Open Hatch

[2006 July Update: Okay, some spam bot, or someone with a spam bot, is OBSESSED with comment-spamming this entry. None of the comments have gotten through my spam filter, so spammers comments aren’t getting anywhere. And they won’t get anywhere, so I suggest spammers drop it here. In fact, I’m forcing them to - comments closed.

Also, where have I gotten since learning the stuff in this entry? Not so far. TIME TO START MOVING. Writing. I’m writing something other than what is mentioned here.]

I asked the producer of a prominent, successful film some questions about producing, film making, and acting. It only occured to me afterwards that I really want to put this in my blog, so I’m leaving the person anonymous. Really, I might have anticipated I wouldn’t quite gather everything without taping it and going back to it (is this my first “duh” lesson of any kind of journalism?), because there was a lot said and in the below I only paraphrase from notes and memory.
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I’m with Marianne Williamson (who said something often incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela): no one can afford not to be brilliant etc.

I think it’s easy to misunderstand humility as never accepting praise or being satisfied with yourself. It can stem from a false view of how greatness operates - that if someone else is great it somehow subtracts from or threatens the greatness of others - as if there is limited greatness to go around. While it’s surely true that wherever two people are, one of them is greater (and my scriptures even say this), focusing even only on that misses the point. I find myself often referring back to a quote from my departed grandmother: “Only the Lord knows who’s greater than who, and HE’S NOT TALKING.”
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A book drove a good point home to me: if there aren’t a lot of people who know you would bleed for them, you won’t have a lot of people bleeding for you (there were a lot of other useful and disturbing things in that book).

.. I’ve realized I need to volunteer on small independent crews on weekends. Folks working on small projects can be found all over the place. Some of them online at the Yahoo groups Utah Film and Theater and Utah Extras Community. If I’ve helped someone else they won’t mind lending direction or help in small ways.

I need to find a bluescreen stage for Applicant to Hell.

Outside of a bluescreen stage for now, I’ll do a very fun splice screen test of Neverending Story.

And.. the day before yesterday I realized my focus is too narrow. I’ve awakened an acting ambition, but that’s not the “whole mell dell”. I feel that I must write and direct. For the writing, at least, I can actually participate (not lurk) in critters.org.

Another strong point: don’t count on people who don’t have your interests at heart, or have wrong interests at heart against you. I’ve met them. The things they do are not pretty.

I’m going to do a screen test of me reading Atreyu’s lines in the following scene from THE NEVERENDING STORY. I’ll intercut the shots of me with scenery shots from the film. I’ll almost certainly mix in the music of said game, and mabye also a collage of me playing it, with readings of memorable lines from the film.

Of course, I didn’t write the following.

CUT TO: Swamps of Sadness

BASTIAN

Atreyu and Artax had searched the Silver Mountains, the Desert of Shattered Hopes, and the Crystal Towers without success. And so, there was only one chance left. To find Morla, the ancient one, the wisest being in Fantasia who’s home was the Shell Mountain somewhere in the deadly Swamps of Sadness.

Atreyu jumps off Artax and pulls him along through the swamp.

BASTIAN

Everyone knew that whoever let the sadness overtake him would sink into the swamp.

Atreyu pulls his horse along saying reassuring things the whole time.

ATREYU

That’s it. You’re doing fine Artax.

Suddenly Artax stops and Atreyu pulls on the reigns. Artax doesn’t budge.

ATREYU

Come on Artax, what’s the matter? What’s wrong? Come on boy! I understand, it’s too difficult for you.

He tries pulling him in a different direction and steps into a puddle up to his waist. Suddenly he notices that Artax is sinking.

ATREYU

Artax you’re sinking! Come on turn around, you have to! Now! Come on! Artax!

He goes closer to him and hugs him.

ATREYU

Fight against the sadness Artax. Artax, please. You’re letting the sadness of the swamps get to you. You have to try, you have to care. For me, I’m your friend, I love you.

(Artax doesn’t move and Atreyu slaps the puddle sending water flying toward the horse. He yells at him again.)

Artax, you’re sinking! Come on, turn around, you have to, now! Come on! Artax! Fight against the sadness, Artax. Artax, please,
you’re letting the sadness of the swamps get to you. You have
to try. You have to care, for me, you’re my friend, and I love you.
Artax! Stupid horse! You’ve gotta move or you’ll die! Move, please!
I won’t give up! Don’t quit! Artax! Please!

(then he pleads with him.)

Move please. I won’t give up! Jump quick! Artax please!

FADE OUT:
FADE IN:
SPLIT VIEW: of Atreyu sitting on a log crying as he looks at the spot where Artax had once been, and of Bastian looking up from the book. Both have tears streaming down their face, Bastian blows his nose on his handkerchief. Bastian turns the page.
VIEW: of Atreyu walking through the swamps crying. He stops suddenly and we see a mountain.

