E R I K V I D A L

THE MANUFACTURING OF CELEBRITY IN THE DIGITAL ERA (20th Anniversary Edition) now on Amazon

The 20th Anniversary of my 1998 essay THE MANUFACTURING OF CELEBRITY IN THE DIGITAL ERA is now available for purchase on Amazon.com (in both ebook and paperback formats), check it out here:

>> THE MANUFACTURING OF CELEBRITY IN THE DIGITAL ERA (20th Anniversary Edition) on Amazon.com

(NOTE: THE KINDLE EBOOK VERSION WILL BE FREE FROM FRI FEB 8 THROUGH SUN FEB 10. And if you buy the paperback version you will of course receive the Kindle ebook version absolutely free as well, available for immediate download.)

I will also be doing an AMA on Reddit on Fri Feb 8, check the IAMA sub for more:

>> REDDIT IAMA SUB

...

From the Amazon description:

In 1998 Erik Vidal predicted that, in the not-too-distant future, people would be famous, not for “doing” anything per se, but simply for being themselves on camera.

In what was then a pre-reality TV world, everyone said he was crazy (for surely one had to “do” something in order to become famous, didn’t they?). And yet here we are, now, mired in a culture obsessed with social media influencers, living in that very same sci-fi reality Vidal wrote about all those years ago.

Starting with the Gibsonian notion of cyberspace (a theoretical space for holding information), as well as its precursor Karl Popper’s World 3, this essay covers the philosophical underpinnings of celebrity, how it works and operates, as well as how it is “discovered” and, in many cases, actively built upon and maintained.

The entire history and evolution of celebrity is then explored: from kings and queens of old (celebrity by birthright) to the heroes of the 20th century (celebrity from accomplishment) to our modern day camgirls and influencers (celebrity attained simply from having a camera pointed at oneself all the time). And then the question: where do we go from here? What does the future of celebrity hold?

CONTENTS include:

-- The Origins and Nature of Cyberspace
-- The Origins and Nature of Celebrity
-- The Evolution of Celebrity: From the Doers to the Performers
-- Celebrity in the Digital Era
-- Jennifer Ringley: the First Internet Celebrity
-- The Nature of Social Interaction on the Internet
-- "The Secret of Jenni's Success": the Nature of Celebrity as Defined by its Medium
-- The Future of Celebrity in Cyberspace and the Birth and Evolution of the Meta-Individual

(This essay contains approximately 14,000 words, equivalent to a 45-55 minute read time.)

Memoir 5 YEARS OF SOBER DATING IN NEW YORK AND LA coming soon

Welcome, dear reader, to my humble little blog, woefully in need of an update / redesign, all of that to come shortly.

In the meantime I seem to have come out of retirement here, taking a break from the Hollywood machine to get back into a little prose writing, and on that note:

My new memoir, 5 YEARS OF SOBER DATING IN NEW YORK AND LA, is coming soon.

I'll be giving away a few sneak previews here and there (likely releasing the first several chapters for free, possibly on Medium.com, we'll see)--in the meantime, if you'd like to be notified when the book is out and available for purchase (including getting a free ebook copy), do sign up for the ERIK VIDAL NEWSLETTER here (you can ignore this if you already signed up in the pop-up window, DO NOT SIGN UP TWICE!!):

 

Subscribe to the ERIK VIDAL NEWSLETTER:

 

Note: I PLAN ON MAKING THE EBOOK VERSION FREE FOR AT LEAST THE FIRST DAY OF RELEASE (IF NOT THE FIRST SEVERAL DAYS), SO IF YOU SIGN UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER AND ARE NOTIFIED ON THE DAY OF RELEASE, YOU'LL LIKELY BE ABLE TO GET THE EBOOK VERSION ENTIRELY FOR FREE. SO SIGN UP FOR THAT NEWSLETTER!!

Other ways to keep in touch, and / or be notified when the book is released:

-- You can friend me on FACEBOOK (I'm rarely on it anymore but I do check it from time to time)

-- You can connect with me on TWITTER (now here's one I NEVER use but maybe I'll start, who knows, things I post elsewhere do get reflected here however)

-- You can follow me on INSTAGRAM (this is probably your best bet, as I'll be making more and more announcements, like upcoming special events etc, through my Instagram account)

-- And of course you can (and should) also follow me on MEDIUM (as this is where I'll be posting all my writing going forward for the foreseeable future)

I may still occasionally post small updates here to the blog as well but for the time being assume that all announcements re: special events etc will be through social media, and that the one big announcement, the release of the new book (along with free copies of the ebook version on Day 1), will be through the newsletter.

