Sketchup, Blender and "The Barrier"

This week I tried out both Sketchup and Blender for a revised version of scene 1 of "The Barrier". Initially I thought Sketchup was the better choice, but then changed my mind.

I used Blender to do the backgrounds of the public meeting scene in "The Barrier" and had planned to use it to do a new version of scene 1. In the current version it is difficult to understand what happens, so I want to make it more obvious.

I found it difficult to learn how to use Blender, so I decided to see if I could find an easier alternative. I found some reviews on-line and they help me identify several other programs I could use. From what I read it looked like the best option was Sketchup. The reviews said it was easier to use, which was my primary goal. The reviews did note that the output quality isn't as good as Blender and it doesn't have the flexibility of Blender. I decided it sounded good enough.

After I installed Sketchup, I tried it out with some simple figures. I found it was easier to learn and I was able to get results quickly. I felt good about it and prepared to move on to work on the actual scene. Before I did, I checked the licence restrictions again. I had thought I could use the free version, but it turned out that I would have to buy the commercial licence. They cost about $600, so I decided to try Blender again.

I made good progress with Blender. I found that what I learned from Sketchup helped me work out how to get what I wanted from Blender. As a test, I created some terrain, a road, and some trees. I also made a short test animation where a vehicle drives down the road. It was actually just a block and not a car, but after all it was just a test.

I created the roadway for the scene 1 set, based on some calculations I'd done earlier. I found the roadway awkward to work with. I found it difficult to move around, and image. Sometimes, some of the roadway would vanish for no reason I could come up with.

The set is about a kilometre long. I think that I need to redesign the set somewhat, and maybe change the scale as well. I did some calculations and think I can cut the size down quite a bit.

At the end of the day, this exercise made me feel more confident about Blender.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Lessons From My Early Writing

This week I reread some of my earliest writing attempts from 40 years ago. I hadn't thought about them until the last few months. Although they were failures for the most part, they taught me some lessons.

In Stephen King's book "On Writing", he says he began to write when he was very young. It took him many years to become successful. I came away with the feeling that since I had not started that early, that it would be harder for me to get into writing.

Recently I found some stories and notes for stories that I had worked on when I was in junior and senior high school. While I did not start as early as Stephen King, I have certainly tried to write for many years.

While most of my writing at school was various types of essays, a couple teachers did give me opportunities to write short fiction. More importantly, I wrote stories outside of my school assignments. I also began to make short movies when I was in high school.

One story that I did finish was "The Sleeper in the Dark", an attempt to emulate Lovecraft. I posted that on my website at: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/the-sleeper-in-the-dark/

In high school I wanted to write a novel. I remembered that I tried twice, but when I looked at my old papers I found notes for several other attempts. None of these produced more than outlines or a few pages of text.

The first attempt I remember was to do something like "Lord of the Rings". Needless to say, that was a poor choice for a first book. I began with a time line of events, from which I would later extract information for the story. I worked on the time line when I had free time at school.

The problem I ran into was that there was nothing that happened in the time line that lent itself to being  the core of a plot. I started without any idea where the story would go and just drifted. In essence the character just existed, didn't change or develop and nothing important happened to him. I abandoned that project.

The other attempt I remember was a Doc Savage book. Since I had read a number of Doc Savage books, I felt I knew the characters and how the stories went.  I gave the story a title: "The Smiling Corpse".

I found four typed pages, comprising Chapter 1 and part of Chapter 2. When I converted it to a text file, they ran about 2,200 words. I don't remember if I had any kind of out line or notes. I didn't find any kind of notes for the story. I found an outline I did for "The Lost Oasis", although I'm not sure that I did that before or after I wrote "The Smiling Corpse".

When I reread it, I couldn't see where I was going with the story. I say that Doc was off in Hong Kong, but the story was set in New York. One thing that struck me was that the victim/smiling corpse was a poet, who was a friend of Doc's. I wouldn't think many people would associate Doc Savage with poetry.

I dropped this project because I didn't think that the dialogue I wrote was very good. I felt I needed to have a much better understanding of the characters if I was to see any improvement.

I liked the title "The Smiling Corpse" and reused it for a short movie I made a few years later. It was silent, so didn't have any dialogue.

Out of curiosity, I did a search on the title "The Smiling Corpse" and turned up several different books and a short movie with that title. One book was a detective story published in 1935 by Philip Wylie. Wylie co-wrote "When Worlds Collide". The main characters in the book are well know writers, so I think it was something of a satire.

