Notes from morning of Nov 9, 2013 We will refer to the actual game, Ingress. For now, I will refer to Johnny's character as Matt. Matt is a population geneticist. (I still have some reservations about that job title since I think it will have a resonance of eugenics and clinical science to readers. Perhaps Matt has developed some sort of software for analyzing population genetics and got paid enough for that program to be financially independent. With this job title, we expect a more serious story with more scientific edge). Ingress has become a numinous object for Matt, a creative obsession and rabbit hole. He has a strong intuition that there are other layers to the game---layers that neither the game makers or the players realize. Matt uses some of his special skills---mathematical analysis and code writing guided by intuition---to create a program that analyzes statistical patterns in the user interaction with Ingress. Johnny can supply some actual game parameters---how many people are actively participating with given portals and how that fluctuations through time: Statistical analysis of global population and the fluctuating per capita rate of Ingress participation of various populations. Portal life cycles---when they come on line, when the Enlightened or the Resistance dominate them, when, if ever, that dominance shifts. artist: Carl Jung, Liber Novus, (Jung's Red Book, kept secret for decades, made public in the last few years) Essentially, and Matt may even express this to an ally----Matt is realizing that Ingress is a dynamic, evolving sacred text that is being written moment-by-moment since the game came on line. Matt is, in effect, and perhaps he could even make this explicit, a hermenuticist. Perhaps this could be part of his heritage. For example, he could be a Jew who is a descended from a lineage of Talmudic hermenuticists. Ingress is an unfolding, dynamic alchemical text that needs to be decoded. Its interaction with users is generating mathematical patterns that crisscross the globe. From the conventional perspective of the game makers and users, portals are defined by longitude and latitude and are stable GPS points. Matt immediately recognizes that this is a flatland view. The portals are not static points, but dynamic entities going through a life cycle. (Astrologically you can do a chart on any entity based on its time of initialization. For example, astrologers do charts on nations based on the time they are founded---e.g. USA natal date July 4, 1776. The moment a portal is initialized into the game is its natal date. We won't refer explicitly to astrology, since that is a polarizing word and a disqualifier for many, but it would be the same principle. Every portal begins its existence in the game with mathematical patterning that at a minimum includes latitude, longitude and its exact birth date and time. Time is the additional dimension that Matt recognizes and that his program analyzes. It also analyzes the ebb and flow across time of user interaction with particular portals. The analysis of these extra layers creates a hermeneutical product---the revelation of another dynamic dimension to the game---archetype. The program shows that at any given moment, of all the tens of thousands of portals (whatever number seems possible given an optimistic projection of the game's popularity a year from now) at any given time there are 72 that are activated in some way revealed by the program. Zoom in on Matt's computer screen and he shows a spinning earth map with intricate spider web lines connecting portals. Some portals are brighter points on the map because there are more lines connecting them to the portal network. These portal are nexuses for a period of time---key nodes on the visualized global map of portals that Matt's program renders as a graphic representation of its hermeneutical analytic product. I'm going to switch to pseudo-screenplay mode because it will be more fun and imagination stimulating to continue in that mode for a while. Interior: Matt's room (the room itself is like a hermeneutical text of Matt's essence, when we agree on his character/back story, we'll know what to put in it) He and his friend Trey are sitting in swivel chairs staring into a glowing monitor on which, against a dark background, a 3D spherical representation of the earth is spinning. The rotating globe is (see above). We are breaking into a dialogue already in progress: Matt: And this is when I saw that there was one consistency in the unfolding patterning. (as he talks Matt touches various points on the touchscreen monitor thereby activating graphics that illustrate his points as he makes them) At any given moment in time, there are always 72 portals that are activated in a powerful way, they are a the top of the hierarchy of nodal points with an order of magnitude greater number of connections to other portals in the network. Also, there seems to be a hierarchy within the top tier of 72 portals. 