Category Archives: movies

October 6, 2021 · 23:03

What sells better?

That is the question that was racing through my mind today. We all know (or have heard of) the expression ‘Sex sells’. It is used to market, to advertise and to entice (usually the men). But what if that is merely the setting? What if in actuality fantasy is the part that sells better? I had a small daydream this afternoon. I was in Toronto and I was chosen to be the backup goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs (yes, the dream is not very realistic). I was sitting in some cafe, the staff was nice and suddenly addressed by Sheldon Keefe (their coach) and he said to me “Lawrence, today your most desired dreams becomes a reality”, my dry response was “What? You arranged a weekend of wild and passionate sex with Laura Vandervoort?” The team was howling with laughter and the coach deadpan response was “Well almost most desired then” and I was given the 62 Jersey to be the backup goalie that week, and lets face it, not unlike my blog name, if we want to have a fantasy, lets go for the really satisfying ones. 

So there I was with my jersey there were a few other jokes and giggles after that I woke up from my daydream (without the LV special), such is life. But the dream stuck and when I was watching someones drawing of Alice in wonderland I started to put things together. What if we are not looking at a porn or some sex movie, but what we used to call in the old days a soft porn movie (all innuendo and little or no show, except for the boobies). What if the movie is a new take in Alice in Wonderland? We go through the motions (or Alice does) and the Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar, the rabbit, they are all men with masks and onesies. A movie that is like not some cheap movie, but high end special effects (not unlike The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) and a storyline that does follow the book, but with a twist at the end. The end being that [CENSORED]

A stage that reminded me of a movie that impacted with me, Jacob’s Ladder. So what happens if Virtual Reality takes over our lives too much? There are settings (Elite Dangerous) where I would love to have the hardware to do just that, but the hardware for now is too expensive and (for now) not immersive enough. So when that changes (most likely in 2-3 years) what are the applications? What happens when we can dig into the fantasies of any person (like The Cell) 

So what can we learn? I am not merely thinking healing, but interrogations, information retrieval and a few other avenue’s. So when we take the stage and turn on the fantasy, what could be achieved? We have seen this in the past but always as the end goal, as far as I can tell it was never used as a mere waypoint. Why was that? It cannot be the limit of Hollywood, it could be the limit of any producer yet I believe that this path could lead to a load of green as the faith of Americans go. I believe that there is a host of options here, and as streaming channels are competing more and more, whatever we can do that is truly original is one that streamers will entice, I merely hope that they wake up before they cancel the series too soon (way too many examples) because it is the slow start and the deep story that entices a crowd and engages them. Not the Marvel versions. This is not me having a go at Marvel movies, because I love them, but there is more and that part is not explored, or perhaps explored too little. I personally would have loved where Dollhouse season 3 would have taken us. Eliza Dushku, Dichen Lachman, Enver Gjokaj, Tahmoh Penikett, Fran Kranz, Olivia Williams, Harry Lennix and Amy Acker were all beyond good, the story was engaging and enticing, yet we were sold short, a cancellation after season 2. So will a new approach to Virtual Reality as a weapon make it? I honestly do not know but as far as I can tell no one took that route and in a stage where games can almost take us there, the lack of such a direction seems like a loss.

Leave a comment

Filed under Gaming, movies, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

October 5, 2021 · 16:44

Netflix beware

I have been in a bad place. It was not because tools like Gerard Ryle and his ICIJ are playing a presented game to misinform the people, to set a stage of abuse and deception. It was because things suddenly sounded very familiar. This had happened before, it happened before in Europe. In famine and in a stage of utter poverty. Yes, it had happened before and as my mind was taking the road from the past, I suddenly realised that I missed something on TV. Among the sully of reality TV (which I happily avoid), the setting of filtered information and the change of settings to take what is not theirs to take, only because the people who had the option were too cowardly and the US has seen 5 cowardly administrations, but they are not alone. The EU is in precisely the same place. 

So what did I miss? Well, when I was young (in the age of B&W TV) players like the BBC had educational programs. And then it hit me, what I had written about in the past and now I see a new TV series. A sort of mini-series in 6-8 parts. Not drama but as real as it gets, as historically accurate as possible, whilst still pleasing the people. It will not be for all, but it will be for a lot more than too many could contemplate.

