Bye GeoCities, Hello Faye?

GeoCities, one of the early platforms on the Internet to try to build a community through free web pages, is officially closed. The proliferation of companies offering web site hosting and the lack of features when GeoCities attempted to go to a pay model are a couple of the reasons why GeoCities never really held on to the user base that they build up early on. I used GeoCities a good deal when I was out of college and found a few interesting items I made when I finally backed up all the files I had on their servers the day before they shut down.

Over a decade ago, Chungking Express was an inspirational film when I first saw it and introduced me to Faye Wong as an actress. I was so impressed with her performance on screen and was doubly so when I saw how much of her personality came through in her music at the time. At one point, I was planning to build a Faye Wong fan site and even came up with a design. Ultimately, I never went forward with it since I didn’t have the content, but I found the design I uploaded about nine years ago:

Since she retired from singing to raise a family, I figured that it was only a matter of time that she would return to the spotlight some day and there have been some rumblings indicating that she may be making a comeback soon. I truly hope she returns with a renewed spirit though I hope she comes out with something more interesting than the commercial fare from her last couple albums.

Looking back at her older videos for inspiration, I found a promo video for the Cranberries cover that was used in Chungking Express. Somehow, I don’t think I’ve seen this before.

FML

Filmmakers came, awards were given out, tubs of hummus were eaten, and kegs of beer were tapped. So another film festival goes by and though I planned to step back from helping out this year, I was there almost every night. The festival went much better than I expected as there was an unprecedented level of press, good word of mouth, and great attendance. There were several new faces among the volunteers who added a great deal of fresh energy to the organization that had been lacking a year ago and who will hopefully continue to provide a helping hand in the future.  And though there was a lesser amount of partying in comparison to previous years, the events that were held were meaningful and for the most part, appropriate. And with the success of the festival occurring around me, I couldn’t help but feel like crap.

I should have been happier but I wasn’t. Internal and external factors contributed to the welling up of discontent. I was unfortunately fortunate enough to volunteer to be the event manager for the two sold out shows that were not opening nor closing night. Sold out shows presented a whole slew of issues that I had to deal with quickly, sadly culminating to the turning away of several people because we had run out of seats (including someone’s grandmother ). Knowing that I’m still not working and the dwindling hope that I’ll find something by the end of the year wasn’t helping. I also had just received a form letter for my WB application which contributed to my general malaise. The afterparties weren’t a factor since drinking isn’t my forte but I was looking forward to the karaoke night that we were going to hold. Inspired by that week’s episode of Glee (which is an excellent show despite the fact that IMHO the pilot episode was mostly unwatchable), I was planning to do Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” though I intended to replace “It’s” with “Fuck”. It was going to be emotional. It was going to be heartfelt. It was going to be cathartic. It was never going to happen because when we got to the venue, a miscommunication left us in the bar area downstairs which didn’t have karaoke. Bummer. And someone I was hoping to see there didn’t show up. Double bummer. So this is the way it goes. Every half hour or hour doesn’t always have a reversal and a resolution, like on television (I learned that at ScriptDC).

I got to move on. Look for new opportunities and new avenues. Keep my head up. Cliche. Cliche. Cliche. Maybe I’ll change my name to Franklin Marshall Lee. FML. To me, it somehow may be appropriate.

Summer Reading

So I’ve been doing a good deal of reading this summer since I haven’t been able to find work. Here’s a summary of a few things I’ve read and a few things I took away.

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – This is one that I’ve had on my radar for a while but I haven’t gotten a chance to read it until now. The novel recounts a futuristic tale of a very gifted youngster who has to grow up quickly in preparation for an imminent war with an alien species. I should have read this when I was younger. It reminds me of the time when I was given the choice  to bypass the 2nd grade. I decided not to skip a grade at the time for various reasons but I always wondered what would have happened if I had decided otherwise. If I had read this back then, I don’t know if I would have made the opposite choice but it may have made me consider my options differently. An opportunity where someone believes in you enough to give you a chance like that doesn’t come around often and hasn’t come around for me lately.

