Trust the Mad Pulp Bastard and...

Buy. This. Book.

Evolution of a Pulp Writer...

(And yes, sometimes I do sit naked like that and type...what? Why are you looking at me like that?)

Scifi Channel Original: Warbirds

We've often discussed our love for the Scifi Channel originals here at Pulp 2.0 (even when we were DISContent). They are a great opportunity for up-and-coming writers, directors and crew to show what they can do with a limited budget and a high concept. They are even opportunities for veteran low budget filmmakers to make movies, get paid and make more.

I've even had some of my mista...er, early films screened on Scifi, and from that feedback I was able to learn a lot, meet a few people who have also written a Scifi Original and get a credit.

Yesterday I received a screener copy of one of their recent movies, WARBIRDS, and everything you like about the Scifi Originals is here - high concept, and a general audacity to entertain its audience for a few hours (I'm including commercials). Except that in this case, WARBIRDS is an example of a movie with so much unrealized potential that I felt I needed to share it with you as a case study rather than an out and out review.

I realize this is "Monday morning Quarterbacking" and that I'm going to be called on that. Fine and accepted. But part of my mandate here is to get people to think about putting more entertainment value (read: pulp) in their low budget scripts and movies (and new media) without raising the costs. I think that's important to say because we all want to put our best storytelling foot forward and not in our mouth - especially when we don't have the money to throw at the screen.

So let's start off with where WARBIRDS gets it right. From the Scifi Wire press release:

Brian Krause, who stars in the upcoming SCI FI original movie Warbirds, told SCI FI Wire that the film is set during World War II and blends action and SF. Krause (Charmed) stars as an Air Force colonel being ferried on a secret mission across the Pacific when a pterdodactyl attack forces his bomber and its all-female crew to land on a remote island. "On that island, we run into the Japanese, who have been terrorized by a prehistoric reptile, pterodactyls who have kind of taken over the island," Krause said in an interview. "We need to get off the ground and escape from the pterodactyls so that I can finish my mission. The woman I'm playing opposite, Jamie Mann, is part of the flying force. She has a whole issue about us taking off and risking losing the lives of her crew." Krause's U.S. officer also has a Japanese counterpart, played by Japanese-American actor Tohoru Masamune. "And so we kind of have to work together--the Japanese, the Americans, the women--and find a middle ground to be able to save our lives and get off the island, all the while fighting the pterodactyls," he said. Krause admitted that the cast and crew never left the United States, though Warbirds is set in the South Pacific. "We were out in Baton Rouge, La., in middle of summer, at night, out in the bush," Krause said. "We were sweating out in the bush at 3 in the morning. I hadn't been there since Katrina, and it was nice to be able to put some money back into the economy."

----------------------------------
High concept (Pteradactyls v. WW2 Women pilots and an Atomic Bomb) -- Check!
Genre star (Brian Krause of Charmed) -- Check!
SFX (CGI Pteradactyls v. Japanese Zeroes and a Liberator) -- Check!

The movie however promising with that great title starts off at a pedestrian pace with off-the-shelf chyron over some cgi sunset background. The opening credits set is in 1945 in the pacific where the war was still raging prior to the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

My problem with it is that the titles were relatively hard to read and the producers and writer-director could have made a much more interesting title sequence using public-domain footage of broadcast quality. By public-domain I mean "free." They could have had an opening sequence that played like a newsreel - and brought us into the story much more quickly and powerfully. Very much like the old BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON television show.

And that, kids is a major problem I have with Warbirds. They tell a lot and it gets in the way of the showing.

Warbirds tells the story of a group of WASPs (Women Air Service Pilots) who must ferry a Colonel (Krause) to a naval base as he must deliver a Top Secret package. A storm shunts them toward a deserted island that may be a Japanese base, but is most definitely inhabited by Pteradactyls - one of which damages their plane.

The US and the Japanese forces must set aside the war to repair the plane and get out of there.

Plenty of story there for a good "pulp fantasy" such as this, but the movie itself never lives up to the promise of that title. Lots of dialog. Really "clean" uniforms that don't reflect being on a Pacific island in the heat and humidity with limited supplies. The women pilots always had red lipstick on and the sets seemed sparse and unrealistic. With a little quick "dirtying up" the movie would have a greater sense of realism and I think it would have helped the casts mostly wooden performances.

