What Really Happened To (Spoiler Deleted)

Here’s the excerpt I want to focus on (emphasis mine):

Creator Damian Kindler: “Once we know for sure about a third season, there is definitely an Ashley story in there that we’re developing…(snip) The intention was to never kill her off with any finality. It was always to kill her off in a way that was dubious at best and fraught with inconsistencies and fraught with mystery and isn’t completely solved even when they have to put her to rest and move on.”

Let’s start with some disclaimers.

• I haven’t watched the show beyond a few clips.
• Because of that, I may have missed some essential piece that would change my forthcoming opinion.
• Mr. Kindler may have come up with an innovative way to break the rules.
• I really, really doubt that 2 or 3 is the case.  Therefore…

I would pose that Mr. Kindler’s statements are incredibly destructive, and harmful to his own show.

WHAT WE KNOW…

There’re no Hollywood secrets anymore.  As an audience, we all know storytellers will lend our favorite characters a bit of immortality, for the sake of our love and their ratings.

IS NOT WHAT WE NEED TO BELIEVE…

We need to believe this storybook world is real, with real consequences. We need to believe terrible things could happen to our protagonists.  It makes their triumph over adversity that much more exciting.  That’s what makes them so memorable, and our time with them so special.

The threat of loss is an essential part of storytelling, simply because safe people are not interesting to watch.

What Mr. Kindler has made clear, in his innocent wink to the sci-fi audience, is death is only as permanent as his whim: any hurt undone, any tragedy repealed. Not interesting.

WE WANT THE MAGIC

Storytelling is a kind of magic act.  It’s about misdirection and suspension of disbelief.  You see something amazing and you want to believe in it.  Stories give us that permission.

We know it’s all a trick, from the first moment.  But the best magicians convince us the illusion is truth and the danger is real.

How magical would it seem, if the magician began with, “Now, if you’ll look carefully, I have a spring-loaded sleeve with a rabbit in it…”

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Earl Newton on Art

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Check below the jump for the Google Map.

I had to break the map into two pieces to fully show the entire trip.  It also doesn’t show that I started in Pennsylvania, but I did.  The map is divided at Charleston, WV, and picks up there for the rest of the trip.

I took photos in several states, got souvenirs from just a few, but there are definitely some towns/days I have lost completely. Most of Kentucky and Missouri is just one big swath of my life that I am never getting back.

But, it was all worth it, to be able to afford to take @gozombiego and the Zombielets somewhere nice for Christmas.


View Larger Map

A through E: Cincinatti, OH; Dayton, OH; Cleveland, OH; Detroit, MI; Flint, MI
F through J: Grand Rapids, MI; Chicago, IL; Joliet, IL; Laona, WI; Excelsior Springs, MO
K through O: St Louis, MO; Puxico, MO; Golcanda, IL; Morganfield, KY; Greenfield, KY
P through T: Mammoth Cave, KY; Simsponville, KY; Frenchburg, KY; Pine Knot, KY; Franklin, NC
U through Y: Bristol, TN; Coeburn, VA; Marion, VA; Prestonsburg, KY; Charleston, WV


View Larger Map

A through E: Charleston, WV; Monroe, VA; Harpers Ferry, WV; Woodstock, MD; Laurel, MD
F through I: Washington DC; Kittrell, NC; Bamberg, SC; Atlanta, GA

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1. A Question about Stranger Things DVD

This is where I’ll be and what I’m doing for the next four weeks.

These dates are estimates, and may be subject to change.

Oct 5-8: On the road for my DayJobVu. Also putting final touches on Undisclosed Seafaring Project.

Oct 9-13: Atlanta: pitching a project and shooting pieces for the Stranger Things DVD.

Oct 14: Auburn, Al: Shooting pieces for Stranger Things DVD.

Oct 15: Birmingham, Al: Shooting pieces for the Stranger Things DVD.

