Contour At The Movies

I know I’ve been a bit lax updating movies here at Contour At The Movies lately, but I’ve been making the big push to finish up  my book for Michael Wiese Publishers, ‘My Story Can Beat Up Your Story!’ I’m having a great time writing the book, and I think that’ll show when it’s published in 2011.  Thanks also to the brave and patient souls who are reading and critiquing chapters-in-progress.

In the meantime, I’d like to share two things with you: a website and a game.  The website is by a script consultant named Dr. Stan Williams who has written a book called ‘The Moral Premise.‘  He deals extensively with the Hero’s inner need in a very complete and spiritual fashion.  Good, good stuff.  You can read his blog at http://moralpremise.blogspot.com.

While chatting this morning with my buddy, Austin-based screenwriter Alvaro Rodriguez, we invented a new game which I’m dubbing ‘Contour Keywords.’  Here’s how it’s played (two-player version):

1. Think of a movie and look it up at www.imdb.com.
2. Look up the Keywords associated with the movie (you can find Keywords listed in the menu bar on the left side of the IMDB webpage under “Storyline”.)
3. Using the first four keywords, share them with your opponent and see if he or she can guess the movie.  If they can, they get a score of 4.  If they can’t, keep adding keywords until your opponent guesses the movie.   Your opponents score increases by one point for each additional keyword.  Make sure you eliminate any keywords that are too obvious (CITIZEN KANE’s first keywords are “Reporter, Rosebud, Newspaper, and Power.”   Obviously, “Rosebud” makes it too obvious, so drop that keyword and go to the next word on the list, “Last Words.”
4. Each person picks 5 movies and players  alternate turns.  The person with the score closest to 20 (a perfect score) wins.  The loser has to give the winner a first look deal and 10% commission for a year.  Or a beer.
5. Try not to pick movies that are too obscure.  Better yet, agree on a genre, era, movie star, etc ahead of time.

I’ll start.  Name this movie: “Sequel, karate, prison fight, mixed martial arts.”

Yup,  Bloodsport 2.

– Jeffrey Alan Schechter

So, I was checking out Roger Ebert’s online review for the the movie UP IN THE AIR (my own will be online shortly) when I got to the bottom of the review’s webpage and found this series of sponsored ads automatically pinned to the review by Yahoo’s algorithmic brain:

Why these four?  Well, “Online College Degree” I assume is there because Anna Kendrick plays a character described as an “ambitious new graduate.”

The two refinance ads I assume are there because the review talks about the subject of the film; people being fired (and presumably being grateful to know that they can help their cashflow by refinancing their homes.)

And why the ad for “Aloe Vera Product?”  Because the film co-starts Vera Farmiga.  Duh!

- Jeffrey Alan Schechter

After waxing poetic about my antique typewriter, I got a message from a fellow here in Toronto who makes me look like the real piker I am.

Martin Howard is a collector of antique typewriters and has even gone so far as to have a beautiful, custom display cabinet made to show off his stunning collection:

You can (and should!) check out his website — the Martin Howard Collection at www.antiquetypewriters.com.

–Jeffrey Alan Schechter

Why was it that I simply HAD to own this typewriter when I saw it at the antique mart?  It’s old, yet incredibly still works perfectly (needs a new ribbon).

I wrote one, 120 page script on a typewriter and the subsequent several dozens of thousands of pages since were all done on computers.   I joke — at least I think I’m joking — that if I had to go back to a typewriter again, I’d quit screenwriting and go to medical school.  Using typewriters only served to make me NOT want to use typewriters.

So why did this typewriter need to be mine?  Maybe, as I get older I feel a link to those writers who came before me and the tools of their craft.  Maybe as  get older I get swept up in useless sentimentality.

Maybe it’s a reminder to me of an age when writing was a physical activity.  Each letter was deliberately pressed.  An accidental brush of a key cap and the Model 12 will hardly know that you’re alive.  You wanna “b?”  You had best press that key like you mean it!