Auvergne
France was a different place in those days and change was coming, it wasn’t coming in a carriage, not on horseback. It was nothing less than a Tsunami that would change the landscape in under 100 years. 4 generations would change everything and close to entire Europe. It was 1095 and from the 17th to the 27th of November a meeting was held. Yes we know about the Crusades that followed, but it is not about the Crusades, it is about the meeting the created the Crusades. There were a significant amount of players who heeded the call of Pope Urban II. And there is a need. I grew up with a misplaced feeling of pride being a Catholic. We stopped the barbarians in the holy land and for decades I grew up with that lie, a lot of us did. And it is time to give the people the real deal. The meeting had amongst others:

Joannes, Cardinal Bishop of Porto
Dagobert, Archbishop of Pisa
Richard, Cardinal Priest and Abbot of S. Victor in Marseille
Teuzo, Cardinal Priest of SS. Joannis et Pauli
Albertus, O.S.B., Cardinal Priest of Santa Sabina
Joannes Gattellus, the Pope’s Chancellor
Gregory Papiensis, deacon
Hugo of Verdun, deacon
Hugues de Die, Archbishop of Lyon and Papal Legate
Amatus, Archbishop of Bordeaux and Papal Legate
Rainaldus, Archbishop of Reims
Bernard de Sedirac, Archbishop of Toledo and Legate in Spain
Geoffrey of Vendôme, cardinal-priest of the titular church of Santa Prisca on the Aventine
Ivo, Bishop of Chartres
Joannes, Bishop of Orléans
Roger, Bishop of Beauvais
As well as: 

Fulcher of Chartres (optional spin off). He is important as he wrote ‘Gesta Francorum Iherusalem peregrinantium’ (1101-1127) giving us a real rundown of the first Crusades. The series should focus on a few people, not all. 2-3 per episodes with Fulcher of Chartres as a red line through all the episodes. With a part of every episode around Joannes Gattellus and Pope Urban II. 

A real rundown of what happened there and there is plenty of documentation. It strikes a chord as we see the games some are trying to play on us. There might be enough of a reason to give the people the interactions and the consequences of the acts by Alexios I Komnenos requesting assistance to fight the Seljuk Turks we should, but it is not essential.

And consider the setting, when was the last time we had the option to see a real history lesson on TV? Is that not weird?

Anyway, the BBC used to be a real power player there and I reckon that new players could pick this up. And when you consider that the Gesta Francorum Iherusalem peregrinantium has not been published since 1913 makes one wonder why not. There is no conspiracy theory here, just the idea that one of the best and likely most accurate writings of the Crusades was taken from the publication shelf is a little weird, almost offensively so.

So whilst this is merely an idea consider to reject it, yet it came as I realised that I was lied to in primary school and secondary school, I and many others were educated with a false set of stories, in this, does the entire Pandora Paper situation start making sense? It has been done before and I am not stating that the documents are false, but the players have a different game in mind and the ICIJ and its connected journalists were all too eager to adhere to that play and claim some digital click bitch money in the surplus. And their game is not finished yet. 

So consider the setting of Pope Urban II and a war that lasted for almost 2 centuries and took the life of 1,000,000 people and this was the lowest estimate. Yes, I agree in those days killing 1,000,000 people would solve poverty and famine. In a world that had roughly 325,000,000 million people at that stage. When we see a death count that high would it not make sense to take a long hard historic look at how we got there? There is a second voice in my mind to have two narrators, one with the story, one who give the dissenting views at the time (like the Gesta Francorum, an anonymous piece written in 1100-1101) and there are a few more, those views should not be ignored. But it is merely an idea, and it feels good to feed the creative side in me.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media, movies, Religion

September 20, 2021 · 21:18

Taking and making what it gives

Yes, we seem to think that this is the stage we need to be in, and at times you are correct, that is what there is. It dawned on me that at times innovation, or innovation alike can drive creativity. In the past there was an option to get into movies required a fortune, so you either tinkered by the side of the road, or you were some rich kid, that was the reality. Now consider that this is no longer the case, the stage is set to two elements (three actually).

1. GoPro Hero 10 ($600)
2. Mac Airbook (up to $4500)
3. Software (up to $500)

So for $6000 (max) you could have all you need to become a cinematographer. The laptop idea is expensive, there are cheaper solutions, to under $6000 there is a stage where you can make all kinds of movies and there is no cost for film or development. As we were in lockdown, the mind wanted to travel, so I started to watch the walking tours, a lot of them in 4K and most of them made with older GoPro devices. You might laugh, but some of these walking tours equal decent TV and in some cases cinema trips. I saw Portofino, Cannes, Monaco, Vancouver, Montreal, Buenos Aires, London (several), Riyadh, Jeddah and a few things stood out. The movies were well above average, the streets in Canada are amazingly clean, Portofino was worth the watch for a few personal reasons and so on. I believe that we are one step away from a ‘small’ company like GoPro to put a massive dent in Hollywood and that is before you realise that we will be drowning in amazing movies, the stage is already there that amateur film makers can make ‘their’ version of the Blair Witch Project. Another version of Cloverfield and we can go on in all kinds of directions. I myself was entertaining an idea in another direction (no matter what), but I am an idea man, not a movie maker (not yet anyway). 

