—SPOILER ALERT—SPOILER ALERT—SPOILER ALERT—
December 20, 2017, Twentieth Century Fox released the The Greatest Showman, a rare foray into the movie musical genre (even after the success of a certain little film called LaLa Land. The Greatest Showman tells the tale of P.T Barnum, celebrates the birth of show business and the visionary man who brought the curious to life.
THE GOOD:
Love to write action sequences? I know I do. But, since we like to write these things we need to do our research ahead of time so we don’t write something really dumb into our scripts or novels. I’m not going to go into every possible scenario, but let’s thinks about a few things to get our brains in gear and pondering the realities of what we write. Plainly we can take some license in our creations, but it’s best to know what’s real before we go off on our own paths.
Like what, you say? Well, for one thing, those fisticuffs? Those mano on mano, hand-to-hand fights we sometimes cook up are a lot of work. In ‘real life’ they usually last only a few seconds for regular folks. Might last longer for someone really well trained in martial arts or some form of hand-to-hand combat.
The combatants are going to tire out really fast because it’s really hard work, not to mention painful when somebody gets slugged. That character you just put in a fist fight for the first time will react differently than the character who’s been brawling all his life. Definitely something to keep in mind when you write those slug-fest scenes.
Food for thought, and a lesson taught by our favorite artist-philosopher, Grant Snider:
More of Grant Snider’s sensitive perception at Incidental Comics, HERE
*** CAUTION! Mild spoilers for Supergirl if you are 11 weeks behind. ***
Last week, I was perusing a comment section on TV Guide regarding Alex & Maggie’s breakup on Supergirl. One fella, let’s call him Major Homophobe, said he was glad it was over. The show ‘isn’t about lesbians’ and now they could ‘get back to what it’s really about’.
Because we all want to know what’s happening with the Writers Guild of America West this month:
