I LOVE YOU WADE
I would like to give a MASSIVE thank you to this beautiful man right here. Wademan you are my HERO!!!!!
So as my post from a few hours ago said, I was completely going through it. No plot, no inspiration, just self-loathing. So I sought out on a treacherous quest to find my spark. It was a perilous journey, filled with nook after cranny after rock after hard place.
It was actually just scrolling through a bunch of media blogs from the past couple of years. I started out going one by one, but a lot of them weren't really inspiring; if anything, they convinced me to just cope and half-ass it. So after a bit I just started clicking on the blogs of people I knew; mainly kids who were also in the TV program.
But tonight I found so many more amazing ones; most notably Ren Moise and Virginia Monasterio's.
I have mixed feelings about the two for personal reasons, but I cannot deny their talent.
The editing in Ren's Hypnagogic is amazing. I love the way she uses color and lighting to represent the psychedelics her character takes. I know I have less to say about this one than the other two, but trust me when I say the editing is enough to put it on par with these other two in my mind.
There is one significant thing I've noticed in all of these openings though; there's a cutoff. There's such a drive of creativity and technique and it all just combines in such an amazingly cohesive color--
And then it dulls. In Replica, there is, at least in my opinion, a noticeable difference in the quality of scenes before and after the title. I am not saying that it is by any means bad, but it feels different.
The same can be said of the other two. In Hypnagogic Ren does a great job at maintaining that psychedelic vibe, but there just seems to be such a difference before and after he takes the pill. It's mainly just a lack of shot variety.
STEVE suffers from the same thing; after the two characters meet it becomes a shot-reverse-shot-reverse-shot-reverse-shot-reverse-shot-reverse-shot. Even though the acting keeps it entertaining, the lack of shot variety is distinct.
Like I said; there is, in my mind, a cut-off. It feels like each project had some issue with keeping the passion going, though none were particularly hurt by it. Replica had the most shots that just felt alive, Hypnagogic used editing to supplement that, and STEVE used acting to maintain interest throughout the less engaging periods.
And then there's EXTENSION. I was looking at blogs from two years ago, and I clicked on Wade's. I went to the year where he was in AS Level, but when I tried to watch his film opening I saw that the link to it no longer worked. So I texted him.
This opening is Wade. I have absolutely no other way to describe it. Everything about it is so undeniably him; the prevalence of animation and the work conditions animators face to the plot, the accent lighting, the set design, the music--it's just all Wade.
I especially love his use of sound, moreso how he doesn't use it. The silence is tangible in the scene pictured above.
It made me really think about everything I had just watched. They're all such expressionistic examples of the personality of each creator. And I thought back to my own opening, INCANDESCENCE. It's not me. It is, in a literal sense, about me, but I sought to tell it in a way that wasn't authentic to myself.
I love abstract writing. I love puzzles. I love everything.
INCANDESCENCE was a different, yet literal telling of one facet of myself. But I have so much more to say.
And what made me finally realize that was Wade simply asking me:
And then gears started to turn. Cogs started to shift and click! into place.
Why can't I do something fantastical? Something surreal? Why can't I take all my previous ideas and throw them out and meld them together and reimagine them entirely?
You may have noticed by now I'm a big fan of asyndetons.
I cannot explain how each piece connected within my mind, but Narnia led to Atonement, and Atonement led to The Stanley Parable, and then everything converged and led straight back to me.
I never really felt like I could translate the vision for the last idea I had, but this I can see so clearly.
First Draft
We open on a word; INCANDESCENCE. A roaring hum fills the universe, as the camera dollies slowly backwards, revealing the space station to which the word is attached.
"And now I see with eye serene, the very pulse of the machine."
EXTREME LONG SHOT - A black hole dwarfs the station, pulsing and thrumming with energy. It draws the station in, engulfing it in its--
"No, no, no, that's not right."
A hand loudly SWIPES across typewriter. Fingers tap thoughtfully on keys, preparing to compose.
A large lamp curls, looming over a workspace, barren but for a typewriter and its owner.
Their hands freeze, one rising to caress a forehead as they sigh to themself.
"Ughhhh, Wordsworth..."
Their eye cracks open, staring up at the emptiness. The void begins to tremor.
Everything around them begins shaking, reverberating with unsourced power as voices swirl through space;
"What's next for the young author?" "Let me ask you, is there gonna be a sequel to Iridescent?" "I don't know Jim, I just don't see what all the hype's about" ... ... .. . . . .. ...
They harmonize into a cacophony of howls and shrieks, endlessly BANG
The author's fist slams down. Their eyes press themselves shut as the voices begin to cease. After what seems like an eternity, their eyes open.
A fractal glimpse into another reality meets their eye. The black hole yawns before their vision.
They reach out--it's gone.
They cup their face.
"Where are you..."
------
I think it's maybe on the longer side. When I began writing this draft out, I wanted the author to switch to another genre, like fantasy, after saying that's not right, as if they're mulling over different ideas for a story. But that would require a lot more locations to film at than this, which means more people and more schedules and yada yada yada.
It also just didn't make sense; if I'm writing the crux of a story, in this case the black hole swallowing the station, why would I switch to a completely new genre when I reach writer's block? Presumably I've made significant progress in the story. I would not just scrap weeks or months of work because I'm stumped by the climax.
I'm getting off topic. This is a good starting point. It's a great starting point, even. I will say, my one regret for tonight is that the time I should've spent on my English homework has now been spent on this post. I really hope I get at least a 'C' for this semester in English, otherwise I will be getting my university acceptance rescinded.
For now, though, I just need to get some [F-WORD]ing sleep.
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