News Frakes: I Forgot How To Act

[Cyrus]

"Discovery will be more optimistic" means the lighting on the sets will be brighter.

 

[Jayson1]

Riker (standing at an angle): Shields up! Red Alert! Captain PIcard to the bridge!!

Picard: Report, Number One.

Riker: They caught us unexpected.

Geordi: Technobabble, technobabble, technobabble.

Worf: Shields down to 59%.

Data: Captain, I recommend technobabble, techobabble, technobabble.

Riker: That ought to do it.

Picard: Make it so!

Data: Technobabble, technobabble, technobabble!

Worf: Captain, we are being hailed.

Riker: That did the trick.

Picard: Open a channel.

Alien of the Week: Roar! Blah! Blah! Blah!

Picard: Mute audio, Lieutenant.

Worf: Aye, sir.

Picard: Counselor?

Troi: He's hiding something.

This practically writes itself! Riker basically does nothing but act like a fifth wheel.

That's kind of how the scripts were written. The writers didn't know how the tech stuff worked so they would just put technobable in as a word and it was up to the Okuda's and others to figure out the right tech words to use. Jason

 

[XCV330]

Gene's Vision™ is the same thing as Zefram Cochrane's vision. Both involved dollar signs and naked women.

Keep the dream alive.

On it.

(give me a few days)

Good God Man, no one an drink that much Earl Gray Tea. You'll flood the whole compartment!

 

[Prax]

That was my vision once..

Then I got married and gave up on visions. Now I just drift along the great river

 

[Gavin70]

Riker (standing at an angle): Shields up! Red Alert! Captain PIcard to the bridge!!

Picard: Report, Number One.

Riker: They caught us unexpected.

Geordi: Technobabble, technobabble, technobabble.

Worf: Shields down to 59%.

Data: Captain, I recommend technobabble, techobabble, technobabble.

Riker: That ought to do it.

Picard: Make it so!

Data: Technobabble, technobabble, technobabble!

Worf: Captain, we are being hailed.

Riker: That did the trick.

Picard: Open a channel.

Alien of the Week: Roar! Blah! Blah! Blah!

Picard: Mute audio, Lieutenant.

Worf: Aye, sir.

Picard: Counselor?

Troi: He's hiding something.

This practically writes itself! Riker basically does nothing but act like a fifth wheel.

I love it. Have you considered a career as a screenwriter? You seem to have a talent for it.

 

[Lord Garth]

I love it. Have you considered a career as a screenwriter? You seem to have a talent for it.

I actually have. I've been writing short stories since I was seven. I tried writing my first screenplays in college but they weren't any good. Then, in my 20s, I spent four years working on a feature-length screenplay, that I also had issues with. I was trying too hard to get what I wrote to fit the Syd Field paradigm. After I let go of that, I found it easier to write scripts. I prefer a free flow of thought. Once I did that, I wasn't trying to force something to fit that didn't, I just wrote whatever felt right, then rewrote it and rewrote it and rewrote it until I finally had something I could present to people to see what they thought and gauge their reactions.

Then a few years ago I started writing scripts for short films of my own. I've done two so far and am working on a third. But it's all independent. As in very independent.

I'm not sure how I feel about Hollywood, mainly because I don't like the idea of someone else getting a hold of my work and altering it beyond recognition. But I've thought about it.

I focus on comedy and satire, as you can probably tell. I don't write drama.

If I'd been an adult during the '90s, though, I probably would've tried to submit a script for TNG, DS9, or VOY back when they had an open submission policy. More likely than not.

My best stuff is spontaneous. In 2010, I wrote a speech as Best Man for my brother's wedding. Then I forgot half of it and, when I had to speak, I came up with what I said on the fly. And it had everyone fooled. They had no idea I was winging it, and then they all told me how great it sounded.

Spontaneous and whimsical is where I operate. Which is why I love the wackiness of the Spore Drive or why I love the writing of the first season so much even though I know full well the chaos that went into putting it together. Or how they made the second season work when they shifted gears midway through when they shifted showrunners. For me the fascination was in, "How are they going to pull this off?"

But when I write characters, I basically just become the character. I think exactly like the character and try to sound how they'd sound. I do that when I act too. I acted in an independent film that unfortunately never got released where I put myself into the character to the point where when I looked into the mirror, I didn't even see myself anymore. But most of the time when I act, I'll be in a costume of some sort. I've been a jester, I've dressed in drag, I've worn a space costume, I love costumes. Last year, I dressed up as a Maple Tree for Halloween just for the Hell of it. And I'll walk around in those costumes in public after I make them, so that when I'm performing, it feels natural to me. It's as if I were like that every day.

I'm not making much or any money off of that, though. What (barely) pays the bills is that I'm a videographer. I mostly record sports, but also town meetings, and sometimes I do corporate videos. It's all technical. Even in theater. I'd like to do acting with the group I'm currently part of, but I'm there as the lighting and sound technician.

That post went longer than I intended but, yeah, besides posting here, that's the stuff I do. That's my passion.