Another problem I have with Warbirds is its adherence to "authenticity" sacrificing drama and clarity. In other words - You DO NOT have to say "over" after every message broadcast over a radio. Especially when you are in a dogfight with a Pteradactyl! It got to be some sort of sick joke with the women pilots shouting "over" while in the midst of battle. Use a little dramatic license and build the tension - please!!! [see below]

One of the problems I have with Warbirds is that it violates one of the "rules of good pulp" (and realize that INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL does it too...) -- that is the characters learn things by talking about them instead of learning valuable facts that will come in handy later while in the midst of danger and daring-do.

When the dinosaurs show up it's a good show and I just wish they were able to maximize that value and up the personal stakes for the characters at the same time. There were moments where they were on the edge of doing so, but they didn't quite hit the mark.

For me, unfortunately this is a pass due to the script and the execution.

I invite those of you who have seen Warbirds to comment.

Words I HATE hearing...

We've never done it that way before...
But that's not our style...
What? Are you crazy? We can't get that approved...

We can't afford that.
(Reply: You can't afford not to...)
Just do it the way I said. The way we always do it.

I know I said that, but you know what I meant...

How come all the stuff from you guys looks the same?

Where's that (insert movie marketing element here)? (Reply: Did you send the stuff I requested?)
No...oh. Well, hurry up. The deadline's tomorrow.


How come all the stuff from you guys looks the same?
(Reply: Have you sent us a check? You're six months behind)
No...oh.

The check is in the mail from (insert distant land here).
(One week later) But they said they sent it to you!

How come all the stuff from you guys looks the same?

We need five sets of business cards. Our sales team can't sell without business cards... and they have to be those expensive embossed ones on the special paper we like... and the Sales team is leaving in a week.
(Reply: But we haven't finished these sell sheets or posters yet)
We need these business cards. They can't sell without them.

The title of the email blast HAS to be "Upcoming Television Availabilities for June"
(reply: Uh...that's a little dull, can we get a bit more creative with that title?")
No. We can't be creative.

That email address is wrong that's on the email blast. I'm not paying.
(Reply: Really? What is the correct one? (Waits for it) Oh - when was that person hired?)
Last week.
(Reply: Oh, because we sent that email blast out a month ago after it was approved.)
No...I...oh. Okay.

No. This is a comedy. It's not fun.

How come all the stuff from you guys looks the same?

Feel free to add your two cents in the comments.

This Just In...

I received a screener today for a Scifi Channel original that I am going to review for the blog and for Geekerati.

Though I wonder if they follow the Scifi Channel Structure?

I won't tell you the title, but the concept is very similar to this:

Me? Inspirational?

Rolf Lejdegard - a new friend from Facebook (and talented artist!) sent me a little note along with this pulpy piece, saying he was inspired by my short story "Cadavres Exquis" which you can read for free here.

That's all sorts of cool.

This is what the internet is for - collaboration and inspiration. I am happy to provide dead bodies and psychotic characters which inspire.

And be sure to check out more of the same here.

Oh, and here.

Hrrrrm...

The NY Times writes about the "interesting" approach that Warners is taking with their new movie WATCHMEN:

Faced with a decline in DVD sales, Warner Brothers, part of Time Warner, is planning an unusual effort around its upcoming adaptation of the popular graphic novel “Watchmen.” Directed by Zack Snyder and set for a March 2009 release, the big-budget movie tells the story of a group of retired superheroes who are tied to a conspiracy that could change history.

The twist is that Mr. Snyder, known for turning the Spartan comic book series “300” into a global hit movie, is also directing a separate-but-related picture that Warner plans to distribute exclusively on DVD.

The second film, tentatively called “Tales of the Black Freighter,” follows a side “Watchmen” storyline about a shipwreck and will arrive in stores five days after the main movie rolls out in theaters. The DVD will also include a documentary-style film called “Under the Hood” that will delve into the characters’ backstories.

And then there's some comics guys who just don't get how cool this is, and how we as a comic-reading audience need things like this to happen if comics are to survive.

So let me dissect this a bit:

1. Comic book movie coming out theatrically.
2. D2DVD tie-in movie coming out 5 days later to expand and fulfill the entire story of Watchmen.
3. Doc-style movie providing even more background for the movie.

I personally have always thought that Watchmen shouldn't have been a movie project as there was too much scope in the storytelling - too many parallel stories going on. I've been on the side of an HBO mini-series. This approach by Warners is trying to encompass the entire "Watchmen Universe" and tell the whole story but in separate formats (but still following the elements found in the book).

How is this a bad thing again?

You Look Okay for a Dead Man...

