blogging life & creation for young minds
Whitchurch Highlands, that is. I’m on the road again this Tuesday, taking the Max Finder Mystery tour out to Stouffvile Ontario to visit with the students of Whitchurch Highlands Public School.
I’ll be giving three presentations to over 180 students, which will make it a busy, comic-filled, clue-catching, fun day for all. Thanks for inviting me Whitchurch Highlands students and I’ll see you Tuesday!
No tag for this post.Other than the odd web-distraction game, I haven’t written about gaming much in here lately, but I have most certainly been busy playing them.
I’m always a bit behind the curve on video games, but that’s out of a choice not to plunk down $500 on a new system and $80 a game. So, I’m still getting a lot of use out of our old PS2 and games like Shadow of the Colossus.
I still think it’s one of the most beautiful and well designed games out there and sometimes I just fire it up to hop on my horse, Agro, and run through the endless sprawling landscape. (For more on why this game rocks check out what Mel has to say on Colossus.)
So, I was very happy when I saw this story on Kotaku about the game’s role in the new movie Reign Over Me, starring Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. Unlike the usual movie/video game tie-in crap that we’re exposed to, the game actually serves a thematic role in the movie.
The movie is about Charlie (Adam Sandler), whose family was killed in the 9/11 attacks. To avoid dealing with his grief he hides out playing video games. In the original script Charlie plays a “typical fake game that you see in TV and film.” Then the script landed in the hands of Jeremy Roush to give it an edit. Roush is a gamer and he immediately saw connections between the script and Shadow of the Colossus:
That’s when it hit Roush. Refusing to accept the death of loved ones. Seeking out an escape from that truth. Giants falling in slow motion. “You could see where someone who was dealing with 9/11 would be engrossed by a giant that keeps collapsing over and over again,” he says. Charlie’s therapy was Shadow of the Colossus.
From then on, the game became a visual and thematic element to tell story of Sandler’s character. Fight sequences are used throughout the game and Sandler and Cheadle play the game together on screen.
Normally, ads for synergistic (is that a word?) products (both the movie and the game are produced by Sony) make me queasy. But the thing about Shadow, is that it’s an old game on an out-dated platform. The game will definitely benefit from exposure in this movie (not that it needs it) but this isn’t part of some multi-pronged marketing initiative. This is definitely a case were pop-culture actually fits nicely into the creative.
It’s also a big step toward recognizing the thematic value behind the video games and their potential to tell or represent intelligent stories that can touch us all, whether you’re a hardcore gamer or a total n00b.
Normally, I’d pass over a movie like Reign Over Me but now I’ll definitely check it out to see how it all works together.
No tag for this post.I love rewriting my work – honestly I do! Some writers hate it, but I get a kick out of tweaking my words, tightening sentences and catching any errors I missed with the first draft. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the last week.
I mentioned earlier about WiP #2 – the book on Democracy for Capstone Press. Well, at first I thought one of the biggest challenges would be injecting it with humour . . . and I was right.
In addition to cramming all you need to know about democracy into 2000 words, I came up with a whole bunch of gag comics based such fun topics as the US Senate, the Reign of Terror in post-revolutionary France and electoral fraud. Simple, right? No. But definitely fun.
It was a challenge but I really enjoyed it and hopefully my editor will too. We’ll see in about a week’s time when I get my edits back.
Until then, I’ve escaped the land of rewrites and have a weekend ahead of me working on a super-secret, cannot reveal, wouldn’t you like to know project that I can’t even label as WiP #5 yet. Yet.
Patience my friends. Patience.
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I’m working – honest! But I did take some time this morning to play Grow, which Wired’s game blog calls: a surreal animated Choose Your Own Adventure. And they’re right!
Start with a seed (or is it an egg?) and make choices to make it grow. Choose correctly and you might end up as king eyeball of your very own underground kingdom. That’s me in the pic above with the crown looking content.
My path to underground royalty wasn’t the first I took, but it was definitely the coolest (although the three teddy bear heads riding a train was pretty cool too.)
Okay, back to work!
No tag for this post.It started out as an innocent post on the CANSCAIP listserv. Someone had noticed that the membership list of the Alien Disclosure Group, looked very similar to a large portion of the CANSCAIP membership.
Continue reading ‘CANSCAIPers abducted by aliens’
No tag for this post.Not only was last Wednesday’s visit to Park Ave Public School a chance to meet some great students, it was an opportunity to spend the afternoon with a fine bunch of writers.
For over an hour, I talked comics with the Boys Writing Club, who meet weekly to write stories and draw some really cool comics. The guys were full of energy and eager to fire up their imaginations to help me identify the parts of a mystery story and lift the lid on how comics are made. When it came time to stage another production of the Max Finder Mystery Theatre, they jumped at the chance to get involved and get their mystery radar working.
Thanks to all the boys in the writing club for their great questions and help in making my visit to Park Ave PS a huge success.
No tag for this post.The Max Finder Mystery Tour hits the road again tomorrow as I travel to Holland Landing to talk comics with the students of Park Ave Public School. Even with the weather being ridiculously cold outside, I’m excited to face the elements and meet some comic fans.
Thanks for inviting me Park Ave and I’ll see you tomorrow!
No tag for this post.
Arriving at a school for an author visit is always a bit strange. Everything is all hustle and bustle with students and teachers coming and going. I usually quietly search for the office or library seeking out my contact person and looking quite lost. Guideposts are always welcome. As you can see from the photo on the right, er the other right (see bigger), the students at Ramer Wood certainly outdid themselves in letting me know I was welcome at their school.
The welcome sign was the first thing I was when I entered the school and it was great to see. Immediately, I knew where to go and that the students were excited to see me and learn about comics.
Continue reading ‘Rocked by Ramer Wood’
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