Insert pithy motivational phrase here

Maybe this has more to do with last Friday's class but the bit about 'believe in yourself' seems to have stuck with me. Being young, and yes I count myself as frightfully young, one walks an odd line these days. The whole of one's childhood was spent listening to 'you can do anything' and 'you are really talented when it comes to x, y and z' from parents, teachers and children's programing. And then you grow up a little and realize that there is very little chance that you will get paid for doing something you enjoy and that there are at least a thousand people smarter, more talented and generally just better than you. If one is as hideously introspective as I am it tends to beat one down and make one consider working the fryer at McDonalds as a serious if only career option. I wish I had more confidence, or at least go back to the days of childhood where I thought I was 'awesome' in the face of glaring evidence to the opposite. Sadly this realist reasoning I manage to develop as I mature leads too easily to pessimism, perhaps this is why many of my creative heroes were so heavily into drink and other mind altering substances. Maybe it's easier to feel confident in yourself when your mental state is altered.

Dutch Angles

I think I've had a walk through film-making terminology just about every semester now. But I can't say I'm complaining, it's a nice refresher. The mouse dogs are wholly new, however. This also reminded me of Mitch Brian's tirade about putting camera direction in scripts. I find the hardest thing about screenwriting is slipping the subtle hints at direction in the script. But then again, battle plans never survive first contact with the enemy and scripts never survive, in tact, when given to a producer.

My father became a deist because of Ayn Rand

I try not to think about politics. It generally puts me into a nihilistic state of mind, probably because I'm a Libertarian living with a Tea-Party Republican. But the thing I find myself hating the most about politics is the campaign season. I don't watch broadcast television any more, and I had hoped that would lessen my desire for suicide during the campaign season, but that isn't the case. There was an ad for Obama at the beginning of a youtube video I watched this morning and it really annoyed me (mainly because it's still 2011 and I don't like Obama's 'more government fixes everything' thing). If I believed in the concept of a soul I might say it was a soul-crushing time to be a media consumer. It's a sad thing to be utterly disdainful of one's government and  politics by the age of 23.

Talk About Suffering

So when hit with rule number 9 (thou shalt have it read aloud by another), I did feel like I had been run-through. I was reminded of my last creative writing class with Professor Pritchett. We had to put our work on blackboard for others to read and come to class to workshop. On several occasions stories were not posted in time and had to be read aloud in turns. One of these times it was my work. I sat, cringing, as my fellow students and my professor read my eighteen-page work of fiction. It was absolutely horrible, especially as I was not permitted to speak in my defense when problems were found. But, unsurprisingly, I did learn something about my dialogue (and that people today are perplexed by commas and semi-colons). I had to learn to not only write but speak more plainly. Now, I am certainly not going to say that I have learned my lesson; I think one can see why. But I am aware of my tendency toward formality of speech, and I am trying, in baby steps, to correct it.

Coen Brothers Forever

I'm so bad at planning general, particularly when it comes to writing. My dialogue is primarily extemporaneous. I may have some idea before hand where I want things to go, but more often than not I come up with something from left field. But I like dialogue. It's my favorite thing to write. And I all too often fall into that group of people who would rather tell than show. And speaking of dialogue, I think the masters of it at the moment are Ethan and Joel Coen. Their dialogue has a lyrical quality to it. Maybe that's the key. Apply the rules of songwriting to screenwriting, it's certainly worth looking into.

I want to be Stephen Fry when I grow up

I am a massive lexophile (thanks spell check for thinking I meant pedophile). I love words and massive Victorian phrases. Seriously, I'm the kid in 4th grade who started reading the dictionary for fun (which is about the time I started wearing glasses, what a surprise). So being told that the magic number is approximately 8 words in a sentence, and then that they should be one to two syllables . . . Well, I wasn't thrilled to say the least. But I get it, to convey a message quickly and efficiently you've got to make it as simplistic as possible without being insulting. I may want to use words like floccinaucinihilipilification, but only me and the rest of the lexophile community would find it amusing. In the end it's like masturbation, it only makes you feel good.

I'm not even gonna try to come up with the 11th

So I finally got the test results I've been waiting for and I'm anemic, apparently. I'll be okay, I have a good doctor and she's already got me on some supplements and a high iron diet, but it got me thinking. Anyone else notice how we love a good medicine-based story? Like House or ER or MASH? I was tempted to find a way to make it a whole other type, but then I looked a little closer. Medical dramas fit into every single one of the types.

1.) Romance = Doctor/Nurse. Doctor/Patient. Nurse/Patient. Patient/Family Member. Patient has good health, patient loses good health, patient gets good health back.

2.) Success/Failure = Patient lives/dies.

Blah, blah, blah, you get the picture. I think the key is to stop looking for originality and start trying to perfect the 10 story types.

Interpersonal Relationship and Communication

I was wondering to myself how cliches and archetypes come about in popular culture when in class we started playing 'battle of the sexes'. For someone who has generally negative thoughts on the idea of gender roles and stereotypes I was shocked by how quickly we assigned characteristics to genders that seemed to mirror that of TV sitcoms. That's where most of this comes from, I think, popular culture. We stop seeing people as individuals and fall into stereotypes when it comes to groups mainly because it is all too easy to generalize when it comes to groups. I know I rarely conform to the typical female stereotype, so why would I assume that somebody else with a vagina does too? We all want to be treated like unique individuals, but the first chance we have we tend to assign qualities to people based on the groups they fall into. Hardly seems fair, hm?

Agatha Christie? We go back years, me and Ag. She's a … she's just a … she's dead, isn't she?

I'm a big fan of Eddie Izzard, see the quote above for proof. I was watching one of his shows the other day and it had me thinking about class on Monday when we talked about stories being a grab for power. They say that those that are the most depressed often go into comedy, I can't speak to whether or not Eddie fits this type, but it is common enough. I wonder if a part of comedy, or stand-up at least, is one way of having power over that particular mental illness. Like, 'I have the power right now and I can even conquer this problem I have as long as I have the power'.

We just lost the game

We've been discussing the Snuggie off and on in class lately. Now I've been lucky enough to avoid a lot of contact with a lot with these things, though my older sister bought the dog version for her hideous little chihuahua. But sadly I have an addiction to the Stumbleupon button so after repeated stumbling I was bound to come across this: The Thuggie.

I'm willing to bet this bizarre item of clothing will become popular among the hipster crowd because it's so 'ironic'. I only wish that I was as crazy with my sewing, I tend to fall into a practical mindset far too often, and if this teaches us anything it's that impracticality sells.

So much for loving your car and your wallet

If it was a snake it would have bitten me. Now admittedly I don't have a car, nor do I pump gas for either of my parents' cars when I have the occasional opportunity to drive them, but I like to think of myself as a 'petrol head', like they say on Top Gear. I have a fondness for well engineered cars, the more impressive the engine the more I tend to love it, and as such I am familiar with the idea of spending a little more for the recommended higher octane ratings. But sitting in my chemistry class yesterday Professor Durig brought up the fact that while automakers tell you to buy higher grade, there is actually no need. It's the plus or minus two that will get you. You can get the 89 but aren't guaranteed the 89, why not just get the cheaper 87 as you could possibly be getting the 89? Then you look up and see a little sign that says 'love your car and it will love you back' or some other nonsense and more than likely you'll get the 89 instead of the 87.

We know better but we still fall for it almost every time.