Archive for the 'Scriptwriting' Category

What Mr. & Mrs. Fitch Do and Do Not Get About Social Media

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s000z
 on February 22, 2010
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Mr. & Mrs. Fitch on Twitter

Went to see Mr. & Mrs. Fitch with my friend, J. Hotham the other night. While, it was impossible not to love the tender yet jaded but still lovingly crafted characters, I was constantly distracted by playwright, Douglas Carter Beane’s limited understanding of social media.

From Susannaspeier.com

Its not like everyone has to follow every subtle nuance of the perpetually fluctuating world of social media. Given the fact it was the literal as well as metaphoric world of the play, however, couldn’t Beane have solicited the assistance of a slightly more tech savvy dramaturg? If that wasn’t in the budget, all he’d have needed to do was offer up free lattes and he’d have had a swarm of geeks at his beckon call in no time flat.

Lithgow as Fitch on Twitter

John Lithgow portrayal of Mr. Fitch was sublime. No surprise there. Had the guy been a Brit, he’d have been knighted years ago. But once again, I couldn’t help but be hopelessly distracted by his character’s Twitter dismissives:
I inhaled/
I exhaled/
which do you like more — inhaling or exhaling?
Twitter characterization.

From Susannaspeier.com

How could Lithgow’s character –a journalist whose success had bought him a luxury loft in a great neighborhood–  not have known better.

The First Thing Mr. & Mrs. Fitch Would Have Known About

The epic paradigm shattering, “arrested” Tweet that photojournalism student James Buck sent his followers in April 2009 from the backseat of a police car headed towards the Nile Delta city of Mahalla, Egypt! Not only did this epic tweet succeed in alerting the US State Department –who  arranged diplomatic intervention that would lead to a subsequent tweet of “Free” in less than 24 hours–  it defined the vital role Twitter would play on future hotspot stages.

The Second Thing Mr. & Mrs. Fitch Would Have Known About

The New York Times hosted Social Media Week Crowdsourcing Panel and the upcoming Shorty Awards, (also scheduled to take place in the Times building). If this isn’t proof enough that the new era of journalism is now being championed and embraced by print journalism then Jennifer Preston’s @NYT_JenPreston recent appointment as New York Times Social Media Editor ought to be.

How To Fix All This

Had the playwright asked lead actor, John Lithgow @john_lithgow for a guided tour of the Twittersphere, the story that probes the delicious topic what happens when a credible journalist fabricates would likely have taken too ambiguous a route for its traditional narrative arc to sustain. Mr. & Mrs. Fitch, like the fictitious article the leading characters create are there to entertain, rather than draw their audience into a metaphysical Charlie Kaufmanesque quandary. An up to date depiction of how social media is changing print journalism might have therefore caused the genre’s hard drive to crash. Set the play sometime in late 2007 or even early 2008, however and the portrayal would have been relatively accurate.

Lithgow as Lithgow on Twitter

From Susannaspeier.com
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Mad Men Season 3 - Episode 12 “The Grown Ups” - chronologizing other people’s memories of the Kennedy assassination

Published
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s000z
 on November 3, 2009
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From Blog Archive

The Fog of Chronology

What year was Kennedy assassinated? After tossing and turning over the fog of chronology half the night, I needed to know.

Lay awake thinking after finding out. 1963.  That was 20 years after the end of World War II — the same distance between now and the first Gulf War.

Will distances between historical events preceding my existence always seem greater than distances between historical events I can recollect?

The Demographics of AMC’s Character Driven Mad Men

I’m actually not sure what the Mad Men demographics are but going by the disproportionate percentage of air time devoted to Lipitor, Viagra and Clorox, I’ll guess that the majority of Mad Men watchers remember where they were when Kennedy was assassinated.

“The Grown Ups,”  Mad Men’s Kennedy assassination episode

Sunday, November 1st, Mad Med episode, The Grown Ups, was the penultimate finale of Season Three and I can’t help wonder how next Sunday’s season finale will get anywhere close.

We have the satisfaction of knowing the historic outcome and significance of Mad Men’s chronological collisions in advance of the characters knowing.  This gives us access to their losses and their misunderstandings.  Their discoveries and their disconnects.

I just can’t get enough David Carbonara’s music, by the way.  Those melliflous counterpoint that begin a pause and a heartbeat after a clipped stream of dialog ends.  Why isn’t more television like this?

