What you learn from talking with gods!

I really started working on my feature. Considerably more than usual. Despite the heavy schedule I'm carving out time for it. Still...the best ideas come to me at the worst of times. I know this is true for a lot of writers. By worst I don't mean when I'm sick or hurt, I mean when I don't have paper in front of me. The worst thing a screenwriter (or any writer for that matter) is have a great idea and let it go away. For my first years of writing I did this all the time. I'd have an excellent idea for a new story (or how to fix a current story), tell myself I'd remember it, then over time forget it. It wasn't until I watched "Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods" that I realizes what the answer was. What Grant does is write down every idea that comes to mind in a notebook. He has tons of them! Enough to fill a room. Sometimes he looks through them, sees an idea and doesn't even remember when he had it or what it means. Still, it's written down and probably helped him develop other ideas. Some time later I got a notebook and carried that sucker everywhere with me. It's proved to be so useful. Anytime any idea comes to mind it gets written down. One of the things I worried about when I got into screenwriting was having enough ideas to sustain myself. Now I've got tons! If I ever get stuck, I know exactly where to turn to.
I digress though...I've started working on my feature! It's going a little bit better than expected. I just need to find a story within the second act. I know it's somewhere in there. The little writer in my mind just needs to mine for it. I'm off to a good start though.

In the mean time "Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods" is streaming on Hulu: http://www.hulu.com/watch/260325

Typing the Unreadable

"The worst thing you actually do put on paper is always better than the 'great masterpiece' you keep in your head and never write at all."
-Jim Jennewein

Writing! If you want to be a writer, it's a simple concept, sit down at the keyboard and write. Surprisingly, it's not the easiest thing in the world to do. So there you are, with your next great movie idea, you've written it all out in your head. It's going to be the next big blockbuster, A-List directors and talent are going to be attached to it. There's just one problem. It's not on paper yet. So you sit down and open final draft to that blank page. How do you start? Where do you begin? Do you start from the beginning of the story or write some scene in the middle you're passionate about. There is only one thing to do. Start writing! Anything. So this is what I'll be doing. Updating what I'm writing and this is going for me.

-Reid

Amazing Spider-Man, 10 Years Later

There's a new wall crawler in town tomorrow! The Amazing Spider-Man hits the silver screens of America tomorrow. It's current Rotten Tomatoes score is a 76%...not bad. However, not all of us have the same history with the character and what he means to us. This is what he means to me.

My earliest memory of Spider-Man was the animated Cartoon on Fox Kids. I knew I liked the character, but was always conflicted why he was never recognized as a hero within the Fox Kids universe. He was saving people and dishing witty banter with super villains weeks after weeks, but the cops always after him. Regardless, the viewers always knew he was doing right even if the authorities didn't.

After being entranced by the shows and characters I was ready to take the mythology deeper, comic books were the logical next step. On the corner of downtown was "Thrill Books & Comics" I picked a Spider-Man Peter Parker: Spider-Man #16 and instantly knew that was the one I wanted. Something about that cover spoke to me. It had Spider-Man and Venom who I both knew from the show fighting The Sandman, a character I knew nothing about! It quickly become my most pride position. It was read nearly everyday cover to cover and taken with my on every road trip. I would trace the beautiful John Romita Jr. artwork over and over again. I couldn't describe it, but I made a deep connection with this book, and this book with me.

Spider-Man more than any other Marvel (or comics for that matter) character which I related to on the most personal level. I wasn't born on a doomed planet and sent to earth, I wasn't given a ring from a dying alien, and I never built a "suit in a cave, With a box of scraps!". What I was, plain and simply was a teenager. With Peter Parker Stan Lee brilliantly captured every teenager in America reading comics. We all faced the same problems he did before his fateful radioactive spider bite. He was constantly being questioned by his aunt, constantly picked on in school, and trying to get dates with girls who didn't even know he existed. Ultimately he faced all the problems that we do when we're young. Now he was forced to deal with all that, while dealing with super powers.

It's also nearly impossible to talk about Peter Parker without mentioning his transformation. Yes, he went from wimpy teenager to superhero very quickly, but I'm talking about his emotionally. As I said earlier, he was a teenager, and teenagers make mistakes. Teenagers drink before they're old enough, get into trouble with the law, and usually get caught for it. When Peter gets his powers he deicides to make some money dressed as the pro wrestler, Spider-Man. One night he lets a crook go from the wrestling manager who didn't pay Peter correctly. When Peter finds out his uncle is murdered he confronts the crook. It's the same man he failed to stop. In a single panel Ditko captures the ten thousand thoughts going through Peter's head. Ultimately, something that seemed so small at the time, made such an impact in Peter's life. He made a mistake, and it was a mistake he's still paying for today. It defined his character as he lives by the words "With great power, there must also come great responsibility".

So tomorrow I'm taking to the theater. I've opted out of the Midnight as to reminisce on the moments that changed my life. The film that changed my life in two hours and one minute.

The Hunger Games

So I thought The Hunger Games was a story about a pack of starving teenagers searching for food midnight...not the case...I couldn't be more wrong. I got something even better! I'm on Chapter 6 on my Nook and loving it. I like it so much I've decided to chronicle my thoughts on each chapter so when I finish I call go back and say "I was SO wrong", or "called that one" (the latter being extremely self-indulgent). Anyway I didn't do Chapters 1-5, but here's Chapter 6:

Chapter 6

Chapter six gives us a bit of exposition about Katness and Gale during their hunting days. I feel like the redhead girl who was taken by the Capitol will play a bigger role within the novel. I could be wrong here and she is just a tool for us to look into Katness' guilt about not helping the redhead girl when she needed it the most. Speaking of the Capitol taking them I got a HUGE Planet of the Apes/War of the Worlds/Cowboys & Aliens feel from the description of the spear that "was attached to a cable" which hauled them up to the hovercraft. This seems like aclassic trope of alien invader films and it lends to the overpowering nature of the capital.
This scene however begs the bigger question about where these two were going. I get a distinct feeling that there is more to District 13 than what Katness is telling us. That's not to say that she even knows what it is, but something that Collins is keeping from us. Evidence of Katness saying "they show it on television occasionally, just to remind us". If this is a Capitol who's clearly technologically advanced enough for hovercrafts, it's plausible they could doctor a television image.

