No movie tonight, just an episode of "Tombstone Territory", which is a really good Western series from the late 50s starring Pat Conway as The Sheriff of Tombstone, Arizona. He is exactly the kind of Sheriff you want in The Old West : Fearless, Highly Moral and Super Handsome, though he never uses his Handsomeness to unfair advantage when dealing with Scraggly Western Archetypes, i.e miners, gunslingers, cowhands, card players in the local saloon....you get the idea. I have the entire series on dvd, purchased during the Summer, and I'm about eight episodes in. I write and tirade a lot about motion picture screenwriting, and I think that the young crop of writers out there today would do well to study the old and classic television shows of the 1950s, where several dozen scenes and a truckload of plot are contained within a 26 minute episode. Back in those days, you see, when television was new, it was actually in competition with the motion picture industry for viewers. Initially, the scions of the Movie Biz thought that TV would be a flash in the pan. They soon found out, however, that the TV stations meant business, and were concentrating on succinct, attention grabbing stories. Stories that moved, because they had to be quickly told, in 26 or 52 minutes (commercials filling out the 30 & 60 minute time slots). There was no downtime in those early tv shows, no meandering or filler. And so with television - or rather, early television at least, and other good shows since then - you have an example of highly developed screenwriting in a short format, the point being Telling Your Story, In Full, Even Though You Have Just A Half Hour To Tell It.
That is why modern screenwriters should study early television, and I'll shut up now on the subject of screenwriting ("oh thank goodness, Ad").
No other news to report today, except for reading "Sleeping Beauties" (nearly completed) and getting used to the early darkness.
Elizabeth, I trust that things are going well. I saw a post today of a spectacular beach in the Maldives, that said something like "this is my office today". That made me think that maybe you are On The Go again. Whatever the case, and wherever you are, I hope you are keeping your artistic fires burning.
It's been a good year thus far I think. You have made your first album of beautiful and original music, with highly original cover art, and also have created a great photo series with The Worldwide Red Dress.
The key now is just to keep your psychic intent way up high, and as you do that, the next thing will happen, guaranteed as always.
:):)
See you in the morn.
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