Way back in the beginnings of this blog, I published my first short story with Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier and their Black Coat Press. Since that time we have gone on to do three more stories together in the TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN series.

In honor of that first "walk down the dark alleyways" I present you with this:

Should you care to explore the world of French pulp fiction further (without having to learn French I might add) go here and place your orders. Lots of very cool stuff to choose from.

Raiders of the Lost Ark: Chapter 7

Bondage in the UK

(Now is that a great post title or what?)
Penguin Books, U.K. have been redesigning their line of James Bond editions (again).

I detect a pattern here (not that that's a bad thing by any means).

Enjoy!

Grab 'em Between the Legs, The Rest Will Follow...

Print magazine has a nice online expose' of how many times artists and designers have used the classic "between the legs" shot. It was infamous long before James Bond.

Many slideshows to watch including:

The pulp paperback slideshow.

The movie poster slideshow.

The DVD Covers slideshow.

Advertisements slideshow.

The Comic Book slideshow.

And album covers...

Psychotronica

It pays to have low friends in high places (Wait, is that right? Yes) as Jim Henshaw sent me a link from Boing Boing listing a ton of cult movies that are chronicled in Michael Weldon's PSYCHOTRONIC VIDEO GUIDE and available for free download from the Internet Archive. Well worth watching to study how they did pulp filmmaking back in the good old days.

It helps to bring a six-pack to your computer if you are going to watch these movies as they are all definitely "psychotronic."


The list includes (copied from Boing-Boing):

The Amazing Mr. X
The Amazing Transparent Man
The Ape
Assignment: Outer Space
Atom Age Vampire
The Atomic Brain
Attack of the Giant Leeches
Attack From Space
The Beast of Hollow Mountain
The Beatniks
Bloody Pit of Horror
The Brain That Wouldn't Die
Bride of the Gorilla
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Carnival of Souls
The Corpse Vanishes
Creature From the Haunted Sea
Daughter of Horror
The Day the Sky Exploded
Dead Men Walk
Dementia 13
Detour
The Devil of the Desert Against the Son of Hercules
Doomed To Die
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) That's just A-D. For E-Z, with the links to the videos, visit Mr. Bali Hai's blog, Eye of the Goof. Link

Raider of the Lost Ark: Chapter 6

(Courtesy of Roger Alford @ Lightning Bug Films)

What He Said...

"I write for fanboy moments. I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of. I write to do all the things the viewers want too. So the intensity of the fan response is enormously gratifying. It means I hit a nerve. "

--- Joss Whedon

(Tip o' the hat to Jill Golick)

"Calling Rip Rocket! Emergency... Calling Rip Rocket!"

Oh yes, my little pulpsters - the lines between serials, pulps and real life just intersected.

Now all we need are underwater and Moon bases and I'm set...

Oh, and a raygun.

I need the raygun.

Storytelling Tips We Can All Learn From Metallica

I am still tired from last night's show because it was chock full of the awesome. My ears are still ringing, and the mad pulp bastard is acting like the old, slow bastard.

Such is the price we pay for rock n' roll.

Last night as we rocked out, it occurred to me (because this is how my brain works) that the best rock n' roll songs are stories, and the best concerts are novels with each song being a chapter. With that nugget of insight, the following are my further observations on "story" by way of Ulrich, Hettrick, et al...

1. COME IN SWINGING:

The guys started the show with a rapid-fire head-banging tune that got the audience quickly off their feet and into the experience. They also came in late, which built the expectations up in the audience to a fever pitch.

2. CONCENTRATE ON THE ESSENTIALS:

This was a stripped down show. Three guitars, a drum set and amplifiers on a sparse black curtained stage. The amplifiers were set up so that the readout panels with their glowing diodes and LCD's providing a line across the back of the stage and defined the space.

And truly that's all that was required. The rest was audience and creators...

3. CONNECT WITH THE AUDIENCE:

Even though the band was separate from the audience they consistently asked questions, got feedback, threw stuff into the crowd and roused everyone to cheer and rage. They always made sure to go back and reconnect somehow with every new song.

4. STORYTELLING IS A COMMUNAL EXPERIENCE:

Stories are meant to be shared and spread. People texted with their phones. My date Twittered the whole thing.

And of course, there's the YouTube:

5. GIVE THEM WHAT THEY EXPECT:

Lots of classics thrown in there - Enter, Sandman - One - Sad But True...

