screenonline: Writing Short Films: Introduction
screenonline: Writing Short Films: IntroductionMy course last week opened my eyes to the fact there are more short film opportunities out there than feature, at least for a beginner. A good short is a good foot in the door, and NZ has quite a short film culture.
This British guide should be good, although it's interesting to note that British shorts have been more narrative-oriented in recent years, while I think NZ films are still far more subjective and descriptive.
Still, looks a good place to start.
The Agony and the Ecstacy (1965)
I love serendipity.
When I hit "randomise my queue" on
Movieshack, it gave me unlikely duets of CDs. Two Vietnam war movies back to back, two true stories about journalists, and now two films set in the Vatican (The Body - see previous post - and this one).
And both movies had lavish shots of the beautiful, awe-inspiring architecture in Rome.
Agony was pretty good, in my view, from a technical and overall story point of view.
But, like The Body, the writing let it down. The story was really good, and wisely chose to focus on a small part of the original work, Irving Stone's epic novel of the same name. But the dialogue was overwritten, almost to the point of being unintentionally funny.
An example... a messenger from the Pope comes to Michelangelo, who's lying on his back, painting the Sistine ceiling. He says, oh, wow, I get paid finally... no, no, it's not pay, it's a bill! I can't believe it's a bill, he hasn't paid me for the last six months, and here's a bill for the last two months' rent!!
Too much information. Too much verbal information anyway.
But the dynamics between Pope Julius and Michelangelo were good, the Pope endlessly needling the artist, the artist endlessly delaying his creation. But as some other critics have said, it kind of didn't move very far, for such a long movie.
Character arc: Pope Julius.
1. Arrogant SOB with a sense of entitlement, who doesn't pay his artists.
2. Wounded arrogant SOB, obsessed with this project almost as much as Michelangelo
3. Old, wise arrogant SOB, shrewder and realising how much this art means to him - it's more than decoration - and knowing how to manipulate/motivate artists.
Character arc: Michelangelo.
1. Intense outsider, struggling artist, confirmed sculptor.
2. Intensely reluctant painter, runaway.
3. Inspired visionary.
4. Struggling artist, intense outsider, painter.
5. Ill artist, almost giving up, persuaded by the threat of losing the commission.
6. Nascently emotionally-aware artist, realising there is a world outside himself, he can return the favour to the pope because he realises what the Pope did for him.
Michelangelo's journey is fairly compelling, but kind of understated. Yet the acting was anything but - this is Charlton Heston after all!
I did like the portrayal of the artist though, it had depth and reality. Particularly how Michelangelo didn't realise how much he could get away with, bursting in on the pope in highly strategic war meetings, even when he's about to go into battle.
Lessons:
- Make the character arc compelling and dramatic, within the context of your genre (ie if it's an epic story like this purports to be, make the journey big and epic)
- Try to tell a key event rather than a whole life (Agony chose this well, I think)
- Every scene must mean something. The battle scenes in Agony meant virtually nothing to me, because we didn't know what the stakes were. They were annoying distractions.
IMDb link
The Body (2001)
An intriguing premise - what would happen if a body was found in a tomb in Jerusalem, and all the evidence points towards it being Jesus.
The basic story was gripping, but the acting and dialogue fell a little short.
Marie found Antonio Banderas not believable as a priest, he's too much of an action hero for that kind of role. Maybe that was deliberate in their casting, not sure. I found him good, but limited in his portrayal.
Olivia Williams as Sharon, the Israeli archaeologist, was good but seemed inconsistent in parts.
The more I think of it, the more I think it's probably a script or director problem. Actors can only work with what they have.
Sharon came across as a tough lady, until there were explosions etc. in which case she turned into a whimpering wreck. That's realistic - the toughness is often a shell for a hurting person inside - but the polarisation between the two didn't come off as realistic.
I wondered if this was a case of 'director knows best', where an eager director prevents actors from really owning the roles. That's just a theory.
Marketing
This film didn't do so well at the box office, and I think a lot of the reason is that the key audience who would appreciate it - Christians - would be afraid to see it in case it had a typical Hollywood anti-God agenda, as they see it.
In fact, I'd seen this at the video store but been suspicious of it, until I found it had won an Epiphany award - a Christian award for spiritually uplifting content.
Cliches
While it's a great story, it's marred by some cliche'd behaviour between Williams and Banderas. Especially the conversation when they meet - and Williams is driving like a crazy Israeli (apparently they all drive like that?) and they swap a few clever one-liners.
This to me is shameless making it movie-friendly. It's supposed to reveal character but it comes across as stereotyped and unsubtle. That kind of dialogue and action is more suited to an Indiana Jones-style film, but this is a deeper story than that.
What can I learn?
- Try to reveal character more subtly, don't go for gimmicks.
- Organise your marketing campaign to draw in the right audience for the right reasons.
- Stay steady within your chosen genre.
IMDb link
Sundance 2006: Art and Technology: Intel's Digital Experience
Sundance 2006: Art and Technology: Intel's Digital ExperienceMore Sundance stuff
Fast Company Now
Fast Company NowThe Sundance set considers the net
New Act for Netflix?
New Act for Netflix? [Fool.com: Motley Fool Take] January 27, 2006Should Netflix make the films they distribute? Interesting.
