Plotting a movie: Two heads are better than one, especially when you’re spooked

Something amazing happened on Sunday evening. Andy was at my house. We were in the living room chatting, while the sun was going down. When it was dark, Andy looked out of the window and said, “There’s your mate.” (This was in reference to Arnie, whom I was expecting to call.) When I looked out of the window, I couldn’t see Arnie’s car in the driveway, which was odd because he never leaves it out on the street. I said, “There’s no one there.” Andy replied, “I could swear I saw somebody walking down your driveway.”

Okay, now I was a little unnerved. But, being a big manly man, I quickly waved off the irrational notion of someone skulking around my property in the dark. Andy reckoned he probably misjudged what he had seen at the top of my driveway; somebody was probably walking past the driveway, not into. But it bugged me that he had to use the word “probably.”

I received a text from Arnie to say he couldn’t make it, so Andy and I got on with our chat. After a bit, he said, “Darryl, would you mind closing the blinds. I hate the thought of glancing out of the window and seeing somebody staring back at me.” I did so.

There was a spooky mood in the air now. We ended up talking about the trapdoor in my hallway floor (something I’ve mentioned previously in the context of sewer manholes). I said, “Imagine you get up in the middle of the night to take a pee, and you walk along the hallway in the dark, unable to see much of anything. And when your foot comes down on the trapdoor, you’re surprised to discover that it’s sitting up at an angle, as if someone or something is peering out. The weight of your foot closes the trapdoor, and you’re left wondering: What the hell is underneath me? It starts banging the door, but is unable to shift your weight. But what can you do? You’re all alone in the house and you can’t take another single step.”

Andy and I started bouncing ideas off each other for where the story could go next. A couple of hours later, we had a pretty neat short film all figured out. We have no definite plans to make it, but we’re excited. Comparisons are unavoidable with the theme of our previous film Don’t Look in the Attic, but this one goes in a different direction (and we’d never call Don’t Look in the Basement, you’ll be glad to know). I don’t want to say too much, beause I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I’m just trying to convey something of the magic that happens occasionally and unexpectedly when Andy and I get together. Two heads are most definitely better than one.

What’s interesting is that Andy would have went home two hours earlier, and the story would have remained undiscovered, if not for the fact that he happened to glance out of the window at a particular moment and spot somebody walking past my driveway whom he thought was walking in. Heck, never mind Andy; the existence of the story hinges every bit as much on the walking dude doing what he did at the exact moment that he did. It also depends on Arnie cancelling. Without all these factors, Andy and I wouldn’t have creeped ourselves out and started talking about trapdoors. It seems amazing to me how a terrific story can be born into the world hanging on such a thin thread.

P.S. If anybody is wondering what has become of The End of the World and Beyond, I’ve decided to abandon the enterprise. I need to concentrate on where my passions lie (i.e. writing and filmmaking), or I’ll end up spreading myself out too thin and getting nothing done. I am, however, committed to the idea of podcasting my fiction. Is There Anybody Out There? went down a treat and generated a lot more feedback than The End of the World and Beyond.

The Killicomaine exodus

I was standing outside the little disused post office on Killicomaine Road, in my neighbourhood. The sun was low in the sky: evening. My uncle Maurice and aunt Heather were with me. Maurice’s car was nearby.

I noticed lots of people coming our way from the direction of the Princess Way roundabout. It wasn’t one group, but lots of little groups, like families. The section of the street where I stood was shaped like the bottom of a bowl; the road curved upwards in both directions, also curving left, making it impossible to see much beyond a few hundred metres.

Curious, I climbed up onto the porch roof which jutted out of the post office building. The elevated position afforded me a much better view.

Just above the horizon, the sky was hidden behind a veil of thick black smoke, suffused with blood-red flames. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but on retrospect the behaviour of the smoke was odd. It didn’t billow up into the sky as it should have done, but stayed near the ground, churning and boiling. I couldn’t see what was on fire; rooftops and trees got in the way. I had the impression that the source of the blaze was several miles away.

It was a surreal sight. Not just the strange fire, but the groups of people walking away from it. They seemed calm, as if nothing were amiss. I observed smiling faces and happy chatter. No one was in any hurry. As I watched, the numbers grew, many of them walking on the middle of the road. Something that didn’t occur to me until later was the question “Why is everybody on foot?” Although one question I did ask myself was “Why are they all coming this way?” There had to be many different routes away from the blaze, but it seemed as if everyone had the same destination in mind - information that I was not privy to.

After a while, the numbers passing by started to dwindle. When I got down from the porch, I noticed that Maurice and Heather had left, although their car was still here. I planned to leave the area, although I had a load of desirable items in the car, and I was loathe to leave them in plain sight for looters. I opened the car and tried to hide most of the stuff away. For some reason, my old childhood Frankenstein doll caught my eye, and I couldn’t help noticing that the monster was minus his clothes.

