Reflections on a dying year

Every now and then I like to revisit some books or movies that I've liked in the past. Rereading a favorite book, or rescreening a favorite movie, after some years have passed always causes me to notice things that I'd ignored before. As the context of my life changes certain favorite works speak to me differently. That, to me, is the mark of a great work of art--it is always relevant.

For example, this book is one of my favorites. It details one of the most important turning points in the history of the world. It also goes into a lot of detail (in an entertaining and informative way) as to why this was such an important event.

I recommend it highly. Even though the events it describes are over 2,000 years old, you will find many of the details relevant and illuminating today, on situations we are currently dealing with.

Which brings me to the current political situation in this country. I'm profoundly disappointed with the last election results, but not terribly surprised. I've heard it said that progress is like an arrow--before it can spring forward, it has to be drawn back. Hopefully, what we're experiencing now is the pulling back part, and the springing forward will begin shortly.

That is my profound hope, that we'll survive the next few years and manage to repair the damage that is about to be done to our world because of the idiots we've managed to put in office to run our country, against the will of the majority of voters.

There's a lot more I can say about the subject but I'm not going to waste my time. If you agree with me, that Trump and his ilk are a disaster, there's no need to explain further. If you disagree then you're part of the problem and arguing with you is pointless. And pro-Trump propaganda will not be posted here so don't bother trying.

Another down side is the results of the election have made a couple of projects I was working on redundant. Real life caught up with me. Dammit. The Making of Citizen Z.E.D.  is set a bit in the future but events in the plot are unfolding even now. There's no point in developing it further.

I've put Fell on the back burner, too, because it is suffering from an unforgivable flaw--it's a horror movie that isn't scary. I learned a lot about writing horror while working on it--you'd think I'd be an old pro at horror, since it's my favorite genre, but this is actually the first pure horror movie script I've ever attempted. Anyway, one day I'll return to it and apply the lessons this failed go-round taught me.

And I've revived another project, Unum,  which is pure science fiction. I think I've finally got all of the plot elements I need to put together something special. Hopefully. A lot of "if" lies in the execution. I got maybe a third of the way through it the first time I started working on it, and a lot of that is pretty good, if I do say so myself. So, there are entire scenes I can just cut-and-paste. Of course there's a lot of other stuff that I can no longer use. It evens out.

I also just finished watching my all-time favorite movie, Alien, again. It's been a while. (If you're curious, it was the 2009 director's cut.) I'm planning to watch it with Ridley Scott's commentary track on later tonight--I've done that before but it's been a while. Needless to say, I heartily recommend it to you, if you're one of the handful of people who hasn't seen it. It'll change your life.

So, if you're reading this, I hope you have a Happy Holiday, and a safe and prosperous New Year. Stay safe out there. We need you.

Arrival - a review plus randomocity

Just got back from seeing Arrival, finally.

I'll just get this out of the way and tell you that I loved it. For once someone has made a science fiction movie for grown ups. It's rich in subtext and meaning, and mostly skips the bombast and explosions. There are some explosions, but only a few. Mostly it's a delightfully quiet movie, beautiful and moving, with an ending that literally left me in tears.

Only complaint? It gets just a tad draggy at the beginning of the second act.

Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner are brilliant. Direction, screenplay, cinematography, film score are all perfect. I recommend it highly. I'll be getting this one on BluRay when it's available, and will probably put it into heavy rotation, at least for a while.

I'm giving this an A. I would give it an A+ except for that slightly draggy period right at the beginning of the second act. Don't let that stop you. See it. Please. We desperately need more movies like this.

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. Life got kind of crazy for me, there, for a little while, and I've been spending as much time as I can writing screenplays. Plus there's a personal situation kind of hanging over my head--I've had a little bit of relief in that area, though, lately. Hopefully things will work out.

I finished my first draft of my horror film, "Fell." I'm re-reading it and making notes before beginning the first rewrite. So far I'm feeling okay about it--there are one or two things that I'm sort of iffy on and need to think over. And it's just not scary enough. Since that's kind of the point, that's something that needs to be addressed. Anyway, that's the plan for the upcoming holiday--going to put it some time on that one, slicing and dicing and putting it all back together again.

The good news about the partial lifting of the cloud that's been over my head for a year now is I feel like I can start moving forward on developing and shooting my short film, "My Creature." I just need to figure out how much it's going to cost, and then figure out where that money is going to come from. Easy peasy. Right.

So, that's where I am now. How go things with you?

Rewriting, rewriting, rewriting . . .

I'm hip-deep in a rewrite of Too Many Tonys.

For the hypothetical people who actually read these, I'm sure you're wondering what happened to The Making of Citizen ZED.  The answer to that is--nothing. I'm letting it sit for a while.

The reason is two-fold. While I love ZED, the draft has some problems and I need to rethink some aspects of the whole thing to resolve them. In the mean time, I've gotten feedback on Tonys, from two different readers, and they both had the same things to say about it. Namely, they loved the basic idea, but there just isn't enough conflict.

