Geeks Rule TV

The general principle you should expect the world of TV to run by is if it's your favourite show of the new season, it will be cancelled after half a season, and never tie up the loose ends.

Mostly because the current crop of TV Execs and Producers are of my generation, the first to have been brought up with Star Wars as a primary influence, and with fond memories of the action and SF shows and movies of the 70s and 80s, there has been a neverending onslaught of geek concept shows.

Star Trek: The Next Generation and X-Files found the formula for success in the 90s, and they've been trying to re-create that magic bullet ever since. The first to achieve that for a while was the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, a show nobody expected to work at all, and yet was a runaway hit and a fantastic adventure. It completed its four season run earlier this year, and was quite an influence on many other attempts at re-imagining.

Lost, and Heroes, are SF concept shows with an epic outlook. Lost has managed to secure itself a definite ending, which has increased the pace of the story, and heightened its energy.

Whereas Heroes is floundering. After one of its better writers left the show to create his own, it immediately lost focus, and now he's back it may be too late to find its feet again. They do have at least one more season to come, so if they can figure things out and get back on track, it may be worth continuing to watch, but right now I wouldn't miss it if it ended.

Then there are the myriad of smaller geek shows, like Eureka (a new season is imminent), Reaper, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Life On Mars (all recently cancelled), and the UK shows like Primeval, Ashes To Ashes, and Doctor Who (all are going well, but are lower budget and much shorter than any US show).

And then there's the action shows with no significant SF element: Numb3rs, Castle, NCIS, The Mentalist, Lie To Me, Fringe, Eleventh Hour, which are cop shows but with rather unlikely methodology or technologies, therefore stretching credibility, unless you accept that TV always has a sprinkling of fantasy by definition. They all seem to be healthy, especially The Mentalist which has rapidly become one of the highest rating new shows of the year.

I am not an obsessive fan of any show, and never really have been, but my favourite new show of the last couple of years is Chuck, a great show about a geek who has a supercomputer implanted into his brain, which he uses to help the CIA in their spy missions. The problem is it's really popular amongst the geeks, but not actually getting the ratings. They're downloading it and swapping it, or watching it online or on DVR and Tivo, instead of actually watching it live, so the ratings are being hit.

But I'm lucky, as it's been renewed despite this. The only reason it's been saved each year is because the Execs seem to love it, the same aforementioned Execs who are of my generation and were brought up on shows just like it.

Chuck was renewed today. It will be some time before it returns to our screens, as the cast will be all off doing their own thing for a while (Yvonne Strahovski, for example, is here in Melbourne making a comedy movie), then they have to go back into production sometime in July, ready for the new season debut in September.

I can't wait.

Star Trekkin' Across The Universe

I am not a Trekker. Or a Trekkie. Or a particular fan of Star Trek. I don't really like the original TV series from the 60s because the dated production values just bother me too much. I'm a bit of a snob about that kind of thing, to my detriment, cf. Doctor Who.

I enjoyed a few of the movies. And Star Trek: The Next Generation was really quite fun, now that the production values and effects technology had caught up with the stories. Deep Space Nine was great, but I thought Voyager was awful. Enterprise completely missed the boat and failed to live up to its considerable potential.

However, the trailers for the new movie, simply called Star Trek, a reboot by TV show creator JJ Abrams, excited me. It managed to take the familiar elements and reinvent them without losing their essence, and it was obvious he'd found the perfect middle ground. The fans just hoped that the movie would follow through with the promise.

I saw the movie on cheapo Tuesday. And it was outstanding fun!

The plot is a time travel romp, which explains the change in actors, and sets up a whole new potential future to develop new stories that can ride rampant over the established canon, effectively allowing it to invent new canon of its own. And more than that, it has the single most epic and dramatic disaster in Trek's televised history.

The key was to accept the new actors playing familiar roles. For the most part their skills outweighed any need for doing an impression of the original actors. Karl Urban's is the closest attempt at copying DeForest Kelly's intonations, but even then he didn't do a complete copy. And Zachary Quinto had a tough job when he was playing against Leonard Nimoy directly, and yet didn't do a Nimoy impression in any way. However, I did think that Chris Pine slipped into a Shatner-esque pattern of speech when he was being casually dismissive with his apple during the Kobayashi Maru test.

The main problem with the original movies and TV series is they wanted to be hugely epic and impressive, but had a budget of $2.50, and cardboard and string technology. The budget for this new film was a somewhat excessive $150,000,000, and every dollar of it is on the screen.

As an effects aficionado, sometimes I'll wince at an otherwise wonderful movie when a poorly completed effects shot comes on screen. This still happens, even on the biggest budget films. I could rant about those instances for days, it's so disappointing. But there wasn't a single instance of that in this film. I didn't notice a poorly executed effect once, they were all perfect, seamless, and spectacular.

I can't say I was enamoured by the shaky camera and the constant lens flares as a stylistic choice, though. They were distracting and brought me out of the movie on occasion. And some of the plot and set pieces strained credulity, and wouldn't have taken much work to pull into a more believable shape, but that's just action movie shorthand, I guess.

A great movie. A lot of fun, a lot of clever in-jokes and references back to familiar canon, and a lot of spectacle and adventure. If this is the future of Star Trek, indeed the future of movies, then it's going to be a wild ride.

Can't Say No

There have been times in my life when I have no work to do. My free time is left wide open, and I am a little bit lost for some way to occupy myself.

But to be honest, I cannot remember the last time that occurred.

I've always had arty, creative friends throughout my life, but the current crop are the most creative, energised bunch I've ever known. There's always some new project bubbling under, or actively happening, and I am happy to see it so. I also love to be involved.

I'm lucky enough to have a skill that is sought after. Though there have been others with my skills in our team's past, those people have mostly moved onto other things, leaving the way open for me to muscle in where they once trod.

I think I've made an impact, though, as now they won't leave me alone.

I am loving doing the work for Rob's film, Checkpoint. It's one I've chronicled a lot on my Blog, and hopefully it's come across as enthusiastic, because there's so much new and different stuff to do on it. I'm learning new skills at every turn, and if the challenges weren't there I'd not be having half as much fun. And it's typical of us to see that we've almost completed the work involved only to subsequently pile on more. But it's getting there - even now as I write this, my other computer is rendering out a sequence of frames.

I also need money coming in, so I have committed myself to doing a website for my friend Anna. She's a musician, and she wants a site up showcasing her music and gigs. We've figured out a nice, clean, simple design for it, and if all went to plan she will have taken a load of promotional photos over the weekend, which will be used on the site. The actual assembly of the site won't take too long to do, once I get back into it, and it will net me some extra money and future work, so I can't complain, but I must say that at times my heart isn't in it, and I'm finding it hard to engender any enthusiasm for it. I expect that will change once I have more stuff to actually work with, but until then it's a struggle.

Anna also suggested an amazing idea, that she would like to publish some of the stories she has written, as a series of children's books, and she needs an illustrator, and she asked if I'd be interested. Well, I would indeed! Especially if I could use 3D characters to do it. I think it could look really amazing!

This may never eventuate, but it's something that continues to bubble under in my brain, nevertheless.

And now another friend has asked me, once again, to re-design his characters for the superhero TV show, the one he's been almost starting to make for five or six years now. It's a complex tale he has wrought, one that requires an enormous budget and a raft of talented people, neither of which we currently have (we are a small, highly talented crew, of limited skill and no money).

And though making these character models doesn't take too much time, I'd feel better if this production had an end goal in sight. But it's something that's always been at the earliest stages, with the goalposts constantly shifting, and I don't think will ever get past step one.

And of course, there are my own projects, the most visible one being writing the Viking movie script. For the last fortnight I've been concentrating so much on all these other projects, I've not written a word on it. But I hope to get back onto that very soon, as I was thinking about it today, and made a plot decision that I need to write down. I expect that once I do that I'll probably go off on a burst of scriptwriting again.

So there's where I'm at. I'm happy doing Checkpoint and I'm happy doing the web site design paid work, and I am very happy writing. But what I really should learn to do is say "No" to things that clearly have no future or money in it.

