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Sun, 28 Oct 2012 21:27:21 -0500

Frodo in Solitude

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:43:26 -0500

My first writing assignment in my Lord of the Rings class was to take a scene in the Fellowship of the Ring and analyze it. The original assignment was to write a 1775 word essay (he estimated it to be 3 to 5 pages,). I wrote it Friday & Saturday and turned it in Saturday night. The next day he e-mailed us saying that the original assignment was incorrect and that the REAL word count is 1061 words. I still turned it in regardless.

Frodo in Solitude?

Scene Analysis Assignment

Ryan Grace

9/15/12

Topics in Cinema: Narrative Structure

The Lord of the Rings

Synopsis: Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) visits the Elves and Lady Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) after they lose their elderly wizard traveling companion in the depths of Moria. As the rest of his company sleeps, Frodo goes and sees Lady Galadriel and offers her the ring. She at first does want it but the declines, passing the test. After this test she leaves him, punctuating her victory by saying she will leave with the other Elves to the West and across the Sea.

Is Frodo alone in his quest after all? Is the adventure of the Ring destined to be a road traveled alone? In the aforementioned scene it does seem to be that way. When Lady Galadriel finds him by the mirror she allows him to see into the future, or rather one possible future that has a chance of becoming reality. After seeing his Shire burning with his friends and fellow hobbits in chains Frodo offers the one true ring of Power, forged in the fire of Mt. Doom and made for the soul purpose of binding mortals to its’ will by it’s master Sauron. Lady Galadriel seizes this moment to daydream. She foresees herself ruling in Sauron’s place, with all of Middle Earth worshipping her. “In place you a dark lord you will have a queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn, treacherous as the sea! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair!”

This is one of the first scenes in which Frodo starts to doubt his allies. In the Council of Elrond Boromir shows signs of wanting to use the Ring to defend his home country of Gondor. As the film progresses he starts to openly lust for the Ring from picking it up when Frodo falls in the snow to ultimately trying to force it off of his neck after the Fellowship leaves the Elven Forest. Because of these examples, and others, Frodo begins to doubt the companionship of his company and isn’t able to trust those that are loyal to the quest. As a deal breaker Frodo offers the Ring to Aragorn in the forest as the Uruk-hai enclose on their position. In a stunning turn around Aragorn rejects the evil Ring, closes Frodo’s hand and lets him go off on his own (along with the resilient Mr. Samwise Gamgee). The scene with Lady Galadriel, however, predicts the failing of the Fellowship because of the power and lust of the Ring. We also see the toll the Ring has on the Free people. After Lady Galadriel overcomes the power of the Ring she appears openly drained and exhausted, as if fighting the influence of the Ring took all of the stability she could muster. We now realize that Frodo’s own resilience has to be ten fold of what hers was and he is a mortal hobbit compared to an immortal she-Elf!

Lady Galadriel openly lets Frodo view into the future, showing him the outcome of his homeland should he fail and submit to the Enemy. By doing this she is silently telling him that he cannot fail, for if he does fall before his final goal is met then more lives than he realizes will be ruined. Both his friends and people whom he has not met may perish based on the success or failure of his and his companion’s quest to unmake the One Ring. For Frodo he is telling Lady Galadriel that he doesn’t believe in himself or his allies., that he doesn’t think that he has the fortitude to fulfill his mission of destroying the Ring of Power. Lady Galadriel senses this and when he offers the Ring she proves that anyone can defeat the dark influence of the Ring and it’s evil purpose, even the smallest and most unassuming of creatures. Frodo wants the responsibility to be passed on from him to another because he doesn’t believe he has the will to finish the job of throwing the Ring into the Crack of Doom, so he tries to pawn off the Ring on Lady Galadriel. Lady Galadriel wants to be put to the test and overcome something that has such immense power and hold on Middle Earth to prove that she is her own power and can hold her own on it, even if she does wish to be more than what she is currently. However, she does not actually WANT to hold and take the Ring, at least ultimately she does not. She might at the start of the scene but finally decides against it. Frodo, as stated previously, wants to pass off the responsibility to someone other than himself. Thinking that a High Elf has a higher tolerance to evil doings he offers the ring to her, hoping that she will have more of a success than he ever could. He knows, just as Lady Galadriel states with her telepathy, that the seven companions that surround and protect him can only resist temptation for so long before the Ring starts to corrupt them all as it has started with Boromir. For Frodo to willingly give the Ring away to someone he knows is (supposedly) more pure than himself, and for Lady Galadriel to reject the offer is telling for both sides of the scene in that Frodo isn’t too sure of his journey and Lady Galadriel wants to conquer and overcome the most sinister enemy any race in Middle Earth is a great testament to both their characters.

Peter Jackson took some liberties with this scene (and indeed the entire film trilogy) starting first when he decided to exclude Sam’s portion of the Mirror viewing. Not only does he decide to omit this part from the book but he also changes Frodo’s view into the Mirror, inserting instead a loose interpretation of the Scouring of the Shire as a tip of the hat to the last chapter of The Lord of the Rings in lieu of a vision of a black ship sailing on the Sea and a white fortress with seven towers as it is in the book. (364, Tolkien) It seems that Peter Jackson decided to exclude the part with Sam’s viewing of the Mirror in order to reinforce the point that at the end of the day Frodo is alone, that he cannot count on anyone save himself to go on with this journey. If Sam had done the vision as well it would have lessened the impact of Lady Galadriel’s resistance of the Ring. Also, Peter Jackson most likely decided to remove the black sailed ship and the fortress and replace these images with one of despair and hopelessness in order to cement the idea that Frodo is most likely on an adventure that will kill him in the end, when all is said and done. The style of the scene reinforces that attitude of sadness. The scene takes place at night and, clearly, the lighting helps that out; everything is dark and foreboding save Lady Galadriel herself. In comparison to everything in the scene she is a bright, white light. This was most likely done in order to help play her off as the last true hope for Frodo to give up the Ring of Power. When Lady Galadriel changes into her “Gollum” form her colours almost change and go the opposite direction; she is now a dark shade of green – borderline black, in fact – and her angelic hue all but fades as she entertains the idea of ruling over all of Middle Earth. Then the transformation reverses and she returns to her cherub-like state, complete with the otherworldly glow coming from behind her. Inside the Mirror, it echoes this sense of loss, as all of the images in the future are never fully lit up except for the last image of Sauron’s eye and even that is darker than it should be, for he is the pure embodiment of evil in this story. Frodo even looks more harried and frayed while he is in the scene, perhaps from resignation that he cannot fulfill his destiny or maybe because of the fact that the most powerful being in Middle Earth perished merely a day ago. Regardless of the reason, however, Frodo looks as if he has aged years since setting out from Riivendell. Certainly this was Peter Jackson’s approach to show what effect the Ring is having on Frodo’s psyche – for he cannot help but feel protective of the Ring and he now sees treachery in all of his friends and companions and being mistrustful of those you used to trust implicitly can be very damaging on one’s mind. All these stylistic choices further laid down the foundation for the scene’s mood which was dark and brooding from the get go and did not let up until the very last second. Peter Jackson developed and shot the scene very well to deliver the sense of loss and mistrust that Frodo is now beginning to feel from this point on.

The scene of the Mirror of Lady Galadriel is perhaps the most revealing scene in which the young hobbit starts to doubt his world and whether or not his allies will help see him through the dangers lining up in front of them. From Boromir wanting to use Sauron’s Ring of Power to save his fledging Gondor to Lady Galadriel wanting to rule as a queen over the populous of Middle Earth and culminating in Aragorn’s close shave with taking the one Ring that everyone wants, Frodo’s resolve in his friends, whether consciously or not, is shaken to the core and is the defining moment in which he decides to venture off by himself and finish the task set before him by the Council of Elrond. But perhaps all is not lost for him after all. For Lady Galadriel did not take the offered Ring when Frodo help his outstretched hand to her. Nor did Boromir forcibly take the one thing that could have saved his father’s domain. Aragorn did not snatch up the Ring when Frodo held it out to test him, instead closing his fingers over the precious item. And finally, when Samwise dove after him in the river saying he is not alone in this. All of his companions went through the test of the Ring and all of them defeated their inner most demons and rejected this insidious gift. Frodo ends the Fellowship of the Ring believing that it is for the best but it is not broken. It is merely splintered and will come for Frodo when he needs them most, when his final hour starts to dawn.

