They took my glasses

And gave me fake ones.

Shocking, I know. But so Hollywood: replace perfectly good things that exist in reality and serve a genuine purpose, like helping me read, and then replacing them with something fake, that looks real, which leaves you somewhat blind.

That’s Hollywood functionality in a nut shell.

Movie magic isn’t. No offense to George Lucas and what’s his name — the militant vegan who makes all the Avatar movies (James Cameron) - but to me, what makes movie making magical is not the digital effects - but the practical.

The first time I was introduced to this utilitarian secret was when I heard someone call out for a C47 clip on the first day of principle photography of The Mighty Ducks. Half expecting some kind of fancy NASA made AI-machine-thing - I was shocked when I watched a guy remove a clothes pin from the utility pocket of his his cargo shorts and pass it on.

A clothes pin. That tiny little thing was the key to softening the light coming from a hot lamp in order to make the magic of what appears on film come alive. A C47.