Okay, so this is the first and certainly not the last time you will hear me talk about the Titanic (the ship, not the movie...though I may geek out on my favorite film sometime in the future!), but today was an exciting day because I caught a new blog post from the team at Four Funnels Entertainment in regards to the development of their massive new game, Titanic: Honor and Glory.
The project is still in the development stage (two of many) but their updates always excite the Titaniac inside me. I've been one since I was in first grade, thanks to a friend now long lost to time, Samuel Whitaker, who mentioned the great tragedy to me while we perused an encyclopedia for some information. Anyway - tangent over. But, this project is definitely worth following if you aren't already doing so. The renders that the team have posted so far are stunning! They even have an early walkthrough of specific areas of the liner on Youtube. Please check them out!
http://titanic-honor-and-glory.tumblr.com/
They recently had an Indie-GoGo campaign that was a great success (with all of us donators sitting at the monitor biting our nails). The wait may be long, but I am confident that it will be worth it when the game is finally completed. Four Funnels's motto of historical accuracy is really what gets my mind buzzing with the thirst for knowledge on my favorite ocean liner.
Woot! Now to go and read some of my Titanic books...
Friday, July 5, 2013
First Person, Or Third Person?
This has been the great debate for me lately.
My soon-to-be-completed first novel (post-college, at least) is written in the third person. I decided this would be a good idea because I wanted to utilize a few different points of view, such as seeing the world through the villain's eyes, and also through the two central heroes. However, I have had to constantly remind myself that I need to include some of the thoughts that belong to my characters. They think - so my reader can benefit from what they are pondering at certain moments. This has been coming easier as I've went along, but some good revision will help out the first half of the book, which is already finished a first draft and waiting for the ending to catch up.
I've recently picked up an intriguing YA dystopian novel called Matched, by Ally Condi, and I am really enjoying it so far. I have noticed that there is a trend that most of the YA books - many geared to young girls - follow, and that is to tell the story through a singular first-person POV. This viewpoint is always the central heroine to the story.
Investigating different books with this first person structure makes me itch to try it myself. My previous attempt at a first novel was started in the first person, and then I chickened out and second-guessed myself. That manuscript, part of an eventual series that's been planned since my high-school days, is sitting in my desk drawer right now waiting for me to brush it off and try again. I will eventually, once I finish the work on my current book.
They both have their strong points and stumbling blocks, but still, this seems to be a question I struggle with more and more: First or Third?
My soon-to-be-completed first novel (post-college, at least) is written in the third person. I decided this would be a good idea because I wanted to utilize a few different points of view, such as seeing the world through the villain's eyes, and also through the two central heroes. However, I have had to constantly remind myself that I need to include some of the thoughts that belong to my characters. They think - so my reader can benefit from what they are pondering at certain moments. This has been coming easier as I've went along, but some good revision will help out the first half of the book, which is already finished a first draft and waiting for the ending to catch up.
I've recently picked up an intriguing YA dystopian novel called Matched, by Ally Condi, and I am really enjoying it so far. I have noticed that there is a trend that most of the YA books - many geared to young girls - follow, and that is to tell the story through a singular first-person POV. This viewpoint is always the central heroine to the story.
Investigating different books with this first person structure makes me itch to try it myself. My previous attempt at a first novel was started in the first person, and then I chickened out and second-guessed myself. That manuscript, part of an eventual series that's been planned since my high-school days, is sitting in my desk drawer right now waiting for me to brush it off and try again. I will eventually, once I finish the work on my current book.
They both have their strong points and stumbling blocks, but still, this seems to be a question I struggle with more and more: First or Third?
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
The Lone Ranger (2013)
It's clear that The Lone Ranger was a passion project on the part of director Gore Verbinski and star Johnny Depp. This film, a revamp of the classic television and radio program, frames the adventures of John Reid - who becomes the masked Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer), and his sidekick-turned-headliner Tonto (Depp), in the middle of two bookend pieces of story between an elderly Tonto, ambiguously employed as part of a Wild Western exhibit at an amusement park, and a young boy dressed in a Lone Ranger costume who is shocked when the figure of Tonto comes to life and begins telling the tale of how he met Reid and convinced him to take up the mask of justice.
I will be honest. I anticipated this movie more than any other this summer. A huge fan of Gore Verbinski and Depp as a team, I salivated over every teaser and theatrical trailer released for this film. Westerns have been a tough sell the past decade, and this film will have a lot of work to do in order to get the audience it deserves. Lone Ranger is a philosophical hero's journey disguised as an action movie. Hammer is wonderful as the astute "learned man," coming back home to see his brother Dan Reid (James Badge Dale), who is married to his old love, Rebecca (Ruth Wilson). From there, the train is hijacked and Hammer becomes shackled to Depp, and their journey together begins.
Don't let the action overwhelm you, however. For all the train sequences, with cars becoming derailed with Reid and Tonto flying all over the place, this film also showcases a touching and grounded performance by Depp as an outcast Comanche native. I have a fascination for Native American culture, and Depp brings a sense of loss and inner wound to Tonto - albeit accentuated by his typical character eccentricities. We see that Tonto was tricked as a child into trading his entire village for a cheap pocket watch, and it's that idea of trading that pushes Tonto to trade back vengeance with the villain of the film, a menacing Butch Cavendish (played amazingly by William Fichtner). Of course, there are more villains than just Cavendish in this crowded Western world.
