The Best Story Structure

One of my favorite teachers advised to make character development the structure instead of following structure formulas. By page blah blah blah have an explosion.

The class was for screen adaptation, but the advice applies to any story. =) I improved the beginning of a story by working on the characters' journeys and goals.

Another screenwriting teacher did not believe in writer's block. She suggested to check if you strayed from the story's path at one point. Perhaps you put in a scene for its own purpose instead of the whole story's purpose. Sometimes you have to let go moments or lines. Save the draft though because you could try using that scene in another story.

Screenwriter Nicholas Meyer wanted to express his dislike of punk rock music through the time-traveling hero in Time After Time. Meyer had to omit the scene, but he rewrote it in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. I found the well-known scene, but the song was changed:

I'm with the Mockingjay

I heard some readers felt emotionally-drained from Mockingjay, the 3rd book of The Hunger Games. I enjoyed it because it had concepts similar to Nineteen Eighty-Four. =) Catching Fire was the emotionally-draining book for me. I felt that Katniss was weighed down by her worries.

There's some spoilers in this post even though I indirectly talk about them.

In the drawing, I wrote vague terms for what I thought were Katniss' main worries in each book before the games. I added trees because nature is her relief. With each book, she is more cut off from it. Dystopic societies usually cut people off from nature or see it as too wild.

Also this series shows nature used as and altered into a weapon. However, nature continues to live as if independent from the story's events. Man suffers and struggles to survive because of man.

I have a drawing tablet now.
I'll try quick sketches to illustrate points.

 In The Hunger Games, Katniss was a survivor but she was numb. Her main focus and devotion was her family's survival.

At this point, she doesn't know that other districts suffer just as bad or worse. Her own district has had worse days, which the adults recall.

In Catching Fire, she should no longer have to worry about her family, but Snow proves that fact wrong and adds more worries to her list. Katniss fears even her own actions and the interpretations of her actions because of consequences.

For fans of the love story/love drama, the second book seems to be their favorite.

I feel that Katniss had the most spirit in Mockingjay. She rebelled at almost every moment. She wants to be more informed on situations. She acts more than fearing on acting. Because of this strong spirit, I was not shocked at her move during the peace ceremony.

I had hoped for that move because the leaders fit George Orwell's attitude in  Nineteen Eighty-Four  that all parties are the same. The people still had to trust a leader blindly. Some people still feared for their lives. Daily life was controlled by the leader. The rebel society still lacked humanity. In the final conference, Katniss states that things are still the same.

I could not think of a right replacement for Snow, but when author Suzanne Collins showed the final leader, I agreed strongly with the choice. That person had showed interest in the people and had suffered from the Capitol.

Mockingjay is perfect...if you expect a dystopia. The first book had the dystopic setup, but was told as an adventure thriller. The second book is the transition to dystopic. Mockingjay is the dystopia of the series. I felt that Collins held back themes and attitudes in the other books. Mockingjay explains the society such as the careers in the games. This book may be my favorite of the three because of these reasons. The first book is still a great example to me of constant conflicts and the audience's influence.

I say perfect, but the book is not flawless.

The reader may get confused when the pace is too fast for storytelling near the end, but you are put in Katniss' position. You feel the rushed moment as she does.

The ending is short and quick, but I am fine with that. Although I read the book over a week instead of a few days like some readers, I needed the story to end already. You feel burnt up by the events and need relief from the tension. I recommend stopping once in a while because of the numerous events and their impact.

If you have not read  Nineteen Eighty-Four, then I recommend doing so including the prologue or section about George Orwell. I was just told that the districts and Capitol in The Hunger Games are similar to Brave New World. I bought a copy, but I'm taking a break again from dystopias.

More Hunger Games Goodies

I've been a bit restless this week, partly because I not getting out of work late anymore. Therefore, I started reading Mockingjay, the third book of The Hunger Games. I have less than 30 pages left. I will discuss after I finish it, but right off the bat I enjoyed how dystopic this one is.

Meanwhile, here are some related goodies to share. =)

At first I thought Peeta was a Butcher. My favorite are Katniss, Cinna, and Effie. haha. 

