Weekly Wrap-Up (2/24/06 - 3/3/06)

Stealing an idea straight from the Stranger's Slog, we're going to do a weekly wrap-up, covering every Friday to Friday. Although we don't post as often as other blogs (nor should we, when there's only two of us and the posts are part of a conversation, and not celebrity gossip or something stupid like that), there's usually a lot going on nonetheless. To wit:

The Spitball! Tourney of Story Ideas rolls on, as this week Burley and Shockah discussed Round Seven, which pitted Rachel, My Dear (a woman trapped in a crazy house designed by her mad fiancé) against Methane Madness (an inmate on a prison planet surrounded by a toxic atmosphere tries to escape by inventing, underneath the guards' noses, a process to make the atmosphere breathable). After 7 posts of back and forth, we went to vote... and for the first time in the history of the contest, we voted for different stories. We're now dealing with the post-tied-vote process, which means that each person has to spell out a version they like of the story they didn't vote for. Burley has already put up a character bio for the imprisoned scientist of Methane Madness, while Shockah is preparing a post that will pitch a story outline for Rachel, My Dear.

Another continuing series is Shockah's posts about the sequence method, a theory of screenplay structure that will probably be used to help shape the winner of the Spitball! Tourney of Story Ideas. ("[H]e can give you a succinct overview of points of the sequence method better than the guys who write books about it" -- Burley Grymz, Spitball!) Right now, there's three posts about the subject: an intro, an explanation of the first four points of what I call "the story core", and an explanation about the last four points. (Burley has a couple responses to these posts, here and here.) Coming up, Shockah will take an arty, little-known indie from 30 years ago called Jaws and break it down using the sequence method. Should be good for a few laughs; stay tuned.

(Oh, and in the Forum, Shockah and Burley posted their ideas for recasting a remake of Jaws and it's totally awesome. Check it out and add your two cents!)

Finally, Burley is inventing his own theory of structure based around the game of cricket (which he knows nothing about), which goes by the name of... *sigh*... Tip Scum. See Shockah's reaction here; and Burley's reaction to the reaction here.