Avatar - not all it's cracked up to be

Avatar is a mixed bag. It's not as goofy as some of the early trailers made it out to be. But at the same time, it's not the monumental film that critics and audiences alike are being swept away by, shooting up the all-time earning lists even as it notches acclaim from critics such as the Chicago Tribune's Roger Ebert.

Avatar is a certainly a looker, seamlessly blending CGI and real-life actors in a way that Lucas' Prequel Trilogy failed to (though Cameron has last-movers advantage, and gets to build upon Lucas' recent achievements to boot). Avatar has a straight-forward, if uninspired and completely predictable, plot. The movie leans very heavily on theme, as in get ready to get knocked upside the head. Repeatedly. Still, if you like them pretty, shallow, and in the end, dumb, Avatar may be what you're looking for.

The plot is derivative fair, and within 5 minutes of opening credits, I knew the whole story. Yes, you can call it predictable. I kept sitting there, waiting for something unexpected to happen, only to be disappointed. While I don't expect plot twists / turns in a fantasy movie (and face it, this is not Science Fiction at work here, any more than Star Wars is SF), this movie telegraphed its moves so early that I literally knew what was coming - "The wounded marine pretends to be a native through his avatar, falls in love with a native and ends up siding with them against the evil humans."

The movie didn't work for me for several reasons.

1) Cardboard Cutouts

We don't have characters here - we have archetypes. It is hard to buy into any of these characters emotionally. The main character is the worst, as he is skin-deep. The video journal is a nice way of narrating his journey, but we never really get into what's going on in his head. His journey from human to Na'vi is not a surprise and even worse, had no emotional affect on me. Because we don't see his struggle, it's a non-event, and one that really has no impact.

Cameron tossed in a nice carrot via the Colonel, who essentially says, "Do me right, kid, and you'll get your legs back." This should have been a powerful motivating factor for Sully, but because we don't see the struggle (assuming there is one), it ends up an empty gesture.

The actor did a fine job with the character, I think the material just was not up to snuff. There was a good line in the movie, something to the effect of "I can't tell reality from the dream anymore." But Cameron never went deeper. Everything here is at the surface - there is nothing underneath.

2) The Love Angle

What a surprise! For all of the technical bluster and gee-whiz, graphical buffet, the movie is really a love story! While I have no problem with love stories, the execution was predictable, heavy-handed, and a little sappy. Part of my problem here is one of expectation - though I hadn't sought out the preview trailers, they found me (talk about over-saturation), and had left me with a certain impression.

Going in, I expected a different kind of movie, grimmer film, with more conflict between the two races. Had that been the case, it could have been a redeeming factor in my eyes. From a story standpoint, if there was more conflict between the Na'vi and the humans, Sully's transformation would play differently. As it is, it's more like they're not really getting along but they're not really fighting. Had they been actively at war with one another, Sully's changing sides would have been much more powerful.

3) Heavy handling of theme. There are several themes weaved into the movie, some blatantly obvious, others just under the surface, protruding out just enough to irritate. Watch your step - the allegory has teeth in these hills.

- The Green Movement. This is an out-and-out, unabashedly pro-green statement. When one of the main characters is a never seen but all-knowing, all-powerful spirit of the world (aka mother nature), it's hard to confuse the movie's meaning. I don't have a problem with the green message, and indeed think we'd be a whole lot better off if we took better care of this planet - it is, after all, the only one we've got - the theme was a little too in-your-face for my tastes. I'd rather be told an interesting story with heart than lectured to. That said, if you could ignore the obvious references back to how wrongly humanity lives, the movie's treatment of the Na'vi and their relationship with their world and it's spirit was interesting.

- Echoes of the American Indian. The Na'vi are a people who take what the land gives them. They are a proud people with long traditions. We find out in the final 3rd of the movie that there are various tribes (neatly partitioned into a horse clan, a flying bird clan, and a water clan). They seem to have no thought or motivation for advancement, for science, but instead take only what the land gives them. And when the no-good, land-grabbing white man rolls in with his guns, the Na'vi break out their arrows and war-paint. They are quickly overwhelmed. We sense a potential repeating of history here, on another world, (save for the actions of Sully... revisionist history perhaps?).

