Book Excerpt 2
Where is a movie?
Seeing Beyond the Screen
Scene: A Media Lab in an Elementary or Middle School
When: 2003-2018
Where: In hundreds of classrooms all over the world
Joe strolls into the classroom for his second visit.
"Good morning! Any questions from last time?"
A hand shoots up. "Where’s the chalk?"
Laughter fills the room.
"We’ll get back to that," Joe smirks. "Today, let’s talk about seeing—not just looking, but really seeing."
He leans in. "Imagine you’re at the movies. A real theater. Maybe an IMAX. Popcorn in one hand, drink in the other. Maybe some Milk Duds. Lights dim, movie starts. Here's my question. Where’s the movie happening?"
"The screen!"
"The projector!"
Joe grins. "So if we sneak into the projection booth, what do we find? Tiny actors running around inside the projector?"
More laughter.
"Of course not. What’s actually in there?"
"Computer parts?"
"Wires?"
"A lightbulb?"
"Exactly. And what’s inside those computer memory chips and parts?"
"Software?"
"Yes, computer code. Just ones and zeros driving all those projector parts. Pure mathematical gibberish pushed by electricity out onto the screen via light. And what is going on up on that massive IMAX screen?"
"Motion."
"Color."
"Sound."
"The story we came to see?"
Joe shakes his head. "It’s trickier than that. What you are seeing, between each Milk Dud chomp, is 24 still pictures per second. A slideshow with no motion. And the sound? Just waves of air thumping out of the speakers."
"So where is all this motion, color, sound, and story happening if you’re only seeing still pictures and being hit by waves of air?"
Silence. Then—
"In our minds?"
"Bingo. After seeing movies my whole life, this still blows my mind. Why? Because it looks and sounds like it is up on the screen. Our eyes, ears, and mind are connected in completely bizarre ways."
Joe points to the window. "Try this. Hold your thumb up at arm’s length. Stare out the window past your thumb. How many thumbs do you see?"
"Two!"
"Do you actually have two thumbs?"
"No!"
"But it is out there at the end of your arms, and just like a movie screen, it doesn't look like it is happening in your mind—this 'two thumb' story. Now focus on your thumb—what happens to the background?"
"It doubles!"
"Exactly. Your brain fuses two slightly different images from each eye, trying to make sense of the world. The same way it takes still images strobing really fast like a giant flip-book and turns them into motion. Your brain manufactures these things on the fly and assembles them into an illusion that makes it look like it is happening on the screen."
Joe lets that sink in.
Seeing Without Eyes
"Let’s try another experiment. Close your eyes. Lightly press a finger on each eyelid. Don’t do this if you have contacts. What do you see?"
"Yellow sparks!"
"Purple streaks!"
"Green blobs!"
Joe grins. "Your eyes are shut, yet you’re still seeing. You see colors and motion. So here’s the kicker—you don’t even need your eyes open to see."
"Alright, stop wiggling your eyelids. Let’s go deeper. How many of you have ever dreamed?"
All hands go up.
"Good. Now, when you dream, do you see things?"
A chorus of "Yeah!"
"Do you see color, motion, people?"
Most hands stay up.
"Do you hear sound? See stories? Or even LIVE in stories?"
Laughter in the affirmative.
Joe raises an eyebrow. "Wait—so you’re telling me… when you’re asleep, eyes shut, unconscious… you’re still seeing? And not just vague shapes, but full-blown, high-definition, color movies?"
A murmur ripples through the class.
"But hang on," Joe presses. "You are zonked out, limp, sawing Z's. Where is all this happening?"
Silence. Then—
"Our brain? In our minds?"
"Bingo. Your own personal, built-in movie studio-between-the-ears fires up every night, playing full-color films, complete with characters, plots, emotions—sometimes so real they wake you up."
Students’ eyes widen.
The Power of Visual Storytelling
Joe paces. "So, without any input, your brain generates moving images. It creates stories. We are movie-making machines."
The room falls silent.
"And that is why filmmaking is so powerful," Joe continues. "Because when you make a movie, you’re not just throwing images on a screen. You’re hacking into someone’s mind. You’re projecting your ideas straight into the place where their dreams live."
A quiet voice from the back: "Whoa…"
"If we are going to make a movie—or 'content' as you call it today—it is important to respect this fact. You are pulling the knobs and dials of the Wizard of Oz. You are about to step behind the curtain and learn how to create dreams for your audience. Next time, we'll start to break this all down. It is work. But it is so fun! It is magical."
"So, let’s review what we explored today. We see with our mind. We seem to have movies playing in our heads when we sleep. Content from any screen is injected straight into our brain with a series of frames-per-second flip-book still images, bypassing logic, slipping past skepticism, and landing right where our dreams live."
"Here’s the thing: this media hits us so fast and so deep that we don’t have time to filter. AND, more importantly, before we can even think, we feel. Before we can analyze, we believe."
"That’s why visual storytelling isn’t just an art—it’s a superpower."
"You can make audiences feel joy, fear, rage, hope. Shift their thinking. Shape their memories. Influence their choices. This is why media-making must be wielded with responsibility. It can inspire, unite, and teach—or manipulate, distort, and deceive."
"Hollywood has spent the last 150 years perfecting the science of how to do all of this in the most effective way possible. They know how to control exactly where you look, what sounds move your emotions, how to give you the 'feels,' and what you remember. All they need is for you to pay attention."
"Next time, we’ll be pulling back the curtain on those secrets—because if you don’t know the rules, you’ll always be the one being fooled."
"Want to learn those rules?"
The class, in unison: "YES!"
"Great. Any last questions?"
A voice from the back: "Where’s the chalk?"
Laughter erupts.
Joe shakes his head, chuckling. "See you next time."