This week’s issue of The Escapist includes my article “Adjacent Data” about science-fiction’s hold on our imaginations and culture.

Science fiction strikes me as inescapable sometimes, surrounding us in videogames, books, movies and comics. Even a videogame about a 12th century assassin, of all things, wound up being sci-fi last fall. The blockbuster Transformers and the perpetually re-released Blade Runner hit screens last year, and the easily missed Sunshine will likely find a sizable audience on DVD. It made me wonder why we love science fiction this much, a genre that can be so derivative and cliché.

“Nothing acquires quite as rapid or peculiar a patina of age as an imaginary future.”
- William Gibson, Burning Chrome.

“Patina” is an interesting word to choose. It can refer to a desirable, well worn and aged look, and also the ugly greenish corrosion on coins. And so, too, a patina’s aesthetic effect on sci-fi is one entirely of context. Science fiction’s slick veneer of prescience breaks down almost immediately, corroded by the passing of time and our better informed perspective. If this happens so quickly and consistently, why does sci-fi maintain its appeal, especially old sci-fi, which ends up inaccurate and outdated?

Link.

Writer Joss Whedon posted on UnitedHollywood an impassioned and powerful comment about the WGA’s back-door dealings with studio heads. He insists that this is not an “endgame” and that suggesting that a resolution is imminent is unacceptable, as the damage that’s been done to the writers and the medium itself is permanent.

“We need, now as much as ever, to act as if the strike is NEVER going to end. We need the rage that sends us out onto the picket lines, the passion that makes us look for alternate methods of financing and developing content, and the unity that reminds us how much the studios have taken from the community already by forcing this strike.”

[The word “endgame” has since been removed from the post Whedon comments on, due to very connotation that Whedon contests]

It’s a great post, and a perfect example of the emotion writers and fans should be exhibiting if ever a respectable resolution is to be found. One where writers don’t get screwed, which is an uphill battle: the writers-get-screwed precedent has been set and upheld for decades.

Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
We’ve reached the end of my “Vidcasts you should be watching” series. And I’m ending on one that’s by no means obscure, and that you’re probably quite familiar with. But it’s one that I insist you watch if you’ve haven’t given it a shot yet.

The last recommendation of this series is the weekly Totally Rad Show. At the end of the day, when I’m looking for something to entertain me, something to inform me, I look to TRS.

The show’s fantastic. I subscribe to a lot of vidcasts, as you’ve seen over the past week, and they’re varied in content and style. And TRS is my favorite. Read the rest of this entry »

via Kottke

Alec Baldwin, In his article at the Huffington Post, offers a brilliant way to end the Writers’ Strike:

“I want the WGA to set up a website and on that website we can all post stories about every no-talent, idiotic, amoral producer and executive we have ever dealt with. Just like they do to us on shows like Extra and sites like TMZ (owned by Warner Brothers.) Set up a website and tell the entire world, via the internet, your own anecdote about some of the witless boobs you have endured in Hollywood and beyond. The strike will end in a week.”

His article skewers what he calls the “lawyers and marketing executives who lord over the worst creative decline [he has] witnessed in a long time.”

It’s well worth a read, to see a popular actor’s uninhibited take on the strike.

While the Celtx team were at Creative Screenwriting Expo 6, they put on a seminar about their software, and how its unique approach to script-to-screen makes it the best tool for screenwriting.

We’ve discussed Celtx before. Beyond it being free and open-source, it really is an incredible tool. The mere fact that it makes collaboration between team members of a project incredibly simple and useful puts it ahead of its competitors.

And its eschewing of WYSIWYG for a style that embraces digital makes it far more powerful than any piece of software that tries to emulate writing on a piece of paper.

It’s simply full of countless tools to make writing, not only easier, but far more productive. And I use that word, not just in the sense that you’ll complete a lot of work, but you’re also always working towards real, actual production with Celtx.

Listen to the seminar and you’ll hear what I mean.

Part 1

Part 2

This is not an ad. I’ve just used Celtx for a long time now, and it really is a great product.

Michael Geist warns that a new Canadian copyright bill is only a few weeks away.

I, for one, hope it’s in the form of a DMCA-style law. I’ve just been feeling a touch too free lately, you know?

According to the Ottawa Citizen article Geist references, U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins says that “no one expects the law to be identical [to America’s], but hopefully it will be compatible.”

“That means that Canada would have to meet the three criticisms of its current copyright law put forward by the U.S. Trade Representative earlier this year in its Special 301 report, which includes implementing an international treaty signed in 1997 (WIPO), as well as incorporating some of the elements of the U.S. Digital Millenium Copyright Act.”

This is bad, because, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

“[T]he DMCA and DRM have done nothing to stop “Internet piracy.” Yet the DMCA has become a serious threat that jeopardizes fair use, impedes competition and innovation, chills free expression and scientific research, and interferes with computer intrusion laws. If you circumvent DRM locks for noninfringing fair uses or create the tools to do so, you might be on the receiving end of a lawsuit.”

In practice, this means that I will not be allowed under law to play DVDs on my computer. Seriously. As I’m running the Linux operating system, I need to break the (albeit weak) encryption on the discs to allow for playback. But this violates the DMCA. I have no intention of pirating (Arrr) the content, nor even sharing it, I merely mean to view the content I purchased. But the DMCA does not even allow for this simple, innocent use.

Chilling, indeed. But, then again, it’s often quite cold up here. I suppose we’ll just get used to it…

Taking advantage of both his own technical abilities and those of his enthusiastic and large fanbase, writer/director John August is currently holding a trailer competition for his new film The Nines. The competition began on September 29th and will end on the 25th.

John has made select footage from the film available for participants to edit, in both DV and MPEG-4 formats.

Tantamount to user-generated fan content, the final products will be an interesting mashup of users’ own style and a commercial product. While not entirely user-created content, the competition is all about the ability and desire for regular users and viewers to participate in the media conversation. “It doesn’t matter who you are, or whether you’ve seen The Nines yet. If you have a good idea (and/or mad editing skillz), you should compete.”

John’s showing impressive knowledge and foresight, aware that making your audience feel that they’re actually part of the process of a film will make them far more eager to part with their dollars when the movie’s released in cinemas and onto store shelves.

And the competition’s not just for a regular movie trailer, either. While the first category that trailers can be made for is Best Pure Trailer, the second is Best Mashup Trailer. For this category, creators will be splicing in content from other films and videos. “If you want to grab the nuclear explosion from The Sum of All Fears, go for it.”

We’ll have to wait and see how YouTube responds to the content grabbed from copyrighted sources, but John doesn’t imagine there will be any serious issues. “This isn’t an invitation for flagrant copyright violation, but rather an urge to explore the boundaries of creative fair use. There’s no commercial aspect to any part of this competition, and if YouTube (or whoever) lets you post it, that’s good enough for our purposes.”

Competition rules are here, and here’s the FAQ with a sample trailer by John August.