And like I said: I WANT TO GIVE AWAY AS MANY FREE EBOOKS AS I CAN during SOBER DATING'S initial release so get on that newsletter!! (The ebook will be $5 otherwise, the paperback $10.)

Until then do follow me on Medium, as I should have some great essays coming there soon.

Vidal Tarot Therapy and Spiritual Life Counseling

I am now accepting Tarot clients for private one-on-one consultation.

Check out VidalTarot.com for more.

>> To schedule a reading visit VIDALTAROT.COM or click here

I09: STAR TREK Story Generator (Create Your Own Trek Adventure!)

So I just started watching START TREK for the first time ever on Netflix Streaming... Have seen all the movies but somehow, despite the fact that I'm a huge sci fi fan (it's my primary genre as a writer / screenwriter), I missed the show entirely growing up (save for, perhaps, a few random minutes caught here and there while flipping channels on TV). Because of the movies I'd always been fairly familiar with the universe, but never really felt compelled to dive into the hundreds of episodes I knew were waiting for me on Netflix, as it just seemed, well, so much like The Mountain at the Far End of the Street--something I might climb eventually, but not today...

That all changed, though, when I recently buckled down and watched the entire original series of THE TWILIGHT ZONE front to back on Netflix Streaming and, to my surprise, discovered a treasure trove of good--nay, great--high concept genre screenwriting. What a joy, to take a lunch break and sit down every day (with my just-retrieved-from-down-the-street chicken salad), flip on Netflix, and get into an all new, self contained story, an entirely new world, with each and every episode (certainly it beats flipping around and seeing what's on cable--inevitably, nothing...). I quickly made my way through the complete Twilight Zone (over the course of a few months), and, soon after, realized: what have I been waiting for?? Trek awaits!!

Am five epsides in as I write this (the pilot episode plus the first four with Kirk), which means I have 252 to go (assuming I want to watch everything from the original series and the Next Generation--skipping Deep Space Nine and Voyager--which is my plan). First impressions thus far: its campy, but I expected that (60s sci fi and all); Kirk is grossly underqualified (and underage) to be a starship captain but, hey, the man's got passion and that apparently makes up for a lot; Kirk's character alone wouldn't have flown but paired up against Spock (the fire of Kirk's passion against the iciness of Spock's logic), this is the masterstroke of the show, and the axis around which everything else turns; the overall chemistry amongst the different members of the crew (Bones, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, etc) is great (particularly this early on--they already feel like a family); and, perhaps most of all, it's really kind of enthralling to watch the show now, knowing with hindsight bias what a cultural phenomenon it was going to become, and yet also knowing that the actors, at the time, clearly had no idea what it was going to turn into (at least, at first), and thus, you can tell they were all just having so much fun with it, the whole time...

But yes, for all that, even five episodes in I'm already beginning to spot the pattern here... Just found this Star Trek Story Generator online at IO9 and couldn't help but sharing (click on the image to expand)--enjoy!

>> To read the rest of the article at I09 click here

The Single Greatest Brunch Entree Ever: Kitchenette's CREME BRULEE FRENCH TOAST

Okay, I'm not looking to turn this into a food porn blog here, but, it must be announced: our very own Kitchenette (right here in Tribeca) has, just a few weeks back, switched over to their winter menu and, with said switch, re-introduced their legendary CREME BRULEE FRENCH TOAST. (Truly, there are no words...) If you're on the one-cheat-meal-a-week system (as I am these days--or at least, as I aspire to be!), there are worse ways to carb up and take in your "anything goes" calories, let me tell you... Absolutely not to be missed.

M83 Live at Hammerstein Ballroom (PIC)

VIDAL DOES MAGIC: Clearing a Space of Negative Energy

One of my all-time-favorite rituals (we can even use the term “magic spells”, here, for the more romantic and old school amongst you), and certainly one of the most useful: Clearing a Space of Negative Energy. To be used anytime you’ve moved into a new space and you feel like there may still be some stagnant or “dead” energy leftover from the previous occupants, or, alternately, anytime a particularly negative or traumatic event may have occurred in the space within which you’ve been living or working (and you can still feel the negative energy leftover from the event), either way, this one’s guaranteed to flush the demons out.

