Banana Boat

31 December 201231 December 2012

2012 on Screen

I’ve seen more titles this year than in any other since official records began in 2003. I’d like to think the year’s expanded viewing-slash-research goes some way toward explaining why posts on this blog have tended towards commentary rather than craft.

Features

Drive
Tropa De Elite (Elite Squad) and Tropa De Elite – O Inimigo Agora E Outro (Elite Squad – The Enemy Within)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Avengers
Safe
Never Let Me Go
Armadillo
The Angel’s Share
Dredd
This Must Be the Place
La Jetee
End of Watch

Yes, that’s more than ten for the year but those 2011-and-earlier titles were just so damned good that I had to name-drop them.

Television

Panama-hat-tips to The Good Wife, Mad Men, Justified, Nurse Jackie and Breaking Bad for continuing to be must-see telly three or more seasons into their respective runs. It’s sad that Mad Men and Breaking Bad will finish in the coming year but all good things do come to an end.

Hung – Season 2
Justified – Season 3
The Good Wife – Seasons 3-4
Smith
Inside Men – Season 1
Dirk Gently – Season 1
Game of Thrones – Seasons 1-3
Mad Men – Season 5
Nurse Jackie – Season 4
Hounds
The Newsroom – Season 1
Hit & Miss
Longmire – Season 1
The Golden Hour
Breaking Bad – Season 5
The Bletchley Circle
Last Resort
Monroe – Season 2
Boardwalk Empire – Season 1
Vegas – Season 1
The Sopranos – Season 1

Late adopter excuse/s for ‘discovering’ Smith, Boardwalk Empire and Sopranos.

A great year for UK telly with The Bletchley Circle and Hit & Miss.

And sun-hat-tips to the excellent The Golden Hour that almost, almost, made me want to watch the Olympics, and the lamented Hounds.

Theatre

Leilani Unasa’s His Mother’s Son
P-Lab’s Hypothesis One
Louise Tu’u‘s Gaga: the unmentionable

Disclosure: All three pieces are by Banana Boat colleagues,

8 March 201121 December 2012

On Writing: Stephen King

Here’s a helpful quote for those confronted with questions like How do you write? and What’s the magic formula?:

You get an idea; at some point another idea kicks in; you make a connection or a series of them between ideas; a few characters (usually little more than shadows at first) suggest themselves; a possible ending occurs to the writer’s mind (although when the ending comes, it’s rarely much like the one the writer envisioned); and at some point, the novelist sits down with a paper and a pen, a typewriter, or a word cruncher. When asked, “How do you write?” I invariably answer, “One word at a time.”

— from Stephen King‘s preface to the expanded edition of The Stand.

(‘Ve just survived another Banana Boat workshop which came straight after a rather frenetic three days in Dunedin – excuses, excuses, I know, but my next craft-y post refuses to make sense. A little nap, perhaps, to clear the sinuses and such.)

5 May 2009

Hobnob

Just over a year ago, I reeled from a Pasifika playwrights forum.

This year, I networked at it.

Yes: I hate networking. It feels false:

INT. A GATHERING – WHENEVER

Our WRITER walks up to a STRANGER --

WRITER

(extends hand)

Hi I’m D F Mamea.

STRANGER

Hi.

Beat.

WRITER

(drops hand)

And your name is?

STRANGER

Dave.

WRITER

(shit-eating grin)

Well, hi Dave. What do you do?

(I really should just let go of such exchanges – it’s just -, it’s not often that I want to smash someone in the face [half an hour later because it didn’t register with me at the time].)

What I meant to illustrate as false was something like this:

INT. A GATHERING – WHENEVER

Our WRITER approaches a STRANGER --

WRITER

(extends his hand)

Hi, my name’s D F Mamea.

(voice-over)

Should I’ve said I was a writer? Or is that too forward? Too desperate?

They shake hands.

STRANGER

Steve Ranger. Pleasetameetcha.

(voice-over)

Oh please god no, not another desperate writer.

What was different this time around was that I knew more of the faces. Familiarity breeds confidence.

Now for some rampant name-dropping:

TV and feature writer Oscar Kightley;

I got snapped by playwright Gary Henderson;

visual and performance artist Shigeyuki Kihara;

playwright and producer Makerita Urale;

film and TV director Sima Urale (and Makerita’s sister);

film and TV director, and reluctant producer Justine Simei Barton; and

actor and theatre director Nancy Brunning.

It wasn’t all about the laying on of hands – forum attendees were treated to works in progress:

Ali Foa’i‘s MindSex;

Victoria Schmidt‘s Then Sings My Soul;

Jonathan P Riley‘s Makigi;

and Chetan Patel & Eric Smith‘s I Don’t Do Coconut.

(A first draft of this post had one-word adjectives for each of the above. I’ve changed my mind, obviously: you can stew in anticipation.)

My plan to be in the right place at the right time has yet to bear fruit. But seeds have been sown. The competition has been reconnoitred and noted.

I am patient.

1 May 2009

A Gathering of Brown

The Pasifika Playwrights Forum is TOMORROW, Saturday 2 May from 12:30pm to 7:00pm at the Aotea Centre, Auckland CBD.

The Playmarket website has more information – but most exciting to me are presentations of works in progress by Banana Boat writers Victoria Schmidt and Jonathan P Riley.

Alu la ‘ia, e.

30 December 2008

Pots on the Boil

INT. LOUNGE, HOME – EVENING

I lie in the arms of THE GODDESS.

I haven’t done ANYTHING this year.

THE GODDESS

Oh rubbish.

I’m serious.

THE GODDESS

What were you busy doing at the beginning of the year then?

... The short film.

THE GODDESS

And what have you been doing with those playwrights, hm? And that stuff for the guild?

I open my mouth, then close it.

THE GODDESS

And then there’s your radio play. Well?

You can’t just let me feel sorry for myself, can you?

She kisses my forehead --

THE GODDESS

No, I cannot.

What have I achieved this year then?

I wrote a ten-minute play in twelve hours, and watched it premiere (and close) twelve hours after that;

I’m facilitating a disparate group of Pasifika playwrights (four months straight and counting);

I’m an (increasingly) active Board member of the New Zealand Writers Guild;

I’ve had a short radio play accepted for broadcast on National Radio;

and I did some script consulting on a couple of projects.

I’m tempted to skew my stats a la the police leadership in The Wire but, for me, a project isn’t finished unless it’s finished, knowwha’Imean?

So:

To’ona’i crawls towards completion;

I’m co-writing a play, to premiere in 2012;

I have my own play to push – and thanks to the joys of ~~misery likes company~~ peer pressure, the first act is due by mid-January 2009;

the diversionary feature spec has copious thematic and strucutural notes… but an actual story has yet to emerge;

enamoured with the short radio play’s ‘success’, I’m writing an hour-long radio play: I’ve got the opening and closing acts while the middle is currently all rough notes – forty pages to go!

and the long awaited spec feature of 2007 has been roughed out and is approaching a proper first draft.

[Takes a few steps back and squints]

Okay. I suppose it’s just about perspective.

INT. LOUNGE, HOME – LATER

Maybe this is my dash. Maybe this is IT. Maybe –

THE GODDESS

Maybe you needed a year to consolidate.

I thought last year was a consolidating year.

THE GODDESS

It’s a bit hard to consolidate when you’re juggling paying work, don’t you think?

I mumble something.

THE GODDESS

Pardon?

... I suppose.

She nods, knowing, as always, that She’s right.