Margin Call was a movie we should have seen released in New Zealand a lot earlier. It wasn’t that long ago that the acronym GFC was sitting alone on the shelf without meaning. Then the Global Financial Crisis hit and banks paying out executives as the ship went down became the daily headline. Suddenly GFC had found life purpose and we wondered what would happen to the family mortgage. What I don’t understand is how a movie this good with award nominations and high screen ratings gets released nearly nine months after the US launch.

The work of writer and director J. C. Chandor has class written all over it. While the script is well paced to provide the tension and drama suited to a screen filled with ‘suits’, the depth of on screen talent is superb. While Margin Call cast members like Simon Baker, Zachary Quinto and Demi Moore dance well together I love the return of Paul Bettany’s sardonic wit as we first experienced it in Knight’s Tale.

Our story joins the trading floor of a large Manhattan based institution on the day that two thirds of the floor will lose their positions in a cost-cutting exercise. While the young execs run for cover the floor’s head of risk management works on a problem he sees looming. A drop of Stanley Tucci never goes amiss and his role provides the key to the jigsaw puzzle. The surprise of the day is when Tucci’s character Eric Dale is lined up and led off the premises with other staff. No questions, no right of reply and if you contest the decision the chances are you will lose the last drop of benefits the company can offer. So out the door Eric goes only at the last minute to pass a USB drive of his project into the hands of young trader Peter Sullivan. It’s Quinto’s character Peter who then turns the key and finds the mounting disaster facing the trading floor. 

Interspersed into the story are the veteran trading floor manager Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey) and the CEO who is ‘paid’ to listen to the ‘music’ of the market John Tuld (Jeremy Irons). These brilliant performers keep the tension as they decide between the important things in their life. Are they the companion dog with a liver condition costing $1000/day or is it a glass of red wine on the top floor of your building overseeing your dominion. Self-absorbed or purely full of greed, Spacey and Irons show the essence of each human condition.

When given actors of the class of Jeremy Irons and Kevin Spacey Chandor had this to say;
“I also came into it with this insane confidence that I’d been waiting 15 years for this opportunity. This is making a little bit light of the situation, but essentially, I walked on to that set saying, ‘Who gives a crap if this is Kevin Spacey? He is an amazing lump of clay who is probably going to give me a greater performance than anyone else I could have cast in that role, but I’m here to make the movie I know I want to make.”

You’re probably picking up how impressed I am. You can’t argue when a director can write a script about a bank and assemble character actors to make greed, delusion and the momentum of a real world event carry like a secret agent conspiracy. Take the time to see Margin Call and check your mortgage interest rate.

3.5 out of 5 popcorns

Written for the One I Love

When darkness fades
And glory shines you open your eyes and hope to find

A starling on your pillow
A valentine in your arms who nestles cheek to breast

You alight from bed to floor
Going to prepare a succulent feast as you tiptoe out the door

Content, refreshed and showered
From the house you leave with love you cleave to crack the open sky

Find a spot, a secluded one
Walk hand in hand alond silk golden sands and learn to dream

Cleanse your soles together
On salty shores reveal your souls to heavens soouthing balm

Talk becomes priceless time
When sipped between friends as a sweet chilled wine

Trust and open "Pandora's Box"
This woven basket of picnic pieces satisfies the prevalent appetite

Singing waters beckon bathers
to soak embracing all of natures reviving good cheer

Stroke the passioned stallion's mane
You fire his heart a firebox of embers, nostrils race with steam

Should one be one alone
No let them come intertwined as love's evergrowing vine

All money spent is lost
when trying to win your love my motives must be clear

The precious memories held
Will note be bought to corrode in life and bring us fear

Today we built a friendship
Intimate in detail, purest of materials, loved in conception and still real!

Author: Andrew Pitchford

Written for Cheryl for Valentines Day 1991. We won a bottle of wine when this was submitted to the local paper, the Te Awamutu Courier when they ran a Valentine Day's competition.

When it comes to any form of Media the core component, the Holy Grail or quest of the writer is simply a Good Story. It's the missing ingredient to many films that dazzle with special effects but leave you empty when it comes to thirsting for a victory or having empathy with the characters who you felt had no demon to conquer or soul to save. In the music industry they're fighting to find new melodies but  even the lyrics are in need of a good story that says more than "Baby, Baby, Baby!"

If you're looking to write a movie script, novel or make your song lyrics more than a syrupy sick commercial jingle then you need to find the essence of story. A really good yarn making consists of four core tenets – the “4 Es”: We can talk about the character backgrounds, the story arc and the pacing but underneath all of that you need to EEEEs into the minds of the people who just sat down around the campfire to hear a good tale.