22 of the 72 are like super portals and are an order of magnitude more connected than 49 lesser portals. That still leaves one portal, and this one, what I call a ruling portal, will be an order of magnitude more connected than the 22 super portals. I also found that the portal hierarchy shifts every twenty-three minutes. At a precise moment, the oldest portal goes dormant and a new portal becomes activated. When the new portal elevates to this tier, this higher order of magnitude of connectedness, it will function as a super portal for exactly 144 seconds. During that time it acts as a global nexus and its active connections pervade the global network." Trey: "So, it's always 72 portals? Why 72?" Matt: "That's what I was wondering too." as soon as I googled it I discovered that there are 72 cards in the Tarot deck-- (Matt removes a large Thoth deck (Crowley's tarot deck) from a black velvet drawstring bag with a slight flourish, like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat, and slaps the Thoth deck down on the table in front of the monitor.) The Tarot, which became fully developed in the Renaissance, but that has roots in ancient Egypt, (etc., etc.) 72 cards, 22 of which are Major Arcana." Trey, whose expression shows that he has suddenly comprehended the gestalt: "And so the one card, the ruling card, that is like when you are doing a Tarot reading---the one card is the card you have just turned over, the one just revealed, and at the moment of the reveal you see all these connections to the others cards. So, the game Ingress, is like some sort of continuous Tarot reading, not for a person, but for the whole seven billion of us, and a new card is revealed every 23 minutes?" Matt: "Exactly. And once I realized that, I found that there was one more mathematical level that I could recognize. The pattern actually reveals which card in the deck of 72 is the new ruling card. Also, when that card is a Major Arcana, one of the 22 top tier cards, an event will occur near that portal, an event in that community, and I don't mean the community of Ingress players, I mean there will be an event that is big enough to make the news in that locality. So then I set the program to capture all the words written in blogs, tweets and online anything about the newsworthy events that happen at those times and places, and that yields word bubbles--- (Trey touches the screen and word bubbles are displayed which show words in sizes proportional to the frequency of their occurrence) The prominent words in the bubble would relate exactly to the archetypal nature of that Major Arcana card. You see, every card in the Major Arcana represents an archetype. (Matt flips over the Tower card. Image of people falling from a burning Castle turret like tower.) The Tower, the archetype of chaos and specifically of the collapse of some existing structure, especially one associated with the patriarchal and the ego. (Matt touches the screen to show appropriate images on the monitor as he narrates) And here it is, The Tower, eleven days ago it emerged as the ruling card at this Portal, located in Danubry Conneticut. The day it emerged there was a headline story leading the national news. Remember, Titancorp?. that giant hedge fund that all these supposed-to-be-financially-shrewd people had invested bookoo ducats in was found out to be a total Ponzi scheme." Trey: "Right, and then (his words have the emphasis of someone who is realizing something as he says it) that guy, Nathan Fleischman, the flamboyant and narcissistic CEO of Titancorp jumps off the top of the Titancorp building!" Matt: "You got it, and 23 minutes after the Tower becomes the ruling card, right after the official announcement that the FBI has entered the Titancorp building to seized their computers, the next ruling portal is also in Danbury, Connecticut (flipping over a card) The Hangman. And whenever a portal activation has a close association with a particular person, it is always a face card." Trey: (skepticism returning, cynical, dismissive tone, standing up like he has heard enough and is ready to leave) Yeah, but all this seems a little too convenient and a bit too New Agey woo-wooey for me, dude. Ever since we were kids, you've been able to make numbers jump through your flaming hoops. You had me going until you started to pull it into (eyes widening in mock awe) ooou, ooou, THE TAAAROO-WOOOAH! (goofey, slightly effeminate mock awe). Remember that program you came up with in tenth grade? Hottie Tracker? You said it would show where and when hot girls were going to show up?---- Matt: (mischievous grin) "I remember it worked really well for us at least once---" Trey: (waving the example away with a dismissive, exasperated gesture) ...dude, come on, seriously?, you study statistics and don't realize that anything will seem to work once? Please, niggah. You know what I get from all this? (gestures to indicate the monitor, the cards and Matt where he is still sitting) You know what underlying meta pattern I see unfolding here? (Trey pauses dramatically for emphasis and lets the moment stretch as if he actually expects an answer.) Matt, stepping into the appropriate call-and-response beat of the rhetorical question, and obviously knowing that a diss is coming: Well, I have a feeling you are about to tell me anyway, so let's get it over with. Trey: You need a GIRLFRIEND. And you need to get out more. (without breaking penetrating eye contact with Matt he jabs out with his right index finger and, without seeming to look, precisely hits the power button of the monitor, still displaying the rotating globe, etc. until the graphics collapse into a line, then a dot, then total black.) Matt: (sighing, a bit bored and restless, he knew some sort of dismissive intervention like this was coming, and is showing that he is