Just watched THE AVIATOR with Brian!!! Cool movie! I can add it to my list of Scorsese Movie I Don't Hate. That's always good!
Actually, you know what? The title of that list is ridiculously unfair!
I have only seen 5 Martin Scorsese movies, and I've liked 4 of them!!!
I really dug THE AVIATOR, thoroughly enjoyed GANGS OF NEW YORK, kind of dug on THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST -- although I seriously have a problem with his "artistic interpretation" of the temptation of Jesus: Seriously, a hamaphroditic panther and a shower of sparks?!! Though I think he got the point about Jesus' followers wanting a physical ruler rather than as spiritual leader across nicely!!!-- and I remember enjoying THE COLOR OF MONEY.
The only movie of his which I saw and deeply loathed was the God-forsaken GOODFELLAS.
Now, I'm certain that I wouldn't like CASINO and MEAN STREETS, but I might enjoy CAPE FEAR (being a horror fan). And tomorrow I should receive KUNDUN from Netflix, and I'll be surprised if I don't like that.
PLUS, whenever I've seen Scorsese interviewed, or seen him act (like in QUIZ SHOW) I can't help but like him!!! He's a cat that knows and loves movies, plus he calls Roger Corman (a cat that REALLY LOVES making movies) one of his mentors!
So I suppose that the title of my silly little list is just a product of some film junkies (NOT film flunkies) who decided to pit Scorsese against Spielberg as an example of Guerilla Filmmaking versus Hollywood Filmmaking.
And that just isn't fair!
I mean, I like so-called "Hollywood" movies because I like to escape and I like to have fun. And Spielberg, I truly believe, only makes movies that move HIM -- not the box-office grubbing corporations that move Hollywood -- which just happen to move me, too.
But does Scorsese do any different? Does he tell stories to shock us and repulse us? NO!!! I suspect he makes movies that move him, and he shares these stories with us because he feels they might stir something in us, as well.
Plus, if there is some sort of legitimate rivalry between Scorsese and Spielberg, I would bet money that neither of THEM know about it!!!
So what I SHOULD... and WILL do is add THE AVIATOR to my List Of Badass Scorsese Films! This list includes the following movies:
THE AVIATOR
GANGS OF NEW YORK
THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST
THE COLOR OF MONEY
There we go. My soul feels cleaner and lighter now.
ALSO...!!!
TRACI STOPPED BY TONIGHT!!! Brian and I got to watch a dvd of her jumping out of an airplane this past Saturday!!! (She looked like a movie star and was wearing one of thos pink skydiver suits!!! On the dvd. She was wearing shorts and a tight T-shirt in our appartment!!!) She hung out with Brian and me for a few hours and ate a bite of lasagna with us. WHAT A GREAT DAY OFF!!!
PLUS... Mom took Brian and me grocery shopping at CostCo, and we had fun! Mom was in a playful mood, and I think a good time was had by all!
So COOL! This day owes me nothing!
Hope yours went as well!!!
:)
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Monday, June 27, 2005
37 Sleepless Minutes
It's 4:24 am and I'm nowhere near being sleepy.
This isn't unusual, really. But I've got it in my head -- for some reason -- that I should be winding down and ready for bed at 4a.
Don't know why.
But it would be cooler to wake up at 12:45 pm tomorrow, beating my alarm clock by a good 15 minutes, and play some Tomb Raider for an hour, or maybe watch a disc of The Simpsons before jumping in the shower and arriving at work 5 minutes early. (This is truly a Dream Land I sometimes live in in my head.)
Oh, I haven't seen LAND OF THE DEAD yet. Bummer.
I mean, I've grown spoiled, really. It was through sheer luck (or a guardian angel or something) that I was able to see HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE (twice), STARWARS III (twice) and BATMAN BEGINS on their opening days!!! And I truly am grateful for that!!!
But still, not seeing LAND OF THE DEAD SOMETIME opening weekend is just not doing service to Mr. Romero! I mean, the studio doesn't pay attention to box office after the opening weekend. So in order to communicate to them that George A. Romero is truly a genius who should have HUGE WADS OF CASH thrown at him, allowing him to bestow upon the world his singular vision, he needs us to pack the theaters the first 3 days of his film's release!
And I've failed him!!!
Blah.
It's not like I really had the time or money to. I mean, I wasn't, like, sitting around with a twenty in my wallet and nothing to do for 2 hours straight. (I mean, I found the time to watch GANGS OF NEW YORK last night on dvd, but that was at 4:00 am, and there were no showings of LOTD at that time -- even though that would have been COOL!!! AND I didn't have a twenty in my wallet.)
So I guess the man who made zombies cool would forgive me.
What do you think?
Okay, it's 4:36 am, and I'm still not sleepy.
I've got THE AVIATOR and TUCKER: A MAN AND HIS DREAMS from Netflix, but that would keep me up until the Even-More-Wee Hours. Plus, I'd really like to watch them as a double-feature. (All 5 hours of them!)
I could pop in some SIMPSONS: SEASON 5, but I fear that if I watch one, I'll watch the whole disc. And then maybe pop in the next disc.
There's Internet porn... But I'm not really in the mood.
OH! After Mom treated Brian and me to Red Lobster -- and I stuffed myself magnificently! -- Brian and I stopped by Vulcan Video and discovered THEY HAVE YELLOWBEARD ON DVD!!! We watched it and WE LAUGHED!!! There's NO WAY we got that humor back in the summer of '84 or '85 (maybe '86) when we watched it over and over on HBO!!! THAT MOVIE IS A RIOT!!! It's Comic GENIUS!!! And talk about an all-star cast!!! 3 of the Pythons are in it, as well as Cheech & Chong, and like half the cast of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN!!! With David Bowie, James Mason, Nigel Planer and Peter Cooke thrown in for good measure!
I CAN NOT BELIEVE that this movie isn't more hailed than it is!!! It's like ZORRO, THE GAY BLADE in that it's just a CLASSIC packed with some of the most memorable lines ("I don't know what happened! I hit him with a bucket, then I blacked out, and when I came to he was dead." "Yeah, it's like that. Killin'.") delivered by some of the most talented comedic actors around at the time, and a really fun and watchable story to boot!!!
And then VULCAN VIDEO!!! It's SO AUSTIN!!! There are at leats 2 locations that I know of, but at both locations you walk in there and you KNOW you're in Film Flunky Heaven! There are movie posters everywhere -- and not just whatever swag the studios are sending out with their releases that month; we're talking COOL movies from Past and Present -- and actions figures lining the counter tops. And you get the impression the place could probably be a little cleaner than it is, but that doesn't really matter; it lends an air of College-Co-op feel. (You know: There's too much fun being had to really worry about passing some sort of inspection.) And when Brian and I went in there today, the single clerk was behind the counter ACTUALLY WATCHING A MOIVE!!! He had to pause it to help us!!!
HOW COOL IS THAT?!!
But the best part is that they actually KNOW what the cool movies are!!! They know what movies might never make your Top 100 list, even though you sometimes find yourself reciting scenes to your friends. They know what movies you watched over and over growing up, and just sometimes they pop into your mind out of the blue and you think "I'd like to see that again." They know what movies your friends keep telling you "You gotta see it, dude!" even though you've never heard of it in your life. They know what the studios CAN'T know, won't allow themselves to know.
And more than that, VULCAN VIDEO HAS THEM TO RENT!!! And for CHEAP, too!!!
Netflix rules the world, but Vulcan Video rules the Universe!!!
Okay, it's now 5:01 am and I'm still not in bed. I should probably start trying a little harder, though, to get there.
So Good Night and Sweet Dreams!
This isn't unusual, really. But I've got it in my head -- for some reason -- that I should be winding down and ready for bed at 4a.
Don't know why.
But it would be cooler to wake up at 12:45 pm tomorrow, beating my alarm clock by a good 15 minutes, and play some Tomb Raider for an hour, or maybe watch a disc of The Simpsons before jumping in the shower and arriving at work 5 minutes early. (This is truly a Dream Land I sometimes live in in my head.)
Oh, I haven't seen LAND OF THE DEAD yet. Bummer.
I mean, I've grown spoiled, really. It was through sheer luck (or a guardian angel or something) that I was able to see HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE (twice), STARWARS III (twice) and BATMAN BEGINS on their opening days!!! And I truly am grateful for that!!!
But still, not seeing LAND OF THE DEAD SOMETIME opening weekend is just not doing service to Mr. Romero! I mean, the studio doesn't pay attention to box office after the opening weekend. So in order to communicate to them that George A. Romero is truly a genius who should have HUGE WADS OF CASH thrown at him, allowing him to bestow upon the world his singular vision, he needs us to pack the theaters the first 3 days of his film's release!
And I've failed him!!!
Blah.
It's not like I really had the time or money to. I mean, I wasn't, like, sitting around with a twenty in my wallet and nothing to do for 2 hours straight. (I mean, I found the time to watch GANGS OF NEW YORK last night on dvd, but that was at 4:00 am, and there were no showings of LOTD at that time -- even though that would have been COOL!!! AND I didn't have a twenty in my wallet.)
So I guess the man who made zombies cool would forgive me.
What do you think?
Okay, it's 4:36 am, and I'm still not sleepy.
I've got THE AVIATOR and TUCKER: A MAN AND HIS DREAMS from Netflix, but that would keep me up until the Even-More-Wee Hours. Plus, I'd really like to watch them as a double-feature. (All 5 hours of them!)
I could pop in some SIMPSONS: SEASON 5, but I fear that if I watch one, I'll watch the whole disc. And then maybe pop in the next disc.
There's Internet porn... But I'm not really in the mood.
OH! After Mom treated Brian and me to Red Lobster -- and I stuffed myself magnificently! -- Brian and I stopped by Vulcan Video and discovered THEY HAVE YELLOWBEARD ON DVD!!! We watched it and WE LAUGHED!!! There's NO WAY we got that humor back in the summer of '84 or '85 (maybe '86) when we watched it over and over on HBO!!! THAT MOVIE IS A RIOT!!! It's Comic GENIUS!!! And talk about an all-star cast!!! 3 of the Pythons are in it, as well as Cheech & Chong, and like half the cast of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN!!! With David Bowie, James Mason, Nigel Planer and Peter Cooke thrown in for good measure!
I CAN NOT BELIEVE that this movie isn't more hailed than it is!!! It's like ZORRO, THE GAY BLADE in that it's just a CLASSIC packed with some of the most memorable lines ("I don't know what happened! I hit him with a bucket, then I blacked out, and when I came to he was dead." "Yeah, it's like that. Killin'.") delivered by some of the most talented comedic actors around at the time, and a really fun and watchable story to boot!!!
And then VULCAN VIDEO!!! It's SO AUSTIN!!! There are at leats 2 locations that I know of, but at both locations you walk in there and you KNOW you're in Film Flunky Heaven! There are movie posters everywhere -- and not just whatever swag the studios are sending out with their releases that month; we're talking COOL movies from Past and Present -- and actions figures lining the counter tops. And you get the impression the place could probably be a little cleaner than it is, but that doesn't really matter; it lends an air of College-Co-op feel. (You know: There's too much fun being had to really worry about passing some sort of inspection.) And when Brian and I went in there today, the single clerk was behind the counter ACTUALLY WATCHING A MOIVE!!! He had to pause it to help us!!!
HOW COOL IS THAT?!!
But the best part is that they actually KNOW what the cool movies are!!! They know what movies might never make your Top 100 list, even though you sometimes find yourself reciting scenes to your friends. They know what movies you watched over and over growing up, and just sometimes they pop into your mind out of the blue and you think "I'd like to see that again." They know what movies your friends keep telling you "You gotta see it, dude!" even though you've never heard of it in your life. They know what the studios CAN'T know, won't allow themselves to know.
And more than that, VULCAN VIDEO HAS THEM TO RENT!!! And for CHEAP, too!!!
Netflix rules the world, but Vulcan Video rules the Universe!!!
Okay, it's now 5:01 am and I'm still not in bed. I should probably start trying a little harder, though, to get there.
So Good Night and Sweet Dreams!
Sunday, June 26, 2005
FINALLY Got My Pic Up!!!
I DID IT!!! Well, BRIAN told me how to...
But I finally got my picture up on my profile!!!
So now, if you're a hotty who stumbles onto this blog and think "What an intriguing and fun dude this guy is!" you can pop over to my profile! And if ya like what ya see...
Who KNOWS! ;)
But I finally got my picture up on my profile!!!
So now, if you're a hotty who stumbles onto this blog and think "What an intriguing and fun dude this guy is!" you can pop over to my profile! And if ya like what ya see...
Who KNOWS! ;)
Friday, June 24, 2005
A Great Start to the Day!
I woke up this morning to a call from Tisha saying that she had seen BATMAN BEGINS last night!!!
Tisha is... a bit hard to explain. When I asked her how I could refer to her in the blog, she suggested the very clever title Tisha-My-Biological-Daughter-Whom-I-Didn't-Raise, but I think I'm getting bored with these hyphenated names. Particularly the long ones, as they take a great deal longer to write. Particularly for such a hot-off-the-fingertips, transitory medium as a web log.
So I'm simply going to call her Tisha, and if I mention "Tish" or "Tisha" or "my daughter", that's who I'm talking about. Suffice it to say that she is my daughter and I love her, but the person she calls Dad (and who is a FANTASTIC dad to her) is not me. I'm Ray Jay. Or just Ray. (When she was, like, 4 or so, I was Daddy Ray Ray.) And the reasons we are linked genetically, though not as father/daughter per se will not appear in this blog. If you're reading this and you don't know, you're not likely to find out. Accept and deal with it.
But the point is, WHAT A GREAT WAY TO WAKE UP!!!
I mean, I LOVE this movie, and I want as many people as possible to see this movie!!! And the fact that Tisha has seen it thrills me to no end!!!
