Zeecon

Watching Robert Downey Jr. in the very first Iron Man film, you’re not just watching an actor producing a definitive portrayal that is impossible to imagine someone else replacing it, you’re actually watching Robert Downey Jr. cementing his legacy as a bankable star with the very first block buster in his entire slate of movies. But behind all the flawless dialogue deliveries, inimitable movements and the complete embodiment of his characters, there’s a haunting backstory…, of Robert Downey Jr. vs. Robert Downey Jr. He made his acting debut at the age of five in 1970, but it wasn’t until 1985 that he got a big break as one of the young cast members on Saturday Night Live. The cast’s comedic talents were highly criticized, the show garnered poor ratings and everybody was dropped and replaced. To make matters worse, Rolling Stone gave the following review to the final product ‘Downey fail sums up everything that makes SNL great’. A few years down the road, Downey was cast in the 1992 film ‘Chaplin’ as the titular character, Charlie Chaplin himself. Chaplin was one of those icons in the world that no one thought could be re-created on film, but here he was, portrayed by someone who didn’t really stood out as the first choice to play him by the studios that wanted either Robin Williams or Billy Crystal. They even imagined the always lovable Jim Carrey to play Chaplin, but director Richard Attenborough was adamant on casting Downey as perhaps he saw what we now get to see. An actor portraying another actor with such unprecedented believability that Attenborough ended the film with archive footage of Chaplin himself to give you some sort of a tease comparison between Downey and Chaplin. Needless to say, Downey ended up with his very first Academy Award nomination and even though he lost out to Al Pacino that year, he solidified himself as an extravagant force on the screen. Downey continued to garner prestige with his unusually arresting performances throughout his career, but oddly enough, even after pilling up countless movies and playing numerous memorable characters, he still hadn’t had a real block buster on his resume. Fast forward 16 years to 2008 and it was finally time for Downey to star in his very first box office shattering multi-million dollar project, Iron Man that proved to be the foundation for The Avengers that became a multi-billion dollar franchise in itself. The whole deal landed Downey topping the Forbes list of the highest paid actors for three consecutive years. Downey is at the peak point of his life, a point where it’s hard to imagine the very same guy who got busted by the cops on numerous occasions between 1999 and 2001 for substance abuse. Unimaginably, it was the age 6 when he first experienced marijuana to which he credits his own father. Downey believed that doing drugs with his father was the only way his father knew of expressing his love for Downey. His addiction took him through countless drug treatment programs unsuccessfully, finally confronting a judge in 1999 with the following statement ‘It's like I have a shotgun in my mouth, and I've got my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of the gun metal’. In the middle of Downey’s drug crisis, his career started to tumble, but he was able to salvage it with the chance to play a key role in the 2000 hit series, Ally McBeal. Moving on to securing an Emmy nomination for his work on the show, it seemed that Downey was back, but in the April of 2001, he was arrested yet again for suspicion of being under the influence of drugs. The producers of Ally McBeal ended up having rewrites for the show and made the call of firing Downey even though his presence proved crucial for the ratings. In the December of 2000, Downey’s stepmother gave an interview to People’s Magazine where she quoted that Downey had been diagnosed with bipolar disease and that makes it impossible for him to stay sober. Later on, in an interview to Esquire, Downey denied of ever being diagnosed and threw out any speculations of being depressed or manic. After five years of full on substance abuse, arrests, rehabs and relapses, Downey decided to give full recovery one more shot with the following thought “It's not that difficult to overcome these seemingly ghastly problems... what's hard is to decide to do it.” Downey was successful in keeping his promise and dragged himself out of his addiction for good. Mel Gibson who became a close friend of Downey’s at the time paid his insurance bond which landed him a role in 2003’s The Singing Detective which then paved his way towards now a cult classic ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’. Downey hit the highest note in his comeback journey with David Fincher’s Zodiac and then making his way into becoming Iron Man! Downey was finally back for good! My Official Website - http://zeeconstory.com/ Link to my novel 'Strange Nights' - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071YRC3QJ