The Mad Men show I watch is different from the Mad Men show that Mom watches

Mom insisted on replaying the two Mad Men Season 2 episodes that I was featured and uncredited in –Three Sundays and Six Month Leave– over and over in a way that only a mom can.

Mad Men is the black and white television screen I never had

Mad Men is the corridor to those custom framed, soft toned hand painted photographs on the wall of the guest room that my Bubby once had.  Mad Men is a photo album full of square shaped black and white snapshots of my newlywed collegiate parents holding a simese cat.

From

From Susannaspeier.com
Mad Men is the font of the copper colored “flour,” “tea” and “sugar” canisters that once lined my Buby’s kitchen countertop and now lines the countertop of my mom’s kitchen.

Mom insists television receptions were not all that bad.  In fact, all her friends seem to agree they were actually quite sharp.  Does the distortion came from Mad Men creator and writer, Michael Weiner’s own fog of chronology, then?

Click here if you’d like to submit a Mad Men Politiku to my Huffington Post column

Click here for reviews of other blogs following Mad Men Season Three

Click here for a babbley but well intended (was new to blogging and didn’t get how spacing for the web and headers worked) and comprehensive description of my experience working as a featured background performer on the Mad Men, Season 2 episodes Three Sundays and Six Month Leave.

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Disneyfied Family Guy

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s000z
 on October 8, 2009
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To me, Family Guy’s brilliance has everything to do with the fact that, like South Park, it does things that only animation can. Put an infant in high school and watch him get popular. No problem. Put a dog in a sex scandal. Of course. [Btw: Now is when you want to hit “play” on the Hulu clip I’ve embedded so that by the time you finish reading all this, they’ve played that lousy note at the beginning telling you about software you don’t need to download and gotten the unnecessary intro plugging the show out of the way]

Though I still consider Matt Groening, Trey Parker and Matt Stone the great television cartoon geniuses of our time –they did, after all, pioneer the contemporary sitTOON– I couldn’t help but fall in love with Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy, though. Don’t know how enjoyable this Hulu-strum (past participle imperfect tense of streamed?) Disneyfied Family Guy episode will be for you if you don’t watch family guy but it really is quite brill in that annotated-Disney-parody-that-requires-no-notation sort of sense.

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Original 1984 Apple Macintosh M0001 Computer Revisiting

Published
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s000z
 on September 20, 2009
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Crazy but true, Mom actually hung on to the very same 128K M0001 Macintosh that Dad purchased shortly after the-most-expensive-commercial-to-date launched said iconic prototype in the midst of the 1984 Superbowl. Directed by Ridley Scott and perhaps the most prophetic commercial in television history, it only aired once and once was enough. Enter: the dawn of the digital happy face.

And so here it is, 25 years later and here I am, Marsha Collier’s “eBay for Dummies” by my side, running this eBay auction. This German guy, Lars who I met through Retromaccast has been with me every step of the way, even going so far as to create customized diagrams, to help me on my way towards a working computer again.  While it may not be the Gene Roddenberry’s Mac (which, coincidentally, just went up for auction this week as well) it’s got an archival integrity that is hard to match, thanks to my mom, a retired librarian, who kept almost all of the fliers, documentation and even a couple of the original boxes.

From Vintage Macs

Simply Shameless Ebay Shop Shill: So, as my goal is to get it to a worthy new owner, if you’re a collector and wanna check it out and perhaps even place a bid, here’s the link.

The names of the original creators are etched into the inside shell of the original M0001 models. Folklore.org has the entire story of the signing party and an image of the original signature sheet created February 1982. According to Andy Hertzfeld who wrote the post, this was a very conscious effort on Steve Jobs’ part.
From The Macintosh M0001 Turned Inside Out

He thought of himself as an artist and encouraged his team to think of themselves that way, too. Of course that’s all obvious now, in retrospect. When I think about the promethean spirit driving those signatures in a world still dominated by “Basic” and “Pilot” and “IBM” is has to have been one of the fiercest humanistic moments in the history of personal computing. It also makes Ridley Scott’s stream fusing and metaphoric layering all the most dazzling and the experience of uncovering it, last week when picking the computer up after an internal hard drive repair, that much more satisfying.