Entertainment 

Am I transported? When I read your story will I leave my world or just look out the window of mine? Entertainment brings in the shutters of our everyday experience in order that the theatre lights can dim the periphery  world and focus us on what the storyteller wishes to reveal. The voice, the set, the emotional journey are all meant to amuse and divert. We may feel emotions that toss and heave but the experience should be like that of a roller coaster. I was scared, I was exhilarated but in the end I want to do it all over again. Take me away from the monotony of my everyday ride to work and capture me as a slave for your camel train or let me discover treasure in the wilderness that only a hot air balloon could see. Touch my heart strings and not just to tune them but to pluck and strum at a pace that is in line with the heart beat of your story.

Engagement 

How does the story foster participation with the reader? Have you asked yourself whether your story is simply enticing window shopping or has the reader stepped into your world with their heart open like a shopper's wallet. One of the greatest critiques of modern literature is that it talks at the reader rather than inviting them to become part of the story. Think about the renaissance of the Super Hero movies. The quintessential magnet for every 10 year-old boy is they want to 'be' the hero.  As you write ask yourself 'who would I want to be' in this plot? And don't leave that thought. Ask who you would not like to be for life or money. Take a moment and see if there is room in your writing for a reader to answer your questions, delivery your solutions and save the day. Or at least a chapter. The crime novel of the whodunit genre has been where the audience has enjoyed the deepest engagement. Better than a crossword puzzle there are not one by five solutions. The part I play is not one of a simple minded spectator but the personal assistant to the great Hercule Poirot.

Enlightenment

Light has an amazing characteristic. It reveals perspective. In writing our story we should ask what light it casts for the reader. What nuances and attributes of life will the reader absorb giving them an opportunity for change of thought. Will I be confronted by the reflection of my life to the extent I am willing to ask myself hard questions, uncomfortable questions. Do I see you, my life or the world beyond the sea any differently than when the story began? This is the juncture at which we as writers ask "Whats the point?" Remember the reader will not be willing to ask themselves before they hear the voices of your characters face their own epiphany. So walk a mile in the moccasins of your characters and see how they face the conflict and triumph of your plot. What do the participants of your stories learn and perhaps teach others in the process of their journey? How does the story make you feel about yourself, your culture or your environment? If you aren't changed in some capacity by the writing experience then will the reader be?

Experience

Some may feel that including 'Experience' in this set of essential story elements is a duplication of the 'Experience' factor. The key difference here is that Engagement takes place as we live through the story where as Experience lives outside of the walls of the story's tale. Some of the most popular stories evoke an experience beyond the pages of a book or the walls of the cinema. Some bring together socially conscious tribes where others participate in character centric revelry. Trekkies, LoTR aficionados and Harry Potter fanatics have one thing in common. They experience the story.  It began with engagement and then through the embedded storyline of the imagination a tribal mentality lived on. To a certain extent this final element is a by-product of the success of the other three but it takes an imagining to ask whether someone would be willing to live out our story to know it has that potential. Sure it was helped in the experience by costume and fan fiction but the experience mulitplies the impact of story.

As you write your next story, take the time to ask whether you have covered these four elements. As you dreamed about this story you will have already thought through the characters. The theme is in place with a setting that now needs your words to paint its backdrop. Remember that no plot is complete without a sense of struggle or conflict. Triumph comes when victors overcome.

Leave a comment after this post on how important you feel these points are. Do they only apply to the saga of a fiction novel or does the story in the paper or on  the evening news need the same ingredients for a quality story sized meal.

Walls

The Rocket Summer

Lyrics to Walls :
The story of my life
I can’t quite comprehend
Don’t tell me if you know how it ends
When everywhere you go feels like a mirror maze
And you’re not sure how you’re stuck in this place

And you got nowhere else to go
And you’re lost within your own home
And you’re trying so hard to win
You keep trying its embarrassing
And how you don’t even know
But you know you’re off the tracks
And how did you get in here
Thinking how did I get in here

I’ll help you break the walls down
I’ll help you break the walls down
And bust you out and take you home
Believe in me you are not alone
I’ll help you break the walls down

Does anybody know a February wind
I was hoping that by now
We would be the end of this
When you open up a book
And read a thousand lines
But you don’t really read
You just move your eyes

And you got nowhere else to go
And you’re lost within your own home
And you’re trying so hard to win
You keep trying its embarrassing
And how you don’t even know
But you know you’re off the tracks
And how did you get in here
Thinking how did I get in here

I’ll help you break the walls down
I’ll help you break the walls down
And bust you out and take you home
Believe in me you are not alone
I’ll help you break the walls down

And I know this is random
But just this morning I saw
The sun reflecting off the window
Oh I don’t know why
But I thought you should know

When you got nowhere else to go
And you’re lost within your own home
And you’re trying so hard to win
You keep trying its embarrassing
And how you don’t even know
But you know you’re off the tracks
And how did you get in here
Thinking how did I get in here

I’ll help you break the walls down
I’ll help you break the walls down
And bust you out and take you home
Believe in me you are not alone
I’ll help you break the walls down

And all the weight will carry
Will disappear and I will willingly
Embrace your soul
Lay your head
So come on home
come on home
come on home
Yeah yeah
Yeah yeah
Yeah yeah

Its the power of the senses that allows music to embed and resurrect memories. I’m constantly stunned at my bad memory but I only need to hear a few notes and the words of a song will come flooding back.

