Maybe It's Time to Get a New Secret Cabal to Run the World

I don't believe that there is a secret cabal that runs the world, but if there is one, they don't seem to be very good at it. Maybe it is time that we replace them with a new secret cabal and see if they can do a better job.

Back when I made "Who Shot the President" I read a lot about various conspiracy theories. While secret conspiracies have existed in the past, and some may well exist now, it is doubtful that most of the large conspiracy theories have any basis in reality. A recent study demonstrated that large conspiracies unlikely to stay secret for long: http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/math-vs-conspiracies/

Nevertheless, the concept of a large scale secret conspiracy to run the world still attracts people's interest. If nothing else, it certainly provides much fodder for fictional treatment.

For quite a while now, I've rejected the idea on the basis that if there was a secret cabal, they didn't seem to be competent. Eventually I came to think that if they were so bad at their job, they should be replaced. This might make a good story.

I need to have is a reasonable way for the secret cabal to be replaced. Of course, if it is more of a satire, I could come up with an absurd method to replace them.

I have the feeling that a lot of people who fervently believe that there is a secret cabal that runs the world would probably be very offended by any kind of satire. I got several threats of violence when I posted "Who Shot the President" on YouTube.

Maybe I could have the secret cabal's replacement put to a world wide democratic vote. The secret cabal would need to campaign to convince people to keep them in power. Other potential secret cabals would propose how they would run the secret world conspiracy. The unfortunate draw back is that I don't think I am ready to write something of this sort.

Another possibility is to have a higher level secret cabal that can hire and fire the lower level secret cabal. That could mean that there is an even higher level secret cabal that can hire and fire the higher level secret cabal. There could be an infinite number of levels of secret cabals. This could turn into another absurd story.

Maybe someday I'll be ready to take this on as a project, but for now I think I need to let it percolate through my mind. Maybe more inspiration will pop-up.

You can watch "Who Shot the President"  here: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/filmlist/who-shot-the-president/

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

“The Barrier” - Now onto the First Cut

I added three new scenes this week. One isn’t very long, just a few lines. It is mainly a line I want to add, but I haven’t found a way to tie it into the story. I’ve left it out for now.

I got all of the video files output from Xtranormal, so I have something to work with if I don’t get a chance to rework some of the scenes I would like to.

I began work on the first cut of the movie with Premiere Pro. In keeping with my previous experiences, I have run into trouble with Premiere Pro. Mostly it seems to be issues with the Windows Media files. I think I have that fixed now. I hope so anyway.

It has been a struggle over the last few weeks. A friend of mine said I should name my films with more positive titles, like “That was Easy”, or “Piece of Cake”.

I learned some more tricks in Xtranormal, but since the software will be stop working in 10 days (2013 July 31), that doesn’t help me much. I’ve heard rumours that there might be a way to use Xtranormal after the deadline, but I wouldn’t want to count on that.

I have a little program I set up to convert the Xtranormal State files into a script. I developed it a few weeks ago, but now it doesn’t seem to work properly. I did manage to get a script I could use. It helped me catch a couple problems in the dialogue so far. I had the wrong names for a couple of characters. I thought I had caught and fixed them all.

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

The Difficulties of Autobiography in Fiction

Some parts of my new story "Sweat" are autobiographical. I find those are the hardest parts to write. I’ve tried to understand why.

Most, if not all, writers draw from their personal experiences in their work. I often find it difficult to do. I based one scene in “Sweat” on an actual conversation I had. This has become a difficult challenge for me, and I have thought about why these autobiographical elements of my stories are so hard for me.

I have identified three barriers when I have trouble when I try to incorporate events from my life into my fiction work.

1.      Many events were important in both life and the lives of others. I don’t want to trivialize these events in my fiction. This is especially a concern with other people’s involvement.

2.      Many events I want to use were unpleasant for me. When I want to incorporate them, it revives the feelings I had at the time. It is painful to revisit these old wounds and bad memories. Although these feelings can provide fodder for the story, they can also put me off writing.

3.      Many events involved conflict with other people. Although I have managed to exclude them from my current life, these people are still around. I fear that if I use those events as the basis for my fiction, they will reopen the old conflict.

I have developed a couple of strategies to deal with these barriers.

1.      I try to create a distance between my experience and myself. The main technique I’ve used is to transpose the events to a different situation. This allows me to change the specifics of the event and the nature of the people involved.

2.      I try to draw on emotions from the event and envision other situations that can bring out similar emotions.

I used both of these strategies in my film “Line of Taxis”. They did help, but there were several periods on that film where I ran into the same barriers. I’ve used both approaches in my story “Sweat”.

I suppose that in the end, it is just a matter of “getting over it”. None the less, I would like to find other techniques to help me overcome these barriers. I would gratefully accept any advice.

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