- War in the Middle East. Another variation of the powerful white man overwhelming the simple natives, this time against the backdrop of mining for natural resources. The movie spends a fair amount of its narrative explaining how Earth has been stripped bare, and now mankind is off strip-mining the galaxy to fuel it's endless hunger. You can almost hear the human scientists of the film - those who run the Avatar program to facilitate relations between the two species - decrying the practice as "blood for oil." By the same token, the film has a decidedly anti-military slant, portraying the soldiers as emotionless thugs and killers (even here, Cameron manages to work in a not so subtle wink at the Iraqi War, as the bulk of the forces are contractors).

In all of the hundreds (thousands?) of soldiers it seems there is only one with a conscious, a female pilot who bails out on a senseless slaughter of the Na'vi and later ends up helping them fight back. Here at least, in this pilot, a minor character to be sure, we FINALLY get a bit of the conflict that is missing in the protagonist or any other character for that matter. While it seems easy, gradual, almost inevitable that Sully switches sides, there is a clear moment of indecision for this pilot, and when she acts in the right, morally-responsible way, we cheer. It's no surprise that she was the film's best character for my money.

*

In closing, Avatar is a solid movie, definitely popcorn fair. It is not the second coming (of anything). Even Star Wars (which I consider in the same genre) has an element of fun that is missing here. Avatar is a long, plodding movie that looks great, has some nice moments, but in the end leaves you wishing you had the 3 hours back. It's not one I'll look to watch again, or even reflect on all that much, whereas a film like District 9 has been on my mind since I rented it a few weeks ago.

Developing as a Storyteller

Of late, I’ve been thinking of myself less as a writer and more as a storyteller whose medium is the written form. A subtle difference perhaps, but one that allows me to focus on the story itself and less on the nuts & bolts of its construction.

A few months ago, I’d fallen into the trap of thinking that I was only getting work done when I was writing (as opposed to world or character building), which meant I would jump into a new story without taking the time to properly ground myself. But by thinking in terms of story, I’ve allowed myself to dabble a bit at the beginning and get a rough framework in place. Not an outline, but rather a more fully thought-out world to play in.

To that end, I’ve started broadening my horizons by looking at other forms of storytelling, namely screenwriting. While Hollywood holds little allure for me, I’m very interested in how movies handle storytelling, and what of that I can apply to writing.

A screenwriter is hosting a free seminar next Monday on story design, and while I’ve never heard of him, he’s had more success than me, so I’m sure I can pick-up a few pointers that translate. Details are below in blue (my highlighting).

Monday, June 15th, 5:30 pm Pacific
6:30pm Mountain / 7:30pm Central / 8:30pm Eastern

Learn the Method Chris used to sell his screenplay for $750,000!!

TO REGISTER FOR THE FREE TELE-SEMINAR:
Go to: www.screenplaybyphone.com/blasts/cs

YOU'RE INVITED...
TO A COMPLIMENTARY TELESEMINAR CONFERENCE CALL!

Learn a new method of story design that is four times better, easier and more helpful than the three-act structure. Movies are shot on reels and each one tells its own part of the story -- like a chapter in a novel! Together they add up to the perfect screenplay! And it works in any genre! Call in and see! Learn the method Chris Soth use d to sell his thesis screenplay FIRESTORM for three-quarters of a million dollars -- while he was still a student in grad school!

This is Chris Soth's SIGNATURE LECTURE on The Mini-Movie Method, the one his ebook, seminar, and DVDs are ALL about - the one that's changing the way stories are structured.

Whether you write Screenplays, Novels, Graphic Novels, Comic Books, Webisodes, or even Video Games...

In short, if you are ANY KIND OF A STORYTELLER, you can learn to:

• SEE your whole story as a movie before you start!
• CREATE the winning "sequences", each a MINI-MOVIE all its own!
• CAPTURE the attention of your audience - and KEEP IT!
• STENGTHEN every beat of your story to keep it CAPTIVATING!

