Chaos Theory affects Scripts? R Scripts Strange Attractors?

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Chaos Theory affects Scripts? R Scripts Strange Attractors?

    Its not that complicated? 0] 0]

    The basic idea behind an attractor is that a dynamic system will tend toward certain states as time goes on. The simplest form of an attractor is the point attractor. Take a normal pendulum, it doesn't matter where you release it from, it will always come to rest in the same position, perpendicular to the ground. This state is the attractor for the system.

    :\

    Simple, now consider all the words that exist and the minds of those banging away at story-lines and characters over time. Surely some of these must be strange attractors, meant to exist! That's why some say the Matrix was so brilliant and yet simple, why didn't I think of that first. Kind of like the idea on Maths, is it discovered or invented? Are Scripts the same way?

    :hat

    Some Beautiful attractors:
    astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pb...ls/gasket/

    One of the most famous:
    www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~trose/rossler.html

    Another famous one is the Sierpinski gasket. You start with a triangle. Then split it into four and remove the (open) middle one. The same procedure then applies to the remaining three triangles.

    What is amazing about Sierpinski gaskets is that the pattern turns up in many ways, such as with cellular Automata - simple rules making complex patterns, specifically Rule No.'s 129, 210, 218, and many others. (Wolframscience.com)

    Sierpinski Gaskets also form by:
    * The Chaos Game (My favorite, Try it on the web)
    * Lindenmayer systems
    * L-systems
    * pascal triangles
    * Trema Removal as described above.

    I think Scripts are Attractors because in Amsterdam, 1997 I discussed an idea that started with "Tiny Cameras" hidden everywhere. I have been counting how many old days I am since I was 19. My last count was Sept 19th @ 11877 (How old am I?), so I had that idea in the script. The idea evolved into a reality TV show with a false reality for someone. I had a special feeling then that it was a great idea. I even imagined a patch of rain following him.

    One year later in Glasgow, I was drawn to The "Truman Show" and yet I had never heard of the film before, I didn't even know who was in it. What made the film so special for me was that as the film unfolded, I saw all my ideas in it. As if someone read my mind. Its no coincidence that Andrew Niccol, the writer is from London. Is it possible someone mentioned these ideas to him or is it just a coincidence?
    Often in history people have had the same ideas simultaneously. Animals are strange attractors, and an eyeball is formed 53 different way. Can non-living things also be strange attractors (Sorry to say that your scripts are not alive, but maybe this proves they are?)

    :lol

    Was it collective consciousness or did the paranoid idea about small cameras create simple rules which evolved into a predictable storyline. Can someone ask Andrew?, surely there can't be more than 2 degrees of separation to Andrew from here?

    :rolleyes

    Anyway, I've got that feeling again! I was working on my Step-outline for script one about A.I. which I had done in three weeks. I'm perfectly ambidextrous and was writing with my RIGHT hand to stimulate the other half of my brain. While looking down writing about the .com bubble.

    8o

    I looked up to my top left to imagine something, maybe to reference my visual cortex and THEN SAW a massive spider hanging on a single web. It was right in front of my nose which made me jump like Hell. An 8cm spider from leg to leg is not the think (I meant..."THING"...*Freudian Slip* ) you expect to see in a London Flat!.

    The spider was a Brain Shock, but I was left with one simple concept which grew into an idea that wasn't realistic. However, one day later it flipped into something else, which has grown into a brilliant Film idea. I've just bought a Lap-Top and Final Draft to start writing because I've done the step outline in three day. I've never done a script before, so I don't even know if I've got potential as a writer. I feel lost
    and a little mad. But its a great feeling to think 100 pages can sell for $2M as a first time writer?

    Has my manic creative disorder progressed? I haven't packed in my job yet, only cause I live month to month!

    I'll seek therapy in my keyboard and imagination!

    :rollin
    D.

  • #2
    Re: Chaos Theory affects Scripts? R Scripts Strange Attracto

    I've discussed a few ideas in Amsterdam as well, Kite. Especially after having those delightful chocolate chip cookies.:hat

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Chaos Theory affects Scripts? R Scripts Strange Attracto

      I just write lots of sex, violence and car chases.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Chaos Theory affects Scripts? R Scripts Strange Attracto

        But its a great feeling to think 100 pages can sell for $2M as a first time writer?
        It is, indeed. Now let's all wake up.
        :hat

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Chaos Theory affects Scripts? R Scripts Strange Attracto

          Let's face it. The problem with writers is that they don't read. They come up with an absolutely brilliant never done before premise and then don't study the basics. Which leaves the people who take this sh!t seriously trying to bust through a wall of scripts that have absolutely no story, no cohesion and no characterization...

          No. I'm not saying I'm some brilliant writer who's bitter and can't get read but I put my time in behind the pages of a book, read articles on the net, research stupid little commonalities in a script to the point where they slide into the story, not hammer in.

          Writing is more than about writing, it's reading, understanding, studying, experiencing. It's the voice of life with structure and pacing.

          Can a script sell for 2 mill? Maybe. Can anyone break in? Yes. Can you do it without working your ass off for ten years? Hmmm, tough question. But absolutely no one breaks in who has to ask the easy questions. Only the ones who are willing to ask the hard ones... Questions to themselves that require personal insight are going to have a chance.