And even as GoPro is making headway into setting the dynamic movies to a new height. I predict that they will corner the market in several ways within the next 2-3 years. I believe that the information given here is incorrect “The number of GoPro devices shipped worldwide has been decreasing since its peak of 6.58 million units in 2015, to around 2.8 million units in 2020”, there is not a decline, mainly because some people STILL use the GoPro 4, a lot are still using the GoPro 8, so there is a market of well over 15,000,000 film makers and I believe that with the additions on the GoPro Hero 10 that group will increase (a lot). And when you consider that this can directly be spread via YouTube channels, for GoPro the sky is the limit. Whether the film maker will decide to rely on GoPro tools, on Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or iMovie, there are several solutions and as people tart to become more and more active there is a new market evolving. A market of services, critical evaluation and creation, all working in some form of symbiosis. And as the makers set out there options of short movies, I wonder when it will be a GoPro Hero user who in the near future will be the first to win a Academy Award for Best Short Film (Live Action) using a GoPro because the hardware is now definitely up for it, we now only need to wait for the creative soul to make that step (it will not be me), and I would not be surprised that thee will be more evolutions in this direction before the end of 2023, a stage that (as I personally see it) evolved and came to a much larger live during lockdowns and curfews. 

Leave a comment

Filed under IT, movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

September 5, 2021 · 06:09

Eradication

There are moments where we are all contemplating it, what if I was alone in the neighbourhood (get work done), what if I was alone in this mall (no queues), what if I am alone in this area (quiet), the list goes on and we have all had these moments. Nothing bad, we merely needed a moment. Yet some have a much larger need. Eco terrorists, extremists and so on. We also have a good degree of extinction movies and my issue is that in these cases (with a few exceptions) it is glued together on the premise of the averting hero. One such exception is Contagion by Steven Soderbergh. It is a clinical view of how bad tit could get and 10 years later we see COVID, the movie is a little more pessimistic yet all the markers seem to apply and it got me thinking. What happens when an eco terrorist sees his (or her) species become extinct, how angry could that person get? So what happens when that person decides to do something about it? Governments make the claim and they are getting us nowhere, but this person sets a new premise. As such I got to think on how that person could succeed. I took the DNA of one woman, one man and one female Bobono and I came up with a new spliced DNA (see image), this is as good as keynote would give it to me and as I have no access to Mathlab, this will have to do. It is merely a premise to a story mind you. 

This DNA virus would be 100 times more efficient than COVID, eradicating 96%-98% of the entire population, but in a stage where we pretend it could happen, what if it plays out, not unlike a story that Dutch writer Anne de Vries wrote in 1951 in her story of Journey Through the Night which is a WW2 story. I loved that book when I was a kid, it was a great book to read and the settings stayed with me. Now it is not in four parts, but three. The start of the unleashing, the ravaging of the disease and the aftermath. A story that gives us close to a decade (or two) on how it all unfolds. How the disease is left to the greed driven and left to the academics, the eco terrorist had done its homework and like the chest of Pandora, someone ends up opening it. Yet nothing happens and the people looking at it find nothing and that was exactly how it was intended to be, the five boxes are sent and four end up getting opened. The infected are unaware of what they had wrought and as they travel from place to place they become the infectors, from 5 spots we get to 25, then 125 and close thereafter close to two million infection spots, the point of no return has been reached and as people go on with their daily life people start getting sick, but at first there are no indications of what is wrong. Cases of Bloom’s and Werner’s syndromes get out of hand, they are moving from one in millions to one in 10,000 and there are other changes as well, explosions of cancer cases all over the globe and it takes a while before someone decides to look into genetic testing. The deed is done and as people are transferring it through touching things, through handshakes and other means, the population is infected before anyone has a real clue what is going on. So whilst we look at some crowd images and wonder ‘Who would be this stupid’ (well, they obviously), we start seeing that it is already too late, the eco terrorist got his or her wish.

As we see stupid people panic and others in the dark on what is going on, we see a much larger stage for part 2, how governments are in hiding, how politicians try to get to that isolated place, all whilst they cannot tell whether they or a family member is infected, as cities die off over the term of years we see the move into part three where the few surviving members are wondering how to survive, a planet with all the goods there reduced to a population of 253,000,000. Suddenly the tailor, the doctor, the farmer and the butcher are worth their weight in gold in any community. 