Angel Station: Last Call Poker: the Coolest Thing
Angel Station: Last Call Poker: the Coolest ThingAnother story about Alternate Reality Games. Again - how exciting is this!
ENCYCLOPEDIA HANASIANA: The Story Doesn't Care: An Interview with Sean Stewart
ENCYCLOPEDIA HANASIANA: The Story Doesn't Care: An Interview with Sean StewartStorytelling as archaeology. This is really exciting!
Why I am an expert on women (my attempt at humour writing)
I am an expert on women. Or at least I should be, because I don't know that much about men, and I am one of those.
So what are my "women expert" credentials? Um. Not what you might imagine.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those losers who forms a Casanova club, sharing so-called secrets about how to 'get' women and then goes on a TV show about speed dating and absolutely gets nowhere.
In fact, I've never tried speed-dating. I got married after four years of being "just a friend", and then when it was more than "just a friend" I wasn't sure I could cope with the excitement.
So why the "women expert" label? Let's see... raised by my mother and sister, married to a woman with only one sibling - a sister. When I work in a 'real job' (ie in an office) it's usually with a female-dominated staff.
So, that makes me an expert. Or at least familiar with women. Kind of.
And yet, in my book of "everything I understand about women", this is all I've got:
A woman can, for no seeming reason whatsoever, decide you don't suit a rather funky pair of sunglasses. No explanation is required.
That's all I got. So much for being an expert.
I love learning
I experienced a little taste of my future today - day 1 of a 2-day screenwriting course at Unitec. Well, it's more of a workshop. There were six of us aspiring scribes, from a wide range of ages and backgrounds, but most of us had something to do with advertising.
I've discovered the way I learn: you pile a whole lot of information in my head with no discernable result. Then suddenly, when it seems it is just a bottomless pit, I understand.
Today's course had many things I already knew. But they were sitting in silos, waiting to be connected. The really valuable part about today was the connecting threads that made fact A and fact B make sense together!
I'm really tired, but looking forward to more - tomorrow.
Adotas » AtomFilms Opens Up Studio
Adotas » AtomFilms Opens Up Studiointeresting
Video games' write stuff
Video games' write stuffI love the opening para:
When it was announced that the very first Game Writers Conference would take place in Austin last October, it took a lot of people by surprise. You mean video games are actually written?
Story Ch 19: The Text
Dialogue is not conversation.
Screen dialogue must have the swing of everyday talk but content well above normal.
Screen dialogue needs
- Compression & economy
- Direction (turn or burn)
- Purpose
"Speak as common people do, but think as wise men do." Aristotle
The playwright may spin elaborate and ornate dialogue, but not the screenwriter.
The moment you think you've written something that's particularly fine and literary - cut it.
Stikomythia = rapid exchange of short speeches
Problems with long speeches
- visually boring - the actor's face, or
- cut to listening face, speaker needs to over articulate because audiences lip read.
Life is not a monologue - it is action/reaction, including reacting to yourself.
Suspense sentence or periodic sentence - the really important part of a sentence is at the end - the meaning.
Silent screenplay
Best advice for writing dialogue is
don't. Never write a line of dialogue when you can create a visual expression.
Lean dialogue, in relief against what's primarily visual, has salience and power.
"When the screenplay has been written
and the dialogue has been added, we're ready to shoot."
Alfred Hitchcock
Description
"What do I see on the screen?"
An absolute present tense in constant vivid movement.
Specific names. Avoid generic nouns and verbs with adjectives and adverbs.
Specific verbs
No "Is" no "are" ... active voice, even for inanimate objects.
The most specific, active verbs and concrete nouns possible.
Naughty words
as if
we see
we hear
we
instead use
POV
insert
on scene
Image systems
The screenwriter as poet.
Poetic means enhanced expressivity. Everything means something.
An IMAGE SYSTEM is a strategy of motifs, a category of imagery embedded in the film that repeats in sight and sound from beginning to end with persistence and great variation, but with equally great subtlety, as a subliminal communication to increase the depth and complexity of aesthetic emotion.
A film's poetics must go consciously unrecognised.
External imagery - a category that has symbolic meaning outside the world of the film.
Internal imagery - takes a category that may or may not have any symbolic meaning outside the film. Gives an entirely new meaning appropriate to this film alone.
Awareness of a symbol turns it into a neutral, intellectual curiosity, powerless and virtually meaningless.
Story Chapter 17: Characters
The writer is a mind worm,
burrowing into a character to discover his aspects, his potential, then create an event geared to his unique nature, then create an
event geared to his unique nature - the precise happening needed to send him on a quest that reaches the limits of his being.
TRUE CHARACTER can only be expressed through choice in dilemma. How the person chooses to act under pressure is who he is - the greater the pressure, the truer and deeper the choice to character.
Desire, Motivation - avoid mono-explanations for behaviour.
Dimension means contradiction. That makes it interesting! E.g. someone who wants glory, but they also want to be very private.
Protagonist is the sun, other characters are planets.
Don't cause false anticipation making bit parts more interesting than necessary.
3 tips on writing characters for the screen:
- Leave room for the actors - the actor brings a character to life from the subtext out.
- Fall in love with all your characters - embrace all your creations, especially the bad people. No one thinks they themselves are a bad person.
- Character is self-knowledge. You wrote it, you're in it somewhere.
