Now the trailer embedded below is for a german language film that was made in 2008, but I found the trailer first over at the Apple web site just last week. This is giving me hope that there is going to be an American release of the movie to theaters.
I really hope so, this is one film I would not miss.
Now I understand that film and history usually part ways and I expect the same here, but still this looks wicked cool.
There is a saying in Hollywood, “Paper is cheaper than film.” That means it is always easier to experiment and work out story issues in the script before you start trying to film the movie. I find a similar thing is true of writing novels.
Outlines are faster than novels.
When I write I use an outline for anything larger than a short story. I find it is an essential part of my tool-kit in learning what my story really is and how to make it work to the best possible advantage. In the outline I can experiment with plot developments and twists. I can have a characters captured, killed, or ignored and see how that affects the overall plot and the other characters. If something doesn’t work, I have not wasted dozens of pages, perhaps thousands of words and who knows how many hours chasing down the wring path.
I understand not all writers can use the outline method. When I go to convention sometimes I feel like I am the token outline using author there and everyone else in the world simply fires up their favorite word-processors and the characters take off on adventures. I cannot do that. I have to know how my story is going to end. To get to that ending I have to have an outline. It’s like a map. I may go off the trail here and there exploring things as they pop-up, but the map lets me know which way is out.
I have had a major breakthrough in my understand of my next novel, ‘Cawdor.’ Because I am still in the outline stage it is easy for me to go back and incorporate all the new ideas and ramifications in the story without having to tear down and re-write most of a novel.
I cannot comprehend writing any other way.
Okay I knew a few posts ago I said I was walking away form short stories, but this little diddy came to mind and I just had to write it.
It’s a zombie-apocalypse story and very small. Just over a thousand words. I’m going to had it over to my sweetie-wife tomorrow for her eagle eye in copy-editing. After that I don’t know. I didn’t write it with a market in mind. It was really just an exploration of one idea of atmospheric idea. I may never send it out, but I am happy I wrote it.
I also got use a one of my favorite words in it….moonglade.
Tomorrow voters go to the polls to elect a senator to represent Massachusetts in the United States Senate seat vacated by the death of Senator Edward Kennedy and currently filled by an interim appointed Senator.
This is I think a critical election. The Democrats currently hold 60 seats and by the current pansy-assed rules for filibusters need all 60 to get their legislation through. (Filibusters have not been non-stop dramatic speeches on the floor of the Senate as seen in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington for years and years. They are now gentlemen’s’ agreements to require 60 votes, something very different.)
If the Democrats lose this 60th vote Health Care Reform is almost certainly dead.
Frankly if I was forced to place a bet tonight it would be that the Democrats will lose this election. The wind is at the Republicans’ back and even in this bluest of blue states victory is within their grasp. Unlike the special election in NY which was primary a local election, this is state-wide and with broad and clear national implications. A defeat here is a defeat for the liberal agenda and could possibly herald a voter wave that might crash against the party in power in November. (Though November is a long way off electorially speaking.) Maybe even with enough anger and luck the Republicans can take control of the House of Representatives again.
If that happened it would not be the end of the world and the Republicans would have a chance to show that perhaps they have learned some lessons. (I harbor doubts on that front but would be delighted to be wrong.)
My sweetie-wife returned home on Friday after spending a week helping take care fo issues surrounding the passing of her mother.
Yesterday we went whale watching. I’ve lived here in San Diego nearly thirty years and I’ve never gone whale watching. It was fun. I had forgotten just how peaceful I find sea travel. Not the same for my honey. She is prone to motion-sickeness so it was not the best of times for her.
So after diner tonight and a long day at work I decided to unwind with a bit of a zombie flick. I put in my blu-ray of the 1979 Dawn Of The Dead. (In my opinion Romero’s best Zombie film.) Anyway since this film was shot in 1979 the soundtrack on the original is a mono-sooundtrack. On the blu-ray they have upgraded it with a re-mastered 5.1 surround soundtrack in lossless PCM output. Well I had my shiny new sound system and subwoofer so I played around watching the film switching back and forth between the various sound sources.
There’s a scene where on of the characters — Stephen — is along and in the bowels of the Mall. He fires at shadows and the rounds go bouncing off into the darkness. Listening to the scene with the 5.1 surround was great. I heard the bullets ricochet completely around my seat. I was really surprised that a re-mastered soundtrack performed so well.
So my sweetie-wife has headed out to her where her mother lived to wrap up affairs there and I am on my own for about the next week. The condo seems much larger and more empty with her here.
At work they have offered more overtime as we are behind on our paperwork. (The bad economy has hammered people hard and that makes them turn to us in greater numbers.) Without anyone to rush home to I am doing the overtime at work. I did two hours tonight and I am likely to do two more tomorrow night.
At home tonight I just watched TV and made my own dinner.
The only bright spot today was that I scored ticket for the next taping of the TV show “The Big Bang Theory.” I’m not much for sit-coms, but I like this one. Of course being a geek really helps and that the fact that the shows isn’t mocking of geeks, but rather it really seems to get geeks and geek culture. I scored a few tickets for friends and one for my sweetie-wife, though she is unlikely to attend, but if she changes her mind I am ready. I am looking forward to next month when we go to LA and watch the show live.
In the we early morning hours this morning, my sweetie-wife’s mother passed away in her sleep. We knew we were dealing with end-of-life issues and now it has come to pass.
I did not have a blog in 2003, so there is not internet history of my opinion on invading Iraq as we geared up towards the war in 2003. However I can state I was flatly against the invasion.
My arguments against the war were fairly simple.
1) Iraq was not a direct threat to the United States at that time.
2) Even if Iraq possessed Weapons Of Mass Destruction a paranoid dictator such as theirs would never let them go out of his control.
3) We would easily overthrow the government but become bogged down in a war with a native insurgency.
4) A new war would distract the U.S. from is primary goal, chasing down and destroying Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
My friends who supported the war — or described themselves as war-agnostics – dismissed my concerns. I remember quite clear how the last point seemed ridiculous to them.
Well along with the others, point four seems to be gaining evidence lately. See the following quote from a story about a history of the Afgan war written by the Army itself.
First, I am making a slight modification to my work resolution.
When I am working on outlines and plotting notes, that I only need to do five hundred words per night. I found that 1000 was too many. I could do it, and I have been doing it. However it was causing me to not fully develop my ideas. While I am constructing the plot it is important to take the time for feel out the flavor and nuance of each idea so that I can properly understand where it is taking me.
When I am working in narrative, that will require a 1000 words per work night before I can play.
Another change is that I am walking away from short stories for awhile. The last rejection actually hurt, and normally I have an iron armored hide when it comes to rejections. (Writing ones, emotional ones were always far far worse.) This one burned and it’s put me off short stories for the time being. I will focus entirely on Cawdor and other novels. (Anyway my black mood is perfect for writing Cawdor.)