And that gets us to part 3 which I cannot yet tell as I have been focussing on part 1, the issues leading to part 2 are clear, the parts in part 3 less so. Yet the foundation of a story is set, the foundation of a premise exposing the useless factor of a stakeholder is naught. So whilst we look at some source giving us ‘how a narrow focus on air pollution limits can backfire’, as far as I could tell, none of them took a look at the EEA report from last year and took a hard look at the 147 locations causing 50% of ALL pollution, so can anyone consider that premise? 147 is a real number, an environmental agency gave us that and the media ignores it. They do not attack it, they do not question it, they ignore it. Why is that? And is it then any wonder that someone will think “If 98% of all the people are dead the pollution goes away as well”? It is the premise to a larger story, one the stakeholders do not want to hear about, because in the end they are merely unofficial lobbyists to those who decide where to spend their money and where to keep their profits. 

A stage we enabled and now that it is here, too many are in doubt of what to do next. Me, I merely write stories, like I come up with new games, new TV series and new movies. My mind is creative what others do with it is not my concern. 

1 Comment

Filed under Media, movies, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

August 23, 2021 · 20:19

Watch it again!

There is a nice side to the 90’s. We all had a go at new things, there was the start of a new side of gaming, there were new frontiers in IT, there were all kinds of approaches to marketing and there were all kinds of new movies, movies that before that were never pushed to the larger extent. It gave us David Cronenberg, it gave us comic books and there was a new side of horror, at times more playful, but for the people who loved the comics, it was just awesome. One of these makers (Clive Barker) was already pushed into a few realms, but one side was to often ignored, I cannot tell whether it was because of how the non knowledgeable try to sell it, perhaps the review line of “a commercial and critical failure” was linked to it. Yet the story of the Nightbreed, Cabal and Median has potential, not as a slasher movie, but as a horror thriller that needs to be really dark. The kind of story that will make any average psychiatrist decide to retire on the spot. The story has so much to offer, that I am a little bewildered how movie makers 32 years later are ignoring that gem. Craig Sheffer played it decently (considering that there were the 90’s). And. Personal speculation is that he might have been chosen as he more roughly resembled David Boreanaz in Angel (and Buffy) and the makers knew how excited the ladies got over him. Yet I believe that Craig played a decent Boone, the rest of the cast was OK. That is not against them, but against the film makers who were all about slashers and posturing and not about maximising the impact of the large amounts of side stories that Cabal represented (as did Median). I reckon that Nightbreed might too large for a movie, and a miniseries (4-6 episodes of an hour) might make it a lot better and lets face it, this station is ruled by Clive Barker, wasting material that excellent should be considered a crime in TV and tinseltown land. 

Is there more?
Well yes and it is not limited to Clive Barker (although if I can ever revitalise Lords of illusion, I would). Consider the amazing result that IT became and what we saw in the works of Anne Rice in other movies. Now consider the challenge that the Mayfair witches leaved the film makers with The Witching hour. Anne Rice drenched the story in all levels of controversy and that works great in most horror, now add new levels of darkness that we can push for today and you have three books that could ultimately be a next generation focal point of fear for decades, I reckon that the film makers can push into this when the film maker looks at the colour black and considers it to be too light. That is where the boundaries are pushed and there is a larger station, the books of Wes Craven, Clive Barker and Anne Rice have shown them to be masters, they were used for quick revenue fixes and discarded, yet the people at Netflix, Amazon and Disney can make that into a realm of options with 3-5 movies, or larger miniseries with several movies in 5-7 parts, not as a cash cow, but as a station of creating new levels of fear. We can see Neil Gaiman stories making it into that realm, yet he need not be alone (even though he might like it), there is plenty for a while range of stations and now, 30 years later it is time to drill into those treasure troves again, the darker film maker is the most likely winner here and you only have to look at successes like American Horror Story to see that I have a decent case here. 

I wonder if someone in Tinseltown wakes up to that part of the equation, first come, first chance of becoming an accomplished winner. The 90’s produced a whole range of excellent ideas for the big and the 75” screen. 

Leave a comment

Filed under movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 16, 2021 · 16:17

When one is no longer valid

Yes, it is part 4 and it is not a wordplay of death, even though for some it is. As I went over the stories, as I contemplate the settings that are out there. I suddenly got a thought and looked a few things up. You see the previous article had an image of three and four circles and the fourth circle is the larger stage of sublime writing. Now, I was clear, that is not me, I am still in a developing stage on a few levels, yet circle number four kept on beckoning. So I mulled a few things over and even though it remains a play on mainly three circles, I started to insert another matter towards both the opposition and the divine play. You see, this world is by its own hands now in a stage of post-secularism. Even as we ignore this, the stage was created by the Catholics who gave us hits like ‘The best place to hide a salami is in a minor’, ‘As we kill the children of First Nations who disagree’. It is in that field we now see “growth of religion is the spread of religions and the increase of religious adherents around the world”, it goes far beyond Islam, even though it is seemingly growing the fastest. The spreading of the false god by the Vatican has a larger stage. As it is about ‘forgiveness’ the people who adhered to Ygdrassil, to the Nordic gods and others, we now see a stage we where the story I concocted will have a massive discussion stage. A stage that will call to attention a lot more than just a fantasy story, what my story basically is (Hades and Anubis agree on this). 