6. BUT NOT EXACTLY HOW THEY EXPECT:

As you can see they flipped up a classic song by adding Flea to their mix (which was a good fit). They worked new songs into their playlist, changed guitars up, changed the arrangements. They played on everyone's expectations and brought something new to the table.

Storytelling is a lot like Rock n' roll. The good stories are memorable and leave your ears ringing the next day. The great ones inspire you, and make you question how they were constructed.

Or is this all that gin talking?

Heading to the Concert...

(poster design by Firebrain Inc. for the Silverlake Conservatory of Music)

The Mad Pulp Update

Posting will be light for the next week or so as I get ahead on some projects (who am I kidding? I mean catch up...) and write my ass off. I also have some events that require my pulpy presence.

Just to update everyone:

The Knightmare will now be a two-part radio podcast. That means reconfiguring the second part a bit which I am doing now...

Working on Top Secret Pulp Project which is currently at page 50 and climbing rapidly...

Working on a story for these guys...

Which will be a sequel to the story I wrote here...

and several other things that I can't even hint at yet...

In the meantime you can speculate in the comments on what I'm cooking up and tell me what you'd like to see from Pulp 2.0. It can be anything pulp/movie/comic related.

Raiders of the Lost Ark: Chapter 5

Nine Inch Nails on a Red Right Hand telling a Story2oh to the Writerboy

It's days like these that I embrace the Scribosphere. By digitally connecting the dots one can see a storytelling epiphany about to happen (which is a good thing)

For those of you who don't know, let me give you the rundown:

Jill Golick's Story2oh project got kicked off of Facebook because part of FB's terms is that all their profiles have to be of real people (Ha!). This was after Jill made a presentation at CaseCamp -- a gathering of new media types to discuss the future.

There was a discussion (aka shouting match) here and here wherein all the new media people were saying that social nets like Facebook require "absolute transparency" because people were upset that they were "befriended" by characters who weren't real people, and want to be sure they aren't being used in some way.

It was all a real pisser because there was suddenly two camps: One that said that there must be transparency (mostly new media folk) , and the other camp that said that the story's the thing (the writers). The new media folks couldn't get past the "deception" aspect of what occurred, and the writers couldn't get past the fact that Facebook has rules regarding deceptive profiles which in essence hamstrings the idea of storytelling across profile pages.

Meanwhile, over in the corner of the blogosphere was Michael Patrick Sullivan posting over his love of Trent Reznor and the Nine Inch Nails Alternate Reality Game/Project YEAR ZERO. I read Michael's post and checked out Reznor's site.

And I was completely blown away by the scope and planning of it all. Year Zero is a Mission: Impossible made flesh (with a constantly remixed soundtrack courtesy of Reznor's licensing scheme). Real life goals and rewards and digital game-play enmeshed like my mamma's spaghetti on a Saturday night.

So it all comes together in my head and I email Denis and Jill and explain that the smoking gun is YEAR ZERO.

Thing is -- People became involved in Year Zero knowing absolutely nothing other than the whole thing was "cool." There was no transparency. In fact, I would go as far to say that it was all Mystery and Conspiracy and 100% Make-believe. It was all one big entertaining game, art project, marketing plan, concert promotion, exercise, political statement.

And the audience, the people who actually matter in this whole storytelling scheme of ours, they couldn't be happier.

So you new media types listen up: Trent Reznor is giving you the finger (with a pointy Nine Inch Nail on it) regarding transparency. Fuck transparency. Because really all that matters is the thing that goes all the way back to cave paintings and campfires:

It's always about entertaining the audience. Always.

For the creative folk : Alternate Reality Games (ARG's) are here to stay, folks. A new form of storytelling that embraces experience as well as plot and character. We won't, can't be just writers anymore if we want to compete in this arena. We have to be careful how we do it, who we do it with, and what the consequences will be if we screw it up.

And next up is this.

And this.

I want to see some ARG's geared to my interest though. I think the video promotion for Icon's KICK-ASS comic book may apply. What sort of stuff do you want to write/produce/create? Would you like to see clues to something intriguing in the next issue of Astonishing Adventures? Integrated video playlists from YouTube? An art contest? A costume contest? An event of some sort?

Speak up.

Radical Comics (Not So Much)

A couple of weeks ago I picked up two new comics on the rack from Radical Comics. The titles were HERCULES and CALIBER and feature some work by some great talents whom I'm a big fan. But I have to admit that it was the pricing of the comics that lured me in and not the packages themselves.