Speaker of the Dead by Orson Scott Card – The sequel to Ender’s Game using the same lead character. I read this right after the first but I didn’t like it as much. In the introduction, the author recounts how the book was meant to be a stand alone novel with a different character which I could tell a bit while I was reading. It didn’t seem like trying to put a square peg in a round hole but like putting a round peg in a slightly bigger round hole. It fit but didn’t fit as well as I thought it could have. Anyways, the introduction was enlightening since the author explained his viewpoint on writing characters which is you’re really writing the relationships between the characters and the differences in how they interact with each other.

I’ve also had the chance to read some unproduced scripts.

Source Code – A sci fi script that kept reminding me of 12 Monkeys, a film that I really enjoyed when it came out. Similar in concept, the lead character has to relive past events to help those in the current time period. Though in this script, the lead has to relive the same event, a terrorist bombing on a train, again and again. With the structure continually repeating the same scene over and again, it can easily become tedious and boring but every iteration brings something new to the story, adding urgency to the plot as it barrels towards the end. In the wrong hands, this could become merely an overblown Twilight Zone story but with a deft filmmaker at the wheel, this could make for an amazing film.

Gay Dude – A comedy script by Alan Yang, who was featured in Variety this summer as one of 10 Screenwriters to Watch. Even after reading the first 10 pages of the script, the similarities in tone to Superbad are evident. You could easily picture Jonah Hill and Michael Cera in the lead roles. Rife with cutting, witty humor in awkward teenage situations, it’s easy to see why this script helped the writer get sitcom work. With the right talent attached, this could probably be easily made though would probably only have limited distribution to the bigger markets.

The Brigands of Rattleborge – I’m quite particular about westerns. Generally, they work for me or they don’t. This script made my jaw drop after the first 10 pages because of the brutality and set the tone for rest of the story. As with most westerns, there are good guys and there are bad guys, but there are also guys steeped in shadowy shades of grey. A tightly woven story of vengeance and retribution as people are viciously killed left and right, the violent plot has such dark characters that I think it would be a difficult and challenging film for general audiences to sit through.

I’m in the middle of a couple other screenplays and have also gotten caught up on a few comic book series this summer. More reviews in upcoming posts.

Also, even though the music video is a bit weak, this is one of the songs I’ve had on repeat this summer: Jay Sean – Down

?

First draft…

?

 

Brainstorming…close…

Jay-Z – Run This Town

A Long Way Down

This was the first sketch I did in the new sketchbook that I bought earlier this year. I believe that the first image is important to a sketchbook and had this image in mind when I bought it. I think it turned out pretty well especially since I hate having to draw hands. Tweaked contrast/brightness in Photoshop.

I’ve included the sketch since I’ve started reading A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby, a book about four people who decide to off themselves on New Year’s Day by jumping off a building. Halfway through the book and it’s a good read so far. Though suicide is the main thrust of the story, Hornby relates it with several other topics among the various characters, making it a multi-layered  story. The switching of the first person viewpoint between chapters threw me off at the beginning but at this point, I think that’s the only way it could have worked. Thinking ahead, I don’t think Hornby will kill off anyone but if I were to write something like this, one of the four would not make it to the end.

Comic-Con 2009

I wasn’t sure I was going to go to Comic-Con this year since last year’s experience was so tiring but that’s the same thing I said after I went to my first Otakon and I went to Otakon several consecutive times afterwards. I haven’t gone to Otakon lately since they don’t do single day passes anymore and being among so many anime cosplayers for several days causes a severe shock to the system that makes it difficult to reintegrate back to reality. There is a good deal of cosplaying at Comic-Con too but the ratio to regularly dressed people is closer to the real world. Either that or I’m probably just desensitized by it all now.

But Comic-con is a different animal because it is so big and has sold out to capacity of around 125,000 for the past several years. Since there are so many panels dealing with film, television, comics, animation, writing, drawing, and more, scheduling is a nightmare with titanic lines for the more popular events. Luckily some of the panels, like the EW and SyFy ones, can be seen online on their respective sites.

