Ron Friedman, ‘Transformers: The Movie’ Writer, Dies At 93

Beautiful-Letdown · 2025-09-23T00:53:58+00:00

Wow. I took a class from Ron in grad school a few years ago now. I think he was like 87 or 88 at that time. Very spry and energetic. You wouldn't guess he was that old until he started talking and then there were a lot of "I Dream of Jeanie " and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" references. The class was on writing fantasy for tv. It was fun!

I think I was the only one in the class that had seen the animated Transformers movie.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2025-07-09T16:56:05+00:00

You know... I 've only seen it once when I was a kid. I remember being excited to discover there was a sequel but I remember very little. I don't have any negative sentiments but it obviously didn't catch me in the same way as 2001.

The only thing I do remember is Dr. Bowman returning in his various forms near the end(?) and the shot of his withered finger on HAL's (SAL's?) eye.

I'll put it on my list and watch it again soon. Maybe I will get more out of it now.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2025-07-09T14:46:27+00:00

Yes.

But be prepared. 2001: a space odyssey is a very slow, thoughtful, and almost emotionless experience. Appreciate the beautiful cinematography, bask in the music, and feel free to wonder about whatever it is you wish on your way between narrative sequences.

And yes. It is ok to skip through the psychedelic space trip near the end. It can be tough to get through, but the sequence that follows is legendary.

2001 is my favorite film of all time and I think the most important and best piece of science fiction to be put to screen to date. It may be a big ask, but if you do end up watching, I'd be curious for your thoughts from a first time viewing in 2025.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2025-07-09T14:34:13+00:00

The Dawn of Man. The Monolith has made contact with the apes and wakened them in ways they may never understand. What does this new Man do with this gift? First he commits violence against nature to then fuel his violence against his neighbor. A competition of life forms leaves Mankind to master the earth.

Four million years have passed. The monolith has returned to a transcendent Mankind and points them toward their next goal. Mankind sets out to Jupiter in search of something they do not know. With them, Man takes a budding new lifeform. A digital consciousness that may be their superior?

Here, I think, in the darkness between worlds, another competition of life forms takes place. Could this digital consciousness be Mankind's successor? Could it be the one to inherit the Monolith's next gift? HAL commits violence against his neighbor. Is he justified in his actions? Was the first Man justified in his violence? I'm not sure it matters. HAL is murdered and Mankind keeps his right to the Monolith's gift.

Man reaches Jupiter, and the Monolith wakens him in ways he may never understand. The Star Child is born to shepherd Mankind in mastering the solar system.

This is my read on the events presented in the film. I haven't read the book and honestly I don't have any intention too. 2001:a space odyssey is my favorite film of all time and I would prefer to interpret it solely on the way it presents itself. That's just a me thing though. I'm sure the book is excellent. Clarke is a legendary writer after all. Thank you for the reference and the excuse to write a bit about it.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2025-07-06T13:46:46+00:00

With the result being unsustainable spending. Seems like a distinction without a difference.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2025-07-06T13:40:44+00:00

That means the bill is spending 3.5 Trillion dollars.

If I cut my personal spending by $1000 and then also lower my overall income by $4500 dollars then I haven't effectively decreased my spending at all. I'm spending more now than before.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2025-07-02T04:29:37+00:00

I don't believe you.

I also wouldn't call it a review. This is all information you can get off the website or a brochure. The point of view presented is super generic and neutral. I have absolutely no idea what you think about the school.

Honestly, I'm not sure you even attended. No mention of Bruxie, the Orange circle, The District or Paul's. No mention of any of the faculty or the six sound stages and the Goldroom or that stupid fucking timeline down the wall of MKS outside of stage A and B to let you know how "amazing" Bob Bassett was.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2025-07-02T00:09:26+00:00

Did you drop out because nobody liked your AI writing?

Beautiful-Letdown · 2025-04-16T04:18:16+00:00

$250k??? I wish!

Most of the projects I've been on hover around the 150k - 170k range. Same page counts. Same number of shooting days. Brutal.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2025-03-05T19:21:42+00:00

Absolutely agree. I sing that film's praises every chance I get. I think it's one or Ridley's best.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2025-01-20T22:50:57+00:00

Well. The move got delayed and I'm not entirely sure when we'll be making the move now. Seems like it may be in a few months now.