 

INGREDIENTS NEEDED

— Bowls or containers (as many as needed to properly cover the space, anywhere from one to several per room)

— Water (tap water is fine)

— Salt (coarse sea salt crystals)

— Candles (a bag of tea lights is perfect)

— Sage (enough to burn for at least several minutes)

 

THE PRELIMINARY WALKTHROUGH

First, do a walkthrough of the entire space—your apartment, house, work place, wherever you’re planning on carrying out the ritual—slowly, carefully, easily, without judgment or preconception, just feeling out the energy as you go. It should become fairly obvious to you, right away, all the spots within which the negative energy has “clustered”; be sure then to make a note of all of these locations (or indeed, any spot at all that seems to be even a little bit “off”, to you… In the nook by the living room window, in the far back corner of the bedroom closet, etc). For the less (subtle) energy sensitive amongst you: if, after doing your walkthrough, you’re still unable to pinpoint where the negative energy hotspots are (but, nonetheless, still feel like there’s something terribly “off” about your space, like, “I don’t know what it is, but this place just feels haunted, like something really awful happened here…”—this is in fact the most common, generalized complaint I hear when it comes to wanting to do a subtle energy housecleaning), no worries, it’s all good, we’ll just go ahead and make an intuitive call then, in just a moment here, when it comes to deciding where you’re going to be setting up your negative energy sinks.

 

PLACING THE BOWLS OF WATER

Now, collect together as many bowls, tupperware containers, etc as you can (anything that can hold water will do—preferably large bowls and containers, the bigger the better), fill them all to the top with water (tap water is fine), and begin placing said bowls of water within all the negative energy hotspots throughout your space (the ones you noted down in your walkthrough just before). If you weren’t able to specifically feel out all the negative energy hotspots, again, don’t worry about it—simply make an intuitive call based on how many bowls or containers you have, and how many it feels right for you to lay out. If you live in a one bedroom apartment, for instance (as many of us New Yorkers do)—perhaps you’ve just recently moved in and you’re not happy with the energy in the space, you just want to clear it all out, reboot the apartment and start anew—you might look around and say, “OK, we need one bowl of water near the front door, one on the kitchen counter, one on the far side of the living room, one bowl right by the bedroom door, one by the bedroom window…” etc. Some of you may feel like you’re getting the job done with just one large bowl of water for the entire apartment. Others may feel they require more, smaller bowls (or more larger bowls!) to properly cover the whole space. The number of bowls, their size, and their placement is all up to you—just trust that your intuition knows what it’s doing and place your bowls accordingly. Be instinctive. Don’t over think it. Worried you’re not getting enough coverage? There’s no downside to putting MORE bowels out rather than less—so go ahead and put a few more out if you feel the need, it certainly can’t hurt.

 

ADDING THE SEA SALT

After you’ve distributed your water-filled bowls throughout the space, I’d like you to beginning adding sea salt to each. Not just any old salt, mind you, but proper large, coarse, sea salt crystals (available at any health food store). How much sea salt to add? For any given bowl or container, for every 8 ounces of water you've put in, I want you to add one tablespoon of sea salt crystals. (So if you have a bowl filled with 24 ounces—or 3 cups—of water, then you’ll want to add 3 tablespoons of sea salt crystals to it.) In addition, feel free to sprinkle a bit more sea salt in whatever locations you feel might need it—again, this is entirely an intuitive call on your part.

 

LIGHTING THE CANDLES

Now, get all your candles and / or tea lights together (I find tea lights by far to be the most convenient, for spreading about a space), and place one candle or tea light next to each bowl or container you’ve put out (so now, in each negative energy hotspot, you’ve got a bowl filled with water and sea salt crystals, along with a burning candle or tea light right next to it). DO NOT PLACE ANY CANDLES OR TEA LIGHTS IN ANY SMALL, ENCLOSED SPACES of course, for obvious reasons (if you feel like there’s any negative or trapped energy under your bed, for instance, simply place a bowl filled with water and sea salt there but do NOT place a candle or tea light there as well.)