Bibliography:

Menard, Pierre. “Page 356 – “‘Tell Us Now the Full Tale!’ Said Celeborn.”.” Rev. of The Lord of the Rings. Web log post. I Am Pierre Menard. Wordpress.com, 23 June 2012. Web. 15 Sept. 2012. <http://iampierremenard.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/page-356-tell-us-now-the- full-tale-said-celeborn/>.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. Great Britain: HarperCollins, 2004. Print.

oneyearreign: To the Sky Behind the Video Part 1 (by...

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 11:45:34 -0500

oneyearreign:

To the Sky Behind the Video Part 1 (by oneyearreignn)

This is a behind the scenes look at our very first music video. It is directed by Steve Gallardo, a friend of Ryan’s from school

(Project Development, Preproduction & Preparation)

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:09:00 -0500

Course: Project Development, PreProduction, and Preparation(aka DIP)

Description: We were assigned to make a short, silent film (to be shot on an old Bolex camera) that was enforcing one of several themes. The theme I chose was ‘No one is a loser with friends.”

Background: I interpreted the theme literally, having the main character Shawn being robbed & his friend Trevor helping to get it back. It’s nothing special, I am not really attached to this piece at all.

Watch Perp

EXT. CHICAGO STREET – EVENING

SHAWN walks down the street with his hands in his pockets, protecting them from the cold. Shawn is a average male, late twenties, with black hair and brown eyes. He wears long jeans and an enormous winter jacket.

As he walks past some stores, TREVOR comes out of a doorway. Shawn gives him a nod and a smile and Trevor merely looks, giving him the “What’s up?” nod at him while he lights a cigarette.

Shawn continues on away from Trevor. Trevor watches him go out of the corner of his eye. When Shawn turns the corner, Trevor leans on the wall and looks up into the sky, blowing out a puft of smoke.

EXT. CHICAGO ALLEYWAY – EVENING

Shawn walks through an alleyway, muttering about home. HOODED MAN walks toward Shawn coming from the opposite direction. Shawn sees him and gives him a wide berth. He also looks at the man shiftily and quickens his pace.

The man walks past Shawn without incident. Shawn breaths a sigh of relief and resumes his regular pace. The hooded man, however, turns around and starts walking behind him.

Shawn walks past an opening in the alleyway and sees the hooded man’s shadow behind him. Shawn’s eye’s widen in fear and he starts to run. Before he gets far, the hooded man catches up to him and grabs his wrist. He takes off Shawn’s watch, trips Shawn and runs off.

Shawn falls on the ground but rebounds back up and gives chase to the man.

EXT. CHICAGO STREET – EVENING

The hooded man speeds past Trevor, who is still leaning on the wall. Trevor looks after him with a raised eyebrow. Then Shawn rounds the corner. Trevor looks back at Shawn and then at the man running away. Trevor throws down his cigarette and takes off after the man.

EXT. CHICAGO ALLEY WAY – EVENING

The man looks behind him after going into another alley. He sees Trevor pounding after him and Shawn in his wake. The man tries to lose them both by speeding down branches in the alleys. This fails as a ploy as Trevor gains ground on him.

The man comes to a dead end and he slows to a stop. The man looks down to the ground uttering a soft curse. Trevor then tackles the man to the ground. Trevor decks the hooded man in the face, puts his foot on the man’s one hand to pin him down and extracts the watch from the man’s other hand.

As Trevor stands back up, Shawn comes up panting. Trevor gives him the watch back to Shawn with a smile. Shawn nods to him in thanks. They exit the alleyway.

Trevor pats Shawn on the back as Shawn shows him the other side of the watch, which reads:

“To my Beloved Shawn.”

These are my two favourite pictures from the show that I did...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 01:29:00 -0500

These are my two favourite pictures from the show that I did with Julia July 6th. It was a two hour set full of covers & originals. The first hour I was nervous as hell, tired, & hot. After a twenty minute break & breather I came back & put down balls-to-the-walls beats & blew my mind. I think. It’s all a blur to me, really. I got paid well though, I remember that part! The bar wants us back soon to play so I’m looking forward to playing it.

You can find the other pictures here at KHarding Photography

http://kharingphotography.zenfolio.com/julia

What's Star Wars? (Time as a Narrative Construct)

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 02:25:37 -0500

My junior year at Columbia I took a high philosophy class called “Time as Narrative Construct.” It was a really philosophical class bordering on existentialism. Not sure if I understood everything that was said in the class… But in order to pass the class we had to write a 15-20 page essay on an idea involving time. I decided to do time in a long form narrative (i.e. trilogies. Star Wars, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, etc.) & how the audience can decipher what’s has happened in the past installments. In order to complete this I included the terms “Incluing” & “information dump” which I reference & explain in the whole of the paper. All in all I am really proud of this. I read the original Star Wars script & used that as a reference in the final product & got an A on it. It was 16 pages long in its final form but the rough draft was 19 pages.

What’s Star Wars?

An Examination of Traditional Expository

Forms in a Cultural Phenomenon

In 1977 George Lucas released in theatres what would prove to be one of the most enduring space operas in history. It’s impact is felt now in current time with the Clone Wars on Cartoon Network as well as the first rerelease of the saga in 3D in theatres. It is Star Wars. But why has the worldwide public been so smitten with this space opera? How does a galaxy-wide story touch the hearts of each individual, from the elderly to the young? The answer is in the story. Luke is the classic teenager who wants more in his life – he wants to live. Throughout the original trilogy, Luke learns about life and grows up. By the end of the trilogy, Luke has grown up and become a man; but how do we find out about his past? The saga of Star Wars is a well-known example of what to do and what not to do in exposition by its contrasting use of incluing and information dumping, in and out of the dialogue, to clue in the viewer on back story elements. There is a distinct difference between the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy. In the original trilogy, incluing is used in effect while in the prequel trilogy information dumps are used everywhere.

One way to effectively communicate information in a film or other narrative form is a storytelling device that has been affectionately named incluing. Incluing is a technique of gradual submersion of the reader into the world of a film, book, or other such media. It’s use is preferred over information dumps simply because incluing is a more subtle way of giving the story worth. Author Jo Walton describes incluing as “the process of scattering information seamlessly through the text, as opposed to stopping the story to impart the information.” A form of incluing without any dialogue is often an opening scene of a film where we see the main characters daily life and how they respond to the needs of the morning. An example of incluing through actions is in the film Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006). In the movie, the main character, Zia, is shown tidying up his room for a full minute, if not more, painstakingly making sure that everything is in its place and isn’t on the floor or in out of order. After he has done his work in the bedroom he enters the bathroom where he proceeds to slash his wrists, fill up the sink with his blood, and end his life. This shows us that Zia is clean to a fault (he can’t leave this world without making sure it’s clean for who follows) and most likely has obsessive-compulsive disorder. After his dark suicide in the bathroom, he goes to an afterlife limbo where his obsessive-compulsive disorder clashes with this new world’s dirty uncleanliness. As a counterpoint to the action-oriented incluing, an example of incluing in dialogue is found in the film Stargate from 1994. In the film, the character of Jack O’Niell loses his son when the son plays with his gun and it goes off, accidentally killing himself. When Jack gets recruited to the Stargate project, the two officers who reinstated him speak to one another as they leave the house, offering an insight for the viewer to Jack’s depressive mentality.

Officer 1

Guy’s a mess. How’d he get like

that?

Officer 2

His kid died. Accidentally shot

himself.

Officer 1

Jesus…

Instead of seeing the kid die by gunshot and taking away a minute or so of the story, we hear about it from two nonessential characters. Nor is this done in a way to disconnect the audience from the story. It’s done point-blank so the audience can’t get it wrong or get the wrong ideas, very cut and dry. In books, incluing can be done in narrative descriptions. An example of this is in the book Live & Let Die by the British author Ian Fleming. This is the second book written about the character James Bond and for readers new to the series, Fleming makes it easy for them to jump right in as well as giving fans of the series new information without it being too redundants. “There are moments of great luxury in the life of a secret agent. There are assignments on which he is required to act the part of a very rich man; occasions when he takes refuge in good living to efface the memory of danger and the shadow of death; and times when, as was now the case, he is a guest in the territory of an allied Secret Service. From the moment the BOAC Stratocruiser taxied up to the International Air Terminal at Idlewild, James Bond was treated like royalty” (Fleming, 1). Here it is not directly stated what country Bond is from, where his allegiance lies, nor what kind of assignment he is on. All that is said is that he is not in his home territory and he is treated like a king in a friendly country, which it is ascertained wants the same thing as he does. Many authors dislike using long narrative or dialogue forms and instead they use a device of subtlety that gets the point across without losing the attention of the reader – a device that is called incluing.

