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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:10 am 
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DoomsdayClock wrote:
Now, aside from the squid question, these other three that he left out, in my opinion, were not that juicy. The 11 he picked were by far the better of the whole batch (better in the sense that more fans would want to hear the answers, and the answers are meatier). I'm sure once you see the actual questions, you'd be glad he left these out instead of leaving out any of the ones he picked.
Agreed.

Keep in mind, the Alan Moore question was selected well before the "Moore Not Watching Watchmen" story broke. I was hesitant to select it, since we all knew Moore's opinions on the matter, but so many people asked the question that I couldn't have ignored it.

The issue of run-time was a hot topic on this forum during the selection process, so I picked a question that dealt with that.

The last one seemed like a good, general question that anyone adapting Watchmen should be able to answer. Still, in retrospect, it was a little too general. The answer certainly would've been long-winded.

Also, consider this: When I sat down to pick out the questions, WB had decreed that only 10 of the 15 would be answered. Now Snyder is voluntarily answering one more. What a great guy, huh?

EDIT: By the way, the rejected four were written by Watchmaker, "Leah," mike_tyson, and "J. Powers," respectively. Great job, guys!

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 4:19 am 
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Oh wow. I feel kind of honored that my version of the squid question was chosen. Too bad it won't get answered, but we'll find eventually.

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:26 am 
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So when (an how, I guess) is this feature being let loose on the public?

And ...
... are WB going to feature it on their Watchmen webby?

... are we releasing news about it on our news-site main-page first?

... will we able to find a thread pertaining to the question/answer combos so that we can pick the hell apart the info? (A direct link to this new thread would be a good idea in the WCM main-page news section). That'll comb in a few lurkers. ;)

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:44 am 
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Soupdragon wrote:
So when (an how, I guess) is this feature being let loose on the public?

Today, sometime after lunch, the first half of the questions will be posted in the same way a news story is. The second half this Thursday.

Soupdragon wrote:
... are WB going to feature it on their Watchmen webby?

I hope not. This is, from what I was told, an exclusive.

Soupdragon wrote:
... are we releasing news about it on our news-site main-page first?

No. I can guarantee 100's of sites will link to the story. No need to hype it up. The JFK actor photo story received about as many external links. This one might do roughly the same amount of traffic.

Soupdragon wrote:
...will we able to find a thread pertaining to the question/answer combos so that we can pick the hell apart the info? (A direct link to this new thread would be a good idea in the WCM main-page news section). That'll comb in a few lurkers. ;)

Interesting thought. Should I do a thread for each question? Keep in mind the answers are a few sentances to a medium size paragraph long. I thought I'd just do one thread for the first half. I can do a direct link from the story to the thread. Makes sense.

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:59 am 
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A thread for each question may be a good idea. Keep focused. :)

I like your way of splitting the questions, you sadist. ;) Is it thematic, or arbitrary?

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:09 am 
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Soupdragon wrote:
I like your way of splitting the questions, you sadist. ;) Is it thematic, or arbitrary?

Neither. I may end up grouping the questions by theme, but I haven't put much thought into that yet. It's more for getting more milage out of the story to be honest. There's also enough material to fit into two stories.

It better for the forum, too. This way we can discuss to death the first 5 or 6 before the second group is released on Thursday...

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:50 am 
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DAMN!!! I have to go to work in less than an hour and won't be back 'til around 7 or 8 ish. That sucks! I'll have to wait even longer to read the questions. . .AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :cry: :evil: :x :|

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:56 am 
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And I have to go home! (It's late-efternoon here). :)

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:48 pm 
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lol i'm really having to work out the timezone differences here?
its coming up to 5pm here, how many hours do you think it'll be until the feature, DDC?

P.S. thank you v v much for all this!

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it was tying it into the rape-revenge stories and making light of a verys erious sub-genre that kind of offended me.


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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 1:08 pm 
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AYBGerrardo wrote:
lol i'm really having to work out the timezone differences here?
its coming up to 5pm here, how many hours do you think it'll be until the feature, DDC?

