Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge
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0:01 - 0:07(Music)
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0:07 - 0:11["Oedipus Rex"]
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0:15 - 0:18["The Lion King"]
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0:22 - 0:26["Titus"]
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0:37 - 0:43["Frida"]
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0:53 - 0:58["The Magic Flute"]
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1:00 - 1:06["Across The Universe"]
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1:15 - 1:20(Applause)
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1:20 - 1:22Julie Taymor: Thank you. Thank you very much.
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1:22 - 1:25That's a few samples of the theater, opera
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1:25 - 1:28and films that I have done over the last 20 years.
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1:28 - 1:30But what I'd like to begin with right now
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1:30 - 1:32is to take you back to a moment
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1:32 - 1:34that I went through in Indonesia,
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1:34 - 1:37which is a seminal moment in my life
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1:37 - 1:39and, like all myths,
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1:39 - 1:41these stories need to be retold
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1:41 - 1:43and told, lest we forget them.
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1:43 - 1:46And when I'm in the turbulent times, as we know,
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1:46 - 1:49that I am right now, through the crucible
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1:49 - 1:51and the fire of transformation,
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1:51 - 1:54which is what all of you do, actually.
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1:54 - 1:57Anybody who creates knows there's that point where
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1:57 - 2:02it hasn't quite become the phoenix or the burnt char.
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2:02 - 2:04(Laughter)
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2:04 - 2:07And I am right there on the edge,
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2:07 - 2:09which I'll tell you about, another story.
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2:09 - 2:10I want to go back to Indonesia
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2:10 - 2:14where I was about 21, 22 years, a long time ago,
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2:14 - 2:15on a fellowship.
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2:15 - 2:18And I found myself, after two years there
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2:18 - 2:21and performing and learning, on the island of Bali,
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2:21 - 2:25on the edge of a crater, Gunung Batur.
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2:25 - 2:28And I was in a village where there was
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2:28 - 2:31an initiation ceremony for the young men,
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2:31 - 2:33a rite of passage.
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2:33 - 2:35Little did I know that it was mine as well.
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2:35 - 2:38And as I sat in this temple square
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2:38 - 2:41under this gigantic beringin banyan tree,
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2:41 - 2:46in the dark, there was no electricity, just the full moon,
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2:46 - 2:48down in this empty square,
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2:48 - 2:50and I heard the most beautiful sounds,
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2:50 - 2:52like a Charles Ives concert
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2:52 - 2:54as I listened to the gamelan music
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2:54 - 2:56from all the different villagers that came
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2:56 - 2:59for this once-every-five-years ceremony.
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2:59 - 3:03And I thought I was alone in the dark under this tree.
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3:03 - 3:05And all of a sudden, out of the dark,
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3:05 - 3:07from the other end of the square,
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3:07 - 3:11I saw the glint of mirrors lit by the moon.
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3:11 - 3:15And these 20 old men who I'd seen before
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3:15 - 3:20all of a sudden stood up in these full warrior costumes
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3:20 - 3:23with the headdress and the spears,
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3:23 - 3:27and no one was in the square, and I was hidden in the shadows.
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3:27 - 3:29No one was there, and they came out,
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3:29 - 3:33and they did this incredible dance.
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3:33 - 3:37"Huhuhuhuhuhuhuhahahahaha."
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3:37 - 3:40And they moved their bodies and they came forward,
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3:40 - 3:43and the lights bounced off these costumes.
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3:43 - 3:46And I've been in theater since I was 11 years old,
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3:46 - 3:49and performing, creating, and I went,
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3:49 - 3:51"Who are they performing for
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3:51 - 3:54with these elaborate costumes,
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3:54 - 3:56these extraordinary headdresses?"
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3:56 - 4:01And I realized that they were performing for God,
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4:01 - 4:03whatever that means.
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4:03 - 4:07But somehow, it didn't matter about the publicity.
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4:07 - 4:09There was no money involved.
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4:09 - 4:12It wasn't going to be written down. It was no news.