Which I suspected, but I was hoping the basic story was enough to cause that to be overlooked. I guess not. So, I've made a pretty significant change to one of the central characters to up the ante and make the whole situation a bit more dire. My hero has more on the line now, both professionally and personally.

One criticism that's bugging me is one reader hated the title. She said it sounded more like the title of a family-friendly flick instead of a noir. So, I've been trying to come up with another title that's more reflective of the tone of the thing. Without success so far, I might add. I'm sure I'll come up with something--or I'll just let the title stand. It is descriptive of what the movie is about, the central problem of the whole thing.

I also got some feedback on my short script, "Niobe." The reader thought it read more like the second act of a feature, and that it would probably work better as a full-length film instead of a short.

A big part of that was the reader didn't figure out what I was trying to do with it, and that is my fault. Certain aspects of the story need to be clearer, more fully explained.

But the feature length thing? Hmmmm . . . I never thought of "Niobe" as being longer than twenty minutes, but the more I think about it, the more I kind of dig the idea. I think maybe there is enough story there to expand it into a full-length feature. It's something I'll be mulling over in the coming months.

In the mean time, though, I'm deconstructing Tonys, putting it back together, sanding it and using wood putty and stain and varnish on it, to take it from a promising idea into a project that would attract A-list talent.

After that? I'll probably turn my attention to ZED again. Hopefully by then I'll have some fresh ideas to deal with the problems and turn that puppy into something that someone will be willing to help me get made.

Also in the mix is my short short, "My Creature," that I hope to shoot in the next year or so. The script is done, but I've got some personal issues I'm going to need to sort out first before I can concentrate on going forward with it. Hopefully those will resolve in a way that will allow me to focus on it and get that baby made.

So, I've got a lot to keep me busy and out of trouble for the next couple of years, looks like.

Maybe even longer!

A few thoughts on the bad guys

I've been checking out reviews--professional and otherwise--of recent superhero epic flicks, and, to be honest, they have not been good. While most of the critics had their own issues, there was one common denominator that ran through all of the reviews I saw.

The bad guy. What the hell did he want? What was he trying to do?

It's like this--you get a team of superheroes together, or you have a situation that's so desperate you put a team of super-villains together, you had better spend some time convincing your audience that your antagonist has both a huge, sinister plan that makes some kind of sense, and is capable of pulling it off.

The bad guy wants to destroy the world? Why? Doesn't he have to live here, too?

The bad guy wants to rule the world? What does that mean? Does he want everyone to pay taxes to him? Does he want to be able to order everyone around? Does he want to have absolute control over each and every person on the planet? Again, why?

Because he's evil doesn't count as a motive. Even if he is evil--and I cringe when I hear characters defined in that way--even if he's crazy, he still has a reason for doing what he does. There's something, real or imagined, in it for him.

I'm willing to forgive the recent Ghostbusters film for having this issue because it's a comedy, and I enjoyed the cast so much I was willing to cut them some slack on this aspect of the story. However, for an action adventure movie it's kind of hard to overlook.

Not that I don't understand. Coming up with a convincing, scary bad guy is really difficult. I'm having that issue myself with a project--I need an incredibly powerful antagonist who had dark designs on humanity. And it has to be a global threat, not one aimed at just a certain person or persons. And he has to have a reason for doing what he's planning to do, and that's the hard one--there just aren't all that many motives out there for doing something like threatening all of humanity. Individual humans, yes, but as a species? No. Unfortunately, my protagonist wouldn't be interested in anything less. Damn her.

But you know something? You come up with a truly bad-ass villain, with a dark and global but viable plan, and with an understandable motive, and you got a story, baby! Most of the movie will write itself.

That's the basic problem, I think. Most of these films coming out now start with the heroes, and, let's face it, there just ain't all that many villains out there that Superman couldn't handle. You need to start with the guy Superman is going to be facing off against, and make him someone that Superman could possibly lose to. Make it so that Superman is required to deal with it. Or Batman. Or whomever.

Anyway, I hope all that makes sense.

Project updates - Citizen ZED

I asked a friend of mine to read an early draft of Citizen ZED and she didn't get the ending. Which is a bummer, as the ending is what makes it dramatically satisfying. So, I'm shelving it for a little while as I work on another project. I'll come back to it shortly, probably in the next few days, hopefully rested and ready to fix the problems with it. I still love it, and I think the story works, it just needs some clarification. There's something missing and I can't quite figure out exactly what it is. One thing I'm doing, which may help, is making a slight change of the title, to The Making of Citizen ZED.

The other project I mentioned above is a short short film I'm calling "My Creature." I actually wrote a draft of the script last week but it was too long and it just didn't work. After obsessing over it all week I finally figured out the problems with it, and hopefully this current draft addresses all of them. I know I'm a lot happier with it.

