- Posts tagged Internet
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Guest post by Greg Enright
So here's something you haven't seen on this blog before. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Brad Blogspeed's very first guest post! Greg Enright is a friend, neighbour, and conversational sounding board to yours truly. He's also a professional writer and an all around smart fellow; and for a long time now I've been bugging him to guest on this blog. Yesterday, out of nowhere, he informed me that he had done just that.
There were no suggestions or conditions regarding subject matter, and despite what it looks like, I promise that I didn't ask him to include me in his piece! In any case, it's thrilling to have some writing on this space by somebody who actually knows the craft. I hope you enjoy Greg's thoughts as much as I did.
In the Internet Era, keep surfing...and conversing
by Greg Enright
The owner of this blog paid a visit to my house recently along with his wife and two little boys. As always when we all get together, it was just a flat-out good time. A bit of wine and beer, the hockey game on , kids (miraculously) playing peacefully together amidst a hurricane of toys in the basement... even a few rounds of Scategories. Lots of fun with good friends.
Help Me Stop Slow Internet
Having crappy internet sucks. Seriously.
So I'm up at the cottage and for whatever reason the internet blows this year. Last year it was bad, don't get me wrong. I mean you didn't dream of trying to stream a YouTube video because it would probably kak out on you halfway, but you could at least do some basic surfing. This year some new trees must have grown in front of the microwave whozit or whatever because I have to use that button at the bottom of Gmail where it says "for slow connections".
Vacation Inspiration - Internet Encouragement
The weekend past was spent at the cottage with my boys, bro, and parents, and good times were had by all. There was much consumption of guy-food and beer, laughs were shared aplenty, and the weather was kind.
However, in the midst of this near utopia something else was going on. My brother and I used the weekend together to continue developing an idea we had started fleshing out a few nights previous. It's a movie concept based loosely on an idea I had when I was 17 years old, and while I won't go into the specifics of what that idea was, I will say that to us it was an idea worth staying up until sunrise for.
We talked and imagined and got very excited about where the story could go, and then we eventually took it there. By the conclusion of our final brainstorming session (aka the drive home) we had laid out what we think is an exciting and impactful story with a solid beginning, middle and end. If we have the first clue what audiences respond to, we're thinking this one could work. It's action packed, dramatic, fantastical, sad, poignant, and shocking.
Now don't worry about me hurting my arm with all the self administered back-patting. There's some other points to consider. For example, here's point A: It's entirely possible that we don't have a clue at all.
The plan we discussed is to develop the details a bit further, formalize the structure, and then lock me in a room with a copy of Microsoft Word. Then I am to turn our movie idea into a book, (although I'm still debating the direct-to-screenplay avenue) which is an endeavour I can imagine being beset on all sides by the perils of hard work. That's point B.
A + B = a high probability of either an incomplete or substandard product, and that's the kind of math that scares me.
I have a great ability to start things and not finish them, exceeded only by my talent for just never beginning them at all. Equations like I mentioned leap readily into my mind, and more often than not prevent me from taking the very first steps towards trying to accomplish something. Surely it's a phenomenon unfamiliar to few, so hopefully there's some sympathy to be had from some of you. Nevertheless, the common reaction to this admission is more akin to something like "Just write it!" or "What do you have to lose?" It seems people are way better at giving advice than taking it, and I suppose that's not an earth shattering revelation in and of itself.
No matter what degree of coaching I were to receive, whether or not this idea goes any further depends on the outcome of a personal struggle. I'd like to think it will happen, and if the ideas continue to flow as freely as they have so far I don't really doubt that it will. Nevertheless, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that once the initial creative rush wore off I started asking myself questions. "Who am I to try such a thing? I can't write like that. I wonder if the idea isn't as good as we thought?" Such questions need not defeat you, but they certainly aren't encouraging.
Then I stumbled across Pioneer One. It's an indie series made on the cheap by some aspiring filmmakers, the first (and thus far only) episode of which was posted recently for all to enjoy, free of charge. The creators decided to fund the pilot themselves and seek donations towards the eventual production of the whole series, meaning the show could be largely free for everyone and distributed over the internet. It's very low budget, as anyone can tell by looking, but at the end of the day it has something going for it that nobody can take away. It's good!
My previous blog-post is a copy/paste of their own write up, so I won't bother attempting to summarize the film here, but I did walk away from it entertained and inspired. It's well written and performed, and has a cool premise at it's heart. It made me wonder if these folks could commit so much time, effort, and money to a story they thought was worth telling, couldn't I at least write mine down? Their film, while admittedly not as 'out-there' as ours would be, is a testament to the wonder of this information age.
That wonder is this; for every bone-headed opinion monger with his own blog, such as yours truly for example, there exists an equal number of talented people missing only an outlet. The world of media I grew up observing was an exclusive club, and it left those who didn't know the secret handshake on the outside looking in. The folks on 'Pioneer' knew the chances of their idea being seen by anyone but their mothers was incredibly slim, so they boldly sacrificed their own resources to get it out there. The internet provided them the outlet they needed to ensure that their sacrifice would at least be seen.
Now I'm not willing to go as far as making my own film from the material we've developed, and I know myself too well to believe that this one shining example could provide me enough energy to see through the long process of simply writing it. I may not even start the thing for some time. But it at least gives me the inspiration to not give up just yet - to keep the dream alive. I'll plug away at the ideas and refine them, write when I can, and try to keep in mind that in this day and age, anything is possible.
It's certainly worth staying up for another sunrise or two, and finding out a little bit more about where our imaginations might take us.
Robbed of my Oxygen
Well, I’m angry about the internet part of it at least. Television I can live without, although the missus certainly disagrees. But I think even she would concede that the occasional forced sabbatical from the boob-tube is usually fun. It’s sort of like the joy people get from a power outage, whether they’re television watchers or not, in that it’s an involuntary but not terribly inconvenient break from routine.
So blah blah blah, that’s understood. Now get my goddamn web connection going.
Although I can technically get online by tethering my laptop to my iPhone, it’s expensive and slow. So yes, I’m not even whining about no internet, but rather inadequate internet.
Yes, I realize that my great-grandfathers had to push plows through the earth while trying to avoid being eaten by Sabretooth Cats. I get that I had zero internet 15 years ago and that at least a third of the time since then was spent on dial-up. I know how spoiled we are by man’s best modern invention.
But I want it back. Desperately.
