Short Film: Bad At Math
I wrote a short story called Bad At Math, about me vs. gun vs. Xanax, and Henrique Cartaxo asked if he could use the idea for a short film.
Some differences: my bad guy was taller, the room was smaller, and my drink was WAY bigger.
Also, a follow up.
December 19, 2011 6:30 PM | Posted by : | Reply
this sucks, Alone. Don't farm out your hard work and great writing to drama school pipe heads more focused on profundity than the profound.
Score: -3 (19 votes cast)
December 19, 2011 6:32 PM | Posted by : | Reply
why the hell is a gillette commercial linking to the word "focused" in my comment?
Score: 0 (4 votes cast)
December 19, 2011 8:45 PM | Posted by : | Reply
The short didn't add anything to your story.
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
December 19, 2011 8:51 PM | Posted by : | Reply
I thought it was a pretty interesting story though I haven't read the short story yet. The short film definitely keep my attention!
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
December 19, 2011 8:56 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Something is wrong with you site - every time I enter the browser downloads automatically meld.js - twice
Score: 8 (8 votes cast)
December 19, 2011 8:58 PM | Posted by : | Reply
I didn't have any issue with the actors or depiction, mainly just the voice acting. I didn't think it captured any of the tone that I read into it when I read it. It seemed bored at parts I thought should be energetic, and added inflection that to me stressed all the wrong words. But I guess that's always how these kind of things will be, I'm sure for someone else this may have nailed it.
Score: 11 (11 votes cast)
December 19, 2011 9:31 PM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
Same here...this seems like a new problem does everyone have it??
Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
December 19, 2011 11:33 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Interesting... I'm wondering, how does this narration fit with your budding all-narrators-are-liars theory?
Score: 7 (9 votes cast)
December 20, 2011 12:21 AM | Posted by : | Reply
that was just so uninteresting compared to the story you wrote.
Score: 8 (10 votes cast)
December 20, 2011 3:16 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Just run Adblock Plus, Noscript & Malwarebytes if it bothers you, but remember to donate to the doc.
Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
December 20, 2011 4:27 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Riddle me this: what function does the voiceover serve in this short film, given your theory? Unconscious rationalization or conscious deception?
It's also interesting how, since you pretty consistently write about 'American' problems, you seem to be received so well among Europeans. Pourquoi?
As for the execution of the film, if you don't like it, complain to Senor Cartaxo. Alone did his thing, and Henrique did his own. I really missed the element of the waiting room, though. With the faceless patients present outside the office in the story, there was a really interesting triangle between rational-calculating-doctor-nurse-Weberian-bureaucratic-authority, arithmetically-challenged-to-the-point-of-batshit-crazy-Juan, and apathetic-collective-of-self-absorbed-society-drones. In the film, this pretty much gets reduced to a battle of individual wills, mano-a-mano, so to speak. So instead of 'The Last Emperor', you pretty much get 'The Quick and the Dead'. Meh.
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
December 20, 2011 6:47 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
>Senhor Cartaxo
FTFY
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
December 20, 2011 7:30 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Great short movie!
Gongratulations Cartaxo and all the crew!!
Score: 4 (4 votes cast)
December 20, 2011 7:54 AM | Posted by : | Reply
The director didn't capture the tone of the short story all that well and he doesn't understand perspective, which is why he ends on the patient outside, afterwards. He's got the current dslr look down it seems though.
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
December 20, 2011 9:01 AM | Posted by : | Reply
It's also interesting how, since you pretty consistently write about 'American' problems, you seem to be received so well among Europeans. Pourquoi?
He's well received by this particular European because I'm not particularly educated, and I consider his articles to be the college lectures I never had.
While the slant might seem anti-American, it seems to me more like "anti ignorance & anti bullshit" of the kind you can find everywhere and anywhere.
Score: 5 (5 votes cast)
December 20, 2011 12:31 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Doc was with the ring on his hand...it wasn't a dream after all.
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
December 20, 2011 2:50 PM | Posted by : | Reply
What does it mean if you like the "Hangover" films and you are female?
Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
December 20, 2011 5:21 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Well, I really liked the short story, it made an impression. So much so that when you linked to it, I knew what you were linking to without clicking. Although I think the short film has some stuff going for it, it doesn't really capture the essence of the story. It does have the right "feel" though.
But the reason I really came to comment here (for the first time!), was because of the narration. I noticed other commenters noticed that as well, and what really amused me was the way you changed the way I look at stories now: what does he want to be true?
Well, I think that in this short film, what strikes me is that the doctor/narrator wants it to be true that he's doing some small evil and "manages" that patient in order to save all the other people around.
It seems to me the doctor/narrator wants it to be true that we (the audience) would think that his cynical and 'outside' worldview leads him to drink - which signifies that he also can't handle it - he's also a good guy crushed by the burden of reality.
It might be true. I don't know. It sure was worth watching. It made me think.
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
December 21, 2011 2:04 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Wait, was it all fictional to begin with? Does that just make "Observations Afterwards" a sequel with a different genre?