After the incluing information, describing an information dump seems prudent. An information dump (often shortened & otherwise known as an “info dump”) is a large, ungainly amount of knowledge or background information put into a story in one spot, usually near the beginning of a narrative or included in the prologue. They are similar to the author’s footnotes because they suddenly stop the story and give other crucial information that the author feels the reader needs to understand in order to continue the story. It has a major flaw, however, as it usually does not fit seamlessly into the story. It doesn’t sound like the character saying it in the dialogue, or it feels like information jammed into somewhere it doesn’t belong. An example of this is in the film Scooby Doo (2002). Mystery Inc. works together to thwart their old partner & friend Scrappy-Doo who has turned to evil.

Velma

Scrappy-Doo…

Scrappy-Doo

Correction! The new improved Scrappy!

Because I, Scrappy-Dappy-Doo, have

absorbed enough energy to rule the

world with my all powerful army! And

I’ve brought you here, puny pathetic

Mystery Inc. to witness my moment of triumph. Who I need to complete my transformation is… Scooby-Doo!

Here all his plans are laid out, they are told up front what the stakes are and that the only way to stop Scrappy-Doo is to keep Scooby-Doo away and safe from him. However jarring this is in terms of narrative, Scooby-Doo is notorious for doing this. Whenever villains are unmasked in an episode of Scooby-Doo, Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo usually begin an information dump, which culminates with the villain uttering the famous phrase, “and I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids and you’re dumb dog!” or some variation or spin of it. An example of an information dump in a book is the published science fiction book The Lost World reluctantly authored by Michael Crichton. In the first book – Jurassic Park (1990) – the main character of Ian Malcolm perished, having been killed by the recreated dinosaurs & leaving little to no real room for a sequel. When the film Jurassic Park was made, Steven Spielberg issued that Crichton make a second book so another film could be made to play up the dinosaur theme and make some serious money. Instead of having the book revolve around Dr. Alan Grant, another main character from the book as well as the film, Crichton brought back the Chaos Theory professor Ian Malcolm to be his main character. His sudden reappearance is explained in the prologue of the second book. “Malcolm was forty years old, and a familiar figure at the Institute. He had been one of the early pioneers in chaos theory, but his promising career had been disrupted by a severe injury during a trip to Costa Rica; Malcolm had, in fact, been reported dead in several newscasts. ‘I was sorry you cut short the celebrations in mathematics departments around the country,’ he later said, ‘but it turns out I was only slightly dead. The surgeons have done wonders, as they will be the first to tell you. So now I am back – in my next iteration, you might say’” (Crichton, 1). Here it takes away so much from the actual book, yet is so crucial to the plot of the story (Malcolm is the main character, it would be difficult to execute the book without him), that it is included in the prologue to explain away his recovery from his “death” in the first novel rather than somewhere inside the meat & guts of the book. However necessary this is for the background of a plot, information dumping is a tedious evil & several writers and filmmakers have opted for a more elusive approach to storytelling.

In Star Wars: A New Hope Lucas begins his series with an unprecedented idea. It is now one of the defining moments in cinematic history. It is the opening crawl, sometimes called the roll-up, which is at the beginning of the film in the stead of opening credits. Ever since being made for the first of the films, the opening crawl has been featured in all of the Star Wars films as well as the cartoon series spin-off of Star Wars called The Clone Wars and also in video games set in the Star Wars universe. But which narrative device does it fall under? Is it a tedious information dump or is it a more gripping inclue? In order to obtain an answer one needs to read the original crawl that started it all.

Star Wars

It is a period of civil war.

Rebel spaceships, striking

from a hidden base, have won

their first victory against

the evil Galactic Empire.

During the battle, Rebel

spies managed to steal secret

plans to the Empire’s

ultimate weapon, the DEATH

STAR, an armored space

station with enough power

to destroy an entire planet.

Pursued by the Empire’s

sinister agents, Princess

Leia races home aboard her

starship, custodian of the

stolen plans that can save her

people and restore

freedom to the galaxy….

This is a great deal of information floating over the black of space for a series just starting to get its feet off the ground. But since it’s before the film even really starts it’s not really part of the film. Yes, it’s essentially a prologue but it offers background information in a large lump sum to the audience. It engages audiences and keeps them in the loop of the story instead of boring them with ineffective dialogue that goes over their heads or in one ear and out another. In an interview in 2005, Lucas describes the crawl. “The crawl is such a hard thing because you have to be careful that you’re not using too many words that people don’t understand. It’s like a poem. I showed the very first crawl to a bunch of friends of mine in the 1970s. It went on for six paragraphs with four sentences each. Brian De Palma was there, and he threw his hands up in the air and said, ‘George, you’re out of your mind! Let me sit down and write this for you.’ He helped me chop it down into the form that exists today” (Pearlman). Here it is seen that Lucas didn’t want the crawl/roll-up to be a clutter of techno-speak that people would get bored of. Taking into consideration that the audience wouldn’t appreciate a large essay to read to understand the world they were about to be immersed in goes in great strides away from being an information dump, but since it’s a large chunk of information that is used to inform the audience of the background of the story it falls under the classification of an information dump, as do the other crawls in the other 5 films that he has made to date.

Besides the opening crawl of the Star Wars films, the dialogue is another way of exposing exposition in the story. But is the dialogue just a dump for information or a more ingenious incluing technique? In the Star Wars script written by Lucas, he puts in a great deal of dialogue referencing the previous plot points of the story that people didn’t see yet, or haven’t seen yet, depending on when you were born. Right off the bat, Lucas begins with a bang. He introduces us to the crawl. As already stated, this is a form of an information dump, albeit a considerate dump. As the screenplay continues, the two droids that the series revolves around – C-3PO & R2-D2 – provide the first real bit of background information.

C-3PO

No more adventures. I’m not going that way.

(Lucas, 15). When C-3PO says this it is assumed that these droids have been on a space-faring journey before. And indeed they have as seen with the prequel installations (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, & Revenge of the Sith). For people who haven’t seen the prequel Star Wars the audience is almost immediately given a sense of what the two droids have been through. For those audience members who have already seen the prequel trilogy seeing these lines does not detract from the overall sweep of the film and isn’t sensed as an awkward line. The counterpoint to this dialogue can be seen in Revenge of the Sith. When the Chancellor is captured by the Separatist movement and Obi-Wan and Anakin have to save him and fight Count Dooku, Anakin gets a moment of information dumping.

Anakin

My powers have doubled since the last

time we met, Count.

(Lucas, 14) With Anakin blatantly coming out and calling Count Dooku on his powers the audience is let on that the two have met before. However, the way in which he says this words is not the most subtle way of doing it and is not complimentary to the flow of the film as a whole. Therefore, while not as bulky as a standard information dump this bit of dialogue does fall under the sway of an information dump. But the information presentation isn’t always an information dump as the exposition in the original saga continues when Uncle Owen buys the two droids and Luke is fixing up R2 in A New Hope.

Luke

Have you been in many battles?

C-3PO

Several, I think. Actually,

there’s not much to tell. I’m

not much more than an interpreter,

& not very good at telling stories.

Well, not at making them interesting anyways.

(Lucas, 28). During this exchange we learn that C-3PO and R2-D2 have been around blasters and been in battle before. This excerpt is an example of an inclue because the dialogue that C-3PO uses aren’t in a different voice and doesn’t take away from the flow of the scene involving the information. There is also a hint of foreshadowing with C-3PO being a storytelling, but this isn’t about that. An information dump in the prequel trilogy comes from the scene where Qui-Gon Jin is explaining the Force to young Anakin Skywalker.

Qui-Gon Jin

Midichlorians are microscopic life forms

that reside in all living things.

(Lucas, 87). Here the concept of midichlorians is introduced to the audience. Since these bacteria (or other such microscopic beings) have not been introduced in the saga before (or even mentioned at all in the following five films) it requires some heavy explaining -

Qui-Gon Jin

Without the midichlorians, life could not

exist, and we would know no knowledge

of the Force. They continually speak to us.

telling us the will of the Force. When you

learn to quiet your mind, you’ll hear them

speaking to you.

(Lucas, 87). I qualify this as more of an information dump because not only is it a load of information that takes viewers away from the storyline, but it is said in a voice that isn’t Qui-Gon’s speech. When the audience first hears about these midichlorians they are confused about what they are, seeing as Qui-Gon never really explained how they got into ones body or why they aren’t in everyone’s blood like they are in Anakin’s. In the original trilogy Lucas had a basic blueprint of the events he wanted to have happen in the prequel trilogy. This included the galaxy-spanning Clones Wars and what role Luke’s father would be in it.

