Scriptwriters Have No Ideas

Hmm, how do I start? Okay, the title of this post maybe misleading, I don't have anything particular against scriptwriters. It's just that since I indulged more in movies and TV series, I realized there are at least 2 categories of scriptwriters:

• the utterly creative ones

• the dull copy-cat don't-think type

Why do I say so? And where do we encounter these 2 different types of scriptwriters? The first type is the precious type, and they could sweep you off your feet with clever tag lines and play of words (which may not necessarily be a long one, 2 words are sometimes good enough). If you are still unable to distinguish this 1st type of scriptwriters from the rest, I try to give you some examples:

Girl: How much do you love me?
Guy.: You have no idea!

Guy: The only certain things in world are death and taxes.

These dialogues and saying are by no means new, and I think they have been used numerous times, but they are good. However using things like those do not qualify the 2nd types of scriptwriters to be categorised as creative scriptwriters, because (*I believe*) their main job is to write the plot of a movie or TV series, which brings us to the main idea of this post, are we taken on a ride by these so called scriptwriters?

How sure are you that the movies and TV series that you have watched recently are original and creative products? For some reasons, I think TV writers are more original than that of movies, they are up-to-date, the settings are more familiar, there is less delay between scriptwriting and production, and they need to appeal to a wide range of agegroups. Not to mention that TV series is less likely to reproduce earlier works and pull a copycat from others.

Don't worry, I will back my claims with proof. Case studies:

• I am Legend - a 2007 movie. Do you know that it is a 3rd film adaptation of a 1954 same-named novel? The other 2 previous adaptations are named as The Last Man on Earth (1964) and The Omega Man (1971). Warner Bros. holds the rights to that novel since 1970. How many more adaptations are going to be done if the rights of the novel still remains under Warner Bros.? I wonder if the author even get paid royalty for the latest adaptation. Is it standard practice for film studio to generate revenue by reproducing old works, after some years rummage for something decent from the store room, put in some famous faces (only 1 in this case!) like Will Smith and try to get by? Can't they just be a little more creative, do some variations, why not the last woman on earth?

• Meet Joe Black - a 1998 movie starring Brad Pitt. This is a remake of the 1934 film, Death Takes a Holiday, originally having been remade in 1971 under the same name as the original. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie unlike I am Legend. I think the idea is quite original, but maybe that's because I have not watched the 1934 and 1971 versions, what if I have? Some ladies will of course say that it will still be enjoyable, because it features Brad Pitt (actually, I do agree Brad Pitt is kinda *hot*, even for a guy!). I think the long period of time between the few versions makes it okay to produce a remake, but try to imagine if there were another 3 or 4 remakes of the same thing in the next 100 years, just throw in different popular actors, that is no good!
  

• Korean Ghost movie Ju-On turned The Ring in America. I hate Korean ghost movies, it's always The Ring, The Phone, The Eye (Chinese yeah but who inspires them?), maybe it will be The Toilet Bowl, The Table, The Water Bottle when they run out of ideas?
  

• Americans movie makers wanting to reproduce Hong Kong triad trilogy Infernal Affairs. Or have they produced?

• Most recently I read that Jessica Alba will be acting in American remake of The Eye (no good!)

OK, I guess enough ramblings for now, suffice to say that whoever involved in doing things similar to above, I classify them as 2nd group of scriptwriters. Some of you may want to point out that it's not the scriptwriters' fault, it's the producers who decide what type of movies to be produced! Yeah probably, I am not familiar with movie production industry, but I want to reserve my rights to be emotional and opt to blame scriptwriters anyway, just because they
ruined my TV series viewing pleasure by organizing a lengthy strike in US, which has not been resolved until now. Maybe consumers should organize a strike too, to weed out copy-cat, (un)creative scriptwriters?

So scriptwriters (at least those based in US), while you are out of job, try to find some original ideas and make a difference, I mean what's the point of adapting a novel for 3 times, is it really that good? What about other novels and other inspiration sources? If all novels were to be adapted 3 or more times, we really would not be short of movies everyday, but I surely would be curious about their qualities! What do you think?

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BobbyT Movie Review: The Painted Veil (2006)

The Painted Veil is based on the novel of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham. It is not exactly a new movie (released 2006), starring not very famous actors and actresses (I guess) but my knowledge of celebrities is below average at best, the only recognizable face (for me) being Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong. Nevertheless, I have decided to review this movie because of the values in it which I find worth adopting, or at the very least, should be taken note of.