Blurring The Motion

I use Lightwave for my 3D graphics. It's not a very popular program in the Professional Industry, unfortunately, except in certain branches. It's used a lot in commercials, children's animation, and previsualisation (which is rough animatics for movies, like 3D storyboarding). But it's rare for the movie industry to use it in their visual effects (instead they use apps like Maya or Softimage), or the video game industry to use it for their cut-scenes or in-game models (they use Maya and 3D Studio Max).

So what that means for Lightwave is that it's not developed at quite the level it needs to be to keep up with the Pro applications, and some of the features are less than perfectly optimised, and often the plug-ins are not updated from their first versions. It's quite a shame.

And also what it means for me as a 3D artist is I can't apply for Pro jobs if they're looking for people experienced in Maya. I am fine for a startup company with no preferences, though. Probably.

Anyhoo, I am putting together the backgrounds for the pickup shots for Checkpoint. Rather optimistically, and somewhat foolishly, I suggested we have shots of the characters interacting with the trains, running between them and planting a bomb. I figured that as I already had made the model, it wouldn't be too hard for me to adapt the shots to suit. I was fairly certain I had the skills, and the methodology.

Surprisingly I was right, and I did know how to do it. So far everything I've tried has worked wonderfully, sometimes incredibly well. It's almost seamlessly realistic, if I do say so myself.

But I have encountered a problem.

Render times for these scenes for just one frame, with HDR lighting and fresnel reflections switched on, is around 45 minutes per frame (two trains next to each other mean lots of back-and-forth reflections to calculate). That means a 150-frame sequence is several days worth of render time.

But then there's the motion blur. To get that looking as realistic as possible, each frame is rendered five times and then blended together into one. Five times! That makes four hours per frame! A month of render time, just for one sequence! And I have several sequences requiring this method.

If Lightwave was just that little bit more optimised and better built, it would have alternatives or better rendering speeds, I'm sure. But I'm stuck with its limitations. I had to find some kind of shortcut to solve my problem.

I tried a few new ways of applying textures to avoid some of the heaviest hits, like faking the reflections, or removing them altogether, but they weren't very successful at all.

However, as I was experimenting with a ridiculous idea that I thought would never work, I finally figured it out. If I first render the sequence without motion blur, then apply that sequence as a front-projected texture on the model, I can then render the motion blur on what has become a less complex scene, saving myself a ton of render time!

Front-projection is when you apply a texture from the point of view of the camera, as opposed to the X- Y- or Z-axis of the model (or the scene). That means you can create a 2D image, perhaps from photographs, and apply it to a 3D model, and then do a small amount of movement, and it will 3d-ify the photograph. In this case I will be reapplying an already rendered sequence back onto the same model, using the same motion, all matched frame-to-frame, so the blend will be seamless, only this time I'll be rendering the motion blur along with it. The end result is a much faster render, but the exact same result as if I had done it with every setting switched on.

I am a genius.

Spiced Ham

The internet should be exclusively an information and entertainment resource. Unfortunately, that's an unrealistic hope. Not only does it cost money for upkeep and maintenance, but there are too many opportunities for advertising to expect them not to be tapped. And now that the internet is starting to supersede magazines and newspapers, advertising needs to abandon them and swamp the Web.

But Spam, on the other hand, is nothing but useless irritating wastes of bandwidth. Every so often, as I am not averse to buying items online occasionally, I have clicked on a banner ad to see where it led, and even subsequently purchased something. But I have never received a spam email that contained a trustworthy word. Every one of them is not only a poorly spelled irritation, but they are selling dodgy, possibly illegal, crap, that nobody in their right mind could or should ever need, let alone purchase via such an intrusive and questionable method.

The perpetrators of Spam are solely responsible for ruining what could have been a fine and convenient way to purchase genuine and trustworthy products and services. Instead they have soiled themselves with the Viagra, cheap watches, diplomas, and other illegal and dangerous nonsense.

And who the hell is buying all this stuff that keeps them in business? How can they fall for this blatant and obvious lying, cheating, stealing criminals? And when are we going to find a way to stop it all so my email bandwidth can get some peace?

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

I have a problem, and it's starting to interfere with my life.

About six or seven years ago, I started to have this issue that mystified and annoyed me. I don't eat a lot of stuff, especially healthy stuff, but I adore chicken. But when I ate chicken, it started to feel like it was stuck in my throat. In fact, I thought that was actually what was happening and I'd have to wait some moments, or even minutes, for the feeling to subside.

But soon it started to happen more frequently, and yet almost exclusively with chicken. I eventually got so frustrated with this, that I went to the Doctor to see what's up, in case it was a sign of throat cancer or something. I had a Barium Swallow X-Ray, where I took a dose of this thick creamy substance that tastes like plaster of paris, and which shows up on the X-Ray, giving them a clear view of my throat in action.

They found nothing wrong.

Years pass, and my chicken intake has been reduced to about once a month, and I am still suffering this problem. I look the symptoms up online, but there has rarely been help. GERD, or Gastroesophogeal Reflux Disease, has the closest match, but it's not quite right either. GERD's symptoms include heartburn and indigestion, which I don't get, but I do get a feeling of something stuck in the throat, an inability to burp, and a gurgling in the throat. That's enough to convince me it's my problem.

Here's what I think has actually been happening. Something about chicken, possibly its dry nature if it's overcooked, or maybe even from a full fledged allergy, causes muscles in my throat to constrict. I think the chicken as the common factor has to be relevant. I don't have a problem with other meats, or indeed any other food item at all. It's only been with chicken.

Usually I have suffered this in private, and I just need to wait a while (sometimes seconds, sometimes minutes, and on many occasions it's been hours), or in extreme discomfort cases go to the bathroom and induce vomiting, to sort my throat out. But today, for the first time, I felt the discomfort in the presence of my mate Rob, and it was a trifle embarrassing, as well as just being inconvenient, to have to abandon my meal in front of him.

By the way, I think the vomiting just spasms or expands the throat back to its normal state, rather than expelling any obstruction. Though to be perfectly honest I haven't a clue what's going on.

I am most disappointed in my stupid digestive system rebelling on me this way.

Railroaded On The Information Super-Highway

The last internet plan I had with my last ISP before I moved was very nice, and suited me well. I probably abused it by using it to capacity, but if you've got it, then why not? It was 25GB download during peak times, and another 40GB download during off-peak times. On top of that, my uploading was not metered.

Since moving to my new place, I no longer have access to ADSL, so cannot remain on that plan. Instead I have to use Cable Internet. But not anybody's Cable (and there are only two companies that provide Cable in Australia) because Bigpond Cable uses an underground cable that is not available in my suburb, but only Optus Cable, which uses an overhead cable system, connected to the power lines throughout the area.

That means I am forced to use one of the Optus plans. I have no choice whatsoever to go with the competition, it's simply not available to me. The closest plan I have to match my previous one, cost-wise, is 20GB download (including metered uploads), considerably less than the 65GB I am used to having at my disposal.

This is absurd - if one company can offer such a high rate of download, why can't they all? Why aren't they being realistically competitive?

And here's the thing - though I was a high user, relatively, with the 65GB downloading each month, I am now just using the internet in a very low key way, and I'm already going over my daily limit (which adds up to around 600Mb a day) just by browsing around, watching a couple of YouTube videos, and not doing too much. Admittedly I am probably over indulging right now to make up for my lack of connectivity last month, but even so I don't think I'm behaving unrealistically for casual use.

I am just frustrated by this imposed limit that I cannot control as a consumer. It's considerably unfair that my choice of living arrangements would put me in such a limited position.

This whinge is brought to you by the Whiny Privileged Who Don't Appreciate How Good They Actually Have It Society.

The Madness Of Internet Connectivity

Though some parts of our day to day life are necessarily complex, some parts ought to be so much easier.

Here's the comedy of errors that has been my efforts to connect to the internet in April 2009.

Before I made the big move, I anticipated a few hiccups, but tried my best to be completely organised so that a minimum of things would go wrong, and if they did, I could cope with it within my limited means. So I organised my electricity, gas, phone, and internet to be switched over on the day I moved. Organising the internet ahead of time is a waste of effort, it seems, because they don't do anything about it until after the phone is fully connected anyway. I also arranged for the movers to arrive, and the steam cleaners to come in the next day for the final clean.

I was afraid it would all fall apart.

