Question for Yoda...

Have you ever met or had any distant connection with M. Night Shyamalan? I wonder if he knows about this website and has been through it? That would be very great to know he's actually reading our comments.

My only contact with Night was through a satellite preview of The Village. It was broadcast in select theaters nationwide and there was a Q-and-A beforehand. One of my questions, thankfully, was selected, and I got to speak to him briefly.

As for whether or not he's visited the site; I have no way of knowing for sure, but it seems inevitable that he has, unless he completely shuns the Internet. If he's so much as typed his own name into Google any time over the last two years, he's sure to have seen it.

Wow, that's awesome. I wish I had the opportunity to talk to him even if it was briefly.

Yeah, I'd kinda like to ask him where he got those shoes (boots?) he wore in the LITW laundry room scene. They're *very* spiffy looking.

LOL! I liked those boots too. Sandy, truthfully, if you could ask him one thing in person, besides his shoes, what would you ask him?

It's kind of hard to say, because so much depends on circumstances, ya' know; I'd probably be too nervous to ask anything at all, because I'm the world's biggest 'fraidy cat, despite my bravado. If I did manage to squeak something out, though, I'd probably ask him to tell me more about Story, like what happened to her, how she got there, what happens to her next, etc. She was an interesting character, and I guess I'd like to know more about how he found and developed that particular character in his writing and how he whittled the screenplay down. Just writer stuff, I guess. (I think I read that he did 12 or 13 re-writes of LITW, which, because I'm a writer, scares the hell out of me. I mean, yikes, what a *relaxing* process that must have been. Did he have Rolaids shipped in on an ore boat, or what?)

That's a very good question. I would like to ask him a similar question about the film signs. How the idea came to him, how he created his characters. One of the things I really admire about this film is how the characters were so much like a real family would be. A good example of it was the dinner scene just before the aliens arrived at their home. If it was my family in the same situation, I have no doubt we would have reacted the same way.

I too am a writer. A screenwriter. I write for short and feature-length films. I would like to ask him questions related to his writing habits and the creative process. One day I would like to write and direct like him.

Rolaids hmm, well, I guess he has his own supply shipped daily lol.

Oh, it's funny you should mention Signs. I've been wanting to rent it lately, but every time I go to Blockbuster all of the copies are checked out. I've ended up watching a lot of good movies in the meantime, though (including Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Adaptation, and Sideways), so at least we're being well-entertained while we wait for someone to return Signs.

It's great that you're a screenwriter. I hope you've had lots of success and are enjoying your work! I'm only doing a few book reviews myself these days, although I am trying to rework some old plays that have been laying around forever. Unfortunately, the past eight or nine years have been a little rugged, so I've spent most of my time dealing with family health issues and raising a special needs child. My career isn't working out *exactly* the way I had planned, but, hey, at least I'm earning karma brownie points for hanging in there. (At the rate I'm going, I should have enough brownie points to buy a really nifty key chain any day now....)

Oh, I finally, finally got to rent Signs. I hadn't seen it since it was out on the big screen; I realized I had forgotten a lot of details. The dinner scene was really outstanding and heart-breaking, too. Mel Gibson was incredible. How he could convey so many emotions--grief, rage, isolation, etc.--with one bite of mashed potatoes, or whatever it was, is beyond me. (I never know what to attribute to an actor and what to attribute to a director, but I guess if the director does whatever is necessary to get that type of performance out of an actor, then he or she must've done something right.
... I don't know how my family would've reacted in a similar situation, but I do know there would have been some serious chocolate involved.

I'm glad you rented. If you haven't already, check out the bonus features.

Night talks about the filmmaking process of signs from script to screen to marketing. They also show how they filmed the dinner scene. They took turns filmming each persons part. The girl started off with an amazing performance and she was crying. So the boy who plays Morgan says, that made him cry when he was doing his performance. Then came Joaquin's part and finally Mel's. She kind of inspired them all. Night says that Graham's part was particularily difficult, because eating and crying at the same time is almost impossible. That right there was some of the best acting I have ever seen. As well as the night conversation between Merill and Graham on the couch. The same day they filmed it, Mel Gibson had to leave in half an hour. So Night says, We should post pone this take for later. Mel says, No, we're going to do this now. So they did ONE TAKE, and he nails it. That is probably why he is one of my favorite actors.

Another thing I found interesting about the making of this film, was how much it was inspired by emotions from Night and all the people who worked on it. The day right before the first scheduled day to film, was September 11th. The first scene they filmed, happend to be the scene where Colleen (Graham's wife) dies.

A few months into filmming, Night's Grandfather died. Which also inspired his feelings into the film.

I don't think any other film of his has taken a more emotional imput than Signs.

This film was, is, and always will be my favorite.

I'm glad you picked it up.

I did, indeed, watch the bonus features and was really astonished that they were able to work after Sept. 11. I still was sitting numbly in front of my TV 24 hours after the attacks.

I think your comments are astute; going straight to work on the film probably was more cathartic and therapeutic than staring at CNN for days on end. Signs is, as you say, imbued with emotion. It's a very moving story. When I think back to the film, I think of Graham falling apart at the dinner table, and Ray driving away with such a heavy heart. (When a film or book really captivates me, I carry the characters around in my head and sort of continue their story on my own. I can imagine Graham and his family doing OK, but I worry about Ray. Silly, I know....)

No, that is not silly at all. I too like to think about how their story continues. That's what Night was trying to accomplish. To instill such engaging characters and a well though out story, that we care about it and want to think about them more.

The emotions that everyone was feeling during the filmming, was brought out and inspired because of Sept. 11th. It's amazing that they still worked through that. The emotions Night felt after that may have been connected towards some of the elements in The Village. The notion that human behavior creates acts of violence and evil. Like Sept. 11th.

Like I have said in many other posts, all his films are connected in some way or another and all of them have a meaning or message that is important to our lives. Night writes with his creative side, as well as his emotional side. How he feels effects his writing. He has said in interviews.