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
December 21, 2011 5:25 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Whatever: ads are one thing, shady javascript is another. Not acceptable.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
December 21, 2011 7:12 AM | Posted by : | Reply
maha: Yes, I agree but those usually stem from the ad companies themselves not the website boss. Usually. Lets find out first.
If the script is really from the doc we can still tar and feather him. :)
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
December 22, 2011 9:38 AM | Posted by : | Reply
Ok, I liked the film.
Too much voice-over is sometimes a weakness in film ("show, not tell"), but it goes well with the other film noir conventions in this piece (the disillusioned, outsider anti-hero protagonist is here a psychiatrist rather than the usual Raymond Chandler private investigator, but the principle is the same).
Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
December 23, 2011 7:40 AM | Posted by : | Reply
One thing I find interesting is that Alone (here in the blog) is completely comfortable with his physical depiction in the movie -- body frame, apparent age, movement style. Most people who become the subjects of fiction always express some unease, even if in good mood, about how different the actor who played them really is from the way they move their hands or their intonation of questions, etc -- the first chance they get.
Hypothesis: Cartaxo is in Europe, clearly. Is Alone an expat living in, say, Austria?
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
December 23, 2011 4:00 PM | Posted by : | Reply
If you go and read the comments for the original "Bad At Math", there's actually a heavily downvoted comment by "Cartaxo" asking to use the story in a short film. Heh.
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
December 23, 2011 5:20 PM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
Unless Alone is Cartaxo.
Seriously, I'd bet you could have cast Alone as a trannie and he wouldn't have cared.
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
December 25, 2011 6:35 AM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
He care enough about the size of his assailant.
And heck, if you're going to be played by a tranny or a guy of a different ethnicity, you're able to say "well, this is a portrayal of a fictionalized someone who's very different from me". If you're played by someone that's similar to you, then the differences in the baldness patterns and eye movements and so on become grating.
What I meant to imply by "is Alone in Europe" was "is it Alone playing Dr. Loneman?".
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
December 26, 2011 9:39 PM | Posted by : | Reply
That must have been a harrowing experience. It's a miracle no one got hurt.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
February 19, 2012 9:04 AM | Posted by : | Reply
I liked it. I thought it was well written.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
February 19, 2012 3:20 PM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
that happened to me once when I downloaded some kind of media player from the internet. after that, certain words of whatever i posted anywhere got emphasized and if you clicked on them you got taken hrough to advertisements. i managed to fix it myself though
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
February 19, 2012 5:13 PM | Posted, in reply to , by : | Reply
If you can't figure it out, I saved the link to fix it. I ended up having to contact somebody from their 'company' (I guess you'd call it) since the instructions they lay out on their website didn't work for me. Here's the link: http://service.widdit.com/toolbars/apps/conduit/ConduitDisableACPRO.aspx --Once you've gone there, close and reopen your browser and it should be fixed!
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
June 27, 2012 11:24 AM | Posted by : | Reply
I like it. That kids a really strong actor and constantly intense.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
November 7, 2012 9:09 AM | Posted by : | Reply
If you can't figure it out, I saved the link to fix it. I ended up having to contact somebody from their 'company' (I guess you'd call it) since the instructions they lay out on their website didn't work for me. Here's the link
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
May 11, 2013 7:10 PM | Posted by : | Reply
He need to improve his skills at reading. It's not all about math.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
July 24, 2014 10:37 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Saw this horrifying story and immediately thought of TLP: http://www.delcotimes.com/general-news/20140724/doctor-fires-back-at-suspect-in-fatal-shooting-at-mercy-fitzgerald-hospital
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
July 25, 2014 12:22 PM | Posted by : | Reply
I identify with this video in several ways, mostly its title.
The last couple of weeks I've been confused. Thought it would change but it intensified. Guess we are advised to direct our attention forward for good reasons.
Not a humble attitude, I guess. Should have prioritized math at an earlier age, I guess.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
July 25, 2014 12:40 PM | Posted by : | Reply
I too wonder what kind of math people use.
I imagine remembering someone that seemingly wanted me to become a better person. Perhaps I'm clueless but it seemed so complicated and technical - so much education. I might be a fool but it could have been so easy. It might be that I got it wrong, but I remember that I felt an outline of a mind as it touched me. Not detailed, not what it told me itself, but something indescribable and only to be felt. I knew that I couldn't say anything, that no-one was really listening and that change could only be achieved through patience.
Still, while being filled by that sensation of knowing someone I was torn apart by doubt. Someone could be playing me, though I doubted but then again I'm slow so if that were the case I wouldn't know, would I? Doubting myself lead to doubting others lead to whatever I don't know, no clue.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
July 25, 2014 1:08 PM | Posted by : | Reply
Pre-nursery-school satire by post-irony hipster, imagining self brilliant and all-seeing while blind and cretinous. But fancy new gear and quite the well-stocked cupboard.
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
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