I gave up on writing a novel for a few years. Then in the early 1980s I tried a story I called "Conan the Accountant". In some ways it was a repeat of my experience with "The Smiling Corpse". I didn't develop an outline, or plan, for the story and it drifted away from the original idea. I found 11 typed pages, with close to 5,700 words in total. I can't remember why I dropped that one, but when I reread it, I cringed at some of what I wrote.

In the 1990s I dropped the idea of writing to focus on film making. For some reason I film easier to do. Partly that was because the films I did were shorter, but I think that I am just more comfortable with film as a way to express myself.

In the last few years I have started to make more use of outlines and story plans in my writing. I feel that has helped me move beyond some of the problems that stopped me years ago. I really feel it is important to have a very strong idea how the story ends before you start to write. Too many of my ideas have failed because I had no idea how to end them.

I haven't come up with an approach I can use to create better dialogue and characters, but I think that my skills have improved. It is easy to get over confident, and I know that when I do, my writing suffers.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Cynical Idealism and "The Barrier"

In many of the scenes in "The Barrier", my hero, Arthur Macdonald comes across as a cynic, while in others he acts quite idealistic. I've come to think of his attitude as Cynical Idealism. I believe this must be a part of my own world view.

Initially, when he works on the development review project, Arthur talks as if he feels that the politicians and developers have self serving motives. For example, he seems to believe that the developer, Vincent Campbell, is interested only in his own good. Arthur accepts that Campbell has great influence over the politicians. He appears to accept that situation and even characterizes the work as playing a game.

With the traffic barrier project however, Arthur is more clearly idealistic in his approach. Repeated warnings from his boss do not cause him to give up on the project. He actively approaches other to recruit their support. He continues to look for ways to convince his boss to support the project.

One explanation for the contrast between the two projects may be the potential results of the two projects. The worst that can happen as a result of the development review project is that it will cost tax payers money. The worst that can happen with the traffic barrier is that people will die. This could be seen as a cognitive bias Arthur's part.

Later in the movie, Arthur acts more idealistically on the development review project. As the project unfolds, he tries harder to defeat Campbell's ambitions. Although, this could be seen as an emotional reaction to the abuse he gets from Campbell.

My first interpretation is that Arthur has an internal conflict between cynicism and idealism. While he has become a cynic at the intellectual level, he still remains an idealist at the emotional level. In this view, Arthur began as an idealist, but his experience has convinced him to adopt a cynical attitude. This transition is not complete, and in the end may never be fully realized.

My final interpretation is that, while Arthur has accepted a cynical view of people and their motives, he still thinks of them in idealistic terms. That means that he still believes that he can accomplish his idealistic goals despite the base motives of others. He feels that he can even count on those base motives in order to reach his goals. A clear example comes near the end when he hopes that self interest on the part of the mayor will help him defeat Campbell. This is what I call Cynical Idealism.

Arthur's mentor Ling Pang has an attitude similar to his Cynical Idealism. In her case though, she has allowed cynicism to play a larger role. That said, she still has a core sense of idealism that, at times, drives her forward.

Arthur's colleague Denis Kennedy is more purely an idealist. He becomes very angry when he sees Campbell act in a self serving way. In fact, Denis' idealism could be what pushes Arthur to become more idealistic later in the movie.

Arthur's boss Brandon Baker is more purely a cynic. He tires to discourage Arthur's idealism. Brandon is not a total cynic though, like when he back Arthur against Campbell  over the need for a traffic impact study. On the other hand, Brandon might just be going through the motions.

I can see the three other characters as representatives of Arthur's internal struggle. Brandon as the cynical side, Denis as the idealistic side and Ling as the attempt to integrate the two. This insight may help me add more depth to the characters and story when I prepare the final version of the movie.

You can watch the preliminary version of "The Barrier" here: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/the-barrier/. When the final version becomes available, it will be found on the same page.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

When Evaluation Misleads

I don't agree that people can only succeed if they have an inborn talent. I believe that it is possible for anyone to be more successful. A recent article prompted me to give this idea more thought.

"Secrets of amazing teachers: What both sides of the education reform debate get wrong about autonomy and accountability" was posted on the Slate website. http://www.salon.com/2014/08/09/secrets_of_amazing_teachers_what_both_sides_of_the_education_reform_debate_get_wrong_about_autonomy_and_accountability/

While it is about teaching, I think many of the ideas in this article apply more broadly; for example: in my own field of transportation planning. In particular my interest was the use of tests and measurements to rate teachers.

