Who’s Saying “Action?”

Some years back, I received a call from one of the producers of “Video Openings,” which I was directing at the time.  He said, “Spike Lee says he wants to be in one of the videos, but he wants to direct it.” The producer had told Spike Lee about me, and Spike said, “Have him meet with the camera crew on Christopher Street and the Henry Hudson at 11:00am tomorrow.” The next day came.

          We were standing on the edge of the road as cars buzzed by. Spike and I were going back and forth with ideas of how things were going to be shot and at what angle. We said things like, “What I’ll do is walk in between the cars, while you walk backwards with the camera.” “How about you stand on top of that garbage can and swing this towel on the side of the highway, and I'll shoot it with a low angle.”  This went on for the next hour or two until it was all in the can.  When the video was finished, it aired at the opening of the next Knicks playoff game. After the crowd of twenty-thousand chuckled and cheered, Spike and I gave each other a nod of approval, and I continued with my work that day.

…

          I asked myself, “Why do I have respect for this artist?” I was not the craziest about all of his work. So what was it? I feel my respect comes from the honesty of his action because it told the truth of his passion.  I remembered one of my film professors telling me in his Russian accent, “Paul, characters that ‘do’ are more interesting than characters that don’t do.” I concluded that my first step was to speak the truth regardless of the medium I chose for my expression.  To quote a line from my favorite Spike Lee film: “There’s too many people saying ‘I’m gonna.’ ‘I’m gonna this, and I’m gonna that, to I tell you what I’m gonna do…”  My answer: I’m going to find the truth of my voice and finish this book.