Story Chapter 16: Problems and Solutions
A screenwriter faces 8 enduring problems:
- Interest
- Surprise
- Coincidence
- Comedy
- Point of view
- Adaptation
- Melodrama
- Holes
1. Interest!How to keep folks interested for two hours or more.
Needs to engage
intellect and
emotion. For the intellect, each turning point must hook
curiosity.
On the emotional side, the audience seeks the 'centre of good' - who are we rooting for here? A positive focus for empathy and interest... and then we feel concern when that protagonist is under threat.
"At the very least the centre of good must be located in the protagonist"
Curiosity and concern create three ways to connect audience and story:
- Mystery
- Suspense
- Dramatic Irony
In
mystery the audience knows less than the characters. Murder mystery subgenres are:
Closed mystery (e.g. Agatha Christie) - we don't know who did it. "Who did it" is the main question we ask.
Open mystery (e.g. Colombo) - we see the murder, so we ask "How will he catch him?"
In
suspense the audience and characters know the same information - and it could end up or down. That's the main thing we want to know - how is this going to turn out?
In
Dramatic Irony the audience knows more than the characters. We just want to see how it'll play out.
2. Surprise!
Reversal of expectation.
"As characters arrive onscreen, the audience surrounds them with expectations."
3. CoincidenceFirst, bring coincidence in early to allow time to build meaning out of it.
Don't use coincidence past the mid-point.
Second, never use coincidence to turn and ending. This is deus ex machina, a writer's greatest sin. It takes away the characters' personal responsibility for their actions.
Exceptions: antistructure. "When coincidence rules story, it creates a new and rather significant meaning: life is absurd."
4. ComedyFrustrated idealism.
In comedy, laughter settles all arguments. You know when you screen it if it's funny: did anyone laugh?
The comedy writer first asks, "what am I angry about?"
"In drama the audience continuously grabs handfuls of the future, pulling themselves through, wanting to know the outcome. But comedy allows the writer to halt narrative drive, the forward projecting mind of the audience, and interpolate into the telling a scene with no story or purpose."
A true comedy is about turning points, not dialogue or sight gags.
5. Point of View
The more time spent with a character, the more opportunity to witness his choices. The result is more empathy and emotional involvement between audience and character.
Which is good.
6. Adaptation
Prose is best at portraying inner conflict - inner dialogue.
Theatre is best at portraying interpersonal conflict - dialogue
Film is best at portraying external conflict - visual
1st principle of adaptation: the purer the novel, the purer the play, the worse the film.
Look for stories in which conflict happens on all three levels - with an emphasis on the extra personal.
To adapt:
- Read over and over without taking notes. Familiarise
- Identify turning points and reduce each even to a 1- or 2-sentence statement of what happens - no more.
- Is this story well-told?
2nd principle of adaptation: be willing to reinvent.
Reorder into chronological order, see what needs cutting or inserting. Turn the
mental into
physical.
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is a good adapter. (Merchant Ivory)
Exercise: Read
Room with a View,
Quartet,
the Bostonians, pull a step-outline from each novel, then compare to Jhabvala.
7. Melodrama
"Melodrama is not the result of overexpression but of under-motivation; not writing too big, but writing with too little desire."
Match motivation with action.
SY: For instance,
In My Father's Den has characters who are typically reserved kiwis. There needs to be a lot of motivation before one brother is threatening another with a shotgun.
8. Holes
Holes happen in life; they'll happen in your script. Will they notice?
"Courageous writers ... expose the hole to the audience, then deny that it is a hole."
Writing Experiment LAST CHAPTER
Writing Experiment Chapter 12, Mapping Worlds, Moving Cities
Chapter 12 was quite different from the rest of the book, attempting to draw together all the strands of theory woven throughout into a practical example.
"On the whole, this book has tried not to draw too much of a distinction between form and contents, and has been at pains to point out that there is 'a politics of form'."
This chapter's theme is central to cultural studies: ideas about place and space.
Mapping and moving place - representing it, making it dynamic and changing our conceptions of it.
Key idea: postmodern geography.
A place is never circumscribed, unidirectional or apolitical.
(Fascinating)
"Place" doesn't have a single identity, not contained within physical boundaries. It always links and merges with other places beyond its apparent limits. (Doreen Massey)
"Any place consists of constantly shifting social and economic interrelationships between people and institutions, both within a place and with other places."
With mapping worlds in fiction we can produce "a sense of the relationships between place and people."
Two ways of mapping worlds:
Explicit sense of place -> outright description
Implicit -> described through actions that take place within it
E.g. Explicit:
Waterview waits. It's people come and go while the houses of Waterview sit and wait. There is no bustle here. There are barely any shops, some parks, a school, but mostly Waterview is at the edge of something else: the ocean, Avondale, Point Chevaliser, the motorway, Unitec.
Implicit, is describing action the could only happen in a place like Waterview.
City = site of contradiction and difference
Cities within the city. The social city, the political city, the physical city, etc.
Walk poem - a written journey paralleling a walk through town.
Time-space compression = shifts rapidly between different times and space. A consequence of globalisation, absolutely fundamental to the postmodern world.
WTF?
Writing Experiment LAST CHAPTER
Writing Experiment Chapter 12, Mapping Worlds, Moving Cities
Chapter 12 was quite different from the rest of the book, attempting to draw together all the strands of theory woven throughout into a practical example.
