School's out for the summer!

"m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"
<"m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:jNydne1LH-jLr83VnZ2dnUVZ_vednZ2d@earthlink.com...
> Marian Griffith wrote:
>> Rhino7 wrote:
>>
>>> Don't get me started on what Jackson & Co. did to Faramir. They
>>> redeemed themselves a teeny bit in the extended version, but still.
> <snip Faramir discussion>
>
>> No, the real crime in the second movie was how he treated Gimli.
>> Slapstick (and bad slapstick at that) has no place in the middle of an
>> epic story of a desperate struggle against the ultimate evil that
>> threatens to devour the world.
> <snip Ents>
>
> As a point of literary comparison, I'll point out that even 'MacBeth' and
> 'King Lear' feature moments of silly comedy.
>
> Human emotions don't sustain dramatic, serious intensity for hours on end
> in a theater. The movie/play director who wants to keep the intensity
> going needs to change the emotional tempo from one type of emotion to
> something completely different every once in a while, or the audience will
> burn out.

"For every smile, there should be a tear." I believe that's either a
quote or a close paraphrase from Walt Disney. That approach worked for
Charlie Chaplin, too. {Smile}

> The most effective way to do this seems to be to switch from drama/serious
> to comedy. Give the audience a break. Then you can switch back to
> drama/serious and ramp up the intensity, and the audience will be able to
> go along with you.
>
> With a novel, the author can assume that the reader puts the book down
> every once in a while, thereby giving themselves a break from whatever
> emotions the novel invokes.

True, tho Tolkien made a point to take breaks from the intensity, too. I
love lulls in his war; it's not all tension all the time. There's often
quiet times, too. {Smile}

> Movie directors have to assume exactly the opposite is true.
>
> So, from that point of view, Jackson's alteration of Gimli makes sense.
> *Some* character had to be voted into the 'introduce comedy into the
> movie' role, and making Aragorn funny would have been... worse.

Good point. {SMILE}


Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer! 

"Dave Joll" <dont.RemoveThis@bother.trying> wrote in message
news:g2o6gm$ggp$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
> "Anne Elizabeth Baldwin" <anneb @ aloha . net> wrote
>
>> "victoreia" <inkypaws.RemoveThis@hawaii.nospam.rr.com> wrote in message
>
>>> victoreia ("$100 dollars for this skinny thing? What'd they print it on,
>>> handmade papyrus?")
>
>> Prices that high are usually a sign of a small print run. When they
>> only
>> print a few books, each book has to cover more of the production costs.
>> When that's the case, the publishers can be stuck, too. {small smile}
>
> This sounds like the sort of thing that would be an obvious
> candidate for print-on-demand technology...

Unfortunately, it's in between, and we don't have a good technology for
that. A graduate text with 10-30 students per class in a few universities
might need a few hundred copies in the beginning of fall semester, another
few hundred in the spring, and maybe 100-200 in the fall. That might add up
to 1000 copies in a good year. That's more than Print-on-Demand is set to
handle, but it still makes the per-unit cost of setup higher than popular
works, which print at least a few thousand at a time. {smile}


Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer! 

"Purrt" <ivaf.RemoveThis@ptd.net> wrote in message
news:rbudnSxrWqPK5c3VnZ2dnUVZ_uidnZ2d@ptd.net...
> Mean wrote:
>> And waste all the money they already invested in traditional printing
>> presses? :>
>>
>> I think print-on-demand is starting to seep into that industry.
>> Sloooooooowwwly.
>
> Cafe Press just completed a 15 volume print-on-demand run of the Babylon 5
> scripts written by J. Michael Straczynski. Apparently it has set records
> for on-demand printing - to the point where JMS and Cafe Press have
> decided to print additional script books from B5.

I didn't realize on-demand publishing was so small they considered that a
large print-run. Most of the courses I took in library science while getting
my bachelor's would want more; their upper cut-off was thirty students.
That's just one university at that. {smile}


Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer! 