When The Rock’s initial run in the WWE came to an end, it was when he suffered from his very first knee injury…, and even though he was playing a hero character, the audience had already turned on him and begun chanting what would be a major turning point, Rocky sucks! He finally came back to live television following months of rehabilitation and after the match in front of the thousands in attendance, The Rock grabbed a microphone, stood in the middle of the ring and addressed every single person in the arena ‘Rocky maybe a lot of things, but sucks isn’t one of them’. It was the moment that The Rock transitioned into a villainous character and about a month later, became the hottest heel in the company. Before Hollywood, before WWE, Dwayne’s first love…, was football. After being extremely successful, his performance declined due to an injury that stopped him from being the MVP he became. Being left out from the draft for the team he was playing at the time, Dwayne realized he’s got no choice but to look forward. Deciding to try out a career in wrestling, his father discouraged him as he was a wrestler himself and knew what kind of a toll it takes on a man and his family. But Dwayne was adamant on what he wanted. His father finally said yes under the condition that he would train Dwayne himself. Debuting under the ring name, Rocky Maivia, Dwayne was pushed heavily as a hero character despite of his inexperience in the business. After getting cheated out of his dream of becoming a footballer, things couldn’t have looked worst, the audience turned on him, he got injured and had to take the time off. When the moment finally came for Dwayne to return, he realized that it wasn’t him that the audience hated. It was him not being himself that the people despised..., and in that moment, Rocky died and The Rock was born. He went on to embrace all the hate being thrown at him and mold it into something to throw back at the audience and entertain them in a way that ‘The Rocky Sucks’ chants turned entirely into something else and he became one of the top faces of the company alongside the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin. He went on to win the heavy weight championship on numerous occasions, headlining countless PPVs, selling millions of dollars of merchandise and cementing his legacy as an unforgettable WWE superstar. A lot of people would say ‘What more is there for The Rock to accomplish?’ but this is not how his mind worked. After climbing the highest mountain in WWE, it was time for him to climb another mountain somewhere else. His very first acting job was on ‘That 70s show’ where he played a character of his own father. But it wasn’t until he played a small, but a vital role in The Mummy returns that he found an opening to what would be a record breaker in Hollywood. He played the lead character in The Scorpion King and made 5.5 million dollars which was completely unheard of for an actor playing his very first lead role. The Rock continued to climb the ladder by playing diverse characters in movies like The Game Plan, Tooth Fairy and Get Smart. Even though these movies were nowhere near groundbreaking, they established The Rock as an actor who’s unafraid in entertaining the audiences by his unpredictable choices alongside his predictable ones but impressive performances with Faster, Gridiron Gang and Fast 5. By the end of December 2013, Forbes named The Rock as the highest grossing actor of the year with his films bringing in a total of 1.3 billion dollars. Dwayne took his newly found love of filmmaking to the next level with his own production company ‘7 bucks’ which he named after the crisis he faced of not being drafted for the football team he was playing for. At the time, he only had 7 bucks in his pocket and knew only two things, ‘I’m broke and one day, I won’t be’. After reaping all the success in Hollywood, he came back to WWE for a dream match against the top guy at the time, John Cena. Their first confrontation at Wrestle-mania was epic in all size and proportions and even though their rematch wasn’t as enjoyable as the first one, they still gave us the rivalry that will stand the test of time. In the middle of 2017, Dwayne yet again captured the people’s imagination with his decision to run for the 2020’s Presidential campaign race. But it really doesn’t matter if he wins or not, he’s already created something that no other man will be able to replicate ever again. Every time you end up thinking about The Rock, don’t just think about how charismatic, powerful or successful he is. If you really want to take away something from what The Rock has created, take away this, The Rock went from an ambitious young man with shattered hopes and broken dreams to the man with everything in the world. My Official Website - http://zeeconstory.com/ Link to my novel 'Strange Nights' - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071YRC3QJ

How not to fall in love: Vol. 1 - https://youtu.be/aX8-8s3B9Do Back in October 2017, Lee had embraced this beautiful relation of friendship, love and understanding with Zara. His misery long gone, his depression locked away and his pain while still there, felt lighter. He went to sleep every night being happy, he woke up every morning feeling optimistic. On the other hand, Zara had found somebody who believed in her potential to go far and beyond of what a traditional society expects from a woman. She found somebody who could push her into becoming the best version of herself that she can be. Lee faced a hard time accepting the fact that now his professional and personal life, both were blooming. Everything felt too good to be true, damn near perfect and at the brink of collapsing. The mother of all cliché twists happens…, Lee finds out there’s another guy Zara was attracted to, employed at the same workplace…, Alan. When Lee and Zara’s relation was taking off, Alan was on vacation. But when he came back, he saw how close Lee and Zara had become and it started to bug him. Zara told Lee to be careful not to interact when Alan’s around as it made him jealous, but Lee couldn’t understand why, because Zara never told him the truth about Alan. Soon, Lee started noticing the kind of intimate interaction there was between Zara and Alan, but he tried to shove it away as Lee refused to believe that Zara would hide something like this from him. But as days went by, the truth became quite apparent. Lee found out Alan had already extended a marriage proposal to Zara which she was confused about. Compared to Lee, Alan was lacking intellect, financial status and the will to make it on his own without a supporting figure like Zara. Alan needed Zara to succeed in his life, yet he was very abusive towards her, not appreciating the value she had been adding to his life…, and Zara, even though being verbally abused by Alan every day, kept going back to him again and again. When all the dots were connected, Lee’s mind went into overdrive and he figured that perhaps Zara was never in love with Lee. She was merely attracted to all the lovable qualities in him which she desperately wanted Alan to develop. He figured that perhaps Alan comes across as more of a human being compared to Lee, as Alan knows how to have fun and live his life. While Lee comes across as more of a robot, shoving himself into so much work to take his mind off from how lonely he felt inside. Because no matter how deep Lee’s connection became with Zara, his pain still continued to live inside of him. One day, without any discussions, phone calls or mutual understanding, Lee subconsciously began to block Zara out of his life. He would try to speak less to her and avoid any eye contact wherever possible. Things became extremely hard for him, but his mind was adamant on what had to be done. Once Zara found out what Lee’s mind was doing to him, she asked him to stop it as she started to feel hurt. But Lee couldn’t help it, he just had to detox and lock away all the memories to move on. Upon hearing Lee’s response, a tear rolled down Zara’s cheek and time stopped for a moment. Lee felt like his detoxing had gone to a halt for a few seconds and he could use this window to ask Zara why she hid the truth from Lee. Zara became clueless, she had no idea her connection with Lee would grow this deep where they can’t see the other one leave. So Lee made it simple, he asked Zara the simplest of all questions about her abusive relation with Alan. What made her go back to him again and again even though it was making her miserable and depressed? Zara had no answer, she searched and searched her thoughts and feelings to cling onto something and bring back some sort of an answer, but she was nothing but blank. Lee looked her in the eyes and begged for an answer because when he doesn’t get the truth, he can’t stop overthinking and lay his thoughts to rest. His mind in fact makes up its own truth when not given the answers. Zara politely requested some time to find the answer to Lee’s simple yet an intensely complicated question for her. This is where Lee and Zara parted ways with the stipulation of connecting once again if only Zara can give what Lee wants…, and all that Lee wants…, is nothing..., but the truth… My Official Website - http://zeeconstory.com/ Link to my novel 'Strange Nights' - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071YRC3QJ

