New Film Posted: “Extra Special Care”

Well, actually, it is an old film, but I never posted it on-line before.

Extra Special Care  1990 (16mm) 4 minutes

A crack team of scientists and technicians collaborate on a very important project.

I made this as a member of a filmmaking class at The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. Walter Sheppard urged me to post some of my earlier films, so I started with this one.

I did a little editing of the film. I cut some shots shorter and put in some dissolves. The original film was silent, so I decided to add sound effects.

I am posting this film only on my website and not YouTube or similar sites. If it works out, I may do that with all my films.

I no longer have the names of the other people who worked on the film. If you recognize anyone, please let me know.

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

Taxpayer Subsidies for Political Parties

I just published a short article about the taxpayer subsidy for political parties in Canada.

http://newsflavor.com/politics/world-politics/should-canadian-taxpayers-finance-political-parties/

I had thought that there was only the per-vote subsidy, which Stephen Harper wants to cancel. I was surprised to learn that the per-vote subsidy accounts for only about a quarter of the subsidies the government provides to parties.

When I first posted the article on Triond, they put it on a site they have for articles on travel. That doesn’t make much sense to me, so I’ve asked to have it moved. It is annoying, because I had to wait until it is moved before I could promote it. With the election underway, this could be a popular article, if I can publicise it.

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

My Most Difficult Case Project Update 2011 April 7

I was a little shocked to realize that I hadn’t done a progress update on My Most Difficult Case since last October. I’ve made some good progress since then.

I’ve “locked” the video for the film. I don’t plan to make changes to it now, so I can move on with the sound. The film now runs about eight and a half minutes. That is down from 11 minutes with the original version. The cuts make it a tighter film.

The composite shot I created of the two lawyers seemed too short for me, so I made it two-thirds of a second longer. I’d still like to remove a couple pictures on a wall in a couple shots. I tried several different ways, but none of them worked. I’m sure I could do it if I spent a lot of time on detail work, but I don’t think it is worth it.

Vildo Sturam did an animated DynamicLethargyFILMS logo for me when he did his cut. After all the file conversions I did with it, the quality was not very good, so I created a new one.

Walter Sheppard http://www.youtube.com/user/TangibleImages did a new music track for the film. He’d done a number of videos with his own music that I thought would work well with the film.

I’ve arranged for Chris James to handle the sound production. He arranged a recording session at Christopher James Connelly’s studio www.music.connellystudios.com and we rerecorded Louis Koutis’ voice over.

My current task is to review the voice over recording and decide which takes to use. Once I’ve made those decisions, I can turn everything over to Chris James to finish the sound.

I am optimistic that the final film will be ready soon.

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

New Short Story Published: The Glencoe Project - A Transportation Planning Adventure Story

You can read my new short story at either of these two websites:

http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/The_Glencoe_Project.php

http://authspot.com/short-stories/the-glencoe-project-a-transportation-planning-adventure-story/

This story draws on my experiences as a transportation planner. Experienced writers always tell new writers to “write what you know.”  That hasn’t been easy for me up until now. Several times I’ve set out to write a story with a transportation planning background, but I abandoned them all.

I took a different approach this time and it worked for me. If I get a good response to this story, I plan to write a series of them. Eventually I want to develop the ideas into a movie or maybe a novel.

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

 

Publish Post

News and Progress in January and February 2011

I published three articles on-line this week. This month Triond, where I publish, will pay a bonus if I publish five or more eligible articles during the month. With these three I’ve made that. I wrote and published six articles over the last month.

Where Do We Spend Money on Health Care?

A Review of "Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail - and Why We Believe Them Anyway"

Some Advice to People at The Start of Their Careers

The Dark Side of Quotations

Can Government be Run Like a Business?

Evolutionary Economics

My brother read my script Then the Phone Rang. He said it was better than the last one of mine he read. He said the dialog was better, although a few lines made him cringe. I am looking for other people to read it, but I wonder if I should do a rewrite first. I have some ideas to improve it.

