Oh, I am ready for Christmas break. I want to go home, be with my family and do nothing for a few weeks. Just absolutely exhausted.

Alien

The script I’m currently writing has me doubt on the regular whether I actually know how to write a screenplay. Mainly because my script features no dialogue, which directly results in low page counts and me fretting that it reads more like a novel than a movie!

So I downloaded an early draft of Alien (1979) to see how much a mess I was in. Thankfully, I regained confidence in my scriptwriting ability and had an entertaining read.

Dan O’Bannon’s early draft of Alien is pretty much what ended up on screen in movie theaters, narratively speaking. A few characters are different, an android is missing, but the main difference is in the aesthetics.

The Xenomorph, referred to here only as the “Creature,” is much more tentaclely throughout its lifecycle. A motif that seems to be reintroduced in Prometheus (2012). I’d like to read a later rewrite and see how the aesthetics evolve, but I expect most of that crystalized in production under Ridley Scott’s leadership (credit to H. R. Giger as well).

My major takeaway was this script is both descriptive and vague. It paints scenes in quick strokes that afford just enough of a scaffold for the imagination to fill in the rest. I’m managing most the same with my own script. I just need to resist the urge to be overly descriptive and fret less over the specificity of my scene headings.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!

I’ve never seen this before, I’m not entirely sure what I’ve put in my eyes, am I on acid?

Mirai

This is why I love the Japanese animation industry. They take a topic so mundane, in this case, a child competing with an infant sibling for parental attention, and create something relatable and magical. A beautiful expression of emotions.

Destiny

Destiny was not what I hoped when it launched in 2014. My imagination ran away with me and envisioned a seamless open world designed for exploration and discovery of secrets. What I got was something with a mite more loading screens, a mite more linear, and a mite more multiplayer-centric. It was a little disappointing.

But I’m still here 6 years later.

Bungie managed to keep this solo player around on the strength of their gunplay, world design, and lore. Shooting is fun and Destiny has some of the best shooting around. And while you’re running around popping alien heads, admire the scenery because Destiny remains one of the most visually breathtaking games on the market. It’s colorful, uniquely original, and its sense of scale feels enormous. And that environment is closely tied to the lore. You find very little superfluous content in Destiny. Every sound, song, line of dialogue, weapon, armor piece, ship, forgotten lab, ancient temple, and alien artifact weaves into a staggeringly expansive narrative. One you have to invest in, discover for yourself.

I’m not a hardcore Destiny player. I’ve never participated in a raid and don’t plan to. I haven’t done every tedious exotic quest. But I’m sold on this world. So I’ll log on every month or so and watch this story unfold.