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