"On the whole, this book has tried not to draw too much of a distinction between form and contents, and has been at pains to point out that there is 'a politics of form'."
This chapter's theme is central to cultural studies: ideas about place and space.
Mapping and moving place - representing it, making it dynamic and changing our conceptions of it.
Key idea: postmodern geography.
A place is never circumscribed, unidirectional or apolitical.
(Fascinating)
"Place" doesn't have a single identity, not contained within physical boundaries. It always links and merges with other places beyond its apparent limits. (Doreen Massey)
"Any place consists of constantly shifting social and economic interrelationships between people and institutions, both within a place and with other places."
With mapping worlds in fiction we can produce "a sense of the relationships between place and people."
Two ways of mapping worlds:
Explicit sense of place -> outright description
Implicit -> described through actions that take place within it
E.g. Explicit:
Waterview waits. It's people come and go while the houses of Waterview sit and wait. There is no bustle here. There are barely any shops, some parks, a school, but mostly Waterview is at the edge of something else: the ocean, Avondale, Point Chevaliser, the motorway, Unitec.
Implicit, is describing action the could only happen in a place like Waterview.
What bothers me about The Writing Experiment
(Verbatim from my handwritten journal sometime after Christmas day 2005)
Here is what I suppose has bothered me about
The Writing Experiment all along: the unholy alliance of craft and political beliefs.
The book dogmatically states that there is no such thing as
apolitical writing, and then goes on to make connection that to my mind are arbitrary and fickle.
And the politics and views in question are suspect, even if they are popular. Particularly the attitude towards gender and sexuality, making gender a floating rather than fixed reality, making homosexuality normal, and demonising any disagreement to this as coming from hatred or fear.
It is just as dogmatic a way of thinking as the right-wing conservative Judeo-Christian ethic it reacts so strongly against. And yet in some ways it is more insidious because it still presents as the underdog, and as the route for free thinkers to take.
Story chapter 15: Exposition
(This is from the chapter I originally read on December 19th.)
The screenwriter's and filmmaker's maxim is "Show don't tell".
You've got to get story details out there, but when you do, make sure you
dramatise exposition to either
1) Further conflict, or
2) convey information
(in that order of priority)
"Show" (in "Show don't tell") means truthful behaviour. Would your character really do that, or are you just putting it in so we understand the story?
- Never include anything the audience can reasonably and easily assume has happened.
- Never pass on exposition unless the missing fact would cause confusion.
"You do not keep the audience's interest by giving it information, but by
withholding information."
Save the best info till last.
"Table dusting" refers to
unmotivated exposition.
Your backstory can be used to create
turning points. (Remember how important they are!)
"We can turn scenes only one of two ways: on action or on revelation."
Powerful revelations come from the BACKSTORY - previous significant events in the lives of the characters that the writer can reveal at critical moments to create Turning Points.
Flashbacks
Dramatise flashbacks. Make each flashback a mini-drama. Don't bring in a flashback until you've created in the audience the need and desire to know.
Dream sequences
Exposition in a ball gown. McKee doesn't think much of them.
Montages
Lazy, avoid. (McKee don't think much o'them either!)
Voiceover narration
He really doesn't like this.
"If I were to strip the voiceover out of my screenplay, would the story still be well-told?"
If the answer is yes, keep it in.
Use narration as counterpoint. A character's point of view giving you a different idea of what's going on than what seems to be going on.
A good example of exposition: Oliver Stone's
JFK. Haven't seen that yet.
My finished chapters : New Media Travels
I have been a slack student. It's not that I haven't been reading and taking in the information, ruminating on it, etc. ... it's just that I haven't been writing about it here.
My last entry of that kind was in
December .... and I have now finished both books (
The Writing Experiment and
Story)
So, without further ado, my notes on
The Writing Experiment, Chapter 11: New Media Travels.
New media is
non-linear, as exemplified by the way you're reading this blog. Sure, each post has a beginning, middle and end, but you don't start at my first ever post and then read up to here.
Non-linear writing allows the principles we've explored in this book (postmodernism) to be used to their full potential.
New media tends to be screen-based, whether it's in the form of video, animation or interactive display. It involves the simultaneous absorption of multiple, fragmented texts. It's writing for the ADHD generation.
Synonyms: New media writing, cyberwriting, digital writing, cyberpoetry, hypertext, hypermedia.
The link, the screener, the hypertextual
"In a hypertext each individual text (usually known as a lexia) is likely to contain more than one link."
I never knew it was 'usually' known as a lexia... and I've been working with web text for five years! Must be an academic thing again...
Hypertext fiction allows for many possible readings of "the story".
"These paramaters (plot, climax or narrator) are not so much erased as displaced and multiplied, so that there are numerous plots, climaxes and narrators."
Animation
You can use movement to illustrate the meaning of a word, or use it to suggest ambiguity, fluidity. You can confirm, or contradict the meaning of the word by the way you animate it.
Splitting, framing, layeringScroll vs. click, the eternal debate.
Cyborg language
Using machine language - computer code - in your writing.
Hypermedia
Combining writing, image and sound.
There was much more, but not that interested me at the moment.
Pixar, Disney deal could change digital landscape
Pixar, Disney deal could change digital landscape
Old media | King content | Economist.com
Old media | King content | Economist.com
Book Review: Down and Dirty Pictures by Peter Biskind
I wouldn't have believed a book with such a dodgy title would be a definitive guide to the world of filmmaking in the 1990s.
