8
Mar

Science Fiction Classics – Bladerunner

   Posted by: Dave   in Science Fiction

Science Fiction Classics – Bladerunner

Perhaps starting a science fiction classics series about a work as troubled as Bladerunner may seem a strange choice to some, but it contains some clever ideas and what is science fiction if not a world of ideas?

Bladerunner the Movie

Blade Runner - The Final Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Bladerunner performed poorly at the box office at time of release, despite being radically altered “to improve sales” from the director’s (Ridley Scott) initial intentions.  In fact Ridley Scott initially declined to direct the movie preferring to work on Dune instead.  It was only after his brother’s death and work on Dune coming to a halt that he agreed to work on a revised script for Bladerunner.  I am glad he did eventually agree to direct though, his work is excellent.

The studio alteration of the movie is what has given rise to the many “Directors Cut” type releases.

The movie was nominated for two Oscars and fifteen other awards, winning nine; including a Hugo and a BAFTA.  So why did it do so badly at the box office?  Well, it certainly wasn’t because of the cast which included Rutger Hauer (Roy Batty), Daryl Hannah (Pris) and Harrison Ford in the lead role as Deckard – The Bladerunner.

Perhaps the pictures problems were caused by a gap between audience expectation and the actual content of the film.  Movie sci-fi in the early 80’s was all about lasers and showy special effects, probably due to the after effects of the massive success of movies such as Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

Bladerunner is by contrast a careful, emotional movie about the value of life, both human and machine.  Most of the action takes place in moody, dark scenes in which rain seems to be a constant factor.  For all that, the movie is not depressing as might be assumed.

Bladerunner asks a simple question:  If robots were so advanced that you could not tell them from humans; whose life would be considered more important?  Perhaps this was too much for an audience expecting a space opera?

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, do so.  It can be bought these days for the price of a beer (basic edition).

Blade Runner (The Director's Cut)Blade Runner (The Director's Cut)

Bladerunner the Book (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)

Blade Runner (Movie-Tie-In Edition)

Bladerunner is based upon the novel by Phillip K. Dick, “Do androids dream of electric sheep?”

The book has a different feel to the various different editions of the movie and I can see why it was altered for the mass market.  It is not that it is a bad book, far from it, but I feel that the direction and feel of Dick’s book is different from the film.  Apparently, shortly before his death, Dick said that “It was my own interior world. They caught it perfectly.”, so what do I know?

Bladerunner Quotes

Holden: Describe in single words only the good things that come into your mind about… your mother.
Leon: My mother?
Holden: Yeah.
Leon: Let me tell you about my mother.
[Leon shoots Holden with a gun he was holding under the table]

My personal favourite quote (movie)

Roy: I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain… Time to die.

That quote is, for me, the essence of the movie.  If you haven’t seen it I won’t spoil things and tell you why…

Dave Felton

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Get Rich Quick with Internet Marketing? – Don’t make me laugh

This week has been so busy.  To be honest about it, I was unprepared for the amount of work this new direction would entail.

Internet marketing has a bad reputation because so many people running the courses are scam artists teaching bad information or maybe nothing at all.  I have been lucky in that the people I am involved with seem genuine and the information supplied checks out, at least so far.  It has been refreshing to have it explained why it takes so much work to be successful.

So, as I am so happy with my new associates am I going to name them?  The short answer is “No”.  The reason why is that until a cheque is cashed and in my bank account it could well all be wrong and it would be incorrect of me to promote an unproven idea.  I hope you understand.

Developing the New Websites

My last post mentioned that I am now the proud owner of six new websites.  This actually isn’t quite factual.  What I should have said is “I now own six new domains”.  This difference doesn’t sound like much does it?  So what is the difference?

The difference is about 60,000 words!  Yes, you read that correctly.

What is more remarkable is that the majority of those words are used in marketing the sites, not in content on the actual pages.  Content on the six sites will be maybe 25-30% of that total.  Or at least this percentage will remain true during the time it takes for the sites to establish themselves.  While I am grateful for the new knowledge that I have gained about making money on the internet, I do wonder if just writing that novel would have been easier!

To put things in perspective, minimum manuscript length for science fiction novels tends to be about 85,000 words.  A short story, suitable for submission to a professional magazine like Fantasy and Science Fiction starts at around 5,000 words.  Writing articles of this length is starting to look very reasonable recently!

This last week has seen two of the sites come into existence.  It is far too early to say if they will bring any real income but they are at least up on the web and the initial phase is finished.

The Search for Financial Security

So why do all this work?  Well, two reasons.  Firstly, I hope that in the long term I can make a small residual income from the advertising on these websites.  Second, if this happens, then it will take the pressure off my personal financial situation following my hospitalisation and all that goes with it.

Financial security will enable me to write that darned elusive novel with a clean conscience.

That is the plan anyway…

Dave

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How to Make Money from Writing – New Directions

Spring is here and with the changing of the season comes a changing of my blogs central theme.

I want to be a science fiction writer, no doubt about it.  The problem is that right now that goal is not paying the bills.  This situation forces me to be a hard-headed realist.  My dream job is to be a writer, in the field of science fiction.  If the latter is out of my control, then certainly the first part isn’t.

Making Money on the Internet

There are many ways to make money from writing on the net, for example: copy writing and article submission to sites such as Constant Content.  While writing copy for others to use isn’t very exciting, it does pay the bills.  Similarly, writing articles for Google Adsense related websites is another means to make money writing for the web.

My only reservation is that I am just not sure how many times I can work a keyword into an article, over and over again and not sound like a robot.  Maybe the fun will be in achieving this without going totally bonkers.

From the sheer number of “scraper” sites on the web, someone, somewhere, must be making money with sites like this though.  Here is hoping that that someone can be me and not just Google.  At least when I make an Adsense site, it will be with my own content!

Anyway, for better or worse I have decided to give being an “internet marketer” a trial for a month and see what happens.  Accordingly I bought six domains this morning and will be developing them over the coming month.  The plan is to publish a frank report on the success or failure of the activity in this blog on the 31st of March.  To get a fuller picture this deadline might have to be extended, but right now I can’t make a prediction.

If I can make even a small amount of regular cash from these activities it takes some pressure off and allows me to write stuff I am personally interested in with a clean conscience.  That is the plan anyway…

The Future for this Blog

Developing so many websites will necessarily cut down on my activity on this blog, but I still plan to post here two or three times a week.  In a strange way it might actually improve the content here as I plan to write a weekly post about the science in science fiction, as well as a personal post and maybe a creative writing based post too.

Becoming a science fiction writer is temporarily on hold…at least for a month.

Dave Felton.

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