Join us on the call and learn the MINI-MOVIE METHOD Chris learned at USC that sold his thesis screenplay for $750K!!!

Roll Your Own Word Counters

Word counters are a cool way to keep your audience updated on the progress of your manuscript(s). Naturally, in order to keep my audience of one updated (hi mom!), I decided to create my own.

You can get really fancy with these, using custom graphics to create a unique look & feel. I decided to keep mine simple, for two reasons: ease of use and ease of extensibility. Here are the steps to add counters to your own site and customize them.

Note – no coding is required for this. You’ll have to do a bit of HTML tweaking if you want to change what it looks like (color, size, etc), but the code that actually runs this can simply be copy & pasted and left alone.

One other point – I’m using this through Blogger right now, but it can easily be extended for use on your own site or other platforms (WordPress, LiveJournal, etc). You may have to tweak some of these steps to get this to work on another platform, but the concepts remain the same.

How’s It Work?

The file is composed of two distinct sections:

• JavaScript to calculate the percentage complete and update the visual indicator (aka – the meter) accordingly. This is the code, and does not need to be modified.
• HTML to display the word count, percentage complete, and the meter, and to format said items. This is the piece you will need to modify to display your manuscript’s title, total word count, current word count, if nothing else.

We’ll look at the HTML first. I’ve highlighted the key items requiring input below – these are the places where you will need to input your manuscript’s name, and the word counts (current and target). Everything else, you can ignore, including the completion percentage (which is calculated for you by the code).

<div id="manuscript" style=" text-align:center; width: 100px;">
<span id="manuscriptTitle">Fantasy Novel</span>
<br />
<div style="background-color:#E8E8E8; width:100px; height:10px; text-align:left;">
<div id="meter" style="background-color:#6666FF; width:0px; height:10px;">&nbsp;</div>
</div>
<div style="width:100px; text-align:center; ">
<span id="currentWordCount">12000</span>
<span> / </span>
<span id="targetWordCount">80000</span>
<br />
<span id="completionPercentage"></span>
</div>
<br />
</div id="manuscript_end">

One other point – it is critical that you don’t modify the names of any of the IDs (manuscripts, currentWordCount, etc) as the code looks for these.

What Do I Do?

Putting these on your site is pretty easy.

If You Are Using Blogger (or any site that allows you to add Gadgets):

1. Edit your blog Layout
2. Choose the Page Elements tab (again, assuming Blogger here)
3. Click ‘Add a Gadget’
4. Choose HTML/JavaScript
5. Copy the code (JavaScript & HTML, file is at bottom of this post) and paste into the Blogger gadget window.
6. Within the gadget window, modify the HTML section to reflect your current manuscript(s).
7. Save the gadget, and then click the Edit HTML tab on the Layout page.
8. Locate the <body> tag (best way is simply to search - Ctrl + F). Change to <body onLoad="Load()">, which calls our new JavaScript code.
9. Save
   

If You Can Modify the HTML itself (i.e. you have your own site and probably know what you’re doing)

1. Access your page’s source code
2. Copy the JavaScript portion of the file below (including the starting <script> tag and the ending </script> tag). Conversely, you can dump this into a separate .js file and just link to your site.
3. Paste the JavaScript within the <head> of your current page.
4. Copy the HTML portion of the file below.
5. Paste the HTML somewhere within your page’s <body>.
6. Modify the HTML section to reflect your current manuscript(s).
7. Modify the <body> tag to call the new JavaScript code - <body onLoad="Load()">
8. Save
   

Multiple Manuscripts In Progress

If, like me, you have several manuscripts in various forms of completion, adding a second counter (or third, etc) is pretty easy. Just copy and paste another section of HTML, and modify the second occurrence (or third, etc) accordingly.

Modifying

So you’ve got your handy-dandy word counters up and are pretty excited, except they look just like mine. You want to put your own unique stamp on them.

Color

Within the HTML section, locate the background-color attribute. You’ll find two of them – the first is the background of the meter, the color that reflects the words remaining (mine is a light gray). The second occurence of background-color is the color that reflects words written.