On the day of the move, the movers arrived on time, did their thing quickly and efficiently, and were all done in a few hours. Unfortunately it ended up costing more than I hoped due to traffic dragging out their hourly rate, so that sort of sucked, but never mind, they did their job.

The electricity and gas were on when I arrived and settled in, but the phone was dead.

The next day I went back to the old place for a final clean, and waited two hours for the steam cleaners. They never showed up. Damn them. Made my final clean look a bit shoddy, unfortunately. That's a count against me, I fear.

Back home, I familiarised myself with the new place. Apart from creaky floorboards, light switches in stupid places, and no knobs on the kitchen cupboard doors, it's a pretty decent place.

I then set my TV up, only to discover that the connector to the antenna was installed by some cowboy, as it dangles by a loose wire, and if you nudge the cable or switch the light or aircon on, it affects the TV reception, which, for a constant on-off thing like an aircon, is very irritating. I had to find a way to fix that up, somehow. After some experimentation, I swapped the coaxial cable to another, which, as far as I can tell, solved the issue. So it appears the old cable left here was worn and poorly shielded.

The phone, however, was still dead.

On the next day, after realising I had moved into the wrong bedroom, because that one was dark and cold, while the other one was sunny and bright, I spent the day shifting things from one to the other, but I also checked the phone line and, yes, it was still dead. Well, that's just going too far, and is completely unacceptable.

So the next day, after checking it one more time, I headed down to a public phone, a rare commodity these days, and asked the ISP what was up. They said it was, in fact, successfully connected the previous day (two days later than promised, but okay...) whereas I was sure the line was still dead. They asked me to return home and check all the connections with multiple cables and phones, just to make sure. I did go and do that, and came back to the public phone to tell them it was definitely all dead.

So they said they'd lodge a fault. Do I have an alternative phone number, in case I need to be contacted? Well, no I don't. I'm not working, so I can't use a work phone, I hate mobile phones and do not have one, and I had only just moved in and didn't know my neighbours yet. Well, they cannot lodge a fault without an alternative phone number.

Argh!

So the next day I go into the nearby shopping centre (which is pretty decent, luckily) and bought a pre-paid mobile phone. I set it up, and lodged a fault with my phone.

By now, this was Friday, so I didn't expect a technician to come out on the weekend. However, surprisingly, he turned up on Sunday. Though, naturally, he did not use the alternative phone number, and instead he just knocked on my door. I just *knew* that would happen.

There are three sockets in the house, and it appears the problem was that they were all previously connected to a different phone company, Optus, and that's why my Telstra connectivity wasn't coming through. So the technician had to switch that over. Then he discovered a technical fault at the points, and so fixed that up too. However, he could only switch over one of the sockets, the "point of entry", which instead of being in a logical place like the living room, was in one of the bedrooms. So my phone is hooked up in the bedroom that I use as my DVD library, instead of in somehwere socially logical like the living room.

I called the ISP, from a proper phone, to get my ADSL connected. But they said the fault is still marked as being open, so I should call the next morning.

Fine.

I call the next morning. It's now an entire week after moving in. The ISP closes the fault, and checks my line for ADSL suitability.

And it's not suitable for ADSL.

What?

I live too far from the Exchange, and cannot get ADSL.

WHAT??

Do I have Telstra cable? Nope. My only option, then, is Wireless Internet. Which costs three times too much for an unreliable connection and a crappy and pathetic download limit. Well, bugger that for a game of soldiers.

So that was that. I can't get ADSL. I have to abandon my ISP, who had the coolest plans I could ever hope for, all because I moved to a home that was too far from the Exchange. But what does "too far from the Exchange" mean, exactly?

Imagine, if you will, a circle representing the limits of the Heidelberg Exchange. The Exchange building itself is near the southern border of that circle, whereas my new place is on the northernmost tip of the circle. Quite literally on the borders, as one block north they're on a different Exchange. That puts me around 5km away, which is too far for ADSL to work. Instead of the building being central and within reach of all, it is completely lopsided and only within reach of a few lucky souls.

The next Exchange over, the Greensborough Exchange, is a lot closer to me, and well within reach, but it technically doesn't service my area. Can I connect with that one? They tested the line to check, but apparently I cannot - the ports are all full, and really I'd be buggering about with their system too much anyway.

Fuck their stupid system.

I need ADSL. It is my life. It is my work. It has already driven me a bit nuts to go this long without it. It's amazing to me how much I rely on it, and how many times a day I think "Oh, I'll just check this online" and frustratingly realise I can't do it.

So I considered all my options. And then realised that there may have been a good reason why the last tenant used Optus for their phoneline. There is a cable that stretches from the building to the street, not a Telstra cable (they go underground) but an overhead one. Perhaps Optus can help me out.

I check out a brochure, but there's no mention of Optus still using cable for internet so I'm not certain if it's even possible. So I call them up, and they say it's fine (hurrah!), they can do cable internet. The plan I'll be on will be considerably less than what I was used to, but it's still decent-ish, has ADSL speeds (theoretically), and is a permanent online presence, so I sign up. At last.

And then, not twenty minutes after hanging up the phone with Optus, a Telstra sales guy turns up at my door, who is surprised to learn that ADSL isn't possible where I live. After all, he was assigned this route to sign people up to ADSL, and if it's not possible why even bother with the job at all?

He tells me that he will get back to me on the truth of the matter. I have my doubts that this guy will have any better luck than me, because I talked to a pretty specific subsection of Telstra, the guys who truly know what's what, and they said it wasn't possible.

The next day he calls me back to say "Certainly it's possible." I express my doubts again, but his supervisor assures him, and he assures me, that it is possible.

He turns up with forms to sign, and during the "I agree to the terms and conditions" part I have to do over the phone, the support person on the other end tells me that my line is flagged as incapable of getting ADSL. I tell her that I know that, but their representative has constantly assured me that it's possible. She says he's wrong, but goes through with the rigmarole anyway. (Later it turns out to be confirmed as an impossibility, so I cancelled everything before they began work on it, I haven't lost anything but my time, and a little bit of hope).

After that was signed and sealed, I got a text message on my mobile (that I hate and will not be keeping beyond its pre-paidedness) informing me that my Optus cable tech will be here on the 27th of April. Three entire weeks from then, and a whole month after my moving date.

Three weeks?? But it's supposed to be ten working days!!!!

Oh, that doesn't count weekends, of course, that's an extra 6 days onto the 10 day promise. And then there's the Easter holiday break, an extra 5 days, which ends up as... the 27th.

In the meantime, I am going slightly mad, and am struggling with finding ways to occupy my time. Stupidly, I have become so reliant on the Internet to entertain me in various ways, I can't remember how to do other things anymore.

I have written a lot on my newest screenplay, and have rewatched a lot of DVDs and torrents, and of course have tried to set up everything at my new place, but that is a lot less fun than even it sounds, and it's making me go a little bit potty.

Why can't things be simple? What ever happened to the idea of plugging things in, and they work first time?

I want my internet.

Days pass...

It occurred to me that if it was possible to swap my phone to another exchange, then maybe iiNet can do that for me, and I can then remain with them and use their super-duper plans as I am accustomed.

So I call them up, and as luck would have it I stumble upon the best Tech Support guy in the entire universe, because not only is he helpful and friendly, but he has all the answers: He knows all the techy stuff; all the secrets; and has the raw facts of my situation. I grill him for details.

The sad truth of the matter is I cannot get ADSL on my line at all. Not only am I too far from the Exchange, but the cables within my new residence are lowest quality. If they were a couple of steps up, then the distance would be counteracted and I could have ADSL. Not top speed, but better than nothing at all.

I asked if I could swap to another Exchange, as I know that the Greensborough Exchange is considerably nearer. But apparently I am right in the exact zone where I am out of reach of every Exchange in my area. If I was three blocks west, then I'd have more chance. If I was two blocks north, I'd be in the Greensborough range.

Almost everything about my new place is wonderful, the community most of all, but damn it, the lack of internet just sucks.

Today, after a bit of cable madness, my internet came back online. It is much less than anything I have had with my previous ISP, but I have no choice. It's all I can have.

Roll on the Fibre To The Home project, that's all I can say.

From Here To There

The other day I called my new Estate Agent for the new place I'm moving to, and checked to make sure everything was on track for moving in on Monday.

