The end of 2018 is just a week away. And I will be planning my blog for next year 2019. And for the coming year, I will be narrowing down the blog to 6 topics not 12 spanning the year. And these 6 topics will be of the most popular from my current year. So instead of writing a post from 1 topic for the month, I will be writing posts for 1 topic every two months. And this is the change, the metamorphosis of my blog that will eventually narrow down to fewer topics. As of now, there are two topics in competition with each other to see which one will make the cut. I will also provide more video content as well. Feel free to drop a comment about the topics you liked. Continue to like, follow, and share my work. SEE YOU IN 2019!!!
We as a society love ourselves a good superhero movie. To see the villain lose in defeat as the hero triumphs. And our love for these sort of films stem from watching the bad guy in real life prevail. So to go to the movies to see the hero win is like finally, someone who isn’t afraid to take on the bad guys. Then we snap ourselves out of the fantasy and live in real life.
consistent stream
Over the recent years we have seen a constant year after year release of superhero movies. And at first they were interesting, but what happens once the people start to ask for something new. Then what, does Hollywood run scrambling for creativity. Because yes, these movies are highly profitable, but there needs to be a blend of action and other genres as well.
When there is this one trick pony, people start to get irritated and turn away from the trend.
money money money
It’s the entertainment “business,” the movie and music, “industry.” And the reason these words are in quotes is because we need to remember why these superhero movies keep being made. The art is the 10% or less and the business is the rest. Everything that has to do with the business that is not the art, makes it hard to get your work out there if you need Hollywood.
So if you are a drama filmmaker, comedy, science fiction, or any other outside of action, then good luck to you.
the future looks bright
Now, if you feel bad for Hollywood, then don’t. They are far from hurting for money, and the superhero trend is not slowing down anytime soon. As a matter of fact, there are films slated to come out over the years to come. And as for other genres of film, good luck and God speed.
The United States government recently released a video that shows fighter jet pilots chasing what appeared to be a UFO. This was footage held on to for years before it was released late last week. Now for years, skeptics have been wondering if there were materials the government have found in the past. The most famous was the alleged crash landing of a UFO over Roswell, New Mexico back in the late 1940’s. Since then, we have had testimonies from countless people, both civilians and members of the government, giving us their own personal account of UFO sightings and research. But the question still remains, “Why would the government hide the evidence of other lifeforms if the lifeforms are just able to penetrate our atmosphere. Eventually something will happen more revealing that will not allow them to use the term “government testing.”
The main suggestion why they would’n’t release the information is because of religion. That’s right religion on Earth. Religion is very centric to us being the place of life and God creating us in his image. So the introduction of another being that is more sophisticated than ourselves would put a wrench in the whole program. Because it’s easy for us to refute each other, but what happens when the life-form is in your face. Then you can’t deny because that is when the burden of proof is too strong to deny. So, there is some good in trying to keep a secret that we are not alone in our universe. Then again, lets try to make sense of this in a more rational manner. Alien life does not necessarily have to be human-esque. We like to think of aliens as these humanoid creatures with big heads and webbed feet. They might be manning the space craft without anyone or anything inside. Think about that, shooting it down, or it landing and realizing that there is no one inside. Imagine how impressive that would be for a craft to be controlled remotely.
There are still other suggestions which is there are no UFO’s, and that the U.S. government is testing military weaponry and craft that is top secret. Or that there is another country moving in restricted airspace unbeknownst to our government. Which is a move that create even further conflict if our government were to find out. But what I find striking is that no one has managed to attempt to engage. What would happen if we decided to take a shot at the flying object? Would the craft just fly away, or would the craft engage with us? Because if the craft just flew away, you could almost assume that was government testing. But if the craft engaged with us, then you’re talking a serious problem. Because in the end, we as humans have a hard time coping with the idea that we are not alone. We’re so enamored with self, how could there possibly be another better species. But then again, it might be the catalyst we need to come together as a species ourselves.
“What feels like an eternity in my mind, has only been a day in real time.”
