The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon still holds up over 70 years later.  It was released in 1941 a time of war and indecision worldwide.

Why does it hold up?

The answer to that question is always the script.

Daishell  Hammett the novelist also wrote the screenplay.

I would hope one day that Siolam would be option, developed and made into a movie.

Maybe I can write that script.

In the meantime, back to the class two pack The Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033870/fullcredits/

. http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-J-Banks/e/B00I33S10C

Mad men 

Once I took out this DVD series, when I saw the Negro janitors and elevator men and no one else I knew once again Hollywood was in a Happy Days moment.

I watched an episode, and then returned it.  That was a mistake.  As in life, things are not always what they appear.

Don Draper, womanizer, family relation hater and of course the big man on campus.

If the Sopranos gave a different light to the mafia family Mad Men gives a different light to those who were called the greatest generation, (the WW 2 fighters who were middle aged in the early sixties).

I’m reading another book.  After this second novel, I think I will go back into nonfiction.

See my book Character within the Screenplay

http://www.amazon.com/Character-within-Screenplay-Beginnings-Completion/dp/1453718826/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

In Hollywood UK Alexander Walker has a perfect quote.  “To be an Englishman in the film industry is to know what it‘s like to be colonized.

Today the reverse effect has taken place name any blockbuster and it is an Australian, Englishman or Scotsmen who has taken over the industry.

But this book will serve as research for my continued effort to write a book on world film

Until then you enjoy Siolam.

---http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

Or any of this.

http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-J-Banks/e/B00I33S10C

 One more thing about the sixties, my mother worked she was not called girl,

 But according  to the preface of Walker’s book 90% of the finance for films in Britain was by the Americans and they left in the seventies for further venues. So if you  want to work you go where the action is in today’s films, everything has a China connection.

Think about that Hollywood is out to make a dime.  Sometimes it does as in  Silver Linings Playbook and other times it does not as in Burnt.

Insurgent

Well Act 2 was weaker then the first film Divergent.  That is something you have to be aware of when you write a novel do you intend a solo act or a series of books.

 If you intend a series, you need to plot out your book, decide if a minor character you might kill off will make a triumphant return in the second book.

 Choices  choices.

 In Siolam, I really liked a supporting character so much I kept the character around for three chapters focusing on that character instead of the protagonist.

 But the protagonist must be referred to by the supporting character, sort of like an introduction.  Remember this is the novel not an American film, where your protagonist is being paid, millions and the audience wants to see him in almost every scene.

I hope you enjoy Siolam.  I did leave room for a sequel (dependent on sales)

If you like, my characters try Siolam.

http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

Or any of this.

http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-J-Banks/e/B00I33S10C

GAYS IN FILM

Ellen Page, Ellen no last name needed, Bruce Willis in the Jackal, etc.  Gays playing straight characters, straights playing gay characters.  Back in the bad old days, gays etc had to portray straight characters.  Think Rock Hudson etc.

But in modern times, well you would think with gay marriage equality and all kinds of civil rights laws, things would be different, nope.

I think the late Brandon Gill got it right when he wrote about the gay actors of their time

Montgomery Clift etc who served with valor in WW2 and Mr. Wayne who didn’t.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Gill

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Clift#Relationships

Perceptions in and about film are amazing.

Does it matter, nope.  Real life matters, the other day when I asked someone to move their arm down on a public transportation I was disparaged with every anti gay term you could imagine.  It made me angry as a straight person I was humiliated because the person thought I was gay and he could call me names.  The humiliation came from the disparaging words he used against me not the fact if I was gay or not.

Imagine what the gays of Hollywood go through when they seek  work in the 21st century.

It could be worse see, this guardian article.  I wasn’t beat up or killed.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/oct/28/mark-hogancamp-marwencol-jon-ronson-miniature-town-horrors-of-war

I think I will add a gay character to my next novel

Being famous, it might be easier to be gay.  But I doubt it.  I have a gay friend who has told me that the same problems affect gays as straights, so true.  Except the discrimination, I think gays are discriminated in such away it affects your soul.  Sort of like being Japanese in 1942.  Today a slice of my humanity was removed and made me dislike the bigotry so much I wrote this short piece.

If you like, my characters try Siolam.

http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

Or any of this.

http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-J-Banks/e/B00I33S10C

Danny Collins

Another movie I rented that fit the small screen was Danny Collins inspired by a true story.

The movie was great, but I'm not sure how much was based on his life but the letter.

See, the wiki story here.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Tilston

Al Pacino, Annette Bening, Jennifer Gardner and Bobby Cannavale  give us great performances.

The supporting characters in this movie advance the fall and decline of Danny Collins.

Then there is little Ms. Eisenberg, creating a moment on film that most kids would have difficulty to achieve

Born to act.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772288/.

Yet the supporting characters do a few things that make the protagonist change directions.  That is something your novel must always do.

Innovate; don’t repeat the same tired old old stuff that everyone does.  Even Bond gets tired of the same old same.  James Bond (spectre may be mired in the past) But as the new Money Penny said in the last film.  You can teach a new dog old tricks.

Think of something new or maybe you might have a spectacle of a  spectre. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2379713/

That is the premise of the new bond film and what I hoped not to achieve in Siolam

http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

Or any of this.

http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-J-Banks/e/B00I33S10C

Well I saw Mad Max Fury Road when it hit the screens, well, it was a ten.

So I rented the DVD, I still remember the ending, so I stopped the DVD before Furiosa, Charlie Theron made her final run for it.

Which reminds me why some movies just don't translate well to the small screen.

The film was shot in the wide-open expanses of Namibia and Western Sydney.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max:_Fury_Road#Filming

So those vistas were lost on the twenty inch, maybe if I had plugged in the speakers and had a seventy-inch TV.

But such is life.

When you write your novel, what will your supporting characters do to support the protagonist or antagonist?

To quote the upcoming Batman v. Superman movie.

Do they bleed?  What do they do to advance your character and story development?

In my novel Siolam, some people had to die to move the plot forward and create character development.

http://www.amazon.com/Siolam-Black-Western-Darrell-Banks/dp/1515299236/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442695944&sr=1-1&keywords=siolam

Or any of this.

http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-J-Banks/e/B00I33S10C

Back track 1101

What is persistence?

Persistence is putting up with a lot of ****

I started writing this article a month ago, since then I’ve re read a lot of Dale Carnegie, and tried not to worry about too much.

Relatives don’t call back F it.

Agents don’t respond.  Forget about it.

Job applications respond in the next hour or not at all.  No problem.

As a writer, you have choices.  You have to persist no matter what.  What are your options a Hemingway or Robin Williams exit?  Nope.

You write for a few reasons, fame, money, longevity beyond the grave.

But you have to persist. I reread my months upon months of notes for the new novel.  I haven’t been able to write much, but  I hope to get in a few pages today.

If you want to read my works check them out here. http://www.amazon.com/Darrell-J-Banks/e/B00I33S10C