P.S. thank you v v much for all this!

It should be posted by 2PM EST...

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:25 pm 
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*checks some websites"
you mean like half an hour from now?!

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it was tying it into the rape-revenge stories and making light of a verys erious sub-genre that kind of offended me.


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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:38 pm 
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It's only eleven here. I should try and ride my anticipation out with a long, boring film. And the fact that I haven't slept is killing my brain at the moment.


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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:53 pm 
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AYBGerrardo wrote:
*checks some websites"
you mean like half an hour from now?!

Like in ten minutes...

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:00 pm 
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awesome its here!!
must read!

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Dr. Brooklyn wrote:
it was tying it into the rape-revenge stories and making light of a verys erious sub-genre that kind of offended me.


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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:05 pm 
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Any comments on the actual story should be posted is this thread...
http://www.watchmencomicmovie.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=448

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:40 pm 
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Finally the long wait is over! I can't wait to read the part 2. :)


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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 3:24 pm 
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I've been waiting for two months to write this post:

Part I
Part II

There it is. And now that the Q&A is finally up, I'd like to post my wrap-up, starting with a description of the selection process.

First, DoomsdayClock collected entries from that great widget he put together. He read through all of the entries, throwing out the ones that were unusable, derogatory, just plain stupid or didn't ask a question at all (seriously). The 113 or so that passed the vetting process were sent to me.

I printed all of the questions out and cut them into individual bits of paper. The questions were sorted into piles, one for the ending, one for Black Freighter, one for the costumes, one for Alan Moore, etc. The ending and Black Freighter had the biggest piles, so I started with those. I picked out the best, most representative question from those piles.

And when the biggest piles had been cut, I progressed to the questions that were just interesting. Rorschach's mask, run-time, electric cars, the fight styles, etc. Finally, I padded the list with the most interesting questions I could find. Stuff that pertained to Snyder as a director and asked deep questions about the graphic novel and the movie.

When I picked out 15, I sent them to DD for the stamp of approval and he sent them to WB. Flash forward two months, and here we are.

I tell you all this because I always wanted this to be as transparent as possible. When DD first e-mailed me with the news that this was happening, I had all sorts of plans about how everyone could suggest questions and vote on them. I wanted everyone to know exactly what questions would be asked and I wanted everyone to be involved in this. I believed that the selection process should be as democratic as possible so you all knew that your voices were being heard. DD felt otherwise. He wanted to keep the surprise element and he thought we were good enough custodians of the fandom to choose the questions on your behalf. I am so glad he was right.

Thanks have been thrown around quite a bit with regards to this Q&A. Many have thanked me for my role, and I accept the gratitude happily. But now it's my turn to offer acknowledgment.

First and foremost, thanks to everyone who submitted these entries. It brings me no end of happiness to know that so many Watchmen fans all over the world came to participate in this event and put so much thought into every question.

Additional thanks and congratulations to our "winners," Watchmaker, Alan C., ManOWar, Noel M, Oscar, TK8103, Soupdragon, Cory Brown, JDsGirlBev, hank_chinaski, and Keith Ellis. Honorable mentions go to Leah, mike_tyson, and Jefferson Powers.

My heartfelt gratitude goes to the many fine people at Warner Bros. and the Watchmen staff who made this possible. It's hard to give so many people credit when we don't know their names or faces, but I cannot stress this enough: Without their help and support, DD and I would never have possibly dreamed of this unprecedented event.

Which brings me to the next person of interest: Our esteemed site administrator, DoomsdayClock. This man organized the entire fan Q&A himself. He talked with the folks at Warners, he built the web page that accepted entries, he decided how to break the story to you, our users. This was such a monumental undertaking and he put so much upon himself to make it work. More personally, he brought me into the project. He trusted me with news of the event weeks before anyone else had any idea what was going to happen. He gave me the rare and exciting, though slightly terrifying chance to choose the 15 questions representative of a worldwide and 20-year-old fandom.

