Hacking My Way To Stardom
<p>This is storyboard art for a movie called <cite>Nightmask</cite>, with<br />
the interesting property that I will probably get a speaking part in it<br />
if it&#8217;s actually produced.</p>
<p class="centered"><img src='graphics/nightmask.png'/></p>
<p></p>
<p>&#8220;Whoa!&#8221; you may well ask.  &#8220;How does a middle-aged geek with no<br />
showbiz history beyond a few singer/songwriter coffeehouse gigs in<br />
his college days land a part in, you know, a <em>real movie</em>?&#8221;</p>
<p>The answer, it turns out, is by hacking for a movie star.  And thereby<br />
hangs a tale.</p>
<p>Back in October I was the top-billed guests of honor at the first<br />
Linucon, a convention for SF fans and Linux hackers in Austin, TX.<br />
First night I was there, at the invitation-only dinner for con guests,<br />
I found that I knew a lot of them.  Steve Jackson, Wil Wheaton, Howard<br />
Tayler, Eric Flint&#8230;but there was one I didn&#8217;t recognize and she was<br />
striking enough to make an impression:</p>
<p class="centered">
<img src='graphics/tamara.jpg'/><br />
<img src='graphics/tamara2.jpg'/>
</p>
<p></p>
<p>This woman&#8217;s charm was somehow only increased by the fact that at<br />
the time she was wearing black nerd-frame glasses; she looked like a<br />
supermodel playing a geekgirl, a guess which I discovered was nearly<br />
correct the next day when I found her sitting in the lobby of the<br />
hotel tapping keys on a PowerBook.  I introduced myself, asked her<br />
name, and we were soon deep in conversation about all manner of<br />
interesting techie things.  And her name?  Tamara Gorski.</p>
<p>Yes, that would be the <a href='http://imdb.com/name/nm0331341/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9VGFtYXJhIEdvcnNraXxodG1sPTF8bm09b24_;fc=1;ft=4'>Tamara<br />
Gorski</a> who played Rebecca Lowell in on an episode of<br />
<cite>Angel</cite> and Morrigan the Goddess of War (looking like Lucy<br />
Lawless&#8217;s kid sister) on <cite>Hercules: The Legendary Journeys</cite>.<br />
She&#8217;s also had parts in quite a few B movies over the last decade; she<br />
told me later that she thinks she could get A-list parts if she pushed,<br />
but doesn&#8217;t really want the pressure or the fishbowl existence that would<br />
bring with it.</p>
<p>I had to admit to never having seen any of her stuff, as I don&#8217;t<br />
watch TV at all and hadn&#8217;t caught any of her movies. This, however,<br />
did not bother her in the least; in fact she seemed happy to be talking<br />
to someone who was (a) a low risk for going all fanboy on her, and (b)<br />
willing to teach her techie stuff, like how to program an automated<br />
way to mail people electronic thank-you cards.  I launched into writing<br />
a Python program on her PowerBook to do exactly that.</p>
<p>That program took me about three hours to write, time scattered<br />
over the next two days, most of it with Tamara looking over my<br />
shoulder and (I kid you not) giggling with delight as I explained how<br />
this or that bit of Python helped get the job done.  Tamara, it turns<br />
out, is (a) extremely bright, (b) by her own description, &#8220;shy and<br />
geeky&#8221;, and (&#99;) intensely curious.  And yes, formerly a successful<br />
model.  So, not exactly a supermodel playing a geekgirl, more like one<br />
really letting her inner geek out to play for maybe the first time<br />
in her life.</p>
<p>Tamara <em>loved</em> discovering SF fandom; the atmosphere of Linucon<br />
delighted her.  &#8220;I think I&#8217;ve found my people!&#8221; she said to me Sunday<br />
night.  And I was her guide to the territory.  By the time that program<br />
was finished, we were friends.</p>
<p>Tamara had told me early on that she was interested in writing and<br />
direction.  She talked offhand at the con about casting me in her next<br />
film, but I didn&#8217;t know how seriously to take that until she emailed me<br />
a script and a character list and asked which ones I was interested in.</p>
<p>The plot is a sort of space opera with horror elements about a<br />
multispecies galactic future in which vampirism is a scourge that<br />
affects every species.  The part she had in mind was Klaaghu, an<br />
initially sinister-appearing alien who dies heroically bringing</p>
<p>evidence to the anti-vampire resistance.  After reading the script, I<br />
agreed that of the available roles, that one seemed like probably the<br />
best fit.  It&#8217;s a nice juicy bit part; Klaaghu doesn&#8217;t get a lot of<br />
screen time, but he does get dialogue and a dramatic scene.</p>
<p>The big variable here is whether Tamara can get backers to produce<br />
the movie.  She&#8217;s planning the low-budget route, shooting in New<br />
Zealand or Bulgaria.  She&#8217;s got a natural market, as this is exactly<br />
the kind of thing the Sci-Fi channel buys.  Tamara says &#8220;If you know<br />
anyone who wants to invest at all&#8230;there will be returns, and if it&#8217;s<br />
someone who would get their kicks from being in the film and getting<br />
screen credit as producer, that&#8217;s all cool and kosher.&#8221;</p>
<p>There you have it.  Calling all dot.com millionaires: you wanna<br />
be a movie producer?  Have a part in an SF flick?  Your shot at stardom<br />
is waiting.</p>