Luke

You fought in the Clone Wars?

Ben

Yes I was once a Jedi Knight,

the same as your father.

Luke

I wish I’d known him.

Ben

He was the best star-pilot in

the galaxy and a cunning warrior.

(Lucas, 43). Through the dialogue we are given a sense of the Skywalker heritage. Because Ben Kenobi was a friend of Anakin he has authority to speak on the subject of Luke’s father, giving him insight both to Luke and to the audience who might not know who this person was that Luke calls his father. The ones who haven’t seen the series before are able to discern that Luke’s father was one of the best pilot’s in the known galaxy and still be able to remain immersed in the story. Also, because the lines aren’t paragraphs long and aren’t filled with information that is too much to handle, this bit of dialogue falls under the category of an inclue. Going back and forth between the two trilogies, it seems that the information dumping is used more heavily in the prequel trilogy while in the original trilogy incluing is more of an effective storytelling device. This can be attributed to the fact that George Lucas had other writers write the screenplay’s for in the original as well has have other directs come in to direct the films while in the prequel trilogy its all him from the writing to the directing.

How long are the films apart? What happens in-between chapters in the series? Are these questions ever addressed in the films? Perhaps the biggest reference that is ever seen in Star Wars is Leia’s message on R2 in the second act of the film that started it all. In it we find out that Obi-Wan was working for her father but is that all we find out?

Leia

General Kenobi, years ago you

served my father in the Clone

Wars.

(Lucas, 46). In this inclue, Leia tells both Luke and the viewer that Kenobi was a general in the Clone Wars and served under Bail Organa – Leia’s father. The Clone Wars was a pretext of the events to follow in A New Hope. However, the amount of time is never addressed in the films, leaving one to wonder how long the transitions between installments are. Perhaps the closet reference we get is when Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader talk about Obi-Wan on the Death Star.

Tarkin

The Jedi are extinct, their fire

has gone out of the universe. You,

my friend, are all that’s left of

their religion.

(Lucas, 99). Here, Tarkin alludes to the fact that Darth Vader is the last of the Jedi Order and the rest of the Jedi were eliminated. In the Expanded Universe we find out that the Emperor and Darth Vader led a Jedi Purge to rid the galaxy of them. The purge happens in the years between the events in Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. But what else happens? Are there any other clues in the films as to what happens in the small time from film to film? For example, officially the events between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are a year apart. This span of time is never addressed in either the dialogue or the actions in the films. Because Leia, Luke, & Lando go and rescue Han together in a grand plan it seems that the event in Return of the Jedi happen perhaps a month in the wake of The Empire Strikes Back. Today any viewer can look up the time between films on the Internet but the audience in the theatre has no idea how long it’s been. In real life, all of the films were released in three-year intervals (save for a sixteen year span between Return of the Jedi and A Phantom Menace) but this real life time doesn’t reflect the series time as the start of A Phantom Menace to the end of Return of the Jedi lasts thirty seven years. To make the films it took twenty eight years of releasing (and if we subtract the sixteen years that Lucas was bidding his time for technology we come out with twelve years of production and releases) which isn’t the real time in the Star Wars universe. Within the films, there is no real indicator of the span of time covered in the installations and if we look to real life time passage we come up with a different number than the real number of years it covers, according to the creator, George Lucas.

In finale, the Star Wars films are an excellent example of incluing and how to keep an audience entertained throughout a long form narrative. Taking a look at other examples of what to do and what not to do has been able to help achieve an understanding of incluing & information dumps as well as to find out how to combat boring and less than enthusiastic dialogue with more intriguing spurts of information. Lucas accomplishes being able to combine lengthy and important information while at the same time keeping the audience entertained.

Dream Biography (Writing & Rhetoric I)

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 20:11:24 -0500

My freshmen year I took the first Writing & Rhetoric class. As a fun assignment we had to write our lives the way we would want them to pan out. I loved this assignment & even though my goals & aspirations have changed a bit (I want to be a songwriter & performer as much as I want to be a script-writer) it’s nice too look back on how I’ve changed.

Ryan Graduated Columbia College Chicago in 2013 and set to work right away. A few months after he graduated, he finished a script. He sent it off to various producing companies and waited for them to be accepted. While he waited, he started working on more works and dated the woman who would be his future wife- Gwen.

After two years of hearing from no one about his film script, Ryan decided to make the film himself. In the summer of 2017, Ryan released “Dreamscape,” a film about the main characters dreams coming to fruition. It was a moderate success. After it was released, Ryan proposed to Gwen and she happily accepted.

When they returned from their honeymoon, they moved to Montana. Ryan, in this isolation, write and developed another script. This time it was picked up by Paramount Pictures and was put into production immediately. In 2019, “Monica” was released. The film follows a man who meets a woman while on vacation in Galveston, Texas. He believes that she is the one for him and follows her, only to discover that she is already married. Although “Monica” was a bigger hit for Ryan, it gave him lackluster sales. Regardless of this, Ryan made his own production company: Cipherpixy Productions.

With these two moderate successes under his belt, Ryan went on to write the genre he really wanted to: Science Fiction. His first attempt at this he discarded, feeling that it wasn’t a good enough story to elaborate on. But in 2021, he finally developed his first script. Cipherpixy Productions quickly produced and filmed it and it was released in winter of 2021. It was called “Opps” and was about an alien species that got lost on their way home, believing Earth was their home planet that was invaded by humans. They subjugated all of Asia before realizing their mistake. To “fix” their mistake, the pretty much destroyed the rest of the world. “Opps” was a smash hit and many more expected great things from Ryan.

After “Opps,” Gwen & Ryan moved down to Australia. Ryan started co-writing another script with former actor Sam Neill. Soon after they finished, Gwen had her first child. It was a boy which they named Ajax. After 6 months of caring for Ajax, Grace sent off his script to the Cipherpixy Headquarters in Naperville, IL. They quickly picked up on it and set off to produce it right away. In 2025, “The War of Wrongs” was released. It was a film about an alternate ending to the First World War where Russia makes an alliance with Germany and Austria to put down the Lenin revolt. From there on, Communism is basically lost forever and Adolf Hitler dies in the fight against the Bolsheviks, therefore avoiding the Nazi’s rise to power.

When it was released in Australia, Gwen had their second child- a girl named Darcy. They all went to see “A War Of Wrongs” in theater’s. As they were inside, a massive thunderstorm brewed outside. When the Grace’s left the debut, a lightning strike hit Ryan. He was promptly rushed to the hospital. He perished two days later. The date was October 28th, 2025 and he was 34 years old. A funeral was held in Montana and Ryan’s ashes were scattered in the wind to the north.

Drumline Speech (Marching Knights)

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 01:40:59 -0500

This is from my senior year of high school after we played our last performance as a drumline. I decided to do something special & give a speech to everyone in the drumline, from pit to batterie. It was well received & there WAS a video of it on youtube but i cannot find it anymore.

Speech

This has been a wondrous year for all of us. What a great show to end a career upon. The music speaks for itself and us. This drumline emulates the music like no other. But I haven’t written this speech to admire the music, I wrote it for you.
The drumline has become a family this year unlike any other year that I’ve been here. This is the first year that we’ve operated together. Though, like any other family we’ve had our share of fights, we’ve come together at the end to win awards. But the awards mean nothing. We already knew we were the best drumline. In our hearts we knew that we bested everyone else in four states.
All of you I will miss, you can be sure of that. From Frank helping with the pit loading, to Josh and Kelly bickering like they are married; from Kyle’s British accent to Doll’s dark pessimism; from Blankenberger’s reaction to the first impression to Sam’s unending drama; from Blake’s triple tenor singing voice to Amanda’s fear of me. You have all chipped at who I am and left your own marks upon my soul. It is truly a regret of mine that I have to leave such a great organization.
For the Westers that are here, you know a little of the feeling we seniors have. But regardless, you’re devotion has been a great addition to the force of the drumline and they are losing exceptional talent once you leave. But always remember you’re roots here, it will serve you well in the new school.
Saturday it hit me that I was in such a great group. Thank you all for understanding & I’m sorry for making pretty much half of you cry. I have a quote to say to you all and I hope that it affects you like it has me. “Catch the Keys” from Nick waters. I hope it was hard hitting for you.
For the seniors, what a great career we’ve made. We came in with winning the drumline award in Illinois to winning it in Minnesota. We’ve come full circle. Sorry, I thought I needed to say it. You are my family and have inspired me to strive for the extra mile and beyond. I shall miss all of you without reservation. This is it for the 7 of us. Dan, Nikki, Steve, Emma, Bailey, and Deanne it has been wonderful serving with you for the past 4 years. We’ve laid down our legacy, now it’s time to see how the rest of the drumline continues it.
Farewell to all of you and I hope that you follow your dreams, hopes, and aspirations in the future. And don’t forget to thank Keith, Scott and the many techs who have helped us for sacrificing their time and patience for us.

