"The Barrier": How Specific Do I Need to be About the Transportation Model?

In my initial version of "The Barrier" I was kind of skimpy on the details of the issues with the transportation model. With the rewrite, I felt I needed to make that more detailed.

I revised 4 more scenes this week. I've done 14 of the 39 scenes I plan to rewrite. Most of the remaining scenes have only minor changes, but there are four scenes that need major rewrites. In those scenes I had the characters talk in vague generalities about the issues that come up about the transportation model. I started to work on those specifics this week.

I've run into some barriers of my own.

Hazy Memory

It's been 13 years since I last worked in transportation forecasting, and 7 years since I actively kept up with developments in the field. My memory has faded somewhat over those years. Transportation models have thousands of details that can become controversial. I struggled to remember a handful of major issues. I'm sure that as I think about it more, some more will come to mind.

Dated Knowledge

Since I haven't kept up on new developments, the criticisms of transportation models may well have changed. Around the time I left the field, new types of models were being introduced that were supposed to address some of the major criticisms of existing transportation models.

It may well be that some of the issues I want to use in the movie are no longer relevant. No doubt there would be some criticism of  the newer models, but I wouldn't know what they would be. I'm not keen to do a lot of research to update my self. Maybe someone can give me some suggestions I can use.

I do remember one criticism of the newer models was how much more time and effort they took to run. That isn't an issue I can use in my movie. Another was the perennial complaint about models that they were black boxes that nobody understood. I already use this in the movie. I even call the model software "BlackBox by VooDoo".

What I don't believe has changed is that forecasting models are still the weak link in the planning process. Knowledgeable people who want to question transportation plans will go after the forecasts. You can see the same pattern in the climate change debate.

Avoid Confusion

I worry that if I get too specific about the transportation model, people without some background in the field will get confused. On the other hand, the vague descriptions I used in the last version of "The Barrier" confused people anyway. I need to strike a balance where most viewers can follow what is happening.

The issues with the model are what Alfred Hitchcock used to call a McGuffin. It's what the characters in the movie think is important, but it isn't important to the story or the audience.

Options

My first inclination is to use the jargon that transportation planners would use. The problem with that approach is that then I would have to explain what the term means. I've done that in a few places already. I had the developer play dumb to force the engineers to explain what they meant.

In the scenes I need to revise, the characters should know what they talking about, which eliminates any excuse for characters to explain. The approach I have in mind is to have the characters describe the real world implication of the issue, rather than use the jargon. That might grate on people who do know the jargon.

For example, I want the consultant to criticise the volume delay curve equation. When I have Dennis talk about the note the consultant sent, he could say something like, "Here he questions how we calculate the delays from traffic congestion." Most people know what delay and traffic congestion mean. They don't need to know how the model estimates the delay.

Issues To Use

I've come up with a few more issues I think I can use.

·         Parking cost - this would affect whether people drive or take the bus.

·         Pedestrians mode constant in the modal choice model - this would affect how many people walk instead for drive.

·         Ride sharing - this would affect car pooling. This might include newer services like Uber or Lyft.

·         Trip distribution exponent - this would affect where people would go to work or shop.

·         Cycling - I plan to use a reference to cycling elsewhere in the revised script, so I wouldn't want to use it here.

I'll need to work on these issues some more before I go ahead with my rewrite. I still might decide to do some more research.

You can watch the previous version of "The Barrier" here: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/the-barrier/

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

Ancient Alien Visitations: Show Me the Garbage

In an earlier post I asked myself what might convince me that aliens had visited Earth in ancient times. I think I have an answer to that now.

Back in May 2015, I wrote a post about what evidence we'd find if aliens had visited Earth in ancient times.

http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/if-there-really-were-ancient-astronauts-what-kind-of-evidence-would-we-find/ In that post I asked what kind of evidence would convince me that aliens had visited Earth.

Much of the evidence presented to support the ancient alien visitation hypothesis, is also used to support the advanced prehistoric civilization hypothesis. My discussion below would therefore also apply to that hypothesis.

Am I a Denier or a Sceptic?

So far, none of the evidence presented by advocates of the ancient alien visitation hypothesis has convinced me that there was any truth to the hypothesis.  The difference between a denier and a sceptic is that a sceptic can say what kind of evidence would cause them to change their mind. When I wrote the last post, I couldn't think of what might convince me, but I have thought about it several times since then.

