Ode for the LA-LA Land

First of all guys. I am not dead. Yet. I have been MIA from quiet sometime but boys n’ girls now I am back.

Moving on…

 

Okay…Pop quiz. Hot shot. What in the world is El Pueblo de la Reina de los Angeles.

I guess the last two words probably gave it away.

Britishers call it Los Angelees, Americans call it Los Angelus, Everyone else calls it L.A. Never in the history of humanity a town has been so popular that people all over the world flocked just to be part of the cultural action (or lack of thereof).

Famous cultural icon Andy Warhol said, “I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They’re beautiful. Everybody’s plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.“

In the popular culture Los Angeles has been referenced in numerous films, loads of hardboiled fiction (Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy) and off course countless reality shows (Real wives of who knows what, Hills).

So what the hell is this article about?

This is my personal salute to the city people all over [world] loved (or hated) by either being part of it or had a glimpse on the boob tube.

This is first part in the series of articles about Los Angeles as experienced in the popular culture (somebody somewhere really said Holy crap how much free time do you have).

I am listing some of the films that tried to capture the essence of Los Angeles and were really successful in creating the virtual image it strived for.

The films listed here are not aiming for any top spot but are really in a random order.

Chinatown – The first thing which comes to mind whenever I say Los Angeles is almost always Polanski’s Chinatown. Chinatown is a masterful neo-noir. The film successfully captured the essence of valley during the early 20th century when Los Angeles was facing a huge water crisis. The accuracy of location was in part due to Robert Towne’s excellent research about the city and the infamous California Water Wars.

Yeah? Ain’t that something? Middle of a drought, the water commissioner drowns. only in L.A. 

 

L.A. Confidential – Another masterful neo-noir. The film was a true poster child for how a noir should be crafted. Raymond Chandler would have been very happy – dirty cops, femme fatale, grisly locations. What’s not to love. Only bad thing — it lost loads of Oscar to an undeserved contender made by a man who traveled on Titanic to Pandora. Bad joke. Don’t worry after 2.5 billion and counting Cameron can now take it all.

Come to Los Angeles! The sun shines bright, the beaches are wide and inviting, and the orange groves stretch as far as the eye can see. [But you know that ain’t true.]

 

Lethal Weapon Series – Unabashedly loud, this series of buddy cop action film is one of the first thing comes to mind when you think about L.A. of 1980’s. It was a different era. People look different. Places look different. When you watch and re-watch this film now the only thing you’ll notice is cliche, cliche and more cliche. But boy was it fun or what.

Two cops. Glover carries a weapon. Gibson is one. He’s the only L.A. cop registered as a LETHAL WEAPON. [This has to be one of the worst tagline ever.]

 

Beverly Hills Cop Series – Another pseudo-buddy cop funny action film for whole family to enjoy. Just the way Disney wants you to. Not as famous as its brethren Lethal Weapon series but equally loud, ridden with similar cliches. But definitely worth a watch.

In Beverly Hills we just take whichever car is closest.

 

Collateral – One of my favorite gritty thriller from Michael Mann. Mann is the only person deft in creating a character out of a block of buildings. When you watch Collateral you really believe that you know the

city, the people, the places. It’s only Mann who can pull off an ordinary story into an extra ordinary film. Notable mention is his another film – Heat.

All the cabbies in L.A., I get Max, Sigmund Freud meets Dr. Ruth.

 

So there you have it. Not my top five favorites but top five which I can think from the top of my head.

There are many more which I want to list but man I am tired now. So here are some films which I think are worth mentionining:

Heat

Boogie Nights

The Player

Magnolia

L.A. Story

To Live and Die in L.A.

Speed

Californication (TV Series)

Game Theory in Filmmaking / Screenwriting

In The Dark Knight somewhere near the end of the third act there is a sequence where Joker plants explosive inside two passenger ships. One is carrying hardcore criminals and other innocent civilians. He gives choice to captains of both ships to blow the other one otherwise he’ll blow both of them in an hour. This plot device is heavily used in films and is particularly found in films where protagonist often have to make a choice between two bad options.

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the world of Game Theory. Before we begin I must iterate game theory is not just about video games.

In it’s simplest definition game theory is a branch of science/strategy that studies behavior of people embroiled in a specific situation. It is widely used by law enforcement, politicians, economists to plan their strategies in situations such as negotiation, planning economic policies or devising a plan to win election.

What I want to discuss is not related to any of the things above but how Game Theory has been used effectively in some of the most popular films in the past.

The Dark Knight example above is one of the most popular game termed as Prisoner’s Dilemma. This game was conceived by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher but Albert W. Tucker coined the term.

This game involves two or more players (or prisoners) who cannot co-operate with the authority (whatever that may be) because co-operating will not be in best of their interests.

Typical scenario is very often a variant of the following situation:

Two suspects are questioned into separate rooms and offered a similar deal. If one rats out the other, s/he may go free while the other receives a life imprisonment. If neither complies both are given moderate sentences, and if both complies the sentences for both will be severe.

