Choices

While I sit in the library I get a lot of time to do my homework. I also get a lot of time to muse about pointless topics.
Today I had one such musing. In life there are many choices to be made. Some are bigger than others, but we all make way more choices every day than we credit ourselves.

One of these choices is the name we use to call that little plastic device we stick into computers to save data.

Is it a:
Thumbdrive
a Flash drive
a USB drive, or a
Memory stick?

There are also different preferences to the way we staple documents.

We've got the:
Bangers- those who put their whole force into slapping that darn stapler to seal the deal.
Holders- the people who feel they have more control if they hold the stapler to their paper.
Pacifiers- the more tranquil population of this world who believe a gentle use of compressive force can attach two pieces of paper together.

We must all make choices. The words we use and the actions we take all make a statement about who we are. I know this isn't important stuff, but I had to get it out.

Thank you.

Uganda

Ok, I broke my promise. I didn't write about Uganda on the 17th of September. Instead, I let homework, or whatever got in the way to distract me. Do you see now why I don't make promises?

And this is the very thing I learned in Uganda. Putting the most important things first. We had very loose instructions for each day on our trip. We were told at 4am we would get on the bus to begin our journey to Kapchorwa, or something like that, which was usually a time we were required to keep, but then afterwards the time was ours. Yes, we were told to be on the bus by such and such time, but honestly... TIA (This is Africa) counted more than our watches or clocks did.

I think the point I'm trying to make is that time became a less important issue, because if it took us away from having fellowship with one another, or building a deeper relationship with a person, then we were to ignore the time. My argument is that I think 3 weeks into getting back and having to go back to school and such that I forgot how to put more important things first. Ok, writing in a blog might be less important than doing homework that's required for the next day, but fundamentally, it's more important for me to remember and share with others my trip to Uganda, rather than think only about a homework deadline. 5 minutes away from my homework time would have been a fine investment in my time. Because now, almost 2 months later, I find myself very blurry on the details of the trip and it's going to take me three times as long to update my blog.

Having said that, I wrote an e-mail to my friends and former coworkers about the trip, and I decided to include it in here, because it might better illustrate my feelings about this trip. Here it is:

Hello!
> I'm back from Uganda and I had a fantastic time.
>
> The trip was only 2 weeks, but when I stepped back in LA it felt like I'd been away for a month. We saw most of Uganda, except for the north where fighting is going on between the government and the Lord's Resistance Army. Along the way we visited many churches, and each time we stopped we were greeted by the Sunday School children of that congregation. They'd sing us songs, and the women in the church always had food for us to eat.
>
> The food was good, except it got mundane eating the same plate of matooke (boiled and smooshed plantains), chepat (deep fried tortilla), rice, and pineapple. In any case, they were always very generous, so we had to be grateful.
>
> In addition to seeing churches, we visited many widows and sang for them, bringing them a little happiness into their lives, and they in turn fed us and showed us around their homes. It's a high honor for a person to be visited by a "mzungu" (which means "white person"). The people in the refugee camp were also happy to see us, and it was really heartbreaking to see what kinds of conditions they live in. The kids who live there are usually orphans. When we visited, all the kids grabbed the hands of everyone in our team and walked with us while we looked around the camp. This little girl named Sheila held on to a deflated balloon we gave her with one hand, and held so tightly on to me with the other. She trusted me so much, and wouldn't let go of my hand even though she had no idea who I was.
>
> At the end of our trip, we took some time off to go on a safari, and concluded with a big meeting at the Lugazi University near Kampala where we had church with 700 youth from around Uganda. We taught them team-building games (which I think they didn't get the concept of) and ate more matooke. By the end of the trip everyone had been sick at least once from the food/water, and I was ready to have a good old-fashioned American meal.
>
> I couldn't possibly distill the trip and what it meant to me in one e-mail. I can tell you the things I did there, but what really touched me was what I learned from them. These people don't have much in the world, but they can still sing and dance and praise God. It was quite eye-opening. Since I got back, I've found I'm not complaining about things as much anymore.

Actually, I don't even know if that e-mail did the trip justice. Words are such a mystery. If you put them in the right order, they'll express your thoughts quite accurately, but if you don't...

Can a trip like this be described in words?

All I know is that I pray every day to keep Uganda living inside of me. I've started teaching the Sunday School the "Touch me Jesus" song (which Trent doesn't like), and I've been e-mailing four individuals from Uganda that I met. Also, I wear the wristband every day to be a constant reminder, and I actually found myself humming the choo choo choo choo song all the way to school on Tuesday. Anyway, the following is the first e-mail I received as I got back. This is from a girl named Babra. She wrote to me:

How is your life? How is your family? Ithank God that we are all fine,How is the pillar youth , just pray for me because am going to school okey greetings toall your friends God bless you.

