Pegasus vs Chimera/ comparisons/ Thomas Wharton

This is from www.badcb.blogspot.ca: 

Aug. 19 Pegasus vs Chimera: On Sat. I was checking what's on TV tonight and I see they
were airing this TV movie on Showcase.  I looked up what a chimera is, on dictionary.com:
"a mythological, fire-breathing monster, commonly represented with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail."  I went on imdb.com and it got a bad rating. 

I then went on Youtube to check out the trailer.  Here are some comments:

andres lopez: MATERPIECE!!!!! GREAT FILM

DirEnGay:  It seems that the intent of these SyFy original movies are lost on most viewers.

They are intentionally bad movies, because sad as it may sound, there's actually a cult following
for this type of movie and will always be the case. I enjoy watching one or two bad movies also,
and the Japanese ones too like Machine Girl and Robo Geisha. They're not intended to be mindblowingly intelligent and brilliant films, they're made on a shoestring budget with the intentions of going straight to TV/DVD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC95h4zCfHg

My opinion: I guess there are people out there who like to watch bad movies to make snarky comments  about it during it when watching with friends, and posting it on the internet.  I mentioned before that my friend Sarah liked Hansel and Gretal Witch Hunters because it was so over the top.  Same with TV shows and movies, you watch it for the train wreck factor.  It's so bad, but you can't take your eyes away from it.

However, I don't like to watch bad movies.  I always have to do my research if I want to invest time in something. 

Kid/ teenager me: When I was a kid and teenager, I always watch movies when it comes on TV.  There are times when I know it's bad, but I still want to watch it for the experience and to say that I saw that I saw that movie.  I don't watch movies in the theatres very much when I was a kid.  I love The Baby- Sitter's Club movie.  I got to watch that when it came out when I was 10 yrs old.  lol.

Early 20s: I was still like that when I was in my early 20s.  I was watching bad movies to learn why it's bad and how to write better.

Late 20s: I would say I did start only watching good movies, or watching movies that I was actually interested in.  There are times I will watch a bad movie or something I'm not really interested in, because there is a hot actor that I really like.  That is the only redeeming quality.

These are the reasons why I watch certain movies.

Comparisons:

Innocent person getting hurt or killed over someone else's actions:
The Sausage Factory: The episode where Zack and Gilby get jobs at a video store and Gilby was letting teen boys rent out porn tapes though it's against the rules.

Zack: What if you get caught?
Gilby: I won't.  If I do, I'll say I simply misread the title.

Gilby becomes the assistant manager and Zack wanted the position.  Gilby then lets Zack get the title.At the end of the
episode a man enters and goes up to Zack.

Man: Hi, are you the assistant manager?
Zack: Why yes, I am.
Man: So you're the guy who was letting my son rent out porn tapes!  I'm going to beat you up for that!
Man picks up Zack and about to punch him in the face.

Gilby is standing behind the counter.
Zack: Wait, stop!  It was an accident, it was a mistake!
Gilby: He misread the title!  It won't ever happen again!
Ted comes in and drops off a tape.
Ted: Thanks for the porn.

They're both fired.

Smallville: It was done on Smallville.  Adam Brody (from The OC) was Zack on The Sausage Factory and now he's on the Smallville ep.  His character on Smallville was a victim of a hit-and-run, and he got a partial license plate number.  The car was finally matched to Principal Kwan.  He then confronts Kwan and kills him.

Later Clark does some investigating and talks to Kwan's son who says: "I did the hit- and-run.  My dad knew about it, and he was trying to protect me."  So he killed the wrong guy, though Principal Kwan was about 50% responsible because he was an accomplice in a way.

Desperate Housewives: In the first season, someone wrote a note to Mary Alice and she commits suicide.  Her husband Neil tries to find out who wrote the note, and the stationary leads to Edie.  He takes her somewhere in the woods to kill her, unbeknownst to her.  Edie says that's not her stationary, and it's Miss. Hubers because she's staying at her house.

The Originals: A fall TV show I'm excited to watch is The Vampire Diaries spin- off The Originals.  There was a back- door pilot made when a whole Vampire Diaries episode was about the original vampires like Klause, Elijah, and Rebekah.

Thomas Wharton: I cut out this Edmonton Journal article way back in 2002 or 2003.  He was the judge to the writing contest Postcard Fiction.  Write a 500 words (or less) short story where it mentions the word "scissors" and if you win, you get published in the Edmonton Journal.  I wrote a short story, and no I didn't win.  I was 17 yrs old.  I remember the story vaguely like a guy and a girl are riding on a bus.  The guy's name was Twitch.
 
The article is by Marc Horton.  Wharton has written books like Icefields and Salamander.  He was the writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta.  The article mentions that writers must have discipline.

TW: "This summer I did a writing workshop at UBC and right in the middle of that I had this idea for a book.  It was just suddenly THERE.  I could see it in my mind, exactly how it would be and I became quite inspired.

Usually it starts out as just a vague notion of something and then I explore it and don't quite know where it's going.  It's just working with images and ideas and character and seeing what happens.  It is, sometimes a scary way to work."

He has actually won a lot of awards:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wharton_%28author%29

Omar's advice: I emailed Omar, the writer-in- residence back at Edmonton Public Library.  A month ago I sent him
Rain Part 5 and 6, and he said he wanted to read the first 2 parts so he could see if I have taken his advice
or rewrote it. 

I emailed him back: "I think there are some rewrites to it, but not so significant that you would actually notice.  There a few lines
deleted and new ones added.  I want you to read Part 5 and 6 where it's more different."