The plan for the short short is for me to shoot it myself, some time down the road. I plan to play a part in it, opposite my goddaughter. I've never acted before but this role is personal for me so hopefully I can pull it off. My goddaughter is an accomplished actor already,  so I'm not worried about that role. This will be two firsts for me--as director and as actor.

Of course, this is down the road a bit. I have a personal situation involving my day job that needs to be resolved before I'll be able to devote the resources I need towards making a film, even a short one.

I'll need to hire a Director of Photography and a professional to handle sound for "My Creature," not to mention I'll probably need to rent a soundstage, and some equipment and props. And get insurance for the production. Fortunately there are a lot of local resources available as a lot of movies and TV shows are filmed in this area. Atlanta is third in the country, behind Los Angeles and New York, in that category. Plus, I'll need to arrange transportation for my co-star and her mom. Accommodations won't be a problem for them as they can stay with me, or with grandma, who lives in the area.

As for me acting in this thing--I've always heard that every director needs to act at least once to understand what actors have to do to perform their job. This is as good a shot as any for me to do that. Also, if I do it, I won't have to pay somebody else to play the role. Save money!

Of course, that's assuming I find the money to do this thing. To do it right it'll probably take at least five grand. This, for a project that'll probably be around five minutes long. Yes, filmmaking is expensive!

So, after I finish this short short I'm going to go back to the feature. Hopefully by then I will have been away from it long enough for me to see ways to address the problems with it.

Here's hoping situations resolve themselves in a way that'll help me to go forward with all these grandiose, crazy-assed plans!

Progress Report - Citizen Z.E.D.

I've begun the rewrite for this project, and it's coming along swimmingly.

Perhaps too swimmingly. I've re-read it several times over the past day or so, tweaking and whatnot, and I'm totally in love with it. Which may not be a good thing, as being in love with something sort of makes one oblivious to its flaws.

I'm mostly worried about it being coherent. It makes perfect sense to me, but then I'm writing the thing, so I understand all the subtexts and the contexts and all the other -texts. I'm going to ask someone to read over it for me if she has time to see if it makes sense to her, too. This will be, of course, after I've re-read it once or twice more. And, of course, my friend will have to agree to read it--she's pretty busy. She knows absolutely nothing about this thing so her opinion will be pretty accurate, I'd say.

I also added a couple of scenes because there were places where a transition was needed. This, of course, has made it a little bit too long. I'll be going in and trimming it presently. Right now it's exactly 122 pages. It needs to be 120, at most. I know, two pages doesn't sound like much, but often it's hard to cut enough to meet that target.

This is a good thing, though. I've never had to trim a script where it didn't improve it. No matter how long your script is, you can be sure that there are things in there that need to go, and they will improve the project by their absence.

So, that's where I am with that. There's a contest for science fiction scripts that has a deadline of August 1--I'd like to be in a position to enter it. But if it's not ready by then, so be it--there are always other contests.

Citizen Z.E.D. first draft

I just typed FADE OUT on the first draft of Citizen Z.E.D.

What does this mean? It means it's done!

Now what? Well, I'm going to let it sit a few days while I mull over other projects. Maybe a week or so. I'll come back to it next weekend to begin working on a second draft, hopefully with fresh eyes that'll see the problems I missed when I was writing it.

This is the fastest I've ever reached this point. It's taken me longer to write short stories. I guess I was fired up about it.

This is the most political thing I've ever done, and hopefully it won't come across as preachy. I hate that. There is a point to it, and I am hoping people will take something away from it, but if that overshadows the story then that would be a Bad Thing.

Which is why we rewrite. And rewrite. And rewrite. And rewrite. This one is going to go through some serious revisions before it's ready to be seen by anyone but me. Maybe this story will contribute towards making the world a better place, in some small way. I hope it does.

But, above and beyond any messages I'm hoping it'll spread, I'm hoping people will dig the story, even if they disagree with the message. That would be the best possible outcome.

Anyways, that's where I am with this thing.  Now, on to developing a mini-series I've been toying around with, and some other, non-screenwriting things I need to do.

The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author . . .

So, I've been writing a particularly intense scene in Citizen Z.E. D., one that pushes several of my personal buttons.

And dammit, I'm letting the anger and vitriol flow. Mostly because it's a first draft, and that's what first drafts do--I can get this crap out of my system and then go in and edit it down so that it's not quite as painfully obvious. Nobody wants to get beat over the head with the message when they see a movie. Not even me. Not even when I agree with the message. Which I do, in this case, the title of this post notwithstanding.

It's coming along pretty well. I'm maybe a third of the way through it now. After I reached the end of the first act I thought I'd take my traditional week off before diving into Act II, but just couldn't stay away. Which is a good sign.

So, I'm going to keep banging away at this thing, and hopefully I'll be done with the first draft by the end of July. Or even sooner, maybe.

