quiet trickster

So, I’ve been planning to start this little post-apocalyptic story on the website for a while, and keep putting it off because, hey, that’s what I do. And having found my basic ideas for the story slightly undermined by Global Fiscal Meltdown, I then swithered over trying to get my head round that enough to incorporate it into the story (because, in my head, it was only a little better than Global Thermonuclear War in the Big Obvious Metaphor stakes).

But, having admitted to myself that, really, I don’t have enough story yet to worry about whether reality is overtaking me, I’ve decide to start posting the story. The theory is, if it’s out there, I’ll feel guilty enough to actually get to the, y’know, plot…

The premise (or premises - like apocalypse, I’m uncertain of the plural) for Waketrailers is that if the world ends, chances are it won’t be epic, and the people who survive won’t be heroic. The waketrailers themselves are people who have always been on the edges of the action: people who know friends of friends that lead glamorous, exciting lives. But the waketrailers, who find themselves with no transferable skills for the apocalypse, aren’t any less prepared than the supposed trailblazers. Think of it as an Anti-Heroes.

Part 1 is here: Starts with a whimper. It’s a prologue, really. Plot may or may not follow…

Spent much of yesterday in a blind rage at the internet.

Oddly enough, not an entirely negative experience.

The truly excellent Joss Whedon (of Buffy, Angel, Firefly/Serenity, parts of Toy Story and miscellaneous uncredited script-polishing, including Speed, and just general awesomeness), was supportive of but frustrated by the recent WGA strike, and, in his own words (via whedonesque):

I finally decided to do something very ambitious, very exciting, very mid-life-crisisy. Aided only by everyone I had worked with, was related to or had ever met, I single-handedly created this unique little epic. A supervillain musical, of which, as we all know, there are far too few.

The idea was to make it on the fly, on the cheap – but to make it. To turn out a really thrilling, professionalish piece of entertainment specifically for the internet. To show how much could be done with very little. To show the world there is another way. To give the public (and in particular you guys) something for all your support and patience. And to make a lot of silly jokes. Actually, that sentence probably should have come first.

The result is Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, due to be released in three parts over one week in July.

Here’s the Dr. Horrible trailer:

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

The Internet embraced this (the internet loves Joss Whedon, and the combination of Whedon, free stuff and singing supervillains is pretty much unbeatable), and, so, about twelve hours after Act 1 was launched, the Dr. Horrible server crashed.

Hence the blind rage.

Not entirely negative, because it’s gratifying to know that the Whedonites have it in their power to cause the server collapse. And because I finally managed to watch Act 1 this morning, via a temporary site, and, yeah, worth the wait. (I’m not going to review it yet - I want to wait until all 3 acts are up)

It’s actually written by Whedon with his brothers and a sister-in-law (from which one can only determine that Ma Whedon would have been proud: more concrete evidence of this can be found in this speech given by Whedon to Equality Now):

The main site should be fully functional by now at www.drhorrible.com, with the first act up now, and the next two going online over the next few days. If the site’s crashed again, try the fan site for news. There’s also outlying areas on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace…

It’s only going to be free until 20th July - there are plans for a DVD release and so forth.

Oh, and there’s a online comic strip about Dr. Horrible’s nemisis, Captain Hammer, available from Dark Horse Comic’s Myspace page, written by one of the other Whedons, Zack.

Go! Watch! Buy T-shirt!

The Edinburgh International Film Festival opened it’s box office today, so I spent my lunch booking my summer holiday. 22 films, fairly miscellaneous - I’m now going to spend the next month paranoid that I’ve made the wrong choices.

That’s partly a consequence of always trying to book at the earliest possible moment, in order to get tickets for the films I know I want to see (after the trauma of failing to see Serenity at the EIFF in 2005) - this year, the latest Pixar, WALL-E (Yay!). And unlike the last few years, booking online wasn’t even slightly traumatic (their server didn’t crash, and I got all the tickets I aimed for)

So, the 22 - actually 18 films, two of their animated short film collections and two real-live people events:

• 19/06/08, 17:15: McLaren Animation 1
• 19/06/08, 20:15: The Song of Sparrows
• 21/06/08, 15:00: Tiramisu
• 21/06/08, 18:45: Stone of Destiny
• 22/06/08, 14:00: Roger Deakins & Seamus McGarvey: In Conversation
• 22/06/08, 17:30: Standard Operating Procedure
• 22/06/08, 20:00: Strange Girls
• 23/06/08, 14:00: International Animation 1
• 23/06/08, 17:15: Bananaz
• 23/06/08, 19:15: Warsaw Dark
• 24/06/08, 19:00: The Surprise Movie
• 25/06/08, 17:30: Ray Harryhausen: In Person
• 25/06/08, 19:40: Dreams with Sharp Teeth
• 26/06/08, 15:00: Milky Way Liberation Front
• 26/06/08, 17:15: Sleep Dealer
• 26/06/08, 20:00: Idiots and Angels
• 27/06/08, 14:30: The Bride Wore Black
• 27/06/08, 17:15: Fear(s) of the Dark
• 27/06/08, 19:05: Encounters at the End of the World
• 28/06/08, 14:15: WALL-E
• 28/06/08, 16:45: The Fall
• 28/06/08, 21:30: Faintheart

Fewer than last year (there’s even a day I’m missing completely - but I’ve realised that I really can’t watch four films in one day). And the move from August to June means that, with my daily commute to the festival, I can’t see any of the later films, as the last train out is at 11.30pm. The only film that risks leaving me stranded in Edinburgh at midnight if the closing film, Faintheart, but it’s about battle re-enactors, so how could I resist?

I’ll go through my rationale for my choices nearer the time (or, not now), but did I mention WALL-E? Yay! (Pixar-induced glee…)