Oct 20-22: Wilmington, NC: Shooting pieces for ST DVD and pitching Undisclosed Stranger Things project.

Oct 26-27: More DayJobVu.

Oct 28: Nashville, TN: More ST DVD bits.

Oct 29: Back with Annie and the zombielets for Halloween.

Dates may shift, depending on how tough the travel is. But that’s a good picture of my October. How about yours?

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I highly recommend you read the entire post. Gabrielle is an editor for Dragon Moon Press, and really offers the much-needed insider view on this issue.

My thoughts on her post after the jump.

Look especially at #2: “It’s a one-shot business transaction.” That is my entire thought in a nutshell: it’s business.

It seems to me a lot of submissions are sent, not as a business proposal, but as validation-seeking: “if they accept me, it means I’m good!”

Editors (producers/directors/publishers) are business people. You shouldn’t seek validation from business people. They aren’t in the validation business.

So if you still feel concerned that your work isn’t up to snuff, relax; it probably isn’t. Take your time, develop your craft, and step up to the plate when you’ve got something you know you can sell. Anything before that, and you’re cracking the egg before it’s time to hatch.

You’ll appreciate the gestation period later, I promise.

(insert “avoiding ‘egg on your face’ joke”)

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The Fight Over the Google of All Libraries

It’s worth reading for yourself, as well as following the most recent update here (as of Sept 25).

Key points to consider:

• “Google’s mission is to ‘organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.’”  It doesn’t say what that will cost, and it begs the question: if one has a monopoly on all the world’s knowledge, do they have a right to charge for it, especially when it can be transferred to anyone else at zero cost?
• Google isn’t known for charging for its services…up to this point.  Right now, thanks to “free,” Google has been able to stake claims in the markets for email software, office document processing, telephony, and a lot more.

Whenever I hear about something Google is doing, I think back to an old Star Trek episode my father used to tell me about (Ep 41: I, Mudd).  A group decides the human race is too dangerous to be free, so they decide to take control of us. When asked how they will do it, they respond thusly:

Makes you realize how open to interpretation a phrase like “Don’t be Evil” can be.

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How many of you would be interested in a numbered, limited-edition Stranger Things package that would include:

• A Stranger Things DVD with Episodes 1-4, and bonus content galore
  
• A documentary about Stranger Things, especially the move from low-budget show to TV in 14 months
• An e-book containing extensive notes regarding the show and the people, along with script excerpts and other materials
• A graphic novel version of an unproduced episode
• A gorgeous 11×17 print of a painting inspired by the series
• Also, branded swag like jump drives and more
• All of this, of course, will be signed.
  

Would you be interested in that?

The time has come to make this happen.  But it’s not going to be easy, and I’m going to need your help.  Here’s the Plan:

1) A Stranger Things DVD release will take time. I want to do some things that have never been done with DVD. This Christmas may be too close to have it ready, but we are going to do our damnedest to do it.

2) I will need everyone’s help. To make a DVD release happen, I need at least 500 pre-orders. That means: when the time comes, spread the word!

3) We’re not ready to take preorders yet, but I will let you know as soon as we are.

4) Until then, this is your chance to put in your ideas for the DVD: earl@strangerthings.tv. Or, just sit back and prepare to be wowed.

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The most interesting aspect of this discussion, to me, is the lack of discussion about the role of video games in eroding the film market.

By and large, the movies that sell the most are escapist entertainment. The problem is: movies don’t have the corner on escapism any more.

I can pay

(for a movie, avg. 2 hrs)

• $10 for two hours of watching a protagonist leap from one near-death to another ($5/hour)
• $25 to buy the Collector’s Edition DVD at BestBuy (after waiting four months for it to release; $12.50/hr, slightly less if you include “behind the scenes,” and I don’t)
• $10 to buy the Cheapie On-Sale Walmart edition ($5/hr, but I have to wait a year)

(for a video game, avg 12 hrs gameplay)

• $60 to buy the game the day it comes out ($5/hr)
• $30 to buy it at cheapie Wal-Mart discount prices (waiting eight months for prices to drop, $2.50/hr)

So I can buy either medium, on the first day of availability, for $5/hr. The difference with video games is: I get 6 times the entertainment at the same rate, and the longer I wait, the cheaper it becomes.

