Well, I think things finally came together: I will write whatever I want, whenever I want, but I've gotten pretty excited lately to plot out Nosferatu in Love. Because Ellen and Hutter! I ship it and need to expand upon ittttt...

Seriously - I keep coming up with stories from their past, and how they got together, and how they interact. Just yesterday I was telling Jenna that Hutter would definitely have a twitter. I need to put all of this stuff in. XD I mean, I knew it - I just knew it from the beginning that it would be meaningful to me to adopt these characters, even though not a lot of people seem to appreciate them. I feel like NIL is a good opportunity to show what I see, about what could be.

I mean look at this guy!

"LET'S GET SOME SERVICE, HERE."

And look at them together!


I put under the cut one of the conversations Jenna and I had... <3 Oh, it's just like what we used to do for AIW plot bunnies... back when Glance came online and Alice was my friend. Time sure has flown by.

( Hutter brings the wrong donuts and Orlok twitter-stalks him. )

I seem to be paying Orlok little attention in this whole thing, but I'm just not mentioning him because he's always on my mind. It's Hutter and Ellen I'm more excited to appreciate myself, even more than I do now. But, of course, Orlok will be having his influence all over the script, asking for backrubs and making Montgomery hide under the bed. x)

I want to make sure I don't forget about this so I'm going to write it down!:

The first episode of Nosferatu in Love coincides (in an extremely general sense) with what happens in the movie, when Hutter escapes Orlok's castle by way of the window after witnessing him. 1.) Try to suck his blood before deciding "oh, nevermind." 2.) Lying in his coffin. 3.) Loading up the coffins and leaving with the doors all locked. Because this series is more about Orlok than Hutter, it may be more interesting to start off the series with him on the ship, attacking the captain. Or, if you want him to be more shrouded for the time being, there can be more of a focus on Hutter getting home. Either way, the narrative for this is broken up into shots which can explain themselves. The bigger focus is Ellen, who is at home by herself and a nervous wreck.

Clearly, in the movie, it drove her her crazy that Hutter left for Transylvania so abruptly, without even consulting her, and since something that inspires plot points and themes in this series is their imperfect marriage, it would make no sense if she accepted him with open arms as she did in the movie, even as worried as she was. I want my Ellen to be pissed. Hutter's going to be weak - ill, really - and having some horrible memories as he just came back from a vampire's castle, but Ellen will give him a lot of silent treatments and will bring him things/take care of him with a sense of bitterness. This lack of communication will make for the both of them experiencing Orlok's arrival privately, in their own ways. It will not be made clear between them at first what happened and why the neighborhood now feels so strange. This gives the series the opportunity to bring them together (Orlok and Ellen) without Ellen being part of a unit yet.

Although, to clarify, this show's aim isn't to make them a couple, or even an implied couple. I don't ship it. :)

Write more later.
-J

Site advertisement on He's There has been unsuccessful for CP3. In fact, like "God" really really hates me, ever since I put the ad on the updates page, hardly anybody's been visiting the site! It's so discouraging.

More to the point of the entry. I wanted the use the journal the way I used to before updates and sort of just dump on what I've been thinking about lately and the ways I'm choosing to characterize. When my thoughts are articulated, I get in the mood more easily. Summer break has been the time I've chosen to return from HT hiatus because I'll only be working (hopefully.) I'm going to drop everything else, like Adventures in Wonderland fics, unless they can be fit in without any sacrifice.

Anyway, I was just having a conversation with myself (shut up!) about the implications of "Erik"'s eyes being called all variations of drilling by Lily. While his looks are not always sharp - it's hard for him to give the look when he's exhausted, or recoiling on the inside - I did mean for it to be more than just a way to point out that he has a very.. uh, not domineering, but present personality. Unavoidably intense, is a better way to put it, which makes looking at him face to face the kind of thing hard to do unless you're feeling equally with intention.

With both of their POVs in mind, I think I've considered the sharp eyes a way to suggest trespassing. They are still the eyes of someone who watched her many times when she didn't know it. She wishes to know him and looks into him, but he examines a place inside deeper than she's reached with him. The look makes her feel like she's mentally/spiritually or what have you, naked! Subconsciously, she knows he was and still is the person who not only wants to know who she is, but knows more than what he's been told, and depends on that to manipulate their reality. There's a strong motive beyond infatuation. His eyes always expect or wish.

At the same time, Lily had found herself doing a similar thing in the last couple chapters. She has finally found territory that he didn't even try to make known. The more she knows, the more she can counter his effect on her, and discover her own motives. Right now I think when she's "drilled" into him, it was to keep him from slipping out of grasp; to keep him under her observation when he would usually take his vulnerable self somewhere private. I think she also expects him, even though a relationship is the efforts of two people, to fix this border of personalities problem. "Make yourself fit." "Make it so we can be this way without interference, or problems, or sacrifices." He's going to feel stripped of protection from her when she realizes he won't be able to do these things. He's put his motives on the table and fights for them to be realized, and it's not working.

I have to be ambiguous so I don't spoil the plot. But, seriously, when I come back, there will be so much conflict, and more Leroux-inspired things than expected! I already have two places in the book where I know they must be incorporated.

One is Erik's line that they must get used to all things, even death.

The other is when he ties Christine's arms to keep her from trying to get away, and when he takes them off, he sees the marks and immediately laments hurting her. I could never see Erik bitch-slapping her like Lom!Phantom did, or throwing her down on a bed and jumping on her like Robert!Phantom. xD;; But I can see his desperation for keeping her under his control leading to containment that makes him uncomfortable to execute. Definitely, there will be some moments starting around Chapter 50 where Lily learns the best way to get what she wants (needs o_o) is to negotiate or out-wit him. He can hold her wrists with one hand. He is twice as fast and agile. She can hit him and his face won't show it.

I seriously can't wait to write about this. o_o Maybe I'll post an excerpt of something I was working on if I finish it up.

I've sort of given away details here and there about how I would want a movie of He's There if I were the director of photography, but I thought I would get them all down plus some other ideas and maybe it'd seem interesting and other people could imagine things the way I do while I am here writing the book version.


-- A gradual vitalization from black and white to full color. The beginning of the movie is clear but colorless. The things that are important to Lily are in some color, not entirely saturated, as well as the things that are gaining her interest. As the notes come, the whole world becomes moderately saturated as well, but never full. It won't be until... well maybe this night in chapter 35 that everything seems vivid. There will be some challenging of this color in the future... I think it's an interesting display of how Lily feels, even though I can imagine some people thinking it's me relying on the eye too much. I'm not doing it because I think there will be no other way for someone to feel the mood. I just think it's a neat idea. lol

-- Strategically placed dark spots in buildings. There probably wouldn't be a shadow there, at least not as pronounced, but I need them there. More of them will appear as she gets to know the Phantom. Her world becomes less something she understands. Also, I kind of need them for him to sink back into so he can disappear, and reappear. It's like a magic act, really. My Erik isn't superhuman, but he's a magician and traceur; sort of a modern day equivalent of the Phantom. His means are all natural, just uncommon and misunderstand. He needs a little help, though, which is why I have the dark spots.

-- I've been thinking of this camera technique I can apply to the Phantom when he's with Lily. When he wants to move backwards, I don't want him to look like he's moving his feet the way you normally would. I kind of want him to sift? Without it looking like he's on one of those moving floors at the airport. XD So gradual, really. I'm wondering if what I have to do is have him stand on something that does move, REALLY slowly, with camera just barely zooming with him, at a rate slower than he is being moved. That way you get the sense that there is movement, perhaps a race in your thoughts as he speaks and tries to take Lily away, but you can't put your finger on how you are made to feel that way because it's so small.

-- Could I make the Phantom have a movement coach? I saw it in the X-Men 2 extras, with Alan Cumming learning to walk like Nightcrawler and move his spine agreeably with his tail. It's not that I picture the Phantom with blatantly peculiar almost self-parodying movement, just something... odd? And insect-like as he is described? It's all about subtlety with this guy, always. I would like the movements to look natural for him but resulting in very angled shapes. Like he bends his arm, long and black and thin, and it looks like the leg of a spider. The way he leans forward, the way his fingers land on things... this weightless elegant folding and stretching... It almost distances him from the human vibe for a second. It's kind of hard to articulate what would be "right" when I saw him move, I just know there would be something that would remind you of that.

I'll end it there because I'm tired.

But the other night, I had an absolutely beautiful vision of the ending of He's There as a movie, which I will try to incorporate into the writing as best as I can. After I thought of it, I realized it's actually kind of similar to a scene in a certain favorite movie of mine that I'm going to leave untitled because I don't want anyone getting ideas!

It's a wonderful image, though. It has the effect I want it to, but isn't an attachment to just one kind of situation that they may end up in at the last chapter. It's an ending that makes me sit there, wondering if I could wrap my brain around everything I had just seen. Feeling like I have just been somewhere I had wanted to explore and I've come back, and how fascinating was that... I'll think about it for days, wondering if there is something to be considered in every dark place I see from then on out.



I want He's There to be the kind of movie that is stuck in your head. You have to see it more than once because certain things and scenes you don't feel you remember so well and for some reason it's so important to learn more about what really happened. Seeing Phantom pop out of nowhere is freaky in all the best ways. You know that kind of movie?

It was like that with Hard Candy for me. I just thought it was captivating. Some of the visuals and sounds together gave me chills.