fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Galicia ❤️ The BEAM
By: Brujo Benavides
Tags: Galicia, Erlang, Community, Elixir

Laura M. Castro

Ghuapo, ghuapo non é… pero ten uns procesos!!!

Laura got her first Erlang-related “job” (it was a summer internship in the fourth year of her career) because after having taken an elective course called “Functional Programming,” where she learned the language, all she could do was talking to her classmates about its wonders non-stop. She was fascinated with how easy it was to work with multiple processes, multiple nodes, and … reloading code without having to stop the system!!

One day, while at the student representatives’ premises (of whom she was part), someone called to offer an internship. As soon as they mentioned “functional” and “Erlang,” someone handed her the phone without saying another word.

Thanks to that opportunity, the following course, she wrote her Final Thesis exploring how objects could be “simulated” (OOP was starting to take over at the time) in Erlang (using structures, using processes). That Thesis led her to participate in developing a risk assessment system for a large multinational company, which backend was entirely written in Erlang. The first articles arrived at the Erlang Workshop recounting the experience, and the academic world bug bit her. It started with her thesis, then becoming an assistant professor, getting a doctorate … the rest is history!

When / How did you take your first steps in the Erlang ecosystem?

Beyond using the language and reading the mailing lists, my diving into the community coincided with my predoctoral visits to Sweden, hosted by Thomas Arts (now Quviq AB). Being in Gothenburg, it was easy to get to Stockholm, the center where it all started! The Erlang User Conferences helped me put faces together with names, one thing led to another, you know…

What motivated you the most to contribute to the community?

I have always been (even before I met Erlang!) a heartfelt advocate of free software, so contributing, for me, is at the core of software development work.

Prowess

One of the multiple contributions from Laura to the community is her participation in the Prowess Project. A three-year innitiative that got companies and universities from several European countries researching together on methods and tools to improve the quality of web services. Their output was a swath of Erlang open-source libraries.

What’s that thing that stands out about Prowess?

The work that was done, side by side, between companies and universities together trying to design useful tools for the community.

How can people participate, help, or just learn more about it?

Follow the code! There are articles, presentations at Erlang Factories, Erlang User Conferences, Erlang Workshops …

What’s your advice for the next generation of Galician BEAMers?

(this one in Spanish, considering the target audience)
Surprising things about Elixir Documentation for a Rubyist
Tags: Ruby, Programming, Elixir, Coding, Documentation

Surprising things about Elixir Documentation for a Rubyist Spec Follow Jul 13 · 3 min read

I was not expecting to be ecstatic about documentation! 🤣

I’ve just started reading Programming Elixir 1.6 and just within the introduction, my mind has been blown! I’m VERY hyped about Elixir already.

Documentation to hand

There are documentation lookups in just a default iex session (the equivalent of ruby irb )! I’m so used to googling documentation for ruby and hunting down the right versions, this is SUCH a timesaver, and it’s simple to use:

$ iex

> h # Main help guide

> h(Enum) # Module documentation

> h(Enum.map) # Method documentation

> h(Enum.reverse/1) # Method documentation

A method signature includes it’s arity (how many arguments it accepts), so:

Enum.reverse/1 takes one argument

takes one argument Enum.reverse/2 takes two arguments

And each one of these methods have it’s own documentation entry, but not only this, the entry is succinct but also full of info and MOAR surprises….

Typespecs

The documentation has TYPE information! Researching this, it’s not used by the compiler, but can be used by other tools to find bugs and also just be super useful information to have about your code for others using it.

This example is defining a new type called word() which is a string, and the method long_word? takes a word() and returns a boolean() — Niiiiice!

This reminds me of a several initiatives in Ruby for bringing in type checking which are still in the land of early-adopters, so I was not expecting Elixir to have this in it’s CORE module documentation — very impressed.

Doctests

Hold the p h o n e.

Elixir documentation has executable TESTS… I’m speechless. Well only briefly, I have a bunch of questions about this!

Having testable documentation for tooling makes a ton of sense. You have a solid contract between the executing code of a dynamic language and it’s documentation.

But how applicable is this for your everyday coding in your apps?

If you have documentation tests and a separate testing suite:

How much do you put in the documentation and what do you leave purely for unit tests?

Do you ever get duplication and if so, is that OK?

How much use is the versioning declaration, the @moduledoc since: "1.0.0" bit? 🤔

I’d love to know how best to use this feature. Documenting and testing ❤️

Update

José very kindly responded to my questions on Twitter:

So Doctests really are just that: ‘tests for the documentation’ not ‘tests for the actual code’, and there should be no consideration towards test coverage with these. Gotcha 🎉

It hadn’t clicked that this since was pointing to the Elixir version required! This is epic though, because you can infer what version is needed rather than a loosely defined (or guessed) version in a Gemfile/gemspec ruby file 👏👏

Elixir is playing at an elite level with the documentation game 🙇
Elixir Supervisors
By: Bicycle Thief
Tags: Genserver, Supervisor, Programming, Elixir

Elixir applications that use supervision trees can use one of two kinds of supervisors — a “regular” Supervisor or a DynamicSupervisor. The DynamicSupervisor is a relatively new addition to the language (added in v1.10) and deprecates the :simple_one_for_one strategy in the regular Supervisor module.