My writing career started when I first started to conceptualize a screenplay about a girl who is dealing with a stalker. Sending her reminders of her ex-boyfriend who was killed in a car accident the night they were together. Since then, I have written five more, two short screenplays (which one has been made into a short film and I am currently producing the second), contributed nearly 450 blog posts on my WordPress site, and wrote two books I self-published on Amazon. And even with that, I have yet to make a real living off of any of my writing. But then I looked back a few times at when I first started writing my work. And I see the year 2012, which makes me realize I have not been writing for long. That’s right, I have only been at it for six years. Actually not even six years, more like five and eight or nine months or so.
So what is it; why does it feel like I have been at it for years longer? Is it because I want it so bad that it is taking so long? Or could it be that five and a half years is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I have researched and found that the average screenwriting career is a ten year journey. You hear about novelist not receiving critical acclaim for their books until they are ten to fifteen years in the game. So for me, my little five and change is nothing. But where am I ranked so far? How do I know how much traction I’m really gaining? Of course I have showed my work to friends and family, but that’s them. How will I know what the market like in my writing? And yet again the question is, “Well, how much have I written?” To a lot of readers, two books are not good enough.
But look at the age in which I started. I was 25 years of age once I started writing, and now I am about to be 30 years old at the end of the month. And in society years it’s like, get your life together. But in writer years, it’s like oh stop it, you got time. But nonetheless, I’m putting in the work. I’m churning out material and putting myself in a position to let things happen to me. After I complete my next short film, I plan on finishing my comedy trilogy I wrote. In addition, I’ll try to punch out another, a drama I have been contemplating for a while. These are the four scripts I will try to sell, which will bring me up to nearly ten full length screenplays. It just hurts to see so many people around you doing what you perceive to be more in life. But for whatever reason, I never stop, and I always move on to the next story. Their lives never make me want to stop doing what I am doing.
And for that reason, I continue to write and write. I’m even shocked sometimes when I look at my blog and realize I am at yet another milestone for it as well. I have hit nearly 450 posts, close to 5,000 views this year, and nearly 1,000 visitors this year. Then I think to myself, “Some people have had their blogs for way longer than myself and can’t turn out much of anything. And still, with all the challenges, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. If not for writing, I would be constantly stuck in my head. Because in the end, writing allows me to be honest in a society where you can’t be honest. You’re aloud to say things that would otherwise turn people away from you. It’s the freedom why I don’t want to stop. I can’t open my mouth and say as I please, but I could write what I please. And as long as I can’t talk without using my filter, everything will be channeled into text. In a solidarity space, where no one can control me, but me.
Looking over the recent statistics on films in theaters, I saw that numbers appeared to be down. Maybe that’s the reason why these movies that come out later in the year around the campaigning months for Golden Globes and Oscars take place. Movies might not be able to stand on their own anymore in theaters. And a major reason for that is the internet. The internet is such a machine that you don’t need to patronize your favorite show or movies anymore. One reason being that there is more variety and the other is that you don’t have to leave the comforts of your home. So what will happen to the state of movies as time progress? Because theaters make their money by films being debut in theaters. But if people are not coming to theaters to see movies, that smells death for them.
Hollywood can always adjust to the changes, but not the theater venues. That’s unless these theater venues decide to get themselves a platform for films, and then they are in the game. Not only in the game, they don’t have to go through Hollywood, and you can go straight to the distributor as a producer. And that in turn, might be death to a lot of studios. Because everyone who is interested in making films or television is in the game now. But they are not running out to Los Angeles like years ago, but they are building their own platforms. Some teenager with a couple of friends can now be the boss of their own machine if they are willing to put in the time. Because we are coming into what is really known as the open market. And the market is the market, they don’t care who they are buying from. As long as you give them a good product and/or service.
I myself, am pursuing screenwriting and Amazon has a platform for people to submit their screenplays. And if the company is interested, they will offer an amount for the script, or even your series through Amazon studios. And for a company that just bought Whole Foods for a whopping $13.5 billion dollars, they can afford your $200,000 script. Meanwhile the average screenwriter makes only $100,000 in Hollywood. Oh, and I forgot to mention you don’t need an agent to do so. Agents and managers usually take their 20% collectively right off the top. Now you don’t have to split anything if you are good at what you do. What’s the purpose of going through the whole process of trying to find an agent. They now are in a position where they have to come and find talent themselves. So guess what, they are now on the chopping block as it pertains to the business.