          Are you willing to give up a good portion of your life to the story that forms behind the monitor?
          Can you accept there are no shortcuts?
          Will you write an entire script for practice, not for imaginary money?
          Will you rewrite that same script when it sucks and then shelve it when it still does?
          If you write ten scripts, will you admit that number ten may be the only thing you got worth backing?
          Are you willing to ask the tough questions?

          Anyone can ask format, characterization, plot, theme but can you stick it out? Over years of fighting the keyboard?

          No one breaks in overnight. Break 2 mill down into ten years of hammering on a keyboard and you got a pretty good wage.

          Comment


          • #6
            Revisionist

            Your words ring very true to me.

            I was just watching a "making of" documentary about "Casablanca." Hearing the screenwriters talking about it made me understand why the movie resonates so well and has become a classic.

            Using their rare, collective gifts of insight into the hearts of human beings, the writers grabbed a fistful of emotion of every kind and delivered it so wonderfully and with such power... the actors were really taken there and we were really there with them.

            Even the participants themselves could not describe what happened to make the film so special. It was simply magic.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Chaos Theory affects Scripts? R Scripts Strange Attracto

              Awww! Don't depress the guy Revisionist. If we knew then what we know now some of us might never have started in the first place. Good luck Kite, but first do your homework on structure, format and characterisation or else you're just pissing in the wind.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Chaos Theory affects Scripts? R Scripts Strange Attracto

                Revisionist, you make some excellent points.Wearing my novelist hat I often hear from readers that "writing is therapy", and that just getting it down on the page is all you need, "because my feelings run deep, as anyone can see". These are people, for the most part, who haven't immersed themselves in the best teachers of all, the great novels that have withstood the test of time. They simply assume that, because they're writing, what they're writing is worth more than gold.

                And then, having been turned down by every publisher in the country, they run off to a vanity press, pay their thousands, and find themselves with a stack of books to give to their uncritical friends and families.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Chaos Theory affects Scripts? R Scripts Strange Attracto

                  Solomon condensed it nicely.

                  There is nothing new under the sun.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Chaos Theory affects Scripts? R Scripts Strange Attracto

                    Terry Rossio has a column about scripts as strange attractors on Wordplayer.com

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Chaos Theory affects Scripts? R Scripts Strange Attracto

                      Yes, getting back to the topic of "strange attractors"...

                      I'm sure we all have had the experience (many times, for me) of watching something unfold on the movie or TV screen and having the uncanny feeling that it's been plucked from the deepest recesses of our very own imaginations.

                      Collective Unconscious? Strange Attractors?

                      I think it highlights a primal, almost instinctual, connection that permeates humanity. We share certain dreams, certain visions, certain thoughts, without having to communicate them in the physical realm.

                      Which is why certain films resonate with masses of people.

                      Of course, you could argue that we're all acculturated in this web of media discourse, and thus have absorbed indicators that trigger when faced with a story that resonates.

                      But I prefer the more "magic" explanation...

                      Keep writing, writing, writing Kite!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        nice...

                        Morphitologist, I really liked your reply. Thanks for taking the time to read. Kite.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: nice...

                          On Chaos theory - -
                          yes, I think there's something to it.

                          On writing - -
                          immersing yourself in great writing doesn't guarantee your own writing will improve. Education doesn't guarantee it either.

                          I once asked a creative writing workshop teacher in college. "How can you teach someone to write good fiction?"

                          He said, "You can't. If they have the innate ability, it can be brought to surface and the writer can be taught discipline. If they don't have the talent, no amount of study or mentoring can make them a good writer of fiction."

                          Years later, I taught a non-matriculated creative writing workshop for a local community college, part-time. I had people in the class who had gone to writing retreats with major novelists, others had some short stories published. Their work was self-concious and stilted.

                          In comes this wife and Mom to four kids. No college background, a HS diploma (commercial not liberal arts), my class being her first and only writing class.

                          And when she read her work aloud, you felt your soul flutter.

                          The worst part? She had wanted to go to college but a HS guidance counselor had told her she was not college material, even worse, she was talked into taking commercial classes because, she was told, she could only aspire to be a secretary.

                          Since meeting her, I realized I have no right to make assumptions about anyone's talent.

                          The original poster may well have the concept, the talent and the passion to sell his first script for $2-million without toiling away for 10 years.

                          It's entirely possible.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            -Chaos Theory affects Scripts? R Scripts Strange Attractors?

                            Strange attractors, synchronicity, collective unconscious, morphogenetic resonance...it's all magic.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Talent

                              "And when she read her work aloud, you felt your soul flutter."

                              How can this be? Most of what we read on this site are the million technical details required to write well... to have a prayer of entering the hallowed halls of Hollywood.

                              You mean there is a difference between the guy who knows all the erogenous zones on a woman's body, can describe every sexual position with technical detail.. and the guy who knows how to make slow, passionate love to a woman?

                              Some people have the passion...the mojo...in their writing because they have a superb, God-given, natural talent.

                              They are so hated by the technical snobs.

                              Refer to the movie, "Amadeus."

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X