Imaginative, chaotic, restless..., the one word to describe the mind of Heath Ledger is perhaps, overdrive. His thought process was constantly on the go trying to figure out what to do next and once figured out, it was constantly on the go to find out how to do it. He longed to express himself with the aim to take his psyche apart piece by piece and recollect everything into something mind twisting. His journey of growing into the artist he became, leading up to creating an iconic character like the Joker in The Dark Knight, you can’t help but notice, there’s a strangely intriguing and haunting similarity between Heath Ledger and the Joker he created. Taking a closer look at his key projects, his first big break was ’10 Things I hate About You’. Following the film’s release, critics and audiences alike were won over by Ledger’s charm at work. But much to his displeasure, he started receiving lead roles similar to what he did in ’10 Things’ as he proved to be so good at it. This is where the industry found out that Ledger’s not the traditional leading actor they thought he was, turning down all these high profile roles being thrown his way as he despised the idea of repeating himself. Even a single thought of doing what he had already done before, felt like wasting time no matter how much money was being put on the table. Ledger wanted the thrill, the pleasure and the risk of creating something new every time he worked on a project which led to him taking on the lead role in ‘A Knight’s Tale’, the story of a peasant who poses as a Knight, competing in tournaments and winning accolades while stacking up friendships with historical figures. A Knight’s tale catapulted Ledger into unanticipated stardom with his face on the posters and the responsibility of promoting the film going from country to country, answering queries in a manner that entices the audiences to go and have a look at the movie. This is where Ledger realized the fame he got, wasn’t really something he wanted. As he continued to understand his own mind, he continued taking on roles that would extract some unusual performances out of him leading up to the biggest challenge of his life. He took on the role of Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, the story of a man who develops a complex romantic relation with another man. The film became a sleeper hit, stirring up numerous controversies and landing Ledger his very first Oscar nomination. Perhaps this is where the industry truly understood just what kind of an actor Heath Ledger really was as Rolling Stone gave the following review to his performance “Ledger doesn't just know how Ennis moves, speaks and listens; he knows how he breathes.” Three projects later, Ledger found out director Christopher Nolan had begun work on The Dark Knight and was looking to cast the next Joker. He immediately called his agent and got himself in the same room with Nolan where he was able to convince the mastermind to hand him over the daunting task of creating something that what exceed what Jack Nicholson had done with his own Joker 20 years ago. Ledger’s mind immediately went into overdrive where he locked himself away in a room for six weeks straight. The isolation gave him the necessary headspace to come up with different mannerisms for the Joker with an emphasis on his breath and how the tone of his voice would sound like. On the 18th of July, 2008, The Dark Knight was released and the world was blown away with what Ledger had created. A character never seen before in such shape and form infused with horror, terror and unpredictability every second of the way. This led to another Oscar nomination which he ultimately won and became the very first actor to win it for portraying a character in a comic book movie. Unexplainably, Ledger didn’t live through to see any of it, he didn’t live through to see the legend he had become, he didn’t live through to see the legacy he had given birth to. Ledger left the world in tears creating something that will never be forgotten in the cinematic history. Nolan perhaps wrote the perfect ending monologue to honor Ledger’s memory in the sequel to The Dark Knight spoken by Commissioner Gordon “I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts and in the hearts of their descendants…, generations hence. It is a far, far better thing that I do…, than I have ever done. It is a far, far better rest that I go to…, than I have ever known.” My Official Website - http://zeeconstory.com/ Link to my novel 'Strange Nights' - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071YRC3QJ

Back in December 2016, the digital marketing director of McDonald’s franchise in Dubai, who also happens to be my first cousin, suggested that I should also move to Dubai and find a company to work with which can further establish my career as a storyteller. But currently, I’m doing very well where I am, so why would I leave my native country and move to someplace that I just don’t know? But, just for the sake of an experience, I said to myself that if I could find a company that immensely entices me as a storyteller, then I would happily welcome the journey of finally moving out of Pakistan and moving into Dubai. Now here’s the thing you should know about me, I would never work with a company that’s only interested in making money and has no priority of impacting people’s lives even in some small amount that matters. This belief became my journey of finding a company that allows its employees to stay relaxed and gives them the freedom to tell incredibly inspiring stories with the main target of leaving a memorable impact. Fast forward a few days of exhaustive research and hell amounts of coffee, I stumbled upon a company called Tactical. Originally, Tactical was suppose to be the idea for an app that perhaps would have made millions for them. Unfortunately, the app idea didn't work out so well, but the learning curve gave them the boost to start out as a web and mobile agency. From there, Tactical became a creatively agile full service digital agency that has worked with brands like Mercedes Benz to further establish their digital presence. I started going through all their activities on their social media channels and by far, the most interesting I found was their Instagram page. Just take a look at the kind of Imagery they’re portraying to the world. They're fun, chilled out and immensely creative. It seems like Tactical really does allow the employees loads and loads of amount of freedom so they can become fully at ease and produce the best work possible. When a like-minded potential client would stumble upon their social media presence, they would instantly know that Tactical has the kind of people that they would love to interact with and get the job done. That is what Tactical believes in, getting the job done with fun like-minded people because otherwise they wouldn't be able to tackle the projects in the uniquely creative way that they know would best serve the client and their own desires to produce something meaningful. With all this information, I once again visited Tactical’s website and saw their golden words 'Not everything works out, but that's not always a bad thing'. I was instantly sold as I had found the perfect people to whom I can pitch to start a new YouTube channel for making video essays like these and further establish their presence through thoughtful and original content. Now came the most challenging part where I had to create a strategy through which I could approach Tactical and pitch them about how I can lead a new department about video essays and become an integral part at their company. Hence, the idea for this video was born where I have explained my journey of finding Tactical, what an amazing bunch of people work over there and how I would love to produce some awesome video essays with these guys. Tactical is one of those rare companies that would entice you to collaborate with them as a storyteller and so now, I’m immensely enticed to work with them as a storyteller. So if you’re a storyteller or a story lover yourself, I would highly recommend checking out Tactical’s Instagram page for which you can click the link here (https://www.instagram.com/wearetactical/). Until then, if you liked this story, be sure to share this with your friends and subscribe to my channel (https://goo.gl/cpdl88) so you can stay tuned to some storytelling goodness every now and then. In the hopes to connect with story lovers all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story - www.zeeconstory.com

