Deep beneath this rugged, snobby exterior lives a gentile, emotional, nuggety core ripe with feelings. Feelings and other icky things like love, and empathy – you know those types of things that lead to tears that run down your face and ruin your makeup make you look sunburned. Although rare, there is the occasional moment in a film, or a show, or even a game where something about the story is written so perfectly that I connect with it deep within said nuggety core – and the tears flow. Here I will examine those moments, and train you to force me to connect with my female side more often. Oh ya, and spoilers!
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When you decide to watch a web series how much do you usually watch? When Youtube launched back in 2005 videos had a maximum length of ten minutes, and traditionally shorter videos had an easier time capturing more viewers. Two weeks ago the Kony 2012 documentary shattered viral records despite being a half hour long. Short form is the environment viral videos and web series have grown up in, but before they can really mature they might first need to leave the nest.
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Viewers may end up watching your web series on the same screen they use to watch their tv, or a screen that is similar to one, but that fact aside a web series is not a movie or a television program. Your audience, when first introduced to your production, is surfing the web or being inundated with five thousand status updates on their phone. These people are ready to give you about point-zero-three milliseconds of their attention. Far too many web series have yet to figure this out.
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This is the third article in a series seeking to look at examples of great writing in modern media with the hope of learning a little something more about telling entertaining stories. For those who are not in the storytelling business hopefully this series will tune you in to something you may not be aware of, or increase your appreciation of something you already are. Today I want to discuss a little known film called ‘Breaker Morant.’ This Australian film from 1980, about the Boer War in South Africa in 1901, is an amazing example of what I would call ‘timeless storytelling.’
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One of the best screenwriters of our day gives a lecture on what it takes to be a writer, the nature of entertainment as a product solely and much much more. He wont tell you how to write or make a movie but he might help you find your inner voice and connect with the rest of humanity on some deeper, more fulfilling level.
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The second in a series of articles on great writing in modern media, today’s article focuses on the final episode of the first season of Mad Men. You can also check out the previous article, on Battlestar Galactica, as well as my original discussion of great writing. Arguably televisions greatest show, Mad Men is ripe with thematic and character interaction, making it possibly the best choice for an article on such a subject.
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This follow up post to yesterdays’ look into ‘great writing’ is the first in a series of blog posts where I examine examples of great writing in modern media. The idea is to view the construction of the writing in terms of plot, character, theme and their interaction. Today I’m looking at season two episode fifteen of the excellent sci-fi series ‘Battlestar Galactica.’
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As a heavy consumer of many different forms of media I have long noticed what I consider to be the singular, rarest form of artistic quality that is uniquely shared among all of the greatest works - often regardless of format. This quality is not something like cinematography or acting in films, or graphics in games, or even plot in books. This quality is something that I like to refer to as ‘great writing.’ Many will be quick to point out that ‘plot’ is ‘writing’ but I contend, and I think most will agree, that plot is simply a component of writing generally referred to as story, or at best a watered down version of writing. Writing consists of at least three significant components (plot, character and theme) all intertwined and feeding off of each other. The fact that most people today associate writing with plot is indicative of the general lack of appreciation for great writing in modern media. Since most people are already aware of the ‘classics’ like ‘Citizen Kane,’ or anything you read in high school probably, I’m going to explore this topic a little more with some fantastic modern examples included in future installments.
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