ATREYU

The Shell Mountain.

VIEW: of Bastian as he looks up from the book.

BASTIAN

Morla the ancient one.

Following a provided lead, I signed up to put my name on a CD-ROM of a spacecraft headed to investigate Pluto in July 2015. Here’s my certificate.

Maybe the aliens who find the craft and its CD-ROM will have the capacity we lack for heaving hours of adulation upon single among uncounted names. Far more than the well-meant if necessarily lacking practice of humans praying for humans for a fee, The Benevolent Ones, having surpassed the necessity of money and opposition, will set up lab with thier uncounted hosts reciting mantras that will reach accross the void and pierce the soul of the million, wretched geeks who just need some COSMIC APPROVAL. I’m one of ‘em.

This is what they will say:

[Name from list], Trekking through time and space! We, Beings, Benevolent, of Higher Mind, impart our Beneficient Luminosity through the Void to thee, Quester of Man’s Eternal Learning, through the Endless Void to the Space of Your Approval, from the Haven of Cosmic Bliss separate from your now worthless, hopelessly pathetic shill of a pretended Glorious Civilization. Be of Hope! Our Learning Together will account for all Wrong Creations. We will abolish all evil. We will Restore all that is Lost. We will ascend above the stars. We will Atone all wrongs.

Sign up!

I wrote a script that creates thumbnail galleries I can put in a blog. I made it so I can just upload images into their own directory, invoke the script with a .php include, and it will make all the thumbnails and the gallery for me. Following is an example gallery from the script.

The main script is here and the library script it uses is here. You are free at least to use the former for any purpose; I saw no restrictions on the latter by the person who wrote it.

I came up with these absurd lyrics years ago for various themes appearing in Star Wars Episodes IV-VI. I’ve slightly revised them since.

The Imperial March/Darth Vader

HE IS BAD, HE IS BAD, HE IS BAD!
HE IS BAD, MAN HE’S BAD, HE IS BAD!
BAD BUD BA-DAD BUD BA-DAD-A-DAD
BUD-BAD BUD BA-DAD-A-DAD
BUD BAD, BUD-BA-DAD, BUD-BA-DAD!
BAD BUD BA-DAD BUD BA-DAD-A-DAD
BUD-BAD BUD BUH-DAD-A-DAD
BUD BAD, BAD-BAD-DAD, BAD BAD DAD!

The Force/Luke Skywalker

HE’S YOUNG, RECKLESS AND FORLORN,
BUT HE HAS GOT THE SKYWALKER BLOOD
AND HE IS GOING TO BE A HERO:
THE GALAXY WAITS ON THE ONE WITH THE FORCE.

Luke and Leia

IT’S LUKE AND LEIA
THEY’RE SIBLINGS AND THEY KNOW IT NOW
YES LUKE AND LEIA
SOMEHOW, THEY’VE ALWAYS KNOWN, SOMEHOW;

IT’S LUKE AND LEIA, YES!
IT’S LUKE AND LEIA
YESS IT’S LUKE AND IT’S LEIA
YES IT IS LUKE AND IT’S LEIA.

Suite version of Luke and Leia - from Ep. VII album

IT’S LUKE AND LEIA
THEY’RE SIBLINGS AND THEY KNOW IT NOW
YES LUKE AND LEIA
SOMEHOW, THEY’VE ALWAYS KNOWN, SOMEHOW;
THEY’RE LUKE AND LEIA
INCLUDING THEN, INCLUDING NOW
DEAR LUKE AND LEIA,
SOMEHOW YOU’VE ALWAYS KNOWN
YOU’VE ALWAYS KNOWN
YOU’VE KNOWN SOMEHOW

IT’S LUKE AND LEIA
THEY’RE SIBLINGS AND THEY KNOW IT NOW
YES LUKE AND LEIA
SOMEHOW, THEY’VE ALWAYS KNOWN, SOMEHOW;
IT’S LUKE AND LEIA, YES!
IT’S LUKE AND LEIA
YES IT’S LUKE AND IT’S LEIA
YES IT IS LUKE AND LEIA.

In all seriousness though.. the Star Wars films have some of the most profoundly beautiful and riveting music I know.

I landed my small role in Mobsters and Mormons because I got to know the director - John Moyer - and kept in occasional email correspondence with him, which led to the auditon and the part. I got to know the director in an acting class that he and Michelle Wright ran. I also took a screenwriting workshop from John.

I have five lines if they use the take that I think they will. Originally I had three lines and improvised two more stupid lines in response to the lead actor ad-libbing. He may have add-libbed because my character was a fool for his character to prod and malign. After this add-libbed take the cast and crew laughed: that’s why I think they’ll use the take. That my character possesed me during my closeup, and the lead actor also drew more of it out of me, and that it all illicited laughter - this was very, very gratifying.

I asked a question at a forum (Utah Game Developers yahoo group) about what people are playing lately. Here I answer my own question, after a sad explanation of everything I don’t play.