You’ll notice that what follows each of these attributes are not color names, but some funky text - #E8E8E8 and #6666FF, respectively. These are the hex values associated with the displayed colors.

Confused? Don’t be. Just refer to this color chart and copy/paste in the hex value of the new color you want.

Text Size

This one is even easier to change. Just look for the attribute called font-size. There are two of them – one for the manuscript title, and one for the word counts and percentage. Default is to 8 pt (which means point-size). Just change the number (upward or downward) to make the text bigger or smaller.

Fatness

Does your word counter need to go on a diet? Look for the height attribute – there’s only one. I prefer a slim meter, so the default is height:10px (pixels). Just like the Text size, changing this number will make your meter grow or shrink.

Length – not so fast

You may notice the width attribute and decide you want to change it from the default value of 100px. Don’t. The code assumes 1 pixel = 1 percentage point. Therefore, if you tweak this value, it will throw off your meter. I may come back and modify the code for this at some point, but for now, it is what it is.

Gimme the Code

JavaScript comes first, followed by the HTML.

<script type="text/javascript">
var completionPercentage = new Array();
var arrayCounter = 0;
function Load()
{
   var collectionDIV = document.getElementsByTagName('div');
   var collectionSPAN = document.getElementsByTagName('span');
   var currentWordCount = 0;
   var targetWordCount = 0;
   var counter = 0;
   //loop for the count & max values and for the percentage field (to set)
   for (var i=0; i < collectionSPAN.length; i++)
   {
       if(collectionSPAN[i].id == 'currentWordCount')
         {
             currentWordCount = collectionSPAN[i].innerHTML;
         }
         else if(collectionSPAN[i].id == 'targetWordCount')
         {
             targetWordCount = collectionSPAN[i].innerHTML;
         }
         else if(collectionSPAN[i].id == 'completionPercentage')
         {
             collectionSPAN[i].innerHTML = CalculateCount(currentWordCount, targetWordCount);
         }
   }

   //loop DIVs collection looking for meters
   for (var i=0; i < collectionDIV.length; i++)
   {      
       if(collectionDIV[i].id == 'meter')
       {
          collectionDIV[i].style.width = completionPercentage[counter] + 'px';
          counter++;
      }
   }                                
}

function CalculateCount(current, target)
{
    //generate percentage
    var percentage = (current / target) * 100;
    //formatting - round to 2 decimal places
    var rounded = Math.round(percentage * 100) / 100;

    //store value to array for later moving the meter
    completionPercentage[arrayCounter] = rounded;
    arrayCounter++;
    //set the text field to the rounded percentage, with formatting applied
    var formatted = "(" + rounded + "%)";
    //return result for displaying
    return formatted;
}
</script>
    
    <div id="manuscript" style="font-size:8pt; text-align:center; width: 100px;">
        <span id="manuscriptTitle">Fantasy Novel</span>
        <br />
        <div style="background-color:#E8E8E8; width:100px; height:10px; text-align:left;">
        <div id="meter" style="background-color:#6666FF; width:0px; height:10px;">&nbsp;</div>
        </div>
        <div style="width:100px; text-align:center; font-size:8pt;">
          <span id="currentWordCount">12000</span>
          <span> / </span>
          <span id="targetWordCount">80000</span>
          <br />
          <span id="completionPercentage"></span>
        </div>
        <br />
    </div id="manuscript_end">

Questions / Issues?

Post here and I’ll get back with you.

The Future of Writing

As someone who is working toward publication, the current state of the industry is pretty sobering. Publishers are taking a bath, and the major booksellers are closing stores and laying off employees. I’ve yet to see data on this, but I’m certain publishers are buying less books, if not in general, than specifically from first-time authors.

Against this economic backdrop, you have the push toward the electronic mediums. I’m not going to debate the pros/cons of digital vs paper here, and I don’t think traditional books are going away. But given what is happening to the newspapers, it seems fairly clear that paper is a dying medium. Costs, environmental concerns, and plain old convenience will continue to hoist the digital banners. Blogs, podcasts, eBooks are, if not the future, certainly part of it.