In the end, you see the red carpet events and the celebrities dress to the nine. But internally they know what’s really going on. It’s the reason these superhero movies keep getting made in the business. Corporations run studios; and the studios are allotted only a certain amount of funding to make movies. That means, spend $100 million on the next epic film and then make $800 – $900 million in theaters worldwide. The venue get their 60% cut, and distribution or distributors gets their 40%. You’re talking $320 million to $360 million for the film coming back to the distributor/s. And since the customer never says a word and keeps spending, why not keep making them. So remake and reboot and series until the customers are tired and then move on from there.
In the household where I come from, I was under the impression that no one in this world owed you anything. As a child, my mother let us know that I am doing for you while you’re in this house. But the moment you become an adult, you’re on your own, unless you’re in school or making an effort to be something in life. Yet there was something my mother never wanted to do. She never wanted to start this whole road of something for nothing mindset. Because like I said, the world owes you nothing. Anything in this world you want, you had better be ready to go out and stake your own claim. But where does this entitlement come from in our society?
It hasn’t always been here like it is today. You had prior generations that went out and worked at a young age. As a matter of fact, you had kids in the early 1900’s working in coal minds side by side with their parents. Now days are spent playing video games on televisions or computers. Letting time pass you by while engaging in wasteful activities on cell phones. Which brings us to the first reason why people feel entitled. The technology in America has sped so much up, people think that there should be something allotted to them quick and instant. They don’t realize that the technology itself that speeds so much up took a lot of time to build. And when I say time, I mean some stuff as long as decades to build.
With the click of a mouse or the touch of the screen, we are instantly taken to our destination. That can make people think something should be given to them pretty fast. But it’s not just the technology that makes people think they are owed something. This same mind frame exist in the employment field as well. This whole my 75% is your 100%, and we all should be given something when we are clearly not putting in the same amount of work. A trend that has started from schools in children and has followed all the way into their adulthood. Now that you’re in the real world, you don’t realize that you’re not special. No one is going to hold you close and tell you everything is going to be alright. And that’s when you learn you’re not this beautiful and talented person, but more so that you are mundane because you have not put real time and energy into being great at what you do.
And you would think with what has been said so far, the owing stops there; no it doesn’t. People feel that you have made money, so it is your job to give them something. In their minds, “You have it, why not give me something.” Then they try to use the excuse of God blesses you to help other people. When in reality, that’s true, but there is something they are leaving out. God blesses people to help those who have made an initiative to put themselves in a better place. Giving people things without making them earn it causes you to be a crutch and it cripples them. It also creates a lack of respect that the person has for something you do give to them.
See, in the end, you want something in life, you have to be willing to go into the world and stake your own claim. Because the only person who has a stake in interest in you doing anything is you. I used to ask questions of the elders about back in their young days. I remember how my late grandmother would say growing up in the South, everybody had some plot of land. Didn’t matter how big or small, it still fed your family. And it was important you tended to your land since it depended on how you and your family ate. Because if your crop didn’t come through, your family didn’t eat. You were not owed anything and no one cared. Life was tough, but it was fair because we all have the capability to get out the bed and work. What’s that saying, we all have 24 hours in a day, what you choose to do with yours is your business.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident.” “That all men are created equal.”
-DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
We all have some favorite quotes and what they mean to each of us. They might be quotes that we just love to hear, or even quotes that motivate us to keep persevering. Some of those quotes could be a bible versus, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Or it can be from a literary, “I would have rather been born blind, than to have been given sight and lack vision” (Helen Keller). And with that said, I would like to present my own quotes that I love, which resonate with me. One comes from Thomas Edison, the other Marianne Williamson, and the third is Martin Luther King Jr.
Now, the first is Thomas Edison, who had many many quotes. But the quote that I recently found that Thomas Edison made was, “Many of life’s failures are people who didn’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” This statement is always coming into my mind every time I think about giving up in life on my writing. Writing is such a daunting task of working to succeed. You are going to have success, and you’re going to have failure along the way. But to me, I have yet to see those successes. And then I think about how long I have been writing. 2013 is the year I officially decided to become a writer. I gave myself on a ten year window to break into the industry as a screenwriter and playwright. Meanwhile I am writing my blog everyday and my books as well.
