Go Vikings!

Must admit, it's very exciting that Portland State can go to the Big Dance if they win tonight and tomorrow. Listening to game on the radio now -- and if they win tonight, tomorrow's game is on ESPN. PSU on ESPN! I almost went to the game tonight, both games being here in town, but with my class and meeting a student afterward, plus the end of term work I have, I decided to pass.

Aging

Well, I finally made a decision based on "feeling too old." Out of nowhere, I got an offer today to perform my Woody Guthrie celebration at a festival in September. Great venue, pay, a terrific gig I would have jumped at years ago. But I haven't done the show in about ten years. It would take a lot of work to bring it up to speed. I have other projects I'd rather do than revive this old one. Moreover, it's exhausting to perform -- I'm not even sure I have the physical stamina to do it any more. So I turned them down but made a counter-offer: I'd do the "acting" parts, the recitation of journal excerpts, if somebody else did the music. They like the idea and are seeing what can be worked out.

So I turned down a gig because I feel too old to do it. Ah, me. (But also because I'd rather do what I'm doing musically -- my studies, building to starting a chamber opera this summer -- than bring back the Guthrie self.)

Catching my breath

A nice, long, chatty lunch with a screenwriter friend. Then I missed the streetcar to bring me back to campus so hobbled on a bum ankle but made my office hours. Showing a video today. Pick up projects Thursday. Last week, relatively easy. I do have a meeting with a student after class, hope I can help whatever needs fixing.

Found an online piano: I can do ear training during office hours.

Stroke of the year

Here's the best stroke I've received in many months. I sent a copy of my posthumous play OREGON DREAM to a director/actor friend in California. He responded this morning:

Deemer !!!!! Holy Shit. I love this play. Incredible ! ... It is a remarkable plot; so timely and introduces, as I see it, the tip of the iceberg of gender identification. Wow !!! You have really nailed it on many levels not the least of which is it is so damn fun and funny. Congratulations !!!

Very gratifying to get a response like this. I told him to direct it after I pass.

P.S. LATER. He said he didn't know whether he wanted to direct it or play the male lead ("What a role!"). That's the secret: write roles that actors want to do. Playwriting is the art of writing for actors.

This and that

The enthusiasm of my hyperdrama cast is wonderful to witness. These are great people to work with. Glad I discovered them last summer. It's like having our own little film company.

Nice feedback ("just excellent") from the Hypertext 08 conference guy on my intro video. I hope this project goes over well. Hell of a lot of work ha ha.

I installed my ear-training software and it's really fun to use. Do it in ten and fifteen minute spurts throughout the day.

Reading scripts mainly today ... two more to go. Busy tomorrow, lunch appointment and then meeting with a student after class.

Best political line of the day

[Obama] told the audience that it made no sense for Clinton to suggest he is not ready to be president and then hint that she might hand him the job that could make him president at a moment's notice.

"If I'm not ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great vice president?" he said, as the crowd laughed and cheered loudly.

I must be a die-hard cynic. I see all this ending in a disaster for the Democrats. It goes all the way to the convention, Obama leads in elected delegates, number of states, and popular vote -- but Clinton won the large "important" states, so the party honchos meet behind closed doors and super-delegates give her the nomination, the party splits as Obama supporters are outraged, and McCain beats Clinton in a landslide. He dies in office of natural causes and his VP, whoever that may be, is president through most of the term.

Well, maybe this is the screenwriter as much as the cynic speaking ha ha.

Controversy = Publicity

Some middle-school actors got a standing ovation for a play written by their drama teacher, which their school principal had banned. They moved the performance to Portland. And once again, banning proves to be great publicity.

Many writers have experienced this. Perhaps my greatest example was my labor play, "1934: Blood and Roses." being banned from a scheduled performance at the Oregon State Fair -- on Labor Day, no less! Well, this administrative decision caused a huge stink, including a story on NPR, and finally the powers that be had to reverse themselves and let the play be performed. The national press we got over this incident gave the play far more recognition than it would have garnered otherwise.

clipped from www.oregonlive.com Sherwood's controversial play gets cheers from big crowd in Portland Monday, March 10, 2008 MAYA BLACKMUN The Oregonian Staff Middle-schoolers from Sherwood took the stage Sunday, bringing their controversial play to Portland and drawing questions afterward on why they couldn't perform it in their hometown. The performance of "Higher Ground," a play about bullying, betrayal and the power of banding together, drew a standing ovation for the cast and cheering screams for their teacher and the play's author, Jennie Brown. The middle school's principal, Anna Pittioni, said the play "exceeds the maturity of many of our students," suggesting it be revised and rescheduled. Superintendent Dan Jamison said students and staff needed time to prepare and discuss such topics. And on Sunday, volunteers at Portland's Center for the Performing Arts had to turn people away from Brunish Hall. All 200 seats were taken.

First read-through

The first assembly of actors went well. Typically, however, there were conflicts that were forgotten about, so the shooting schedule has to be revised.

I'm going to try and start part three this week. Start shooting next Sunday.

Preparing for part 3

Been assembling images for the "nuts and bolts" section of the hyperdrama video. I need to make some software clips with CamStudio and then I'll have everything I need, I think. So I'm not too far from getting it together. I may get this done before I start shooting, which would be nice. Parts 1 and 3 done, focus entirely on the meat of the project, the actual hyperdrama.

Still grunt work to do before the afternoon read-through, primarily regarding the shooting schedule. Tomorrow, then, it's back to teaching responsibilities. What a great class! This actually may be the best screenwriting class I've ever had, in terms of having the largest number of skilled screenwriters in it. It's really been fun working with so many good writers. Just a week to go! Tempus fugit and all that.

Our 10th anniversary is coming up. We have a little trip planned.

CamStudio blows me away

A p.s. to the last post ... downloaded and cranked up CamStudio. It's an extraordinary program, powerful and user-friendly, for video capturing whatever happens on your computer screen (whole screen or regions of it), and you even can narrate what's going on -- a perfect tool for demonstrating software! And it's free. The amazing Internet and the amazing open source software folks.

Community

I am repeatedly amazed by the free resources on the web. The software developers who are motivated by other-than-commercial interests have become a new breed of hero.