The primary difference between the two Supervisors is that you specify the children and the restart strategy when creating a regular supervisor but only the restart strategy when creating the DynamicSupervisor. That is, the DynamicSupervisor always starts with an empty list of children. The Dynamic Supervisor, as of v 1.12, also supports only one restart strategy: :one_for_one. You use the start_child() function to start a child and add it to the supervision tree.

One often misunderstood capability of start_child() is that it can be used to add children not just to Dynamic Supervision trees but also to the traditional Supervisor. This is often straightforward for a Dynamic Supervisor but requires you to produce a unique id if you are looking to create child processes based on the same module (say, a GenServer or another supervisor).

To create a child of a Dynamic Supervisor (dsup, in the example below), you would do something like this.

DynamicSupervisor.start_child(dsup, {MyApp.Child, optional_params})

Calling the function above multiple times will create a separate child each time. This, however, wouldn’t work with a regular Supervisor unless you produce a new id for each child. For a regular Supervisor sup, you would write code as follows:

Supervisor.start_child(sup, %{id: uuid, start: {MyApp.Child, :start_link, [param list]}})

I have used uuid in the above example, but it can be anything that is unique in your application context.

So what is the difference between the two Supervisors other than the restart strategies and the initial list of children? As José Valim articulated on Elixir Forum, the difference is in how they manage the children. As there is no intrinsic ordering, the DynamicSupervisor will shutdown all the children concurrently but the regular Supervisor will do it in an orderly fashion.
Livebook-driven development
By: Yejun Su
Tags: Open Graph, Development, Livebook, Elixir

What is Livebook?

Livebook is a notebook for writing Elixir and Markdown in an interactive way. We can evaluate Elixir code blocks and see the results immediately.

There are several methods to run Livebook, I choose the escript way.



> livebook server

[Livebook] Application running at > mix escript.install hex livebook> livebook server[Livebook] Application running at http://localhost:8080/?token=xxxxx

Livebook is running now! Just open it in a browser. Click the New Notebook button and start to write Elixir. With Elixir 1.12, you get the ability to run libraries after Mix.install/1 them.

How does Livebook benefit the development process?

Before Livebook, I write code in IEx, which is a REPL. It has some helpers to ease the way to explore code, but in my opinion, Livebook exceeds in two factors:

Code history

In fact, IEx can enable code history by setting export ERL_AFLAGS="-kernel shell_history enabled" in the shell profile file. You can also search the IEx code history with Ctrl-r and apply it. But as Livebook is essentially a notebook, you can see all texts and evaluation results without the need to set anything.

Visualization

Livebook has a clean UI. You can write documents in Markdown and evaluate Elixir code blocks. It is more continuous, you can review every step of your thought by scrolling the page.

How to develop in Livebook?

Use ogp as an example.

First, I explore the idea with code blocks.

Install library to parse HTML with Mix.install/1 .

Explore floki with Open Graph protocol.

The variables in a code block can be referenced by blocks below it.

As going deeper, a simple parser comes out.

Then I create an Elixir project and run the Livebook in the project.

Create an Elixir project with mix new ogp --module OpenGraph --sup .

. Save the Livebook file in the project.

Move the parser into the project and run Livebook in Mix standalone mode.

Connection timed out occurs, to resolve it, run Livebook with a short name: livebook server --sname notebook . See https://github.com/elixir-nx/livebook/issues/275 for detail.

Set up Mix standalone mode again successfully, uses the module from the ogp project.

Conclusion

Developing in Livebook is really delightful. It helps to explore the code and writing documents. Give it a try and you will love it!

PS: The Livebook file created in this story can be found here: https://gist.github.com/goofansu/650ef0e67277915ab36aa1acc0defe60
Elixir immutability and data structure
By: Guilherme Torres Castro
Tags: Immutability, Data Structures, Programming, Elixir, Functional Programming

Immutability is a two edged sword, while it is thread safe, more error proof and have others benefits that help builds the foundation of beam. This come with a cost, like everything.

Circular list, graphs, trees with parent and a others data structures can not be build in elixir as in others programming languages.

Per example, imagine a list which: A -> B -> A

Since A links to B, then B needs to exist in advanced, however as B links to A, then B needs to exist in advanced.

Photo by Melani Sosa on Unsplash

It’s a chicken-egg problem. So far, beam does not support quantum superposition, making impossible to reference nonexistent objects. Go ahead and try.

However there are a few workarounds to implement it, one of them is using auxiliary map with id’s to represent link between nodes. Thus every node needs to have a unique identifier.