And here's another one from a woman named Christine who has two young children and no husband to support her. We talked a lot while we were in Kampala:

Hallo friend,How r u doing, hope good.Howz everyone at home,mum,dad,ur 2 sisters and scott? pse send them ma best regards and tell them dat i luv en miss them in Jesus` name.Tell me how about da journey was, this way,Edith is now 3 en half momths with 7.4kgs but she's having flue and cough.For andrew, he's doing well en 2day he has made 2yrs en one month. I hope u still rem how am standing on ground,nothing has changed yet, but i still have the hope of getting someone 2 give me ahand either from u, scott en ur family as u had promised.Phiona, time is against me but i had much to write. I always praise u, miss u en luv u soooooooooo much.God bless u all

I promise

I promise I will write about Uganda tonight. I will update my blog with lots of andecdotes and high resolution pictures and I will make up for not writing in here about one of the most fantastic journeys of my life to date.

I don't usually make promises, but I find that when I do, I'm more likely to follow through.

Taste buds for processed food

It might just be the fact that I've been keeping food in my pantry/freezer an incredibly long time, but today I was disgusted at the taste of two very common staple foods in America: the PB & J sandwich, and the frozen Tyson breaded chicken nuggets. I thought freezing my bread would keep it, but at the first bite of contact, my mouth was appalled. Nothing tasted good. Then, when I bit into a chicky after dipping it in ketchup, the bubbly consistency of mystery meat was such an offense to my mouth that I had to eat the rest very quickly, as I had no other food in the cupboard. Sure, I could have gone out to eat, but now I'm afraid that anything I eat won't be able to hide it's processed origins. Also, I could have gone to buy something at Ralphs but I was too drained. Since getting home I've been taking it easy, but waiting until night time to get to sleep. I think I'll only last another half hour and then I'm out.
So, biggest culture shock so far is the food. I didn't think 2 weeks of matooke would do this to me. Unexpected.

Mamma Mia

I know all my movie review blog entries have been like short novels, but this entry is just a shortie. DON'T see Mamma Mia if you don't like having a silly smile slapped onto your face at any time. Also don't see it if you don't like the song "Mamma Mia". I have been consistently singing it every day since I saw it last Monday night. 

Dan in Real Life

Following the huge disappointment that was Wall-E (I know I'm going to be horribly unpopular because I didn't like it... that's a whole other blog entry), I was heartened when I got Dan In Real Life through Netflix. I wasn't biased because I'm a huge Office fan, and I think Steve Carrell is a talented actor. In this movie, he acted so much the opposite of Michael, almost to the point where you could feel what he was feeling. No, I didn't favor this movie because of the acting. I just really loved it for its sense of humanity. I don't know how the screenwriter did it, but they managed to make me feel like Dan was really meant to be with this girl who he had just met. They didn't make his brother (Dane Cook) an evil person, but you just felt like smooshing him anyway. You feel Dan's pain without a word coming out of his mouth. That's real writing-- when silence is bigger than words.
Not only is the movie funny, but all the characters have such real characteristics. His middle teenage daughter really thinks she's in love and she won't back down. His older daughter really wants to learn how to drive. His parents really want him to find a woman to get over the death of his wife. To write excellent characters, they almost have to be exaggerated versions of real people. If you want a character to be crazy, make them absolutely insane. If you want a person to be shy, make them like a tortoise. Somehow, it all comes out feeling so much more real and funny and emotional. This movie was funny without being stupid Steve Carrell funny. There's one point when he gets pulled over and says to the police officer "put it on my tab", and that's where I think a little of Michael from The Office comes out. I really wish the movie poster didn't look like this, because when I first saw it I was completely turned off by the movie. The poster makes it look like you're in for a 2 hour ride at the circus, but Dan In Real Life is such the opposite. In a way it's quite sad. You have to live through the pain that Dan lives with every day, and that makes the happy parts so much more happy. You're going through this dark tunnel and then something good happens very briefly. Then it's back down and Dan's depressed again, and you're right there with him.
Maybe what strikes me the most about this movie is how happy and united his family feels. It reminds me a lot of the Reimer's house in Arrowhead where all the family gets together and doesn't do anything work related. Everyone is there for the purpose of enjoying themselves and doing family things. Also, no one holds in what they really want to say. They lay everything out on the table. It's so nice to see a functional, happy, American family in the movies because it's so rare.
I loved this movie so much that I stayed up until midnight to watch the extra bonus features on the DVD. I saw the making of and the story behind the music. In "the making of", it talks about how the whole cast moved into this house off the coast of Maine where they filmed to just bond and get to know each other. They rehearsed, of course, but during that week they cooked and ate all their meals together, shared their rooms with one another, and became a real family. When it came time to shoot, Steve Carrell moved in and he immediately felt at home with the whole cast. The filming of this all looked so harmonious. They said that they had their long and tiring days, but that overall it was such a great experience to make.
In the story behind the music feature, they talk about the musician named Sondre Lerche who would come on set and play for the cast in between takes. The music will just blow you away with the simplicity. It's so spare and so real. This movie really is about real life without being boring at all. It's one of those stories about an instance that could have gone a completely different direction if the character had done just one thing differently. If Dan had come out with the fact that he was already in love with Juliette Binoche, the whole experience would have been different. No one would have gotten hurt and Dan wouldn't have had to go to court for all his speeding tickets. But then no characters would grow, and the movie wouldn't have been made would it?

Who doesn't like cute feathery animals?

Also, I found this picture on the LA Times' pictures for today.


