'why bother?' doesn't mean 'don't bother.'

when i said 'why bother doing this or that,' in the previous blog, i didn't mean 'don't bother' or 'there's no reason to do that.' it wasn't meant that way.

i meant: those things aren't necessary if you're just literally acting out the whole book word-for-word. you could try to make people speak every single word of dialogue written in the book, without skipping or adding a single word. they could literally act out every single event that occurs in the book, without skipping anything or adding anything.

but instead, we add things, and we subtract things, to convey feelings, to make it more entertaining and interesting, to give it a special style, to make things understandable, and to make it finish within a certain time period instead of taking hours or days the way it would if you acted out every word of the book.

but you don't know how to notice those things, unless someone gives you a hint about what to pay attention to. you can pay attention to the lighting, the color, the movement of the camera, the ad-libbing of the actors, the location, the clothing, the music... there are so many variables.

so i don't mean 'don't bother adding any style.'

in my experiences with writing music, it took conscious effort to force myself to add style to the music, instead of letting it be 'just the notes.' if you just write down what notes you're playing, you haven't explained anything about HOW to play them. okay, another favorite book: william russo and jeffrey ainis, 'composing music.' it's a how-to book with exercises. i used that book and propellerheads reason to write bits of music. (no, i don't have anything finished enough to publish. my life has been too much of a mess lately to write music.)

anyway, while writing music, i had to force myself to add the emotional expression to the music. i had to ask, 'why bother?' it takes effort. it's not easy. it adds yet another step to the process. you might think it's already finished, and you don't need to do anything else. but you do. there is always something else that can be done with it. and then, you have to choose between infinite possible ways of doing things, and if you get stuck doing it one way, you have to decide to either follow through, or start over from the beginning and do it a different way. you get invested in making it one sort of style, and if you end up not liking it, it has to all be redone. it takes a lot of time and effort.

*i have to add this: people's voices and gestures convey nonverbal information beyond just the words that they say. listening to a person speak is like listening to a song. each word is played like a note. there is pitch and rhythm just as in music. this is important for understanding people's emotions and personalities. this is the reason why people are able to write and understand music.

'why bother?' because that's the whole point of watching a movie or listening to music. you want to feel something. you want to be entertained. you want to express something. but it takes effort.