Pencils Down Means Pencils Down
It's pretty much official: Hollywood Writers Are Set to Strike starting tomorrow. Scuttlebutt has it that production for Heroes has already shut down. We won't see any immediate repercussions until after November sweeps, but as the last completed scripts dwindle away things will start to suck.
Shows like the Daily Show and Colbert Report will be hit first, since they depend on timely scripts. Then unaired but filmed episodes for the regular dramas and sitcoms will air (possibly spaced out) until they run out of things to film; meaning some shows will be stuck in an arbitrary location in the timeline. Heroes has a midseason hiatus that would be to it's benefit, the story will just be truncated at the end of a finished volume (eleven episodes.) Avatar shouldn't be affected because the scripts for that show were written ages ago and all that is left is the animation. Pushing Daisies and Ugly Betty might be pretty screwed. LOST will be more-or-less safe because it has been stockpiling scripts and hasn't aired any episodes yet. Same with Battlestar Galactica, with all season 4 scripts more or less completed. Hopefully the strike won't last five months like last time or else we will start seeing really crappy reruns and reality tv programming. Agh.
So there's that.
Today I brought Almond Cupcakes to Prof. Louie's writing class (original recipe, see it here!) I baked them last night (Halloween) at Ken's and brought them to Elizabeth's Hellsing OVA screening. The Enigmans seemed to really like the cupcakes but they got a pretty chilly reception in my class. I had to cajole my professor into taking one. My coworkers seemed to like them okay--hilariouslysalz86 was the only one who who had one who detected alcohol in it. [Don't worry, according to calculations provided by the US Department of Agriculture, each cupcake contains 0.1% (a tenth of a percent) of alcohol. They are 0.2 proof.]
The story. Well. Oh god. I don't know. I have a complete typed transcript but there were so many awkward pauses.
So much silence!
Being compared to Amy Tan gave me this sudden compulsion to just shoot myself in the face, then and there. oh god.
I did ask that question about situation vs. story though:
eek.
After class I found Louie and asked him some more:
Shows like the Daily Show and Colbert Report will be hit first, since they depend on timely scripts. Then unaired but filmed episodes for the regular dramas and sitcoms will air (possibly spaced out) until they run out of things to film; meaning some shows will be stuck in an arbitrary location in the timeline. Heroes has a midseason hiatus that would be to it's benefit, the story will just be truncated at the end of a finished volume (eleven episodes.) Avatar shouldn't be affected because the scripts for that show were written ages ago and all that is left is the animation. Pushing Daisies and Ugly Betty might be pretty screwed. LOST will be more-or-less safe because it has been stockpiling scripts and hasn't aired any episodes yet. Same with Battlestar Galactica, with all season 4 scripts more or less completed. Hopefully the strike won't last five months like last time or else we will start seeing really crappy reruns and reality tv programming. Agh.
So there's that.
Today I brought Almond Cupcakes to Prof. Louie's writing class (original recipe, see it here!) I baked them last night (Halloween) at Ken's and brought them to Elizabeth's Hellsing OVA screening. The Enigmans seemed to really like the cupcakes but they got a pretty chilly reception in my class. I had to cajole my professor into taking one. My coworkers seemed to like them okay--hilariouslysalz86 was the only one who who had one who detected alcohol in it. [Don't worry, according to calculations provided by the US Department of Agriculture, each cupcake contains 0.1% (a tenth of a percent) of alcohol. They are 0.2 proof.]
The story. Well. Oh god. I don't know. I have a complete typed transcript but there were so many awkward pauses.
- Louie: Let's talk about Marissa's story. Who will start?
Class: ...
Me: Cupcakes? Have a cupcake?
Class: ...
Louie: What would you say [the protagonist's] story is?
Guido: She's trying not to make the same mistakes as her mom and her grandma; but she's still making the mistakes, just differently.
Erica: She's trying to become a woman who lacks women role models for her to become.
Louie: Anybody else?
Class: ...
So much silence!
- Classmate: Iliked the incorporation of the two cultures. It reminded me of Amy Tan.
Me: ...
Louie: Really?
Classmate: Yes.
Me: NOOOOOOOOO....
James Franco: lol
Being compared to Amy Tan gave me this sudden compulsion to just shoot myself in the face, then and there. oh god.
I did ask that question about situation vs. story though:
- Me: How do you differentiate from a situation and a story? How do you make a story out of a situation?
Louie: Well, let's look at the story "You're Ugly, Too." The situation is that she's stuck in her place so she has no possibility for her to leave, that she feels limited by geography and the culture of that place that she is in. "I'm stuck, there's nothing going on, everyone is married or gay, I'm teaching kids of vague intelligence and I'm just in the history department and I feel kind of alienate but I'm not saying so." That's the situation.
Me: okay.
Louie: The story is about this woman who fails to see her own flaws. That she might be causing her own flaws. That she is not the wonderful person she thinks she is but that yes, she's ugly, too. The story is her recognition of that fact or the burgeoning recognition of that fact. What's holding her down is not her situation, it's her or some combination thereof.
Me: But how do you get there? I see the difference but how do you get from a situation to a story? How do you make a story out of a situation?
Louie: I just said, Marissa.
Me: Yes, I see that jump... but how do I get there... Does it come with practice or reading or what?
Louie: I'll have to refer to my writing manual for that. -_- deadpan
eek.
After class I found Louie and asked him some more:
- Me: So, was this better than what you saw last Friday?
Louie: In some ways, yes. Well, I want to say yes--it's more cohesively developed--but I do miss the little details in your earlier draft.
Me: Oh, like the witty comments and small family details?
Louie: Yes.
Me: You mean the "little darlings", the ones you told me to cut out? Oh, what's a girl to do?
Louie: Heh.