Admittedly this film has a tone that is all over the place at times. I would consider this picture akin to World War Z in that large cuts from the script were made and alterations were done to lower the production budget before shooting could commence. I remember reading that some of the actors took pay cuts just to ensure that this story was told, and their performances show dedication and verve. For those who say that the film lacks heart, I say that they weren't looking in the right places. The heart of the picture is Depp, despite all the nay sayers that wanted the central character from previous tellings, the Lone Ranger himself, to take center stage. As it is, this is not possible with today's audience. It is Tonto's role to convince the Ranger to fight for justice, to pick up the gun he is so opposed to at the beginning of the film, and defend those he loves from not only those who wish to do them physical harm, but also from the greed of those in power who are willing to put entire towns and tribes of people into poverty to fatten their own wallets.
As the film pummeled forward, through set piece after set piece, I had to marvel that such a crucial piece of character in Tonto was the constant to keep the trademark Jerry Bruckheimer action meaningful. Yes, the train sequences and explosions are unrealistic escapism, but the film is trying to revitalize a dead genre in Hollywood. Lone Ranger is also trying to correct one of the great tragedies of American history by giving Tonto the limelight that he deserves after his people had their homes and their lives taken away by the very railroad tycoons that the characters in the film face off against. There are tears in elderly Tonto's eyes, and it was at that moment that I realized it all mattered. With new technology on the side of the white men, Tonto needed the help of the Lone Ranger, someone who could act as a bridge between the disadvantaged natives and the settlers, to fight back and defend a way of life that was being taken away by ruthless men. If the Ranger cared about Tonto's plight, then perhaps other settlers and fortune seekers would as well. Reid was chosen to be Tonto's partner by none other than the white spirit horse, after all. They may not agree one hundred percent, but they both bring unique things to the table that create a whole when fighting as a team. Reid brings his knowledge. On the flip side, Tonto knows how to handle a barrel of explosives. Again, to the nay sayers, I ask: since when did the movies have to be so serious? I'll take some dual train fighting on horseback any day of the week.
I will be honest. I anticipated this movie more than any other this summer. A huge fan of Gore Verbinski and Depp as a team, I salivated over every teaser and theatrical trailer released for this film. Westerns have been a tough sell the past decade, and this film will have a lot of work to do in order to get the audience it deserves. Lone Ranger is a philosophical hero's journey disguised as an action movie. Hammer is wonderful as the astute "learned man," coming back home to see his brother Dan Reid (James Badge Dale), who is married to his old love, Rebecca (Ruth Wilson). From there, the train is hijacked and Hammer becomes shackled to Depp, and their journey together begins.
Don't let the action overwhelm you, however. For all the train sequences, with cars becoming derailed with Reid and Tonto flying all over the place, this film also showcases a touching and grounded performance by Depp as an outcast Comanche native. I have a fascination for Native American culture, and Depp brings a sense of loss and inner wound to Tonto - albeit accentuated by his typical character eccentricities. We see that Tonto was tricked as a child into trading his entire village for a cheap pocket watch, and it's that idea of trading that pushes Tonto to trade back vengeance with the villain of the film, a menacing Butch Cavendish (played amazingly by William Fichtner). Of course, there are more villains than just Cavendish in this crowded Western world.
Admittedly this film has a tone that is all over the place at times. I would consider this picture akin to World War Z in that large cuts from the script were made and alterations were done to lower the production budget before shooting could commence. I remember reading that some of the actors took pay cuts just to ensure that this story was told, and their performances show dedication and verve. For those who say that the film lacks heart, I say that they weren't looking in the right places. The heart of the picture is Depp, despite all the nay sayers that wanted the central character from previous tellings, the Lone Ranger himself, to take center stage. As it is, this is not possible with today's audience. It is Tonto's role to convince the Ranger to fight for justice, to pick up the gun he is so opposed to at the beginning of the film, and defend those he loves from not only those who wish to do them physical harm, but also from the greed of those in power who are willing to put entire towns and tribes of people into poverty to fatten their own wallets.
As the film pummeled forward, through set piece after set piece, I had to marvel that such a crucial piece of character in Tonto was the constant to keep the trademark Jerry Bruckheimer action meaningful. Yes, the train sequences and explosions are unrealistic escapism, but the film is trying to revitalize a dead genre in Hollywood. Lone Ranger is also trying to correct one of the great tragedies of American history by giving Tonto the limelight that he deserves after his people had their homes and their lives taken away by the very railroad tycoons that the characters in the film face off against. There are tears in elderly Tonto's eyes, and it was at that moment that I realized it all mattered. With new technology on the side of the white men, Tonto needed the help of the Lone Ranger, someone who could act as a bridge between the disadvantaged natives and the settlers, to fight back and defend a way of life that was being taken away by ruthless men. If the Ranger cared about Tonto's plight, then perhaps other settlers and fortune seekers would as well. Reid was chosen to be Tonto's partner by none other than the white spirit horse, after all. They may not agree one hundred percent, but they both bring unique things to the table that create a whole when fighting as a team. Reid brings his knowledge. On the flip side, Tonto knows how to handle a barrel of explosives. Again, to the nay sayers, I ask: since when did the movies have to be so serious? I'll take some dual train fighting on horseback any day of the week.
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