 

BURNING THE SAGE (AND CHASING THE DEMONS AWAY)

After you’ve placed all your candles and / or tea lights, take a thick bit of sage (available from any New Age-y shop etc, though I’m thinking Whole Foods, or any health food store really, would likely stock that sort of thing these days), light the sage, and, as it begins burning and smoking away, slowly walk through the space, paying particular attention, when walking about, to all of your negative energy hotspots (where all the bowls of water are), getting as much sage smoke as you can into these areas all the while (the sage smoke is terrifically cleansing). Optional, but highly recommended: as you walk about the space with your burning sage, waving the smoke into and through the negative energy hotspots, clap your hands together loudly (you can also have a friend do this, obviously, if your hands are full), and / or ring a bell as you go. Any loud, sudden, jarring noises, like the loud “SMACK!!” of a hand clap, or the loud “CLANG!!” of a ringing bell, will do wonders for stirring up the negative energy, which is exactly what you want. Of course if you don’t feel like doing the hand clapping or the ringing of the bell, the process should work regardless, but here, I’ll go ahead and advocate the “more is more” approach—it can only help, and can’t possibly hurt. And if you REALLY want to go all the way here, if you’ve got some really tough, nasty, scary energy that you just want out of your space and out of your life, like RIGHT NOW, then, as long as you’re walking through the space with sage in hand, clapping and / or ringing your bell all the while, you can also begin shouting (you’ll feel quite foolish at first, doing this, but trust me on this one, it really works): “OUT! GET OUT!! OUT! OUT! OUT!!”, all while continuing to (loudly, forcefully) clap your hands at the same time (though again, if your hands are full of sage, it might help to have a friend do this with you). I know, I know, you’ll feel just a little bit stupid at first, like, “Really? I'm going to actually walk around my apartment and shout into empty space, here?” (Looking, sounding, and feeling like a complete lunatic all the while?) But the thing is, you’re NOT shouting into empty space, you’re shouting at the negative energy: you want it to leave, you want it GONE, and so you have to treat it exactly like you’d treat someone else’s annoying, badly behaved pet—like a misbehaving dog that you just want out of the house. “OUT!! SHOO!! GET OUT!!” Smack your hands together, ring that bell, and get that energy OUT of there. When you’re standing in a negative energy hotspot clapping and shouting away, believe me, you’ll feel it—the negative vibes will swell up around you for a brief moment, you’ll feel it like a living, breathing thing, like a cloud of dark mental noise, surrounding you... Don’t worry, this a good thing: it means the energy is breaking up, now, and will be swept out soon enough. (Tip: feel free to get a few friends over and get some wine or what not into them first—certainly with a little liquid courage in everyone’s veins the shouting, clapping, bell ringing etc just might feel a little bit less foolish—and hey, as long as you’re going through all of this anyway, you might just as well get a few friends over and make a party out of it, no? So send out those invites, get some friends over, and get to clearing out that space!)

 

WAITING 3 DAYS

After you’re burnt all your sage (during your walkthrough, which can take anywhere from just a few minutes to quite a bit longer), go ahead and let the candles continue to burn down on their own (if you’re using only tea lights, which I’d recommend, if only to keep everything easy and consistent, the average burn time for a tea light is usually about 4 hours), after which I want you to leave the bowls of water (still filled with sea salt crystals) to sit out, all without being touched or moved or disturbed in any way, for a full 3 days (72 hours). You may, if you like, replace the burnt out candles and tea lights with new ones and burn those down as well (burning down a fresh new round of tea lights for 4 hours each night, for instance), however the clock starts ticking when you light your first tea light—72 hours after that, the last of the negative energy should be gone.

 

THE FINISH

At the end of 3 days / 72 hours, pick up all of the bowls strewn throughout the space, empty them out, and that’s it, you’re done. Your space has been cleared of negative energy. Of course if you like the feel of it all (many do), feel free to leave the bowls of water out as long as you like—simply dump the old sea salt out and pour new salt into the bowls every 3 days, replacing the water as well. And at the end of your ritual, when you’re enjoying your new, freshly-cleared space, I highly recommend you celebrate by placing new flowers in every room. Uplifting, beautiful to look at, and as with any spell or ritual, it helps to have a final “grounding” step which symbolizes “Ok, this seals it, the deed is done.”—and here, the flowers will do just that. Congratulations: your space has now been cleared of negative energy.