This flamingo chick is at the Hanover Zoo in Germany, and it's the 100th Flamingo there. They haven't had a flamingo hatching in 6 years.

Who Doesn't Like Cute Furry Animals?

This is the picture of the day on Wikipedia.


It's a Japanese Squirrel endemic to Japan. They look so much cuter than the ones over here. Look at his pointy little ears.

Myself Condensed to 4 Letters

I am an ENFP. ENFPs are inspirers. I don't think it means I inspire others, I think it means that I work when I'm inspired to. In other words, I'm spontaneous.

ENFP stands for:

Extrovert
iNtuitive
Feeling
Perceptive

I already took a personality quiz a long long time ago with Scott and we found this out back then, but I have recently had to take the test again for my pointless class at Santa Monica Community College. Here's some information that I think you should know (courtesy of personalitypage.com):

Most ENFPs will exhibit the following strengths with regards to relationships issues:

• Good communication skills
• Very perceptive about people's thought and motives
• Motivational, inspirational; bring out the best in others
• Warmly affectionate and affirming
• Fun to be with - lively sense of humor, dramatic, energetic, optimistic
• Strive for "win-win" situations
• Driven to meet other's needs
• Usually loyal and dedicated

My Weaknesses in relationships: (look out, Scott)

• Tendency to be smothering
• Their enthusiasm may lead them to be unrealistic
• Uninterested in dealing with "mundane" matters such as cleaning, paying bills, etc.
• Hold onto bad relationships long after they've turned bad
• Extreme dislike of conflict
• Extreme dislike of criticism
• Don't pay attention to their own needs
• Constant quest for the perfect relationship may make them change relationships frequently
• May become bored easily
• Have difficulty scolding or punishing others

Well, Scott, it's been a good 2.5 years, but I'm bored easily, so I think it's time to move on. (That was the only trait that doesn't apply to me.)

ENFP's natural partner is the INTJ, or the INFJ.- The Scientist.

Famous ENFPs:

Steven Spielberg

Cher


John Kerry

John Kerry. Ha!

My Kind of Toilet

This last weekend I went to Lake Arrowhead with the Reimers. While on a hike/walk (the treacherous river made this a hike), John led Scott and I to Splinters where there are picnic tables and restrooms. Let me describe the restrooms: A unisex hut with a toilet (see photo) that you DON'T FLUSH because it goes down three feet into the earth. Woah. The plus side to this is that you can zip and go, but that really doesn't have much greatness when you're hiking in the woods, because you're not in much of a hurry. Also, a minus side to no flusher is that you could accidentally drop something down it. You might also fall in it yourself if you're small enough.

Anyway, I had such a thrill using this no-nonsense toilet that I had to take a picture of it. Then I realized there was no sink and I couldn't wash my hands. There are lots of minuses to that. I have to admit that when we got to the river, I ran my hands in the cold water, so if you're ever up there, don't drink from it.

It's the cool thing to do

I updated my profile. Now everyone knows a few select things about me, and if they're strangers and happen to stumble across my blog, they will have to piece together every piece of information I dangled in front of them in order to form a fragmented perception of me, with their judgments and personal notions filling in the gaps. Even if I put up EVERYTHING about myself, they would still have no idea who I was until they met me. This is why online relationships are a really bad idea.

Treats for Arrowhead

I'm so excited about going to Arrowhead for the 4th of July! I offered to bring/ make the desserts for the weekend, and I want to make sure these desserts sound ok. Tim and Scott, Let me know if I should prepare more and give me your requests!

*Vanilla ice cream will abound.*

Friday 4th: Purchased apple pie and cherry chocolate pastries

Saturday 5th: Grilled peaches and vanilla ice cream

Sunday 6th: Strawberry shortcakes (or maybe a trifle?)

For the Perfect Eclair

I would do anything to find the perfect chocolate eclair for my wedding.
Actually, I would do anything just to find a place that has freshly baked eclairs at all.
In all my research I have found 5 places, and only one of them I am very sure has eclairs. That's Porto's bakery in Glendale.



Can anyone tell me whether these are any good?

1. Susina Bakery on Beverly Blvd. Should have profiteroles which are just as good as eclairs

2. Euro Pane on Colorado in Pasadena. It sounds European, which is a start.

3. Ap-petite on Lake in Pasadena. They serve petite size desserts and might be just what we're looking for... if only I knew if they had petite sized eclairs.

4. Michel Richard Patisserie. This is an upscale restaurant, but the dude is French which is always a good sign when it comes to desserts, and I think I saw eclairs on the menu.

Now, I wish for anyone to give me some references on places that have good tasty chocolate eclairs. Because I need 300 of them. Thanks.

Things that occur to me

It occurs to me that in order to make it up to the top of Tim's blogging list, I'm going to have to write in here every day.
Also, it occurs to me that editing is a very important thing when maintaining a blog. I'll do that more often.

Ooh, and I have a new dream. I want to be the executive script supervisor on any show on the Food Network (because I've decided it's my favorite channel of all time), and then I'll hook up Kristine with an amazing show and she'll get known worldwide and people will travel to California just to taste her cakes! I think it could potentially come true...

