Two New Stories in Russian

Following the recent win of the short story Hatchling as Best Translated Story in the Russian Today Is Tomorrow competition, two more of my stories are now available in Russian.

The first is A Star-Studded Sky, which appears in the online magazine The Milky Way.

The second is Eternity Wasted, which appears in the print magazine of the same name, The Milky Way, issue #6. When I get it in the mail, I’ll post a picture.

Want to read these stories in English? They’re all online. Here’s Hatchling. Here’s A Star-Studded Sky. And here’s Eternity Wasted.

Enjoy!

Wynter #1 Cover Revealed

It’s the future. When 17-year-old Liz Wynter goes to sleep, commercials play in her head. When she wakes up, she checks out how many people follow her dreams and how many saw them.

It’s the future. When she feels special, a voice in her head tells her: “5.4 Billion+ felt the same feeling in the last 4 seconds. Would you like to know who they are?”

How can you feel special when everything’s been done before, felt before, thought of before? How can you be special if there are so many people in the galaxy that every day 3 more are born with your DNA?

This is the story of Liz Wynter. She’s not special.

Wynter, Issue #1

New Worlds Comics is coming soon.  

The Indestructibles is now online!

The Indestructibles is a low-budget, underground SF film. Some of you have followed the progress of making it through my film journal.

 

As promised from the very beginning: the film is now online for free, split into seven parts for easy watching.

Independent, low-budget, underground science fiction film

Here’s a short synopsis:  For over 200 years, superhero battles ravaged the earth. Once they were defeated, hundreds of thousands superhero bodies littered the streets. They are living, breathing vegetables that cannot die and do not grow old. One day, the superheroes come back. Only Rachel Gardner, a high school teacher, can stop them.

 

If you enjoy it, help spread the word to people you think will like it.

‘The Indestructibles’ Premieres on Tuesday

It’s been almost two years since I wrote The Indestructibles, adapting a $200 million SF film idea to a no-budget underground guerilla film. The Indestructibles premieres on Tuesday in the Utopia SF Film Festival in Tel Aviv. After the film there’ll be a Q&A with the film’s actors and me (writer, director, producer).

I hope you come and enjoy the experience.

Even gods must die…

‘The Indestructibles’ Film Premiere Announced

The Indestructibles will premiere in the Utopia Film Festival 2013 in Tel Aviv.

The film will premiere on Sept. 24th, at 16:00 in the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. After the film there will be a short Q&A with the film’s actors and myself.

Here’s a link to the Facebook event. Join us, share it, pass it on, spread the word.

What’s the film about: The superheroes were defeated. Earth is littered with hundreds of thousands of superhero vegetables that cannot die and do not grow old. One day superheroes come back…

The Indestructibles is an independent, low-budget SF film. Originally a script for a $200 million budget movie, the digital age allowed me to rewrite it and shoot it for $250.

And if you haven’t followed The Indestructibles’ film journal, now’s your chance.

And here is the final poster, shot by Oren Hasson, designed by Oran Almog:

Even gods must die…

Written, directed, shot, and produced: Guy Hasson
Starring: Tamara Pearlman, Nathalie klein Selle, Tomer Shechori
Music: Boaz Cohen
Editor: Oran Yekutiel

The Indestructibles Film Journal #10: The Film Is Alive with the Sound of Music!

Let’s start at the end: The film is scored. And it sounds amazing.

It took a long while to get it done, but that’s how things work when you do a no-budget film.

A small reminder: I took a $200 million idea for an SF film and rewrote it in a way that would cost only $250 (no thousands, no millions). Check out the earlier film journals to see how it was done. This meant everybody worked for free, including my music guy, the super-busy and talented Boaz Cohen about which you will no doubt hear in the future. I had to wait 3 months after editing for him to just have time to look at the project. Then, between his work and other projects he was handling, he gave his sparse spare time to score The Indestructibles. So it took time. But it’s real. And it’s spectacular.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about why scoring The Indestructibles was an impossible task.

How do you solve a problem like no budget?

Why Scoring The Indestructibles Was an Impossible Task

A small reminder: The Indestructibles was originally to be an epic superhero film, with hundreds of thousands of superheroes, and a story spanning more than 300 years. There were good guys, a major bad guy, special effects, a background you’ve never seen before in comics or in film, and a twist on the superhero concept that’s entirely new.

And… it cost too much.

This digital age being what it is, I found a way to rework everything: There would be no special effects and no CG.

