We Has Panelists

We've got some terrific panelists set for the game writing panel on January 19 at McGill. I'll be introducing them to you over the next little while, but in the mean time, I can tell you that we have a game designer; a narrative designer; someone who writes story for a major FPS/RPG franchise; and someone who is writing mythology ("lore") for an upcoming major MMO. Very fun. And if you are not sure what the difference is between these various flavours of game writing, better come the panel!

I'll be putting up a Facebook event page soonish, but in the mean time, save the date! Wednesday, January 19, Leacock 232 on the McGill campus.

UPDATE: If you can't make it, we're planning to tape this and podcast it, technology and participants permitting.

UPDATE: Want to know the answer to a question about game writing? Come to the event, or post your question here.

Surprise!

So Mom asks Michael Bublé if her kid can come up and sing with him, and Bublé decides to be cool about it, and then the kid sings.



What I love about this video is how long it takes Bublé to realize the kid can sing: about two seconds. (If you want to skip the preamble, start around 1:20.)

I showed YOU ARE SO UNDEAD to a cinematographer I'm working with. After literally 5 seconds, he said, "You shot this on the Red?"

I know I keep harping on how your query email has to impress inside of, literally, 3 seconds, and that just seems crazy unfair. And ditto for the maybe 5 pages someone will read of your screenplay if you're not paying for the read. But professionals can identify professional work in a tiny, tiny few seconds.

Yes, of course there are exceptions. Satyendra Nath Bose sent his paper to dozens of science journals and they all rejected him.

But then he got it to Einstein, who got it published, and further developed the Bose-Einstein condensate theory. But that only goes to suggest that the gatekeepers at the journals weren't professional enough, and that Einstein could read a physics paper like you or I would read the morning paper, and go either, "Hah! Ridiculous," or "Wow! That's so true!"

Indigènes (Days of Glory)

I watched Indigènes (Days of Glory), a feature about three Berbers who join the Free French to fight for their "fatherland," France. Although they fight very hard for the French, and die for the French, it soon becomes clear that the French don't regard them as equals. They are mistreated in all sorts of ways, making them question whether France really stands for "Liberté, Egalité et surtout Fraternité". Racist French officers didn't promote them (there was a quota), their letters to French girls were censored, they weren't given leave to go home or the same food as the white guys.

This is a beautifully made, well-written and well-acted movie. Oh, and it won Cannes, no doubt because it told the French some uncomfortable truths about themselves.

But its story starts to become not all that surprising, unless one is laboring under the delusion that the French live up to their own rhetoric. And the movie becomes a bit tiresome to watch.

Lord knows I'm not against bashing the French for being colonialists. But I think if I were trying to tell people how France abused its territorial troops, I think I'd make the story about something else. Maybe about a sergeant and a soldier who don't get along. Maybe about class differences among the recruits. Two guys in love with the same girl back home. And the guy who actually has the girl is screwing every French girl he can, while the guy who doesn't have the girl is faithful to her. Whatever. Make that racism the background to a story whose resolution isn't predictable from the beginning.

Sometimes you can reveal a truth better by letting the audience uncover it, rather than waving it in their faces. It's sometimes hard to remember that when you're stoked up about an issue. But unless the audience is already stoked up, you're going to push them away.

First Review Is In!

The first review of my novel just came in, courtesy The Toronto Star::

Montrealer Alex Epstein explores the youth of infamous Morgan, King Arthur’s half sister (and ultimately his nemesis), in The Circle Cast: The Lost Years of Morgan le Fay (Tradewind, 300 pages, $12.95, ages 13+). Shipped off for safety when her father is murdered and her mother taken by Uther Pendragon, Morgan lives in exile in Ireland. First welcomed, then enslaved, she develops her gift for sorcery wherever she is — even for a time in a small Christian community. Revenge for her father’s death is her sole desire, and to that end she turns magical knowledge, lust, love and all her abilities as a strategist of war. This has the darkness of Celtic magic — not fanciful, period romance — and a poetic terseness that suits its stern, passionate hero.

I am pretty happy with that!

UPDATE: Just spoke with the printer. Books are already on their way to stores. They should be at stores in the East by Wednesday, which means I would guess they ought to be in stores by Monday.

UPDATE: Now available at Amazon.ca.

ND

Can a writer get sued for signing an NCND (non-circumention, non-disclosure agreement) by the funder of the movie? I am 'talent', should the writer be that involved in the business of making the movie? I mean, what if the executive producer violates the NCND and gets sued, would I get sued too just because my name is on it even though it wasn't actually me who violated it?

It is not normal for writers to be asked to sign ND agreements in show business. It is normal in the game business. The unconscionable standard agreement that showbiz writers are asked to sign is called a "release form," and often they say things like "If we independently make a movie similar or identical to yours, tough luck.