The last game I greatly indulged was Animal Crossing (hard to describe), which simulates time passages between game sessions. I passed the interval threshold of game-gluttony happiness, and the attention-starved neighbors and weeds overran: this only reinforced my wish to abandon them. I also got bored with materialism.

Other games I abandoned that all share the same cardinal sin of games; spawning you way too far back from where you progressed before death: Zelda Windwaker, Zelda 64, Homeworld, Half-Life. Far overdue investigations: Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Neverwinter Nights.

I played and don’t like WarCraft III. You spawn impossibly micro-unmanageable armies of fantastic creatures to execute genocide. BIG. WHOOP.

But what I do play is Wario Ware occasionally (Frenetic weirdness and I think a riot), Super Smash Bros (a cartoon brawl), Super Monkey Ball (strange sporting), I’ve dipped back into trying to finish Metroid Prime (exploring a strange planet and destroying mutants), and the game I worked on.

My wife plays games more than me - or that is played before our first baby was born and lately she played Harvest Moon, which is so cool because it supercedes materialism. I’ve played it a little when I have time.

I’ve played board games more frequently lately, with family: Settlers of Catan, San Juan, some bidding/buying game I forget the titled of (and always get wolloped at), Ticket to Ride, Trias, Starship Catan. Own the world, build the most, build and own the best, own the train stations, outrun your contemporaries, ditto. Somehow these games are fun despite the themes.

And yet the answer to Darwinian/competition games is not induced sharing (emotional Socialism?) The place to get didactic is Family Home Evening (or how about just unconditionally praising instead of preaching?), but spare us of too much and get on with the games. Don’t mix the two. That’s weird.

I was just searching for a php script to intergrate image galleries into a blog (I started writing one and figured out how to include .php scripts in a blog - I had tried it before but forgot to have the index template of my Movable Type blog output a .php script, so the include wasn’t called), and found this page which led me to google’s Summer of Code program (very cool!) which led to me finding XWiki which apparently has WYSIWYG editing. I haven’t looked into whether MediaWiki has this per my last entry on this topic, and glanced back at the wikiog I found: the page for it is loading extremely slowly, and other pages are loading fine. I hope that’s just a fluke.

Impressive: someone has made a wiki/blog out of XWiki.

As time passes I am more and more content with the way Revenge of the Sith seems to lay the groundwork for an actual redemption of Anakin, so that I no longer feel compelled to fix it.

Which isn’t to say I haven’t collected other problems relating to Return of the Jedi abundantly, and besides the main one that Sith seemed to solve.

I’ve thought more about Anakin’s youth also. I’ve said that what his mother gave him in just the six or so years before he left laid a solid enough groundwork to resist the.. philisophical nincompoopery of the Jedi. But.. I think if I spent ten years under Yoda and Windu and Obi-Wan’s psychologically detaching attributes.. I might go bonkers too.

But only in the circumstances of Episode III. I’m still unconvinced of Episode II’s psychology and am beginning to consider the set of films ideally as fast-forwarding through most of Ep. I-II, then wholeheartedly indulging III-V, then doing my best to overlook my complaints for VI.

And it’s not like I’ve been writing anything more or posting complaints from my old archives either: I’m waiting for my decisions on the pivitol element of Anakins role, and if I swing back in favor of Return of the Jedi as it is, this whole blog is a graveyard.

So.. occasionally I’m plagued by doubts of my ability to write believable dialogue, being that while I’m a nice, fairly affable person (or so I like to think), I can be.. socially defunct (which line of thought led to a funny exchange with my wife). And it’s led me to wonder: is there some book or course out there called “Gab for Dummies?” Not that fantasy dialogue should necessarily sound like teeny-boppers in the school lunch hall. Indeed I’ve thought that a tremendous problem of fantasy dialogue is that we at least think people in older times spoke more formally (and I often wonder what proof or realities evidence or strongly suggest this), and yet.. I just don’t totally buy that, so that I would guess that the best fantasy dialogue (and I’m not saying what I link there is best) would come accross as heightened speech yet still informal-ish.

Gaaaahhh.

I need to be able to write everything from the informal to the formal.

Someone answered my question by recommending How to Win Friends and Influence People. First off - this book is a living light bulb. More qualifiers - not that I ernestly apply it or have finished reading it - but I strongly recommend this book. And per the topic here - it says the way to be a conversationalist is to stop talking about yourself and show sincere interest in other people’s thoughts. They’ll talk your ears off and you’ll learn a score of really relevant stuff: what other people think.

That’s great - though not enough. Fiction has two-way exchanges, not one sided ones (or I suppose I think that’s an ideal).

Where can I find it - histories or journals of intimate (and not in the revoltingly intimate connotations) conflict resolution? And which fantasy authors do this best? Or where are very good media approximations (very cynical about media here)? Where? Where?