Per example: Imagine a node with the tuple:

defmodule CircularNode do

defstruct [:content, :id]

end

Now let's create a function named link that will represent a pointer between two nodes.

def link(map, nodeA, nodeB) do

Map.put(map, nodeA.id, nodeB)

end

The function only insert a key with node A id pointing do node B.To iterate over our list, lets write a function next to return the next element from the list.

def next(map, node) do

map[node.id]

end

Everything is in place to create our list:

a = %CircularNode{content: "content a", id: "id1" }

b = %CircularNode{content: "content b", id: "id2"} map=%{}

map = CircularList.link(map, a, b)

map = CircularList.link(map, b, a)

And finally, let's test it:
Concurrent GenServer in Elixir
By: Kacper Perzankowski
Tags: Genserver, Concurrency, Iex, Elixir

Well, let’s make an experiment.

First, I need a naive implementation of the GenServer that just does fake work.

The responsibility of the Worker is to process “expensive” jobs. For the purposes of this experiment, each job will be 1 second long.

Then, let’s prepare a module that will schedule jobs to make a probe.

The Scheduler will run N jobs simultaneously, spawning supervised Tasks for each of them.

Ok, let’s wrap it up and take a measurement.

iex(1)> {:ok, pid} = Worker.start_link

{:ok, #PID<0.123.0>}

iex(2)> :timer.tc(fn -> Scheduler.start_jobs(pid, 100) end)

{100104309, :ok}

It took ~100.14 seconds to process 100 jobs. It means that every job has been processed one by one, synchronously.

That actually is the answer I was looking for. Badly used GenServer can be a bottleneck.

Are we able to change this state of affairs?

Well, there is one solution… It’s called GenServer.reply/2.

From documentation:

Replies to a client. This function can be used to explicitly send a reply to a client that called call/3 or multi_call/4 when the reply cannot be specified in the return value of handle_call/3 .

Sounds reasonable, huh? I will now rebuild the implementation of the handle_call method so that it uses GenServer.reply/2.

After receiving the call :process_job request, I spawn a new linked process to execute the job and then call GenServer.reply(from, result) to return the reply back. Importantly, the reply is returned from this spawned process, not from the GenServer’s one.

Let’s check how it works.

iex(1)> {:ok, pid} = ConcurrentWorker.start_link

{:ok, #PID<0.233.0>}

iex(2)> :timer.tc(fn -> Scheduler.start_jobs(pid, 100) end)

{1003401, :ok}

It works! The ConcurrentWorker has processed 100 jobs in ~1.003 seconds asynchronously.

Thus, this very simple trick is able to increase GenServer’s throughput significantly. Of course, this kind of optimization is worth only in specific cases. It won’t work for operations that mutate the state of GenServer. It seems to be a nice pattern for read operations.

Elixir: v1.11.3

Erlang/OTP: 23
Elixir and Kubernetes: A love story — Part 1: Setting up an Elixir Cluster
By: David Delassus
Tags: Datapio, Erlang, Kubernetes, Elixir

In the last few years, Kubernetes has been heavily adopted in many companies as the deployment and application orchestration solution.

This adoption birthed many Cloud-Native solutions relying on Kubernetes to automate diverse workflows, to quote a few:

Tekton: Continuous Integration

KubeDB & KubeVault: Database & Secret management

RabbitMQ Cluster Operator: Message queues and exchanges

…

Unfortunately, most of those solutions, often implemented in Go, do not support more than one instance running (“replicas” in a Deployment, in Kubernetes terms), creating SPOFs (Single Point of Failure) in your infrastructure.

This is because “leader election” or “distributed consensus” are tricky to implement.

But in the Erlang/Elixir ecosystem, those problems look like they are already solved. Yet, most tutorials about Elixir only talk about building a webapp with the Phoenix framework.

This article is the first of a series of article that will cover:

how to build a Kubernetes Operator in Elixir

why you don’t need l eader election

out of the box distributed consensus

how to rely on other technologies when it’s needed

Hopefully, by the end of this series, you’ll have a better idea of what Elixir can do for you 🙂
L’dor Vador
By: Alexandra Cohen
Tags: Judaism, Advice, Community, Family

L’dor Vador

April 22, 2020 — IAP Open Mic Night

An essay and song in memory and honor of my belated grandparents, Papa and Grandma Marlene, and my Great Uncle Bob.

L’dor Vador.

“From generation to generation, we will declare Your greatness, and we will proclaim Your holiness for evermore.”

A mystical phrase, one with sacred significance. One that is recited multiple times a day, and that is remembered in our hearts more often.

L’dor Vador.

From generation to generation, engrained in the height of our liturgy, we learn and remember to pass our traditions, heritage, and even our humor and traits (good and bad) through a magical passageway that transcends time.

Like a ladder from the ground to the heavens, we climb and help each other up and down, transmitting the ways of the world to one another.

Human memory is magnificent. We use it to cope through hard times, and to celebrate milestones and lives well-lived.

L’dor vador.