My latest attention goes to CamStudio, a screen video capture program I learned about at muvipix.com, the most useful video resource site I've found. I suspect I'll have uses for CamStudio in my Nuts & Bolts section of the video project.

Spreading the Word

Another embedded embrace of the hyperdrama video, this one by Tunxis Community College in CT, which appears to have an extensive New Media program. The more, the merrier.

Pre-production

Mapped out a shooting schedule: looks like I need 3 Sunday afternoons to do the hyperdrama. According to my software, ALL the scenes play at about 24 minutes. There are 48 total scenes, so I'm looking at something like 144 clips to shoot. There is no single scene over a minute and a half. So it may go more quickly than I think. But I wanted time to run through a scene first, block it, then shoot it from 3 or more angles. Three 1-5 afternoons should be enough.

There's always something, ALWAYS, that throws a wrench into your careful plans, and you end up changing things around and winging it. I do want time to pick up shots and otherwise cover my ass at the end. I really think I've scheduled more time than I actually will need. We'll see.

Each Sunday, 2 or 3 of the actors aren't needed. There is no scene with all of them, only 1 scene with 5. So it's not a great time commitment for anyone.

I think this will work. (P.S. It's harder to write a shooting schedule than to write the script!)

Nice plug

Didn't take long to get a nice plug for the hyperdrama video. There's not a whole lot of folks actually interested in this sort of thing, so it's comforting to know that a few who are look over my shoulder as I work on this.

I'm thinking I may shoot on two Sundays, one and two weeks hence. I think I could cover everything then. In fact, I should work out a tentative shooting schedule to present at the reading tomorrow.

The last section of this video project, on nuts and bolts stuff, stumps me thus far. I don't know how to make it visually interesting.

Extraordinary writer-editor relationship

Could the Wolfe-Perkins relationship survive in today's "bottom line" marketplace? Doubtful. This indeed is a remarkable moment in our literary history. I wonder if anyone reads Wolfe today. When I met Dick Crooks in 1960, he was a Wolfe fanatic. On my shelf he's like Henry Miller, someone I prefer in excerpts rather than whole.

clipped from www.todayinliterature.com Wolfe, Perkins, Time and the River In 1929, Perkins had edited Look Homeward, Angel, Wolfe's first novel, cutting some 66,000 words. By the end of 1933, Wolfe had a sequel book that was four times as long as the uncut version of the first novel, over ten times the length of most novels, and growing at a rate of 50,000 words a month. Recognizing that there was more river than time, Perkins tried to force a halt. The first installment, delivered to him at Scribner's by "lone Wolfe" one December midnight, was a stack of typed manuscript two feet high; overall, the manuscript was at a million words. Six or seven nights a week throughout much of 1934 they met to cut and argue -- Wolfe showing up to many meetings with freshly-written material, which Perkins would read, admire, and mostly cut. He declined Hemingway's offer of a Key West fishing getaway with the kind of 'big game' sentence Papa would have liked: "I am engaged in a kind of life and death struggle with Mr. Thomas Wolfe...."

Intro to Hyperdrama

Music

Good day in music class. I'm going to pump up my studies some more by adding ear training. And I'm beginning to do more chord work. Music seems to be coming front burner.

Made it, sort of

Finished the big stack of student scripts in time to return them today. Still have a stack of query letters to read -- I do a marketing section in my class -- which I won't have time to read until the weekend. No biggie.

Catch my breath and go to Music Theory. A life-saver that I did the homework for this class yesterday or I'd be in a panic about now. Not used to homework ha ha.

Anticipate the weekend and hope the weather is good so I can get the push mower out for its maiden voyage this year.

And a week from Sunday is the selection show for March Madness! Then some real fun begins.

Medicine

Recent haiku from Haiku Nurse:

college professors
always want to read stories
about working life

*

Cameron Diaz' Breasts
squirm in satiny confines
netted jelly fish

*

the sound of a saw
wakes me and I look to see
an old tree is gone

*

we sit at tables
drink bottles of greasy wine
and talk about men

*

line around the block
they all come here to forget
lives lived through others

First Wednesday

First Wednesday was terrific, I thought. It's an interesting venue because very small and while at the moment we may be one of the unheralded treasures in the literary life of the city, there's really not much room to expand. It's small, intimate, quite nice. Yes, we deserve a larger audience but we can't grow too much because there's no place to put many more.

For the next three months, April through June, I won't be hosting because my music composition class conflicts. I'll arrive for the last half of First Wednesdays for those months, and our non-fiction editor will host.

Poem Late At Night

I am a walking, talking corpse.
I am a card-carrying member of the corps
of "senior citizens," "honored citizens,"
who without honor shuffle through the halls
like passengers whose train is always late.
I am a man who does not like his fate.

The cock no longer crows at dawn.
Obsession for the perfect curve is gone.
The slightest gesture that once fed
the rush of blood, the flood of lust,
now dangles like a phantom limb.
I am the singer with no hymn.

In memory, I was once alive, with heart
that thrived and met a kindred kind
to beat together, flesh on flesh.
When young, I never saw this mess
that's now my life of sad adagios,
these veins where blood no longer flows.

I am a walking, talking corpse.
I am a card-carrying member of the corps.
I am a man who does not like his fate.
There is nothing left to vindicate.
And so it goes, and so it goes,
boring laments, adagios.

--Charles Deemer

Gathering strength

Getting ready to begin a long day. First, a pile of student scripts to evaluate. Then get ready for First Wednesday and try to get across the river before rush hour traffic, which is a nightmare. I'll be glad to see tomorrow and even more to see the weekend.