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4:12 - 4:14And there were these incredible artists
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4:14 - 4:18that felt for me like an eternity as they performed.
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4:18 - 4:20The next moment,
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4:20 - 4:24as soon as they finished and disappeared into the shadows,
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4:24 - 4:27a young man with a propane lantern came on,
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4:27 - 4:29hung it up on a tree, set up a curtain.
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4:29 - 4:32The village square was filled with hundreds of people.
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4:32 - 4:35And they put on an opera all night long.
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4:35 - 4:37Human beings needed the light.
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4:37 - 4:40They needed the light to see.
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4:40 - 4:43So what I gained and gathered from this incredible,
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4:43 - 4:46seminal moment in my life as a young artist
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4:46 - 4:49was that you must be true
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4:49 - 4:53to what you believe as an artist all the way through,
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4:53 - 4:57but you also have to be aware
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4:57 - 5:00that the audience is out there in our lives at this time,
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5:00 - 5:02and they also need the light.
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5:02 - 5:04And it's this incredible balance
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5:04 - 5:06that I think that we walk
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5:06 - 5:09when we are creating something that is breaking ground,
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5:09 - 5:12that's trying to do something you've never seen before,
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5:12 - 5:13that imaginary world
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5:13 - 5:17where you actually don't know where you're going to end up,
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5:17 - 5:20that's the fine line on the edge of a crater
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5:20 - 5:22that I have walked my whole life.
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5:22 - 5:25What I would like to do now is to tell you
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5:25 - 5:27a little bit
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5:27 - 5:29about how I work. Let's take "The Lion King."
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5:29 - 5:32You saw many examples of my work up there,
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5:32 - 5:34but it's one that people know.
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5:34 - 5:36I start with the notion of the ideograph.
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5:36 - 5:40An ideograph is like a brush painting, a Japanese brush painting.
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5:40 - 5:43Three strokes, you get the whole bamboo forest.
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5:43 - 5:46I go to the concept of "The Lion King"
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5:46 - 5:48and I say, "What is the essence of it?
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5:48 - 5:49What is the abstraction?
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5:49 - 5:53If I were to reduce this entire story
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5:53 - 5:55into one image, what would it be?"
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5:55 - 5:58The circle. The circle. It's so obvious.
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5:58 - 6:02The circle of life. The circle of Mufasa's mask.
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6:02 - 6:07The circle that, when we come to Act II and there's a drought,
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6:07 - 6:08how do you express drought?
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6:08 - 6:12It's a circle of silk on the floor
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6:12 - 6:16that disappears into the hole in the stage floor.
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6:16 - 6:18The circle of life comes in the wheels
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6:18 - 6:21of the gazelles that leap.
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6:21 - 6:22And you see the mechanics.
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6:22 - 6:26And being a theater person, what I know and love about the theater
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6:26 - 6:28is that when the audience comes in
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6:28 - 6:29and they suspend their disbelief,
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6:29 - 6:32when you see men walking or women walking
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6:32 - 6:34with a platter of grass on their heads,
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6:34 - 6:36you know it's the savanna.
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6:36 - 6:37You don't question that.
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6:37 - 6:40I love the apparent truth of theater.
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6:40 - 6:43I love that people are willing to fill in the blanks.
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6:43 - 6:45The audience is willing to say,
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6:45 - 6:48"Oh, I know that's not a real sun.
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6:48 - 6:51You took pieces of sticks.
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6:51 - 6:53You added silk to the bottom.
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6:53 - 6:56You suspended these pieces. You let it fall flat on the floor.
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6:56 - 7:01And as it rises with the strings, I see that it's a sun.
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7:01 - 7:05But the beauty of it is that it's just silk and sticks.
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7:05 - 7:10And in a way, that is what makes it spiritual.
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7:10 - 7:11That's what moves you.
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7:11 - 7:15It's not the actual literal sunrise that's coming.
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7:15 - 7:17It's the art of it.
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7:17 - 7:22So in the theater, as much as the story is critical
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7:22 - 7:24and the book and the language,
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7:24 - 7:29the telling of the story, how it's told,
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7:29 - 7:32the mechanics, the methods that you use,
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7:32 - 7:35is equal to the story itself.