 

(Note: the image above is from Japanese artist Heisuke Kitazawa, and first caught my attention as the cover art for the album Having, by Trespassers William. I confess it actually has nothing at all to do with clearing a space of negative energy, but the painting is just so beautiful I absolutely fell in love with it the first time I saw it, and have been looking for an excuse to post it ever since, so here it is. Wherever that room may be, it looks like a pretty peaceful place—clear of all negative energy, to be sure…)

VIDAL DOES WRITE: How I Feel As My First Commercial Spec Screenplay Goes Out Into the World

YOU ARE NOT SO SMART: Ego Depletion (Another Must Read For Writers)

Another wonderfully astute, highly enlightening post from one of my favorites: David McRaney at YOU ARE NOT SO SMART (I just bought his book on Kindle, in fact, so the man must be doing something right!). Here he tackles the notion of ego depletion (see also: Decision Fatigue) and how it affects us (often, without our even realizing it) as we go about our day in this ever-increasingly-complex modern world... Writers, in particular, seem to be most prone to ego depletion--when you sit down to edit a piece or, God help you, face the blank page and begin anew, the number of decisions you're making, oh-so-rapidly, all in a row, is so extraordinary (terrifying, really), that it's no wonder even the best, most seasoned writers, the pros at the very top of their game, burn out after 4 to 5 hours or so (I've noticed, over the years, that I can write for about 5 hours in a row--total concentration--before I suddenly, and almost without warning, hit a kind of "wall", much like hitting muscle failure at the gym, after which point I can keep going, but the writing all turns to mush--time to take a long break then, or wrap for the day completely...). What's fascinating to consider here, however, is the idea that ego depletion can, just like muscle exhaustion, can be tracked, measured, quantified, and, under certain circumstances, even blunted or postponed significantly (by taking in more sugar, for instance), to which I say: if that means I can extend my willpower and, thus, my decision making ability, total concentration time, and total effective WRITING time, all simply by taking more pre-scheduled breaks and / or getting a piece of fruit in, well, I'm ALL for that... Check it out--

The Misconception: Willpower is just a metaphor.

The Truth: Willpower is a finite resource.

In 2005, a team of psychologists made a group of college students feel like scum.

The researchers invited the undergraduates into their lab and asked the students to just hang out for a while and get to know each other. The setting was designed to simulate a casual meet-and-greet atmosphere, you know, like a reception or an office Christmas party – the sort of thing that never really feels all that casual?

The students divided into same-sex clusters of about six people each and chatted for 20 minutes using conversation starters provided by the researchers. They asked things like “Where are you from?” and “What is your major?” and “If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?” Researchers asked the students beforehand to make an effort to learn each other’s names during the hang-out period, which was important, because the next task was to move into a room, sit alone, and write down the names of two people from the fake party with whom the subjects would most like to be partnered for the next part of the study. The researchers noted the responses and asked the students to wait to be called. Unbeknownst to the subjects, their choices were tossed aside while they waited.

The researchers – Roy F. Baumeister, C. Nathan DeWall, Natalie J. Ciarocco and Jean M. Twenge of Florida State, Florida Atlantic, and San Diego State universities – then asked the young men and women to proceed to the next stage of the activity in which the subjects would learn, based on their social skills at the party, what sort of impression they had made on their new acquaintances. This is where it got funky.

The scientists individually told the members of one group of randomly selected people, “everyone chose you as someone they’d like to work with.” To keep each person in the wanted group isolated, the researchers also told each person the groups were already too big and he or she would have to work alone. Students in the wanted group proceeded to the next task with a spring in their step, their hearts filled with moonbeams and fireworks. The scientists individually told each member of another group of randomly selected people, “I hate to tell you this, but no one chose you as someone they wanted to work with.” Believing absolutely no one wanted to hang out with them, people in this group then learned they would have to work by themselves. Punched in the soul, their self-esteem dripping with inky sludge, the people in the unwanted group proceeded to the main task.

The task, the whole point of going through all of this as far as the students knew, was to sit in front of a bowl containing 35 mini chocolate-chip cookies and judge those cookies on taste, smell, and texture. The subjects learned they could eat as many as they wanted while filling out a form commonly used in corporate taste tests. The researchers left them alone with the cookies for 10 minutes.

This was the actual experiment – measuring cookie consumption based on social acceptance. How many cookies would the wanted people eat, and how would their behavior differ from the unwanted? Well, if you’ve had much contact with human beings, and especially if you’ve ever felt the icy embrace of being left-out of the party or getting picked last in kickball, your hypothesis is probably the same as the one put forth by the psychologists. They predicted the rejects would gorge themselves, and so they did. On average the rejects ate twice as many cookies as the popular people. To an outside observer, nothing was different – same setting, same work, similar students sitting alone in front of scrumptious cookies. In their heads though, they were on different planets. For those on the sunny planet with the double-rainbow sky, the cookies were easy to resist. Those on the rocky, lifeless world where the forgotten go to fade away found it more difficult to stay their hands when their desire to reach into the bowl surfaced.