HERCULES is a great comic concept and is ripe for the comic book format - so much so that it seems that just about every publisher has a version of the character somewhere in their library. What makes this Hercules different however is the "300" approach to the story. This Hercules is certainly a man-warrior of his time with all the pluses and minuses that implies. He isn't necessarily a gentleman - he's violent, brutal and yeah, unforgiving - but there is an appeal there.

That is, if you can get through the haphazard storytelling of the pages within. Images sort of blend together and if you hold the comic five feet away from your eyes you can't tell what's going on! Text is poorly placed and the story doesn't flow from one page to the next. I would have said it was a "technique" to mimic the chaos of battle, but the panel placements are equally confusing for scenes that are "calm."

The Hercules comic features a cover by Steranko, but for the life of me I would have shot the proofer who accepted this print job. The printed cover is waaaay too dark and doesn't accurately reflect the image I'm posting here. It's muted and well, ugly. That plus the gloss coat makes for a dark and unimpressive package that doesn't pop off the shelf.

The same problems that appear in Hercules also appear in CALIBER. A confusing story that is a remix of the Arthurian legendfor the "westerns audience" is made moreso by the poor placement of word balloons. My head had to bob up and down IN THE SAME PANEL to read the conversation between two characters that btw had too much text in the first place.

So if I was soooo disappointed with these why did I pick them up? Well, they were each a dollar and that lowered the bar sufficiently for me to try them out. When the price goes up for the second issues I won't be there because $2.99 or $3.99 is too much to pay for stories that don't work. Even if they are sandwiched within glossy cardstock covers.

Radical is in need of a radical reinvention of its product if it's going to survive.

Wow, Those Pesky Nazis!

You never know when they're going to crop up...

Meine Damen und Herren, may I present:

IRON SKY

Why Didn't Someone Tell Me?!!!

Story by Bruce Jones! Art by Barrionuevo and Palmiotti!!
Freakin' cover by Neal Adams!!!

Why, oh why am I just seeing this now?!!!!!

(Dee Cee you gots some splainin' to do!)

An Ironclad Weekend

I'm going to see IRON MAN in about an hour or so, but already it's been an IRON MAN-filled weekend. I went to Meltdown yesterday for Free Comic Book Day and had a great time, picking through the new, free stuff and going through the bargain boxes for gems that I had previously missed. Picked up a run of RUSE - a Holmesian pastiche from Crossgen- and jumped for joy.

One great thing is that they had a ton of Iron Man movie promotion material and I picked up several of the Activity books and Jr. Novels for the kids here in the neighborhood who need the help reading english. They already know me as that guy with the cool posters and books in his house (they see it every Halloween when I open the door), so I think I've cemented my geek cred with the locals.


It's really cool to put a book in a kid's hands. Try it.

It's a NewPulp Friday!

And yes, I'm a happy camper. This is the day where cool things fall in your lap and you giggle a bit and go "This is cool. I could get used to this sort of thing happening all the damn time. "

So allow me to share:

1) First up, we have the latest installment of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK:THE SERIAL, which pretty much speaks for itself. This is a really cool little experiment that I hope in the back alleys and hallways of "The Studios" the folks are taking to heart, and saying, "wow - we should totally do that to some more of our movies and put them up online in digestible units. It would be great promotion and may spark interest in more sequels, new material and new revenue streams." If not, then they certainly don't understand the web.

Roger - let me make the request now and say I want to see THE ROCKETEER, THE PHANTOM and THE SHADOW in this format.

2) The latest edition of ASTONISHING ADVENTURES MAGAZINE (#3) is here and features a little tale by yours truly and several other folks who outshine my humble efforts, including Roger Alford the guy behind the Raiders Serial above. John Carlucci and Tim Gallagher and co. have done an excellent job and upped the bar with every issue.

Did I tell you it's free?! Available online as a download or...available to read right here.

One small correction: Carlucci says I am the "self-professed" Mad Pulp Bas-tard. No indeed. I was given that title by none other than the Kung Fu Monkey himself, John Rogers.

So what are the implications of all this cool free media here? It's free. It's entertainment delivered to you to read / view and enjoy at your leisure and your location. The magazine is also available in a print edition (which I will purchase next week).

Oh, and it is distributed around the world at once!

Straight from the creators to the audience as inexpensively as possible. If that's not Pulp 2.0 then I don't know what is... With the recession starting, more and more people are going to stay home and enjoy the cheaper things that entertain them - Books, TV, DVDs, Videogames. It is the future.

So let's spread the word. I'm asking everyone to link or embed these and spread them far and wide.

Have fun, and let me know what you think of the story.