Enjoy this video and ask yourself which artist or song inspires you. My bet is that your mind and heart will head back to your school days. I won’t be surprised if you were somewhere between 15 and 18. Leave a comment below and tell me your story, your song and your muse or heart-throb artist.

Assemble! Get your 3D glasses on and come save the world with the Avengers. It’s a film project I didn’t think would come off but the genius of Joss Whedon has directed a mega blockbuster for the Marvel franchise. The question of whether an ensemble cast would work in a Superhero movie was often overshadowed by the question of storyline. How could you thread seven key characters together not to mention the ‘sidekicks’ and the evil doers. Rest assured the story is well written, paced and delivered. You are going to love this movie like a 7 year old on too much raspberry cordial.

So how do you create a situation that demands the best superheroes to drop their personal ego off at the door and come together as one unit. It takes a little celestial help from Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and a race of beings aimed at Earth’s destruction to force the team to focus. The tension very quickly rises when the global security organisation known as SHIELD loses its extra-terrestrial power source, a device they had hoped would be Earth’s security blanket against alien attack. Clint Barton as Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is already on the scene as security to the project but he loses the opening battle and a global catastrophe is in the making. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) convinces the ‘committee’ that his team of self-obsessed misfits is the answer to the problem and so the call to assemble is issued.

The threads of the superhero backstories are brought together superbly in the opening half hour to capture the character and position in time that brings our cast together. From Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr) rising star in his own mind to Bruce Banner’s (Mark Ruffalo) self-imposed exile to hide the green monster from the public, the tapestry very quickly takes shape. My favourite of the opening storylines goes to Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) as Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) finds her ‘at work’ in Russia and has to convince her that the time is now to come in. One of the only plot holes occurs when Thor (Chris Hemsworth) re-enters the fray to deal with half-brother Loki. We’re not sure how they sorted the whole Bifröst bridge thing that allowed him back to earth but hey, small issue. 

This movie is a total ride from beginning to end of the 142 minutes and keeps the story humming the whole time. What brought me the greatest pleasure though was to hear the breakouts of laughter in the audience who were continually stunned and shocked by the barrage of one-liners from the superheroes in character with their approach to life. While we expect Iron Man’s Tony Stark to drop in an inappropriate comment it’s the subtle pieces from other cast members as well as some great visual humour that brought the comedy home. I can say be careful when you eat your popcorn because I had a few close choke calls.

Special effects go without saying in a superhero ‘grab your tights’ and hang on for the ride style feature but the real kudos goes to the cast on this one. Sure its visually impressive but compared to a few 3D CGI filled movies I’ve seen lately this one is about the people on screen holding your attention to their story in time. There is one ‘over the top’ scene that believe it or not seemed like it was in the wrong summer block buster, but aside from that this is in your face as a real ‘how do we save the world and live’ scenario as it gets.

Different parts of the story see the Avengers team having to work through personal prejudices and learn that even superheroes need to take one for the team. I enjoyed how the unassuming Steve Rogers as Captain America (Chris Evans) comes out of a very long retirement and steps up as a leader and coordinated the tactics in the midst of the fight. Classic line amongst many goes to new entrant Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk when he picks up where the green guy left off and says “Want to know my secret? I’m always angry”.

The provision of themed 3D glasses based on your favourite Avenger was a nice touch. When push comes to shove, who is your favourite Avenger? I picked up a pair of ‘Thor’ glasses and I must confess the ‘Hulk’ versions seemed a little too Elton John for me. I’m looking forward to where they can take this franchise. There should be some very happy Marvel fans coming out of theatres who can’t wait for Thor 2 or Iron Man 3.

4.5 out of 5 popcorns!!

This morning my daughter came home buzzing about the story of the young man who chucked a star in the ocean. Chances are you have heard the story before by some teacher, motivator or friend trying to lift you from the clutches of apathy? There are a few versions around but they all stem from the work of Loren Eiseley who wrote "The Star Thrower" in 1978. When short-story Science Fiction writer Ray Bradbury read it he commented;

The 16 page essay that brought us this inspiring story has been adapted and developed to suit various themes but the core emphasis is the same. We can make a difference. Let me give you the Pitchford Paraphrase and see how it resonates with the part of you that wants to give and make that difference. The story goes like this;

Recently I heard Mark Driscoll recommend a message he heard last November by Andy Stanley on making a difference. He explained the subtle line between making a point and a difference. As you walk along the starfish ridden beach of your life today take the time to consider what it would take to make a difference. Below you can watch the video of Andy Stanley's message. How could you make a difference to "this one".

Andy Stanley – Make a Point or Make a Difference