Why did the rejected group feel motivated to keep mushing cookies into their sad faces? Why is it, as explained by the scientists in this study, that social exclusion impairs self-regulation? The answer has to do with something psychologists now call ego depletion, and you would be surprised to learn how many things can cause it, how often you feel it, and how much in life depends on it. Before we get into all of that, let’s briefly discuss the ego.

>> To read the rest of the article at YOU ARE NOT SO SMART click here

TWO-YEAR SOBER ANNIVERSARY: I celebrate with a little dessert...

Courtesy of The Dutch, in Soho--one of my favorite (fairly new) restaurants... We have (from top to bottom) the Blueberry-Nectarine Pie, the Salted Lime Pie, and (my favorite by far) the Peanut Butter Icebox Pie (currently giving Bubby's Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie a run for its money, I must confess), all rounded off with three scoops of ice cream... What can I say? I couldn't decide which pie I wanted, so I went ahead and just got them all! Thank God my good friends Noi and Rob were there to help mitigate the damage. Gonna have to lift a few weights and run a few miles to take these calories back off over the next 48 hours, that's for sure--here's thinking the carbo load's gonna be boosting my run time big time, this weekend...

Sushi's always better when it's SUSHI SERVED BY NINJAS (PIC)

Jenn and I take on the one and only Ninja New York--a restaurant in a subterranean cavern, located deep under the streets of Tribeca, all done up like a medieval ninja mountain village, and, yes, there is sushi. Served by ninjas. And it is awesome. Here, Jenn and I indulge our A-Positive blood types with a little dark chocolate dessert--the Rose Chocolate and Ninja Star, to be precise--other recommendations include the artichoke dip, the tuna tartare, the Ninja Paella, the Ninja Special Roll, and, well, it's all pretty great. Mind you: if you're going JUST for the sushi, you might be a tad disappointed, this isn't 15 East or Sushi Azubu, and the ninjas aren't exactly hardcore about their fish. But if you're just looking for something a little different and, ultimately, just a really fun time, the ninjas can't be beat. Enjoy.

Note: Jenn Kosinski is currently in training for the upcoming ING NYC Marathon (Nov 4, 2012) as a member of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Team In Training. As she writes on her fundraising page: "Like the other members of TNT, I will be raising funds to help find cures and better treatments for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma. I’m improving the quality of my life by participating and with your support, I can help improve the quality of life for patients and their families as well." Please consider lending your support to a great cause: visit Jenn's fundraising page below to find out more--

>> Visit JENN KOSINSKI'S LEUKEMIA AND LYMPHOMA (LLS) TEAM IN TRAINING FUNDRAISING PAGE here

BUD CADDEL: The 7 Principles of TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING

Writers / Screenwriters: if you aren't thinking "transmedia" when it comes to your story, you need to be. Once upon a time studios just wanted high concept, figuring they'd get a great movie out of it (and a great movie poster, which would entice people to see said great movie). Then they wanted not only high concept, but a great character as well, a hero (or heroine, or group) that could support multiple storylines, sequel after sequel after sequel... Now they want high concept, great characters, AND a fully-fleshed out, living, breathing, fictional universe, one containing any number of discrete, self-contained worlds, any one of which can easily be spread out / disseminated over multiple platforms--movies, books, comic books, video games, mobile gaming, ARGs, etc etc... Star Wars. Harry Potter. The Matrix. Here, then, we take a quick look at this handy dandy quick reference chart, put together by Bud Caddell, from a talk given by Henry Jenkins on the 7 Principles of Transmedia Storytelling--

1. Spreadability vs. Drillability
The ability and degree to which content is shareable and the motivating factors for a person to share that content VS the ability for a person to explore, in-depth, a deep well of narrative extensions when they stumble upon a fiction that truly captures their attention.

2. Continuity vs. Multiplicity
Some transmedia franchises foster an ongoing coherence to a cannon in order to ensure maximum plausibility among all extensions. Others routinely use alternate versions of characters or parallel universe version of their stories to reward mastery over the source material.

3. Immersion vs. Extractability
In immersion, the consumer enters into the world of the story (e.g. theme parks), while in extractability, the fan takes aspects of the story away with them as resources they deploy in the spaces of their everyday life (e.g. items from the gift shop).

4. Worldbuilding
Transmedia extensions, often not central to the core narrative, that give a richer depiction of the world in which the narrative plays out. Franchises can exploit both real-world and digital experiences. These extensions often lead to fan behaviors of capturing and cataloging the many disparate elements.

