Let’s be giants for our next generations to stand on
Appreciating craft and innovation led by previous generations through the movie “Hugo”
Hugo was added to my Netflix queue a long while ago, and I had no context to whatsoever the movie was about, even as I initiated play on the video. In some parts of my subconscious I remember it was mentioned on my Twitter timeline as a great movie to watch. I assumed it was some children’s fantasy made into a movie, like Percy Jackson.
My assumption was wrong, in the best way possible. Hugo gave an unexpected peek into the story of George Méliès, albeit with tons of artistic license.
Méliès, a prolific innovator in the use of special effects, accidentally discovered the substitution stop trick in 1896, and was one of the first filmmakers to use multiple exposures, time-lapse photography, dissolves, and hand-painted color in his work.
– Wikipedia
The best movies or books tend to connect the dots which already exist in your own head, often shedding new light and adding new context and meaning to them.
I didn’t watch the 3D version of Hugo, but even as it is, it was a spectacular visual feast with incredible attention to detail. I couldn’t help but drawing parallels between the depiction of craft held by George Méliès in the movie and the actual craft put into the storytelling of the movie by Martin Scorsese. There was also a common theme of surrealistic fantasy with a remarkable contrast between the black and white of Méliès and the rich colorful multi-dimensional experience of Hugo.
I was captivated by the difference in the advancement of technology —different times, different generations — yet showcasing similar dedication and pushing of boundaries towards the art of filmmaking. It made me think:
How many dots had to be connected from the first time an image is captured on film, to the moment the Lumière Brothers made the first film, and to us consuming movies like Hugo on Netflix today?
We belong to the Netflix generation, with countless options of content available to us. Most of us no longer think about the amount of effort it takes to make one film, much less the entire catalogue available on the internet.
We forget that we are standing on the shoulders of giants. We forget that we were given the privilege of what we often label as distracting technology, by the virtue of the giants before us. They were the ones who pushed the boundaries of their imaginations, made their lives and work count by transmuting their imagination into reality — giving us a glimpse of what is possible if we dared to imagine.
They passed us precious batons, as though saying, hey my work is done, now it is your turn.
As you read this piece at this very moment, try connecting the dots which had made this a reality. That today at any given moment I can try to tell you a story with my words, and all of you at different parts of the world could receive my story in less than an instant. Think about all the people who made this possible — from all the people who have contributed to the progress of javascript for this very user-interface, to the people who brought the Unix operating system so I can write effortlessly on my beloved Macintosh, all the way to possibly Alan Turing and we could go even further back in time.
The giants before us, made quantum leaps that made it possible for us to express ourselves in various creative ways — words, books, films, art, photography, animation…and the list goes on. We consume without giving them much of a thought and tend to take what comes so easy for granted. It is instant, it streams, it means nothing.
How can we be giants for our next generations to stand on?
What batons will we be passing on to the young after us, how can we muster the pride to say, hey our work is done, now it is your turn?
Are we passing on google glasses, disappearing mobile photos and farming games?
Or can we pass them a school in the cloud, a better-designed political system or finally, actionable solutions and a more empathetic society to reduce the poverty gap so we can all grow up to be giants and creators?
