Louis C.K. on people alive today
“We’re the worst people yet.”
Louis C.K.
There’s temporal, and then there’s temporal
- of or pertaining to time.
- pertaining to or concerned with the present life or this world; worldly: temporal joys.
- enduring for a time only; temporary; transitory (opposed to eternal).
Ricky Gervais on The Office
“I cite it as the first thing I ever tried my hardest at.”
A story I told about my body
I was terrified to do this, but I had a blast. Thanks to the girls at @backfencepdx for cajoling me into it.
Here’s a lil’ story I told at an event called Back Fence PDX. The theme of the night was our bodies, ourselves. Catch more of the stories here (don’t miss this one from @laurenweedman. OMG hilarity).
Impossible. Regardless, Amateur Sweats Toward Dream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQYrE1HpZ2s
There’s something I love about this video showing crisp, nike-like footage of a middle-age-ish, regular-size-ish guy flubbing about with the soccer ball in one of the most prestigious football grounds in the world.
Is it because this video points to the fact we all have dreams, and, even if they’re “pie in the sky, never gonna happen” we can still indulge a little and feel some of the strain of our bones towards the stuff of legend? It’s like he’s discarding all care and concern for what’s possible, grunting slow laps around the folks who chant “This is ridiculous, you’ll never be a footballer, you’re crazy.” He pushes hard and tries regardless, all the while understanding it’s totally impossible and worth the sweat regardless. Is that why I love this video… because that kind of balance is magic? (more…)
J.R.R. Tolkien on starting with a name
“I always, in the writing, I always start with a name. Give me a name and I’ll deduce a story.”
Pixar’s rules of story
- Empathize with your main character, even if you don’t like all of his/her motivations or qualities. (For example, Woody in Toy Story initially masked his selfish desires as being selfless.)
- Unity of opposites. Each character must have clear goals that oppose each other.
You should have something to say. Not a message, per se, but some perspective, some experiential truth. - Have a key image, almost like a visual logline, to encapsulate the essence of the story; that represents the emotional core on which everything hangs. (For example, Marlin in Finding Nemo, looking over the last remaining fish egg in the nest.)
- Cast actors with an appealing voice, and whom the microphone loves. Test their voice performance with animation to see if it fits.
- Know your world and the rules of it. (Such as in Monsters, Inc.)
- The crux of the story should be on inner, not outer, conflicts. (emphasis added)
- Developing the story is like an archeological dig. Pick a site where you think the story is buried, and keep digging to find it.
- Animation should be interpretive, not realistic.
- “Just say no” to flashbacks. Only tell what’s vital, and tell it linearly.
Consider music as a character to anchor the film. Music is a keeper of the emotional truth.
Don’t know how true this all is. Found it here.
Everything is a remix
… but creativity isn’t magic. It happens by applying ordinary tools of thought to existing materials.”
This is exceptional. I’m enamored with it on two counts:
- It’s made so well
- It’s content is fascinating
Talk about doing the work, right? If you like this, you’ll like the previous two vids in the series.
Creative work is worky
“Creative work only seems like a magic trick to people who don’t understand that it’s ultimately still work.”
Robert M. Pirsig on getting narrow
“Phaedrus found that rhetoric at the University level was taught as a branch of reason alone. He was also having trouble with students who had nothing to say. Especially one girl, who was a serious, disciplined, and hardworking student. She wanted to write an essay about the United States. Phaedrus told her to narrow it to Bozeman but she couldn’t think of anything to say. Phaedrus told her to narrow it down to the main street of Bozeman. Still nothing. He then said “Narrow it down to the front of one building on the main street of Bozeman. The Opera House. Start with the upper left-hand brick.”The next day she returned with a 5,000 word essay on the front of the Opera House on the main street of Bozeman, Montana.
We get blocked from our own creativity because we just repeat what we have already heard. Until we really look at things and see them freshly for ourselves, we will have nothing new to say. “For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses. The more you look the more you see.”