Thursday, April 05, 2007

The Fear Factor

Near-record cold in Alaska. Yet the NY Times and others recently claimed Alaska is “melting”.

It’s part of the hysteria business which is designed to get people to throw money at problems. Also known as manufacturing consent. Scare people enough and they will agree to do whatever you want.

This is one of the more appalling things aboutr the US media, which is worse at this than any other country. Our media thrives at using scare and fear tactics to get people to agree with bogus agendas the elites who own these media companies want people to go along with.

It’s what journalist John Stossel calls the “Fear Industrial Complex”.

Newsrooms are full of English majors who acknowledge that they are not good at math, but still rush to make confident pronouncements about a global-warming “crisis” and the coming of bird flu.

Bird flu was called the No. 1 threat to the world. But bird flu has killed no one in America, while regular flu—the boring kind—kills tens of thousands. New York City internist Marc Siegel says that after the media hype, his patients didn’t want to hear that.
“I say, ‘You need a flu shot.’ You know the regular flu is killing 36,000 per year. They say, ‘Don’t talk to me about regular flu. What about bird flu?’”

Here’s another example. What do you think is more dangerous, a house with a pool or a house with a gun? When, for “20/20,” I asked some kids, all said the house with the gun is more dangerous. I’m sure their parents would agree. Yet a child is 100 times more likely to die in a swimming pool than in a gun accident.

Parents don’t know that partly because the media hate guns and gun accidents make bigger headlines. Ask yourself which incident would be more likely to be covered on TV.

You have to commend Stossel for being one of those rare journalists who actually questions the hype. That’s a journalist’s job, but most of them aren’t doing theirs. The rarely question anything the Democrats say, and cast everything Republicans say as lies, without checking the veracity of either argument.

But their determination to ram fear issues down our throats is beyond appalling. It’s enabling politicians to pass laws limiting our freedoms and it’s even getting people killed. When the media hyped DDT in the 60s, it got banned and millions died from malaria in places like Africa. Now we know many of the claims about DDT were utterly false. In the 70s they created a climate of fear over Nuclear Power, which left us building coal and oil burning plants instead, and now everyone is saying we should go back to nuclear power because it’s clean and doesn’t require fossil fuels. yet, if they hadn’t blocked it in the first place we would have an energy surplus, trillions of barrels of oil and millions of tons of coal would never have been needed. The pollution that would have never been created is in the millions of tons of toxic particulates and greenhouse gasses. The media and the so called Greens are responsible for that. They were the ones who blocked nuclear power (along with the usual suspects in the Democrats).

Once again we’re faced with the same kind of hype with Global Warming which is threating to have our economies and liberties curtailed all in the name of unproven pseudo-scientific arguments. They want us to cut back on our energy use dramatically, even get rid of our cars, light bulbs, etc,. And they haven’t proven anything. Of all the absurd arguments made by these people, this is one of the most obnoxiously stupid. Yet so many are convinced, mainly because of group think. Not because of the science. if they bothered to objectively study the science, they would see how flawed it is.

It’s important that those of us who think freely and aren’t tricked by the media’s hype, to pass along the truth to others. If the media won’t do their job, we have to do it for them. 

Friday, February 09, 2007

It’s the Green Goblin, Dude!

So, the Green Goblin is trying to rip off the Silver Surfer now? Hang Ten, Gobby!

Images of other super-villans to be seen in upcoming Marvel movies here.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Secrets of Writing: Panels

The following concerns comics, but could also serve as scene direction in a film.

Every picture isn’t worth a thousand words. I can describe a panel in five. But regardless, these are extremely important components of your story. They are the beats in a scene.

Comics are like visual songs. The text is the lyrics. The art is the music. You need to think of it that way when you write. Each panel is going to make the scene go up or down. They are the notes that you hear in the visual song.

Think about the images you choose to present. These images have to have weight and power. They have to be interesting and informative. And they have to provide some kind of insight to the characters. If someone is merely talking, choose their facial expressions and body language carefully. Make sure you aren’t wasting time with boring shots.

Of course, if you’re only writing the script, you’re dependent on the artist and he may choose to ignore your descriptions, but you can’t worry about that. Do what you think is right. You can always argue with the artist later if they draw something different.

Your job is to create feeling with every shot. Emotion is short. It only serves to make feeling specific. An audience cannot sustain emotions for long while reading a story. Mood is no substitute for emotion so don’t hold back those gut punches when you need them. Save those intense panels for your turning points and climaxes.

There will be times you introduce a location or a character. In those shots make sure we get a good look at all the relevant things we need to see. Establish them well. Clarity is the most important thing. The less there is in a panel to distract us, the easier it is for us to read what’s there. Figure out what needs to be there and stick to that.

The panel is a two dimensional image, but we can create the illusion of space by working in three levels: Foreground, middle-ground, and background. The foreground is that which is closest to us, the reader. The back ground is the farthest from us and the objects in the foreground. It’s sometimes good to use the foreground for items we want the reader’s attention drawn to. The background becomes a place for action to take place. The middle ground is anything that happens in between

It’s an extremely bad idea to have multiple actions taking place in a panel, unless you want two levels of story telling to occur at the same time. But people tend to be confused when too much is happening in a panel. You can use the foreground to focus on actions dealing with the main characters in these scenes, and the background for things they are either unaware of or actions drawing their attention.

Example: A couple are in a diner, sitting by a window. They are in the foreground of the panel. Through the glass, outside, we see a man looking at them, walking their way with a gun. But they don’t notice because they are lost in conversation.