"m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"
<"m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:P5ednQZvn7dJtM3VnZ2dnUVZ_jidnZ2d@earthlink.com...
> Anne Elizabeth Baldwin wrote:
>> "Aaron" <kemtek.1 RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote in message
> <snip>
>>>> In addition, movie theaters seem to be a lot more
>>>> irritating these days. Playing ads in all corners (on TVs
>>>> up on the wall), and on the screen before the film, and
>>>> serving lousy candy... I can enjoy a movie in peace,
>>>> quiet, and with the Good Candy, at home.
>>>
>>> The closest big multiplex does not allow you to bring in
>>> your own munchies, they make more on munchies that tickets,
>>
>>
>> I'm afraid that's normal, these days. Most movie theaters make
>> more off concessions than tickets, even when the tickets are
>> high enough that folks complain. {half-smile}
>
> I believe movie theaters make *all* their money off of
> concessions. The price of the ticket goes to the company that
> makes the movies, not to the theater showing the movie.

I hadn't heard that, but I don't often get to hear movie houses
discussing how they make money. {smile}

If you're right, the movie houses rarely make money off my parents and
me. We'll occasionally get some hot tea, but that's it. We don't get stuff
to eat while we're there. The popcorn is pretty terrible. I can't have diet
soda, and my parents won't touch it either. Everything else messes with our
blood sugar, and we number two diabetics, one near-diabetic, and two cases
of hypoglycemia between the three of us. {lop-sided smile}

> I don't mind that part, really, it is the fact that the local
> movie theater sells only lousy candy in inconvenient sizes that
> ticks me off. If I'm going to buy overpriced candy, I want it to
> be good quality overpriced candy. They do sell some candy I like, but
> only in "family of teenage boys" sizes.

That would be annoying. {sympathetic smile}


Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer! 

"Dave Joll" <dont DeleteThis @bother.trying> wrote in message
news:g2o6ap$gg8$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
> "Anne Elizabeth Baldwin" <anneb @ aloha . net> wrote
> in reply to:
>
>>>> Another was to answer the door wearing nothing (apparently) but a
>>>> bathrobe and invite them to 'come in and join the orgy'.
>
>> A priest we know once promised to give a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses
>> something that couldn't ever be taken away from them. Even he couldn't
>> take it away once he had given it to them.
>>
>> "I bless you in the name of the Father, {make sign of the cross}
>> and of the Son, {make sign of the cross}
>> and of the Holy Spirit. {make sign of the cross}"
>>
>> by the time he finished, they'd fled down the driveway and along the
>> street so fast, they were completely out of sight! {REALLY BIG GRIN}
>
> ... I actually know a couple of people (who don't know each
> other as far as I'm aware) who have used one of these
> techniques each.

Now that is neat! {SMILE}

> About the only difference is that in the
> latter case the minister was wearing full battle dress (he
> must have been just about to head off for some service
> or other) so he just threw open his door and boomed
> something along the lines of "Jesus loves you!" at them.

{BURST OF LAUGHTER}

Did he get the same reaction as our friend did? {BIG SMILE, REALLY BIG
GRIN, HUMONGOUS GRIN}

> I mean, this is in an old suburb of town full of turn of the
> century bay villas, and they went for the 1960s brick house
> immediately behind the 1960s brick church facing the next
> street along... it must have never crossed their minds that
> the two could be connected...

How... inobservant of them. Not that I would promise to make that
connection myself. I am quite capable of being inobservant at times. {SMILE}


Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer! 

"Tristaan" <tristaanus RemoveThis @yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:9de054hn7im72c510djjh41dtr1nt6hgn8@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:41:36 -0400, Tristaan stomped through my
> brain with:
>
>>>> I really don't think there actually _was_ a sick kid. I think he was
>>>> making an excuse to be knocking on the new folks' door. (In clear
>>>> violation of the "No Soliciting" sign prominently displayed in various
>>>> locations on the property, no less.)
>>>
>>>That's just wrong.
>>
>>Even for Christians, the ends shouldn't justify the means.
>>Dishonesty and disingenuity are bad ways to start a relationship
>>with someone you want to share your faith with.
>
> Okay... two things...
>
> 1) Is "disingenuity" a word?

I've seen it used often enough, it ought to be. {Smile}

> 2) I know, I know... a proposition is not something to end a
> sentence with, Stupid...

A true preposition can't end a sentence, because it begins a phrase.
However, English really doesn't have prepositions. We have adverbs that can
form phrases, and can end sentences. {pause} Or, as Winston Churchill might
have said, "This is a bit of utter pedantry up with I shall not put." {wink,
Smile}

A proposition is different. I believe many are sentences, and more are
longer. {Mischievous Smile}


Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

> Tristaan
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer! 

