Reading Log:
Millennium (1996) Season 1, Episode 14-22 , (The Thin White Line - Paper Dove)
Plot Summary:
In this section of the season, things start to get more sinister and deadly for Frank and his family. After working increasingly violent and personally-connected cases, Seattle homicide captain Bob Bletcher is killed in Franks basement. The killer: Evil. The Devil Incarnate. In the final episode of the season, Paper Dove, Frank's wife goes missing. The stalker apparently has finally stricken.
Paper Topics:
This part of the season brings good and evil into conflict in a way more personal to Frank than ever. Throughout the series, the sets are dreary, dark, and usually rainy. Almost every shot is hard to watch in bright light on my iPod, except the shots of Frank's house. His bright, yellow house. The house is Frank's sanctuary, where he knows his family will be safe. It is the beacon of hope in the life of someone who might otherwise see very little in the future of humanity. The threats of the stalker serve to threaten this sanctuary, and keep Frank (and the viewer) on edge. This sanctuary is hugely violated in episode 18, Lamentation, when Bob Bletcher is killed in the basement. It nearly destroys Frank mentally; his sanctuary is broken. It is violated again when his family are presumably kidnapped in Paper Dove.
19.3.08
#5: Connections
Reading Log:
Millennium (1996) Season 1, Episode 3-13 , (Dead Letters - Force Majeure)
Plot Summary:
Each of these episodes follows a similar format. Frank and the Millennium Group get called in by local PD to investigate some unsolvable case, usually with biblical or historical symbolism. The theme of evil as a semi-sentient yet disembodied entity continues to prevail. Each episode is more or less self-contained in its plot, so I will not list them all here. One season-wide plot element involves a stalker who appears to be stalking Frank's wife. This causes great anxiety for Frank when he is away from their home, and there is often a sense of high tension whenever Frank's family is alone. The series continues to show examples of the theme of things not being what they appear to be; and everything seems increasingly symbolic. There is definitely the air of the archetypal (almost stereotypical) post-modern apocalypse / good versus evil story.
Tie-ins with other Carter work:
Millennium and The X-Files are in many ways very thematically different. Millennium highlights and sharply contrasts good and evil, even beyond what is comfortable for the viewer at times. But The X-Files blurs the line between good and evil; again, oftentimes at the viewer's discomfort. In Millennium, we become more aware of evil and how it is embodied in individuals and their actions. The devil incarnate is everywhere, and we wonder if Frank is Jesus resurrected. In The X-Files, characters like Walter Skinner and the Cigarette Smoking Man blur even our preconceived notions of good and evil. It puts forth the idea that people are not inherently good or evil, and that everyone can exhibit elements of both. This makes the protagonists in The X-Files more relatable to the Everyman, and makes the villains seem more conquerable.
The X-Files series-long incarnation of this type of good/evil shapeshifter is of course the Well Manicured Man. A member of the Conspiracy and friend of Mulder's father, for most of the series we are unsure about his true loyalties. When he gives Mulder the Vaccine before committing suicide in the movie, his true values are perhaps revealed. Throughout the series, Skinner is also often seeming to switch sides. Skinner is a very flawed and relatable character who embodies elements of both good and evil.
Millennium (1996) Season 1, Episode 3-13 , (Dead Letters - Force Majeure)
Plot Summary:
Each of these episodes follows a similar format. Frank and the Millennium Group get called in by local PD to investigate some unsolvable case, usually with biblical or historical symbolism. The theme of evil as a semi-sentient yet disembodied entity continues to prevail. Each episode is more or less self-contained in its plot, so I will not list them all here. One season-wide plot element involves a stalker who appears to be stalking Frank's wife. This causes great anxiety for Frank when he is away from their home, and there is often a sense of high tension whenever Frank's family is alone. The series continues to show examples of the theme of things not being what they appear to be; and everything seems increasingly symbolic. There is definitely the air of the archetypal (almost stereotypical) post-modern apocalypse / good versus evil story.
Tie-ins with other Carter work:
Millennium and The X-Files are in many ways very thematically different. Millennium highlights and sharply contrasts good and evil, even beyond what is comfortable for the viewer at times. But The X-Files blurs the line between good and evil; again, oftentimes at the viewer's discomfort. In Millennium, we become more aware of evil and how it is embodied in individuals and their actions. The devil incarnate is everywhere, and we wonder if Frank is Jesus resurrected. In The X-Files, characters like Walter Skinner and the Cigarette Smoking Man blur even our preconceived notions of good and evil. It puts forth the idea that people are not inherently good or evil, and that everyone can exhibit elements of both. This makes the protagonists in The X-Files more relatable to the Everyman, and makes the villains seem more conquerable.