Also, I dig on anything at all that Tisha and I have in common! I'm 34, she's 14. I'm a film flunky and she's an athlete. I was "one of those theatre wierdoes" (a.k.a. "a nerd") in school and she's much beloved by many. I'm a guy, she's a girl. You get the picture.
We don't naturally have a lot in common.
Which, don't get me wrong, is WAY COOL!!! I LOVE hearing her perspective and opinions of things, because it gives me a great deal of insight into I world which would otherwise be inaccessible to me! I mean, my nearest, dearest friends and I aren't carbon copies of each other, but we share a lot of common likes and dislikes.
But through Tisha I get a glimpse of this whole other way of looking at things!!! It's GENIUS!!!
So anyway, Tisha saw the movie, and that's ANOTHER bit of language that we share now!
Also -- and this THRILLS ME TO DEATH -- she's gotten into BUFFY in syndication!!! (If, by any chance, you're reading this blog and DON'T actually know me personally, I'm a HUGE Joss Whedon fan!!! So Tisha discovering BUFFY is just one of the thrills of my life! Does that make me a sad, sad little man?)
Also, Kelly called me tonight: He saw BATMAN BEGINS, too! Actually, as I type this I'm waiting for him to call back. he had work-stuff to do.
OH, and HEY!!! I'm got some more pages on EZEKIEL HOLLOW -- my 6-part audio miniseries -- done tonight! Tonight's 2 or so pages actually spill over onto Page 7, so YAY!
I'm continuing to feel confident about this production.
I even went online to try to find companies that distribute audioplays, but with no real success.
Which is cool. We're at least -- at LEAST -- 8 months away from production of this puppy, so I'm in no real rush. (Writing is my first priority right now.) But still...
I'm growing more and more facinated by Above the Title Productions. They seem to be based in Britan, so I don't know how hard they would be to get in touch with. But they seem to be really doing the work, plus they have a relationship with BBC Radio -- who broadcast audioplays -- so I think I'll be keeping an eye on them for a while...
Blah.
Anyway, that's today's entry.
PEACE!!!
Tisha is... a bit hard to explain. When I asked her how I could refer to her in the blog, she suggested the very clever title Tisha-My-Biological-Daughter-Whom-I-Didn't-Raise, but I think I'm getting bored with these hyphenated names. Particularly the long ones, as they take a great deal longer to write. Particularly for such a hot-off-the-fingertips, transitory medium as a web log.
So I'm simply going to call her Tisha, and if I mention "Tish" or "Tisha" or "my daughter", that's who I'm talking about. Suffice it to say that she is my daughter and I love her, but the person she calls Dad (and who is a FANTASTIC dad to her) is not me. I'm Ray Jay. Or just Ray. (When she was, like, 4 or so, I was Daddy Ray Ray.) And the reasons we are linked genetically, though not as father/daughter per se will not appear in this blog. If you're reading this and you don't know, you're not likely to find out. Accept and deal with it.
But the point is, WHAT A GREAT WAY TO WAKE UP!!!
I mean, I LOVE this movie, and I want as many people as possible to see this movie!!! And the fact that Tisha has seen it thrills me to no end!!!
Also, I dig on anything at all that Tisha and I have in common! I'm 34, she's 14. I'm a film flunky and she's an athlete. I was "one of those theatre wierdoes" (a.k.a. "a nerd") in school and she's much beloved by many. I'm a guy, she's a girl. You get the picture.
We don't naturally have a lot in common.
Which, don't get me wrong, is WAY COOL!!! I LOVE hearing her perspective and opinions of things, because it gives me a great deal of insight into I world which would otherwise be inaccessible to me! I mean, my nearest, dearest friends and I aren't carbon copies of each other, but we share a lot of common likes and dislikes.
But through Tisha I get a glimpse of this whole other way of looking at things!!! It's GENIUS!!!
So anyway, Tisha saw the movie, and that's ANOTHER bit of language that we share now!
Also -- and this THRILLS ME TO DEATH -- she's gotten into BUFFY in syndication!!! (If, by any chance, you're reading this blog and DON'T actually know me personally, I'm a HUGE Joss Whedon fan!!! So Tisha discovering BUFFY is just one of the thrills of my life! Does that make me a sad, sad little man?)
Also, Kelly called me tonight: He saw BATMAN BEGINS, too! Actually, as I type this I'm waiting for him to call back. he had work-stuff to do.
OH, and HEY!!! I'm got some more pages on EZEKIEL HOLLOW -- my 6-part audio miniseries -- done tonight! Tonight's 2 or so pages actually spill over onto Page 7, so YAY!
I'm continuing to feel confident about this production.
I even went online to try to find companies that distribute audioplays, but with no real success.
Which is cool. We're at least -- at LEAST -- 8 months away from production of this puppy, so I'm in no real rush. (Writing is my first priority right now.) But still...
I'm growing more and more facinated by Above the Title Productions. They seem to be based in Britan, so I don't know how hard they would be to get in touch with. But they seem to be really doing the work, plus they have a relationship with BBC Radio -- who broadcast audioplays -- so I think I'll be keeping an eye on them for a while...
Blah.
Anyway, that's today's entry.
PEACE!!!
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
HHGG: Fit the 26th
IT'S OVER!!! TODAY THE LAST EVER EPISODE OF THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY AIRED ON BBC4 AND IT'S ALL OVER!!!
I wanna weep because DAMMIT, Douglas isn't around to give us any more!
Then, I also wanna weep because they did such a GREAT JOB with it!
I've been reading and listening to tons of interviews with Mr. Adams over the last few months, and he had explained that the last book in the HITCHHIKER'S series, MOSTLY HARMLESS, was such a downer because he had been having a really downer couple of years, so yeah, of course the book was a downer.
But he had been considering writing another one -- a SIXTH book for his increasingly-mis-named HICTHHIKER'S TRILOGY -- and ending the series more in the spirit in which it was created.
And now it seems that Dirk Maggs has found a way to FAITHFULLY make that happen, and he gave us fans... kind of more the ending that we wanted. I mean, if it HAS to be the END. (With MOSTLY HARMLESS, we believed -- as Douglas did -- that he could always just write another book and put things to rights.)
They did it SO WELL!!!
More than that: If Disney continues the movies, whoever writes the last movie has at least one approach for giving the last novel a more "movie" ending without being particualrly unfaithful to the novel!!!
Blah.
So I'm happy, now! I feel a deep sense of fulfillment and content.
What more can we ask for besides THESE moments right here?
I wanna weep because DAMMIT, Douglas isn't around to give us any more!
Then, I also wanna weep because they did such a GREAT JOB with it!
I've been reading and listening to tons of interviews with Mr. Adams over the last few months, and he had explained that the last book in the HITCHHIKER'S series, MOSTLY HARMLESS, was such a downer because he had been having a really downer couple of years, so yeah, of course the book was a downer.
But he had been considering writing another one -- a SIXTH book for his increasingly-mis-named HICTHHIKER'S TRILOGY -- and ending the series more in the spirit in which it was created.
And now it seems that Dirk Maggs has found a way to FAITHFULLY make that happen, and he gave us fans... kind of more the ending that we wanted. I mean, if it HAS to be the END. (With MOSTLY HARMLESS, we believed -- as Douglas did -- that he could always just write another book and put things to rights.)
They did it SO WELL!!!
More than that: If Disney continues the movies, whoever writes the last movie has at least one approach for giving the last novel a more "movie" ending without being particualrly unfaithful to the novel!!!
Blah.
So I'm happy, now! I feel a deep sense of fulfillment and content.
What more can we ask for besides THESE moments right here?
Monday, June 20, 2005
Saw BATMAN BEGINS With Brian Today!!!
Brian took a nap between his ridiculously-early Sunday shift at work and our weekly diner with Mom, so afterward we caught the 9:00 pm (well, one of the 9s; it's showing on 4 screens at Gateway) AND I GOT TO SEE BATMAN AGAIN!!!
It's been, like, 26 hours of Batman for me! After Traci and I saw it we went to Starbuck's and talked for... a bunch of hours, then I went and bought the novelization and the soundtrack, and Iistened to the soundtrack continually, even as I slept, and I didn't turn it off after I woke up. In fact, I burned a copy for the car -- so I can listen to it at home and in the car without having to constantly cart the disc back and forth -- and as I was making copies I read the first couple of chapters of the novelization. Then 24 hours after Traci and I arrived at the theater, Brian and I arrived.
So that's like a Batman-a-thon for me.
Then after the movie Brian and I popped in the Simpsons, disc 1 of Season 5, and now I'm glutting myself on Simpsons the was I've glutted myself on Batman, and before that on Douglas Adams, and before that Star Wars.
Does that make me a glutton?
Do I really care if it does?
I'm gonna go watch some more Simpsons.
[EDITORIAL NOTE: Since I can't blog in my room anymore, it's become a pain to deal with italics. So now I'm back to an earlier writing style of mine: capitalizing everything for emphasis. It's less subtle than italics, but I still by its inherent boldness and enthusiasm.]
It's been, like, 26 hours of Batman for me! After Traci and I saw it we went to Starbuck's and talked for... a bunch of hours, then I went and bought the novelization and the soundtrack, and Iistened to the soundtrack continually, even as I slept, and I didn't turn it off after I woke up. In fact, I burned a copy for the car -- so I can listen to it at home and in the car without having to constantly cart the disc back and forth -- and as I was making copies I read the first couple of chapters of the novelization. Then 24 hours after Traci and I arrived at the theater, Brian and I arrived.
So that's like a Batman-a-thon for me.
Then after the movie Brian and I popped in the Simpsons, disc 1 of Season 5, and now I'm glutting myself on Simpsons the was I've glutted myself on Batman, and before that on Douglas Adams, and before that Star Wars.
Does that make me a glutton?
Do I really care if it does?
I'm gonna go watch some more Simpsons.
[EDITORIAL NOTE: Since I can't blog in my room anymore, it's become a pain to deal with italics. So now I'm back to an earlier writing style of mine: capitalizing everything for emphasis. It's less subtle than italics, but I still by its inherent boldness and enthusiasm.]
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Batman BEGINS!!!
I SAW BATMAN BEGINS!!! (AND with my Super-Hot Best Friend Traci!)
AND THE DID IT RIGHT!!!
***Tommy, if you're reading this and you haven't seen it yet, STOP IT! GO AWAY! This entry has nothing to do with the progress of the scripts, so just stop reading until you've seen it! (HOW have you NOT seenit YET?!! YOU?!!)***
So anyway, THEY DID IT!!!
I WEPT! It was so well-done that I actually WEPT! MORE THAN ONCE!
I had 2 problems with this movie before I saw it: The costume (Still all black, no blue and grey, or even BLACK and grey!!!) and the Batmobile (I always found it more believable when the Batmobile was simply a souped-up version of a car we've already seen on the street). But after seeing the movie, I buy them both!
THE WRITING!!! Oh, dear Lord, the writing!!!
It's EXACTLY what feature film writing SHOULD be!!! Let me explain:
I love "entertainment" or "popcorn" movies! That's just what I dig. Can't help it; don't want to help it; that's just me. Not that I believe those should be the only movies made -- far from it; the more "challenging" films teach the entertainment filmmakers how to do their job much, much more effectively!!! -- but that's just my taste. Many is the drunken party conversation when I've had to defend "entertainment" movies to "art film" filmmakers and film conesuers(sp?) by pointing out, in their language, the subtle (often too subtle) "value" or "importance" of these films. (You can't defned the catagory as a whole, but if you go case-by-case you can mount a strong artistic arguement for any film you love... if you know what you're talking about in the first place. Remember, Shakespeare wrote for the masses, NOT the critics!)
So anyway, Robert McKee lays it all out in brutally honest terms: Good storytellers actually DO serve a purpose to Society. Stories give us the tools for life.
Therefor, one of the critera for ANY fulfilling entertainment is that it deals with the Human Condition, it illuminates some Truth about what it is to be human in a way that helps us understand ourselves and those around us BETTER than we currently do.
And the way to do this is through Thematic Arguement. I go this from the Wordplay guys (www.wordplayer.com), Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio who wrote -- among MANY others -- THE MASK OF ZORRO, SHREK and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURES OF THE BLACK PEARL, and John Truby, who lectures about and created a program for writing the "blockbuster" screenplay, as well as the creator(s) of the StoryTeller software (www.storymind.com/storyteller; sorry I don't remember the name(s)) as well as McKee himself.
The Thematic Arguement is this: You have many opinions about how to go through life successfully. Your Thematic Argument is ONE of those opinions. Let's say that one of your opinions is "A person can live successfully if he/she overcomes his/her fears". Now, the way to turn that opinion into a screenplay is to have all your major characters dealing with their very personal, very specific fears... But in different ways.
So your hero deals with his fears in one way, and your villain deals with his fears in a slightly -- note SLIGHTLY -- different way. Then you have other characters dealing with their fears in different ways.
The outcome you get is a story about fear, and whoever prevails at the end of the movie has won the arguement, in the filmgoer's eyes. Because they have watched this arguement played out IN ACTIONS, NOT WORDS over the course of 2 hours. They see how each attitude informs and/or provokes different actions/reactions under different circumstances and they understand the value/weaknesses of each point of view.
Now here's the key: Robert McKee once autographed one of my short scripts, and here's EXACTLY what he wrote: "To Ray Jay - Write The Truth" and then his signature.
If you are an observer of WHAT REALLY HAPPENS IN LIFE and you write things that unfold the way they REALLY DO, then you make a strong case for your arguement.
Not back to BATMAN BEGINS. The movie has a very strong Thematic Arguement that is introduced almost immediately, and plays itself out REALISTICALLY throughout the entire movie!!!
And thus, we walk away from having seen a REALLY COOL MOVIE, and with some insight into ourselves and others!!!
You think it's a coincidence that STAR WARS has endured the way it has? It's NOT. And STAR WARS will continue to endure generation after generation -- despite the complaints that I know many have about certain, nit-picky details (and characters) because Lucas was laying out his extensively-considered viewpoint of spirituality and social politics.
