stills from a nerdy movie: 2016

2016-10-09

On Richard Belknap's book "Plots"

This post discusses some elements of Belknap's excellent book Plots. Plots arrange the cinematic/literary experience of the story.

Russian formalists, such as Propp, used the terms fabula and siuzhet for the plot. The way Belknap defines then the fabula arranges the events in the world the characters inhabit, while the siuzhet arranges the events in the world the audience encounters in the film/text. The following graphic comes from wikipedia's entry on fabula:

Another chapter of the book discusses incidents in the story. He explains how they can only be related to another chronologically, spatially, causually, associatively, or narratively. The TV series Upstairs Downstairs is an example of where a spatial organization was often used.

His book has lots of great insights. The following (which is the title of one of the chapters in the book) is especially nice:

I'm going to keep this short. If you like these short snippets from his book given here, check out the book at your local library.

2016-09-30

Get Smart's "Ship of Spies", 4

This post discusses some of the slapstick humor in the Ship of Spies episodes of Get Smart.

In his Painfully Funny course, Prof. Richard Edwards said slapstick involves the following

Slapstick involves exaggeration
Slapstick is physical
Slapstick is ritualistic
Slapstick is make believe
Slapstick is violent

Let's look at the humor of Get Smart with these in mind.

Max and Agent 44: From the first scene with Max and Agent 44, where Agent 44 slips and almost falls in the shark-infested waters:

SMART

Oh, one more thing, 44. Do you have any idea about suspects?

You mean someone who might have smuggled the plans for the nuclear amphibian battleship onboard?

SMART

Exactly.

44 pulls out a slip of paper.

I've been on the job, 86. I got a list right here of all possible suspects.

44 slips and almost falls, but Max grabs the paper.

SMART

Careful, 44! - that was a close one.

Yes.

SMART

You almost dropped the list.

At this stage, we know Agent 44 is perched outside ship.

Max and 99 and Agent Kevorkian: Max and 99 discover International Control Agent Sehokian nearly dead after an attack in his cabin:

SMART

We'd better get him a doctor.

SEHOKIAN

No time. Must talk before I before I - how do you say?

SMART

- die.

SEHOKIAN

Succumb. The man who did this who-- how do you say?

SMART

- stabbed you.

SEHOKIAN

- attacked me. He-- he knew I have uncovered - how do you say?

SMART

- information?

SEHOKIAN

- evidence.

But --

SEHOKIAN

Please, no buts. The plans, they are not plans. They are ...

Sehokian collapses.

Max, he's -

SMART

- dead.

SEHOKIAN

Deceased.

99 tries to rescue Max from drowning: First, 99 gets a rope to Max so he can pull himself out of the water to her porthole. 99 ties the other end of the rope to the cabin door for security. (Small plothole: in the scene above we see Max can climb throw the portholes, yet here he can't.)

Smart's face appears in the porthole - he's wet and exhausted, hanging onto the rope.

SMART

( panting )

Fast work, 99.

Max, can you get through the porthole?

SMART

I don't think so.

Can you hang on until I get some help?

SMART

Yes, but hurry up, 99.

Right, Max. Max, would you like an umbrella?

SMART

No, 99, forget the umbrella. Hurry up, get help.

I can't hang on much longer.

Right, Max.

99 runs over to the door.

But Max, the door's locked.

SMART

Shoot it off!

Right.

99 shots the doorknob off, which causes the knob and the rope to fly out the port hole as Smart fall out of sight.

Oh, Max.

The Chief fails in the water:

At the end of the episode, the Chief visits the Evening Star. Max and 99 show him the part of the railing where Max fell overboard. It seems sturdy until Max karate chops the railing away and the Chief falls in the water.

The Chief leans on the railing.

SMART

Watch it, Chief! That's where I went overboard.

CHIEF

Oh, really? It looks solid now. They must have fixed it up. This is where the bullets hit--

Smart karate chops the railing, it breaks. CRUNCH! The Chief yells as he falls overboard. SPLASH!

Chief!

They even fail to rescue him:

SMART

Here it comes, Chief!

Smart ties the other end of the rope around his waist.

Hold on, Chief. That's it. Here we go.

