lose? Yep - you now have a convenient substitute for their overpriced steamy camel piss. The wheels on the bus go round and round.
I think Charlie here made a good point in his speech. The damage comes from companies using the control they have over our sensory channels (via shows or movies that we watch, games that we play, ads that are constantly flashed before our eyes online and on-street) to artificially create a need where there might not otherwise have been one.
The funny thing is that the filmmaker is guilty of what Charlie is railing against - showing us pictures of lonely and sad people while Charlie tells us that we are lonely and sad and therefore we need to rage against the big corporations whose fault it is that we're lonely and sad. The funny thing is that the filmmaker probably went through the same process of "how do I get the audience to buy what is being said?" that the big bad corporations use to sell us junk.
So what's my point? Don't worry so much about people trying to influence you. I don't think there's such a thing as a void-of-influence human interaction. Being aware of the tricks (i.e., if you say "yes" to two things, you're likely to say "yes" to the third thing) and emotional heartstrings people pull to get you to make a decision in their favor gives you the power to judge their intentions and make your choices accordingly.
And yet, he was describing the very people who bought tickets to his concerts and shucked out bills for his tapes and CDs. Let's say you are the person who would very much like to have a self-filling coffee cup. People who also would want this watch news clips online between 5am and 6:30am and 12am and 3am. Therefore, when you watch your news clips, you will see an ad for a $4.99 self-filling coffee cup. Are you being manipulated? Yeah, you are. Is your life better with a self-filling coffee cup instead of the $4.99? Probably. Did the coffee cup maker win? Yep - they matched product to customer for big sales. Did local coffee makers around you lose? Yep - you now have a convenient substitute for their overpriced steamy camel piss. The wheels on the bus go round and round.
I think Charlie here made a good point in his speech. The damage comes from companies using the control they have over our sensory channels (via shows or movies that we watch, games that we play, ads that are constantly flashed before our eyes online and on-street) to artificially create a need where there might not otherwise have been one.
The funny thing is that the filmmaker is guilty of what Charlie is railing against - showing us pictures of lonely and sad people while Charlie tells us that we are lonely and sad and therefore we need to rage against the big corporations whose fault it is that we're lonely and sad. The funny thing is that the filmmaker probably went through the same process of "how do I get the audience to buy what is being said?" that the big bad corporations use to sell us junk.
So what's my point? Don't worry so much about people trying to influence you. I don't think there's such a thing as a void-of-influence human interaction. Being aware of the tricks (i.e., if you say "yes" to two things, you're likely to say "yes" to the third thing) and emotional heartstrings people pull to get you to make a decision in their favor gives you the power to judge their intentions and make your choices accordingly.
Re: What I have to Offer
"Being aware of the tricks (i.e., if you say "yes" to two things, you're likely to say "yes" to the third thing) and emotional heartstrings people pull to get you to make a decision in their favor" needs to be taught to every child in school. I would rather they taught this in the schools (marketing, propoganda, whatever you want to call it) than foreign language, for example. I'd even let them substitute it for history classes. If we teach history to assure that we don't repeat the past (as is often asserted) it definitely hasn't worked. This might.
Self awareness...critical thinking...skepticism...logic and reasoning...
Self awareness...critical thinking...skepticism...logic and reasoning...
By: ice-9