5. Seriality
Transmedia storytelling has taken the notion of breaking up a narrative arc into multiple discrete chunks or installments within a single medium and instead has spread those disparate ideas or story chunks across multiple media systems.

6. Subjectivity
Transmedia extensions often explore the central narrative through new eyes; such as secondary characters or third parties. This diversity of perspective often leads fans to more greatly consider who is speaking and who they are speaking for.

7. Performance
The ability of transmedia extensions to lead to fan produced performances that can become part of the transmedia narrative itself. Some performances are invited by the creator while others are not; fans actively search for sites of potential performance.

>> To read the rest of the article at BUD CADDEL click here

>> To read the original lecture by HENRY JENKINS click here

So THAT'S what happened to the villain in ROCKY 4!! (PIC)

DEREK SIVERS: Advice on Moving to Los Angeles

As a few of us writer / actor / director types here in New York City debate the (now, it would seem) inevitable move to Los Angeles, aside from the obvious "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here..." sign which should surely be posted (just for us New Yorkers) right outside the taxi stand at LAX, perhaps a few sagely words of wisdom might be in order, with all this. Check out this post my man Darby Parker just kicked my way, written by one Derek Sivers (of CD Baby fame), re: "Advice on Moving to Los Angeles". In particular I like--

Americans are already quite individualist, but Los Angeles is the most individualist part of America. Because so many people are employed by the entertainment industry, many are self-employed freelancers. They’re very focused on themselves. People talk about themselves a lot because they feel they have to, for survival, for self-promotion. Just as you can’t fault anyone in the world for doing something for survival, try not to fault them for being so self-promotional. Learn to lovingly listen like you’d listen to an 8-year-old who excitedly tells you about their train set for an hour.

...

Every culture values different things. In some places, it’s your bloodline. In others, your university. In others, it’s where you live. In LA, it’s who you know. Since the entertainment industry is all about short-term projects, everyone survives by their next project, and these projects always come from a connection. So everyone is collecting contacts. (Again: it’s survival.) Friendships are pragmatic and often short. Don’t fault them for talking about who they know, the same way you wouldn’t fault someone from India asking about your family. Introducing people to each other, people who could potentially work together, is the most valuable thing you can do, as it raises your value and theirs. LA people want (NEED!) to have powerful well-connected friends, to survive and thrive.

>> To read the rest of the article at DEREK SIVERS click here

IO9: PROMETHEUS writer JON SPAIHTS on How to Create a Great Space Movie

Great interview with Jon Spaihts, screenwriter of the upcoming Alien prequel PROMETHEUS. Of particular interest (to us fellow sci fi screenwriters) is what he has to say re: Hollywooding greenlighting (or not) original sci fi IPs in this day and age, versus video game companies which, for reasons given below, seem to be much more gung ho about charging forward with new intellectual properties. Check it out--

Why is it so hard to get Hollywood to greenlight space adventures like your Shadow 19 script? Video games like Mass Effect make insane amounts of money, so why is it so hard for Hollywood to commit to similar movies?

There are some technical reasons why. In game engines, hard shiny surfaces are easy to render, while pliable or complex surfaces are hard. So in a game, spaceships, tanks and armored figures are very approachable subjects. It's a lot harder to render, say, a long-haired girl in a flowing dress chasing a shaggy dog through a garden. That's brutal geometry for a game engine. In games, scifi's easier to achieve than mundane reality.

With film, the opposite is true. Anything available in the real world you can just point a camera at. Fantastic things have to be built, physically or digitally, and that's expensive. Sci fi costs more in film.

All that said: scifi blockbusters have made mountains of money, and are over-represented in the top fifty box office hits of all time. The mighty Avatar first among them, with the Star Wars films and others trailing behind. Clearly the audience will turn out if you execute well. I think there's a ready market for grand space adventures.

But it's got to be a good story on every level: good characters, emotional arcs, sharp dialogue, comprehensible world, clear stakes… it's a lot to get right. There aren't that many people around who can do it well.

Have video games changed the way people think about this kind of storytelling?

Yes and no. Storytelling in games has matured tremendously in the past decade. Some really great work has been done. But the design requirements are totally different, almost the opposite of filmic storytelling.

The central character of a game is most often a cipher – an avatar into which the player projects himself or herself. The story has to have a looseness to accommodate the player's choices. This choose-your-own adventure quality is a challenge for storytellers and, I fear, militates against art.

