This Is One Dull Entry

So, it's been a while since I bothered writing anything on here. Mainly because I haven't had much to say of interest. I've finalised my house now and paid the deposit. So it's ours. That's nice. Need to set up a shared bank account to pay the bills but that won't be a problem. I have to pay for it over the summer too which is a bit of a pain, but it means I can come up here whenever I want, which is quite neat.

In other news, Serenity is finally out on DVD in this country. Two and a half months after the American release date, but there you go. And it really is a fantastic film. Better than most of the crap released in 2005, and in my opinion the best film out that year. Of course, not that it gets any recognition, it doesn't seem to be overly popular. Which is a shame. Means we won't get any more Serenity movies.

(Urr, if you don't care about Serenity, skip this!)

Funnily enough when we first watched it we said (me and Cooper) how it was just like the TV series was carrying on, and the cast were just back doing a feature length episode. At least at first, before the second half. Watching it again I noticed this isn't really true. It's interesting, but they really evolved the characters like a long period of time had passed. And I actually found it interesting some of the reasons for this. People who know me know I always dream of being a writer of some kind, so it's nice to find out why they make these writing decisions.

Turning Mal moodier for example they give the reasoning that it won't make a good movie if he starts the hero and ends the hero. Since he was already pretty heroic in the TV show, they decided to make it like in the time between the show and the movie he had been pushed a lot harder, so was much more on edge. Makes the evolution into a hero at the end better, see? It's the kind of thing you can forget when writing (hell, Hollywood forgets often enough, heroes seem to rarely develop these days in action films). And I thought it was pretty interesting they come up with all this reasoning behind why they do things.

It also taught me a strange contrast between TV and film. Or Fox and Universal. When they made Firefly, if you listen to the commentaries, they say how Fox felt Mal was too cruel, and asked Joss Whedon to make him funnier to make him more likable (interesting that he wasn't originally funny, since his humour is kinda key to who he is...). So obviously they did this. Universal on the other hand told Whedon to cut out scenes (which are on the DVD) where there are too many jokes in a row at Mal's expense, and they say nobody will give him credibility as a hero after that.

Since I said I was interested in writing, I kinda took this as interesting. And dare I say it, 'cause it scares me to do so, I agree with Fox, not Universal. I can't see people not taking him seriously because of the funnier scenes (and I really wish they kept them in). I'm certain the humour of Firefly is what lifted it to being such a fantastic series. And it's what makes everybody love it (and love the characters). So I reckon from the story writing perspective, I'd go with Fox's ideas, I think people would him more with even those extra funny scenes.

Little things like this make me think about how I write though, and how different people will take things differently. I mean, how can you write for production studios when they differ what they think? I think I'm only just beginning to appreciate the complexities of writing in real life. Which is why I'm kind of glad I didn't really think of taking it as a career. I'd hate that kind of meddling, even if they were right.

'course, I'd have to be good first anyway, but the point remains.

I also find myself appreciating some of the awesome shots in Serenity. You know they're awesome when they're hard to notice they're done so smoothly, but when you spot them you think they're great.

Oh, and sorry for this blog, which is just very very dry, to be honest, but I just wanted to update so yackled on about some stuff I was thinking about. And I'm too tired to do something witty. So sorry for the dryness. I'll do something amusing soon.