Hello readers.  I notice that it’s been a while since I wrote anything… anything at all.  So, to make up for it, today’s post is going to be about two entirely unrelated topics.  Basically, two days worth of blogging in one thrilling adventure…  Here we go.

The age old debate continues.  Superman, or Batman?

I have read more than one article/blog now saying big movie execs are worried about the future of a squeaky clean Superman in the dark realm of heroes such as Batman and Hellboy.  In a way, I guess I can understand the panic.  In a world of self-professed cynics we relish the the flawed hero, or even the anti-hero, which I guess is fairly interchangeable at this point. For Pete’s sake, even the Harry Potter movies fight for that dark and broody, angst filled atmosphere… and they’re based on children’s books. (Go back and read the first four novels… Not broody or cynical.  Children’s books.)  You know what, that’s fine.  Largely those movies work and for various reasons, and are hugely popular, but just because a couple movies work one way, doesn’t mean they all have to.

Superman has always been a much lighter hero, right up to the bright blue spandex.  He is the squeaky clean, super human, bringer of hope.  To change that for box office purposes would completely change who that entire character is.  Where Batman sees the flaws and warts of humanity,  Superman sees the strength and good-will of it.  What’s wrong with that?  In today’s world, where bombs are being dropped on various countries by various enemies, children are shooting their peers, and politicians play bloody knuckle boxing with tax-payers, why can’t we go to a movie to see someone actually be able to save the world, just because he wants to?

Superman is an idealist.  He does not seek revenge or have too many inner-demons to battle, and though he may not represent the ever-popular downfalls of humanity, he does represent the hope that we have all seem to have forgotten these days.  He doesn’t need to be the same as Batman to succeed.  He’s Superman for Heaven’s sake.  Use what you have on the table in front of you, don’t go stealing off of other people’s tables.  With the USA being ripped apart by this year’s election over issues that there seems to be no Right or Wrong answers for, and when the people are doing nothing but screaming for a savior,  ¹ why not just give them one?  Superman does not play in the grey areas, he’s so Black and White, so good vs evil and he wins everytime.  Don’t underestimate people’s need for that.

Superman and Batman are different heroes, that’s why there’s two of them.  Let Superman stay Superman.  Batman gets to come into his own being Batman.  So, let Superman come into his own by being Superman.

That being that, onto Topic #2, and I wouldn’t mind someone swooping in and saving the day.

Today I will finish Draft Two of one of my screenplays  – that is, if I will get off the internet and finish it’s last sequence.  It’s a decent draft, much better than the first, but it is still facing a lot issues, a lot of which I created for it with the premise.  Six redheaded women are forced to stay under the same roof after the death of the patriarch.   Adding to the claustrophobia, two of the women are former wives of the man while the other four of the offspring of the respective unions.  The fact that the action takes place under one roof where little happens in terms of plot stimulus, the women are forced to continually rehash their past with one another.  Anyone who has taken Screenwriting 101, or even has just SEEN a movie, knows that the last thing that any audience wants to sit through is a bunch of people sitting around talking about the past… except, for some reason, in The Big Chill, that was a huge success. ²  I am completely stuck on how to bring about keeping the story in the present as well as bringing a bit more action³ to it.  So yeah, that’s where I am with that.

I feel as though until I can work out some of the big flaws, as well as a title⁴, it would be pointless to pursue another draft.  And to be honest, I don’t think I could do that right now.  It has worn me out, and I need a break.  So where do I go from here?   I have a few options,  I suppose:

1. I have another screenplay that I have draft 1 already out there for.  It needs a lot of plot work, as well, in order for another draft to be attempted.  It’s difficult but not impossible.  I like this project, it’s a bit lighter in tone and not quite as soapy  – though I never intended my Redheads project to fall under the “soapy” category, for the record.
2. I also have a TV Show that I am trying to develop.  If I had to choose, this would probably be my “passion project.”  It’s something that I have been swirling around with for a few years now.  I’ve written scraps that could eventually wind up as a bible and a draft of the pilot episode.  Both need considerable work before they have the ZAP and PUNCH that I think is completely achievable with the idea and that’s fine.  I can work with that.  It’s my favorite idea so far, but honestly, probably the one that’s least likely to get me any work at the moment.
3. This last week or so I have been itching to get started on this new idea that’s been brewing in my head.  It’s the idea that the more I think about the project I’m working on, the more I think about starting this idea. It is called Finding Geraldine and it is to be a feature film.  I have deliberately suppressed working on it because I would get swallowed by it and never finish Redheads. I’d love to start now, but I fear taking on yet another project would just cause me to neglect my existing ones and they would never get any further.
4. Hopefully next year, I will be applying for the ABC Disney Writer’s Fellowship. Hopefully.  It is an intensive (and very competitive) program where they throw you into the TV writing business and help you hone some skills with on the job training.  It is how many TV writers in L.A. get their start.  In the application you must submit a TV Spec episode (essentially a glorified Fan Fic ep) of a series in production.  This will probably take me months to do because of all the research  – which I promise involves slightly more than just watching the series over and over — and planning involved.  I have a little less than year to get this underway.

So there you have it.  How do I spend my days now?

And also I would much appreciate your advice on how I can get out of the house in the process.  I’m tired of being here all day alone with my body image.

Other than the occasional social issue, I try to stay as clear as possible from politics. It’s not the politics that I find distressing, but rather the politics OF the politics that I find particularly off-putting, but really that’s an argument for another day. Upon creating this website, I never had any intentions of it being a political haven, particularly because I don’t think I can speak articulately enough on any one political subject well enough for it to be so, nor honestly, do I care. But it would seem now, with the November election rapidly approaching, I find myself a lot more interested, and not to mention, scared.

Yes, to repeat that, I am scared of which what the political winds are blowing. I’ve heard countless times that this may be the most important presidential election America has ever seen, and though I can’t argue if that is necessarily the case ¹I cannot deny that the election is crucial to the future of our country. The notion of John McCain taking office terrifies me. Actually terrifies me. The below video pretty much sums up why:

McCain will be the next Dubbya, and then some. Over the last eight years, the USA has tumbled² from grace due to the current administration and to be honest, I don’t think that we are strong enough to take another four years of decline. That’s over a decade falling, and that’s bound to do some damage. The economy is worse off than it has ever been. (From 3 trillion surplus to 5 trillion debt, is nothing to scoff at, even though the numbers are fairly hard to comprehend.) McCain will surely continue that with his notions of what “rich” is and how we should continue to stay in the futile war we’ve been drowning in for the last seven years. If McCain wins the presidency, America will go even further into debt with the war, not to mention, lose lives that ought not be lost, run screaming towards Christian Evangelical Fundamentalism and most certainly set social issues back twenty years. ³

We need Obama.  And though I really like him and think that he will do a good job as president, I am not claiming that Obama has to be the most 100% perfect man for the job.  We just can’t have McCain — at this point, even if it were 2000 McCain and not 2008 McCain — because Bush has already set us back too far. Maybe it would be different, tolerable at least, if he was coming straight off the heels of Clinton, but he’s not, our grave is being dug as I type this.  

Frankly, I don’t trust My Fellow Americans to make the right choice.  People vote their wallets an unfortunate amount of the time, even if they don’t have the wallets that are going to benefit.  Plus there’s the ignorant contingent that we have to deal with who just like to have their freedom to bare arms and not having to deal with those different (or more intelligent) than them.  Not to mention, those looney’s who vote Independent, thinking that that is a way to keep the evil away by not voting for it.  You know what, stay home, independents, because all you do is take away from the good guys, since your “parties” are generally little off-shoot denominations of Democrats anyway.  Thirdly, what’s to stop the GOP from stealing yet another election?  Twice in a row they’ve done it, and not subtly, either, so what’s to stop them from doing it again?  What’s the swing state of choice this time?  And finally, Obama is counting on a lot of votes from demographics that aren’t the most reliable when it comes to rolling out of bed on that Tuesday in November, and though they seem to be changing their tune this year, old habits die hard.  I can’t say that the outcome is optimistic here. 