Double-edged failure

The memoir of a liar has become a new genre. What is unfortunate, other than the liars among us, is the fact that "a memoir" sells better than a novel; each of these "lies" could have been presented as fiction and been just as gripping to anyone not stuck in the prison of literal thinking. It was the dream of Zola and other "naturalists" that fiction could be a sort of test tube in which human behavior was tested and evaluated; that, in fact, we could learn from this. Fiction could modify human behavior because we'd become sensitive to the consequences of action. This didn't happen in any broad social sense. "Based on a true story" is a commercial advantage only in a culture in which the imagination has been relegated to an instrument of trivial fancies.

clipped from abcnews.go.com Author of Hoax Book Created Elaborate Backstory The publishers of a critically acclaimed memoir about a girl raised by a black foster family who ran drugs for a notorious Los Angeles street gang pulled the book after revelations that the story was an elaborate fabrication. The book, "Love and Consequences," was recalled just a week after it hit stores, when it emerged that the author, Margaret B. Jones, had lied about her name and every detail of her life. Jones was a pseudonym used by Margaret Seltzer, 33, of Eugene, Ore., who lied about being half-Native American and having been raised in south-central Los Angeles by a black foster mother she called "Big Mom." She also claimed to have run drugs for the Bloods street gang and that one of her foster brothers was killed by rival Crips gang members. Seltzer's memoir is the second book of non-fiction in as many weeks to be revealed as a hoax and the latest in an increasingly lengthy list of biographies found to be false.

First Wednesday tomorrow

7-9pm at Blackbird Wineshop. The lineup.

Movie producers at work

And still more ...

The first part of the hyperdrama video project is almost a wrap. I have to shoot and add an action sequence, showing branching narrative in action. Should be able to do this at the downtown mall. It comes in at 4:30, which is fine. It leads directly into the second part.

For the next few days, it's teaching, reading scripts and hosting First Wed.

And more editing

I have about three and a half minutes now -- which may be all I need for part one. Material I was going to include here might fit more naturally in part three, stuff about the actors. This leaves me with just one live sequence to shoot to complete the source material for the first part. I can get this downtown at one of the indoor malls. I may try and do that this week, despite being so damn busy, what with all the script projects coming in tomorrow and the next day being First Wednesday. A ridiculously busy week! I'm glad I got some work done today. Even wrote a few pages on the new splay. But mostly editing and more editing.

Editing

Have the first two minutes of the hyperdrama video in pretty good shape. The entire project will be divided into three parts, each a separate video:

• Principles of Hyperdrama
• "Changing Key," a short hyperdrama
• Creating Hyperdrama

The first and last videos should be around five minutes. A single linear trip through the second will be around ten minutes, I think. So it would take almost an hour to look at all seven possible narrative paths. But a "first look" at the video would be about twenty minutes, which is perfect.

Everything will be assembled and connected at a website for easy navigation.

Hyperdrama

Started editing the first part of the hyperdrama video. Took over an hour to get the first minute or two roughed out. Tedious work -- but I love doing it. No idea what to compose for a sound track yet. Wish I had an idea, I could start fooling around with it.

Breakfast at Nobby's

I never made it to breakfast at Nobby's yesterday so I went this morning. It was a good switch because I ran into the wife-half of the owners and had a long visit. Hadn't chatted with her in a long time. Lots of nostalgia and memories and bringing one another up to date. So many common friends have passed on. Some kids her husband used to coach are now customers. And they have a son graduating from high school. When I met her, she was a customer with a boyfriend, before the young owner won her heart, and in time she left the boyfriend for him. I've been going there for almost thirty years.

New screenplay

Have a good start, 30pp, on the new one, a social comedy. I'll try to keep at it and finish a draft soon, hopefully before I start shooting the hyperdrama. Has a tricky layered plot and some tricky character balances to maintain. A challenge.

Wiped out

My prediction of afternoon exhaustion comes early. It's been a highly intense and productive few weeks, finishing and then cranking up the splay, writing and casting the hyperdrama, and all this during a busy part of the teaching cycle -- no wonder I am wiped out. Wednesday I pick up a huge stack of student scripts. I feel like resting until then ha ha.

But I can't help but brood about the new screenplay and how I can crank this sucker up from the get go. And, in a back corner of the mind, I'm already trying out ideas for the splay after the one now just beginning. I want to take full advantage of my agent while I have him. We have a two-year contract, only six months into it, and I want to be as prolific as possible with him. After two years, we'll see if the effort put anything in the bank and go from there.

I'm going to try and shoot the entire hyperdrama in March. Then edit it in April. The read through is a week from tomorrow -- I can't wait. It will be fun to get behind the camera again -- well, it's so small, getting "behind it" isn't quite right ha ha. Can't wait to put it in the palm of my hand again!

And in all this, I can't forget the review! I have some grunt work to do already and I'll regret it later if I let this build up. I should tackle some tomorrow.

Early start

Only 7, and I feel like I've put in a day's work already. "100 miles before breakfast," as my father used to say.

Off to the post office to mail the rewrite to my agent. Might as well have breakfast out again. Maybe to Nobby's this time.

I want to do a lot of music today and also get back to the new splay. I feel like I'm on a roll.

I'll probably collapse in the afternoon but that's fine.

Breakfast at Fat City

Took H to the train station early this morning, then errands at the post office, then breakfast at Fat City, where I haven't eaten for a while. This Portland institution serves my favorite breakfast, and I've been ordering the same thing there for decades. Talk about routine and habit. In fact, I like routine and habit in my life, unlike in my work, where I'm easily bored and where I'm reluctant to do something I've already done unless I get paid in advance for it.

Fat City has not bent one centimeter in compromise of the New Age fad for "healthy breakfasts" and continues to serve the same "unhealthy breakfasts" they've always served, and I love them for it. The place doesn't change. The place doesn't need to change. In good restaurants, as in good literature and art, change is not an improvement.

Now for some piano practice before class. A weekend to myself, H not picked up until Sunday evening. Polish the splay and mail the "cranked up" version to my agent, finish learning a couple banjo tunes, progress on the new splay.

Pete Seeger

Seeger with Arlo Guthrie.

Seeger was practicing "the audacity of hope" long before Obama was even born. Here is a national treasure, perhaps the most optimistic artist in our history. "The Power of Song," aptly titled, is the American Masters feature on him on public television, which aired here last night. Nothing startling or new in it if you know about Seeger but an important and moving reminder nonetheless. My own disposition is far less optimistic about almost everything but it's good to have these folks, these true believers, around. If they're right, and I'm wrong, the world will be a better place.

In high school, I taught myself banjo with his instruction book.

Pete Seeger Timeline.

