Sweet Dreams Are Made of This...
Warning! This post contains Dream!Rant. It will be detailed and possibly strange...
Okay. So I haven't posted in a while. (Not that I don't check LJ everyday like a creepy stalker...) Life just hasn't been that interesting. I'm back home. First year of college: done. Which is bizarre.
Oh, and I'm officially a Linguistics major. You know, just for the shits and giggles. (Meaning its fun, I like it, I'll figure out the rest of my life next year, in classes I actually enjoy. I'm glaring at you Macroeconomics.)
But I've been ridiculously comic book obsessed. It's really bad. My fandoms keep jumping all over the place. But I've seen Ironman 2 twice already, I'm loving that Marvel is bringing the Young Avengers into focus in their new Avengers title (and Wanda! Do want!), and I've been enjoying (/becoming unhealthily obsessed with) Batman, or more particularly, the Robins. Yes, all of them. Even the little brat. He's growing on me. Tim's still my favorite, though.
So that's why it was so weird when out of nowhere, I had one of my crazy-detailed, realistic dreams last night, and get this, it WASN'T comic book based. It wasn't even fantasy based.
For those who don't know, I have reaaaally detailed "movie dreams", as my friends have come to call them, every once and a while. They are usually based with real people, like friends and family, or versions of them. And many times I'm not the main character. They have a tendency to follow generic "save the world"/"fight the evil organization"/whatever plots and often involve superpowers. Or sci-fi/fantasy. Or alternate realities. Or deserted islands. No I'm not very creative in my dreams. But strangely enough. these dreams often make complete sense. Like plot development wise. Which I don't think is supposed to happen in dreams. And I remember them vividly, or at least scenes. Like vivid enough for lighting and camera shots. It's bizarre but I just roll with it. They usually fade in places and get filled in with my logic over time but it's always been something I found really awesome. Like fanfic of my life, only someone in my subconscious is writing it for me.
Anyways, last night I had one of these dreams. The first one in a loooong while (I blame school. It makes me normal.) Only it was pretty...normal. In the conventional sense. No action/adventure/sci-fi mystery. And that's incredibly bizarre.
Actually it was a dream about making a movie. I was apparently overseeing a project that involved making a live-action Fullmetal Alchemist movie. And I was determined not to let it fall into the same common pitfalls that destroy adaptations.
Normally I wouldn't consider this in the same category as my other dreams, but it had the vividness. It was so clear. And it made sense. I remember sitting in a break-room looking office around a table with two men and a woman, discussing plot points that we were unhappy with in the current screenplay. Apparently Izumi was an issue we wanted to fix. In the current script she played a minimal role, bordering on being cut, but we felt as a strong character and driving force for the boys at a young age, she needed to be there. But we were having a hard time getting it to work (flashbacks are trickier in film, and apparently we were trying to avoid them, or limit them, and we already filled what we figured would be our quota). I think we were trying to figure if the fans would forgive us for messing with continuity and trying to combine her presence with one of the other sequences, like bringing her to Central, or Winry's. Now remember, this is a dream. And I'm not sure where I was pulling any of this from story-wise (although I bet my inspiration for the subject matter of the dream was watching FMA and hour or two before I went to bed...) And to make it worse, I'm not sure if I was following the manga or the anime (I'm seriously behind in the manga...maybe my mind made a hybrid?).
It was soooo weird. I don't know what I was doing half of the time. I remember that we had four different designs for Al, and I wish I were an artist (or more of one) because they were awesome designs, something I could really see a mass audience buying, but close enough to be, well, AL. And I was having a hard time trying to maintain some of the humorous quirks while keeping the story heavy and serious. But I think I was getting hate mail. I remember one fan was angry that Roy wasn't asian (Avatar the Last Airbender backlash in my brain, perhaps?) and Ed was too tall (The actor was like 5' 6"...I mean...come on, siriusly?).
Oh, and we kept Hughes alive for longer. Cause he's so awesome. And. Well. He's Hughes. There were plot reasons, but I can't really remember clearly.
