A link...

A while back, i mentioned that i had some 'other plans in the works' (not a direct quote, i know), but then totally forgot to talk about it. So here it is- ThreePlayer!

www.threeplayer.wordpress.com

It's a videoBlog, where me and my 2 housemates basically chat about games and post up videos every so often to review new games. It's still in it's early stages, but so far we've made 2 high-quality episodes for your viewing pleasure. The vids are posted on our youtube page, search for Threeplayervideos and you'll find them, although all new vids are linked on the blog too!

So there my 'other plans'- i hope you're satisfied!

Reviews coming soon.

Dave reviews... Chat up lines.

Okay, i actually did this a while ago, but never actually posted it up anywhere. I came across it just now though and thought it was quite funny, so here are my reviews of popular chat up lines!

"Your feet must be tired because you've been running through my mind all night!"
David- I like this chat up line- it is both clever and very sweet. I think this would be a good line to use if you at a fancy cocktail party. You would need to approach the female towards the end of the party, sidling up to her in a shy, but masculine way. Once you’re near her, whisper said line in her ear, and watch her melt!

“Is that a mirror inside your pocket? Because I can see myself in your pants”
David- Now this is getting a little bit crass if you ask me. I don’t see any right thinking girl falling for this. Perhaps if they were very drunk, or very desperate, then this line would work, but you could probably just ask for sex and get the same response. Far too tart for my tastes.

“I've lost my phone number; can I have yours?”
David- Very clever indeed. It sounds so innocent, yet is so clever. This is definitely a good line to use on an intelligent girl, as she will no doubt get the pun. You can then talk at great length with said girl for the rest of the night about subordinate clauses and alliteration, before taking her home and pounding her.

"Are you a parking ticket? Because you’ve got fine written all over you"
David- Again, crass, but at least it has some kind of pun in there. It may appeal to the simpler girl who likes bright colours and nice hats.

“Did it hurt when you fell out of heaven?”
David- Oh dear. Surely nobody actually uses this line anymore. It sounds like the kind of thing my Dad might have said to Sally the cheerleader at his school dance. Get a new line already!

"Do you have a map? Because I keep getting lost in your eyes"
David- Aha! Very clever! Definitely one to keep back for that geography student you always liked.

Is your dad a thief? Because he stole the stars and put them in your eyes.
David- It’s quite clever I suppose. However, a girl could get the wrong end of the proverbial stick here and think that you are instigating their father as a man of ill repute, which could cause all sorts of upset. The girl may look normal, but her father could be skipping taxes, or maybe even laundering cheap labour to Korea. My advice would be to stay clear of this time-bomb.

Is it hot in here or is it you?
David- I keep telling people this; it’s all about layering! If you’re too hot, then you must have too many clothes on. Therefore I recommend taking off that large jumper. If you’re still warm after that, then it could be a problem with the air conditioning, in which case I’d call in a professional.

I have changed the script again...

Yeah, you heard me right. It's still called cruel Britannia, but once again, the focus has changed.

It is now based upon one character called Graham, who we see after his break-up with a girl he had been with for 2 years. He also narrates the story in an omnipotent manner. What does this mean? Well, it means there's a twist in the story that i'm not giving away to anyone at the moment (even though it's killing me slightly- but i want the mystery!).

Otherwise, i've started writing the script proper now, so far i've done about 15 pages and it's coming along quite nicely.

Hopefully on this blog, i will also be starting to post some games reviews up soon, as part of a CV building excersise- my aim is to get a job in the gaming magazine industry, but i need to start producing some work to show for my ambitions.

The new script

For a while, i was seriously thinking about doing my CityA idea as a script, right up to the first Scriptwriting tutorial i attended last last week. However, during a blustery walk back to my uni house, i came up with a much better idea! Well, on the walk i came up with the title for the script, which i think is probably just as important. And it's name?

Cruel Britannia.

Immediately, a million thoughts of homeless people wearing medals popped into my head, a tirade of angst in modern life.

Since then, i've gone through various ideas that i'd like to now share with you.

The original idea was based around one character and his struggle to get over a break up with someone who he deemed to be the perfect girl. Basically, we'd follow him round and some kind of story would happen. I didn't give too much thought to this idea, as it was a bit too simple for a long script. Also, it's a similar premise to a lot of things that i've written in the past, and i want this to be a definate step above what i have produced so far.

My next idea was to keep the main, morally dubious character, but link him to a parallel world where his actions affect others. This idea i liked, but i couldn't think of any ingenous way to link his actions without it being obvious or tenuous. I also figured he could have secret powers to use at his discretion, but then i realised that i'd wholeheartedly stolen the idea from Phonogram: Rue Britannia, a Graphic novel by quality journalist Kieron Gillen. As it happens, i've pretty much stolen the title of that graphic novel too, but i don't think that matters too much, as it's such a cool title.