And don’t forget replay value: any game with decent replay value (anything in the Mario franchise, open sandbox games) will last you at least fifty hours. Games with multiplayer capability or ongoing storylines (Halo, the Sims) will go two hundred or beyond. (Do I have to bring up World of Warcraft?) That’s two hundred distinct, original hours of entertainment. How many times will you rewatch a movie?

Most importantly, whatever entertainment I derive from the experience is completely mine. I leap across dangerous chasms at the last minute, not Nick Cage. Any experience, large or small, takes on a larger import, because I am the protagonist.

Escapist movies are, “Hey, audience, watch me do this cool thing!”

Escapist video games are, “Here’s a gun and a map. Get out alive.”

Which sounds more dramatic to you?

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Welcome to Real Life

* replace writing with drawing, composing, editing, dancing; whatever your particular passion is.

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More than ever, it’s the wild west out there now.  Right now, studios are less and less interested in developing new material, turning back again and again to remakes and derivatives of pre-existing properties.

As a storyteller, that scares me, not because of any artistic choice, but because once any industry stops investing in the future, they start digging their own grave.

IMAGINE THIS

Right now, fewer and fewer productions are being developed in-house.  Studios have decided to sit back and purchase more films after they’ve been completed, offering low purchase deals with non-existent profit-sharing, and promising to shoulder the seemingly-daunting task of advertising and promotion.

Well, somebody drew back the curtain at the turn of the century, and independent creators are starting to realize that

• Marketing isn’t magic
• It isn’t nearly as expensive anymore (thanks, Internet)
• mainstream media was never really especially good at it; they were just louder
  
• as an independent, it’s becoming less financially-viable to court mainstream distribution companies anymore

I’m not predicting the end of the studio system, they are too large to disappear entirely (we still have major radio broadcasters today - how much of them are doing original narrative work any more?).  But unless there is a major change in policy, I think studios in future are going to find themselves falling out of the conversation.

To put it another way: right now filmmakers are seeking the independent route because they have to; what is going to happen when that becomes precedent?  “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” has already made roughly a million dollars at the box office; others can do that, too.

Filmmakers don’t choose storytelling because it’s a sound financial investment.  They do it to tell their stories and keep the power bill paid.  When it becomes easier to cut a new path through the marketplace instead of fording through the studio system, they will do that.

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When Earl Newton was 10, he convinced his friends he was born on another planet.

The article hasn’t been posted on the Destin Log’s website, so I’m linking to a repost of it on TMCnet.com.

Read the full article here.

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I thought Rachel White’s comments were especially on-the-mark.  Listen close when she starts talking about “being the right puzzle piece.”

Stranger Things fans will also recognize Rachel as Madeline from Disconnect.

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This time we featured Messengers II: The Scarecrow, a new movie from Ghost House Pictures, available in stores and on Amazon.com. (I get no kickbacks for the link, I’m just helpful like that)

New upgrades to look for:

• We added some fun “interview cutaways” for fresh takes on Ghost House and their new flick (featuring novelist J.C. Hutchins in Episode One, Messengers screenwriter Todd Farmer in Episode Two, and me)
• Moving cameras!  I wanted this in the first series, and there just wasn’t time to develop it.  Now the camera cruises constantly as Scott lays out the dirt on Messengers II.  Groovy.

Post some comments, thoughts are welcome.  I want to smooth out the cameras in the next version, and I’m looking to revamp a few other things too.

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At fourteen seconds, this is a bit longer than I want.  I’ll end up cutting a few seconds out of the middle for the “long version” (8-10 seconds), and fading to black at 4-5 seconds for the short version.