And she said "Oh. No, I don't think the current tenants have moved out yet, and won't until Tuesday! Hmm. I'll call them and check."

Argh!

Luckily she called back a couple of hours later to say all was fine, they are moving out over the weekend, and I can continue my plans as normal.

Tomorrow is officially my last full day in my current apartment, and I move to my new place on Monday. I am 75% packed, I just have to pack up the larger items that I have still been using each day, like my TV and computers and the bed. Once they're packed, I'm pretty much done.

It's been a bit of a stressful situation really; nobody likes moving house. But I must say I'm looking forward to a new environment, a nicer home, away from noisy neighbours and apartment living, into a cottage with some privacy and independence.

Last time I had to move, it was from Sydney to Melbourne, and most of it was organised by my Boss, as it was a work-motivated move. This time it's all down to me, and I am a little nervous that I have missed something, and it will all fall apart. But I think I've got things sorted.

I just hope I haven't forgotten something.

A Gut Feeling

Around 15 years ago, when coming home from a visit with my sister, I suffered unexpected and persistent acute pain in my gut. My Mum, who was driving me at the time, saw me writhing in pain, asked me if I wanted to go to the A&E, and I said "Yes." She told me afterwards that my saying that, from a guy who was normally reluctant to visit even a Doctor, meant this was serious.

The diagnosis was not very successful. The X-Ray didn't tell the Doctor anything, and further tests left them confused. I was kept overnight, though the pain had long subsided, and a couple of experts were called in, but they didn't know what was wrong, so I was sent home.

About three weeks later it happened again. I went to A&E in an ambulance, and if I had been seen by the Doc on duty straight away, while still in pain, I would've been rushed into surgery and my gallbladder removed, as that was what it was - he recognised it as gallstones immediately. That would've been free surgery, as it was an emergency.

But that was not to be. Because a serious and tragic car accident had happened that same night (interestingly enough, to a family I knew from my school days) and had occupied the emergency services exclusively during that time, the diagnosis wasn't made until late the next morning, and by then the pain had subsided, and therefore was no longer considered an emergency.

Gallstones, though extremely uncomfortable, are not usually considered a life risk. Gallstones form in the gallbladder, and are made up of calcified cholesterol. When the gallbladder injects bile into the stomach to help break down fats, the stones sometimes get caught in the ducts, causing intense aching pain as the stone makes it way through the tube.

There is no cure. You're either genetically inclined to create these stones or you're not. There is surgery, where the gallbladder is removed, but that's not a cure, that's removing the problem area entirely, a different concept altogether. Surgery is safe enough, the gallbladder is not an essential bit of your innards, but it can mean that any fatty or cholesterol-laden thing you eat afterwards can do some amount of jiggery pokery to your gut.

Also you can reduce the likelihood of occurrence by changing your diet, by reducing your fat intake, or combining foods that assist in bile's job of breaking down fats, but even that isn't a guarantee, and eventually it will likely happen again.

This morning, after some seven or eight years since my last, I had another gallstone attack. It lasted around two hours, as they normally seem to do, and there was no alleviation of the pain during it. Knowing what it is and that relief is inevitable helps lower the stress, but it's still no fun rolling around in literally gut-wrenching agony.

There is no way to stop the pain, either. Normally, with other kinds of damage to your body, there are ways you can sit or contort your body parts where the pain is lessened somewhat, a case of "If it hurts when I do that, then I don't do that." But not so with gallstones (and probably similarly with kidney stones). When the pain starts, you just have to ride it to the end - there's no way to alleviate the pain, not even with painkillers. Suffering is your only option.

Gallstones, therefore, are not recommended.

Checkpoint: Operation Big Ba Da Boom

This weekend was supposed to be when I was shooting my first short film. But it was not to be, I cancelled the shoot when it all fell apart before my very eyes. As I have mentioned before, I have few regrets, and it is possible I'll revisit it later in the year.

But as the camera and dolly tracks were already booked, Rob thought he might take advantage of the opportunity of a weekend where a team were available to assist. We had gotten a review of the edit of Checkpoint so far, and there was one suggestion that it was a shame there wasn't a single cutaway shot of one of the other British Soldiers. At the time of the original shoot, no other British soldier was in the cast, so it wouldn't have happened even if we'd deemed it necessary. But it is glaring in its absence, in the current cut.

Well, a single shot isn't enough for a big hassle - we probably could've done that with a simpler camera and a quick dash outside with a mate in a tin hat. But Rob and I detected another feeling of absence in the film, which is the whole back-story of the mission our main Brit character was on.

Originally we were going to gloss over it entirely, and then meet the Soldier properly later in the film where he describes that it all went wrong. The problem is, we didn't really show what their mission even was - it was implied, but only in a single shot that gave away very little. We as creators knew it all, but an audience coming in cold would not be satisfied by this. It needed just a few additional details to fill in the blanks.

So we sat down and went over a few things that we both wanted to see. I wanted them to run amongst the trains. Rob wanted them to attack a couple of German soldiers. We also wanted to build up the similarities between the British soldier, Finn, and the Germans at the Checkpoint, Kleine and Weiss.

We have recently learned a lot about what we were capable of with greenscreen keying and motion tracking, and my 3D rendering is getting to be quite realistic. We set ourselves a few really fun challenges with these shots, including following the soldiers along as they dash between the trains, soldiers marching up to the C-47 plane and climbing in, a brief burst of gunfire as the Germans discover them, and an overhead shot of Finn sneaking up behind and disposing of a Guard.

Every one of the shots we did, and there were at least 30 of them, will have some kind of greenscreen keying and background elements added. Many of the backgrounds will be digital mattes, pieced together from photographs, and many will be 3D graphics, especially the shots with the planes and trains in them.

We have basically put another six months of work on our plates. Though I have made the train and plane already, they don't stand up to extremely close scrutiny, so some parts of the trains will need to be rebuilt in higher resolution. And there are new things to make, such as a suitable period car and a German army truck that drives up a road.

Wow, it's not going to be easy!

But then, that's what makes it fun to do.

In The Mood To Write

I am sure this is a human trait, and is common amongst most of us, but sometimes I get all "creative'd out".

I generally spend a lot of my free time pursuing some kind of creative or artistic endeavour, be it reading (email, articles, novels), drawing (sketching, website art, 3D graphics, storyboards), writing (emails, scripts, ideas), or something movie related (compositing, visual effects, animation, editing). And sometimes after spending a few hours, or concentrating a few days in a row, on one specific kind of creative idea, I find it hard to shift focus onto a new creative idea.

So, for example, I might be working so much on a sequence of greenscreen keying for the short film First Floor that by the time that's over, the thought of returning to the screenplay I was working on is less appealing than it might have been, because I have spent so much of my mental energies on creative thinking and artistic imagery already. And even though the disciplines of compositing and writing are very different walks of life, they still crossover enough to interfere with my mental exhaustion.

Thus I have not been in a writing mood for so long that I haven't touched the first draft of my Viking screenplay in about three weeks, which I am most disappointed in myself over. I can make excuses (I've been packing, planning the move, and working on other creative ideas) but really I should've found a couple of hours each day to devote to writing. It's not like I have a lot of big decisions to make for the first draft, most of them are sorted out and I'm just fleshing them out and connecting them together to see what develops, so I really shouldn't be using the "creative'd out" excuse.

But there you go, I am using it anyway.

What I've also noticed is I haven't read a book in about three months. I don't know what's up with that, but my normal reading time, which is when I head to bed, has been without any notion of grabbing a book ever since the heatwave fried my brain. Most unusual. But then, I haven't got a compelling new book to read anyway; all the books I've bought recently have been quite uninspiring.

So, no writing, no reading. It feels like there's an empty spot in me that I ought to be filling, but even after writing all this blog post I'm not that enthused to continue writing or reading anytime soon.

Checkpoint: Pickup Shots

After feeling the need to abandon my short film, and reschedule it for much later in the year when I regain my confidence, the production stops going off the rails, and the weather is less of an unpredictable bastard, it freed up the weekend I had originally planned for the shoot. So my mate Rob leapt on the day and the previously booked video camera to use it for pickup shots for his film, Checkpoint.

