Craft Cinema

Testing

2012-01-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

Just testing to see if I've networked this blog to FB and Twitter.

The Bow

2012-01-27T09:00:00.002-07:00

I’m baaaaack!

Where have I been, you ask? We moved into a new house, and this process took up all our free time for the latter half of 2011. Including our movie watching time. It was a short sale, which means the bank didn’t care what shape it was in before selling it, so even more movie time has been eaten up as we fix the place up. It’s still not perfect, but much more livable now.

And the best part of the move? I have a Cinema room! And streaming Netflix. sigh If it weren’t for having to keep this new house clean, I could stay in there forever.

I’ve had a few ideas on how I wanted to restart this blog, and I think the most appropriate new beginning is to look at the ending.

Writer workshops often dwell on beginnings. First lines, first paragraphs, first chapters. But how often do we learn how to write good last lines?

Let me throw one out to you:

“As you wish.”

Whether you’re a princess at heart like I am, or a hero in the making, this last line in The Princess Bride should melt you into a puddle of goo. These three little words are the beautiful bow placed on a neatly wrapped package. (And no, this line does not suggest that Grandpa is the octogenarian Wesley.)

What is this whole movie about, anyway? We could throw out a zillion answers: pirates, true love, revenge. But at it’s deepest core, it is about a love so deep, that one would do anything for their beloved. Even becoming “mostly dead.” So, when Peter Falk utters that last line of the movie with a twinkle in his eye, we know this is the bow. This is what we save in our memento drawer after the paper has long since become dust.

Not all movies end with this pretty bow. Some packages have been wrapped in haste, and the bow is nothing special. Or sometimes you wonder why the gift had been placed in a paper bag. There is no bow. There is no ribbon. There is no take-away.

But look at the bows on these movies, and see if you agree.

"No, sir! Don’t thank me, Warden. We’re all part of the same team. Good night." – This line from Superman (1978)reminds us that this alien is all about truth, justice, and the American way.
"Out there. That-a-way." –From Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), every Trekkie knows that the whole point is to “boldly go where no man has gone before.”
"You’ve got to tell them soylent green is people. We’ve got to stop them somehow." –If I’m not mistaken, I think this may be when the audience finally learns the secret of Soylent Green (1973). I don’t really care to watch this movie again to find out, but if so, this was a HUGE bow. One people are still talking about.
And speaking of human entrees: "I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner." –These words were spoken by Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs (1991.)
“It's so beautiful! Let's live here! We'll rent to start." – Bill Murray’s goal throughout the entire movie, Ground Hog Day (1993), was to get out of town. But his last line leaves us with the knowledge that he’s grown as a person and is content.
"That'll do, pig. That'll do." –Oh, that Babe (1995). That performance-oriented pig who stole our hearts simply wanted some recognition of a job well done.
"Ernest Hemingway once wrote: 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part." –In the psychological thriller, Se7en (1995), a murderer is on the loose and killing victims using the seven deadly sins as his calling card. Morgan Freeman utters these last lines, and after our eyes were assaulted with horrible images for two hours, we agree. (Even so, if you can take gore, this was a very good movie.)
"Where's the TV Guide?" –Recognize this one from The Truman Show (1998)? The entire movie shows a world’s obsession with Truman, a man who has grown up in a make-believe television world, but doesn’t realize that everything is fake. When he finally gets a clue and leaves the show, the fickle public also moves on.
"Whatever life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words: 'With great power comes great responsibility.' This is my gift. My curse. Who am I? I'm Spider-Man." –Spider Man (2002). From the time his dying uncle utters these words, Peter Parker learns this lesson the hard way.
“My name's Tom."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Autumn." –(500) Days of Summer (2009). Poor Tom has been in an up and down, tumultuous relationship with a girl named Summer for 500 days, aka, the entire movie. By the end, the relationship is over, and he meets a girl named Autumn. We can only assume that the sequel will be titled, (500) Days of Autumn.

I encourage you to Google great last lines, which is where I got my list, and learn how to put a bow on your stories.

I leave you with one that still makes my Mommy-eyes weep as I think of my little boys all grown up.

“So Long… Partner.” –Toy Story 3 (2010), spoken by Woody as he says goodbye to his best friend.

Plants. . .They Aren’t Just For Gardens Anymore

2011-09-08T10:51:00.002-06:00

Call it what you will. Foreshadowing, or planting information, is crucial to your plot line.

I recently watched two movies that used plants in effective ways. One was True Grit, the new Coen brothers offering with Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.

I had seen the John Wayne version, in the theater when it first came out in 1969, (and cringed right along with everyone else over Glen Campbell’s performance. . .but I digress.) Shortly afterward I read the book, and was disappointed when I read the scene where young Mattie Ross fell into the pit and was bit on the hand by a snake. I was disappointed because the older version of the movie sugar-coated it. In the book, she lost her arm. In the movie, it was placed in a sling. Not so dramatic.

Because this scene now stood out like a snake-bitten thumb, I was very aware of it in the new movie, and wondered how it would be played out. With that thought fresh in my mind as I watched the new movie, the little plant mentioned early on about snakes in winter jumped out at me like a disturbed viper. (I’m creeping myself out over these snake metaphors!) Mattie, Rooster Cogburn, and Texas Ranger La Boeuf are getting ready to camp for the night. It is mentioned that a rope surrounding the sleeping camper would keep snakes at bay. Then there’s the conversation about snakes not being active in winter. . .unless they’re disturbed. STRIKE! I knew what was coming, and I dreaded and felt thrilled all at the same time.

Had I not known what was coming, I may not have been so aware of it. An average viewer who had never seen the original version or read the book, would probably have remembered that scene when they talked of hibernating snakes after Mattie’s unfortunate spill into the pit. But knowing about it made it even richer for me, more dreadful, as I anticipated that scene.

I confess, I don’t remember if the camping scene and the talk about snakes is in the original as it has been a few years since I’ve seen it. After all, I was only three when it first came out! (Yeah. That’s hyperbole.) But if it wasn’t, how smart of the writers to include that tidbit for those of us in the know. Kind of their little nod to us, thanking us for giving Bridges/Damon/Steinfeld a chance to redeem that scene.

Or, maybe the adapters of this film had an editor who called them on the fact that snakes don’t bite in winter. Therefore, they needed to inform their audience of how such a horrific thing could happen.

The second movie that had a fun plant was Secretariat with Diane Lane playing the owner of the record-breaking triple crown winner. When Penney Tweedy is researching jockeys to ride the three-year-old hopeful, she learns about Ronnie, a take-no-prisoners kind of person who lives on the edge. Ronnie, it seems, rode a horse so hard once that its heart burst before reaching the finish line.

And there’s your plant. If you didn’t know the history behind Secretariat, you would fear what might come next when, in the third race of the triple trophy, the horse uncharacteristically breaks free and widens the gap between the rival horse and, in fact, all the other horses in the race. He gallops as if that is his sole purpose in life. Above eating and sleeping. Above grazing on sweet meadow grass. Above bonding with his rider. He widens the gap by more than thirty lengths. And the audience holds their breath because they remember that Ronnie once rode a horse so hard its heart burst.

Had it not been for that plant, the stakes would not have been so high and we would have experienced only the normal adrenaline rush when watching a horse race. And we would not have collectively let out the breath we were holding when Secretariat flew past that finish line, healthy as a. . .well. . .a horse.

What I learned from these two movies:

Plants can serve as a wink and a nod to those who know the storyline.
Plants can inform so that when the event happens, it will be believable.
Plants can up the tension and enhance the reader’s experience.

Remember to use them sparingly. In both of the movies, they were only there for the crucial scenes. Overuse of plants can only result in a messy garden. . .with a snake lurking beneath the foliage! (Yikes! I scared myself again!)

*********

True Grit - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1403865/

Secretariat - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1028576/

Soul Surfer – A Review

2011-04-11T08:00:00.001-06:00

This isn’t a Christian movie about a surfer who had her arm bit off. It’s a movie about a Christian surfer who rose above her circumstances and became a role-model to the world. I rank Soul Surfer a titch below Blind Side and Secretariat.

I remember when Bethany Hamilton’s story hit my news channel. It struck me on an emotional level because I had named a character in my book, (Merely Players – now in the compilation Florida Weddings,) by the same name before I had even heard of the young surfer. In an odd, parallel universe way, it almost felt as though my created character had gone through the same thing. Much the same way as if this had happened to someone with the same name as my own child. So I became emotionally connected.

This is why I had to see this movie on it’s premier weekend. And I wasn’t disappointed.

There are many reasons to love this movie:

The acting is believable. Thanks to A-listers Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt, who portrayed struggling parents who love their baby and only want the best for her. AnnaSophia Robb is believable as the teen Bethany, and Carrie Underwood even delivers as she tries out her acting chops portraying a trusted youth group leader.
The setting. Filmed entirely in Hawaii, the scenery is breathtaking.
The special effects.

The wave scenes are heart-stopping as the camera dives under the water, through the water, over the water. It was so realistic, I expected to leave the theater wet!
The attack itself. Convincing, but not overdone. Yes, there is blood, but it’s not gory.
AnnaSophia Robb really does have two arms. I saw them when she was plugging the film on the talk circuit. But after the shark attack, it had been effectively erased.

The Hamilton family. It is so refreshing to see a family so supportive of each other. I saw no dysfunction, a common malady among much of the “entertainment” pushed into our homes and theaters at an alarming rate.
The message. Yes, it has Christian content…(ooo, run for your lives!) but the inspirational theme comes from the courage of a thirteen-year-old girl who overcomes.

I give Soul Surfer 4.5 out of 5 stars. Again, I can’t pin-point why this movie isn’t quite in the same league as it’s inspirational predecessors mentioned in the beginning of this review. It certainly didn’t ruin my experience. There are some predictable moments, but they are presented in such a way that you’d be disappointed if they weren’t there. And hey, if that’s what happened, that’s what happened. Even though it was a true story, the writers expertly wrote a plot that kept me interested. Take tissues.

**********

Soul Surfer - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596346/

Win a Starbucks Card in OREGON WEDDINGS Contest!

2011-04-01T13:38:00.001-06:00

OREGON WEDDINGS

Three-in-One Collection

Debuts this month!

Want to get in on the fun? I’d like to give away three Starbucks $5 gift cards each to someone who has seen my book in a store.

Go to Blog With A Giggle to see rules.

I HOPE YOU WIN!!!!

Rango – A Review

2011-03-24T20:39:00.002-06:00

What do Clint Eastwood (great cowboy hero,) Lee Van Cleef (great cowboy villain,) and Don Knotts (a great… er... cowboy comedian,) have in common?

I just came back from seeing the animated feature, Rango, about a misplaced lizard who must learn who he really is… or die. (Cue the spaghetti Western music.) The animators and actors lending their voices had specific people in mind. Let’s start with Knotts.

Johnny Depp had the Shakiest Gun in the West (1968) star in mind when he voiced the title character, a bug-eyed reptile, who, when we are first introduced to him is “acting” in his glass terrarium and directing the inanimate objects around him. Just when he realizes his script needs more conflict, he is thrust into the desert (I won’t tell you how so as not to spoil it, but I can tell you there is an armadillo involved.) He sets out on a very real quest to find water and eventually finds himself (literally and figuratively) in an old west town where adventure involves more than running from a hungry hawk.

Bill Nighy, who played Davy Jones (not the Monkee, but the locker guy,) in Pirates of Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006), voices a villain so… so… venomous, I had a hard time watching the character on the big screen… in a good way. He had Lee Van Cleef in mind, the late actor who had ‘em shakin’ in their boots in such iconic films as The Magnificent Seven Ride (1972), The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), and For a Few Dollars More (1965).

Timothy Olyphant, who is currently in theaters with I Am Number Four (2011), plays a character who will remind you of Clint Eastwood… like… really remind you of him.

I bring these characters up because Eastwood and Van Cleef were known for the spaghetti westerns of the ‘60s and ‘70s. These were cheaply produced by Italian directors and actors, but featured Americans such as the aforementioned stars. It’s from these westerns that we have our pre-conceived notions of how the west was fought… and won. And it’s in this tradition that Rango presents a dusty town, a band of no ‘count, low down thieves, an ideal that springs from the Spirit of the West… and a lizard.

I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars. It’s extremely intense at times and might scare young children, although the mini-man that sat in front of me with his mother didn’t seem phased, especially when he ran to the other end of the row of seats and proclaimed in his theater voice, “So long, suckers!” He was promptly contained and watched the rest of the movie on his mother’s lap. But I digress.

I deducted a star for the intensity of the film and also for the language. Yes, it’s supposed to be based on the post-Vietnam westerns, and thus had some mild curse words, but if you’re sensitive, or if you don’t want your child quoting the few (a very few) lines, you might want to see it first before taking your family.

Other than those two things, the storyline was enjoyable. It took a predictable plot but twisted the suspense in a way that often had me breathless.

Here is the trailer.

*******

Rango - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1192628/

How To Find a Supervillain’s Essence

2010-11-19T01:16:00.001-07:00

At the recent American Christian Fiction Writers conference, I attended a class taught by Michael Hauge, THE screenplay guy who is famous for his lectures on story structure and his book, Writing Screenplays That Sell. Every novelist should learn how to write using his method, which is a linear version of the Hero’s Journey. You can read his articles and sign up for his newsletter here.

During the discussion on Character Arc, Hauge made this elusive concept even clearer in a way I had not heard before. He refers to the hero’s essence, which is only found in his inner journey.

Here are my rough notes on questions to ask about your character:

What is my hero’s longing? The deeply held desire that the hero is paying lip service to because he/she doesn’t have the courage to go after it. (Hauge refers to the hero as both male and female characters.)
What is my hero’s wound? The unhealed source of continuing pain. Often happens well before the story begins. It can be a single event or an ongoing situation.
What is my hero’s belief? When we’re wounded, we take on a belief of how the world works.
What is my hero’s fear? A situation that will lead to that wound again.
What is your hero’s identity? What is the false self the hero is presenting to the world to protect them from the wound? This is the emotional armor we create to protect us from the fear created by the wound that created the fear in the first place.
What is my hero’s essence? Who is he really if he could strip away the emotional armor? Who is the hero truly?

I just saw the movie, Megamind. Great movie! The dialogue is witty and the plot, while not believable, (because let’s face it, it’s a cartoon,) delivers a story that clearly develops the hero’s inner journey. It is text book in it’s display of the above questions.

Before you read further, I want to remind you that THERE ARE SPOILERS HERE! If you haven’t seen the movie, close your eyes and go a different website! Um…which might be difficult with your eyes closed. Oh well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Once you’ve seen the movie, come back. This is great stuff!

Let’s look at the questions above as they apply to the title character, Megamind.

What is Megamind’s longing?

In a prologue type of beginning, we see an adorable blue alien baby with a bulbous head being placed in a round space traveling device ala Kal-el who later became Superman. And reminiscent of Krypton, the blue child’s planet is also collapsing. As the glass door closes, his frantic parents tell him he is destined for gr—. And that’s when the door snaps shut and he is flung into space. Not having heard the word “greatness”, he wonders, “What am I destined for?”

We also see a more human looking baby in a similar craft. He’s much more self-assured, and we can see the beginnings of a rivalry. The blue child is excited when he sees earth drawing near and it seems his space craft is heading straight for a mansion. But, the humanoid child bumps him out of the way, and lands under the Christmas tree inside the opulent manor while the blue child lands in the yard of the Prison for the Criminally Gifted.

Through the next few years, the humanoid child is doted upon, while the blue child is taught right and wrong from the inmates, namely, good is bad and evil is good. The blue child is finally sent to school where the humanoid child has already won over his classmates and teacher. The blue child tries to do the same, but fails at ever attempt and gets into trouble. He finally decides that his prison family had it correct. He couldn’t be the good child, so he vowed to be the best bad child he could be.

And so, in answer to the question, his longing is to become the most notorious villain the world has ever seen.

What is Megamind’s wound?

As the two grow into adulthood, the humanoid child continues to be good, and has become Metro Man, a superhero who consistently saves the citizens of Metro City. They love him, to the point of ridiculousness, but then, who wouldn’t love an Elvis/Superman type with extraordinary good looks, good hair, and the ability to vanquish all your foes?

The blue child becomes Metro Man’s arch-nemesis, Megamind. He doesn’t have superpowers, but he has a phenomenal brain and can invent anything to further his dastardly cause—which is to destroy Metro Man. And why does he want to destroy him? Because of his wound. Metro Man will always be stronger, better looking, and. . .more popular.

What is Megamind’s belief?

Megamind is secure in his belief that he will never be good, because that would be bad. And since bad is good, that’s the only way he wants to be. Evil to the core.

What is Megamind’s fear?

Megamind finally accomplishes his purpose and fries Metro Man by intensified sunrays until he’s a mere skeleton. High on victory, he takes over Metro City, becoming its Over-Lord. But his victory is fleeting. With no Metro Man, he has nothing to do, and he is bored.

So, he devises a plan. He creates a superhero with whom he can spar as he did Metro Man. Problem is, he accidently shoots a doofus cameraman named Hal with the Metro Man’s superhero DNA. Hal becomes Tighten (originally Titan, but the doofus misspelled it,) quickly learns that it’s more fun to be evil than to be a superhero, and so he becomes the most dangerous supervillain Metro City has ever seen.

Hal, before he became Tighten, was the lovesick cameraman for a sassy reporter named Roxanne. Megamind also has a crush on Roxanne, and now he not only has a villain to deal with, he’s locked into a love triangle.

Roxanne, who was repulsed (and vaguely bored) with Megamind, begins to see him as a different person. . .literally. Megamind can change his appearance with the help of one of his inventions. After several dates with whom she thinks is Bernard, an unassuming, bookwormish guy, Roxanne begins to see the true essence of Megamind. When she kisses “Bernard” in a restaurant, Megamind’s disguise is revealed and she rejects him.

And this is his greatest fear that began in that classroom many years ago. Rejection.

What is Megamind’s identity?

I think we can agree that the hero’s identity is as a supervillain. Bad is good. It’s the emotional armor that he’s been carrying around ever since his school days.

What is Megamind’s essence?

However, if he could strip away his emotional armor, he would see himself as a genius inventor with a large capacity for love.

As Tighten continues his reign of terror, Megamind and Roxanne discover that Metro Man did not die in the burning sunray blast. He is, instead, hanging out at his secret. . .er. . .hangout. It seems that Metro Man faked his death because he has decided to shed his identity as a superhero and become what he always wanted to be—in essence, his. . .er. . .essence—a musician. He tells Megamind that he must stop Tighten and become the new hero. Roxanne agrees because she’s seen Megamind’s true essence of character when he was disguised as Bernard. But, Megamind refuses, believing the lie that his wound has caused—that he is condemned to be a supervillain for life. He is beyond redemption.

Dejected, he throws himself in prison. Nothing will change his mind that he could ever be good.

However, when he sees on the television that Tighten has captured Roxanne and she is in real danger, he escapes and faces Tighten—not as a supervillain, but as a superhero.

Alas, Tighten has all of the qualities of Metro Man since he was shot with a dose of the superhero’s DNA. Megamind’s brilliance is no match for Tighten’s strength. But wait! With one last effort, Megamind uses one of his inventions and changes Tighten back into Hal, but that doesn’t stop the falling building that is headed straight for him.

Suddenly, the building splits in two and we see Metro Man save the day once again. But this time, Megamind doesn’t. . .er. . .mind.

In the end, Metro Man continues to live in his true essence as a musician, and Megamind fulfills his parents’ prophesy that he is destined for greatness. He moves into his true essence as the much loved hero who vanquished the supervillain, Tighten.

In my class with Michael Hauge, he also taught about the romantic thread. He said, “The reason the romance character and the hero belong together, is because the romance character is the only one who sees beneath the hero’s identity and connects at the level of essence.”

We see this with Roxanne. She literally saw beneath the hero’s identity, especially easy since he didn’t even look like himself. She fell in love with whom she thought was Bernard, but it was Megamind who allowed her in to see his true essence.

This is the recipe for developing your Character’s inner journey. It worked with Megamind, and I’m sure if we watch for it, we’ll see it in other movies as well. Just remember Identity vs Essence. One is what the hero believes about himself, but the other is who he truly is.

********

Megamind - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1001526/

Fall Movies Announced

2010-08-26T15:04:00.002-06:00

Follow this link for a list of the Fall Movie premiers coming in September through December. Just a few jump out at me, but I’m sure the descriptions aren’t nearly as thrilling as the trailers will be.

Coming in September:

ALPHA AND OMEGA: Two wolves take a cross-country road trip home in an animated adventure featuring the voices of Justin Long and Hayden Panettiere. (I saw the trailer for this and it looks cute.)
THE AMERICAN: George Clooney plays a hitman who finds romance and tranquility in the Italian countryside as he prepares for one last assignment. (I just like George, okay?)
BURIED: An American driver (Ryan Reynolds) in Iraq wakes up buried in a coffin with only a dying cell phone and a lighter. (I also like Ryan, but I’m curious how a two-hour movie will deal with this. I recommend my mother stay away from this one. Claustrophobia!)

Coming in October:

SECRETARIAT: Diane Lane stars as the housewife who oversees the legendary horse to a Triple Crown victory in 1973. With John Malkovich. (Saw the trailer for this, too. I think it will be just as good as the 2003 racehorse offering, Seabiscuit.)

November:

MEGAMIND: Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell and Tina Fey provide voices for an animated comedy about a supervillain whose life is empty after defeating his superhero nemesis. (I liked Despicable Me, so this may be just as good.)
TANGLED: Mandy Moore provides the voice of Rapunzel in an animated musical about the fairy-tale teen with really long hair. (Yes, I’m a sucker for cartoons. Especially those based on fairy tales.)

December:

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER: C.S. Lewis' fantasy series continues aboard a magical sea voyage. (Can I have an AMEN!)
TRUE GRIT: Jeff Bridges is boozy lawman Rooster Cogburn in Joel and Ethan Coen's remake of the John Wayne Western. With Matt Damon. (Cautiously optimistic. Bridges has mighty big boots to fill. But I know Damon has GOT to be a better actor than Glen Campbell. Plus, I like the Coen brothers and hope they put their usual wacky spin on this.)
YOGI BEAR: Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake provide the voices of Yogi and his pal Boo Boo in a big screen take on the cartoon bear. (This just made me laugh, in a good way. I loved Yogi and Boo Boo as a kid, and am wondering why it took someone so long to do this.)

Some of the movies I didn’t mention deserve five question marks instead of stars, such as THE ILLUSIONIST: A stage magician forges on with his old-fashioned act as rock 'n' roll sweeps Britain in this animated tale. Um. . .can’t wrap my mind around the two different things, magic and rock ‘n’ roll. But some on the list may jump out to you like these did to me.

Check out the Yahoo link for yourself.

You Tube Movie Trailers – The Lesson

2010-08-06T12:17:00.002-06:00

At the end of my post titled “You Tube Movie Trailers – Sort Of,” I said there was a lesson for writers in the goofy little films that pair two unlikely genres.

Here it is. It’s so simple you’ll wonder why you’ve been on anxious little pins waiting for this equivalent to the Meaning of Life.

DON’T MIX GENRES.

There. Wasn’t that worth waiting for?

In all seriousness, (yes, I can be serious when I try,) I know that this is usually a newbie’s first mistake. They don’t know what they write, so they just sit down and allow stuff to flow from their fingers. I’m not saying this is a bad thing as a newbie. You must experiment to find your voice, your genre. But when it comes time to send that puppy in, you had better not have mixed him with a tiger.

Often when I ask new writers what they write, they don’t have a clue. Or worse, they have several faves and don’t know where to start. I’ve heard people state that their project started out as (for example) a historical but turned into a sci-fi thriller. This is simply a toddler taking her first steps.

I reiterate. It’s okay when you’re starting out to play with genres. Pick your favorite, and then target your publisher. In many of the guidelines, they will tell you what they want and definitely do not want. Study your market. I’ve listened to countless editor and agent panels and invariably someone will answer the question, “What do you hate,” with, “authors who send me a story in a genre I don’t sell.” And yes, hate is the word used in this context. Lesson: Don’t tick off your potential publisher.

So, the moral of the story is, find out your niche, watch the silly You Tubes, and enjoy your writing life.

Here are three more entertaining. . .and yet disturbing videos for your amusement.

Lord of the Bug's Life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENaUS_OtbhY&hl=en_US&fs=1

The Dark Knight Trailer Recut - Toy Story 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QFWBFIEuig&hl=en_US&fs=1

Disney/Pixar Cars - Star Trek XI Trailer Recut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQd5sOyuuoE&hl=en_US&fs=1

What if. . . The Movie!

2010-08-04T10:49:00.002-06:00

Coming to theaters this month! This looks like a great movie with a redemptive message. If we want more good, clean, Christ-filled movies, we must show up at the theaters in force. I hope you all join me!

