Author Archives: Juan Bravo

Occupational Folktale- Stanley Kubrick

Nationality: American
Age: 27
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 27, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

The informant is a 27-year old grad student. He was born in Los Angeles, California, grew up in Seattle, Washington, was educated at UC Berkeley and now studying film production in Los Angeles. He’s worked as a freelance writer and filmmaker around Los Angeles and is a teaching assistant at the School of Cinematic Arts. He shall be referred to as NW.

Here, NW shares a legend about the early career of Stanley Kubrick:

“And there’s lots of crazy stories about him, like, that early on in his career, you know, he, in one of his really early movies, The Killing, he got in an argument with uh, with his cinematographer, ‘cause the cinematographer didn’t think he knew what he was doing based on like, a lens choice, wide-angle lens, and now Kubrick’s really famous for his wide-angle lens shots, in certain films, you know, then he’s just his upstart director and the cinematographer changes the lens out because he thinks he made a mistake, and so they take it and Kubrick notices it, and then like blows up on him, and tells him, ‘if you touch my lens again you’re fired, and I won’t ever see you again.” And then they have this big argument. I hear those stories about a lot of directors, famous directors, it’s like, and people kind of tell those now and it’s like, ‘oh, look at what a genius and how sure he was of himself back then,’ and I don’t know, again, I don’t know if that happened or what, but I think it’s a way of rationalizing like, ‘oh, if you were a real director, you’d know like what the hell you’re doing right away… From personal experience, I don’t think that’s necessarily true, but it’s like a way of building their legend, you know, it’s like anyone, you know it’s like, people tell stories about Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln whoever, like they knew this, so they did this, and that showed who they were really early on and you’re kinda like I don’t know if that really worked that way, but it helps build them up as these, like, mythic figures so you’re like that’s what, that’s what a filmmaker is.”

As NW explains, this is a very relevant idea for young filmmakers. It is common to idolize the great directors of the past, and stories like these increase that level of respect.

Specifically, this story addresses some of the tensions that happen on film sets. Because film is a very collaborative process, it can be easy for one person to alter the work of another. As such, a person with a strong vision might see that compromised because of the interference of another person, such as this young Stanley Kubrick.

More importantly, this story stresses the importance of ego in the film industry. A director must be able to clearly argue for his or her vision, as Kubrick does in this story. Though his choices seemed like the mistakes of a novice, they were actually the eccentric brilliance of an auteur (in retrospect, that is). Thus, this story seems to encourage young filmmakers to think creatively and fight to protect the purity of the vision they have in mind for their artwork. It celebrates someone who, while acting like someone difficult to work with, was a true artist. In this industry, it is commonly believed that the most successful far surpassed their likability as people with their sheer talent. Thus, this seems to be an address of such a conflict for young filmmakers.

Chinese Belief- Hell

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 25, 2011
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

The informant is an eighteen-year old student from Los Angeles. He was born in Taipei and received schooling in America. He had been studying in Taipei before moving back to the United States for university. He speaks Chinese and English and will be referred to in this transcript as “GS.” This paraphrased account details the Chinese belief of Heaven and Hell.

GS: In Hell, there’s a district attorney who will judge you in court when you’re sent to Hell, and based on what you say, he’ll decide which level of hell you go to. There are eighteen levels of Hell, the eighteenth’s the worst level of Hell. Sometimes parents will scare their children that if they keep doing bad things, they’ll go to the 18th layer of Hell. One of the interesting punishments is called Knife Mountain and the oil pot. If you do bad things and go to Hell, little ghosts or demon things will make you walk on Knife (or Blade) Mountain and then after you go up and down Blade Mountain, you’ll get thrown into a boiling pot of oil.

GS goes on to explain that this process is repeated through all eternity. As he says, repetition is a key part of the punishment, as the person will have to suffer through the same punishment without end.

