Re: BBC Drop Spooks


"FishFood" <dont@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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The Doctor wrote:
In article <j28g7v$423$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, FishFood <dont@xxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Charles E. Hardwidge wrote:
"FishFood" <dont@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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I would set it in Easter Europe with its dreams of western
liberty...

So that even as those characters dream of the west, we,
the west looking back on their dreams would be asking,
where did it all go wrong?

I would make a point of the culture/ entertainments/
indoctrinations, which championed its goons to make
them seem like heroes.

I would show how ordinary and matter of fact that life
had become, with neighbours spying on neighbours, children
enticed into acting as informers. The systemic paranoia
of such a regime, from the highest levels to the most
ordinary citizen.

I'm sure there are no end of STASI case files which one
could explore for its authenticity... This would be about
a mechanistic system before it was about its politics, this
would be about its very human flaws, its endemic corruptions,
its laughable conceits, its monstrous absurds... group think
at its finest.

I would present it for the ordinariness it had become...
I hear what you're saying. They're all very good ideas. The problem
comes
trying to turn it into some sort of story.

I've got a collection of story concepts (all sitting within the same
timeline) waiting to be written. One touches on metaphysics and mass
riot,
and the other on the big philosophical questions and systemic
corruption.
They're both focused on the personal journey and discovery. The riots
and
corruption are just the background.

I'm amazed how story 1 (riots) fits with what's going on today. I
thought it was out of fashion then all this happens. You could knock me
down with a feather as story 2 essentially prophesied 9/11 and the
shitstorm that unravelled.

Nothing is new and the world keeps recycling. So I'd be looking for the
spark that makes your story special.

Yeah its the 'systemic' angle which i find most interesting, A point of
view on a system which doesn't fully know itself. Or systems which only
functions because it doesn't know itself. Striving for equilibrium, yet
having such a tiny view of the whole that its actions contradicts any
quest for balance.

But how to tell such a story and keep it interesting and entertaining?
I suppose where there's no main character, you might tell the story
from the point of view of what happens next. Puzzles reveal in one
chapter which concludes with yet another question. Or you might start
with the conclusion, and then discover how we got there. What ordinary
or innocuous actions lead to that final dramatic outcome. utopia /
dystopia.

The metaphysic which intrigues me most is the metaphysics of time,
hence DW. Seeing yourself, or your place in time, your tiny part in
the progression of the system, as it repeats itself. All those grains
of sand which can't see their actions on the same rock face. Or all
those grains of sand defending the shorelines of humanity.

You mention riots, a cynical view might see them either as a kind of
storking horse, before any simple reaction to circumstance. In this
case i'm thinking of the Olympics just around the corner. Rather than
leave the future to chance, you might consider events now as 'having
it over and done with'. Our collective reactions to the riots might
be all you need to prevent its kind occuring again, at least for this
generation. Counter measures developed on the back of what is learned
now, would be sort of like testing the alarms to see that they work.

The metaphysic here is one of creating certainties from uncertainty,
or managing the future, with an idea of the past. The real story would
be if those short term actions lead to what was sought, or had
reprocussions one hadn't figured for. Of course these days we're much
too scientific to merely 'replay the past', for our answers. But then
there's that question, what are we without the experience?

Our progress isn't just technology, or the relationship which evolve
about us, its to be measured in terms of our memory. History alone
can't always satisfy this idea of progress. moving from the collective
to the individual, we each need a memory which is equal to the direction
set for us.

Its one thing to read it in an history book, but it seems to me to
truly learn from history, or see history with a idea of its many
truths, you need experience, whether its real or contrived. How many
go on to learn from that experiance is another matter.


A small story told against a dramatic backdrop. Finding yourself
resisting the storm as others around you are pulled in, making
sense of the confusion. Would this be enough to tell your story?
Or does the main character, for the purposes of entertainment,
need to take the lead?

What actual is entertainment these days...

[btw did anyone catch the anime Metropolis screened on Film4,
http://www.channel4.com/tv-listings/daily/2011/08/04
http://www.channel4.com/tv-listings/daily/2011/08/08 ]

I wonder if a drama can be created via CCTV footage alone?

Realtime? Reconstructions after the events?

Realtime, could mean a view of a system hi-jacked to manage
puppets/operatives alike, as well as monitor an unsuspecting
population.

A reliance on CCTV could mean manipulation of its images
to create a false sense of events on the ground, there
would be scope here for a dramatic twist.

I can see a kind of blairwitch low tech approach to tell
a sophisticated story, as the image was used to explore/
expose the technology and our increasing reliance on it.
You might even though in something about time, by having
the time stamps manipulated on the cctv.. to tell a
completely different story ;)



Have you seen "7/7 Ripple Effect" about the London Underground 'terrorist'
bombings? It's what Governments do all the time... ;-)



The obvious Why, and why not? would be asked of the
technology.

see also
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7908856/Minority-Report-technology-used-by-police-to-predict-crimes.html

Imagine technology created for one use, based on one excuse,
but from which you found other ways for it to prove its worth.

Imagine a situation where an under-utilized Technology demanded
its use. You could throw in a bit of A.I here, to blaim the
technology, although i'd prefer a systemic answer for why
systems [meaning people] fail their primary objectives.

The technology over time, and without any real understanding,
might lead to a situation where it created what it needed to
justify its use. The question then is who would profit from
such situations.

Yep, i'd say there was potential in cctv to tell any kind
of story you imagine. With the subtext on Technology coming
before the humanity it was meant to serve. This situation
might also call for a degree of enforced ignorance.

See 'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace'

--------------------------------------------------------------
But back to your point. How would you use CCTV footage to tell
a story?



Forget the "Bourne" films. Check out Andrea Arnold's excellent low-budget
debut film "Red Road", which does exactly that...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0471030/





You might start by playing events as it happens, then replay
the same events, each time introducing deviations from the
last view, so that by the time the last pass was viewed, you
had a completely different tale. Date stamps would change.
Sequences of events would change. You would be left asking
which was true, the first or the last view.

You would still need to say something about who and why?


.

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