Spur of the moment inspiration

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 01:02:33 -0500

Tonight I watched Lars & the Real Girl & i was spurred to write a song. Before I watched the movie I had rummaged through my old guitar class stuff from 3-4 years ago & found a song that I had meant to show my last band, Sit There & Take It. I re-worked the lyrics & updated them, the chords I changed a bit as well, but the best part of it was the intro/verse part. I demo’d it & sent it to Zach who enjoyed it & now I think we (as in One Year Reign) might expand on it, finish it, record it, play it live, & eventually release it.

The title is tentativly Why oh Pretty You.

A Good Man (Moving Image Production II)

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:12:40 -0500

Description: We were given a treatment that a classmate wrote & we had to make it our own and then shoot on a bolex camera.

Background: I just changed minuet details. Like character names and such. The rest is Andrew’s work.

When we shot this it turned out horrible. The cage (where we had to transfer our film into digital work we could edit on our computers) lost a whole roll of my 100 meter film. So, my end result did not look like this. At all.

A Good Man

1 INT. EVIDENCE ROOM - DAT

ROGER PICKELS, a man in his late twenties, opens his evidence room. Inside are boxes piled on top of each other with their labels mix-matched and facing the door where Roger stands.

Roger enters the room and shuffles to the back-most boxes. He searches for a box and stops at a box entitled “Alan Wilmet.” He takes it and places it in the center of the room. Roger opens it and withdraws a Ziploc bag from it. He stuffs the bag inside in coat pocket, kicks the box to the side and leaves the room.

2 EXT. CHICAGO STREET – DAY

JEFF TIDYWINKS, an eighteen year-old male with short hair, walks down a Chicagoan street. He has a charismatic air around him and he smiles at the people passing him. He rounds the corner of the street and pulls back his sleeve to reveal his watch. He glances at it and gasps. He searches around him for a shortcut.

In front of Jeff, Roger walks the street. His arms are stuffed in his trench coat; he wears a brown fedora pulled close to his eyes. He stops in front of an entrance to an alleyway and looks round. When no one is looking in his direction, he heads down the alley.

Jeff notices Roger go down the alley and follows him. He jogs down it. Ahead of him, Roger walks at a brisk pace. Intrigued, Jeff shadows him at a distance. Roger drops a manila envelope without breaking his stride. He walks a few more paces and picks up a different envelope then continues walking. Curious, Jeff goes to the envelope. However, ALAN- twenties with dirty clothing and an unkempt beard- is sitting right in front of the envelope. As he reaches toward it, Jeff picks it up instead. Alan quickly withdraws his hand and glares menacingly at Jeff. Jeff notices Alan, but hurries off after Roger. Alan gets up and stalks Jeff.

Roger walks across the street. Jeff tries to follow him but is stopped by a “No crossing” signal. The envelope rests in his hand. Alan comes up behind him and forms a fist. As he raises the fist, Jeff crosses the street. Alan nonchalantly follows him.

3 INT. CHICAGO BUILDING - DAY

Roger has entered a building by now. He enters a staircase and begins to ascend it. Behind him, Jeff enters and sees the end tail of Roger’s coat go up the staircase. He follows him up as Alan enters behind Jeff.

Roger opens a door to the next floor when he suddenly stops. He takes out the new envelope and opens it, revealing a bundle of cash within it. He turns around and sees Jeff walking up behind him, panting. Jeff hands him the envelope with a trembling hand. Roger’s eyes widen in horror and he dashes back down the stairs.

Alan waits in a shadowed area of the staircase as Roger runs past. Jeff comes down as well, but more slowly. When he passes Alan, Alan pounces on him and strangles him with a shoelace. Jeff’s body struggles and then stops.

4 EXT. CHICAGO STREET

Roger runs back to where he previously dropped the envelope but does not see Alan. He opens the manila envelope and sees a bloodied knife within it with the label “Fingerprints” on it. Roger puts it back inside the envelope and sets the envelope down. He walks away.

P.S. The picture has nothing to do with the story. Just a side note that I know is right.

Ryan Grace's Art of War (Positive Psychology)

Wed, 30 May 2012 01:37:57 -0500

Description: I don’t know what we were supposed to write about. Something about communities or what we learned in class. She didn’t really give any instructions on what to do, so i decided to wing it.

Background: I have been reading up on some alternative history books about World War II & the Civil War & wanted to explore more into what war does to people & how they survive in it.

In war there are two sides. Sometimes it increases to three, maybe four. But however many aggressors there are in a war one thing remains constant and that is that men do the fighting. In order to cope with death all around them they form bonds, sometimes positive & other times negative.

In wartime, soldiers are effectively put into communities, ranging from large (Armies, Corps, Divisions, Brigades) to small (Companies, Squads, Units). These do great in organizing troops and moving them across battlefronts and lines of war. But even though the Commander Officers categorize these army units, they cannot force the troops fighting together to bond with each other. That is done of the soldiers’ own free will. One of the many reasons why they do that is, simply put, there is no one else around except citizens that either hate them, can’t speak their language or are scared of them or soldiers on the opposite front trying to harm, maim, or kill them. Because of this the troops are sociable within their own ranks. A more relevant reason is that they travel, sleep, eat, & wait with each other. These activities would be extraordinarily boring if they were done silently. Imagine eating with two hundred other people & not a word was said. That would be an awkward dinner. In order to liven up & have the time go by faster, they talk to each other & become friends. Of course there is the lonely few that eat by themselves (as in almost every community) but the more friendly & amicable troops will try to strike up a conversation. But the most important reason that troops are able to bond with one another is the most dreadful. The main point of a war is to win. The main way of winning is to whittle down the forces opposite side of the conflict. This might not be the most ethic way of winning but to date it is the most widely used way of winning. Of course, troops realize this. Maybe not when the volunteer but after their first engagement with enemy forces, this will hit them full force. In order to cope with the mass of death, destruction, & limbs they will bond with the men in their company. In The Man with the Iron Heart by Harry Turtledove, he writes, “Bernie Cobb liked Lou Weissman. Sure he was a little inflated in his head but he could look past that. In times like these though you couldn’t pick and choose. And besides, when you know you’re going to die with someone, you are forced to be chums with him. Dying is like love. It’s the most intimate thing someone can do.” (376) Bernie is right, you only die once & whom you share that death with has an undeniable bond with you. It’s like marriage, sort of. You only marry once (supposedly) & you share your life with them. You only die once & you share your death with those in your unit. Since those in war are liable to die, they form close bonds, knowing the men & women they fight with could very well be the last human they are with before death knocks on their door & takes them away.

Armies are a communistic community, or at least resemble one. Even though armies are from countries that are democratic, socialist, or monarchist they themselves don’t function the same way as their countries governments. Since the army is made up of people that are in the same situation as the next person, they have the same wants & needs. For example, in World War Two, soldiers often traded cigarettes for rations. The army rationed out cigarettes along with food to their troopers, & since troops didn’t make money as often as people do in the modern times they used cigarettes as currency. Or, in even more popular cases, they just shared their cigarettes with the soldier who already used them up. Troops share with one another because they hope for the same treatment when they use up their cigarettes, if that ever happens. Because troops have a link with one another, they feel they have to look after each other. If don’t, who will? Also, troops usually aren’t the ones who pick their commanding officers. Commanding officers aren’t chosen by a bloodline or royal status- or rather, not anymore (the days of knights & Medieval Kingdoms are finished). The leader of the country they originate from chooses the commanding officers. As a war progresses, the troops find that they hate their commanding officers for not finishing the war by Christmas or next month as CO’s used to do. But what can they do about it? If they try to raises a Coup d’etat & fail they are court marshaled. If they succeed they have to convince the rest of the army they can lead (which is not a small task at all). If a trooper tries to run away & they get caught they are court marshaled or worse, shot. But if the trooper gets away clean, they are enclosed in a hostile country or unfamiliar territory & it takes a war of their own to get home. If a soldier complains to an officer about the overall commanding officer nothing will happen. So as troops go, they have no effect on the pickings of their own commanding officers, however much they find them in distaste. But for those men or women how follow orders, they usually do so to a “T.” For those soldiers who are battle hardened, they neither question nor doubt orders from on top. For those who cannot stomach such orders or refuse to carry them out are court marshaled for insubordination or shot by firing squad for treason. So, since the army operates by rules that don’t compare to their country they build their own community without rules, except those unwritten. If a man next to you asks for a cigarette for free, you give him one anyway. If your commanding officer is making empty promises, you carry on anyway. If your CO gives distasteful orders, you do them anyway. This is all for the sake of your country.

