WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:07.000 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:11.000 ["Oedipus Rex"] NOTE Paragraph 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:18.000 ["The Lion King"] NOTE Paragraph 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:26.000 ["Titus"] NOTE Paragraph 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:43.000 ["Frida"] NOTE Paragraph 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:58.000 ["The Magic Flute"] NOTE Paragraph 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:06.000 ["Across The Universe"] NOTE Paragraph 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:20.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:22.000 Julie Taymor: Thank you. Thank you very much. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:25.000 That's a few samples of the theater, opera 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:28.000 and films that I have done over the last 20 years. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:30.000 But what I'd like to begin with right now 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:32.000 is to take you back to a moment 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:34.000 that I went through in Indonesia, 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:37.000 which is a seminal moment in my life 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:39.000 and, like all myths, 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.000 these stories need to be retold 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:43.000 and told, lest we forget them. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:46.000 And when I'm in the turbulent times, as we know, 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:49.000 that I am right now, through the crucible 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:51.000 and the fire of transformation, 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:54.000 which is what all of you do, actually. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:57.000 Anybody who creates knows there's that point where 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:02.000 it hasn't quite become the phoenix or the burnt char. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:04.000 (Laughter) 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:07.000 And I am right there on the edge, 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:09.000 which I'll tell you about, another story. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:10.000 I want to go back to Indonesia 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.000 where I was about 21, 22 years, a long time ago, 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:15.000 on a fellowship. 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:18.000 And I found myself, after two years there 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:21.000 and performing and learning, on the island of Bali, 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:25.000 on the edge of a crater, Gunung Batur. 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:28.000 And I was in a village where there was 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:31.000 an initiation ceremony for the young men, 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.000 a rite of passage. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:35.000 Little did I know that it was mine as well. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:38.000 And as I sat in this temple square 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:41.000 under this gigantic beringin banyan tree, 00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:46.000 in the dark, there was no electricity, just the full moon, 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:48.000 down in this empty square, 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:50.000 and I heard the most beautiful sounds, 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:52.000 like a Charles Ives concert 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.000 as I listened to the gamelan music 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:56.000 from all the different villagers that came 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:59.000 for this once-every-five-years ceremony. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:03.000 And I thought I was alone in the dark under this tree. 00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:05.000 And all of a sudden, out of the dark, 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:07.000 from the other end of the square, 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:11.000 I saw the glint of mirrors lit by the moon. 00:03:11.000 --> 00:03:15.000 And these 20 old men who I'd seen before 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:20.000 all of a sudden stood up in these full warrior costumes 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:23.000 with the headdress and the spears, 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:27.000 and no one was in the square, and I was hidden in the shadows. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.000 No one was there, and they came out, 00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:33.000 and they did this incredible dance. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:37.000 "Huhuhuhuhuhuhuhahahahaha." NOTE Paragraph 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:40.000 And they moved their bodies and they came forward, 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:43.000 and the lights bounced off these costumes. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:46.000 And I've been in theater since I was 11 years old, 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:49.000 and performing, creating, and I went, 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:51.000 "Who are they performing for 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:54.000 with these elaborate costumes, 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:56.000 these extraordinary headdresses?" 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:01.000 And I realized that they were performing for God, 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:03.000 whatever that means. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:07.000 But somehow, it didn't matter about the publicity. 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:09.000 There was no money involved. 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:12.000 It wasn't going to be written down. It was no news. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:14.000 And there were these incredible artists 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:18.000 that felt for me like an eternity as they performed. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:20.000 The next moment, 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.000 as soon as they finished and disappeared into the shadows, 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:27.000 a young man with a propane lantern came on, 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:29.000 hung it up on a tree, set up a curtain. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:32.000 The village square was filled with hundreds of people. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:35.000 And they put on an opera all night long. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.000 Human beings needed the light. 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:40.000 They needed the light to see. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.000 So what I gained and gathered from this incredible, 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:46.000 seminal moment in my life as a young artist 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.000 was that you must be true 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:53.000 to what you believe as an artist all the way through, 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:57.000 but you also have to be aware 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:00.000 that the audience is out there in our lives at this time, 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:02.000 and they also need the light. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.000 And it's this incredible balance 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:06.000 that I think that we walk 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.000 when we are creating something that is breaking ground, 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.000 that's trying to do something you've never seen before, 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:13.000 that imaginary world 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:17.000 where you actually don't know where you're going to end up, 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:20.000 that's the fine line on the edge of a crater 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.000 that I have walked my whole life. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:25.000 What I would like to do now is to tell you 00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:27.000 a little bit 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:29.000 about how I work. Let's take "The Lion King." 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:32.000 You saw many examples of my work up there, 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:34.000 but it's one that people know. NOTE Paragraph 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:36.000 I start with the notion of the ideograph. 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:40.000 An ideograph is like a brush painting, a Japanese brush painting. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:43.000 Three strokes, you get the whole bamboo forest. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:46.000 I go to the concept of "The Lion King" 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.000 and I say, "What is the essence of it? 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:49.000 What is the abstraction? 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:53.000 If I were to reduce this entire story 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:55.000 into one image, what would it be?" 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:58.000 The circle. The circle. It's so obvious. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:02.000 The circle of life. The circle of Mufasa's mask. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:07.000 The circle that, when we come to Act II and there's a drought, 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:08.000 how do you express drought? 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:12.000 It's a circle of silk on the floor 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:16.000 that disappears into the hole in the stage floor. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:18.000 The circle of life comes in the wheels 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:21.000 of the gazelles that leap. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:22.000 And you see the mechanics. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:26.000 And being a theater person, what I know and love about the theater 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:28.000 is that when the audience comes in 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:29.000 and they suspend their disbelief, 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:32.000 when you see men walking or women walking 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.000 with a platter of grass on their heads, 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:36.000 you know it's the savanna. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:37.000 You don't question that. 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:40.000 I love the apparent truth of theater. 00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:43.000 I love that people are willing to fill in the blanks. 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:45.000 The audience is willing to say, 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:48.000 "Oh, I know that's not a real sun. 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:51.000 You took pieces of sticks. 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:53.000 You added silk to the bottom. 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:56.000 You suspended these pieces. You let it fall flat on the floor. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:07:01.000 And as it rises with the strings, I see that it's a sun. 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:05.000 But the beauty of it is that it's just silk and sticks. 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:10.000 And in a way, that is what makes it spiritual. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:11.000 That's what moves you. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:15.000 It's not the actual literal sunrise that's coming. 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:17.000 It's the art of it. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:22.000 So in the theater, as much as the story is critical 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:24.000 and the book and the language, 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:29.000 the telling of the story, how it's told, 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.000 the mechanics, the methods that you use, 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:35.000 is equal to the story itself. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:38.000 And I'm one who loves high tech and low tech. 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.000 So I could go from -- 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:42.000 For instance, I'll show you some "Spider-Man" later, 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:45.000 these incredible machines that move people along. 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:48.000 But the fact is, without the dancer 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:50.000 who knows how to use his body and swing on those wires, 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:52.000 it's nothing. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:52.000 --> 00:07:55.000 So now I'm going to show you 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:59.000 some clips from the other big project of my life this year, 00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:00.000 "The Tempest." 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:05.000 It's a movie. I did "The Tempest" on a stage three times 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:08.000 in the theater since 1984, '86, 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:10.000 and I love the play. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.000 I did it always with a male Prospero. 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:14.000 And all of a sudden, I thought, 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:16.000 "Well, who am I gonna get to get to play Prospero? 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:20.000 Why not Helen Mirren? She's a great actor? Why not?" 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:23.000 And this material really did work for a woman equally as well. 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:26.000 So now, let's take a look at some of the images 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.000 from "The Tempest." NOTE Paragraph 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:33.000 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:48.000 (Video) Prospera: Hast thou, spirit, performed to the point the tempest that I bade thee? NOTE Paragraph 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:54.000 Ariel: I boarded the king's ship. In every cabin, I flamed amazement. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:00.000 Prospera: At first sight, they have changed eyes. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:01.000 Miranda: Do you love me? NOTE Paragraph 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:03.000 Ferdinand: Beyond all limit. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:05.000 HM: They are both in either's powers. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:10.000 Trinculo: Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:14.000 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:17.000 Looking for business, governor? NOTE Paragraph 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:19.000 Caliban: Hast thou not dropped from heaven? NOTE Paragraph 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:22.000 Stephano: Out of the moon, I do assure thee. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:24.000 Prospera: Caliban! NOTE Paragraph 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:26.000 Caliban: This island is mine. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:29.000 Prospera: For this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:33.000 Antonio: Here lies your brother no better than the earth he lies upon. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:35.000 Sebastian: Draw thy sword. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:38.000 And I, the king, shall love thee. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:44.000 Prospera: I will plague them all, even to roaring. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:50.000 Ariel: I have made you mad. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.000 Prospera: We are such stuff as dreams are made on. 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:04.000 and our little life is rounded with a sleep. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:09.000 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:12.000 JT: Okay. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:16.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:18.000 So I went from theater, doing "The Tempest" 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:21.000 on the stage in a very low-budget production 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:22.000 many years ago, 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:25.000 and I love the play, and I also think 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:27.000 it's Shakespeare's last play, 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:30.000 and it really lends itself, as you can see, to cinema. 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:33.000 But I'm just going to give you a little example about 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:35.000 how one stages it in theater 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.000 and then how one takes that same idea or story 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:42.000 and moves it into cinema. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:45.000 The ideograph that I talked to you about before, 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:47.000 what is it for "The Tempest?" 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:50.000 What, if I were to boil it down, 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:52.000 would be the one image that I could 00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:54.000 hang my hat on for this? 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:57.000 And it was the sand castle, 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:00.000 the idea of nurture versus nature, 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:02.000 that we build these civilizations -- 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:05.000 she speaks about it at the end, Helen Mirren's Prospera -- 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:11.000 we build them, but under nature, under the grand tempest. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:16.000 These cloud-capped towers, these gorgeous palaces will fade 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:20.000 and there will -- leave not a rack behind. NOTE Paragraph 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:23.000 So in the theater, I started the play, 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:26.000 it was a black sand rake, white cyc, 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:29.000 and there was a little girl, Miranda, on the horizon, 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:32.000 building a drip castle, a sand castle. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:35.000 And as she was there on the edge of that stage, 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.000 two stagehands all in black 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:43.000 with watering cans ran along the top 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:48.000 and started to pour water on the sand castle, 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:50.000 and the sand castle started to drip and sink, 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:52.000 but before it did, 00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:56.000 the audience saw the black-clad stagehands. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:01.000 The medium was apparent. It was banal. We saw it. 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:04.000 But as they started to pour the water, 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:07.000 the light changed from showing you the black-clad stagehands 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:11.000 to focusing, this rough magic that we do in theater, 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:14.000 it focused right on the water itself. 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:18.000 And all of a sudden, the audience's perspective changes. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:22.000 It becomes something magically large. 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:25.000 It becomes the rainstorm. 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:28.000 The masked actors, the puppeteers, they disappear, 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:31.000 and the audience makes that leap into this world, 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:36.000 into this imaginary world of "The Tempest" actually happening. NOTE Paragraph 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:37.000 Now the difference 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:40.000 when I went and did it in the cinema, 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:42.000 I started the actual movie 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:47.000 with a close-up of a sand castle, a black sand castle, 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:49.000 and what cinema can do is, 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:53.000 by using camera, perspective, 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:56.000 and also long shots and close-ups, 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:58.000 it started on a close-up of the sand castle, 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:00.000 and as it pulled away, 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:03.000 you saw that it was a miniature sitting in the palm 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:05.000 of the girl's hands. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:06.000 And so I could play with the medium, 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:09.000 and why I move from one medium to another 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:11.000 is to be able to do this. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:13.000 Now I'm going to take you to "Spider-Man." NOTE Paragraph 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:17.000 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:47.000 (Video) Peter Parker: ♪ Standing on the precipice, 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:52.000 I can soar away from this. ♪ NOTE Paragraph 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:54.000 JT: We're trying to do everything in live theater 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:56.000 that you can't do in two dimensions 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:58.000 in film and television. NOTE Paragraph 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:02.000 PP: ♪ Rise above yourself and take control. ♪ NOTE Paragraph 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:06.000 George Tsypin: We're looking at New York from a Spider-Man point of view. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:08.000 Spider-Man is not bound by gravity. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.000 Manhattan in the show is not bound by gravity either. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:15.000 PP: ♪ Be yourself and rise above it all. ♪ NOTE Paragraph 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.000 Ensemble: ♪ Sock. Pow. 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:22.000 Slam. Scratch. ♪ NOTE Paragraph 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:24.000 Danny Ezralow: I don't want you to even think there's a choreographer. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:25.000 It's real what's happening. 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:28.000 I prefer you to see people moving, 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:30.000 and you're going, "Whoa, what was that?" NOTE Paragraph 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:43.000 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:45.000 JT: If I give enough movement in the sculpture, 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:48.000 and the actor moves their head, you feel like it's alive. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:51.000 It's really comic book live. It's a comic book coming alive. NOTE Paragraph 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:58.000 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:14:58.000 --> 00:14:59.000 Bono: They're mythologies. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:03.000 They're modern myths, these comic book heroes. NOTE Paragraph 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:09.000 PP: ♪ They believe. ♪ NOTE Paragraph 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:13.000 (Screams) NOTE Paragraph 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:18.000 (Music) NOTE Paragraph 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.000 (Applause) NOTE Paragraph 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:37.000 JT: Ohhhh. What was that? 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:39.000 Circus, rock 'n' roll, drama. 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:42.000 What the hell are we doing up there on that stage? NOTE Paragraph 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:45.000 Well, one last story, very quickly. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:48.000 After I was in that village, I crossed the lake, 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:51.000 and I saw that the volcano was erupting 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:53.000 on the other side, Gunung Batur, 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:56.000 and there was a dead volcano next to the live volcano. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:58.000 I didn't think I'd be swallowed by the volcano, 00:15:58.000 --> 00:15:59.000 and I am here. 00:15:59.000 --> 00:16:03.000 But it's very easy to climb up, is it not? 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:05.000 You hold on to the roots, 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:08.000 you put your foot in the little rocks 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.000 and climb up there, and you get to the top, 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:13.000 and I was with a good friend who was an actor, 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.000 and we said, "Let's go up there. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:17.000 Let's see if we can come close to the edge 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:19.000 of that live volcano." 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:22.000 And we climbed up and we got to the very top, 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:24.000 and we're on the edge, on this precipice, 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:27.000 Roland disappears into the sulfur smoke 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:29.000 at the volcano at the other end, 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:31.000 and I'm up there alone 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:33.000 on this incredible precipice. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:35.000 Did you hear the lyrics? 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:37.000 I'm on the precipice looking down 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:40.000 into a dead volcano to my left. 00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:43.000 To my right is sheer shale. It's coming off. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:47.000 I'm in thongs and sarongs. It was many years ago. 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:49.000 And no hiking boots. 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:53.000 And he's disappeared, this mad French gypsy actor, 00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:56.000 off in the smoke, and I realize, 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:00.000 I can't go back the way that I've come. I can't. NOTE Paragraph 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:05.000 So I throw away my camera. I throw away my thongs, 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:08.000 and I looked at the line straight in front of me, 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:12.000 and I got down on all fours like a cat, 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:15.000 and I held with my knees to either side 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:17.000 of this line in front of me, 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:20.000 for 30 yards or 30 feet, I don't know. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:23.000 The wind was massively blowing, 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:26.000 and the only way I could get to the other side 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:29.000 was to look at the line straight in front of me. NOTE Paragraph 00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:31.000 I know you've all been there. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:33.000 I'm in the crucible right now. 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:35.000 It's my trial by fire. 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:37.000 It's my company's trials by fire. 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:41.000 We survive because our theme song is "Rise Above." 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:44.000 Boy falls from the sky, rise above. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:47.000 It's right there in the palm of both of our hands, 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:48.000 of all of my company's hands. 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:52.000 I have beautiful collaborators, and we as creators 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:54.000 only get there all together. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:56.000 I know you understand that. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:58.000 And you just stay going forward, 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:01.000 and then you see this extraordinary thing 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:03.000 in front of your eyes. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:04.000 Thank you. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:09.000 (Applause)