Evidence: Show Me the Garbage

Recently I read an article on the Internet that reminded me that archaeologists find the study of  people's garbage dumps very useful in their research. What struck me was that the evidence proposed to support the ancient alien visitation hypotheses is by and large stone constructions. These can be explained in other ways.

If aliens had visited Earth and spent some considerable time here, surely they would have left some kind of garbage. If there had been a large scale presence of aliens in ancient times, we would find garbage that reflected a more advanced level of technology almost everywhere. These large accumulations of garbage would leave little doubt that aliens had visited. This kind of discovery of garbage would convince me of the reality of alien visitations.

For example, in recent times, modern humans have created vast amounts of garbage. You can find plastic garbage just about everywhere. It will take centuries for these plastics to biodegrade, and even then, they would leave evidence that could be detected thousands of years in the future.

I don't think any of the advocates of alien visitation have explicitly looked for garbage. There have been several finds that might be classed as garbage, but none that convince me.

Counter Argument: The Aliens Were Neat Freaks

If we do not find any ancient alien garbage, does that prove they didn't visit? You could argue that the reason we don't find garbage is that they were very advanced and did not create any garbage. Maybe they picked up everything before they left.

I think this is a possible explanation. Certainly many people today want to reduce the amount of garbage we produce. A more advanced society could have successfully reduced the volume of their garbage to the point that it is undetectable.

That isn't my concern here though. I did not set out to convince others that alien's did not visit. I wanted to find an example of the kind of evidence that would convince me that I was wrong about ancient alien visitation. Large volumes of alien garbage found in many parts of the world would be that kind of evidence.

Other related blog posts:

http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/a-brief-thought-about-the-fermi-paradox/

http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/why-would-ancient-astronauts-visit-earth/

http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/do-ancient-alien-probes-watch-earth/

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

"Felix" and the Exploration of Mars - Part 3

A while back I developed my ideas about how Mars would be explored to firm up the back story of my story "Felix". This week I came across some material that suggests that real scientists have thought along the same lines.

In my earlier blog post: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/felix-and-the-exploration-of-mars/, I suggested that before people would visit Mars, we would send robots ahead to survey and then build a Mars base where people would live on Mars. I did a follow up to that blog post: http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/felix-and-the-exploration-of-mars-part-2/

I found this article: http://www.popsci.com/we-could-be-living-on-moon-in-10-years-or-less, that reports on a conference about the possibilities of building a Moon village. The papers from the conference can be found at: http://online.liebertpub.com/toc/space/4/1

Moon and Mars Bases

Their focus is on the creation of a Moon base rather than a Mars base, although one of the participants said that he saw it as a step toward the creation of a Mars base. Although their focus is on the Moon, the approach they proposed was similar to what I had come up with for Mars. That gives me a little more confidence in my ideas.

I hadn't really thought about it as the background to my story, but it makes a lot of sense to me to test out the approach on the Moon before any attempt to do the same on Mars. That aspect wouldn't show up explicitly in "Felix".

Ideas for My Story

This report got me to think about my story again. I think I may have a solution to one of the problems with the story. In the story my Mars rover, Felix, is lost, which is why the astronauts were sent to search. However, the quality of the satellite images is so good now, that it would be very difficult for a rover to get lost.

I came up with two things I could add to the story that would explain how Felix could get lost. My first idea is that there would be a great dust storm, which happen now and then on Mars. That would prevent satellites from tracking the rover, and would also cover up its track way. The second idea is that the big discovery would in a large cave, which would be hidden from the satellite's view.

The more I think about these ideas, the more I think they could give the story some added interest and drama. That is another problem I have with the story: it doesn't seem to have much excitement. I just might get back to my rewrite one of these days.

Image sources:

• https://www.wpclipart.com/space/moon/moon_lithograph.jpg.html
• https://www.wpclipart.com/space/solar_system/Mars/Mars_NASA_photo.jpg.html

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

"The Barrier", "The Disruptors", and Relationships

This week, besides work on "The Barrier", and "The Disruptors", I also thought about how I should develop the relationship back-stories for characters.

"The Barrier"

My rewrite of "The Barrier" has gone quite slowly, but I managed to finish 5 of the 39 scenes I plan to rewrite. Once do I get started it goes smoothly, but I find it far too easy to put it off.

