New Podcast now available
This episode of the podcast is to help anyone understand just one of the many devices that are necessary to create a good screenplay, book or any story.
The Dark Night of the Soul is an integral part of any good story. To write a good story the Dark Night of the Soul isn't just a device used by a character to get where they are going, and it is the reason they get there.
This episode of the podcast is to help anyone understand just one of the many devices that are necessary to create a good screenplay, book or any story.
Five things you didn't know about me...
I was bounty hunter in my younger days. Yes, an honest to goodness bounty hunter. I arrested three men and almost lost my sh*t the entire time I was doing it. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t afraid, I was hyper aware of everything that was going on.
Thinking about my experiences today I really don’t know how I could tantalize you, the reader. Blogs are supposed to be about the exciting and creative things the author has done during the day to show the world how great they are.
Well, today was actually kind of boring. I know, I know… I am supposed to never say that on a blog because it might mean that the folks reading might get disillusioned. It’s all about the clicks, right?
So I thought that it might be interesting to write about five things you don’t know, or probably don’t know about me.
One: I hate clickbait, and I am somewhat mad at myself right now for engaging in it.
Two: I truly put myself in the shoes of other people. I may be wrong about my conclusions, but I try very hard to make sure that everything that I do has a positive impact on the person I am talking to.
Three: I was a bounty hunter in my younger days. Yes, an honest to goodness bounty hunter. I arrested three men and almost lost my sh*t the entire time I was doing it. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t afraid, I was hyper-aware of everything that was going on. That meant I knew I was probably ruining these cats lives by bringing them in. I am older now, so I realize that their lives were already crap and they were the only one that was responsible for their predicament. I was just a symptom.
Truth be told, my right eye twitched 24/7 while I was hunting these guys down. I was smarter than them so I got everyone I was sent after, but it was absolute hell.
When I quit, when I told the bondsman that I wasn’t going to do it anymore, my eye immediately quit twitching. Thank God, cuz that sucked.
Well, almost everyone levels up.
Four: I used to be an American Idol level singer. I know, everyone says they are that good. But I was told more than once that I was great, and not by a bunch of drunks either (they think everyone’s great). It didn’t last long though, just like everything else I tried, it got hard and I had an easier way to make money now, so I did that instead.
What I should have done… wait. life isn’t about what we should have done. It’s about what we are going to do next. Want some unsolicited advice? Ok, I will tell you anyway. Don’t run from what is hard, run toward it. You will only get better and level up.
Five: I genuinely want everyone I work with to succeed. I feel jealousy sometimes, but when I recognize it for what it is, I immediately slap my hand with a ruler. When folks around me win, I win. I win because I get to learn from them (you can too, I believe this with my entire being). They are winning, and I want to win also. Bringing them down or chastising them behind their back or to their face is actually saying more about me than them.
Failure we can learn from. Winning benefits us all. We can learn and absorb what it took to win and use it for ourselves.
Because I put myself in everyone else’s shoes, I know that they may have won, but they are just as scared and full of self-doubt as I am and you are, believe it or not.
Thoughts on Work
You always have to jump into the deep if you wanna swim
I’m thinking tonight about my future. Thinking about what can lie ahead, about my past and just how things could have turned out differently.
See, in the past, I have always chosen the thing that seemed to be right because it will get me out of “predicaments” the fastest. I went into insurance for the money, went with the opportunities because of the money. Honestly, I had cash, and I learned to live with myself and my choice... mostly.
There always was that nagging feeling that I wasn’t doing anything with my life and nothing was satisfying. I had a prolonged bitter taste after the sweetness left.
This time it’s scary, just like all the times before. But this time I think I’m going to do what’s hard. It may ruin me financially, but I believe it’s going to pay off this time.
I’m a creative. That’s where my strength lies. That’s what made me an excellent salesman and also why I can never be a great salesman. This time I’m going to run down the path instead of detouring to the field full of flowers that are beautiful in the short-term but kill me with hay fever in the long.
If you pray, pray for me. I’m going to need it.
New podcast!
New podcast from me! Listen and subscribe.
As of today, I have a new podcast available on Apple podcasts called “Aul G Newton on Everything”. Go to the podcast app on your apple device or visit the page or go to the page if you don’t have an Apple device or use iTunes.
Work, Work Work...
Working for a job I’m not supposed to have?
Today was exciting, to say the least. Many of you don’t know, but I was laid off from my job as the Video Production Manager at a national orthodontic firm about three weeks ago. Usually being laid off means that you don’t work for that company anymore, strangely, this time that’s not what’s happening.