Red: Werewolf Hunter: I was looking up Syfy TV movies and they put this one up on Youtube.  It's the full length one.
Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL5-LuOrwHs

It stars Felicia Day, a slayer-in-training on Buffy.  I remember watching this in 2010 and how it wasn't really that good.
It was mediocre.
http://badcb.blogspot.ca/2010/11/office-job-red-werewolf-hunter-dialogue.html

disk/ living in your head/ J.K. Rowling

Jul. 18 Disk: Yesterday I was going through my Rain script on my disk which I haven't done in months.  I've only been writing on paper.  My white 3.5 floppy disk worked when I opened 2 documents.  Then I opened my black disk.  Then I went back to the white disk and it didn't work.  Now I'm trying it again today and it isn't working. 

Goodbye white disk.  I think I had this since 2000.  Yeah, well at least I copy and pasted my writing onto my black disk.  That's why I also keep my handwritten pieces if I don't print it out.

Jul. 19 Living in your head: I was reading the Screenwriting Goldmine newsletter by Phil Gladwin.  He says this on the Jun. 5, 2013:

"You know what the absolutely hardest part of being a writer is? 

 

It's not the coming up with the ideas. 

 

It's not the actual writing of the scripts. 

 

It's not even making the industry connections that you'll need to

have a career. 

 

The hardest part of being a writer is that, if you have any career 

at all, you will most likely end up spending large swathes of 

your time alone, in a room, trying to make the voices in your 

head talk to you. 

 

That's a very strange thing to do with your life. 

 

I know that it perhaps doesn't sound like a believable problem 

when you're starting out. 

 

If you've got a busy job and you live for writing, the thought 

of great swathes of time to indulge your passion can seem

highly desirable. 

 

But being alone as much as you need to have a writing career may

prove rather more arduous over time than you would imagine. 

 

I'm a solitary person, I do enjoy my own company (and I'm certainly

not one of those people who must connect or else they think they're

going mad!) but in the last couple of years I have to admit I'm

finding it much, much more difficult to lock myself away in a room

when there's a whole, wide world out there. 

 

It's sort of snuck up on me that being alone and writing is

actually quite a lonely business!"

He then does these workshops.

So if I had to pick my Ultimate Gold Plated Desert Island Writing

Tip it would be this:

 

"Writing Is Great, But Don't Give Up Your Life! 

 

Enjoy the work, enjoy the privilege of being able to wander in your

imagination, but don't overdo it.  

 

And to be specific: unless you're facing a terrible deadline don't

spend more than six hours a day writing. You're looking for a long,

balanced career here, not a brief flurry and a complete mental

break-down.

 

And most importantly do this one simple thing: Make sure you get

out of your house and talk to some people, face to face, every

single day."

My opinion: That is the tip, I have to remember "Writing is great, but don't give up your life."  It's like as a kid and teenager, I didn't have lots of freedom and money.  That's why I read all these books and experience going to places, people (characters), and cool things.  In a way, I was living in my head, but I was doing something, reading.

I do have lots of job experience.  I meet lots of people through school, work, and just being in a public place.  Watching TV is like experiencing.  When I used to watch Cops, I feel like I'm really on a ride-a-long and I feel the excitement.  However, I also got angry watching the people disrespect the cops so I had to quit watching it. 

Basically I go out and live my life, and then I write about it on my blog.  Or I kind of fictionalize it in my script.

Jul. 21: There are some things in life you will never experience like being a spy.  That's why you're watching all these Jason Bourne  moviesand you can watch fight scenes, car chases, and explosions.

Or you will never really go to Hogwart's and play Quidditch like in Harry Potter.

J.K. Rowling: I'm sure all of you heard by now that she wrote a book called The Cuckoo's Calling under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith.  I was reading the article "Chamber of Secrets" by Robert J. Wiersema in the Globe and Mail on Jul. 20, 2013.  It talked about how writing under a pseudonym is liberating.  You don't have to conform to people's expectations or have to meet their high expectations.

I've read articles about Rowling is upset and angry that people found out that she wrote it.  Someone from her law firm told his wife's friend, and the friend then went on Twitter and told it.  Now The Cuckoo's Calling is being bought because it's so popular now.

Yeah, well it could be worse about learning people's real identities.  Remember the James Bond movie Skyfall?  The disc with all those NATO agents was stolen.  It has all the identities of the agents and they were being released and they were getting killed.

Jul. 29 Internet: I was reading in the Globe and Mail about how the internet affects publishing.  It was in the business section.  It said: "The internet is an all you can read buffet."  lol.  That is a good comparison. 

Jul. 30 Google Chrome: This morning my Mozilla internet wasn't working very well.  So I finally used Google Chrome.  My brother uses it and says it's faster.  I feel hesitant about change, but this is just the internet browser.  It's fast and good.  I can get used to it like my new Yahoo mail version.  lol.

Detective fiction rules:  I got this from Linked In.  Here are: "The Ten rules of Golden Age Detective Fiction."  Here's one:

"The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow."

http://metrowir.com/2013/06/21/the-ten-rules-of-golden-age-detective-fiction/

Aug. 2 Blue disk: I tried to save my Rain script on a blue disk, and it stopped working.  I copy and pasted random text and saved it, then try to open it.  It worked that day.  Then I tried to open it the day after and it didn't work.  I think I had this disk since 1995.  It had a good run.

Aug. 4 Why we watch TV: I was reading in the Globe and Mail article called "Why fascinating creeps trump the good guys, every time" by Geoff Pevere.  It was published on Aug. 2, 2013.  This adds to my "Living in your head" part.  He says:

"...of what makes us want to watch fictional movie characters in the first place: whether positive or negative, they do things we, in our real lives, never get to do, and our fascination is based in observing extremes engaged with and pursued, and not reflecting
our own experience."