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7:35 - 7:38And I'm one who loves high tech and low tech.
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7:38 - 7:40So I could go from --
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7:40 - 7:42For instance, I'll show you some "Spider-Man" later,
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7:42 - 7:45these incredible machines that move people along.
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7:45 - 7:48But the fact is, without the dancer
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7:48 - 7:50who knows how to use his body and swing on those wires,
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7:50 - 7:52it's nothing.
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7:52 - 7:55So now I'm going to show you
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7:55 - 7:59some clips from the other big project of my life this year,
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7:59 - 8:00"The Tempest."
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8:00 - 8:05It's a movie. I did "The Tempest" on a stage three times
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8:05 - 8:08in the theater since 1984, '86,
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8:08 - 8:10and I love the play.
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8:10 - 8:13I did it always with a male Prospero.
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8:13 - 8:14And all of a sudden, I thought,
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8:14 - 8:16"Well, who am I gonna get to play Prospero?
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8:16 - 8:20Why not Helen Mirren? She's a great actor. Why not?"
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8:20 - 8:23And this material really did work for a woman equally as well.
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8:23 - 8:26So now, let's take a look at some of the images
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8:26 - 8:28from "The Tempest."
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8:28 - 8:33(Music)
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8:45 - 8:48(Video) Prospera: Hast thou, spirit, performed to the point the tempest that I bade thee?
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8:48 - 8:54Ariel: I boarded the king's ship. In every cabin, I flamed amazement.
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8:57 - 9:00Prospera: At first sight, they have changed eyes.
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9:00 - 9:01Miranda: Do you love me?
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9:01 - 9:03Ferdinand: Beyond all limit.
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9:03 - 9:05HM: They are both in either's powers.
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9:05 - 9:10Trinculo: Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
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9:10 - 9:14(Music)
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9:14 - 9:17Looking for business, governor?
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9:17 - 9:19Caliban: Hast thou not dropped from heaven?
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9:19 - 9:22Stephano: Out of the moon, I do assure thee.
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9:22 - 9:24Prospera: Caliban!
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9:24 - 9:26Caliban: This island is mine.
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9:26 - 9:29Prospera: For this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps.
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9:29 - 9:33Antonio: Here lies your brother no better than the earth he lies upon.
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9:33 - 9:35Sebastian: Draw thy sword.
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9:35 - 9:38And I, the king, shall love thee.
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9:38 - 9:44Prospera: I will plague them all, even to roaring.
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9:46 - 9:50Ariel: I have made you mad.
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9:56 - 9:59Prospera: We are such stuff as dreams are made on.
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9:59 - 10:04and our little life is rounded with a sleep.
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10:04 - 10:09(Music)
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10:09 - 10:12JT: Okay.
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10:12 - 10:16(Applause)
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10:16 - 10:18So I went from theater, doing "The Tempest"
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10:18 - 10:21on the stage in a very low-budget production
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10:21 - 10:22many years ago,
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10:22 - 10:25and I love the play, and I also think
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10:25 - 10:27it's Shakespeare's last play,
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10:27 - 10:30and it really lends itself, as you can see, to cinema.
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10:30 - 10:33But I'm just going to give you a little example about
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10:33 - 10:35how one stages it in theater
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10:35 - 10:39and then how one takes that same idea or story
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10:39 - 10:42and moves it into cinema.
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10:42 - 10:45The ideograph that I talked to you about before,
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10:45 - 10:47what is it for "The Tempest"?
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10:47 - 10:50What, if I were to boil it down,
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10:50 - 10:52would be the one image that I could
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10:52 - 10:54hang my hat on for this?
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10:54 - 10:57And it was the sand castle,
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10:57 - 11:00the idea of nurture versus nature,
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11:00 - 11:02that we build these civilizations --
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11:02 - 11:05she speaks about it at the end, Helen Mirren's Prospera --
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11:05 - 11:11we build them, but under nature, under the grand tempest,
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11:11 - 11:16these cloud-capped towers, these gorgeous palaces will fade
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11:16 - 11:20and there will -- leave not a rack behind.
