Wellington: day-by-day

I watched the latest episode of True Blood Season 2 last night. Man that show just goes from strength to strength. Brilliant writing, nuanced acting and great directing. I can’t wait for thw bluray release of this season in the new year.

So, a couple of weeks back two of the actors involved with Setting it Straight suggested that I write a gay play for the local gay acting scene. This was a very flattering suggestion, and I’ve now been spending part of my time trying to come up with a worthy enough concept.

The thing about script writing, as far as I have found when I write, is that you need to have I your head an idea of what the finished product is going to look like and how you will get there.

Writing for stage is also different to film because, to me, it is more a medium of metaphor and implied ideas. The very restrictions of stage set up require more creative solutions to how you tell your story, but also that no words are wasted.

I also feel that the play needs to be fun to plan and produce – so I want to set some challenges to the actors and stage crew, but at the same time make it an enjoyable challenge, not a “what a dickwad the writer was” challenge.

Most of all, I need to be saying something that is interesting to hear.

But not pretentious.

Which is kind of where I am stuck. I have three concepts at the moment. One is an homage to one of my favourtie stage genres – the farce, one is a standard comedic drama and the other is a more surreal serious drama with some humour in it.

None are particularly fleshed out at the moment, but they are gaining momentum. This would certainly be a great feather in my cap if I can make it work.

Wow! So much to do! I’m really excited!

Conan

What they don’t teach you in Film School

Well it has been a little while since I last posted on this blog. To put it in simple terms, I have been extremely busy!

My latest web project Setting it Straight has now entered filming, and we’re near to successfully wrapping on the first two episodes. Unlike The Winding City, this show has virtually no complex effects, so once it is edited and we have added music – it will be online!

It certainly has been an educational experience for me. I have made it a more collaborative effort than TWC, which means that the actors have had more input regarding their character’s storylines. I have since learned that if you give an actor an inch, they tend to take a mile!

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – as some great ideas have been bourne from this process. Unfortunately I have run into a bit of a situation with one if the cast who has waited until we’re near wrapping to tell me that he won’t kiss anyone. Normally I’d be fine with that, however this is an integral part of the character’s behaviour and was something I had clearly stated during auditions.

It is, to say the least, extremely frustrating.

So I have started to reorganize the story if the series to work this in – not an easy task given that I am juggling several subplots, and either have to create a new character or dramatically rearrange the current storylines to fit in the actor I had already cast for his now derailed storyline.

Fortunately, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. It’s remarkable how much GMing roleplaying games has made me skilled at creating new plotlines in a pinch!

During the shoot, the director accidently filmed two scenes that he didn’t realise were linked (we filmed out of order and he is new to directing) in such a way that one couldn’t logically follow the other in editing. I just sat down and pumped out a one page “filler” scene that explained a number of background events we had initially shot for laughs, tied up a loose storyline AND introduced a character two episodes earlier than planned with better integration than I had originally conceived!

I’m quite proud of that achievement.

All in all, the weekend proved incredibly productive and fun. We’re achieving my goal of making a zero budget show with people getting the opportunity to try out roles they normally don’t get a chance to try. Hence the inexperienced director.

Having said that Matt was inexperienced, he did do a fantastic job. He knew to film scenes multiple times and from varying angles – so the editor should have plenty if material to work with.

Projects like this are what help people gain confidence and experience – and I’m hoping that is the case for some of the people who worked on the weekend.

I’m all excited for next weekend now!

Conan

Wellington: day-by-day

It has been a while since I last posted on here. Between work, gaming and two web shows, I manage to fill my days up quite successfully.

I’ve been feeling a bit odd the last couple of days. Probably a little overwhelmed with everything that has been happening combined with some kind of fatigue.

It has recently been a time of contemplation for me – thinking about what I want and where I’m headed.

Work has been increasingly demanding, but I still haven’t been officially placed in the role that I have been doing for the last 9 months! Now I hear that management want to wait another two months before they decide.

What would you do in this situation? It seems to me to be a case of trying to get me doing a job without paying me what I’m worth. Grrrr.

Then there is relationships. I’m still single and not doing too well in the realm of romance. The worst part is that I can’t even get the motivation to try and meet a guy at the moment.

To be honest, I’m in that kind if frame of mind that I don’t feel like I have the energy to love someone anymore. Every man I have loved felt nothing for me. It kind of gets disheartening when you’re pushing into the mid thirties and have never been in a romantic relationship that wasn’t one-sided.

*le sigh*

I’m not depressed, just a little jaded at the moment. With so much going on in my life, it gets challenging to balance it all.

I guess this new show means a lot to me because it is about how hard it us to be gay, over 30 and still single. How guys like that tend to begin to expect the worst and start settling for security over love.

I really don’t want to be that guy.

Like I said at the start if this – so much going on it’s beginning to overwhelm me.

Conan

Dream of Consciousness

Hey there folks!

Check out my companion blog dreamofconsciousness.wordpress.com where I will be doing my writing exercises and short fiction to help keep my creativity flowing! What are you doing still here go NOW!

Conan

Wellington: day-by-day

So here is another beautiful, crisp, winter morning in Wellington.

I’ve been kind of overworking myself with writing, producing, working and roleplaying. It is great when I get a moment to just relax and meditate a bit on what is going on in my life.

Firstly, I have become addicted to True Blood. It is so sexy and funny and creepy. Unfortunately, Nick is not a fan of the Louisana accents and just can’t get into the show. Which means I usually have to wait until I can watch the series alone as I bought it on Blu Ray – which looks awesome and is loaded with features.

It does amuse me how the character, Jason seems to need to be naked at least once an episode. Not that I’m complaining – he is super hot – but it is kind of funny to observe.