From fame to obscurity

clipped from www.todayinliterature.com The Poetry of Ruth Pitter On this day in 1992 Ruth Pitter died. Although Pitter has fallen into the obscurity we might associate with leap year, she was a durable and prize-winning poet in her day -- Hawthornden Prize in 1937, Heinemann Award in 1954, Queen's Gold Medal in 1955, CBE in 1979, eighteen volumes of new and collected verse. The modern neglect may be attributable to her too-wide range, or her unmodern themes, or what Thom Gunn said of her: "Ruth Pitter is the most modest of poets, slipping us her riches as if they were everyday currency." It is hard to argue with those who think the poetry deserves more attention, or to doubt that the poet wanted nothing more than "a cottage in some peaceful place," where she could garden and "lurk in undergrowth."

Portland State gets chance at the Big Dance

If the Viks win the tourny, they get an automatic bid to the NCAA "March Madness" tournament. As Big Sky champs, they'll go to the NIT if they don't go to the Big Dance. Maybe they can do the latter and become a Cinderella team.

clipped from media.www.dailyvanguard.com Viks crowned Big Sky champs By: Nathan Hellman Against Montana State Thursday night, the Vikings shot their way to the Big Sky regular-season title, defeating the Bears 96-68 behind a school-record 70 percent shooting from the field. With the win, Portland State (19-9, 12-2 BSC) clinches the right to host the Big Sky Tournament for the first time since 2005. The tournament is scheduled for March 11-12 at the Rose Garden, and ticket information is available at www.Goviks.com.

The sun, the sun

A tease of spring outside, sunny and almost warm, but only a tease with rain in the forecast tonight. I'll never forget my first spring at the University of Oregon after coming up from UCLA. After Eugene's wet winter, the occasional sunny day in late winter, early spring, had male students ripping off their shirts as they crossed campus between classes, getting a few minutes of sunshine before disappearing into the classrooms. I thought everyone had lost their mind. A few years later, of course, I understood completely.

The office hours activity today (between student visits) is to brainstorm the new/next screenplay.

Literary fiction

Serious novels have such a hard time in our culture. It's gotten much, much worse over the years during my lifetime. However, perhaps extraordinary things are now hidden somewhere on the Internet. I suspect so!

clipped from www.todayinliterature.com   Gravity's Rainbow Appears   On this day in 1973 Thomas Pynchon's third novel, Gravity's Rainbow, entered American bookstores and split the literary world. Pulitzer Prize jurors unanimously recommended it, but Pulitzer advisory board members called it "unreadable" and "obscene." The novel seduced many critics but found few readers who would finish its 760 pages on the first attempt. Meanwhile, the author stayed out of the public eye, just as he had at the publication of his first two books. His fan club continued to grow, intrigued by the most camera-shy writer since J. D. Salinger. As a result of the deep division, no Pulitzer Prize for fiction was awarded. Gravity's Rainbow did share the National Book Award that year. Pynchon, however, declined to appear at the ceremony. Now 67 Pynchon still prefers to walk incognito through Manhattan, where he lives with his wife, a literary agent, and a teenage son.

Great morning, busy day

Finished the splay rewrite, finished my Music Theory homework, printing out "coverage reports" for an exercise in class today -- a full, busy morning.

I'm looking forward to Saturday when I can print out the screenplay and sit down with my red pen and go over it carefully again. I hope to send the rewrite to my agent on Sunday or Monday. I want to impress him with how quickly I deliver :-).

Also, while in StorySpace for the hyperdrama structure, I realized it's been a long time since I wrote a literary hypertext -- and the "Nails In My Coffin" material would really lend itself to this. Hypertext works best, in my view, when the story is constructed of vignettes. This material lends itself to that. I may think about this. In the meantime, though, the Cold War novel is next on the agenda for "traditional" narrative forms but I don't expect to return to it until after the hyperdrama video is done. What I'll turn to next week, I suppose, is the new screenplay. I'd like to deliver it before summer. I want to impress my agent with how quickly I deliver :-).

I think the splay rewrite is such a huge improvement, I'm humbled and a little pissed at myself that I hadn't cranked it up this much to begin with. I bet I still get notes for doing more but I think this is a huge step in the right direction. We're talking genre here, a romantic thriller, and in the first draft there wasn't enough "thriller" in the story.

My agent sticks with me because he loves my writing style: he's called me "a reader's, producer's dream" for my tight, concise screenwriting and dialog. But every story I've given him has been too "small" for his commercial tastes and targets. So I'm learning a hell of a lot with him. I am not a natural "commercial" storyteller. More naturally, I tell deep dark little dramas of human secrets, like my posthumous play "Oregon Dream," or broader social satires. I am having a ton of fun trying to write more commercially actually. Interestingly enough, I could never get interested in this as a prose writer, writing commercial novels, because there the language itself is so important and in general I can't stand the writing in popular fiction. But in a screenplay, the writing is pushed aside by the story. It's a story-driven form, and so I'm having a lot of fun with that without feeling like a literary whore.

And I could do none of this without the wonderful accident of my agent. It's a total fluke how he found me -- an old script, "The Brazen Wing", was in a pile somewhere, he got a copy, read it and responded. He had me change two story points, which I did, both to be more commercial (like the guy doesn't die at the end), and we were off and running.

New draft

Up early to finish the "cranked up" draft of the splay. To act three I've added both a car chase and a boat chase. Jeez, I sound like my own satiric video. (When I worked for a direct-to-video company years ago, scripts had to have several ingredients: a car chase; some explosions; lots of bare female breasts; and scenes taken from the producer's airplane. Everything else -- characters, story -- didn't matter all that much.)

Exhaustion

Put in about 6 or 7 hours on the splay today, have the first two acts cranked up, yet to tackle the conclusion, where a lot of action happens. Exhausted. Time to vegetate, then in the morning get ready for Music Theory class. Back at the splay over the weekend.

Found a replacement actor, one I've worked with in two shorts. A solid cast now. (I cast the writer because he looks perfect and could do it -- but his attitude is all to hell. Don't have time for it.)

Rewriting, recasting

Printed out a new version of the splay. Red ink time! Lots of terrific changes, probably need more.

