The Epidemic You Don't See on Film

One of my earlier screenplays had a main character that suffered from clinical depression. This is such a common malady, and a devastating one, that I thought having the protagonist navigate it would make for an interesting story (against the backdrop of things eating people's faces and so on, of course).

The problem though is that it makes for a passive character -- someone who is withdrawn, and retreats from conflict. And that's hard to create a story with.

Moreover, passive characters are typically unappealing to both producers, who get the thing paid for, and actors, who are often needed to get the thing paid for.

This is why, when you see depression on the big screen, it is typically the backdrop to some other, more active, ailment. For example, the vast crowd of alcoholic men in lead roles. Other forms of self-destructive behavior as symptoms work well too.

But not true clinical depression. Even indie films have a hard time getting an audience to watch someone caught in the kind of withdrawal depression brings -- though they can sometimes indicate the mood by the pacing and structure of the overall story.


Which is unfortunate -- because depression is a widespread ailment and seeing how characters on screen deal with problems (even when their solutions are utter bullshit) can help others figure out ways they might approach their problems.

San Francisco

Jaru and I got back from our San Francisco trip last night. Our formula was I watch Jaru eat indescribable food composed largely of material extruded from the earth and she watched me eat various kinds of pizza. Blondies Pizza, just south of Union square, was very tasty, with a thick crust that was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Don't ask me to describe Jaru's food.

Below are some photos easily uploaded with Picasa software and web albums provided by my Google overlords:

My favorite:

From San Francisco...

Jaru's Favorite:

From San Francisco...

Me, as Zombie:

From San Francisco...

The Perfect Spokesman

Since my friends have updated their blogs I thought I should stop being so lazy and lazily post about some random crap I saw on the internet (not as exciting as surfing in Shark City though).

Anyway, during the random trawling I came across the ad at the side there.

Um, I don't think I can really add anything that isn't already transparent from looking at the picture...