FPS – Soundtrack

by D. on 23 August, 2017 at 12:00

One of the first things I do when I start writing is put some inspirational music on loop.

This music isn’t always in a style you would associate with the subject matter. I wrote The Incubus Gambit largely to the soundtrack from the video game series “Halo.” I didn’t play much Halo, but I like the music, and it helped summon a picture of the bucolic naturalist colony “Tarnkappe”.

My taste in music ranges from whatever strikes me at the moment to whatever strokes me at the moment with a side of “They Might be Giants.” (No, seriously. Not just Istanbul, but Mammal and The Statue Got Me High.) I have play lists the include Tchaikovsky, Eminem, Mila Jovovich, The Beatles, Dropkick Murphys, Indigo Girls, Jonathon Coulton, Linkin Park, Imagine Dragons, and Meghan Trainor… I’d go on but I have a 500 word limit on these kinds of things.

A bare and honest truth… music rips me apart.

There’s no telling what might happen when I put on a song. I can’t listen to U2’s Beautiful Day without being transported back to Autumn of 2001 and all the anger I had at the world. Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling makes me happier than Peter Griffin covering Pharrell. I sob to Malukah’s haunting voice, but I can’t stop listening to her. The theme from Guild Wars (a game I’ve never even loaded) puts me in a desperate place trying to survive long enough to see the dawn, pushing forward with nothing but faith that the ground will meet my feet, or blasting away at endless throngs of Orky battlemeks until another chapter of Legiones Astartes can arrive – yeah more than one story has this kind of scene (and not necessarily these examples because my 40k army is Orks).

Inspirational music is not something I can look for. I have to find it in the place it brings me to.

As the logo implies, this rambling thought is about Flying Pirate Ships! So here’s an early share about this series: I can’t not think of the pirate ship Britannia when I hear the Silverbird themes in Two Steps from Hell’s album “Battlecry.”

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Podcast appearance

by D. on 3 July, 2017 at 14:37

Last Sunday, I was interviewed for the Four Guys and a Comic Book Podcast. They edited it, reducing my natural stammer and overall making me sound like I knew what I was talking about. Obviously I’m promoting my segment, but if you are a fan of comics, these guys really do a good podcast. (I really have been listening to it for a few months now.)

Naturally I wanted to stay on topic about the Bright Future novels and short stories, but they got me talking about the business of writing and upcoming projects–not that it’s difficult to do.

There is one edit that seems to have dropped the words “and I have another project.” Whether that was unintelligible or my mic dropped it, the edit makes it sound like I’m still talking about Flying Pirate Ships! instead of the thing I’m tentatively calling “The Dragon.” Yes, in addition to last week’s new Lisa strip, we are working on new comic titles. Don’t get super excited; they might be a way’s off, yet, but they will happen.

It’s About Time (Wonder Woman)

by D. on 3 June, 2017 at 00:46

While this was screened for select audiences two days ago, we didn’t get an invite, so this counts as an opening day review for Wonder Woman.

See it in the theatre, but don’t worry about rushing out this weekend if you are having non-elective surgery. By all accounts, Wonder Woman will be showing for a while.

With strength rivaling a kyptonian, investigative powers of Batman (the world’s greatest detective), and legitimate magic items, Wonder Woman is probably the second most powerful underrated character in the DC Universe (the Flash is first). She has obvious appeal across several demographics and epitomizes the inclusiveness of “geek culture.” Despite this, Warner Brothers has seemed reluctant to give her the same chance as Superman, Batman, Green Arrow, Flash, the Gotham City Police Department, 7 supporting characters, Suicide Squad, and Supergirl. Except for a cameo in Cash Cow Boys Fighting, Wonder Woman hasn’t made a live action appearance since 1979. As I have a Wonder Woman maquette in my office, I was concerned for the treatment that Diana would receive in this movie.

I would love to say DC completely redeemed their previous position on female characters. They made a damn good try. Overall the film was good, with decently and realistically motivated characters, but questionable cinematography.

Gal Gadot does an excellent job portraying the rebellious Amazonian princess, the fish out of water baffled by “outsider” society, and the ass-kicking demigod fighting her greatest foe. As her foil, Chris Pine’s talent for portraying egocentricity was well used to comedic effect.