Anyway... So, the movie was really well done! It even defined for me exactly what it is that I enjoy so much about dark fiction: It's not about showing how awful Life/Society/The Human Condition/whatever is, it's about showing us how we can dig deep within ourselves and OVERCOME the DARKEST darkness!!! Because let's face it, when we watch BATMAN, we're NOT The Joker, we're The Batman!!! When we watch a Romero flick, we're NOT a zombie, we're The Black Guy!!!
DUDE!!! And THE MUSIC!!! You know how a John Carpenter theme consists of the same 7 notes (or so) but WORKS SO BRILLIANTLY for the emotion of the film? Well this movie has a very simplistic approach to scoring, but IT SO WORKS!!! After Traci and I said good-night I HAD TO buy the soundtrack!!! (I'm listening to it now, as I write this, and IT SO RULES!!!)
So... blah. I loved the movie, and I think anyone who is into (a) writing, (b) filmmaking, or (c) being entertained SHOULD SEE THIS FILM!!!
THEY FINALLY GOT IT RIGHT!!!
AND THE DID IT RIGHT!!!
***Tommy, if you're reading this and you haven't seen it yet, STOP IT! GO AWAY! This entry has nothing to do with the progress of the scripts, so just stop reading until you've seen it! (HOW have you NOT seenit YET?!! YOU?!!)***
So anyway, THEY DID IT!!!
I WEPT! It was so well-done that I actually WEPT! MORE THAN ONCE!
I had 2 problems with this movie before I saw it: The costume (Still all black, no blue and grey, or even BLACK and grey!!!) and the Batmobile (I always found it more believable when the Batmobile was simply a souped-up version of a car we've already seen on the street). But after seeing the movie, I buy them both!
THE WRITING!!! Oh, dear Lord, the writing!!!
It's EXACTLY what feature film writing SHOULD be!!! Let me explain:
I love "entertainment" or "popcorn" movies! That's just what I dig. Can't help it; don't want to help it; that's just me. Not that I believe those should be the only movies made -- far from it; the more "challenging" films teach the entertainment filmmakers how to do their job much, much more effectively!!! -- but that's just my taste. Many is the drunken party conversation when I've had to defend "entertainment" movies to "art film" filmmakers and film conesuers(sp?) by pointing out, in their language, the subtle (often too subtle) "value" or "importance" of these films. (You can't defned the catagory as a whole, but if you go case-by-case you can mount a strong artistic arguement for any film you love... if you know what you're talking about in the first place. Remember, Shakespeare wrote for the masses, NOT the critics!)
So anyway, Robert McKee lays it all out in brutally honest terms: Good storytellers actually DO serve a purpose to Society. Stories give us the tools for life.
Therefor, one of the critera for ANY fulfilling entertainment is that it deals with the Human Condition, it illuminates some Truth about what it is to be human in a way that helps us understand ourselves and those around us BETTER than we currently do.
And the way to do this is through Thematic Arguement. I go this from the Wordplay guys (www.wordplayer.com), Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio who wrote -- among MANY others -- THE MASK OF ZORRO, SHREK and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURES OF THE BLACK PEARL, and John Truby, who lectures about and created a program for writing the "blockbuster" screenplay, as well as the creator(s) of the StoryTeller software (www.storymind.com/storyteller; sorry I don't remember the name(s)) as well as McKee himself.
The Thematic Arguement is this: You have many opinions about how to go through life successfully. Your Thematic Argument is ONE of those opinions. Let's say that one of your opinions is "A person can live successfully if he/she overcomes his/her fears". Now, the way to turn that opinion into a screenplay is to have all your major characters dealing with their very personal, very specific fears... But in different ways.
So your hero deals with his fears in one way, and your villain deals with his fears in a slightly -- note SLIGHTLY -- different way. Then you have other characters dealing with their fears in different ways.
The outcome you get is a story about fear, and whoever prevails at the end of the movie has won the arguement, in the filmgoer's eyes. Because they have watched this arguement played out IN ACTIONS, NOT WORDS over the course of 2 hours. They see how each attitude informs and/or provokes different actions/reactions under different circumstances and they understand the value/weaknesses of each point of view.
Now here's the key: Robert McKee once autographed one of my short scripts, and here's EXACTLY what he wrote: "To Ray Jay - Write The Truth" and then his signature.
If you are an observer of WHAT REALLY HAPPENS IN LIFE and you write things that unfold the way they REALLY DO, then you make a strong case for your arguement.
Not back to BATMAN BEGINS. The movie has a very strong Thematic Arguement that is introduced almost immediately, and plays itself out REALISTICALLY throughout the entire movie!!!
And thus, we walk away from having seen a REALLY COOL MOVIE, and with some insight into ourselves and others!!!
You think it's a coincidence that STAR WARS has endured the way it has? It's NOT. And STAR WARS will continue to endure generation after generation -- despite the complaints that I know many have about certain, nit-picky details (and characters) because Lucas was laying out his extensively-considered viewpoint of spirituality and social politics.
Anyway... So, the movie was really well done! It even defined for me exactly what it is that I enjoy so much about dark fiction: It's not about showing how awful Life/Society/The Human Condition/whatever is, it's about showing us how we can dig deep within ourselves and OVERCOME the DARKEST darkness!!! Because let's face it, when we watch BATMAN, we're NOT The Joker, we're The Batman!!! When we watch a Romero flick, we're NOT a zombie, we're The Black Guy!!!
DUDE!!! And THE MUSIC!!! You know how a John Carpenter theme consists of the same 7 notes (or so) but WORKS SO BRILLIANTLY for the emotion of the film? Well this movie has a very simplistic approach to scoring, but IT SO WORKS!!! After Traci and I said good-night I HAD TO buy the soundtrack!!! (I'm listening to it now, as I write this, and IT SO RULES!!!)
So... blah. I loved the movie, and I think anyone who is into (a) writing, (b) filmmaking, or (c) being entertained SHOULD SEE THIS FILM!!!
THEY FINALLY GOT IT RIGHT!!!
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Technology RULZ!!!
Last night I helped my friend Kelly make a dvd cover for a film he had to have submitted by 10:00 am this morning. In fact, in the end, I made it for him.
The really cool part is that this was an on-the-fly impromptu thing, and I'm in Austin, Texas and he's in Los Angeles, California!!!
Here's the thing: This could not have happened 5 years ago. I mean, we couldn't have done it.
I remember in '98 or '99 or sometime watching a vcd on Kelly's laptop on which George Lucas was in Austrailia (if memory serves) and Dennis Mueren(sp?) was in LA and they were video-conferencing, working on THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: SPECIAL EDITION. It was the most amazing thing to Kelly and me that these geniuses were able to harness this new technology in such a way that allowed them to work on the same project ACROSS CONTINENTS!!!
And now, maybe 6 years later, Kelly calls me up (via cell phone) and tells me what he needs to have happen in a few hour, asks me for my technical advice -- because he knows I've been playing with MSPaint and PaintShopPro for several years now, and has seen some of my work -- and together we make happen exactly what he needed to happen!!!
Basically, this is LIVING THE DREAM. I mean, neither of us are making Big Bucks in the field we are striving to get into, but -- more importantly -- we are doing what we want to be doing, and utilizing ALL our resources in fairly inventive ways. I mean, no, we don't have web-cams for web-conferencing. But we are using the technology at our disposal to the uttmost extremes of its abilities!!! I mean, Kelly says he's having problems with this, and I'm not, so I whip it out on my end, emaile it to him ALMOST INSTANTANEOUSLY, and he prints out his dvd cover!!!
HOW FUCKING COOL IS THAT?!!!
Now, granted, you have to be here to really enjoy this -- and if you're reading this and you're under the age of 30 you will NEVER actually feel what this feels like -- but maybe you can bend your mind around it: We are doing things that we never knew would be possible, creating in ways that -- for most of our lives to date -- were actually BEYOND our imagininings. (And we're both VERY imaginative buggers!!!)
Theres' just no other way to describe it other than to simply say that between 2:00 am Central time and 5:30 am, Kelly and I WERE LIVING THE DREAM.
And I believe that to truly get the most out of this Life we're given, we have to appreciate those little near-perfect moments we're granted within it.
The really cool part is that this was an on-the-fly impromptu thing, and I'm in Austin, Texas and he's in Los Angeles, California!!!
Here's the thing: This could not have happened 5 years ago. I mean, we couldn't have done it.
I remember in '98 or '99 or sometime watching a vcd on Kelly's laptop on which George Lucas was in Austrailia (if memory serves) and Dennis Mueren(sp?) was in LA and they were video-conferencing, working on THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: SPECIAL EDITION. It was the most amazing thing to Kelly and me that these geniuses were able to harness this new technology in such a way that allowed them to work on the same project ACROSS CONTINENTS!!!
And now, maybe 6 years later, Kelly calls me up (via cell phone) and tells me what he needs to have happen in a few hour, asks me for my technical advice -- because he knows I've been playing with MSPaint and PaintShopPro for several years now, and has seen some of my work -- and together we make happen exactly what he needed to happen!!!
Basically, this is LIVING THE DREAM. I mean, neither of us are making Big Bucks in the field we are striving to get into, but -- more importantly -- we are doing what we want to be doing, and utilizing ALL our resources in fairly inventive ways. I mean, no, we don't have web-cams for web-conferencing. But we are using the technology at our disposal to the uttmost extremes of its abilities!!! I mean, Kelly says he's having problems with this, and I'm not, so I whip it out on my end, emaile it to him ALMOST INSTANTANEOUSLY, and he prints out his dvd cover!!!
HOW FUCKING COOL IS THAT?!!!
Now, granted, you have to be here to really enjoy this -- and if you're reading this and you're under the age of 30 you will NEVER actually feel what this feels like -- but maybe you can bend your mind around it: We are doing things that we never knew would be possible, creating in ways that -- for most of our lives to date -- were actually BEYOND our imagininings. (And we're both VERY imaginative buggers!!!)
Theres' just no other way to describe it other than to simply say that between 2:00 am Central time and 5:30 am, Kelly and I WERE LIVING THE DREAM.
And I believe that to truly get the most out of this Life we're given, we have to appreciate those little near-perfect moments we're granted within it.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Blah...
No post today because I'm in a whiny, moan-y BLAH! mood.
Yesterday, though, I got some more writing done ( 1 1/4 pages!) and I figured out about when I can expect to be done with the scripts: February 2006. Believe it or not, I'm actually excited about that!
But otherwise, right at this very moment in time, I question the purpose that romantic love plays in one's spiritual life, and why those that can give the most seem to be the least likely to recieve, and...
Like I said, whiny, moan-y BLAH!
I get like this from time to time. Sorry.
It'll be over before next post.
PEACE!
Yesterday, though, I got some more writing done ( 1 1/4 pages!) and I figured out about when I can expect to be done with the scripts: February 2006. Believe it or not, I'm actually excited about that!
But otherwise, right at this very moment in time, I question the purpose that romantic love plays in one's spiritual life, and why those that can give the most seem to be the least likely to recieve, and...
Like I said, whiny, moan-y BLAH!
I get like this from time to time. Sorry.
It'll be over before next post.
PEACE!
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
A Little Catch-up Entry
Just finished reading a couple days out of Kevin Smith's life, and started to feel like maybe I should make an entry. It's a little less easy to just plop down and blog now that I have ti actually make an effort to do so...
So okay, it's Wednesday, before I go to work.
Monday night I discovered that Step 7 is actually taking the story and backstory I've created and just trying to make the first story beat happen. I wrote the first page and quarter-page of the first draft of the first episode of Ezekiel Hollow and I'm proud of it!!! I read an article in Creative Screenwriting magazine by Karl Iglesias, whose new column is titled "Crafting Emotional Impact", and he helped me ensure that first scene worked.
Iglesias points out that a screenwriter (professional or asping) isn't trying to write a well-structured, well written script; he/she is actually -- if they are serious about their craft -- trying to creat what he calls "WOW! moments". And we want them on every page!!! That is to say, if someone picks up our script and randomly opnes it to any page, that someone should be compelled to continue reading! Because let's face it, if the scrict isn't that good, it doesn't really stand a chance of competing in a marketplace that has better and better writers.
Basically, every writer that inspires me and makes me want to write stories: I'm competing against them! That's a bit of a generality, but not really an overstatement.
I mean, I want to write and produce radio dramas to hopefully be heard on whatever radio stations will play them, as well as possibly the Net, and to be sold as cds. Now for a person -- for you, reading this -- to buy my story you have to use the money you have. And that's money you might be saving for a Spielberg or Soderberg or Sonenfeld movie, a Crichton or Koontz or King novel, or to buy Twilight Zone or Firefly or Simpsons on dvd, or your favorite comic books, or your favorite manga, or you favorite videogames!!! So I really can't dick around with my mediocre stuff. I have to hit you with material that is better that I think I can pull off.
THANK YOU, KARL IGLESIAS!!!
So anyway, Monday night I found that "channel" that allowed me to tap into the best I can do (on the first pass, anyway) as a writer and I was pleased by my writing.
In fact, I've got this theory that when we create something good, we know it. We feel it. (Maybe this is just true if you've been doing it for a few years. It may take time to set our creative "barometers", I'm not sure.) And if you're really dying for someone to tell you whether or not it's good, then it's not ready yet.
And I tested this theory Monday night. I wanted to show the pages to My Genius Friend Dave, but then I realized that I felt that the pages were good. But then I wondered how much I could trust my theory -- I mean, it's not as though I'm a professional writer, right? So I explained all this to Dave and he agreed to read the pages.
And he liked them.
Now, this might seem as though I'm like "Dave, tell me these pages are good" and Dave's like "Oh, all right, they're good." Dave's not like that. He's a Creative, too, and he truly understands the value of HONEST feedback. (Something that only true Creatives appreciate: Wannabe Creatives just want to hear that their work is good -- been there -- but Real Creatives want to know what needs to be fixed, so that the next person to check out their work is honestly impressed.)