It took dozens of prototypes, hundreds of crash simulations, thousands of hours of painstaking craftsmanship and an infinite reserve of patients to create something that looks, drives and thinks like nothing else on the road. This was the description that got me interested in taking a closer look at Mercedes Benz, a name that is rightfully linked to impeccable car designs. Many other names are manufacturing impeccable designs, but what’s so special about Mercedes Benz, is the power of its storytelling. Watching their commercials, you can undoubtedly say that Mercedes Benz deeply cares about the kind of stories which are portraying an incredible image for the cars it designs. Inevitably, there have been a few mediocre stories now and then, but nothing too intense that would rub off all the great stories they’ve told so far. So what drives Mercedes Benz to strive for great storytelling when clearly we live in a world where a lot of brands simply reach the top of the food chain with their messy stories and mediocre concepts? The answer lies in the life journey of the two men who found Mercedes Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. Although the two men never met each other, on June 28 1926, their respective companies that the two men helped ushered to greatness, agreed to sign a contract of merger and introduce to the world a new juggernaut in the making. You see, Gottlieb and Benz were intense creative thinkers who just couldn’t imagine about anything other than the ideas for cars and how they can not only raise the bar, but completely crush it. But in doing so, they faced numerous challenges from the companies they worked at and the companies they would go on to establish themselves. In the middle of 1883, Karl Benz was forced by the banks to incorporate his very first company due to its high production costs after which he was left with a share of five percent and the position of a director. But the worst thing happening to him was that his ideas were not being considered with the designs for new products which led to his frustration followed by his resignation from the company he himself built. When a similar scenario happened to Gottlieb and he had no choice but to incorporate his company called DMG, he tried to gain majority control of the company’s direction but failed. This led to him selling out his shares and resigning from his own company as well. After Benz’s resignation, his lifelong hobby of bicycles led him to meet the two owners of a little bicycle shop and from there they decided to launch a new company for manufacturing automobiles called Benz & Cie. From that point and onwards it was pretty much success and accomplishments down the road for Karl Benz as he would go on to establish another company side by side called Benz Sohne. As for Gottlieb, after he resigned from his company, he designed a new kind of an engine with the help of a collaborator that would go on to beat DMG’s cars in a race from Paris to Rouen. After the defeat, Gottlieb was offered a heavyweight position back into the company he built which he accepted along with 200,000 gold marks in shares. These two men were intellectual fighters with all their battles being about coming up with great ideas and having the control to make sure those ideas see the light of the day. The storytellers at Mercedes Benz clearly understand what Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler stood for and what image they meant to portray to the world about their psychology, mind and ideas. These storytellers took that image and successfully portrayed about how Mercedes Benz is unstoppable in crazy weathers and how nothing would make a driver more faithful to its car than a car more faithful to its driver. These stories are not just creative concepts out of the imagination of the storytellers at Mercedes Benz, but these are little pieces and fragments out of the imagination that belonged to the founders of Mercedes Benz. If you understand what the storytellers are trying to say, you will understand the vision that revolutionizes an industry forever. Watching the commercials by Mercedes Benz completely blew my mind. With the exception of few, they were beautifully written and perfectly executed. The power of these stories led me to the roots of Mercedes Benz which led me to admiring and look up to two new figures from the history. So if you’re a story lover, I definitely recommend checking out the history of Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler. Until then, if you liked this video, be sure to share this with your friends and subscribe to my channel (https://goo.gl/cpdl88) so you can stay tuned to some storytelling goodness every now and then. In the hopes of connecting with story lovers all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story. www.zeeconstory.com