Had to "uncast" one of my hyperdrama actors. He's a writer first and I sensed in his attitude during email exchanges a situation that might be a problem later in the heat of shooting -- so I'm going to recast with someone with more experience now and avoid dealing with the guy later.

First read through is March 9th.

Update

3 hrs of rewriting, a ton of progress ... moving into the third act.

Blues harp

An interview with Brad Crooks.

The rewrite

The rewrite is going this way: the first 60 pages just need tweaking, a cut here, an addition there; the last 40, throw them out and write new pages.

Long, long, long overdue

Little Walter is being inducted into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame.

Political humor

What do you call someone at a Ralph Nader rally? Ralph Nader.

Today's task

Front burner, rewriting the screenplay, cranking it up. Next, get down the new song on the banjo. And practice piano for Friday's class. If I could actually rewrite the entire screenplay, so I can let it sit for the weekend and another look, that would be great but it may be more than I can do in a day. We'll see.

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

They're giving a concert in Portland in April.

Adventures in politics

clipped from news.yahoo.com Ore. mayor poses in underwear, loses job ARLINGTON, Ore. - The mayor of an Oregon town who once stripped to her underwear and posed on a fire truck has been stripped of her office. Voters in this town of about 500 voted narrowly Monday to recall Carmen Kontur-Gronquist. The tally was 142-139. City officials said the recall is effective Tuesday.

An unusual Wednesday

Tomorrow I have no student scripts to look at -- they have a week off from assignments in order to work on rewriting. This also gives me a rare mid-week moment to work on something of my own, like cranking up the screenplay. Following my agent's lead, I took good notes on the script in my office this afternoon. I might as well jump right in and start making the script changes tomorrow. Some of the changes are easy, other require new scenes and characters. The "romantic thread" requires far less work than the "thriller thread" in this romantic thriller. But I already can see that the changes definitely will be for the better. I'm excited about doing them, even though this is a pretty unusual kind of writing for me. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Also working on a new banjo tune that's going pretty well.

Good ideas

Went over the 2 pages of single-spaced notes from my agent ... damn, he has great ideas for cranking this sucker up! I feel very fortunate to be working with and repped by him. I can't figure out how to blow up any buildings but by the gods I think I can get a high speed boat chase in there ha ha! And in Nicaragua, no less!

Cranking it up

Going to campus early. Will read over my agent's notes on the new splay and take my own notes in the script about what and how to "crank it up". See if I can double the budget ha ha. All caution to the winds.

Strokes II

So you do your work and for weeks and weeks, don't hear a peep from a soul about it. It's like working in a vacuum. Then you hear from someone who likes something, you get a stroke.

Strokes seem to come in cycles. Got the first in a while last week and today two more ended up in my email box. Always nice to learn somebody is responding.

That's what is particularly satisfying about playwriting -- the live response of an audience. You write a good funny line of dialog and by the gods, an audience laughs at it! They applaud like hell at the end! But it can be frustrating, too -- something doesn't work, or an actor makes a mistake so something doesn't work (most of the time, actors add much more than they subtract from a script!). Playwriting permits the writer to experience live response to the work. Nothing like it.

I love watching my plays from the light booth, where I can spend as much time watching the audience as watching the play. You learn a hell of a lot doing this.

Preparing to shoot

I've been giving a lot of thought to how I'll name the video and html files that become the pieces of the online hyperdrama. I've learned the hard way over the years that a detail like this, which may seem unimportant to the uninitiated, actually can cause headaches later, or make the job easier.

Here's what I've come up with.

Both .html and .wmv files will follow the same naming strategy.

A file name V03-R.htm will indicate the web home for scene 3, Robert's narrative path.

Let's say scene 3 is a two character scene, Robert and Hollie. I shoot a two-shot and then angles on each of the characters. The video files would be: V03-R-aR.wmv, V03-R-aH.wmv etc. For different takes, V03-R-aRt1.wmv, V03-R-aRt2.wmv. A two-shot,
V03-R-2s.wmv.

I have to brood about this more to see if it needs refinement. The key is, the file name must reveal all the important information I need at a glance, so I'm not searching for a particular video file later. The .html pages, in contrast, will concentrate on the character paths through the hyperdrama. There will be one web page hosting one video file.

Note that the names of the video files above are for raw footage. After each scene gets edited, the file name will denote the character path: V03-R01.htm, V03-R08.htm, i.e. the first and eighth web pages (with video file embedded on each) in the sequence of Robert's narrative path. And the corresponding video files will be V03-R01.wmv, V03-R08.wmv, etc., these the files that get uploaded to YouTube.

Yes, this is complicated. But if you don't have a clear organization of file names, man, it is a major nightmare later!

4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days

A very powerful Romanian film! Grim, compelling, tense. Effective use of static camera: lots of static 2 shots, long silences. It all works in context. About as un-Hollywood in its film story strategy as you can get. An art film, I suppose it's called -- but this one is full of tension and suspense.

Voting

Some years back, I met a woman in her 90s who had decided, on her 75th birthday, to quit voting for politicians. She hadn't voted since. When I asked her why she'd stopped voting, she said, "I don't want to encourage them."

Watching this ugly Clinton-Obama duel, I can understand what she was talking about.

Chinese curse

"May you live in interesting times."

Neuberger Hall on campus, where both my office and classroom this term are, is evacuated due to a bomb threat. I'm not on campus today, but this is the first time I remember an evacuation. Ah, me.

Storyboard

I have a very useful free program called STORYBOARD. Next step is to go through the script on Sophocles, numbered scene by scene, and transfer the basics (where, who, what) to Storyboard, which then will give me a scene by scene outline from which to more easily make a shooting schedule. The program also lets me make notes about shooting and/or editing each scene. Very useful and less material to handle than the actual script (i.e. an outline, fewer pages).

Script to actors

Just emailed the hyperdrama script to the actors. Hope to schedule a read through soon.