So far all of the revised scenes run longer. Version 0.6 of the movie runs about 86 minutes. If all of the scenes I rewrite end up longer by the same amount, it looks like the new version could run almost 2 hours. That is longer than what I'd like it to be.

There several existing scenes that seem repetitious to me. Maybe I can shorten the movie if eliminate those. It can get tricky when you try to cut stuff out though. I read somewhere recently that it is much easier to add material to a script than take it out. On the other hand, I've found with some of my earlier movies, that cutting out material would often improve the movie.

"The Disruptors"

I had planned to leave "The Disruptors" until later, but I had a bunch of ideas about the characters that I had to write down before I forgot them. I have a plot in mind, but after I did "The 89th Key" I decided I needed to put more effort into creating the characters before I develop the plot in more detail.

Relationships

Another thing I learned from "The 89th Key" was that it is important to define the relationships between the characters. Relationships develop during the course of a story, but what I have in mind is to develop a back-story for the relationships. I am not sure how I should go about that. I've seen questionnaires writers have set up to help them develop their characters. I haven't seen any to help you develop your characters' relationships.

I came up with a few ideas:

§         Are they friends, enemies or neutral?

§         Are they rivals or team mates?

§         Do they trust each other?

§         Do they like each other?

§         How strong is the relationship?

§         When did they meet?

§         How did they meet?

§         Was it one event that brought them together, or did it develop slowly over a longer period?

§         What do they have in common?

§         What do they normally talk about?

§         What do they disagree about?

§         What aspects of the other are they unaware of?

I'll need to give this list some more thought. It seems to me that there must be many other important questions to ask. Some of questions seem to duplicate others.

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

A Bunch of Brief Thoughts

I didn't accomplish much this week, but I did have some ideas and thoughts I wanted to share.

"The Barrier"

I did a little more work on my revised script for "The Barrier". My progress has been rather slow. I think that is because I'm not really sure how I'll get the film finished. I suspect that I will need to nail that down before I can get energized.

I need to get a better handle on what it will cost and how I can recruit and record the actors. Most of the rest of the work I know I can do on my own in my own time.

Recycled Ideas for Blog Posts

This is my 365th post to my blog. One of the issues I noticed recently is that I sometimes forget that I have used an idea for a blog post and write another post based on the same idea. I've caught myself several times and changed my post, but I probably missed a few.

Blog Posts Unrelated to my Creative Work

In general I've avoided blog posts that are not directly linked to my creative work. Often when I do, I try to link it to my work. Usually not very effectively.

I do have ideas I want to express that I don't see being fodder for a movie or a story. I have posted some of those on my articles page. http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/articles/

I do wonder if I should be more open to posts about ideas other than my creative work. There are many problems in this world and I often feel I have some thing to contribute to the discussion. My ideas may not be valuable or useful to others, but I find it helps me to express my ideas.

Things I Wish I Had Said

I, like many people, think of my best come back lines, long after it is too late. Sometimes many years later. This causes some frustration. I have thought that I can draw on these flash backs in my creative work. I used several of these in "The Barrier".

I have never used them as the basis for a project, although I did try a few times. Many of them bring back painful memories. While it can help to exorcise the negative feelings, it can also stir them up.

Midnight Thoughts

I struggled to get to sleep last night. I was obsessed with thoughts about my short story "A Woman Alone in a Cruel World". http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/stories/a-woman-alone-in-a-cruel-world/

I came up with a different approach to the same idea. With my mind on fire, I got up and wrote out two short scenes. I think they could be developed into a longer narrative, but I'm not sure I want to revisit the original story. On the other hand, maybe it is a story that is begging me to be written.

$100 Film Festival

The 24th $100 Film Festival is on this weekend. http://100dollarfilmfestival.org/ I didn't go again this year. I haven't been to one since I went to see my film "Contingency" in 2012. My film "Some Days..." was shown in 2013, but my wife had surgery the same day, and that was more important to me.

I have had 9 of my films shown at the festival, and I did start it, so I do have a strong attachment to the festival. While I feel as if I have neglected it, it seems to be doing just fine without me.

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

"The Barrier" Script Rewrite 2015 February 21

I made progress on my rewrite of  "The Barrier", my transportation planning movie. The script is matched to the movie now. I started to work on the revisions to the script.

Conform Script to Current Movie

I conformed the script to match the caption file I created for the movie when I first released it. As I went through the script later, I caught several places where I'd missed some bits of dialogue.