So, what does any of this have to do with Thomas Edison? Well, giving up, and not realizing how close you might have been when you gave up. I have written five full length screenplays, self-published two books, written 400 blog posts in the past two and a half years, and two short film scripts; one script turned into a short film. And still, I have been working to create other projects to keep myself in that creative mode. So if I give in now, it will have been for nothing. Not just my past four to five years, but the time put into my work. Don’t give up when you are so close. So close, if you knew how close, you might even put more time into your work. And that is why Edison’s quote screams so loud to me.
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, 1992
But my second quote is from Marianne Williamson from her book, “A Return to Love.” The famous quote from the book is, “Our Deepest Fears.” “Not that we inadequate; our deepest fear is that we powerful beyond measure.” “It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.” “We look in the mirror and ask ourselves, who am I to be talented, gorgeous, fabulous; who are you not to be.” “There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that others won’t feel insecure when they’re around you.” “We were all meant to shine as children do.” “You were made to manifest the glory of God that is within you.” “It’s not in some of us, it’s in everyone.” “And as you let your own light shine, you will unconsciously give others permission to do the same.” “When you are liberated from your own fears.” “Your presence will automatically liberate others.”
I could not pick just one aspect of that quote, but I had to choose the entire passage. Because the first part speaks of being inadequate yet you really are afraid of your own powers. We have this fear because once you succeed, people are going to expect more, and what happens if you can’t give them more. So we fear the attempt because of the expectations that come with it. Then the passage details us questioning why us. But why not us? We as the passage says don’t want people to feel insecure around us. But you should never dumb yourself down for the sake of fitting in, or this notion your brilliance makes others uncomfortable. You might just have a golden nugget of advice that the people need. And the quote further goes on to let people know we all have the powers to succeed. But once you let that inner you shine, it gives courage to others to step up. Why, because your willingness to not give up and fight makes them exuberate a little less fear as well. Because if you can do it, it makes them feel the same way.
Great quote, giving me an even greater sense of purpose. But there is still one more quote I love. And it was from civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. He didn’t make this a public speech, yet stated this quote among a small group of friends. He said, “I feel as if I am integrating my people into a burning building.” As a child I couldn’t understand what that meant. But as an adult, I see old footage of the time period. People wanted him dead, why. Just because he wanted people to vote, have a fair chance at jobs, eliminate Jim Crow laws (which were an extension of slavery), and send children to schools of their choice. But the backlash was often so brutal you think to yourself. “Is this worth it?” “Do I really want my family to integrate.” “Maybe segregation is best.”
Because if you want to vote and someone is willing to kill. Or willing to kill for you drinking from the same water fountain or eating in the same restaurant, should I assimilate. Because when you assimilate, you’re introducing that element into your life, to your children, and your community. It’s not everyone, yet it’s enough to make you think twice. Meaning, you might think you’re shutting me out, but you might actually be doing me a favor. Coming from a man who knew he could die for going against the grain, it was intriguing to hear a statement where even he questioned the movement. In the end, we all live by quotes, or have a love for some type of quote. But whatever the case, famous quotes have and will always be an aspect of our lives.
from watching the bad guy in real life prevail. So to go to the movies to see the hero win is like finally, someone who isn’t afraid to take on the bad guys. Then we snap ourselves out of the fantasy and live in real life.
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always coming into my mind every time I think about giving up in life on my writing. Writing is such a daunting task of working to succeed. You are going to have success, and you’re going to have failure along the way. But to me, I have yet to see those successes. And then I think about how long I have been writing. 2013 is the year I officially decided to become a writer. I gave myself on a ten year window to break into the industry as a screenwriter and playwright. Meanwhile I am writing my blog everyday and my books as well.
a child I couldn’t understand what that meant. But as an adult, I see old footage of the time period. People wanted him dead, why. Just because he wanted people to vote, have a fair chance at jobs, eliminate Jim Crow laws (which were an extension of slavery), and send children to schools of their choice. But the backlash was often so brutal you think to yourself. “Is this worth it?” “Do I really want my family to integrate.” “Maybe segregation is best.”