Monday night at Downstage Theatre in Welly: my dear friend Eric is part of the Pecha Kucha lineup, talking about the show wot I wrote, Affair of the Diamond Necklace.
A Pecha Kucha night is an event format in which presenters show a slideshow of 20 images, each of which is shown for 20 seconds. Pecha Kucha Wgtn details here. Door sales only, $9 cash – Downstage Theatre, doors open: 6.30pm, start 7.30pm.
Be great to see people there. I won’t be online again until Tuesday I think, so don’t bother emailing to co-ordinate – just show up if you’re keen.
(Move went well. House chaos steadily improving to livable. Yay.)
(Hope the 48 hr film fest was fun for all my friends who took part this year!)
Another game I worked on for NZ’s finest game company Sidhe Interactive has been released, so I can talk about it: Madagascar Kartz I worked on this one in parallel with the Hot Wheels game, and it’s good to see it out in the world. Sidhe recently tweeted a link to this 4.5/5 review of the game, which sums up the whole thing pretty well.
My primary role on MK was to write the incidental comments that the characters say during the races. Working on well-established characters was quite fun, as they all had a very distinctive voice, particularly King Julien whose dialogue in the films was largely improvised by Sacha Baron Cohen. I really pushed myself hard to try and embed appropriate gags in short stand-alone sentences, and I was pleased with the results. The tiny snatches of dialogue in the trailer don’t sound like mine, which emphasizes another point – I’m just working on one step in a long process that is itself just one strand of a much larger project. Things get changed a lot as they go, particularly for licensed games, and it’s entirely possible that none of the work I do survives to the released game.
Here’s another example, a game I worked on a couple years back, Speed Racer. Another licensed game, based on the cult money-loser by the Wachowski Bros. The game was extremely well-received, so it’s a shame it didn’t get much benefit from the movie which mostly left audiences baffled and overstimulated. Anyway, here’s some gameplay that I nabbed off YouTube. See how, through the whole clip, characters make comments which appear at the top of the screen? A lot of those are mine. I was particularly stoked to see that “Ha ha ha ha ha!” got in with the correct amount of “ha”s…
There’s a bit less talking in this Battle Force 5 gameplay, and it’s hard to hear, but again a bunch of it is mine:
So, yeah. The glamorous world of the computer game industry! These were all fun projects, and it’s a good challenge to the writing craft to try and devise five hundred variants on “I’m going to win and you’re not”. Good times! I’ve just picked up another gig with Sidhe so looking forward to getting stuck into that one too!
Oh, heck, still haven’t done one of these. So, yes, I’ve hit my target of twelve complete short stories, one for each month, that are going to be submittable somewhere. Some of them are even in a submittable kinda state. For the rest, I’ve got three weeks to knock some sense into them.
So one last time, that title list, some titles will change:
– “The Tape”
– “Buckets”
– “Babel”
– “The Twelve Times I Drank Too Much”
– “Lift Story”
– “The Apotheosis of Melvin Rameka”
– “Inappropriate Boss”
– “The Intervention Upstairs”
– “The Confession”
– “Box Takes A Honeymoon”
– “Perfectly Right”
– “Walking story”
In the last update I mentioned spending “half an hour today chewing over one line of dialogue” for the show. I spent another hour or so on it a week later, then in rehearsal someone called me on it. “Self-indulgent”. They were right. I cut the line, and it plays heaps better. So there’s a lesson.
For the first time in five years I’ve pulled the fantasy novel off the shelf and I’m ticking about with it, perhaps with an eye on this.
Actually, my main writing mission right now is getting my Kapcon game ready…
Right, final stretch. Wish me luck and fortitude.
[Previous writing update]
Here it is
A two-minute clip that shows us off quite well, I thought. You can even spot me if you’re alert enough…
(Although they got the date wrong. It’s on Saturday 12th, not this coming Saturday 5th.)
Edit: we’re on tonight!
Yesterday the afternoon was spent in the Hippopotamus restaurant, filming a segment for TV3’s Nightline late edition news show. Nightline does like its quirky culture bits to round off the evening, and we’re lined up for Monday’s showtonight’s show!
We had five costumed performers enjoying High Tea, improvising like mad and gesticulating for the cameras. Eric (of the “how to behave” video) was interviewed, then a couple of the performers (one in-character, one out). The whole experience was good fun, and low-stress once it got rolling. Reporter Tova and cameraman Dan made smart decisions fast and pulled good signal out of a lot of noise; it was obvious they were both building the piece up from nothing in their heads as they went. Nice to watch.
And the Hippopotamus was amazing – very accommodating and helpful. Their high tea is wonderful! I mean to go back and check out the evening menu some time, executive chef Laurent Loudeauc spent a while watching what was happening and he seemed to be a nice gent, and the food definitely sounds amazing.
So, nice work everyone! There’ll be more photos up on the Flickr photostream soon, I hope. And we should be on Nightline on Monday!
Homepage: Affair of the Diamond Necklace
So I’ve been directing the rehearsals for the Affair of the Diamond Necklace remount (December 12! One Show Only!) and have found it an interesting and challenging experience.
