Check out our latest Hopstory featuring Breakside Brewing in Portland, OR. One of the best IPAs and pilsners on the market and a solid lineup of rotating experimental brews plus an exciting new barrel aging program!
Hopstories #7: Breakside Brewery from Eric Buist on Vimeo.
Also, check out my writeup at www.Hopstories.com.
Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Film. Show all posts
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Quentin Tarantino's Speech and the Creative Process
I'm not much for award shows. I get a little tired of Hollywood patting themselves on the back.
However, I love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. A pair of funnier ladies is hard to find. Given that, I did watch a little bit of the 70th Annual Golden Globes last night, mainly while The Good Wife was on commercial breaks (my wife loves that show). From what I saw I came away with three thoughts.
First, Brave shouldn't have won for Animated Feature Film. I love animated movies and I love Pixar but Brave didn't live up to their extremely high standard. It was a good but a little boring and predictable. My vote would have been for ParaNorman.
Second, holy plastic surgery batman! There were a few actresses I didn't even recognize they've had so much work done. Kate Hudson is starting to look an awful lot like Lindsay Lohan (which isn't a good thing) and one gall (who's name is now escaping me, which I realize doesn't help this post) doesn't even look like anyone anymore!
Finally, the last thing that stuck with me and the reason for this post was Quentin Tarantino's acceptance speech for Best Screenplay for his movie Django Unchained. If you haven't seen this movie, it's very good. Don't go see it unless you're prepared for some serious violence and profanity but do go see it. It's funny and sad and action packed and wonderful. The amazing thing about Mr. Tarantino's acceptance speech was the small glimpse he gives into his creative process. Take a look (hint: his speech starts at about 1:12):
He thanks his actors (which is good) and then he goes on to thank a group of friends that he reads scenes to as he writes. Apparently, when he's gone through a scene as many times as he can stand, he then reads the scene to a friend or two. Instead of feedback he simply asks for these people to listen. They are sounding boards. Mr. Tarantino explains that when he reads a scene to a friend he hears it through their ears. For him to take the time to thank this group in front of a live national audience lends weight to how important this step is for him in his creative process.
So here's my question: do you do anything like this?
I've done something similar with my non-fiction. When writing journal articles to be submitted to peer reviewed publications I will sometimes read particularly tricky sections to a colleague in order to see how it flows and to gauge their reaction and level of understanding to the material. But I've never done it for one of my fiction stories. Perhaps I should.
What about you?
However, I love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. A pair of funnier ladies is hard to find. Given that, I did watch a little bit of the 70th Annual Golden Globes last night, mainly while The Good Wife was on commercial breaks (my wife loves that show). From what I saw I came away with three thoughts.
First, Brave shouldn't have won for Animated Feature Film. I love animated movies and I love Pixar but Brave didn't live up to their extremely high standard. It was a good but a little boring and predictable. My vote would have been for ParaNorman.
Second, holy plastic surgery batman! There were a few actresses I didn't even recognize they've had so much work done. Kate Hudson is starting to look an awful lot like Lindsay Lohan (which isn't a good thing) and one gall (who's name is now escaping me, which I realize doesn't help this post) doesn't even look like anyone anymore!
Finally, the last thing that stuck with me and the reason for this post was Quentin Tarantino's acceptance speech for Best Screenplay for his movie Django Unchained. If you haven't seen this movie, it's very good. Don't go see it unless you're prepared for some serious violence and profanity but do go see it. It's funny and sad and action packed and wonderful. The amazing thing about Mr. Tarantino's acceptance speech was the small glimpse he gives into his creative process. Take a look (hint: his speech starts at about 1:12):
He thanks his actors (which is good) and then he goes on to thank a group of friends that he reads scenes to as he writes. Apparently, when he's gone through a scene as many times as he can stand, he then reads the scene to a friend or two. Instead of feedback he simply asks for these people to listen. They are sounding boards. Mr. Tarantino explains that when he reads a scene to a friend he hears it through their ears. For him to take the time to thank this group in front of a live national audience lends weight to how important this step is for him in his creative process.
So here's my question: do you do anything like this?
I've done something similar with my non-fiction. When writing journal articles to be submitted to peer reviewed publications I will sometimes read particularly tricky sections to a colleague in order to see how it flows and to gauge their reaction and level of understanding to the material. But I've never done it for one of my fiction stories. Perhaps I should.
What about you?
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Three Cool Things Just For You
We're at the height of conference season in the wildlife field and I've had no time blog about cool writing...things...and stuff.
As you can tell, my already fragile mental powers are at their breaking point.
Never fear though! I have three cool things for you that I just have to share.
1. Daily Science Fiction - This has been a great find for me. Every day DSF publishes a new, high quality (we're talkin' Hugo award winning) science fiction short story. You can sign up to have them delivered by email, which is sweet. I usually don't have time to keep up with every story so I print the emails to pdf's and throw them on my Kindle. Perfect diversion for "waiting for my wife time". All you husbands out there know what I'm talking about.