His humor was solid, and so was some of the other stuff, but I remember the hardest things to get right were the "short" jokes. Cause they were kinda off the wall and jarring, and not really appropriate, but at the same time important to his character. With certain people it flowed seamlessly (like Winry) but Ed does this to just about anyone (His flaming rage at being called short). His height is an issue for him, and the reactions are something fans would be expecting to see. It's also something people are bound to notice and, sadly for them, point out. But you couldn't just have him randomly start screaming at someone who called him a "shrimp". Some things just don't translate well.
And the timeline was ridiculously condensed at pieces. And the end wasn't really the end of the series.At all. It was kind of resolved, but at the same time almost resolve-less. From the fans stand point. 'Cause there is so much going on in that series that the movie in my brain only focused on the tip of the iceberg, so it took a problem, solved it, and started to expose some of the unknowns, only to leave you with a air of light ominous foreboding. Something you could walk out of the theater feeling satisfied with yet wishing it had more (which fans would know, would have more).
I felt like I was doing something almost sacrilege. But I wanted to be the one to do it.
It was weird. Sureal. I have no idea where this came from. I haven't made a movie in a year and a half, haven't even thought of making one in 6 months. And even then its a fun hobby at best. I've never even taken a class on it (My mom teaches Television Production...I kinda cheated and stole my knowledge from her). And now I have a screenplay in my head, and specific scenes played out perfectly in my brain. And the CGI. My god. It was beautiful, you guys. It wasn't overdone at all but the alchemy was fluid and it was beautiful. I wish I knew CGI. I wish I knew computers better in general...
Why, brain!? Why!?! I don't have resources. I'm a poor college student. With too much to do already. Why do you tempt me with things I can't have. (I'm not even sure I want. I mean, do I really want to see a live-action FMA? I don't know.) But now it will sit and eat away at my brain for at least a month. Maybe more.
Thanks brain. Thanks a lot.
So now I've gotten that out there...kinda. I feel a little less insane, and a whole lot more crazy at the same time. But its free. I told someone. Maybe now I can go read my comic books in peace.
/end rant
(Oh, and Happy Mother's Day.)
Okay. So I haven't posted in a while. (Not that I don't check LJ everyday like a creepy stalker...) Life just hasn't been that interesting. I'm back home. First year of college: done. Which is bizarre.
Oh, and I'm officially a Linguistics major. You know, just for the shits and giggles. (Meaning its fun, I like it, I'll figure out the rest of my life next year, in classes I actually enjoy. I'm glaring at you Macroeconomics.)
But I've been ridiculously comic book obsessed. It's really bad. My fandoms keep jumping all over the place. But I've seen Ironman 2 twice already, I'm loving that Marvel is bringing the Young Avengers into focus in their new Avengers title (and Wanda! Do want!), and I've been enjoying (/becoming unhealthily obsessed with) Batman, or more particularly, the Robins. Yes, all of them. Even the little brat. He's growing on me. Tim's still my favorite, though.
So that's why it was so weird when out of nowhere, I had one of my crazy-detailed, realistic dreams last night, and get this, it WASN'T comic book based. It wasn't even fantasy based.
For those who don't know, I have reaaaally detailed "movie dreams", as my friends have come to call them, every once and a while. They are usually based with real people, like friends and family, or versions of them. And many times I'm not the main character. They have a tendency to follow generic "save the world"/"fight the evil organization"/whatever plots and often involve superpowers. Or sci-fi/fantasy. Or alternate realities. Or deserted islands. No I'm not very creative in my dreams. But strangely enough. these dreams often make complete sense. Like plot development wise. Which I don't think is supposed to happen in dreams. And I remember them vividly, or at least scenes. Like vivid enough for lighting and camera shots. It's bizarre but I just roll with it. They usually fade in places and get filled in with my logic over time but it's always been something I found really awesome. Like fanfic of my life, only someone in my subconscious is writing it for me.
Anyways, last night I had one of these dreams. The first one in a loooong while (I blame school. It makes me normal.) Only it was pretty...normal. In the conventional sense. No action/adventure/sci-fi mystery. And that's incredibly bizarre.