Down and Dirty Pictures
sounds like a little porn theatre on the edge of town, but it's the fascinating story behind the hollywoodisation of independent film, and vice versa.
Main characters are the Weinstein Brothers (founders of Miramax and now out on their own again with
The Weinstein Company) and Robert Redford, founder of the Sundance festival and all its accompanying enterprises - some successful, some not.
Biskind is blunt in his portrayal of the personalities here - nobody gets to look too good; after all, this is real life, not the movies. The Weinsteins especially come across as ruthless mercenaries, determined to get their way and throwing their considerable weight around if they don't.
However, they're also occasionally shrewd marketers, who at the height of their career knew when to leave a director alone, and when to intervene - Harvey Weinstein was known as "Scissorhands" - to make a film marketable.
Despite Sundance's place in the book's subtitle ("Miramax, Sundance & The Rise of Independent Film") it's more of a bit player compared with the rising tide of independent producers, studios and distributors in the 1990s.
Nevertheless, Redford still comes under scrutiny as a leader who wants to control everything, but cannot be everywhere at once. Sundance is seen as growing almost despite his efforts, becoming one of the most important parts of the filmmaking year for the growing independent film movement.
This book has very little to say about films themselves, except in passing. Down and Dirty Pictures is about the business - and there is more than enough drama in that!
As someone who would one day like to definitely write, maybe direct, maybe even produce films, this is the kind of book that could scare you into hibernation. It shows an industry where people have no concept of boundaries - of honour, of decency. At least that's the business in its darkest moments - and those moments usually have something to do with the Weinsteins!
However there were times I found myself wondering, 'does this stuff really happen'? Perhaps its my sheltered upbringing, perhaps it's that New Zealanders are less prone to antisocial behaviour than Hollywood types... :) ... or perhaps the stories have all been jazzed up just a little by the film producers recalling them.
Whatever, it brings up the question that every aspiring filmmaker needs to ask: how far am I willing to go from my own personal beliefs and standards, into the standards generally held by the society I want to get into.
In other words, am I prepared to become some ruthless son-of-a-bitch in order to compete against other SOBs? Or do I think my beliefs are strong enough to ensure me victory against said SOBs, as long as I don't violate those principles and beliefs.
It's one of those answers that you can only find out by trying. There doesn't seem to be anyone in this book different enough to tell. But then again, that may just be in how the story is told.
Two films for Sunday
By the magic of
Movieshack's "randomise my queue" function, I got a brief respite from the entire history of Star Trek over the weekend - and instead got two films inspired by recent true events, and both about journalists.
Shattered Glass was a fascinating look at the story of Stephen Glass, the New Republic reporter who made up stories to gain acceptance. While it was a fascinating narrative, I wanted to know more about why he did what he did. But I guess that would add a whole layer to the film, one that the filmmakers didn't want to add. Maybe it's also difficult because all the people portrayed are very much still alive. Historical stories can (or at least tend to) take much more liberties with implied motives, etc.
Veronica Guerin is the eponymous story of a journalist who takes on the Dublin drug establishment, and pays for it with her life. It was a compelling tale, well told by Joel Schumacher (director) and a cast led by Cate Blanchett. Well-paced; I didn't want to look away in case I missed something.
Yet something was missing for me ... I'm trying to put my finger on what it was. I don't think it was the fault of the actors or the crew, maybe it was just me. As a man, I don't relish a tale like this because I feel for Veronica's husband, who, as the actor playing him puts it, he could choose to try and stop his wife doing what she loved, or support her as best he can while she puts them all at risk. Either way, he comes across feeling a little powerless.
Also the true story put the onus on the storytellers to be accurate - and maybe the real Veronica Guerin wasn't a classically likeable cinematic character, but instead a real person - a woman who put out a public face of fearlessness while privately living in fear. That's compelling, but it's also unusual to see in a movie. Whatever it is, it's the truth; it's just interesting that I didn't find it a "wow" movie, just very engaging and interesting.
In fact, both these films were good but not great for me. It's always good to figure out why - but sometimes you just can't get to a decent conclusion.
TV's Evolution Brings New Profit Squabbles - Los Angeles Times
TV's Evolution Brings New Profit Squabbles - Los Angeles TimesMore on the iPod thing.
The Worst Day Ever - A 24 writer talks about torture, terrorism, and fudging "real time." By James Surowiecki
The Worst Day Ever - A 24 writer talks about torture, terrorism, and fudging "real time." By James Surowiecki
Lots of people downloading on iPods - how to make money?
TV Week
Wired News: Whither the DIY Auteurs of DV?
Wired News: Whither the DIY Auteurs of DV?
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Christians setting sights on HollywoodGems:
"Many Christian projects fail because they force the medium by insisting on an overly theological content. But entertainment works best when it engages in a dialogue with the viewer, rather than just being an academic lesson. Thus, rather than "delivering the Truth" Christians should imitate the trust of the sower who casts seeds on the ground and moves on. "
"Why is it that heathens tend to make the best Christian films? This is the question put by Thom Parham in his essay. According to Parham, scriptwriter and associate professor at Azusa Pacific University, many of the better films with Christian messages, with a few notable exceptions, have been made by non-religious people. "
(An interesting answer to that one)
MMOG publishers conjure up new business models
MMOG publishers conjure up new business modelsThis is exciting. Having a basic service for free, then premium services for a fee, is not a new idea - but gaming! There will be so much incentive for people to pay up when they want a more powerful weapon or something.
