J.R. Jackson's Blog, page 2
October 19, 2013
Why research is so important
It doesn’t matter what genre you work in, basic research is an important step in any project. When I read a fictional book, I know that this is a fictional event involving fictional characters.
But, and here’s the clincher, if it takes place in the real world that means that real items, equipment, vehicles, locations, etc., will be used or mentioned. Yes, I’m aware of this thing called ‘artistic license’. However, being a reviewer, author, and Military Technical Advisor, there are things that jump out at me that might not be noticed by others.
Here’s a good example:
Recently, I was in the mood for some 80s nostalgia and rented Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo: First Blood series. It appears that some ‘improvements’ have been made to those classics with the addition of ‘Survival Mode’. This addition flashes a crosshair on the screen indicating to the viewer that you can now hit the ‘Menu’ button on your remote and get some cool inside information about the film in regard to characters, equipment, locations, weapons, etc.
While this is a nice addition to the DVD it is a weak attempt to compete with Blu-Ray. Minutes into the film it became blatantly apparent that basic research hadn’t been done. Sure, Survival Mode was entertaining for some parts of the first film, First Blood, but once the action shifted to the forest, it became lost in the woods much like Sheriff Teasle and his deputies.
Apparently, this new feature has been added to the entire series. Here is an excerpt from one viewer:
‘Where the discs really fall apart is in the extras. The real appeal of the set is supposed to be the "survival mode," an enhanced viewing mode that interrupts the film with annoying non-interactive distractions. These consist of Metabrief, which explains a bit about the characters. Clever viewers will realize that these are just like menu "character bios," except for the interrupting the movie part. Then, there is Metascope, which gives some quasi-military sounding jargon about the weapons and vehicles used in the film. There is also Metasight, which ironically just puts a green translucent target sign over the film image. And it beeps when a character is on the screen. Clever. The Metapoint mode shows a tiny overhead map of the area, showing movement of the characters. Finally, there is the Metamap mode, which builds a fake satellite image of the surroundings during action scenes. I can't speak for anyone else, but the last thing that I want in the middle of an exciting action scene is something this pointless breaking up the suspense. None of the information is very useful: those interested in the military specs will already know more than this, and other people won't care. It was a very poor choice to replace the DTS tracks with this lame survival mode.’
That about sums up the usefulness of ‘Survival Mode’ but, there are other issues. For those familiar with the first film, there is a scene where the local National Guard corners Rambo at an old mine. They attempt to contain him but then the officer in charge orders one soldier to fire an anti-tank weapon.
If at this time, you the viewer click on the crosshairs you will see the weapon is identified as the M136.
Wrong answer.
Given the time frame of the film, 1982, and that the National Guard was not being as readily deployed overseas as they are now and were still receiving hand me downs and cast offs from Big Army, the weapon that the National Guard soldier uses is the M72 LAW. But, wait there’s more. To back this up, the M136 aka AT4 was not even in the US Army inventory at that time frame as it was still being evaluated by the Swedish military. The M136/AT4 didn’t arrive in the US until 1983 when it was being evaluated along with six other anti-tank weapons as a replacement for the M72.
The US Army then reported to Congress in November of 1983 that the AT4 was the closest to meeting their requirements. That means that sometime in the mid to late 80s it was finally approved and was maybe starting to be issued to front line units, not the National Guard, by the end of the 1980s to early 90s.
If that’s the case then how could it have been in a movie made in 1982?
In case you were interested in verifying this yourself, Google for pictures of the M72 and the M136 and look at the differences in those two weapons. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
As you can see, there are distinct differences between the two and that just goes to show you that adding special features to a movie then re-releasing without researching can cause problems.
Let this be a lesson to those out there that failure to do basic research, leads to you looking like a total idiot.
While the above example wasn’t related to literature, it was related to research. As my primary focus is on military themed books and films, the same example might not be beneficial to all. But the overall concept of research is beneficial to all. That being said, before you run out and hit that ‘publish’ button, please, at least perform some due diligence research.
But, and here’s the clincher, if it takes place in the real world that means that real items, equipment, vehicles, locations, etc., will be used or mentioned. Yes, I’m aware of this thing called ‘artistic license’. However, being a reviewer, author, and Military Technical Advisor, there are things that jump out at me that might not be noticed by others.
Here’s a good example:
Recently, I was in the mood for some 80s nostalgia and rented Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo: First Blood series. It appears that some ‘improvements’ have been made to those classics with the addition of ‘Survival Mode’. This addition flashes a crosshair on the screen indicating to the viewer that you can now hit the ‘Menu’ button on your remote and get some cool inside information about the film in regard to characters, equipment, locations, weapons, etc.
While this is a nice addition to the DVD it is a weak attempt to compete with Blu-Ray. Minutes into the film it became blatantly apparent that basic research hadn’t been done. Sure, Survival Mode was entertaining for some parts of the first film, First Blood, but once the action shifted to the forest, it became lost in the woods much like Sheriff Teasle and his deputies.