It seems that the company may have been a little premature with my departure from the company. Hey, don’t look at me, I didn’t want to leave after all. Last week I spent all week up there and nine hours today making videos for them. I don’t mind, since it’s too cold anyway, and it gives me something to do. But good grief...
The good news though is that I seem to have stumbled upon another opportunity. It seems the State has a program that will allow me to go back to school for Graphics Design. That’s pretty cool!
I already know a hell of a lot about color, composition, Photoshop and more but to get free training in all the other stuff, well that’s cool. Once I’m into the program, I actually may be able to qualify for a few grants as well. Maybe that will allow me to travel even more and get the really great shots I am looking for.
Quick journey through the fresh snow.
It snowed in North West Arkansas today so I went out into the cold with my camera and found some pretty interesting colors amidst all the white.
It is brutally cold here in the south. I know, I know… folks in Minnesota are used to being cryogenically-frozen until spring, but this is the south, my dear. We have brutally hot summers where the humidity is so high we sometimes have to wear scuba gear to breath, but our winters only get into the teens and twenties for a few days, and you know, we just ain't used to it. LOL. The good news for us, here in North West Arkansas, is that it snowed a little. Not a vast snow, just a good dusting that made everyone think it snowed.
Since there was a layer of white stuff on top of everything today, I figured I better get out and take a photograph or two. I enlisted my father (who is in his seventies) because my Mustang GT might just get stuck and his giant Dodge Ram probably won't. He and I bundled up and headed out.
The first place I stopped was Lake Fayetteville. It is easy to get to and just deserted enough to test the roads for ice. The calmness of the lake seemed the best place to start.
The cold touch of winter
While this photo is good, it isn't what I expected I would get, and I wanted to do better. When taking a photograph, its all about contrast. Not the contrast slider in your phone's photo editing app that can be taken too far and usually is, but about the contrast of the subjects. Being that winter in Arkansas is typically cold and grey with brown dominating all the scenes where green is overabundant in the summer. Things need to stand out when you take a photograph and not dominate.
I kept looking for something better, something that may spark my interest. I wasn't hitting on all cylinders by my eye caught the wavy vanishing point just to my right.
Wavy lines of man
But really, that wasn't what I was looking for, and it really isn't up to the standards I have set for myself.
Telling this to my father, he started the truck and headed south to the Boston Mountains. I was worried about this trek into the pretend mountains (they are really just very rugged and steep hills) as it is challenging to find the right viewpoint without traveling across private property. He assured me that there has to be something worth taking a photo of. So, off we went, but first, we visited Mount Sequoya in Fayetteville.
Usually, you can get a great photograph of the entire downtown of Fayetteville Arkansas from way up on top of the hill, but just not today. It seems that the upkeep of this particular spot has fallen short this winter, add to that the other sightseers and a persistent haze, it really didn't look all that great. NEXT TIME!
Old main was obscured by overgrown trees and a persistent haze.
I did get this cute photo of the guest house, though. It makes me want to go watch "Its a Wonderful Life" for some reason.
But then we decided to go south. Visit the river and follow it as far as we could stand. It was worth it. While not all my efforts were print worthy, for this blog, I think most of them will do.
Even better was that the cold of the day caused the water in the river to turn emerald green and turquoise. FUN!
But the best one, as it always is, was Devil’s Den State Park waterfall. It never lets you down.
Always running, this waterfall is great, any time of year.
After that, though, I was just too cold. We headed home and had some stew and got warmed up.
Old Man Winter
Old man winter is trying my patients.
Sitting on my front porch (yeah, whatcha going to do about it, lol) looking at the grey sky and sleeping trees trying hard to stay warm I can’t wait for spring.
The sky is grey and the trees are bare, Soon you will be photo-worthy after your long winters nap.
Spring is the best time of year for the most colorful shots and not freezing to death.
Oh, winter, you were fun for a day but three months is hard for a guy like me to stand.
The spring flowers are always in style.
Review of Thor Ragnarok
I do have to applaud the movie for trying to stay true to its roots in the 1970's, 1980's motif that the first one had with its cheesy subtitles and crummy music but even that left me rolling my eyes because of the recent phenomena of the Netflix Stranger Things. It actually cheapened it for me because I hate pandering, especially in film where the movie has to hold its own for the sake of itself. Even though, I must admit that no movie seems to do that these days. A practice that I believe should still be first and foremost in the minds of the creators of any film yet has seemed to fall out of favor.