The last thing I want to be is cynical, and to be honest, I think that my new found viewing of the West Wing is only exacerbating the issue.  (Why can’t Martin Sheen run for president?  Or at least Laura Roslin?  They’ve done nothing but proven awesome at it on screen, who’s to say they won’t do better than the standard Dubbya set?)  Is it so wrong that I want tomorrow to be better and that I believe that, in our case, if it doesn’t get better, it’s going to get a lot, LOT, worse?  I know I’m not the most informed person in the political playground, in fact, I’m pretty sure I’m the kid on the leash that has to sit in the corner facing the opposite direction, but I do my best to stay informed and alert.

I’m scared about the election.  I’m scared it’s going to turn out the way that I’m scared of it turning out.

Wii Fit:

Down to 22.27% BMI, thats 59.9 kg.  Fingers crossed.

________

It is no secret that a film can live or die with it’s publicity campaign leading up to the film.  If sold right, you can get butts in the seats to see any movie, whether it is any good or not.  Trailers play a large part in these campaigns, from the first twenty second teaser to the full blown epic three-parters, and often they are successful in piquing the average viewers interest.  Trailers are hard workers too and are often taken for granted by the average viewer who pays no attention to how what they are watching is effecting their psyche.  These babies have to offer a huge amount of appeal in anywhere from thirty seconds to two minutes on the outside. This might sound easy for a Disney adventure, but can you imagine having to be the poor sucker who had to cram the three hours Lord of the Rings into that little box?  Talk about a time crunch.  Trailers, like their movie mommies, tend to have a certain structure to them.  They start off setting up the premise where the second part dives you just slightly deeper in the story to hook you and then the third part drives it home making you want to DIE if you don’t see the movie now.

I love movie trailers and if this whole screenwriting thing doesn’t work out, I wouldn’t mind settling into a career as a Trailer editor.  I think if done properly they can really draw you into the story — a story that almost can exist on it’s own, without the accompaniment of the bigger piece.  Set aside the fact that they are constructed to make you want to see more, there is a certain amount of closure you get with a good  one that just gives you the warm-fuzzies.  A good trailer transcends a movie and becomes it’s own work of art.

You might think that this is a rather mundane topic to post about, and perhaps it is, but I have done it with some context.  I was recently shown the trailer for Brad Pitt’s new movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  Watch it here:¹

After the first viewing I was absolutely blown away, so much so that I had to immediately watch it again.  Now, I can’t say for certain that I know what the film is entirely about, nor do I really care. The premise is set up well enough that I’m not floundering and as the trailer progresses you can tell that the eponymous Benjamin has a certain tension with fair lady Cate Blanchett, and to be honest, that’s just fine with me.  Not being a Brad Pitt fan myself — I have nothing against him, I just think he’s overrated, that’s all — I probably wouldn’t have just run out and saw this movie before, though I might now.  I think the trailer is absolutely beautiful.  It’s moving and poignant with the music taking us on highs and lows perfectly in time with the images we see on screen.  Thanks to this joy that was the trailer, I am excited about seeing this movie when it comes out at Christmas.

That said, we can all look forward to the following movie.  Watch me insert my tongue firmly in cheek.

W.

I have absolutely no interest in seeing this movie and that’s not just because it seems to be painting Dubbya in a unsung struggling hero light. I think if I had to watch a biopic about the President Coat Tails I would have to stab myself and the person closest to me — despite whether the message was Pro-Bush or Anti-Shrub.  However, I did feel the need to add this trailer in because at the end it introduces all the characters to you and instead of listing the name of the actor who plays the character, it went ahead and listed who the character really was.  This is possibly because the glossy character portraits painted are so blindingly shiney that you can’t see who they’re actually supposed to be.  That, or it was made especially for Mr. President’s eyes himself, who needed to be told that this was just make believe and those people on screen are just “actors.”

Third day in a row my Wii Fit Graph went down in numbers instead of up (way to jinx it Carrie).

BMI: 22.23 (from 22.61)

Weight: 59.8 kg (from 60.8 kg)

A full Kilo! Though I expect that number to go up tomorrow after the huge burger I ate tonight.  Such is life.