29
“All of this has happened before and it will all happen again.”
Cyclic circles of circumferenatic circinateness. Sometimes I feel like I’m walking many miles to end up exactly where I began. Yes, this is going to be a bit of a downer post. I apologize. It won’t be totally horrible, I assure you. I won’t “woe is me” you all to death. I’m just a bit blah tonight, and feel like spreading the wealth 
I’ve now been through two laptops during this whole process. Not only that, but I’ve been through three power adapters… I don’t seem to have the best relationship with electronics. I’ve theorized that I have an unusual magnetic field that causes catastrophic failures after too much time alone with my devices…(Hey, wait. Have all of my girlfriends been robots?)…
Ehm…Anyway, the first adapter failed a few months ago. I made some repairs that required a tiny pair of scissors and a ridiculous amount of electrical tape. This worked for about a week before sparking and popping finally led me to ebay for a replacement. $30 later (+$14 for shipping) and a new power supply was in hand.
Problem solved. Move on with life, right? Well, that would have been brilliant except that it wasn’t the case. The very first time I used the new adapter it overheated to the point of melting the plastic casing enough to take my fingerprints when I picked it up. Grr…. Oh well. I went back to using the sparking, popping incarnation. That finally gave up the ghost a few days later and was back to no power.
I decided to give the new adapter one more go. For some unexplained reason, it decided to perform its job more adequately than it had during its maiden voyage. “Yay”, I exclaimed. All is good.
Things were fine, but a few days ago, I found myself frantically attempting to repair the new adapter in the middle of the night as I suffered a bout of “slept all day and can’t sleep now need something to watch so I really want to have access to netflix before I loose my mind and I think I just might cry until the neighbors call the police for fear that satanic rituals are being conducted in the apartment next door”.
This was almost exactly the circumstances surrounding the failure of the first adapter.
Sadly, my attempts at surgery were much less successful. I ended up heading to Wal-Mart (sad, I know) to purchase a new universal power adapter. Upon my arrival, I discovered that said adapter would set me back $90. This was unacceptable to me. I just don’t have that kind of liquid to throw around (sad, I know). I ended up grabbing a few movies out of the $5 bin and headed home.
This was also unfortunately similar to the first failure. I can’t tell you why I ran to Wal-Mart this time. I knew what I was going to find. I’d done it before a few months earlier. The same adapter. The same price. Maybe I was hoping for some kind of cosmic shift, but alas…
Well, obviously I ended up with the $90 adapter (thanks to Patrick’s pity). Problem solved. Move on with life, right? Here’s to hoping.
If only they sold robot girlfriends at Wal-Mart…
“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”
I’ve tried. I really have. I’ve made every effort to call the script done. I’ve made a great attempt to accept its flaws and allow myself the peace of mind of knowing it is really good and let it be for now. To move on and begin focusing my energy on the next steps. I just can’t.
Last night, I found myself engaged in a lengthy conversation with one of my writer friends, Yale, about the script. He’s read it. He had some thoughts. This led to discussions about how to solve some of the issues that still exist. Being as the script is still on the long side, our talk focused most on pacing and length issues. I’ve had quite a few people read it now, and I’ve had multiple comments regrading the pacing of the first act. He saw these problems as well.
So, here I am, right back in the thick of it, trying desperately to devise some great, inspired alteration to “tidy up” the first act. I’m back at writing (even if I haven’t actually opened the file yet). The truth is that I don’t really think the first act is a problem per se. I agree that it is a bit (and only a bit) slow. This doesn’t bother me, personally. But, we are working within a system that needs to account for what will be acceptable to a wide audience. People want the story to get moving as quickly as possible. I remember watching “Kong” and being very annoyed that it took nearly 50 minutes for them to even get on the boat and head toward Skull Island. That’s just ridiculous. We certainly can’t have that, and I don’t think the first act of “BoT” is nearly as lengthy or slow as that. In truth, if it’s a choice between a terrible, choppy beginning (like X-Men: Origins) or a slow, boring beginning (like “Kong”), I’d much rather error more on the side of “Kong” and have sufficient set-up for the story. “Bot” is somewhere betwixt those two examples. This seems to be a concern for others.
I’m not really sure how to make it any more concise than it already is. What’s more, no one else seems to have any ideas either. Last night, I found myself going over a bunch of possible alterations with Yale. The trouble is, I had already considered all of them at one point or another and could make a substantial argument for why it wouldn’t work. God love him, Yale was bound and determined to help me devise a solution, but every time he thought he had a breakthrough thought, he’d quickly realize the it would solve the immediate issue at hand, but would ultimately do a great disservice to the narrative further into the story. It’s a difficult puzzle. The story requires a great deal of set-up. Good storytelling and filmmaking requires that this set-up not be done in an overly expositional way. Attempting to impart important information to an audience in an organic way takes screen time and finesse.
To some degree, it is validating to know that - while these issues can be identified in the script - no one else knows how to do any better. It tells me that I haven’t missed anything in my endless rumination. Unfortunately, it also means that these issues still exist and I have no idea how to resolve them. Talk about a Pyrrhic victory.
Round and round we go…
Still no word from the producer. No luck contacting the agent we were previously in contact with (part of our story that hasn’t been posted yet). It’s a little discouraging. I’m sure it will all be fine. Just a little low on energy for optimism at the moment.
5:09 am
I’m sorry you’re having problems. I’ll be in Indiana soon on vacation, so know I’m thinking of you!
But seriously, that is a good puzzle…. On a good note, think of it this way: Anything with the title Myst has to have a good puzzle in some aspect of it. Whether in the making of the script or otherwise.
May 29 2009
You can do it. You can’t expect Myst without puzzles. And this one is writing a script, and the next one is getting a producer.
…
Or something.