Woke up at the late-late hour of 6:00 this morning. Jet-lag bonus is already wearing off. I spent the early morning taking frame grabs of the casting video to send to fuego, and reviewing the performances again. Seeing the footage, my opinion on a couple of the early performance shifted for the better. Ruthie 2’s stock rose dramatically.
That info sent, I emerged from my haven in time to bid the breadwinner of the household a fond adieu as he set off for work. That left Yoyo and me to fend for breakfast and later to go out to a variety of stores to spend a large amount of money. Listerine, check. Flashlight keychain, double-check. (They were on sale for three bucks. The packaging made a big deal about how the LED would last for 100,000 hours, even though the battery would only last 25. Reassuring to know that when the bulb reaches the landfill it still has most of its useful life ahead of it.) The batteries are not replaceable, so I bought two. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished for a flashlight keychain when coming home to my Prague apartment in the dark.
But that has nothing to do with Pirates. I spent much of the day with Yoyo riding shotgun, including the time I spent with Rudy. He had picked up the nuclear warhead prop from a friend, but it was not what either of us expected, I think. It has taken me some time since seeing it to put my finger on where it falls short, but now that I look back Rudy was already responding to the problem before I even saw the prop. It doesn’t look dangerous. There may be some historical accuracy in this piece of metal, but I want people to be afraid of this thing, to know that in the wrong hands something like this can kill millions. Part of the magic of the script is that somehow you don’t think this thing is in the wrong hands at the end.
There was a moment during casting yesterday, when I realized there was depth to the script. For me, writing is about making a good story, and if you can go back later and discover nuances and complexities, all the better. Those subtleties were shaping the story as you wrote it, but only later can you go back and really understand them. After the second Ruthie had auditioned, I spoke briefly with the guy reading the other lines in the dialog. In the script it says, “Ruthie looks unimpressed.” He was rolling over that moment to get to her next line. “Pause there,” I said. “It’s the first time Ruthie affects Moab. That look is important. Let it work.”
Now, at some level I knew that this was a skirmish between the two for respect., but I had not articulated the significance of that moment so clearly before. At first, his capitulation seems like an expression of his weakness, but later you understand that his earlier speech was not bluster at all, and his backing down was out of respect for her strength. At the time, the line just felt right. Write the story first, worry about the significance later.
No action from Smithers. No word of Seldom Seen Smith. The time to write an inflammatory e-mail from a panicking writer/director draws nigh…
what do you want me to write in my email?
You gotta tell me what this Smithers guy is up to, how is he blocking us? Seldom will be lucky if he gets a 2nd Unit Director credit out of this – although I think he would be a pretty good 2nd Unit director if his resume is all it’s cracked up to be.
Grub is putting the squeeze on Smithers right now, and has approved the script supervisor.
Hey! I wanna get in on this crypto-speak…
Mickey set the greeblevox to 7 instead of 3. We’ll hafta let Mathers give Susan a yobbotango.
What’s funny is that Grub is not a secret name – that’s his official nickname.
Jerry, We are in dire need…
The chihuahuas are proving to be more than we can handle. They want to come to praque to visit thier dad (permanently).
Can you get back to us soon. Thanks.
Hmmm… pirate chihuahuas? That’s not too far off from the Pomeranian double agents in my last NaNo effort.
I can offer temporary — VERY temporary — lodging for the boys in whichever house the cats are not in, which at the moment is the house in Albuquerque, but not for more than a week or two. You can use that as time to find a more long-term place for them.
And one of the pirate pups has one eye already. Arrr!
Ooooh, Lefty with an eyepatch! And what happens when he tries to butter up the gal on the front porch of the Wild Horse Mesa Saloon?
Speaking of pirate chihuahuas, there was an intersting article in a newspaper I was reading about why small dogs tend to become so annoying to people who don’t love them.
First, many small dogs, especially now that Paris Hilton and others have made them into fashion accessories, get carried around rather than walking around at ground level. (An interesting side effect of this trend is that many Chihuahuas are showing up in vets’ offices with broken bones from falling out of purses.) Being at human height misleads them into thinking they actually ARE that tall, which leads them into acting as if they are a lot bigger than they really are.
The other side effect is that people who have these dogs think of them, at least subconsciously, as being similar to human babies. When a human baby makes a racket, the instinct is to stroke the baby and issue soothing, calming words. When a dog makes a racket, the stroking and soothing, calming words are understood as a reward — “Oh, I did something right! I should do more of that!”
And then you end up with a dog whose behavior really annoys a lot of people.
Spike and Lefty need a good home. Until Jerry gets back stateside, they need to be with people who treat them as dogs, and demand of them the same behavior that would be demanded of a Rottweiler or Great Dane. If you know of someone who can give doggie tough-love, I’m sure both Jerry and Casey would be grateful.