Fearing the possible

I've mentioned this before: how the Obama phenomenon brings back memories of the 60s. It's inevitable if you lived through those times: any inspiring, progressive leader becomes a target. What a world.

clipped from www.nytimes.com In Painful Past, Hushed Worry About Obama DALLAS — There is a hushed worry on the minds of many supporters of Senator Barack Obama, echoing in conversations from state to state, rally to rally: Will he be safe? In Colorado, two sisters say they pray daily for his safety. In New Mexico, a daughter says she persuaded her mother to still vote for Mr. Obama, even though the mother feared that winning would put him in danger. And at a rally here, a woman expressed worries that a message of hope and change, in addition to his race, made him more vulnerable to violence. Mr. Obama has had Secret Service agents surrounding him since May 3, the earliest a candidate has ever been provided protection. (He reluctantly gave in to the insistent urging of Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and others in Congress.) As his rallies have swelled in size, his security has increased, coming close to rivaling that given to a sitting president.

Inspiration

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Best Original Music. Once.


Diablo Cody. Best Original Screenplay. Juno.

A year ago, these artists were as unknown as the thousands and thousands of their colleagues who do good work but get little recognition for it. Then lightning struck. Two small indie films catapulted them to fame. It can happen. But it never happens if you don't first do the work -- and keep doing the work.

Marketa Irglova:
Hi everyone. I just want to thank you so much. This is such a big deal, not only for us, but for all other independent musicians and artists that spend most of their time struggling, and this, the fact that we're standing here tonight, the fact that we're able to hold this, it's just to prove no matter how far out your dreams are, it's possible. And, you know, fair play to those who dare to dream and don't give up. And this song was written from a perspective of hope, and hope at the end of the day connects us all, no matter how different we are. And so thank you so much, who helped us along way. Thank you.

Glen Hansard:
Thanks! This is amazing. What are we doing here? This is mad. We made this film two years ago. We shot on two Handycams. It took us three weeks to make. We made it for a hundred grand. We never thought we would come into a room like this and be in front of you people. It's been an amazing thing. Thanks for taking this film seriously, all of you. It means a lot to us. Thanks to the Academy, thanks to all the people who've helped us, they know who they are, we don't need to say them. This is amazing. Make art. Make art. Thanks.

For me, the highlights of the Oscars.

Three amazing students

Last Thursday three students gave me the second draft of completed feature-length screenplays they began at the start of the term. The first drafts were excellent. I've read two of the three so far and they are even better, as they should be. This is an extraordinary accomplishment for 7 weeks of class.

A few years ago, I was a judge to select ten scriptwriters (playwrights, screenwriters) whose work would earn them a $7000 fellowship. Each of the scripts by the students above would have been on that list.

---

Juno won Best Original Screenplay. Hear, hear! I teach it in the spring. No End In Sight did not win Best Documentary. However, my joy in Michael Moore's failure to win more than eases my disappointment.

Fashion

There was a guy in the Army who had a talent for delivering spontaneous one-liners. Once someone was quoting Dr. Johnson, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel," and L. piped up, without missing a beat, "True -- but fashion is the first!" I've used the line ever since: Fashion is the first refuge of a scoundrel.

Which makes it scoundrel time in Hollywood tonight. All that money spent on all those gowns and tuxes on the red carpet.


But dressing up can be fun, I must admit. When my first hyperdrama, performed at the Pittock Mansion, sold out opening night in a few hours at $100 a pop, astronomical for Portland in the 1980s, I knew this was going to be a special event. I ended up arriving in a white tuxedo, and for a few years after that this became my opening night costume, arriving to my play premieres in a white tux. I have a very ugly story about how this tradition ended but this isn't the time to tell it.

Timeline

Another polish and I think I'll have the script close enough to distribute to actors. I'll give them a couple weeks, then have a read-through. Then make a shooting schedule. I hope to use one of the actor's condos as a primary location, and we can get most done during a three or four hour shoot there, I think. Then maybe a couple more days to pick up things away from the condo. Last summer, the shooting went surprisingly quickly, primarily because the actors had done their homework. I am setting an arbitrary date, April 15, when I want the shooting to be done, and if it's earlier, excellent. I want a full month to edit, though I think it will take less than this. One has to prepare for something going wrong.

In the meantime, I'm going to start parts one and three, where I don't need the actors, sooner rather than later. I'm already gathering image material for them. And -- what fun! -- I'm going to write an original score for it all. This will get me tuned up in Finale before my spring class in its advanced features.

So the major programs I use on this project, in order of primary use, are: StorySpace for structuring the hyperdrama, Sophocles for writing the script, The Flip Video for shooting the scenes, Adobe Premiere Elements for editing the video, Audacity for recording narration, Finale for composing and recording a music track.
And probably a few other things that come up, using VitualDub, Prism, and what not. I couldn't do this without these great tools.

Strokes

When I'm in the heat of working on a new project, I don't give thought to what others may think of it -- unless the project is blatantly commercial, like a screenplay or certain kinds of journalism. But most often these days, I work on projects that I am passionate about and that's enough justification to keep me going. At the same time, when a project like this is finished, there can be a let down. I may ask myself, Well, that took a lot of time and energy -- does anyone except myself give a rat's ass about it? Sometimes one never knows.

So it's nice to be surprised, as today, with evidence that sometimes someone does give a rat's ass. A link to today's stroke.

Structure of the hyperdrama

Click for larger image.

Using StorySpace (by far the best tool for doing this sort of thing), my first step was to get a handle on the structure of the hyperdrama within the locations I'll be using. This, of course, goes hand-in-hand with developing the story movement. This done, I then went to Sophocles, my screenplay software (if this were prose, I could write in StorySpace itself, but Sophocles is easier for formatting a screenplay), keeping the StorySpace structural image at hand to keep me grounded.

The first draft of the script came in at 22 pages, which means a single character path through the hypertext should run 5-7 minutes, somewhere in there. Which is about what I was shooting for.

Doing this on video actually is easier for actors than in live performance because now all the actor stress of going on, off, and back on book is entirely removed. I'll be shooting clips and all the assembly happens in editing (making my job harder, tit for tat). As it happens, some of the most magical moments in hyperdrama are improvised, which will be lost here. All the same, this still should be great fun to wander through. Each actor is still "the lead" (in hyperdrama, the major-minor character distinction makes no sense whatever: a democratic form!), so each will have lots of camera time.

Prep work

Got a start on designing the website and making the top pages that will host the hyperdrama video. I'll save aches and pains later if I design this right and name all the many files right. I've been there before.