If you sign a reasonable ND agreement, you can be sued if you reveal confidential information about the project to the public. Since you're the writer, the only confidential information you normally would know is how the movie turns out. If you were the writer of BASIC INSTINCT, and you got mad at the producers and started telling everyone who done it (it's not who most people think, incidentally), you could be sued. If you were a "preditor" on SURVIVOR and revealed who won, you would definitely be sued. However, if you don't know confidential information, you can't be sued because you can't reveal it. And unless the ND agreement really is unconscionable, you can't be sued for the actions of someone who is not in your control.

Even if the producer violates it, I can't be sued? The writer is 'talent' and is apart from the business side of it all, so if the funder decides to sue production company, I can't be included in the lawsuit? Am I right about that?

You CAN be sued for almost anything. Whether you WILL be sued, or whether you can get the suit thrown out as frivolous, is a more important question. But generally, you should not be sued for things you did not do. You would presumably have a separate ND agreement from the one your producer is signatory to.

Caveat: it all depends on the actual wording of the contract you signed; and I am not a lawyer and this does not constitute legal advice. Don't sign anything unless you've had a legal expert look at it.

CFC Film Program

CANADIAN FILM CENTRE – CALL FOR APPLICANTS!

The Canadian Film Centre is looking for applicants for one of its training programs: the Cineplex Entertainment Film Program.

APPLICATION DEADLINE | JANUARY 21, 2011

PRODUCERS – EDITORS – WRITERS – DIRECTORS

In this five-and-a-half month program, directors, producers, writers and editors will be completely immersed in the art and business of dramatic filmmaking. Filmmakers develop their technical, collaborative and business skills, while developing project slates and refining their artistic expression in an intensely demanding, creative and professional environment.

Apply today.

Flash Mobs...

I'm not sure if this is really a flash mob in the traditional John Brunner sense -- all the participants are coming from the same place. But I love this as theatre. It is of course a brilliant piece of music, and the singers are superb. But making it a flash mob takes it to people who would never go see it if it was being performed in a church, with better acoustics, and the chorus wearing nice clothes. The singing is coming from the audience, rather than being separated. It puts the audience in the ritual space.

This is what the Protestants were getting at when they destroyed all those rood screens separating the priest from the congregation. They wanted to be part of the magic.

I love that flash mobs are here to stay. And I am still waiting to be in a crowded fire so I can shout "Theater! Theater!"

Busting a Cap

The other day, a few story missions short of the FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS final mission, I was surprised to discover I’ve reached the level cap. Quests no longer award experience and the skills that go with it.

I’ve never reached a level cap before. In most of the games I’ve played, you really have to play an exhaustive number of side quests or generally run around killing random critters for hours to max out your character.

Sure, I can still get achievements and Gamerscore points. I can accumulate in-game money. But I was shocked to discover how much less fun the game is when I don’t get XP for missions. It feels like the wind is out of the game’s sails. It’s funny. I wouldn’t have said I was playing F:NV in order to level up my nameless courier character. I would have thought I’m playing it to run around a beautiful and witty fictional world, and follow the story, and of course to massacre bad guys. (It is a first person shooter.)

But take away the little reward of finishing a quest and getting some XP and getting to parcel out the skill points, and suddenly I’m no longer staying up till two in the morning. I actually did not bother to play the game today.

Why is that?

And there’s the whole Xbox Gamerscore phenomenon. I like getting achievements. I like seeing my Gamerscore point total go up. Like Hunter, it hardly seems worth playing a game on the PS3: no cumulative points for achievements, only “trophies.”

None of this makes rational sense. When I first heard about Gamerscore points I had to keep asking Hunter: what can you actually do with them? Nothing? Then who cares?

But later on, he asked me to play Mass Effect on his profile. Mass Effect has a clever system where each time you play the game, your next incarnation of the main character gets some goodies from the previous incarnation. I was playing as an Adept, so his next guy would start out with an extra biotic superpower. I agreed, but only if he would play another game on my profile. I didn’t want to lose the achievements and points on my profile.

It’s not currency. You can’t spend it. Who cares? Well, I do, apparently. It must be hardwired pretty deeply, because for sure my rational brain can’t explain the attraction.

Somewhere deep down, I just like to collect points.

Why?

UPDATE: In the shower, it occurred to me that what I'm feeling is unappreciated. I do all this questing, and I don't get no love? The Gamerscore points correlate, in some abstract way, with society's approval. Humanity being a social animal, it makes sense we're hardwired to seek the approval of the tribe. The leveling up corresponds to status within society. Because it's hardwired, it doesn't actually have to make sense, it just has to tickle that particular nerve.

UPDATE: Incidentally, F:NV is an incredibly buggy game. It freezes constantly. Sometimes your permanent companions just disappear. Some story forks dead end, because the programming glitches and you can't complete your missions. In fact, I couldn't complete the game at all because of an unfixed "known bug": if you do too many chores for Mr. House or Yes Man, and then side with the NCR, your entire game playthrough is permanently doomed.

I would not recommend this game until they release a second patch and fix the programming. Boo, Bethesda.