So I trust My Genius Friend Dave when he assures me that the work is solid.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm only talking about a page and a quarter. It's not like I wrote the whole first script.
HOWEVER, without the individual pages I can't have the entire script. And without each script I can't have the whole series. And the point is that I can turn out pages packed with interest! That's the accomplishment I'm going on and on about.
So YAY!
And then last night Brian and I watched Dogtown and the Z-Boys, the documentary that inspired the movie Lords of Dogtown currently at your local theater. It was great!!!
And then we stuffed ourselves full of the first half of Father of the Pride: The Complete Series!!! GENIUS comedy!!! I honestly can't believe the show got canceled!!!
Oh, and I listened to more of the Star Wars: The Radio Drama! Good stuff! Inspiring stuff!
Let's see, I heard "Fit the Twenty-fifth", the penultimate episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy the radio series. (Next week, it's all over...)
Oh, and Monday I had my teeth cleaned, then yesterday I had some filling put in (2 consecutive days in the dentist's chair)! And as I was leaving the dentist's office, I got to say hi to Brian, who was just settling into the chair!!!
A fairly packed couple days, really!
I hope that maybe tonight I'll get the next scene written.
OH! Just a note on craft: When I write the scenes, what I do is outline all the material that should go into the scene, writing rather a dense synopsis of the scene. Then when I write the pages, I usually end up streamlining some stuff out. Basically, I write more than I will be able to fit into the scene. That is, I believe, how I accomplished a compelling page-and-a-quarter.
The Newbie tendency is to write the pages, and let the scene unfold as the pages get written. And that seems to work for novelists and short-story writers. But screenwriting -- and at least my audioplays -- can't afford the figurative "ums" and "ahs" that happen when the writer is trying to figure out what happens next. There needs to be a rich world beneath the surface, the story can't exist only on the surface.
So in order to do that without writing an actual treament, I do that with each scene just before I write it.
There seem to be many different creative processes in play, and switching between backstory and characterization and treatment and pages and back to backstory again seems to keep the creativity alive for the impatient writer. (Me.) A more disciplined writer could probably do one from beginning to end, then do another from beginning to end, and so on.
But I am not a disciplined writer.
And I'm aware of that. And I'm attempting to ensure that my impatience does not -- as it has for the last 12 years of my life -- interfere with getting the actual work done.
So there. Probably one of my more pompous entries, and sorry about that. But maybe it's helpful to someone...
:)
So okay, it's Wednesday, before I go to work.
Monday night I discovered that Step 7 is actually taking the story and backstory I've created and just trying to make the first story beat happen. I wrote the first page and quarter-page of the first draft of the first episode of Ezekiel Hollow and I'm proud of it!!! I read an article in Creative Screenwriting magazine by Karl Iglesias, whose new column is titled "Crafting Emotional Impact", and he helped me ensure that first scene worked.
Iglesias points out that a screenwriter (professional or asping) isn't trying to write a well-structured, well written script; he/she is actually -- if they are serious about their craft -- trying to creat what he calls "WOW! moments". And we want them on every page!!! That is to say, if someone picks up our script and randomly opnes it to any page, that someone should be compelled to continue reading! Because let's face it, if the scrict isn't that good, it doesn't really stand a chance of competing in a marketplace that has better and better writers.
Basically, every writer that inspires me and makes me want to write stories: I'm competing against them! That's a bit of a generality, but not really an overstatement.
I mean, I want to write and produce radio dramas to hopefully be heard on whatever radio stations will play them, as well as possibly the Net, and to be sold as cds. Now for a person -- for you, reading this -- to buy my story you have to use the money you have. And that's money you might be saving for a Spielberg or Soderberg or Sonenfeld movie, a Crichton or Koontz or King novel, or to buy Twilight Zone or Firefly or Simpsons on dvd, or your favorite comic books, or your favorite manga, or you favorite videogames!!! So I really can't dick around with my mediocre stuff. I have to hit you with material that is better that I think I can pull off.
THANK YOU, KARL IGLESIAS!!!
So anyway, Monday night I found that "channel" that allowed me to tap into the best I can do (on the first pass, anyway) as a writer and I was pleased by my writing.
In fact, I've got this theory that when we create something good, we know it. We feel it. (Maybe this is just true if you've been doing it for a few years. It may take time to set our creative "barometers", I'm not sure.) And if you're really dying for someone to tell you whether or not it's good, then it's not ready yet.
And I tested this theory Monday night. I wanted to show the pages to My Genius Friend Dave, but then I realized that I felt that the pages were good. But then I wondered how much I could trust my theory -- I mean, it's not as though I'm a professional writer, right? So I explained all this to Dave and he agreed to read the pages.
And he liked them.
Now, this might seem as though I'm like "Dave, tell me these pages are good" and Dave's like "Oh, all right, they're good." Dave's not like that. He's a Creative, too, and he truly understands the value of HONEST feedback. (Something that only true Creatives appreciate: Wannabe Creatives just want to hear that their work is good -- been there -- but Real Creatives want to know what needs to be fixed, so that the next person to check out their work is honestly impressed.)
So I trust My Genius Friend Dave when he assures me that the work is solid.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm only talking about a page and a quarter. It's not like I wrote the whole first script.
HOWEVER, without the individual pages I can't have the entire script. And without each script I can't have the whole series. And the point is that I can turn out pages packed with interest! That's the accomplishment I'm going on and on about.
So YAY!
And then last night Brian and I watched Dogtown and the Z-Boys, the documentary that inspired the movie Lords of Dogtown currently at your local theater. It was great!!!
And then we stuffed ourselves full of the first half of Father of the Pride: The Complete Series!!! GENIUS comedy!!! I honestly can't believe the show got canceled!!!
Oh, and I listened to more of the Star Wars: The Radio Drama! Good stuff! Inspiring stuff!
Let's see, I heard "Fit the Twenty-fifth", the penultimate episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy the radio series. (Next week, it's all over...)
Oh, and Monday I had my teeth cleaned, then yesterday I had some filling put in (2 consecutive days in the dentist's chair)! And as I was leaving the dentist's office, I got to say hi to Brian, who was just settling into the chair!!!
A fairly packed couple days, really!
I hope that maybe tonight I'll get the next scene written.
OH! Just a note on craft: When I write the scenes, what I do is outline all the material that should go into the scene, writing rather a dense synopsis of the scene. Then when I write the pages, I usually end up streamlining some stuff out. Basically, I write more than I will be able to fit into the scene. That is, I believe, how I accomplished a compelling page-and-a-quarter.
The Newbie tendency is to write the pages, and let the scene unfold as the pages get written. And that seems to work for novelists and short-story writers. But screenwriting -- and at least my audioplays -- can't afford the figurative "ums" and "ahs" that happen when the writer is trying to figure out what happens next. There needs to be a rich world beneath the surface, the story can't exist only on the surface.
So in order to do that without writing an actual treament, I do that with each scene just before I write it.
There seem to be many different creative processes in play, and switching between backstory and characterization and treatment and pages and back to backstory again seems to keep the creativity alive for the impatient writer. (Me.) A more disciplined writer could probably do one from beginning to end, then do another from beginning to end, and so on.
But I am not a disciplined writer.
And I'm aware of that. And I'm attempting to ensure that my impatience does not -- as it has for the last 12 years of my life -- interfere with getting the actual work done.
So there. Probably one of my more pompous entries, and sorry about that. But maybe it's helpful to someone...
:)
Monday, June 13, 2005
More About Diggin' My Life
It's Garfield's favorite day: Monday the 13th.
When I was 12 or 15 that little realization would have made my day!
So I find myself in an interesting predicament:
I have begun blogging to get into the habit and rythm of writing on a daily basis. But in trying to tweak just one more perk into my room computer, I ended up breaking my Internet...
...and the living room Net computer has a faulty keyboard -- besides being terrible uncomfortable to sit at, and too slow for my fingers when I really get going on the keys -- and so is not particularly convenient for blogging.
So now I'm back to writing plain old Journal entries for my personal Journal.
It has occured to me that until I (a) fix my Internet or (b) get a new computer I can simply blog in here on Word and then cut-and-paste onto the Net. And that's probably what I'll end up doing. But still, it's an interesting development to me. I wonder if it will have some unique rammification later...
GOT TO SEE TRACI TONIGHT!!!
God, I love her so much!!! She just couldn't be a more perfect woman! (Well, unless she were in love with me. But that would simply add a new top to her perfect-ness, as opposed to detracting from her current level of perfection.) She hung out for a while with Brian and me, and I got to eat Shrimp Scampy with 3-Cheese Biscuits while I looked at and listened to her.
LIFE CAN BE SO SWEET!!!
And I got to see Momento for my second time! This time with Brian, who dug it! Ever since I heard that Nolan was directing the new Batman, I've kinda sorta wanted to watch Momento again. And then Brian said that he wanted to see it before he saw Batman Begins, which opens Wednesday, and I just happen to have been carrying around this free-movie cupon for Hollywood Video. So the moment he said it I was out the door!
So that was a super-cool Zen/Wu-Wei moment!!! (I now know (a) why I've been carrying that cupon around all this time and (b) why I hadn't used it yet!) [Incidentally, that's the second time I've used that "a/b" thing. It's not that it's something I find particularly clever. But I guess it's just that Life is so multi-dimensional: when you realize one thing, you immediately realize another thing. Maybe...]
Tomorrow should be interesting. I have to get my teeth cleaned, stop by my lawyer's office on my way to work to (a) pick up another form and (b) reschedule my Tuesday appointment and pay the Rescheduling Fee. [There it is again! And it's not that I'm adverse to using a "c"; the last two really are part of the same activity. Read it again.] Then I've got to...
...do a couple more things that I won't discuss here...
Blah!
I should be asleep now if I'm going to get 8 hours before I have to get up for my dental appointment. I guess I'm not going to get 8 hours.
I was going to listen to some more Star Wars: The Radio Drama while playing Jewel Quest, but I simply had to write!
So the blogging was a good idea, apparently. Well, and effective one. Whether it was a good idea or a bad one is yet to be seen.
Still, more and more I seem to percieve that I live in a Reality in which ideas that come to me from a certain source, in a certain way, are just always, ultimately, good ones. It seem like if I listen to the right "voices", every step leads to a good destination.
AND the journey is a fun one!
Could I ask for anything more than that?!!
NOTE TO SELF: If I do start using Journal entries as blog entries, I need to proofread for stuff -- like ********** talk and particularly honest discussion of ***** -- that maybe should be removed.
That being said, I think I'm gonna try it with this entry!
NOTE TO (HYPOTHETICAL) BLOG READERS: I figure if anyone actually is interested in following my blog, this is the type of stuff they would be interested in. But I did edit some stuff, and will continue to in the future. (Plus, this editing helps me catch a couple of my spelling mistakes.) If entires read a little oddly in the future -- well... you know -- it's probably because I wrote it for my personal Journal and then edited it slightly for the blog. But I don't plan on explaining this every time I do that.
When I was 12 or 15 that little realization would have made my day!
So I find myself in an interesting predicament:
I have begun blogging to get into the habit and rythm of writing on a daily basis. But in trying to tweak just one more perk into my room computer, I ended up breaking my Internet...
...and the living room Net computer has a faulty keyboard -- besides being terrible uncomfortable to sit at, and too slow for my fingers when I really get going on the keys -- and so is not particularly convenient for blogging.
So now I'm back to writing plain old Journal entries for my personal Journal.
It has occured to me that until I (a) fix my Internet or (b) get a new computer I can simply blog in here on Word and then cut-and-paste onto the Net. And that's probably what I'll end up doing. But still, it's an interesting development to me. I wonder if it will have some unique rammification later...
GOT TO SEE TRACI TONIGHT!!!
God, I love her so much!!! She just couldn't be a more perfect woman! (Well, unless she were in love with me. But that would simply add a new top to her perfect-ness, as opposed to detracting from her current level of perfection.) She hung out for a while with Brian and me, and I got to eat Shrimp Scampy with 3-Cheese Biscuits while I looked at and listened to her.
LIFE CAN BE SO SWEET!!!
And I got to see Momento for my second time! This time with Brian, who dug it! Ever since I heard that Nolan was directing the new Batman, I've kinda sorta wanted to watch Momento again. And then Brian said that he wanted to see it before he saw Batman Begins, which opens Wednesday, and I just happen to have been carrying around this free-movie cupon for Hollywood Video. So the moment he said it I was out the door!
So that was a super-cool Zen/Wu-Wei moment!!! (I now know (a) why I've been carrying that cupon around all this time and (b) why I hadn't used it yet!) [Incidentally, that's the second time I've used that "a/b" thing. It's not that it's something I find particularly clever. But I guess it's just that Life is so multi-dimensional: when you realize one thing, you immediately realize another thing. Maybe...]
Tomorrow should be interesting. I have to get my teeth cleaned, stop by my lawyer's office on my way to work to (a) pick up another form and (b) reschedule my Tuesday appointment and pay the Rescheduling Fee. [There it is again! And it's not that I'm adverse to using a "c"; the last two really are part of the same activity. Read it again.] Then I've got to...
...do a couple more things that I won't discuss here...
Blah!
I should be asleep now if I'm going to get 8 hours before I have to get up for my dental appointment. I guess I'm not going to get 8 hours.
I was going to listen to some more Star Wars: The Radio Drama while playing Jewel Quest, but I simply had to write!
So the blogging was a good idea, apparently. Well, and effective one. Whether it was a good idea or a bad one is yet to be seen.
Still, more and more I seem to percieve that I live in a Reality in which ideas that come to me from a certain source, in a certain way, are just always, ultimately, good ones. It seem like if I listen to the right "voices", every step leads to a good destination.
AND the journey is a fun one!
Could I ask for anything more than that?!!
