BIG FISH Tribute

I remember having mixed feelings and thoughts about this movie when I first watched it. I had seen other Tim Burton films before such as Beetlejuice or Edward Scissorhands, so I was familiar with that peculiar gothic aesthetic and imprint on his works, but I wasn’t expecting it to be mixed with other rather realistic and dramatic scenes, which gave the movie a deeper and more serious tone that wasn’t usually so present in other of his films so, despite liking the movie in general terms, especially the fantasy parts, I could not really appreciate that duality in the universe of the movie. Later, when I watched it again for a project for the cinema school, I enjoyed it much more and understood that is actually this unusual combination of fiction and fact that makes this particular piece of art so unique.

Based on Daniel Wallace’s novel, the script navigates through the past and present with two apparently diverged points of view represented by the relationship between a father and his son. On one hand, the father seems to have created a world full of fantasy in order to escape the illness that is consuming his last days on the earth; on the other hand, the son is not capable of believing his father’s stories and holds resentment against him because of this, and, as the narrative goes on, we learn that they both need to acknowledge something from each other.

The story is presented like a collection of tales that is a tale in itself. These little tales, which represent the father’s point of view, are greatly recreated thanks to the distinctive Tim Burton’s touch and his creativity and capacity of forming unique images and aesthetics. The job done by the artistic direction department is amazing here. I personally love the part with the haunted woods and the giant spiders. But, once again, the dramatic and realistic scenes, representing the son’s perspective, are needed in order to create that contrast and antithesis. An especial mention should be made to the performances given by the actors in their respective roles. I particularly enjoyed the bathtub scene a lot with Jessica Lange and Albert Finney’s wonderful portrayals of their characters.

No other song that A Movie Called Life could have fit in better with the images of this movie. Even the title makes honors the thesis and the ending of the film. It seemed appropriate to me that, although some parts of the lyrics are very personal and specific about my life, the childish and naive spirit of the melody would adequately match the themes and metaphors of Big Fish frames.

THESIS

It is clear to me that the main message of the movie is about not creating walls that limit our knowledge about reality and this is validated in the ending scene when we learn that all the stories that the father used to tell his son were actually true. It’s about letting go and believing everything is possible. It’s a beautiful metaphor standing for the infinite possibilities that storytelling and art can give us as a way of mirroring ourselves. There is more than meets the eye and we have a long way to go still.

REALITY CAN BE STRANGER THAN FICTION.

A Movie Called Life

 “I’ve been waiting for so long that my innocence has now become a good reason to fight for this world”

The idea of worlds within worlds has always fascinated me. I don’t know why exactly but it’s something that has captivated me ever since I was a child. This idea can also be applied to the concept of movies and the magic behind the process of making them. That blurry line that gets hard to distinguish between fact and fiction and the infinite possibilities that this offers as a cathartic mirror. The movie within a movie topic not only remains one of my favorites today still but connects deeply with my philosophy and understanding of living. Life is like a beautiful big movie and we are all the protagonists of our own story.

SONGWRITING

Based on this idealized belief, I decided to write a song about my particular experience in how I’ve always perceived and decoded the world around me. A song that would tell the story of my life from a rather naive and innocent perspective, but showing still all the baggage and learning behind each lesson in the journey.

Both melody and lyrics were highly inspired by the song American Pie, which has a similar structure in terms of story-telling. In the lyrics of my song, I speak about my childhood in the first verse and then about my teenage years in the second one, emphasizing the change I experienced when I found out I was gay and how this affected me negatively because of all the bullying situation in high school, going from a happy state into a darker one overnight. Then, the bridges are self-references about my fears and flaws, but also about my strengths and hopes. The choruses are meant to be contradictory and ironic, just like life in itself, and, finally, there’s kind of an epilogue, or an outro, summarizing the spirit and message of the song: never give up on fighting because this life is worth living.

I’m surprised by how positive and happy, even childish. the melody ended up being. That’s not usually me! When I start humming a melody, in order to create a song, this tends to be melancholic and sad, but for this particular song, the melody was very joyful. I don’t really know why that happened, I think I was forcing myself a little to do something different or there might even exist a part of me that is happier than I’ve always thought, who knows! Either way, it remains one of my favorite songs as a songwriter, precisely for being different than usual, and, hopefully, maybe I get to write more positive songs in the future.

PRODUCTION

Little changes were made in the production for this song since it’s meant to have rather acoustic and minimalist instrumentation. Still, the demo was simpler and the producer added new textures and arpeggios that gave the song the character it needed. What I really like about the production, in this case, is the vocals we recorded. Four months had passed since I quit smoking and this was getting noticeable, not only for my voice but for my self-esteem. I’d say that these are some of the best vocals I’ve ever recorded and one of the best productions from that era. Definitely one of my favorite songs from the album The Ascending, both as production and composition.