Coogler's Creed

It was three a.m. in early March when the wrath of winter decided to trespass and enter global warming’s territory in central Alabama. I don’t know if it was adrenaline or fear but I didn’t feel the gust of wind that swept down the street that I called my set. It was the last shot of the last day of our four-day shoot. After enduring 4-hour rain and thunderstorm delays, tornado warnings, the inconsistencies of an unreliable generator, and disgruntled town people principal photography for my 1930s film about race relations was one shot away from completion. I stared at my monitor for what felt like an eternity before I called action. Every detail of the shoot ran through my mind. With the end of the stress of production nearing, and the stress …show more content…
As someone who hopes to make poignant films about social injustices, I was already a fan of Ryan Coogler because of his film Fruitvale Station. As I sat in the theater and watched Creed I thought, “I want to do that”. I wish I could’ve directed Creed because I thought it could’ve packed the same emotional poignancy as The Wrestler. One of the best aspects of Creed were the quiet emotional moments with Rocky Balboa. Like its predecessors, Creed was not only about the fight in the ring but it was also about the fight within. With a cinematographer like Maryse Alberti that can bring realism and rawness to any scene, I thought Creed would’ve been better if we experienced more of Adonis’s struggle as a boxer and as a man trying to find himself within the shadows of his absent father. My father was in prison when I was growing up. Like Adonis, I found myself desperately wanting to be close to a man that I just couldn’t reach. Because of that, I wish I could’ve directed Creed to quietly and subtly explore Adonis’s internal struggle, in conjunction with Rocky’s health struggle, allowing the tension of both situations to culminate in the final fight in the