Watching the McDonald’s commercials, the most intriguing thing I walked away with was that McDonald’s is generally not interested in advertising about how tasty or delicious their food is. Their main goal is always to resonate with different demographics by connecting the presence of McDonald’s with different relationships, moods and feelings. They’ve tried to connect themselves with love, happiness, fatherhood, motherhood, friendship and so on. Like most other brands, they didn’t really decide to settle on a consistent marketing style for their commercials, instead they chose to appeal to an audience in a way that if you’re with someone with whom you have a strong relationship, the first thing you’ll think about is spending time at McDonald’s having their food while further strengthening your bond with each other. If you ask me, that is pure genius, but the downside is that this approach resulted in a pile of tonally jumbled up commercials with no single vision to tie everything together in a coherent way that would tell you that all these stories came from the same brand. The only thing you have with which to connect these stories is the presence of the McDonald’s logo in these commercials and that’s it. So I began to wonder why is that, why it seems like McDonald’s is just not interested in tying together the artistic vision of these stories with which they connected with so many people around the world and became one of the largest brands in the food chain industry? If you begin the intriguing journey of reading about McDonald’s history up to this date, the image you will probably walk away with is that at the end of the day, the only thing McDonald’s cares about is just handing out burgers in your hand in the most effective way possible to maximize their revenues and cut down their costs. I never got the impression that they genuinely care about on a deeper level on how they appear to the critics and food lovers who don’t just like to experience the taste of their food but they also love to analyze their meal down to its finest details. McDonald’s obviously cared about it in the beginning because that laid the foundation of what McDonald’s would like to appear today but that was the end of it. McDonald’s is now one of those industry giants who will no matter make how many mistakes, the general food lovers will always go back there for more and more because obviously McDonald’s now has a very profound effect on them with the biggest thanks to these tonally jumbled up commercials. So the question is, why am I critiquing their commercials when in the end, they got the job done. They got the people to believe that McDonald’s is more than what it appears to be on a surface level. They got the people to believe that you’re not just having a McDonald’s burger, but you’re actually performing some necessary subconscious ritual which is always going to be a part of your life, no matter how small or big, but it is always going to be an integral part of it. I’m critiquing their commercials because as a film director and a storyteller, this is very disturbing to me that not only these commercials are tonally confused, but the storytelling of these commercials is not intriguing enough even if you watch the commercials separately as standalone stories. But even while critiquing their stories, we again have to look at the fact that they got job done of connecting with people. So despite of all the uninteresting narratives, they resonated with the world because they targeted the one thing that is most important to everybody and that is the relationship you have with the most important people in your life. So even though their storytelling is a complete mess, they perfectly executed their formula of getting their food from their shops into the hands of the general public. This perspective that I presented to you was not to criticize McDonald’s food or their image or anything like that, but it was simply to exhibit my own love as a filmmaker for great stories. Because no matter how uninteresting I think their stories are, there is so much that we can learn from them on a deeper level. So if you liked this video, be sure to leave something thought provoking about McDonald’s in the comments and subscribe to my channel so you can stay tuned to some storytelling philosophy every now and then. In the hopes to connect with story lovers all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story. http://zeeconstory.com/

Watching the film, Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind, you will perhaps walk away with the need to delete a few relationships from your own memory and I don’t mean just romantic relationships, but any relationship that has given you pain and suffering and made you miserable for a really long period in your life. Among all the crazy narrative choices, innovative visuals and unconventional story elements, the bare bones of this film was just about a weird romantic relationship between two wildly opposite people, the character of Clementine played by Kate Winslet and the character of Joel played by Jim Carry. Clementine falls in love with Joel because Joel perhaps has locked away a mysterious depth into his mind that Clementine wants to know about and Joel falls in love with Clementine because someone has shown immense amount of interest in knowing him. But here’s the most intriguing twist, whenever Clementine expresses her desire to further know about the depths of Joel’s mind, Joel tries to avoid the topic by answering that his life is just not interesting enough for her to really know anything about him. This becomes the driving motivator for the increasing conflict in their relationship and they begin to slowly resent each other. This got me interested in finding out any clues in the movie as to if Joel’s life really is uninteresting or does he have some dark secret that he doesn’t want to come out? There was a scene where Joel tries to hide the memory of Clementine someplace in his mind where it could remain safe and the memory erasing machine won’t be able to delete it. It was in this moment where Joel says that he just can’t think of any moment in his life without the presence of Clementine. So as it turns out that Joel’s life really was uninteresting and the only thing that made his life interesting was the presence of Clementine. So, Joel was scared that if Clementine finds out about this, she would have no reason to stay with Joel anymore and much to Joel’s unwillingness to open up, Clementine leaves anyway. Now Clementine hates Joel so much that she wants to delete him out of her memory which she does through this innovative process and when Joel finds out about this process, he wants to delete the memory of Clementine as well. But when the process begins to take effect and Clementine begins to disappear from Joel’s memory, he realizes that despite of all the hatred, he actually needs Clementine in his memory because of all the weird happy moments they spent together. This is where I realized the point that the filmmakers were trying to make that all the relationships that matter to you will always bring you pain at some point in your life, but there’s a bigger reason that these relationships became important to you in the first place and that reason is that these relationships give you meaning and purpose in life. When you think about getting rid of them because of some small amount of bad experience, you will realize that you actually need them and you can’t live without them and they’re the only reason for making your life interesting and meaningful to whatever extent possible. To support this theory just observe the intensely jumbled up narrative of this film, you can’t really seem to make out what happened before and what happened afterwards. The point of this narrative being jumbled up is that it doesn’t matter what happens before and after. You will always have fights and resentment towards your loved ones at one point or the other, but in the end what matters is the happiness and the incredible memories you get from these relationships and no matter what, you’re suppose to hold on to these memories because they make you who you are. No matter how much you try to run from who you are, at some point, you will have to change and become the best version of you that you can be and eventually learn to love yourself so you can let someone else in your life to love you and for you to love them back. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind is a film that will give you new perspectives of how you look at relationships in your own life. No matter how bad your relationships get, you will always decide to forget about everything and give your relationships another shot to thrive. So no matter if you have successful relationships or failed relationships in your life, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind is a film that you have to revisit time and time again. Until then, leave a thought provoking comment about how you look at relationships and subscribe to my channel to stay tuned for some fun film philosophy. In the hopes of connecting with film lovers all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story. http://zeeconstory.com/