My intention was not to follow the posse, but to head for Abercorn Park, home of my parents. It was only about a quarter of a mile away.

Dusk had arrived by the time I got to Abercorn. There was a stillness in the air. No one was outdoors. Where I should have seen lights behind the windows of most houses, only a small percentage was illuminated. Clearly, the people of Abercorn Park knew about whatever was going on, and most had chosen to evacuate. I entered my parents’ house. Mum was in the kithen, chatting with a bunch of visitors whom I didn’t recognise. I didn’t know if she knew more than me, but she seemed oblivious to anything being out of the ordinary.

Well, all this happened sometime between 2.00 a.m. and 9.00 a.m. last night while I lay in bed. Sorry it doesn’t have an exciting and dramatic climax, but that’s dreams for you. You’ll notice that in this dream my mum is still alive. That’s a common one for me; I guess it shows how much somebody means to you when you dream about them regularly. Nudity is also something that I’ve dreamt about more than once, although usually it’s a dream about myself ending up naked in some embarrassing situation. This is the first time I’ve dreamt about a nude Frankenstein doll. Go figure. As for the weird fire and mass exodus, I have no idea if that means anything, but it was very cool. Anyone care to interpret?

Everybody loves Zombie Genocide

Andy came across this thread at All Things Zombie. It’s a nice feeling when you unexpectedly hear people chatting about your work and appreciating it.

"Is There Anybody Out There?" - smaller dialup version also available

Just so nobody’s left out, here’s a 64 Kbps version of the story podcast, more suitable for dialup users. It’s half the filesize of the original (13 Mb).

Special thanks to ZombieMart and Homepage of the Dead for featuring the story on their websites. It’s great to have this publicity. Sadly, the only drawback is that I can’t count the number of downloads I’m receiving. I discovered that The Internet Archive, who host the story, only counts downloads that are clicked directly from the story’s page on their site, omitting downloads that are linked through from elsewhere (which accounts for 99% of them, because of the way I publicised the story). This is a real bummer, because I really wanted this experiment to help me gauge the popularity of the podcast fiction format.

I’ve now got the RSS situation sorted out with the site, so if you’re into that side of things, subscribe to the feed on the right. I’d like to encourage anyone who reads more than a few blogs regularly to consider using the feed. It allows you to consolidate all the blogs you read into one place, so that you don’t have to visit several different sites each day. I use the Bloglines service all for my reading.

Fiction podcast: "Is There Anybody Out There?"

I’m pleased to present my first short story podcast, a post-apocalyptic tale which I call “Is There Anybody Out There?” I’m hesitant to say it’s a zombie story (whoops! too late), because that’s going to make some people switch off and others perk their ears up with anticipation (the zombie sub-genre does have its undying fans). What I will say in my defense is that you haven’t seen this plot in any zombie movie (well, to be honest, there are hundreds of them, and I sure haven’t seen them all). This is not another story about barricading yourself in or battling against hordes of flesh-eating corpses; this one’s different.

I want to give a special plug to my friend Mike Andrews, who kindly allowed me to use his music in the podcast. Carefully chosen snippets from Mike’s songs provided atmospheric transitions between scenes. If you’re impressed (and you will be), check out his commercial tracks at the iTunes Music Store.

By the way, that’s me in the photo. Make-up courtesy of Andrew Harrison. This zombie was originally part of a teaser trailer for a film we were hoping to produce called Shadow of the Dead. There’s no official green light, but there’s a good chance it will end up being Midnight Pictures’ next production.

In the meantime, here’s another zombie fix that I hope you’ll enjoy …

[ Download Podcast ]

An affordable POD paperback? Surely not!

Yesterday I set up an account with Lightning Source, the printing company that almost all print-on-demand publishers use. Lack of funds at my end has prompted me to take the POD approach with Chion, rather than opting for a traditional print-run. The downside is that each copy of the book will cost slightly more to produce, but the upside is that the novel will never go out of print. Thankfully I’ve got the necessary skills in desktop publishing and graphic design in order to go straight to the printer, rather than using one of the existing POD publishers. Those publishers are doing a great service for budding authors, but they’re also part of the reason why the books need to be so overpriced: printing cost + publisher’s cut + author’s cut + bookshop’s cut = retail price. As for retailers, did you know that many bookshops demand 40% of the retail price? Ouch! However, for internet sales, a man in my position can easily restructure the equation thus: printing cost + author’s cut = retail price. This model is effective for sales that come directly to me through my website. Why tell your readers to go buy your book at Amazon? That’s throwing money away. If the author does all the promotion necessary to bring visitors to his website, why send them away to another? After all, when’s the last time you ever went to Amazon scouting for new talent?

It occurs to me that it will cost very little to put my first novel Ulterior back in print again using the POD model. However, I’m less than happy with the novel’s original cover (I’ve had a lot more Photoshop experience in the four years since publication), so I did a little digital sketching this morning and came up with something. This is by no means a final design, but I thought I’d share. Comments and comparisons welcome.