I'll be in the TV lounge

It's my fourth day and I'm celebrating some down-time here at Cartoon Network by writing about my internship. Also, I want to clear up any notions that people may have about my position here and dispel any jealousy which may be lingering in the air above and around Scott's boring cubicle in the City of Pasadena *ahem*.

I don't feel as if my presence on the lot is especially vital, although people have been incredibly friendly, and have tried to inform me and the three other Development interns about the goings-on around the building. My job is to read scripts, books, treatments (summaries of scripts), comics, or any other material that the network is thinking about developing into a movie, and then write coverage on what I read, complete with a synopsis and my personal opinions. I love reading and writing, so the job is made for me, though I have to say that I wonder how much weight my opinion has around here.

I do enjoy sitting on the leather couch to do my reading and writing, although again I have to say there are pros and cons. For one, the ergonomics of it all are not very agreeable, so I end up moving anyway just to stretch my back and legs. There is a large flat-screen television placed in between two arcade games in the lounge where we work, but it's never on, and I will certainly never be the one to reach for the remote. I may be unpaid, but don't get me wrong- I'd still like to impress my supervisors enough with my work ethic that if I came back for a job interview they wouldn't say, "Fiona Black... wasn't she the girl who always watched TV and fell asleep on the couch?" Actually, I've only seen one person turn on the TV, and that was for the final game between the Lakers and the Celtics.

And about being unpaid-- my job is great, and the benefits (the working environment and free snacks) are great, but it all comes down to the money. I'm being paid in experience, but at the end of the day, I have to hold a job at the school library in order to pay the bills. I got a free sweatshirt yesterday from the Re-Animated film, so that was a nice perk, but it still rubbed a little to feel a bit like one of those lost Japanese tourists at Disneyland. I have to admit that on the first day I was impressed by the huge statues they have of Fosters World of Imaginary Friends and company, and I love being neighbors with the Powerpuff Girl department, but all that has gone away already, and I think I'd be even more thrilled if I was employed by these people, receiving all the perks and more.

In conclusion, I am extremely lucky for getting such a highly coveted internship, and blessed by the fact that I only come in on Mondays and Tuesdays from 9am-7pm (but always get out early), and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I just want to let all you nine-to-fivers out there who desire a job with a couch and a minimal risk of being fired, that you don't have to do things like clean out someone else's book shelves. Also, you get a paycheck. Also, you are privy to a lot of information that we interns aren't, so you have the right to say ner-nicky-ner-ner to us.

I'm climbing the ladder to success, but I'm still on the bottom rung, so don't be green with envy... I don't have it that easy.

This blog was updated for Tim. Happy now?

It's hot

Just to let you know my status right now is: sweltering hot. It's about eighty degrees in this apartment and not going to get much cooler... especially due to the fact that I'm scared to open the door because I don't want a) some burglar creeping through the window or b) cockroaches to rejoice upon finding a new home. So that's why I'm hot and not doing anything about it.
I thought it was time to update my blog. It just came upon me. It'll take a while to get used to this space. It doesn't quite feel like mine yet...

Preparing for Uganda

I'm going on a missions trip to Uganda, and I just finished reading "Mack and Leeann's Guide to Short-Term Missions", by J. Mack and Leeann Stiles. I might have read it too fast, but it was so interesting that I couldn't put it down. Maybe I'll go back and outline some points.
One main lesson I took from it, however, was the fact that if you can't evangelize in your own country and culture, it doesn't make it any easier when you're in a foreign country. They said that to prepare ourselves, we should already be practicing evangelism so that the transition from America to wherever we are will be as smooth as possible.
I struggle with evangelism because I don't often see opportunities to talk about my faith. The thing is, there are plenty of opportunities, but my eyes aren't open to them. Also, when they do arise, I'm so at a loss for words because I feel that I don't have enough knowledge to share. I think this can easily be fixed by brushing up on my bible knowledge and liturgy about my church. I need to pray continuously, though, that I remain sensitive to the fragile culture in Uganda, and not feel like a "soldier of Christ".
One chapter in the book talked about a couple of missionaries who went to Guatemala and started their work by setting up their own little farm. The wife dressed in indigenous clothing, and helped out her husband who worked the land using modern techniques. They didn't advertise what they were doing, but they quietly went about their work and waited for curious people to ask more about their methods when they saw how much produce the couple was able to yield.
I know that my trip is the shortest short term trip that you could take (ten days), but I would rather be overprepared than underprepared. Who knows what God could do to my life while in Africa within that short period of time?

Liberation

I am now free to write whatever I want on this blog. Yahoo! That was a cry of enthusiasm, not an allusion to the internet search engine.

I am so thankful to God that he got me through this semester and this year- it's been by far the most challenging and rewarding.

I hope to start writing personally instead of academically, though I still want to keep up some of my previous posts to show what one of my passions in life is.

That Sweet Suite World

In my Writing for the Tween Sitcom class, I chose to write for The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. It turned out to be a fun exercise. Writing for children lets you tap into your wacky child's side of creativity, which I think is the happiest place to go.