Here's a blurb from their site:
Original Science Fiction and Fantasy every weekday. Welcome to Daily Science Fiction, an online magazine of science fiction short stories. We publish "science fiction" in the broad sense of the word: This includes sci-fi, fantasy, slipstream-- whatever you'd likely find in the science fiction section of your local bookstore. Our stories are mostly short short fiction (flash fiction) each Monday through Thursday, hopefully the right length to read on a coffee break, over lunch, or as a bedtime tale. Friday's weekend stories are longer.
2. Duotrope - I'm probably lagging behind the curve when it comes to discovering this site but holy crap is it ever useful! You can search for markets for any genre of fiction or non-fiction and use their submission tracker to...track your submissions (amazing!). One of the coolest things is that you can view reports on the data they track such as reply times and acceptance rates. Sweet!
3. Drop everything and watch this short film about the Dutch robot wars (I originally found this on io9). This is short story science fiction at its finest!!! (be sure to watch all the way to the end)
As you can tell, my already fragile mental powers are at their breaking point.
Never fear though! I have three cool things for you that I just have to share.
1. Daily Science Fiction - This has been a great find for me. Every day DSF publishes a new, high quality (we're talkin' Hugo award winning) science fiction short story. You can sign up to have them delivered by email, which is sweet. I usually don't have time to keep up with every story so I print the emails to pdf's and throw them on my Kindle. Perfect diversion for "waiting for my wife time". All you husbands out there know what I'm talking about.
Here's a blurb from their site:
Original Science Fiction and Fantasy every weekday. Welcome to Daily Science Fiction, an online magazine of science fiction short stories. We publish "science fiction" in the broad sense of the word: This includes sci-fi, fantasy, slipstream-- whatever you'd likely find in the science fiction section of your local bookstore. Our stories are mostly short short fiction (flash fiction) each Monday through Thursday, hopefully the right length to read on a coffee break, over lunch, or as a bedtime tale. Friday's weekend stories are longer.
2. Duotrope - I'm probably lagging behind the curve when it comes to discovering this site but holy crap is it ever useful! You can search for markets for any genre of fiction or non-fiction and use their submission tracker to...track your submissions (amazing!). One of the coolest things is that you can view reports on the data they track such as reply times and acceptance rates. Sweet!
3. Drop everything and watch this short film about the Dutch robot wars (I originally found this on io9). This is short story science fiction at its finest!!! (be sure to watch all the way to the end)
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Tips for Creating Believable Fantasy Beasts
I lead a double life.
By night I'm a writer of epic fantasy. I create exciting new worlds out of thin air and populate them with all manner of men and beasts. I dine with dwarfs, battle balrogs, and dabble in the magical arts. I am a warrior mage, a tavern brawler, and a gladiator-slave.
By day I'm a mild mannered (-ish) wildlife graduate student with a BS in zoology and over 7 years of field experience. I battle statistical software and brawl with my thesis.
My alter egos don't mingle much but one subject they can agree on is the need for thoughtful, believable beasts and monsters in fantasy writing. In fact, one of the main reasons I constantly drift back to the fantasy genre is that I love creating new critters from scratch. And I'm not the only one. Just about every fantasy, sci-fi, or horror movie that comes out has some new beast in it. But how realistic are they? How do movie monsters differ from literary beasts? Here are 3 things to think about when you create your own mythical creatures.
1. Form follows Function: "The slime coated beast stalked through the forest toward the trapped maiden, it's two-hundred eyes glowing red with hunger. She smelled it before she saw it, the creatures vile stench bringing tears to her eyes."
Ok, maybe not Hugo winning material to start with but this example passage would send up some serious red flags for a bio-geek reader such as myself. Why would an ambush predator (as stalking would imply) have glowing red eyes and a pronounced odor to announce its presence? Why would a creature that lives in a forest (a habitat with limited visibility) have two-hundred eyes? The point I'm making is that a believable creature doesn't have appendages, eyes, fur, slime, wings, odor, etc., unless there is some kind of biological reason.
Let's take a look at one of the fantastic creatures created by the genius concept artist Neville Page for the motion picture Avatar. I know from seeing the movie that he prolemur is a arboreal (tree-dwelling) forest primate. The thing is, I could have probably told you that without seeing the movie. Look at its grasping hands and feet, perfect for holding branches. Its obvious but relatively small patagium (flap of skin from the leg to the arm) means that it glides but not for long distances, probably only from tree to tree. Even the prolemurs large ears make sense in the forest, a habitat where calls go a lot further than visual cues. In summary, this creatures body form makes sense and that makes it believable.
