Today's Music among other things...

[shadowkat]

So, Ozzy died. People just posted "Ozzy died" and I thought, okay, I'm guessing this is Ozzy Osborn, and not another Ozzy. It was stunning - because he'd just finished a concert tour. I last saw him about a year ago judging Dancing with the Stars. (Assuming there is another one out there.) I can't say I was a fan, exactly? I saw him in things of course, and I grew up in the 1970s and 80s, so, yes, I've heard Black Sabbath. Metal, I'm on the fence about. Although I was listening to it today and yesterday at work and finding it weirdly comforting as white noise. It definitely blocks out all other noise. (Listening to it on my Bose headphones, so great sound by the way.)

Here's the new music that Apple Music has been sending me all day (I got bored and clicked on one of the browsing new music options):

Living Dead by The Pretty Wild
RAGE by President
Level High by Cyanide Summer
Night Driving - Max McNown
She Explains Things to Me - David Byrne and the Ghost Orchestra
IAMWHATIAM - Tiga
Kholat - Paradox
The Spell - Mammoth
Burnpile - Pecos & the Rooftops
Nuclear - dead7
We are Love - the Charltans
Clarity - The Amours
Superman - Galatic Empire

Among others. It's kind of a mix of indie rock, country, metal, rap, hip hop, and electronica. Some worked for me, some didn't.

Like I said I'd gotten bored of my music library and wanted to listen to something new. Also I've been in the mood for metal lately. I used to go to sleep to the soundtrack of The Crow.

Here's Paranoid by Black Sabbath (fronted by Ozzy Osborn).
****

Making my way through the Rook (on the Kindle) - it's...how to put this? There's a lot of info dump. And while it is entertaining in places. It is a lot of info dump. And the writer is building a complicated world. Which would be fine - if I weren't relegated to reading it in twenty minute snatches on a subway, or briefly at night. Also if I weren't skimming and reading information all day long for work. This is urban fantasy. Think Torchwood but for the supernatural and paranormal, and a lot older and a lot more organized.

I can tell the writer has watched and read certain things - since he borrows heavily from them. But, again on the other hand, maybe not? Ideas are readily available to all. As Rubin states in The Creation of Art as Being (I think that's what it is called - I cannot remember the name of that book to save my life) - ideas are out there for anyone to grab. The Universe or God or the Source channels the ideas to as many as possible - hoping someone will create something to convey the message. In copyright law - it's simple - there is no such thing as an original idea. It's how you decide to use that idea that is original. Example? A female vampire slayer is not an original idea. But a valley girl from Southern California, who is small, blond, and former cheerleader, who becomes the slayer, and speaks in slang, and has a single Mom, and is called Buffy - that is original. It's all the trappings that make the idea copyrightable and original, not the idea.

And don't worry - just because you couldn't do anything with an idea, doesn't mean someone else won't - they just won't do what you would have done with it - because we are all unique individuals who do not think alike.

Anyhow, sorry for the subtangent. I like the book, for the most part, and will stick with it, but I wish there was a little less info dump? The writer clearly works for a bureaucratic government agency with lots of pointless meetings (I can relate - I do too), and feels the need to make fun of it here (which I get), but seriously it's a lot of info.

***

Speaking of Buffy? The Reboot is in pre-production. Gellar shared a picture of her name above her character's name "Buffy Summers" on a placard in front of her chair. A script. And her little Buffy action figure on a lap top. Made me kind of want my own action figure.

Also, Charisma Carpenter is doing a first watch of all of the Buffy episodes, because she never watched the series, in a group of podcasts entitled - The Bitch is Back. She has guests from time to time. Why the Bitch is Back? She finds the phrase empowering - due to an episode of Angel entitled Room of One's Own - where Cordelia takes down a poltergeist.

Comments

[trepkos]

Well, if I was going to send an actor a script, I would expect them to read the whole thing, not just their own lines!

