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The complete "How To Write A Thriller", by Ian Fleming

Submitted by petermorwood on October 5, 2012 - 13:10

This is a fascinating piece of work, by a writer whose hero has probably entertained more people than any other single fictional character in the 20th century (and I do include young Mr. Potter in that; he hasn’t been going for anything like as long.)

I saved this when I first saw it, and am very glad I did, because it’s the fullest version of Fleming’s essay I’ve ever seen. The site where I found it is long gone, and every version I’ve seen on-line since then now begin at “People often ask me” – in other words, halfway through, and often with other cuts afterwards.

The moral of the story, if there is one, is to preserve interesting research material off-line, rather than merely bookmark it. There’s no guarantee it’ll still be there when you look again.

The article's under the cut: just click on "Read more".

"Shave him, and he'd be the King!"

Submitted by petermorwood on September 10, 2008 - 09:37

I've always been fond of The Prisoner of Zenda movies and I've often wondered about the claim (current in Wikipedia, among other places) that the 1952 colour version was a shot-for-shot remake of the 1937 black-and-white original.

To me, shot-for-shot means "as nearly exact a copy as possible", and I'm now able to say that though the 1952 is very, very close in most respects, it's not shot-for-shot, and most emphatically not line-for-line. There are a lot more than "slight variations" between them, especially in dialogue.

Click "read more" for the rest of the article and the links to the screenplays.

Sherlock - New Show, old gun discipline

Submitted by petermorwood on September 24, 2010 - 23:12

I really like(d) "Sherlock," the 21st-century update of you-know-who, and I think Conan Doyle would have liked it too. (He'd certainly have given Dr. Watson's Afghan War connection a sour 'been there before' look.)

But good grief, if Holmes wants to survive for another series (already green-lighted) he needs someone behind the camera telling director and actor (where do you shoot a name like "Benedict (Timothy Carlton) Cumberbatch"?) that you treat a Browning L9A1 pistol with a LOT more respect. You don't point it at your friend, you don't wave it about for emphasis, and you DO NOT scratch the back of your head with it (with finger on trigger, unless I mis-saw!)

In series canon, one shot from this is able to put a Bad Guy down for good. Sherlock is supposedly so clever that he mocks everyone else for "living in such boring little minds." Well, if he continues treating Watson's Browning like a Super-Squirter, some malevolent screenwriter will be justified in making the last thing to cross his mind something 9mm wide.

Last time I saw something this gun-careless was "Plan Nine from Outer Space." And that's no compliment.

Tactical errors in advertising

Submitted by petermorwood on December 17, 2007 - 16:22

Advertising vocabularies differ depending on what's being sold. A sports car doesn't get the same write-up as a family saloon, and a laptop computer isn't described in the same high-tech language as an iPod. But there are some words which have crossed genres, and now seem to be applied with blind enthusiasm in the most unlikely places.

My current favourite is tactical.

You'll find it defined on Answers.com in various ways, but they quote the current U.S. Military Dictionary, which for this LJ entry seems more appropriate than most.

tactical, adj.

Designed or implemented so as to gain a temporary limited advantage: short-range.

1. of, relating to, or constituting actions carefully planned to gain a specific military end.

2. (of bombing or weapons) done or for use in immediate support of military or naval operations. Often contrasted with strategic.

This once-military-only term has since moved, via business, into more-or-less everyday use, but it's slipped its leash and like an unruly dog, is leaving traces of its passage in places where it shouldn't be allowed to go. (Mind your feet.)

I just wanted two coats of emulsion on the ceiling...

Submitted by petermorwood on December 14, 2007 - 19:19

...not a recreation of the Sistine Chapel!

But try telling that to Heston Blumenthal.

Diane and I recorded last week's Further Adventures in Search of Perfection - the one about chili con carne -- and watched it the other night with increasing amazement as he piled on layer after layer of daft, pointless elaboration.

The man hasn't a clue about how to cook with chilis, either: presented with something that used them - Oh look, they're in the name of the dish and everything! - he instantly reverted to Macho Man and went for the hottest he could find (or at least with the funniest name - Devil's Penis.) Someone should have let him try a Jolokia without telling him how hot it is; now that would have been really funny.

(click on read more for the rest...)

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