This mix makes me love the people who create memes. Hahaha. Effie has popped up a lot in them. Here's a similar one:

Whoever did better not answer because he/she was selected.

The boys from the musical parody "Bake You Pies" worked again for a more serious video, "The Arena". Some events from the movie are depicted.

Graduation Cap Process

I noticed views for my post, "Graduation Cap" so I will describe the decorating process in more detail. I broke it up in sections: Inspiration, Sketches, Application, and Result.

Note: Even if you don't use the same materials as me, the first two sections are still helpful.

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Inspiration

The terms are used in both art and science.

I looked at Baroque/Rococo designs, but it had to have radial symmetry so that the design looked the same from all four sides of the cap.

A Rococo example
with radial symmetry.

8 slice circle

I found a blog post from a Middle School teacher on creating radial symmetry. I recommend looking at her brief instructions. She has examples.

You can use 4 slices instead. Radial symmetry may require multiples of 4 (4, 8, 16, etc...) for slices.

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Sketches

For my cap design, I tried to keep it simple, but I wanted to include raspberries too. For the design to pop out over a distance, I chose white lines over my black graduation cap for contrast.

I started the design on Photoshop, but space and angles are hard to apply without measurements. I did not use the slice method, which I now highly recommend.

2nd design on paper

I had tried again on paper with a shape repeated and rotated at each corner. I went with a more simple design, but kept my raspberries. The lines would still be white for contrast, but I decided to use color to differentiate the berries from the lines.

Then I tried recreating the shape with circle and oval stencils, which I highly recommend as well.

Found at most art stores

I used a color pencil for the lines that would show and pencil for drafting the shape.

Observations and decisions were written down:

• The cap was smaller than I thought and I forgot that one corner had the school's name.
• I'll use one large circle instead of two.
• I'll place the arcs in the middle of one side instead of a corner.

More simple.
The oval is the raspberry

I decided on the most simple design, and I wrote the measurements from the circle and oval stencil. The sketches on the right did not capture the full curves. More mistakes would have occurred.

Final Sketch

The design was too simple for me though. Haha. Because the lines will be thin, I think it's better to add more more lines. I drew some thumbnails and liked the one with corner decorations.

I still had to worry about space between repeated shapes so I measured from one point in one shape to another point in another shape. In the photo on the right, I made this measurement blue for better viewing.

The planning was done. Whew.

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Application

Unfortunately, I do not have images for when I did this part of the process. Application was done in more than one day to keep a steady hand and rest.

I drew the design with pencil and stencil on the graduation cap according to recorded measurements.

For the corners, I traced the shape of a large oval object because the stencil did not have large enough ovals. Of course I marked the distance from the corner for each oval arc.

The raspberries were penciled on the cap last because they were more detailed.

I used this gesso.

Because I did not plan on washing my graduation cap, I used white acrylic gesso, which can be undone by water. Gesso is usually used as a primer coat on paper and canvas, but it can be used in place of white acrylic paint.

If you have used gesso before, then try it first to see how comfortable you are using it. Apply water to increase the drying time.

After Acrylic Painting, I felt more confident with brushstrokes and had used gesso in place of white acrylic. However, I did not paint one arc in one brushstroke. I did multiple strokes for one arc with two thin paintbrushes. It's better to pace yourself anyway.


I waited for the gesso to dry before applying more; you don't want to smear wet gesso. Rest your hand and eyes.

I had made an arc too wide, but I was able to take away some gesso by using a wet paintbrush (just water). If you looked closely at my graduation cap, then you'll see that the edges of that arc are not sharp. Thus, do not rely on fixing it with water.

Demonstrated on Pixlr.com

For the raspberries, I mixed red-violet acrylic paint with the gesso. The leaves were still white though.

Instead of painting the lines of the raspberry, I painted the many square-shapes of the raspberry. I did not want the four raspberries identical so I allowed myself to paint more loosely.

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Result

The application step was done the week of the ceremony. Whew! But now it represents my hard work. =)

The school name looks like I painted over it but, I didn't. 

If you can text a picture message, then I recommend sending a picture of your finished design to those attending your graduation. As I said in my other post, friends and family found me after the ceremony because they spotted my decorated cap. :)

I'd like to see your results too even if you did not paint.

Wax Figures and Non-existent Cupcakes

Wax figure of Steven Spielberg on the left.

Last Sunday I had a girls' trip in Hollywood mainly for the Madam Tussad's wax museum. As a Legoland employee, I got free admission for my group. =) We had a blast and I recommend the museum because some wax celebrities have scenery and props.

My friends and I had a list of events including the Johnny Cupcakes shop in L.A. Because Johnny sometimes has events that require you to wear one of his shirts, I wore the one I got at his college lecture.

Once again, Johnny Cupcakes is a shop that looks and even smells like a bakery, but the product is actually tee shirts. The only time cupcakes have actually been in the shop was on April Fool's Day. The shop is another illusion in Hollywood.

Johnny's customers buy limited shirts even when they don't have the money, but he does more than sell a product. Customers get to spend time with Johnny outside of his shop.

Every month, Johnny rents the Coolidge Theatre in Massachusetts to play one of his childhood movies such as The Goonies and Gremlins. He charges $7 or nothing for admission. For The Karate Kid, he gave out free karate headbands with cupcakes on them so that the theater was full of them. The Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles showing had free pizza. Sometimes Johnny dresses as a character, and he usually holds movie themed contests with themed prizes.


Johnny has held events at other shops too. He once tweeted that he would buy ice cream for anyone who showed up at the given time range at a certain ice cream shop. He did not sell anything. His existing loyal customers were appreciated.

A third type of event Johnny holds is charities. Customers have stayed up late hours with Johnny to help repair a kids' camp so it would open again after a year of closed doors. After repairs, they crashed at the camp for the night.

Although my friends and I did not make it to Johnny Cupcakes, I am glad I did wear one of his shirts. This week Johnny announced on a contest on Facebook:

"Post a photo of yourself recreating your favorite movie moment while wearing a Johnny Cupcakes shirt. Contestants will be entered into drawing to win a $100.00 Johnny Cupcakes gift card."

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho

This opportunity increased my laughs over the Psycho photo-op at Madam Tussad's. I photoshopped the photo and was the first to submit an entry. =) Once again, I am glad I wore a Johnny Cupcakes shirt that day.

The contest winner will be announced on Monday, April 23 at noon (EST).






I will leave you with videos over the opening of the L.A.s shop in 2008. Johnny opened a shop in Los Angeles because 30% of his orders come from the west coast. Over 400 loyal customers stood in line for the opening.

The customers did not feel like they were making a purchase. I still hope to visit his L.A. shop for the experience. Johnny hired the same people that decorate the Disneyland characters' homes.

London has a Johnny Cupcake shop too now.

Back into the Labyrinth

I heard the Rammstein song "Die Sonne" earlier today and found myself thinking of the 80's movie Labyrinth later on. A humorous fanart idea even popped in my head. I listened to the song again just now and I remembered this fan-made music video (Spoliers! The video follows the whole movie):

The timing of the music and movement is awesome.

Labyrinth is one of my top movies. Then The Fall became my new Labyrinth. However, after today and a few tee designs,  I find myself diving back to Labyrinth. I hope I can make the fanart idea into a shirt as well.

Here's the trailers for both mentioned movies:

Labyrinth (1986)

The Fall (2008)

Impact on a Child

I thought the following chinese proverb from my daily planner was worth sharing.
"A child's life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark."

There are humorous villains who cry about the toy he didn't get or not being hugged enough.  However, the quote applies to everyone as the influence and as the one influenced.


Here are three villain examples with an impacting childhood moment anyway:

Gru from Despicable Me,

Ego the critic from Ratatouille (Spoliler),

And Megamind.

Megamind at the top.
Metroman at the bottom.

The last two are cast into the roles of villain and hero according to looks and homes.

Can you think of an example? It does not have to be a villain or from a movie.