NOTE TO SELF: If I do start using Journal entries as blog entries, I need to proofread for stuff -- like ********** talk and particularly honest discussion of ***** -- that maybe should be removed.
That being said, I think I'm gonna try it with this entry!
NOTE TO (HYPOTHETICAL) BLOG READERS: I figure if anyone actually is interested in following my blog, this is the type of stuff they would be interested in. But I did edit some stuff, and will continue to in the future. (Plus, this editing helps me catch a couple of my spelling mistakes.) If entires read a little oddly in the future -- well... you know -- it's probably because I wrote it for my personal Journal and then edited it slightly for the blog. But I don't plan on explaining this every time I do that.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Diggin' My Life
This is why it's great to be me...
Okay, so I spent most of my day burning discs -- including some great Mercury Theatre On The Air shows including Orson Wells's versions of Only Angels Have Wings & Treasure Island!!! -- and I finally finished watching The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou -- and I ended up really liking it; the first Wes Anderson movie I liked! -- but Brian and I had a meeting in which we worked out our next audio miniseries: Port Blood!!! It's a pirate adventure!!!
How cool is that?!! Brian and I are sitting around talking about just... stuff, and then half an hour later we have a good, sound basis for a second audio minisiereis!!!
See, this is why I think creative people should be roommates!!! Particularly during the creative process! Work gets done when your not even trying to do work!
Those are the BEST meetings, too. Because basically, other meetings -- the planned ones -- are pretty much people sitting around, justifying their jobs to each other. "You see, the reason you can't fire me is because I..." But the spontaneous ones are, like, hyper-productive because none of it's crap. I mean, it's all crap because it's just talking, and so without the feeling of needing to perform, the crap-crap gets quickly dismissed and the good ideas just sort of naturally sweep in to fill the vaccuum.
Okay, watching Momento with Brian now so... BYE!!!
Okay, so I spent most of my day burning discs -- including some great Mercury Theatre On The Air shows including Orson Wells's versions of Only Angels Have Wings & Treasure Island!!! -- and I finally finished watching The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou -- and I ended up really liking it; the first Wes Anderson movie I liked! -- but Brian and I had a meeting in which we worked out our next audio miniseries: Port Blood!!! It's a pirate adventure!!!
How cool is that?!! Brian and I are sitting around talking about just... stuff, and then half an hour later we have a good, sound basis for a second audio minisiereis!!!
See, this is why I think creative people should be roommates!!! Particularly during the creative process! Work gets done when your not even trying to do work!
Those are the BEST meetings, too. Because basically, other meetings -- the planned ones -- are pretty much people sitting around, justifying their jobs to each other. "You see, the reason you can't fire me is because I..." But the spontaneous ones are, like, hyper-productive because none of it's crap. I mean, it's all crap because it's just talking, and so without the feeling of needing to perform, the crap-crap gets quickly dismissed and the good ideas just sort of naturally sweep in to fill the vaccuum.
Okay, watching Momento with Brian now so... BYE!!!
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Homestar Runner LIVE! Old School!!!
That's what it saidon the marquee at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown tonight. Not sure exactly what it means...
But bad news first. (I like to finish my green beans before I chow on my apple cobbler...)
I'm writing this on the Internet computer Brian set up in the living room because I'm not on the Net anymore... I got sassy with some files that looked like they were just ad/pop-up facilitaors, but apparently one of them was actually necessary for connecting to the Net. That, or I somehow lost the settings formy LAN connection.
In either case, I broke my Internet... :(
So now I'm typing rather uncomfortably on an old keyboard with keys that stick.
But the good news...
Brian and I got to see the creators of www.homestarrunner.com live tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse!!! It was awesome!!! So inspiring!!! I mean, they're just these guys who have this creativity, and the worked at it for a while for free, and now they do it full-time!!!
DUDE!!!
And they're fun!!! And they're funny!!! And I just wish all my friends could have been their to enjoy it with us!!!
But still, being a selfish bastard by nature, the most important thing to me is that The Edwards Boys gotto the The Brothers Chap in person!!!
IN FACT... I had to use the restroom after, and Matt Chapman (the voices) was RIGHT BEHIND ME IN LINE!!! He was enagged in conversation with a couple of other people -- one of whom was a rather shapely young lady bearing a T-shirt sporting one of his/his brother's creations upon her rather shapely chest -- so I didn't actually get to speak with him, but that's fine! I got to stand in front of him in line!!!
(Dude, I swear! If he had just a second to talk I would have let him cut in front of me! Really!!!)
But I'm cutting this entry short. Poor Brian had to work 11 hours straight to get off in time to see the show, and this space bar just couldn't be any louder!!! And I'd hate to wake him!
So that's all for now.
But bad news first. (I like to finish my green beans before I chow on my apple cobbler...)
I'm writing this on the Internet computer Brian set up in the living room because I'm not on the Net anymore... I got sassy with some files that looked like they were just ad/pop-up facilitaors, but apparently one of them was actually necessary for connecting to the Net. That, or I somehow lost the settings formy LAN connection.
In either case, I broke my Internet... :(
So now I'm typing rather uncomfortably on an old keyboard with keys that stick.
But the good news...
Brian and I got to see the creators of www.homestarrunner.com live tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse!!! It was awesome!!! So inspiring!!! I mean, they're just these guys who have this creativity, and the worked at it for a while for free, and now they do it full-time!!!
DUDE!!!
And they're fun!!! And they're funny!!! And I just wish all my friends could have been their to enjoy it with us!!!
But still, being a selfish bastard by nature, the most important thing to me is that The Edwards Boys gotto the The Brothers Chap in person!!!
IN FACT... I had to use the restroom after, and Matt Chapman (the voices) was RIGHT BEHIND ME IN LINE!!! He was enagged in conversation with a couple of other people -- one of whom was a rather shapely young lady bearing a T-shirt sporting one of his/his brother's creations upon her rather shapely chest -- so I didn't actually get to speak with him, but that's fine! I got to stand in front of him in line!!!
(Dude, I swear! If he had just a second to talk I would have let him cut in front of me! Really!!!)
But I'm cutting this entry short. Poor Brian had to work 11 hours straight to get off in time to see the show, and this space bar just couldn't be any louder!!! And I'd hate to wake him!
So that's all for now.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Aliens Have Figured Out How To Move
I'm outside having a smoke just now -- I'm facing roughly south, the sun is sinking, at about a 25-degree angle to my right -- and I look up in the eastern sky, and I see a silver, cigar-shaped vehicle flying through the sky, moving roughly north-to-south.
Now, it's moving line an airplane, not the way I've heard/read the movement of UFOs described. But as the vehicle travels further south, I still don't see wings! The further south it moves, it continues to look like a flying silver cigar-tube.
With the sun at the angle it is, I'm sure someone could come up with a formula that shows how the distance from me and the angle of the sun simply makes the wings impossible to see. And I'm not even trying to have had a UFO sighting.
But it gave me a neat notion: What if UFOs figured out that all they have to do to avoid detection is simply move the way terrestrial aircafts move?
I mean, they traveled here from another galaxy, right? Aren't they clever enough to figure out that it's their extra-terrestrial mobility that gives them away?
And now, as I write this, I wonder if there isn't some Human insight suggested by this notion. Like, if we're being targeted by peers -- because we're "too sensitive" or because we work harder than they do or because they're jealous of whatever other possitive trait we've worked for years to cultivate in ourselves but that makes them feel badly about themselves -- wouldn't it be the simplist thing in the world for us to just sort of "move" like "normal" people, like Them?
I don't mean back down from what we belive in or follow the herd. But if we're smarter can't we just flow with them when it's not against what we believe to do so?
But then, this is just a half-baked concept I'm sort of throwing out as it comes. I paint my fingernails blue simply because it amuses me, and I don't really catch flack for that. (Sometimes it even opens up brief conversations with annonymous hotties who probably wouldn't even speak to me under other circumstances...)
So blah. Whatever.
But the point is that aliens have figured out how to fool us, so we gotta keep our brain-probe-scrambling tin foil hats handy!
Now, it's moving line an airplane, not the way I've heard/read the movement of UFOs described. But as the vehicle travels further south, I still don't see wings! The further south it moves, it continues to look like a flying silver cigar-tube.
With the sun at the angle it is, I'm sure someone could come up with a formula that shows how the distance from me and the angle of the sun simply makes the wings impossible to see. And I'm not even trying to have had a UFO sighting.
But it gave me a neat notion: What if UFOs figured out that all they have to do to avoid detection is simply move the way terrestrial aircafts move?
I mean, they traveled here from another galaxy, right? Aren't they clever enough to figure out that it's their extra-terrestrial mobility that gives them away?
And now, as I write this, I wonder if there isn't some Human insight suggested by this notion. Like, if we're being targeted by peers -- because we're "too sensitive" or because we work harder than they do or because they're jealous of whatever other possitive trait we've worked for years to cultivate in ourselves but that makes them feel badly about themselves -- wouldn't it be the simplist thing in the world for us to just sort of "move" like "normal" people, like Them?
I don't mean back down from what we belive in or follow the herd. But if we're smarter can't we just flow with them when it's not against what we believe to do so?
But then, this is just a half-baked concept I'm sort of throwing out as it comes. I paint my fingernails blue simply because it amuses me, and I don't really catch flack for that. (Sometimes it even opens up brief conversations with annonymous hotties who probably wouldn't even speak to me under other circumstances...)
So blah. Whatever.
But the point is that aliens have figured out how to fool us, so we gotta keep our brain-probe-scrambling tin foil hats handy!
Thursday, June 09, 2005
TIME TRAVEL IS POSSIBLE!!!
I conduncted a little experiment:
I adjusted the settings at the bottom of my Posting screen so that I actually posted an entry before I even signed up on Blogger.com!!!
To see the entry, you'll have to go to my Archives. It's the first one listed.
So I now have the ability to post- or pre-date entires as I desire!!!
Don't fret, though. I understand the great responsiblity that now rests on my shoulders, and I will endeavour to not abuse this new and awesome power.
I adjusted the settings at the bottom of my Posting screen so that I actually posted an entry before I even signed up on Blogger.com!!!
To see the entry, you'll have to go to my Archives. It's the first one listed.
So I now have the ability to post- or pre-date entires as I desire!!!
Don't fret, though. I understand the great responsiblity that now rests on my shoulders, and I will endeavour to not abuse this new and awesome power.
MORE Writing Progress!!!
If this degenerates into a journal of my writing, I know this will become the most boring web log ever!
BUT I'M JUST SO EXCITED!!!
I finished Step 6 -- listed below -- tonight and am gearing up for Step 7!!!
7. Genre-proof Your Structure
This is probably a silly way to phrase it, in that you're not trying to protect your structure from your genre, but ensure that you're being faithgul to your genre.
If you're writing for horror, you've got to make sure you structure in enough scares to make your story an actualy horror story! So next I'm going to break down my storyline (structurally) in terms of the scares.
Now, if this were Comedy I would want the audience laughing once or every minutes or two, with big laughs at least every 10 minutes and HUGE laugh sequences every half hour -- the exception being the first and last 5 pages, which should probably have much more comedy to, respectively, set the tone and end on a high note.
In Horror, however, every 10 pages is good, with BIG scares every half-hour.
That's in screenplay terms.
What I'm actually up to is an audio miniseries in 6 half-hour episodes. So I figure if I get between 2 and 4 good scares in -- with (un)healthy dollups of creepy -- I'm in good shape.
Why that much?
Because every episode should feel like it's own reason for listening. Every episode should stand alone as a listening experience. And what I'm selling is scares.
Now, 2-4 might be a bit ambitious. I may be letting my First-Timer Insecurity make me over zealous. I'll feel it out as it goes. But it's a decent starting point, even though trying that hard might interfere with the actual storytelling. But like I said, I'll feel it out.
I just don't want to fall into the trap of so many Horror writers I've read and seen: I don't write a Horror story that isn't actually scary!
BUT TONIGHT...!!! I hadn't worked out the events of the last 2 episodes (the last half-hour, or Act III, in screenplay terms), but I figured they'd work themselves out if I stayed true to my theme... AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED!!!
I have the slightest twinge of temptation to start writing the script pages going off the work I've already done! But personal experience and extensive study has taught me that I can't give in, because if I do I'll have shallow, uninspired pages that seem to be stretching out little material, rather than feeling packed with storytelling richness.
I have one layer of what should be a multilayered work.
So tomorrow I'll begin mapping out my scares -- not cramming them in where they don't belong but, as I've done with the thematic structuring, looking at what I've got and simply enhancing what is there -- when that's done, I'll figure out what Step 8 should be.
THIS SO SO EXCITING!!! I may actually have a long-form piece of fiction that I'm truly, deeply proud of for the first time ever!!!
P.S. Scrubs rules!!!
P.P.S. If Traci (My Super Hot Best Friend Whom I Will Never See Naked) happens to be reading this, HI, TRACI!!!
BUT I'M JUST SO EXCITED!!!
I finished Step 6 -- listed below -- tonight and am gearing up for Step 7!!!
7. Genre-proof Your Structure
This is probably a silly way to phrase it, in that you're not trying to protect your structure from your genre, but ensure that you're being faithgul to your genre.
If you're writing for horror, you've got to make sure you structure in enough scares to make your story an actualy horror story! So next I'm going to break down my storyline (structurally) in terms of the scares.
Now, if this were Comedy I would want the audience laughing once or every minutes or two, with big laughs at least every 10 minutes and HUGE laugh sequences every half hour -- the exception being the first and last 5 pages, which should probably have much more comedy to, respectively, set the tone and end on a high note.
In Horror, however, every 10 pages is good, with BIG scares every half-hour.
That's in screenplay terms.
What I'm actually up to is an audio miniseries in 6 half-hour episodes. So I figure if I get between 2 and 4 good scares in -- with (un)healthy dollups of creepy -- I'm in good shape.
Why that much?
Because every episode should feel like it's own reason for listening. Every episode should stand alone as a listening experience. And what I'm selling is scares.
