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blamebramptonI did not expect to see Star Wars. But when I got home from work just before 8pm because I NEED A NEW JOB, poor old Mr B who has been sick as a dog since Boxing Day, leapt up and said MOVIE NIGHT! And given his state of illness (throaty, chesty, achey horror), I felt I had to go along with this plan.
I thought the writing was really lazy, though competent, but I liked the direction, acting, design, editing and music. And I am prepared to give a bit over two hours of my life for the sight of two stormtroopers backing away Slowly and Quietly. I laughed vey loudly.
However. If you're a writer, give your readers a reason for things. A real reason, not 'he's the best pilot in the Resistance' – that's a description. Something like "Poe grew up in the Resistance. He's been flying these planes since he was eight. Stealing them since he was nine, but he never broke one, so we didn't complain …' or 'I met a pilot from the Rebellion when I was 16, and while he told me stories of laying down covering fire on the Death Star attack, I realised, that's what I really wanted to be. So every minute since then, that's what I've trained for. I found out years later that he just ferried the X-Wings around, but by then, I was flight leader, so I didn't hold it against him.'
I just want films that acknowledge that, most of the time, you get good at things by doing things. And that work has worth and value to it and can be a part of the story that makes your character a person.
Which, obviously, means I should say 'Oh, let's watch something small' the next time Mr B has a hankering for big budget. But it was fun, and I didn't need to worry my poor overtaxed brain, and those stormtroopers will bring me joy for years to come.
I thought the writing was really lazy, though competent, but I liked the direction, acting, design, editing and music. And I am prepared to give a bit over two hours of my life for the sight of two stormtroopers backing away Slowly and Quietly. I laughed vey loudly.
However. If you're a writer, give your readers a reason for things. A real reason, not 'he's the best pilot in the Resistance' – that's a description. Something like "Poe grew up in the Resistance. He's been flying these planes since he was eight. Stealing them since he was nine, but he never broke one, so we didn't complain …' or 'I met a pilot from the Rebellion when I was 16, and while he told me stories of laying down covering fire on the Death Star attack, I realised, that's what I really wanted to be. So every minute since then, that's what I've trained for. I found out years later that he just ferried the X-Wings around, but by then, I was flight leader, so I didn't hold it against him.'
I just want films that acknowledge that, most of the time, you get good at things by doing things. And that work has worth and value to it and can be a part of the story that makes your character a person.
Which, obviously, means I should say 'Oh, let's watch something small' the next time Mr B has a hankering for big budget. But it was fun, and I didn't need to worry my poor overtaxed brain, and those stormtroopers will bring me joy for years to come.
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Date: 2016-01-12 11:47 am (UTC)And, ugh, my friend Mohammed is always listening to my ideas and nodding wisely over his drooping hand-rolled fag and beer and saying that what I think is a short story is a novel, and what I think is a TV show is a series of novels, and what I think is a novel is possibly some sort of cult manual or a bible, and that I should probably write my stories or risk enacting them instead. That is, he says, a very real risk for storytellers. I can't say he's entirely wrong.