As I write in another journal entry, I am usually too afraid to go into the dark places of my imagination, so writing for a Disney show is a good way of doing that. The story still required tension and rising action, however, but if you look at some of these episodes of Suite Life on the Disney Channel's website, you'll find that it gets as dark as Zack and Cody being divided by a friend. Yes, I love kid's channels.

Suite Life is, by far, the easiest show for grownups to watch. Hannah Montana is a good show and has an intriguing theme of living two lives, but I feel that the Suite Life tells better jokes overall and reaches out to a larger audience. There's something for everyone: Zack and Cody for twins or young boys, Maddie and London for young girls and teenagers, Carey for struggling single moms, Mr Moseby for the Dads out there who are forced to watch, and Arwin for all the freaky people in the world... like Jim Carrey.

I can't wait to finish my spec script, sell it, and keep Suite Life on the air!

James L. Brooks-- What a Nice Man

Yesterday I attended the Jack Oakie and Victoria Horne Oakie Lecture Series at Norris Hall on campus to hear James L. Brooks speak. I really don't like public lectures. I kind of feel like they cheapen such giants in the industry, especially when the interviewer is unprepared (not naming any names). Brooks was a very interesting person to listen to because he told of experiences in a narrative-type way (imagine that, he's a screenwriter!) and gave us students advice for the future.

As a writer, he believes that story is the most important thing of all, which is counter to what USC teaches that character is more important than anything else. However, Brooks has had a lot of success writing and producing Taxi (of which we screened 2 episodes) , the Mary Tyler Moore Show, the Simpsons, and more, so I think he knows what he's talking about. Brooks has won 19 Emmys and 3 Oscars-- that's more Emmys than anyone in television history.

His advice to writers: do your research. When he wrote Taxi, he went to a cab company in New York and spent a whole day hearing conversations and seeing people, and finished the day with a cast of characters to write for. I could spot, however, the fact that he doesn't put character first, as the episode of Taxi that we saw was so structurally tight, but I didn't get a sense of the characters. Maybe I need to watch a whole season. Or maybe I wasn't invested in it because I don't like public lectures. Anyway, he spent a great deal of time discussing the importance of actors and how they must be communicated to properly. They have a tremendous responsibility of being the face of the movie or show, so it's important that they are as developed as possible.

Last Dying Wish BA #5

I thought this piece would be appropriate to share as one of my last required pieces of writing.

My last dying wish was always to write something that would please others and change the world for the better. My teen years were largely about impressing other people, and I was always pleased when a smile would follow the reading of my work. It was in college that I discovered pleasing others didn’t necessarily help my story, and my first film production class taught me the consequences of attempting to do so. The learning method, one in which I'm sure the various Deans of the School of Cinematic Arts has agonized over for years, included a screening of a three minute film made by us, followed by a class discussion where every single person would tell you why it didn’t work. A new film was due every three weeks, and every week consisted of brainstorming, shooting, and editing. By the last assignment, my brain was racked for ideas, my patience had ran out with my Sony camera, my nerves had been thinned in the editing room, and my flaws also laid bare when it was time to screen my final project. I questioned why I ever chose my major to be screenwriting. I didn’t sign up for this. I just wanted to write. I had no idea how much I would learn.

My first movie entitled “Church Mouse” was about a mouse that gets into a church and is chased around by a couple of boys. (I bought a little mouse from Petco which actually moved if you pulled the string). My next movie was about a girl who loves chocolate and checks herself into Chocoholics Anonymous. The third masterpiece was a stop motion project about a princess who becomes unhappy with her sheltered life, and the fourth was a documentary I chose to do on a friend who was a Cambodian refugee. None of them were supposed to be “emo” or depressing, which I found to be a common theme among my classmates. I was there to lighten the mood. The documentary -- my final project -- was screened on the last day of class.

I remember the day vividly. It was May and everyone was completely burned out from the work we had done all year. Final projects had been screened, and the class of twenty-something students was waiting for the minute to walk out of the door and never reenter. Before we could, we had one last judgment. The people who had screened that day had to sit in the middle of the room as each class member gave them one last piece of advice. I watched my classmates squirm in the hotseat, but was relatively calm about comments on my work.

The professors called my name last and I bravely went to sit down . I thought I was prepared because I had heard their mostly positive feedback throughout the semester. Nothing could have prepared me for what they would say.

“Fiona, I loved almost all of your movies. They were definitely charming and delightful to watch,” one of my classmates said. My face flushed with pride.

“I agree, whenever I saw one of your movies I would always feel like a better person afterwards.” Excellent. My dream was coming true. Then it got squashed.

“You never had a problem telling a happy story. It was looking at the darker side of characters that you never quite got,” was the feedback from another student. That was one student’s viewpoint, but I was convinced no one would agree. I hadn’t heard that from anyone all semester. My professor piped up after I had received twenty-four more comments similar to the last one:

“Your classmates are right. Your stories didn’t have much conflict. What you need to understand is that the character can never realize true happiness unless they’ve gone through really dark times.”