But the experience should lose nothing: The film is still an epic tale with hundreds of thousands of superheroes and a story spanning more than 300 years. There are still good guys, a major bad guy, a background you’ve never seen before in comics or in film, and a twist on the superhero concept that’s entirely new. Like all good superhero films, there’s a great showdown at the climax. Yes, a powerful and emotionally-rewarding superhero showdown with no CG. And then there’s a twist in the end that, no matter how savvy you are, you’ll never see coming.

All this without showing one costume, one power, or one fake special effect that would look ridiculous in a film with my budget. There are just two actresses and one location for 95% of the film.

So now we can finally get to the point of why scoring The Indestructibles was an impossible task.

Why Scoring The Indestructibles Was an Impossible Task

So. Two characters in one place go through a special kind of drama that mirrors the great epic superhero drama the film’s about.

How would you go about scoring that? Boaz asked me this question, and I had to think about it for a couple of days before I had an answer I was sure of: We should score the movie we don’t see rather than the movie we do see.

What’s the movie we do see? We see two characters in an underground garage going through their own personal and quite intense drama, building towards the showdown with the bad guy.

What’s the movie we don’t see? More than a hundred thousand superheroes are reflected through the eyes and words of the characters. We experience superheroic adventure, sacrifice, tragedy, backgrounds, and battles – but we don’t see any of it.

My decision was to score the second movie, the CGI-ed film, the one we hear about. The movie you would have seen, if I had $200 million, is playing in the background of The Indestructibles, and now it’s fully scored.

As an audience, you’re already emotionally experiencing the epic film. Now that the film is scored, that emotional experience is heightened with music that fits the film that’s playing on the screen in the back of your mind. Which means that your entire film experience is heightened.

So, yeah, Boaz Cohen scored a film by scoring a film the audience doesn’t see. I said ‘impossible’, right?

Want to See It for Yourselves?

The film is almost finished – a couple more short stops and we’re done.

Stick around. Stay updated. The superheroes are coming and the gods have to die.

Glowing Review for ‘The Emoticon Generation’ from A Fantastical Librarian

The blog ‘A Fantastical Librarian’ gave a glowing review to The Emoticon Generation. Here’s a little taste:

I’d expected to enjoy it, based on Andrea’s recommendation, but what I hadn’t expected was that I’d be drawn in by the stories to the extent that I was. They were fascinating and even the ones that I didn’t like as much, were thought-provoking and made me think about what they meant and whether their technology might be actually possible. The stories were clever and as much about humanity and identity as about technology.

Read the entire review here.

This is the last (I think) of the blog tour reviews. Still to come this month: two interviews and a giveaway.

 

Two Dudes in an Attic Reviews ‘The Emoticon Generation’

The Emoticon Generation blog tour continues to continue! The review blog Two Dudes in an Attic reviewed The Emoticon Generation, this time giving a thoughtful and thought-provoking review regarding the different ethical issues raised in the book. Here’s a little taste:

Some authors use their books as proxies arguing one aspect or another of the issue (Karl Schroeder, for example, or Greg Egan), while others, like noted internet puppy Charlie Stross, advocate in real life. Hasson doesn’t take a side in the debate, instead choosing to examine the researchers, early adopters, and guinea pigs that would make such a thing possible. He seems much less interested in the hows of the thing, or the effect it would have on us some hundreds of years down the line. Instead, Hasson teases out the ethical questions that will face us tomorrow, or next year, or next decade, if it turns out we can scan our brains into computers.

Read the entire review here.

Lynn’s Book Blog Reviews ‘The Emoticon Generation’

The blog tour continues! Lynn’s Book Blog reviewed The Emoticon Generation, giving us another positive review! Here’s a little taste:

 I don’t tend to read a lot of short stories because I feel disconnected to the characters.  I usually feel that I don’t spend enough time with them to get comfy.  However that isn’t the case here – the author has a way of writing that you can’t help connecting.

Read the entire review here.

Postcards from La La Land Reviews ‘The Emoticon Generation’

The blog tour continues! The YA review blog Postcards from La-La Land reviewed The Emoticon Generation.

Here’s a little taste:

The Emoticon Generation is part satirical, part speculative, sometimes humorous, and often spooky.  It’s not a cookie-cutter lament against technology, or a cry for the return of life before the Internet – it’s just a look at what might happen if we push curiosity too far in certain directions.

Read the entire review here.