I know I've said this before, but it can't be emphasized enough--don't expect the first draft to be perfect. If something isn't working, don't worry about it. Get the whole story written down first. Then you can go back and start hacking away at it. It's amazing how much easier it is when you take that attitude. It's also amazing how often you'll think of something later in the story you can use to fix a problem from earlier. We're using computers now, so it's much easier to do rewrites!

Just so you know, episode two of The Metasaurs is available. Check out episode one, if you missed it. Just so you'll be caught up. I'm mulling episode three right now, when I'm not hammering away at the first draft of this feature film thing.

So, I've been hacking away most of today. I think I'm due to give myself a break and let the well of inspiration start filling up again. I'm also about to kill off one of my central characters, so I sort of have to brace myself.  I'll take a nice walk and let my subconscious start putting the pieces together. Nothing like moving around to get the juices to flowing!

Okay, that's all the unasked-for advice I'm giving out today.

Citizen Z.E.D. is in progress!

I finally got motivated enough to begin writing the first draft for this film project I've been thinking about forever.

Basically, I finally sat down and thought it through and came up with the ending. Unlike many writers, I need to have an ending before I get started--I need to know where I want to end up, before I set out. The hard part of this one is the ending is a realization of something that is key to the plot, something that the characters in the movie don't realize they've discovered until after the movie ends. My problem was dramatizing that realization.

In other words, how do I show that a character has realized something? That's tricky. In a novel it'd be easy because a novelist can always say what the character is thinking. In a movie you could do that, maybe with a voice-over, but it'd be kind of hard to do in a way that didn't seem overly manipulative or as just out-and-out lazy writing. You could have a character say, "You know, I just realized . . ." but that's only marginally better. No, you need a way to show the realization.

And that's really hard to do, especially in a way that is meaningful to the audience. Want a good example? Go back and watch The Blair Witch Project again. The ending to that is exactly what I'm talking about, and I've talked to people who are highly intelligent and perceptive who didn't understand exactly what was going on there. However, if you were paying attention, you'll know exactly what is happening, and that knowledge informs and provides a lot of emotional impact to that ending. It's powerful when that happens, which is why I love that movie so much. To me, it's a masterpiece.

So, after a lot of thought, I came up with something that'll be a little through-line for this film that'll turn out to be a key to the ending. Something that all of the characters think is trivial that'll wind up becoming the key to understanding the whole thing.

And, here's the kicker--the characters in the film won't even realize that they've answered the central question of the movie until after the movie is over, though the audience will know it immediately.

To see what I'm talking about you'll have to see this thing for yourself. If I can get it made. If, of course, I can finish writing it. I'm about to finish Act I so I am well on my way!

Of the first draft, that is . . .

Metasaurs episode 2

New Metasaurs episode on the way?

I've been using my holiday to record the dialog for the new Metasaurs episode. I'm planning to shoot the video portion later on this week, and maybe edit it all together this weekend. This one is going to be a little tricky for a couple of reasons so it might take me a little longer than that.

Anyways, look for episode two sometime in the next couple of weeks. In cased you missed it, click here for episode one. And subscribe to my channel so you won't miss any updates.

I was maybe two-thirds of the way through a first draft of a comedy screenplay when the Queen of England screwed me over.

A big plot point of my story was a couple issued an invitation to their wedding to Queen Elizabeth via social media and she accepted. Problem is, she actually did that recently, in real life. Which completely kills my entire story. To add insult to injury, the author of the article I read about it used a lot of the same gags I was going to use.

Oh, well. I liked the characters and the setting. Maybe I'll come up with something else that I can use them in.

In the mean time I'm working on a drama I'm calling The Shadow of The Talon, about a journalist who is trying to discover the secret identify of a costumed vigilante (who calls himself The Talon, hence the title). It'll deal with some themes I've always found interesting, about the need for myths and legends in human society. Read Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces to get an idea where I'm coming from with this.

Plus I'm resurrecting my story for The Harvester of Faces. I've had some ideas recently that make that project attractive to me again, though I still have the problem I had before--the back story was far too complicated. Maybe I can figure out a way to simplify it enough to make it writable, finally. That story deals with a lot of the same themes as The Shadow of The Talon, but with a decidedly darker overall take on them. It'll be more horror/science fiction, whereas Talon is more straight drama.

Anyway, that's what I've been doing over the past little while. I'll post an update when the new Metasaurs episode is up.

The Babadook

It's been a long time since I've seen a horror movie that actually gave me a good case of the creeps.

Mostly, it's because filmmakers don't seem to really know how to effectively make a horror movie. They spend all of their time designing the creature at the heart of the movie--and try to show it in all of its glory as early as possible--and forget about the people the movie is actually about.

That's right. While the movie may be named after the monster, the actual movie is about the people. If you have stock characters getting hunted and killed by the monster, it isn't very scary.

