I have no idea what you just said.

Oh my god, I just imagined that and you're right. That's exactly what would happen if Star Wars were made today. They'd have the conversation about the Falcon being a super-fast ship, then they'd get to Alderaan before it blew up and be like "Bye Han, thanks for the ride!" and he'd be out of the movie.

EDIT: Or, we see him one more time being interrogated by the Empire, and he's the one who tells them Luke and Obi Wan are on Alderaan, which is why the Empire goes after Alderaan. Then they kill him even though they said they wouldn't and he's all surprised because they had a deal.

I think my favorite bit in EMBER, which I didn't mention here, is that they have this whole complicated plan written in plain English on unlaminated paper, and bits of it get lost or damaged or whatever, and then at last when they make it out of the city, there's a box of matches, and they have instructions in pictograms. Like the Builders thought the ride down the river would render everyone illiterate somehow.

Meh. It's not like studios and rental houses are buying new cams all the time, the existing cameras -- assuming repairs and maintenance will be continued -- will continue to be viable for decades. There are probably cams from the 70s and 80s still going out on sets and getting the job done.

When Kodak and Fuji stop making celluloid, THAT'S the fat lady hitting high-C. And that'll come, but it'll be a while yet.

Go for it, switch. I wasn't planning to write it.

TERRA BLANCA -- the story of the man who runs the bar at a time traveling refugee camp, and what he does when the former love of his life comes through the time portal. "Of all the epochs in all the world..."

...actually I would totally watch that.

Yeah, I was trying to find a nicer way of saying "If you think the characters are undeveloped, you probably weren't paying attention."

DRIVE is awesome. What it isn't is a movie that's going to explain itself for the cheap seats. It's being sold as an action movie, but it's the kind of movie that would be considered actiony in the 60s, not today. It's more of a thriller and a drama, and the characters are plenty developed, but the movie doesn't tell you about them by having them speak. If you're not willing to do some legwork and engage with the movie rather than sit back and have the movie explain itself to you, then DRIVE is the wrong movie for you.

Yeah, doing the show made me want to re-read the novel and I felt like an asshole when I got there and realized I'd misremembered.

The hedge animals, by the way, could totally work cinematically and be terrifying if they were done like in the novel, where they don't move when you're looking and the camera keeps cutting back to them in different, ever approaching positions. Unfortunately, as I recall, the miniseries went the route of "They don't move when the characters are looking, but the camera doesn't count," so you get shots of CG hedge lions stalking around when the characters' backs are turned.

(As I recall. We've just established that I fuck that up sometimes, so I guess check it out for yourself if you can find it.)

Let's all think about this for a moment.

I missed responding to this after that other...stuff...happened.

The thing is, you have to work that stuff out somewhere. Trying to do it in my head doesn't work for me. Or, it does, but it doesn't get me as far or as fast as hashing it out on the page. The characters don't start talking and making decisions when I'm brainstorming, it's only once I've got them talking to each other that things come to life. So I try to get things on the page as quick as I can. Sure, I could write notes, but if I'm going to write something it might as well be script pages.

If you write the first draft mostly off-the-cuff, I can practically guarantee there will be plenty that you can use. You'll discover your main character isn't interesting and a side character is; or that your drama is actually a dark comedy, your comedy a tragedy; or your theme isn't what you thought it was; and you'll have some great scenes or lines or even just characters amid the dreck, which you can airlift away into the rewrite. And if you truly can't use a single word or aspect of the first draft, it's no different than if you hadn't written anything at all in that time. At worst you break even, at best you've made progress. It's like a Pascal's Wager that makes sense.

I've got the same view of writing, somewhat, that Stephen King does (or did last I checked) -- it's like an excavation, the story is already there, I'm just discovering it and trying not to break it as I dig it out.

If a story excites and interests me, I don't ask why -- not to start with. Obviously there's a reason, it speaks to me on some level; but if I'm not conscious of it at the outset what's more important, to me, is to get out of my own way and start telling the story. Why it interests me will start to become evident as I go along, and as I discover that this avenue doesn't feel right, and that one does. First draft is largely intuitive for me, mostly id.

After that I let the ego back in and I do some introspection, trying to suss out why it interested me, why it felt right to do things a certain way, and once I sort that out I can develop it intellectually (and, ideally, intelligently). This is where the outlining and the notes and worldbuilding really take place -- or rather where I make sure everything makes consistent sense and go from there.

Sometimes it doesn't take the whole first draft. I've been writing a new script for a few weeks just because something about it was exciting to me, and tonight I wrote a bit that made me go "Oh, THAT'S what I'm doing here." But if I hadn't started writing as soon as I got the idea (which I'm far too guilty of not doing with most ideas) I still don't think I'd know.

Get over yourself. You don't speak for our audience, you speak for you. When we start charging and you start paying, you can start playing the "you need me" card. Until then this kind of statement makes you sound ridiculous.

Your "suggestions" come off as demands because you're couching them in aggressive, accusatory language and ludicrous statements like "without us you are nothing." So what if we don't touch on the topics YOU want to hear? It's a free podcast. We're making the show WE want to make. Our audience is the people who want to listen to it. Simple as that. If that doesn't include you, then so be it.