Saturday, September 25, 2010

I've been having a hard time organizing my creative ideas lately, but I try, as ever. I have all of my screenwriting ideas (all of the ones I could remember, anyway, including fragments) written down and filed in my former school binder. It has a postcard of Edward Gorey's "Donald Imagined Things" on the front and random clippings that i used to have on my desk bulletin board on the back-- an ophelia postcard i used to be obsessed with (which may or may not have triggered my Hamlet craze, I'm not sure) a Breaking Bad sticker I got with the purchase of Season 2, a postcard from Madrid, a picture of NYC that I've had for forever, and one of Robert Downey Jr.'s pictures from the Rolling Stone photoshoot (the first thing I bought at the LMU bookstore, as a matter of fact-- the Rolling Stone mag, not just Robert Downey's picture... haha).

Right now I'm bouncing between five projects, one being the third draft of my thesis (which I was starting to hate there for awhile but now I have a new direction so it feels at least a little bit fresh), a revised sort of autobiographical "indie" type dramedy, a revision of my first screenplay (a 1960's period piece which is now becoming WAY more high concept-- I'm very excited), a revision of a short film that I once wrote and really wanted to film once-upon-a-time (which I feel will be ready for just that once I complete it), and, finally, the last being my new favorite shiny idea, a steampunk [Victorian meets 1920-30's meets sci-fi] story about the concept of humanity, which is, I suppose, at the heart of every sci fi story. I originally had the creepy idea of a robot who eats a lost cowboy, sort of a steam-punk the old west sort of thing (only... not Wild Wild West, I hope), but it's evolved way beyond that. I can't really bring anything all that original to the sci-fi genre, unfortunately, I can only borrow from other established story types when it comes to the atmosphere and the "World," IE the national/political situation in the story, however I hope that the focus of the relationship in the script will be the stand-out part, and that all the filler (zeppelins. zeppelins. my true steampunk love--- WHY CAN'T MORE MOVIES HAVE ZEPPELINS AND TRAINS?! they're so awesome) will not seem like that much of a rip-off if it's painted as vague and only incidental. I don't want to tell an epic story but a small one (am I trying to talk myself out of it? not sure). Anyhoo, those are the main things I'm pinging back and forth. I still need to return to my Clara Bow script with oomph, and in times of distraction I'm all about outlining for a period piece comedy (flapper comedy!!) and trying to sort out the characters for what will be my epic Magnolia/Tenenbaums ensemble masterpiece, Pluto, about the repercussions of planet pluto's demotion to "dwarf." I also recently started re-reading the start of a novel I began last year and I think it's damn good. So perhaps I should work on that when I get bored of everything else. The important thing is to write.

Dear Zeppelins, why are you so cool and freaky looking? i love you.

Whhhhy are my ideas so brilliant? WHY can't I make my writing as brilliant as my visions?! damnation! damnation!

I have discovered, at the very least, that this blog is nice and serves as a sort of warm-up (at times procrastination-ary) tool, and it's nice to be able to sift through the archives from time to time, even though most of my postings seem to contain mainly whining and "blablabla the beatles blablabla jon hamm bla." Oh well. When I'm accomplished I'll appreciate that. And Jon Hamm will too. 'Cause we'll be married.

3 comments:

Sonja said...

I was watching Fringe (instead of writing!) and guess what stumbled onto the screen?

ZEPPELINS. Or zeppelin. As in the singular (though the plural case was definitely implied).

Ah Universe. How wonderfully coincidental you are. /wave

Also, your steampunk meets sci-fi sounds totally brilliant. You should write it.

...

I think you should watch Doctor Who too. Because the interior of the TARDIS is steampunkish (well, for the 11th doctor that is...).

I only have two projects I really want to start working on. The mutant re-write and my Christmas story -- though I'm kind of hoping that, if I do have a masterpiece inside me, it'll be that one though, with the rise of alternate universes (I always feel so perpetually behind), I doubt it ever will be truly a masterpiece, but speaking strictly in a subjective manner, I think this could be the one -- because I seriously need to read up on complicated philosophical ideas regarding time, developmental theory, alternate universe theories...etc...the very idea of writing it makes me want to fold into a trembling mass of nerdy goo...

Anyway. Zeppelins. Did you ever read that short story -- about the zeppelins? I had to read it for my creative writing class. It was very awful because it made zeppelins dull. It was also set in the real world. Perhaps that was its problem. Or one of them.

Maybe i shouldn't write comments at 2 a.m because I tend to do go on at length.

Live long and prosper. Write well and prodigiously?

K said...

ZEPPELINS ZEPPELINS AHHH!

I've been told a few times that I should sample Dr. Who, but to my knowledge it's been a long-spanning show with several versions, so I've never known just where to jump in.

Which one is your Christmas story, remind me? And you know when you seep yourself in research that a million more amazing things to weave into the story will occur to you. oh research. the good, voluntary kind.

and no, i can't recall a short story with zeppelins. i've always been super fascinated by them, there used to be one used for advertising in Ventura County and my mom would point it out to me when I was little and I'd go bananas, so I guess it goes back to that, and the fact that zeppelins are almost entirely phased out! i didn't really connect them to the steampunk persuasion until recently, the movies i believe they're featured prominently in are Sky Captain (the only completely steampunk movie that I think is good, though many would disagree) and the third Indy movie. I only remember certain things about The Rocketeer, but I think there was one in that, too. Hm. The only other steampunk movies I can think of are LXG (SUCKED) and The Prestige. Oh, and the new Sherlock Holmes movie. But there were no zeppelins in any of those. Also, zeppelins are called zeppelins, which means even their name is fantastic.

Sonja said...

Ah, too long for a comment: http://polemically.livejournal.com/346007.html

I can't recall the title story about the zeppelins. That bugs me. But it was about a homosexual romance that was totally understated and how they were too busy making googly eyes at each other so the zeppelin blew up. Bah.

Okay -- if you were to begin to watch Doctor Who, I would recommend you start with New Who, the rebooted version (the 2005 - current one). Technically, the first season starts with the 9th Doctor (Ecclestone) but I found that to be very difficult to get into just because of the utter weirdness of it all (admittedly, I wasn't much of a sci-fi fan back then). Also, the companion Rose? Urgh. I could strangle her. She's also the turn off for the second which features the fantastic David Tennant (Barty Crouch Jr.) as the tenth doctor in his brainy specs and save the world converses. He's amazing as the Doctor. I just hate Rose. So, I would recommend you start with the third season where they replace Rose with Martha. That's what Mom did - she watched the third and fourth seasons then went backwards -- and that worked really well for her.