One of the reasons I was happy to leave my film was because I am singularly unsuited to organising things. I have always been this way, I am a complete fuck up when it comes to being in charge and making sure things get done. I tend to feel much more comfortable when other people are dealing with that stuff. Decision making, contributing creative ideas, and post production work is a doddle and I love it, but phoning people, and ordering stuff, and scheduling workdays, and getting a crew together and on my side - forget about it.

And I don't mind admitting it, either. Rob mentioned today that he did wonder if I would feel bad about the fact that he had organised an entire new shoot and all the pickup shots, using my shoot weekend, all figured out and actioned within a week, while I embarrassingly struggled with my own shoot after six entire months. But in fact I don't care about that at all, it reaffirms my suspicions of where my limitations lie, and I'm happy to see someone who actually has an affinity and an energy for it do all the hard work, while all I have to do is agree a lot and draw a few sketches.

The main reason why most of my life I have created half-begun projects that never get completed is because I only do the bits I like; I tend to abandon them just before the parts of a production I don't like to do happen. I'd feel a lot more comfortable if someone else was in charge of those parts, so all I had to do is write it, tell the crew where to point the camera, and tell the actors how to say the words properly. That would be bliss!

I have intimated a few times that I'd rather be a co-director, or even just a creative consultant, than be in charge of a full-blown production, even when it's my own film, and I think this proves it. I am best placed in that role, and the sooner I find myself there, the better I'll feel.

Horizon: Fail

Ugh.

Wherever I Lay My Hat

I have been asked to leave my current apartment. Not through any fault of my own, but because the owner wants his son, who is moving to Melbourne, to live here instead of me. Not the greatest piece of news I could have gotten.

So since that bombshell, I've been looking for somewhere new to live. Two problems with this - one is that the time limit is stressful. Two months sounds like plenty, until you realise that the standard practice is to wait for inspection days, send in an application, then wait for a response, and if you are not successful, you have to then do it all again. If you do many simultaneously, you risk getting four approvals, or four denials, or any number of other obstacles you have to negotiate.

The other problem is that I am currently unemployed. I would much rather have moved in a more secure and trustworthy financial situation than I have found myself in, indeed that was my very plan. But no, forced to move when I'm not ready means you have to take me as I am, and that does not put me at the top of anybody's approval pile.

The answer is to hope, to be charming, and to project an air of confidence and trust. I absolutely have enough funds to handle at least six to twelve months of rent, even if I didn't get a job in between. But I am anticipating getting a job in between, that was the point of this time off - to re-skill myself - so it shouldn't get that bad.

I had no expectation, at this short notice, of getting an ideal place. Compromise is the name of the game in a situation like this. I had a few possible wants that I hoped for, though, including a private area like a balcony or yard, and hopefully separation from neighbours so I don't have to share a wall with household noise anymore. I wanted to stay living in my current suburb, as it's really nice and I love it here, but it became clear very quickly that the rent would be too high to get that, especially with my other desires, so I ranged my search out a little further.

Well, I have just learned today that I have been successful in finding a new place to live. And it's perfect.

It's in a beautiful quiet suburb.
It's close to shops and transport.
It's a separate cottage.
The living area and kitchen are both bigger.
It has a separate laundry.
It has a private back yard.
The shower and bath are separate.
It's got a second bedroom, which I can use for storage/ my DVD library.

I could not ask for somewhere any more ideal. Everything I wanted, and more. It's a dream!

I hope living there is as good as it first appears.

Now I just have to pack and relocate.

Cryptic: Too Many Characters

As I begin my first draft of my new screenplay, I have come across an unexpected development that is really quite a thorny problem.

I have a treatment, which is a five page outline of the complete story, and it works reasonably well as a simple breakdown. Undoubtedly, as the writing develops, and new drafts are written, changes will occur, some major, some minor. For the first draft, however, all I need to do is follow the treatment as written, because if I start to bugger about with it now, and make big changes, it will threaten to divert from my intended path and come to a different conclusion, which will potentially confuse me, and possibly derail the whole film.

But as I wrote the first sequence, I included a character, a person for one of the leads to talk to as he enters the story, someone who wasn't in my (very loosely written) treatment. And the problem is I really like this guy. I have managed to write him as a really interesting character, who I can see would be fun to bring along on the adventure.

This is an issue I find surprising. I don't usually look at my writing as anything other than a way to tell a story. I can't look at it objectively, I tend to know what I'm good at, or feel comfortable at doing, and what level I am capable of achieving. It's weird for me to look at the writing and realise I've just created something really good, beyond what I had planned. He originated through necessity, but by giving him a particular personality, and placing him against the main character in just the right hierarchy, it made him much more fun than I had expected.

So I'm torn. Do I follow the treatment and abandon this new character after page ten, like I'm supposed to? Or do I take risks, and bring this character along on the journey, introducing new dynamics that I haven't accounted for in my original plot?

After some wrestling with the issue, I have decided I will follow the treatment. But as things develop, I will keep an eye out for an opportunity, take note of it, and I may weave the character in during the next draft.

Cryptic: The Screenplay

Having completed one feature length screenplay to my satisfaction and enjoying the act of writing it very much, I have begun a new script, starting today, in the hope that I might do it more often, and also the hope that it wasn't a one-off fluke.

It's called Cryptic, and it is an adventure movie, with traps and puzzles and chases and good guys and bad guys and epic locations and exotic lands and ancient cultures.

So far I have completed the synopsis. This is so I have some structure to follow as I write, and so I don't forget anything as I go. It's a remarkably useful aspect to writing, as it's easier to keep in mind where it's going, and therefore whenever I get stuck I am armed with information on how things need to go, which is where I need to get the ideas that fill in the blanks.

My biggest strengths in writing are dialogue, and filling in the gaps between major scenes. I'm really good at keeping the story moving along. And that's key to making a good movie - you don't want people sitting around talking about nothing, each scene needs to move along. This can be as simple as travelling to a new location, or as complicated as explaining exposition in a creative way so it doesn't sound artificial (really difficult).

I don't like films that are not paced in this way. Writers who tend to be all about character, and ignore any semblance of plot, are the worst. This is why I don't like Kevin Smith. His films have about five minutes of plot, and two hours of irritating socially inadequate nerds ranting about Star Wars. Horrible crappy nonsense, and yet unfeasibly popular amongst geeks who seem to tolerate anything that has mention of Star Wars in it.

Anyway, what this means is a genre like adventure movies, which are all about going from place to place, exciting action sequences one after the other, and a lot about characters who are willing to take risks and leap into dangers, should be within my capabilities.

But there is a problem. This is a genre that is becoming increasingly more common, and therefore is often done badly. This in itself makes it a challenge, and I don't pretend I have the magic for this kind of film. I'm not as confident with this genre as I am with mediaeval fantasy. Though I've seen a lot of adventure movies, the idea is to switch off and enjoy the ride, which I do, and therefore they aren't something I've thought about much past the superficial. This may mean either that I completely miss the nuances that go towards making it a good example of the genre, and so will make a very superficial script, or it may mean that, as I haven't over-analysed things, I won't get too bogged down in details that don't really matter, and should create something relatively fresh.

One thing I have decided is to have no supernatural elements in the story. I think that's part of what makes the idea unique, so I shall stick with it to the end. But it is easy to see how that might be a good way to spice it up. The biggest of these epics these days tend to have huge armies of CGI warriors erupting out of the sand, which makes for exciting spectacle, but you risk losing your connection with the characters. It's a fine balancing act that you have to keep in order to make a movie fun, within budget, but also fresh and new. The National Treasure movies are great and don't have masses of CGI armies. The Librarian movies are low budget but try to squeeze in supernatural elements at every stage of the story. The Mummy movies are all about dazzling imagery, but not so great at a coherent story. And the Indiana Jones movies are strong on every level, unless George Lucas starts listening to his kids for inspiration, in which case they rapidly turn to crap.

I learned so much when writing my last (first) screenplay, there's a good chance this one will be written faster, because I will avoid a lot of the first-timer mistakes. But having said that, I can't be complacent. Check and double check. Improve at every draft. Don't finish until I'm completely satisfied it's the best it can be.

The first one may have been a fluke. Perhaps I'm not cut out for screenwriting. If so, this will be the real test for me. Can I push myself to write something as good as, or better than, my first? And can I make it a good example of the genre?