Now, 2-4 might be a bit ambitious. I may be letting my First-Timer Insecurity make me over zealous. I'll feel it out as it goes. But it's a decent starting point, even though trying that hard might interfere with the actual storytelling. But like I said, I'll feel it out.
I just don't want to fall into the trap of so many Horror writers I've read and seen: I don't write a Horror story that isn't actually scary!
BUT TONIGHT...!!! I hadn't worked out the events of the last 2 episodes (the last half-hour, or Act III, in screenplay terms), but I figured they'd work themselves out if I stayed true to my theme... AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED!!!
I have the slightest twinge of temptation to start writing the script pages going off the work I've already done! But personal experience and extensive study has taught me that I can't give in, because if I do I'll have shallow, uninspired pages that seem to be stretching out little material, rather than feeling packed with storytelling richness.
I have one layer of what should be a multilayered work.
So tomorrow I'll begin mapping out my scares -- not cramming them in where they don't belong but, as I've done with the thematic structuring, looking at what I've got and simply enhancing what is there -- when that's done, I'll figure out what Step 8 should be.
THIS SO SO EXCITING!!! I may actually have a long-form piece of fiction that I'm truly, deeply proud of for the first time ever!!!
P.S. Scrubs rules!!!
P.P.S. If Traci (My Super Hot Best Friend Whom I Will Never See Naked) happens to be reading this, HI, TRACI!!!
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
HHGG: Fit the 24th Today!!!
I listened to the 3rd-to-last installment (ever) of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on BBC4 today!!!
Also, I watched as lot of Scrubs!
I was thinking that this is just really a spectacular summer to be a fan-boy! I mean, in March we started off with the film version of HHGG (FINALLY!!!), then for the last time ever, we get to stand in line for a Star Wars movie!!! (Brian and I saw it opening morning at 3:00 am and 6:00 am, and both times Darth Vader comes down the isle, walks to the screen and starts the movie with his lightsaber and the Force. And just before the 6a, Vader stood in the lobby as we walked in, and he fed me a Krispy Kreme doughnut! AND we saw it in the only digital-projection theater in Austin!!! I'm telling ya, I'm in Geek Heaven!!!) Then Spielberg's version War of the Words comes out later this month! Then soon we get to see Batman Begins, and sometime this summer we get The Fantastic Four!!!
Good summer to be a fan-boy!
That's not even including the broadcast of HHGG on the radio!
(I may pass out.)
Now if Alice Cooper or the original KISS lineup came to Austin before the Fall, I would truly just have to lie-down and declare my life finished!
Ooh! Ooh! AND... this weekend Brian and I are supposed to see the creators of www.HomestarRunner.com -- the "Bros Chap" -- LIVE at the downtown Alamo Drafthouse! I mean, come on! Could Life be any cooler?
Well, maybe if I were writing a kickass horror audio miniseries...
OH WAIT! I AM!!!
Okay, maybe if I met the Love of My Life and we instantly recognized each other and...
...oh... now I'm depressed...
THE CHAPMAN BROTHERS LIVE!!!
Okay, I'm up again!
Also, I watched as lot of Scrubs!
I was thinking that this is just really a spectacular summer to be a fan-boy! I mean, in March we started off with the film version of HHGG (FINALLY!!!), then for the last time ever, we get to stand in line for a Star Wars movie!!! (Brian and I saw it opening morning at 3:00 am and 6:00 am, and both times Darth Vader comes down the isle, walks to the screen and starts the movie with his lightsaber and the Force. And just before the 6a, Vader stood in the lobby as we walked in, and he fed me a Krispy Kreme doughnut! AND we saw it in the only digital-projection theater in Austin!!! I'm telling ya, I'm in Geek Heaven!!!) Then Spielberg's version War of the Words comes out later this month! Then soon we get to see Batman Begins, and sometime this summer we get The Fantastic Four!!!
Good summer to be a fan-boy!
That's not even including the broadcast of HHGG on the radio!
(I may pass out.)
Now if Alice Cooper or the original KISS lineup came to Austin before the Fall, I would truly just have to lie-down and declare my life finished!
Ooh! Ooh! AND... this weekend Brian and I are supposed to see the creators of www.HomestarRunner.com -- the "Bros Chap" -- LIVE at the downtown Alamo Drafthouse! I mean, come on! Could Life be any cooler?
Well, maybe if I were writing a kickass horror audio miniseries...
OH WAIT! I AM!!!
Okay, maybe if I met the Love of My Life and we instantly recognized each other and...
...oh... now I'm depressed...
THE CHAPMAN BROTHERS LIVE!!!
Okay, I'm up again!
Monday, June 06, 2005
Possible Writing Breakthrough!!!
I have spent 12 years studying the writing process(es) and trying to figure out how it's properly done. Every writer is supposed to have their own personal way of getting it done, the way that works absolutely great for them, but probably not 100% for any other human in the world.
Well at the very beginning of this year I had a crisis of faith and gave up "being" or "trying to become" a writer. After over a decade, if I couldn't find a process that worked for me -- a way of generating stories from scratch -- then it just wasn't going to happen.
And, practicing Wu-Wei, I simply accepted that. I am not "a writer". I am one who can write, and one who knows a great deal about writing, but I am not a writer.
Then tonight...!!!
Okay, so I'm working on my first 6-part audio miniseries. I'm not worried about "being a writer", I'm just worried about getting the job done. I've done some other stuff last week, but tonight I hit a snag that might have stopped me cold in my tracks five months ago. But I thought about it, with no expectations, nothing to live up to, and I think I figured out the first part of my method for writing! My Process!!!
I'm sharing this in case it contains anything useful for anyone else, but mostly so I can come back here when I finish this story and start my next one.
Now, this is for a longer-form story, like a screenplay or a novel (or an audio miniseries)...
1. Find your Concept:
You need to know the major elements of the story that will immediately hook people into your story. You need Time, Place, Hero, Villain, Goal, Complication, and Hoped-for Resolution (the way the audience wants it to end) & Not-hoped-for or Hoped-Against Resolution (the way the audience DOES NOT want it to end). Now, you don't necessarily have to have all those elements, just enough of them to hook your audience from the logline. Note: If the Concept isn't a grabber, all the work you do after this is pretty much in vain.
2. Thematic Statement:
What do I want to say at the very end? What basic human Truth do I want to illustrate with this story? I'm not talking about preaching here. The theme should never actually be stated verbally. But the thematic struggle informs every line and every action of every character I create (otherwise, they don't get to be in it) and the outcome defines the culmination of the story. So I decide what my core Thematic Statment and then I...
3. Frame the Argument:
Here I'm combining Robert McKee's approach with that of Ted Elliot & Terry Rosio (imdb them if you don't know who they are) and I won't go into what those approaches are, I'll just say what I'm doing. I find the core Value at stake in my Thematic Statement. Let's say my T.S. is "Humans will help each other if circumstances allow." In that case, I judge the core value to be "Help". And that's a Positive Value Charge (see McKee's STORY for more). Then I figure out the counterpoint, or Negative Charge of that value, which I would say is "Hinder". But I don't stop there: I also fins the "Contrary" and "End of the Line" charges of that value (again, refer to STORY) which I would say are probably, respectively, "Ambivalence" and "Help that Devistates". Next I...
4. Character-ize the Arguement:
Now this is what tripped me up for 12 years... The Anagonist obviously represents the Negative Value Charge... But so does the Protagonst! The difference is that at the end of the story (if it has a "happy ending") the hero will learn his/her lesson -- via the other characters in the story -- and switch to the Positive Value Charge. So here's how I solved that problem: With the Protagonist's allies. [NOTE: I'm writing a taught, Action Horror story with a very simple throughline, where a band of monster-fodder try to escape alive. This IS NOT a quiet, pensive Drama; I would re-think this strategy for a different genre.] So here's how it plays out: The Protagonist begins the story with the Negative Value Charge, the Faux-Antagonist (the Prot's Ally with whom the Prot can argue during the story) will actually represent the Positive Valure Charge, but an extreme version of it that comes off abrasively. Then 2 lesser characters represent the Contrary and End-of-the-Line Value Charges, but in passive, powerless ways. (I'm just looking for means of debate and personality-clash here. My thematic point will be made by how the story plays out.)
5. Break the Story:
Next I break the story down into bite-sized peices. I arbitrarily chose 15-minute chunks, and here's why:
When I first started writing I learned the basic 3-Act structure, and that didn't work because I could easily bore my audience to sleep in 30 pages... and Act II is 60 pages long! Then I tried to micro-manage, going at the script in 5-page chunks; but I found that I tended to cram each segment with too much story info, so every scene was exposition with no real room for just sort of "being" in the world, with the characters... 10-page chunks may work, but I'm trying 15-page chunks for the time being.
So, knowing that every 30 pages needs to climax big -- in a Plot-point or a Reversal -- and knowing that every 15 pages needs to be it's own unit of entertainment to keep the audience from losing interest, I break each 15-page segment into five 3-page units (a more-or-less arbitrary division, but I suspect it will "all come out in the wash"). So I break the basic story into 5 untits within the 15-page Segments, getting as far along as I can until I just don't know what happens next. (The ending will work itslef out, if I stay true to my characters and my theme. It just somehow does.)
6. Segment-ize the Arguement:
Here's where I get really clever! AFTER I have figured out the basic (the VERY BASIC) action of the majority of the movie, I re-state the general storyline (movie as a whole) in terms of all 4 Value Charges!!! I make sure to hit all the bases, bending the story action (not changing it, just sort of nudging it) so that it covers the gamut of my Thematic Arguement.
Then I do the SAME for EACH SEGMENT!!! (Yes, you may worship my brilliance now!) I've got the action that happens within most of each segment now! All I have to do is look at what I've got, then see how I can apply it to all 4 of my Value Charges!
Why is this such a brilliant stroke? Because I know that subliminally, the audience will FEEL the thematic arguement playing out every 15 minutes. More than that, each Segment is a different bit of action, so I'm effectively playing out my thematic arguement 9 times, under COMPLETELY DIFFERENT sets of circumstances.
PLUS... You know what happens to those last 2 missing Segments at the end of your story? THEY GET WRITTEN! When you get there (I'm recomending the Plotting stage, not the Page-writing stage, mind you), they'll just sort of write themselves because of what has come before and what your thematic arguement is doing.
So after you've broken down each Segment in terms of how it hits the 4 Value Charges, you WILL NOT have to ask yourself "What happens next?!!".
And for me, that's the toughest part of writing!!! That's always what stops me dead in my tracks!
Well, that AND the realization halfway through my script that the Concept is merely mediocre, and no one will ever want to read this anyway! If I can't pitch my story in 2 sentences I don't really have a story worth 120 pages!
Blah.
So that's for me, and for anyone who wants to try it.
Too bad no one's reading this thing...
;)
Well at the very beginning of this year I had a crisis of faith and gave up "being" or "trying to become" a writer. After over a decade, if I couldn't find a process that worked for me -- a way of generating stories from scratch -- then it just wasn't going to happen.
And, practicing Wu-Wei, I simply accepted that. I am not "a writer". I am one who can write, and one who knows a great deal about writing, but I am not a writer.
Then tonight...!!!
Okay, so I'm working on my first 6-part audio miniseries. I'm not worried about "being a writer", I'm just worried about getting the job done. I've done some other stuff last week, but tonight I hit a snag that might have stopped me cold in my tracks five months ago. But I thought about it, with no expectations, nothing to live up to, and I think I figured out the first part of my method for writing! My Process!!!
I'm sharing this in case it contains anything useful for anyone else, but mostly so I can come back here when I finish this story and start my next one.
Now, this is for a longer-form story, like a screenplay or a novel (or an audio miniseries)...
1. Find your Concept:
You need to know the major elements of the story that will immediately hook people into your story. You need Time, Place, Hero, Villain, Goal, Complication, and Hoped-for Resolution (the way the audience wants it to end) & Not-hoped-for or Hoped-Against Resolution (the way the audience DOES NOT want it to end). Now, you don't necessarily have to have all those elements, just enough of them to hook your audience from the logline. Note: If the Concept isn't a grabber, all the work you do after this is pretty much in vain.
2. Thematic Statement:
What do I want to say at the very end? What basic human Truth do I want to illustrate with this story? I'm not talking about preaching here. The theme should never actually be stated verbally. But the thematic struggle informs every line and every action of every character I create (otherwise, they don't get to be in it) and the outcome defines the culmination of the story. So I decide what my core Thematic Statment and then I...
3. Frame the Argument:
Here I'm combining Robert McKee's approach with that of Ted Elliot & Terry Rosio (imdb them if you don't know who they are) and I won't go into what those approaches are, I'll just say what I'm doing. I find the core Value at stake in my Thematic Statement. Let's say my T.S. is "Humans will help each other if circumstances allow." In that case, I judge the core value to be "Help". And that's a Positive Value Charge (see McKee's STORY for more). Then I figure out the counterpoint, or Negative Charge of that value, which I would say is "Hinder". But I don't stop there: I also fins the "Contrary" and "End of the Line" charges of that value (again, refer to STORY) which I would say are probably, respectively, "Ambivalence" and "Help that Devistates". Next I...
4. Character-ize the Arguement:
Now this is what tripped me up for 12 years... The Anagonist obviously represents the Negative Value Charge... But so does the Protagonst! The difference is that at the end of the story (if it has a "happy ending") the hero will learn his/her lesson -- via the other characters in the story -- and switch to the Positive Value Charge. So here's how I solved that problem: With the Protagonist's allies. [NOTE: I'm writing a taught, Action Horror story with a very simple throughline, where a band of monster-fodder try to escape alive. This IS NOT a quiet, pensive Drama; I would re-think this strategy for a different genre.] So here's how it plays out: The Protagonist begins the story with the Negative Value Charge, the Faux-Antagonist (the Prot's Ally with whom the Prot can argue during the story) will actually represent the Positive Valure Charge, but an extreme version of it that comes off abrasively. Then 2 lesser characters represent the Contrary and End-of-the-Line Value Charges, but in passive, powerless ways. (I'm just looking for means of debate and personality-clash here. My thematic point will be made by how the story plays out.)