more bored by the predictability of it, than thrown off his game) Trey, this is getting out more. This program (aggressive finger jab, turning monitor back on) is a real time map of what IS really out there (pointing decisively at the window and the city lights twinkling in the distance). (Matt, continuing, giving-it-once-last-try tone) Look at this portal, April 11, 2:36 am,____town, West Nigeria, the ___card, associated with the Devouring Mother archetype, Kali, the dark side of nature, Display newspaper headline: "Ebola Outbreak hits West Nigerian village, Threatens to Spread Further" Trey (he's pulled in for another moment, but then shakes his head and pulls himself out): Great, so the world is you hyper-dimensional Tarot deck built on Ingress, a smartphone based multi-player GPS game. Now what? Where are you going to go with all this? Matt (not a missing beat, touching the screen and bringing up coordinates and google street view of a downbeat street corner that looks vaguely European, Victorian era iron lamp post in extreme foreground, casting a shadow onto the sidewalk portentously) Right here, this portal in Madrid, Spain, which activates tomorrow evening at 7:12pm. (Matt touches part of the screen and his boarding pass appears, departure is only three hours away.) According to my projection, a Major Arcana will activate then, he flips over a card----the Magus (magician, wizard) and I plan to be there. He pulls a backpack out from under the table and in one gesture hoists it onto his back and walks to the front door, opening it. Matt: I am getting out... This line ends the inciting incident, the first ten pages of story, ten minutes of movie time. Our inciting incident sets up classic story structure, the most classic of them---the hero cycle----the young hero, through his special gifts, has recognized the call to adventure, he must pass by a threshold guardian (the dismissive skepticism of his friend Trey) and as he journeys into the unknown, a divine helper figure (the Magus) comes forward to assist him in the underworld journey. This classic structure gives the reader/viewer a stable ground that will allow us to go more surreal. Surrealism is made most accessible to an audience when they are given stable, ground elements to offset it and provide a frame. (consistent rules for how vampires work, etc.) Beginning in this way, however, represents a major choice that I'm not totally sure of and need your input if you are enthusiastic in it going this way. If Trey went along with Matt's discovery, for example, it could be a mutant buddy film---e.g. John Dies in the End. Even more conventional, and a direction I'm a bit counterenthusiastic about is that the quest partner be a romantic love interest. There'd have to be some really unconventional twist to such a romantic set up to keep me from gag reflex rejection of stereotyped romance plus adventure story mode (Indiana Jones, etc.). This setup is obviously setting Matt up to have a central relationship with an older wizard mentor who will arrive with a wealth of knowledge of how the portal map works. Matt won't be merely the blank apprentice, he will be more like a young wizard ally of an older wizard, because Matt's program will be decisive, plus what the wizard knows, to unlocking the mystery our story will unfold. The wizard will be a ----in the Jewish tradition there is the "Hidden Tsadvic" (spelling approximate) or hidden master. This will typically be an older man of unprepossessing appearance but who turns out to be a master. Very much like the cloaked sage of the I Ching. (Yoda's first appearance, misperceived by Luke as an annoying gnome) When Matt shows up at the portal in Madrid (or wherever, choose a location) he waits in front of the portal and while he is waiting a random seeming homeless guy is looking in a dumpster and/or spare changes him, etc. Perhaps Matt converses with him distractedly while his eyes scan the street corner looking for the magical, main event. Then it comes up in the dialogue that the seeming homeless guy also knew that this is a nexus, etc. This is a very classic set up, but classic can also blur with clichéd, so we need to give this some more surreal twists. The above set up is kind of a generic placeholder. If we agree on going in that direction it can be fleshed out and make more weirdly specific. Anyway, I should stop here because this is a decision nexus---do we want an older guy Magus character or not? Any alternate set ups come to mind? Which, if any of the above, sparks your enthusiasm and what turns you off? 11/11/13 Thinking Aloud Portals Brainstorm Session Based on our post Dark World talk Trey can be rewritten as Trea (or some other name) a female character who will emerge as a romantic love interest for Matt. Since she is your love interest, you should probably be the one to create her, her back story, appearance, way of talking, sense of humor, perspective on the esoteric, etc. If there is going to be a romantic set up, I would want it to have some unconventional aspect right from the beginning because this can fall with such a deadly thud into movie cliché if we don’t imbue it immediately with originality. The first question that has to be answered with a romantic set up is: What’s keeping them apart? With Romeo and Juliet it’s the family feud, etc. If there is nothing keeping them apart then you just have boyfriend/girlfriend