I don’t have much experience with directing of any sort. Back in high school for the odd short bit, but since then – nothing. Steep learning curve! What it reminds me of most, actually, is editing. Editing is the part of writing that you don’t hear much about – the bit where you kick your opus hard to find the weak points, then tear out all the stuff that comes loose. In a theatrical experience, though, the text isn’t really up for grabs in the same way, because everyone’s been committing their energy to learning it and big changes are unfeasible. We’ve messed around with some dialogue, but mostly it’s the way we use it that has changed.
I’ve been blessed with very skilled performers who can bring a lot of smarts to the script and can talk about what works, what doesn’t and what might be worth a try. The atmosphere is collegial and supportive and that makes it easier for me to push some angles hard, send some performances in a different direction, and so on.
The December remount is a straight-up better show than the August performance. We’ve tightened and sharpened and honed this beast and it plays like a dream. Love it.
I’m not a Real Director. Naw, I know some Real Directors, and they have chops embracing the whole field of endeavour. But, in my small way, I feel like I’m doing something good at the head of this team. I know for sure we’ve made something good into something great – and isn’t that the trick of it?
—
Have you seen the second YouTube video Steve Leon did for the show? It’s Eric Dorfman, main man for the show, telling you the three things you need to know to thrive in the Court of Versailles. More cool footage of costumes and action from August! Check it out:
Put this up on LJ the other day – a video trailer for the Marie Antoinette night, showing lots of clips from the August show. We look awesome. There’s a few changes this time around, including a new actress in the Marie Antoinette role due to our last one getting a TV gig, but that’s the feel of it. Who knew Wellington had so many French aristocrat costumes?
Much acknowledgement of Steve Leon, of SpringTV, for filming and assembling this trailer. I’ve been taking advantage of Steve’s skills and goodwill in various domains for about a decade and a half now. If you know anyone who needs some filming done, hire him!
Second rehearsal today. The script changes all played well at our read-through Tuesday, including a couple of fairly major adjustments – definitely a stronger, tighter show that plays more to the strengths of the concept. Very happy.
Right, off to morning meeting to decide on some other matters including what might be our next show! And then have to do normal work too 🙂
The Affair of the Diamond Necklace is coming back to Wellington in December.
There was an August show, which I’ve written about before. We’re back for another go Saturday December 12. A full evening of interactive entertainment including Vector Orchestra performance and a very nice meal. Will be an excellent night I’m sure!
We’ve been tightening things up, learning the lessons of last time out – a few script changes, etc. Rehearsals for the return version kick off tonight – this time I’m leading rehearsals, another new experience for me! But looking forward to seeing the team again. It’s an excellent bunch of people. More information at the Eklektus website. Including a few photos, including me in a white wig.
Regarding tne short-stories target for the year, I’m on track. I have eleven complete stories drafted and one more in progress, with two months to go. Note that there’s still a ways before I hit target, as the original plan was to only count stories as done when I am comfortable submitting them places. I’m only at that point with a couple of these. So there’s editing binge coming.
Here are the titles, just because:
– “The Tape”
– “Buckets”
– “Babel”
– “The Twelve Times I Drank Too Much”
– “Lift Story”
– “The Apotheosis of Melvin Rameka”
– “Inappropriate Boss”
– “The Intervention Upstairs”
– “The Confession”
– “Box Takes A Honeymoon”
– “Perfectly Right”
In progress:
– “Walking story”
Note that “walking story” is one of the really early ones that I wrote and then decided was unsalvageable. Well, I think I’ve figured it out. This revision keeps the characters, the critical incident, and about 20% of the opening sequence. Still working on it.
“The Beast” comic ticks along. Met with artist yesterday. She’s done with exams shortly and can then start working for me like a galley slave. *plots and plans*
Sinking energy into revised script for “Affair of the Diamond Necklace”. More on that soon. Spent half an hour today chewing over one line of dialogue – it really needs to drop heavy, and it was defeating me. Think I solved it though. Might change mind tomorrow.
“Ron the Body” er. Yes, well. Everyone knows it will never be published I think I will burn it yes I will burn it
Still noodling on “Lament” role-playing game idea.
C’est tout. [Last writing update]
I’ve posted a couple times about Urban Driftwood, the prose/poetry collection with my work in it – when it was published a year ago and when it was released for free download.
I’m mentioning it again because we’ve just had our first review, by Tim Jones, who blogs over at Books in the Trees. Tim’s one of these ghost presences in my life, someone I’ve known of rather than known for way too many years – we share lots of people and interests (writing and climate change, to name two biggies). It’s almost spooky, actually, because NZ is so hyper-networked due to its small size that you almost need to actively avoid someone to not meet them for as long as I’ve not met Tim. (I first saw him across the room at Forrycon, back in 1991, as the fan guest of honour sharing the stage with the venerable and delightful Forrest J Ackerman. Most recently I missed him by not making it to the Writing Speculative Fiction seminar with Jenni and Sally – I’m sure another opportunity will come along soon!) The review is here. I think its very fair and positive, and does credit to Dan’s efforts to finally get this writing out in front of readers. That’s a great thing. Thanks Tim for the review; thanks Dan for your dogged pursuit of this project for so long!
So, yeah, Urban Driftwood. You can buy it hardcopy on Lulu or FREE DOWNLOAD! via Dan’s website.