Though he glossed over the use of the story as a morality warning, I feel this is the most important part of the story. GS does not literally believe in this vision of Hell. However, he states that it is used to keep children from behaving badly. Indeed, this portrayal of Hell involves very physical forms of punishment: In fact, they relate to cooking and the kitchen (Knife Mountain and boiling oil). As a child, the kitchen may be the most dangerous place they will encounter on a daily basis, particularly around cooking time. Thus, the threats presented in this version of Hell are made to be very relatable to the dangers of a kitchen for a small child. This makes the threat a tangible one, and thus far more scary than any abstract concept of suffering. As an exaggerated form of pain possible in the mortal realm, it effectively can be used to scare children into good behavior.

Occupational Folktale- Origin of the term “MOS”

Nationality: American
Age: 27
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 27, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

The informant is a 27-year old grad student. He was born in Los Angeles, California, grew up in Seattle, Washington, was educated at UC Berkeley and now studying film production in Los Angeles. He’s worked as a freelance writer and filmmaker around Los Angeles and is a teaching assistant at the School of Cinematic Arts. He shall be referred to as NW.

In this story, NW explains how the use of the term “M.O.S.” came to be used on film sets, a phrase used to refer to when directors shoot without sound:

And the story goes, I know this one’s hypocryphal, but the story goes is that some German director, like all the early great directors were German, and he’d come out to Hollywood and was trying to say “we’re gonna take this one without sound, W.O.S in that case, but since his accent came through, it sounded like “Mith-out-sound” and it just stuck so it’s M.O.S., but really means, I know it was a nerdy thing to do but I went through a lot of stuff to find out, it actually means, it either means “motor only sound,” or “motor only sync” and it’s just like a technical reference to the fact that they’re only running the camera because really early sound stuff used to run on its own separate motor, so I think that’s what it actually means, but that’s the story, “mith out sound.”

NW explained further that he feels there is no contemporary reason for the use of the phrase “M.O.S.” on film sets because of modern film technology. He believes that the use of the term is mostly in being able to draw a distinction between new filmmakers and more experienced ones. This use of jargon can easily go over the head of a new hire, so it becomes a learning experience.

I feel that there’s also some cross-cultural resentment present in this story. German Expressionism is a highly lauded facet of film aesthetics by some, but seen as incredibly pretentious by others (such as those working in manual labor positions in Hollywood). There was a great divide between Hollywood film crews and this hypothetical German director, a divide they would try to reconcile. Thus, this story features a slight humbling of the image of a German director: Though he is hailed as an auteur, he is slightly mocked for his accent. As NW explained, there is an actual technical origin for the phrase (possibly), but the prevalence of the other story suggests its humorous appeal as well as an address of cultural divides within the film industry.

Mexican Folk Remedy- Stomachaches

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 47
Occupation: Civil Engineer
Residence: Sacramento, CA
Performance Date: March 15, 2011
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

The informant is a 47-year old civil engineer working in California, originally from Michoacán, Mexico. He lived a modest life as a young adult, studying to be an engineer. He then moved to the United States with his wife to raise their family and make his career. He primarily speaks Spanish with English as a second language.  He shall be referred to as JB.

JB states that in his household, spongy bread served medicinal purposes. For a stomachache, the spongy, inner part of a French roll was soaked in rubbing alcohol, then rubbed and place on the child’s stomach.

JB notes that his household, while not wealthy, was better off than some other families. Most of his neighbors could not afford bread. Thus, particularly in comparison to the other folk remedies in this collection, this presents a group of people taking advantage of resources at hand. While this family also did not come from outstanding means, they did indulge in a luxury they could enjoy (bread). This may have been a way of demonstrating their relative wealth, while still taking full advantage of humble resources. I expect that as JB grew up in a Catholic community, there was a willingness to take part in practices that didn’t appear to make any scientific sense (there is no medicinal explanation for the bread or rubbing alcohol that he is aware of). As the community is faith-based, there was no strict intolerance of pseudoscience as there is in the United States. JB also testifies that both solutions served their purposes without fail. Again, the faith-based nature of a Catholic community embraced such simple solutions, as they are far more based on familial traditions than they are on any scientific roots.