I want to move on with My Most Difficult Case over the next month. My next task is to finalize the music and then I can move on to the sound. I have some paper work to do as well. If your film is over a certain length you need to get a C-number from the CRTC to prove that it is Canadian content. I’m not sure what the cut off is, but I’m fairly sure that I am over the limit.

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

Sore Teeth and Other Thoughts

The last couple of weeks one of my teeth has become very painful. This week it got so sore that I found it hard to concentrate on much else. I will get it pulled Monday.

Recently, when I develop new stories, I try to give the main character some kind of handicap or limitation that they need to work around. After this last week, I think that a painful tooth would be a good handicap to give a hero. You really need to be nasty to your heroes.

I did manage to finish and publish a short article this week: Some Advice to People at The Start of Their Careers . It is a follow up to an article I did earlier: Six Lessons for Planning a Career . When I finished the earlier article I cut out a lot of material to keep the article short. I went back to that material and used it to build up a new article.

I came across another blog post to recommend: http://filmutopia.posterous.com/movie-blog-hey-film-makers-its-about-the-scri . His first point is one that I can attest is a good idea. When I first started to make films, before I started a project I would tell people about my ideas. I could tell from people’s reactions, which ideas caught their fancy and which ones didn’t. It wasn’t a conscious plan on my part, but it made a big difference in my work. I don’t really do that any more. I want to find a way to get that kind of feedback again.

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

New Articles on Forecasting and Health Care

One of the sites I publish on (Triond) has a special on this month where I get a bonus if I publish 5 or more articles, so I’ve gone back to several articles that I’d left unfinished. I published two this week. Three more articles and I’m done.

A Review of "Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail - and Why We Believe Them Anyway"

I just happened to spend the last 30 years of my life as an “expert predictor” in transportation planning, so this book caught my eye. My brother Keith and his wife Colleen gave me a copy for Christmas. This review allowed me to pontificate on some of the views on forecasting I developed over my former career.

I published it on Bukisa and Wikinut as well, but Triond pays better.

Where Do We Spend Money on Health Care?

Like many people, I worry about the future of health care. My father was involved with the creation of Medicare in Canada. I did an article earlier on a comparison between the U.S. and Canadian systems. Since then I have dabbled with several articles, but mostly I have compiled information.

I put this article together from a couple of reports I found on-line. I wanted to build it into more of a discussion of the cost of health care, but I want to keep my articles under 1,000 words. One of these days I will write another article to follow on from this.

This article is also on Bukisa and Wikinut .

Transportation Planning Expose

Writers are always told to “write what you know.” I worked for 30 years as a transportation planner, so I thought I should write a story set in that milieu. So far I have found that very hard to do.

About six years ago I started on a script idea set in a transportation planning office. Initially I called it The Thompson Proposal, but changed it to Traffic Collision. I got bogged down because I tried to come up with a good McGuffin before I came up with a good story.

I started a satirical story that I called Tom Swift and his Incredible Traffic Model. I have a draft done, but it just doesn’t work. I need to massively rewrite it. I can’t use the name Tom Swift in the title either.

This week I started to write a review of the book Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail - And Why We Believe Them Anyway. Most of my career was spent in forecasting and I found the book resonated with how I felt about the topic. It has been very hard to write. Maybe it is just that it is that I have to go back and think about the work I used to do before I retired. I want to check and double check everything I say, which takes time. Once I get on the Internet it is so easy to get distracted. Besides that, I can’t seem to find a way to say what I want to say. I’ve tried several different approaches, but none has worked so far. I think I’ll leave it for a time.

After I did The Abattoir Project: A Ken Walker Adventure, I decided I could use that as a template to write a transportation planning story. I made good progress on the outline this week. I need to fill in more details about the plot and the characters before I can start to write. This time I focussed on the story before I developed the background. I think I have enough plot ideas for several more stories. We’ll see how it goes.

I want the story to be a realistic portrayal of transportation planning, but part of me would like to throw in a murder mystery and gun fights. It is easier to catch reader’s attention if your protagonist is likely to be shot, than if he might get a stern talking to from his boss.

I want to get back to work on My Most Difficult Case now, so I’m not sure when I’ll get this story done.