Good plan.
CS Lewis part one
Didn't realise there was a part one to this interview:
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com
Saturday, January 7, 2006
AN INTERVIEW WITH C. S. LEWIS IN 1963 (PART 1)
This is believed to be the last interview he ever gave
By Sherwood E. Wirt
Special to ASSIST News Service
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND (ANS) -- I drove to Cambridge, England, on May 7 [1963] to interview Mr. Clive Staples Lewis, author of The Screwtape Letters and one of the world’s most brilliant and widely read Christian authors. I hoped to learn from him how young men and women could be encouraged to take up the defense of the faith through the written word.
It was quickly evident that this interview was going to be different from any that I had ever been granted. I found Mr. Lewis in a wing of the brick quadrangle at Magdalene College, Cambridge University, where he is professor of Medieval and Renaissance literature. I climbed a flight of narrow, incredibly worn wooden steps, knocked at an ancient wooden door with the simple designation, “Prof. Lewis,” and was shown in by the housekeeper.
Passing through a simply furnished parlor, I came into a study that was quite Spartan in appearance. Professor Lewis was seated at a plain table upon which reposed an old-fashioned alarm clock and an old-fashioned inkwell. I was immediately warmed by his jovial smile and cordial manner as he rose to greet me; he seemed the classic, friendly, jolly Englishman. He indicated a straight-backed chair, then sat down, snug in his tweed jacket and two sweaters, and we were away.
Professor Lewis, if you had a young friend with some interest in writing on Christian subjects, how would you advise him to prepare himself?
“I would say if a man is going to write on chemistry, he learns chemistry. The same is true of Christianity. But to speak of the craft itself, I would not know how to advise a man how to write. It is a matter of talent and interest. I believe he must be strongly moved if he is to become a writer. Writing is like a ‘lust,’ or like ‘scratching when you itch.’ Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I for one must get it out.”
Can you suggest an approach that would spark the creation of a body of Christian literature strong enough to influence our generation?
“There is no formula in these matters. I have no recipe, no tablets. Writers are trained in so many individual ways that it is not for us to prescribe. Scripture itself is not systematic; the New Testament shows the greatest variety. God has shown us that he can use any instrument. Balaam’s ass, you remember, preached a very effective sermon in the midst of his ‘hee-haws.’”
By this time the mettle of the man I was interviewing was evident. I decided to shift to more open ground.
A light touch has been characteristic of your writings, even when you are dealing with heavy theological themes. Would you say there is a key to the cultivation of such an attitude?
“I believe this is a matter of temperament. However, I was helped in achieving this attitude by my studies of the literary men of the Middle Ages, and by the writings of G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton, for example, was not afraid to combine serious Christian themes with buffoonery. In the same way the miracle plays of the Middle Ages would deal with a sacred subject such as the nativity of Christ, yet would combine it with a farce.”
Should Christian writers, then, in your opinion, attempt to be funny?
“No. I think that forced jocularities on spiritual subjects are an abomination, and the attempts of some religious writers to be humorous are simply appalling. Some people write heavily, some write lightly. I prefer the light approach because I believe there is a great deal of false reverence about. There is too much solemnity and intensity in dealing with sacred matters; too much speaking in holy tones.”
But is not solemnity proper and conducive to a sacred atmosphere?
“Yes and no. There is a difference between a private devotional life and a corporate one. Solemnity is proper in church, but things that are proper in church are not necessarily proper outside, and vice versa. For example, I can say a prayer while washing my teeth, but that does not mean I should wash my teeth in church.”
What is your opinion of the kind of writing being done within the Christian church today?
“A great deal of what is being published by writers in the religious tradition is a scandal and is actually turning people away from the church. The liberal writers who are continually accommodating and whittling down the truth of the Gospel are responsible. I cannot understand how a man can appear in print claiming to disbelieve everything that he presupposes when he puts on the surplice. I feel it is a form of prostitution.”
What do you think of the controversial new book, Honest to God, by John Robinson, the bishop of Woolwich?
“I prefer being honest to being ‘honest to God.’”
What Christian writers have helped you?
“The contemporary book that has helped me the most is Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man. Others are Edwyn Bevan’s book, Symbolism and Belief, Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy, and the plays of Dorothy Sayers.”
I believe it was Chesterton who was asked why he became a member of the church, and he replied, “To get rid of my sins.”
At this point I was surprised by the suddenness of Professor Lewis’ reply. “It is not enough to want to get rid of one’s sins,” he said. “We also need to believe in the One who saves us from our sins. Not only do we need to recognize that we are sinners; we need to believe in a Savior who takes away sin. Matthew Arnold once wrote, ‘Nor does the being hungry prove that we have bread.’ Because we know we are sinners, it does not follow that we are saved.”
In your book Surprised by Joy you remark that you were brought into the faith kicking and struggling and resentful, with eyes darting in every direction looking for an escape. You suggest that you were compelled, as it were, to become a Christian. Do you feel that you made a decision at the time of your conversion?