I graciously thanked everyone and walked back to my seat, lambasting myself for the childish influence in my work and the unwillingness to have ever gone to the darkest places in my imagination. Even though I wanted to charm the class with my movies, the consensus was that my work was saccharine. I had always wanted to stay in a safe place where the worst complication for the characters was that Rosy the Rabbit and Harry the Hedgehog would get sick from the cabbage in the garden. I knew the struggle had to be worse now, and I suddenly knew why I couldn’t write endings. There could be no resolution of the problem if there wasn’t a problem to begin with. Where I had thought my short attention span as a child was the reason for poor writing, I should have known that I was just too afraid to venture into the gloom. I was afraid of the dark.

---

House: The Show I Hate to Love

This semester I enrolled in CTWR 421: Writing the Hour-Long Drama. I chose the show "House, M.D" on Fox, quite stupidly it turned out, because I admired the show and thought it was complex and gripping. Believe me, that is the best reason not to write for a show, because however hard I tried, I couldn't match the intellect of David Shore's masterful creation. I should have paid attention to this feeling in my gut that told me this semester would be difficult, but I didn't. I proceeded to create the worst medical mystery ever.
I recently got a message from a friend who was reading my blog (thank you, friend!) and they were surprised at my pessimism towards my writing. Keeping that in mind, I think I'll try and remain objective in this posting rather than focus on the blood, sweat, and tears I poured into each and every revision.
The assignment: to write an episode of an hour-long drama of our choosing. My classmates chose Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, Brothers and Sisters, and House.
My reasoning behind choosing the show: It's just so amazing! There are so many possibilities for a story!
The pitfalls: trying to write for a medical show when you know nothing about medicine (and I mean NOTHING), nor had watched that many procedurals before, is difficult. Collectively, I have probably spent a week on wrongdiagnosis.com. My difficulty in putting the facts behind the storyline because I tackled so much with words like olivopontocerebellar something-something, caused me to focus on the medicine way more than the character.
What I've learned: focus on the character. The plot comes next. This is the writing division at USC's biggest mantra.
How it will change my writing: I will never ever ever ever ever write for House again. Except, maybe, if I feel that I need to prove that I can do it. Actually, I have this nagging desire to write a whole new episode as soon as school is out for the summer. But that's pride talking.

Children of Men- My Humble Critique

This movie was directed by Alfonso Cuaron and written by a laundry list of screenwriters...

Alfonso Cuarón		(screenplay) &
Timothy J. Sexton		(screenplay) and
David Arata		(screenplay) and
Mark Fergus		(screenplay) &
Hawk Ostby		(screenplay)

...as most big movies are, I have observed. The new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is written by five people, also. I think producers want to make sure this big movie has many eyes to look over it and make it completely watertight. Unfortunately, I felt that any number of writers on Children of Men would make it any better. I just wasn't impressed.

Maybe futuristic thrillers just aren't appealing to me, but I found Children of Men almost laughably ridiculous. It deals with an interesting concept: what the world would do if women became infertile, but I just don't think it covered all the bases. Ok, so the world might not be a very happy place, schools would be obsolete, and war may break out, but it really overdramatizes violence, and seems very pretentious at times (i.e. when Kee reveals to Theo that she is pregnant does she really have to be standing in the middle of a barn surrounded by cows under a spotlight?).

The movie begins when the youngest person in the world, Baby Diego, is killed after not wanting to give an autograph (yeah, that's a great reason), but the fighting in the streets and the look of the war-torn buildings gave me the impression this fighting has been happening for years. There is not much dialogue because we're listening to gun shots most of the time, and when there is dialogue, it's painfully expositional. I had an incredibly hard time stomaching anything. Instead of adding to, I think the swear words actually take away from the strength and color of the sentences, and I got very tired of watching people run around like headless chickens.

I don't like giving bad reviews, but I wanted to share what kinds of things intelligent moviegoers don't want to see on screen: gratuitous violence, and exagerrated acting. Sorry.

Please someone post on here whether you agree with me or not.

Wandering the paths of America BA #3

Into the Wild (2007), directed, written, and produced by Sean Penn, is about the journey of Christopher Mccandless, a college graduate, who is seeking the more meaningful things of life in Alaska. The story is told in segments rewinding and fastforwarding whenever it chooses, which seems to make more sense than telling it in a linear fashion.

The beginning of the movie starts somewhere at the end of Christopher’s journey, then skips forward to his leaving his parents after a stilted and unhappy graduation dinner. His departure looks more to the audience like an act of selfish rebellion, but with the help of flashbacks to Chris’ past, and the voiceover narration by his sister explaining their home-life, our perspective of Chris and the necessity of his journey changes. Un-wanting of material gifts (“things, things, things, things,”) Chris burns the cash in his wallet, abandons his car, and gives the rest of his savings originally intended for Harvard Law to Oxfam America. His parents have no idea that he is gone, and as soon as they catch on, he is already two weeks into his adventure.

Based on a true story, the movie captures the haunting reality that some people’s lives are more than they can bear, and it takes re-investigating nature in order to feel right again. The camera acts as the eye of an observer, which Chris sometimes even breaks the cinematic “fourth wall” to look at, and is supposed to create a rugged and natural point of view, which to me, seemed distracting and achieved quite the opposite. Regardless of that, though, the film also featured beautifully spare music, which set the tone perfectly for his journey through the modern-day wilderness of America. Coupled with breath-taking cinematography, I was left feeling touched and very pensive after the movie had ended.

