movieguyjon

Filed Under Moronic

Posted on June 15, 2009 by movieguyjon Blather TV 5

Jonathan Wright writes via The Guardian:

There was time when episodic science fiction television was exactly that, episodic. Though there might be a few recurring plotlines in your favourite shows, you could dip in and out of a series without being seriously inconvenienced.

Not today. In the era of the story arc, it increasingly takes serious commitment to watch sci-fi telly. The new series of Torchwood is a case in point. Torchwood: Children of Earth, to give the latest series of the Doctor Who spin-off its newly expanded moniker, is “one epic story told over five nights”.

I’m sorry, but what’s so bad about five not-so-epic-but-nevertheless-carefully-crafted-individual stories shown over five weeks –or possibly even six if you need to re-jig the schedules because of a major sporting event? How did telly get so complicated?

Excuse me? Complicated? As someone who absolutely loves serialized television, this blog post has me scratching my head. What’s got me scratching my head even more is that this guy goes on to blame Babylon 5 for the downfall of the episodic Sci-Fi. What’s even worse is that he states that these ongoing arcs are “inconvenient,” and that one cannot simply jump into a show from the 3rd season and enjoy it like all the other shows out there.

Uh-huh. Whatever. The guy doesn’t seem to understand story arcs all that well, or that story is perhaps one of the most important aspects to television and film. Would you have really stuck with BSG had there not been a mission to find Earth? Would you have enjoyed Buffy quite the same way if there hadn’t been a “Big Bad” every season? And what’s that crap about story arcs excluding episodic content? Hello? Pushing Daisies? Dead Like Me? Must I list every other television show in existence?

This ranty-pants post is brought to you via J Michael Straczynski, who rocks. :)

You’d Think They Would Know Better

Posted on May 26, 2009 by movieguyjon Blather 0

Woke up today to the news that the courts in california upheld Prop 8. I must say that I’m surprised and extremely disappointed by this turn of events. I understand that this decision doesn’t reflect the beliefs of everyone there, but it certainly reveals what the majority believes. Didn’t think I could want to live anywhere less than I do California. Seriously.

And then the other bit of newsI heard was that they might be making a new Buffy movie without Joss Whedon, you know, like the first one. You would think that they would try to get the involvement of the guy who turned a bland premise into an engaging show! Anyway, I could complain about this and California all day today, but I should really keep an eye out for my stop.

You’d think they would know better.

I find @CalamityEnsues interesting! #followfriday

Posted on May 15, 2009 by movieguyjon Blather 0

I was poking around at Stay N Alive and read a very interesting idea about Follow Friday and the ways it can adapt to the new @reply changes that Twitter has set in place. Instead of flooding the tweet-stream with a bajillion usernames no one is going to care to check out, you highlight a select few people and EXPLAIN why they are interesting to you. This is a much better idea in the long run and puts the focus where it truly belongs: on the people you’re trying to get people to follow! Anypoo, with that, I bring you my good buddy @calamityensues.

Here’s the nitty-gritty, as they say. Calamityensues is an animator based out of Chicago. He graduated from Columbia College, and has kept busy doing freelance work in his field. His real passion is with storyboarding, which is evidenced by the most excellent boards I’ve seen him do for our current project. He’s quite passionate about his work and yet will be the first to tell you that the story is one of the most important ingredients in animation and film.

Here’s a demo reel of some of his more recent work, so you can see what he’s all about!

If you haven’t figured out yet why I follow calamityensues, you might very well be the most blind person I’ve ever met. Seriously, check out his stuff and follow him as soon as you can. Link to his blog: http://tommyrobot.blogspot.com/

I Am Writing On A Bus

Posted on May 14, 2009 by movieguyjon Blather 0

So there I was, feeling bad that I wasn’t blogging enough when it hit me: I can blog while I’m on the bus! Hurray!!!!

Now, I suppose coming up with something to write might be a logical next step in this process of discovery…

Textbook Piracy

Posted on May 13, 2009 by movieguyjon Blather 0

I was listening to the latest episode of TWiT the other day at work and the subject of piracy came up and how it’s–to put it simply–a game changer. Specifically, they talked about Amazon, the new Kindle, and how this could usher in an era of easier textbook piracy. When I heard “textbook piracy”, a little voice inside me went “squee.” I’m sure I’m not the only student burned by ridiculous textbook prices and what little use they’ve been to us in our college education.