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11:20 - 11:23So in the theater, I started the play,
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11:23 - 11:26it was a black sand rake, white cyc,
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11:26 - 11:29and there was a little girl, Miranda, on the horizon,
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11:29 - 11:32building a drip castle, a sand castle.
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11:32 - 11:35And as she was there on the edge of that stage,
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11:35 - 11:39two stagehands all in black
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11:39 - 11:43with watering cans ran along the top
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11:43 - 11:48and started to pour water on the sand castle,
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11:48 - 11:50and the sand castle started to drip and sink,
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11:50 - 11:52but before it did,
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11:52 - 11:56the audience saw the black-clad stagehands.
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11:56 - 12:01The medium was apparent. It was banal. We saw it.
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12:01 - 12:04But as they started to pour the water,
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12:04 - 12:07the light changed from showing you the black-clad stagehands
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12:07 - 12:11to focusing, this rough magic that we do in theater,
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12:11 - 12:14it focused right on the water itself.
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12:14 - 12:18And all of a sudden, the audience's perspective changes.
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12:18 - 12:22It becomes something magically large.
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12:22 - 12:25It becomes the rainstorm.
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12:25 - 12:28The masked actors, the puppeteers, they disappear,
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12:28 - 12:31and the audience makes that leap into this world,
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12:31 - 12:36into this imaginary world of "The Tempest" actually happening.
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12:36 - 12:37Now the difference
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12:37 - 12:40when I went and did it in the cinema,
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12:40 - 12:42I started the actual movie
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12:42 - 12:47with a close-up of a sand castle, a black sand castle,
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12:47 - 12:49and what cinema can do is,
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12:49 - 12:53by using camera, perspective,
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12:53 - 12:56and also long shots and close-ups,
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12:56 - 12:58it started on a close-up of the sand castle,
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12:58 - 13:00and as it pulled away,
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13:00 - 13:03you saw that it was a miniature sitting in the palm
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13:03 - 13:05of the girl's hands.
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13:05 - 13:06And so I could play with the medium,
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13:06 - 13:09and why I move from one medium to another
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13:09 - 13:11is to be able to do this.
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13:11 - 13:13Now I'm going to take you to "Spider-Man."
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13:13 - 13:17(Music)
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13:44 - 13:47(Video) Peter Parker: ♪ Standing on the precipice,
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13:47 - 13:52I can soar away from this. ♪
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13:52 - 13:54JT: We're trying to do everything in live theater
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13:54 - 13:56that you can't do in two dimensions
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13:56 - 13:58in film and television.
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13:58 - 14:02PP: ♪ Rise above yourself and take control. ♪
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14:02 - 14:06George Tsypin: We're looking at New York from a Spider-Man point of view.
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14:06 - 14:08Spider Man is not bound by gravity.
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14:08 - 14:11Manhattan in the show is not bound by gravity either.
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14:11 - 14:15PP: ♪ Be yourself and rise above it all. ♪
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14:15 - 14:19Ensemble: ♪ Sock! Pow! ♪
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14:19 - 14:22♪ Slam! Scratch! ♪
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14:22 - 14:24Danny Ezralow: I don't want you to even think there's a choreographer.
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14:24 - 14:25It's real, what's happening.
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14:25 - 14:28I prefer you to see people moving,
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14:28 - 14:30and you're going, "Whoa, what was that?"
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14:30 - 14:43(Music)
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14:43 - 14:45JT: If I give enough movement in the sculpture,
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14:45 - 14:48and the actor moves their head, you feel like it's alive.
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14:48 - 14:51It's really comic book live. It's a comic book coming alive.
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14:51 - 14:58(Music)
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14:58 - 14:59Bono: They're mythologies.
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14:59 - 15:03They're modern myths, these comic book heroes.
