Desire

I tried to write a screenplay tonight.  As happens to me sometimes, I was listening to some music and a scene popped in my head.

It was an odd scene.  A concert pianist intercutting with a breakup.  This girl was breaking up with the pianist, yet he was oddly detached.  The whole conversation was driven by her need to be honest and open that she was seeing someone else.  Meanwhile, he's staring at a similar conversation happening across the restaurant.  He was so detached.  So... empty.  (Even though I'm sure he was thinking quite a bit...)

As I kept writing, I just realized that this scene wasn't really going anywhere.  He was sitting there, angsty and pensive.  She was talking and about to make an excuse to go.  Really, even though he was the "main character" of this little scene, she was the most active one.  She had a desire: break up with this guy and get out of here.  What did he want?

A couple of thoughts arose from all this.

1. Wow.  This is angsty.  I kept wanting to follow the scene, but I realized that this pretty much falls into the "20something accidentally writing their own directionlessness into a script".  It's a proud tradition.  I'm lucky he wasn't a screenwriter.  

2. Man, is it important for characters to have desires.  This guy is getting tossed around by the scene.  When I stopped writing, the girl across the room had just bought him a drink so they could commiserate together.  So he goes from one woman's desire pushing him forward to another woman's desire pushing him forward.  How much more interesting could the scene be if he actually wanted something?  
Maybe he wanted his girl to leave him.  Maybe he saw it coming and is using apathy to try to hurt her.  

Maybe he just studies people.  The relationship and the breakup are all part of this detached, observer-artist personality he has.  This other girl buying him a drink is just a chance to observe another type of human.

Maybe he just wanted a chance to work in peace tonight.  The breakup will hit his semi-autistic, hyperfocused brain later.  Right now, he just wants her to be done breaking up with him so he can sit in the restaurant and be creative.  

3. Man, it's important to have desires in life.  Every time I start working on a character, I am reminded that I want to be my best character.  I want to want things badly enough to risk for them.  I want to pursue my dreams, whether they be every day (I'm going to fix this problem on Avid for this student.) or bigger (I want to be a professor of new media.).

It's only when we want something badly enough to risk for it that we stop being tossed around our life's story.

I think I might go at this little scene again tomorrow.  I kind of like writing this super detached artsy guy whose desires transcend what a normal person would respond to in a situation.  But one thing's for sure.  I'm not going to let him drift through, desireless.

Grim.

(Long post ahead...)

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but television has not one, but two, new shows coming out this fall based on fairy tales.  Thankfully, neither of them are on Fox, so there’s a chance (however small) that one of them might last a season.  Maybe even two.  Seeing as I like sci-fi and fantasy offerings on TV, I figured I’d give them both a fair shake and make some predictions as to which one will last longer.

Debuting first was ABC’s Once Upon a Time.  It opens with an awkward first date.  Our heroine, Emma Swan, seems to be meeting a rather nice looking fellow for the first time.  Things turn ugly, though, when she starts rattling off his failed financial ventures, the fact that he has a very loyal wife, and how many children he has.  Turns out she’s a bail bonds collector.  A great character introduction and a great character.  How many times have we seen a female bonds collector? 

Long story short, the kid she put up for adoption shows up, tells her that she’s the princess of a kingdom that was cursed to be in the normal world, and persuades her to stick around the town of Storybrooke, Maine long enough to find out if he’s loved – but really to rescue the cursed Enchanted Forest.

Honestly, this show gets big time originality points with me.  A bail bonds collector?  That tells us so much about her character right there!  And she’s supposed to save the magical fairy kingdom!?  From the pilot, there is no formula to the episodes that I can tell.  Heck, she still hasn’t accepted that she is the prophesied hero of these people.  She, motivated by guilt, just wants to make sure that her biological son isn’t being secretly abused by the mayor of this picturesque little village.  There’s so much room to go as we continue to learn about the town, its citizens, and, ultimately, how Emma could possibly be the woman to save the day. 

Despite the similarity in setting, Grimm is a very, very different show.  Rather than being a serialized story about a fantastical world, it is a procedural cop show with fantasy trappings.  The big hook is, simply, that all of Grimm’s fairy tales were true and there is a lineage of people who can get to the bottom of these supernatural mysteries.  Naturally, our hero is one of these Grimms. 

Where Once Upon a Time began cleverly, Grimm begins like all cop shows: showing us a bit of a crime.  Our main character, Nick, is introduced as he shows off an engagement ring to his partner.  And then, off to the crime scene.  And then the creepy, mystical family member (this time an aunt) shows up.  Then, the creepy, mystical family member is almost killed by something supernatural, leaving our hero to cling to her last words: your parents were not killed by a car accident.  They were murdered.  Presumably by a similar creature.

I’d continue, but you really don’t need me to.  The show unfolds exactly like you’d expect it to.  (With the exception of meeting a surprisingly friendly werewolf/big bad wolf/some weird German(?) word that I never quite understood.)  He gets the bad guy by trusting his newfound powers/instincts, then goes back tells his comatose aunt that he will accept this new responsibility.