2. Habitat Matters: I've already hinted to this but the habitat that your fantasy animal lives in will dictate what that animal looks like and how it will behave. Let's take a look at another one of Mr. Page's creations, the monster from the frozen world Delta Vega featured in the motion picture Startrek. This is one awesome beast and when it bursts onto the screen, the audience definitely has a "Holy Crap!" moment. But how believable is this monster?
The answer: not very. Don't get me wrong, the anatomy of this thing is awesome and it moves great but there is absolutely no way something that big, that lanky (consider the volume to surface area ratio), that hairless, could survive in that habitat. It would freeze to death, plain and simple. Also, Delta Vega appears to be a desolate frozen wasteland. So where the heck is something that big getting enough prey to move that fast for that long? The metabolics don't make sense. For a short action scene on the big screen, most viewers will be willing to suspend disbelief but if you had to paint that picture with words, it would be much harder for a careful reader to believe in that monster.
3. Fantasy from Reality: The fact of the matter is that there are some pretty cool animals in our own world. Look to them for inspiration and for biological grounding. Research what kinds of animals live in habitats that are similar to the ones in your story. Find out what kind of adaptations they have. Look at a real animals body structure and use it to inform the creation of your fantasy animal (as Mr. Page does so well, transforming a dog into the prototype for the Delta Vega monster). The forces of evolution have crafted the animals of our planet over hundreds of millions of years. Make your job as a creature creator easier by taking some tips from the natural world.
So do you get the picture? Are your creatures believable? Prove it! Leave a description of your fantasy beast, where it lives, and what it does and I'll give you my opinion as a biologist about whether it seems believable.
SHOW ME YOUR MONSTERS!!!
By night I'm a writer of epic fantasy. I create exciting new worlds out of thin air and populate them with all manner of men and beasts. I dine with dwarfs, battle balrogs, and dabble in the magical arts. I am a warrior mage, a tavern brawler, and a gladiator-slave.
By day I'm a mild mannered (-ish) wildlife graduate student with a BS in zoology and over 7 years of field experience. I battle statistical software and brawl with my thesis.
My alter egos don't mingle much but one subject they can agree on is the need for thoughtful, believable beasts and monsters in fantasy writing. In fact, one of the main reasons I constantly drift back to the fantasy genre is that I love creating new critters from scratch. And I'm not the only one. Just about every fantasy, sci-fi, or horror movie that comes out has some new beast in it. But how realistic are they? How do movie monsters differ from literary beasts? Here are 3 things to think about when you create your own mythical creatures.
1. Form follows Function: "The slime coated beast stalked through the forest toward the trapped maiden, it's two-hundred eyes glowing red with hunger. She smelled it before she saw it, the creatures vile stench bringing tears to her eyes."
 |
| A Pandoran prolemur from Avatar, by Neville Page |
Ok, maybe not Hugo winning material to start with but this example passage would send up some serious red flags for a bio-geek reader such as myself. Why would an ambush predator (as stalking would imply) have glowing red eyes and a pronounced odor to announce its presence? Why would a creature that lives in a forest (a habitat with limited visibility) have two-hundred eyes? The point I'm making is that a believable creature doesn't have appendages, eyes, fur, slime, wings, odor, etc., unless there is some kind of biological reason.
Let's take a look at one of the fantastic creatures created by the genius concept artist Neville Page for the motion picture Avatar. I know from seeing the movie that he prolemur is a arboreal (tree-dwelling) forest primate. The thing is, I could have probably told you that without seeing the movie. Look at its grasping hands and feet, perfect for holding branches. Its obvious but relatively small patagium (flap of skin from the leg to the arm) means that it glides but not for long distances, probably only from tree to tree. Even the prolemurs large ears make sense in the forest, a habitat where calls go a lot further than visual cues. In summary, this creatures body form makes sense and that makes it believable.
 |
| Star Trek's monster from Delta Vega created by Neville Page |
The answer: not very. Don't get me wrong, the anatomy of this thing is awesome and it moves great but there is absolutely no way something that big, that lanky (consider the volume to surface area ratio), that hairless, could survive in that habitat. It would freeze to death, plain and simple. Also, Delta Vega appears to be a desolate frozen wasteland. So where the heck is something that big getting enough prey to move that fast for that long? The metabolics don't make sense. For a short action scene on the big screen, most viewers will be willing to suspend disbelief but if you had to paint that picture with words, it would be much harder for a careful reader to believe in that monster.
 |
| Creature concept art by Neville Page |
So do you get the picture? Are your creatures believable? Prove it! Leave a description of your fantasy beast, where it lives, and what it does and I'll give you my opinion as a biologist about whether it seems believable.
SHOW ME YOUR MONSTERS!!!
Monday, February 27, 2012
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
This years very deserving winner in the Best Animated Short category was "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore". This beautifully animated story stole my heart. It's delightful story is something anyone can appreciate but it's something especially special if you're a writer. I've never seen anything that so completely captures the feeling of why writers write. It's wonderful! It made me cry!
Take 15 minutes and check it out.
You won't regret it!
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