We actually re-live the past. Vowing to “Never Forget,” or to remember that “Once, we were slaves in Egypt” — as if we were there ourselves.

We take on our forefathers’ mannerisms, their catchphrases, their ways of life, their recipes and their shtick, which altogether reflect eras, limitations and adaptations from time immemorial.

We make fun of each other’s quirks, torture our siblings (in jest) and create legendary experiences whose morals and memories are passed down at dinner tables, car rides, gatherings, phone calls and shiva meetings.

Remember when…?

L’dor vador.

That special connection, a bond, between daughter and grandmother, Uncle and extended family. Something that trinkets and photographs will help engrave in our hearts and souls. The laughter and guidance that carries us from childhood to old age.

We ask for our parents’ blessing, our grandparents’, siblings and loved ones’ support. Because we know we are bound along a pathway of greatness. Together. And we want them to share in those successes — and failures.

L’dor vador.

From generation to generation. Our souls live on through us.

In generations long ago, we relied solely on oral and written tradition. But in today’s times, we are fortunate to capture the generations online, on video, on voice memo.

We can gather from the four corners of the world through a simple application that brings us together once again.

We are often forced to come together to remind ourselves of the power of family. Of the power of connection, despite living in our own bubbles, homes, states and countries.

But it is incumbent upon us to remember the generations, and the stories, tragedy and triumph that they carried. And the love that we will carry forward.

L’dor vador.

From generation to generation, you will live on through us.

Our elders become our guardian angels, and we, our descendants’.

In every generation, we will build and find strength.

L’dor vador.

Translation from the Koren Siddur, first Hebrew/English edition.

NOTE: L’Dor Vador is the last paragraph recited by the leader during the repetition of the central prayer, the Amidah, during Kedusha)
Style Guide for Musicals That Focus on Judaism/Antisemitism
By: Sandy Sahar Gooen
Tags: Judaism, Jewish, Musicals, Dramaturgy, Antisemitism

(with a heavy focus on Cabaret and Fiddler on the Roof, since those are two shows I have been in, but I will also mention Parade, Falsettos, etc)

Rule 1: Know why you are doing this, honor the story and the culture behind it.

Rule 1 informs every other rule here.

Rule 2: if you are going to change things, consult the team if possible, and if not, consult other Jewish people.

You do not have to de-emphasize the Jewishness of a story to focus on queerness, for example. And you shouldn’t. There are queer Jews. Like me, and most likely like the writers. Whitewashing history, especially trying to “soften” the oppressor or de-emphasize the antisemitism is bad. Adding incredibly charged words like “shiksa” and putting them in the writer’s mouth is also bad. (We know what I’m talking about, yes?)

Rule 3: Scheduling matters. If you are doing a show where antisemitism is a major theme, you do not schedule important performances or rehearsals during the High Holy Days. I don’t care who you are. Fix it.

Never again. Or I will do Jesus Christ Superstar on Christmas and make gentiles work on their day.

Rule 4: If you are unfamiliar with pronunciations of words, or how many candles we use on Shabbat (it’s two), or things like that? Consult people.

Do NOT use it as an opportunity to, as a white non-Jew, make jokes about our culture. Go back to rule 1.

Rule 5: Know that Jewish people have not and do not all speak like they are from Brooklyn.

If the story takes place in Russia, or Germany, or Georgia, or Israel, they’re not all gonna sound like Bernie Sanders.

Rule 6: There are Jews of Color. You can and should cast non-white actors in some of these stories sometimes, like Falsettos.

Rule 7: Humility is key. Admitting you don’t know is key. And then ask and listen.

Rule 8: Intergenerational trauma is a real thing.

Be equipped to handle the responses to content in your show.

Rule 9: Always consider your motivations for doing this work.

Rule 10: If there is not a single Jew on the production/creative team, first of all, huh? How did you do that? And second of all, get a dramaturg and involve them. Do not solely ask the actors.

And if you managed to have a cast/creative/production team for a show about Jewish people and/or antisemitism, I am disappointed but impressed. Still, definitely get a dramaturg.
Daily Dialogue — April 23, 2020. General James Mattoon Scott: And if you…
By: Scott Myers
Tags: Screenplay, Dialogue, Film, Screenwriting, Movies

General James Mattoon Scott: And if you want to talk about your oath of office, I’m here to tell you face to face, President Lyman, that you violated that oath when you stripped this country of its muscles — when you deliberately played upon the fear and fatigue of the people and told them they could remove that fear by the stroke of a pen. And then when this nation rejected you, lost faith in you, and began militantly to oppose you, you violated that oath by not resigning from office and turning the country over to someone who could represent the people of the United States.

President Jordan Lyman: And that would be General James Mattoon Scott, would it? I don’t know whether to laugh at that kind of megalomania, or simply cry.

General James Mattoon Scott: James Mattoon Scott, as you put it, hasn’t the slightest interest in his own glorification. But he does have an abiding interest in the survival of this country.

President Jordan Lyman: Then, by God, run for office. You have such a fervent, passionate, evangelical faith in this country — why in the name of God don’t you have any faith in the system of government you’re so hell-bent to protect?

— Seven Days in May (1964), screenplay by Rod Serling, novel by Fletcher Knebel & Charles W. Bailey II

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Politician.

Trivia: Kirk Douglas had been at a dinner with John F Kennedy, and JFK had asked him if he planned to make the novel “ Seven Days in May “ into a movie. When Douglas said “ yes,” the President spent the next half hour telling him how great a movie it would be.

Dialogue On Dialogue: A great interchange between the President and the man who wants to replace him as part of a military coup.
Script Analysis: “Waves” — Part 4: Themes
By: Scott Myers
Tags: Screenplay, Film, Screenwriting, Movies, Filmmaking

Read and analyze the script for the lauded indie drama.

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this bi-weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule:

Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

Tuesday: Plot

Wednesday: Characters

Thursday: Themes

Friday: Dialogue

Saturday: Takeaways

Today: Themes.

I have this theory about theme. In two parts. First, a principle: Theme = Meaning. What does the story mean? Second, while there is almost always a Central Theme, there are multiple other Sub-Themes at play in a story. Therefore the question: What does a story mean takes on several layers of meaning?

Time to ponder themes in Waves. You can download the script here.

Written by Trey Edward Shults.

Plot summary: Traces the journey of a suburban family — led by a well-intentioned but domineering father — as they navigate love, forgiveness, and coming together in the aftermath of a loss.

Major kudos to Savanah Mears for doing this week’s scene-by-scene breakdown.

To download a PDF of the breakdown for Waves, go here.

For Part 1, to read the Scene-By-Scene Breakdown discussion, go here.

For Part 2, to read the Plot discussion, go here.

For Part 3, to read the Character discussion, go here.

To access over 80 analyses of previous movie scripts we have read and discussed at Go Into The Story, go here.

I hope to see you in the RESPONSE section about this week’s script: Waves.
Great Scene: “Fight Club”
By: Scott Myers
Tags: Screenplay, Film, Screenwriting, Movies, Filmmaking

One of the most effective ways to begin a script is to start at the ending. And one of the best scenes that opens with the ending is in the movie Fight Club (1999). Adapted for the screen by Jim Uhls from a novel by the notable writer Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club is a head-spinning and dark satire on contemporary society. Here is the opening scene in the script:

The movie begins with some guy named Tyler with a gun shoved in some guy named Jack’s mouth. Then we learn of an imminent explosion, apparently some sort of terrorist event. And the two guys who know about this impending violence — and seemingly involved in its execution — are chatting inanely about immortality and vampires.

Two minutes to go and I’m wondering how I got here. That is precisely what opening a story at the ending does: It plants that question, so that whatever happens, for the rest of the entire story until it catches up with the ending, the reader is wondering the same thing: How does he get there? And that’s one big reason why this is a great scene.

A few other movies that begin with the ending: Sunset Blvd., Memento, and The Usual Suspects. I’m sure you can add others to the list. Comments await you.

And I know we’ve got to have a lot of huge fans of Fight Club. Why? Because the movie is currently ranked #11 out of the IMDB top 250 movies. Fans of the movie, please tell us why you love this movie.

Comment Archive

For dozens more Great Scene articles, go here.
Page One: “The Prestige” (2006)
By: Scott Myers
Tags: Screenplay, Film, Screenwriting, Movies, Filmmaking

Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, novel by Christopher Priest

The movie version of the opening:

I have to say I’m really glad I started running the Page One series last August. For a lot of reasons, but here’s one: The utter confusion, even outrage scripts arouse in writers. In the case of The Prestige, a review of the Twitter feed finds two points of contention and concern: (1) Misspellings. (2) Capitalization.

With regard to the first:

Here they are:

“Hands and voice belongs”: should be “belong”

A LITTLE GIRL pershes on a chest: should be “perches”

Bearbed Man: should be “Beardeded”

Three errors on the script’s very first page. Is our takeaway that we shouldn’t care about spelling and grammar?

If your name is Christoper or Jonathan Nolan, and you’ve written a green lit movie, nope.

For the rest of us plebes, we very much have to take care of every single word and sentence. Otherwise, the impression a sloppy scripts conveys to a script reader, development executive, manager or agent: The writer doesn’t really care about their story… or their craft.

With regard to capitalization:

Historically, screenwriters used caps in scene description to highlight three things: (1) Characters. (2) Sound effects. (3) Significant objects. Back in the day when a script was solely a production draft, capitalized words alerted actors to action and imminent dialogue, and the crew to SFX and important visual elements.

However, once the spec script market emerged in the 80s and 90s, and shooting scripts became selling scripts, the trend moved away from:

Capitalizing a character’s name every time. Only do it when the character is introduced.

Capitalizing sound effects. Only do it when the sound is BIG or IMPORTANT.

Capitalizing specific objects. Only do it when the object is truly SIGNIFICANT.

