Getting Analog

George Lucas was the forerunner of digital cinema technology.  Think what you want about the Prequel Trilogy, but they did undoubtedly push the frontier of making theatrically released films with digital cameras instead of film.  George Lucas is also infamous for his love of computer-generated imagery.  But despite all his love for technology, whenever he sat down to write out the story he did it on pen and paper.  Kind of weird, isn’t it?  Why would a filmmaker with the best technology in the industry use such analog technology like pen and paper to start of a movie concept?

Well, I think I know why.  I’ve been working on a new feature script for the past few days.  Right now I’m making detailed documents about all of my characters and their backstories, and later I’ll make a number of outlines in more and more detail.  But as I sketch out some of my secondary characters, I stumble on a couple that I have a pretty big and basic problem with.  I need to give these characters a name!  With this movie I’m trying to have meaningful names for the characters that give subtle hints to their personalities.  You know, using the roots of words in other languages and looking up the meanings of names in certain cultures.  So I sit, looking at my computer screen, racking my brain for the right name.  Once I have it, I’ll put it on that pristine Word document right there.

Unsuccessful, I go lie on my bed and brainstorm some more.  Being away from the computer is definitely helping.  Looking at that blinking cursor on the screen is actually a little intimidating, believe it or not.  But away from it now, more names are coming to me.  If only I could WRITE THEM DOWN!  Bingo, that’s it.  Despite all the technology, sometimes writing down ideas with old fashioned pen and paper helps the creative process.  At least for me at that moment it did.  It’s obviously different for each person.  For me, I was having writer’s block on my Word document.  For some reason, the want to write my ideas on pen and paper was not a part of that digital writer’s block.  Maybe that’s why George Lucas wrote on notepads.  Maybe that’s something I should do more too.  Oddly enough, I don’t have any notebooks I can use where I’m at.  But, I think the writer’s block is gone for now.  I’m really just saying that.  After I finish this post, which I’m just using as a distraction from my writer’s block, I go back to racking my brain for that same last character’s name!

Comments

[Stephen "Smiles" Ramirtha]

I know it's kind of weird, but whenever I need inspiration, I read about the making of video games. It's cool to see how works like Alice in Wonderland can influence the world of Super Mario (mushrooms make you go big, you go down the rabbit hole/pipe) or how Hebrew mythology played a role in the creation of Pokemon (Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza are based on the Behemoth, Leviathan and Ziz respectively). It not only gives an appreciation for past literature and works, but also helps spark ideas.