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15:03 - 15:09PP: ♪ They believe. ♪
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15:09 - 15:13(Screams)
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15:13 - 15:18(Music)
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15:30 - 15:33(Applause)
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15:33 - 15:37JT: Ohhhh. What was that?
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15:37 - 15:39Circus, rock 'n' roll, drama.
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15:39 - 15:42What the hell are we doing up there on that stage?
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15:42 - 15:45Well, one last story, very quickly.
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15:45 - 15:48After I was in that village, I crossed the lake,
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15:48 - 15:51and I saw that the volcano was erupting
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15:51 - 15:53on the other side, Gunung Batur,
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15:53 - 15:56and there was a dead volcano next to the live volcano.
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15:56 - 15:58I didn't think I'd be swallowed by the volcano,
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15:58 - 15:59and I am here.
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15:59 - 16:03But it's very easy to climb up, is it not?
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16:03 - 16:05You hold on to the roots,
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16:05 - 16:08you put your foot in the little rocks
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16:08 - 16:11and climb up there, and you get to the top,
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16:11 - 16:13and I was with a good friend who was an actor,
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16:13 - 16:15and we said, "Let's go up there.
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16:15 - 16:17Let's see if we can come close to the edge
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16:17 - 16:19of that live volcano."
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16:19 - 16:22And we climbed up and we got to the very top,
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16:22 - 16:24and we're on the edge, on this precipice,
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16:24 - 16:27Roland disappears into the sulfur smoke
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16:27 - 16:29at the volcano at the other end,
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16:29 - 16:31and I'm up there alone
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16:31 - 16:33on this incredible precipice.
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16:33 - 16:35Did you hear the lyrics?
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16:35 - 16:37I'm on the precipice looking down
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16:37 - 16:40into a dead volcano to my left.
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16:40 - 16:43To my right is sheer shale. It's coming off.
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16:43 - 16:47I'm in thongs and sarongs. It was many years ago.
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16:47 - 16:49And no hiking boots.
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16:49 - 16:53And he's disappeared, this mad French gypsy actor,
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16:53 - 16:56off in the smoke, and I realize,
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16:56 - 17:00I can't go back the way that I've come. I can't.
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17:00 - 17:05So I throw away my camera. I throw away my thongs,
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17:05 - 17:08and I looked at the line straight in front of me,
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17:08 - 17:12and I got down on all fours like a cat,
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17:12 - 17:15and I held with my knees to either side
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17:15 - 17:17of this line in front of me,
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17:17 - 17:20for 30 yards or 30 feet, I don't know.
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17:20 - 17:23The wind was massively blowing,
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17:23 - 17:26and the only way I could get to the other side
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17:26 - 17:29was to look at the line straight in front of me.
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17:29 - 17:31I know you've all been there.
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17:31 - 17:33I'm in the crucible right now.
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17:33 - 17:35It's my trial by fire.
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17:35 - 17:37It's my company's trials by fire.
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17:37 - 17:41We survive because our theme song is "Rise Above."
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17:41 - 17:44Boy falls from the sky, rise above.
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17:44 - 17:47It's right there in the palm of both of our hands,
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17:47 - 17:48of all of my company's hands.
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17:48 - 17:52I have beautiful collaborators, and we as creators
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17:52 - 17:54only get there all together.
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17:54 - 17:56I know you understand that.
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17:56 - 17:58And you just stay going forward,
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17:58 - 18:01and then you see this extraordinary thing
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18:01 - 18:03in front of your eyes.
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18:03 - 18:04Thank you.
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18:04 - 18:09(Applause)
- Title:
- Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge
- Speaker:
- Julie Taymor
- Description:
-
Showing spectacular clips from productions such as Frida, The Tempest and The Lion King, director Julie Taymor describes a life spent immersed in theater and the movies. Filmed right as controversy over her Broadway production of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was at its peak, she candidly describes the tensions inherent within her creative process, as she strives both to capture the essence of a story--and produce images and experiences unlike anything else.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 18:28
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge | ||
Jenny Zurawell edited English subtitles for Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for Spider-Man, The Lion King and life on the creative edge |