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Best reviews of Mad Men Season 3 and why I don’t “Mad Men” myself on Facebook

Published
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s000z
 on August 21, 2009
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MadmenBlueStumbled across a Mad Men Season 3 Newsweek review that I found particularly lively, in that it gently interweaves the obvious and un-obvious allegorical nuances of the epic.  Decided to further investigate.  Blogger Dan O’Brien, understandably, prob gets a zillion times as much traffic as I do and his “Why You are an Idiot for Not Watching Mad Men” shows why. I’m cheating a bit by adding my friend Hollie’s blog entry about MM, since it’s actually about Season 1 and not 3 but truth to be told, Hollie’s blog is well worth reading in its entirety. Not only has she gone from being an actor to being a staffed writer on Cold Case in a period of a little over a year due to sheer determination, dedication and talent, but her insights about on-screen chemistry (which come from her acting talent and training) are actually applicable to all seasons, not just 1 or 3. In fact, while we’re backpedaling, I’d have to say that New York Magazine’s patented Don Draper Likability Index covering seasons 1 and 2 is still pretty fresh. Finally, please forgive my laziness (I’m not really lazy but I do really have to get started on my job hunt now, being that its a Friday and everything) if you really want to read Mad Men reviews, this metacritic link’ll be you there is no time flat. If I had more time, I’d try and dig up commentary on the music and on the cinematography and set design but that’d be another entry, I guess. Okay, so one more thing before signing off. For those of you wondering, why –despite the fact I can’t remember being this far gone over a show since Commander-in-Chief (which is actually what got me to start watching television for the first time since I was a teenager) there is a very specific reason that I don’t “Mad Men” myself on Facebook, The Costume was uncomfortable. I adapted.here goes: while I loved working with this creative powerhouse during Season 2 and am not at all surprised to see Janie’s vision going viral in the form of the Mad Men Yourself phenom, I am apprehensive about embracing avatar altering fan rituals because, I dunno.  It’s not really where or who I’m at, I guess.  Then there are also those articles my dad forwarded me about virused Flash downloads and finally, because I’ve already got pics of my Mad Men’d self from the two Season 2 episodes I was in and I got em w/out downloading problematic software!

Click here to read my post about the Mad Men Season 3, episode 12 Kennedy Assassination episode titled “The Grown Ups.”

Click here for a bit of a babbley thought well intended (was new to blogging and didn’t get how spacing for the web and headers worked) and comprehensive description of my experience working as a featured background performer on the Mad Men, Season 2 episodes Three Sundays and Six Month Leave.

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John Hughes and the Inner World of the Outcast Soundtrack

Published
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s000z
 on August 7, 2009
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Although John Hughes’ films’ kinda began their downhill descent after Pretty in Pink and then careened into eminent demise after Some Kind of Wonderful, yesterday’s twinge of sadness (upon first learning of his sudden death) was made all the more acute by today’s radio retrospective.  And what, besides soundtrack, could have possible succeeded in summoning up a melancholic parade like that.  The outcast characters of his mythical Sherwood, Illinois all somehow managed to elevate the atmospheres’ around them through the soundtracks that their seemingly unaware characters, lived, breathed and moved within, thereby elevating the outcast experience right along with them.  What was amazing was how, at the time, they seemed to resonate with absolutely everybody.  At the time the phenom of the universality of an emotionally honest script, eluded me on a conscious level, while The Breakfast Club, his masterpiece, might well have been the most memorized screenplay since, well, okay, since Sixteen Candles.  And even today, can anyone truly disassociate Ben Stein’s talk show appearances with his “anyone?  anyone?” lecture in Ferris Beuller’s Day off?  In those awkward and isolated early adolescent years, the Walkman & Echo and the Bunnymen/ Suzanne Vega/ OMD/Psycadelic Furs/ Simple Minds combo was the emotional subtext I moved through the world with. John Hughes and his characters seemed to always understood that, somehow.

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Jerome Bixby’s Man from Earth

Published
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s000z
 on August 4, 2009
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When I was told I was about to watch a movie about a college professor from the late Paleolithic Era I rolled my eyes, anticipating some new Geico commercial spin-off.  The opening had me chucking at it as opposed to with it. The script was way hokie.  Plot points seemed planted and contrived and dialog silly.  Then somewhere along the way, whoosh—sucked through the wormhole—there I was loving it.  Was like the ultimate ‘what if’ fantasy for History Channel (without the annoying flashbacks), National Geographic and Scientific American junkies all swirled.  Brought me back to those exhilarating brainstorming session I’d have with Brian Greene while writing Calabi-Yau.  Anything was possible.  Was using Aristotleian clues and formulas to speculate on how it’d end and got the rug pulled out from under, anyway.  Thinking back through the craftsmanship, nothing was arbitraty, though I couldn’t have possible anticipated the outcome.  Senses greater forces at play, I researched the writer, Jerome Bixby after watching it and discovered he’d work on numerous Twilight Zone and Star Trek Episodes during his lifetime.  A TV show Bixby created in the 60s even inspired an Asimov story…whoa!