"victoreia" <inkypaws.TakeThisOut@hawaii.nospam.rr.com> wrote in message
news:48504aaf$0$12969$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
> On 6/11/2008 10:47 AM, Tristaan wrote:
> [snip of door-to-door religion salespeople]
>> Okay... two things...
>>
>> 1) Is "disingenuity" a word?
>> 2) I know, I know... a proposition is not something to end a
>> sentence with, Stupid...
>
> 1) Yes, "disingenuity" is a word (my spell-checker's disbelief
> notwithstanding)

Ditto. {Smile}

> 2) Last but not least, even if you have to bend over backward, avoid
> cliches like the plague.

{Chuckle, REALLY BIG GRIN}


Anne Elizabeth Baldwin
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer! 

On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:37:07 -1000, "Anne Elizabeth Baldwin"
<anneb @ aloha . net> stomped through my brain with:

> A true preposition can't end a sentence, because it begins a phrase.
>However, English really doesn't have prepositions. We have adverbs that can
>form phrases, and can end sentences. {pause} Or, as Winston Churchill might
>have said, "This is a bit of utter pedantry up with I shall not put." {wink,
>Smile}

That Churchill quote is CLASSIC. Love it...


> A proposition is different. I believe many are sentences, and more are
>longer. {Mischievous Smile}

I'm working on it... <bang smash bang> They're hiding under the
"e" key... I'll gt to thm if it's th last thing I vr do. Drat...
hy'v movd o h "" ky. his is ging srious.

risaan
--
Beware Spam Trap!: "us" is an "ogre"
*******************************************************
Ogre-Monk, AIM TristaanOgre
"So good-bye for now and I'll see you again
Some way, some how
When it's my time to go to the other side
I'll hold you again and melt at your smile
Now I have all the ones that I am with
You taught me not to take for granted
The time that we have to show that we care
Speak into their lives and their hearts while they're here
And say I LOVE YOU!!"

~Disciple "Things Left Unsaid"

Theologian in training http://ballymennoniteblogger.blogspot.com/
*******************************************************
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer! 

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin wrote:
>Purrt wrote:
> > Cafe Press just completed a 15 volume print-on-demand run of the
Babylon 5
> > scripts written by J. Michael Straczynski. Apparently it has set
records
> > for on-demand printing - to the point where JMS and Cafe Press
have
> > decided to print additional script books from B5.
>
> I didn't realize on-demand publishing was so small they
considered that a
> large print-run. Most of the courses I took in library science while
getting
> my bachelor's would want more; their upper cut-off was thirty
students.
> That's just one university at that. {smile}

Erm, perhaps I wasn't as clear as I could have been - there was a
total of 15 volumes in the series and they printed however many
thousand copies of each volume. Each volume was available only for a
limited time and the demand was so high that they sold out each run
very quickly.

I've been looking for actual print numbers but have not yet found
them. Apparently they were setting records as early as Volume #7.

--
Purrt the ghatta
Smitten Kitten
Part-time gryphon
Disciple to the Goddess of Chocolate
Owner of a full Pedant's licenc/se
Goddess of Impertinence
Snikkrish the Tearer
Carpe Bean
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer! 

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin wrote:
> <"m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"@earthlink.net> wrote in message

<snip>
>>>I'm afraid that's normal, these days. Most movie theaters make
>>>more off concessions than tickets, even when the tickets are
>>>high enough that folks complain. {half-smile}
>>
>>I believe movie theaters make *all* their money off of
>>concessions. The price of the ticket goes to the company that
>>makes the movies, not to the theater showing the movie.
>
>
> I hadn't heard that, but I don't often get to hear movie houses
> discussing how they make money. {smile}

My brother's after-school job for his teenage years was in a
movie theater owned by math-phobic adults. So my teenage brother
did their books for them.

> If you're right, the movie houses rarely make money off my parents and
> me. We'll occasionally get some hot tea, but that's it. We don't get stuff
> to eat while we're there. The popcorn is pretty terrible. I can't have diet
> soda, and my parents won't touch it either. Everything else messes with our
> blood sugar, and we number two diabetics, one near-diabetic, and two cases
> of hypoglycemia between the three of us. {lop-sided smile}
<snip>

Then it is the movie theater's fault they are not making money
off of you. Surely it would not be that difficult to stock...
nuts. Dried fruit. Something not-very-perishable but suitable
for folks on no-candy diets. Sugar-free candy.