Watching the first film from the Transformers franchise directed by Michael Bay, the most intriguing thing about the film was the element of horror. Michael Bay tried to connect the presence of Decepticons with the feeling of horror. Look at the scene at six minutes forty seconds where the unknown helicopter landed into a military base turns out to be a Decepticon. The most effective technique that Michael used to infuse horror in this scene is that he faded away all the music down and focused solely on sounds ranging from gun fire to screams and explosions. The impact of these sounds is further heightened by the presence of this huge Transformer who is on the rampage to kill and you can genuinely feel the fear of being on the location. Michael confidently uses the technique again at thirty nine minutes, forty 45 seconds into the movie where we witness a scorpion like Decepticon attacking yet again the soldiers who survived the first attack on their military base. We receive a third and the final dosage of horror at one hour, forty six minutes into the movie where Megatron is finally freed. But a key difference here compared to the previous two scenes is that Michael Bay didn’t fade away the music, instead he chose to keep it at a normal level. This didn’t really diminish the effect that Michael Bay was going for, but it didn’t either have the punch that the previous two scenes had. If you watch some of the behind the scenes for Transformers, you will come to appreciate the level of detail, love, care and time that Michael Bay and his team has invested into bringing these incredible Transformers to life so it’s no wonder that he thought very carefully about the effect that he wanted to convey to the audiences. But in all of Michael Bay’s effort to bring this incredible vision to life, there was something missing from the film which could have tied together the transformers, the element of horror and the story of this movie. The one element that he missed to integrate effectively was the presence of a great main character. The main character here is Sam Witwicky played by Shia Labouf and Shia has given a fantastically comedic and an energetic performance. You can see with scenes like these where he adds these little comedic gestures that make you feel that yes, Shia took the role seriously and infused as much imagination as he possibly could have. Michael Bay certainly tried to build a great character and Shia Labouf definitely tried to convey a brilliant personality with a scene in the film where Sam tries to talk his way into getting what he wants, which was an A grade on his family geology report. But that was it, there were no further attempts made into giving us an incredible main character with whom we would like to stick around for the whole duration of the movie. So why is that Michael Bay with all his imagination gave us a good movie, but missed out to give us a memorable main character? To figure this out, I began watching Michael Bay’s interviews about the Transformers film to find any clue as to why did he miss out on this crucial element? And after watching these interviews tirelessly again and again, the answer I got was that Michael Bay’s mind just doesn’t work that way. He is genuinely and subconsciously just not interested in delivering a great main character. The closest I came to finding out his thoughts about the lead actor was this where he doesn’t even mention Shia Labouf’s performance in this film, instead he simply mentions what a great actor Shia is. If you take a look at these interviews yourself, you will realize that the three things that Michael genuinely cared the most about having in this movie was a huge scope, realistic visual effects and big explosions. So among all the focus that he put on these three elements, he just genuinely missed out putting focus on creating a great character. But as I already mentioned that it was scenes like these where Sam Witwicky successfully talks his way into getting what he wants, tells us that somewhere in the back of Michael Bay’s mind, there was this genuinely incredible character that he just missed out to extract from his head onto the script and finally into the movie. But nevertheless, even though a great main character was missing, Michael was still able to hold our attention until the final frame of the movie and give us a genuinely enjoyable experience and time at the movies. Transformers is a movie that will be studied forever due to the sheer brilliance of its scope and visual effects, so if you’re a film lover yourself, then watching this film is well worth your time again and again. Until then, subscribe to my channel (https://goo.gl/cpdl88) to stay tuned for some film philosophy every Monday. In the hopes of connecting with film lovers all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story. http://zeeconstory.com/

Watching this scene from the film ‘catch me if you can’ where Tom Hanks’ character almost busts Leonardo Dicaprio’s character got me immensely fascinated with Dicaprio’s character called Frank. When Tom’s character called Carl bashes into the room and points a gun at Frank, Frank immediately begins to impersonate a new character to fool Carl with the level of confidence that you don’t get to experience much often. But I developed a deep interest in the scene not because of its entertainment value, but because of the incredible confidence that Frank displays here. I immediately wanted to identify the root of where Frank got this level of control? I went back to this scene at fourteen minutes, thirty seconds where Frank’s father is teaching him about believably conning people and then I went forward to this scene at eighteen minutes, thirty seconds where Frank’s father subconsciously feeds him about how high he’s suppose to fly in life. Then I went forward to nineteen minutes, thirty seconds where Frank steps into a classroom as a student but somebody calls out to him as a substitute teacher because of his getup and within seconds, Frank transits into the mind of a teacher and begins to con the whole classroom. This scene embodies everything that Frank’s father fed to his mind subconsciously and this embodiment is yet again on the display when Carl almost busts Frank, but Frank finds a way out and makes it look so easy that you can imagine yourself standing in Frank’s shoes and making a fool out of anybody that you want. But what’s equally interesting is that there’s a breaking point when it comes to Frank’s confidence with manipulating these situations to his advantage. Whenever there are emotional stakes on the line, Frank decides not to deal with them and avoid them altogether. The scene in the movie where Frank’s parents are getting divorced which he thought was impossible, Frank is given the choice to either stay with his father or his mother. He cares deeply about both of them, so which one is he suppose to go for? Instead of his mind working out a genius way to get his parents to stay together, Frank decides not to deal with this and run away from home. This tendency of running away was still on display with emotional stakes on the line where Frank is once again about to be busted by Carl, but this time he doesn’t just decide to run away by himself, instead he persuades his fiancé to run away with him. Now I got immensely interested in searching out any clues in the movie as to why Frank is so irrational when it comes to these emotional moments in his life. There was a scene when Frank sees his parents dancing together and he envisions an inseparable happy little family. But when his parents get divorced, he doesn’t know how to deal with this reality because he doesn’t want any other reality. The emotion part of his personality gets further complicated when Frank finds that his mother has married someone else and settled down into another happy life. This is the part where Frank figures that his way of life isn’t worth it anymore and what gets really interesting is that he wants his father to ask him to stop all of this fraud business and not much to my surprise, Frank’s father who perhaps has a much more complex mind than Frank, doesn’t ask Frank to stop and instead he further motivates Frank to fly even higher by any means necessary. This matter reaches its maximum level of complexity when Frank finds out that his father has passed away and now Frank doesn’t really know what to think about life anymore. But fortunately for Frank, Carl was there to watch Frank’s back and he successfully guides him back into having a new purpose in life. Now instead of Frank playing the fraud game, he will now work with the FBI to fight against the fraud game. So in the end, I learned that the divorce scenario was the reason for messing up Frank’s mind when it comes to handling emotional scenarios and so he gets this amazing level of confidence when his mind knows there are no emotional stakes on the line. During this scene where Carl almost busts Frank, if Frank had an emotional connection with Carl, then Frank would have never been able to outsmart Carl, but it is only by the end of the movie that these two develop a close friendship and work together from this point and onwards. Catch me if you can is an incredible film with an incredibly confident character, so if you’re looking to find some inspiration for gaining confidence to handle interesting situations, then I would highly recommend watching this film again and again while taking a closer look at Frank Abagnale Jr. Until then, subscribe to my channel to stay tuned for some film philosophy every Monday. In the hopes of connecting with film lovers all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story. http://zeeconstory.com/