And, granted, that's what people expect nowadays when they see a "scary" movie--one that isn't really scary. Log onto your Netflix account and see how many movies listed in the "Horror" category are also listed in the "Comedy" section. And many of these aren't even parodies.

While you're logged onto Netflix, go into Horror and click The Babadook. That one is right where it belongs. You won't find it in Comedy, unless somebody has made a big mistake.

It's a good old-fashioned horror movie. The central characters are complex and sympathetic--they aren't perfect, but you can honestly say you know people like them. When the terrible things begin happening you are invested in them coming out of it okay. You care what happens to them, and you find yourself hating and wanting to lash out at this awful thing that is terrorizing them.

This movie is an example of my idea that big budgets are a bad idea for horror movies. This one was obviously made on the cheap, so the production had to find inexpensive ways to show the monster, ways that didn't burn through the budget but were still effective.

Those are the most effective ways to tell the story. If you spend millions creating a CGI masterpiece of a creature you want to show it as much as you can. Which effectively destroys any aura of mystery, the thrill and fear of the unknown--we see the damned thing in the first act of the film and, even if it is the scariest looking thing you can imagine, you know longer need to imagine it, so it's not quite as scary anymore.

Lovecraft said the oldest emotion is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. He is dead right. The more your audience learns about your monster, the less terrifying it is.

We can see what the monster does. We can feel its effects. We can hear it, moving around. But we don't know exactly what it looks like, or what it wants, or what it's actually doing. The longer you can prevent anyone from answering those questions, the scarier the thing will be.

And, in the end, don't really have a Big Reveal--show more than you've shown before, but you still haven't shown everything, you haven't answered every question. Which will make your monster scarier than ever.

Watch this thing to see what I'm talking about. Let's make more movies like this, okay?

A quick update on this and that . . .

I've recently posted a new video based on my song "Contact." I'm particularly proud of my guitar's tone on this one. It's thunderous and perfect. Give it a click and take a look. And also guess the story the video and song are working together to tell. If you're curious, the guitar I used is my Gibson SG. That axe is a total badass.

I've also been struggling to decide on a new project. I've been working on this comedy thing I mentioned previously but it seems to be fizzling. I was never especially wild about it anyway. I'm going to start working on another comedy that I'm a bit more excited about and which shouldn't be quite as difficult to plot out, as no sports are involved--writing about sports contains it's own set of problems, over and above the issues you encounter when you're trying to also write a comedy. So, Team Grandma is going on the back burner while the new project goes on the front with the heat up and the ingredients being added. I don't feel like I'm struggling to find the plot for this one quite so much so I should be able to at least get through a first draft on it in a couple months.

Anyways, that's all for now!

Double feature Sunday!

I did something today I haven't done in a while--saw two movies at the theater.

First one I saw was the Melissa McCarthy flick The Boss. This was more for research than anything else--I'm working on something myself that's in a similar vein.

Overall, I'd say it was okay. I actually did laugh out loud a couple of times. I had my little notebook I take with me when I go to see movies and didn't write anything in it about this one. While that means I didn't love it, it also means I didn't hate it, either. Inspiration-wise, I figured out a couple of things about my own project from watching this one, things I need to do and one pretty key plot element I've been neglecting that i need to emphasize.

I'd give it a B-. If you like McCarthy's previous movies you'll like this one, too.

Second film was Disney's The Jungle Book, which I saw in 3D. This was a totally different kettle of fish.

I'm a fan of the old Disney cartoon, and Shere Khan is one of my favorite all-time movie bad guys, so my expectations for this were pretty high. I have to say that this film exceeded them. It was wonderful. Idris Elba's performance as the voice of Khan was spot-on and brilliant. Billy Murray was great as Baloo the bear. Scarlett Johansson as Kaa the snake was very good. Ben Kingsley as Bagheera the panther brought heart and wisdom to the character. The only thing I had a quibble with was the whole bit set in the temple of the monkeys. It just didn't work. King Louie (Christopher Walken) is menacing young Mowgli (Neel Sethi) and suddenly breaks out into this silly, light-hearted tune? I could understand it if the song had some menacing undertones but this was just a goofy little kids tune. It just sort of threw the vibe for the scene out of whack. I think the intention was to strike a note of silly but scary but it didn't quite get there. It wasn't enough to ruin the movie for me but it mars an otherwise outstanding effort.

The story itself is rich with symbolism and metaphor, as well as being an entertaining tale for its own sake. Director Jon Favreau and DP Bill Pope created a film that is visually stunning and worth watching just for the sheer beauty of the images on the screen.

I give this one an A. And a hearty recommendation that you see it.

Getting started is so very hard to do

Gods. I've just started wrestling with this comedy, writing the first draft, and let me tell you, it ain't easy.

Starting anything new isn't easy, but starting a new story is even harder. You have to establish the characters, the setting, put the plot in motion, get the damned thing started. All of those are heavy stationary objects, too, so it takes some effort to get them rolling.