[shadowkat]

Sigh. I'm a process geek - so I've watched over a 100 videos and podcasts, and read interviews on how television and films are made, also read books, and talked to people in the industry - a few of them friends. I find the process fascinating, and am curious about it. What people do for work or how they work or how they create things interests me. I even had a book on the television industry at one point. And I've stood and watched television shows and films be filmed on the streets of NYC. (It's boring to watch.)

Television actors aren't sent the whole script. They are only sent their own lines. This is deliberate. Some times, the actor makes the choice not to read the whole episode's shooting script and just their scenes, so they can provide a genuine performance, and be surprised like their character would be surprised.

It's not like Theater. In film and television - actors are often given their scenes only. This ensures that they provide a real reaction to the content, and don't anticipate what will happen. The camera picks up everything? So what you want to do is show genuine emotion and surprise. And give to the scene.

Camera acting is very different than theater acting. It's about being real for the camera. You don't "act" in film and television, so much as emote and react. The camera can tell if you are acting.

[trepkos]

I'm sure I've heard someone from Buffy - maybe James, but I've heard many of them IRL - say that when the script arrives, they eagerly look through it to see how many lines they've got ... Maybe things have changed in the last 20 years - to save paper/postage etc?

[shadowkat]

That's true, they do. James said on Schmactors that he only read his portions of the script and was only given those portions. You assumed they got the whole script? They sometimes don't. It depends on the show-runner and the show, and the shooting schedule, and the film.

James also said on Schmactors that he eventually realized that even if he got the entire script, it worked better if he only read the scenes that he was in, and not any others, or he'd screw up his performance - because he knew more than his character did.

Sometimes they do get an entire script - and sometimes there's a table read, but even in a table read - the professional actor only focuses on their sections of the script. Often, the show, as in the case of Buffy, is revising the script as they go. Beneath You - that episode was famously rewritten several times as they were filming it. Films do that as well, they will often get the script the day before or in the case of some films an hour before. The Godfather? They were revising the script daily. It also happened with a few other famous films. There are films that get rewritten several times as they film it, as do various television series.

So it varies?

Now - they don't often send scripts by paper, they electronically send them, encrypted. Sometimes, as was the case with Oppenheimer, they will hand deliver it to a lead - Nolan hand delivered it to Cillian Murphy, he wasn't taking any chances.

If they get the whole script and many do, the "professional actors" (which you and I are definitely not) choose not to read the whole thing. For this reason? It is better to only know what your character knows. So, you only read that character's scenes. Christopher Walken often took a pen and crossed out all the character descriptions or acting directions/stage directions for the character. Get it as bare bones as possible - with just the marks, and blocking included.

Professional actors don't often focus on anything but their own scenes, and their own lines, and the characters they are interacting with - because their character in reality wouldn't know anything outside of that. But not all actors, it depends on the actor. Everyone has their own style.

[shadowkat]

Not really. I follow soap operas - and the soap fandom doesn't care and just wants to see the actors. Same with a lot of the other fandoms. Twilight fandom didn't care. And I've watched a lot of Q&A's with Charisma Chase (she didn't watch the show at all), Julie Benze, Marsters, etc - and they can't always tell you detailed stuff about the show. Usually fans just want to know process bits or what they did to create it.

Also actors? They have to forget most of that stuff. Do you have any idea how many scripts they memorize? Hugh Laurie told folks he had no idea what lines he said on House. He forgot the episode after he did it. He has to. Some prepare for cons ahead of time.

So, no, sorry, youtube Q&A's has proven you wrong on that as well. ;-)

I'd stop debating me on this in my journal? I've watched over 100 Q&A actor interviews for just about every fandom. I've lost count of the number of times they state: "I don't remember any of that, sorry, when I finish a role - it's all gone." And they don't look like idiots at all, the fans, however, kind of do?

[trepkos]

Sorry for being annoying!

[shadowkat]

Thanks.