Should be fun to find out.

Horizon: The Future

I started this short film because I saw others around me making their films, and it looked like a fun creative exercise. I had been afraid to take this step in the past because I'm so bad at making decisions, organising things, and being in charge, so I came up with a story idea that would hopefully have minimal organisation and be a relatively simple production.

Well, for a start, that idea didn't exactly work out the way I intended.

And now the film is in a bit of a crisis state, and it's not a very nice feeling to have things slip out of my tenuous control.

The main location for the film, that we agreed on months ago and had permission to use, was suddenly yanked from under our feet when they found out it was going to be on a weekend, when they have minimal staff on. Only weeks before shooting was meant to start, they told us "No".

I am being evicted from my apartment, right smack dab in the middle, of my pre-production, of a global economic crisis, and of an apartment rental shortage.

The main prop being built, the jet fighter cockpit, has gotten off to a late start, and though there were lots of promises that it would be completed on schedule, I had my doubts, so ideally it needed extra time.

Therefore, to deal with all of those issues, we have postponed the shooting dates. The originals of 21st and 22nd of February have been moved to the 21st and 22nd of March.

Though I came away from this meeting feeling a little bit more enthusiastic than when I went in, I'm still not very confident about the whole thing. This isn't my element, I feel out of place and I hate the lack of control I have. And this is probably how it goes for all productions. While some people deal with those situations better than others, I am not one of those.

So I think this will be the only film that I make all on my own. In the future I will happily work alongside others on their films, pre- and post-prod, but as for being the top dog for an entire production, I don't see it happening again.

Heatwave

We just had the hottest and longest heatwave in Melbourne's recorded history, with three days of over 43°C temperatures, and overnight lows of over 27°C.

It sucked.

I couldn't really concentrate on anything for any length of time, I couldn't sit still, I was sweating and overheating. Because my apartment doesn't have air conditioning, all I had were my electric fans, but they just pushed hot air around so didn't do that much. So because my head was completely full of cotton wool for the whole week, I just spent it doing nothing much beyond finding new ways to cool myself down.

So it's a bit crap that I have to find a new place to live, that I was told we've been denied permission to use the main location we'd sourced for my short film, and that I wanted to write a treatment for a new script, but couldn't sit down long enough to concentrate.

Big stupid waste of a week.

What Will I Write Next?

Ever since I started writing my first screenplay, which I have since completed to my satisfaction, and enjoyed thoroughly while doing so, I have had a rather unexpected onslaught of ideas for other scripts.

Normally I am not much of an ideas kind of person, I'm better at assembling other people's ideas into a good story, especially with my knack for dialogue and for keeping the plot moving along, than coming up with the ideas myself.

But lately I've formulated several plot concepts, and am now inspired enough to choose the one I should write next.

I won't list the ideas here, for fear of someone stealing them, but I will say they include:

• An adventure story in the vein of Indiana Jones or National Treasure.
• An action story full of car chases and explosions.
• A comedy road movie.
• A thriller about an escaped wild animal menacing a small town.
• An espionage adventure set in the past.

After some thought, I think I've decided which one to do, but I may change my mind before I get properly started, depending on how well the ideas flow. I have the Maguffin already, which is to say what drives the plot, now I just need the motivation behind the characters, and that can be an effort. So I'll establish the different personalities, and a few of the moments of interaction that might occur, and see what develops.

I have some amount of faith in my abilities, so I think it will all work out. I hope so, anyway, because figuring things out leads to the actual writing, and that's the part that makes it all fun.

Well, This Sucks

I got a letter through Registered Post today. It's rarely good news when you get one of those. And it wasn't good news this time.

I have been evicted from my apartment!

Argh!

It isn't because I did anything wrong. It's because the owners' son is moving to Melbourne to work, so they want him to live here.

Admittedly I was getting a little bit anxious about living here. It's starting to feel a little small, and the lack of private outdoor space is something that disappoints me a lot. And the new downstairs neighbours are a bit of a noise issue that I will be happy to be rid of. So the forced move is sort of nearly a good thing. Almost.

But there are many bad things too. The Housing situation in Melbourne is really crappy, especially for rental properties; they're in demand. My rent is currently pretty decently low, but an upgrade will increase it significantly. And of course, I am still unemployed, so I have no income to deal with the extra rent and the moving costs.

I have until mid-March to vacate, and my current Real Estate agency looking after this place will help me find a new one, so it's not too overwhelming. It's just that packing and relocating sucks.

Bloody Hell, It's Hot Out There

I was going to wander down to the shops today. To a shopping centre I'd not visited before. I wanted to buy something before the weekend that's only available in one shop in town, and that's where it's located.

Rather unexpectedly, because yesterday did not suggest this might occur, today was really seriously hot. It hit 36°C today, which isn't exactly pleasant to have to suffer through, especially for a long trek through the streets. So I stayed in.

I rescheduled for tomorrow.

Only, now it turns out it's going to be 40°C tomorrow.

Bugger.

Heat in itself isn't often a big problem. My home gets a lot of sun, but as I'm on the middle floor it's usually indirectly, and because I'm in a U-shaped block, I only get it on two sides and most of the time the walls are in shadow.

But the bricks heat up on a very hot day, while the indoors stay cool. Until the second day of heat, when the indoors start to warm up considerably. Then if it cools down outdoors on the third day, it will stay warm indoors, but not too badly, and will cool down quite pleasantly.

However, if there's a third day of heat, then the indoors gets even hotter, and remains so for several insufferable days no matter what happens outside.

That's summer in Melbourne.

Snail's Pace Start To The Year

Even though a year is something of an artificial construct, and even though I am not employed nor have any kind of personal commitments, there's something about the slowdown at the end of a year, that causes an equal amount of slow build up back to speed at the start of a new year.

I have many things to complete sometime in the next few weeks, and yet I feel like I'm not making any progress.

Checkpoint effects are still rendering. It's taken aaaaaages to render the 150 frames, it's been three weeks and still a few days yet to go.

Horizon is beginning to kick in, as new decisions are being made, and some events are being scheduled. Cast, shooting schedule, shot list, wardrobe, camera, all making progress. The rest, things like the cockpit, locations, catering, and the actual shooting of it all, are still to be figured out. Money spent so far - nothing, it's still all only potentially spent.

Pegasus Rampant, my screenplay, has gone through a couple of superficial improvements, like brushing up on descriptive text, and adjustments to dialogue to re-emphasise different character and plot points. And I have gotten some more feedback on it, which has helped me look at some of the things I have done in it in a new light. I've just sent it off to a relative of a friend, who is apparently experienced in the world of entertainment, so may have some special insight. If nothing else it's a new set of independent eyes to give it a once-over.

Money, also known as employment. I am reaching a point where my abundance of spending cash is not as big as it once was, and it's starting to almost reach a point where it's going to be a worrisome and stressful factor that will need addressing. Basically, I may have to get a job soon. Typically this coincides with a global economic crisis that is causing a downturn in employment numbers. Bugger. As well as the fact that I like my life as it currently is, where I have the freedom to live as I wish and do what I like at my own pace, something which, as soon as you get a job, is robbed from you. It sucks I will have to one day say goodbye to this. If only money fell on me from out of the sky - but I can't hope for that kind of nonsense, it won't get me anywhere. So needs must.

All other things. There's lots of stuff going round in my head, that could be fun to do in potentia but I don't know if or how I should begin it all. I ought to finish all of the above first.

It sounds like a lot of things, when I list them out like this, but they are each going at a very stately pace, and some aren't moving much at all. It's an illusion. And I still feel kind of in a daze and lack motivation.

Frankly, I need a kick up the bum to get me enthusiastic again.

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Has Been Chosen

The New Doctor Who for 2010 onwards has been cast, and Matt Smith is his name.

And as 99.99% of the world will say at this news: "Who?" Well, it turns out I have seen his work, he was in the adaptations of Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart books (Ruby In The Smoke, Shadow In The North) on the BBC, and he played a very likeable character in them.

It's easy to cast judgement on him, he's very young, the youngest ever to be cast as the Doctor, and has a bit of a youthful tearaway look in most photos. But in his acting roles he plays all sorts of different characters, so will be able to carry the dramatic mantle quite competently.