Once you get them rolling it gets easier, as they all take on some momentum and the story starts telling itself. Then, it becomes hard to stop.

This thing I'm working on is a comedy, too, which is a bit of a new thing for me. Comedy is incredibly difficult. It's the only genre where you can't afford to miss the target. If a horror movie isn't scary--and very few of them are, really, these days--you can still enjoy it as an adventure story or something else. A mystery can be entertaining even if you figure out whodunit in the first act, if the characters are interesting or the story is compelling. A comedy that isn't funny, though? Dead before it gets started. Doesn't matter how well acted it is, how clever the story idea is, how well shot it is. If you ain't laughing, it ain't working.

So, writing comedy is intimidating. I know there are people out there who do it successfully on a consistent basis, but those people are rare and should be considered national treasures. (See Dave Barry for an example. If you don't know who that is you owe it to yourself to check him out.)

Anyway, my story is sports-related, which should provide its own opportunities for hilarity.

Will I be successful? We'll see. I can be pretty funny, if I set my mind to it. At least, to me. Maybe to a few other people, too.

On a separate note--this week we said goodbye to Prince. While I've never been a huge fan of his music, I always admired and respected him as an artist, and was in awe of his genius. His death hit me pretty hard, to be honest. We're running out of those guys, the true innovators with the nerve and courage to blaze their own trails and the integrity to protect their vision from those who would corrupt it.

It's been a brutal week, in more ways than one. Hopefully, next week will be better. It has to be. Dammit.

New projects and life developments

I can't really go into details, but I've received some unsettling news this week. It doesn't involve any of the projects I talk about here and I'm not at liberty to talk about it quite yet, but it's going to result in a major life change for me.

Basically I'm being forced into doing something that I've been thinking about doing for a while now, as a friend reminded me recently when I was whining to her about it. The only thing is now I don't have a choice, where before I could do it, or not, at my leisure.

Anyway, as soon as I can I'll post it here so the one or two of you who read this thing will know what's going on.

As far as projects go, I'm in a bit of a quandary there, too. I've been writing the first draft of a science fiction story that I love, and I'm almost at the end of the first act. And I also have an idea for a comedy that will not go away and leave me alone.

Right now I have to be a bit cold-blooded about it and look at it objectively. Which one is more likely to have a shot at getting made?

A significant part of the science fiction story is set on a space station, with zero gravity and other special effects. Those things ain't cheap.

The comedy is set in the here-and-now but it's about a football team so there will be several scenes set during a game, and those can be really tricky and expensive to shoot. But not nearly as expensive as shooting someone floating around on a space station.

So, I'm going forward with the comedy thing now, and putting the science fiction story on the back burner and letting it simmer a while.

Tomorrow I'm planning on going to see The Boss, as it's in a similar vein to the comedy I'm working on now. I'll probably also see The Jungle Book, too, just because I want to.

Have you watched my first short film yet? If not, check it out here.  And while you're at it, check out the video to my song, "Far From the Sun."

My first short film

My first short film, The Metasaurs, episode one, is now available online here. Click on over to take a look.

I'll be adding new ones when I can. I'm planning about six, altogether.

Anyways, take a look.

A question for you

I've been asked a couple of times over the past few months about why I like a particular song or a particular movie.

To me it's an odd question, and one that I've given a lot of thought. Usually when I hear a new song or see a new movie I decide I like it or I don't based on how it resonates with me. Beyond that I can't articulate what it is about it that caused me to like something--though often I can articulate why I didn't like something.

Take music, for example. I know people who will really like a song because it fools around with time signatures in a creative way, or has interesting key signature changes or tempo changes or something like that. I find music that is purely an intellectual exercise boring--if it's devoid of any emotional content that I can detect I don't care for it. If I have to sit there and parse it out to see what's so wonderful about it, and to discover the artist's intent, then I lose interest quickly. Yes, I know people who look down their noses at music and theater that's overly accessible, but to me, if I can't understand it, then it I don't see the point. And I'd rather not have to research something I'm listening to or watching for pleasure to get any pleasure from it.

But do you do that? How do you decide whether or not you like something? Do you intellectualize it when you hear or see something new, or do you do like me and let your viscera decide if you like it?

I'm just curious.

Far From the Sun video

I've finally uploaded the video I made for my song, "Far From the Sun." You can see it here.

Let me know what you think of it! I'll be doing a few more videos of some of my songs as time and inspiration permit.

A rare political post

I rarely discuss politics--mostly because it almost always leads to arguments and I hate arguing.  But I do have to vent a little bit and decided to do it here, where maybe it'll be of some benefit.

I'll admit right here that I support Bernie Sanders, and I voted for him in the primary. He lost my state--he lost several states, but he also won some--to Hillary Clinton during Super Tuesday.