There have been well over two dozen academic writings on the topic in the last decade alone, and that is a stage I can adhere to and shape in something that could be added to the story. Consider the stage when we see the real problem, or perhaps it is not a problem, perhaps it is a much wider awakening. A stage where the people are waking up to two millennium, of using an alleged false god that have been catering to the wealthy, to keep people without account and now as the dam breaks, the Vatican will seek the stands of forgiveness and entrench the wrong people, a stage that Islam predicted, and we ignored it, but the truth will come out and even as it is not the stage, there is a larger stage that gives rise that one god cannot be real in the world we live in. But a group of many could be an option and as we realise that a god could also mean any person so far advanced in science than we are, we see a larger stage that might be true. And in such a stage we see that there is an optional issue with monotheism. In this the doubts we all have, the questions we all have, that is fodder for any TV series. So in my stage it is not merely about the sliding scale of between secularism and post secularism. It becomes a scale of a range of gods and how they converge their powers. A stage where we see the larger stage, how is the relationship of deities and their powers, as their powers are optionally linked to us, we need to see what drives them, is it immortality? Is it power that we are not yet aware of? 

Any guess is good, but that can also drive a story, because I am about the story, not about theology and in this theology is an optional weapon, an optional choice for us to make. What if our self is driven by who or what we align to? Is it Zeus/Juno, Poseidon, Neptune, Horus, Osiris? Your clue is as good as mine, I do not claim to know, I do not even speculate that I am right and in all this we still get to wonder how it is in China, India and on Haiti (and many other places). 

A stage added that I had not considered as the story was evolving, we now see a story that is  getting a lot more enticing and optionally complex too. You see, if the population of 150,000,000 in 500BC supported them, how much more powerful will they be when we are now 7,800,000,000? You see, no matter how you set it, secularism only works in a place where there is true accountability, now we see how the media scorned it, how the Vatican made it a joke and as we now move faster into a stage of post secularism, the story gets adapted in a few directions, and that is good for me, I can drive the story in any direction, that is great because in the end, the story is everything.

 

1 Comment

Filed under movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

August 16, 2021 · 04:23

When death is taxable

Yup, we get to part three, it is not merely about the tory, which in personal view is pretty nice. It important to set a dynamic into place. We looked at the mortal one, we saw a little from the divine point of view, yet there is a third view, The opponents view. There is one side that is the strongest and it is ready to oppose both sides, but to do it well we need three parties.

To show this lets take a look at two images. In the first image we see three circles. The interactions are the points where the circles connect, the environments are the thee areas where the interactions take place.  Now this is not always a given, but for the breakthrough moments, when you do this, you are in an easy state to set the stage to seven locations and six points where the main characters interact. This setting is not a given, but it is a start, the better situation is with 4 circles, where we see 4 main parties, we get 10 interactions and 14 locations, yet that is for the masters, not for mere wannabe’s like you and me. So when we have set the stage of interactions we get set an initial stage towards a script. When this is done we can start considering the creation of a playbook. 

So what gives?
Well, when we create a setting where we need to chose whether to take the side of the divine or the mortals, the seek into self is powerful, the desire to be divine equally so, as such we need a third party, the opposing gods are one way to go, it also leaves us being the toil to the gods, just like any good greek tragedy is, and as Herodotus teaches us, Egyptian plays are no less. It gives us the power of the power players Hades and Anubis, yet in that light we get the questions that surrounds Baron Samedi and to a small degree his consort Maman Brigitte as well. This gets us to the opposition.