From a portion of the press release:

Jenkins Entertainment and Pure Flix Entertainment are proud to announce the theatrical release of the acclaimed feature film, “What If…”

Coming to theaters August 20th, What If… tells the story of Ben Walker (Kevin Sorbo, Hercules), who 15 years ago left the love of his life Wendy (Kristy Swanson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and his calling to be a preacher for a lucrative business opportunity. Now with a big promotion and a trophy fiancé, he has no desire for family or faith. That is, until an angel in the form of a mechanic (John
Ratzenberger, Cheers) visits him and shows him what his life would look like had he followed his true calling. Suddenly he’s married to Wendy, the father of two kids (including Debby Ryan, Suite Life on Deck), and the new pastor of a small church. If he’s going to escape this new “reality,” he must first learn the value of family and faith. In the tradition of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “The Family Man,” What If… offers a glimpse of the consequences of life’s choices and the joys of pursuing a second chance
of redemption.

For a list of theaters, go to this site. Note that in some cities, it doesn’t debut until September.

Go to the website and view the trailer.

You Tube Movie Trailers – Sort Of

2010-07-26T23:55:00.002-06:00

A couple of these were sent by my friend, Kay Day, who we’ve recently discovered is my long-lost twin. We both have the same . . . um . . . eccentric sense of humor.

The following are three trailers made by ~~talented~~ out of work people.

What if Mary Poppins had been a horror movie? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic&hl=en_US&fs=1

The Shining as a romantic comedy? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmkVWuP_sO0&hl=en_US&fs=1

There’s a lesson for writers here. Come back later and I’ll tell you.

I know. . . cliff hangers . . . you gotta love ‘em.

Despicable Me – Review

2010-07-22T00:40:00.002-06:00

As I stated in a previous post, I wanted to see Despicable Me out of curiosity. The early trailers didn’t reveal much, but just enough to whet the appetite. As the time of release drew near, we got more of a glimpse. We knew that a super villain suddenly is in charge of three children, all adorable girls. In fact, the tag line according to IMDb is “Superbad. Superdad.”

It could also be, “The Pink Panther meets The Spy Who Loved Me.”

I enjoyed this movie very much. Yes, it’s a cartoon, but I think we’ve established that I kinda like those. I love watching the craft of storytelling in its purest form. . .yeah, I’ll go with that. It had action, adventure, fluffy moments when the youngest girl wraps herself around the audience, and, surprisingly, quite a timely moral for our get-ahead-at-all-costs society today.

It was a teensy predictable in parts, but also held some surprises.

Steve Carell voices the main character, Gru, and does it so effectively, I would have never know it was him. As a writer, I love what they did with this character. Remember that a villain must have a reason to be bad.

You may want to take a tissue, although I didn’t blubber through this movie like I did Toy Story 3

I didn’t see it in 3D. I’m reserving my hard-earned cash for movies where it makes sense to shake hands with the characters. My choice didn’t ruin the experience, although I could see where one scene would have benefitted in the WOW-I’m-in-the-movie effect. I may have needed an empty popcorn bucket afterward.

I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars because of the predictability factor. But it didn’t ruin the movie for me, and there were enough surprises to keep my writer-brain from overanalyzing. At least, until I got home. :)

You can view the trailer at the IMDb site.

When the Opposing Guy is NOT the Bad Guy

2010-07-17T15:59:00.002-06:00

Okay, confession time. I have a crush on one of the stars of The Fugitive, and it isn’t heartthrob Harrison Ford. Oh sure, he was cute in his American Graffiti/Star Wars/Indiana Jones days. But the man who has stolen my heart is Tommy Lee Jones. Rugged, great sense of humor, wonderful actor. Okay, he’s not Pierce Brosnan, who is in a different category altogether. But charisma oozes from him whether he’s playing a semi-serious man in black to comedic Will Smith, a rootin’, tootin’ space cowboy, or just doing his job as a US Marshal.

I like him.

That’s why I was happy to see him as this particular antagonist in The Fugitive.

Antagonist? But, Kathy, how can you like an antagonist? Aren’t they all villains? Don’t they either kill, maim, or destroy?

Uh, no.

The Merriam-Webster definition of antagonist is:

“one that contends with or opposes another”

Opposition need not be violent. It could be as subtle as Marshal Samuel Gerard doing his job as he tries to catch Dr. Richard Kimball, a suspect in his own wife’s murder. In this movie, Marshal Gerard is an excellent example of the definition above. As Dr. Kimball hides from the law while proving his innocence, the marshal is hunting him down, in clear opposition to the doctor’s goal.

Is the marshall evil? No. Does he wish harm on the man he’s been hired to bring in? No. He is not the villain.

A story can have more than one antagonist, and often, those sub-antagonists serve as the villains. I think you can clearly see that the killer, the man with the prosthetic arm, is also in opposition to Dr. Kimball’s goals. Kimball is closing in on him, and the killer doesn’t want to be caught. Another antagonist, and perhaps the most dastardly villain, is Dr. Kimball’s good friend, Dr. Charles Nichols. Nichols is behind Kimball’s wife’s murder, trying to silence Kimball before he can blow the whistle on Nichols’s defective drug that he’s trying to market.

My favorite scene in the movie, and one that brings my antagonist-is-not-necessarily-the-villain point home, is when Gerard corners Kimball at the end of a tunnel in a dam. “I didn’t do it!” Kimball says. “I don’t care.” Gerard answers just moments before Kimball plunges into the water to escape. Gerard is stunned as he doesn’t wish harm on Kimball, he simply wants to do his job.

The role of antagonist can change to supporter as the story progresses. We see this as Gerard investigates and comes to the same conclusions that Kimball does. Their goals become the same as they both close in on the real killer.

At the end, after Nichols and his henchman, the one-armed-man hired to kill Kimball’s wife, are taken into custody, Kimball is also placed in a squad car. Gerard reaches in, removes the handcuffs and gives him a bag of ice for his bruised hands. Kimball says, “I thought you didn’t care.” Gerard jokes, “I don’t.”

Hero and antagonist have joined forces, the true villains are hauled away, and we are confident that with this new ally, Dr. Richard Kimball will be set free.

**********

The Fugitive - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106977/

Toy Story 3 -- Review

2010-07-14T01:40:00.001-06:00

I had a “me” day today, although I probably didn’t deserve it since I haven’t been overly stressed lately. But it just seemed appropriate. I spent my “me” day at the theater all by myself, munching buttered popcorn, drinking soda, and watching Toy Story 3.

Upon hearing about this third in the franchise, I feared it could never live up to the first two. Forgive my failure to review Toy Story 1 and 2. Suffice it to say, I LOVED THEM! They each get 5 stars as does TS3.

Andy’s grown up and about to leave for college when the toys find themselves given away to a daycare. I won’t spoil how they got there, but let me say that the writers handled it very well. We know from the trailer that this daycare is run by some unscrupulous toys, and Woody and the gang must get out of there with parts intact.

A tad darker than the first two, it made me think about those toys crammed into my Memories Box all these mumble-mumble years. Sammy the seal—once as important to me as Woody is to Andy—his straw hat, a flipper, and both eyes now gone, is waiting for me to play with him once again. sniff

If you’ve ever loved a toy, or ever loved a child leaving the nest, this movie will pluck your heartstrings and affect you like no other Pixar film. It ties up the series nicely, yet. . .perhaps leaves room for more. Please, Pixar, please? The principles taught in all three movies should be taught everywhere, to children and adults alike. (Politicians, you listening?)

I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars. Now, I have to dig through the garage and hug the stuffing out of Sammy.

***********

Toy Story 3 - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435761/

Nothing New Under the Sun

2010-07-12T01:11:00.000-06:00

My son posted this on his Facebook page. Someone has taken a synopsis of Avatar and shown how it is exactly the story of Pocahontas. Absolutely priceless!

http://failblog.org/2010/01/10/avatar-plot-fail/

Beware on this site, though, if you go clicking around. What I saw could be rated PG13 for language and. . .um. . . immature humor.

The Backward Character Arc

2010-07-09T00:43:00.001-06:00

I’m back from vacation and ready share my insights once again.

Ask anyone who knows me. I love stories with happy endings. Give me sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows. Give me a character who changes for the better. Give me Disney!

But I watched a movie the other day that seemed the antithesis of my strong desire to leave the theater covered in fairy dust. Up in the Air starring George Clooney is a downer, yet I oddly liked it.

Before you rush out and rent it, let me give you my disclaimer. The language, particularly in the first five minutes, but spattered throughout the film, is offensive and in my opinion, unnecessary. There is also a brief female nude scene. Also, unnecessary. I don’t know why “sophisticated” stories translates to gutter language and smut. I nearly turned the thing off so I could jam it back in it’s Netflix envelope. I’m glad I didn’t.

The tagline for this movie is, “The story of a man ready to make a connection.” Ryan Bingham is a seasoned airline traveler with a company who fires people for corporations. His life is literally up in the air. He’s rarely home, he barely knows his younger sister who is getting married soon, and his life can be summed up in one neat little carry-on bag. And he loves it.

Ryan isn’t ready to make a commitment, or so he thinks until he meets Alex played by Vera Farmiga. She is the girl who is the female him. Also travels extensively, knows the ins and outs of car rental, and covets the American Airlines concierge key in Ryan’s possession.

Another thing that Ryan has that Alex doesn’t is scruples. More on that in a minute.

As Ryan and Alex rearrange their schedules so they can be in the same city at the same time, Ryan begins to fall for Alex. The self-proclaimed loner bachelor begins to enjoy feeling like a couple. After his sister’s wedding, he has an epiphany. Love means never having to be alone again.

Ryan has this epiphany in the middle of a seminar where he is the keynote speaker. When he’s not firing somebody, he’s speaking on baggage. . .internal that is. He teaches people how to cut the fat from their lives, and for him that used to mean relationships. But just as he’s introduced, he realizes that he no longer believes his own conviction. He leaves the podium and the thousand or so people who came to hear him and hops on a plane. When he lands, his rental car leads him to Alex’s doorstep, where she lives, or rather. . .where she lives with her husband and kids.

Ryan is crushed. It was because of Alex that he threw out his entire belief system. He no longer wants to live and die alone. He wanted a companion. Instead, he gets someone who angrily informs him that he was merely an escape, a “parenthesis.” How humiliating.

The end of the movie has Ryan continuing to fly, but the zeal is gone. He no longer sparkles when talking to the ticket agent. He has lost the spring in his step as he drags his carry-on bag behind him. The fun is gone, and now he is just another passenger traveling from one destination to another.

How can a “give-me-true-love-or-give-me-death” kind of gal like me enjoy a movie like this? Because it made sense. People are wired to connect with other people. I loved watching him change to the person I knew he could be. And then, I was just as angry at Alex as he was. The story put me in his shoes; I empathized with him. That’s the key to any good story, by the way.

Don’t get me wrong. I longed to see him glance across the aisle to a pretty woman who shyly grins back, giving me some kind of hope that he would be okay. But I didn’t get it. For all I know, Ryan is still up in the air, sipping his cocktail, and avoiding commitment.

This, my writer-peeps, is how to write a character arc backwards. Ryan starts out happy with his life in perfect order. It changed when he met Alex, and he was still happy but his introspection changed. Disney would have given him a happily-ever-after. But the rule of arcing your character is not that the hero/heroine end up in contentment, but simply that they end up in a place different from where they started.

And the writer did it perfectly.

*******

Up In the Air - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/

What Jack and Elvis Do Not Have In Common

2010-05-28T15:48:00.001-06:00

Here’s my final tribute to LOST that, apparently, I’ve been doing this week. That wasn’t my intention, but, golly, that show was good.

I know many disagree, and that’s okay, but if you’d like one last commentary to help you digest the last six years, please go to Bryan Allain’s site for his recap of the show. Don’t know who Bryan Allain is? Neither did I until I saw his link on Facebook. Apparently, he’s a Christian with the tag line, “Daily Doses of Nonsense and Inspiration.” I think I shall friend him because he seems like my kind of guy.

Back to his article, “My Final Thoughts On Lost.” I hope you take the time to read it. He not only answered some questions, he also gave me a nugget of what I should do as a writer if I’m ever brave enough to write an epic novel. Or any novel with…say…more than two characters. (Okay, I have written novels with more than two characters, but I’m trying to make a point here.)

One word. Protagonist.

Have you ever watched a movie where you weren’t sure who the main character was? Frustrating, wasn’t it? I have yet to see all of Elvis Presley’s movie “The Trouble With Girls” about a traveling chataqua (school mixing education with entertainment) set in the early 1900s. Elvis is only on-screen about a third of the time, yet he’s supposed to be playing the main character. I’ve tried to watch it, but it’s like swimming through Mississippi mud. Just…couldn’t…quite…get…to…the…end…

The point is, regardless of how many characters or plots you have running through your story, concentrate on one person. Some of the unanswered questions on LOST were because the answers weren’t in Jack’s perspective. It’s his story, not Sayid’s, for instance. Why did Sayid “move on” with Shannon and not Nadia? Dunno. If it wasn’t important to Jack, it wasn’t important to the storyline.

That’s my takeaway. I can make my plotline look like a pretzel, I can have an island load of characters, I can even suspend disbelief. (Really Hurley? After all that exercise and natural food you lost no weight at all?) But, I’d better stick to one person through which my story is told. Even in the romances I write, even though I have clear plot skeletons for both hero and heroine, and each follow the hero’s journey, I lean to one character over the other to tell the story through.

So, once again, do yourselves a huge favor and go to Bryan’s site. He’s funny, a little snarky like me, and has great insight from a Christian perspective.

Writers of LOST Explain Their Process

2010-05-27T14:03:00.001-06:00

Just saw this cool article posted on Facebook by my friend, Kay Day. Thanks, Kay! It tells us the process that the writers of LOST went through to write their epic show. Of particular interest to me was how they brainstorm from Day1 to Day 4. Funny, insightful, encouraging. I don’t feel so inadequate with my own work after reading this.

Here’s the link to that article: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118002953.html?categoryId=3606&cs=1

LOST – What They Did Right

2010-05-24T15:46:00.002-06:00

It’s over.

Unlike some who are asking what they’re supposed to do with their lives now, I’m joining the choice few who have decided to blog about it—and move on.

I admit to getting hooked from the first episode. From day one, my little writer brain began spinning with possibilities. Not only for the great story I knew would be forthcoming, but also for the opportunities to learn my craft. Week after week I sat at the feet of the masters as they spun their tales, willing myself to become a sponge as I soaked in their wisdom.

Whatever you may think of the finale, you have to admit that these guys knew their stuff.

Let’s recap some writing rules and how LOST showcased them like a freshly mined diamond.

Create questions.

By the time Act 1 of the first episode was over, we had plenty of questions. The big one…What just happened? We have a downed airplane. A remote island. Will the survivors sleep in tiki huts, listen to a squawky radio made of bamboo, and eat a skipper’s weight in coconut pie? Or maybe it was just me who had that question.

Week after week questions were raised. What is the monster shaking the tops of the trees? How can Jack see his dead father? What is the light coming from the hatch? When the polar bear showed up, I threw out every lame theory in my head and started over.

Create conflict.

Uh. Yeah. The rule of conflict came into sharper focus for me during the finale. As each couple reunited, I recalled the high points and low points of their relationships. It seemed when something went right, you could expect something to go horribly wrong. It was a pendulum swing of “if this happens, then this should happen.”

Claire and Charlie had just become a happy threesome. Free-basing rocker Charlie had finally begun to think of someone besides himself, which led to him drowning in the freighter and saving his friends.
Jin and Sun resolved their differences. The couple who at first seemed miles apart, became so literally, and not just by miles, but by time as she stayed in the present and he was thrown to the ‘70s.
Sawyer and Juliette were living a peaceful existence in 1977 when she like, blew up. Dude!

Create believable characters.

It was through flashbacks that we really got to know the characters, where they were and where they were heading. Each one had serious arcs, yet it all made sense once we got the whole picture. We are cautioned against using flashbacks as new writers, but this show proved they could be done effectively.

I think the most serious arc, and probably the hardest to pull off, was Sayid. When we were first introduced to him, he pulled his weight, he made alliances, and we got to liking him. Really liking him. But then we found out he had been a torturer during the Gulf War. Whoa! That spun my mind around counter-clockwise. I had friends in that war, on the opposite side from where Sayid stood. How could I like this guy? But learning his softer side, even in the flashbacks, and through his redemptive actions, I got to liking him again. But then, in the last season, the writers made him bad again. By this time, I knew we were watching a spiritual parable, and I so feared that Sayid would be truly lost. However, he rallied, and I was so happy to see him in the Sideways Church ready to move on into the light.

Whatever you may have felt about the season finale, I think as writer you have to admit that the show as a whole was done extremely well.

As a Christian, the works=salvation message wasn’t “lost” on me, but that didn’t ruin my experience or keep me from rooting and cheering for each character as they “got it.” I pray as people discuss the show, this puts them on their own journeys down the true path that leads to God, Jesus Christ.

And speaking of true paths, I also wasn’t happy when the show took an “all paths lead to enlightenment” approach, but honestly, that felt like a tag on that the writers felt was needed to please most of the people all of the time. The show as a whole, I felt, had a strong Christian influence, from the name Shepherd to the Jesus statue outside of the church. If you need a point made on what not to do, that’s what I would caution. Don’t stick something in that doesn’t belong just to please your readers. Be true to your story. Be true to your characters.

The following links are some insightful commentaries I’ve found on LOST.

Christian author Susan Meissner says everything I wanted to say in this article, but I chose to stay with the craft of writing theme. Click here.
Airlock Alpha has a positive spin on the show and finale. I’m getting a little weary of the comments lambasting the show because it didn’t answer all of the questions. It’s fiction people! Use your own imaginations. This website is a breath of fresh air from the negativity. Click here.
E-Online answers some of your nagging questions in short You Tube type videos. Click here.
The NYDailyNews.com addresses the spiritual aspect of the series. In much of the article I wanted to pump my fist and yell “Yes!” Click here.

I will remember LOST for the stellar writing, the characters that became family, and the spiritual theme: …For this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found. Luke 15:32b

********

Lost - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0411008/

Legally Blonde

2010-05-21T10:00:00.001-06:00

When the Arc Belongs to Someone Else

I’m too old to have a child graduating from anything, and too young for a grandchild to be graduating, unless you can count kindergarten. But with all the talk from my friends on Facebook who are celebrating graduations around the nation, I've decided to honor that tradition today.

Not coming into this prepared, and if I had I’m sure the world would implode, I thought I’d write about the first movie I could think of that had a graduation scene in it. Legally Blonde popped into my head. My apologies.

Actually, Legally Blonde is a great study on character arc, but not necessarily from the heroine’s point of view. Sure, Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) starts out as a sorority queen acting like the stereotypically self-absorbed dumb blonde. But as the movie progresses, her true colors, predominantly pink, shine forth and we see her as an intelligent, caring, beautiful woman on the inside. She shatters the dumb blonde myth, but I don’t see this as an arc. Elle is pretty much the same from start to finish, we just see deeper layers throughout the film.

But her arch enemy, Vivian Kennsington. Ah, now there’s an arc.

Elle decides to attend Harvard Law so she can win back her boyfriend/lizard, Warner Huntington III (Matthew Davis.) But, she finds out he has a new love interest, Vivian, (played by Selma Blair,) a vile brunette dressed in even viler dark clothes. She torments Elle throughout much of the second act. But slowly, she begins to soften as Elle wins her over.

The turning point for Vivian is when she sees Warner for who he truly is. This happens during the trial for which they are all interning under their professor (Victor Garber.) Warner shows no compassion and says something stupid about Elle. From this moment on, Vivian wears her hair softer and the stark black clothes are replaced with lighter colors. She then befriends Elle.

Vivian even has a black moment when she thinks Elle is sleeping her way to the top. A half-heard conversation between Elle and their professor/jerk creates a misunderstanding, and she believes once again that Elle is simply a blonde bimbo whose beauty puts her at the head of the class. This, our astute imaginations have figured out, is something that has happened often in Vivian’s lifetime, and why she was so antagonistic toward Elle in the first place.

Her ah-ha moment comes toward the end where she sees she had misjudged Elle, and they are once again not only friends—but friends for life.

Why does this movie work without a strong character arc for the main character? Perhaps it’s her over-the-top personality. Or maybe it is that Vivian, a secondary character, takes up that slack. I don’t know, but it’s worth studying if you have a storyline where the main character doesn’t change much throughout.

Check out the fun quotes from the movie!

Alice in Wonderland 2010 - Review

2010-05-19T11:04:00.004-06:00

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.The Jabberwock, with eyes aflame, Jaws that bait and claws that catch, Beware the Jabberwock, my son, The frumious Bandersnatch He took his vorpal sword in hand The vorpal blade went snicker-snack He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back.

Alice In Wonderland. An odd movie, but then again I expected that having grown up with the cute little Disney cartoon where baby clams sleep in their beds and flowers with faces sing. Doorknobs protest when twisted and purple cats that sound like Winnie the Pooh grin maddeningly until they turn into a crescent moon.

But this Alice is typical Timothy Burton--dark and melancholy--yet still manages to maintain the wonder of the colorful 1951 version.

I liked it.

Burton, according to IMDb, never felt an emotional connection to the other Alice in Wonderland films out there. They all seem to be about a girl wandering around from one crazy character to the other, which is actually what the original books by Lewis Carroll are about. "So with this," says IMDb, "he attempted to create a framework, an emotional grounding... Tim said that was the challenge for him--to make Alice feel like a story as opposed to a series of events."

This, gentle writers, results in a clear character arc. Alice starts out as one person, but becomes another. Thank you, Mr. Burton, for taking the general nightmare of Alice's life and making it mean something.

I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars. The plot makes sense, the arc is clear, and there are no singing flowers, although they do complain a lot.

In the premise, as alluded to in the various movie trailers, (so I don't think I'm giving anything away,) Alice has returned to Underland. She doesn't remember, of course, because she was a child and thought it all a dream. With this knowledge, the Mad Hatter knew the younger version of Alice. Now, however, he's not impressed with the nineteen-year-old that has fallen through the rabbit hole. Following is key dialogue to Alice's growth:

The Mad Hatter: You're not the same as you were before. You were much more..."muchier." You've lost your "muchness"
Alice Kingsley: My "muchness"?
The Mad Hatter: [Points to Alice's heart] In there.

I love that line. "You've lost your muchness." Words to live by.

Do go see this movie before you are late for a very important date--the day Alice moves on into DVD land.

How To Train Your Dragon -- Review

2010-05-12T01:16:00.001-06:00

I LOVE Dreamworks movies. Shrek 1-3, Madagascar, Bee Movie, Over the Hedge, etc. all have more going for them than superior animation. The stories are crafted well, have a strong moral, and just generally make me feel good. How To Train Your Dragon follows in the tradition with witty dialogue and tear at your heartstrings action.

The short synopsis on this film is this: A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.

There is teen angst, father/son misunderstandings, and friendship in unlikely places. There's even a girl--everything needed to form a strong character arc.

It also has plenty of action, and not just the meaningless roller coaster ride for the thrill of 3D. Every movement has a purpose. Every word spoken moves the story forward. Every second of the story peels another layer to get us deeper involved.

I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars. Saddle up your dragon and go see it!

The Character Who Wasn't There

2010-05-06T15:56:00.006-06:00

In honor of Mother's Day, I'd like to talk about a good old Western. I know. Mother's Day and westerns don't seem to go together. But the movie I'd like to highlight today has a very strong maternal influence. Last Saturday, I wandered into the living room where hubby was watching one of John Wayne's all time greats, The Sons of Katie Elder.

But how can this be a movie honoring mothers when we never see her throughout the entire movie? No, I'm not talking about the Invisible Man/Woman/Honey I Shrunk the Kids scenario. When the story opens, Katie has already died. We see her staunch personality through the eyes of the townspeople as her four prodigal sons interview them to find out who swindled her out of the family ranch and who killed their pa. It is her friends and neighbors who watched Katie endure the humiliation of three no 'count sons (the fourth she had sent off to school) and a gambling husband who didn't deserve her.

A word about the four sons. If it weren't enough that the second son, Tom (played by Dean Martin,) takes after his father, and Matt, (played by Earl Holoman,) has a history of trouble, the eldest, John (played by John Wayne,) is a gunfighter. We'll find out in a minute how much Katie hated killing. The last son, Bud, (played by Michael Anderson, Jr.,) is the last redemption for this dysfunctional family. He was away at college when his mother died. But he thinks now he can quit school and join the band of brothers in their misdeeds. To the older brothers' credits, and in my best John Wayne accent, "It ain'a gonna happen, mister."