The X-Files series-long incarnation of this type of good/evil shapeshifter is of course the Well Manicured Man. A member of the Conspiracy and friend of Mulder's father, for most of the series we are unsure about his true loyalties. When he gives Mulder the Vaccine before committing suicide in the movie, his true values are perhaps revealed. Throughout the series, Skinner is also often seeming to switch sides. Skinner is a very flawed and relatable character who embodies elements of both good and evil.
#4: Symbolism
Reading Log:
Millennium (1996) Season 1, Episode 2, Gehenna
Plot Summary:
Ex-FBI agent Frank Black, now a member of the Millennium Group, works on a case involving a cult in San Francisco that lures people into working in a call centre. The catch is that they have been dying at an alarming rate, their ashes turning up in a city park. Frank eventually uncovers the crime behind the call centre front: weapons trafficking. However, Frank is unable to catch the killer, and the circumstances around the deaths remain mysterious. They do find out that the victims had been microwaved in an industrial microwave.
Symbolism:
Millennium is a wealth of symbolism. Each episode begins with a quote, often a biblical passage. As brought up in the episode, "Gehenna" is the Hebrew Hell. The story suggests that the victims were lured into this hell with promises of wealth. This concept establishes the idea of evil as a disembodied, non-physical force that roams the Earth. And although there may be scapegoats of evil that we can arrest and imprison, we can never really destroy evil.
Millennium (1996) Season 1, Episode 2, Gehenna
Plot Summary:
Ex-FBI agent Frank Black, now a member of the Millennium Group, works on a case involving a cult in San Francisco that lures people into working in a call centre. The catch is that they have been dying at an alarming rate, their ashes turning up in a city park. Frank eventually uncovers the crime behind the call centre front: weapons trafficking. However, Frank is unable to catch the killer, and the circumstances around the deaths remain mysterious. They do find out that the victims had been microwaved in an industrial microwave.
Symbolism:
Millennium is a wealth of symbolism. Each episode begins with a quote, often a biblical passage. As brought up in the episode, "Gehenna" is the Hebrew Hell. The story suggests that the victims were lured into this hell with promises of wealth. This concept establishes the idea of evil as a disembodied, non-physical force that roams the Earth. And although there may be scapegoats of evil that we can arrest and imprison, we can never really destroy evil.
18.3.08
#3 Midwinter Break Reading
Reading Log:
The X-Files (1998) INT. WHITE DOME TENT - NIGHT – End.
Plot Summary:
After being attacked by a huge swarm of bees, which turned out to be the contents of the strange white domes in Texas, Scully returns to Washington for a hearing on the Dallas bombing. She brings with her evidence of an extraterrestrial virus, which came from a FEMA field office in Texas. However, Scully learns that she is being reassigned to an FBI field office in Utah.
Later, outside Mulder's apartment in Washington, Scully is stung by one of the bees from the white domes that had stowed away in her shirt collar. A team of "paramedics" picks her up, but shoots Mulder in the head. When the actual paramedics arrive, they take Mulder to the hospital where he recovers. We come to realize the first set of paramedics were sent by the Conspiracy.
Mulder learns from a man the script refers to as the Well Manicured Man (W.M.M.), that Scully has been taken to an underground facility in Antarctica. The W.M.M. gives Mulder a coordinate and an ampule of vaccine. Mulder heads down to Antarctica and discovers a small facility on the surface. He falls into a fissure in the ice, taking him into the heart of some kind of cryogenic facility underground. He soon finds Scully, preserved in some kind of stasis pod that looks very otherworldly. Mulder breaks the icy capsule, and injects Scully with the vaccine. She comes to life almost immediately, and the vaccine apparently spreads to the whole facility, causing an apparent breakdown of all operations there. The whole thing begins to melt, and Mulder and Scully just barely get out before the whole facility rises up out of the snowscape and takes off; a giant flying saucer.
Paper Topics & Theme/Style Analysis:
- The psychology behind why government conspiracy stories are compelling
- The societal issues that the idea of the Conspiracy raises, and the possible social commentaries therein.