You know, for a cop, he certainly doesn’t respect due process.  He breaks into his first suspect’s place alone.  When he finds the real killer (who, by the way, is your stereotypical cardigan-wearing, log-home-owning, soft-spoken serial killer whose actor I think I actually have seen play a serial killer before...), he only calls his partner.  Something about after calling wolf, backup wouldn’t come anyway.  After interrogating their suspect, they leave.  But wait!  The partner hears the killer whistling a tune from the first victim’s iPod.  Clearly evidence enough for them to kick in the front door with guns drawn.  When the bad guy runs, Nick’s partner shoots him.  In the back!  Kills him dead.  Like that’s something a cop does when a suspect runs.

Needless to say, I found Grimm to be entirely cliché.  Every choice is expected.  Except, of course, when the characters act completely insane.  That’s sort of a surprise, I guess. 

The question, to me, is which one has a better chance of surviving.  I’ve watched a lot of great shows that got cancelled.  Pushing Daisies comes to mind as an analogous show.  It got cancelled halfway through their second season, but had some of the best writing and production design on television. 

From just the pilots, I think Once Upon a Time is a better show.  It’s more imaginative.  There’s more complexity to it.  The writing was better.  The characters were more interesting.  Plus, they act with some manner of realistic sense.  Our 28 year old bail bonds collector with a near supernatural internal lie detector is not going to just start believing that she’s a fairy princess and begin awakening the town of Storybrooke.  And honestly?  I have no idea how the writers will get her there.  No clue.

The mystery of that compels me to keep watching.  Plus the curiosity of how all the characters have been transformed.  We’ve seen fairies, Gepetto, Snow White, a couple of dwarves, and even Giminy Cricket!  I really want to see who they’ve become in this real world. 

Unfortunately, I think the American people will favor Grimm.  It’s easily understood.  It’s a cop drama that just so happens to have fantastical elements.  Just enough for it to be different than all 50 CSI series while retaining the formula of those shows.  But it’s still fantasy!  As a rule, American audiences have not jived with fantasy.  Combine that with such cliché characters and uninteresting writing and all you’re left with is a “Well, I wonder what fairy tale they’ll use next week?” to keep viewers interested.

Frankly, that’s not enough.  Characters run television, not high concept hooks.

My predictions?  Once Upon a Time gets renewed for a second season (if critics like it), but gets cancelled before it finishes.  Depending on how Grimm evolves in the next four episodes, it might last a season.  Maybe. 

Have you seen these shows?  I’d love to hear what you think of them in the comments.  Honestly, I went in to watching Grimm with a pretty strong bias against it.  Anyone really love it? 

What do women want?

That is all.





Okay.  Not really.

I started watching Mad Men today.  I figure, hey, it's a thing.  I should know about things. 

One of the questions asked by the very dapper Don Draper in episode two is "What do women want?"  Being a curious person, I asked my woman friend next to me the same question.  Instead of answering it (how like a woman, amiright?), she turned it on me.

"What do men want?"

I thought for about 10 seconds.  "To matter." 

Not bad for a 10 second response, I think. 

I look at myself and my friends and see a bunch of men striving to matter.  We want to change the world.  We want to be the world to someone.  We want to advance our fields.  We want to make a difference in the lives of those around us. 

Even on the dark side of modern "manhood", I think my answer holds some water.  Pornography lies to us by saying that we matter.  The mindless pursuit of stuff is only a symptom of assigning "matter"-ful significance to material possessions.  We get angry, prideful, jealous, and depressed when we think we don't matter as much as we want to. 

Mattering is not just a achievement, either.  I think we want to matter to someone.  Many men's drive toward intimacy (false or true) is a cry that we want someone to depend on us, to love us, to think that we are significant and important.

But my original question still stands.  What do women want?  Is it the same thing that men want, or a slight variation or twist?  Maybe something completely different? 

Anyone out there have any thoughts on men or women and what we want?  (Psst...  This is where you can comment and we can discuss things.)

College events.

Tonight, I went to an open mic night at my alma mater/employer.  It was actually quite good.  We have many amazingly talented students, many of which happen to be media students (I'm lookin' at you, Addison, Katie, Jay, Alex, and that freshman guy whose name I don't know). 

Anyway, this was an event that I really enjoyed.  Even without knowing most of the performers, I think the performances themselves were pretty darned good for free entertainment.  Trent Hamm at The Simple Dollar, when asked about cheap things to do, almost always recommends checking out the activities calendar of local colleges.  Oftentimes, there will be free seminars, discussions, open mic nights, concerts, and other, enriching, interesting, and cheap things to do.

I think I want to make sure to do that for the rest of my life.  You know, to stay young.  And cheap.

Juxtaposition.

Yet another video and a response...