5. Break the Story:
Next I break the story down into bite-sized peices. I arbitrarily chose 15-minute chunks, and here's why:
When I first started writing I learned the basic 3-Act structure, and that didn't work because I could easily bore my audience to sleep in 30 pages... and Act II is 60 pages long! Then I tried to micro-manage, going at the script in 5-page chunks; but I found that I tended to cram each segment with too much story info, so every scene was exposition with no real room for just sort of "being" in the world, with the characters... 10-page chunks may work, but I'm trying 15-page chunks for the time being.
So, knowing that every 30 pages needs to climax big -- in a Plot-point or a Reversal -- and knowing that every 15 pages needs to be it's own unit of entertainment to keep the audience from losing interest, I break each 15-page segment into five 3-page units (a more-or-less arbitrary division, but I suspect it will "all come out in the wash"). So I break the basic story into 5 untits within the 15-page Segments, getting as far along as I can until I just don't know what happens next. (The ending will work itslef out, if I stay true to my characters and my theme. It just somehow does.)
6. Segment-ize the Arguement:
Here's where I get really clever! AFTER I have figured out the basic (the VERY BASIC) action of the majority of the movie, I re-state the general storyline (movie as a whole) in terms of all 4 Value Charges!!! I make sure to hit all the bases, bending the story action (not changing it, just sort of nudging it) so that it covers the gamut of my Thematic Arguement.
Then I do the SAME for EACH SEGMENT!!! (Yes, you may worship my brilliance now!) I've got the action that happens within most of each segment now! All I have to do is look at what I've got, then see how I can apply it to all 4 of my Value Charges!
Why is this such a brilliant stroke? Because I know that subliminally, the audience will FEEL the thematic arguement playing out every 15 minutes. More than that, each Segment is a different bit of action, so I'm effectively playing out my thematic arguement 9 times, under COMPLETELY DIFFERENT sets of circumstances.
PLUS... You know what happens to those last 2 missing Segments at the end of your story? THEY GET WRITTEN! When you get there (I'm recomending the Plotting stage, not the Page-writing stage, mind you), they'll just sort of write themselves because of what has come before and what your thematic arguement is doing.
So after you've broken down each Segment in terms of how it hits the 4 Value Charges, you WILL NOT have to ask yourself "What happens next?!!".
And for me, that's the toughest part of writing!!! That's always what stops me dead in my tracks!
Well, that AND the realization halfway through my script that the Concept is merely mediocre, and no one will ever want to read this anyway! If I can't pitch my story in 2 sentences I don't really have a story worth 120 pages!
Blah.
So that's for me, and for anyone who wants to try it.
Too bad no one's reading this thing...
;)
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Groovy Sunday
Just had a fun text conversation with Traci, My Super-Hot Best Friend Whom I Will Never See Naked, and I wanted to share it. I picked her up at the airport today, and got to spend a great day with her, but it wasn't quite long enough for me, so after I'de been home a couple of hours I texted her phone.
This is how the conversation went...
Ray Jay: Fude iz GUDE!!!
Traci: I agree! Too much makes me feel shity though!
Ray Jay: Trew. :-,
Traci: What's up with the spelling?
Ray Jay: Knoe eyedeah. I mei bea pozest.
Traci: U may be a dork.
Ray Jay: LOL!!! Yeah, I just may be... A little...
Traci rules!!!
I'm killing time now, waiting for Brian's computer to get well. I was burning The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul from Audible.com, and the the poor eMachine just couldn't handle it any longer.
But I managed to get Salmon of Doubt burned. I guess 10 discs in a row is just too much to ask of an eMachine. Still, it's not as though I haven't read these books. I just wanted to have them for the car.
You'd think I'd be burned out on Douglas Adams by now, but I just don't think that's possible. Can't have enough!!! Hitchhiker's Guide, Dirk Gently, Last Chance To See and the random essays of The Salmon of Doubt, I just can't get tired of Douglas Adams! His particular take on Life is somehow always fresh to me.
Blah.
I'm kind of just rambling now. So I'm going to go.
This is how the conversation went...
Ray Jay: Fude iz GUDE!!!
Traci: I agree! Too much makes me feel shity though!
Ray Jay: Trew. :-,
Traci: What's up with the spelling?
Ray Jay: Knoe eyedeah. I mei bea pozest.
Traci: U may be a dork.
Ray Jay: LOL!!! Yeah, I just may be... A little...
Traci rules!!!
I'm killing time now, waiting for Brian's computer to get well. I was burning The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul from Audible.com, and the the poor eMachine just couldn't handle it any longer.
But I managed to get Salmon of Doubt burned. I guess 10 discs in a row is just too much to ask of an eMachine. Still, it's not as though I haven't read these books. I just wanted to have them for the car.
You'd think I'd be burned out on Douglas Adams by now, but I just don't think that's possible. Can't have enough!!! Hitchhiker's Guide, Dirk Gently, Last Chance To See and the random essays of The Salmon of Doubt, I just can't get tired of Douglas Adams! His particular take on Life is somehow always fresh to me.
Blah.
I'm kind of just rambling now. So I'm going to go.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Okay, No Pic...
Oh, never mind. I can't seem to get that Hello program to work right.
Anybody know how to get my picture onto my profile?
Anybody know how to get my picture onto my profile?
Got A Pic Up!
I managed to get a picture onto my Profile!!!
YAY ME!
Still not sure how I did it -- programs talked to each other and said some stuff to me, but I'm not sure exactly what -- but it's there!
It's not a great pic. The resolution sucks. I need some new e-pics taken with a decent camera. But this pic will do for now.
Anyway...
I'm having a geeky-great time today! My friend Kelly -- the one LA ones -- has recently discovered the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series (Primary Phase), but hasn't been able to bring himself to finish it: He listens to Side 1 over and over (he only has an audio-cassette player in his car and he drives a lot) because he doesn't want it to be over.
I just happen to have the cd version of the Tertiary Phase, and a I recorded the Quandary Phase off BBC4 (which naturally won't prevent me from buying the official cd version the moment it becomes available here in the States) and so I'm making some audio tapes for him! So he can finish listening to his Primary Phase tape with the reassurance that he has more of Adams's brilliant universe to explore.
And I'm geeking-out with this! I recorded this little intro to give him some historical backstory on the Hitchhikers series, I'm including trailers from BBC4's website, just the whole 9 yards! It's got the audio-cassette equivalent of dvd extras.
And this is fun for me. This is how I choose to spend my Saturday night.
Pathetic? Probably.
But for me, this is better than a lot of parties I've been to recently! I mean, I get to listen to Douglas Adam's wit for hours, and I get to share his genius with someone who appreciates it! Isn't that the real answer to the question of Life, the Universe and Everything?
Well... Work for me, anyway.
Ooh! Ooh! And Traci, My Super-Hot Best Friend Whom I Will Never See Naked, is supposed to call me later! So that'll be fun. (When we're not talking in person, I get to imagine she's wearing anything I want!!! You'd be surprised how stimulating a conversation about, say, the weather can be when you're talking to a super-hotty wearing a French Made outfit!!!)
Am I a bad person?
YAY ME!
Still not sure how I did it -- programs talked to each other and said some stuff to me, but I'm not sure exactly what -- but it's there!
It's not a great pic. The resolution sucks. I need some new e-pics taken with a decent camera. But this pic will do for now.
Anyway...
I'm having a geeky-great time today! My friend Kelly -- the one LA ones -- has recently discovered the original Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series (Primary Phase), but hasn't been able to bring himself to finish it: He listens to Side 1 over and over (he only has an audio-cassette player in his car and he drives a lot) because he doesn't want it to be over.
I just happen to have the cd version of the Tertiary Phase, and a I recorded the Quandary Phase off BBC4 (which naturally won't prevent me from buying the official cd version the moment it becomes available here in the States) and so I'm making some audio tapes for him! So he can finish listening to his Primary Phase tape with the reassurance that he has more of Adams's brilliant universe to explore.
And I'm geeking-out with this! I recorded this little intro to give him some historical backstory on the Hitchhikers series, I'm including trailers from BBC4's website, just the whole 9 yards! It's got the audio-cassette equivalent of dvd extras.
And this is fun for me. This is how I choose to spend my Saturday night.
Pathetic? Probably.
But for me, this is better than a lot of parties I've been to recently! I mean, I get to listen to Douglas Adam's wit for hours, and I get to share his genius with someone who appreciates it! Isn't that the real answer to the question of Life, the Universe and Everything?
Well... Work for me, anyway.
Ooh! Ooh! And Traci, My Super-Hot Best Friend Whom I Will Never See Naked, is supposed to call me later! So that'll be fun. (When we're not talking in person, I get to imagine she's wearing anything I want!!! You'd be surprised how stimulating a conversation about, say, the weather can be when you're talking to a super-hotty wearing a French Made outfit!!!)
Am I a bad person?
How Smart Am I?!!
Okay, so yesterday I start my day off with a little Scrubs action -- the pilot -- and it gets my day off to great start!!! I love that show! I've seen a couple of episodes last year and, like, 4 episodes this year, and I always laugh hysterically! So I finally bought Season 1 on dvd!
But then I get to work and manage to lock my keys in the car!!!
I go through this ritual at work: I take a jacket, because it's super cold in master control (so many monitors, tape machines and computers that we have to keep the AC arctic so nothing overheats), a cooler filled with bottled water (I don't get to get up and roam around because of the nature of my job so I keep my hydration at hand), and a book-bag/satchel thing (it has Homestar Runner on it!). And then yesterday I had purchased some dvds (all 4 of the Jaws movies). So I managed to get all this stuff unloaded from my car, lock the doors, shut the doors... And then notice that instead of pocketing my keys, I left them in the back seat!!!
So I had to call my brother -- who works up in North Austin, near where we live; I work downtown -- and have to ask him if he will, after his long day at work, drive downtown and open my car up for me.
Luckily, he's a cool guy and he didn't even needle me for being a dumbass.
But, I mean, I'm 34 years old and I still manage to lock my keys in the car! Often!
So I'm on my way to buy a Valet Key. See, I've been without a car for a couple of years now, and I've been borrowing my brother's car. And you can't lock the keys in it (for reasons I won't go into). But I have a car now, and I remembered last night the way I had solved the problem before...
My Genius Friend Dave -- that's his name, but I sometimes call him Genius Dave when I'm feeling lazy -- introduced me to the idea of a Valet Key. Whenever he goes somewhere that has valet (am I spelling that right?) parking, he's not comfortable giving the attendant all his keys -- house key, et. al -- so he has a Valet Key, which he keeps in his other pocket.
And this is a simply brilliant idea! (An excellent example of why I call him My Genius Friend Dave.) I'm right-handed, so I keep my keys in my right pocket. I used to keep my Valet Key in my left pocket. And the only time I even thought about my Valet Key was after I get that instant shock of panic that comes at the moment you realize you've locked your keys in your car yet again. Followed buy the euphoric sense of peace that comes when you reach in your left pocket and discover you've remembered to bring your Valet Key with you!
So I'm about to go get a Valet Key made.
Also... I had to uninstall RealPlayer! It's just such a resource-hog I couldn't get online with it on my computer!!! Check it out: I'm sporting a 1 gig harddrive! (Yes, they do still exist.) And without it I have between 205MB and 149MB of free memory on my C Drive. But with RealPlayer installed I had between 159MB and 88MB!
So no BBC Radio for me, at least not on this computer. :( But I didn't have to uninstall any of my videogames (I'm currenlt obsessed with this MSN game called Jewel Quest, with is a little like a cross between Tetris and Tai-Pai), and I can still blog, so life is still groovy!
Okay, I'm off to buy my Valet Key.
But then I get to work and manage to lock my keys in the car!!!
I go through this ritual at work: I take a jacket, because it's super cold in master control (so many monitors, tape machines and computers that we have to keep the AC arctic so nothing overheats), a cooler filled with bottled water (I don't get to get up and roam around because of the nature of my job so I keep my hydration at hand), and a book-bag/satchel thing (it has Homestar Runner on it!). And then yesterday I had purchased some dvds (all 4 of the Jaws movies). So I managed to get all this stuff unloaded from my car, lock the doors, shut the doors... And then notice that instead of pocketing my keys, I left them in the back seat!!!
So I had to call my brother -- who works up in North Austin, near where we live; I work downtown -- and have to ask him if he will, after his long day at work, drive downtown and open my car up for me.
Luckily, he's a cool guy and he didn't even needle me for being a dumbass.
But, I mean, I'm 34 years old and I still manage to lock my keys in the car! Often!
So I'm on my way to buy a Valet Key. See, I've been without a car for a couple of years now, and I've been borrowing my brother's car. And you can't lock the keys in it (for reasons I won't go into). But I have a car now, and I remembered last night the way I had solved the problem before...
My Genius Friend Dave -- that's his name, but I sometimes call him Genius Dave when I'm feeling lazy -- introduced me to the idea of a Valet Key. Whenever he goes somewhere that has valet (am I spelling that right?) parking, he's not comfortable giving the attendant all his keys -- house key, et. al -- so he has a Valet Key, which he keeps in his other pocket.
And this is a simply brilliant idea! (An excellent example of why I call him My Genius Friend Dave.) I'm right-handed, so I keep my keys in my right pocket. I used to keep my Valet Key in my left pocket. And the only time I even thought about my Valet Key was after I get that instant shock of panic that comes at the moment you realize you've locked your keys in your car yet again. Followed buy the euphoric sense of peace that comes when you reach in your left pocket and discover you've remembered to bring your Valet Key with you!
So I'm about to go get a Valet Key made.
