Day the Earth Stood Still

In 1951 Earth was invaded by an alien from another planet named Klaatu. This December that same alien will invade once again. The Day the Earth Stood Still is a classic science-fiction film about another race warning those less peaceful races of an impending doom that will cause their way of life to come to an end if they are not careful. I remember watching the 1951 film for the first time in Mr. Bansak’s American Cinema class and thinking what a weird experience it would be if for just one second the Earth truly stood still. Most likely not for the reasons that are mentioned in the film, but for any reason that causes time to stop and for nothing to happen anywhere for just a split second. The concept is unbelievable, but the actual experience is unexplainable, yet recently, we have all experienced just such a moment.

In 1951 director Robert Wise presented a Cold-War era world with a film to make movie goers stop and think. Although the 2008 remake has not yet been released and we do not know to what extent adaptations and updates have been used to modernize the story, we did have our own version of The Day the Earth Stood Still. It took place on this past Tuesday night. Some of you may have been at election parties, some of you may have been at bars and local pubs with friends or family waiting to hear the election results, some may have stayed home, but I was in Midtown wandering my way through production crews and mob size crowds standing on the streets of New York City. No matter how you voted that night, around 11pm EST, everything stopped. The announcement of Barack Obama as President-Elect completely changed America-- our way of life, thinking, and perhaps even ourselves. From a production world, as well as from the point of view of a young voting American, I know that my life will never be the same.

That night, I knew the city would be absolutely insane. It made me feel like I was in some huge Hollywood feature with a call of several thousand extras to completely fill Time Square. There was enough film equipment from the various television networks to have shot a scene from over a hundred different angles, and the energy of the people was electrifying. You may have seen some live footage during the election coverage, but that does not begin to express what it was like being out there on the streets.

Beginning October 29, news networks like ABC, CNN, NBC, and CBS stormed into various portions of Midtown Manhattan to set up stations. CNN completely covered Rockefeller Center along with NBC News. There were so many camera crews within that three block area that Good Morning America, 30 Rock, NBC Studios, and the additional CNN camera crews were bumping heads because there was just no more space available to fit any additional equipment or observing audiences for the various planned shoots. ABC Studios, MTV Networks, and other network crews took over Time Square with huge jib arms (a camera-mounting device that allows fluid movement of the camera while being raised, lowered, or moved horizontally) and lighting equipment that lined Broadway from 42^nd to 50^th Street. Everyone wanted to capture the emotions of the historical event that was taking place.Then the big night came.  Just moments after the election was called, a tsunami of people flooded the streets of Time Square, Harlem, Washington Heights, and every area of Manhattan with New Yorkers, visitors from all over the country and even foreign tourists celebrating the announcement of who our next president would be. And then we all waited.  We waited in excited anticipation for President-Elect Obama to take the stage in Chicago and make his acceptance speech. As the minutes rolled on even closer to midnight and the reports were coming out that he was on his way the noise continued to grow louder and louder until they announced that he was about to appear. In that moment, you could feel the energy of the enormous crowd growing with electricity as they turned to face every jumbo screen in Time Square... and then the Earth stood still.

The moment President-Elect Barack Obama stepped out onto the stage you could feel everyone’s breath catch, and then… nothing. There was no movement anywhere in Time Square. Everyone stood stone still, traffic stopped exactly where it was, angry cabbies idled motionless in the middle of the streets, and nothing was heard other than the words of Barack Obama filling the night’s air. It was an experience like no other and there will never be another quite like it. In those few minutes we, as Americas, all over the country listened to the words of a man, who, forever, changed our country’s history, and us.

If any film ever needs stock footage of large crowds of people caught in the moment in the most natural way, that would not look staged, choreographed or rehearsed, all they would have to do is find footage of the thousands of people in Manhattan hanging on every word of the newly elected President. That moment, those images, and the experience will live forever in my memory. It was the only moment I have ever experienced where everyone, young and old, Nationals and Foreigners, Democrats and Republicans stood together amazed at what has just come to pass. I believe that this moment in time has shown that our young country is growing up. We are maturing and adapting to new ways of life, and trying to break old habits. Those imagines and footage will last forever in the multimedia world just as the election of our first African-American President will live on as part of our country’s history. Yes, history was made Tuesday night and I was lucky enough to be there and to be old enough to feel the change that occurred in our hearts and minds and I will remember it as The Day the Earth Stood Still.