Tron's Girlfriend is Whack

I guess it was a good day.  Something-something-something AK.

About half of the Post-it wall was replaced this morning -- pulled out some flabby bits, tightened up the intro.  I also got rid of a cheesy subplot involving kidnapping and figured some things out about the conditioning process (hereafter to be referred to as "Training").  Jiyoung has been a willing sounding board, and after chatting with her for a while last night, a lot of things started falling into place.  She's being really, really patient with me.  This movie is just about all I ever talk about: in the shower, at breakfast, when we go for walks.  I should probably be paying her as a consultant.  Wait, no.

The afternoon was spent rewriting the second half of the story document in Google Docs.  My first-pass dialogue is always horrible.  I guess there's a similarity there with drawing -- first you sketch, then you make your final drawing.  I hadn't understood that sketching was something you could do with words, too.  Things are pretty sketchy right now.

I'm looking into getting a copy of Final Draft, a word-processing program designed specifically for screenwriting.  Yes, I've finally recognized that I have to write a script, in traditional script-format.  Go ahead.  Laugh.  I thought I could just skip straight to storyboarding.  Like I said, this is supposed to be a learning experience.  Anyway, if anybody out there in netland has used Final Draft, or wants to recommend another application, your input would be appreciated!

I'm now reading a chapter in Story about genre.  This is one useful book.  So many times, I've been vaguely alienated by a film without understanding why.  It turns out that viewers bring a catalogue of genre conventions with them, and they won't settle into your story until they know what kind of story you intend to tell.  Bending and mixing the conventions is all good, but ignoring them will hurt your story.  McKee points out that Shakespeare went out of his way to spell out genres for his audiences, even in the titles of his plays: The Tragedy of Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, All's Well That Ends Well.  It was important to him that his audience be able to get itself into the proper frame of mind even before the actors hit the stage.

As for Gordon and the Stareater, it appears to be a combination of a love story, adventure story, coming-of-age story, and fantasy story.  Not necessarily in that order.  According to Story, hybrid genre treatments are totally in-bounds.  Thank God.  

I saw Tron last night, and was immediately stricken by how bad the writing was.  The pacing was double plus bad.  Still, it's totally rad-looking.  Especially the vehicle design.  The Light Cycles, the tanks, the Sailship ... for some reason, whenever I look back on that film I only remember how cool it looked.  I forget about the thirty-minute story desert you have to endure at the beginning.  I've probably rented that movie every four years for the last sixteen years, and I keep forgetting how bad it is.  I guess that's a testament to the power of good production design!  Also, it proves the coolness of Jeff Bridges.

Tron's girlfriend is a total floozy.  She thinks he's dead and she's macking on Flynn in less than a minute.  And then when Tron comes back, she's all over him again.  

Damn, woman.