Ever since the site began, DD has placed immense trust and responsibility upon me, never more so than in the past few months. He made me a vital part of this site, this fandom and this event and I will forever be grateful.

And finally, great, big, super-special thanks to the man himself, Zack Snyder. I still find it astonishing that when Snyder promised us 10 answers, he delivered 11. I was biting my nails for months, obsessing over the 15 questions I had chosen, wondering which ones would be rejected... and except for the one about the ending, the ones he rejected turned out to be the weakest links. A lesser man wouldn't have taken this on or simply brushed it aside on the grounds that he had things to do. But not Snyder. In his answers, he showed incredible sincerity, thoughtfulness and enthusiasm for this project.

I am extremely grateful to Zack Snyder for making this the outstanding fan Q&A I knew it would be. I thank him again and wish him the best of luck for the movie.

For so long, I was worried about this event. I obsessed over every selection, every question. I constantly worried about how happy you would all be with the final results. I knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, I knew that this would be all over the Internet and I knew that there would be thousands of people worldwide who would be disappointed in me and in the site if I screwed up. But the response to the Q&A is overwhelmingly positive, which brings me no end of joy.

Thank you all, my friends. Thank you all very much.

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:15 am 
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You guys did a great job. Organization and all. Kudos!

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:59 am 
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I was thrilled to see one of my questions made the cut. Still ruminating over the intriguing answers to the two sets.

I think the caginess surrounding "the ending" is interesting. All along we've heard that the GN has been lying around the set. JDM was given it to help learn his lines and so on. Has Snyder been lying around the set? ;)

Given the talk and evidence of source-fidelity, along with the fact that Snyder has stated "we will be definitely keeping the ending" it would seem very trashy to eventually renage on that "promise" and meddle with the mad-scientist operation surrounding the wretched bum-faced Chimera at the end of the book.

Is the end the ketchup-splashed last page? Is the end everything from the words "I think it's Adrian"?

Or is the end everything on from Kovac's sign held in his woolly fingerless mittens? :)

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 Post subject: Re: Ask Zack Feature!
PostPosted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:33 pm 
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What is "the ending?"

To understand this, you have to understand story mechanics. Every story must have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Jack Woodford once gave an example of story formula like this: "Boy meets girl; girl gets boy into pickle; boy gets pickle into girl.”

Basically, the beginning (ACT I) establishes the setting and introduces the characters and the conflict. That is, we meet the protagonist and learn what he wants and why he CAN'T HAVE IT.

In Watchmen, we have multiple protagonists who all want different things, but eventually share the same goal... to save the world/to solve the crime/to punish the guilty.

The middle (ACT II) involves the character's efforts to overcome the conflict or the sources of antagonism and get what he wants. Unfortunately for him, the conflict becomes greater and greater until it seems by the end of ACT II to be absolutely insurmountable.

In Watchmen, it becomes increasingly unlikely that Rorschach will solve Blake's murder, especially after he ends up in Prison. It becomes increasingly unlikely that the world will be saved once Nixon goes into the Mountain at NORAD and war seems inevitable.

And, of course, when we learn that Veidt is the villain, it seems highly unlikely that our motley band will be able to outthink his genius and resources.

The end (ACT III) reveals the solution. Either the protagonist overcomes the forces of antagonism or decisively fails. Either way, the victory or failure must be irrevocable.

The Ending of Watchmen would be Episode XII.

In Watchmen, we have the irony of the villain who wants what the heroes want but is out to get it in a different way. Veidt wants to save the world. The heroes' goal of stopping the villain, but failing... and compromising... is their way of dealing with the fact that what they and the villain really want are the same thing. They get what they want... but as with all irony... not in the way they expect. Their defeat is irrevocable as it becomes not just physical, but philosophical.

The tentacles of our squid wind through the plot in a manner that would make it extremely difficult to tell this story without this ending.

So, saying "I am absolutely keeping the ending" is inaccurate if there is no squid or if Adrian bites the dust.


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