So anyway, my idea that i think I may have settled on is as so; A bit like love actually, but better, with more misery and less Ben Elton. What that entails is a collection of characters, all with their lives entwined and affecting one another, setting a palette of what it is to be young in modern times- a script about being lost and alone. I've yet to work out all the characters, but there's going to be a lot going on. My reasoning for doing a script in this style is that i'm not convinced that i'd be able to hold a single story for an entire script- my writing style is often fairly whimsical and light- so by having lots of stories intertwined, there's scope to do lots of smaller stories that eventually build up to create an entirity. It's like when you're always told that things are easier when they're broken up into sections; that's the idea here. The mixture of long scripts and my short attention span isn't a prize winning one, so i'm hoping this will work to my advantages.

I may still change parts of the idea, and i'm still open to using magical elements if i think it will work, but hopefully this is the starting point for a wonderful script!

soooo...

Ok, it's been a while since i last updated the blog, but i have good reasons (probably).

Firstly, the blog was originally intended to help with my scriptwriting, and i've only just started properly digging into that (more about it in the next post...), so that's my first good excuse.

Next, my houtemates and I have been planning some video content for our blogs, which should be arriving onto these pages within the next couple of weeks. The basic premise is a videogaming show that isn't neccessarily like all the other shite that overburdens the net- nooo, we're going to be far more professional than them! You'll see what i mean once it's finished.

Lastly, and possibly most importantly, i'd actually forgotten my password to my blog, so that made updating quite difficult.

Updates soon!

Wall-E - My thoughts on the matter....

Once again, Pixar have managed to do it. They've managed to create a CGI cartoon that is both art and mass entertainment, as shallow or as deep as you want it to be and as beautiful as a goddess to boot. First Ratatouille, now this. Thankyou Pixar for saving us from having to watch any more cynical Dreamworks trash.

For me, the recent Post-Cars output from Pixar has been absolutely perfect, taking on what Disney cast off when they shut down their animation department a few years ago. What they've taken is the charm that imbued all the hand drawn features of old (i think of Aladdin, The Lion King, films i grew up with) and placed it into the new mould of CGI. As i mentioned in my review of Ratatouille (http://sealofmadness.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/dave-reviews-ratatooie-hang-on-thats-not-how-its-spelt/) it has a quality that trancends time and aging of material, a bit like a classic love story- Romeo and Juliet is still revered today because it's themes are still relevant today. Perhaps the themes of Wall-E aren't that timeless, but the feeling and charm i think is something that goes beyond fads and fashions.

I'm wittering. It was a marvellous filmic experience and i would recommend it to anyone. End of.

Script ideas

Probably the hardest part of this whole Scriptwriting business is actually coming up an idea that's not just got plenty to write about and explore, but is also sustainable in terms of research and logic of the world and characters.

I've had a couple of ideas so far, but i'm not happy with either as of yet. Anyway, here they are.

IDEA 1- The future. Due to the wholly consumerist nature of society over the past 30 years, the world has turned into a supposed utopia of pleasure- everywhere you look, new nightclubs are being built, fancy restaurants are being built in place of post offices, shopping centres sprawl in cubic miles. It is all there to enjoy, but there's just one catch- it all comes at a price. In order to afford this life of pleasure and greed, you must work 9-5 every day. Not a big deal you say, and it's not. Everyone slaves away during the day, and gets fucked off their heads at nights. There is balance in the world of CityA. But there's also no personality- everybody wants perfection. The girls all want the best bodies, the biggest boobs, the pornstar pout, because this how they will attact the well groomed, six-packed six foot alpha males that prowl the city in their Fashion cut suits. This is the story of Craig, the man who falls for the out of city bounds ditz of Lucy, with all her flaws and imperfections, and his eventual realisation of the lie that is CityA.

Now, i like this idea a lot- it's got romance, a political message and a city which will allow me to run free in terms of cityscape creativity. However, i am wary that crating a city in it's entirety through just a script is a tall order, especially if i want to nail the feel of the city. One way that this could be done is through lots of sweeping city shots, a la Lost in Translation, but it's still a tall that i'm not sure i'd be able to acheive adequately.

Although, by typing all that just then, it has just reinvigorated my will to try and take this idea further. Hmm.

IDEA 2- Not so focussed this one, but i had vague ideas about writing a creative piece about the Nazi Germany wartime experiments they did to try make superhumans. The idea was to write a fiction about what would have happened if they had succeeded in their plans, and actually made the superhuman SS- a bit like a comic book hero story gone horribly wrong. There's a lot of foibles by doing this though- through their testing, they killed huge amounts of people, mostly jews from concentration camps, which brings the holocaust, a very serious matter to what would otherwise be a piece of 'what-if' fantasy fluff. Also, I would have to do a hell of a lot of research in order to make it believeable and bring in luine with the actual Nazi experiments- there's no point writing something like this if it's not based at least partially in truth. Finally, and this is a big one, how could you end a film like this? The Nazi's would only go and bloody win!

I do like the idea, but it seems like there's just a bit too much going against it for me to get any really good potential out of it.

So there we go. I'll post more ideas as i have them.