“I would not put it that way. What I wrote in Surprised by Joy was that ‘before God closed in on me, I was offered what now appears a moment of wholly free choice.’ But I feel my decision was not so important. I was the object rather than the subject in this affair. I was decided upon. I was glad afterwards at the way it came out, but at the moment what I heard was God saying, ‘Put down your gun and we’ll talk.’”
That sounds to me as if you came to a very definite point of decision.
“Well, I would say that the most deeply compelled action is also the freest action. By that I mean, no part of you is outside the action. It is a paradox. I expressed it in Surprised by Joy by saying that I chose, yet it really did not seem possible to do the opposite.”
You wrote 20 years ago that “a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool; you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Would you say your view of this matter has changed since then?
“I would say there is no substantial change.”
Would you say that the aim of Christian writing, including your own writing, is to bring about an encounter of the reader with Jesus Christ?
“That is not my language, yet it is the purpose I have in view. For example, I have just finished a book on prayer, an imaginary correspondence with someone who raises questions about difficulties in prayer.”
How can we foster the encounter of people with Jesus Christ?
“You can’t lay down any pattern for God. There are many different ways of bringing people into his Kingdom, even some ways that I specially dislike! I have therefore learned to be cautious in my judgment.
“But we can block it in many ways. As Christians we are tempted to make unnecessary concessions to those outside the faith. We give in too much. Now, I don’t mean that we should run the risk of making a nuisance of ourselves by witnessing at improper times, but there comes a time when we must show that we disagree. We must show our Christian colors, if we are to be true to Jesus Christ. We cannot remain silent or concede everything away.
“There is a character in one of my children’s stories named Aslan, who says, ‘I never tell anyone any story except his own.’ I cannot speak for the way God deals with others; I only know how he deals with me personally. Of course, we are to pray for spiritual awakening, and in various ways we can do something toward it. But we must remember that neither Paul nor Apollos gives the increase. As Charles Williams once said, ‘The altar must often be built in one place so that the fire may come down in another place.’”
This article was taken from Decision magazine, September 1963; © 1963 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Part two follows soon.
| Sherwood Eliot Wirt is an associate, for a long time, of Billy Graham, and author of 27 books, including "Billy: A personal Glance to Billy Graham". He has been pastor of several churches, and obtained a Doctorate in Theology and Psychology from the University of Edinburgh. He now lives in Bothell, Washington, with his wife Ruth. |  |
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CS Lewis interview
This is one of those emails I must keep, but I'll lose it if I leave it in my inbox, so I'll blog it instead:
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Saturday, January 7, 2006
HEAVEN, EARTH AND OUTER SPACE THE AUTHOR OF THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS SPEAKS HIS MIND ON A VARIETY OF CHRISTIAN ISSUES
Part two of what is believed to be the last interview with C. S. Lewis conducted in 1963
By Sherwood E. Wirt
Special to ASSIST News Service
CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND (ANS) -- C. S. Lewis is one of the world’s most eminent and popular writers on Christian themes. He is professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, England. Among his books are The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity and Reflections on the Psalms. The first half of this interview appeared in the September, 1963, issue of DECISION.
The hour and a half I spent with Mr. Clive Staples Lewis in his quarters at Magdalene College, Cambridge University, will remain a treasured memory. I found Professor Lewis in his modest establishment, surrounded by the historic atmosphere of the old university city, engaged in the quiet daily stint of teaching medieval classic literature. It was hard to realize that this unassuming man is probably the outstanding Christian literary figure of our age. I was prompted to say to him: Professor Lewis, your writings have an unusual quality not often found in discussions of Christian themes. You write as though you enjoyed it.
“If I didn’t enjoy writing I wouldn’t continue to do it. Of all my books, there was only one I did not take pleasure in writing.”
Which one?
“The Screwtape Letters. They were dry and gritty going. At the time, I was thinking of objections to the Christian life, and decided to put them into the form, ‘That’s what the devil would say.’ But making goods ‘bad’ and bads ‘good’ gets to be fatiguing.”
How would you suggest a young Christian writer go about developing a style?
“The way for a person to develop a style is (a) to know exactly what he wants to say, and (b) to be sure he is saying exactly that. The reader, we must remember, does not start by knowing what we mean. If our words are ambiguous, our meaning will escape him. I sometimes think that writing is like driving sheep down a road. If there is any gate open to the left or the right the readers will most certainly go into it.”
Do you believe that the Holy Spirit can speak to the world through Christian writers today?
“I prefer to make no judgment concerning a writer’s direct ‘illumination’ by the Holy Spirit. I have no way of knowing whether what is written is from heaven or not. I do believe that God is the Father of lights—natural lights as well as spiritual lights (James 1:17). That is, God is not interested only in Christian writers as such. He is concerned with all kinds of writing. In the same way a sacred calling is not limited to ecclesiastical functions. The man who is weeding a field of turnips is also serving God.”
An American writer, Mr. Dewey Beegle, has stated that in his opinion the Isaac Watts hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” is more inspired by God than is the “Song of Solomon” in the Old Testament. What would be your view?
“The great saints and mystics of the church have felt just the opposite about it. They have found tremendous spiritual truth in the ‘Song of Solomon.’ There is a difference of levels here. The question of the canon is involved. Also we must remember that what is meat for a grown person might be unsuited to the palate of a child.”
How would you evaluate modern literary trends as exemplified by such writers as Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett and Jean-Paul Sartre?
