The Gorilla Syndrome And Filmmaking

You know what autopilot is don't you?

It is when you exist instead of live. When you fill the role of someone who is trading your time for a service and exchanging who you are for being able to scratch out a living. You start off on Monday morning and put up with self important people who seek any means necessary to justify their existence by being even MORE self important.

The Gorilla Syndrome. They (generally people such as my supervisor from work) will stand up taller and beat their chest a little bit harder so that their display will justify who they are to you and make them credible in your eyes. They take great pleasure in telling you how to do something no matter if it is right or wrong, it is the action of command that they relish and not the consequences.

It is more important to them to demonstrate authority than to learn. As a result they cease to learn and wind up on permanent autopilot. Well it really isn't autopilot, it is closer to intellectual death. They do gain knowledge in college but never learn from experiences.

Here is the disconnect though: I don't get it.

So it turns into being funny to me.

The more someone demonstrates being an alpha male the funnier it is to me. I can see their insecurity filling the air around them. It is very difficult to take them seriously. They crave respect and admiration while missing the whole point of humanity and compassion.

Greatness is never greatness when you have to tell others how great you really are.

What does this have to do with filmmaking? Well nothing to do with filmmaking but if you ever see a character demonstrating the Gorilla Syndrome in something I did just know that I'm probably laughing a lot and had a great time writing that character:)