Set mostly in 20th century China, this is sort of a love story about a British couple, cross-cultural interactions, selfless humanity efforts and doing the right thing. The heroine in this movie is faced with the choice between a good, selfless but quiet man and a charming sweet-talking (with lots of exciting empty promises!) guy. In the end there is not much of a choice on her part, a choice is imposed on her yet I like the part where she realized what is right and what is wrong, thus transforming her from a young naive emotional maiden to a mature thoughtful and strong-willed woman. Couples could also learn a lesson or two regarding expectations in a relationship from this movie.

[A part of me just wanted to shout out loud stating that not all handsome exciting guys are good to have (they may be more exciting to have, I agree!), there are some better, quiet, average-looking introvert guy like myself out here! So ladies, open your eyes wider, evaluate us all more objectively, not based on excitement alone! Hope this don't reveal too much about the plot! LOL :P ]

As a conclusion, I really recommend you watching this movie if you are looking for a warm inspiring romance. Meaningful love stories are always preferred to some mindless shoot-em-up plotless zombie movies (I am Legend immediately comes to mind but that is another
story).

Best Quote from the Movie:
(Spoken by a nun) "I fell in love when I was 17, with God. A foolish girl with romantic notions about the life of a religious. But my love was passionate. Over the years my feelings have changed. He's disappointed me. Ignored me. We've settled into a relationship of peaceful indifference. The old husband and wife who sit side by side on the sofa, but rarely speak. He knows I will never leave him. This is my duty. But when love and duty are one, then grace is within you."

Pros: Satisfying, warm feeling in knowing true love conquers other ill intents.
Cons: It doesn't have a fairy-tale ending (find out yourself!) and Anthony Wong doesn't get enough scenes and dialogues! Hehe...'

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This is a link exchange page, designed to boost technorati rankings. If you want to improve your ranking in technorati too, you can follow the example set forth in this page by creating a similarly named page in your blog and ask people for link exchanges. You can email me to have your blog added here, but I would of course be expecting a reciprocal link from your link exchange page too :)

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About

Hello...

My name is BobbyT, the owner of this blog. This is my first blog, it was started on the last day of January. I have learnt and experienced a lot of things since the launching of this blog until now.

I am sure that the blog URL and its name (BobbyT Blogging To a T) may sound strange to you. I assure you, I would have thought the same if I were not who I am. Perhaps it is time for me to explain them.

You see, when I started blogging, I was inexperienced and naive, besides being poor too. When I signed up with Blogger, I did not have a clear idea which direction my blog should go, what niches it should be in. I wanted to write just about anything, random topics which I found interesting. So, in the end I just named it BobbyT Blogging To a T, from the point of view of English language, it simply means "BobbyT Blogging Perfectly." I realize that this blog is far from perfect, neither am I doing an excellent job in blogging. In the end, I also ended up choosing an URL which is just as weird, guess I am just a weird person, LOL!

Why don't you change the blog name and URL?
It is absolutely possible for me to change the blog name and URL and quite easily too. The change of name would be trivial, however if I were to change the URL, my blog would lose out in SEO terms. When I first contemplated changing name and URL, my blog already has a few hundred of link backs to it, so I decided against doing something which would probably affect the volume of traffic coming in to my blog from search engines and other referring sites.

So what is the blog about now?
I seriously wish that there is an easy answer to this question. Here is my attempt:

I hope to blog about topics which are of interest to Internet users, namely, Web 2.0, Social Bookmarking and Networking, New Technology, Gadgets, Web Hosting, Software, Websites, Useful Applications, Blogging and other Bloggers.

What are my targets for this blog?
I set sail with this blog mainly to learn more about blogging and to prepare myself for my own dot coms in the future. I have had some success with this blog but to be honest, I wish for more with this blog. Here are my current objectives:-

• To achieve good Google PageRank (currently 0)
• To achieve 50 subscribers (highest was 25)
• To achieve 3000 unique visitors in a month (highest was about 1200)
• To earn $0.50 cent per day from various advertisements

If you like the content on this blog, please help me attain my targets. Bookmark this blog, subscribe via RSS Reader or email and visit this blog as often as possible. I thank you first for taking the time to read through this :)

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