In the beginning of the movie, we are drawn in to this family through Katie. She's the one who has sacrificed for the people she loves. She has two dresses to her name while she gave selflessly to others in need. All her other resources went to send Bud, the youngest, to school. We see she had spunk when she had arranged with a man from Pecos to take his overabundance of horses off his hands, even though she had no money. But she had been willing to deal, and suggested that when she sold the horses, they both would profit. This, the brothers surmise, was to keep Bud in school. Furthermore, we find out through the town and through Katie's friend, a young woman named Mary Gordon, (played by Martha Hyer,) that Katie wouldn't want her boys to find out who killed their father and stole the ranch, because that would only lead to more killing. During a telling scene into Katie's character between Mary and John, she tells him that Katie wanted her to read his letters. But, Mary points out, when the tone changed, presumably as John spiraled into the killing lifestyle, she noticed something had changed--but Katie did not.

A mother's love. The closest thing to God's unconditional love on this earth.

The four brothers provide plenty of lighter moments as they bicker and roughhouse. One memorable scene is when Bud is sassing off to big brother John about going back to school. John tells him, "All we want to do is make you end up rich and respectable." Bud replies, "I don't want to be rich and respectable. I want to be just like the rest of you."

But the most poignant scene is when they're discussing a monument to Katie after John finds the family Bible. Bud suggests a stone angel. He'd seen one with it's finger pointing up. But someone shot the finger off and then it just looked like it was shaking its fist. Matt suggests something of marble, and Tom's contribution is a horse.

"A horse?" John asks with a distasteful look on his face.

"Why not?" Tom says. "Ma liked horses."

Matt joins in. "How would you like to spend eternity with a horse on top of you?"

John reins them all in. Katie, he says, wants them to amount to something. That's the monument they should give to honor her love.

And through the rest of the movie, they try to do what Katie would want them to do, despite insurmountable odds.

To me, The Sons of Katie Elder is not only an excellent way to study characterization even for off screen characters, it's the perfect Mother's Day movie.

A Twitch and a Spit

2010-04-30T15:07:00.006-06:00

I watched The Fantastic Mr. Fox the other night on DVD. Based on a children's book by Roald Dahl, the movie was nominated in two categories at this year's Oscars--Original Score and Animated Feature Film. Alas, it lost to the movie Up on both counts.

Here's a brief synopsis: The stylish Mr. Fox has retired from chicken thievery and is now a journalist and family man. Bored with his staid life, however, he decides to make a brief return to crime that will put him at odds with local farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean.

I enjoyed the film once I got past the "normalness" of the characters. You'd think after watching the Nickelodeon channel with my grandchildren, I'd be used to seeing animals dressed in clothes and living human lives.

The one takeaway I received from this movie from a craft standpoint came from the title character's son, Ash. Poor little guy couldn't get any respect, not from his family or friends. A smallish fox, Ash tries to compete with the larger boys in his class, only to be shot down for his efforts. And when Dad decides to go back into the chicken stealing business, Ash's golden-child cousin gets to go along, but Ash is told he will only ruin the outing.

What I liked about this character was the body tags he used to show his displeasure. When he was told he couldn't do something, his ear would twitch, ever so slightly, and then he'd spit. This became a vehicle throughout the movie that I began to look forward to. The director of the film knew how to use it, because it got to where there would be a slight pause so that in my mind I'd be saying, "Wait for it..." and then the ear would twitch, Ash would spit, and I was delighted that I knew it was going to happen.

This is an excellent way to characterize. It works especially well for secondary characters who don't get as much on-air time as the main characters. But, as in everything, it must be done with a light touch. In Writer Land we often use the example of seasoning. Too much salt will spoil the menu, but just the right seasoning, and voila! Culinary delight.

Ash's role in The Fantastic Mr. Fox provided just the right seasoning. Watch it for yourself to learn how to create body tags for your characters.

For a full list of nominees and winners at this year's Oscar ceremony, go to Oscar.com.

Here is some fun trivia on the movie from IMDb:

The look of the film was inspired by Great Missenden, a village in Buckinghamshire, England, where Roald Dahl lived and worked. The tree where the Fox family lives is based on a prominent beech tree on Dahl's property, and Mr Fox's study recreates in minute detail the interior of the famous garden hut in which Dahl did most of his writing.
Mr. Fox's implanting of sleeping powder into blueberries for unsuspecting guard dogs to consume was taken from another Roald Dahl book,Danny the Champion of the World, in which grapes were used similarly on unsuspecting pheasants. When the Dahl attorneys learned of this, they wanted it removed. But because it had already been filmed, Wes Anderson pleaded with them and was able to keep it in the film.
Wes Anderson chose to have the actors record their dialogue outside of a studio and on location to increase the naturalness: "We went out in a forest, went in an attic, went in a stable... we went underground for some things. There was a great spontaneity in the recordings because of that."
Portions of the audio version of the book can be heard in the film. The music Bunce is listening to on headphones when Mr Fox first steals from his farm is the theme music from the audio book.
The inspiration for the naming of the character Kristofferson came from singer, songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson, not only because both Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach are fans of his work, but also because they simply liked the name.
Throughout the film, the word "cuss" is used in place of actual cursing. When asked about its origin in a radio interview on "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, Wes Anderson said, "I don't even remember. It think it was just to use the concept of profanity as a replacement for profanity itself. It turned out to be very versatile." In keeping with this theme, one of the buildings seen in the film bears "CUSS" written as spray-painted graffiti.
The color scheme of the movie is primarily autumnal (yellows, oranges, and browns) with virtually no green and blue. However, Kristofferson's blue-colored wardrobe was intentional, as it emphasized his being a visiting outsider.
Mr Fox is not all that dissimilar from Danny Ocean, the master thief George Clooney plays in the Oceans 11 series. The whole film is about him pulling off the greatest heist of his life.

Summer movies: Comics, Classics, Cartoons...and Face

2010-04-28T12:09:00.005-06:00

I missed Friday's post because I was on a mountain retreating. ACFW Colorado hosted the annual get-away where we all refocused our lives and our writing to point to our Lord Jesus Christ. It was deep. It was fun. It was exhausting.

As a bonus gift for missing my post, I want to point you to this link at the ReelzChannel. It lists the summer movies coming out this year. I'm particularly excited about these:

May 7 - Iron Man 2 (Thoroughly enjoyed the first one. Even bought the DVD!)
May 14 - Robin Hood (Not hugely big on Russel Crowe, but interested to see what they do with the story.)
May 21 - Shrek Forever After (I think it's the whole retelling the fairy tale thing for me.)
June 11 - A-Team (But they'd better have someone pretty enough to be named Face!)
June 13 - Toy Story 3 (You have to un-American not to be anticipating this one.)
June 25 - The Green Hornet (Okay, I'm more excited for my hubby. I was never a fan.)
July 9 - Despicable Me (More curious than excited.)

See you all at the movies!

What's In A Name?

2010-04-16T10:00:00.003-06:00

If you're a writer, and you haven't yet experienced the ABC hit Castle, I urge you to get online and view the past episodes.

This is Wikipedia's synopsis of the series:

Castle follows Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle, a famous mystery novelist who has killed off his main character in his book series and has writer's block. Castle is called in to help the NYPD solve a copy-cat murder based on one of his novels. Stana Katic stars opposite as the young determined detective Kate Beckett. Castle, who becomes interested in Beckett as a potential character for a new book series, uses his contacts and receives permission to continue accompany Beckett while investigating cases. Castle decides to use Beckett as the model for the main character of his next book series, starring "Nikki Heat". Beckett, an avid reader of Castle's books, is initially disapproving of having Castle shadow her on her cases, but later warms up and recognizes Castle as a useful resource in solving crimes. While technically a drama series, Castle also features comedy and romantic tension.

Yes. It's a show about a writer written by, well, writers. Every week they sneak in tidbits that writers can relate to, such as this gem from an episode titled "The Double Down":

Beckett: [reads what is written on a therapist's dead body] "Your out of time"?

Lanie Parish (coroner): Looks like a patient lost their patience.

Castle: Also his command of grammar. "Your" should be You-apostrophe-R-E as in "you are." That's not even a tough one, not like when to use "who" or "whom."

Beckett: You really think that's the take-away here, Castle?

Castle: I'm just saying - whoever killed her also murdered the English language.

In this week's episode, "The Late Shaft", Beckett wants to bring in a man for questioning. When she tells Castle his name, Zach Robinson, Castle says, "Good villain name! Sneaky Z, hard k-sound." This dialogue goes by so fast, my husband missed it. When I laughed, he made me rewind the DVR so he could catch it. I'm tuned in to these little writeresque moments. My electronics technician hubby is not.

This got me thinking about names. I've heard that my character's name should reflect their...um...character. The above exchange is a perfect example. Keeping with the villain theme, I started wondering about famous villains in movies. How many of them had audibly harsh names? No offense to the Zachs of this world, or any of the names represented in the following list of villains:

Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) - The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) - The Godfarther Part II (1974)
Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) - Misery (1990)
Max Cady (Robert Mitchum) - Cape Fear (1962)
Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) - A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) - Wall Street (1987) (Kathy's note: The beloved icon Geico Gekko had not yet been created.)
Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) - Dracula (1931)
Graf Orlok (Max Schreck) - Nosferatu (1922) (Kathy's note: Never saw it, but isn't that a great villain name?)
Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) - Mommie Dearest (1981) (Kathy's note: Sorry. Couldn't resist. :-> )
Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) - Die Hard (1988)
Regina Giddens (Bette Davis) - The Little Foxes (1941)
Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) - Apocalypse Now (1979)
Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare) - Fargo (1996)
Gollum (Andy Serkis) - Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King (2003)
Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone) - The Adventures of Robin Hood - (1938)
General Zod (Terrance Stamp) - Superman II (1980)
Frank Fitts (Chris Cooper) - American Beauty (1999)
Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) - Robocop (1987)
Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) - A View To A Kill (1985)

Note the hard sounds of G and K. The disquieting pairings of "ctr" as in Lecter, "tch" as in Ratched, and "tz" as in Kurtz. And the ugly way your mouth twists when you say, Graf Orlok, Gaear Grimsrud, Frank Fitts . . . Joan Crawford. :->

This little lesson is making me rethink my own name. Kathy Kovach. All those hard Ks. What must people think of me?

Top Ten Science Fiction Movies -- Featuring Star Wars

2010-04-09T08:00:00.001-06:00

In a land far, far away lived a writer who loved movies too much. (Um...that would be me.)

Today we look at Science Fiction films. Here are the top 10 according to the American Film Institute:

Top Ten Sci-Fi:

1 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)

2 STAR WARS: EPISODE IV- A NEW HOPE (1977)

3 E.T. - THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL (1982)

4 CLOCKWORK ORANGE, A (1971)

5 DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, THE (1951)

6 BLADE RUNNER (1982)

7 ALIEN (1979)

8 TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (1991)

9 INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)

10 BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985)

Trivia on Star Wars:

Peter Mayhew (who played Chewbacca) worked as an orderly in a Yorkshire hospital prior to being cast in the movie. He won his role ten seconds after meetingGeorge Lucas for the first time; all the 7'2" Mayhew had to do was stand up.
Stunt doubles were not used for the scene in which Luke and Leia swing to safety. Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill performed that stunt themselves, shooting it in just one take.
According to Mark Hamill, studio executives were unhappy that Chewbacca has no clothes and attempted to have the costume redesigned with shorts.
Carrie Fisher found the dialogue to be very difficult, later saying, "You can type this stuff, but you can't say it". Harrison Ford had similar trouble (particularly in the scene where the Millenium Falcon leaves Tatooine), and persuaded George Lucas to let him change several lines. (Tip to writers: Read your stuff out loud to see if rings true.)
Though the only thing Chewbacca can say from start to finish is a Wookiee growl, he has the last line in the film.
The Chewbacca suit retained a bad smell for the duration of filming after the trash-compactor scene.
Mark Hamill held his breath for so long during the trash compactor scene that he broke a blood vessel in his face. Subsequent shots are from one side only.
George Lucas came up with the name R2-D2 during post-production of American Graffiti (1973). One of the sound crew wanted Lucas to retrieve Reel #2 of the Second Dialogue track. In post-production parlance, this came out as "could you get R2-D2 for me?". Lucas liked the sound of that and noted it down for future use.
The first science fiction film to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award.
My first son was born the same year this movie hit the big screen. Yes. I'm that old.

Craft Lesson - The Hero's Journey

Star Wars is often used in writer-land as a model of the Hero's Journey. It follows along the classic arc as clarified by Christopher Vogler in The Writer's Journey and Stuart Voytilla in Myth and the Movies. The teaching is that all good stories have a sort of formula. The character should come full circle from who they once were to who they are now. The journey is what makes up the story. To understand fully how to move a character through a story without making him look like a chess piece, I urge you to check out Voytilla's book. But here's just a taste of how I perceive the hero's arc in Star Wars:

Ordinary World - Luke lives on his uncle's farm
Call to Adventure - Princess Leia shows up as a hologram. This spurs Luke to find Obi Wan Kenobi (her only hope) who tells Luke about his heritage and invites him to come with him to fight the evil Empire ruled by Darth Vader.
Refusal of call - Luke feels inadequate, and besides, his uncle needs him.
Crossing the Threshold - Luke's aunt and uncle are massacred. There's nothing keeping him there now. He joins Obi Wan.
Tests, Allies, and Enemies - Luke learns who to trust and who not to trust as he encounters Storm Troopers and other Empire lackeys. Han Solo and Chewbacca turn out to be valuable allies.
Approach the Inmost Cave - Literally or figuratively, the hero should find himself someplace dark and dangerous. In this case, it's the large trash-compactor in the enemy ship.
The Ordeal - After much Light-Sabering, Luke and his team, along with the rescued princess make it to the Millennium Falcon (Han's ship). But Luke's mentor, Obi Wan, sacrifices himself at the hands of Darth Vader so the others can escape.
Reward - Escape from the enemy ship.
Road Back - The Rebellion (the good guys) rally the troops and Luke joins them as a fighter pilot. They plot to destroy the Death Star.
Resurrection - No longer a country bumpkin, Luke is now wise to the ways of the force, and a hero in the making.
Return with the Elixir - Luke destroys the Death Star.

Enjoy this You Tube tribute to George Lucas. Carrie is hilarious as she describes her experience as Princess Leia.

*****

Source:

The Internet Movie Database

The American Film Institute

Top Ten Fantasy Movies -- Featuring The Wizard of Oz

2010-04-02T08:00:00.003-06:00

Welcome to Fun Fact Friday! Today we draw from the Top 10 Fantasy Movies to date. I'm sure down the road Avatar will make the list, but I sure hope it doesn't knock Oz of the map.

Top Ten Fantasy Movies

1 WIZARD OF OZ, THE (1939)

2 LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001)

3 IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1947)

4 KING KONG (1933)

5 MIRACLE ON 34th STREET (1947)

6 FIELD OF DREAMS (1989)

7 HARVEY (1950)

8 GROUNDHOG DAY (1993)

9 THIEF OF BAGDAD, THE (1924)

10 BIG (1988)

Trivia on the Wizard of Oz:

The horses in Emerald City palace were colored with Jell-O crystals. The relevant scenes had to be shot quickly, before the horses started to lick it off.
Judy Garland's portrayal of Dorothy was the main inspiration for the character of Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island" (1964).
In the song "If I Only Had A Heart", the girl who says, "Wherefore art thou, Romeo?" is Adriana Caselotti, the voice of Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
When The Witch tries to get off the Ruby Slippers, fire strikes her hands. This "fire" was actually dark apple juice spewing out of the shoes. The film was sped up to make it look like fire.
When the wardrobe department was looking for a coat for Frank Morgan (Professor Marvel / The Wizard), they decided they wanted one that looked like it had once been elegant but had since "gone to seed". They visited a second-hand store and purchased an entire rack of coats, from which Morgan, the head of the wardrobe department, and director Victor Fleming chose one they felt gave off the perfect appearance of "shabby gentility". One day, while he was on set in the coat, Morgan idly turned out one of the pockets and discovered a label indicating that the coat had been made for L. Frank Baum. Mary Mayer, a unit publicist for the film, contacted the tailor and Baum's widow, who both verified that the coat had at one time been owned by the author of the original "Wizard of Oz" books. After the filming was completed, the coat was presented to Mrs. Baum.
I saw Wicked, the Broadway play, recently and enjoyed the story from the Wicked Witch of the West's point of view. Very well done. I also read the book. My commentary: Ick. See the play, skip the book. (By the way, the author of the book, Gregory Maguire, realized that the witch was never given a name. So he made one up: Elfaba, which pays tribute to the original author of the beloved children's books, L. Frank Baum.) I have also viewed the film a hundred-eleventy times. Besides seeing it every year on my own television set growing up, it's my granddaughter's favorite movie. 'Nuf said.

Craft Lesson - Subtle Character Attributes

In the following You Tube offering, Harold Ramis mentions the gifts that the Wizard gave to Dorothy's three companions. How they also apply to Dorothy shows the creative process when developing a character.

After watching the You Tube video, I invite you to read my article, "WE'RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE --An Allegorical View Depicting the Writer's Life."

*****

Source:

The Internet Movie Database

The American Film Institute

Top Ten Animated Movies - Featuring The Lion King

2010-03-26T11:31:00.005-06:00

FUN FACT FRIDAY!

This is a new feature that will list the top movies and trivia in different categories. These will include genres, characters, even songs. Watch for Craft Lessons, as well. I can't guarantee that all elements will be included every Friday, but below is what I hope to strive for in some coherent order.

Top Ten Animated Movies

1 SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)

2 PINOCCHIO (1940)

3 BAMBI (1942)

4 LION KING, THE (1994)

5 FANTASIA (1942)

6 TOY STORY (1995)

7 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1991)

8 SHREK (2001)

9 CINDERELLA (1950)

10 FINDING NEMO (2003)

Trivia on The Lion King:

Mickey Mouse appears in two cameos: 1)One of the bugs that Timon pulls out of a knothole during Hakuna Matata is wearing Mickey Mouse ears. 2) When Mufasa tells Simba about the Great Kings of the Past if you look at the stars in the wide shot you can see Mickey Mouse.
There have been rumors that when Simba collapses on the cliff after talking with Timon and Pumbaa about stars, the dust that flies off the cliff forms the letters SEX. In fact it forms the letters SFX, the abbreviation of the special-effects team that worked on that portion of the film.
I saw the Broadway version of The Lion King at the Denver Center for Performing Arts. As a puppet buff, (that's a bit of trivia in itself!) I thought I'd died and gone to puppet heaven. The special effects in this live action performance that had nothing to do with computer generated "anything" and left me breathless. If it comes to your town, SEE IT!

Craft Lesson - There is nothing new under the sun.:

The plot-line is loosely based upon William Shakespeare's Hamlet; a story of a young prince whose uncle takes over the kingdom and marries the queen after killing the king/prince's father. After being away from home for a period of time, these events lead to the prince's plans for revenge. The prince receives some advice from his father's ghost. Also, during the scene where Zazu sings I've got a lovely bunch of Coconuts, Scar Has a skull in his hand.
Besides inspirations from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the story also has elements of the Osirian family myths of Ancient Egyptian mythology. In the Osirian myths, the king (Mufasa/Osiris) is killed by his jealous brother (Scar/Seth) and the rightful heir (Simba/Horus) is sent into exile as a boy. The murdered king visits and mentors his son in ghostly visits and when the heir comes of age, he returns to exact revenge on his father's murderer.

In the You Tube video, Nathan Lane describes how he and Ernie Sabella won the role of Timon, the meercat, and Pumbaa, the warthog.

Hakuna Matata, Everybody!

*****

Source:

The Internet Movie Database

The American Film Institute

What is the real Fatal Attraction?

2010-03-25T12:16:00.007-06:00

Has it really been five months since I posted? What's wrong with me? Have I abandoned my readers? Will they ever trust me again?

Okay, internalization aside--I had some deadlines for the paying job that took precedence. The fruit of that labor is a three-book series set in contemporary Oregon. God Gave the Song is out now, Crossroads Bay is due out next month, and Fine Feathered Friend just finished the editorial process. These books are published through Heartsong Presents, a book club for Barbour Publishing, and will eventually be bundled together into one book and sold to bookstores. But you can order them directly from the publisher if you'd like. Just follow the links by clicking on the titles above.

Consider the above paragraph an ad, like what you see in the theater just before the movie that goes into way too much detail just because you're a captive audience. Yeah. Just like that.

Now on to our feature presentation.

Fatal Attraction, (the movie, not the trend among celebrity husbands lately,) is the focus of my thought today. I had an aha moment regarding this film during Oprah's Oscar special where the stars interviewed each other. Glenn Close and Michael Douglas sat in empty theater seats and chatted about their 1987 suspense flick. It was cute to see them gush over each other's work and blush in appropriate places. But the mood changed when Michael mentioned the end of the film. You could tell he knew what reaction he would elicit from Glenn, but I was totally caught by surprise.

It turns out that the producers changed the ending to give the movie more marketability. And in doing so, ruined the character, Alex Forrest, played by Glenn Close. At least, that's what she believed. And after hearing her passionate explanation of events, I tend to agree with her. She had finished filming, but then a few weeks later, the producers brought her back to shoot a different ending.

The final act, if you recall, is kicked off by the pet rabbit, slaughtered and stewing in a pot on the stove. Alex has lost it, and now she's out for blood. The rest of the movie involves thrashing, survival, sharp objects--everything you'd expect from a thriller as Alex dukes it out with Anne Archer, who plays Douglas's wife, and Douglas himself. After the nail-biting action, Alex ends up dead in the bathtub at the hands of her would-be lover. A pitiful creature with a truly fatal attraction.

But that's not how the film was originally shot. According to Glenn, the ending was much sadder for her character. Alex, sitting cross-legged on the bathroom floor, tragically slits her own throat. A much more poignant film, one with a more powerful message, perhaps.

Glenn said she had done a lot of research on this character. What makes her tick? Why does she believe this relationship can work? How will she end it when she knows she's lost? That last question had been answered in the first cut, where she took her own life. But the powers-that-be at Paramount Pictures decided to give the people what they want--a knock down, drag out Freddy Kruger type of ending. This cheapened Alex's journey, and turned her into a much more twisted, evil character than was originally intended.

Sad.

As writers, we must hold true to our research. If we find out what makes a person tick, we shouldn't turn that into a time bomb just to make our work more flashy, dare I say--more marketable. If you spend several hundred pages putting flesh, bones, and thoughts into a character, be true to that character.

Was the real fatal attraction our bent for violence? Was the audience so blood-thirsty that it demanded yet another slasher film? Did Fatal Attraction benefit from this changed ending? Well, box office numbers don't lie. Perhaps it did sell more tickets than it would have with the artsier ending. But then again, people could be whispering about how it still haunts them.

Instead, they talk about the rabbit.

*******

Fatal Attraction - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093010/

Cut Loose That Footloose Villain!

2009-10-16T21:54:00.005-06:00

Don your legwarmers! Fluff your hair! Turn up your radio! It's 80's Dance Party!

Or not.

At least not in the small Midwestern town to where teen aged Ren (Kevin Bacon) has relocated from Chicago. Dancing has been banned by the one and only pastor (John Lithgow) who has taken it upon himself to be the moral voice of reason for every family in his flock.

We're talking about the movie Footloose. I watched the 1984 rerun for the first time in at least twenty years the other night. The music had my feet stompin' and had I not been in my mother's tiny senior apartment, I may have cut loose. Now, if I can silence the title song from my head long enough to write this article, I'll continue.

While much of this movie is silly, the writers did do something right with the characters. They gave them depth, which in our world translates to believability.

We believe that Ren is tired of being labeled the "bad boy" simply because of where he's from. We believe the PK (preacher's kid) Ariel, played by Lori Singer, is a deeply troubled young woman because of her strict upbringing. And we believe that Reverend Shaw Moore wants to save the rebellious youth in his town. And why? Because his son was killed after a night of drinking and dancing.

Rev. Moore is the major antagonist in this story. The writers didn't do the typical thing and made him strict because of his religious beliefs alone. They upped his conflict in the back story. Rev. Moore lost a child due to the very thing he now opposes. And that gives his character depth.

When we create our villains, it is so important not to make them Disney cartoons. That worked for Walt but it won't work for us. All of our characters need a reason to do the things they do. A good reason. Not just because they're inherently wicked, but because something has happened in their past to make them that way. And even more importantly, they need to think that what they're doing is the right thing. Rev. Moore sincerely thought it was his calling, no, his duty to protect the young people in his town and keep each and every one of them from suffering the same fate as his son. This made his cause noble, if not a little misplaced.

So, to recap, give your antagonists depth by giving them a reason for what they do, and give them a noble cause that is only noble in their own minds. That will make them believable and entertaining enough for the readers to keep turning those pages.

EVERYBODY SING!

Tonight we're gonna cut loose

Footloose

Kick off your Sunday shoes

Please, Louise

pull me off a my knees

Jack, get back

C'mon before we crack

Lose your blues

Everybody cut footloose

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

2009-06-30T00:15:00.011-06:00

Hubby and I are sitting here watching the greatest summer movie of all time, The Greatest Show On Earth with Charleton Heston, Jimmy Stewart, Betty Hutton, and Cornel Wilde.