Podcast fiction - Part II

Over the past few months I’ve become interested in the world of podcasting, so much so that I’ve grown into the habit of loading my MP3 player up with podcasts instead of music each time I go out walking. Usually I listen to sci-fi chit-chat, reviews and interviews - occasionally some fiction. I can’t shake the desire to experiment with it myself, so I’ve decided to record a story - one that I’ve just finished writing. It’s a tale I’ve mentioned previously (about zombies) and it’s called “Is There Anybody Out There?” I don’t have any pro recording gear, but I can make the recording pretty clean using Andy’s external camcorder mic, and add some atmosphere by dubbing in some creepy ambient music. MacIdol, where I host my music, has a feature that lets me count the number of downloads, so I should be able to gauge how successful this venture is. If successful enough, I might even get cracking on a serialised novel (podiobook, if you will).

Chionophobia is no more! That is, I’ve shortened the title to Chion. After looking at the original Greek carefully, I discovered that “chiono” is the word for snow, while “chion” means “like snow”. And that, frankly, is perfect for the title. It’s still a pain that no one’s going to know whether to pronounce the word as “chee-on,” “chy-on” or “ky-on,” but I think it looks a lot cooler on paper than Chionophobia. If you look up at the new logo, I’ve incorporated the original Greek in the design.

Editing is nearly done. My friend Earl, who has been learning the finer points of grammar for the past year, scrutinised every sentence in the manuscript for grammatical mishaps and style flaws. We spent about fifteen hours together incorporating his changes. I’m indebted to him for the time he put into it. Thanks also to Andy, Alison and Chris.

Some interesting podcasts you may wish to check out:
- Dragon Page
- Geek Fu Action Grip
- I Should Be Writing
- Requiem of the Outcast
- Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas
- Escape Pod
- 7th Son by J.C. Hutchins

The Christian book minefield

The first time I walked into my local Christian bookstore, as a fresh-faced seventeen-year-old convert, I was amazed. The shelves were crammed with literature on all aspects of life; many intriguing titles leapt out at me, and I found myself wishing I could learn everything at once. Nowadays, in stark contrast to what I felt then, I can hardly walk through that shop without becoming depressed.

What has changed? Nothing except the sharpness of my mind. You see, it takes years as a Christian to learn that our religion is littered with divided opinions on all sorts of things, from whether God made the world in six days to whether we’re now living in the Last Days. There are Christian authors who deny the existence of hell; the Baptists are never going to agree with the Presbyterians on infant baptism; then you have the Reformed Presbyterians who shun the use of musical instruments in worship while the Pentecostals prefer a full band. Authors from all these camps and more are lining the shelves of your local Christian bookstore.

The Christian publishing industry can curse me for saying this, but my advice to young Christians is this: avoid! Unless you want to become confused and opinionated in all the wrong ways, stay away from Christian literature. Well, maybe that’s too strong, because I’m not entirely taking my own advice to heart. I recently read a book called Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. I read it because of a friend’s recommendation and because the theme of the book was masculinity - something I’ve never heard talked about in Christianity before. And, you know, it was a good book. I learned some important things about what it means to be a man. But I read it with my “BS detector” on full power, and some elements in the book just didn’t ring true. If I were reading it as a young Christian, I think the book would have helped me in some ways and harmed me in others. This is the curse of Christian literature.

Here’s a few pointers to help you step through the minefield and come out unscathed:

1. Read your Bible. It’s what God gave us, and it’s there for the taking. We can’t very well go wrong with that, can we? But it’s hard to read. And that, I suspect, is why so many readers buy Christian books - as an alternative to reading their Bible. That’s a dangerous place to be: your head full of other people’s interpretations of the Bible before you’ve filled it with the Bible itself.

2. Read commentaries. Commentaries are designed to help you interpret difficult passages in the Bible. There are good ones and bad ones; the good ones help you explain the meaning of a text by clarifying the translation from the original language and explaining the history and culture of Bible times. The not-so-useful ones are sermons-in-print.

3. Read biographies. Reading about the exploits of another Christian can be encouraging, and is fairly safe because we’re dealing in the facts of a person’s life rather than his wobbly Bible interpretations.

4. Read other Christian literature if you must, but only when you’ve already grounded yourself in a solid knowledge of the Bible.

Growing in knowledge as a Christian is unfortunately a matter of unlearning as well as learning. Right now, I’m in the middle of unlearning some things. A few years ago, a friend of mine became a Roman Catholic. After we got past the initial heated discussions, I started coming round to the idea that maybe the Roman Catholic branch of Christianity is legitimate. One of the breakthroughs was in reading a Catholic book called An Exorcist Tells His Story by Gabriele Amorth; I was amazed by the centrality of Christ in the author’s writing. Some fellow Protestants may be reading this with horror, but it takes you to read something by a Catholic to help you see through the propaganda you’ve imbibed over the years.