The Chief grabs the life-preserver and they haul him up.

SMART

Hang on, Chief! That's it, Chief. Just a little ways more.

CHIEF

Have you got a good grip, Max?

The Chief is almost at the main deck of the ship.

SMART

My hands are slipping, Chief. I've gotta wipe them off.

CHIEF

Go right ahead, Max.

Smart lets go of the rope. SPLASH! The Chief falls back into the water. The rope around Smart's waist pulls tight, pulling Smart overboard as well. SPLASH!

2016-09-16

Get Smart's "Ship of Spies", 3

This post discusses some of the jokes in the Ship of Spies episodes from season 1 of Get Smart. The jokes below all come from part 1.

Joke: The Bartender brings Maxwell Smart a bowl of clear soup.

BARTENDER
Hey, Mack, here's your soup.

SMART
Hey, this isn't tomato soup.

The Bartender takes a catsup bottle and plops some into the soup bowl.

BARTENDER

Now it is.

This is an example of a redefinition/retitling joke. It's also an example of sarcasm/irony.

Joke: Having been shot just outside, an Old Sailor stumbles back into the bar, drops to the ground,
almost dead. He has a clue needed by Control. The Chief and Smart rush over to him.

CHIEF

Who did this? Can you tell us? Who stole the plans?

OLD SAILOR

Drink, please. Drink.

Smart runs over to a table and returns with a glass of milk.

SMART

Here you are, fella. Drink this milk.

OLD SAILOR

Is it regular or skim?

Smart sips it.

SMART

It's regular. Go ahead, drink it.

OLD SAILOR

Strict diet. Only drink skim.

The Old Man dies.

CHIEF

He's dead, Max. Do you know what this means?

SMART

Yes, Chief. Too much dieting can be a very dangerous thing.

This type of joke is Definition Through Obvious Exclusion.

Joke: Max is briefed by the Chief and Professor Parker on his upcoming trip about the Evening Star freighter.

CHIEF
Max, when you get beyond the three-mile limit, this case automatically falls under the jurisdiction of our international control section. You'll be contacted by an agent who'll give you further instructions.

SMART

How, Chief?

PROFESSOR PARKER

Possibly with this.

Professor Parker holds up a radio telephone very cleverly disguised as a revolver.

SMART

Oh, well, I certainly hope the message doesn't reach me.

This type of joke is Underplaying Damage With Understatements.

Joke: Max accidentally enters a passenger cabin that is not his own. The lights are out. As Max backs of the strange room, a gun points to his face from behind a door. Max grabs it with both hands and twists.

SMART
There's only one way to break this hold.

A second gun points to his face from behind a door.

SMART

That's the way.

I think this is an example of slap-stick, as it involves physical comedy. Max grabs the gun with a 2-handed motion, thinking his quick reflexes have subdued his opponent. In his mind, there is no way his opponent will get out of that hold. But the other hand has another gun. Instead of saying, " didn't even think of that", Max says "That's the way." It can also think of it as Definition Through Obvious Exclusion.

2016-09-05

Parsing fountain files, 2

This is a continuation of my earlier post, Parsing fountain files. In this post, we show how to use Python to parse a fountain file into a latex file using John Pate's screenplay latex class.

First, we need this code:

def fountain2latex(input_fntn_file, name=""):
    """
    Assumes John Pate's screenplay template is loaded.

    INPUT:
       input_fntn_file could be "/home/wdj/my-script.fountain"
       name could be "draft-2016-08-26"

    OUTPUT:
       latex file of script

    EXAMPLE:

    """
    script_list = character_dialog_list(input_fntn_file)[1]
    dones = []
    output_latex_file = input_fntn_file[:-10]+"-"+name+".tex"
    r = open(output_latex_file,"w")
    char_list = character_list(input_fntn_file)
    f = open(input_fntn_file,'r')
    lines = f.readlines()
    N = len(lines)
    for j in range(6):
        x = lines[j]
 if x[:6] == "Title:":
     title = x[6:]
     dones.append(j)
 if x[:7] == "Author:":
     author = x[7:]
     dones.append(j)
 if "Draft date:" in x:
     script_list[j] = "date"
     dones.append(j)
 if "Contact:" in x:
     script_list[j] = "email"
     dones.append(j)
    # start latex header
    r.write("\\documentclass{screenplay}\n")
    #r.write("\\usepackage{article}\n")
    #r.write("\\makeatletter{}\n")
    #r.write("\\g@addto@macro\\quote\\flushleft\n")
    #r.write("\\makeatother\n")
    r.write("\\begin{document}\n")
    r.write("\\title{%s}\n"%title)
    r.write("\\author{%s}\n"%author)
    r.write("\\maketitle\n")
    r.write("\\newpage")
    r.write("\\vskip .2in\n")
    # finish latex header     
    for j in range(6,N):
        x = lines[j]
 if x[0]=="#":
     r.write("%"+x)
     dones.append(j)
 if x[:3].upper() == "INT" and ("DAY" in x or "day" in x):
            r.write("\intslug[day]{"+x[4:-4]+"}")
     dones.append(j)
 if x[:3].upper() == "INT" and ("NIGHT" in x or "night" in x):
            r.write("\intslug[night]{"+x[4:-6]+"}")
     dones.append(j)
 if x[:3].upper() == "EXT" and ("DAY" in x or "day" in x):
            r.write("\extslug[day]{"+x[4:-4]+"}")
     dones.append(j)
 if x[:3].upper() == "EXT" and ("NIGHT" in x or "night" in x):
            r.write("\extslug[night]{"+x[4:-6]+"}")
     dones.append(j)
        for c in char_list:
            if c in x and len(x)==len(c)+1:
         dones.append(j)
         r.write(" \n")
         r.write("\\begin{dialogue}{"+c+"}")
  for i in range(1,N):
      if j+i"#":
   r.write(lines[j+i])
   dones.append(j+i)
      else:
          break
  r.write("\\end{dialogue}")
  r.write(" \n")
 if x[0]==".":
            r.write("\\noindent \n"+x[1:].replace("#","\#")+"\n")
     dones.append(j)
 if not(j in dones):
            r.write(x+"\n")
    f.close()
    # start latex footer
    r.write("\end{document}\n")
    r.close()
    return "finished writing: %s"%output_latex_file

This will parse a large subset of fountain into LaTeX, using John Pate's template. For example, comments must be entered with a "#" at the beginning. Secondary slugs can't be used, "DAY" or "NIGHT" must be at the end of the line. There are other features lacking. None-the-less, Big Fish is rendered as latex which compiles almost without errors:-).

Works fine under linux, which is the main thing for me. I wrote this over the labor day weekend for fun and don't plan to improve it more, but if you have suggestions, I'm happy to hear them.

Get Smart's "Ship of Spies", 2

This is part 2 of a planned series of posts on the 2-part episode The Ship of Spies (Part 1, Part 2), written by Buck Henry and Leonard Stern. They won the Emmy award in June, 1967 for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy.

In this post, let's summarize the plot in The Ship of Spies, 2.

The previous episode ended with Max overboard. Agent 99 desperately tries to save him by firing a rope out of her window for Max to hang onto.

It fails when the rope gives way.
But somehow Max is saved and the next day we see Max and 99 examining the railing by the main deck. It's in perfect condition, with no sign of the gunplay from the previous night.
With all the suspicious activity, they decide to call the Chief. For that, they brought a hair-dryer/short wave radio.

It doesn't look suspicious when 99 uses it, but when Max needs to talk to the Chief, people notice.

Soon after that, a mast crashes into their deck chair and they barely escape with their life.
Max decides to go to Capt. Groman's quarters to ask for his help. Max tells the Captain that somebody onboard his ship has stolen the plans for the nuclear amphibian battleship. The only clue he has is that the person makes a clip-clop sound.

The Captain promises to listen for that sound. After Max leaves, it is revealed that the Captain wears a peg-leg which makes a clip-clop sound.
Back in his cabin, Max calls 99 on his pistol/phone.

Both 99 and Max have some sort of message written on their cabin window.