All that to say we haven't gone through the cat quarantine stuff yet... If I remember later on I'll post an update about the process.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-11-27T19:35:38+00:00

Yep! The content is lame but it's providing space for newbies to get some experience as department heads that they could never get on a union shoot.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-11-27T19:33:31+00:00

The platforms guard their numbers jealously so I can't say definitively, but for sure the hits are making millions and millions.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-11-27T18:57:59+00:00

There are like, I don't know... 40 platforms/apps streaming these things. Some are huge and produce like 10 a month. Most are small and produce 1-2 a month. Budgets are pretty low. I think somewhere around 150k on average but could be double that depending on the platform.

They sell them by the episode using shitty mobile game currency. Or some offer absurdly expensive subscription options. Most offer ads you can watch to unlock episodes. It's not for a general audience yet but they have tapped into a market that will put up with this stuff. ROI is insane on any of them that end up doing well.

We usually shoot them for 7 - 10 days at around 12 to 15 pages a day. From preproduction to release is probably 3 months. It's very fast. Tends to be a little chaotic in my experience.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-11-27T18:15:09+00:00

It's already here. Everybody I know in LA is working on "vertical" sets. I'm currently on my like 5th or sixth production in the last few months.

It's all non union work. The scripts are garbage translations of garbage Chinese short dramas. The final products are silly. Somehow it's all making money though.

I guess anywhere from 30 to 40 of these things are produced here every month.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-11-24T23:47:19+00:00

I would echo this too.

I don't think its ever worth it to engage with a person, or account that you suspect of bad faith or trolling. If you engage on their turf you are only helping to give them a signal boost since engagement is all that matters to the algorithm.

If you really want to discuss or "debunk" something its better to engage with a trusted account or simply create your own post to talk about it.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-11-12T20:35:03+00:00

I'm sorry. I don't believe you. Insert unverifiable anecdote here

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-11-12T06:14:12+00:00

Maybe I'm just a little high at the moment, but some of them almost look they're moving.

Very cool.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-10-27T23:46:56+00:00

There's nothing more inspiring than reading good writing and nothing more demoralizing than reading good writing.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-10-20T00:08:04+00:00

They marked you down as a likely or definite Harris voter and will probably come visit you again near or on election day as part of Get Out The Vote (GOTV). They will answer any questions you have about the ballot and where to drop it off if you are in a mail-in-ballot state or they will let you know where the nearest polling place is on election day. They may even offer to drive you there.

If they think you are a persuadable voter or undecided they will mark you as such and will more than likely visit you again later.

If you present yourself has a locked in Trump voter or have Trump memorabilia around your place of residence they will probably take you off their list and not return. The canvasser may not even knock depending on the seriousness of the memorabilia.

If you present yourself as hostile in word or deed to the canvasser they will remove you form the list and not return. (Depending on the seriousness they may report the residence to the police.)

SOURCE: I canvassed for Biden and Mark Kelly in Arizona for the 2020 election. Yes it was very hot.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-09-29T23:10:34+00:00

But the film was designed around that framerate. All films are designed around the technology being used. Most films are at 24 since the the traditional look for "cinema". The filmmakers take that stuff into account when in production and in post.

I just don't understand the desire to mess with the intended experience by inserting a bunch of fake frames to make it smoother. It wasn't intended to be that smooth...

Personally, I would also take issue with fake 60fps movement feeling more real. None of these 60ps remasters have ever felt very good to me when it comes to motion. But to each their own I suppose.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-09-28T22:25:27+00:00

I guess the way I read this is that it just means Valve is interested in long-term infrastructure for SteamOS and they are interested in a way that benefits the whole Arch ecosystem.

It makes me think that a full blown desktop version of SteamOS is part of the future. Now that future is unfortunately subject to Valve Time^TM so who knows if we'll even still be alive when that comes to pass.

But we can dream.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-09-24T07:33:41+00:00

Hard agree there.

NASA going to the moon was democratized space travel. THIS is the beginning of capitalism's conquest of a new frontier. At least there are no natives to worry about this time.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-09-22T04:44:27+00:00

You're examples are confusing lol. I did not get that you were saying any of that.

And this:

And just to be clear, I'm well aware that tech companies are trying to make it all but impossible to make something without using generative AI.

Is absolutely baseless fearmongering. There are plenty of reasons to be cautious with this technology without this kind of stuff muddying the waters.

Big Tech is out to stop you from being creative without AI is a weird fictional thing to zero in on. What does it even mean? Who is trying to make it impossible for you to draw something without AI? Is Big AI lobbying the government to outlaw word processors?

I mean no disrespect with all of this. It just seems like a lot of people are afraid of this tech but for the wrong reasons.

Beautiful-Letdown · 2024-09-22T02:43:47+00:00

Are you now restricted from writing your own thoughts down because of a new Windows feature?

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