Also... I had to uninstall RealPlayer! It's just such a resource-hog I couldn't get online with it on my computer!!! Check it out: I'm sporting a 1 gig harddrive! (Yes, they do still exist.) And without it I have between 205MB and 149MB of free memory on my C Drive. But with RealPlayer installed I had between 159MB and 88MB!
So no BBC Radio for me, at least not on this computer. :( But I didn't have to uninstall any of my videogames (I'm currenlt obsessed with this MSN game called Jewel Quest, with is a little like a cross between Tetris and Tai-Pai), and I can still blog, so life is still groovy!
Okay, I'm off to buy my Valet Key.
Friday, June 03, 2005
Big Day!
Exciting day for Ray Jay!!!
My special makeup effects friend Marvin stopped by the station tonight to pick up a disc with a trail logo I made for him, and ended up bringing spectacular news for me!!! (Even though he didnd't know it when he came...)
I may not have mentioned it before, but I'm an aspiring writer. And one of my obsessions is the aural arena: The Theatre of the Mind. Audioplays.
And it turns out that for the first time since... I dunno, the '50s?... there are a couple of American markets out there that might be interested in audio content! So I've been humming and hawing about a project idea I have... and tonight Marvin made it totally do-able for me!!!
See, Marvin has this band... And they have this recording studio space... You see where this is going yet?
I mean, with computers you functionally have a full recording studio. But logistically, it's still easier to record a cast of more than 3 in an actual physical space! PLUS, a big concern of mine about making this happen was the need for score... And now that's not a big worry!
On top of all that, Marvin has said he might let me tinker with some of his story concepts for horror movies that would just be too expensive to shoot as features, or to try to sell as spec scripts!
So YAY!
I'm "off the pot" -- refering to a West Texas phrase -- and I'm now officially working on a new project!
Moreover, I'm stoked!!!
In fact, I was looking for some backstory for this mysterious town for this project, and I found a town I had created a backstory for last year! I had done all the research so that all the historical details would work, and with a simple name change here and a tweak there, I have my new backstory! (It's always nice to find that work you've already done, that you thought might go to waste, can be recycled for a current project!)
Then, on top of that, a good friend/filmmaking buddy who had also migrated to Hollywierd stopped by to visit and catch up!
OH! And then this morning, I managed to download an older version of realPlayer on my little computer, so now I can listen to BBC radio in my room!
Okay, blah.
Not particularly exciting for anyone else, really, but I'm expecting I have a readership of maybe two -- MAYBE -- so I'm not too worried about boring anyone.
And if your name is Kal or Kelly and you are bored, don't you have some writing to be doing anyway?!!
:)
My special makeup effects friend Marvin stopped by the station tonight to pick up a disc with a trail logo I made for him, and ended up bringing spectacular news for me!!! (Even though he didnd't know it when he came...)
I may not have mentioned it before, but I'm an aspiring writer. And one of my obsessions is the aural arena: The Theatre of the Mind. Audioplays.
And it turns out that for the first time since... I dunno, the '50s?... there are a couple of American markets out there that might be interested in audio content! So I've been humming and hawing about a project idea I have... and tonight Marvin made it totally do-able for me!!!
See, Marvin has this band... And they have this recording studio space... You see where this is going yet?
I mean, with computers you functionally have a full recording studio. But logistically, it's still easier to record a cast of more than 3 in an actual physical space! PLUS, a big concern of mine about making this happen was the need for score... And now that's not a big worry!
On top of all that, Marvin has said he might let me tinker with some of his story concepts for horror movies that would just be too expensive to shoot as features, or to try to sell as spec scripts!
So YAY!
I'm "off the pot" -- refering to a West Texas phrase -- and I'm now officially working on a new project!
Moreover, I'm stoked!!!
In fact, I was looking for some backstory for this mysterious town for this project, and I found a town I had created a backstory for last year! I had done all the research so that all the historical details would work, and with a simple name change here and a tweak there, I have my new backstory! (It's always nice to find that work you've already done, that you thought might go to waste, can be recycled for a current project!)
Then, on top of that, a good friend/filmmaking buddy who had also migrated to Hollywierd stopped by to visit and catch up!
OH! And then this morning, I managed to download an older version of realPlayer on my little computer, so now I can listen to BBC radio in my room!
Okay, blah.
Not particularly exciting for anyone else, really, but I'm expecting I have a readership of maybe two -- MAYBE -- so I'm not too worried about boring anyone.
And if your name is Kal or Kelly and you are bored, don't you have some writing to be doing anyway?!!
:)
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Lake Placid
Just finished watching LAKE PLACID again, and I still dig this movie!!! I honestly think it's a shame it isn't better remembered!
I mean, I can see how horror fans were probably disappointed by it's lack of carnage.
But the characters are extremely well-written, the structure is solid, and if the movie had been marketed as a dramedy kind of thing, or an action comedy or something, I think people would have loved it! But it came out in '99, summer if I'm not mistaken, and whichever studio released it was trying to compete for, like, MATRIX box office. And granted, that wasn't going to happen!
Still, really good flick! I mean, for movie fans -- as opposed to "cinema enthusiasts". It's about fun, not deep inner meaning. Basic human truth, rather than the most profoundly disturbing aspects of the human condition.
The movie still makes me laugh out loud. I think there's a great deal to be said for that!
Blah.
Okay, I should go to bed now.
I mean, I can see how horror fans were probably disappointed by it's lack of carnage.
But the characters are extremely well-written, the structure is solid, and if the movie had been marketed as a dramedy kind of thing, or an action comedy or something, I think people would have loved it! But it came out in '99, summer if I'm not mistaken, and whichever studio released it was trying to compete for, like, MATRIX box office. And granted, that wasn't going to happen!
Still, really good flick! I mean, for movie fans -- as opposed to "cinema enthusiasts". It's about fun, not deep inner meaning. Basic human truth, rather than the most profoundly disturbing aspects of the human condition.
The movie still makes me laugh out loud. I think there's a great deal to be said for that!
Blah.
Okay, I should go to bed now.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
The Future?
Douglas Adams did a 4-part BBC4 radio series called HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE FUTURE, and it talks about how the Internet and technology will change life as we know it. Particularly music, publishing and broadcasting.
It's really great! You can listen to all 4 programs here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hhgttf/
What I wonder is this: Is blogging on of our first toddling steps toward that future? I mean, I HATE reality TV, but one of my favorite "shows" now is SilentBobSpeaks.com! (So to speak.)
Adams observes that the 20th Century was the first -- and possibly last -- to create fomrs of entertainment that are primarily non-interactive.
Blogging seems, to me, to be something of a return to the days of meeting up with your neighbors at the local general store and catching up with how your crops are doing and what your family's been up to.
I dunno. Maybe I'm just being wierd. (I'm told I do that from time to time.)
It's really great! You can listen to all 4 programs here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hhgttf/
What I wonder is this: Is blogging on of our first toddling steps toward that future? I mean, I HATE reality TV, but one of my favorite "shows" now is SilentBobSpeaks.com! (So to speak.)
Adams observes that the 20th Century was the first -- and possibly last -- to create fomrs of entertainment that are primarily non-interactive.
Blogging seems, to me, to be something of a return to the days of meeting up with your neighbors at the local general store and catching up with how your crops are doing and what your family's been up to.
I dunno. Maybe I'm just being wierd. (I'm told I do that from time to time.)
Still Getting the Hang of This
Argh!
Okay, that first entry was just sort of a crap how-does-this-thing-work entry. Sorry. And the computer in my room is this Windows-98-running little thing that plays the first three Tomb Raiders well and runs Final Draft 7, and I guess I never imagined I'd really be asking it -- this specific computer -- to do much more.
Then I get addicted to SilentBobSpeaks.com and eventually decided that maybe blogging might be fun.
So last night I set up this blog on my brother/roomate Brian's computer -- he's got the POWER -- and when it's all nice and ready to go, I scurry back into my room to do some real soul-sharing...
...and I can't log in for the life of me!
It's around 6:00 am when I give it up and force mysefl to get some sleep. (Oh yeah, I'm a night owl who works from 4p to 2a, so my morning is... well, right now, actually.)
Blah.
So this morning I tried resetting my "privacy" option in my Internet Options from "They're Out To Get Ya" to "Not Everyone's Evil" and the site finally let me sign on!
Other than that, yesterday was pretty cool.
But maybe instead of recapping yesterday, I'll tell you a little about myself. I live in Austin, TX and work at a TV station. Nothing glamorous, I'm a master control operator, so I'm the techy who makes sure your programs get on the air when and how they're supposed to. (IF you live in Central Texas, that is, and are watching my station.) I live with my brother who is also one of my dearest friends. Whenever we can wrangle the resources, we make short films with another life-long best friend, Tommy.
Actually, Brian and I are ridiculously blessed, because we grew up in West Texas and moved away, ended up here in Central Texas, and then -- all independantly of each other -- most of our dearest friends from youth ended up here, too! Moreover, meeting each other as adults, we've all bonded -- so Brian's Best Friend growing up is now also my Best Friend and my Best Friend growing up is now Brian's Best Friend, too.
Well, there's more to it than that, really. That's just the super-simplified version. But whatever, that's enough for now.
Anyway, so Tommy is a mutaul friend and he directs most of the shorts we shoot.
Kelly is also a mutual friend and used to direct the other films we made, but he's in Hollywood now and most of our collaboration is via internet and cell phone.
And Traci is My Super-Hot Best Friend Whom I'll Never See Naked, and she acts in our movies, but she's not a film flunky like us. She's just really cool and super-smart and really, really enjoys films. But doesn't have an all-consuming desire to make them. (HOW is that POSSIBLE?!!)
Chuck is another long-time mutual friend who writes plays, but he's in Florida now, so we don't get to talk to him much.
Um... who else? I'm trying to give you a taste of the names you'll be reading here most.
Marvin is a friend we met here that makes films, but we can't afford him for our projects. He does Makeup and Special Makeup FX, and he's pro. So he's often -- so far -- pretty much a consultant a drinking buddy. (One day, though!!!)
So, okay, there's the cast. More or less.
And I guess this isn't much of a first entry, either, but I'm out of time. Gotta shower and throw some clothes on drag myself into work.
But first, a warning: Those cute little squirrels you see playing along the roadside as you drive, then "innocently" dart out in front of your car and cause you to swerve, they're out to get you! Those little monsters are waging psychological warfare on the human race, bent on our ultimate downfall! This isn't a call to arms here, oh no! Direct action against them will only bring our demise more quickly! They know what we think is cute and what we find disturbing, so they know a great deal more about us than we know about them. I'm just saying watch them. Learn. Because one day, brothers and sisters, the war will no longer be a cold one, and we must not be caught unawares!!!
Okay, that first entry was just sort of a crap how-does-this-thing-work entry. Sorry. And the computer in my room is this Windows-98-running little thing that plays the first three Tomb Raiders well and runs Final Draft 7, and I guess I never imagined I'd really be asking it -- this specific computer -- to do much more.
Then I get addicted to SilentBobSpeaks.com and eventually decided that maybe blogging might be fun.
So last night I set up this blog on my brother/roomate Brian's computer -- he's got the POWER -- and when it's all nice and ready to go, I scurry back into my room to do some real soul-sharing...
...and I can't log in for the life of me!
It's around 6:00 am when I give it up and force mysefl to get some sleep. (Oh yeah, I'm a night owl who works from 4p to 2a, so my morning is... well, right now, actually.)
Blah.
So this morning I tried resetting my "privacy" option in my Internet Options from "They're Out To Get Ya" to "Not Everyone's Evil" and the site finally let me sign on!
Other than that, yesterday was pretty cool.
But maybe instead of recapping yesterday, I'll tell you a little about myself. I live in Austin, TX and work at a TV station. Nothing glamorous, I'm a master control operator, so I'm the techy who makes sure your programs get on the air when and how they're supposed to. (IF you live in Central Texas, that is, and are watching my station.) I live with my brother who is also one of my dearest friends. Whenever we can wrangle the resources, we make short films with another life-long best friend, Tommy.
Actually, Brian and I are ridiculously blessed, because we grew up in West Texas and moved away, ended up here in Central Texas, and then -- all independantly of each other -- most of our dearest friends from youth ended up here, too! Moreover, meeting each other as adults, we've all bonded -- so Brian's Best Friend growing up is now also my Best Friend and my Best Friend growing up is now Brian's Best Friend, too.
Well, there's more to it than that, really. That's just the super-simplified version. But whatever, that's enough for now.
Anyway, so Tommy is a mutaul friend and he directs most of the shorts we shoot.
Kelly is also a mutual friend and used to direct the other films we made, but he's in Hollywood now and most of our collaboration is via internet and cell phone.
And Traci is My Super-Hot Best Friend Whom I'll Never See Naked, and she acts in our movies, but she's not a film flunky like us. She's just really cool and super-smart and really, really enjoys films. But doesn't have an all-consuming desire to make them. (HOW is that POSSIBLE?!!)
Chuck is another long-time mutual friend who writes plays, but he's in Florida now, so we don't get to talk to him much.
Um... who else? I'm trying to give you a taste of the names you'll be reading here most.
Marvin is a friend we met here that makes films, but we can't afford him for our projects. He does Makeup and Special Makeup FX, and he's pro. So he's often -- so far -- pretty much a consultant a drinking buddy. (One day, though!!!)
So, okay, there's the cast. More or less.
And I guess this isn't much of a first entry, either, but I'm out of time. Gotta shower and throw some clothes on drag myself into work.
But first, a warning: Those cute little squirrels you see playing along the roadside as you drive, then "innocently" dart out in front of your car and cause you to swerve, they're out to get you! Those little monsters are waging psychological warfare on the human race, bent on our ultimate downfall! This isn't a call to arms here, oh no! Direct action against them will only bring our demise more quickly! They know what we think is cute and what we find disturbing, so they know a great deal more about us than we know about them. I'm just saying watch them. Learn. Because one day, brothers and sisters, the war will no longer be a cold one, and we must not be caught unawares!!!
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