Artists
Rule 5. Revisit the backstory (and do it often).
If you were to provide an account of what happened later, and try to account for their motives, what would these be? For the overarcing theme of a film to resonate as the end credits roll, the director’s vision should appear to illustrate a principle beyond the simple summary of its parts. If a mystery […]
Rule 4. How do players learn the rules?
Sometimes there is a rule book. And sometimes there isn’t. In the latter case, the creators and the players will still need to agree upon some fundamentals. It is important that everyone first agree that they are playing a game. Sometimes, int he case of a reality based game, the rule book is part of […]
Rule 3. Devise the backstory.
Any creative property has a backstory; namely, the part that is interesting to the audience because it suggests the overarcing theme and humanity of the story. It is the history, and it also suggests that there will be a future after the entertainment is supposedly over. It enriches the story line and invites the audience […]
Rule 2. Create a plausible reality basis.
Namely, where there exists fact, there also exists “red herrings”… On television and in film, much of what we take for granted is removed for reasons of engaging the viewer’s focus, and helping to present the director’s vision in a single arc with minimal distraction. With an on-demand, or interactive basis for a web puzzle, […]
Rule 1. Observe how people play.
As we unroll new pieces, we observe how others are playing, and ask: • How did they play last week? • What are they saying? • What do they expect? • How do we best stay out of their way? • What story are we telling? • What’s the bigger, over-arcing picture…a cohesive, or underlying […]
First things first… Where's my reward?
On ALIAS, Jack Bristow is SD-6’s principal Game Theorist. He consults in the hour of need when a strategy is possibly at risk of being undermined by hasty evaluation of the odds, or when a chief decision maker is potentially likely to underestimate the movements of the players. The science of game theory is as […]
The Revolution has been preempted by tonight's re-run of "The Bachelorette"
Let’s never assume we don’t yet know our audience, or that if we demand less from them, you can f*** it up too. Another angle is the influence of “impartial” thought in televised rhetoric. Apparently, most people are confused, lost, and increasingly wary of expressing a solid opinion, especially if it might make them look […]
Functional art.
Beyond aesthetics, there’s that ‘correct’ definition for anything that suggests that all other appropriations are kind of missing the point. Like Eno with Ambient music – not just a music that you can do other things in time to, but music that serves only its function, to be ambient. With aesthetics, we also have commerce […]
Spontaneous laughter.
It’s more important to get people to be light. It works on so many more levels. Forget everything else I’ve said. It’s really all about laughing, and about lightness. And probably, even more so, about deliberately distinguishing actual laughter, from the kind of moment when people say things like “Too funny!!” but also forgets to […]
Please – don't say that about me.
What’s the difference between censorship and editing, really? I guess it starts with intention, like everything else – when it’s someone wanting to control someone else’s behavior, it’s that “c” word. Whereas self-editing is always acceptable; it forms a grey area for some as an element of the artistic process; some artists just can’t handle […]