99 gets the idea that it's a code written by Agent 44. She deciphers it using the first letters of each word: "Up on deck now." They leave to meet Agent 44 up on deck, by Max cautions 99 "But I want you to leave your stateroom without being observed by anybody."
They have a hard time not being noticed. It seems everyone is leaving their cabin at the same time.

Eventually, they sneak up the stairs.
Max and 99 meet Aget 99, who's hiding in a large ventilation inlet.

He told them Hector Baccardo was in league with Senorita Merendez. 44 also said that the plans for the nuclear amphibian battleship were not plans, but then he was shot.
Max confronts Baccardo. Baccardo is not Portuguese and is not handicapped. His bulletproof saber-mounted wheelchair both protects him from Max's bullets but can be used to attack Max.

However, Max disables him with a karate chop.
Max then rushes to Capt Groman's quarters asking to use his radio to call for help. "I must contact my headquarters. I believe I have found the man who stole the plans for the nuclear amphibian battleship!"

Capt Groman says "Mr. Smart, I'll take you to the radio room myself." However, once he hobbles around the desk with a clip-clop sound, Max sees his peg leg for the first time. There's a fight and Max shoots and misses Capt Groman.

However, he hits the ship-in-a-bottle model behind the captain, infuriating him.
Ming bursts in, dazing Max but getting shot in the cross-fire. Just as Capt Groman is about to kill Max with a peg-leg saber, 99 runs in and rescues him.

Max concludes, "You know, it's a shame, 99. All this could have been avoided. If only he had only used his leg for good instead of evil."
The episode ends with the Chief examining the railing where Max fell into the waterand they learn that Agent 44 will be okay.

"It seems solid now." Max tests it with a karate chop.

The Chief falls into the water.

This ends the plot summary for part 2 of the 2-part episode of Get Smart, The Ship of Spies.

2016-08-26

Get Smart's "Ship of Spies", 1

This is part 1 of a planned series of posts on the 2-part episode The Ship of Spies (Part 1, Part 2), written by Buck Henry and Leonard Stern. They won the Emmy award in June, 1967 for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy.
In this post, let's summarize the plot in The Ship of Spies, 1.

Maxwell Smart meets the Chief at dock-side bar.

Max learned from an informer that stolen the plans for a nuclear amphibian battleship is going to smuggle them out of the country tonight aboard a ship. They are waiting for the contact to tell them which ship will be used. However, he won't give that information to Max, because he's afraid they're suspicious already, and if he's seen talking to Max, he'll be in great danger. The Chief agrees to meet the contact.
Max's contact is shot by someone making a CLIP-CLOP sound outside who can't be seen due to the dense fog. The contact stumbles into the bar and collapsed near the Chief and Max.

When he asks for a drink, Max gives him milk. The contact manages to say "Evening star sails at midnight." before he dies.
The Chief tells Max he is to go on the Evening Star as a passenger and find those plans. Control scientist Parker (played by Milton Selzer) briefs Max and the Chief on the Evening Star using a model.

Parker also gives Max a pistol phone that he can both shoot and make phone calls from, but not at the same time.
99 arrives with Max's luggage for the trip.

He's warned that they don't know what form the plans are in - they could be blueprints or microfilm, for example. Max assures everyone "Don't worry. I'll do the job."
Once onboard and in his cabin, Max is welcomed by Agent 44, who is perched on the sit of the ship outside Max's window.

Agent 44 gives Max a list of the suspects.
SMART
This looks like the complete passenger list.
AGENT 44
It is. Don't you know what they call this freighter?
SMART
What?
AGENT 44
Ship of spies.
After Agent 44 leaves, Max hears a CLOP-CLOP sound outside his cabin door. Consuela Juanita Dorotea Marquita Merendez, a Spanish dancer with castanets, enters his cabin by mistake.

Max tackles her but can't help flirting a bit, while trying to determine if she might be the person who stole the plans.
After Consuela leaves, Max hears another CLOP-CLOP sound outside his cabin door. He opens his door to see man with a cane CLIP-CLOPS down the corridor, who then enters his cabin. Max goes down the hall to the man's door and knocks but gets no answer. He tries to break the door down with his shoulder, but fails, bouncing across the hall into the open door of the cabin opposite. The cabin belongs to Agent 99, who's arrived to help him. Max uses her cabin to get a running start.

