A little something directors do . . .

If you're one of the imaginary people out there who follows this blog, you know I've said many times that film is one of the most powerful mediums in existence.

To help me prove my point, let's play a little game. Take a look at this still photo from the movie Alien: Covenant. And, if you're horror-movie phobic, don't worry--it's just a pic of two people sitting at a table talking. The scene is set on the starship Covenant.

While looking at it, ask yourself four questions.

1. Who is the protagonist?
2. Who is the antagonist?
3. What kind of relationship do these two people have?
4. What are their relationships with the rest of the crew?


After looking it over, I'm guessing you decided that the person on the left is the protagonist, with the person on the right being the antagonist, right? And you probably guessed that they aren't getting along very well, and the person on the left probably has a better relationship with the rest of the crew.

How the hell do you know that, though, just from a still photo?

Because the way Ridley Scott staged the scene tells you everything.

Here's the context of the scene:

Daniels (Katherine Waterston, left) is the first officer of the starship Covenant. Oram (Billy Crudup) is the Captain of the Covenant, and he's come to Daniels to explain his reasoning behind an order he's given that she wants to go on record as opposing.

Sure, Oram is the captain, and Daniels is his first officer, so why does it look like Daniels is the Captain?

For one thing, she's on the left, which is the side the strongest characters almost always appear on. Think of every Western you've ever seen--the hero first appears on the left side, bad guy on the right. Every time. It's something filmmakers figured out early, and have used ever since.

For another, Daniels is seated in a chair, Oram is sitting on a stool. It looks like Orem is visiting Daniels in her office, and normally the Captain doesn't go to someone he outranks--they usually come to him. Yet, here's Orem, sitting on a stool, head slightly bowed, as he approaches his first officer to try to change her mind.

You can tell from Oram's posture that he's the inferior in this scene, even though technically he outranks Daniels. This gives you an idea where they both fit in the context of the entire crew--Oram is shaky, not all that confident, while Daniels is comfortable and self-assured. You would accurately assume that Daniels has the confidence of the crew, while they don't quite trust Oram or think he knows what he's doing.

You got all this from a simple still photograph.

That's what I'm talking about when I refer to the power of film. Here this is just being used to tell a story. Imagine if a skilled filmmaker wanted to make a movie that would influence popular opinion, in the guise of making a simple entertainment.

It's kind of scary, actually. Fortunately, like every other trick, once you realize what the filmmaker is doing it loses its effectiveness.

It's still fascinating to watch, though, especially when it's a film by a visionary director like Ridley Scott.

Digging out, and working away

We've had a few inches of snow in my neck of the woods.

To many of you that seems barely newsworthy, but I live in an area where it doesn't snow much. So, more than a trace tends to shut the whole area down, and it looks like we've gotten a helluva lot more than a trace.

It's over now, though, and things maybe will start to return to normal now. I hope. I'm not a fan of snow, though it did give me an extra day off from work. No way am I going to try to drive on the roads around here when they're icy and slick and also full of other drivers who have no idea how to drive on icy, slick roads.

No thanks. I'll call in and stay home.

My script for the pilot for The Prince didn't make it to the finals in the Final Draft Big Break screenwriting competition. Still, a semifinal finish is nothing to sneeze at. I've rewritten the script and sent it out to a couple of agents to see if I can get some sort of official representation. Fingers crossed somebody likes it. Since it made it past two rounds of judging in a big time screenwriting competition I have to think that it does have something going for it. At the very least maybe I'll get asked for more examples of my work.

And congratulations to those who made it to the next round. Yes, I'm jealous.

I also splurged and paid a reading service to look over my horror screenplay. The feedback I got was honest if a bit blunt. It needs work. I didn't find any notes that I disagreed with, either, and the feedback was helpful. Honesty is what I paid these people for, and I've been rewriting it with their notes in mind. It's quite a bit better, too, now. As is my ego, once it got over the bruising. I guess I was expecting to get "It's perfect! Don't change anything!" back from these people. Not bloody likely.

And I've been revisiting Too Many Tonys, doing a rewrite on it with an eye towards sending it around, too. There were some problems with the story that I couldn't figure out how to fix until recently--putting it aside and then revisiting it later seems to have done the trick, as I figured out how to address the critical issues I had with it. I'm thinking it's nearly ready--I just need to read it over a couple more times, to be sure that I didn't throw the story structure out of whack when I made my changes. And to be sure that the new stuff blends in with the old stuff so it makes one, coherent story.

So, that's what I'm up to right now.