Given all this, what’s an unaccomplished writer to do? How do we fit in?

1. Don’t worry about what you can’t control. The only thing you can do is write. Keep at it, and know the markets will be there when you’re ready, but…
2. Don’t count on traditional publishers to be waiting, checkbook open when you finish your opus. Tales abound of professional, full-time writers who can no longer live off writing alone. What’s to say that you, a relative unknown, will be?
3. Take your career into your own hands. Get your name out there. More, get your work out there. Podcast your novel. Or release it via your blog. One of the growing trends is the publisher pursuing the writer, who already has buzz and a built-in audience. It’s safer for them, and its something I think we’ll continue to see more of.
1. As a corollary to this, once you have an audience, you can direct-market to them, cutting out the publishing middle man altogether. You’ll reduce your target audience, sure, but you’ll make drastically more money per story.

There’s a lot of uncertainty these days, specifically in the publishing world. You can let these bigger issues paralyze you, or you can figure out how to take advantage of the Internet and make your own destiny.

The Genesis of Indiana Jones

I’m an idea guy. I love the thrill that comes from sitting with pen and pad and just going to town, seeing where your imagination takes you. So it was a huge thrill when I found this blog, which talks about creating the Indiana Jones character and the story (mostly the first movie, but some of the ideas spill into the second & third parts of the trilogy). Lucas and Spielberg, in their heyday.. man, what I would’ve given…

The blog post itself is a nice, cliff-notes style recap of the artifact itself, a 125-page whopper. I especially appreciated the insights on starting from the character first and letting him influence the direction and shape the story took on.

As someone who grew up on Dr. Jones’ adventures, this grants new, deeper insight. For instance – I totally missed that Marion was still a girl when she’d had her first relationship with Indy. Sure, I recall the dialog, but even watching it a few years ago on DVD, I’d just assumed she was 18 or something at the time. But they are really talking about a lot longer passage of time here. This really drives home the fact that there always must be more going on in the story than what is shown. Think through the relationships and let them influence the story's direction.

For anyone interested in the craft of storytelling, this is a must-read.

Free – Edgar Allen Poe Shorts

I’ve been a subscriber to daily lit for a while now (check it out if you haven’t – they delivery 1000-word, bite-sized chunks of literature to your email or RSS reader daily.. lots of cool free stuff).

Saw this on their site today.. http://www.dailylit.com/books/3-short-reads-by-edgar-allan-poe

Not a horror guy myself, but as someone actively working on short stories, I’m well aware of Poe’s reputation. I signed up to see what I could pickup from reading his material.

Book Report for March

So a funny thing happened this month.. I was listening to an audio book completely unrelated to writing (or so I thought) and ended up deciding that it worked rather well as, if not a review of the craft, at least a commentary on the life of a would-be writer.

The book in question is John C. Maxwell’s Talent Is Never Enough. I picked it up as something to make me for effective in my day job (as a mild-mannered IT manager), but as I listened along, I was struck at how well the lessons mapped to writing (and, larger, life in general).

Some key points that Maxwell emphasizes:

• Don’t focus on strengthening your weaknesses – spend that time instead on your strengths.

  Eric extrapolates: To be a successful writer, you have to be well-rounded. You need to know dialog, plot, character, etc. However, if you are especially strong at characterization but weak at plotting, focus on character.

• The choices you make creates the effectiveness for turning talents into results.

  Eric extrapolates: I see this every day, in the choices I make. It’s always easy to choose not to write… there’s always games to play, books to read, TV to watch. Other, seemingly more interesting, things to do. But by choosing to write, by choosing to spend my limited resources (time) on the craft, I am making myself more effective as a writer, and thus increasing the odds of publication.

• The key choices you make, apart from your natural talent, will set you apart from those that have talent alone.

  Eric extrapolates: Bottom line – talent alone is not enough.

Maxwell further breaks this down into what he considers the 13 key choices a person can make to maximize their talent. My commentary follows each.