If we consider that Hel, Ereshkigal and Mot. We need to consider the history we do know, the history we suspect (through known literature) and there is a decent part of speculation, which is left to us because thousands of scrolls in the Library of Alexandria never made it past the fire. Yes, that does not prove anything, but the words of the old writers goes further than what we know and even now their insight astounds us, so we have a place to start. Nordic myths and stories gives us a lot about Hel, but it does not give us all and there is a second consideration. This comes to the surface when we consider Codex Wormianu (1400, Denmark) and Codex Trajectinus (1600, Netherlands). There is every. Chance that these papers had been overly Christianised, and that is a problem, but it is also a handle of resetting what is Hel and where it is, she becomes a much larger side to the story, the same could be said for Mot, yet there is a lot less on that front, giving us points to work with, but also a lot of freedom, so we need to see where the interactions in the old writings of these gods were. You see, no matter how we slice it, in the old writings we learn of written yet unspoken desires. When we consider that, the writings of some, that the gods were petty and power driven does not add up, but it becomes a different matter when the souls of the people become the currency, when devotion is the foundation of their power, it makes sense and then we see that the deities of death have an advantage, because when we die, secular or not, most suddenly become faithful, but faith through fear does not work, it never does. As such the consolidation of souls become a different view and that puts Baron Samedi in the middle of a lot and from his point of view, from a Haitian power base to global foundation is one hell of a leap and that shows us the three and the need for Hel and Mot to oppose it. In this Ereshkigal is a mere vessel, but a powerful one, almost forgotten, the perfect messenger between several parties and one with the overall strategic view, all players in a game where 7.8 billion souls is a powerful battery to bring back the gods, but not all will make it back, that is where the battle of opposing forces lay for the longer station. 

So whilst we consider the parts of these three groups, we need to consider what we would do if we introduce a fourth group, or more precisely, how we can shift balance over the three parties when a fourth party (optionally part of one of the two) pushes the balance in all kinds of directions. The viewer needs to be mesmerised, yes it is appealing to be the person on the axe of the seesaw, but that is too controlled, so like the image, the purple circle, a combination of red and blue now gives us two points to push the mortal coil and also push the other two parties, yet what is the real push and what is the feigned push, that becomes the question if the viewer has that approach, if not (which would be fair), is a much larger stage in creating a rollercoaster ride and that is where the story goes off (optionally the deep end). So when we look at these elements we see the third party deflating one and inflating the other to create a stage the viewer is wondering about and that entices them to watch more. So whilst we consider where the opposing group goes next, it will enable us to see the ‘altered’ view of both, so when the two players are exposed we wonder do we see what we want to see, or what we are allowed to see? And that is quite the ballgame. And this approach is not merely for specified projects, this setting works well on storylines for RPG games as well. Consider some of the RPG games you played, do you recognise the approach to some degree? It does not matter if you do not, but it still gives rise to the one part I always proclaimed ‘The story is everything’.

Have a great Monday!

1 Comment

Filed under Gaming, movies

August 14, 2021 · 08:46

When death and Chicken taste alike

Yesterday I wrote ‘Death as a resource’, my mind kept on racing and now it is time for part two, you see when the story is everything, you need to set a stage for the eyes to watch and to watch from the eyes of a god is not possible, not for many at least, so we need to paint the stage. No matter how we get leaked the information because the media wants its click stream, we need to entice the audience in other ways. In this I always grasp back to the slogan of FX, ‘the story is everything’. It is the most true and the most basic slogan that any writer can ever embrace. So here goes.

In the human corner we get two sisters, the younger one is a special agent of the ATF, the older one is an independent food critic, working and writing freelance. The stage starts with the older one seeing weird numbers. The stage of food poisoning up by 10%, yet the inspections by the department of health Louisiana had increased and showing clear lower transgressions all over the board, as such the numbers do not make sense. Even as the cases of food poisoning are not clearly shown or proven, the number of people showing symptoms are increasing. It was a small article and it was rejected by most, her sister took notice and found out that a similar trend was going on around Disney World Florida and Boston, even as it was rejected by almost all, the 10% raises calls towards visibility and this happens in more than one way. The ATF is not the real player, but the sister knows people and becomes the glue that links Boston (Faneuil Hall with its 15 million a year tourists), Disney World Florida and New Orleans. Her sister the food critic sees the overall quality of the food and attacks the 10% numbers, but also sees that the numbers are panning out. During the investigation she walks home one evening and sees the shadow of a large walking doglike creature as well as Baron Samedi, and then she faints. She sees one as a tourist trick, the other one she cannot explain and even as she is told that she was delirious from some kind of food poisoning, and that a rougarou is often part of Voodoo practice, so it is most likely a large man wearing a costume. (All this in episode one)

The vision makes the Tanya look deeper and as she investigates the restaurant she visited, with help from the Health inspection, she signs off on the quality and cleanliness of the kitchen, the proprietor knows that she has power and cooperates, she promises him a glowing recommendation and no mention of her food poisoning, yet she knows that there is something. She has a cup of soup during the day (the Meng Po element is now visible) and reinvigorated she continues the investigation. In the mean time she gets the location of three suspected food poisoning and as she visits them all, she sees that they look drained, like they had something bad to eat, but also talks to the doctor that there are no lasting complications expected. They merely need to keep to bed for a full day and let it all flush out of their systems. 