I wanna talk about Norman Osborn from the very first Spider-man film and the thing that keeps ringing in my head. You probably left the movie with Peter’s narrative in your mind, but when I walked out of the movie, the thing which kept intriguing me was the bad guy of the story was much more of a victim rather than a villain. Before you witness him becoming a villain, you witness him becoming a victim. It is only when his life’s work is threatened, that he decides to embrace his dark side by volunteering as the first human subject for his super soldier like serum. The serum then messes with his brain and the dark side fully takes over. Then you finally see him as a villain with scenes like these where he kills the Army general and the board of directors of his company, Oscorp. But even though he commits these heinous acts, I was having a difficult time looking at him as a villain because these scenes felt like Norman was simply fighting to keep his company alive. The only problem here was the way he chose to do it with. Even when Norman attacks the poor old aunt May, instead of believing that Norman is a villain, the scene when he is pushed out of his own company kept playing in my mind over and over again. It had me totally convinced that no matter what Norman does, I will never see him as a villain because the people who surround his business will always push him towards making villainous or controversial choices. But his war with Spider-man is obviously not business related, it’s just a little detour that the movie took. The only time when I almost fell towards looking at Norman as a villain was when he tried to kill Mary Jane and a bunch of little kids while giving Spider-man the choice to save only one of these two. But in all honesty, it felt like there could have been a much more intense way of establishing Norman on the villain side to overpower his victim side so that I could finally stop empathizing with him and root for him to lose at the hands of Spider-man. But by the time the final battle took place between Peter and Norman, I think the film kind of lost its way to becoming something even greater than it currently is. I don’t dispute the fact that Spider-man is a great film, but every time I think about the innocence with which William Dafoe portrayed Norman Osborn and the menace with which he portrayed the Green Goblin, it could have made this film far more legendary if only the filmmakers were aiming for the movie to be in that direction. But maybe I’m wrong and it’s just my inner film director speaking because perhaps the director of the movie was making sure that it doesn’t leave a dark persona in our minds. In contrast to Norman, when I look at Peter and wonder why a character like this never embraces his dark side, the only answer I see is that a man like Peter isn’t fighting for power or to keep his life’s work alive. He is always fighting to keep people safe and be around his loved ones. So I don’t know how wrong I am, but I think a man’s dark side never takes over him when he’s simply fighting for love. It takes over when a man is continuously pushing to keep the one thing alive that makes him who he is. So when you ask somebody to leave behind the woman he loves so he can fully take over the responsibility that he’s been given by God, you will root for the character to be in this scenario and become a super hero no matter how sorry you feel about it. But when you witness situations like these when somebody is thrown out of his own company, then you feel rage and you want the character to fight back by any means necessary and this is what Norman was simply trying to do. But the fact that by the middle of the film he became a traditional super villain by threatening innocent lives felt just a little bit off course. Perhaps the character and the film could have benefited more by deploying Green Goblin to use his brains to wreak psychological havoc as oppose to using his tools to wreak only physical destruction over the city. So in the end, I want to know what you thought about Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin. Do you see him simply as a villain or do you see him as a complex victim of complicated circumstances? Think about it and leave a thought provoking answer in the comments. Until then, subscribe to this channel so you can stay tuned to some film philosophy every Monday. In the hopes of connecting with film lovers all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story. http://zeeconstory.com/

I wanna talk about a scene from the film Matrix, where the character of Cypher makes a deal with Agent Smith, the main antagonist of the film. Cypher makes a deal that he will help Agent Smith capture Morpheus, the most important man to the last human city in the world and in exchange Cypher wants to escape the real world, re-enter the Matrix, forget about everything that happened prior to this and live a life happily ever after. Watching this scene made me wanna think about my own life and how sometimes I desperately want to escape reality by entering a fantasy world and never ever coming out of it. But me feeling this way raises a lot of questions. Why do I want to go into the matrix in the first place, why can’t I continue to live in the real world and make the best of it?..., well because Cypher made me feel like it. So if Cypher made me feel like it, then on some psychological level I connected with him. So if I connected with him, it means that Cypher would happily betray his friends to get the luxuries of life so if given the choice, would I do the same? Some people would argue that you shouldn’t be so pathetic and miserable that you would betray your own friends to escape the hardships of your life. They would argue that when you fail, you should take a break, get your thoughts together and then get back into the battlefield. But I’m not currently talking to those guys, I’m currently talking to those people who have failed again and again so miserably that they come to the point where all you need is a back door to the exit of your worries and this exit is in the shape of the choice that is given to Cypher. Now, would you take this backdoor or would you not? Whatever is your answer, think about it and leave it in the comments. Until then subscribe to this channel (https://goo.gl/cpdl88), so you can stay tuned to some film philosophy every Monday. Read the full blog at http://bit.do/enterthematrix In the hopes of connecting with film lovers all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story. www.zeeconstory.com