Because I can't just watch a movie anymore--I have to analyze it--I ask hubby who he thinks is the main character. By now, he just rolls with my craft obsession. We launch into an intense discussion about this and several more movies of which that question needs to be asked.

Regarding the movie of topic, I listed the four mains above, but they each have strong storylines, each have plenty to lose--the criteria for knowing who the main character is.

Heston is the owner of the circus. A lot happens under the big top, and he's responsible for it all. What about Stewart? He plays a clown who hides under his makeup. He's a doctor who is responsible for the death of a patient. And Hutton? She fights for the center ring and finally gets it because of a fallen comrad. Her guilt eats away at her. Wilde has an accident. Is his trapeze career over? But above all four main characters, there is one that I haven't mentioned yet.

Or have I?

Take the movie, Twister, another summer fave. A romantic story between Helen Hunt and Bill
Paxton ensues. One would think they share top billing. But do they? Maybe the main character is someone different entirely. Yes, I have mentioned that character.

What about Showboat? There are a lot of characters in that story. Who is the main character? Or The Alamo? Rich history (although somewhat inaccurate) is told through the characters, but the Texas mission itself is the primary one we care the most about.

May I suggest that the question isn't WHO is the main character in each of these stories, but WHAT?

Midway, a WWII movie with a slew of characters and storylines, was actually about the island, Midway, and the battles fought over it for control. The Japanese wanted it to launch attacks from, the Americans owned it, and defended it to keep that from happening. In this case, the island has the most to lose.

Yes, I'm suggesting that the main character need not be human. I'm sure you can think of several movies where you aren't sure who the main character is. In that case, perhaps the backdrop holds that honor.

In Twister, the backdrop is the storms and finally, that one F5 that nearly takes the characters lives, but actually leads Hunt and Paxton to success in their research for an early warning system. As such, the tornado loses its punch because it "knows" it can no longer surprise people in the middle of the night. That final twister is the main character.

And in The Greatest Show On Earth, the circus is the main character. In the final scene, it is crippled from a train wreck. Will the show go on? The circus breathes life and the characters under its canvas are its heartbeat. And to bring that point home, the boss man, Heston, is accused of having sawdust in his veins.

Here's something else to ponder. Could the main character be something that isn't tangible? An ideal perhaps. Take Journey to the Center of the Earth. Could the main character be the journey itself? Or is that just the backdrop? Does the journey have the most to lose? Hm. Perhaps not. What about The Hunt for Red October?

A Russian submarine captain defects, taking the Red October with him. Now the US and the Russians are hunting for it. Is the sub the main character, or the hunt for the sub? The title suggests the latter. That hunt is what drives the movie. It is important for both parties to be the first to find the sub. I suggest that the Hunt is the main character.

We are now taught that you must have one character for the readers to identify with. Some storylines call for a plethora of characters and plots. Yes, by today's standards, we may have to comply and showcase actual people, especially the new author. But once you're seasoned, and really know what you're doing, it would be great to see stories where the backdrops take center stage.

As you think about writing that breakout novel, remember to create a strong backdrop. Make it a character in itself, and maybe, it will steal the spotlight. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Consider the following movies, (which hubby helped me compile) and decide for yourself. Is the title character the main, or is it simply the backdrop?

The African Queen

The Poseidon Adventure

The Titanic

Stage Coach

The War Wagon

Air Force One

Towering Inferno

Cliffhanger

Apollo 13

The Rock

Narnia

42nd Street

New York, New York

Chicago

Oklahoma

Gettysburg

Tombstone

South Pacific

Jewel of the Nile

Police Academy

Back Draft

Big Trouble in Little China

Brigadoon

Murder on the Orient Express

Holiday Inn

Gunfight at the OK Corral

How the West Was Won

Royal Wedding

The Great Race

The Great Escape

Stalag 13

The Guns of Navarone

The Bridge over the River Kwai

The television shows:
Gilligan's Island
The Love Boat
Fantasy Island
Hotel

The Proposal - My Review

2009-06-26T22:29:00.011-06:00

I saw The Proposal tonight. Sandra Bullock is back! She's so funny, and has the ability to do drama. Her characters show depth, and that's why she's my fave female actress. The male protagonist, Ryan Reynolds, also proved himself as a fine actor, able to play humor with realism that endeared me to him with every passing minute of this movie.

I strive to write like that. Sprinkle in the humor, but give my characters depth. I write sweet romances, but that doesn't mean my characters can't have real issues. In Merely Players, (now available in the 3-in-1 Florida Weddings available here,) my hero was abused by his father. This shaped him into the adult he became, one more comfortable playing a role than being himself. In my next book, God Gave the Song, (available in November 2009 through Barbour Publishing's Heartsong Presents,) my hero was abandonded by his hippie mother. And in my current work in progress, Crossroads Bay, my heroine needs to save face, proving her father wasn't crazy for chasing his dream.

In all three stories, I've added giggles here and there, but hopefully I haven't missed the real issues, and the spiritual struggles that round out real-life situations.

As Rachel Hauck mentioned in the previous post, The Proposal is well worth seeing. If you'd like to learn how to write funny with depth, this is the movie to watch. Each character had reasons for being the way they were. And the writers brought that out in natural ways.

Disclaimer for my "family friendly" readers: Do beware that there is a partial nude scene between Bullock and Reynolds. Nothing is seen, and it is totally hilarious, but I thought the director let it go a tad too long to the point of gratuitousness. Is that a word? It is now. Because of that, this movie gets 4 out of 5 stars from me.

The Proposal - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1041829/

The Proposal - Guest Author, Rachel Hauck

2009-06-20T22:36:00.007-06:00

This week, guest author Rachel Hauck will give a craft review of the new summer movie, The Proposal. I met Rachel in 2002 at the first national conference for American Christian Romance Writers, (now called American Christian Fiction Writers.) She has served in that organization as worship leader, president and now as adviser, and has never lost her sweet, humble spirit. She has since authored some terrific novels, the latest -- Love Starts With Elle.

Rachel wrote the following post to our ACFW loop and I quickly snarfed it up for this blog. I haven't had a chance to see this movie, yet. My husband and I usually reserve the theater for blockbusters, like Star Trek. But I've heard so many terrific things about it, we may have to break that rule. I'm not sure I can wait for it to come out on DVD.

And now, Rachel:

I just saw The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. It was a great movie. There were a few cliche scenes, but the director made them work well for Sandra's character and the setting.

Otherwise, this was a GREAT movie for dialog, pacing and how to raise the stakes. What starts out as a ridiculous set up -- she's a publisher from Canada about to be deported because she violated her green card status, and he's her exec assistant working his tail off to become an editor.

So she pretends they are getting married so she won't be deported. Why would he go along with this? He hates her! But the screenwriter wisely raised the stakes for him, and brilliantly. Lots of times we see stupid reason for raising stakes: she's going to tell he dated the bosses daughter... Big deal.

But the stakes are real, and believable. This is a great movie to discover how to raise the stakes, both private and public.

The dialog was also fantastic. In one scene, Drew and Margaret are quietly arguing and he wants to reminder of what kind of hard woman she is and instead of doing the typical name calling or using the B-word, he says, "you're going to have to quit eating children while they're dreaming."

I loved that line. Why? Because it shows how hard she is and how he perceives her. She's a dream killer for her own gain. Best of all, it was utterly unique. I love dialog and struggle to get unique lines sometimes, but this has inspired me to think and dig deeper!

Best of all the chemistry between Bullock and Reynolds was great. We should strive for that among our protags!

Thanks, Rachel, for the great review and writing tips. Folks, Rachel has a wonderful service for writers called My Book Therapy. She knows her stuff!

The Proposal - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1041829/

Summer Movies Fresh Out of the Gate

2009-06-02T22:38:00.005-06:00

I've been to see one summer release already, Star Trek in IMAX. All I can say is, WOW! Okay, I can say a whole lot more than that.

As one who remembers the original series before it became reruns, I worried that this movie would mess with my icons. I feared the same thing with last year's summer blockbuster, Get Smart starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. Both Get Smart and Star Trek honored the original series, as well as punched up the stories for the big screen.

The casting was perfect with Chris Pine (Princess Diaries 2) as Kirk and Zachary Quinto (Heroes) as Spock. I'm so glad Quinto played this role because after watching Heroes, I was having nightmare with his character, Sylar, showing up and slitting the tops of heads. If I was dreaming and Sylar showed up, I think, "Oh, crumb!" Now, I'll just turn him into Spock if he suddenly appears. (But I digress.)

The other iconic characters were also well cast, particularly Dr. McCoy played by Karl Urban. From his opening line off camera--"I don't need a doctor. I am a doctor, damn it!"--we knew we were going to like this young Bones.

I also liked Uhura, played by Zoe Saldana, who refused to give her name to Kirk. This, according to the IMDB site under "Trivia" was a tribute to the character on the series who never had a first name. (Check out the trivia site after you watch the movie. It's fun to see how director J.J. Abrams and his team honored those responsible for all of the original series and movies.)

From a writing standpoint, the back story for the two main characters worked very well. We know why each man is the way he is--what makes Kirk a rebel and Spock...well...Spock. If you must write back story, watch this movie to see how it's done. Also, the movie followed the character arcs of both Kirk and Spock well, leaving plenty of room for growth. Could a new Star Trek franchise be in the works?

I sincerely hope so.

For another review of Star Trek and its competition, Up, go to the blog, Musings on This, That, and the Other Thing by Jennifer AlLee titled, Summer at the Movies: Action, Laughs, and a Bunch of Kleenex

I hope to see more summer releases soon. Up and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian are next on my list. Watch for more reviews.

Ever After

2009-04-05T20:40:00.012-06:00

But What Does She Really Want?

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down, (nod to Karen Carpenter,) unless I have a library of fave DVDs to pass the time.

My very most favorite movie of all time (could I be any more emphatic?) is Ever After with Drew Barrymore and Dougray Scott. When I first saw this movie in the theater I was going through a very emotional time. My father was dying. To give my mom more time alone with him, my sister and I would go on errands or hit the theater occasionally. I don't know if that's why this movie holds such a special place in my heart, or if it's all the wonderful writer craft things that it has going for it, or if it's Dougray. Probably all three.

This movie is the "true" story of Cinderella. There are no singing mice, pumpkins, nor fairy godmothers. No magic, and no Bippity-Boppity-Boo. It starts out with the Grimm brothers riding in a carriage and entering an impressive castle in France. It seems they were summoned by the great, great granddaughter of Danielle De Babarac, nicknamed Cinderella by her deliciously wicked step-sister, Marguerite. The purpose: to inform them that the story they've written, while it is true, did not happen the way they depicted. The closing line of the movie is the Grand Dame informing them, "And while Cinderella and her Prince did live happily ever after, the point, gentlemen, is that they lived."

GMC
For this movie, I'd like to look at GMC, or Goal, Motivation, and Conflict. If you haven't heard of this all important fiction tool, please buy GMC: Goal, Motivation and Conflict by Debra Dixon. When writing our stories, we want to know what our characters want, their external goal, and what they really want, their internal goal. For this movie, I want to look specifically at the internal goal. I watched this movie a dozen times before it hit me that Barrymore's character, Danielle De Barbarac (Cinderella,) answers perfectly the question, "What does she really want?"

In this article, as I synopsize the story, I'm going to show two threads, the romantic and the family issue. By the end, I'll reveal what Danielle's goal really is.

FAMILY:
When the Grand Dame begins telling the tell, the scene opens with Danielle as a young girl. She loves her father who has been on a long trip. He has brought her home a book, Utopia, for his daughter who reads voraciously. (I like her already!) He has also brought home a wife and two step-daughters. Danielle, who has been motherless for a long time, is very excited to meet her new mother, the Baronness Rodmilla De Ghent, played by the fabulous Anjelica Huston, and sisters, Marguerite and Jaqueline. But when her father dies, the Baronness turns ugly. She treats Danielle like a servant in her own home.

ROMANTIC:
Danielle, now grown up, one day sees Prince Henry on her father's horse, (he's a discontented prince who does not wish to be king, so he ran away,) and mistakes him for a thief. She pummels him with apples, but drops to her knees the moment she recognizes him. He takes her for a country girl and dismisses the meeting. The next time they meet, she is disguised as a courtier to free her elderly servant, a man whom the baroness allowed to be taken to pay off one of her many debts. Now, Henry is captivated by the mysterious girl who tries to avoid his attention. This fascinates him since most courtiers throw themselves at the handsome and eligible prince.

FAMILY:
Prince Henry has brought back the horse and mentioned to the baronness the country girl he'd seen. Now the baronness knows that Danielle saw the prince and didn't tell her he had the horse. She slams Danielle into a chair and rails on her about deceitfulness. When Danielle claims that she didn't recognize him, step-mother becomes patronizing. The poor servant girl wouldn't know the prince when she saw him, would she? Danielle has dodged a bullet because she is underestimated.

ROMANTIC:
The third time they meet, she is swimming and is startled by Leonardo Di Vinci, who is walking on water with one of his inventions. (He has been commissioned to paint in the castle, and becomes Henry's confidant.) The prince waits on shore. Danielle must keep up the pretense of a courtier to avoid getting thrown in prison for impersonation. Not a problem, because really, how many more times can she accidentally meet this guy?

FAMILY:
It's night and Danielle is brushing the baronness's hair. They have an almost tender moment where baronness talks about her own mother and how hard she was on her. We get a glimpse of why she's the way she is. Then, she gently pulls Danielle in front of her and and says, "Pity you never knew your mother. There must be some of her in you somewhere." Danielle says she wishes she could remember her, and baronness tells her not to dwell on the things she cannot change. Then, again with uncharacteristic tenderness says, "You have so much of your father in you, I can almost see him looking out from your eyes." Danielle, clearly pleased: "Really?" Baroness: "Yes, well, your features are so masculine. And, to be raised by a man, no wonder you're built for hard labor." Danielle: "Did you love my father?" Baronness, with a sad expression: "I barely knew him...now, go away, I'm tired." And the moment is gone.

ROMANTIC:
The next time Henry shows up unannounced, Danielle hides behind a haystack as her best friend, Gustave, "helps." He tells the prince she's staying with a cousin and gives Danielle's address. He's now aiding and abetting. She has to hoof it the house before the prince gets there. She quickly changes into her courtier clothes and greets him at the door. He convinces her to come with him to a library at the monestery. At the library, she shares her political views, which, strangely enough, come straight from her favorite book, Utopia. She makes the spoiled prince think about his life.

On the way home, their carriage breaks down, and while Henry's footman goes for help, Danielle decides to walk, being the sturdy girl that she is. They get lost, and she shinnies up a tree to see if she can see the castle. While up there, Henry is accosted by a band of gypsies, and Danielle hurries down in her underthings (she took off her dress so it wouldn't get ruined,) to save her dress from the head gypsy who wants it for his wife, and ultimately to save Henry. The leader of the gypsies says she can take anything she can carry. Instead of the dress, she heads for Henry, pulls him over her shoulder and begins to walk away. This endears her to the gypsies, and she's made friends for life.

Danielle and Henry hang out with the gypsies, and while still discussing matters of great importance, have their first kiss.

FAMILY:
The next morning, the baronness is livid. Danielle has been out all night, and now she's acting strangely, telling them to fix their own breakfasts. To spite her, the wicked step-mother, who had previously deceived her into thinking she was going to the masked ball, now is allowing Marguerite to wear Danielle's mother's dress and beautiful silver slippers. Danielle reminds them that these are her mother's things, and Marguerite cattily responds, "Yes, and she's dead." Danielle snaps and slugs her step-sister in the eye. She then proceeds to chase her through the house until Marguerite threatens to throw her favorite book into the fire. "The shoes for the book," baronness tells her. She makes the difficult decision to hand over the shoes, but Marguerite throws the book into the fire anyway and step-mother blocks her way to save it. Now, she's lost her mother's things and her father's books. And, she's in for a sound lashing.

ROMANTIC:
She meets the prince the next day at the ruins with the intention of telling him who she really is, but finds she can't because he's being so...charming. She simply tells him that last night was the happiest night of her life. He kisses her, but when he pulls her into a hug, she cries out for the raw lash marks on her back, then she runs out.

FAMILY:
Meanwhile, the baronness has found out that Danielle has been impersonating her mother as a courtier and disappearing with the prince. She confronts her and asks where the gown and the slippers are. Danielle says, "Where the candlesticks and the trapesties and the silver are. Maybe the dress is with them." She then delivers one of the best lines in the movie. "I would rather die a thousand deaths than to see my mother's dress on that spoiled, selfish cow." Step-mother: "Perhaps we can arrange that." She locks Danielle in the cellar and threatens the servants not to let her out.

ROMANTIC:
The night of the ball, Gustave tells Di Vinci what's happened. He comes and opens the door with a couple of whacks to the bolts. Then, he becomes Danielle's fairy godmother by inventing beautiful wings to go with her mother's dress that has mysteriously reappeared. She makes it late to the ball and takes the prince's breath away. But baronness accosts her before she can explain to Henry who she really is. With a torn wing, she admits to the prince that she is an imposter and a servant girl. Henry now believes she's just like all the other girls. She runs away, falling and leaving her silver shoe behind, and Henry sulks outside. Di Vinci asks him what he's done, and tells the prince that he doesn't deserve her.

FAMILY:
Danielle is back to being the servant girl and is outside doing chores. Baronness joins her and twists the knife a little more. She says, "I have it on good authority that before your embarrassing expidition, the prince was about to announce that Marguerite is to be his bride." After more digs, Danielle says, "Don't you understand? You've won. Go move into your palace and leave us be!" Step-mother: "You are not my problem anymore." Danielle: "Is that what I am? Your problem? I have done everything you ever asked, and still you deny me the only thing I ever wanted." Step-mother: "And what was that?" Danielle: "What do you think? You are the only mother I have ever known. Was there a time, even in it's smallest measurement, that you loved me at all?" Step-mother: "How can anyone love a pebble in their shoe?" This seems to be what breaks Danielle.

So, we've finally gotten to it. What was Danielle's goal, what she really wanted deep down? To win the prince? To move her evil step-family out so she and the servants could live in peace? No. It was to be loved by the only mother she ever knew. How tragic that the baronness couldn't see past her conniving, evil heart to give a little girl love.

I won't leave you at this sad moment though.

FAMILY:
Suddenly, all of the things missing from the house are brought back by the evil Pierre Le Pieu, who has had a "thing" for Danielle. The baronness had sold him all the things from the house to feed her mismanagement skills. And now, she's buying it all back, and using Danielle for currency. He takes her away to his castle where she's a slave in shackles because she threatens to run away at the first chance she gets. When he makes advances, she grabs a dagger and cuts his cheek. She then grabs a sword and tells him her father was an excellent swordsman and taught her well. She then delivers another great line. "Hand me that key or I'll slit you from naval to nose."

ROMANTIC:
The prince finally swallows his foolish pride and narrowly misses an arranged marriage by letting the grieving Spanish woman off the hook. It seems she didn't want the marriage anymore than he did. He finds out what happened to Danielle and comes to "rescue" her. But our robust girl has saved herself as she walks out of the evil castle free from shackles and smiling. One can only hope that Pierre Le Pieu is now wearing the chains. Henry pulls out the slipper and asks her to help him "find the owner this rather remarkable shoe. She is my match in every way. Please tell me I haven't lost her." He kneels in front of her, slips off her ugly work shoe and slips on the slipper as if it's an engagement ring. "I kneel in front of you not as a prince, but as a man in love." And he proposes to her. She cries, and says yes.

FAMILY:
The baronness and her daughters are summoned to the castle. She believes it's so that the prince can announce that he's chosen Marguerite. When she gets there, she is immediately accused of lying to the Queen. Sentence is passed that she and Marguerite will be shipped to the Americas unless someone can vouch for her. Of the roomfull of people, no one helps the baronness. But, finally, one voice says she will speak for her. It's Danielle, and it's very obvious, even to the baronness that she is now a princess. Danielle tells her that she will never think about her again. And this is her arc. She'd started out wanting love from this woman, and now, she's willing to forget her forever. Then Danielle, in her mercy, asks that her step-mother be spared, but that she be afforded the same courtesy that she'd bestowed upon her. And the next time we see baronness and Marguerite, it's in the laundry, getting shoved into a vat of purple dye.

ROMANTIC:
Di Vinci presents his painting to Danielle, a portrait of her, and then some truly cheesy things are said between her and the prince. But, they kiss, and we know that they live happily Ever After.

Ever After: A Cinderella Story - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120631/

Waking Ned Devine

2009-03-29T22:29:00.005-06:00

Subplot - A Key to An Inner Door

We end Irish month with the delightfully funny Waking Ned Devine. When an elderly man wins the lottery, he dies from shock, and the entire town covers up the death and schemes to claim his winnings. You'd think this was a movie about greed, but not so, and the key to this fact is in the subplot.

First, here's what goes on in the main thread of the story. In the tiny coastal village of Tullymore, someone has won the lottery. It's announced on the telly that one person holds the ticket, and the townspeople set out to guess who it is. Jackie and Michael are old men who act like young boys and are best friends. They ask around town and suspect it may be Pig Finn because he's driving a fancy sportscar, but discover it's only borrowed. Finally, the pair, along with Jackie's wife Annie throw a chicken dinner party where they plan to ask each guest what they would do if they won the money, hoping someone will tip their hand. At the end of the evening, it appears that no one has won. Annie notices, however, that one plate of chicken was never eaten. Someone missed the party.

After a quick run-through in their heads of the guests, they realize it was Ned Devine that didn't make it. Jackie goes to check on the man, and finds him dead in his chair, the winning lotto ticket clutched in his fingers, and a big grin on his face. Ned, it seems, lives alone and has no family. Jackie goes back home without calling the authorities as he thinks about how he should approach this new development. That night, he has a dream where Ned is eating his chicken dinner while they both drift in a boat toward "the light." Ned is at peace and in a celebratory mood. Jackie wakes up and believes Ned is telling him to claim the money.

Jackie convinces Michael to pretend to be Ned when the lottery official comes, and they hide the body. When the man, Jim Kelly, shows up, he sees Jackie on the beach and asks where Tullymore is. He hasn't seen Michael as he is behind a large boulder. It seems the two friends were skinny dipping in the ocean, and Jackie has gotten dressed while Michael lingers with his towel on. When Jackie realizes this is the lottery official, he hops into Jim's car to direct him to Ned's house, the...uh...long way. Meanwhile, Michael, who is having trouble getting his pants on, hops on his motorcycle stark naked except for his helmet (safety first, you know,) and races to Ned's before the car can get there. (I'll talk about this brief nude scene at the end of the article.) Michael changes into Ned's clothes, and after a few more Laverne and Shirley moments, Jim is dupped into believing that Michael is his man. He leaves satisfied and says he'll have to visit the village in a few days to make some inquiries to be sure that he is Ned Devine.

Now they have to convince the town to go along with the scheme. Annie doesn't want a part of it, telling them they'll both go to prison.

Jackie calls the town together to explain what he and Michael have done. He apologizes for thinking he could claim the money by himself. He had no idea the winnings would be so large--seven million pounds. It's all or none of us, he says. The money will be claimed and divided equally among the fifty-two of them. He tells them to think about it, and later they will sign a paper saying they agree. Either all sign, or they don't claim the money, and he and Michael will take what's coming to them. Annie comes around, saying Jackie is no good to her in prison, but you get the idea that the amount of money also swayed her.

The next day, everyone signs except the town sourpuss, a bitter old woman in an electric wheelchair. Everyone shows up at her door bearing gifts to bribe her into signing. With Jackie, Annie, and Michael sitting in her parlor, she asks them, "Did you know if you report a fraud, you get ten percent of the winnings?" That sum would be more than they're offering her to sign their paper. She assures them she won't call the Lotto, but she wants her share bumped up to the amount of money she would have gotten if she had.

They hold Ned's funeral, and the official shows up unexpectedly. He listens as Jackie gives the eulogy, quickly revising it to bury his old friend Michael. Michael listens to his own funeral, thoroughly enjoying all the great things Jackie is saying about their friendship. Afterward, Jim Kelly tells Michael/Ned that he's satisfied and that he'll get his check.

The wake becomes a true celebration. And as Ned's friends party, Jim drives away.

Meanwhile, Lizzie, knowing they'll never give her the exorbitant amount she'd asked for, makes her way to the nearest phone booth, (some miles out of town,) in her motorized wheelchair. They'd had a storm earlier and it knocked down all the phone lines in town. She shows her true colors when the wheelchair runs out of juice, and she gets out and walks. Lizzie apparently only uses the thing to get sympathy. She finally makes it to the phone booth and begins her call to the Lotto. At the same time, Jim Kelly, who has dreadful allergies in the country, sneezes and loses control of his car. We think he's going to hit the phone booth, but he swerves in time, nearly hits a vicar in his van, and causes the vicar to hit the booth, knocking it off the cliff and to the sandy beach below. Lizzie has had her come-uppance, and it seems by a divine hand as it was a man of God who had finished her off.