1. Belief lifts your talent.

   Before you can make something happen, you have to believe in it. The mind must go first. Besides – if you don’t believe you can do something, why do you bother? It only amounts to a lot of thrashing about, wasting energy. I am a firm believer in the power of dreams. Let yourself see the dream. Run your tongue across it. Breathe deeply of it. Believe it will happen.

2. Passion energizes your talent.

   Here’s a gut check for you: think about your current work in progress. Are you excited about it? If not – why? Wrong genre, flat characters, uninspired plot? Get to the root of why you are writing this story (or, larger, why you are writing at all). Find the passion, corral it, then let it loose onto the page. If you’re not excited about what you’re creating, how do you expect me, the reader, to be?

3. Initiative activates your talent.

   Are you sitting back, dreaming about what it is to be a writer? A certain amount of that is okay – it’s important to find motivation where you can. But, do you go beyond thinking and get to doing? Take the initiative to get moving.

4. Focus directs your talent.

   How many projects do you have running concurrently? While it’s probably okay to have a few projects running in different states – rough first draft, second revision, final polish – the more you divert your attention, the less you accomplish. This is a big struggle for me – I tend to have lots of balls in the air, which means I make little progress on any one thing. As Bruce Lee put it – “It’s not the daily increase, but the daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”

5. Preparation positions your talent.

   The easy comparison here is outlining, which I don’t do. So for the outliners, there you go. For those like myself (the stumblers), this looks a little different. Character sketches. If or What Else exercises. Often times, much of my first draft is an exercise in preparing for the real deal – finding voice, discovering character, etc.

6. Practice sharpens your talent.

   In my opinion, very little attention is paid to practicing the craft itself. We just want to jump in and create something. Why waste effort practicing when we can create something? Writing is the only art form I can think of where practice is so readily ignored. But there is much to be gained from approaching something – situation, character, dialog – in a focused, bite-sized chunk and not being distracted with other, related, things.

7. Perseverance sustains your talent.

   It is perseverance, not talent, that is the most-touted virtue of professional writers, followed by luck. Talent is a distant third. To me, this is encouragement – if you work hard and stick with it, eventually, you should make it (where luck comes in).

8. Courage tests your talent.

   Writing is the most difficult thing I’ve ever attempted. Just getting my butt in the chair some days is tough. I end up playing mental games, psyching myself out to just get started, because I know that starting is the hard part. Once I’ve committed to it, sticking with it is easy (that’s not to say I don’t get distracted sometimes). In these moments of quiet struggle, it is courage that gets me writing. Courage that I have talent, that I can make it. That I’m not just wasting my time.

9. Teach-ability expands your talent.

   It’s often said that the act of teaching is a good learning tool for the teacher, reinforcing key foundational concepts and providing opportunities for newer, deeper understanding (of course, the inverse is - those that can’t do, teach). While I haven’t tried to teach a write course, I have seen some of this come into play in forums I participate in, critiques of other people’s work, and even with this blog.

10. Character protects your talent.

    There are no shortcuts in life, or in writing. Don’t think you can copy someone else’s work and get away with it. It will eventually catch up with you. That whole karma thing.

11. Relationships influence your talent.

    Like every other profession, having the right relationships can help you go a long way in your writing career. It is definitely a case of ‘who you know’. Editors, Pros, Agents. It’s important not only to get your name out there, but make sure it’s in the right context. It won’t help your career if everyone thinks you’re a insufferable jerk.

12. Responsibility strengthens your talent.

    Writing is a job, just like any other. If you’re like me, it’s an unpaid job, but you still need to put in the time. Be responsible. Set a schedule, and show up ready to work. That’s the only way you will ever make any headway.

13. Teamwork multiplies your talent.

    Even in such a lonely profession as writing, if you make it into print, you do so with the help of others. Sure – they’re you words, but they’ve been scoured and scrubbed by others. Sure – you have a nice contract, but your agent took care of the negotiating. And don’t forget your family, who put up with your crazy writing schedule and gave you space when you needed to work.