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Now, through open windows, breathing in the August night

Published
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s000z
 on August 2, 2009
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Saw Anne Waldman read Manatee/Humanity. Brunch on the patio with my friend, Jill and discussed what sort of work environments we should look for, according to the Myers Briggs.  Finished watching season 2 of Mad Men, watched a one-year old discover birthday cake, realized that the camera that I thought was broken wasn’t.  Night walk with boyfriend to look at flowers and swans and ducks and lake in moonlight.  Some wealthy company is throwing all of their money at trying to get advertising on the moon, he said.  We swiftly concluded that the likelihood of that occurring during our lifetimes is…not very. Cleaned and organized stuff a little bit but not too much.  Didn’t solve and didn’t break anything.  Took a bubble bath. Learned that my super supportive, inspiring and hyperprolific friend Hollie Overton just officiated her WGA membership and interpreted it to mean that, despite what it can sometimes seem, Hollywood does reward talent and hard work.  Watched 15 minutes of that new King Arthur show on TV only to realize that the only ones who ever succeeded in adapting anything Arthurian were Monty Python/Terry Gilliam and Eric Rohmer Managed to actually get a little bit of work done.  Live broadcast of Leonard Cohen’s London concert. Time isn’t moving too quickly or too slowly.  Now, through open windows, breathing in the August night.  Still thinking about the moon.  Remembering the Smashing Pumpkin’s Tonight, Tonight video. What was that old silent movie they were referencing in the video? Loved how they created a video to rise to the level of the music’s fantasticalness.  Wanted to see it; figure out more about the history  Went foraging.  Didn’t find it but found something else instead.  A treasure in its own right.  History of Moon movies presented as an Apollo 40th retrospective, no less.  Windows are still open.  Check out:

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Discovering Da Ali G Show

Published
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s000z
 on July 25, 2009
. 1 Comment

Watched, like, 15-20 back-to-back clips of Da Ali G show on Funny or Die last night and can’t believe how hard I laughed-laughed, laaaaa-gasp-gh, laughed.  OMG, have you seen it?  You totally should.

It’s like this x btween candid camera and journo.  Kinda. Well, more than that, tho. He’s created this neologistic, grammatically ticked vernacular that just causes me to totally lose it whenever I watch.

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Dr. Strangelove Revisited

Published
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s000z
 on June 25, 2009
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Re-watching Dr. Strangelove and wondering—why in the world did black & white motion pictures come to an end?  OMG, the airplanes above the clouds and mountain peaks!  Back in the Pentagon War Room, now.  The map board with dotted flight plan lights, the circular table, the star shaped Admiral shoulder metals, the sunglasses, the numbers on those slanted walls,  the chewing gum, those identical telephone receivers. “Dimitri, I’m capable of being just as sorry as you are.  So we’re both sorry.  Okay?” Oooo, shootout scene.   Diagonal light through Venetian blinds, sounds of machine guns.  Silhouettes on walls.  “Give me the code now.” Cockpit, radar, helmets, cowboy hat and that Johnny comes marking home again leit motif.  “Missiles still closing distance and tracking steady…deflection increasing…range eight miles.”  Smoke, light, fire extinguisher.  Diagonal descent towards snowy coastline.  “Red telephone connected to SAC.”  Switches and circuits and dials.

My buddy Douglas tells all the footage in that movie was found footage.  All of it.  I find that difficult to believe, despite the fact Doug is a reliable resource.  Well, Doug also said that Tetracyclene makes your bones glow in the dark but that was in a C.S.I. context and maybe it’s true, anyway.  At any rate, far as all things Kubrick are concerned, Doug knows his stuff as Kubrick is one of his deepest sources of inspiration.  Just thinking about Dr. Strangelove makes him want to scribe a comedy, he well me.  I smile to myself, having just learned (from watching the intro on TCM) that Kubrick didn’t initially intend for Dr. Strangelove to be a comedy.  Just that after doing the research and laying out all the info, that is what it became.

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