That is the main story line. It seems complete. What could the writer have added to it in a subplot?

Briefly, here's the subplot. A young single mother loves Pig Finn, but can't stand his smell. He get's his name by working a pig farm. Finn loves her back, but can't quit because he needs the money. A wealthy outsider also loves Maggie, and she'd do well to marry him, but she doesn't love him. She knows Finn would be a great dad to Maurice. Both men think they could be the boy's father. She finally tells Finn that he's the father, but confesses to Jackie during the wake that Ned Devine is really the boy's dad. Maurice is Ned's heir, and therefore could have the entire seven million pounds. But, she tells him he'd be spoiled from the money. Besides, Finn would never understand, and Maurice would grow up without a dad.

Yowza! What a message! Our movie about greed has become a movie about sacrifice. Ned sacrifices his life for his community, (okay, he had a little help.) Jackie and Michael sacrifice going to prison to bring in the other townspeople. And Maggie sacrifices the whole Shepherds Pie to give her son what he really needs.

The subplot opens the door to this theme of sacrifice, making it even more clear, and giving it a satisfying punch.

Now, a word about the nudity and other less moral issues in this film. At first, I wondered why they would have a scene showing naked wrinkled old men. (It's all from the back except the motorcycle ride, that that's so far away, and possibly blurred that you can't see anything you shouldn't.) Then, I realized that it shows these guys as the little boys they are. It's symbolic. It's also European. They don't have the same mindset that we have here. Nothing was dirty, but rather innocent contrasted with the fact that they were about to break the law. Another issue you may have as a Christian is Lizzie's demise. If this had been written from a Christian perspective, I'm sure she would have seen the error of her ways. And finally Maggie's problem--a son who doesn't know who his father is. Throughout the film, young Maurice confides in the vicar, (not the one who delivered judgement on Lizzie's phone booth.) We see him as a kid seeking answers, and seeking them in the right places.

So, if you watch this movie, please just enjoy the story. Like God's people, it's not perfect, but it sure is entertaining to watch!

Waking Ned Devine - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166396/

Far and Away

2009-03-22T17:08:00.006-06:00

Conflicts of Epic Proportions

Couldn't do Irish Month without mentioning Far and Away, written by Bob Dolman, co-written and directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman -- none of whom are Irish, by the way. However, they manage to capture that excitement when America was new and immigrants flocked here to make their dreams come true.

I have heard that to have good conflict in your stories you should put your character up a tree and throw rocks at them. This movie pummels Cruise's character, Joseph Donelly, until he is bloody and bruised, often literally. After a tiff with a landlord, (in this case one who owns the land that the Donelly's live on and work,) Joseph's father is hurt. He dies in his son's arms, but comes back to tell him something. "You're an especially odd boy." Once Joseph gets over that, his father speaks the theme of the story. "Without land, a man is nothing. . .Land is a man's very own soul."

With his father gone, Joseph is faced with eviction, and he takes revenge on the landlord. After several failed attempts at killing him, he ends up getting hurt by his own weapon. The landlord nurses him back to health with the intention of hanging him when he's well enough. He escapes and is caught by Stephen Chase played by Thomas Gibson. Stephen is the arrogant manager of the property and is in love with Shannon, the landlord's daughter. Joseph spits on Stephen who in turn challenges him to a duel.Shannon is a rebel and has learned that they're giving away free land in America. She helps Joseph escape and together they board a ship bound for the new world.

Joseph pretends to be her servant on the journey, a job thrust upon him unwillingly. But he keeps up the pretense until they port in Boston because Shannon has paid his way. They find out from a kindly gentleman that to claim the free land, they must race for it in Oklahoma. Worried about the expense, Shannon tells the man she has silver spoons and can sell them. He helps her find a place, but then steals them from her. He is shot by someone with a similar complaint against him. The spoons scatter and a crowd gathers. Shannon's spoons are gone, picked up by other hungry vultures. Joseph rescues her bag from being the next victim and gets Shannon out of the street. Now, poor Shannon and Joseph are homeless.

He finds an Irish community and is given a room. He tells the landlord that Shannon is his sister, hiding the fact that she is from money to keep her from being tossed out. This particular group looks with disdain on the wealthy, regardless of whether they just lost their fortune in a mad spoon frenzy. They get jobs at a chicken processing plant, which I'm sure is way beneath Shannon's social status.

Back in Ireland, Shannon's parents' home is burned to the ground. They, too, decide to try their hand in America and look for Shannon.

While living together, they pretend to hate each other, but in truth are becoming attracted to each other. One night Joseph leaves, frustrated at his feelings and stumbles upon a barehanded boxing match in a bar. He does some pummeling of his own and wins the match, which thrusts him into a new social status. He becomes a celebrity overnight as he wins match after match and instead of saving the money, buys suits and hats.

Shannon becomes frustrated with his buying habits, knowing they could be well on their way to Oklahoma. He brags that he's making the most money and she vows to out-do him at earning cash.

He heads out to the biggest match of his boxing career, and while there sees Shannon dancing in the bar. This doesn't settle well. The men in the club urge him to fight and offer $200 to back him. Shannon encourages him to fight one more time so they can have enough money to go to Oklahoma. He agrees, but during the match, sees Shannon being pawed. He leaves the match to protect her from the roving hands of one of the backers who happens to be a city council member. He attempts to leave the fight and save her, but the other man thinks he's still in and throws a sucker punch. Joseph loses the match and he is thrown out of the club and onto the street. When he wakes up, he sees Stephen asking people if they'd seen Shannon.

He runs to the room he shares with Shannon. There, he finds the councilmen who had backed him rummaging through his personal belongings in his apartment. They want their $200. They steal it from the savings and toss both Joseph and Shannon onto the streets, bullying the landlord by telling him not to let them back in or the place would be shut down.

Joseph and Shannon are homeless -- again.

Up until now, these characters have been beaten again and again with various sized rocks. Did I, as the audience want it to stop? No! It kept the action moving. If they had gone to Boston, hopped on the first train heading west and fulfilled their dream, I would have been disappointed. Conflict equals action, and action equals page-turners. Keep them turning pages, and you have acheived the ultimate goal of a writer.

Having said that, an entire movie or book of rock-throwing can get tedious. It's best to craft in some downtime, just don't make it too long. The next scene gives the audience a brief breather.

Joseph and Shannon are cold and hungry. They find a seemingly empty house of affluence and break in to stay warm and find food. Shannon warms to Joseph, realizing what he sacrificed to protect her. He continues to sacrifice when they pretend they belong there and he takes on the servant's role once again. She tells him she'd rather pretend they are married, letting him know that she feels they are equals now. This is the turning point in their relationship. As they "play house," the real owners show up. When the couple flees, Shannon is shot. Knowing she'll die without help, Joseph makes the ultimate sacrifice and takes her to where her parents are staying in Boston.

Knowing her family will never let her near him again, he heads west and works on the Trans-Continental Railroad. After many months, it seems he's abandoned the thought of owning land. But he has a dream where his dying father reminds him of his desire -- a scene that echoes the beginning of the movie. He joins a wagon train and finally makes it Oklahoma days before the Land Run of 1893.

He chances upon Shannon and her family, who are getting ready to claim their own land. Shannon appears cold toward him, leaving Joseph disappointed. Stephen sees the encounter and threatens Joseph with death if he sees him near her again. It appears Shannon has chosen Stephen.

Our rock beaten Joseph now has no girl to share his land and, unfortunately, no horse for the race. His only options at this late date include a horse ready for the glue factory and one with the spirit of his Shannon -- wild and unattainable. He opts for the aging horse, but alas, the poor thing doesn't make it through the night. This leaves him with the spunky horse, who clearly resents being told what to do.

The race is on, and Joseph chases after Stephen and Shannon, knowing that Stephen has broken the law. They had been told not to search for land before the race, but he has found out that Stephen had done just that. Shannon falls off her horse and Joseph is the first to get to her. Stephen is torn between getting to the land before anyone else or following through on his threat to kill Joseph. He decides to go back for Shannon, not wanting to be bested by the common man. They fight a couple of times as Joseph breaks away to claim his land at Shannon's encouragement. But, Joseph falls, hitting his head on a rock. Shannon rushes to his side, sacrificing her dream (just as Joseph had for her during the boxing match.) She rejects Stephen and stays by Joseph's side as his life slips away.

This would be the ultimate rock, wouldn't you say? After all Joseph has been through, must he now die without any satisfaction? Thankfully, the writer manages a happily ever after despite Joseph dying. He had set it up in that very first scene where his father slipped away, came back to deliver a message, and then slipped away for good. Joseph goes through a similar process, coming back to tell her that the land means nothing to him without her. He dies, and as Shannon mourns, professing her love for him, he is revived, (a scene that would seem contrived if it weren't for the opening scene with his father.)

Together, they grab his flag and plunge it into the ground claiming the land that has taken two and half cinema hours to obtain.

Whew! Throwing rocks is exhausting, but so worth it if it means your readers will keep the book in their hands and lose sleep...possibly their jobs. We can only hope.

Far and Away - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104231/

James Scott Bell's Q-Factor

2009-03-18T10:39:00.002-06:00

An excellent article on what James Scott Bell calls the Q-Factor (alluding to the James Bond character Q) was just posted today on Novel Journey. Great craft article! Important nugget for any writer. Check it out! http://noveljourney.blogspot.com/

Once

2009-03-15T21:32:00.004-06:00

The Simple Storyline With Depth

To continue Irish Movie Month, I viewed Once, a simple story about a guy named Guy and a girl with no name. If you watch this movie, beware. It's about a street musician in Dublin and the language reflects that. The opening scene, although funny, uses the f-word in every sentence as two people interact. That is the worse of it, though. I think they did that to set the scene and maybe create a shock factor. The rest of the movie sprinkles in the foul language like dollops of cow patties over an otherwise beautiful field.

The writer/director, John Carney, said in the extras on the DVD, this story was something "you could write on the back of a postage stamp." And it was, literally. Here is what the movie was about. Two people suffering from similar broken relationships help each other heal by encouraging their music interests. This is the elevator pitch. It's also the entire plot.

But the plot, sparse as it is, has a surprising depth. It's actually a musical, with Guy singing in at least 60% of the movie. But with just a few well placed snatches of dialogue, we feel the couple's pain.

Guy is a singer/guitar player/song writer living on tips as he sings on the streets. He also works in his father's vacuum repair shop. Girl is a Czech immigrant who plays the piano in a music store because she doesn't have one of her own. When Girl meets Guy, she immediately recognizes his songs as ones written for a lost love. Guy, a definite loner, doesn't know what to think of this straight-forward woman who speaks her mind.

Girl draws Guy out by letting him see her world. She brings him to the music shop where she plays a classical piece. He immediately sees a kindred soul, and teaches her one of his songs. They play and sing together, bonding a friendship that will last.

Girl finally gets Guy to tell him about his lost love. He tells her in song, and thus "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy" is written in the back of a bus. He tells her his girl slept with someone else (although, remember the cow patties--he didn't say "slept") and is now living in London.

Girl invites Guy to her flat, where he meets her baby daughter and her mother. Now we know that our Czech girl has a past.

Guy invites Girl to his place where she meets his Da, and Guy, being a...well...a guy, misinterprets Girl's attention asking her to stay the night. Highly offended, she leaves. (You go girl!) It takes some fancy talking the next day to convince her how sorry he is, and the friendship continues.

He tells her he's going to take her advice and go to London to find the woman who still has his heart. Girl is thrilled. But before he goes, he wants to make a music demo to take with him. She helps him rent a studio and agrees to play piano and sing on the CD. They gather a small band of street musicians for backup, and proceed to rehearse.

Girl tells Guy that she's married. No divorce. It didn't work out and she left with her daughter, but she doesn't want her to grow up without a dad. The romantic in me wants these two to get together in a happily ever after, but I don't think it's to be.

The band is finally ready to record and they lay down several tracts. During a break, Girl finds a piano in another room and plays a classical tune. Guy joins her and encourages her to sing something she's written. She starts, but breaks down before it's over. She cries on Guy's shoulder as he makes the observation that the song is about her child's father. She affirms this, but never says what happened between them. This simple act gives her character depth, and confirms that Guy and Girl are on the same path.

A day after the recording is done, Girl tells Guy that she's spoken to her husband. They're going to make it work. Guy calls his lost love in London letting her know he's coming. She sounds happy to hear that. Before he goes, he buys a piano in the music shop and has it delivered to Girl.

The end.

The theme of this story is "healing." And even though it's a simple story about Guy and a girl, their lost loves and their music, it's a story with depth. They both have real pain. They both hide that pain in their music. They both resolve that pain through each other's encouragement.

Can you write a simple story with depth? Sometimes we get so bogged down in the "rules" that we miss the simple story. I encourage you to write that story with heart, make it simple, give it truth.

If you want to hear "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy" here is a link. Caution: There are a couple of cow patties in this cute stick-figure video that's also included on the DVD.

Once - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0907657/

The Quiet Man

2009-03-09T03:22:00.004-06:00

A Man With a Past

What better way to start Irish Month than with the John Ford classic, The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara? Set in Innisfree, Ireland, Sean Thornton, played by the Duke, arrives from America. But Ireland is his birth place, and he wishes to buy the little cottage where he was born.

We learn this in the first few minutes of the movie as Sean tells Michaleen Oge Flynn, a little man with a big job, that they knew each other when Sean was a child. After a few more introductions of the tall stranger, we learn through Father Lonergan that Sean’s grandfather died in a penal colony in Australia, his father was a good man who apparently died in a bad accident, and Sean’s mother died in America when he was twelve. Later, when he talks to the patron of the town -- an old gentleman with a long, white beard -- we find out that he knew the grandfather, and that he was a good man.

Quite a past, but we’re not through yet.

We see Sean in the church, a pensive look on his face, as if he’s reflecting on his past. Afterward, he meets a fiery redhead, Mary Kate Danaher played by O’Hara, and becomes enamored with her. Ah, romance, but that’s not what this article is about. Strange coming from me, but true.

Sean visits the Widow Tillane to buy the land that is now in her possession. He tells her when he was a kid living in a shack near the slag heaps, his mother told him about Innisfree and their home. We get that life was probably rough for the little Irish immigrant and his widowed mother. He further tells her, “When I quit the r…, when I decided to come here…” What was he about to say? What did he quit?

Questions! The author’s best friend. Yes, Sean has a past, but the writer is very careful not to tell everything in the first scene. Watch how Sean’s back story is skillfully woven in.

As we get to know Sean, it becomes very clear that he wants to live in peace, but Squire Will Danaher, Mary Kate’s brother, is a scrapper and angry that Sean has bought the land he’s been wanting. In the pub, Will challenges Sean, who tells him, “I’m not going to fight you, Danaher.” The other men in the pub stop Will from punching him and make the two shake hands. It becomes a power war, however, both men crushing the other’s palm, showing their strength. They’re an even match. Will storms out and two members of the currently nonviolent IRA tag Sean as a “quiet, peace-loving man.”

But is he?

He meets the Reverend and Mrs. Playfair. Upon hearing the name Thornton, the vicar appears to recognize him, but can’t place him. “Thornton. Has a familiar ring to it… Ring to it.”

More questions.

When Sean calls on Mary Kate to ask her brother permission to court her, Will refuses to allow it. Sean has been civil, but through his Yankee ignorance, insults the ritual. Will yells at him to get out of the house by the time he counts to three. Sean, with a dangerously quiet voice, tells him, “If you say three, mister, you’ll never hear the man count ten.”

Ah, is it becoming clearer, now?

Through this sprinkling of dialogue, Sean’s past unrolls like the fog over an emerald meadow. Piece by piece, bit by bit, a theme begins to emerge.

Let’s continue. The priest, the vicar, and his wife, plot to trick Will into giving his blessing for the courting. They tell him the Widow Tillane is interested in him, but wouldn’t think of marrying him with another woman in the house.

It works, and Michaleen chaperones Sean and Mary Kate in his carriage on their first outing together. The couple gets out to walk in front of the carriage, and as they talk, he compliments her bonnet. This reminds her of a few days prior, when he had left her bonnet sitting on the post during a race. This race on horses, I’m thinkin’, was a fun way for couples to get together. A twist on the decorated box lunch in American culture. Mary Kate’s temper flares and she rears back her hand to slap him. Micheleen stops her with a cluck of the tongue. “Is this a courtin’ or a donney brook? Have the good manners not to hit the man until he’s your husband -- and he can hit ya back.” She apologizes and informs Sean that she has a fearful temper. “We Danahers are a fighting people.”

So far, our clues are “ring,” “hear the man count ten,” and “fighting.”

During the wedding reception, Will announces his intentions concerning the Widow Tillane. She embarrasses him by rebuffing him in public. He blows up as a result saying he’d agreed to the marriage under false pretenses. Sean steps into his tirade and Will punches him, knocking him flat. We hear a bell. As Sean lay unconscious, we get inside his head. He’s in a boxing ring, and punches the opposing fighter who goes down hard. The man dies. And now we know why Sean has fled back to his roots, the peaceful Ireland his mother had painted for him. As he comes to, he jumps up as if still in the ring, but Rev. Playfair stops him saying, “Steady, Trooper. Steady.” The vicar knows that Sean is Trooper Thornton, a boxer with a painful past.

From here, we follow Sean’s motives in light of this revelation. His past has dictated his actions thus far, and continues to do so.

The couple move into the cottage, but Mary Kate doesn’t have her furniture that’s been promised to her. Her brother is withholding it in an act of spite. She wants her things about her in her new home, and she wants her fortune, money she’s inherited plus some she’s earned for herself. Sean, in typical male fashion, doesn’t understand this. Can’t he provide for her? They spend their wedding night in separate rooms.

The next day, he presents his gift to her, a small, one horse carriage, and they ride to town. While there, she sees her brother who is in a good mood because he’s just sold some sheep. She demands Sean go get her money while her brother still has it in his pockets. Sean refuses and she calls him a coward. Obviously, she hasn’t been paying attention to the clues. Sean gets out of the carriage, and Mary Kate swings the small whip as if she’s going to hit him. But she takes off instead, leaving him in town with only his feet to get him home.

Sean finds Will in the pub and wants to talk in private. Pig-headed Will refuses, then sneers. “You’re among friends. They’ve done your fighting once, maybe they’ll fight for you again.

Sean says, still controlling his anger, “I’m not asking anyone to do my fighting for me.”

“Oh,” Will continues to taunt him. “So you’re willing to do your own are ya?” He challenges Sean to ask for the dowry, and if he does, he’ll be chewing his teeth for a week. “I’ll fight you with one of my fists in my pocket.”

Sean slaps his hand away and walks out while Will mocks him. “The Fighting Thornton!”

The last thing we see in this scene is Micheleen, sitting on a stoop, thoroughly disappointed in Sean.

Sean retreats to the vicar’s house. He needs to talk to someone who knows about his past. Sean tells him that the man he killed in the ring was a good man with a family. But Sean went into that ring to pound him into the mat -- to murder him. All for a purse, a piece of the gate, and lousy money. The vicar nods. “And now money is behind your troubles with Danaher.” The vicar shares that he knows a little about boxing. He shows Sean a picture of himself, skinny with boxing gloves on. He was the lightweight champion once. Sean now has a broad grin on his face, as if knowing that he has something in common with such a peaceful man has taken the burden of guilt off of his shoulders. The vicar offers him a drink, but then thinks better of it. “You’ll be in training again, of course.”

So now we know all about Sean’s past, and it’s taken three-quarters of the movie to learn it. It’s important as we go into the final act why Sean was afraid to fight Will. Not only did he fear killing him, but the circumstance is similar to why he fled America. Money is the root.

Mary Kate has left Sean, telling Micheleen that she can’t stay with a man she’s ashamed of. This is the final straw. Sean finds her at the train station (where she, by the way, totally believes he’ll come after her and is disappointed when he’s not there right away.) He drags her out of the train and ushers her home, half dragging, half pushing. The entire town follow them, knowing that the long hoped for fight between Sean and Will is about to happen.

Sean finds Will working in his field and pushes Mary Kate to the ground in front of him. He asks for the money. Will refuses. Sean says, “You can take your sister back. Your custom, not mine. No fortune, no marriage.” Will finally comes to his senses and flings the money at Sean. He picks it up, and Mary Kate runs to a large furnace where the men were working, opens the door and allows Sean to toss the money into the incinerator.

This completes her character arc. The money was the only thing driving her, and now, she realizes that her husband means more to her than the money ever did.

The two start to stroll away, but Will isn’t finished yet. He swings at Sean, who ducks and lands a fist into Will’s stomach. Mary Kate looks at her husband with pride and says she’s going home, and she’ll have supper ready for him. Then she walks into the crowd, head held high.

Will attacks Sean again. And now, it’s on! The two men begin to pummel each other, sparking an all out brawl with the surrounding townspeople. Micheleen stops it by shooting his starter pistol into the air. “This is a private fight. The Marquis of Queensbury rules will apply.” All agree civilly, and the two men continue to beat each other to a pulp.

Delightful symbolic scenes follow while the two are fighting. The police, who should break up the fight, have called their commissioner to get advice. He tells them to put money on Danaher. Father Lanergan’s protégé comes to him while he’s fishing, fighting the big one that always gets away. The younger man tells him there’s a big fight in town. Father Lanergan tells him he must stop it, it’s his duty. But when the priest finds out it’s Sean and Will who are fighting, he throws down his pole and the two watch from around a rock wall. Meanwhile, the vicar and his boss, who has arrived to see if the vicar’s congregation is big enough to keep him on there, watch the fight through binoculars.

Sean and Will battle their differences and become best drinking buddies. Sean has conquered his past.

In a final symbolic scene, the vicar (Protestant) drives his boss through town and the Catholics cheer, pretending to be protestants so he won’t lose his job there. In the typical Irish village, Catholics far outweigh Protestants.

A word about the symbolism. The running theme of this piece is “fighting.“ The writer used the following to get that point across, thus deepening Sean Thornton’s angst against it.

SYMBOLISM:

The IRA, not exactly known for its peace talks.
Catholics and Protestants, not only getting along, but helping each other in need.
The Vicar’s name, Playfair. I didn’t get that until I looked over my notes. Cool.
A scene where bickering friends at the train station start rolling their sleeves, but it’s done so civilly, it’s comical.
Father Lonergan fighting the fish. If you watch the movie, there are a couple of scenes where he is obsessed with this fish. When the younger priest goes to him about the fight, he says he's in a fight himself, with the fish.
Marquis of Queesbury rules (a civilized way to fight.)

And now we all know how to weave in back story. We create questions, leaving clues in the dialogue and in symbolism. Now, stop playin’ patty fingers and get to it!

So, What Happened to Romance?

2009-03-05T01:12:00.003-07:00

Or, more specifically, what happened to romance month? My main computer crashed, and while I have a laptop, it runs reeeaaaallll slow. Besides the fact that our local group didn't get to watch the main feature presentation due to everyone being busy. Our groups usually host 4-10 people, so for EVERYONE to cancel, I felt maybe the Lord was trying to tell me something. For whatever reason, it just wasn't to be. We will do Ever After at a later time. Everyone I've talked to either said they love the movie or they haven't seen it but always wanted to. So I'd still love to do that one in a group. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, please read the Coming Attractions above. In honor of my Irish/Hungarian hubby, and the fact that I have some Emerald Isle in my blood, we will be doing Irish movies this month.

Okay, is anyone else singing in their head "I'll Go Home With Bonnie Jean" from Brigadoon?

Enemy Mine

2009-01-27T13:04:00.006-07:00

"Character Driven vs Plot Driven"

This month’s movie, Enemy Mine, is not your typical shoot-em-out-of-the-sky Sci-Fi. Although it does have some of that, the story centers around a relationship between a human and an alien. Sworn enemies must rely on each other to survive. Somehow, you know the plot will emerge from their lesson.

A character driven story is one where the “plot emerges from the core of the character.” (From http://mindyhardwick.wordpress.com/2006/08/16/character-driven-vs-plot-driven/) The point of the story could not be made without the conflicts suffered, the lessons learned, and the eventual triumph (or fall) of the characters. In Enemy Mine, the human space-soldier, Willis Davidge, (played by Dennis Quaid,) hates the alien Dracs with all of his being. When the story opens, he is embroiled in a battle similar to those we saw in Top Gun. Earth fighter pilots and alien warriors are bent on destroying each other as the galaxy is being colonized and all is up for grabs. One of the Dracs shoots Davidge’s wingman out of the sky. Now it’s personal. Davidge goes after the Drac despite his crew’s concerns for the ship, ultimately crashing on a God-forsaken planet and killing all on board, including a kid named Joey, just fresh out of basic training.

Sounds like a lot of action so far, right? If the plot revolved around the destruction of the Dracs, how earth forms an alliance to save Davidge from the planet, or anything on a broad scope, (think external) it would be considered plot driven. But, once Davidge pulls himself from the wreckage and realizes the Drac he’d been pursuing has crashed also, and is still alive, we get into the thrust of Davidge’s motivation. He pursued the Drac despite his common sense, causing him to kill all under his command. Fueled by guilt and anger, he is no longer a soldier fighting a worthy cause. He is bent on revenge, and will do all in his power to exterminate the vile beast that, in his mind, caused it all to happen.

The plot emerges from there through the core of Davidge’s character, revenge being the watchword.

Now, you can’t have a relationship story without two parties, (unless that story is Sybil, in which case we have a whole ‘nother lesson to learn about plotting.) Davidge finds the enemy Drac, an ugly reptilian being, looking suspiciously like the creature from the Black Lagoon, camped by his downed spacecraft. Davidge begins to plot its demise. After a series of failed attempts, the Drac, (played by Louis Gossett, Jr.,) captures Davidge. After Davidge is nearly eaten by a sand creature and a horrific meteor shower threatens to pummel them both, they learn they need each other to survive.

The Drac, nicknamed “Jerry” by Davidge who can’t pronounce Jeriba Shigan, soon learns the human language, and we learn that he feels he has as much a right to the galaxy as the earthlings. Clearly, this is not a matter of who is right, but who has the greater power. Both are professional soldiers, on the same level, and now, both marooned.

Jerry becomes an interesting study. We quickly sympathize with him, understanding that his compassion far out ways Davidge’s bent on revenge. He sits for long periods of time in meditation, singing softly, and apparently praying. Now we get to the core of his character. Jerry is a spiritual being. When he quotes from the tiny tome he carries around his neck, it sounds suspiciously like scripture. We get the impression that God is everywhere, and that He has somehow redeemed this one alien soldier. Cool.

Because of Jerry’s gentle nature, Davidge learns the Drac’s language so he can read the words in the small book. It seems Davidge has a need for something greater than himself. They finally become friends in their shared plight.

A character driven plot has sprung from Davidge’s hatred and Jerry’s compassion.

Because Davidge is the main character, we clearly see his arc. He explores the rest of the planet, on his own because Jerry won’t go with him, to see if there is anybody who can help them. He finds a despicable slave colony, with abusive humans using Dracs to mine out the rich minerals. Davidge has gone from hating the Dracs to wanting to protect them.

When he returns to camp, Jerry is sick. Not only is he sick, he is pregnant. It appears that Dracs are both male and female. (Hmm, could this be where Jerry’s compassion springs from? I wonder.) But something is wrong with the baby. After extracting a promise from Davidge that he will teach the child his lineage so he can quote it to the elders on their planet, (a seemingly right of passage,) Jerry dies in a sacrificial act as he instructs Davidge how to take the baby from his body.

Now, Davidge’s protection instinct is stronger than ever. He has a tiny life to care for. The baby Drac quickly grows into a small “boy” named Zammis who calls Davidge “Uncle.” The two form a family bond. When Zammis learns of other Dracs on the planet, he yearns to see one. Even though Davidge is his uncle, they don’t look alike. So, he disobeys his uncle and searches for the slave colony, only wanting to watch from a distance. But he is caught, and Davidge’s worst fear is realized. He had lost Jerry and now he’s about to lose Jerry’s child.

Now, the character driven plot is fueled by obligation, and honor, and love.

Davidge is hurt while trying to rescue Zammis (more Sci-Fi action, because a story based on relationship alone would be called…um…Steel Magnolias.) He wakes in an earth ship and after his wounds are healed, goes back to the planet to save Zammis. All that hatred fueled passion we saw in the beginning of his arc is now directed to the right place. He returns to find Zammis near death. He kills all of the slave traders and saves his best friend’s child.

The final scene shows Willis Davidge, once a soldier fighting against the Dracs, standing in front of their council with Zammis as he quotes his lineage diligently taught to him by his “uncle,” the only family he has living.

So, in my quest to learn the difference between character and plot driven stories, I’ve come to the conclusion that if you can use the words revenge, hatred, compassion, obligation, honor, love, or anything internal to describe how the plot unfolds, that’s character driven.

Plot driven stories spring from the action. An example might be the recent Tom Cruise offering, War of the Worlds. Obviously Cruise’s character had motivation. If he had a pulse, he had motivation. But the main thrust of the story was to save the earth from destructive aliens. Outward rather internal descriptions prove that this story would be plot driven.

Please be aware that all good stories have some kind of character drive. Consider The Fifth Element with Bruce Willis. Clearly, this is an action-packed, plot-driven story. But there are internal elements, as well. The universe dependent on a rogue cop who cares for no one but himself to save it from destruction. A beautiful alien being learning about violence for the first time. A self-absorbed celebrity thrust into a hero’s roll. A story based on action alone would be called…um…Speed. Or worse yet, Speed 2.

Our group discussion came to the conclusion that in the end, it all comes down to a sliding scale. Some movies clearly are both character and plot driven. Star Wars comes to mind as an equal partnership of the two. Others seem more or less predominant depending on where the scale sits.

So, we’re encouraged to write where our strengths are. If you’re a plot driven writer, go for it. But don’t forget to develop a character or two along the way. If you’re a character driven writer, pass the tissues, but please include some kind of action to keep your reader from yawning half-way through.

If you’re wondering which one you are, take a simple test that can be found at http://www.writersstore.com/article.php?articles_id=691.

Me? I write romance. ‘Nuf said.

This Month: Enemy Mine

2009-01-13T01:40:00.004-07:00

Just a quick post to let my subscribers know that we will be watching the movie, Enemy Mine this Saturday in Denver. Please read the above box titled Coming Attractions for more info.

Be A Follower!

2009-01-13T01:23:00.001-07:00

I've added a Follower widget to my right side bar. If you're a blogger, adding yourself as a follower will ensure updates to your reading list under your dashboard. Note, however, that this won't prompt email posts. If you'd like email updates, please subscribe through FeedBlitz, also in the right sidebar.

Yes Virginia, There Is Redemption

2008-12-22T02:01:00.012-07:00

Christmas is a wonderful reminder of Christ’s redemption. And a reminder that we (in writer-speak) are a living character arc—meaning, we are flawed. All ye citizens of the world, past and present! A show of hands, please, for those who are not flawed. Okay, Mother Theresa, you’re excused. As for the rest of you, stick around. There is hope. God has already redeemed our flawed natures. And with this in mind, the Christmas story reveals much more than tinsel, presents, and Amy Grant music.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send
his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through
him. --John 3:16-17

As we create our characters, we must remember to give them flaws, for without flaws we only have a flat piece of paper with words on it. But, along with their flaws, we must help them move forward, nurture them past their flaws. As we work the character through her short-comings, we develop her character arc.

The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler states:

Interesting flaws humanize a character. We can recognize bits of
ourselves in a Hero who is challenged to overcome inner doubts, errors in thinking, guilt or trauma from the past, or fear of the future. Weaknesses, imperfections, quirks, and vices immediately make a Hero or any character more real and appealing. . .
Flaws also give a character somewhere to go--the so-called “character arc” in which a character develops from condition A to condition Z through a series of steps. Flaws are a starting point of imperfection or incompleteness from which a character can grow. (p. 40)

Christmas movies show the character arc so clearly. Whether a religious piece or not, it seems most movies written this time of year love the redemption story.

A Christmas Carol
The hugest redemption Christmas story (besides the one found in the Book of Luke) is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Remade dozens, if not hundreds of times, this story of the miserly Scrooge touches our hearts down deep where we’d rather not explore.

Scrooge is an extremely flawed character. He makes Bob Cratchit work late on Christmas Eve, and then only gives him pittance for his wages. Then Dickens weaves his arc through a series of visitors so that not only we, but he, can see how he became this way. And as the ghost of Christmas future looms forebodingly over a grave stone, Scrooge can see that he’s wasted his life, and that he’ll die alone.

In the 1951 version of the story, simply titled, Scrooge, he finishes his arc with a nonsensical song and dance. But read carefully, for our defected character finally gets it. “I don't know anything, I never did know anything, and now I know that I don't know, all on a Christmas morning. I must stand on my head, I must stand on my head!”

It’s A Wonderful Life

The next most remade movie, in my opinion, is It’s A Wonderful Life. Okay everyone, collective sigh: “We love this movie!” By the way, we know a story has arrived when it has been remade by the Muppets, a distinction both the first movie above and this one have in common.

George Bailey wants out of Bedford Falls, but fate won’t let him. All the good opportunities pass him by while he tries to keep the old Building and Loan afloat. The final straw comes when he feels a failure and becomes suicidal after Uncle Billy misplaces a large amount of cash. Okay everyone, collective shout: “Uncle Billy, pay attention!”

The arc of the self-sacrificing George starts low as he shouts at Uncle Billy: “Where's that money, you silly stupid old fool? Where's that money? Do you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal and prison. That's what it means. One of us is going to jail - well, it's not gonna be me.”

Frank Capra directs this movie in such a way that throughout a large chunk we live George’s dreams and we feel his angst. His arc begins to move forward as he sits in the bar and prays: “Dear Father in heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if you're up there and you can hear me.” --He begins crying-- “Show me the way... show me the way.” The prayer is answered when the angel, Clarence, jumps in the river, and we feel he is doing it for us. The lesson in that is: write fully dimensional characters that make your readers care.

In a single, selfless act, George rescues Clarence (showing us that even while dangling by a thread, George always puts others first.) His arc starts to move here as the first part of the movie was simply backstory to get us to this point. The petals from Zuzu’s flower disappear from his pocket, and Clarence shows him what life would be like if he’d never been born. George finally learns that had it not been for him, much would be different. He wouldn’t have saved his brother, Harry, and as a result, Harry would not have been in the right place to save lives during the war. The town Scrooge-like hated rich guy, aka the selfish antithesis of George, would ruin Bedford Falls and many of the lives therein. And poor Mary would become a fearful, lonely spinster. Although how she would have grown those ugly, bushy eyebrows without George, much less become near-sighted, I’m still puzzling through.

George learns his lesson and Zuzu’s petals magically reappear in his pocket. He runs home and kisses his wife and children while the townspeople pitch in to gather the money lost. And it’s George’s brother who puts a cap on the arc: “A toast to my big brother George: The richest man in town.”

Okay everyone, collective quote: “Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.”

Miracle on 34th Street

Young Susan Walker does not believe in Santa Claus. She is cynical, and way too smart for her own good. Yes, that’s flawed for a child. “If you’re really Santa Claus, you can get it for me. And if you can’t, you’re only a nice man with a white beard like mother says.” She says this to Kris Kringle, who moves her through her arc until she declares, “I believe... I believe... It’s silly, but I believe.” And we all cheer for her as makes her mother and her new dad-to-be stop the car. She had asked Kris for a house, and there it is. She has come full circle.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

In How the Grinch Stole Christmas, (sorry purists, the Jim Carrey version,) we are privileged to not only relive the popular tale we all cut our teeth on, but we get to see his backstory. This is an important lesson on how to develop our character’s flaws. Forgive me Dr. Seuss, but it really is great to see how the Grinch became the Grinch. Poor little green guy, ostracized by his peers, losing his love to the more popular, if not downright pudgy, perfect kid.

So that’s why he lives on top of a peak. To wallow in pity and nurse his lone streak. (Sorry, you just can’t write about Seuss without becoming Seuss.)

Anyway, while listening to the Whoville Christmas music below in the town, he utters, “Blast this Christmas music. It's joyful and triumphant.” Then, Cindy Lou Who, whose heart is as big as her hair, draws him back into society. The Who villagers embrace him and the Grinch, in pain, tells his faithful little dog, “Max. Help me... I'm FEELING.” Finally, his arc is complete when he comes to this revelation:

The Grinch: It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came
without packages, boxes, or bags.
Narrator: Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
The Grinch: Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas...
Narrator: He thought
The Grinch: ...means a little bit more.

That, my dear readers, is what Christ came here for. And, now we’ve come full circle.

Christmas in Connecticut - Dimensions

2008-12-13T22:40:00.009-07:00

Our Feature Presentation this month is Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan. It also has the delightful Hungarian comic actor, S.Z. Sakall, who plays Uncle Felix, and the formidable actor Sydney Greenstreet as Stanwyck's over-bearing publisher.

Set in 1945, Stanwyck's character, Elizabeth Lane, plays a food writer, famous for her articles in Smart Housekeeping Magazine. I imagine that equates to Good Housekeeping. She has basically lied to her readers, leading them to believe that she lives on a farm in Connecticut and is as homespun as her apple pie. In reality, she lives in the Big Apple, New York City, NY. She's also lied about being able to cook. Her recipes come from Uncle Felix who owns a top-rated restaurant. And she's lied about having a child and husband. Not only to her readers, but to her editor.

Do you see where this is going?

Dennis Morgan plays a handsome sailor just out of the hospital. The publisher, Alexander Yardley, played by Greenstreet, decides it would be good for business to cook a Christmas dinner for the sailor who has nowhere to spend the holidays. And his top-notch food writer would be just the person to do it. He railroads her into accepting, and of course, he wants it done at her farm.

Miss Lane is pursued by a pompous architect, John Sloan, who has trouble talking about anything but building structure. She puts him off until she gets the request from her boss. John has a farm in Connecticut. Ah, how convenient. She can marry him, sneak Uncle Felix in to do the cooking, and all will be well.

Except for the child she has written about. In a frantic search for a baby, we find out that John's cook babysits for mothers who work in a local factory.

So, there's the set-up. A comedy based on deception. Classic. All the players have relocated to the farm. Uncle Felix has a run-in with the cook on staff, John thinks he's marrying Elizabeth, Publisher Yardley shows up with Jefferson early, and chaos ensues.

The kicker is, if you haven't guessed it, Elizabeth falls for Jefferson. Hard.

As we watched the movie, our group realized we'd never get away with some of the things today. Most of the characters were one-dimensional, almost cartoonish. Elizabeth can't even boil water, her fiance has a one-track mind with his architecture business, and her publisher has a one-track mind with his magazine. The only one with depth is Uncle Felix, who is Elizabeth's confidant/mentor/conscience/encourager. But, then again, I'm partial to Hungarians. I married one.

If I were writing this screenplay today, I'd:

Give Elizabeth some backstory so we know why she doesn't like to cook. It's all well and good that she's a hard-nosed New Yorker living in an apartment, but I'd like to hear more of her story. I'd also give her more of a reason to fall in love with Jefferson. Good looks aside, Miss New York City Professional Business Woman probably wouldn't toss her independence and, ultimately, her career so easily.
Make her fiance ring more true. He loves her, he's waited all this time for her, yet when they kiss, he talks about the plumbing. In writer world, we're told to flesh-out our characters. John is pretty much a skeleton with no muscle or flesh. And while to woman he's been trying to marry throughout the picture is in her bedroom with another man, all he thinks of is pushing his ideas onto the publisher who has mentioned he's looking for a good architect.
There's a running bit with a porceline figurine in John's house that Elizabeth is bound and determined to smash when she's frustrated. I would have given her a reason for hating it, or created a piece of symbolism surrounding it. Maybe when she walks in, she sees it and is afraid that her publisher and fiance are trying to make her into a porceline doll. As it is, this poor innocent figuring is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What I think the writer did correctly by today's standards are:

Starting the story with Jefferson. This helps us get to know him better. The story starts with him and his shipmate, adrift in the ocean on a life raft for days. We know he's a nice guy, even when he tries to make his nurse think he loves her so he can get special treatment. Later, we learn that he loves kids because he's an uncle and is better at bathing and changing the baby than Elizabeth.
It's okay that her publisher is a money-grubbing, take-no-prisoners, businessman. But his character should be the only one we are distanced from. We don't want to like him, at least, not until the very end.

If you haven't seen the movie, don't let my comments scare you off. It's a delightful. if not somewhat shallow, comedy with excellent actors on the bill. Stanwyck plays humor as intense as she does drama and, as I mentioned before, Uncle Felix is a scream. After he learns what the word catastrophe means, he uses it often. Only in his accent it comes out "Catastroph!"

You can catch it this Christmas season on Friday, December 19 at 10:00 p.m., and Wednesday, December 24 at 7:30 a.m., both on TCM. (Check your local listings to comfirm dates and times.)

The Wizard of Oz - We're Not in Kansas Anymore

2008-11-29T04:22:00.007-07:00

An Allegorical View Depicting the Writer's Life

(Based on the movie, The Wizard of Oz)

In honor of Fantasy month, I continue with the classic, The Wizard of Oz. I urge you to read the other two articles if you haven't already: Hook, and our feature presentation, Tuck Everlasting.

The Wizard of Oz is a great study of the Plot Skeleton, created by Angela Hunt. You can find this skeleton in three parts here, here, and here. It's also wonderful for Dorothy's character arc. In the beginning, she only wants to leave Kansas but ends up in the final act realizing that "there's no place like home."

However, I'm not going to approach this story by talking about craft. Rather, I'm going to talk about the writer's journey down the yellow brick road.

Let's believe, just for the sake of allegory, that Dorothy symbolizes you, the writer. Perhaps you're stuck in "Kansas," your ordinary world. Because of your day to day routine -- either dullness as in Dorothy's case or the busyness that most of us endure -- your story idea is still in the flat stages, as colorless as Dorothy's greyscaped surroundings. What you need is an instigator.

Enter Miss Gulch.

The bicycle riding hag pushes all of Dorothy's buttons. Take away her dog? No way, she'd run away first. That's passion. Where does your passion lie? What would it take to spark that lifeless story line? What pushes your buttons? When I wrote Merely Players, (now available in the 3-1 compilation, Florida Weddings,) my Miss Gulch was realized in the lost souls of Hollywood. I invented a secondary character, a well respected actor, whose mission was to minister to those in the business. That's what fueled my story.

Now, with your passion driving you to write, you may still need a catalyst to separate you from your ordinary world. Dishes need to be washed, your boss is demanding more hours of your day, perhaps school is your ordinary world. It's going to take a lot to get you to write that story.

How about a cyclone?

The rush of adrenaline as you think about your Miss Gulch is just the ticket out of town. Let it swirl around you. No matter how little time you may have to write, or if the dullness of your life overwhelms your imagination. Seek that funnel cloud and stand under it. Let it transport you to where you need to be in order to write the story. And when you land, you will step out into a colorful world, limited only by your own imagination.

Oz.

Don't forget to grab the ruby slippers. These will be important later.

You may need some mentors to help you on your way through this new world. Find a writer's group. Join American Christian Fiction Writers, a national organization. Pull together a critique group locally. Find an accountability partner, someone who will set you on the right path.

We will call these mentors Munchkins.

Okay, focus here. I know you're singing "We represent the Lollipop Guild" in your head.

Now, I'm going to take a wild leap into allegorical land here. Please stay with me. As a writer in this strange new world you've created, you are going to need an Overseer, someone to turn to for help. Someone who lets you learn and grow, even through your mistakes. Could it be possible to think of Glenda, the good witch, as a God figure in your writing journey? I know the term "witch" is off-putting to a Christian, but I wonder if L. Frank Baum had this in mind. In the book, chapter 12, the winged monkeys are decimating the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. But they refuse to harm Dorothy because of a mark on her forehead where Glenda kissed her. At the risk of sounding theological, I'd like to highlight Revelation 7:3 where a command is set forth to not harm the earth until a seal is placed on the foreheads of the servants of God. That's my thought, anyway. Take it or leave it.

As in every good story, there must be conflict. We seek it out to keep the reader turning pages. However in the writer's life, we'd just as soon avoid any conflict that will keep us from writing.

Enter the Wicked Witch of the West. Glenda's nemesis -- further argument for my Overseer theory. By the way, in the book, Wicked, by Gregory Maguire, we learn that the Wicked Witch has a name, Elfaba. This is, of course, a tribute to L. Frank Baum, using his initials.

The Wicked Witch throws everything she has at Dorothy to keep her from her goal. In the real world, we know these conflicts as: illness that keeps the brain fuzzy; financial stress causing the writer to set aside her story and find a paying job; or more pleasant things, yet just as time consuming: grandchildren visiting; holiday preparations; television's new fall season. Elfaba throws roadblock after roadblock to keep words off the page. If you recognize her or her winged monkeys just itching to snatch you from your task, cry out to your Overseer. Whenever you spot the menacing wretches gliding overhead, you will be able to find those occasions of writing time.

There will be a moment, (okay, maybe a few moments,) when the writer will question herself. She will sit at her computer, drugged, if you will, with thoughts of inadequacy. Beware, as this stage in your writing journey stands directly between you and your goal. It's yet another technique that the enemy uses to drag you down. . .down. . .down. . .until you can think of nothing else but blessed sleep.

This, my friend, is your poppy field.

Overseer to the rescue! A sprinkling of snow, and you're good to go. Now, march on toward your goal. Dorothy's goal was the Emerald City where the Wizard could grant her wish. For the writer, this is your temporary goal, or maybe sub-goal. The city itself was not Dorothy's ultimate target, but a means to get where she needed to be. Your Emerald City could be a daily word count or a first draft -- something tangible for you to work toward.

Within that city, the writer needs a task-master. This need not be a man behind the curtain, it could be the writer herself. Whatever the case, no one reaches a goal without a plan. Now, let's forget for the moment that the wizard's plan was faulty and purely selfish. He'd hoped by sending Dorothy and her three friends on a quest for the witch's broom, they wouldn't come back. The writer's plan must be concrete, positive steps. How do you reach that daily word count? By setting aside a certain amount of time a day and "clocking in" as if you were working at real job. Here's an eye-opener. THIS IS A REAL JOB. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you'll take yourself seriously.

I haven't forgotten Dorothy's companions. I suggest to you that each one is symbolic of the writer's virtues.

The Scarecrow, who longs for a brain, helps us understand that the writer must use her good sense. Even though you're making up a world, logic must rule. For instance, in a contemporary romance, don't have a widower of two weeks fall head over heels for a pretty woman.

The Tin Man wants a heart, suggesting that the writer must use compassion in telling her story. A good writer empathizes with her characters, thus drawing the reader in also.

The Cowardly Lion only wants courage. Remember Miss Gulch, our instigator who fueled our passion? The writer must have courage to stand up for her convictions. If you're writing about a heavy subject, be brave enough to bring the point home.

And Toto? I dunno. If you can think of an allegory for Dorothy's whiskered pet, please write a comment.

So, Dorothy has defeated the witch, she's reached her sub-goal, and is now ready to hop into the hot air balloon that will help her complete her journey. But, oh no! Toto jumps out of her arms to chase a cat. (And was that cat the only one in the entire city? We never saw one before it was needed to launch the bleakest moment. . .I'm just saying.) The writer must not let anything distract her from reaching her ultimate goal. I want a show of hands. How many of you have an unfinished manuscript -- or more -- in a desk drawer? Yeah. That's what I thought.

But all is not lost. You still have the ruby slippers, right? Click your heels and repeat three times, "There's no place like publication." Come back to Kansas and get that story into the right hands.

The moral? There's no place like home. But if it weren't for Oz, where would the writer play?

Tuck Everlasting - Comparisons

2008-11-18T01:53:00.008-07:00

Our feature presentation is Tuck Everlasting. Based on the book by Natalie Babbitt and produced by Walt Disney Pictures.

It's a story of a wealthy young girl who stumbles upon a secret. She learns that there is a family living in her woods—a family, who she later discovers has been made immortal after drinking from a magical spring eighty-seven years ago.

The Movie

Here's the synopsis according to the movie, but I'll discuss the book later and bring out the differences, both pro and con.

We'll start with the opening scene. It begins with a young man on a motorcycle riding through a contemporary town. Note that the story actually takes place in the early 1900s. In my opinion, this scene was unnecessary. It was confusing to the viewer in our group who hadn't seen the movie or read the book. All of a sudden we're back in time and she was wondering what that was all about. I also didn't like it because rather than creating a question, it's simply intrusive.

The girl, fifteen-year-old Winnie Foster, discovers seventeen-year-old Jesse Tuck, the youngest son of the Tuck family, drinking at a spring bubbling from the ground beneath a tree. His older brother, Miles, kidnaps Winnie because she knows where the spring is. At this point, she doesn't know their secret, but he can't take chances. He's afraid she'll tell her family where the spring is.

Winnie, disgruntled with her stifling lifestyle, and longing to run away anyway, soon sees this as her opportunity. She falls in love with Jesse, and time stands still for her as well as she grows to love the family and their gentle, simple ways.

Enter the man in the yellow suit. He had already talked to Winnie through the fence, looking for the Tucks. Her mother shooed him away, but he hung around. Which is how he learns of the secret at the same time as Winnie. Jesse takes her back to the spring to explain everything to her. The man in the yellow suit overhears, although he's still not sure where the spring is, and follows them back to the cottage.

After being accused of kidnapping Winnie, the man reports back to her father of her whereabouts. But he has an agenda. He bargains Winnie's freedom for the woods, of which he will pay a fair price. The father reluctantly agrees and now the man owns the spring. He intends to bottle it and sell it, making himself rich. A posse is formed to go get Winnie, but the man gets there first. He intends for Winnie to take him to the spring where he'll force her to drink so he can use her in his demonstrations while selling the water.

The family struggles to pull Winnie from his arms, but Mae Tuck, the mother, sneaks behind him and whacks him in the head with the butt of a rifle. Bad timing, for the posse has just arrived to see her do this.

She and Tuck, the father, are placed in the jail, and Mae will be hung for killing the man in the yellow suit.

Jesse comes to Winnie's house late at night. He asks her to help them get his parents out of jail. If Mae hangs, she won't die and then the whole world will know their secret.

I'll leave Mae in jail for now while I discuss the differences between the book and the movie.

How the Book Differs From the Movie

The book is beautifully written—a literary masterpiece. The prologue begins thus: "The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning." With lines like this, one would expect it to float like a seeded dandelion on a playful breeze. And it does, but with very little conflict until the end.

Disney felt the need to up the angst—in all, a wise choice, except for some nonsensical changes, particulary the jail scene which I'll mention later.

After the gorgeous prologue that sets up the circle of life, chapter one details how smart the cows were not to have made a road through the wood. Chapter two begins with Mae Tuck excited to see her two sons again after ten years. And chapter three shows ten-year-old Winnie Foster sitting on her grass just inside the fence, talking to a toad about how awful it is to be yelled at and watched all the time by her mother and grandmother. As an only child, they have no one else to pick on. She half-heartedly talks about running away.

We already see a difference with the age of the young heroine. In the movie, she's fifteen, but in the book, she's ten. I think this was a good call on Disney's part because they were able to create a sweet love story between Winnie and Jesse without it seeming "weird." The book attempts their attraction, but it does seem awkward in places.

Another difference was with Miles, the oldest Tuck brother. In the book, the author portrays him as sad. His wife and two children never drank from the eternal spring, and so grew old while Miles did not. His wife believed he sold his soul to the devil and left, taking the children with her. In the movie, Miles is angry and bitter. His daughter died of a disease, and his wife was sent to an insane asylum, where she also later died. His son, he says, would be almost eighty years old, but he doesn't know where he's at. In one scene, Miles goes to a saloon and cheats at cards, knowing that if he were shot, nothing would happen to him. The Miles in the book would never do that, but Disney needed to bring in more conflict. Other than the saloon scene, I say they did a great job. Miles and Jesse fight more in the movie than in the book, because Jesse is so opposite. He loves the fact that he's immortal and he wants to see every inch of the world. These contrary personalities were just what this story needed.

In the movie, Miles is the one who tells the family that the man in the yellow suit is tracking them. In the book, they don't realize it until he shows up at their cottage. This also lends a little more conflict than the book. It sets a stronger ticking clock than the original work had alluded to.
In the book, the man in the yellow suit knows about the family through his grandmother whose dear friend had married into an odd family. That friend was Mile's wife. When she left Mile's with their children they came to live the grandmother, and that's where he heard about the family of immortals and became intrigued as to how they became that way. In the movie, he tells the family that he'd heard a patient in an insane asylum talk about a family of immortals. This is why Disney invented that little bit of back story for Miles about his wife going to an asylum. This tie-in is much more interesting and leaves us to wonder if the man had been a patient as well.

Let's talk about the toad. If you read the book, you know that Winnie had made a friend of a toad that listened to her patiently on the other side of the fence. He was, apparently her only friend. She conversed with it, which we never saw in the movie. The toad just showed up once in awhile so that if you'd read the book, you'd know Disney had too. More about the toad in a minute.

First I'll talk about the jail scene.

This scene only made me shake my head and utter, "This is Disney doing a little Disney-ing." In the book, Winnie is asked by Jesse to come to the jail at a certain hour late at night and help them get Mae out. Note that Tuck was not arrested with her, but when she shows up, he and the boys are standing outside of Mae's window with masonry tools. It seems Miles knew masonry, a fact that hadn't been told yet, so it's jarring to suddenly find this out. In any case, I like the book's resolution to their problem over the movie. The author has Miles pick at the barred window until it comes loose. A storm is nearing and he pries the window whenever there is a crash of thunder so the sound can't be heard. When the window is released, Mae climbs out and Winnie climbs in, taking Mae's place so when the sheriff checks on her, he sees her asleep. Then, in the morning, when she is found, the family is long gone. Winnie can't get into too much trouble because she is only ten after-all.

Now the movie version. Mae and Tuck are in their jail cell. A "frantic" Winnie (fifteen-years-old, remember) runs in the jail crying and saying the Tucks are trying to kidnap her again. The sheriff asks where they are, and she points outside. He grabs a rifle and heads out. There, standing like two demons in the storm, are Jesse and Miles in black clothing, black capes, and black top hats. They move toward the sheriff and Jesse orates these words: "Prepare to meet thy doom." Seriously? It was all very theatrical as only Disney would attempt. The sheriff shoots both Jesse and Miles, who fall appropriately. But then they rise, unhurt. The sheriff, scared out of his wits, runs for his life. I see a problem here. Wasn't the reason they wanted Mae out of jail was to prevent anyone knowing their secret? And here they dramatically call attention to it. Someone didn't think this through.

Anyway, in both the book and movie, the family has time to get away. But not before Jesse makes Winnie promise to find the spring when she turns seventeen, drink from it, and he will come find her later. In the book, he seeks her out at home later, gives her a vial of the water and requests the same.

This difference is important. Here's why.

Winnie's last scene in the movie has her sitting by the tree, picking up the water and letting it drip through her fingers. Moments play in her mind of Jesse telling her how exciting life would be if they both lived forever, and of Tuck explaining that the circle of life was too important to be messed with. The immortal life was like a rock along the river, never growing, never moving, only being, he tells her. Then it cuts away. In the book, however, Winnie stands at her fence on her property, watching a dog try to attack her toad. (See, I told you I'd get back to it.) She grabs the toad, takes it to her room and pours the vial over his body, as toads don't drink, they absorb. I like that she makes this small sacrifice for her friend Toad. It's small, because she can always go back to the spring, if she can find it again, and do as Jesse requested.

In both scenes, the movie where she plays with the water and the book where she pours her vial on the toad, the question still hangs: Does she or doesn't she?

The last scene is in the town and it morphes from early 1900s to contemporary. This is effectively done in both the book and the movie. However, in the movie, Jesse is on his motorcycle, (a continuation of the first scene that I didn't like,) and looks longingly at Winnie's house. Then he takes off and finds the tree now with a gravestone near--Winnie's, where we learn by the carved epitaph that she had become a wife and mother, and lived a hundred years. In the book, Mae and Tuck enter town on their buckboard, out of place with the cars and pavement. They lament that nothing looks the same, and that the woods have been flattened. (If the woods had been flattened, Jesse would have never been able to find the tree.) They go to a cemetery, and there find Winnie's grave marker, still a wife and mother, but she died at seventy-six. I guess Disney wanted to show that she lived a full life by making her one hundred.

So, that's what worked and what didn't in the opinions of those who watched the movie together and discussed it.

On a final note, there was a scene in the movie where the man in the yellow suit goes to a cemetery outside of a church. The vicar comes out to see if he needs anything, and the man, a bit psychotically, asks about eternal life. If a person could live forever without dying, wouldn't that be a good thing? The vicar stammers out that the man speaks blasphemy. I wish that Disney would have let the vicar do his job. It would have gone something like this: "But everyone has access to eternal life through Jesus Christ. He told the woman at the well as much when He explained God's living water in John 4:13-14. "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Wouldn't that have made a great statement? The social commentary included in the story is that used wrongly, this water would cause anarchy. But God's plan for living water is perfect.

Sigh. But that was Disney doing a little Disney-ing again.

Hook - What Would Happen If?

2008-11-06T01:08:00.005-07:00

Wouldn't it be fun to take your favorite story and write about what happens next?

Cinderella's daughter would become a spoiled brat, and treat her step-daughter as her mother had been treated. A prince from a neighboring country would fall in love with Cindy Jr., show her the error of her ways, and the two would live happily ever after.

What about To Kill A Mockingbird? Scout would grow up to become a political activist, and work at developing half-way houses for the mentally handicapped in honor of her friend, Boo.

Several classics have gone on in sequels. Little Women and Gone With the Wind just to name two.

Hook, a sequel to Peter Pan, asks the question, "What would happen if Peter grew up?" Which is, by the way, the exact question that Jake, son of the writer, James V. Hart, asked his dad. And we're glad he did. What would happen? He'd become a modern day pirate as a cutthroat merger and acquisitions lawyer and develop a fear of flying, of course. Genius!

The creator of Hook must have had a blast as he took all the familiar devices and turned them on their heads. Peter, the boy who never grew up, becomes old. He demands that the window in the children's room be kept shut, even though years before, that's how he visited Wendy. We see a glimpse of the icon Peter as he stands at the window with his fists on his hips. He doesn't pay much attention to his children when before he had nothing but time for kids. His work phone is a constant interruption. And the formerly cocky Peter has trouble spitting out words as he gives his speech at Wendy's banquet.

We wouldn't get any of that if we didn't know the story so well.

I love that Peter marries Wendy's granddaughter, Moira. We all so hoped Peter and Wendy would get together. Well, those of us with a romantic streak. So this was the next best thing. (By the way, was that Gwenyth Paltrow as a young adult Wendy?)

Wendy herself turns the old home into a house for lost children, just as she cared for the lost boys in Neverland. And by the way, I love her phrase, "Give us a squench." I've used that a few times with my own grandchildren.

An elderly Tootles continues to look for his marbles.

Nana is still stuck outside in the doghouse, although I suspect she's a direct descendant of the original. I do wish they'd used a Saint Bernard as in the Disney original, but a shaggy dog works, I guess. Perhaps that's what was used in the original play.

Did you catch the hooks holding the windows closed in the nursery?

The inciting incident occurs when the children are taken. Peter must now become the person he'd shed, someone he doesn't even remember.

Tink to the rescue!

Julia Roberts's Tinkerbell is just the cutest thing. And what wonderful spunk. I don't recall the original fairy clobbering Peter with a blunt object, so this is great insight into what she turned into over the years. With the help of fairy dust, she lugs an unconscious Peter to Neverland to rescue his kids.

Peter attempts to rescue them, but his skills as a lawyer have not prepared him for the treacherous pirates. He fails miserably, leaving his son to wonder why he didn't try harder. Does his dad care for him? Now, Peter not only needs to rescue his children, but he must regain his son's faith.

And now the question the creator must have asked himself. "What would happen if Peter's kids are influenced by the child-hating Captain Hook?" The answer soon becomes obvious. The girl, Maggie, sees him for who he his, someone who desperately needs a mommy. But Jack is really who Hook wants in the first place. With Peter as king of the lost boys, and therefore their chief champion in defending them from the pirate, wouldn't it be ironic if Peter lost his own boy to his treacherous arch enemy?

Ooooo…good stuff!

Peter encounters conflict after conflict as he tries to become the Pan again. The first being Rufio, the boy who has taken his place. A street punk who obviously learned how to fight dirty. He and his gang of lost boys bully and terrorize poor Peter, embarrassing Tink since she's trying to convince them that this is, indeed, Peter Pan.

He finally gains the trust of some of the smaller boys. The littlest finding his hero somewhere in the flabby face by stretching the wrinkles out of it. But Peter still must prove himself to Rufio. He finally overthrows the leader through an insult contest. That makes sense. I had boys. It's what they do.

The major conflict (but not yet the black moment) in the middle of the second act happens when Peter and the lost boys act as spies in the pirate camp. Hook has decided, with the help of his personal valet, Smee, that the best way to get to Peter is through his son. He has worked his magic and Jack is becoming a pirate, and sadly, forgetting he has a family. Hook knows that Jack's problem with his father is that he's never there for him. He even missed a very important baseball game once. So, the devious pirate orders all under his command to stage a game just for Jack to prove to the boy that he loves him (gag) and will always be there for him (gag.) Peter sees his son play baseball, probably for the first time. He's so proud of him as he hits a home run, but his joy is short-lived when he hears Hook say "My Jack." He knows there is no other way to gain his son's respect but to become who he really is deep inside.

He must fly.

How do you have a happy thought when your children are in the hands of the enemy? But find it he does, as he thinks of Moira and the birth of their first child, Jack. To save Jack, he thought of Jack. There must be sermon in there somewhere!

Next conflict. In the transformation, he forgets he has kids, because he's become a boy again, albeit still in a man's body.

Tinkerbell must save the day once more. (Do you see a pattern here? It seems only the females are thinking straight in this story. Good insight, Spielberg!) Ah, but Tinkerbell has her own problem. Even while helping Peter get his kids back, she knows that once he does, she'll lose him again, probably forever. Now, we already knew that she was the jealous sort. And now, she tries to do something about it. Here comes the next question the creator asked. "What would happen if Tinkerbell acted upon that jealousy?" She would make the only wish she'd ever wished for herself. She becomes big, hoping that Peter will choose her. But, alas. Peter is a family man. Upon his rejection, she poofs into her tiny bit of light and flitters off.

As we enter the third act, Peter, fully the Pan and no longer ground-challenged, shows up on Hook's ship. A mêlée ensues. Pirates and lost boys battle it out, and sadly for Rufio, he battles to the death.

This is Pan's black moment. In saving his own son, he's lost one of the boys he's sworn to protect. Hook deserves to die.

Whoa! Our favorite fairy tale just turned dark. Is this what happens when we modernize a classic? Never fear. The writer, James Hart, wrote this knowing his son would read it.

Peter clashes swords with Hook. As they parry and thrust, Hook looses his vanity. His wig flies off and underneath is nothing more than a tired, old man. Maggie, who has seen him for what he is all along, convinces her father to end the fight and take them home.

He nearly does just that, but Hook isn't finished. With one last cruel insult -- vowing that he'll continue to pursue Peter's children, and their children, and their children -- Peter turns his sword on him once again, but before he can finish him off, Hook's greater enemy takes over. The giant crocodile that had taken Hook's hand ages ago, and has been in a taxidermied state in the town square, topples and falls on Hook mouth first. The dastardly pirate disappears into the throat and becomes nothing but a satisfied burp.

After naming one of the remaining boys as leader, Peter and his children return to England. He completes his character arc by answering his work phone in the middle of their homecoming and tossing it out the window. Peter, the man, has rediscovered his boy within, and we are happy to find that both can inhabit the same body.

So, the final question is the same as the first: "What would happen if Peter Pan grew up?" He would embrace his children with as much robust as he had embraced his childhood.

Kudos go to Amblin Studios for taking the classic and finishing the story.

The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm

2008-10-11T10:18:00.011-06:00

I had hoped to post more on Fairy Tale Month, but a research trip in the middle of October stalled that plan. However, we'll have many more opportunities to talk about movies with fairy tale themes.

This week I'd like to spotlight the movie that started me on my writing journey, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, made in 1962, featuring Laurence Harvey as Wilhelm Grimm and Karlheinz Bolm as Jacob Grimm. Other names you may have heard of are Barbara Eden of I Dream of Genie fame, Jim Backus, who was Thirston Howell III in Gilligan's Island, and Buddy Hackett, a popular pudgy comedian in tons of '60s movies (remember Disney's Love Bug?)

Although not particularly accurate, this movie chronicles the lives of the Brothers Grimm and how they started writing fairy tales. It's sprinkled with vignettes from the tales themselves, creating a delightful fantasy montage that absolutely thrilled me when I was seven.

One scene from this movie stands out. If you're a writer, I hope what I'm about to share rings with you as much as it has with me for over four decades. Wilhelm is ill, lying on what is sure to be his death bed in his room. It's at the end of the movie, so we've seen all of the stories in the afore mentioned vignettes. Now, all of those characters come to life and climb through his window and surround his bed, except for the beanstalk Giant who peers into the window. They all entreat him to not die because if he does, they will die with him.

As a writer, this truth has clung to me through the times I wanted to give up. Through the times that writing was just too hard, or publication seemed an impossible mountain to climb. I've found at the times of my greatest discouragement, that my characters yet to be written seek me out in my home office, standing near my chair, their hands on my shoulders. "You can't quit, Kathy, because if you do, no one will know about us." And as a Christian author, I hear God, (who is very real!) saying, "You can't quit, because if you do no one will know the truths I've placed in your words. That one person I've chosen to finally grasp eternity, will not do so through unwritten words."

Wow.

Our profession is powerful. If I can gain inspiration through the words of a fairy tale movie, how much more so can my readers gain insight into God's truths. He and I work together to craft not only an entertaining story, but inspiration and insight into the character of God. In truth, I learn as much about God as my readers when I see those words form on my screen.

So I encourage you, dear writers, to continue the task you have set out to do. Or, as the theme in our first Craft Cinema feature, Galaxy Quest, stated, -- "Never give up, never surrender."

Powerful words to live by.

******

If you'd like to learn more about this movie, go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056700/

ENCHANTED

2008-10-08T17:46:00.007-06:00

To kick off our Fairy Tale October, our group watched Enchanted, with Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, and James Marsden. It’s a story of a cartoon fairy tale princess who is pushed down a well and lands in very real New York City. A fish out of water story and, in essence, Disney making fun of Disney. Who else could do it better?

First, let’s talk about goals. Our princess, Giselle has one goal. True love’s kiss. She believes she’s found that with Edward, a delightfully narcissistic prince who saves the young damsel in distress from a nasty fall out of a tree as she runs from a two-story tall troll bent on eating her. Edwards goal? Someone who will finish his heart’s duet. They plan to marry the very next day, but the evil queen, aka the future mother-in-law, does everything in her power to stop the marriage for fear of losing her crown to Giselle. Her goal? Get rid of Giselle. She turns herself into an old hag and pushes Giselle down the well.

This leads to the real world and our hero, Robert, a cynical divorce lawyer who makes it clear early on that he’d rather his young daughter read about real-life heroes than fairy tales. The little girl, Morgan, sees Giselle in the rain, pounding on the painted castle door atop a billboard, and hops out of the taxi to see her. Robert goes after his daughter, and rescues Giselle when she falls off the billboard. Robert’s goal? Keepin’ it real. He doesn’t believe in happily ever after since his own bitter divorce, and he insists that his daughter keeps her feet on the ground and her head out of the clouds.

Our hero’s and heroine’s arcs are as diversified as they are. Let’s start with Giselle. Her first jolt of realism is when she asks an old man if he can help her. The man grabs her crown and hoofs it down the street. Giselle calls out, “You’re not a nice old man!” When Giselle feels an emotion she’s never before experienced – anger -- the heavens open up with crashing thunder and lightening. This begins her journey into becoming real. She hangs onto her naiveté as long as possible, singing and dancing in the park, talking to animals, all the typical princessy things. Notice when she later becomes angry at Robert, things change drastically for our heroine. Her voice even changes, no longer sounding like a princess sound track. By this time, Edward has found her, and she tries to introduce him to New York City, perhaps to make him as real as she is becoming. He agrees to take her to a ball before leaving for their own world, Andalasia. We find as she prepares for the ball that she no longer talks to animals, asking them to make her a gown and do her hair for the upcoming ball. She now uses VISA, as any real woman would do. When she shows up at the ball, every person present is in costume pretending to be in a fairy tale. But Giselle is dressed in a contemporary gown, her hair long and silky, looking every inch like a real woman. She soon does some very un-fairy tale things, which we will talk about in a moment.

Robert’s arc is subtle, but watch his eyes as he takes in his new charge, Giselle. He goes from bewilderment, not being able to fathom this fairy tale princess, to distress as he rejects the thought of happily-ever-after. But he starts to believe as she becomes real, effectively crossing her arc with his own. As she goes from fairy tale thinking to realism, he goes from cynicism to idealism. However, he slips as he lets her leave with Edward. After all, that’s what she wants, right? Thus proving that happily-ever-after doesn’t exist. But when he sees her again at the ball, his shift is instant. He dances with her and everyone disappears, including his fiancée. To see Robert, dashing in his prince costume, and Giselle as a real woman, shows clearly how they have both changed. When Edward takes her away again, we fear that Robert will be lost to the real world forever. However, when the jealous queen shows up and successfully gives Giselle a poisoned apple, Robert comes to his full transformation. True love’s kiss is the only thing that will wake Giselle from her deadly slumber. Edward’s kiss is ineffective, therefore, Robert must be her saving prince. He rejects it at first, hanging onto that last cynical shred, but comes through before the clock chimes midnight and Giselle is lost to him forever. He kisses her, and she wakes to her true love’s kiss.

Briefly, Nathaniel’s character arc is also important. As the lackey, his goal is to please the queen at all costs because of his love for her. He leaps down the well at his mistress’s bidding to kill Giselle before she can connect with Edward, who has gone after her. Nathaniel picks up the clue phone in the real world as he watches a soap opera on television. Ironic that such a phoney form of the media would introduce him to the truth. On the show, a man and woman are fighting. She turns up her perky nose and says, “How can I love a man who doesn’t even like himself? Get away, you disgust me.” This begins Nathaniel’s arc, but he still goes through with his plans, bumbling through one failed murderous attempt after another. He finally calls a talk show to discuss his odd relationship with the queen. It becomes clear to him that she is using him when she shows up, calls him “Worthless,” and takes matters into her own hands, leaving him to wonder what went wrong. He eventually stands up to the queen, tells everyone what she has done to Giselle, and holds Edward’s sword to her throat, thus changing his arc from a sniveling love-struck slave to a man with backbone. He reaches his goal, self-respect.

In the end, Giselle becomes real, Robert learnes to believe in fairy tales, and Edward, well, doesn’t change at all, but he does find the one who will finish his heart’s duet -- Nancy, Robert’s fiancée. After all, this is a Disney movie, and everyone but the villain deserves to find happily-ever-after.

Ah, yes. The villain. And a delicious twist at the end of the story.

Disney making fun of Disney was a unique premise that absolutely delighted me. I grew up on these movies, as most of you have, and I thought I got every fairy tale device they threw at us. Talking animals that could sew and do hair. Singing naïve princesses waiting for their true love. Arrogant, but lovable princes who propose at the first meeting. Clocks that ominously strike twelve. Lost slippers. And of course, wicked queens who can turn into old hags bearing poisoned apples. But there is so much more. If you have the DVD, I encourage you to watch the extras. Click on the mouse ears, (at the bottom of the signs on the right, and see how many Disney movies were incorporated into this show. The narrator tells us that if we watch the Blue Ray disc, it will tell all of the secrets. (A cheap shot to get us to upgrade our DVDs, by the way.) They do show some in a short montage. I thought I knew my Disney, but I was amazed at how much I missed. Don’t miss this! It’s nifty, Mouseketeers!

I did get that the evil queen bore a striking resemblance to Snow White’s wicked stepmother, and was every bit as dramatic. As writers, we’re told to give our villains redeemable qualities to make them real. Well, Walt didn’t get that memo. And we baby-boomers are glad. If Disney villains stopped to pet the dog in the alley, the world as we know it would implode.

Back to our story. The third act kicks off with the queen showing up at the ball. When her plot to kill Giselle fails, she turns into a fire-breathing dragon and snatches, of all people, our hero, Robert. TWIST! Doesn’t the villain always go after the woman? Giselle, our sweet princess who only longed for true love’s kiss, now becomes a warrior, ready to fight for her man. She grabs Edward’s sword and hies herself hence up the outside of the building in pursuit of the dragon, (another Disney icon, by the way.)

I will insert a quick note on foreshadowing here. In the beginning of the story, the troll is after Giselle. Brave little Pip, the chipmunk with the Jersey accent, hops onto the troll’s head, making the tree limb they’re all on bend with the weight. Giselle then slips down the limb, Pip grabs for her, and the troll is flung to the south side of Andalasia. Mid-way into the story, Giselle is sitting with Robert’s daughter explaining to her how Pip was the one who actually saved Little Red Riding hood from the wolf. Flash forward. The dragon queen now has our hero precariously perched in her claws, and Pip races up the building. He bravely salutes, steps onto her head, and the spire she’s clinging to bends like the twig in the first act. As it snaps, Robert is flung from her grasp and she falls to her smoldering death.

Ah. I love a happy ending.

Edward and Nancy go back to Andalasia, which is a good thing for poor Nancy and her deviated septum. She’s gorgeous as a cartoon. And Robert, who once professed that he never danced, does so with wild abandon with Giselle and his daughter -- in his very real New York apartment.

And they all lived. . .well, you know.

I Do Hereby Declare. . .

2008-09-15T00:37:00.003-06:00

October is

FAIRY TALE MONTH

Once upon a time, in land far, far away, lived a writer who dreamed of someday writing about princes on white horses, princesses in sweeping castles, and happily ever after.