Actually it was a dream about making a movie. I was apparently overseeing a project that involved making a live-action Fullmetal Alchemist movie. And I was determined not to let it fall into the same common pitfalls that destroy adaptations.
Normally I wouldn't consider this in the same category as my other dreams, but it had the vividness. It was so clear. And it made sense. I remember sitting in a break-room looking office around a table with two men and a woman, discussing plot points that we were unhappy with in the current screenplay. Apparently Izumi was an issue we wanted to fix. In the current script she played a minimal role, bordering on being cut, but we felt as a strong character and driving force for the boys at a young age, she needed to be there. But we were having a hard time getting it to work (flashbacks are trickier in film, and apparently we were trying to avoid them, or limit them, and we already filled what we figured would be our quota). I think we were trying to figure if the fans would forgive us for messing with continuity and trying to combine her presence with one of the other sequences, like bringing her to Central, or Winry's. Now remember, this is a dream. And I'm not sure where I was pulling any of this from story-wise (although I bet my inspiration for the subject matter of the dream was watching FMA and hour or two before I went to bed...) And to make it worse, I'm not sure if I was following the manga or the anime (I'm seriously behind in the manga...maybe my mind made a hybrid?).
It was soooo weird. I don't know what I was doing half of the time. I remember that we had four different designs for Al, and I wish I were an artist (or more of one) because they were awesome designs, something I could really see a mass audience buying, but close enough to be, well, AL. And I was having a hard time trying to maintain some of the humorous quirks while keeping the story heavy and serious. But I think I was getting hate mail. I remember one fan was angry that Roy wasn't asian (Avatar the Last Airbender backlash in my brain, perhaps?) and Ed was too tall (The actor was like 5' 6"...I mean...come on, siriusly?).
Oh, and we kept Hughes alive for longer. Cause he's so awesome. And. Well. He's Hughes. There were plot reasons, but I can't really remember clearly.
His humor was solid, and so was some of the other stuff, but I remember the hardest things to get right were the "short" jokes. Cause they were kinda off the wall and jarring, and not really appropriate, but at the same time important to his character. With certain people it flowed seamlessly (like Winry) but Ed does this to just about anyone (His flaming rage at being called short). His height is an issue for him, and the reactions are something fans would be expecting to see. It's also something people are bound to notice and, sadly for them, point out. But you couldn't just have him randomly start screaming at someone who called him a "shrimp". Some things just don't translate well.
And the timeline was ridiculously condensed at pieces. And the end wasn't really the end of the series.At all. It was kind of resolved, but at the same time almost resolve-less. From the fans stand point. 'Cause there is so much going on in that series that the movie in my brain only focused on the tip of the iceberg, so it took a problem, solved it, and started to expose some of the unknowns, only to leave you with a air of light ominous foreboding. Something you could walk out of the theater feeling satisfied with yet wishing it had more (which fans would know, would have more).
I felt like I was doing something almost sacrilege. But I wanted to be the one to do it.
It was weird. Sureal. I have no idea where this came from. I haven't made a movie in a year and a half, haven't even thought of making one in 6 months. And even then its a fun hobby at best. I've never even taken a class on it (My mom teaches Television Production...I kinda cheated and stole my knowledge from her). And now I have a screenplay in my head, and specific scenes played out perfectly in my brain. And the CGI. My god. It was beautiful, you guys. It wasn't overdone at all but the alchemy was fluid and it was beautiful. I wish I knew CGI. I wish I knew computers better in general...
Why, brain!? Why!?! I don't have resources. I'm a poor college student. With too much to do already. Why do you tempt me with things I can't have. (I'm not even sure I want. I mean, do I really want to see a live-action FMA? I don't know.) But now it will sit and eat away at my brain for at least a month. Maybe more.
Thanks brain. Thanks a lot.
So now I've gotten that out there...kinda. I feel a little less insane, and a whole lot more crazy at the same time. But its free. I told someone. Maybe now I can go read my comic books in peace.
/end rant
(Oh, and Happy Mother's Day.)