My Goals for 2011

The New Year is a good time to reflect on accomplishments and set new goals for the year.

Feature Scripts

My goal in 2010 was to do three new feature scripts. I finished the first draft of my script Bright Freedom last week. That means I met my goal. They are all just first drafts so far and they are all a little short for features. I think I learnt a lot from writing them. In 2011, I want to rewrite each of them.

I know that I learn more from each script I write and, while I will learn from the rewrites, I want to write some new scripts. I have several in mind: The Crying Woman, The Caregiver, Tick Tick Tick and several I don’t have names for yet. I’d like to do six more, but I think it would be better to have a more modest goal of two. I don’t want to take too much time away from rewrites, after all good writing is really good rewriting.

My First Feature

Last year I decided I wouldn’t try to do a feature until I had a script I felt very good about. So far, the only script I feel I could make into a feature is Then the Phone Rang. I don’t think I’ll set a goal of starting my feature this year.

Short Films

I did plan to do a short film last year, but didn’t even choose a project. I want to do a short about nine minutes long. My idea was to do one in the same style as the feature I want to do. That would get me back into the swing of things. I haven’t started a project of that scale since I started My Most Difficult Case back in 2002! I’ll set the same goal this year.

I want use some of the video I shot in China in 2009 to make a short video. I have a pretty good idea what I want to do. I just need to get down to work on it.

I want to finish My Most Difficult Case and submit it for distribution. That was one of my 2010 goals and I made some progress. There isn’t too much left to do: music, audio and getting releases signed.

Short Stories

In 2010, I finished and published three short stories. I have three short stories in the works now that I want to finish. One of these I wrote using the Lester Dent story formula. It is my longest story so far at over 6,000 words. While I did it mostly as a practice exercise, I could see myself writing a series of stories in that same vein. Depends on the feedback I get on the first one. If I complete 9 or 10 I can publish another book.

Articles

I published 13 articles this year on Triond, Bukisa and Wikinut. I have several article ideas and a couple of drafts, but I want to concentrate on my fiction work. So, for 2011 I have no goal to publish any new articles. I may still do some anyway.

Blog

My 2010 goal was to post at least one blog a week. Other than a week or two, I met that goal. I plan to continue that goal. I had thought I might set a goal to do more, but I don’t want to over do it. Too many posts could drive away people who follow my blog. Most of my posts get over 100 views and some run over 400. I’d like to grow that more.

Writing Skills

Several people have suggested that I need to work on my characterisation and dialogue, so that will be a goal this year. A particular problem is that my protagonists are not easy to like.

Website and Promotion

While I didn’t make a goal of it, I did make a lot of changes to my website and other on-line presences. Until I have some more substantial project to promote, I will just develop skills and tools that I can use later. I have looked at some other places to post my stories and videos and I want to pursue that.

In Defence of "Blink" and "Outliers"

I enjoyed reading Malcolm Gladwell's books Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking and Outliers: The Story of Success. I was disappointed when I read some criticism of these books. I wrote a short article to counter the criticism.

In Defence of Blink and Outliers

http://bookstove.com/book-talk/in-defence-of-blink-and-outliers/

Trying New Site for my Stories and Articles

Trying New Site for my Stories and Articles

I started to publish my stories and articles on Wikinut.

http://www.wikinut.com/author~sonpm/DynamicLethargyFilms/

I’m getting a decent number of people reading my stuff, but I’m not making much money from it. So far they pay much less than what I get on Triond.

http://www.triond.com/users/James+Beattie+Morison

My own site has been getting a few visitors, but no revenue yet.

http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/writing.php

wikinut, writing, Triond, money, revenue, short stories

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

I started to publish my stories and articles on Wikinut.

http://www.wikinut.com/author~sonpm/DynamicLethargyFilms/

I’m getting a decent number of people reading my stuff, but I’m not making much money from it. So far they pay much less than what I get on Triond.

http://www.triond.com/users/James+Beattie+Morison

My own site has been getting a few visitors, but no revenue yet.

http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/writing.php

Walk in the Snow with 15% off with coupon code

Purchase Walk in the Snow with 15% off with coupon code FALLREAD305 until October 15, 2010.