Okay, so I haven't written about two out of three of those things, but everything I write has a happily ever after. Call it the princess inside of me just longing to do some frog kissin'!

Since our first movie of the fall season is going to be Enchanted, I thought what a perfect time to discuss other "fairy tale" movies. My absolute favorite is Ever After! An adaptation of the Cinderella story, but told in a way that is believable. No singing mice. No pumpkin coach. But highly entertaining and ohhhh so romantic.

So, watch for posts on a fairy tale theme in October. Or beware! You might find a homely woman selling apples at your door.

The Dark Knight Review

2008-08-03T23:17:00.008-06:00

In an attempt to escape the triple digit heat this weekend, my husband and I headed for the theater. The Dark Knight won the time lottery--you know, when you stand outside the building and stare at the digital marquee to see which, of the five summer movies you want to see, is the one you don't have to wait an hour for. This movie was on my personal list to see, but I so hoped Mamma Mia! would win the lottery. Ah Pierce, we'll meet later.

Okay, back to the movie at hand.

This much anticipated sequel to Batman Begins promised to deliver horrific bad guys, and it did. It also delivered a lot of loud vehicle chases and violent action. But my husband loved it. It was a long a movie, two and a half hours, and could have cut back on some of the action, at least 45 minutes worth, in my opinion. Much of it was too fast and hard to follow.

And loud. But some people like that, particularly male viewers who I imagine were the target audience.

The story line was solid, with edge of seat suspense and several "Oh, no!" moments--sprinkled in-between the aforementioned action.

Reasons this movie annoyed me:

Batman's voice. Thank goodness he was involved in all those car chases instead of talking.

Confusing scenes with too many characters. I lost the plot occasionally. But, hey, I was in an air conditioned building in the triple digit heat. I put up with confusing scenes.

Reasons to see this movie:

Alfred, the butler. Brilliant casting of Michael Caine, the plucky servant who tells Bruce Wayne what he needs to hear. I wished there had been more of him in this movie, but I enjoyed the moments he had on stage.

The ingenious creation on-screen of the villian, Two Face. It was worth waiting through two-thirds of the movie for this transformation.

Heath Ledger as the Joker. If for no other reason, see this movie to view the actor's final performance. Of all the Joker's I ever knew, (not talking personally here, just four decades of watching the twisted villian played by everyone from Caesar Romero to Jack Nicholson,) Heath's depiction is the most believable portrayal of the arch enemy. From the trailers, I was afraid I'd be weirded out by this greasy psycho--and I was, but in a good way.

I rate this movie 4 out of 5 stars. I knocked it down a notch because of the excessive action, even though the men in my family, (and just now the two anchor men in the evening news,) have made it clear that explosions, loud engines, and general chaos is what makes this movie great. Oh, and don't get them started on the cool motorcycle! Apparently I don't have enough testosterone to appreciate it. But, honestly, what keeps this review high is Heath. If his star had to dim, I'm greatful this was the role people will be talking about for years to come.

I'm so ready for a good musical/comedy/romance! Hold on Pierce, perhaps we'll rendezvous next weekend!

AUGUST RUSH - Discovering the Heart

2008-07-21T01:44:00.005-06:00

Author Constance Hale, in her book Sin and Syntax, divides her observations on style thus:

Heart = idea. The germ of the story; its conception.
Skeleton = plot. The bare bones of what happens.
Sinews and muscles = motivation. Why it happens. How it happens.
Flesh = characters and incident. What makes it interesting.
Blood = dialogue. Communication between characters and reader.
Skin = continuity and coherence. What holds things together on the surface.
Carnal Pleasures = style. What elevates a book from readable to sublime. (Kathy's note: I prefer to call this the Nerve Endings, which sounds much less . . . carnal.)

Notice that the Heart is at the top of the list, and that the story, just like the living body, cannot survive without it.

While watching August Rush, let's concentrate on the Heart, or what I'd like to call Theme of the story.

In Plot & Structure, p 130, the theme is defined as the take home value of the story. In our group discussion after watching the movie on Saturday, we followed the three POVs of Evan, (later named August Rush,) his mother, and his father. I asked what theme these three followed, and several different answers popped up. Among these, persistence and searching. In my opinion, these both had the underlying theme of faith. Without faith, Evan and his mother (Lyla) would not have stuck to their convictions. Without faith, however late in the story it showed up, his father (Louis) wouldn’t have pursued his one true love.

In Beginning Writer's Answer Book, p. 170, the question is ask: How is the story problem different than the theme? It goes on to answer: The story problem is the vehicle for the presentation of the theme. In August Rush the problem is that all three characters are separated through no fault of their own. The vehicle is their journey back to becoming a family--with all of the conflict this naturally brings.

In Plot & Structure, p. 131, we’re told that themes deepen fiction, but we must be careful not to force it. The result will be “cardboard characters, a preachy tone, a lack of subtlety, and story cliché’s." To avoid this remember this one thing: Characters carry theme—always. Set your characters in “a world where their values will conflict with each other. Allow your characters to struggle naturally and passionately. Theme will emerge without effort.” The conflicts in the movie are numerous, but because they happen so passionately with the characters, we don’t feel we’ve been preached at.

In Write Away, (pp 163 & 166,) Elizabeth George admits to not always knowing her theme in advance, and often, even though she may think she has a theme, it changes half-way through the story. If you do know your theme beforehand, you can then plan your subplots accordingly.

The subplot involving Lyla and Louis deals with faith in love. They meet while both are disillusioned with their lives. Their love creates a faith in another person. When they are torn apart, they flounder for twelve years, not even realizing it had been faith that made them alive.
Lyla's search for Evan. When she realizes Evan is still alive, she says, “It’s as if I’ve just woken up.” Faith, renewed.
Louis, who, after a twelve year funk, and several awkward tries, begins to have faith that his relationship with Lyla can be renewed. It's important to note, too, that although he comes from a strong Irish family, he loses faith in them when he loses Lyla.
Richard, the social worker, has faith in his role in the system.
Arthur, the street kid Evan first meets, has placed his faith in Wizard. But when Evan replaces Arthur to be Wizard's favorite, Arthur loses his faith, and eventually helps Evan escape.
Wizard is the antithesis to the faith theme. He has no faith in the system, and we glean, through a small part of his back story through his conversation with Richard, that Wizard was once a lost kid in the system who later grew up on the streets. (This, btw, was an excellent way to introduce this bit of back story without interruption.)
The little girl in the church has faith in Evan, even though she doesn't understand his gift.
The pastor has faith in God, and believes, after an "arrow" prayer indicated by his eyes darting heavenward, that after Evan disappears, he will be found and that all will go right for him.

Sub themes are important, too. The strongest we found dealt with loss.

Evan who lost his parents
Lyla who lost Louis and her son
Louis who lost Lyla
Arthur who lost his family
Wizard who also lost his family when young, and who loses Evan in the end
The little girl in the church who lives there with her grandmother, apparently having lost their home
Richard, who admits to Lyla that he had a child--once

In Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass, a whole chapter is dedicated to theme beginning on page 229. Here are some nuggets that I found, but if you can get your hands a copy, please read the whole thing. It explains theme, its importance, and how to integrate it into your story.

First, present any "A vs. B" formula that represents a genuine dichotomy, (i.e. "man vs. nature," "reason vs. emotion," etc. Maass says, "When conflicting ideals, values or morals are set against each other in a novel, it grips our imaginations because we ache to resolve that higher conflict." (p. 230)

If your theme eludes you, Maass has a unique approach to help you find it. This would be your take away or what you want to say to the reader.

Beginning on p. 236, "Imagine government agents bursting into your writing room, smashing your computer, grinding your backup disks under their heels, burning your hard copy and hauling you off to prison."

He goes to say that you lose the trial and are sentenced to hang. However, a week before your execution, "the compassionate warden of the prison lends you a typewriter and paper . . . but only ten sheets." There is time to type out only one scene from your novel . . . which one will you chose?

To take it a step further: A sadistic guard seizes the scene and rips it into little pieces. All that is left is a blank half sheet that flutters to the floor. There is only room for a paragraph from your novel.

Maass instructs emphatically: "Go to your word processor right now--yes, this minute--and type out the paragraph from your novel that you would have written in prison on the last day of your life. What does it say?" This, dear writers, is called narrowing your story down to its essence. If you try this exercise, please feel free to share your experience with us by commenting on this blog post.

And finally, from p. 235, he talks about symbols. Sometimes they can be stagy and obvious, but often, they occur in a story whether the author intended them or not. These are the symbols that occur naturally, making use of what is already there. And often, the normal reader, (as opposed to the abnormal writer who reads and looks for such things,) doesn't even know they're there, but have an intuition that something is right with the story--and they like it. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love symbolism. August Rush had a couple.

The moon
- Lyla and Louis fall in love to the song, "Moon Dance."
- Evan, the boy later renamed August Rush, watches the moon from his orphanage window, knowing that his parents are watching the same moon. It helps him keep a connection with them. It's a physical thing on which he can pin his faith.

The music
- It was music that brought Lyla and Louis together. It was music that brought Louis back into Evan's life as they played their guitars together. And it was music that brought all three together at the end. Music, as it occurred naturally throughout the film, carried the faith theme from beginning to end.
- Going back to the scene when Louis joined Evan on the street and they both played guitars together, this symbolized father and son in harmony. It was in this scene that the key phrase for the theme was uttered so simply by Louis, "You gotta have a little faith." In that moment, Evan decides he must break ties with Wizard, no matter what the cost.
- Also, Evan's rhapsody runs throughout the film, only to be replaced occasionally by other songs that move the faith theme throughout. Listen to the lyrics of each song to see how they pull the viewer through the story theme.
- And here's a great quote by Evan himself: "But I believe in music...The way that some people believe in fairy tales."

Other cool symbolisms in the movie that I can't fit into the faith theme:

The professional musicians in the group discussion opened our eyes to what we had already gathered was an important part of the movie. During the parts where all three characters, Evan, Lyla, and Louis, are playing their own music, yet blending, we learn that this is called "melodious harmony." Two words that mean exact opposite of each other. Each character was playing his or her own melodies, yet were harmonizing. This symbolized that each were living their own lives, yet were still in perfect harmony with each other. A side note: The music was so beautifully and seamlessly done, we agreed that if there were no dialogue, we'd still understand what the story was about through the swells and beats of the music.
Another interesting thing about the music: Lyla is concert trained, Louis plays in a rock band. Evan's musical style envelops both, just as closely as his genes made him to be a part of both parents.
The archway--I never noticed this until it was mentioned in our discussion. A lot of things happened in that large cement archway, and it was suggested that this was the doorway to change.
The cross necklace--Lyla loses her necklace at the point she loses Louis. A family torn apart. We see it fall to the ground, and in Writer World, this means something significant is going to happen with that necklace. I waited for it to show up again, and it did--around Wizard's neck. Wizard is lying under the stars having a father/son moment with Evan, usurping the parental role in his life. In other words, this symbolized "the passing of the parent" so to speak.

If you haven't watched August Rush, I encourage you to do so. It's a beautiful movie of faith, love, and yes, persistence.

RESOURCES:

1. www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/16712/259
2. Plot & Structure, James Scott Bell, Writers Digest Books, 2004
3. Beginning Writers Answer Book, edited by Kirk Polking, Writers Digest Books, 1987
4. Write Away, Elizabeth George, Harper Collins, 2004
5. Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maass, Writers Digest Books, 2001

Get Smart review

2008-07-13T22:14:00.014-06:00

GET SMART

Occasionally I will write a "Mini-Featurette" on this blog, in between our "Feature Presentations." Today's is a review of the movie, Get Smart with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway.

Saturday, my husband and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary by taking in a movie and dinner. We were excited that the TV show we grew up on had been made into a movie, and prayed it wouldn't disappoint as so many remakes have a tendancy to do. (Dukes of Hazzard with Jessica Simpson? Come on!)

In the beginning, Max walks into a museum and admires three iconic items from the old CONTROL days. I had to wonder if these were the items that Don Adams, the actor who played Maxwell Smart in the '60s, used in the original television show. His shoe phone, his suit, and his red sports car were all on display and admired with respect by the new Max. Then he takes off down the corridor of slamming doors, (with one tiny glitch that made the walk uniquely Steve's) and disappears down the phone booth elevator, all to the tune of the original spy riff.

From a writer's stand point, this opening is brilliant. It lets the audience know that we are about to board a nostalgia ride, and that everything we loved as kids about this show will be treated with respect. Don't mess with the shoe phone! It ticks us baby-boomers off! Even their catch phrases -- "Missed it by that much." and "Oh, Max." -- are delightful to hear coming out of these new faces. Well done!

The plot is strong, with the goal, motivation, and conflict firmly in place for both of the main characters. I was happy to see that, as sometimes these remakes simply drag out a half-hour show to 2 hours. There was only one lame scene with one of the villains, but it had been set up so wasn't a surprise. I would have hoped for something stronger considering the rest of the story. However, it didn't ruin the movie for me.

Steve Carell is exactly the right person to play Agent 86, with his clean-cut looks and slight build. Anne Hathaway is perfect for Agent 99, although I had my doubts before seeing the movie. Even though I've seen her in other things, she'll always be a princess to me. However, she hadn't been on screen long before I was totally believing her as an athletic spy. And even though she doesn't look like Barbara Feldon, except for those enormous eyes, she manages to resemble the svelte actress about halfway through the movie as the two characters attend a fancy ball (given by the bad guy, of course.) Anne wears a 60's style brunette wig, bobbed at the chin ala her predecessor, and a silver sequined dress that she must have been poured into. At that point, my believability factor rose ten points.

All-in-all, I give this movie 4 stars out of 5. This was a delightful movie, and my husband and I laughed out loud in the theater along with everyone else. However, in modernizing it, the writers added rude humor, mild sexual innuendos, and a brief nude scene (backside only,) so please be aware of this if you bring the kiddos. Had it not been for that, it would have recieved four stars from me.

To read more about the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425061/

To read more about the television show: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058805/

Coming Soon -- AUGUST RUSH

2008-07-12T14:13:00.007-06:00

August Rush

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426931/

If you're in the Colorado Springs, CO area on July 19, we will be watching August Rush, a beautiful move about love, faith, and perseverance. Afterward, we will discuss how the author used these three threads to create a masterfully woven story.

If you can't make it in person, please tune back into Craft Cinema on Monday, July 21 for an article on what we learned.

GALAXY QUEST - Hero's Journey/Character Arc

2008-06-23T01:10:00.004-06:00

Okay, I've made an executive decision and decided to place our discussion under a different post. In getting us started, I've created a lengthy lesson -- too much, at least, to be placed in the comment section. This is probably how I'll do it all the time. So, expect an introductory article on the assigned movie, then a second article to discuss on. If our discussion sparks sub-lessons, such as plot skeleton or archtypes, I'll post another article to discuss those things. Each article will be labeled under their movie title and lesson discussion, so readers can easily go to either the movie of their choice or the lesson they'd like to learn.

Clear as Beryllium mud?

Hey, just remember: NEVER GIVE, NEVER SURRENDER!

Here we go…

Trixie has taken your tickets and you are all settled in to watch Galaxy Quest! (Refer to my last comment on previous article.)

The movie opens with an episode of the original show, Galaxy Quest, starring Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen.) This is our prologue. We need this to understand that GQ is an old television show (note the mullet on our hero) so that when we start the story, we see how they've aged (note Tommy, the nine-year-old pilot of the ship who shaves now!) and have become cynical. One wonders why they're all still together when they're so unhappy. Could it be they yearn again for a captain to tell them what to do? Hmm.

The story actually begins in Jason's ordinary world, a GQ convention ala Star Trek. The actors are complaining about Jason not being there on time because he's booked another gig without them. This sets him up as one who isn't a team player. He wants all the glory for himself.

Remember this, it's important as we look at the Character Arc, or his inner journey.

I'm going to list what we came up with as a group. Jill, Diane, Danica, Bonnie, Darcie, and I discussed the following at length. As I retyped it in, I refined it some more, so if you were there on Saturday, please read on. I invite comments on any part of this, or list your own if you don't agree. I'm hoping this works well as a discussion board. Please remember when you comment for the FIRST time, to click the box that will send you email updates of the comments. This shows up after you've done your word verification and pressed the "Publish Your Comment" button. This is not Feedblitz! That will only send you the original posts.

In our discussion, we took the Hero's Journey (HJ) and the Character Arc (CA) and put them side by side. This is what we came up with:

HJ - ORDINARY WORLD: Galaxy Quest convention.
CA - LIMITED AWARENESS: Aliens visit Jason at convention table but he thinks they're fans in costume.

HJ - CALL TO ADVENTURE: Aliens visit Jason at home.
CA - INCREASED AWARENESS: Jason thinks he understands what they want, but has it wrong.

HJ - REFUSAL OF THE CALL: He doesn't really refuse, but, thinking these are just over-the-top fans, he "blows up the bad guy" and rushes off to his next gig.
CA - RELUCTANCE TO CHANGE: He still shows himself as self-centered
NOTE - It could be argued that his refusal actually happened when he first met them at the convention and blew them off. In his book, Myth and the Movies, Voytilla states that the stages are simply guidelines. Each step can shift somewhat, or be non-existent.

HJ - MEETING THE MENTOR: Mathezar, the good head alien, becomes his tour guide in this strange new world.
CA - OVERCOMING RELUCTANCE: Jason runs back to his fellow actors. This suggests that he's starting his journey of becoming a team player.

HJ - CROSSING THE THRESHOLD: Jason understands now that the evil alien, Sarris, is real, and so is the danger
CA - COMMITTING TO CHANGE: Knows he must help, and convinces the crew to join him, thus admitting that he can't do this by himself.

HJ - TESTS, ALLIES, AND ENEMIES: He and his crew must learn how to work the ship that was based on the television show. There are clear allies (The Thermians, or the squid people as our group called them,) and clear enemies, (Sarris and his evil hoard.)
CA - EXPERIMENTING WITH FIRST CHANGE: Takes over the ship as the commander, resuming the role he played on television. He has his team in place, each one unique in their gifts. He needs them to run the ship.

HJ - APPROACH THE INMOST CAVE: Jason prepares his crew for battle.
CA - PREPARING FOR BIG CHANGE: Jason is becoming his character, a captain with a crew. This is a precursor to how he will relate to them later on.

HJ - THE ORDEAL: The planet where they search for Beryllium spheres. This is where they meet physical adversity for the first time.
CA - ATTEMPTING THE BIG CHANGE: Jason must trust his crew to get him out alive.

HJ - REWARD: Sarris is defeated
CA - CONSEQUENCES (IMPROVEMENTS & SETBACKS): Jason earns respect of his crew members.

HJ - ROAD BACK: They bring the ship home!
CA - REDEDICATION TO CHANGE: Humble now, knowing he's part of the team, Jason goes a step further and enlists the teens help to bring them home safely.

HJ - RESURRECTION: Sarris is alive! Jason must battle him one last time.
CA - FINAL ATTEMPT AT BIG CHANGE: Jason sacrifices himself for the sake of his crew (and the audience who thinks it's all part of the show) and puts himself in harms way for his team.

HJ - RETURN WITH ELIXIR: Jason has survived the "special world." He's back at the convention where it all started. The "ordinary world," oblivious, is safe once again.
CA - MASTERY OF THE PROBLEM: Knowing he couldn't have done it alone, Jason includes the GQ crew in celebration rather than taking all the bows himself.

EPILOGUE: New episodes of Galaxy Quest with a new, and much improved crew!

We also found it interesting that as an ensemble piece, all of the crew had their own Character Arcs.

~ Alexander/Dr. Lazarus, whose catch phrase that he loathed -- "By Grabthar's hammer, you shall be avenged" -- becomes real and heartfelt when he loses the alien who looked up to him. Also, as Jason's main adversary, he comes to respect Jason.

~ Gwen/Tawny hates that the only reason she was on the show was as a sex symbol, even though she was vain about her appearance through most of the movie. By the end of the battle, her suit is unzipped and she doesn't care. Then, when she tumbles out of the ship at the convention, her hair is disheveled, and she makes no attempt to primp before her adoring fans.

~ Tommy/Laredo, gains new confidence in piloting the ship.

~ Fred/Chen, although seemingly in control, does break down when it's up to him to save Jason from the planet. When he accomplishes the task, albeit because of the girl alien gazing at him in pure faith, he gains new confidence in himself. And, I just thought of something. He always had food or was talking about food. After falling in love, I don't remember seeing him with food anymore. Hmm.

~ Guy/Crew Member #6. Gotta love him! He went from a sniveling coward who just wanted to be on the show, to a confident crew member, ready to do battle.

~ And finally, Mathesar. He felt he needed the Galaxy Quest crew because of his short-comings. But he had the makings of a commander inside, and embraced it when Jason "commissioned" him.

I found a link to the Galaxy Quest script, where I was able to read clearly the things I missed when I got lost in the movie. In the Bible, we pick out key verses of books and chapters. Here's an excerpt that foreshadows Jason's arc.

While signing his autograph at the first convention, Jason talks to some young fans:

JASON - Had I moved an inch to the left the beast would have killed me. On the other hand, my crew was in danger...
YOUNG BOY - How did you know what to do?
JASON - Come on! Without my crew, I'm not a Commander, huh.

And right there signals his Character Arc!

http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/galaxyquest_trans.htm

GALAXY QUEST - and Welcome!

2008-06-19T17:19:00.016-06:00

GALAXY QUEST

Never give up. Never surrender.

Welcome!

If you're a fiction writer eager to study the craft through movies, you're in the right place. This month, we will discuss the hero's journey and how it relates to his character arc.

Who are "we?" This blog is my brainchild, Kathy Kovach, the American Christian Fiction Writers Rocky Mountain Zone Director. When I approached the ACFW Colorado folks about sponsoring a movie day, they were enthusiastic. Two people volunteered their homes and we settled on dates. ACFW is a national organization dedicated to spreading the gospel through the art of fiction. If you aren't familiar with ACFW, please visit http://www.acfw.com/ for info on this worthy organization.

I have had a love of movies ever since watching the late movie with my mom when growing up. My dad was a truck driver and on the road a lot. My sister was seven years older and had a life. That left Mom and me, and a large bowl of popcorn. Back in the sixties and early seventies, the late show was clean, popular in its classic style, and highly entertaining. We watched musicals, epics, westerns...you name it. But the movies themselves weren't the only draw. Time alone with Mom. Getting to know her as a best friend. That's why my love of movies grew. It was a positive experience that I continue to share with my family.

And now, I want to share it with you, my writing family.

If you belong to ACFW Colorado, we have scheduled our Movie Madness days on the third Saturday of the month. Denver will host June 21 at the house of Jill Hups and Colorado Springs will host July 19 at the house of Kim Woodhouse. (All times and dates subject to change.) ACFW Colorado is looking at opening more charters, so stay tuned. If you'd like directions, watch for an announcement on the ACFW Rcky Mt Zone loop, or email me. (See my profile.)

The beauty of this blog is that if you can't make it to the movie showing, you can watch the movie at your leisure and come back to discuss it with us. I will announce the movies in advance so you can prepare to discuss on the fourth Monday of the month. If you miss a month, I hope you will scroll through the comments anyway. We will all learn from each other.

I hope you can join us at Jill's house on Saturday, June 21 at 4:00, but if not, please rent the movie and come back here. We will begin discussing the character arc of Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen's character) on Monday, June 23 and continue until the topic is exhausted.

Please note that you can subscribe to this blog through FeedBlitz. Enter your email address in the box, upper right corner of this blog. Then you will never miss out on the fun!

WORKSHEET:

You may be familiar with the Hero's Journey which takes the character through a physical structure common to most stories that have been told throughout time. A good contemporary book that explains the mythical structure is The Writer's Journey - 2nd Edition by Christopher Vogler. A follow up to this book is Myth and the Movies by Stuart Voytilla. Using this book, we will follow the chart he's included on page 7. If you don't have the book, you might want to buy it, but it's not necessary for our assignments.

While the Hero's Journey is the physical movement of the character throughout the story, the Character Arc is the inward journey, or the growth of the character. We will look at both.

Watch Galaxy Quest and follow Tim Allen's character, Jason Nesmith. Look for the following things in his Hero's Journey. Make a brief note of what happens to him in the movie during these pivotal points.

Ordinary world

Call to adventure

Refusal of the call

Meeting the mentor

Crossing the threshold

Tests, allies, and enemies

Approach the inmost cave

The ordeal

Reward

Road back

Resurrection

Return with elixir

At the same time, follow the Character Arc:

Limited awareness

Increased awareness

Reluctance to change

Overcoming reluctance

Committing to change

Experimenting with first change

Preparing for big change

Attempting big change

Consequences (improvements and setbacks)

Rededication to change

Final attempt at big change

Mastery of the problem

Note that the Character Arc is the inward journey, while the Hero's Journey is the physical. Voytilla teaches that both are synonimous and makes for a well-rounded character. This is what we want in our own writing.