I actually can start writing and shooting the first and third parts of the overall video right away; only the second part uses the actors. Those two sections would be maybe five minutes each. Ballpark guess. I don't want them too long.

I love my agent

Feedback on the new splay. First, a nice compliment:

you are a reader’s / producer’s dream —- lean, clean descriptions, action lines, sharp dialogue with humor and irony.

And then the other shoe: CRANK IT UP! Well, I predicted just this. What's great is that he gave me 2+ pages of notes and suggestions that make sense to me and still leave me room for adding other "big" things as well. So I'll get back to it and crank it up.

But I love this guy, he's so straight ahead.

I have a cast

All seven actors I asked, most of whom I've worked with before, are "in" on the new hyperdrama project. This is fantastic -- I can write their roles to my take on their strengths.

A typo in a NYer cartoon!

Hypertext 08

Here's a summary of my participation in the June conference:

“CHANGING KEY”
A hyperdrama video and lecture-demonstration
By Charles Deemer



Overview

In “Changing Key” I will introduce the dramatic principles of hyperdrama, illustrate them with a short dramatic video, and discuss the “nuts & bolts” of writing and producing hyperdrama both for live performance and for film. The entire package will be a structured video accessed through a website with embedded videos that are hosted at YouTube.


Structure

Changing Key is organized in three parts.

• Introduction: I’ll begin the video by comparing the differences between traditional dramatic storytelling and storytelling driven by the new dramaturgy of hyperdrama.

• A Short Drama: The new dramaturgy will be illustrated by a short video drama called “Changing Key.” It’s the story of an aging and addicted jazz pianist who has placed himself under house arrest at his sister’s home in order to get straight but then decides he must escape in order to participate in a special gig in New York. The story features 7 actors, each with a unique narrative path through the hyperdrama.

• Nuts & Bolts: I’ll conclude the video with a discussion of the techniques of planning, writing, directing and producing hyperdrama, including the use of specialized software.


Access

Changing Key will be accessed from a website hosted by Ibiblio at the University of North Carolina, in my archival area. Each video link will be embedded at the site, and the links will be structured in a user-friendly fashion for moving through the narrative. Along the way, the user will make particular choices that define a unique path through the overall video presentation.

Off and running

Started writing script on the hyperdrama this morning. I can already see this is going to be a most fun short piece to write and direct -- and the real work will be in taping and especially editing. Well, put planning high up there, because I need to make sure I have all the clips to assemble the hyperdrama.

More progress

I've got a scene outline in StorySpace for the short hyperdrama video. I can start writing script at any time. Seven characters. Moreover, I've heard from many of the actors I contacted and thus far every one wants to participate. May the gods bless actors! This is going to be fun. I'll start working on the script this weekend.

Hyperdrama progress

Well, I think I have the characters and concept to get me started. I'm going to develop this with the outstanding hypertext writing software, StorySpace. One of the invaluable specialty writing tools out there.

The story is about an addict jazz musician under virtual house arrest, living at his sister's, trying to get straight; and how a couple figures from his past help him fake a relapse in order to escape and catch a gig in Mexico. Several reversals in the narrative, should work out for my purpose, which is to demonstrate how hyperdrama works as dramatic narrative. A sudden and exciting project! Best, "my actors," the ones I worked with last summer, are enthusiastic to participate in this.

I might even be able to write the script this weekend, it will be so short. Maybe 10 or 20 pages. The difficult part of this project, the really difficult part, is thinking through the hypertext structure correctly, making the clips right, and then editing and weaving everything together and coding a web page right to deliver it. But I love doing this stuff.

I don't think there are too many hyperdrama videos out there.

Brainstorming with myself

Music Theory was great, as usual, and now I have a couple hours before class. Going to do a free writing exercise around finding a concept for the short hyperdrama I want to video. I know a few things about it: I need to start smack dab in the middle of a crisis; I want very few settings, maybe only one location; and I want a surprise ending, so that some narrative paths reveal what's going on more quickly than others do. This should be challenging and fun. Let the free associations begin. Onward.

Portland theater

Bob Hicks, drama critic for 30 years in Portland, defended our city's theatrical reputation last week. Someone called us a "first rate city to see second rate theater." Hicks responded, in part:

The city has a long history of excellent visual and new-vaudeville performance, from Ric Young’s old extravaganzas as Storefront to the continuing fine work at Do Jump and Imago. Storefront and other companies were Johnny-on-the-spot during Sam Shepard’s brilliant years, putting up feverish productions of his plays almost as soon as they were out of his typewriter. The great Peter Fornara’s moving theatrical circus created some scarily good work. I remember a hilarious version of Feydeau’s “A Flea in Her Ear” (in the John Mortimer translation) at Portland State University’s old summer stock, and a superb version of Noel Coward’s “Design for Living” at either New Rose or early Artists Rep. New Rose and playwright Charles Deemer produced some terrific things together. The likes of Gaynor Sterchi, Mary Marsh and Edris Morrison pushed the history of excellence even earlier. And for roughly 60 years, the old Portland Civic Theatre was recognized as one of the finest community theaters in the country.

Nice to be remembered.
Read full response.

Of course, in my upcoming essay on Fornara, I argue the 1980s were stronger than now, an opinion Hicks agreed with in my interview.

Breaking the ice

This morning I had my first sale of the CD-ROM version of Screenwright, my electronic tutorial on screenwriting. This ten-year-old program, which has been a success over the years, originally was installed on a computer's hard drive. Now one can take it on the run and use it on any computer, a convenience. Only took me a decade to get around to offering the option -- well, actually, Lulu.com is what makes it possible because only then could I do this without an incredible expense, which I was reluctant to do. This generates a steady income but it's by no means making me rich, so I watch my expenses with it. But I did all the production work myself, so was able to get it up for no upfront expenses. I make a little less per unit than I make on the standard installation version but that's fine. I didn't want to make the CD-ROM price higher than the other. As it is, Wisconsin Screenwriters Forum, in a very positive review, mentioned its "amazingly low price," which is true compared to similar screenwriting products in the marketplace. I charge $25. When I started this, an "advisor" suggested I charge $199 and thereby undercut other screenwriting software products. But my motive wasn't to get rich but to spread the word, so to speak. The teacher in me more than the capitalist.