We get a sense of his character and wild desires for adventure, and we truly root for him, but I was forced to question my own point of view on this extremist method of discovering oneself. At the end he discovers from a nice old man that once you forgive you start to love, but I discussed the implications with my fiancé, Scott, of throwing away all that your ancestors had achieved, the cyclical nature of success, and the level of selfishness just to discover that.

I always love movies that get me talking afterwards, but despite the good discussion, I decided it wasn’t my cup of tea. The cinematography was good, the quiet dialogue was excellent, but the length of the movie (it runs two and a half hours) and the fact that I had to watch such a lonely character was a little tortuous and disturbing for my soul. The movie was broken up into chapters as if in a book, and I felt myself thinking “we’re still on Chapter two? How many chapters are there going to be?!”. If it had been distilled into a one and a half hour movie, we may miss out on some of his adventure, but it would have distilled the message into a more powerful statement. Overall, it was a cinematic delight, but I think the term “you can love something and not like it” rings very true for Into the Wild.

Writers Unite! BA #2

www.wga.org is a well-established, extensive, and USEFUL website that every budding screenwriter should know about. There are so many links on the site that it will take you hours to peruse everything there. As well as being a site for screenwriters to register their work, find agents and other resources, it also acts as an up-to-date source on the latest news in the world of Hollywood screenwriting. With the recent strikes, it has especially proved useful to members and non-members of the guild who were, and are still, in need of in-depth coverage of the results of the deal-making during the strike. It has a professional look to it, and just enough html computer gadget stuff to keep it engaging, but not seem like it's trying too hard. It has a rotating presentation of pictures and colorful tabs which are very appealing to the net-surfer.

More importantly, the website has logical sections and subsections for the writer. The sheer volume of content is the highlight of the site, but it is neatly arranged with helpful drop-down menus all the way from information about what the Writer's Guild of the West is, to resources for employers. Many people must find the link titled "writer's resources" useful, as it is rich in useful links like agency listings and working rules, and each drop-down menu is in alphabetical order! The main menu never goes away (until you navigate to the Writer's Guild Library webpage which is a whole new adventure in itself).

The site also includes nice little touches that make it appealing to non-members. On the Writer's Guild Library webpage, there is a nice flash animation (at least I think it's flash) with writer's quotes such as one from Sidney Sheldon saying, "A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God." My favorite link is to a game you can play called "Find the Macguffin". There is a list of macguffins, or objects in the movie that seem to be the main want of the character, but really could be anything because the deeper want lies in the needs of the characters (for instance, Rosebud in Citizen Kane), and you have to figure out what the movie is. It's fun, and all of the movies they refer to are on the list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays, under the "News and Events" tab. I plan on seeing all 101 movies before I'm well into the industry. Also under that tab is a great place to go if looking for information on seminars to attend for the chance to hear from real screenwriters.

Most useful to students such as myself, is the extensive "research links" subsection under the "writer's tools" tab with all the tools to do research. It lists helpful search engines, directories, government websites, arts websites, even weather and travel. I'm most excited about the tiny button at the bottom of each page titled "Jobs", because it's always on my mind, though there are no current listings for jobs. The address to Human Resources is always available, however. Think I should drop my resume in an e-mail? I've already signed up for their newsletter.

This website is basically the mecca for all things Hollywood writing related, and I'm excited to hear about new events happening at their library on 3rd Street. Seminars are expensive to attend, but discounted for students, and there are some really great people to hear from, such as the writers for Greys Anatomy, and Lars and the Real Girl. The site is really good about referencing books and publications that the aspiring screenwriter can read to get more industry-savvy. I'm already making my own book list!

I wish that the main website included some of the useful links that the Library's website includes such as: the BBC writer’s room, screenwriting contests, and a list of helpful FAQs. That's my only criticism, however. Well, that and the fact that there isn't a database for writing internships and jobs for students such as myself. But we all know how Hollywood works: know people, because the internet can only get you so far.

When I See a Movie

In August of 2006, I watched my boyfriend's house while he was on a missions trip to Uganda. I missed him terribly, but preoccupied myself with filling him in on my activities. One night I went to see The Devil Wears Prada with one of my friends, Lindsay, and after Lindsay dropped me off at the house, I wrote a frantic e-mail essay to Scott relating to him how much the movie had put an impression on my soul. This is the e-mail.

When I see a movie, I get immersed in it. If it has a message that speaks to me, I’m still in the movie until I wake up the next morning. I BECOME the movie. That doesn't usually happen with the people I go with. The minute we step out of it, they're already back in the world and I'm still stuck in the movie. The same thing happened tonight when Lindsay and I went to see The Devil Wears Prada. I'm still in it. I'm thinking up alternate endings. I'm thinking of what Andy would be doing right now after she gets the job at the New York Mirror. I think I'm writing the sequel in my head. But I won't get to sleep tonight until I've turned into Fiona Black again.