In this second half of the script, Carter has continued the same style in the scene descriptions. Throughout the script, he maintains an aura of mystery around the Conspiracy, and gives us enough information to follow the story, but not enough to completely understand the intricacies of the plan. For example, we do not know any of the names of the men in the Conspiracy. We feel the same frustration and uneasiness at not knowing the details that Mulder feels, which allows us to connect with him more easily.
The X-Files (1998) INT. WHITE DOME TENT - NIGHT – End.
Plot Summary:
After being attacked by a huge swarm of bees, which turned out to be the contents of the strange white domes in Texas, Scully returns to Washington for a hearing on the Dallas bombing. She brings with her evidence of an extraterrestrial virus, which came from a FEMA field office in Texas. However, Scully learns that she is being reassigned to an FBI field office in Utah.
Later, outside Mulder's apartment in Washington, Scully is stung by one of the bees from the white domes that had stowed away in her shirt collar. A team of "paramedics" picks her up, but shoots Mulder in the head. When the actual paramedics arrive, they take Mulder to the hospital where he recovers. We come to realize the first set of paramedics were sent by the Conspiracy.
Mulder learns from a man the script refers to as the Well Manicured Man (W.M.M.), that Scully has been taken to an underground facility in Antarctica. The W.M.M. gives Mulder a coordinate and an ampule of vaccine. Mulder heads down to Antarctica and discovers a small facility on the surface. He falls into a fissure in the ice, taking him into the heart of some kind of cryogenic facility underground. He soon finds Scully, preserved in some kind of stasis pod that looks very otherworldly. Mulder breaks the icy capsule, and injects Scully with the vaccine. She comes to life almost immediately, and the vaccine apparently spreads to the whole facility, causing an apparent breakdown of all operations there. The whole thing begins to melt, and Mulder and Scully just barely get out before the whole facility rises up out of the snowscape and takes off; a giant flying saucer.
Paper Topics & Theme/Style Analysis:
- The psychology behind why government conspiracy stories are compelling
- The societal issues that the idea of the Conspiracy raises, and the possible social commentaries therein.
In this second half of the script, Carter has continued the same style in the scene descriptions. Throughout the script, he maintains an aura of mystery around the Conspiracy, and gives us enough information to follow the story, but not enough to completely understand the intricacies of the plan. For example, we do not know any of the names of the men in the Conspiracy. We feel the same frustration and uneasiness at not knowing the details that Mulder feels, which allows us to connect with him more easily.
Passage and Style analysis
Reading Log:
The X-Files (1998) Opening scene – INT. WHITE DOME TENT - NIGHT.
Plot Summary:
After a bizarre accident in North Texas in which three fireman and a young boy are killed, FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully become involved in an investigation of a terrorist bombing of a Dallas office building. Before long, Mulder and Scully trace the bombing to a coverup of evidence stored by FEMA from the accident in North Texas: the firemen's and the young boy's bodies. Meanwhile, a mysterious man, Alvin Kurtzweil, has contacted agent Mulder with information about the coverup; that it was an inside job from the FBI, and it involved unmarked white tanker trucks. Mulder and Scully go on the chase of one of these trucks, which leads them to a pair of strange white domes in the middle of a cornfield.
Themes Identified so far:
-Conspiracy
-Cover-ups
-Secret government
-Deception of the public
FADE IN:
EXT. SNOWSCAPE
A BLINDING WHITE SCREEN, under which we hear an ominous
low end Dolby THX Big Screen rumble. We're not in 19"
television land anymore, Toto. As the rumble builds, TWO
BLACK FIGURES appear on what now has resolved into a
distant horizon. From their movements we can shortly see
that the figures are men. Moving along a windswept ice
sheet in an otherwise featureless land.
A LEGEND appears: NORTH TEXAS, 35,000 B.C.
CLOSER ON THE TWO MEN
Continuing toward us, we can now see that they are
dressed in crude garments made of animal skins. If we
squint we can see their hair is long, their jutting
foreheads significant of primitive Homo Sapiens. They
continue toward us, the wind beating against them,
CAMERA IS CRANING DOWN to the snow that lies before
them. To LARGE THREE-TOED TRACKS.
This opening passage from X-Files (1998) exemplifies Chris Carter's writing. He uses vivid examples that remind us of things that we are familiar with. We all know what a Dolby THX rumble sounds like, which makes the job instantaneous for the post-production man; he knows immediately what the rumble is supposed to sound like, because Carter is unlocking in him, with one word, all the stored memories of a low-end Dolby THX rumble. This sort of situation raises an interesting truth about film versus the written word (a subject I will undoubtedly discuss at great length in my entries and paper).