I could also chop it in half and have two options for an animation.

Strange RSS LLC Logo from Earl Newton on Vimeo.

Stock footage animated in After Effects.

I’ve done a lot of VFX insertions into live footage, but this is my first attempt at completely artificial photorealism.  Color choice seems to be everything in photorealism.  Nothing is ever true white or true black, it’s a lot of grays and irregularities and asymmetrical details until it looks right.

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I found a link to Barrett Garese’s article “Scarcity, Experience, and an Old Seat at a New Table“, via ArtfulWriter.com.  A lot of what he talks about are ideas I’ve been working on since I started Stranger Things, but like any good writer, Garese really clarifies the problems and challenges we face in the new media landscape.

The entire article is worth a read, but there are several passages worth more careful attention…

• “Piracy is a distribution model”

Garese doesn’t say this outright, but he acknowledges (as should we) that piracy IS a common method of distrubtion today: legal or otherwise, it’s happening.  The wise distributor will find ways to work this to his advantage.

• “What will become the uniquely ‘online’ media experience?”

As Garese points, out, most online entertainment is really smaller-budgeted film or TV experiences, loaded on the Internet.  This is no more appropriate than the filmed stage plays of the 1930s/1940s.  For online content to thrive, creators have to lock in on what makes the online experience unique.  If I had to put it in a word, I would say interactivity.

• Content creators stand to lose less than distributors.

While I would argue some of the finer points of this idea, it has a ring of truth.  As long as you can create content people want, there will be room for you in the marketplace somewhere.  It’s a matter of finding out how to adapt your voice to the megaphones available.  Distributors, especially of hard product like DVD, may find themselves in the cold in ten years.

• “Free Google Internet????”

Check out conclusion #6 near the bottom of the post.  This caught me completely by surprise.  But some research turned up a few older stories (Google offers free Wi-Fi in Mountain View, CA / What’s Google doing with all that Dark Fiber?) so I’m more inclined to believe it.

• • •

Above all, remember that this changing landscape should only worry you if you’re already invested in it: i.e., if you have a show on television, or have a DVD distribution deal, or a three-picture deal with Paramount.  If you are still at the bottom, working the angles to find a way in, you couldn’t be in a better position.  This changing landscape will favor the fast-moving, industrious creative-types.  It will mean hard work, but that’s a small price to pay to see the dawn of a new age.

As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.

- Bob Dylan

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I’ve updated the site with a couple nifty items this week:

A search bar, and I’m working on adding auto-fill later.

Updated the tag system with a more visually-interesting “cloud,” versus the text block

Added a Related Posts function: I have enough posts now to warrant cross-referencing. I’m using an auto-generator plug-in, so the results may vary a bit as I fine-tune it. Let me know if it starts referencing you to anything wonky.

Some of these new additions are supposed to be a bit of a tax on the system, so if you notice any lag or delays, let me know.

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Also apparently, @cbelier nominated a favorite Tweet of mine from July 2008.

I’m not sure what to make of this, but I’ll admit it’s kind of an ego-stroke, so I’m game to play if you are. Click the link below, and if you like what I wrote, vote on it.  It’s literally one click to vote. You don’t have to register or anything.

Read What I Wrote and Vote

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In this piece, Chris and I talk about the creative process, about what I’ve learned since starting Stranger Things, and what’s gotten me into blogging regularly (short answer: a beautiful woman).

While you’re poking around Chris’ site, check out my favorite episode of his: Conversion, about a Southern Baptist preacher who converted to Judaism.  Fascinating stuff, and his interview subject is very well-researched.

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This photo has been uploaded over at FailBlog.org.  If you like it, go vote on it.

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Normally I’d embed the video here, but MakingOf.com has some weird Iframe code going on, so I’m just providing the link.

John August on Breaking Storytelling Conventions

And, as a screenwriter, you should already be a regular visitor to JohnAugust.com.

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