As she returns in the early evening she talks to two of the people in the lodgings and hands them some magazines to read, as she walks to her car, she sees a man in the distance, robed, holding a bident (Hades), she ignores the view and drives off. The next morning the three people are a lot worse and they show signs of Severe electrolyte imbalances and are treated accordingly, they recuperate as we hear at the end of the episode. Yet Tanya seeks out the man looking like Baron Samedi, she finds a few in New Orleans, but none look like the one she saw and she draws a picture of him and mails it to her sister. (Episode two starts here). In that episode it will be much more about the gods and part of the explanation of the why they are doing it. Consider that the initial locations shows us 35 million visitors a year, giving them the energy of up to 3.5 million people and it is only the beginning. We see how Christianity overtook the gods of Egypt and Greece, giving us their decay, but the gods were more than people and they survived in silence and in hiding. As time passed we see that Hades and Anubis lived off the land, but in their travels they landed in France where Baron Samedi was visiting (around 1800) and this starts their idea and the path we now see evolve. It is before 1900 when we see Meng Po in France too, they all meet and the plans are drawn and to give them a larger stake in all this, they decide to start the trip in the US so that they will have a much larger increase in power than Zeus and Ra, who have no connection to the American people, giving Hades and Anubis a much larger headway and more energy, but they agree that o ver time their brethren will be fed too, as this will reset the universe to their advantage.

In this in this episode I think that it is also important to introduce Ereshkigal and Mot into the story,  they are in a similar position, but they are much stronger and their universe still feeds them to a small degree. They get wind of the plans and start making their own (we get no idea on how they will go about them until the end), but the introduction is important. When we see a story we need to see levels of balance, the good, the bad and the indecisive. Yet in all this we also get to play with who is good, who is evil and who is indecisive. Good and bad are merely points of view, it is important not merely to use that but to explain to the audience what is what. It is like the customer and the bank, we tend to see the bank as evil, they are not, we see the customer as mere victims, they are not and to shift these vies towards some balance makes the larger whole grow in several ways. So as I am making an inventory, I reckon that the mini series should be done in 5-6 episodes, each around an hour. 

2 Comments

Filed under movies

August 13, 2021 · 22:44

Death as a resource

It seems flaky (and that is how I roll most often), but there is a logic to it all. This all came to mind as I was trying to complete the achievements in AC Origins, it was already in the back of my head, but the crossover NCIS episode regarding some playbook (featuring an evil Abby Sciuto) made the larger stage and started to connect the dots. The foundation of a mini series (or movie) came to mind. Consider the stage and consider history. We have always been ‘smitten’ by divinity, we have always considered that there is a larger stage, but when you think of it, the closer we get to death, the more we wonder and consider the need for mercy, understanding and we need that for out own peace of mind, but in that moment we give power of existence to these gods, so at that point Hades, Anubis, Mictlantecuhtli, Meng Po, Baron Samedi and Chepi meet in New Orleans (location of story), they hatch a plan to get there powers back to a much greater degree and with a population of billions, it becomes an option. The plan as it evolves sees Baron Samedi setup the voodoo powers to entice the people, Meng Po hands out the potion in the soup she gives as a freebee to the tourists. And as more people get enticed they forfeit their souls to the old gods. 

Now consider that New Orleans has over 18 million tourists a year, if the game is to entice thousands a month, that would be a larger stage that feeds these gods and that is merely the start. And as the old deities return, so do the old hatreds. So as the gods of death (with a buffet of 7,800,000,000 people) set out to regain power, we see the option where the other gods are in doubt of these wisdoms, yet their powers are diminished, yet Hel (Nordic), Mot (Canaanite), Yama (India) and Ereshkigal (Mesopotamia) are not on board either for other reasons. Hel does not share power, Ereshigal shares her fate with Nergal and there is a larger stage here and when we get to Mot, I am a little in the dark, but as we see the interactions with Judean words as well as other interactions, we can attest to Mot in being another source of direction and optionally inserted himself to become a discord to the attempt of the gods of death.

The stage my mind is developing is set around the core four (Hades, Anubis, Baron Samedi and Meng Po) that have a clear directive, but it seems to simple. Even as it is on the up and up, Anubis and Hades will use their power to revitalise their brethren but now under them as the central god, deposing Zeus and Ra. A setting that all still needs work and it could even push towards a much larger video game, and as my mind is even pushing for new sides all whilst typing this, it might be more than a movie (a mini series might make much more sense), and in all this I feel that the stage needs to be about balance and the distortion of balance. Consider that 20 million people a year visit Disney-world (Chepi), The Taj Mahal (Yabu) gets 4 million, Acropolis (Hades) 4 million, as well as the Pyramids (Anubis) gives him 14 million options. It is all connected through Samedi and Meng Po (the soup) and that starts a new ball game. Once infected the targets can be drained whenever needed, not killed but drained (like a bad flu), feeding these gods of death and feeding their kin to a much smaller degree. 