And even the exclamation mark required effort.  You feel like shouting your point?  First you hit the single-quote key ( ‘ ) located on the Model 12 as SHIFT 8.  Then you hit the backspace key and add a period under the quote.  Voila!  An exclamation mark.

On a computer shouting’s as easy as whispering, so why whisper?  Not so with the Model 12.  You wanna make a point?  You better wanna MAKE that point cause the Model 12 is going to make you work for it.  Four keys worth of effort; it better be good.

Ahhh…I’m sure I’m romanticizing, and maybe that’s the point.  The clack-clack of a manual typewriter holds an appeal.  The sound means that someone is doing something.  Not the soft little “squish-a-chiclet” of a computer keyboard.  It’s a primal sound, like something out of the iron age.  Something transformative.  Like dozens of little hammers pounding hot ideas on the anvil of the platen in the hope that something beautiful will be beaten onto or out of the blank sheet.

Until I figure out the appeal, there my Remington Model 12 sits between my Epson RX680 and my Brother DCP7080.  One can’t help but feel a tad sorry for my Epson and Brother for they can’t  appreciate the real significance of this ancient piece of writing magic that’s now at rest between them; what the Model 12 is really saying to them: “Boys?  When you’re time is up and your technology is abandoned, nobody — NOBODY — will love you the way I am loved.  I may be from 1926, but it’s your days that are numbered.”

– Jeffrey Alan Schechter

Those of you who have been following the “From the Floor” section of this site know that I’ve been working on a Family Channel/Disney Channel series called OVERRULED! which I co-created and am one of the executive producers of.  Well, after several years of production, we finally premiere tonight!

Those of you lucky enough to live in Canada can tune in to the Family Channel at 6:25pm EST and see two back-to-back episodes.  I’m not sure when the show will air in the States, however it’s already been airing in the UK and in Australia.

So if you get the chance, please watch and then let me know what you think!

– Jeffrey Alan Schechter

Erstwhile Dan Pilditch reports that a friend of his who is working in China says that he can’t read Contour At The Movies there.  Apparently, we’re banned!

I have to wonder exactly what I did to upset the Chinese government.  As a Jew from New York, I’ve enjoyed a particularly close relationship with the Chinese…particularly on Sunday nights while growing up, especially around dinner time.

As I get to the bottom of this, to my Chinese friends I would like to say:

– Jeffrey Alan Schechter

I got this a few minutes ago from Amazon:

Now, it’s not in my nature to tell people how to run their business, but I think Amazon might want to check their algorithms.

–Jeffrey Alan Schechter

For those keeping score, I haven’t been posting much lately.  There is a good reason; I’m going back into production on my series OVERRULED.

We wrapped season one last year and I’ve been chained to my desk in the production office as we gear up to shoot season two starting on March 9.  I’ll try to keep things moving along here, with the help of the lovely and talented (well, talented) Dan Pilditch.

So rest assured…I’m still around.  Just a little more sleep deprived than usual.

Not the movie, I’m talking about gender neutrality.  Contour, having been developed by a sexist pig (me) always referred to the protagonist in the masculine.  Actually, I’m kidding about the sexist pig thing.  I hope.

In actuality there is a debate in academic circles about gender neutrality and I had relied on the school of thought, as well as the guidelines in Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, that permitted the use of the masculine to refer to any non-specific person regardless of sex.  

After much consideration (and one refund to an irate user with a female protagonist) we’ve decided to embrace gender neutrality.  As updates start rolling out to Contour 1.0 we’ll be chipping away at all examples of inappropriate gender specific language in the user’s guide, manual, examples, help tips, this blog, etc. As you can imagine, this is a bit of an undertaking, so please be patient with us.  We’re trying to do the right thing.  Honest!   Rewriting it all will take some time.  

In the meantime, if I’ve offended anyone I would like to apologize to him or her, ask for his or her forgiveness, and assure him or her that he or she is welcome to contact me to discuss this or that.

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