I need to figure out how to post music clips on my blog. Well, I need to make it simpler than the way I do it right now.
I also could not make up my mind on the specific music for this posting. So this posting has a few choices.
Click on either A – B – C – D - E
The farther one goes
The less one knows
-Tao Te Ching
The picture on the left here is a photo of a poster that I have had for almost twenty years now. I do not remember exactly where I got from or why. It is beginning to show the signs of age too at this point. If I had known then that I would still be having this hanging on a wall I would have had it framed. And I have not been able to find a replica of it.
I do not know exactly why I have found it to be so significant for me. You would think that after almost twenty years I would be able to define why it is significant for me. It must represent something. But what that is I think has changed over time.
I like mountain views. I have even done some rock climbing. Just cliffs though. No real mountains in the area where I live.
I think the idea of mountains in some way relates to writing/being creative. The hard part is I am the one creating the “mountain” here. I keep going back to this web page on how to be creative. In relation to this entry scroll down to Number 9. You would think that as being the ”creator” that I would know exactly how to figure out how to climb the “mountain” I have made. Call it irony.
I have also been reading lately like usually. I do not know where I heard this following quote from. “You do not choose the books. The books choose you.” So something subtle is going on in the cosmos on this one. I have always liked books and movies about people who rise to situations that seem to be greater than them. I came across the book Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales. It is a collection of stories of people who survived amazing perils in the wilderness. It is also a study into the psychology and physiology of how people survive. Even if you are not an outdoor type you will find this book fascinating. There is an excellent summary of the book that can be applied to everyday life. If you like Perfect Storm or Fire both by Sebastian Junger than this is the book for you.
It happens from time to time. That little “muse” in my head just does not have that “creative” spark.
I am trying to rewrite a screenplay at the moment. Progress has been a bit slower than expected.
Tis the season. I guess. Updates when events warrant.
It is that time of year again next week. Election Day. The time you pick the candidate that you do not hate as much as the other one. I think it is your duty to vote each year. However, I really do not understand to exactly why anymore. It is easy to do and only takes five minutes or less to do. I hate this time when every political nut job (does not matter which party) decides you want to hear about them on at every commercial break for TV or the radio. They think you actually take the time to reader their fliers that come in your mailbox. Do not get me started on those who quote so called polling data. The problem is that none of these things really tell you anything about them. And yet I still vote. But after all these years of my voting based on my conscience (I have one. Set to “part-time” though) and the issues themselves I have yet to find vote for anyone that I actually believe in. So my voting strategy is flawed. I have decided come up with a new method that I plan to implement for next year. Here it is. The candidate who sends me the least amount of junk mail and the fewest phone calls will earn my vote. It is that simple. If a candidate is willing to “shovel” that much crap on me in the form of junk mail and phone calls then it a sign of things to come when he (or she) is actually in office. That is right! The candidate who is willing to do the least will earn my vote. He (or she) was willing to meet my low expectations. Next year with this new strategy I may actually have found the “winner” that is right for me. They aspired to it by doing nothing. It is so simple and a lot cheaper too.
A while ago I found a website called MoviePoet.com that sponsors a monthly contest for short screenplays. They give you a different theme each month for screenplay. You are free to come up with any idea you want that you think fits that theme. However, your screenplay cannot be any longer than five pages. You have a month to write it and to submit it. Then the next month the members of the site review and vote on your work. The names of the screenplay writers are removed from the script so you do not who exactly wrote what.
The month of September was the first time I enter one. The month’s theme was the following: “One is the Loneliest Number” There were a couple of stipulations on what your script had to have. It could have only one person in it. There were to be no dead bodies in it. You could not use off-screen voices. And you could only have one actor in it.
Here is my entry for it entitled “Focus”. (NOTE: Requires Adobe Reader to view it) This is the script as it was submitted. I have changed nothing in it. I got the results of the voting on it today. This is the type of feedback I need more of.
Screenwriting has been often referred to as being the “art of problem solving”. You create the problem such as character, plot, etc. And then it is up to you to find the solution to it. Screenwriting not only has to tell the story but it must also show the story. It is a visual medium. There are so many things going on the screen at once. The actor(s). The cinematography. The music. The action. The dialogue itself. And how all of these things happen at once. It really requires more the viewer to be more than a passive witness to it. But back to the writing portion. Five pages of script may not seem to be that hard to write. It does not take as long as you think it might to write five pages plus. The hardest part about writing is the fact that you have to edit and rewrite constantly. The hardest part about being “creative” is that what ideas I have never come out in completed form. They have to be shaped out. In this case, they have to written down and rewritten over and over. There is no magic formula. It is never the same process twice to get a solution. You have to make sure everything is being used to “efficiency” in the script. This is very true in a short screenplay. The hardest part of the creative process is that is never over with. As the feedback of my entry pointed out. I am not at the place I think I was on the “learning curve.” My education process is pretty much a matter of “D.I.Y.” versus “trial and error”. It at least does not require taking on more student loans.
If you want to check out another past entry from another contest then click here for Customer Service Representative: Nick. It was based on a theme too. The script had to be based on the idea of “In a Nick of Time.” (Requires Adobe Reader too) It did place in the top ten of contest once. Winning like that felt good. However, there never was any real feedback. That would have probably have been better in the long term. But it was what it was.
I did enter MoviePoet’s October challenge. I know right now I am going to be hit on format again. As for the November challenge I do not know if I can come up with an idea. But I have a month. The theme for the month is just not my favorite topic.