When the fighting is finished & war is over the men go home. But so do the experiences of war. Too many times men come home relieved that they won’t have to kill again when they start having flashbacks. They go to psychologists, they go to therapists, they go to doctors, or they try to cope by themselves. A great deal of the time, however, these flashbacks, dreams & nightmares do not go away. This is shared by many of the troopers in their old unit, giving them another connection. Troops come home with horrid & vivid memories of atrocities, death & pain. These never go away, staying with them like their skin. If they try to take of their skin, they lose who they are. If they try to forget these memories it will haunt them even more. They’ll never forget those who fought & died with them.

The men in the communities of war share a bond that cannot be replicated. They share their lives, they share their ideas, and they share their cigarettes. A bond is shared that only death can break, which, ironically enough, is created by fear of death. Because soldiers fight besides one another & die with one another they understand that they are connected by something more than they can understand. War is something that men fear. To put up with this fear they do what they can to survive with one another. To take their mind off the ever-looming presence of death they have fun with the men that are in their own unit. Once someone dies off in their unit, remorse is kept to a minimum, the surviving troopers having to focus on the battlefield & fighting to stay alive another minute longer.

To end, wartime communities are something that is unique to war, however depressing that is. Men in these communities have made friends for life that are irreplaceable. They forge bonds that are never easily broken. Bonds like this are sought after by everyone; everyone wants a forever friend built on something that is life changing- life threatening. Communities like this can take a lifetime to find, but last the rest of that lifetime.

*Disclaimer: This paper was built on books & history. I have not been to war, nor do I claim ever having been to war. This paper was based on opinions drawn upon by reading wartime novels & historical accounts.

Lost Muse (Story In Fiction & Film)

Sat, 26 May 2012 01:02:49 -0500

In my freshmen year we had the Story in Fiction & Film class that I described previously. In this edition I wrote about my friends album & a character trying to find it but while he searches for it he finds other lost treasures. When I rediscovered this on facebook I had written my own little backgroud on it, it’s as follows…

Description: We were to write a story that revolved around an item of some sort.

Background: Seeing as I wrote this one the train ride home at midnight a few nights ago, I didn’t except this to be ground breaking. However there are some local references I put in there as Easter Eggs, see if you can find them all.

Lost Muse

As Calvin Muse sat at his computer desk, he sighs and puts his head down. He gropes’ on the desktop to find his CD of Joe Sforza. Calvin’s room is a mid-sized room with black wallpapering and beige carpeting. His small one-person bed is positioned on the left side of the room with on the right side is his computer desk. At the foot of his bed is a wardrobe full of his clothes, mostly with band logos upon them. At this moment, Calvin is wearing one with the band name “The Lonely Hearts Band.”

Calvin keeps moving his hands searching for it. When he can’t find it a few more times, he lifts his head up. “Where’s that Joe Sforza album?” He moves away from his desk and opens a drawer. He rummages through the drawer with his hand, but when he still can’t find it he moves his head down and looks with his eyes. He audibly sighs and gets up from his desk.

He shuffles over to his CD collection and browses through it. He passes over some bands like “Sit There And Take It,” “Gentle M.A.C.,” and “DJ Earworm.” He doesn’t see anything with Joe Sforza’s name on it.

Calvin walks to his doorway into his room. He opens the door and calls down the hall, “Mom? Have you seen the album ‘Changes’ by Joe Sforza?”

His mom answers with “Who’s Joe Sforza?”

Calvin withdraws his head and shakes his head. “Forget it.” He next searches under his bed. Instead of finding the album, however, Calvin finds his Yo-yo from his eighth grade year. He snatches it and stands up.

He spins it a few seconds; “I hardly remember these things anymore. What else is under my bed?” As if to put movement with his words, Calvin goes prone and thrusts his hands under the bed, his yo-yo by his waist. He starts withdrawing all sorts of antiques. Among them are posters of movies from the 90’s, a small calculator, a half dozen bouncy balls, and a multitude of papers both graded and not.

After a few minutes of taking things from his bed, a small pile of forgotten items now found appears by Calvin’s head. None of them the Joe Sforza album he was desperately searching for. However, the album now lay at the back of Calvin’s mind. His new stack of old treasures, on the other hand, had captured and retained his attention.

“Ah… A ‘Mach’ poster… I remember this film… What’s this? My ACT? Pssh, whatever to this. Ew… a stick of gum…” Calvin picks up the corresponding objects and examines them for a few moments before putting them all eventually in another growing pile. Once he reaches the end of the pile he shakes his head. “Wait, Joe’s album. Gotta find that.”

Calvin walks away from his pile of things and out of his room. He opens the door to the basement and proceeds to move into it’s depths. When he reaches the base of the stairs he flicks on a light. In the basement several tables are set up in a triangular shape. Behind one of the tables is a small outcropping with a TV mounted on the wall and couches surrounding it. Behind one other table is a room. It is there that Calvin moves toward.

Calvin pulls the door open and turns on the lights. Within the room are tall stacks of books, movies, and CD’s. He passes the books’ stack and the film stack. He crouches down and starts moving methodically upward on the CD stacks. He pulls out some CD’s and gives them a quick one-over and moves on. In the case of some others he pulls them out and looks them for more than one moment. Most of these he sets in a pile on the floor.

“Where is that CD?” Calvin mutters as he steadily climbs the stacks to no avail. He reaches the top of the stack and pulls out a Joe Sforza CD. Hope flutters in Calvin’s eyes, but it quickly dies when he sees that it’s only his “Rescue Me” single. He puts it back and sits on the floor with a huff. He looks to the stack of CD’s he put on the ground and picks it up. He leaves the room and puts this stack on the stairs going up.

That being done, Calvin goes to the TV outcropping and turns on the television. He crosses his foot on his knee and starts watching “The Adventures of Fredward the Flaming Gerbil.” He laughs as Fredward gets into all kinds of trouble and then puts his feet on the table in front of him. As he does so he pushes a square object off the table. Curious, Calvin gets up and trots to the other side of the table to see what he moved. Low and behold, it’s the “Changes” album Calvin was searching for!

Calvin pumps the air in triumph and dashes upstairs. He enters his room and plops the album in his disc player and begins to jam out to the wondrous music that pumps through the speakers. Rejuvenated, Calvin begins to work on his homework once more.

~End

Hi. My name is Sylvia and i'm not an Ignorant.

Wed, 23 May 2012 00:31:17 -0500

You have no idea how much that means to me! The world is a better place with you in it! Thank you for being open-minded! :D

Signing a Petition.

Mon, 21 May 2012 23:35:06 -0500

I’m a fan of The Finder, a spin-off of the FOX show Bones. I’ve been watching it on Hulu & currently am watching the final episode of the first season. After researching it a bit I discovered that it had not been renewed for a second season due to lackluster ratings. I dug around a bit on the internet & found a petition to “Save the Finder.” I signed it & left a mini-essay on the site - the longest comment on the page. I’m signer number 10,105.

“In order to make a show fresh and (semi) original, the characters that drive the show have to be quirky & memorable. The Finder succeeds in this. Walter is one of the most fascinating people that I have had the luxury of watching on television; his motives are his own & he doesn’t need other people to understand his psyche. When I think of outstanding characters in TV shows I think of Eric Cartman (South Park), Jack Carter (Eureka), Jack O’Neill (Stargate), Mozzie (White Collar) as well as Walter Sherman from the Finder. I feel, that if given the right timeslot for an audience, the Finder can utilize this strong advantage that they have. Yes, sometimes the scenarios aren’t always believable, but Walter is always sporadic & unpredictable. This is why, in my opinion, The Finder, though the underdog of primetime TV, is deserving of a second season to flex it’s advantages.”

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/406/663/146/save-the-finder-on-fox/

Just an Update

Thu, 17 May 2012 01:09:31 -0500

Hi. I’m Ryan. & I’m an aspiring writer & performer & other things. This is merely an update for my followers.