I was lucky enough to buy a 4 day pass since they were auctioning some last minute about a month before the con and I stayed with a friend who was within walking distance of the convention center. Mucho Hollywood star power came down to San Diego this year including Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington, and Scarlett Johannson as well as the regular sci-fi/comic book celebrities you might expect.

And when someone wasn’t available, they sent a replica.

I really didn’t buy much because I didn’t really find anything that I had to have. That means I probably wasn’t really looking that hard. I was a bit distracted since I was working on a couple submissions to the WB Writers’ Workshop but inevitably was able to send out only one. The TV writers’ panel I went to gave out some helpful information though some of it was also disheartening. The other panels I went to were informative and entertaining for the most part but the Star Wars one that I sat through just to get to the next panel was one long boring infomercial. The best footage I saw was for District 9 which is coming to theaters soon and Kick-Ass which is still looking for distribution. It was a good trip but next year…it’s just too early to think about it.

Kick-Ass / Green Lantern

Last weekend, I went to Comic-Con for the second time in as many years. A ton of Hollywood people were in attendance as comic books have been embraced by Hollywood as a source to be mined for content to reap boatloads of cash from the global box office. I’ll write more about my Comic-con experience in my next post but there were several films that piqued my interest and led me to stay at home this weekend. Kick-Ass, directed by Matthew Vaughn and based on a comic by Mark Millar, was one of those films. They showed footage that had some amazing fight choreography and brought about a raucous reaction from the audience. After I came back from San Diego, I came upon an early draft for Kick-Ass and read it this weekend. I also came upon an early draft of the Green Lantern script.

Minor spoilers ahead!

The Kick-Ass script is fairly strong. A nascent superhero, Kick-Ass bumbles along, attempting to break away from his mundane life and pushes himself to see if he has what it takes to be a hero. Billed as a realistic view of a world where people without superpowers try to become superheroes, the script still contains many trappings of a comic book world. Usage of comic book physics and spandex costumes are a couple of items that make this less grounded in reality than I thought it would be. And Kick-Ass may be the titular hero in the film, but the supporting cast is as important and possibly more interesting than the lead character. After seeing the clips at Comic-con, Hit Girl might steal the movie and Nic Cage looks to have a great role as a mad blue-collar Batman if they stay with his character arc. The footage was definitely a hard R for violence, strong language, and bloody dismemberment. They kicked up the violence from the version of the script I read. Though there were action scenes galore, hopefully there’s still room for the smaller, quieter moments between characters that should help glue the film together. The ending sets up a possible sequel but changes the world in a way that could hinder the storytelling if they aren’t sure what happens in the next film.

The Green Lantern script was not as polished. The film will definitely depend on the special effects to drive it with an alien world inhabited by different alien species, glowing green constructs, and a destructive monster of chaos named Legion. They will all have to be rendered really well for this film to fly. I also think they took cues from Superman the Movie, especially the part when Hal shows Carol his powers which reminded me of the scene when Lois Lane goes flying with Superman for the first time. The finale where Hal heroically saves Carol needs work since it seems hard to visualize and a bit sappy, but it may work in a capable director’s hand. Since it was a very early version, hopefully they’ve cleaned up a number of problems now that they have cast Ryan Reynolds in the lead role and will probably go into production soon.

Wonderland

Pictures from Tim Burton’s reimagining of Alice in Wonderland and they’re as fantastically surreal as you’d imagine a Burton production to be. As an exercise, I played with some redesigns for an “Alice in Wonderland” update many years back and interestingly enough I imagined Helena Bonham-Carter’s character from Fight Club as an excellent example of how the Cheshire Cat would act. Feigning and fawning, here and there. And in my version, I suppose Johnny Depp could have stepped in as the White Rabbit. I had imagined the character young, noble, but frightfully timid. Since they’re probably not going to ask me to do designs on the film now, here are a couple of sketches.