Donald L. Vasicek

Category: Other Musings

  • “What is Your Concept of Love?”

    by
    Donald L. Vasicek
    Writer/Filmmaker/Consultant
    Olympus Films+, LLC
    http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
    dvasicek@earthlink.net

    "Unconditional Love is Universally Paramount."
    “Unconditional Love is Universally Paramount.”

    From where did all of that stuff about love come?
    The newspaper? Television? All media?
    The movies? A poem? A love story in
    book form? A love story in short story form?
    How your parents taught you about love, or
    were you socialized or conditioned about
    what love is? Your minister? Your priest?
    Your friend? Perhaps the governor of your
    state?

    You get the point. Love comes from a host
    of sources that make us what we are with
    respect to love. Where love gets in the
    way and causes pain, our emotional
    intelligence also becomes involved.

    Emotional intelligence? Yes, emotional
    intelligence. Emotional intelligence
    parallels emotional maturity. Emotional
    maturity is how mature you act or
    react when it comes to love. What
    level of emotional intelligence/maturity
    do you have?

    Do you scream and holler at your loved one(s)
    when you can’t have your way with them?
    Do you stroke your lover’s face with the
    tips of your finger? How is it that you learned
    to make your life all about yourself when it
    comes to wanting to possess the one you
    love?

    Are you capable of letting go? Can you give
    up your workout so that you can watch the
    kids because your husband is going to a
    football game without thinking about yourself?

    Can you take care of the kids when your wife
    is going to a baby shower and your favorite
    game is on television with love, and not
    anger?

    Can you look into your lover’s eyes and see
    beyond the surface, see what is behind her/his
    eyes, what’s going on in there?

    How far will you go with love? What is love,
    to you? Sex? A deep, passionate kiss.
    A tap on the lips?

    A love song? When you tell someone you
    love them, what do you mean? What does
    love mean to you? Think it’s authentic?

    What is authentic love? Well, I’m jabbering
    here. My point is, by going to the trouble
    of learning all you can about love, you will
    develop your concept of love. If you already
    have a concept of love, you probably
    wouldn’t be reading this. Whatever the case
    may be, regardless of how long you have had
    your concept of love, or you are seeking
    your concept of love, you enhance your concept
    of love by learning everything about yourself
    and about love as you can. This approach to
    love develops a concept of love that will
    shelter and protect you if you lose the
    one you love because you will know what
    love is.

    Donald L. Vasicek
    Writer/Filmmaker?Consultant
    Olympus Films+, LLC
    http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
    dvasicek@earthlink.net

  • “Hollywood Openings”

    by

    Donald L. Vasicek
    Olympus Films+, LLC
    Writing/Filmmaking/Consulting
    http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
    dvasicek@earthlink.net

    In order to write, sell, and get your screenplays produced
    in Hollywood, you need to write openings that Hollywood
    utilizes to attract audiences. When you watch movies
    produced by studios and mainstream production companies
    and producers, what do you usually see in the opening?
    If you’re stumped, the first thing you usually see is
    movement.

    This could be movement across a body of water with the
    POV of the camera aimed at a skyline of a city, or someone
    walking, someone running, a moving vehicle, etc. Images of
    movement help pull the audience into the movie in order to
    get them into the movie, like they’re really in the movie, to
    make them feel like they’re part of what is going on in the
    movie.

    Openings also include a metaphor that defines what
    the main theme of the movie is going to be, introduces the
    main character, defines the character’s main problem to solve
    in the movie, of his/her goal, and the setting. And this should
    all be accomplished on page one of the screenplay.

    In my produced screenplay, “Born to Win”, the opening shows
    a butterfly fluttering away from a headstone. A boy cleans
    the headstone. He weeps. He rubs the headstone with a cloth
    beyond that of cleaning it. The movement is the butterfly
    moving away. It shows the defining theme of the movie, which
    is “letting go.” The main character, the boy, is holding onto his
    dead mother. The setting of scene, a cemetery, exacerbates the
    theme of letting go. This movement also shows the metaphor
    for the movie of letting go.

    The boy must let go before he can move on with his life
    regarding his mother’s untimely death and he does
    it by driving his mother’s race car in a race to win $25,000 for
    an operation to save his Gramps’ life. In the end, it’s either
    let go of his Gramps, or continuing his fatal flaw of holding
    onto to something that he should no longer hold onto.

    When you write screenplays that you want to sell and get
    produced, study openings of movies that Hollywood produces.
    You will see that the most successful of these movies (box
    office, DVD and rental sales, Internet streaming, etc.) contain
    elements which include movement, metaphor, defining theme,
    main character, and setting. Craft these elements into your
    screenplays, and you’re off to a great start with writing
    screenplays that you sell and get produced.

    Donald L. Vasicek
    Olympus Films+, LLC
    Writing/Filmmaking/Consulting
    http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
    dvasicek@earthlink.net

  • Obama-Biden; McCain-Palin, The Zen of Writing and Education”

    Educational Background:
    >
    > Barack Obama:
    > Columbia University – B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
    > Harvard – Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
    >
    > Joseph Biden:
    > University of Delaware – B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
    > Syracuse University College of Law – Juris Doctor (J.D.)
    >
    > vs.
    >
    > John McCain:
    > United States Naval Academy – Class rank: 894 of 899
    >
    > Sarah Palin:
    > Hawaii Pacific University – 1 semester
    > North Idaho College – 2 semesters – general study University of Idaho – 2 semesters – journalism Matanuska-Susitna College – 1 semester University of Idaho – 3 semesters – B.A. in Journalism
    >
    > Education isn’t everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call.
    >
    >