The tone of the series is really spot on, slow burning but hypnotic.

I did note that it treads much of the same ground as Twilight – but if it had been written by someone other than a woman with an obsession with abusive boyfriends.

In other news, The Winding City continues to develop, and the digital artist I’ve gotten involved with the project is producing some exciting conceptual art. I can’t wait to see what else he comes up with!

Well almost at work – see you all later!

Conan

Upgraded and Ready to Roll

Finally a blog update. I have the more stable version of the WordPress iPhone app, so I should be able to soon get back into writing my blog more regularly.

I have a number if things that I’m keen to write about. True Blood, Kings, Castle, my two webshows and roleplaying. So keep posted over the next few days.

Conan

Wellington: day-by-day

I finished watching Arrested Development last night. It was a fun series while it lasted, although I found the humour was very hit-and-miss.

I guess the risk of quirky comedy is that being quirky is not always enough. I found, for example, most of Charlize Theron’s story arc was unfunny and a waste of a talented actress. Also the kissing cousins storyline was often weak on the humour as well.

However, as a whole the series was fun to watch.

Work has been increasing in intensity – the new client is a great challenge, and we have been working hard. Productively too, mind.

I got my scan results – a fairly clean bill of health. No abnormalities were found. Yays!

Other than that not much more to report today.

Have a great weekend!

Conan

Wellington: day-by-day

I have recently been having anxiety dreams about family and finances. This has likely been compounded by my current single angsting as well.

Which brings me to an interesting conversation I had with Margie on Saturday. We were talking about socialising and how difficult it can be to motivate yourself.

I am finding that I’m reaching a point where I just can’t take up the chase anymore. I just feel exhausted even thinking about it. Which is a bit of a shame, as I’m kind of giving up before I even start.

Hopefully this is a temporary malaise. Admittedly I’m finding that I’m not so sad about being single – I do like the freedom – but I wonder if I’ll feel the same when I’m heading into retirement?

Conan

Wellington: day-by-day

The scan was an interesting experience yesterday. I went in and initially just had to lie down while being put through the machine.

Then the radiologist advised that I was going to need a contrast injection to help them see how everything was working. At this point a very pleasant woman came up gave me some small talk and injected a needle into my arm while the radiologist wheeled out a weird contraption that they hooked up to the needle.

At this point the machine started pumping in a solution that caused this strange sensation – I’m pretty conscious of the workings of my body, and the woman advised me that I could experience a hot flush all over my body or a metallic tang in my mouth and nostrils, or even feel that I was urinating when I wasn’t.

I didn’t get any of those. I felt the solution moving through my bloodstream. It was a weird sensation like swigging black sambuca into my heart. Once it reached there, I felt it spread out to my hands and feet – not hot or cold, but a kind of rush of pins through the veins.

It was kind of cool.

Results are still to come in.

In other events, I completed playing [PROTOTYPE] last night. It is a remarkably addictive game, with insane parkour free-running and crazy epic scale battles between infected monsters and US Marines in the middle of Manhattan.

Not as polished as inFamous, but still a lot of fun. I will write more on it later!

Conan

Wellington: day-by-day

Today I am off work to get a CT scan – nothing major, just possible kidney stones. But what a day to have off!

iPhone OS 3.0 has been released today! The thing is that Apple seem to have underestimated the volume of people who chose to download it.

The server that authenticates the dowloads keeps getting overloaded, meaning it can take several attempts to update your phone before the update actually activates.

But it certainly is worth it. The update doesn’t do too much that is obviously major – rather it subtley improves on the existing workflow. Which isn’t a bad thing, as the iPhone workflow is remarkably user friendly and intuitive.

What has been added is great! Voice memos are great, with an impressive quality of sound. Copying and pasting os another great addition, with a nice select system that allows you to select words with one digit as opposed to needing both thumbs.

I’m yet to test MMS, but I suspect it will also provide great services.

All in all, I like the improved usability provided.

On the matter of iPhones, I have been looking at plans for data usage. I have now confirmed that my monthly usage will likely be in the 250MB range quite comfortably. What is interesting is that vodafone’s iPhone bundle is ultimately calculating out to be a rip-off.

Even with financing, buying an iPhone outright and connecting to Telecom’s XT network is shaping up to potentially save me the equivalent of $80 a month!

See, I do a lot if txting and so the $40 a month VF plan is too small. However, the $60 a month plan only provides 200 txts a month and additional minutes beyond 60 @ 79 c or so.

If I choose an XT plan, I simply build a plan to suit my usage. For $60 I can get 50 mins, 600 txts and 240 Mbs with additional mins costing me 59c.

Now 400 txts sound like a measely exchange for the lost 10mins and 10 MB that I’d have on VF. Until you do the maths.

400 extra txts on the VF account is equal to $80.

10 mins is $5.90 extra on XT. Plus $1 for an extra 10 MB.

Feel free to correct me if my figures are out – I’m typing this while walking, so I am working off memory.

To further compound the disparity. XT offers an open term agreement, which means you can always opt out. VF requires you to be on a 24 mth term. I haven’t seen any t&c that advise an open term if you buy the phone outright.

So it should come as no surprise that I am seriously considering the move – it was the whole reason I chose to go prepay. VF were EXTREMELY rude to me when I started investigating getting an iPhone – from making it sound like I was not the ideal customer for their system to expecting me to legally bond myself to overpriced plans if they deemed me worthy of an account.

Conversely, Telecom has been naturally eager to get people on board and were pleasant, understanding of my needs and queries. So there is a bit of bias on my part. VF fear competition, but rather than improve customer service and offer competitive plans, they seem more interested in legally binding customers to stay with them.

Goodbye vodafone.

Well back to playing with my new iPhone OS.

Conan