We have about three or four special hour-long episodes of David Tennant's Doctor yet to come, and the regeneration won't be happening until early 2010, more than a year away, so no need to get too excitable yet. But I am curious, and hope that the complete changing of the guard (actor, writers, producers, showrunner, etc) won't fuck the whole thing up somehow.

Things What I Have Liked In 2008

I have seen many movies and TV shows this year, many of which I have greatly enjoyed. Some I have not enjoyed, and most are somewhere in the middle.

I have also done some cool personal things which are of note.

Here are my lists of those things for 2008.

Firstly the movies.

These are the ones I liked, the ones I thought were acceptable, and the ones I haven't yet seen but certainly plan to, with the expectation that they'll be fun. I have not listed the bad movies, because I tend to weed them out before I watch them. I have a pretty good radar for that sort of thing.

COOL MOVIES:
The Dark Knight
Wall-E
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Prince Caspian
Kung Fu Panda
The Incredible Hulk
Get Smart
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

AVERAGE MOVIES:
Iron Man
Horton Hears A Who
Nim's Island
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Wanted
Hancock

NOT YET SEEN MOVIES:
Valkyrie
The Tale of Despereaux
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Transporter 3
Bolt
Quantum Of Solace
City Of Ember
Igor
Death Race
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Speed Racer
The Forbidden Kingdom

+++

Next are the TV Shows.

As well as the shows that debuted this year, I have also watched a whole bunch of shows from previous years that I missed at that time, having discovered the magic of downloading them, while also experiencing the crap of premature cancellation of some great stuff. And of course, seeing more of my favourites.

COOL TV SHOWS:
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Chuck
Reaper
Pushing Daisies
The Mentalist
Burn Notice
Eureka
Kyle XY
Lark Rise To Candleford
Merlin
My Own Worst Enemy

AVERAGE TV SHOWS:
Eleventh Hour
Crusoe
Torchwood

OLDER TV SHOWS I LOVE:
NCIS
Monk
Numb3rs
Doctor Who
Battlestar Galactica
Heroes
Lost
Mythbusters
Time Team

+++

And then there's my personal stuff.

I've done some things this year that are new and I've not done before, and some other things that I have done before but were the best ever so far.

COOL STUFF I DID:
Started a blog
Rob's WWII short film: Checkpoint
Began my short film: Horizon
Wrote my first feature length screenplay: Pegasus Rampant
Visual Effects for Dags's short film: Reality Check

3D MODELLING ACHIEVEMENTS:
Railway Locomotive
Jet Fighter Plane
Dragon
Judge Dredd and his Lawmaster Bike
PigeonMan's Car
French Cafe Exterior
French Cafe Interior
DC3 Plane
Space Shuttle

+++

Gee. When you list it all out like that, it seems like a hell of a lot!

Pegasus Rampant - The Third Draft

About six weeks ago, I started receiving reviews of my first feature length screenplay, Pegasus Rampant. They had lots to say, a lot of it good, but also a lot of it critical.

But the good kind of criticism, the kind that was helpful. Pointing out the weak spots, the technical mistakes, and what to concentrate on in the next draft.

Well, the next draft has been completed. It meant going through it carefully and tightening up the dialogue, to eliminate repetition and extraneous words, and to make the pace speed up considerably. It surprised me how much of it was long and unwieldy and could be reduced to sometimes only a third as long.

One particular character was not intended to have a very strong arc to his story, but they drew my attention to how important it was for him in paticular to have one, so I added that in. It didn't take much to do it, and it really did make the story better and the relationships between the characters more realistic.

The fight and battle scenes needed to be expanded on. Just saying "they fight" and letting the stunt arranger fill in the blanks is not acceptable in a spec script, so I had no choice but to put in the additional detail that they needed. They're possibly still a little too thin, but they are good enough to show the main beats of the fight, and they add some character motivation too, so that's good. And another thing it did, unexpectedly, was let me add in an extra plot point that wasn't there originally, and which adds an interesting texture to the whole story and the world it's set in.

There was a lot more I did to fix it up too, but they were subtle things like changing a single word in the dialogue or description to help emphasise some character beats or add visual imagery to the scene.

There is still room for improvement. I recently bought a book about scriptwriting, and reading it will give me new insight into how characters can and should behave in a story to make it zing, so I will read through that and hopefully it will inspire me, perhaps to formulate character moments, and give it some energy where it needs it.

But the plot is just where I want it. I don't anticipate much of that changing in any further drafts. Most of my emphasis will be on strengthening the dialogue and characters.

One day I will figure all this story writing business out, and approach it already knowing what I'm doing. Who knows, I may even sell one some day.

Pegasus Rampant - The Characters

Because I am writing a movie screenplay, I can't help but think of it as though it was a movie playing out in my mind. This means a fairly clear image of the characters should be in my head.

Unfortunately, finding the right words to describe the characters so that, when others read it, they see them in their head the same way, is not a skill I particularly excel at. I can certainly write their behaviour very clearly, as the story plays out, and I do write a simple physical description upon their introduction, with additions as and when new plot situations require it. But they aren't really very vivid.

For example, one of the main characters in Pegasus Rampant is Wren, who I describe thus:

A young woman, dressed in light leather armour. Lean and strong, her hair is dirty and cut short, though under the rough appearance she is boyishly attractive.

Well, that's broad enough to give an idea of who she is, but I don't specify too many details. Casting would already be limited enough to find an actor who fits the absolute requirements, no need to specify the negotiable ones.

Is that enough of a description for you to imagine what she might look like? When I go on to describe her as a Mercenary, in this Mediaeval era film, does that add to the image?

I am a visual person, an artist, and when I think of characters I like to firm them in my mind with a sketch. But my drawing skills are rudimentary, and lately under-practised, so my attempts to sketch an image of Wren have not been very successful so far.

I am consistently disappointed by the way most Fantasy artists portray female warriors. They always have them in impractical clothing, sometimes only bikinis, with exposed flesh everywhere! No armour to speak of, no sense that they're trying to protect against a weapon. That's just absurd!

I don't mind a little bit of exposed skin, but that should be for showing off muscle tone and scars, and maybe a tribal tattoo. They shouldn't be looking like beauty contest finalists parading on a catwalk!

So when I draw my warriors, I try to give them more realistic layers of armour, chainmail, leather jerkins, bracers, boots, etc. They have to be something you can walk around in, be flexible enough to fight in, be comfortable in all weather conditions, and protect you against weapons. Not expose you to the cold, be too heavy to stand up in, or let you be vulnerable to blades!

The other day I was in a Video Rental store, wandering around, and I saw a cover of a DVD that I really liked. The movie isn't anything to write home about, though. I looked at the image of the kick-boxing woman and thought "that's a great image with the perfect pose and build for Wren. If only she wasn't wearing those modern clothes..."

I looked up the image when I got home, and thought about drawing over the top of her to give her a Wren-like look, but soon realised I could do better than that - I could source each individual element of her clothing and distort and recolour them to fit the figure, creating a more photorealistic kind of conceptual art.

After a few hours work (I was up until 2am tweaking it) I came away from it pleased with the result. It's not perfect, but for a quick collage of disparate elements it's pretty good, and a close representation of the character's appearance.

The adjustments I would make, looking at it now, are things like perhaps a slightly prettier face, and a happier expression (I was trapped by the fact that the original image was of someone recently beaten up in a kickboxing fight) and a few more period-ish items of clothing, such as lacings for the jerkin, or some studs on the chain-mail. But that's just being picky.

I am often surprised with what I'm capable of doing when I put my mind to it. Things that seem daunting or unlikely to work often turn out a lot better than I had realistically initially hoped, and this is one of them.

Checkpoint: The Edit

My mate Rob's short film, set in WWII, which I have talked about several times this year, from shoot through to visual effects, is nearing an important stage of completion.

About a month ago, he invited me and some of our mutual movie-related friends over to view an edit of his film, and to give suggestions on how to tidy it up. Editing was a daunting task for him: with five or six hours of footage; sometimes as many as ten or fifteen alternatives for some scenes; and ten minutes to fill. He was finding the task exhausting, and overwhelming, so after the viewing, and the suggestions we threw at him, he called me in to help him out with finishing the edit. I was more than happy to participate!