Who is Tony Stark? He is a relaxed, chilled and a laid back genius who loves to sip alcohol and subconsciously look like somewhere in between casual and formal aesthetics. The way he speaks makes him sound friendly, witty and involved in the situation he is in and wants to lighten the mood whenever he can. Talking is like his defense mechanism and a tool with which he rapidly functions his brain to think about what to do next, but intensely severe situations silence him where he finally doesn’t use his words to think about the next move. His great mind makes him even more likable but his interest in weapons is quite intriguing and sad at the same time because when he could have been building anything he wanted, he longed to build the killing machines. Read the full blog at http://bit.do/iamironman There was a scene in the film when Yinsen asks Tony if he has anyone waiting for him back at home and Tony says no one which made Tony realize that there’s nobody who will genuinely care when Tony’s gone. So perhaps this was the seed for all the actions that Tony takes afterwards because by the end of the film when Tony reveals that he is Iron Man, everyone will now give damn when Tony is gone and this very seed was the inspiration for this video. So if you liked it, be sure let me know in the comments and remember to subscribe to my channel (https://goo.gl/cpdl88) so you can stay tuned to some fun film philosophy every Monday. So, in the hopes of connecting with film lovers all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story - www.zeeconstory.com

In this essay, I take on one of the best action movie characters of all time, John Wick. A film about a retired hitman who left behind his life of crime because he found the love of his life. He got married, settled down and finally found peace until that love was taken away by life itself. But now even that the only reason for him to be at peace is gone, he has somehow still held himself together and resist the thrill of falling back into his old life because God knows, a big part of him enjoyed it and still wants some part of it. Throughout the film we witness how great John Wick is at killing people and he reaps some intense thrills out of his violent rampages. And this is what this action thriller is about, it’s about building John Wick first and action second. Read the full blog at http://bit.do/nojohnwick John Wick is a character who finds and gathers himself up in these small moments of silence which connects to all of us and therefore inspired me to write this blog and make a video about him. So if you liked it, be sure to click the like button, share it with your friends and subscribe to my channel (https://goo.gl/cpdl88) so you can stay tuned to some film philosophy every Monday. So in the hopes of connecting with film lovers all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story - www.zeeconstory.com

Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the 2016 elections, he has been receiving far greater attention from the world than ever before. All this attention made me wanna take a closer look at Donald Trump’s personality…, and since I’m a film director who’s big on character, there’s one thought that constantly crosses my mind every time I look at him or think about him…, Donald Trump’s personality would make a great main character for a movie. Donald Trump is a guy who wants it all and wishes to achieve every milestone that he deems interesting enough for him to accomplish. He’s a billionaire who built a lot of businesses and took those businesses to new heights. He is an extremely driven individual who loves to pursue his wants and desires aggressively no matter what. He doesn’t care what the world thinks about him because as long as he’s a winner, he wants nothing else. Above all these traits and qualities, the biggest and the most deadly weapon in his arsenal is his communication style and the way he uses it. The only two people who would be able to out talk him are perhaps Doctor House and Sherlock Holmes who unfortunately are the works of fiction. Read the full blog at http://bit.do/dtmovie I’ve had the idea for this video in mind for a really long time and I just couldn’t help myself but make some kind of a narrative video on it. So here you go. If you liked it, be sure to give it a thumbs up, share it with your friends and subscribe to this channel (https://goo.gl/cpdl88) to stay tuned to more thought provoking videos on the philosophical side of filmmaking every Monday. So, in the hopes of connecting with storytellers and filmmakers worldwide, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story.

A concept is the very basic idea of the film which gives you an idea of what could potentially be the final story of the character in your movie. For example, the concept of the movie called Wanted, released back in 2008. There is this guy called Wesley who lives a traditional life bounded by the structure of a 9 – 5 job, but somewhere in the back of his mind, somewhere deep down inside his brain, he knows that he was not born to live this kind of life. No, he was meant to break out and transform into someone who is much stronger and can leave an everlasting mark on the world. That was the concept of this mind thrilling movie. Read the full blog now at http://bit.do/wtconcept On a closing note, I would love to have your thoughts on writing a concept which could potentially give you a great storyline. Also, subscribe to this channel (https://goo.gl/cpdl88) so you can stay tuned to thought provoking videos on filmmaking every Monday So, in the hopes of connecting with aspiring film directors all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story - http://zeeconstory.com/

Cut to black is an editing technique when the storytellers end something right then and there and jump to a big black frame. Whatever comes next, depends upon the storytelling style of the film director. Cutting to black means the absolute ending to a particular sequence in a movie. For example the ending of the film Memento directed by Christopher Nolan. That movie contains a lot of cut to blacks, but the most crucial cut to black came at the ending of the film when the main character makes a decision and right there the film cuts to black and the end credits roll. So what was Nolan trying to signify with this amazing little cut to black? He was trying to tell the audience that this is the ultimate stop for your journey with Leonard, the main of Character of the film and that’s all you need to know about him as far as last impressions are concerned. And we as an audience member understand that Leonard has made the ultimate decision which is going to define the rest of his life. Now I’m not giving away what decision he makes because that would give away the main twist of the movie, so after you watch this Vlog, go watch Memento, if you haven’t, shame on you - www.zeeconstory.com If you prefer to read the full blog, jump over to http://bit.do/wtfblack On a closing note, I would love to have your thoughts on how mind twisting this cut to black can prove to be. Also, subscribe to this channel (https://goo.gl/cpdl88) so you can stay tuned to more videos every Monday which would help you understand film direction and master the magic of storytelling. So, in the hopes of connecting with aspiring film directors all over the world, this is Mr. Zeecon, in the making of a great story - http://zeeconstory.com/