Now I start thinking of the balance equation and how to insert Mot as one of the oldest gods in all this. And it cannot be some over drenched fantasy story. I want it to look like something that makes people be scared of the common things they see every day, it is easy to disregard the Bident of Hades, or the flail of Anubis, yet who feels comfortable with the soup of Meng Po? A soup like any soup kitchen would serve? And just for the spices, how about some Samedi paprika powder to spice the soup?

Well, enjoy your soup today, I will have a bowl of Chili (in roughly 47.2 minutes).

2 Comments

Filed under Gaming, movies

August 9, 2021 · 22:24

Operation Hazen Ames

It is night, Michael Weatherly is being casual, he is making small talk with another person. He explains that there is no need for the one exit to be watched. He closes the reinforced door that had the room with the information he needed. He then trips the alarm, turns around to the mirrored wall and pulls away the table, there is one screw. He unscrews it and pulls out the screw connected to an umbrella plug, the wall comes down. He clicks the other side open and points to the partner to get through. They go through and as he closes the initial mirror wall, the magnets in the table and wall push the table back in place. The umbrella plug is glued to the screw, it now operates as a screwdriver, Michael attaches something to the screw, he then click pushes the second wall back into place, the magnets hold it firm. They moved through an unmonitored small corridor and enter a supply room at the end is a rack with goods, he clicks on a button and the rack moves up a few millimetres, the wheels are now down, he moves the rack and signs the partner to quickly goes through. The moves through and there is a small food elevator there. He closes the wall and pulls two wires to set the rack back where it was, he had 10 seconds left, he can hear people running towards the place they had just left. They enter the food elevator and quietly opens the back panel, he goes through, the partner follows, he closes the elevator door and the back panel, then presses a button. The food elevator moves quietly down. 

For me it is easy to explain why the person is Michael Weatherly. I have been re-watching 12 seasons of NCIS during the lockdown the last two weeks. The issue is that this is part of a spy story, but not one you would expect. You see, this situation happened, it was a CIA operation, one of many and the story is not the common parts of the TV series, this series is not NCIS or Bull (I never saw Bull). The setting is that the TV series and episodes are a tell tale to the foreign governments to show them how they were transgressed upon and the TV episodes have fake names (as any series does) with a reference to an anagram to the operation. Someone decided to turncoat the CIA and uses the methods to make money on the side, from the studios as well as the extra checks from the governments he is supplying the evidence to, a nice little operation.

Yet the setting on TV series, as we see the use of ‘clever’ terrorists, there is a second fear, not that the opposition is more clever than the terrorists. It is that greed driven elements see their option clear AFTER the operation, not merely endangering what comes next, but giving away the past endangering more as well. It was the setting for an episode of any crime and spy driven series, yet I have no idea why the idea sparked into my mind. Whether it is about double agents, self turned greed driven agents or another kind, we are (through the Art of War) confronted with 5 types of spies. 

Local spies
Inward spies
Converted spies
Doomed spies
Surviving spies


The Art of war teaches us that if all five types are used it is impossible to discover the secret system, but as said the old days did not consider the greed driven logistics that we see today. You can read the Art of War to see and learn about the 5 types, yet the setting is altered in todays espionage. We have minders, archivists and now as one turns the colour of his shield, there is a larger danger that it turns Local spies into Doomed spies, a game changer many are not able to deal with. In any operation the local spy is the anchor, a barge without an anchor can move from the shadows into the floodlights of the other player. Am I right? Am I imagining (or fantasising) this? It is but a dream, yet in this we also find the larger stage of what matters. Even though von Clausewitz gives us that mot intelligence is false, there is a consideration that he considered himself a gentleman and as such espionage was beneath him and it was never considered a valid form of warfare. Sun Tsu is much more relevant, he saw espionage as a valid tool and his approach to any tool n hist setting to war is how to use tools the most efficiently. The concern he had for spies is like all other tools, if it protects the homeland, that is how we use it and in that era the general and his administrator were dedicated to the land they protect. In todays situation the logistics of war is on a sliding scope of what comes next and as such the undervalued and the discarded are drawn to whatever pays for a little better lifestyle than they are set to have, and they will use what is at their disposal, as such it is the archivist and the administrator that become the weakest link in a spy system. A situation that no movie or TV series has looked at. With all the thousands of episodes and hundreds of movies, I casually found a vulnerable unexplored link, yay me!

Leave a comment

Filed under Military, movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,