My work is pretty awesome.  For those who don't know, I run all the technology at the media department at Cornerstone University.  (We have a Vimeo account.  You should check it out.)  Lately, my boss has been incredibly gracious in allowing me some student workers that can help me a few afternoons a week.  That has left me with time enough to a) take care of longer term needs and issues, and b) start learning and doing new things.  So, in addition to some dinking around with Adobe After Effects, I've been trying to brainstorm some short film ideas.

I'm not much a a short writer.  Most of the ideas that I get excited about are absurdly large journey stories.  My poor players in my Dungeons and Dragons campaign have hiked around most of the continent just to satisfy my lust for hugely epic narratives.  So, to get myself in the mood for writing shorts, I've been watching quite a few short films.  On the clock, no less. 

16: Moments is one of the films I checked out today.  I loved it.  I thought it was incredibly unique.  There are no words at all, yet it is packed with simple meaning.  I have heard that the power of filmmaking comes only from the juxtaposition of images and the audience's interpretation of those images.  16: Moments is this idea boiled down to its simplicity.

Now, its meaning and power do not simply come from the images.  The soundtrack does a heck of a lot to enhance the theme of everyday life and beauty.  But most of the heavy lifting is done by the editing and beautiful cinematography.

Ultimately, I think that this short is about the beautiful moments that make up our lives.  The fluidity of motion between most of the shots helps the viewer to thematically connect the two shots into similar ideas.  (Side note: isn't it amazing that the human brain can, in hundredths of a second, determine complex and abstract relationships between two moving pictures?)

Take, for example, the segment from about 1:14 to 1:39.  It's a brief story of life.  From the first shot of the fisherman casting his line to the shot of the footprint disappearing in the sand, every shot is a reference, in some way, to a life story.  Some of the shots only make sense looking backward, but it still makes sense.  The fisherman casting his line (looking for the girl).  Two teenagers kissing in the hallway (young, innocent love).  A bird chirping in spring (the season of love).  Unwrapping a condom (a little more mature love...).  A drill going into a two by four (...).  A couple holding hands as they step down stairs (maybe even a little more mature?).  Baby pressing footprints.  Baby walking.  A gravedigger at his work.  Finally, footsteps in the sand (recalling this poem, perhaps).  In 25 seconds, we're given a look at a life.  All through the juxtaposition of simple clips and the natural, cultural connotations that we have inside us.

One of the other things I love about this video is that it is beautiful without caving to the DSLR "look" that is so, incredibly pervasive in short film these days.  Yes, bokeh is beautiful.  Yes, I love high contrast images and tight depth of field.  But 16: Moments manages to be beautiful even though some of the shots look like they were shot with a news camera.  Almost everything in frame is in focus.  It looks like it may have been shot at 30fps instead of 24fps (like film).  It flies in face of what is popular right now while retaining a cinematic beauty that continued to compel me to watch.

I continue to be fascinated by short films like this.  Though I'll never be able to write one, they still inspire me with concepts, ideas, and themes that I want to draw on in my future writing.

What stuck out to you as you watched?


(Huge shout out to http://www.filmgen.com/.  I've been trawling their archives for good short films yesterday and today.)

Off Book.

 It's a shame this month of blogging begins on a Wednesday.  I don't have a whole lot of time on Wednesdays to read, play, and come up with neat things to talk about on a blog...

Kotaku posted this lovely video today:



It obviously strikes one of my central passion areas: the discovery that games can be so much more than just Halo or Modern Warfare.

One of the reasons that I wanted to do a blog a day for the next month was so that I had to push myself to think about games more intentionally again.  I subscribe to numerous blogs and, on the average day, see at least one freeware game come across my Google Reader feed.  As the month goes on, I'd like to start diving back into those games.  Maybe I'll even dig out some of the older ones still on my hard drive and do some basic analysis of what's going on ludologically, artistically, and narratively. 

Blogging challenge.

I've been thinking some recently.  About lots of things.  About imagination and drive.  About dreams and will.  About discipline, passion, and skills.  And writing.  I've been thinking about writing a good amount. 

This quote from Ira Glass went the rounds on Facebook recently: 

Like so many things on the internet, I've seen it before, but I'm at a place in my life where I needed to be reminded that I am, in fact, a creative.

Unfortunately, like many creatives, I am also a perfectionist.  I rarely start something unless I know it'll be just right.  I have probably three or four drafts in my Blogger queue right now that seemed like such good ideas at the time, but weren't right yet.  Who knows how many more ideas I've had but have let slip away because they weren't quite good enough.

Daggum it, though, Ira's right.  I need to do a lot of work.  If I even dream of being a new media academic someday, I need to write.  If I want to design interactive narratives, I need to write.  If I want to respect myself in a few years, I need to write. 

So starting tomorrow, I issue myself a blogging challenge.  I will write something on this blog every day for a month.  The topics may be as diverse as narrative theory, game design, theology, community, television, relationships, music, or finances.  But something will go up here every day until November 26. 

Good luck to us both.