Pointing to the Moon is not the Moon

Thanks for the comments and encouragement on producing a Two and Only DVD. While it is a business and financial decision, at its core it is an artistic decision. When one contemplates art the game changes radically. Ultimately I think I want to make good artistic decisions. Money comes and goes but art has its own value.

There is a Buddhist saying that a finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. In the same context a DVD of a show is not the show. The fact that it looks "live" or has the feeling of a live show only means it has employed a higher degree of trickery. Having spent countless hours in and editing bay as a producer I can tell you that the live audience shots seen on film are almost never the actual reactions of the moment. When you need a cut away you find a shot of the audience that seems to fit that moment. It could be a shot of the audience from the day before.

A movie is meant to be a movie, it is all illusion, it never happened. Directors film things out of order and use special effects to create things that are not there when the actors say their lines. A film creates a manufactured energy. A camera is a microscope and that perspective on life changes the perception.

A live show is not a film. Live theatre must create its own energy, live as it happens. I am talking about the life of the show as much as the perception of the audience. A show has a life of its own and every time it is performed it is different. Every aspect of a show is impacted by the experience of the immediate environment, and every part of that experience is the life of the show. You can cut off a rose bud and seal it in plastic and it might look like a rose in the garden, but you will forever be looking at a dead rose. Same with a show.

I guess I ultimately would rather grow a rose that is beautifully alive. If there is not an audience there to see it, it does not change the power of that moment nor the life of the flower.

I know... Jeff Dunham has released DVD's. I think that proves my point. They are merchandise that feeds the Jeff machine, like little Walter dolls, to be sold after the concert. Jeff is very successful and good for him, but that is to Art as the a yellow smiley face is to the Mona Lisa.

That's just a difference in perception I guess. Most artists die poor, but every one dies and no one takes their check book. As the stock market falls and the money market freezes, the idea of art for its own sake now seems civilized and invaluable.

As you were,
Jay