But now the cabin door across the hall is open and Max crashes though the window of the unlit room.
The cabin belongs to Inspector Sehokian, Armenian branch, International Control. He's been tracking the operation but was just stabbed by a mysterious attacker.

Before dying, he tells Max and 99 that "The plans, they are not plans".
While inside Sehokian's cabin, they hear the CLOP-CLOP sound of a man in a wheelchair, Hector Baccardo, the famous Portuguese polo player.

Is he the killer?
Max decides to go up on deck but protectively asks 99 to stay safe in her cabin.

There's a moment when 99 thinks they might kiss. They don't
Max goes up on deck in the dense fog but takes on gunfire.

He hides behind the deck railing and returns fire.
The railing gives way and Max plunges into the ocean. He asks 99 if he passes the Control swimming test. She gets her Control file.

She yells back "No!" through her window. End of Part 1.

2016-07-26

Classic 80s Movie: “Terminator”

Classic 80s Movie: “Terminator”

Movie Title: Terminator

Year: 1984

Writers: James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd, William Wisher, Jr.

Credited with story idea: after a lawsuit, Orion Pictures agreed the idea was based on "Soldier" (an episode of the 1964 TV original The Outer Limits) by Harlan Ellison (which is, in turn, based on his 1957 short "Soldier From Tomorrow"). However, in 2009 In an interview from 2009, Cameron reportedly strongly disagreed with the story credit settlement given to Ellison.

Lead actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton

Director: James Cameron

One draft of the script is available here:
http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Terminator.html

Plot Summary:
IMDB summary: A robotic assassin from a post-apocalyptic future travels back in time to eliminate a waitress, whose son will grow up and lead humanity in a war against machines.
My summary:
After a near-deadly encounter with a robot from the future, Sarah Connor's life is transformed from a dead-end job as a waitress at a fast-food restaurant to the only person who can save humanity from destruction.

Why I Think This Is A Classic 80s Movie:
Financial reasons: This movie earned 12 times its original production budget, and spawned three movie sequels (a fourth sequel is in pre-production), a TV series (a second TV series is in development), and an animated series (not to mention novelizations, video games
and comic book series). The Terminator movie franchise has reported total gross profits of about 1.2 billion dollars.
Other reasons: "The Terminator" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the American National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". It has created some of the most recognizable characters in the action/scifi/horror genres, sky-rocketing the career of writer-director James Cameron.

My Favorite Moment In The Movie:
I remember when I first saw it, I found the silent scene of the Terminator repairing himself in a mirror fascinating. I still do. No dialog, but it reveals what the robot is underneath and that it feels no pain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQPOEWo3RDA
Of course, the "I'll be back" scene in the police station is a classic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYt2HmAxHL4

My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie : This is a really minor scene from the opening but sets up nicely Sarah's character.

[scrippet]
As Sarah Connor cleans up the spill, a kid at the next booth reaches over and dumps a scoop of ice cream into the top pouch of Sarah's apron.
She stares down at the mess melting over her hard-earned tips and sags with defeat. NANCY, a plump, gum-chewing waitress, stops beside her to whisper.

NANCY
Look at it this way: in a hundred years, who's gonna care?
[/scrippet]

This line also functions to set up a point made later in the story: in one hundred years, everyone will care about Sarah Connor, as her life is essential for the survival of humanity.

Another:

[scrippet]
REESE
There was a war. A few years from now. Nuclear war. The whole thing. All this--

His gesture includes the car, the city, the world.

REESE
(continuing)
--everything...is gone. Just gone. There were survivors. Here. There. Nobody knew who started it. It was the machines.

SARAH
I don't understand...

REESE
Defense network computer. New. Powerful. Hooked into everything. Trusted to run it all. They say it got smart ... a new order of intelligence. Then it saw all people as a threat, not just the ones on the other side. Decided our fate in a microsecond ... extermination.

Reese pauses, and when he continues it's less like a military briefing, quieter.

REESE
(continuing)
Didn't see the war. I was born after, in the ruins. Grew up there. Starving. Hiding from the H-K's.

SARAH
The what?

