A Glimmer in the Eye Underneath a Vanilla Sky ...

The Art of the Visual Metaphor Meets the Art of Low-Budget, High-Message "Special" Effects

Cameron Crowe's Big Budget US-adaptation of Amenábar's *Obre los Ojos* makes use of massive green screen backgrounds and other physical, visual and digital effects, but the whole plot of this big-star narrative vehicle turns on this brief moment of fading life which is symbolized by the reflection of fading light. This plot-crucial moment of "what's been going on all along" revelation which makes use of, for all we know, nothing more expensive than an off-stage floodlight on a dimmer switch in the hands of a SAG-scale-minimum Key Grip.

A great deal of story-telling is captured in the glimmer-glow caught in the character's left eye.

"David" is committing "suicide" temporarily in this "lights out" moment, and the dimming twinkle represents the onset of unconsciousness leading to eventual death which leads to ... something else (no plot-spoilers here, but this isn't the end of the movie or the "life story" of Tom's character, so no sad tears are necessary).

For the aspiring film-maker on a fixed budget and severely unfixed income, this technique might be just the thing for a dramatic moment for pennies on the dollar of fancier, state-of-the-art effects.

A Thousand Words

Images serve the artist as representations of the macrocosm in microcosm ... especially, as I see them, in movies.