Rob uses Final Cut Pro on his Mac. I'm more familiar with Adobe's Premiere Pro for PC, but they are very similar in most respects, so though I wasn't at the keyboard doing the physical work, I knew what options were available to us. Rob's method of working was not too different to mine, we both are very familiar with movies and their styles, plus we were mostly on accord with what we wanted to achieve with each scene. When we didn't agree on anything, I deferred to the Director's choices, because I knew he definitely knew what he was doing, and when his ideas worked, they were better than mine anyway.

So, we sat down together and figured some things out. Firstly, what was wrong, and why. That was relatively easy. Rob's first try was apparently very choppy, with too many close-ups. His second edit, which was the one the group of us had viewed, went in the opposite direction, with too many long takes that were Wide. For a movie that has tension and some amount of action, slow pacing can be a killer. But for a movie with some interesting dramatic beats and an extended dialogue, fast cuts are not good.

So secondly, we needed to figure out how to fix it. Easier said than done, we decided to go in step by step, and address each scene from start to finish. Some editors claim starting from the beginning in chronological order is a bad idea, and perhaps that's true. But bollocks to them. We'll learn the mistakes our own way.

You have to pick and choose the right places to put each shot. Wide shots establish location, position of characters, physical points of view from off-screen characters, isolation and vulnerability. Close up shots increase tension, show emotive facial expressions, allow for reactions. Mid shots are normally a good in-between, where you can orientate characters, see hand gestures, introduce a third character, and are good to cut to when you've had too many close ups already.

What we discovered, as we worked through the movie scene by scene, is the power you can have to change and create. I really was thrilled by some of the tricks we managed to do. I was afraid we'd not be able to achieve some of the ideas we were going for, because there is often a risk a lack of the right angle or a bad camera motion or line reading can ruin an otherwise usable shot. But what we discovered was not only could we cheat some shots, because two locations looked very similar to each other so we could mix and match, but that because we are also visual effects artists, we could assemble several different elements from various places (still images, different scenes, Behind-The-Scenes footage on a lower resolution camera) and manufacture a whole new shot to suit our needs!

And this is the part that really astonished me, though I don't know why because I hear of how this goes on a lot when editing. If you need an emotional beat, but aren't sure about where to place it, it's an incredible thing to see how a single shot can make a difference. If you don't have it, you feel like it's missing. If you do have it, and put it too early, it ruins the flow of a scene. If you put it in the right place, it completely transforms a scene into magic. If you shorten it by just a couple of frames, it can feel flat. If you lengthen it by a few frames it can change the emotional tone of the whole moment.

It's amazing.

We finished the edit, but there are many effects shots to do to complete it. We also are going to go back in, in a few days, and look at it afresh, to tidy up some of the rough edges that inevitably will be there. Especially since the morning we began, we were kind of floundering a little, but by the end of last night we were on a roll, and that difference may have affected how the edit flows.

Exciting stuff, and a lot of fun. I would be very happy to sit in on an edit with my mate Rob any time.

Neither Rhyme Nor Reason

A limerick is not hard to write.
Given time, I could write ten tonight.
   The bit at the start's
   Not the difficult part.
It's the line at the end that has to make sense in context of what the poem's about, but also fit the rhyming structure, that makes it such a struggle.

Horizon: Casting

As this is my first proper short film, I am finding myself having to make the kinds of decisions that I have long heard about when others do it, but now are inevitably my own to make. It's somewhat surreal, as well as imposing. I'm a little bit worried, but also excited.

Casting has always been something I have been afraid of. When I wrote Horizon, I deliberately eliminated all the spoken dialogue, to avoid the fear of having to deal with bad acting ruining my film, something I see very often. Dialogue performance in an Australian accent always sounds bad to me, and you have to be really seriously amazing to make it work. It's the difference between Neighbours and The Castle; One sounds like lame boring line recitation, and the other sounds like real people. Coupled with the fact that my idea of good acting rarely coincides with what others think is good (a strange situation, I thought), I had to do something, and the answer was to eliminate the need for dialogue at all.

But I also was worried about going through the full audition process when there's no dialogue - how do you audition people for that? Ask them to cry on demand? Impossible. I was painting myself into a corner. The single thing that mattered to me more than anything was that you'd believe the romance between the two characters; accept that they really loved each other. A good actor can do that, but if I'm not auditioning or requiring great actors, then that limits my options - and the answer to that conundrum I set myself was to cast a real life couple.

Crikey, that's a big ask! In my attempt of making things easier for myself, was I really making things more difficult?

We've been working with Alex Sheedy, who is the girlfriend of a casual crew member Andy Scott, on a side project. She's proven herself to be excellent at taking direction, and enthusiastic in taking part in our crazy ideas. To the point where every new project idea Rob and I come up with, we slot her into it, imagining her in our heads to see if she fits. Sometimes she does.

What's that you say? Girlfriend of Andy Scott? Why yes indeed, that's rather convenient, isn't it? Andy is just the right age and look to play a fighter pilot! So I contacted them both, we've discussed it some, and they have signed on.

That's a big weight off my shoulders. I now have my cast, about two thirds of my locations, and most of my crew. All that's required now is to compile a shot list, book some equipment, and commit to actually filming it.

Easier said than done.

Panda-Monium

How's that for an original title. Oh well.

Dreamworks Animation has, in my estimation, a bit of a chequered history when it comes to originality. Its very first production was 2D, based on the Biblical story of the Exodus of the Jews, better known as the Ten Commandments, and was called Prince of Egypt.

It was pretty good, but a bit dour and dramatic. Not really a movie for kids, though I'm sure they got something out of it. It's one of those Bible myths that probably has a fair amount of truth to it, somewhere amongst the miracles and epic absurdity. If you ignore the talking to God, burning bushes, and parting of the Red Sea, the story comes down to two brothers who diverge in their beliefs and have a bit of an argy-bargy over ruling their people.

Anyhoo, they soon realised that kind of movie wasn't going to bring in the moolah, so they immediately took a leaf out of Disney's book, and headed down a family friendly comedic route.

The Road To El Dorado which was based on the Bob Hope & Bing Crosby "Road To..." movies, was clearly stolen from what Disney had planned originally for Emperor's New Groove (which had started out as the more dramatically themed Kingdom of the Sun).

Sinbad, which wasn't as good as it ought to have been, was very similar in style to Disney's Treasure Planet.

As Pixar started to make a real impact, Dreamworks shifted its focus to CGI animation, believing that those movies make more money than traditional 2D animation. A load of baseless nonsense, of course. Pixar's success is based entirely on great characters in fun stories with hilarious humour. All things that do not impact the style of art used to create them.

But as the CEO of Dreamworks Animation, Jeffrey Katzenberg, used to work for Disney, he had some insight into what was being developed by Pixar. And though he denies it, he clearly was stealing their concepts and then trying to rush them through to release first. I have always resented that about Dreamworks.

Equivalent movies include:
Antz = A Bug's Life
Shrek = Monsters Inc
Shark Tale = Finding Nemo
Madagascar = Into The Wild

Now, plot-wise they aren't really similar (except for that last one) but if you were to hear on the grapevine that Pixar's next film was going to be about fish, or about monsters, then you can definitely believe Katzenberg would then say "Hey, lets do a movie about monsters". Even worse, they have a new movie out in the new year called Monsters vs Aliens and the character design is so similar to Monsters Inc it's highly suspicious. Though it does look like a funny film.

I watched Dreamworks's new feature last night, Kung Fu Panda. It stars Jack Black as a panda who unexpectedly is chosen as being the greatest warrior of legend and prophecy despite being an incompetent clumsy boob. It is an excellent movie. Really funny, brilliantly animated, and highly recommended.

And best of all, as far as all the plagiarising of ideas that I have just accused Dreamworks of partaking in, this is a wholly original concept, that I can only praise them for.

And this is the thing - when they forego the pop culture references, and choose a story that is not based on another company's production, Dreamworks do amazing stuff, the top of their game. Though the sequel is inevitable, I hope they continue to make original product, one-offs like Over The Hedge (admittedly based on an existing comic strip) and Bee Movie, and don't run ideas (like Shrek) into the ground. They deserve better, and deserve to be seen.