The story hit the appropriate notes of transition, but was dinged by a concession to the Hollywood standard for female characters, and it was completely unnecessary. At the climax of the film, Diana is only empowered to defeat Ares after she has a flashback and realizes that the man she’s know for a week said, “I love you.” Because you know the woman who can lift a 38 ton tank can only have drawn her strength from a man. There was a deeper meaning. She was choosing to save the war-engulfed outside world because it could also produce love, but that moment diminished her.

Cinematography was in line with Executive Producer Zack Snyder’s way of doing things: sweep the camera across the action to show movement, rather than on the action to show what’s happening; switch to slow motion for several beautiful stills, then drop the camera down the stairs to make sure no one sees the hit.

Going in, I did not know that Wonder Woman directed by Patty Jenkins. First female directed film with a budget over $100 million.  Cool, I hope the movie is as successful as it warrants so we can have more of that equality. But please, get out from an executive producer who thinks a hamster ball is an appropriate camera mount. Shaky isn’t exciting, it’s just shaky. The costume department did great work, we should get to see more than her shin guards when she’s throwing a punch.

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Camera Held in Fidgit Spinner (Hardcore Henry)

by D. on 26 May, 2017 at 03:08

We described Minions as a dinner of cotton candy. Hardcore Henry is a 76-pack case of pop-rocks washed down by a 3 liter of RC Cola. It is full of exiting bits that you’ll really like, but unless you have the constitution of a teenager, you’re going to feel pretty sick afterward—or during.

The chief cause of the nausea (especially if you already suffer from benign paroxysmal positional vertigo) is that the whole movie is shot with Go-Pro cameras strapped to the titular character’s head (First-Person Point Of View). Since it is also an action movie, this means that it is full of spastic jerking and spinning camera work. Conversely, this device is used to good effect in pulling the audience into the film. The viewer is Henry, suddenly awakened (apparently from the dead) in Moscow with no firm memory and immediately thrust into the events.

The story itself is actually pretty good, if simple, hyper-violent, and ferociously paced. It has sort of the logic of a video game. Henry is continuously racing and fighting his way toward an unclear final goal with incremental things he must accomplish. Supporting characters enter his life quickly, with poor definition, are critically important for the moment, and exit with little concern about what happens next. It seems like Sharlto Copely is playing every male in his life—almost like it is a video game and the modelers only used one character texture—then, we find out why there are so many of him.

Henry is an experiment in reanimating people caught between two developers who wish to use the base technology for different purposes.  Jimmy (Sharlto Copely) is actually a wheelchair bound scientist who has built avatar bodies that he controls to regain his life. The villain is a telekinetic who is building an army to take over the world.

Yes, I said telekinetic. It’s never explained why or how, but he is stupidly powerful—as a real human who had such an ability would be. The climactic battle between Henry and Akan (said villain)—come on that’s not a spoiler, of course the hero and villain are going to fight—gives us a good sense of how futile fighting someone who doesn’t have to touch you to throw you off a building would be. Henry is not without resources, though, so long as his battery lasts.

All in all Hardcore Henry is a good, fast-paced movie. The lack of exposition works well for the feeling of the film, and you don’t really feel anything is missing. The POV is a barrier to some, but it does help tell the story. Worth seeing if you have an adult dose of Dramamine within reach.

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Truisms

by D. on 14 April, 2017 at 12:32

An excerpt from The Incubus Gambit:

Tommy was sometimes possessed by a need to produce inane banter. Rather than continue to discuss the restaurant, he filled most of the ride with a monologue about “new car smell” and the comfort of the BMW’s passenger seat. Personally, Canbe liked the smell and attendant feeling of a new car. Professionally, she felt like it was a dead giveaway that an identity might be fabricated. Infiltrating by impersonating a fictional person required that the identity seem to have existed for years. People who bought new cars consumed their lives with that purchase for weeks. It dominated their personality. Prior to the purchase, they shopped, compared models, and weighed options. After purchase, people were enthralled with their car, learning its features, talking about its differences from their old cars, and identifying with it. To be believable, her new car would have to be part of her fictional persona.

Occasionally I write something into a story that is an observation or statement about the human condition. As you might be able to guess from the timing of this post, I just purchased a Chevrolet “Volt.” Consequently, I have completely annoyed everyone I encountered this week.

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