Testing and Rating

Tests are often used to rate people on their abilities. Unfortunately, many people use a poor rating as an excuse to do nothing, or worse, to punish the person for their failure. I think our focus should be on how to improve people's performance. Tests should be used to identify opportunities for improvement. While someone may be poor at something now, there are ways that they can improve.

This seems very obvious to me, and I find it hard to understand why others would reject that view.

I suspect that when someone looks narrowly at their own immediate self interest, then an improvement in someone else's chances for success, is a threat to their own chances for success. People who have succeeded through luck or a privileged position are more likely to feel this way.

In contrast, when someone looks at the situation with a broader, societal, point of view, then they see how other people success can make society better. A world full of successful people is a better place than a world full of failures.

The 10,000 Rule

The 10,000 rule, which says that people need 10,000 hours of practice before they become top performers. This is often attributed to Malcolm Gladwell, although in his book he makes it clear he is just reporting what others have found.

What is often lost in the discussion is that 10,000 hours is an average; for particular individuals it can vary widely from the average. It can be as few as 4,000 hours for some people. While the length of time can vary, the important point is that it is not zero. If talent was all there was, then it would be unnecessary to put in any time. All who succeed do so because of the time they spend on learning and practicing. Some people may start with an advantage, due to genetics and life circumstance, but they still need that time to reach their potential.

Although I don't recall that Gladwell said so explicitly, but the 10,000 hours is not just any kind of practice. It is mentored practice. Their practice is directed by more experienced people who also encourage them,  point out areas where they can improve, and give them advice. It is the feedback they get that helps them learn and develop their skills.

There is a danger that people will assume that people's failure is a result of their unwillingness to "put in their 10,000 hours." I think this would be a mistake. In many of the stories in Gladwell book, what makes the difference is whether or not people have the opportunity to get mentored practice. Without a capable mentor to show the way, extra practice helps little.

As an aside, if you want to evaluate teachers to separate the "good" from the "bad", you need to be aware that it can take a decade, or longer, for a teacher to gain 10,000 hours of experience. It could well take a decade before you can identify "bad" teachers with any confidence. Many teachers don't even stay that long in the profession.

More to Come?

I looked at this issue before, in my blog post "Transportation Planning and “Bad” Teachers". (See:  http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/transportation-planning-and-bad-teachers/ )

I feel strongly about these issues and want to find ways to share my views more effectively. So far, I haven't come up with a way to do that in a story.

I am not finished with these thoughts and I want to dig deeper. Maybe that will bring some inspiration.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

"Felix" and "The Barrier"

I worked on both "Felix" and "The Barrier" this week. The "Felix" rewrite progressed well, but with "The Barrier" it just seemed like I spun my wheels. I still would call it a productive week though.

"Felix" Rewrite

I tried my new approach with "Felix" this week. I printed off the most recent version, then sat out in the back yard, went through the printout and made my revisions. I got about a quarter of the way through. I thought this approach worked and I felt positive about the revisions I made.

Later in the story I have some sections that I will likely have to completely replace. I may even need to add totally new material. That will take a bit longer. I think that I will need to go through the whole story at least one more time before I'm done this revision. It should be ready to share with other people then.

One of the problems I have noticed is some of the technology the astronauts use on Mars seems outdated. I can't mix 2020's technology with 1960's technology. For example, I gave the rover a considerable level of autonomy, but the astronaut's have to drive their own vehicle. I can fix much of that fairly easily, since the technology is mostly in the background. Unfortunately, some of it is tied to major plot points.

I thought it would be enjoyable to sit outside and listen to the birds as I worked. Unfortunately, we only seem to have crows and magpies around here, so not much in the way of  beautiful songs. The chattering of the squirrels sounded better, but after what they did to our garden, it's hard to feel too kindly toward them. I did find it more restful to be outside though.

"The Barrier"

I did some more research on one of the programs I want to use to do "The Barrier". I used up a lot of time, but I can't say I have much to show for it. I can say I did learn more about what it can do. I can't really get too far along with the new version until Xtranormal is rereleased.

I've given some thought to what I'll do with the movie when I get it done. My current plan is to use a site like http://distrify.com/ to distribute the movie. There are several sites that look similar, so I should do some more investigation before I sign up for one.

I believe that this is the first movie ever made specifically about transportation planning, so I need to promote it transportation planners. There might not be much of an audience beyond people who work in the field.

I've done some posts on a few LinkedIn transportation planning groups, but I think I need to look at other options. There are a number of transportation planning magazines, newsletters and journals. I don't think they would have movie reviewers, but I still think I should approach them.

I could use some contacts at these outlets. If you can help me I would appreciate it.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog