TRANSMISSION #6 //MIXING A GOOD FICTION

Like a good mixed drink I appreciate a good mixed fiction.

Both take a decent balance of subtly, creativity and the occasional unseen and unexpected ingredient.

One particular mixed fiction that stands out to me was the trophy room in PREDATOR 2.  Danny Glover, beaten and bloodied by his brawling with a Predator, gets a brief glance at a wall of skulls – one in particular being an instantly recognizable HR Giger design.

I remember walking out of the theater pretty charged up.  Not only at the hope of seeing two of my favorite movie monsters finally going toe to toe on the big screen (and they did – twice – but we’re not going to talk about it here because…well, it’s just too painful), but because the idea of being a writer/film-maker just got all the more cooler.  What a great job it must be being able to drop a few Easter eggs here and there for audiences to laugh/freak/puzzle over.   How fun it must be to allude to a fictional past that happened off the screen and in the writer’s mind – but as a fan we knew it was happening somewhere – and it was all kinds of awesome.

And now that I get to do it – I mix my own fictions quite regularly.

In every videogame I’ve ever written/produced/designed I’ve slipped in some sort of reference to TIGER.

This is of course the name of my lab/Rottweiler from years ago who accompanied me on many an adventure in the mountains and many a late night in the office.

In more recent projects I’ve taken TEMPEST CO. – a particularly evil corporation that makes a particularly evil kind of science and placed it firmly in three very different fictions; DOMAIN, WELCOME TO THRILLSVILLE and the first script I wrote SPIRAL FLAGG: MONSTER HUNTER.  All very different universes, all thinly linked by my version of WALMART meets CRYSTAL DYNAMICS.

One of my favourite examples of  mixed fiction is taking a FLASH GORDON type character I created  called BUSTER ZACK (a WIP series featuring a steely eyed rocket pilot keeping the galaxy safe with his fists) and making him the hero of a 10 year old boy in THRILLSVILLE.  The boy explores the forests behind his house wearing a BZ flight helmet and quoting tough guy lines to his dog while looking for summer vacation adventure.

Why do I – or any other writer – do it?

In my case I’m not trying to be clever, or to showcase my understanding of ‘cross-pollinization of creative streams’ (a particularly corporate phrase from a game studio meeting I unfortunately had one day), I’m doing it because it’s FUN.

Remember fun?  That thing that used to be prevalent in entertainment…

Friends get it when they catch it, the odd fan notices it every now and then…  More importantly I know they’re there and I know what they mean and that makes all the difference.

I appreciate a good mixed fiction, and I wish there were more.

END TRANSMISSION.

– Sean