I have nothing against Secretary Clinton, and if Bernie losses the primary I will have no problems throwing my support behind her and voting for her in the general election. I won't even be holding y nose.

My problem is the people who seem to be personally offended that Bernie Sanders is in the race at all. Not because of the positions he takes on the issues, but because he's not an establishment candidate like Hillary Clinton. This seems to turn some people's worlds upside down and inside out--they seem to take his candidacy as a personal affront. I'm also hearing that Hillary's lead over him is insurmountable and any vote for Bernie is wasted.

Maybe that's true. Maybe Bernie doesn't have a prayer. I'm not an expert in politics. However, I feel like he does have a shot--there is still a lot of campaign left.

But even if he didn't I'd still support him. In the primary, even if I knew going in that he had no chance at all of winning (and he didn't in my state, which went overwhelmingly for Clinton), I'd still vote for him.

Why? Why vote for someone if you don't think they have a chance?

Well, for one thing, polls can be wrong. It's hardly an exact science. Some are more accurate than others, true, but none are dead-on accurate all the time.

For another--if a candidate speaks to the issues that matter to you, if you agree with his or her stands on those issues, then you aren't wasting your vote. Every vote for a particular candidate makes that candidate a little bit stronger, his or her voice a little bit louder. Even if your candidate has no chance in hell of winning, it forces other candidates in the race to speak up about those issues, to clarify or even change positions. It forces the debate to go into areas where it may not go on its own.

Consider Hillary addressing income inequality--Bernie's favorite issue, and probably the single biggest problem, not just in this country, but in the world. Would Secretary Clinton be speaking up about it if Bernie wasn't hammering away on that issue? I seriously doubt it.

So, I guess the lesson here is, once you step into that poll, vote for your candidate. Not just the one you're being told is going to win. Vote for whoever you feel like speaks for you, and the issues that matter to you. Don't worry about whether or not that candidate can win. Just vote.

I think I've finally figured it out . . .

There was a time when I really dug those block-buster films, with all the explosions and bodies flying all over the place and fight scenes that seem to go on for hours and involve dozens, if not hundreds, of people.

At some point, though, I lost my taste for those. In fact, after watching one of those now, I feel exhausted, and a bit numb on the inside. It was not usually the feeling the makers of these films wants to leave their audience with.

Starting to write screenplays myself sort of helped me to home in on my problem.

In many of these films you can tell when it's going to happen. The hero walks into a room full of bad guys and draws his guns/swords/etc., and the techno/rock/whatever music starts while he wades through acres of bad guys in a carefully choreographed fight sequence that may be at least partially shown in slow motion. Then, our hero leaves the room, usually after a witty quip, before continuing his journey, and the dead and injured left behind are seldom if ever mentioned again.

I know many--if not most--people out there love this sort of thing, and I'm not saying you are wrong for doing so. If it's your thing, if you dig it, then by all means, indulge yourself.

However, in my own screenplays, when violence happens it usually comes out of nowhere, and it is ugly, bloody, and not consequence-free. Even when the hero is the one perpetrating the act, the dead or injured are not forgotten. Even though, if the scene is ever shot, it'll be thoroughly choreographed, planned to the last detail, it shouldn't look that way. If done like I want it, most people will be cringing, looking away, or shifting uncomfortably in their seats, because even though the person getting killed or hurt may be really nasty and may have it coming, he or she is still a human being and, if I've done my job as a writer, you will be able to empathize with the pain he or she is feeling.

Because violence is like that. It isn't pretty. It isn't clean. It isn't desirable. It should be the very last thing you would ever want to happen. It should be something you want to avoid at all costs. And if you resort to it, even if you felt like you had no choice, there should be some consequences, if only inside your own conscience.

I think many people tend to forget that, and I think a lot of that is because of the way violence is portrayed in the popular media. Like it's just another option on the list of options for handling a situation. For some people, especially people who are particularly lazy or not very bright, it becomes their first option for dealing with an unpleasant situation. It's almost socially acceptable to attack somebody physically that you have a disagreement with.

Am I saying this is a problem? Maybe. I'm not really qualified to say. It's just my own opinion. Even if I'm wrong, it behooves me to stick to my own instincts and, when the situation calls for a fight of some kind, present it in a more realistic way than in most films today. Maybe if we start showing the real outcomes of violent encounters, the maimed survivors, the weeping families of the dead, some people out there would think before drawing a pistol to shoot someone who cut them off in traffic or who talked during a critical scene in a movie.

But, of course, where's the money in that? Maybe if there were money in that, we'd see it in movies more often. Just something to think about.

Analysis Paralysis and a Super Bowl prediction

It's been exceedingly difficult for me to pick and concentrate on a new project lately.

I've got three projects that are clamoring for my attention but when I start to focus on one of them it grows quiet and bashful and gives me one word answers while the other two have their hands in the air, shouting, "Me! Me! Me!" And then, of course, when I call on one of them the same thing happens.