Anyway here's the clip Cowboys & Aliens and the vibe I got from the hovercraft:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQVDhPVyU-o&feature=related

"Pan's Labyrinth" presentation

Our group presentation for English 312 was substantially different from others we had seen previously in the class. The other groups chose to take a book and compare it to the films counterpart by discussing changes that were made and why those changes were implemented. My group’s presentation was on Pan’s Labyrinth, a 2006 film written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. The challenging part of this was we had no book to work with! The film includes all of the elements that we have been reading about this semester, in the same way Watchmen did for my English 492 class. 

Despite having no book to work with I felt our group worked very well together and the work was spaced out equally. No one person was stuck with creating all the slides and putting it together. This did not happen for a number of reasons. One reason is that my colleague Rayne took the initiative to put together a Facebook group entitled “Literary Geniuses”. This group was an excellent way to discuss what each member was going to bring to the table as far as content. “Literary Geniuses” was also the primary way we set up meeting times.

The second reason is when we were putting together the project we used google docs. This was a great way to ensure that each part of the presentation was being included and nothing was missing. Also, no one would worry about having to export it and put it on a thumb drive. While this seemed like a perfect plan, my group did not anticipate the internet would go out on us in the middle of our presentation thus delaying our it. Despite the technical malfunctions I felt in the end we really pulled it together and gave a worthwhile and enlightening presentation.

The Sandman's Doll House.


Possible Spoilers ahead for "The Sandman: The Doll's House"

The second volume "The Sandman" series entitled "The Doll's House" follows more of what we have discussed in class. The story in this book shifts somewhat and is no longer predicated so much on Dream. Instead in this volume the spotlight is shared with another protagonist, Rose Walker. As I don't want to give to much away, all I can say is Rose role becomes more and more significant to the Dream world as the volume carries on. Throughout the arc, Rose is on a quest looking for her long lost brother, who has escaped his cruel adopted parents.
The addition of Rose into the series could signify a couple of different things which Gaiman was trying to accomplish. First of all he could be playing to his love of fairy tales, which the novel is heavily influenced by. The books we have studied in class (including Gaiman's own Coraline) features a female protagonist who travels from the ordinary to the extraordinary. In "The Sandman" Rose leaves her mother a quest to find her brother and moves into a complex with many peculiar characters.
Rose's story in the volume contains many elements explored in the "portal" literature revolving around the female protagonist. For example, when Rose gets a lead on where her brother is she must leave the complex and set out on her mission. Accompanying her on this journey is one of the residents of the complex, Gilbert, who had saved her earlier from muggers. Gilbert acts as the ally character accompanying the hero on their quest. We have scene the archetype of the this character in many forms through our reading, usually in the form of an animal (Toto in The Wizard of Oz, The cat in Coraline, even Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio). This character usually serves the hero or heroine by having a deeper knowledge of the fantastical world. I don't wan to give away how Gilbert serves the fantastical realm, all I can say is he has a deeper meaning than just the ally.
Roses' story could be considered a subplot to the title character Dream's story. As Dream is rebuilding his world he must track down all the escaped Nightmares while he was imprisoned. On top of this he must solve the mystery of the dream vortex which could destroy humanity. These situations are what ties dream to Roses' story.

The Sandman beginings

So I said I would keep y'all updated on my blog after I finished each volume...well I didn't exactly do that. I've finished the first two volumes "Preludes and Nocturnes" and "The Doll's House".

Before I get into how this relates to my essay I first would like to address how phenomenal this series has been thus far. The interesting thing was it wasn't one of those love at first sight type of books. Gaiman really didn't have me at the first issue. I was confused, I felt like there wasn't enough exposition, and way to many characters. It wasn't until you meet your protagonist Dream (or Morpheus, he has a lot of names) that you really get a clear idea of where the book is going. Throughout "Preludes and Nocturnes" he goes on a quest looking for his three items to rule the dreamworld.

The scenes which most related to the concept of "The Portal" was the subplot in "The Doll's House" of Jud in the dreamworld. Jed is a character in the book who is adopted by a farmer and his wife. The couple, Clarice and Barnaby are not reminiscent of Aunti-Em (The Wizard of Oz) or Uncle Owen and Aunt Burew (Star Wars), but they are much more cynical. The only reason they have adopted him is because they "receive $800 a month from the state for Jed." Jed is kept in a basement and beaten by these people and to escape his traumas, he escapes to the dreamworld.

I discussed in "Oz Gets Sucker Punch" the idea of traumas leading these people to the dream world that allow them to escape. They are able to travel from the ordinary to the extraordinary. As far as I can figure the twist on this subject in "The Sandman" is that two of the characters Brute and Glob have severed Jed's true connection to the dreamworld. This adds a whole new layer of depth to the idea of escaping through the portal. This leads to the question "Are you truly escaping to the fantastical, if others are controlling where you are?". Is Jed just being captive in another place that's not the basement? How would it be different if he was escaping to a true world within his mind?

The whole series thus far could really be construed as a writer giving his own take on the portal and how it relates to dreams. It begs the question, when one escapes to the portal, is there someone pulling the strings?