Chuck Palahniuk Thoughts

...fiction writers should abandon technically correct writing and experiment in the same way painters were forced to experiment in order to keep their medium relevant.

Chuck Palahniuk via LitReactor link

I've had the same exact thoughts for awhile now, about films. I know the 3-act structure is supposed to be universal, and the hero's journey has survived this long for a reason. But I struggle so much with films I see and films I'm trying to write being boring. 

Personally I love how Linklater plays with structure and time. And same with early Tarantino, you're putting the movie together as you go along, catching up with the storytelling. And Memento. 

We could easily be getting to a time in cinema, about 100 years in, where traditional narrative feels boring, tired, and worn out. As much as I enjoy many of the big tentpole movies, or studio pictures, there's a limit to how much I appreciate it. Because I know how it's going to end, and I know what I'm getting when I buy my ticket. 

I would like to be surprised more. I'd like to have to work harder to put the story together myself. I still want to be entertained, so you still need big action set pieces. And emotional journeys are still compelling, but it can be pushed into new directions. Maybe it's simply a symptom of high budget films needing to appeal to a massive audience and therefore have a simpler structure. 

But Chuck could be right, as the standard storytelling ideas get out there in the marketplace, filmmakers will need to push the medium into new areas to satisfy the audience. The internet is making this knowledge ubiquitous, and eventually it may not work anymore. 

Personally, I have very little interest in telling a standard 3-act hero's journey. Although I know this is a cliche place to be for a first-time writer. Wanting to reinvent the form. Many writers have been here before, and later learned to appreciate the timeless form. But I also feel things could be different now, due to the internet, free knowledge, and exponential growth. I think audiences will demand more from their storytellers. Or maybe they'll just want the same thing, only different, to quote Blake Snyder. 

Love and life

One of the things that happens in these DMT trips, is they give you lessons on how to life live... They're all about love, love people, love you, love yourself, love everyone around you. Be kind. Don't worry about all the bullshit, just be nice to each other. Have fun, enjoy it. Spread it. And don't lie, don't deceive, don't deceive yourself, don't deceive anyone else, and don't lose perspective. You're going to be here, and then you're going to be there. And here, and there. And it's going to go on and on and on, it's this perpetual cycle that continues from birth to death, through infinity. And you're just an infinitesimal part of an endless cycle.
 - Joe Rogan Experience #681, 2:17 link

I came across this the other day and struck me as true words to live by. I'd like to put together a daily meditation based on this, what a wonderful way to start each day.

Even just a little progress

Sometimes that's all you need to change your whole attitude. One more step than yesterday. An extra 25 calories on the treadmill. 5 extra pounds at the gym. One more blog post. Ever so slightly better than you were yesterday.

Blind will

From the back cover of Wild, which I haven't read.

"With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than 1,000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail."

You have to make a decision and do it. Even when you don't feel ready, or rather especially when you don't feel ready.

Every day, no matter what. That's how things happen and get done. Doing things when you don't feel like it.

We're 12 hours into a blackout, it's Saturday, and I don't feel like blogging from my phone. But it's a commitment. So here I am.

Perfection is the enemy of greatness

Perfection is the enemy of greatness.

Perfection is the enemy of good. 

Perfection is the enemy of progress. 

I've heard all of these. It's time to get started. 

I would say to anybody who's dreaming of being a filmmaker. I want to discourage you from that dream right now. Stop dreaming it and start doing it.  

Bryan Singer, when he finished USC Film School, he took all of his credit cards, maxed them out, leveraged himself $20,000 into debt, made a short film with Ethan Hawke, a friend from high school, he borrowed $10,000 to rent out the Directors Guild and invited people to come see his short film. That got him his first feature film. Now... for $150 you can rent all of the equipment he used to make that short film.  

You can write it, shoot it, edit it, and put it online on Monday. Just do that. And do that every week. If you did that every week, a 3 minute film! At the end of a year, you'd know everything you need to know about editing, about writing, about story and structure. And somebody will notice you, somebody will come to you.  

It's not the film business, it's a film business. And that film business is starving for talent, but does not know how to find it until it sees it. And I don't mean read it. Shoot a movie, find people who are like you who want to make movies, even people you don't get along with. It's better to be with people you're fighting creatively with that be out there on your own.  

And make your own luck, and I promise things will come for you. I just never stopped writing.

 - Advice from Christopher McQuarrie, courtesy of The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith.

@chrismcquarrie
The Q&A

Uber for movies

This is an idea I’ve been chewing on. What would the phrase, “Uber for movies” imply? Is is possible to do for movies what Uber did for taxi cabs?

The impetus for Uber was money left on the table each night, with tons of people not being picked up by cabs. Plus a horrendous customer service experience. The same is not true for movies, the customer service experience is not horrible (although most multiplexes feel outdated). But is there money left on the table?

I’ve always been frustrated by paywalls for movies, for example not being able to download a movie on my device the day it’s released in theaters. So that’s an option… Movies anywhere, anytime, immediately. Make the whole process easier. Most film studios would say that would cannibalize theater revenues, but that’s an assumption. Has it been tested?

Uber for movies could mean entirely free movies, running on a donation model. A small ad before the movie with instructions on how to donate.

Or a studio could make free shorts, running on donations. And only make features from the shorts that generated interest/revenue. Which fits in with a Lean Filmmaking idea I’ve been working on. The shorts being a minimum viable product. Free shorts and charge for the feature.

Obviously with these ideas I’m talking about smaller films, trying to find a marketplace for films other than tentpoles.

Cassavetes

Lovely quote I saw on Go Into The Story today.

“People who are making films today are too concerned with mechanics—technical things instead of feeling. Execution is about eight percent to me. The technical quality of a film doesn’t have much to do with whether it’s a good film. I feel like vomiting when some director says to me, “I got the most gorgeous shot today.” That is not what’s important. We have to move beyond the current obsession with technique or angles. It’s a waste of time. A movie is a lot more than a series of shots. You’re doing a bad job if all you’re paying attention to is camera angles: “All right, how can we photograph it? We’ll get the lab to do some special effects there. Say, let’s use a hand-held camera for this shot.” You end up making a film that is all tricks, with no people in it, no knowledge of life. There is nothing left for the actor to bring to it since there is no sense, meaning, or understanding of people… Art films aren’t necessarily photography. It’s feeling. If we can capture a feeling of a people, of a way of life, then we made a good picture.”

— John Cassavetes

Via A Bittersweet Life