I have read very little in this field. I am not a contemporary scholar. I am not even a scholar of the past, but I am a lover of the past.”
Do you believe that the use of filth and obscenity is necessary in order to establish a realistic atmosphere in contemporary literature?
“I do not. I treat this development as a symptom, a sign of a culture that has lost its faith. Moral collapse follows upon spiritual collapse. I look upon the immediate future with great apprehension.”
Do you feel, then, that modern culture is being de-Christianized?
“I cannot speak to the political aspects of the question, but I have some definite views about the de-Christianizing of the church. I believe that there are many accommodating preachers, and too many practitioners in the church who are not believers. Jesus Christ did not say, ‘Go into all the world and tell the world that it is quite right.’ The Gospel is something completely different. In fact, it is directly opposed to the world.
“The case against Christianity that is made out in the world is quite strong. Every war, every shipwreck, every cancer case, every calamity, contributes to making a prima facie case against Christianity. It is not easy to be a believer in the face of this surface evidence. It calls for a strong faith in Jesus Christ.”
Do you approve of men such as Bryan Green and Billy Graham asking people to come to a point of decision regarding the Christian life?
“I had the pleasure of meeting Billy Graham once. We had dinner together during his visit to Cambridge University in 1955, while he was conducting a mission to students. I thought he was a very modest and a very sensible man, and I liked him very much indeed.
“In a civilization like ours, I feel that everyone has to come to terms with the claims of Jesus Christ upon his life, or else be guilty of inattention or of evading the question. In the Soviet Union it is different. Many people living in Russia today have never had to consider the claims of Christ because they have never heard of those claims.
“In the same way we who live in English-speaking countries have never really been forced to consider the claims, let us say, of Hinduism. But in our Western civilization we are obligated both morally and intellectually to come to grips with Jesus Christ; if we refuse to do so we are guilty of being bad philosophers and bad thinkers.”
What is your view of the daily discipline of the Christian life—the need for taking time to be alone with God?
“We have our New Testament regimental orders upon the subject. I would take it for granted that everyone who becomes a Christian would undertake this practice. It is enjoined upon us by our Lord; and since they are his commands, I believe in following them. It is always just possible that Jesus Christ meant what he said when he told us to seek the secret place and to close the door.”
Because Professor Lewis has written so extensively, both in fiction and nonfiction, about space travel (see his trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength), I was particularly interested in what he would have to say about the prospects for man’s future. What do you think is going to happen in the next few years of history, Mr. Lewis?
“I have no way of knowing. My primary field is the past. I travel with my back to the engine, and that makes it difficult when you try to steer. The world might stop in ten minutes; meanwhile, we are to go on doing our duty. The great thing is to be found at one’s post as a child of God, living each day as though it were our last, but planning as though our world might last a hundred years.
“We have, of course, the assurance of the New Testament regarding events to come. I find it difficult to keep from laughing when I find people worrying about future destruction of some kind or other. Didn’t they know they were going to die anyway? Apparently not. My wife once asked a young woman friend whether she had ever thought of death, and she replied, ‘By the time I reach that age science will have done something about it!’”
Do you think there will be widespread travel in space?
“I look forward with horror to contact with the other inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only transport to them all of our sin and our acquisitiveness, and establish a new colonialism. I can’t bear to think of it. But if we on earth were to get right with God, of course, all would be changed. Once we find ourselves spiritually awakened, we can go to outer space and take the good things with us. That is quite a different matter.”
*The Screwtape Letters, Mr. Lewis’ most popular and widely read work, has gone into some 27 printings. It consists of a series of letters written by on official of “his Satanic Majesty’s Lowerarchy” to his nephew, who is a junior demon on earth. The letters seek to advise the nephew in ways to corrupt the faith of a human being who becomes a Christian.
This article was taken from DECISION magazine, October 1963; © 1963 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
| Sherwood Eliot Wirt is an associate, for a long time, of Billy Graham, and author of 27 books, including "Billy: A personal Glance to Billy Graham". He has been pastor of several churches, and obtained a Doctorate in Theology and Psychology from the University of Edinburgh. He now lives in Bothell, Washington, with his wife Ruth. (Pictured: Sherwood Eliot Wirt, right, with Dan Wooding) |  |
** You may republish this story with proper attribution.
Send this story to a friend.
ASSIST News Service is brought to you in part by Gospel for Asia. GFA's vision is to train, equip and send 100,000 native missionaries into the most unreached areas of Asia. By God's grace, more than 14,500 native missionaries are now serving and planting six churches every day! You can help sponsor a native missionary for less than a dollar a day. To learn more about GFA and their work among the Dalits (Untouchables) of India please go to their website at www.gfa.org or in North America call 1-800-WIN-ASIA.
ASSIST News Service is brought to you free of charge and is supported by friends like yourself. If you would like to make a donation (tax-deductible in the US) to help us continue this service around the world, you can do so by logging onto our website -- www.assistnews.net -- and making the donation by credit card or by sending a check to ASSIST, PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA .
If this story has been forwarded to you, click here for your own subscription to Assist News.
Aussie big time film studio
$100m showtime | Movies | Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au (03-01-2006)Hot damn! This sounds exciting - and good news for kiwis too, because after all, look at some of the most successful "Aussie" movie people: they're often originally from New Zealand.