A filmmaker is trying to make you look at something a certain way – almost to force an experience on you. Think of the legendary directors, whose perspective is the soul of their art. It's the opposite of a sandbox world. It's a mind-meld with a particular visionary.

Do you think films like Prometheus and Gravity could spark a new interest in big space epics that aren't based on an existing franchise?

I want to say yes, but I think those aren't the films for the job. Prometheus "shares DNA" with a pre-existing franchise, and what I know of Gravity suggests it's a fairly grounded predicament movie, without the larger-than-life characters or fanciful story-world that would naturally give birth to a franchise.

To launch a new franchise you need both a strikingly imagined world with a conflict built into its bones, and vivid characters with heroic traits that allow them to the be the backbone of a series of stories. See "Star Wars."

>> To read the rest of the article at IO9 click here

The Most Heartwarming Picture in the Entire World of Rock (PIC)

>> Thanks to CRAZY JANE for the pic

GO INTO THE STORY: How to Be a Motion Picture Director

>> From GO INTO THE STORY

LIVING THE ROMANTIC COMEDY: Script Coverage: A Few Awful Truths

Great article I read some time ago (and only just recently rediscovered) re: the awful truth when it comes to who, exactly, is reading your screenplay (that oh-so-precious masterpiece that you spent months, nay years slaving away over) and HOW, exactly, they're reading it... For more about said awful truth, I bid you: read on--

Screenwriters have funny ideas about readers.  Some view us as malevolent fire-breathing trolls who get out the long knives before turning a page.  The funniest misconception is the equivalent of an urban myth, still circulating among pre-pros, that readers "don't even bother to read the whole thing." 

If only!  Story analysts have to read each script from first page to last, even when it's obvious from Page One that it's a godawful travesty, because - and this is often the dirtiest part of the Dirty Job That Someone Has to Do - we have to write a synopsis.

Reader mean-spiritedness, when it really exists, is largely a reaction to this grunt-work.  There are few things more aggravating to a reader/writer than having to speedily synopsize a poorly plotted piece of work (sci-fi/fantasy specs are the most horrific of these, since trying to understand, let alone explain story developments in an incoherent interplanetary saga can really crash your hard-drive).

Then comes the more involving task of writing comments that annotate the pros and cons of the material, but here's the awful truth that a pre-pro screenwriter ought to know about coverage.  The problem isn't that the reader doesn't read your entire script - he's often the only person who does.  No, the problem is that the executives we work for rarely read the entire coverage.  They may not even read a word of it, before pronouncing your 2-3 years of work to be D.O.A.  Their interest is often entirely predicated on a visual.

Allow me to introduce to you (cue drum roll) the grid.

The grid (aka The Box) is the alpha and omega of script coverage.  Specifics vary, vis-a-vis the terms used on the left-hand side, but this one is typical.  And the arrangement of "X" marks across those lines is sometimes all a buyer needs to look at before dismissing a submission.

To be fair, the 1-2 sentence log-line (summary of the concept and basic story thrust) that appears on the cover sheet with the grid is usually just as important.  Of secondary importance is the Comments Summary (1-2 sentences) that follows the log-line.

I usually cover 8-9 scripts a week (the average is two a day).  How often do marks enter the "Excellent" column?  Maybe once or twice a year.  How often am I X-ing into "Poor?"  At least 2-3 times a week.  About half the spec scripts one reads earn a box score like this:

Now here comes the truly abhorrent truth: the most important line is the first one.  High marks for characterization and dialogue can serve a writer well (i.e. even if the script doesn't sell, the reader may recommend that writer for a studio assignment).  Poor Story/Structure marks can give a buyer pause, and high ones will definitely help; same goes for Setting/Production Values.  But solid "Good" for Premise (aka Story Concept)?  If the log-line appeals, the exec may read the coverage.  She may even read the script.

>> To read the rest of the article at LIVING THE ROMANTIC COMEDY click here

"He was convinced that only by favoritism were stories sold..."

The more Sammy talked, the more cordial and personal he became. He was interested in the financial side of writing more than in writing itself. How much did this magazine pay, and how much did that one pay, and he was convinced that only by favoritism were stories sold. You had to have a cousin or a brother or somebody like that in an editor's office before they took one of your stories. It was useless to try to dissuade him, and I didn't try, because I knew that his kind of rationalizing was necessary in view of his sheer inability to write well.

-- John Fante, Ask the Dust, 1939

Old Folks' Home Conversation, 2050 AD (PIC)