Catch the spirit

The Director's Den

 Spirit of the West (the video) encapsulates the spirit that has long been a part of the American fascination with the discovery of a frontier just over the next horizon. With a run time 8.50 minutes The opening scenes (act 1) begins with a moon rise over a familiar western landscape. The closing scene (act 5) concludes with a sunset over the same western landscape. In between is a story of the people and places, and events that are a part of the spirit of the west.

If you really want to capture the spirit of the west just look into the eyes of the people in the video and see the stories and events that only they can tell. Listen to the selected music that occurs throughout the video. The eyes tell the story: the music evokes the emotions: and the picture are worth a thousand words (cinematography).

The video theme can be best summed up by two different quotations, one from a European and the other of a native American; two different cultures that are linked together as part of the spirit of the west.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes,
but in having new eyes”.

Marcel Proust

“And while I stood there I saw more than I understood more than I saw;
for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of things in the spirit.”

Black Elk

                                                                  Phillip