Comments for The Dave Blog

Comment on About by Ronne Koloskee

Ronne Koloskee — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:35:37 +0000

I know what you are talking about , about more women being in control of important decision
making. The way I look at things these days, whoever has the “wisdom” to do the best job,
then that is who should be hired to perform the job. I have met some very intelligent women
in my life. As a matter of fact, my last boss was a woman and she taught me alot of things.
Like you said Dave, we were born by women, and sometimes they know what is best for
us men. I think the neanderthal mentality of men is what hesitates alot of men to take on
women as role models, but like I said, whoever can do the job the best should be hired.

Comment on Old Dogs and New Paradigms, Part 2 by zornhau

zornhau — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:01:41 +0000

I’ve been reading Harold Lamb – historical adventure writer who influenced REH – and your piece here suggests to me the possibility of emulating what he did: using gritty action to illuminate complex worlds and thus squarign the circle. Some more thought required.

Meanwhile, I suppose you know that Pyr are (/were recently) open to un-agented submissions of S&S.

Comment on Thoughts About Avatar by Ronne Koloskee

Ronne Koloskee — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:25:48 +0000

@zornhau

Exactly Zornhaus….But this is only my opinion. I guess that people born before us,
never had the chance to see good film with good storylines and dialogue. I think that
the film industry still has hope, though. George Lucas really made the point when he
was a struggling artist and he wrote the fledgling story about Star Wars. He was in
alien territory back then, but he seemed to bring together enough talent to make it
work. The good storyline was there from the beginning, so this really helped.
This is what I’m trying to say….When you have a good concept and storyline, then
half of the job is done…….Same with Architecture…When you have a good plan on the
drawings, then the rest of the work goes very smoothly.

Comment on Thoughts About Avatar by knadles

knadles — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:09:21 +0000

I’m not entirely sure I agree with you, zornhau. While having access to a large supply of cool tech toys is probably seductive to a filmmaker, and awesome effects(tm) are often used to distract the audience from poor writing, the fact remains that in the right hands, a tool is simply a tool. Forrest Gump was a good movie made with cutting edge technology. So was The Wizard of Oz.

There have been plenty of lousy films made during every era. One of the advantages of the past is that the worst parts rarely filter forward. We look at old movies and see nothing but classics, but that’s because no one has bothered to preserve the detritus.

Comment on Book Catalogs by Ronne Koloskee

Ronne Koloskee — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:33:59 +0000

Dave…. I can remember when I was in Junior High School (around 1965 -1966) and I
used to go to a little store down the road and buy comic books for 10 cents each.
Little did I know when I read all those great stories about Spiderman, The Hulk,
Thor, Fantastic Four, X-men, Etc….that all these great stories would be turned into
some great movies today. Stan Lee was a great artist and I’m sure his co-writers
deserve alot of credit.
I really think the “Spiderman” movies (3 I think?) are very faithful to the old comic
book storylines. This is really great!! There is alot of “respect” here from the film-
making crowd to depict the story. The first Spiderman movie really “awed” me in
it’s authenticity to the original storyline from the comic book from the 60s.
I can remember when I was in ninth grade and I used to go down the street and buy
all those Marvel comic books at 10 cents .
I used to have all those “First Edition” Marvel comics (Maybe 100?) , but unfortunately,
when my Dad sold his house and moved, he through all my old comic books in the
dumpster without telling me.
Today, all those old comic books I used to have, would be worth over 10K…..Oh well,
I’m not going to hold it against my Dad…He didn’t know.

Comment on Edmond Hamilton and Leigh Brackett by Ronne Koloskee

Ronne Koloskee — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:15:51 +0000

Dave….That is a very interesting story about Leigh Brackett. I can remember
Dave Clement telling me about Leigh and her house in Kinsman way back in
the mid 70s.

Regards,
Ronne

Comment on Thoughts About Avatar by Ronne Koloskee

Ronne Koloskee — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:30:13 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly with Dave and Zornhau. The older sci-fi adventure movies
worked real well, because they were well written and directed. The dialogue in movies
such as “Time Machine”, “War Of The Worlds”, “Jason And The Argonauts”, etc. worked
really well to bring the viewer into the story. The primitive film effects, such as Harryhausen
did so well, only added to the surreal visual image.
Sometimes, these new films that are out these days with the “Slam, Bam, Crash” special
effects, work against the whole concept and sensibilities of a well written story. Sometimes,
“Less is more”…if you know what I mean.
One of my all time favorite movies is “The Birds” by Alfred Hitchcock. Now that was a good
movie filled with good storyline, dialogue, acting and everything, but I guess Alfred is
no longer with us, so that is probably why film making has deteriorated through the years.
Oh well, I guess now we have to live in the computer age with these special effects.
On a brighter note, though…I thought all the “Spiderman” movies are pretty faithful to
the original comic book stories, as I used to read all those!!!

Regards,
Ronne

Comment on Cult Fiction by Ted

Ted — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:45:12 +0000

A very persuasive introduction to this book. I’ll have to snag a copy. I’m instantly attracted to anything that celebrates identifiable cult manifestations. Since “cult” and “culture” share the same Latin root, the works that achieve this ambiguous status say as much about the civilization that embraces them as minority curios as do its mainstream icons.

These cultural-reflection books are usually as much fun as they are informative. For all the scholarly ruminations on cinema on my bookshelves, I’ll still take Danny Peary’s CULT MOVIES over most of them.

There’s no arguing the timeless spirit of GOODNIGHT MOON. But while we’re considering beddie-bye themes, let me lobby here for GOODNIGHT, OWL—my own personal favorite as a proxy reader. Witty, charmingly onomatopoeic, and with a quietly sinister subtext involving nature’s patient way of getting even in the long run. Not only great fun on a desert island but also a stark reminder to the stranded that peace and quiet should not be undervalued!

Comment on Some Tools for Building Stories by Ted

Ted — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:57:31 +0000

Hey, Dave—and another fine blog you’ve gotten me into! I’ve been doing this for a long time, and yet I still found a few tricks I hadn’t considered. Plus the codifying of some that I’d been unconsciously using. No surprise, though—you know this craft inside and out.

We’ve long shared an enthusiasm for Jack London (you once put me onto MARTIN EDEN—remember?—which is still a fave), but it never struck me that your early stuff resonated with London style. This must have been pre-Attluman fiction, no?

I hope a lot of aspiring writers migrate to this site. They’ll be doing themselves a favor.

Comment on Thoughts About Avatar by zornhau

zornhau — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:05:08 +0000

What if the script *had* been good? I think the real problem with modern effects movies is that the CG distracts the makers from telling a good story, and seduces them into stuff for the sake of it. When the story sucks, you notice the components. The old movies with lo-tech SFX worked because they were well written and directed.