Babies – A Review

Baby butts are really funny.  That is one thing I took from the documentary Babies, directed by Thomas Balmés and produced by Alain Chabat.  Babies simultaneously chronicle the lives for four babies from different parts of the world from their “first breaths through their first steps.” The babies are Ponijao in Namibia; Bayarjargal in Mongolia; Mari in Tokyo, Japan; and Hattie in San Francisco.

Babies is so beautiful and so adorable that you can watch it just for the eye candy.  But by placing these four babies side by side during the same stages of development, we see just how similar babies are although their cultures and surroundings are vastly different.  While Nattie in San Francisco attends a play group that sings about honoring mother earth, Ponijao in Namibia is rolling around in the dirt tasting rocks.  While Mari in Japan is scared of the animals at the zoo, Bayarjargal in Mongolia is feeding the goats in his yard.  Yet they all get frustrated when things don’t go their way and they all coo when their mothers talk to them in high pitched, monosyllabic banter.

Balmés and Chabat do a good job of making the mundane things that babies do entralling.  Perhaps watching Mari learn how to put a stick through a shape wouldn’t be as interesting if she wasn’t presented next to Ponijao learning how to balance a can on her head.  A baby’s ride home from the hospital for the first times sounds pretty uneventful.  But when Bayarjargal’s mother takes him home tightly bundled and on the back of her husband’s motorcycle, it is striking to see just how relaxed the rules are in some places regarding babies and transportation.

Babies manages to be engaging and insightful all without a single interview bite or voice over line.  And it doesn’t need it.  No matter what languages the parents speak in, babies’ babble is universally cute.  The pace of this film is patient and the cuts minimal – allowing the viewer to really see the babies’ thought processes unfold.  I missed this movie in theaters (I was busy tending to my own babies at the time).  But the On-Demand version did not disappoint.  It featured a “where are they now” mini-doc at the end of the movie in which the director returned to show the stars (now four years old) and their families the final versions of the film.  Despite their differences in family structure, abode structures, adult oversight and outdoor activity, they all turned out to be happy, healthy toddlers.

Writer’s Block in San Francisco

I am currently on a shoot in San Francisco.  I’m primarily here to conduct interviews and tape B-roll for a series of short videos.  In an effort to complete another project due at the end of the week, I am writing scripts in my “downtime.”

I have nothing against San Francisco, but I am jet lagged, miss my family, had to change rooms at 2:30 in the morning because of water dripping from the ceiling onto my bed and, if I may be blunt, my gastronomic system is a little backed up.  None of this has put me in the mood to come up with pithy and energetic host script copy.  So what to do?

I’ve devised a few tactics over the years to help me continue writing even when I really don’t want to.  A deadline is a deadline. So it’s handy to have a cadre of tricks to help bust through that block when necessary.

• Dance to fast music – This is my number one, go-to block buster.  I put on one song with a driving beat, sing loudly and dance passionately.  For me, this is a shortcut to meeting my muse because I totally leave the writing behind for 5-minutes and come back refreshed and energized.
• Take a chore break – If I am at home, I find it helpful to work on rhythmic activities like washing dishes or folding clothes while my sub-conscious works on the work. I almost always come up with an exciting breakthrough this way.  If I am in an office, I might clean my desk or do some filing, anything to keep my hands busy but my mind free.
• Walk away from the writing – Get out and take a walk.  This is another way to get the blood pumping and the words flowing.
• Go over the top – Write wild and crazy, over the top stuff.  Try alliterations or some rapping and rhyming. It’s fun and you just might come up with ideas that make the final draft.
• Check out a list of clichés – If I am having difficulty with a subject matter, I often look up a list of clichés on the internet.  Yes they are staid but they can also be entertaining. And even better yet, they can help me get a grasp on concepts in a focused and fun way.
• Get help – I have a couple of producer friends that I can call or email with a problem section and they help me work it out with a fresh eye.  I do the same for them. It’s kind of like having a writing elf.  And let’s face it, two heads are better than one.

In this particular San Francisco block, I’ve elected to write something else, something that I know would flow – this blog. It’s been fun and I’m feeling ramped up to continue the writing-for-hire.  If you have any other tricks let me know. I’ll post them and maybe try them next time. Happy writing!