REESE
Hunter Killers. Patrol machines. Built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up, put in camps... for orderly disposal.
He pushes up the sleeve of his jacket and shows her a ten-digit number etched on the skin of his forearm.

Beneath the numbers is a pattern of lines like the automatic-pricing marks on product packages.

REESE
(continuing)
Burned in by laser scan.
(pause)
Some of us were kept alive...to work. Loading bodies. The disposal units ran night and day. We were that close to going out forever...

Reese is holding onto Sarah's shoulders tightly.

REESE
(continuing)
...but there was one man...who taught us to fight. To storm the wire of the camps. To smash those metal mother-fuckers into junk. He turned it around...he brought us back from the brink. (pause) His name is Connor. John Connor ... your son, Sarah. Your unborn son.

[/scrippet]
Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie:
The facts revealed in action or dialog: the time-displacement machine (in which only "organic material" can time-travel), the self-aware artificial intelligence system Skynet, the HKs (Hunter-Killer patroling combat robots), the Terminator model T-800 (also called a model 101) which functions on behalf of Skynet as part of its self-defense mechanism, the Resistence movement to destroy Skynet before it destroys humanity. Skynet is described as being an AI system built by Cyberdyne Systems for SAC-NORAD.

This lead to a fascinating fictional story universe in which the sequels are told in.

More info at the
* Terminator wiki
* GITS "script to screen" post on "The Terminator",
* thescriptlab's 5 plot point breakdown.

2016-06-08

Selected Balticon 50 writing panels - video

Balticon 50 had a large number of writing panels, a few of which I recorded (by permission).

"Hands on Screenwriting"
Panelists: James Gossard, Clint Gaige
part 1:

"Hands on screenwriting" Balticon panel, part 1 from wdj on Vimeo.

part 2:

"Hands on screenwriting" Balticon panel, part 2 from wdj on Vimeo.

"Adapting your fiction to stage and screen."
Panelists: Izolda Trakhtenberg, Charlie Brown, James Gossard, Clint Gaige
Moderator: David Robison
part 1:

"Adapting your fiction to stage and screen" Balticon panel, part 1 from wdj on Vimeo.

part 2:

“Adapting your fiction to stage and screen” Balticon panel, part 2 from wdj on Vimeo.

"Transmedia on a budget."
Panelists: Clint Gaige, Allison Gamblin, Charlie Brown, James Gossard
Moderator: Pamela Gay
part 1:

Balticon panel on "Transmedia on a budget", part 1 from wdj on Vimeo.

part 2:

Balticon panel on "Transmedia on a budget", part 2 from wdj on Vimeo.

2016-05-15

Foes of Batman

The Gotham universe is complicated. This post is designed to help provide some order by listing the foes/adversaries of Batman, the DC Comics creation.

Amygdala (Gotham City, Aaron Helzinger)
Anarky (Gotham City, Sam Young)
Anchoress (in Arkham Asylum).
She can quantum tunnel, is over 100 yrs old, and can alter her appearance.
Architect (Gotham City, Dillon May)
Azrael (Gotham City)
Bane (in Arkham Asylum)
Big Top (Gotham City)
Black Mask (Gotham City, Roman Sionis)
Black Spider (Gotham City, Eric Needham)
Bone (Gotham City, Louis Ferryman)
Calendar Man (Gotham City, Julian Day)
Catman (Gotham City, Mortimer Drake)
Catwoman (Gotham City)
Not exactly a foe but ally of some foes of Batman, eg Killer Croc.
Clayface (Gotham City, Basil Karlo)
Cluemaster (Gotham City, Arthur Brown)
Crazy Quilt (Gotham City, Dr Paul Dekker)
Creeper (Jack Ryder)
Crime Syndicate ("evil Justice League" in a parallel dimension
- Atomica,
- Deathstorm,
- Grid (machine mind created by Atomica),
- Johnny Quick ("evil Flash"),
- Owlman ("evil Batman"),
- Power Ring ("evil Green Lanterns"),
- Sea King ("evil Aquaman"),
- Superwoman,
- Ultraman ("evil Superman").
Darkseid (in Apokolips, named Uxas).