That said, there are no rules. If you want to capitalize key sounds or important objects, you can do that. Just know this: Reading scripts with a LOT of capitalized words in scene description can become distracting, even annoying. This is not just my opinion, I’ve had multiple conversations with people in the development side of the business who have told me this.

This is yet another reason why you should be reading contemporary movie scripts, that is screenplays from the last 5–10 years. Track how different writers have different styles including how and when to use capitalization.

Find the style that works best for YOU.

Read the script here.

FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!

Page One is a daily Go Into The Story series featuring the first page of notable movie scripts from the classic era to contemporary times. Comparing them is an excellent way to study a variety of writing styles and see how professional writers start a story.

For more Page One posts, go here.

You may follow the daily conversation on Twitter as I cross-post there: @GoIntoTheStory.
Trimming Tricks of the Trade: Minimize Parentheticals
By: Scott Myers
Tags: Screenplay, Creative Writing, Screenwriting, Writing, Writing Tips

Here is another way to help with your page count.

Via The Unknown Screenwriter

#2: MINIMIZE PARENTHETICALS

Any of you who have taken my screenwriting classes know I urge writers to use parentheticals sparingly. Not only because they’re typically one or two words — what a waste of a line! — but also because far too often (A) they are intended to direct the actor (which actors don’t like) or (B) what they are conveying is already implied in the dialogue.

In other words, most parentheticals are not only space-wasters, they are unnecessary.

One way to lose parentheticals is to put their content in scene description. Here’s an example:

INT. XRAY DEPARTMENT — DAY Scattered mobile x-ray units create a high tech maze. Eve

balances a cellphone against her ear as she clutches a

stack of CT films. Pushes toward a light box. EVE

(into the phone)

I’ve had them stat page Dr.

McCarthy three times. I have a

post aneurism resection with

seizure.

Here’s a little edit which transplants the parenthetical into scene description:

INT. XRAY DEPARTMENT — DAY Scattered mobile x-ray units create a high tech maze. Eve

balances a cellphone against her ear as she clutches a

stack of CT films. Pushes toward a light box. Into phone: EVE

I’ve had them stat page McCarthy

three times. I have a post

aneurism resection with seizure.

[Note: I also handled the orphan in the side of dialogue, saving a line there, too].

The worst parentheticals are those that take up more than one line. Paddy Chayefsky, one of the greatest screenwriters ever, loved parentheticals. Here’s an actual example from NETWORK:

HOWARD

(reaching for the bottle of

booze on HUNTER’S desk to

refill his glass)

— let’s do the Lennon deportation

at the end of three —

Three whole lines for what could be one line of SD:

He reaches for the booze on Hunter’s desk, refills his glass.

Chayefsky started as a playwright at a time when they used parentheticals extensively. But for us mere mortals where page count is critical, there is no excuse to use a parenthetical unless (A) it is absolutely essential and (B) the action it describes is counter to what the dialogue indicates. Such as:

HOWARD

(picks up gun)

Angry? Why would you think that?

So do this: Every time you think about using a parenthetical, ask yourself if you’re willing to waste an entire line for one word? Because, in essence, that is what you are doing.

Tomorrow another Trimming Trick of the Trade.

Part 1: Lose the orphans

[Originally posted 11/25/2008]

Comment Archive
Great Scene: “Apocalypse Now”
By: Scott Myers
Tags: Screenplay, Film, Screenwriting, Movies, Filmmaking

The introduction of Captain Willard alone in a Saigon hotel room.

The focus of the Great Scene series is to spotlight notable movie scenes, then analyze and discuss them: their structure, themes, character dynamics. Why do they work? What are their narrative elements which elevate them to greatness? In a fundamental way, screenwriting is scene-writing, so the more we learn about this aspect of the craft, the better.

Today: The 1979 movie Apocalypse Now, written by John Milius and Francis Ford Coppola. IMDB plot summary:

During the Vietnam War, Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade colonel who has set himself up as a god among a local tribe.

We meet Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) in a most dramatic way: Drunk in a hotel room.

Here is the scripted version:

That last part: going into a frenzy, drinking, doing some sort of martial arts? According to Martin Sheen, the shooting crew just let the cameras roll. Sheen was actually drunk in the scene and punched the mirror which was real glass, cutting his thumb. Sheen also began sobbing and tried to attack Francis Ford Coppola. The crew was so disturbed by his actions that they wanted to stop shooting, but Coppola wanted to keep the cameras going.

Here is Sheen talking about the scene:

Of the scene, Sheen says, “We had to establish a very, very dangerous character, trained to kill people up close and personal… with his hands.”

The scene certainly conveys Willard as a “dangerous character.” And the blood on his hands is a portent of things to come.

To read all of the entries in the Great Scene archive, go here.

Comment Archive
Script To Screen: “The Devil Wears Prada”
By: Scott Myers
Tags: Screenplay, Film, Screenwriting, Movies, Filmmaking

Miranda arrives in the office in this scene from the 2006 comedy, screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna, novel by Lauren Weisberger.