The couple in the foreground get our attention, because they are closer to us. We can read their dialog. The changing scene in the background with the big man drawing closer gets our attention next. We know he’s coming toward the couple before they do. This makes for a suspenseful sequence.

Some writers make the mistake of trying to show multiple actions in a panel to advance their story faster. They’ll have character A punching character B in the foreground, while character C shoots character D in the background and character F is in the middle ground talking about how important it is to understand other people’s feelings while character G accompanies him on the violin.

This is ill advised because the panel becomes cluttered with all those figures, and it does a disservice to the action. Action reads better when each shot is clear and simple. Too many distractions slows down the pace of the scene. When you want to slow down the reading time, complexity does the trick. So does a lot of copy. But in the case of action, you want it to be clear and simple because that’s more exciting.

When you write a panel it’s a good idea to tell the artist only what they need to know in a clear and concise manner. Too many words describing a scene, or too many objects to be drawn, will turn the artist off. You want them to be inspired, so make their job easy and give them room to be creative. Never demand things from the artist, always be polite and ask. If something needs to be in that shot, make it clear to them that it’s important. But cut to the chase and avoid boring them. You want them to find the story exciting when they read it the first time.

When you have scenes with lots of characters, keep the number of characters in a panel to a bare minimum. That is, unless you’re requesting an establishing shot of a group. In that case, give them a big panel or a page to do it in. People’s bodies take up a lot of room in a panel. Dialog usually has to go in there, so you’re going to need all the space you can get.

Crowd scenes are something artists really hate to draw. If you must have a crowd scene, or show an army approaching, don’t be surprised if they cheat and use some trick to avoid drawing all those figures. Don’t ask for a crowd scene unless you really need it.

It’s also a good idea to request no more than five or six panels to a page, maximum. The more room the artist has, the more freedom they have to draw things into the shot. They don’t like doing seven or eight panel pages if they can help it.

An exception to this rule is pages with a lot of talking head shots. Those don’t require so much work. But you still need room for copy. Always be aware of the need for copy.

When two characters are talking to each other in the same panel, the character who speaks first needs to be on the left side. We read from left to right, so the first balloon has to be on the left, over the first character. A lot of artists, even experienced ones, either don’t know this rule or forget to do it. Make sure it’s pointed out to them if you switch the speakers.

For example, let’s say in panel one you have Joe Blow talking to John Q. Public. Joe speaks first, then John Q replies. The next panel is a close up of Joe’s face as he says something. Then panel three has John Q speaking to Joe. We went from a panel where Joe Blow was the first speaker to a panel where John Q. Public talks first. A lot of artists will draw panel three exactly like panel one, with some minor variations. They’ll forget the rule that the character who speaks first must stand on the left. So don’t forget to remind them.

If only one person is speaking in a panel, then it doesn’t matter. But if two people are talking, this is a rule to remember.

Panels come in all shapes and sizes. There are three basic shapes. The “box”, which is generally square. The “flapjack”, which is a long, shallow rectangle. The “silo” which is a vertical flapjack that runs up the side of the page from top to bottom.

The silo is great for introducing a character because you can easily get a full figure shot of them. When characters are introduced, it’s important that we clearly see what they look like so we’ll know them in later panels. The flapjack is mainly used to show head and shoulder shots of people talking. Or to show a panorama view of a scene. It’s also good for POV shots. Everything else is generally well serviced by the box.

Odd shaped panels like circle and triangle shapes are design elements that an artist is best equipped to deal with. In general, they are not a good idea, simply because your goal is to tell a clear and concise story. When panels are misshapen it’s often difficult to determine which one you’re supposed to read first.

The same rule applies to panels that cross pages. These go from one page to the next and are hard to follow. People are used to reading all the panels on a page before looking at the next page. If you cross pages with panels, they have to consciously make the adjustment. And then go back to “normal” reading when they get past this section. That is very distracting, and distraction is something to avoid. It’s better not to do them. I’ve never seen it done in a way that wouldn’t have worked better if they stayed on their own page.

Double page spreads are panels that take up two whole pages. These should be reserved for highly critical shots that involve complexity or serious emotional impact. They should not go to prosaic scenes or incidents that could have been handled in a splash page or less. The audience views these things as filler when they’re wasted on unimportant shots. When they think you’re adding filler, they start thinking the story is junk.

When describing the panel to the artist, it’s a good idea to keep your panel descriptions clean and concise. Tell them exactly what they need to know, but don’t go into excessive detail. There are some writers famous for the detail they put into a panel, but they usually have something to say that’s relevant. Personally, I don’t think it’s a good idea to distract the artist with too many things. When they draw the page they need to look at your panel description and be able to get the gist of it quickly. If there are too many words, they may forget some element you described and will forget to draw it.

You also don’t want to burden them with too many details, because your job is to inspire them not to order them. You are giving the artist the information they need to translate a cut of time into an illustration. You want them to be interested and excited. You want them to show a love for every line and texture. Because we’re dealing with a medium where art is a major selling point. The art has to not only tell the story, it has to sell the book.

REMEMBER: Make every shot count and make them clear.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Question of the Day

The MSM likes to claim they’re not biased. So why don’t they explain this?

Sandy Berger deliberately pilfered and hid classified documents. So why is Scooter Libby the one facing prison time? And why aren’t these docs on the front page of the New York Times?

The media was all over the Joe Wilson claims, which he now refuses to say in court now that he’s under oath. But when someone in a presidential administration is charged with stealing sensitive national archive and destroying them, the media barely notices.

Let’s not even get into Iraq.