Typical Characteristics

Prisoner’s Dilemma is a commonplace in TV shows and films dealing with law enforcement situations. However this dilemma is not limited to law enforcement based films but can also be found in instances where protagonist is forced to make a tough choice.

More than a strategy game it is a psychological game. In a typical scenario the authority figure feeds on insecurity of the players. The players are often cornered in a no-way-out place. Ratting out the other partner seems like the best and the easiest choice.

Authority figure often acts as god or godlike archetype such as Devil, Faust or Mephistopheles to the players. In The Dark Knight, Joker acted as a true incarnation of Mephistopheles by offering difficult choices to Batman.

Authority figure in all cases need not be an external entity. Very often it is the player’s need which defines the characteristics of the figure. If internal it is usually manifested via any of the great sins, usually greed.

Some films which employed this technique (internal / external) are:

• Treasure of Sierra Madre
• Gamer (Although not a good film by any stretch)
• Dark Knight
• Murder by Numbers
• L.A. Confidential
• Lost TV Series (a poster child for game theory)
• North By Northwest
• Maltese Falcon

Largely unnoticed but film noir employed variants of Prisoner’s Dilemma. Usually authority figure in such kind of films is internal. Lack of trust and greed usually acts as authority figure often crumbling the symbiosis which otherwise would have benefitted both parties.

In Treasure of Sierra Madre it is greed for gold which drives all the players to deceive each other thereby making authority figure internal.

In films such as Gamer (2009), Death Race, Running Man the authority figure is often an external entity such as lawmaker, industrialist or warden. The primal need here is survival which will be compromised if players don’t co-operate. Such kind of films have very generic plot elements rendering the story very predictable. However these films are mainly action films where predictably is often expected.

TV Series Lost made a good use of Prisoner’s Dilemma by forcing the survivors to collaborate if they want to survive against all the monstrosities that exist on the island. The creators realized that if they make authority figure known then the story will lose its charm and most likely will fall in the same trap as any of those prison / futuristic action films. They introduced a unique design principle by making the authority figure mysterious and unpredictable. This introduced another layer of complexity to the principles of Prisoner’s Dilemma.

If you are a writer of screenplay or novel it might be a good idea to understand various types of games in the game theory. It adds a layer of unpredictability to the stories. However if not used properly it might seem clichéd. Discretion is highly advised.

Sun Tzu quotes in art of war, “All war is based on deception.”

Prisoner’s Dilemma is nothing but a deception wrapped in the form of good choice. If you know how to weave that illusion in your plot then you have a winning story.

There are a lot of good resources on the web to understand the intricacies of game theory. Some of the good ones are as follows:

• www.gametheory.net
• Wikipedia

Internet Addiction – Myth or Reality?

Year 1994. Not really the dawn of human civilization (Humans were already civilized by then. At least most of them 🙂 ).

But for me it was the beginning of a love-hate relationship. This is the year I touched computer for the first time and boy I hated it. I kept on hating it for the next 4-5 years until it was finally thrown in my lap. I realized what I was going through is a resistance to initiation. Giving up was the only choice. Plus porn was picking up as well.

Fast forward to 2010.

I can’t think what to do if I don’t have a computer near me. I won’t be able to write that Last Great American screenplay I want to write since forever. The trouble is if I have a computer in front of me which is capable of connecting to the Internet the first thing I’ll do is check my yahoo mail. Pop goes the productivity.

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the age of Internet Addiction.

Extent of the problem

“You are not alone.”

Believe it or not the problem is more widespread than you can think of.  Most of the people I know check their work mails, sometimes as late as 1:00 AM in the night to as early as 6:00 AM in the morning. Just other day I was standing in the line to get a sandwich at Subway and there was this lady in early thirties checking her Facebook status on her iPhone (Maybe looking at her hookup requests). It’s not that communicating is bad but Facebook during lunch can only mean one of the two things — Either you are an addict or you really want to get laid by somebody, anybody.

How to know you are an addict

This website conducts an online test to check if you are an addict or not. Off course the credibility of test solely rests on the truthfulness of your response.

http://www.netaddiction.com/index.php?option=com_bfquiz&view=onepage&catid=46&Itemid=106

This website uses some scoring system and based on that you’ll know if you really need some help.

What to do if you are addict

Denial is the first thing you’ll do. 🙂

If it’s a serious problem that affects your productivity or worse personal relationships then consider it the same as drug addiction. This institute somewhere in Midwest charges fifteen grand to fix your addiction.

http://www.netaddictionrecovery.com/

What to do for Addicts in progress

If you think you are on that path do something. Start with the smaller problem first. Tackling internet addiction.

For me unfortunately writing can be done on computer only unless humanity / technology folds ( à la Escape from LA).

For my addiction I use a very simple software called Freedom. This is available for both mac and windows.

http://macfreedom.com/

What it does is disables your internet up to 8 hours. A lot can be done in 8 hours.

This can be started as a temporary solution and once you feel comfortable you can stop using it. If you think this program really helped you, please consider donating to the developer. He just saved you $15000.

Internet is without question the wonderful source of information but it poses one simple challenge — when to stop?

Remember “abundance of information always creates deficit of attention“.