Movies and stories affect me so much that I think it's dangerous. I'm such a person who can be affected by external influences. For instance, when I hang out with a person and their speech really impresses me, or their mannerisms for some reason just get me, I start becoming them later on. I am a chameleon. An actor. I change so I can fit in and I'm happy that way. I'm a crowd-pleaser in many ways.

I learned in a book by producer Lawrence Turman, author of So You Want to Be a Producer, and professor at USC, that you have to change in order to get to the top; in order to please certain brass. However, that change doesn't have to be so significant that you lose your identity or your values. I hold very true to my values. In that way I know who I am and am very stalwart in my beliefs -- the opposite of a chameleon-- and I remember a certain line from the book that proves that.

I was TOTALLY thinking about my path in Hollywood when watching this female protagonist have to choose between her boyfriend and her profession. The whole time I was thinking, frightened, "what if this is going to be me?" Can I work in the biz and still hold those I love as close to me as before?

When Andy pours her heart out to the friendly effeminate clothing designer, Nigel, he tells her the cold hard truth,

"It's a fact that your social life fails when you start doing well at work. Just wait until your whole life falls to pieces. Then you can expect a promotion". I thought- how unhappy! There's no hope for life! But just then I thought of this book and I'd like to share it with you because I believe there is hope. Please bear with me. I'm still coming down from the high of seeing a movie.

This former producer turned professer, Larry Turman, brings in a lecturer at a seminar for his incoming students and he poses a dilemma to the class. He says,

"Your best friend's life story is fascinating and dramatic. He verbally agrees to give you the motion-picture rights; he even says you can take liberties as long as you do not change the ending. Once you get to Hollywood, a studio wants you to produce a film about your friend's life for a large fee, but wants you to change the ending. How many of you would do it?

Of the twenty-five students, half a dozen raised their hands. I was surprised by their willingness to break the trust of their friend, and by their willingness to admit that they would do so. I thought political correctness would override those who, in the deep recesses of their heart, would indeed be willing to sell out their friend.

Josephson (the lecturer) and I exchanged a look and rolled our eyes, and then he asked, ‘Why would you do that?’ It turns out that everything the students had heard or read about Hollywood and how business is done made them feel they had to lie, cheat, steal, and pillage to get ahead. I was more saddened than shocked. I staunchly believe one can be moral and ethical and still have a very successful career... in any field. I jumped in to explain that having integrity is the best business, and the best way to live.

Josephson interrupted me, disagreeing: ‘It may not be the 'best business' every time. You can lose a particular deal or job to someone who behaves unethically, but it will not hinder your long-range career.’ He was right. I stood corrected. But I still think I was also right."

Turman goes on to talk about how he was offered a producing job by a friend and then a week later offered the same job from a really important person who offered up top-name actors and a nice salary and he turned him down because he had made a commitment already. That’s classy. Then he says the picture he did with the friend turned out well and the picture the top-notch man with all the money did terribly and got sued. That, by the way, is the same thing that happens to Andy in The Devil Wears Prada. Andy turns down a top-notch job and lives a mediocre life, while the person who took up Miranda’s well-paying position financially prospers. It’s implied, though, that Andy is much happier.

Before you can go up the corporate ladder, you have to be brought down to earth first. Andy learned a lot from her tortuous job working for the dragon lady. I'm going to have to go through hell before I reach heaven, too.

I’m going to take out my energy on your plants now.

Love, Fi.

Room for Nonsense BA #1

“Nonsense Verse” is the only type of poetry I identify with. Simply put, is “intentionally and overtly paradoxical, silly, witty, whimsical or just plain strange”[1], and it mostly appeals to children. That's not to say that I'm silly, whitty, or whimsical (or maybe I am :) ), but I am British. Wikipedia says that nonsense verse has a long tradition, particularly in England because of the “absurdist streak in British humor”.

Practically all the poems I wrote as a child were ‘nonsensical’, probably because I wasn't good enough to make rhyming words make sense. Nevertheless, even now when I’m having a gray day stuck in my quiet Los Angeles college apartment and I feel like writing a poem, it will come out as a nonsense verse. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about (from Wikipedia):

The elephant is a bonnie bird.

It flits from bough to bough.

It makes its nest in a rhubarb tree

And whistles like a cow.

The word pairs of elephant/flit, rhubarb/tree, whistle/cow make grammatical sense but semantic nonsense. The homepage for Edward Lear's poetry gives a good idea of what nonsense poetry is, although I never knew that there were sad undercurrents of such uplifting poetry.

There are many authors who write in nonsense verse style, but in particular, Roald Dahl's poems have stuck with me my whole life. Revolting Rhymes was one of my favorite poetry books growing up, although some poems in the collection actually make sense. Nonsense verse is wonderful because it is unrestricted by logic or grown-ups, and it always bring a smile to my face.

As an emerging screenwriter, I try to “think young” in my stories. My wish is to write for a children's audience and work for Disney or Pixar, but I also wish to write screenplays that teach morals and ethics, and are not necessarily “kid-specific”. Nonsense poems inspire me to include levity in my work, and they really encapsulate my vision of art as a medium to uplift and step out of adulthood for a while.

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[1] En.wikipedia.org