John August

Rave

Movie speak

Books, Film Industry, Rave

When the AD calls out that this is the Abby Singer, what should you do?

Well, nothing, because you’re the screenwriter. But being the observant sort, you might notice that the gaffers start tidying up. Craft service begins putting away the vegetable dip. The second AD dispatches some PAs to make copies of the call sheet.

movie speak bookThe Abby Singer is the next-to-last shot of the day, or at a given location. And if you’ve never heard of it, or some of the other terms mentioned above, I can recommend Tony Bill’s book Movie Speak: How to Talk Like You Belong on a Movie Set. It’s by far the best guide and glossary I’ve seen to all the esoteric terms you hear on a movie set. And real terms, not goofy had-to-be-there catchphrases.

Keep in mind: as a screenwriter sitting at a computer, you’ll never use most of these terms. You’ll never, ever type them in a script. It’s only when you’re on a working set that you’ll hear them. But knowing them might save you some embarrassment and confusion.

(As a reminder, I’ve previously recommended The Hollywood Standard
as a go-to guide for screenplay formatting.)

The new Kindle is pretty solid

Geek Alert, Rave


After playing around with it for an hour, I’m pretty happy with the Kindle 2. I was a satisfied user of the original model, and most of the changes are for the better. So if you’re thinking about getting one — and live in the U.S. — I vote yes.

The good:

* It’s light and tight. It feels like an Apple product. (The original iPod nano, to be specific.)

* The screen is faster. It’s not exactly snappy, but it’s fast enough that you can actually map the UI to it. That let the designers get rid of the roller bar.

* Text-to-speech is decent for non-fiction. It has no sense of dialogue, so it’s hard to hear two characters talking. But it would be great for reading a magazine article aloud while driving to work.

* Quite smartly, Amazon automatically links it to your account, so you don’t have to do anything to access books from your previous Kindle.

The bad:

* It’s so thin and smooth that I feel like I’m going to drop it. It doesn’t ship with a case/cover, but adding one will help a lot. (I just ordered the standard one.)

* Although it was prone to accidental bumping, I was a fan of the giant “Next Page” button. In the Kindle 2, your thumb has to hit it dead-on.

* The little joystick is only okay. Nudging it around, you’re never quite sure how much pressure to apply.

There’s definitely room for improvement, but I can certainly recommend it to all the folks who were fence-sitting. Having access to so many books simultaneously — and adding new ones at a whim — is a game-changer.

For example, I was at the San Antonio airport waiting for a flight home, when I finally decided I needed to read Twilight. It was $19.99 at the airport bookstore, or $6.04 on Kindle. In less than sixty seconds, I was reading it. ((My non-review: I can see why Twilight is so successful. Caitlin Flanagan’s analysis is spot-on.)) I’ve done a lot more of this spur-of-the-moment buying since having a Kindle, and read things I probably wouldn’t have otherwise. ((And on the flip side, getting the first chapter free has helped me not buy a few books I otherwise might have.))

The Kindle 2 runs $359, and is in stock. If you order through this link
, they’ll kick a few dollars my way.

Best Mac Ever

Rave

With the Macintosh now 25 years old, several sites have been discussing which was the best Mac ever. I made up my mind fully before clicking through, and was happy to see so many people [agreed with me](http://www.macworld.com/article/138328/2009/01/macat25_bestmac.html?lsrc=rss_weblogs_editors).

[Read more…] about Best Mac Ever

Presidential punctuation

Rave, Words on the page

Over the weekend, while my daughter slept in her stroller, I read the text of an Obama speech on my iPhone. I was struck by how clearly I could hear his voice in my head and predict where he would have put his stresses. Even after eight years of George W. Bush, I couldn’t anticipate his speaking rhythms, except to observe that he finished every sentence with either grim conviction or a wary half-smile, regardless of the content.

Obama’s inauguration speech this morning was deliberately sober, with none of the call-and-response cadence we heard on the campaign trail. It was the right choice both tonally and logistically — given the time delay to reach the back of the massive crowd, any audience chanting would have resulted in chaos.

Looking at the [full text](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/inauguration_obama_text) of the speech, I’m struck by something else: the punctuation.

> To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

Yes, a semicolon.

Best known to most Americans as half of a winking emoticon, this elite and misunderstood conjoiner has a friend in Obama. Yes, he’s using it as more of an oratorial pause than a semantic adhesive. And yes, this sentence likely went through several writers before its debut. But the fact our new President feels confident using it is another small cause for celebration on this very happy day.