My basic problem with all three of them is the motivations of the antagonists. This has always been a problem for me--I'm not a fan of the hand-wringing, mustache-twirling baddie who wants to "rule the world!" Mainly, what exactly does that mean? Each and every scenario I come up with to fit that objective makes the end result sound like a monumental pain the ass. I don't understand anybody who really wants that.

So, what could the bad guy want? Money and power are always good, if a bit boring, I guess. Survival--both personal and of a way of life--are even better.

To that end I've decided to let the three projects above continue to clamor for my attention while I work on a fourth project that'll be a B-grade horror movie. My reasoning? Because I understand the motives of the antagonists in this one. I've also got some characters I've been itching to use for a long time who will fit right into it. While the immediate threat in this thing is a group of monsters, the ultimate antagonists are human beings.

I do need to develop the monsters a bit more, though. I've got a basic understanding of how they'll work and what they look like but I need a little more development of their biology, something that'll make them a powerful threat to humanity at large. Their motivation is pretty basic--they want to reproduce and eat, as much as possible. What do they eat? Take a wild guess.

The humans that sort of enable the whole thing are no problem at all--I understand those people all too well.

So, I'm writing a treatment for this one and I'll probably start hammering out a first draft of the screenplay in the next week or so. I'm calling it Misery Creek. I'm stealing from myself a little bit, here, because that's also the title of the first screenplay I ever wrote, but beyond the title this one will have little to do with the earlier one. Which is a good thing, because the first one was pretty bad.

In the mean time I'll be mulling over the other projects, trying to come up with convincing antagonists.

So, that'll be the next few weeks for me, looks like. As always, I'll keep you posted as to my progress.

The Super Bowl is later today, so I'll just leave my prediction here:

Carolina 28, Denver 24

Next!

Ever since I've finished my screenplay Too Many Tonys I've been trying to decide what project to work on next.

I've got several in the queue, including the one I mentioned here, previously--Citizen Z. E. D.--which I'm really excited about, and terrified of, all at the same time.

I debated with myself about starting that one, but my better nature reared up and said, "No. You are not ready."

So, I've been looking over the other ideas I have lined up, and they've all been shuffling their feet and avoiding my gaze, hoping I won't call on them.

Finally, though, one has stepped forward and announced, "I'm next."

Therefore, I'm going to start developing this idea, which is a TV show based on my novel, The Sorcerer's Daughter, which I'm going to call The Sorcerer's Daughters. It's set several years after the end of my novel, and even though that work will never see the light of day, it can inform and clarify the back stories of several of the characters in this story, and save me from having to start from square one creating the milieu it's set in.

Which makes me happy, as I'd hate to see all the work I put into creating that world and writing that novel go to waste.

My learning how to use Apple's Final Cut and Motion software proceeds apace. I've been playing with Motion lately, creating the video I mentioned here previously using my song "Far From the Sun." I've got a ways to go on it--I'm nearly at the end of the song but it'll need to be refined, retimed, rethought, etc., etc. Maybe in a few weeks I'll have something worth sharing with the world. Rest assured that if I do I'll be sure to announce it here so you can click over to see it for yourself.

Of course, nothing's stopping you from visiting the link to your right to at least hear the song--plus several others--right now. Hint, hint . . .

Getting my feet wet!

So, over the last couple of weeks I wrote a little three-page script for a video starring some toy dinosaurs I have, recorded the dialog (I did all the voices), and shot it. Then I edited it all together using Final Cut X.

It turned out pretty well. Not good enough to share with the world--the focus was off in some of the shots, and there were one or two other places where there were technical issues--but it served its purpose. I learned a lot about using the editing software, and about editing in general. Plus it was a lot of fun. When it wasn't frustrating as hell while I tried to figure out how to do something.

It's an approach I highly recommend for any other budding filmmakers out there. For one, you are working totally alone, with inanimate objects as your stars, so you aren't worrying about communicating what you want to people who may not understand what you're saying--while you'll have to do that eventually, at this point the fewer things you have to worry about, the better.

Also, in my case, I didn't do any animation at all. My characters just sit there. This presents some challenges and it gave me some experience using editing to tell the story, and keeping a video where nothing moved interesting. Which was my intent all along.

It also didn't cost me anything, other than the cost of getting the dinosaurs, and I got those several months ago.

I plan to make a series of these and upload them somewhere--You Tube or Vimeo, probably. Of course, I'll announce it here when I start with that. So, keep your eyes open for that.

My next project is making a video using one of my songs. Right now I think it'll be "Far From the Sun," which is based on a short short story I published here a while back. If you're curious and want to hear the song for yourself, click the player to your right. It's on there.  Check out "Contact," too. It's also a potential video.

That's how I learn things. I do some preliminary work, then I dive in and try to put it all together. Eventually I figure it out. Usually.

It hasn't failed me yet. Though sometimes it does lead to some embarrassing situations.