While writing a screenplay, the author knows that what he is writing will not be read by the end-user. Therefore, he can allow himself to use language that might be inappropriate if the actual consumer were reading the scene descriptions. Carter's writing style in the scene descriptions is relaxed and at many times quite different from the tone of the dialog in the same scene. For example, in scenes containing the dark, mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man, and other dark, evil characters of the Conspiracy, Carter is almost joking around in the scene descriptions. His scene descriptions have a very omniscient, godlike aura to them, which makes sense; the writer is the creator of that world.
Another element of Carter's screenwriting that I can examine in my paper is how Carter effectively conveys a scene to the director and actors through scene descriptions, stage directions and camera directions, and what kind of information is necessary to make that descriptive connection to the actors and directors.
The X-Files (1998) Opening scene – INT. WHITE DOME TENT - NIGHT.
Plot Summary:
After a bizarre accident in North Texas in which three fireman and a young boy are killed, FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully become involved in an investigation of a terrorist bombing of a Dallas office building. Before long, Mulder and Scully trace the bombing to a coverup of evidence stored by FEMA from the accident in North Texas: the firemen's and the young boy's bodies. Meanwhile, a mysterious man, Alvin Kurtzweil, has contacted agent Mulder with information about the coverup; that it was an inside job from the FBI, and it involved unmarked white tanker trucks. Mulder and Scully go on the chase of one of these trucks, which leads them to a pair of strange white domes in the middle of a cornfield.
Themes Identified so far:
-Conspiracy
-Cover-ups
-Secret government
-Deception of the public
FADE IN:
EXT. SNOWSCAPE
A BLINDING WHITE SCREEN, under which we hear an ominous
low end Dolby THX Big Screen rumble. We're not in 19"
television land anymore, Toto. As the rumble builds, TWO
BLACK FIGURES appear on what now has resolved into a
distant horizon. From their movements we can shortly see
that the figures are men. Moving along a windswept ice
sheet in an otherwise featureless land.
A LEGEND appears: NORTH TEXAS, 35,000 B.C.
CLOSER ON THE TWO MEN
Continuing toward us, we can now see that they are
dressed in crude garments made of animal skins. If we
squint we can see their hair is long, their jutting
foreheads significant of primitive Homo Sapiens. They
continue toward us, the wind beating against them,
CAMERA IS CRANING DOWN to the snow that lies before
them. To LARGE THREE-TOED TRACKS.
This opening passage from X-Files (1998) exemplifies Chris Carter's writing. He uses vivid examples that remind us of things that we are familiar with. We all know what a Dolby THX rumble sounds like, which makes the job instantaneous for the post-production man; he knows immediately what the rumble is supposed to sound like, because Carter is unlocking in him, with one word, all the stored memories of a low-end Dolby THX rumble. This sort of situation raises an interesting truth about film versus the written word (a subject I will undoubtedly discuss at great length in my entries and paper).
While writing a screenplay, the author knows that what he is writing will not be read by the end-user. Therefore, he can allow himself to use language that might be inappropriate if the actual consumer were reading the scene descriptions. Carter's writing style in the scene descriptions is relaxed and at many times quite different from the tone of the dialog in the same scene. For example, in scenes containing the dark, mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man, and other dark, evil characters of the Conspiracy, Carter is almost joking around in the scene descriptions. His scene descriptions have a very omniscient, godlike aura to them, which makes sense; the writer is the creator of that world.
Another element of Carter's screenwriting that I can examine in my paper is how Carter effectively conveys a scene to the director and actors through scene descriptions, stage directions and camera directions, and what kind of information is necessary to make that descriptive connection to the actors and directors.
Proposal
American Author Proposal
The author I want to study is the screenwriter Chris Carter. Carter has written the screenplays for several television movies, Cameo by Night, and The Nanny. He is perhaps most famous as the creator, producer and writer of The X-Files. He produced 201 episodes of The X-Files, 67 episodes of Millennium, nine episodes of Harsh Realm, thirteen episodes of The Lone Gunmen, and the X-files feature film. This is a huge body of work, equalling any sci-fi novelist.