One on one

Exchanging emails this morning with a couple of students who are behind where they should be at this point. A lot of students are in good shape, so I can concentrate on helping those who aren't. Each needs a break through, when everything will fall into place and they then can catch up in a hurry. I expect this to happen, as it has in the past. Some "get it" quickly, others not so quickly.

Once v. forever

If Hollywood had made Once, the title would have been Forever and the young man and woman would have ended up together, going off into the sunset to live happily ever after and become famous musicians together. But in the film, each returns to a prior relationship.

Here is the difference between truth and fantasy. To be sure, I wanted, and I believe most audience members wanted, them to end up together. We like happy endings. If we identify with a character, we want them to be happy. They were so good together, why shouldn't they end up together? Because the real world has real obligations, which can be ignored in fantasy but not in reality and a true story pays attention to the difference. Not that the ending of Once is unhappy. Each character has grown to a degree, has learned how to live better within the parameters of the real world with its responsibilities and stresses. I return to the brilliant closing image of the film: the young woman at the piano, looking out through a small open window in a massive brick building. Here is her lifeline, here is her salvation within the restrictions of her roles as mother and wife.

Once won the audience award at Sundance, helping to propel its eventual commercial success, so stories do not need the fantasy of a Hollywood ending to be popular. Of course, here much of the attraction is the music. And most "true" movies actually have darker endings, some tragic endings. Such is life.

One thing I identified with in Once was the gift of a piano. In the past, when I was relatively wealthy (on a roll of getting grants and awards), I bought my girlfriend at the time, a talented musician and songwriter, a piano. It blew her mind! In fact, it blew her mind so much that it immobilized her, she felt pressured to produce now that she had a piano. It's as if not having one was a convenient excuse, and now she had to put up or shut up. So the gift actually didn't work out too well -- though now, many years later, she realizes the sweetness of the gift.

---

I've let a couple people see Oregon Dream, and the response has been gratifying. One used words like "uncomfortable, heartwarming ... lovely and pithy and engaging." I especially like the response, uncomfortable.

One understands why I don't want it produced in my lifetime but another does not and thinks I should market it. If I were to change my mind, I wouldn't go the whole hog (as Pinter might say): it would be done anonymously or with a pseudonym. But I'm more comfortable not doing that. I don't need to see it, though I would like to workshop it with actors. I might do that myself down the road. Blessed to spend much of my playwriting career as a resident playwright, I am used to developing scripts with actors.

And now that I'm taking a course in Finale, and will be really up to speed to compose come summer, I'm thinking of storylines for a music drama -- and indeed, THREE LOVES, the posthumous play I'm now working on, has possibilities here, and so do other stories I'm considering for this series. I'd really like to start a music drama, finally, this summer. The Finale course is the perfect kick in the pants.

Juno

I'm teaching the script of this fine film in the spring, and just in the nick of time I learned today that the DVD will be out in spring, too, so I can show it at the end of the term. Cool.

Disappointment

There's a down side to reading blogs. Just when you get attached to one and look forward to the routine of dropping by, the blogger changes rhythm and stops writing and you feel like your favorite neighborhood coffee shop has just closed down.

Once

This indie film from Ireland, what so many Hollywood agents would call "a nice little film," blew me away the first time I saw it, and it blew me away even more tonight, watching it for the second time. So many things work on so many levels here.

• The music, of course, is wonderful.
  
• It's that rarest of breeds today, a moving love story without sex, yet retains much sensuality.
  
• It is beautifully filmed. And the film sequences are put to dramatic use, as when much of the story is told visually without dialog with a song in the background.
  
• It's title is perfect: some relationships, some moments, happen only once in an individual's life.
  
• The closing image is perfect, an angle from outside focusing on the young woman at her piano, an extraordinary gift from the guy, looking through a small open window in a large brick building, as if through the single passage to freedom in her brick prison of responsibility, back with her husband, but with music her salvation.
  

This is a remarkable achievement. Simple and brilliant.

Come on, Spring!

I'm so damn excited about this course in Finale I can hardly stand it. Got someone to cover First Wednesdays for me, got the clearance from the professor that I meet pre-requisites, get a ten percent faculty discount ... I'm ready to roll! Man, this should have me entering the summer with great compositional speed. This is going to be great.

A course in Finale

Hot damn! PSU is offering a course in "Intermediate to Advanced Finale" ... this is the music composition software I've been using. It runs Spring term, is taught by Jon Newton, one of the truly gifted composers in this area, is not all that expensive, is on a Wednesday night when I'm free -- hell, I can't think of a reason not to take it. I'm going to enroll early and secure my spot! This is perfect timing since I was thinking of starting a music drama project this summer. I'm getting very itchy to do this. This is great. I'll have to miss hosting First Wednesdays but I can get someone to fill in for me for April, May and June, I'm sure. That's the only hitch.

Fireball crashes in eastern Oregon

Meteor streaks over morning sky

Or
watch video here.

Hyperdrama

I've been invited to speak at the Hypertext 08 conference in Pittsburg in June. These academic affairs don't pay you, usually, and so it's too spendy for what I'd get out of it at this late date, needing nothing on my resume ha ha, but I made a counter-proposal they are interested in: I give a video lecture-demonstration on hyperdrama to the conference, which I could do from here. So they want a formal proposal.

As part of that, I may do what I've been inkling to do, write and produce a video hyperdrama ... short dramatic clips that end with the observer having to make a choice about which narrative thread to follow, which then leads to the next clip. You could do something really interesting with six or eight actors. 30 sec to 1 min. clips before the narrative branches. I'd have to shoot it this spring but that's doable. Very seriously considering this.

Taking a break

Since winter term classes consistently have been my least interesting -- lower energy, fewer good screenwriters -- this term's "exception to the rule" is all the more fascinating. This is one of the better classes I've ever had. Already three students have written complete good drafts of a feature (typically, I may get two a year), many other students are writing with skill to the syllabus requirements, it's just a fine class indeed. Makes the term zip by.

Reading!

A VERY high stack of student scripts to read today. Don't expect to get anything else done and might not even get all these done.