So over the summer I’m working on a lot of things. In the last few weeks of my junior year of college I decided I wanted to write a sci-fi novel. During those weeks of writing a 120 page screenplay & a 20 page research paper on Star Wars (Which I’ll probably be posting soon with rewrites) I started to write the exposition & backstory of the book with help from Mike Griffiths. Recently I finished the first draft of a short story for the prequel. Hopefully I’ll start circulating that around. Arkie Ring is supposed to be drawing some concept art for me & I can start the novel (maybe a trilogy) sometime after that.

After I showed Angela Block a short script I did in Screenwriting I she wanted to turn it into a child’s book. At first I didn’t understand how it could be a children’s book, but she convinced me otherwise & now I’m reformatting & rewriting it so she can draw the corresponding pictures for it.

One Year Reign has slowed down for now but in the summer we plan on releasing a single as well as a music video for the song. We’ll be playing graduation parties as well as a venue or two down the road. Look us up!

Otherwise I work full time at Wal-Mart & after my first week starting at full time I got overtime, which tells me how much they need me.

Dan Frank's Diary of Dangerous, Sexy Deeds (Senior English)

Tue, 15 May 2012 12:17:57 -0500

I sat next to this interesting character in my Senior English class my last year of high school & I wanted to document all the things he does/says. I found this on my facebook along with a great many other things I’ll be posting soon. I wonder how Dan’s doing….

So, this is basically me(that is, Ryan Grace) keeping a log of all the funny stuff & stunts that my grand friend, Daniel Heinrich, does in & out of English Class. This is Dan.
Many of you have already heard of Dan, but you don’t know that person. Dan is a truely inspiring being & he is quite a hysterical character, as many can already atest to. So, I’ll try to update this log of Dan & his misadventures. I might make it into a book later in life when I’m low on the green stuff. So i made a title for it(which dan “elaborated” upon)

Dan’s Documents of Dangerous Deeds
or
Dan Frank’s Diary of Dangerous, Sexy Deeds

Ireallydon’t rememberwhenthishappened- Dan had horrid diarrhea. He comes to class with magenta coloured face. He sits down in a huff. He then states that he’s had a horrible day so far. He wants to leave the class and drive home even though he doesn’t have his house keys. He says he’ll just sit in front of his house in the fetal position whimpering. But he stays. He then takes my two hairties(one brown & one black). He gives a demonstration of how he’s feeling. “Okay, Ryan this is how I feel right now. This black one is my butt & this brown one is the diarrhea. Observe.” He then pushes the brown hairtie into the black one, grunting all the while. After this, he takes the hairties & puts them around his pantlegs. When questioned he says its “To stop the flow if I fail at keeping it in.” As we leave class, he says that if i see brown spots dotting the halls, he didn’t make it home without incident.

10/4/08- Homecoming. Dans goes with a seperate group from mine. His friends take picture of his exploits throughout the dance. In one picture, there is myself & Ali in the background with me looking straight at the camera. Dan leaves soon after & goes to Steak ‘n Shake.
his “phat” moves at homecomingOh yeah … ; )the homecoming picture. Ali & I are in the top right corner. Note how i’m glaring at the camera

11/3/08- Dan & I go to Steak ‘n Shake at 7 in the morning . I tell him that they have breakfast & he didn’t know that. Yet he orders the frisco melt. I order the double cheeseburger. We are the only people there besides our waitress & a man sitting at the counter reading his paper & probably overhearing our conversation. She seemed pretty peeved at us for being there so early. We left a tip & a fishing store buisiness card & a message on the back. “Call me ;)”

11/13/08- Dan makes a high-pitched squeeling noise. He believes Ryan is the only one who can hear him, yet more than half the class hears him & Mrs. Hughes gives him a look of disbelief.

11/14/08- Dan walks downstairs in his house in the morning naked, hoping to eat breakfast without any clothes. However, his little brother is still home & dan is immediatly embarrassed.

11/14/08- Dan has a hole in the crotch of his tan pants & told us to see it when he presents a good oppurtunity.

11/3, 11/11, 11/18/08- On the Steak ‘n Shake visit day, Dan writes something in my notebook I keep in my car. He then leaves it there for all to see. The notebook note that causes several awkward silences …
Me in my stupidity didn’t think anyone would notice it. But then my girlfriend at the time, Ali, sees it & asks why. I answer that Dan was being funny. She laughs & turns red with embarassment. It was cute. I then tell Dan about her reaction. He is speechless, sputters & doesn’t know what to say, so he doesn’t say anything. Awkward silence follows …

11/19/08- Dan: “I wish I was your father, Ryan.”
Ryan: ” …”
Dan: “Yeah, that’s not something you’d say to a stranger!”

11/19/08- Dan: “You could write a book with these!”(In reference to this document)

11/19/08- Dan makes a twizzler necklaceout of multi-coloured twizzlettes. He then puts it on the board in front of our table. it stays there for two weeks then mysteriously dissappears.

11/19/08- Dan turns to the classmate behind us, Mayra, & asks if she can see how dirty his shorts are. He picked them off the floor without washing them hoping that no one would notice. Yet he told us they were dirty. Silly Dan …

11/20/08- Ryan: “You know, with that Lemonhead in your mouth, you sound like your an idiot.”
Dan: “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know today was National Be-A-Jerk Day!”

11/20/08- Dan: “Class is fun!” (We pick up our books to read) “… This sucks!”(throws book down)

11/20/08- Dan: “It’s just us. That word is the most important. Listen, Mr. Liz(classmate next to Mayra). Now, ‘Just us’, that could work. It rolls off the tongue like a big, juicy brownie.”

11/20/08- Dan: “We were in an elevator. There were six of us. right next to the garbage can. So we all just didn’t say anything because of the wretched smell. Then I let one rip. And they all turned to me. ‘Man, why’d you do that?!’ Well, let me tell you, we all left as fast as we could!”

11/20/08- Dan:”I was putting clothes into my laundry shute about three years ago. But it wouldn’t go down. So I started to push them with my feet. I slowly slipped down the shute. Then my arm slipped & I was hangning on for a bit. Then I just fell. But I got stick. So my brother was poking my with a broomstick & throwing things on me. And there was a nail in the side of my body. Dan’s laundry shute diagram
Like right under my right arm.And it was tearing my skin, and let me tell you, it was just horrible. And so there I was dangleing from the shute. My legs were kicking & flailing & putting on a show for the audience below me. My mother was laughing at me & telling me she was going to feed my from there! Eventually I just fell. At least 8 feet down. That hurt!”

11/20/08- Dan: “I remember this one time I drank pepper juice. I was just sitting on my couch watching TV & I reached over for my drink(which was right next to my pepper juice) & took a swallow & I freaked out! Then I’m like ‘That was pretty good!’ So I kept drinking it, but a little at a time, so it wasn’t spicy like it was the first time. I downed the whole bottle. And let, guys let me tell you, I had THE WORST diarrhea EVER! It’s like, World War II-like action! Something you don’t want your family hearing. So if you ever drink pepper juice, you’ll have the runs like never before.”

11/20/08- Ryan posts a dark status message to which dan replies “a little hug can go a long way.” touching.

11/21/08- Dan takes off his right shoe & sock in class. He then proceeds to tap me on the leg with his uncovered foot. Dan than asks ‘Sticky, isn’t it?’ I just turn away & laugh silently. He then puts that foot on the table & hums a bit. After that, he puts his coverings back on.

11/25/08- Dan has a mug in class that has “Naughty” and “Nice” on opposite sides of the outside. Liz comments if he’s naughty or nice, like the mug says. Dan replies “Sometimes I’m nice, but today I’m NAUGHTY!!” he turns to cup to each side respectively as he says this.

11/25/08- Dan pulls up his shorts leggings so that most of his thighs are exposed. Liz then takes out her camera-phone in order to take a photo. Dan then says “Oh, well if you’re going to do that … ” He then takes his Naughty/Nice cup places it over his crotch. Next, he looks seductive while Liz takes a picture.
The picture of Dan with his Naughty/Nice cup

11/26/08- Dan isn’t at school. However, his presence is omnipotent. During 2nd hour, he sends a photo to Liz. She then shows myself & Mayra this picture. It is of Dan in a bathtub with himself looking very dashing, while being naked. After we stopped laughing, Mayra comments “He’s right, he is very hairy!”
Dan’s picture that he sent to Liz

12/1/08- Mayra: “I got a spider bite over the weekend.”
Dan: “I know, I see it. It looks awful. Oh! um, I mean …”

12/5/08- Dan: “Hair doesn’t make the man & face things don’t make the girl”(in reference to Mayra’s spider bite.)