Walk in the Snow by James Morison - Dynamic Lethargy Films in Literature & Fiction

Cuts, Composites, 16:9 and My Next Film

Louie Koutis, who played the judge in My Most Difficult Case http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/my_most_difficult_case.php , came over for a visit this week. I showed him the most recent cut of the film and he had some suggestions. I had been thinking along the same lines, so I went ahead and did the cuts.

I tried to replace a picture on the wall in some shots of My Most Difficult Case with the composite tools in Premiere Pro. I have had some success with that, but it is a long slow process, and I haven’t been able to get something good enough to use. I think I can do that if I put more time into it, but I wonder if it is really worth the effort.

One of my ideas was to do a widescreen (16:9) version of My Most Difficult Case. I tried that out this week, and it was easier than I expected it to be.There are still a lot of tweaks I can make to it. I am not sure about the image quality though.

My distribution contract with Ouat Media http://www.ouatmedia.com/ for My Next Film http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/my_next_film.php comes to an end next week. I haven’t heard anything from them about it. I am not sure just when I can start selling it on my own. I did some work this week to create a good quality version of it that I can use.

My New Book is Available Now

My new book Walk in the Snow is a collection of my short stories and articles. You can buy the book at: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/walk-in-the-snow/9192996

I must admit that I published the book mainly to establish my copyright, so I am not expecting many sales. The book cost $8.99 plus shipping, but there is a download available for $2.99. You don’t have to buy it because all the stories and articles are already available on-line for free at the websites below.

Links to my stories: http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/writing.php

Articles I published on Bukisa: http://www.bukisa.com/people/DynamicLethargy

Stories and articles I published on Triond: http://www.triond.com/users/James+Beattie+Morison

Triond had a promotion on in August, so I published five new articles (plus one story) during August.

It's Obvious - Isn't It?

I have often heard the expression “It’s Obvious”, and over the years, I have thought about what it meant. I finally tried to organize those thoughts and wrote a short article about it.

http://scienceray.com/philosophy-of-science/its-obvious-isnt-it/

Can a Conservative Also be a Liberal?

Most people think of conservatives and liberals as the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Until recently, so did I. While conservatism and liberalism have a history of conflict, they are not opposites.

http://socyberty.com/politics/can-a-conservative-also-be-a-liberal/

The Tragedy of Ankhesenamun

Most people have heard of King Tutankhamun, buy fewer people know of his wife Ankhesenamun. When I first learned about her, I thought her life would make a good story for a movie. From Tutankhamun’s birth to his death, Ankhesenamun was by his side. With his death, her life became a tragedy.

http://socyberty.com/history/the-tragedy-of-ankhesenamun/

Some Curious Stories from the Discovery of the Solar System

It took thousands of years for people to discover the true nature of the Solar System. The road to understanding was not straight and along the way, some curious things happened. The search, after all, was by people, who can be quite curious.

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/337525_some-curious-stories-from-the-discovery-of-the-solar-system

Rationality Versus Irrationality in The Movie "Agora"

I published a short comentary on the movie Agora

http://cinemaroll.com/cinemarolling/rationality-versus-irrationality-in-the-movie-agora/

After I saw the movie "Agora" I felt that, while I enjoyed the movie, it would a movie that I would quickly forget. Since then however, I have started to see more to it. I think this movie needs a second look.

"My Next Film" on Moviola in August 2010

Moviola will show my film "My Next Film" during August 2010.

These are the remaining show time and dates:

August 15 12:23 pm Eastern Standard Time (11:23 am Mountain Daylight Time)

August 18 6:08 pm Eastern Standard Time (5:08 pm Mountain Daylight Time)

August 31 8:54 pm Eastern Standard Time (7:54 pm Mountain Daylight Time)

You can find out more at:

http://www.movieola.ca/search.php?searchBy=0&keyword=My+Next+Film

If you do not get Moviola, they stream some programs on their website. http://www.movieola.ca/