I finally gave in and went to see the heralded Thor Ragnarok last night. I did not want to see it, really, but many of the screenwriting podcasts I have been listening to, like The Curious about Screenwriting Podcast, seem to love the story. While I felt it had some relative fun aspects to the movie, I did not feel that it left me wanting to see more or other films.
The story structure seems sound, its flow was not interrupted with randomness or unnecessary scenes that failed to complete the mission of furthering the story. It did have redeeming character traits that made the characters somewhat likable and, on the first watch, the story seemed succinct. That did not spur my imagination and left me with a feeling of emptiness when leaving the theater. It was not a bad movie, and it did everything right in the way that movies are doing them today, but it didn't do what I want a movie to do and create a lasting impression upon my psyche that I can carry with me on my travels through my own life.
I do have to applaud the movie for trying to stay true to its roots in the 1970s, 1980's motif that the first one had with its cheesy subtitles and crummy music but even that left me rolling my eyes because of the recent phenomena of the Netflix Stranger Things. It actually cheapened it for me because I hate pandering, especially in a film where the movie has to hold its own for the sake of itself. Even though, I must admit that no movie seems to do that these days. A practice that I believe should still be first and foremost in the minds of the creators of any film yet has seemed to fall out of favor.
The film opens with Thor being trapped by a Devil looking creature that makes no literal sense to anyone like myself... but there is a reason for the creature as it is blatantly and needed for the movie to have an ending. Unfortunately for this film, I knew exactly what this character's purpose was at about three minutes in. Ultimately telling me the conclusion of the movie and leaving no suspense or tension to make me WANT to keep watching. Then it did it again and again... Every new character that was introduced strengthened my guess and eventually left me with two hours of my time taken from me while draining my pockets of the money it took to purchase the ticket. At the end of the film, I found myself ultimately disappointed in the plot and story because at no point did anything task my senses or make me second guess the ending that was already completed in my mind. In fact, the only other movie that was more blatant about its end at the very beginning was a terrible film that had so much potential but the worst story ever called "The Others" starring Nichole Kidman. This movie is about a mother and her children who are haunted by ghosts, but it turns out that they are actually the ghosts. Something that was very thinly veiled at the beginning leaving nothing to the imagination and thus ruining the story.
One thing that immediately set off my alarms is when Thor losses his hammer just shortly after his father dies. The only recourse for the character is to take the throne from the bad, bad lady in the Maleficent outfit and kill her with the thing holding Thor prisoner at the beginning of the movie. I mean they didn't even try. The fact that her horns and the horns of what could be mistaken as the devil from "Pick of Destiny" look exactly the same are just some of the dead giveaways. Needless to say, any entertainment value from this movie could only come from the crude and silly jokes, insider trading of the Avengers prior films and fighting. None of which actually advance the story or make any sort of coherent point that might stimulate anyone other than fanboys who would watch any Marvel movie with exuberance just because it is a Marvel movie, regardless of its content or quality.
I tried to enjoy the movie, I honestly did. The laments of Thor as he tries to be cool but just isn't are humorous and usually might make him more human but fail miserably and only serve to throw us out of the film and remind us that we are in a theater and not somewhere else. Then there is the CGI. It is supposed to be, but it looks horrendous. None of the places looked real to me at any point other than the short scene on earth where they are talking to their father. Everything else was half baked and cheap. I know what it takes to make stuff in computer land look real and have done it myself, and I assure you, it could have been done much better for an extra couple of hours worth of work. Not only do the locations look very fake and seem to make us want to believe that outer space exists in the land of Roger Rabbit all of the animated characters look equally bad. At no point did I ever believe Hulk was in the same room as Thor and not just some cartoon skillfully drawn but poorly colored.
I would say this movie is worth a watch on Netflix or Amazon Prime, but that is about as far as I would go. It isn't a terrible movie, but it's not that great either. Films should challenge us, make us want to be right next to the character on the screen and endear themselves into our psyche when we are done watching them. Genuine cinematic gold must contain something of lasting value that stays with you. Thor, Ragnarok doesn't even come close to doing this on any level, and it is a waste of time. If you want pure entertainment for the sake of entertainment, watch something else because this doesn't even accomplish that. Terminator 2 is better at just tantalizing your brain, probably because it's endearing and leaves you different than you were before you saw it the first time. Something this movie and most of its contemporaries fail to do.