New ways to cause accidents

The people at IBM are hard at work developing technology we never knew we don’t need — a steering wheel that reads your lips, responds to your facial expressions and turns into a drum machine. Tapping out a beat on the steering wheel while jamming to your favorite tunes will never be the same again.
IBM calls it “Artificial Passenger” and says touch-sensitive controls at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock let you channel Neil Peart while creeping through traffic. If drumming ain’t your thing, you can lip-sync to your favorite tune and the steering wheel will knock out some beats based upon the movement of your lips.link to wiredblog

Weapons of Fear

 If you’ve been reading Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters you’ll notice I have an interest in the way insects can release pheromones that cause reactions in other insects. According to Blog@wired, the real Uncle Sam is interested in the same thing: American military researchers are working to uncover and harness the most terrifying chemical imaginable: that most primal odor, the scent of fear. 

Dark Matter mUsic

I find this interesting because the primary form of communication with other races may be interpreted as music rather than a standard language as we understand it. There is also a music to the universe as indicated by this experiment. 

That’s entertainment…

Okay, since my life was taken over by offspring I’ve had a great deal of trouble writing. As a creature of habit I like to establish a routine. This way I can be sure I spend x amount of hours at the keyboard struggling with the muse. Children eat hours like candy and before you know it the day is gone and the night is a series of terrified leaps from the bedside. The point is that if I’m to keep my brain sharp enough to forge ahead creatively I’d better simulate the process and so here I am, back in blog. I’m in the business of helping people escape their respective realities. That’s my job. As a writer I must struggle between my creative nature and the need for money. It is a tough combination to manage. The money angle tends to make me take on projects that don’t always work to my long-term advantage.

 

In the last two years I’ve managed to get into a position where the work I love and feel passionately about is vastly overshadowed by the money gigs that reach a much larger audience. A catch 22 if you will. I’m not going to complain about it because no one cares. Nothing worse than a whiny writer complaining about the machine that feeds him or her, but there are certain things that amuse and frustrate. Fortunately these things also have a darkly humorous side if you can maintain a healthy outlook.

 

Case in point I’d been working on a screenplay that happens to fall into my area of preferred genres—horror/sci-fi. On thing you should know about most things related to film, comics and television…there are tons of people involved in the final product. Quite often the ideas you have as a writer are disassembled and remix3d as they move through the chain of command on the way to the finished product. Comics used to be a more pure version but the transition has been underway for a few years to make the process more like film and TV.

 

Anyway, back to the humorous story angle. In working on the screenplay there were initial discussions with producers, network execs and the people behind the core concept I’ve been hired to write.  I’m very excited about the screenplay and the concepts behind it. I believe it is going to kick all kinds of ass and that’s what is most important. BUT…in the initial discussions and outline stage I pointed out that the story needs to have a slow build as we introduced the characters, established the world and the rules before we could leap into what I call the good bloody stuff. At the time everyone was in agreement. In horror stories you need to CARE about the characters before you deliver horrible death upon them. The outline is approved, the phone calls and emails are all incredibly positive. The word LOVE is tossed around generously and then all communication comes to a grinding halt as I wait for approval to go to the script stage. 

 

A month passes. Emails fired off come back with claims that the outline is under review by various parties. A month and a half later the notes come rolling in. The story unfolds too slowly, it needs to start with a bang and keep rolling like a derailed train into the explosive conclusion. Okay, no problem, another draft of the outline is worked out with lots of explosions and blood flying. The world LOVE is tossed around generously again and now the approval is given to go to the script stage. YES! This is the part I love.

 

What follows is the most action packed of a rollercoaster ride I’ve ever put on paper. As a fan of films and books that force you to continuously ask, “what could they do to top that scene?”, I poured gas on the raging fire of action and adventure.

 

Two weeks of intense writing and she’s done! 90 pages of fury I would personally plunk down 13 bucks to see in a theater. The screenplay is fired off and I wait for the inevitable notes that will follow.  Here’s a not so secret tip we writing people use. I almost always write a “this must be cut out of the script” scene. I usually make it a glaringly obvious editorial point so as to detract from other things I am in love with and hope will survive the process. Sue me. It is a self-preservation technique.

 

As you can imagine once the script is delivered the lines of communication go dead again. Two more months pass before a random email arrives stating that everyone loves the screenplay, there are a few notes but nothing major and a director has been found for the project. Deep breath…the director has notes. 

 

I’ll preface by saying I like the director quite a bit. He’s got a great attitude and a bunch of fresh and exciting ideas to contribute and that’s always a welcome addition to the process. The bad news here is that the chain of command, which so often works against itself, feels the screenplay starts too quickly, that we need to get to know the characters before we deliver upon them various horrific deaths. At first I’m confused…wait…isn’t that what we had in the first outline? Yes it is but that was months ago.

 

Notes come in with the assurance that a few minor changes aside we should be good to go. At this point alarms start going off in my head. I know this isn’t going to be a simple rewrite. It never is. Further investigation of the notes reveals that…yea…a rewrite of 80 % is in order.

 

At this point there are two directions one can go in. The temperamental artist will rage against the machine, he or she will throw a fit, pull back the script and make the parties involved wait without response or communication. Some people can get away with this. I prefer to go back into the script and rework it as best I can with the knowledge that I tried as best I could but ultimately was overruled. This isn’t to say there haven’t been times where I did the latter and quit a project, but you’re actually cutting off your nose to spite your face when you do.  The difference of course is that the people inside the industry know that this is the process and it is not normally the writer’s fault if the project fails or in most cases they’re rarely viewed as responsible if it succeeds. Tough break there I know but, unless you are able to maintain absolute control over everything and manage to make it a success, that’s the reality. Sure it isn’t HA HA funny, more like heh..heh…in the irony department.