Posing at the Posies

It sounds like a stretch, but moshing is a lot like moviemaking. No, really...

by Kelly Hughes | Published February 3, 1994

Chances are you live  in Seattle, so you know what moshing is. I knew, too- sort of. Moshing, I discovered, is a kinder, gentler slam dance.

I moshed for the first time at a Posies concert in December. I didn't plan on it, but when you've just turned 30 you suddenly fear that organized public groping may be the closest thing to a date you'll have from now on.

So I endured the two opening bands and The Posies came on and I put my earplugs back in and elbowed my way into the mosh pit. The pit was packed and people were bumping into me. It was kind of like Christmas shopping, only with different background music. And then we started passing people overhead and everyone had this glow on their face, like they were shoveling coal. It was a groovy, wonderful thing and I came to several conclusions:

1. Bumping into people is rude unless you call it moshing.

2. Moshing is the safe sex of The 90's. 3. Moshing is a lot like moviemaking. It starts with someone bumping into you. That gets your attention. That's what you've got to do to your audience. Visually bump into them. Make them take notice. James Bond movies start out that way. Bond is hanging from a helicopter or skiing down a dangerously steep slope. If it's a Lethal Weapon movie, they're detonating a bomb. Love or hate the movies, they do claim your attention.

Or this movie I just rented, Scanners, has a guy's head blow off during a psychic demonstration. That caught my eye. Or an ultra-low budget Lucky Charm Award entry I just saw. A woman comes home early and catches her husband in bed- with a clown. It was silly. But it grabbed me.

The next part of moshing is when another person pushes you back. Consider this your audience reacting. If you’re not getting a reaction, something's not working. You can only find this out by showing your work to someone. Enter it in a festival. Show it to a distributor. I don't recommend showing your work to friends.   They're either too judgmental or too accepting. Show it to a colleague, someone else who makes videos or films on a regular basis. Avoid people who badmouth your work. It takes more expertise to appreciate the good qualities than it does to attack the shortcomings.

Now comes the sweat part. Moshing is a sweaty, sensual experience. I can think of at least three senses involved (and twice as many body parts.) Movies should be thus driven. Not necessarily in a Basic Instinct or 9 1/2 Weeks sort of way. I'm not saying your production has to be soft-core porn (although that seems to be the marketable thing in Hollywood lately.) I'm saying your project should have a sense of urgency. Stir something in your audience's brain and loins. Give them a reason not to change the channel or go buy popcorn. Overload their sensory perception until they float into the air like sacrificed 30year-olds in Logan's Run, exploding with delight in midair.

I saw this movie called Phantasm II the other night. The hero was being chased around by dwarfs in hooded robes. The hoods covered their faces. I imagined the worst. Then the trademark Phantasm ball flew through the air with a whooshing sound. It's a shiny silver ball with knives that lodge into the victim's forehead while a drill invades the person's brain. It's gory, but the shiny silver ball looks like a Christmas tree ornament and the red brain blood that sprays out of the ball is downright Yulelike. The scene tingled my senses in unexpected ways. I was horrified, yet swept up in its glamour at the same time. A feast of sights and sounds. And the bottom line is, that's all you have to work with- audio and video. I could write a book on the under-use of sound in movies, so I'll cut it short here and say there are few movies that can't be enhanced by a few moshing tunes thrown in.

So let's talk bout LSD movies. Have you ever seen The Trip? In it, Peter Fonda drops acid and hallucinates. The acid trip special effects are really cheesy- kaleidoscope issues/03/images, distortion lens. The music's cheesy too, but it works. The whole movie works because the moviemakers set a consistent mood. And what is moshing if not a hip mood, a happening state of mind? A movie doesn't have to be about drugs to have a druglike effect. Your audience should always get a buzz off your work.

And finally, let's discuss climaxing. The story's almost over. You've made your audience laugh a little, squirm, cry- whatever. You've suspended their interest like a mosher suspended by the cold hands of the pit dwellers. You've carried them to the stage and they're ready to take that big dive into the audience. This is your climax. And the question is, will it be a successful dive?   If not- if no one catches our trusting mosher-   if he misses the outstretched, groping hands, he'll hit the floor face first. Paralysis. In your movie, when you present your climax, when you take that big jump, if you haven't primed your audience, gathered them into a writhing mass of groping love hands, they'll let you fall to the ground and move to the next body. Moshers and audiences are nice- to a point. United they stand, divided you fall. MM

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