If they won't stock foods for folks like you, they obviously
don't want to make money off of you. And they don't.

Capitalism in action. :>

--
Megan
Journeyperson Dancing Barbarian
Keeper o' the FAQ: http://home.earthlink.net/~m_thomas3/abml/
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer! 

On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:38:57 -0700, "m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"
<"m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"@earthlink.net> wrote:

>Anne Elizabeth Baldwin wrote:
>> "Aaron" <kemtek.1 DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote in message
><snip>
>>>> In addition, movie theaters seem to be a lot more
>>>> irritating these days. Playing ads in all corners (on TVs
>>>> up on the wall), and on the screen before the film, and
>>>> serving lousy candy... I can enjoy a movie in peace,
>>>> quiet, and with the Good Candy, at home.
>>>
>>> The closest big multiplex does not allow you to bring in
>>> your own munchies, they make more on munchies that tickets,
>>
>>
>> I'm afraid that's normal, these days. Most movie theaters make
>> more off concessions than tickets, even when the tickets are
>> high enough that folks complain. {half-smile}
>
>I believe movie theaters make *all* their money off of
>concessions. The price of the ticket goes to the company that
>makes the movies, not to the theater showing the movie.

They certainly make their profit on concessions. The average breakdown on
ticket revenues is 50-55% to the distributor and 45-50% to the theater
(it's actually a sliding scale, with the percentage kept by the theatre
going up the longer the movie runs in the theatre, the first weekend is
almost all going to the distributor). The distributor then takes its costs
and fee from its cut of the rental receipts (determined by ticket sales)
and pays the 'rest' back to the production company. Of course, given
Hollywood accounting, what gets back to the production company, and
especially what ends up getting back to the actors/crew with revenue
shares, has no relationship to the actual ticket sales. Keep in mind
that, according to the studio bookkeeping, Titanic and Lord of the Rings:
Return of the King haven't turned a profit yet.


--
"Oh Buffy, you really do need to have
every square inch of your ass kicked."
- Willow Rosenberg
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer! 

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin wrote:

> True... but Tolkien found more ways to laugh with the characters instead
> of at them. I just wish Jackson and his co-writers had, too. {smile}

I think he did find some ways. The 'That still only counts as one'
remark from the last movie was funny. Gimli falling off a horse is not.


Eri
--
Yes - at last - You. I Choose you. Out of all the world,
out of all the seeking, I have found you, young sister of
my heart! You are mine and I am yours - and never again
will there be loneliness ...

Rolan Choosing Talia,
Arrows of the Queen, by Mercedes Lackey
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer! 

William George Ferguson wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:38:57 -0700, "m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"
> <"m_thomas[numBksInLastHrldMage]"@earthlink.net> wrote:
<snip>
>>>I'm afraid that's normal, these days. Most movie theaters make
>>>more off concessions than tickets, even when the tickets are
>>>high enough that folks complain. {half-smile}
>>
>>I believe movie theaters make *all* their money off of
>>concessions. The price of the ticket goes to the company that
>>makes the movies, not to the theater showing the movie.
>
> They certainly make their profit on concessions. The average breakdown on
> ticket revenues is 50-55% to the distributor and 45-50% to the theater
> (it's actually a sliding scale, with the percentage kept by the theatre
> going up the longer the movie runs in the theatre, the first weekend is
> almost all going to the distributor). The distributor then takes its costs
> and fee from its cut of the rental receipts (determined by ticket sales)
> and pays the 'rest' back to the production company. Of course, given
> Hollywood accounting, what gets back to the production company, and
> especially what ends up getting back to the actors/crew with revenue
> shares, has no relationship to the actual ticket sales. Keep in mind
> that, according to the studio bookkeeping, Titanic and Lord of the Rings:
> Return of the King haven't turned a profit yet.

Ah. Thanks for the clarification -- it is possible that my
memories of my brother's explanations from <mumblety-mumble>
years ago aren't quite accurate. :>

Weird that theaters don't keep movies around longer, given that
their percentage of the profits grows. Then again, if the movie
is bad no one will come to see it once the word gets out.

--
Megan
Journeyperson Dancing Barbarian
Keeper o' the FAQ: http://home.earthlink.net/~m_thomas3/abml/
 >> Stay informed about: School's out for the summer!