Apparently, this new feature has been added to the entire series. Here is an excerpt from one viewer:
‘Where the discs really fall apart is in the extras. The real appeal of the set is supposed to be the "survival mode," an enhanced viewing mode that interrupts the film with annoying non-interactive distractions. These consist of Metabrief, which explains a bit about the characters. Clever viewers will realize that these are just like menu "character bios," except for the interrupting the movie part. Then, there is Metascope, which gives some quasi-military sounding jargon about the weapons and vehicles used in the film. There is also Metasight, which ironically just puts a green translucent target sign over the film image. And it beeps when a character is on the screen. Clever. The Metapoint mode shows a tiny overhead map of the area, showing movement of the characters. Finally, there is the Metamap mode, which builds a fake satellite image of the surroundings during action scenes. I can't speak for anyone else, but the last thing that I want in the middle of an exciting action scene is something this pointless breaking up the suspense. None of the information is very useful: those interested in the military specs will already know more than this, and other people won't care. It was a very poor choice to replace the DTS tracks with this lame survival mode.’
That about sums up the usefulness of ‘Survival Mode’ but, there are other issues. For those familiar with the first film, there is a scene where the local National Guard corners Rambo at an old mine. They attempt to contain him but then the officer in charge orders one soldier to fire an anti-tank weapon.
If at this time, you the viewer click on the crosshairs you will see the weapon is identified as the M136.
Wrong answer.
Given the time frame of the film, 1982, and that the National Guard was not being as readily deployed overseas as they are now and were still receiving hand me downs and cast offs from Big Army, the weapon that the National Guard soldier uses is the M72 LAW. But, wait there’s more. To back this up, the M136 aka AT4 was not even in the US Army inventory at that time frame as it was still being evaluated by the Swedish military. The M136/AT4 didn’t arrive in the US until 1983 when it was being evaluated along with six other anti-tank weapons as a replacement for the M72.
The US Army then reported to Congress in November of 1983 that the AT4 was the closest to meeting their requirements. That means that sometime in the mid to late 80s it was finally approved and was maybe starting to be issued to front line units, not the National Guard, by the end of the 1980s to early 90s.
If that’s the case then how could it have been in a movie made in 1982?
In case you were interested in verifying this yourself, Google for pictures of the M72 and the M136 and look at the differences in those two weapons. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
As you can see, there are distinct differences between the two and that just goes to show you that adding special features to a movie then re-releasing without researching can cause problems.
Let this be a lesson to those out there that failure to do basic research, leads to you looking like a total idiot.
While the above example wasn’t related to literature, it was related to research. As my primary focus is on military themed books and films, the same example might not be beneficial to all. But the overall concept of research is beneficial to all. That being said, before you run out and hit that ‘publish’ button, please, at least perform some due diligence research.
July 15, 2013
Up From the Depths Book 1
Book 1 of this series was released July 12, 2013 through Smashwords. However, it has been removed from Smashwords due to me being signed on with Permuted Press.
The entire project of moving from notes to outline to actual work was several years in the making. As I don't write full time, it was a bit of a struggle to make time to work on the book.
You may notice that I mention book as in singular not plural. When I first started the story, it was only a single novel that morphed into a large, epic size novel. When I had finished it, there was really no way that any publisher would take a first time author's work that exceeded 800 pages.
This led to breaking the book down into a trilogy. Trilogies are kind of fun. But, after I looked at how it was broken down and then ran it through an epub program, each book in the trilogy was over 400 pages. That's a formatting thing with epub.
With that in mind, the only way to get this story out there was to break it down into smaller portions and make a series out of it. Up From the Depths is projected to last for 6 books. Book 6 is scheduled for release in 2016.
For those of you not familiar with the series, UFTD is a military themed, zombie apocalyptic story that encompasses a large cast of some very eclectic characters. I stayed away from the over-used cliche characters and settings and definitely away from the cliche causes for a zombie outbreak.
If you like horror, action, gore, weapons, high tech toys, and a realistic military edge to your zombie novels then you'll have to wait until September 2015 for the release of Book 1.
The entire project of moving from notes to outline to actual work was several years in the making. As I don't write full time, it was a bit of a struggle to make time to work on the book.
You may notice that I mention book as in singular not plural. When I first started the story, it was only a single novel that morphed into a large, epic size novel. When I had finished it, there was really no way that any publisher would take a first time author's work that exceeded 800 pages.
This led to breaking the book down into a trilogy. Trilogies are kind of fun. But, after I looked at how it was broken down and then ran it through an epub program, each book in the trilogy was over 400 pages. That's a formatting thing with epub.
With that in mind, the only way to get this story out there was to break it down into smaller portions and make a series out of it. Up From the Depths is projected to last for 6 books. Book 6 is scheduled for release in 2016.
For those of you not familiar with the series, UFTD is a military themed, zombie apocalyptic story that encompasses a large cast of some very eclectic characters. I stayed away from the over-used cliche characters and settings and definitely away from the cliche causes for a zombie outbreak.
If you like horror, action, gore, weapons, high tech toys, and a realistic military edge to your zombie novels then you'll have to wait until September 2015 for the release of Book 1.