I should clarify: I’m a film student.

Our textbooks (at least in the film department) were less than stellar, and I was even able to go an entire semester without needing any. Whether this is the fault of the teachers or the faculty is not the point of my little blurb here. I’m just interested in the idea that textbooks are next in line for evolution-via-mass-piracy. With college as expensive as it is now, why buy a book you don’t really need if you can get it in a .pdf and pull it up in a reader?

Anyway, just a thought.

Outlines Suck, But Are Awesome

Posted on May 13, 2009 by movieguyjon Screenwriting 0

A problem I come across when screenwriting is the logistics of the plot. I have no problems placing two characters in a room and making them say cool things, but when it comes down to where things eventually end up, it becomes a different matter entirely. I’ve tried to help myself out a bit by doing the whole “outline” thing, but it always leaves me feeling like I haven’t made any progress whatsoever in my writing. Case in point, I’ve decided to take a step back and write out a step outline for a script I’m writing. I spent a few hours the other day writing what amounted to about 20 lines of outline.

How is THAT progress??

On the flip side of that, however, I now have a better idea of where I want my story to go.

Hrmm.

Jonathan is a VJ, Part 6

Posted on April 24, 2009 by movieguyjon Music Youtubes 0

Hey there, folks. I figured it was about that time again to scour the internet for some music videos that I enjoyed. Kind of a random assortment this month around, but I figured it was a pretty decent one at that and that you might get a kick out of the selection. If you haven’t heard of any of these bands, you might want to do yourself a favor and check them out STAT!!!

The New Pornographers – Mutiny, I Promise You

Writing and Re-Writing

Posted on April 7, 2009 by movieguyjon Film My Life Screenwriting 0

One of the frustrating things about my process is the part where I go back and change a bunch of shit and essentially rewrite my script from page one. It’s not like I actually want to do this, especially considering I have to get 100 or so pages done by the end of the month. What ends up happening is that I get ideas about what I wrote before and those ideas pester me until I do something about them. Case in point, day one and two for me for Script Frenzy. I wrote roughly four or five pages that were solid and took a break from it. As I went about doing other things, the need to change EVERYTHING surfaced and it was all I could think about.

I need to get a better writing process..

Not That Crazy

Posted on March 31, 2009 by movieguyjon Blather Music 0

The Magnetic Fields – Not That Crazy

[audio:notthatcrazy.mp3]

I built a ship with my own hands to take us to the moon,

I took a pen in my own hand and wrote you a hundred tunes.

Now I’m crazy for you but not that crazy.

If you couldn’t tell, I really like The Magnetic Fields. If I ever write an album, it will be because of Stephin Merritt.

Going Into a Script Frenzy

Posted on March 25, 2009 by movieguyjon My Life Screenwriting 9

For a writer, one of the biggest challenges is actually sitting down and facing off against the blank page, or screen if you’ve ditched your typewriter for a trendier, more electronic word processing unit! When I sit down to start writing, I find myself daunted by all the white space that occupies my screen. Once that happens, the motivation kind of deteriorates and then I get distracted by the various web services that call to me on a continual basis (thanks, Friendfeed, twitter, etc). In short, I don’t get a lot of writing done.

But I was pointed to an interesting site from John August’s blog that might just cure my Writer’s Block: Script Frenzy. Think, NaNoWriMo for screenplays. Within 30 days of April, everyone who signs up for the site will be writing toward a goal of 100 script pages. Sounds pretty neat, actually. So much so that I’ve signed up and am going to be participating this year. I’ve already come up with the story I’m going to write and am pretty much going to free style this script come April 1st.

If you’re into screenwriting even in the slightest, I’d suggest giving it a try. It will be a fun challenge, and you get 100 pages of…well…something that can be molded into your finest work ever, at least. If you do sign up, look me up. Movieguyjon, as usual!

Here’s some particulars about the script I plan on writing for Script Frenzy:

Title: Year of the Con
Genre: Comedy
Logline: Frustrated with the lackluster conventions in their area, four friends decide to create their own Super Con and turn it into the biggest event of the year.

You can keep up to date with my script via this blag or through my Script Frenzy profile. I plan on making my script profile on the site more complete by the end of the month.

Can’t wait!