IMDb plot summary: A smart but sensible new graduate lands a job as an assistant to Miranda Priestly, the demanding editor-in-chief of a high fashion magazine.

Here is the scripted version of Miranda’s introductory scene:

Compare to the movie version of the scene:

The movie is exceptionally close to the script. The only change in dialogue is swapping out “gird your loins” for “man your battle stations.”

What is really informative is compare the action description to the shot by shot arrival sequence. Notice how spare the script’s description is, yet clear enough to convey action, tone, and pace.

The Devil Wears Prada is a terrific movie, one I highly recommend watching while reading the excellent script.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a series on Go Into The Story where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

For more Script To Screen articles, go here.
Missing the playa this year? Get your Black Rock fix with “Burning Man: The Musical”
By: The Six Fifty Staff
Tags: Screenplay, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Bay Area, Burning Man

But he also points out that of the 70,000 people that typically turn out for the festival (in a non-pandemic year), such gated “glamping” experiences are far from the norm.

“It’s in no way reflective of (the other) 65,000 people, camping in Walmart tents, or a dozen people crashing in an old camper, or a yurt.”

The show evolved partly from faux dispatches from the festival that Werner wrote around 2013 for his satirical news site, Oakland Unseen, based on his sister Kelly’s stories. One such dispatch finds the writer marveling that the festival turned out to be more than just a huge playground for the rich, as he had expected. The posts got a lot of love and captured much attention on Reddit, Werner said.

He was drawn to make the show a musical in part by the sound of the festival itself. Though he notes that Burning Man expressly does not bill itself as a musical event — not like the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, for example — life on the playa means experiencing a varied soundscape, with music of many types blasting from different camps.

And as a playwright, Werner of course also took cues from musical theater.

“When I was thinking of a story set out in the desert, I was kind of inspired by ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,’ with wild pageantry and costumes, sound, light and color. It just seems like something so epic as Burning Man needed to be captured in an epic musical stage play,” Werner said.

He promises plenty of Easter eggs for musical theater fans, who are likely to appreciate lyrics like the wistful “I dreamed a dream of burns gone by … .”

Despite the show’s literally dividing techies and hippies into separate camps, Burning Man, which was founded in 1986 in San Francisco, doesn’t just have close ties to tech and Silicon Valley, Werner noted: The festival’s ethos, with its 10 principles including radical self-expression, radical self-reliance and civic responsibility, have plenty in common with the roots of Silicon Valley.

“The original techies were actually counterculture people back in the ’70s. … They were kind of renegades back then and we forget about that,” he said.

People building their own home computers or experimenting with robotics as a hobby used to be pretty unusual, Werner pointed out, and that same curiosity and technical skill has helped foster the art cars, robots and fiery sculptures that have been populating the playa over Burning Man’s 35 years.
Great Scene: “Amadeus”
By: Scott Myers
Tags: Screenplay, Film, Screenwriting, Movies, Filmmaking

This is one of my favorite all-time scenes, a brilliant inspiration for the viewer to hear what Mozart is ‘hearing’ in his own mind, but Salieri not to hear, both to give Salieri an actual taste of creative genius at work in the moment, and also to underscore to us how damn frustrating it was for him to live in the shadow of Mozart’s genius. It is, in effect, the story’s Final Struggle — for Mozart to attempt to complete this piece before he dies and for Salieri to be a part of a profoundly creative act.

I’m posting this scene in honor of my oldest son Will, who received a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of Chicago.

‘Amadeus’ (1984), written by Peter Shaffer based on his original stage play

Here is the scene in the movie:

What a magnificent scene. Note how the actors play around with their interchange, following the script, but also leaning into Mozart’s impatience and Salieri’s attempts to keep up, the implied pressure of Mozart’s impending death playing underneath the action.

For more articles in the Great Scene series, go here.
What is Enlightenment?
By: Dada Bhagwan
Tags: Spirituality, Self, Self Realization, Spiritual Growth, Enlightenment

Enlightenment is the stage where there is permanent happiness. When one becomes enlightened then they become free from the cycle of birth and death and obtain permanent liberation.

In today’s world even though technology has reached great heights and we have all the material comforts we could ask for, we are still not happy. Everything is at our fingertips, but now and then we are faced with situations in our lives that create worries, conflict, fear, negativity, frustration, disappointment, anger and sometimes even a feeling of hopelessness.

To become free from these kinds of situations and emotions that is why people seek enlightenment. People are looking for a way out of the bondage of the worldly life and enlightenment is the answer.

If one has attained eternal bliss, and when the worldly pains do not affect him, then he has become free. Permanent bliss (param anand), that is verily called liberation (moksha). The Enlightened world view itself is the experience of the Soul.

Complete enlightenment is not possible in this day and age, but with help of the knowledge of the Self or Self Realization, one is able to remain in the bliss of the Soul, while carrying out the activities of daily life. Only one who is Self-Realized, a Gnani Purush, can impart this knowledge of the Self to us. Once we receive the knowledge of the Self then our worldly life becomes worry-free and we begin to feel an inner peace which never leaves us.
Spiritual Awakening
By: Christian Mazzilli
Tags: Spirituality, Spiritual Awakening, Consciousness, Enlightenment, Self-awareness

In divine timing a human being will experience profound inner-transformations that have socially been termed as spiritual awakenings. Most people understand a spiritual awakening as a point of intense revelation that can be recognized as transformational on the experiential level. Traditional examples of these being near death experiences, kundalini awakenings, and psycho-active experiences. And those can be transformational experiences indeed if and when they arise, however it is important to understand that the process of spiritual awakening is of the [holy] spirit, not the [personal] self, and the process unfolds in many ways that go unrecognized. So awakening is actually beyond the awareness of the personal self and inspires from one’s Higher Self.

As the awakening — to truth of Self — begins to intensify the presence [of God] begins to permeate one’s experience like a soft grace. Although gentle, it feels infinitely powerful, unwavering, and ubiquitous. The presence of — God, Source, the Universe, Truth — becomes so profound in comparison to what was experienced as existence before — and it is like a love that is so strong, so enriching, so whole — that it continues to transform a person in ways that are beyond their awareness.

Most of the transformation goes unseen regardless of external conditions. It comes on as an inner state of truth which prevails in one’s momentary awareness, and aligns one with a more expansive evolutionary pattern. New dimensions of awareness gradually present themselves that offer a more expansive comprehension of Life’s greater totality. Thus, a greater peace comes over one’s state of being as much of what one perceived to be a problem before has been transcended by a higher level of awareness.

It should be said that in periods of intense awakening there can be acclimatization periods where one is overwhelmed and disoriented by the dimensions of awareness now available to them on an experiential level, and it takes time to be functional and develop discernment within those contexts of reality. It is common for one to make radical changes in lifestyle and that is because much of what motivated the person before is no longer reinforced in perception. The way one saw the world is no longer the way one see’s the world and so there is a reorientation of priorities.

One can continue or discontinue to do whatever feels right for them. You see, the transformation is really reflected by one’s inner being which emanates from the heart chakra and manifests as the intention of one’s existence. Naturally, certain things will no longer serve one’s path of growth and fall away, while new things will enter. It is all about what one IS — on an intentional level — which is carried into whatever one does. So awakening is really the continuous revelation — as expanding awareness — of one’s highest intention.

Thanks for reading and more to come,

Thanksman
Make wise moves in Quarantine.
Tags: Decision Making, Quarantine, Happy, Goals, Life

Hey folks…Hope you all fine in quarantine. Okay that’s fine, even if its not

normal you all guys gonna do me a favor. (your inner voice: Why the hell should i do for you?)

Arrrh..! No but yes it’s a favor which your going to do for your own self.

Really….(my inner voice: ufff…Thank God…)

Yes, here is this list your going to do.

1. Avoid using screens for long period:

Do not think that I want you not to use window screen or curtain for long period of time with that valuable mind. It’s all about avoiding mobile screen for long time.

Yes, surely you will get mad about what I’m saying but lets think practically.

According to research, it takes 21 days to fully form a new habit, as 21 days is the time required for new neuro pathways to be fully formed in your brain.

It happens with or without your knowledge. So make use of this Quarantine to built some new habit.

2.Train your brain:

Meditation is a key to train you brain and bring it in your control. In mindfulness meditation, we’re learning how to pay attention to the breath as it goes in and out, and notice when the mind wanders from this task. This practice of returning to the breath builds the muscles of attention and mindfulness.

Here is the link I refer you for learning proper meditation:

3.Learn something new to enhance your skills:

Try to Learn different things to improve your existing skill or to develop new

skill. Do you know how your brain feels when you complete something that your longing to finish? It’s a kind of happiness which you have done . Yes, try to complete at least 2 books per month. It grabs your attention so you will not have any unwanted thoughts obviously.

4.Exercise:

Why we need exercise?

* It can make you Feel Happier.

* It can help with Weight Loss.

* It Is Good for Your Muscles and Bones.

* It Can Increase Your Energy Levels.

* It Can Help Skin Health.

* It Can Help Your Brain Health and Memory.

* It Can Help With Relaxation and Sleep Quality.

If you think these reason are not enough to motivate you for doing exercise.

Your brain is making excuse so go back to 2.Train your brain and come back.

5.Why we need to do all these?

Our brain thinks that these are all not enough to change our life. It’s affirmative, your brain needs happiness and joy in anyway anyhow that is why it’s taking short routes to achieve. Keep in mind if you really want to achieve something then you have no short routes. So tell and train your brain there is no short routes to achieve, your waiting for nothing.

Brain awaits short routes as usual and ends up with nothing that’s Excuse.

Train it.Try it.

I tried and its my First Blog.

Be Safe and Stay at home.