Version 0.6 of the movie is still available on-line. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATcKnFAwlU0

Action Descriptions

When I created the script from the Xtranormal STATE files, I wasn't able to convert the actions and expressions. This left the script with just the scene headers, character names and dialogues.

I went through the script to add some action descriptions. I decided to keep the action descriptions to a minimum. Maybe I was too terse, but I wanted to move onto the next phase.

Character Descriptions

After I thought I was done with the action descriptions I came across an article about the Jane test (http://www.wired.com/2016/02/jane-test-movie-gender-roles/). It focussed on the sexist slant of the character descriptions  for female characters in the script. I had a look at my descriptions, and realized I didn't really have much to say at all. For example:

ARTHUR MACDONALD drives his car along a country road between a river and some hills.

LING PANG walks by.

ZELDA ZIMMERMAN and another woman sit at a table in front of the coffee shop.

I added some brief descriptions, which I don't think are sexist:

ARTHUR MACDONALD, a transportation engineer in his early 20s, drives his car along a country road between a river and some hills.

LING PANG, a transportation engineer in her mid 40s, walks by.

ZELDA ZIMMERMAN, a woman in her mid 20's, and another woman sit at a table in front of the coffee shop.

I was tempted to describe Zelda as "attractive", but decided it wasn't necessary.

These character descriptions are not really that critical to the script, since I had already chosen the characters from Xtranormal for the movie. I felt it would be a useful exercise for any scripts I write in the future, where I will need to include them.

Change Notes

As I went through the script to make the changes above, I inserted change notes where I came across something that I wanted to change. Most of these were cases where I felt that the dialogue didn't fit the character. For example, Ling says "oh my" to express her surprise and concern for Arthur when he tells her about his near accident. Not only do I feel that isn't what she'd say, but the character Meera says the same thing several times. I think it is appropriate for her.

When I first released the movie, several people sent me comments and suggestions. Since then I've written down several more ideas for changes. I went through the script a second time to insert notes where I wanted add those changes. Most of these changes were to clarify the story and dialogue where people were confused or put off.  There were a few places where I felt the scene was weak and could be improved.

Since I finished, I came across a few more ideas I'd forgotten about, and will need to add those as well.

When you make changes one place in a script, you often need to make changes elsewhere to keep the story consistent. I'll need to do at least one more pass through to fix those.

Rewriting the First Scene

I took my first stab at the rewrite with a go at Scene 8, where Arthur and Vincent Campbell first meet. My objective with the changes was to explain the hierarchy in the office, which some people found confusing.

I had Campbell play a mind game with Arthur, to force him to explain who he works for. Campbell, of course, already knows who's who and wants to put Arthur on the defensive right away. I think the result has some humour to it, and also reinforces Campbell's personality.

I thought I was done with the scene, but afterwards I started to think that I could delete or shorten some of the dialogue to tighten up the scene. For example I have a rather long introduction between two of the characters that is both dull and adds very little to the scene.

Ideas for Other Changes

I got an idea for a new scene where Arthur shoots a video of the dangerous curve in the road. I would need to change a couple other scenes to accommodate that. It would be a short scene, but would be as complicated to make as the new opening scene I added in version 0.6.

My other ideas involve improvements to the computer screens animations. I don't plan to add anything of substance, just improve how they look. Again, they might be quite complicated to create.

What to do After I have the New Script?

I haven't given too much thought to what my next step after I'm done with the script revisions. I could work on the extra animations I want to add, or I could get NawmalMAKE and start to create the new scenes. But, what troubles me is how I will handle the voices in the new version. NawmalMAKE has different voices from Xtranormal Desktop.

For the final version I want to hire vocal actors to do the voices. This could be expensive. I found commercial rates posted on-line that suggest it could cost me more than $2,000. I would prefer to use local actors. I haven't talked to any of the actors I know about what they would charge me. I made a vow that in the future I would always pay anyone who helped me with my movies. As an interim step I could use the new artificial voices that come with NawmalMAKE.

I've also thought I could use the voices from Acapela that I used the first time. From what I can see on their web site, I don't think I can download them and use them in NawmalMAKE, but I can use their Acapela Box website to create the audio. (https://acapela-box.com/AcaBox/index.php). This would cost me at least $920 for my whole movie. Possibly much more. I think it would be cheaper, about $600, to buy the voices to work with another program. If I did that, I could use the voices on other projects.

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

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