Over the course of his career, Carter has had a huge impact on American science fiction, and his work builds off the ideas and styles of previous sci-fi screenwriters, as well as sci-fi novelists. Carter was originally inspired to write screenplays in 1982 by the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. In 1985, Carter started working for Disney and wrote screenplays for several series such as Cameo by Night, Rags to Riches, and Brand New Life. He soon began developing his own style, and in 1992, 20th Century Fox asked him to write three series for them. The first series was The X-Files, which became a worldwide hit, and which became an important part of Science Fiction history. His second series was Millennium, which produced episodes for three years. The next two were Harsh Realm and The Lone Gunmen, which both fizzled. Although unpopular, they are nonetheless import in the Chris Carter story, and exemplary of his style.
Chris Carter’s unique style of writing, as well as his substantial body of work available for quotation and analysis, will make it quite easy to write a ten page thesis-based essay on Carter’s work. One way that this will be made even easier is that the entire ten seasons of The X-Files are more or less serial, and make up one complete story that, as a whole, follows the story arc. The overall plot is very complex and typical of Carter’s writing. An interesting topic to explore in a paper would be how previous science fiction authors have influenced Carter’s writing.
To complete the reading requirements, I plan to read the screenplay for The X-Files (movie), and read the teleplays (if available, otherwise watch), the ‘mythology’ episodes of The X-Files (episodes that contribute to the overall plot). As well, I will read or watch all of the first, second, and third season of Millennium. Although similar, The X-Files and Millennium are driven by different themes, which would be an interesting topic for a paper; comparing these different themes and how they reflect how Carter and his writing may have changed from when he conceived X-Files to when he conceived Millennium.
I can see how actual reading might seem like a weak point in this proposal, so I therefore plan as well to read Carter’s book Parapsychology and the Skeptics. This book, the feature length screenplay of X-Files, the mythology episodes of X-Files, and all three seasons of Millennium constitute quite a chunk of reading that I believe satisfies these requirements, and will give me a good amount of material to analyse in my paper. Furthermore, if in the course of my research I find that there is a particular writer that influenced Carter (which I expect I will), I can read some of their works and incorporate that into my paper as well.
The author I want to study is the screenwriter Chris Carter. Carter has written the screenplays for several television movies, Cameo by Night, and The Nanny. He is perhaps most famous as the creator, producer and writer of The X-Files. He produced 201 episodes of The X-Files, 67 episodes of Millennium, nine episodes of Harsh Realm, thirteen episodes of The Lone Gunmen, and the X-files feature film. This is a huge body of work, equalling any sci-fi novelist.
Over the course of his career, Carter has had a huge impact on American science fiction, and his work builds off the ideas and styles of previous sci-fi screenwriters, as well as sci-fi novelists. Carter was originally inspired to write screenplays in 1982 by the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. In 1985, Carter started working for Disney and wrote screenplays for several series such as Cameo by Night, Rags to Riches, and Brand New Life. He soon began developing his own style, and in 1992, 20th Century Fox asked him to write three series for them. The first series was The X-Files, which became a worldwide hit, and which became an important part of Science Fiction history. His second series was Millennium, which produced episodes for three years. The next two were Harsh Realm and The Lone Gunmen, which both fizzled. Although unpopular, they are nonetheless import in the Chris Carter story, and exemplary of his style.
Chris Carter’s unique style of writing, as well as his substantial body of work available for quotation and analysis, will make it quite easy to write a ten page thesis-based essay on Carter’s work. One way that this will be made even easier is that the entire ten seasons of The X-Files are more or less serial, and make up one complete story that, as a whole, follows the story arc. The overall plot is very complex and typical of Carter’s writing. An interesting topic to explore in a paper would be how previous science fiction authors have influenced Carter’s writing.
To complete the reading requirements, I plan to read the screenplay for The X-Files (movie), and read the teleplays (if available, otherwise watch), the ‘mythology’ episodes of The X-Files (episodes that contribute to the overall plot). As well, I will read or watch all of the first, second, and third season of Millennium. Although similar, The X-Files and Millennium are driven by different themes, which would be an interesting topic for a paper; comparing these different themes and how they reflect how Carter and his writing may have changed from when he conceived X-Files to when he conceived Millennium.
I can see how actual reading might seem like a weak point in this proposal, so I therefore plan as well to read Carter’s book Parapsychology and the Skeptics. This book, the feature length screenplay of X-Files, the mythology episodes of X-Files, and all three seasons of Millennium constitute quite a chunk of reading that I believe satisfies these requirements, and will give me a good amount of material to analyse in my paper. Furthermore, if in the course of my research I find that there is a particular writer that influenced Carter (which I expect I will), I can read some of their works and incorporate that into my paper as well.
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