12/5/08- Dan: “Wanna shave my butt? I can’t really reach, so you guys can come over & do it for me.”

Final (Exploring the Goddess)

Wed, 09 May 2012 22:21:42 -0500

For the Final Project in Exploring the Goddess we had to make a creative project that showed the endangerment of mother earth along with an accompanying paper explaining the project. I teamed up with Arkie Ring & he drew two posters each with five animals; one for Endangered animals & the other of extinct animals. I wrote the paper explaining our motives.

The Endangered Animals: The Ocelot, The Steller Sea Lion, The Tiger, Aye-Aye, & Xenosaurus Granis

The Extinct Animals:The Quagga, the Irish Elk, Tyrannosaurus Rex, The Dodo & the Thylacine

For the final project we have decided to make posters of extinct and endangered species and explain how their absence has or will influence the ecosystem around us. On the posters, the creatures will be hand-drawn by Arkie with the descriptions how their impact on the environment written by Ryan. The concept first came up when the class was discussing the changes in our society due to all the horrible things that humanity is putting into the Earth. We wanted to further explore what species were gone and what they did to the fragile ecosystem that we now reside today. In the text Mysteries of the Dark Moon by Demetra George says, “The renewed presence of the Dark Goddess in our world is also evidenced by a proliferation of information on death & dying that is bringing much-needed guidance & compassion to help prepare individuals for the closure phase of their lives.” (pg. 267). This could also be applied to the many species that are perishing. For all the species that are perishing, humanity must find alternatives for the long-gone species. The reemergence of the Goddess figures in contemporary society is giving humanity a more healthy consciousness in order to take care of the culture we live in. Once humanity learns compassion for other creatures perhaps the extinctions can cease and, like many wish we could do now, we might be able to live in peace and be one with nature.

The idea came about when a student brought up the idea of the bees disappearing from the hive and not returning when they are supposed to during the class discussion of Mother Nature and how we’re harming the Earth we live on as well as ourselves. Seeing how the bees pollinate the plants that we eat as well as the creatures that need it to eat in order for us to consume them, we would be lost without the bee’s to keep the flowers in check. Intrigued by this, we wanted to explore how other species, both past and present, affect our life on planet Earth. We picked the art medium of drawing because it would let us have creative freedom over what the creatures would look like, especially those deceased a long time ago. In creating the project, Arkie chose the species that he would draw and once they were selected Ryan was able to write up what those species mean to the environment. From there Arkie was able to draw up what the critters would look like (or in some cases what they actually look like, depending on their status in nature).

The ultimate goal of this project was for it to be a moving art piece. When people see the species that have perished (whether or not due to human intervention) and what affect they had on the environment we wanted them to feel a sense of loss. When they move on to the piece containing endangered species and what they do to the surrounding environment we want them to start thinking about how they can help prevent the loss of the species. As a subgenre this could be classified as a political piece seeing that we want people to act on what they see and then go out in the world and do what they can to help the planet in a positive way. Hopefully this artwork can circulate and reach people. We want it to change people’s mind about the danger the environment is in. If well done perhaps it could even be in some galleries but at the least it can be posted on the internet and from there influence people and motivate people to change and save the lives of the world’s creatures. It has the potential to raise awareness to other political topics such as the Garbage Island in the Pacific Ocean, the oil spills all over the bodies of water, deforestation in the Amazon as well as other regions, and even hunting as a sport. We can kill several birds with one stone (forgive the cruel metaphor) and perhaps even be able to knock out other environmental problems such as garbage, illegal dumping in wildlife preserves and resource gathering that hurts our one and only planet.

Overall this project was defiantly a big undertaking and there were high hopes from both Arkie and Ryan on the outcome. The final product is sure to please all those in the classroom. We hope that if it goes bigger that it helps people become more enlightened or at the very least we hope the average citizen finds it aesthetically pleasing to look at.

A little while back, Julia Kay Rhodes enlisted myself as her...

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:45:04 -0500

A little while back, Julia Kay Rhodes enlisted myself as her drummer for her shows. I have a bad habit of forgetting how the show went after the fact so at her latest one I recorded myself so I could view it later. After playing with her twice I think that most of the songs went pretty well.

Inreality (Moving Image Production)

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:05:22 -0500

We had to write another treatment in MIP my freshmen year to follow-up with my Dance in the Grant Park story. This one wasn’t as well received but oh well.

Inreality
Ryan Grace

KEITH, a late teens man with an average body type blue eyes and brown hair, walks over to a woman on a park bench. They converse and go to swing on the swings together. Her name is DARCY, late teens, Western European descent with red hair and green eyes.

Keith wakes up in his bed and shakes his head. He gets dressed and drives to the park. When he gets there, Darcy is there with SHEEN, late teens tall with black hair and hazel eyes. They wave him over. Keith appears torn by going over there but eventually does. Sheen and Darcy appear to be dating, albeit an abusive one. Sheen commands Darcy to do many things for him. He tells her to fetch his shoes which he took off and threw away. Keith broods over his lack of a love life.

Keith gets ready for bed. He again dreams of Darcy. They go to a coffee shop together and talk. While they talk, Keith grabs Darcy’s hand. Keith wakes up and begins to cry. Keith looks infuriated and looks for Darcy all over town. He finds her at the movie theatre with Sheen. He doesn’t confront her, however, because of Sheen’s presence. He goes home, downcast, and gets ready to go to bed again.

In his dream, Keith finds Sheen. He confronts him about Darcy and fights Sheen. Sheen puts up a fight but cannot effectively stand up to Keith. Keith lays him out. Darcy is standing nearby and thanks Keith. They embrace.

Keith wakes up and tears around town again to find Darcy. He finds her on a hilltop. He finally works up the courage to tell her how he feels about her. Darcy says she feels the same way. They share a passionate kiss as the sunsets in the distance. Sheen is at the bottom looking up at them. As he observes this, his hand forms a fist and he shakes.

A Dance in Grant Park (Moving Image Production)

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:05:52 -0500

Again, in my required film classes my freshmen year we had to write a treatment the first week of class. When we turned them all in we were split up into three groups of 4 or 5 & the teacher picked the three best treatments & we had to turn them into short films. Mine got picked but the group that made it was… well lets just say it didn’t live up to my expectations of it. It was inspired by my then-best friend Raeanne Radusewicz.

A Dance In Grant Park
Ryan Grace

RAEANNE, a stocky business woman in her early thirties, storms out of a large, bronze door. She handles a black briefcase with a paper on it and crisply walks to Grant Park. Her eyebrows are slanted in fury. JACK, a construction worker mid 30’s & muscular, sits on a bench in Grant Park munching on a sandwich. Near him is a construction crew working on the roads. On the other side of the plaza, SID, a guitar player late teens and lean, jams on his guitar. People walk past him without batting an eyelash. Jack stares & listens to him for a spell.

Soon Raeanne walks by. She stops and starts to listen to Sid. Her face is relaxed. She begins to tap her foot and move slowly in time to Sid. She walks over to a bench and sets down her briefcase. On top of it she lazily puts down a proposal. On the proposal in gigantic red letters are the words “REJECTED.” She lets down her hair & starts to dance. Sid looks up at her, smiles & starts playing with renewed vigor.

Jack continues watching. He looks from his sandwich to Raeanne, who is dancing her cares away. He puts his sandwich down and approaches Raeanne. He extends his hand with an offer to dance. Raeanne is taken aback. She smiles & accepts. They dance together like mortals performing a ceremony to summon the Gods. Sid stands up & starts to play and walk around the two of them. A crowd starts to gather & watch them. As Jack & Raeanne keep dancing, Sid looks around. Everyone in the crowd is smiling.

Jack dips Raeanne as if that was part of their dance routine. She looks at Jack, who smiles in return. Sid sees this and finishes his song dramatically. The two dancers look for the first time at the crowd that has gathered, who are all cheering & clapping. Jack lifts Raeanne back up from her dip and she smiles at him. Sid comes up to the two of them & shakes their hands.

As the crowd disperses, Raeanne and Jack go back to their benches. As Jack picks up his sandwich, he turns around to catch one last glimpse of Raeanne. Raeanne picks up her proposal and after a moments thought, tears it up. She turns around and waves to Jack, who returns the wave. Raeanne leaves with a permanent smile on her face. Jack turns around to goes back to work on the road, smiling all the while. Sid sees the two of them do this and walks away, shaking his head & grinning like a fool.