The Dotted Logline

I’ve never been a fan of “so bad they’re good” movies. That changed when I was dragged to see Alien vs Predator last Friday. I have yet to see any of the Alien or Predator movies but my friends assured that it wouldn’t matter. All I needed to know was that this was going to be a bad movie. Despite that glowing recommendation, I dropped the $10+ for the ticket, the first non-matinée showing I’d been to in Boston.

And AvP turned out to be one of the funniest, most enjoyable movie experiences I’ve had in quite a while.

The acting was so bad that any time anyone opened their mouth, it was hilarious. There were a few brief fight scenes that were fairly cool but most of it was just silly. The remaining human (woman) and remaining Predator who ended up teaming up had a bizarre buddy cop/star-crossed lovers vibe that just killed me. And when you are with a group who is also laughing at everything, it’s just that much funnier.

The great thing about bad movies is the laughs don’t end with the final scene. Reading reviews where critics really get their digs in provides a whole new level of entertainment. Perhaps my favorite line from the AvP reviews I read is this zinger by MaryAnn Johanson of Flick Filosopher:

“How many awful, monotonous, stupid movies does Anderson have to make before they take away his scissors and crayons?”

Most of the movies I’ve seen recently that I expected to be reasonably good have disappointed me. I think every now and then, I’ll make it a point to watch a movie that is blatantly awful. It’s hard to have your expectations ruined when you don’t have any to begin with.

American companies could learn a lot by studying how the Japanese handle fan relations as discussed in this article. Rather than slapping fans who use their properties with a cease and desist or worse, Japanese companies actually show support for fan-created manga (doujinshi) and allow creators to sell them to cover costs. They wisely see the benefit of free advertising.

Fan works often help sustain interest in a series or property for longer than the original work could on its own. They not only give fans new material (admittedly, much of it very bad, especially in the cesspool that is fanfiction.net) to focus their attention on, they also give the fan creators a more personal connection to the property. In both cases, fans have a reason and a means to continue being fans, rather than jumping over to the next big thing.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been off the air for over a year now but the original RPGs and fanfiction (7131 currently on fanfiction.net) continue to thrive. Harry Potter, a hugely popular property with an equally huge fan response (59,608 fics currently on fanfiction.net), maintains its fanbase easily despite the large lapses of time between book releases. The films help, as do fan debate and analysis, but it’s the amount of time and effort fans put into creating their own art based around the series that, at least to me, shows just how much this world means to them and the extent of their personal determination to do what they can to make it not only survive but grow.

It seems to be more the companies that own the rights that have issue with fan works. The creators in general seem to be more open-minded, perhaps because they themselves know how hard it is to ignore those creative impulses. J.K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter, is rumored to read HP fics on occasion, and praises them on her website:

“Fan fiction is really fun, though, and I am so proud to think that Harry Potter inspired so much creativity!”

YA fantasy writer Tamora Pierce says the following of fanfiction:

“On fanfics in general, I think they’re one way to develop your skills as a writer. Sometimes it’s easier to keep a story going if you don’t have to create the setting and some of the characters yourself. I’d hope that sooner or later people writing fan fiction would branch out into creating their own worlds and books (hey–I need something to read, too!), but at least they’re having fun as they write fan fiction. Besides, when I was a kid, I wrote “Star Trek” and Lord of the Rings stories–we just didn’t call them “fan fiction” back then.”

I would argue that maintaining a consistent feel when you use existing characters/worlds can be harder than working with original ones, but anyway…

Above all, fanfiction and the like serve as free promotion for properties. As long as they aren’t for profit or actually impeding sales of the original work, they are an asset. The sooner US companies realize that, the sooner they will stop driving their own fans away.

A lot of people see the completion of the first draft as the important landmark in a writing project. Until you reach that point, your footing’s unsure, the air is too hazy to see the finish line, and the ground beneath you could collapse at any point. Once you finish the first draft, the white tape has exploded across your chest and you’ve won.

I disagree.

There’s the saying that so-and-so large percentage of writing is rewriting. That I agree with. And that is why finishing the SECOND draft is the important point for me.  Most of the time, the first draft is crap. And unless I can actually work on it further and shape it into something more refined, it remains crap. It may be complete crap, but it’s still just crap.

I came to this realization when I finished the second draft of my screenplay for my thesis (current working title: Sherry Summers By Day.) I’ve spent about a year revising bits and pieces when I wasn’t busy with writing projects for my workshops at Emerson, and I fell into the trap of rewriting the same scenes over and over. In some ways, it was more work than draft one and I finally have a real feeling of accomplishment now that it’s done. Maybe because it’s finally reasonably presentable. Or because I’ve checked off the long list of scenes that needed to be rewritten because I cringed whenever I thought of them.