in progress which is anti-dramatic and begs a different question: “What’s going to take them apart?” I got this sense that Matt thinks of Trea romantically, but she doesn’t recognize him yet, but will as he emerges as hero on quest, etc. Unfortunately, this is both classic and thoroughly stereotyped. Everyone in the audience is going to know: “Yeah right, they are squabbling now, etc. but will fall into each other’s arms by the end of the movie.” So this is the problem that has to be solved to go with a love interest. Is there any way to do it without falling into such pathetically overused stereotypes? Also, I feel like it would suck to have her along for the whole ride. The dynamic between Matt and the Magus is ruined if he is advising a couple. I’m open to anything, but it feels like if we start her in scene 1 there also has to be a way of getting her out of the way for much of the story or else we have an Indianna Jones plus female sidekick, Romancing the Stone, hottie couple on adventure set up and that seems so boring. One way to solve the stereotype problem is that they could go to a portal together and Trea could become archonically possessed. Matt could watch with horror as Trea becomes Smiley Virus, a young hottie musical celebrity who makes twisted videos to spread archonic memes. This would capture the feeling that so many guys have had about the hottie that got away and got totally corrupted. It might work with your feelings about Madeline as an anima figure who turned into someone you didn't expect who rejected you, etc. Matt has to go on the whole quest without her support and sees her acting in the world as an antagonist in a way the audience will find funny. Wherever he goes in the world, he walks by tv screens in store windows or in bars that show grotesque, dark, vulgar, surreal Smiley Virus videos and there are always these lame, collective people watching them with glazed eyes going along with this new fad in enraptured, hypnotized, swooning fan mode. This way we sympathize with Matt as dealing with an ultimate, global, girlfriend gone bad, gone global celebrity slut archonic possessed mode, and when he solves the quest, in the last scene he cures her possession and at that point when they fall into each other's arms and the stereotyped outcome is funny, we're winking at the audience with such a surrealized exaggeration of the familiar set up. If we do go Trea to Smiley Virus than we can work that into the inciting incident or very early in Act I as his first encounter with the archonic side of the portal. For example, let's say in the first conversation she plays skeptical, but we also see this sweet side of her, maybe she's a singer/songwriter already and while they're talking she has a guitar in front of her and we get a few moments of talented folk singing, young Joan Baez, etc. She humors him by going to a portal that he predicts is about to go Major Arcana and it starts shimmering with plasmic, stroboscopic light that comes to seem like extreme discotheque light and Trea starts dancing in this vulgar, lascivious Smiley Virus way and then she starts singing that way as Matt looks on in horror as he watches here become archonically possessed. She gets into it more and more as the portal flashes stroboscopically, like a pagan dancing possessed in front of a fire that is imbued with Satan, etc. and then a stretch limo pulls up, a window rolls down and it's Alec Baldwin in a very expensive suit. He's obviously a Hollywood mogul type. Never taking his eyes off of her, we see dollar signs lighting up in his eyes (could even be actual surreal graphic) he's obviously archonically posssessed as well, but from a long time ago, and he is slickly empowered by it. Without removing his eyes from her for a moment he casually does a couple of lines of coke. The blonde bimbo on the seat next to him tries to snuggle up to him and he burshes her away with his hand as he would a fly. Alec steps out of the limo, his black Aramani suit glimmering in the portal light. Never breaking fascinated eye contact with Smiley Virus's performance he speaks into his smartphone, "Phil, I've found her, the next new thing and this is going to be big, bigger than you can possibly imagine...." Smiley and Alec drive off in the limo as Matt pleads to no avail, a surreal and funny exaggeration of the guy whose girlfriend went bad and got away and a great inciting incident to propel the hero on his quest to save the world and win back his girlfriend. What do you think? Oh, and one more thing, and in screenwriting this is called an "image system" a consistent visual motif that helps to establish a theme of the movie. Smiley Virus will have her own, obnoxious logo, a smiley face with a virus as third eye. As the film progresses we start to see the logo everywhere T-shirts, McDonald's soda cups, etc. We see the global spread of the archonic viral meme. We see little fourth grade girls and they have Smiley Virus accessories and, Jonbenet Ramsey like, do these precociously dirty Smiley Virus dance moves while waiting for the school bus, etc. 11/13 Just found out that Alec Baldwin and Miley Cyrus did some sort of staged crash of the host's monologue on this weeks SNL: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/miley-cyrus-alec-baldwin-crash-edward-norton-snl-monologue-article-1.1498322
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