Predicting movie's quality based on its trailer.

When it comes to movie trailers and film previews, it's not a secret that most films have trailers that look pretty good. No matter how bad a film turns out to be, at least the trailer for it is likely going to be pretty solid.

After all, in order to create a solid movie trailer, you only need to find two to three minutes of decent, passable material from your film. In most cases it's not that difficult to find footage from your film that looks good enough.

Nevertheless, there are cases when the trailer just doesn't look that plausible or coherent. There are cases when you can't help but to think that the movie trailer looks lacking and that the story for it won't make much sense.

For example, when I saw the preview for the film 'The Early Man' some months ago, it wasn't difficult to predict that this wasn't going to be a good film. There were simply too many problems in the trailer that had to do with its story.

After all, when you have a movie about cavemen that culminates to them playing modern football, it just doesn't feel right. There's no way that the movie can be organic when it throws all kinds of stuff around that makes no sense at all.

What made the trailer especially disappointing is that previously the studio had come up with solid films like 'Shaun The Sheep' and 'Chicken Run'. All their earlier film productions had more or less been top notch and had delivered the goods.

Not surprisingly, even though critics did give 'The Early Man' fairly positive reviews for the movie, the audience score for it was much lower. Only 52% of the audience (compared to 82% of the critics) thought that the film was worth seeing.

My second example is the upcoming Robert Zemeckis film, 'Welcome to Marwen', starring Steve Carell. This movie is a psychological-biographical comedy-drama about an artist who gets assaulted by a group of violent neo-nazis.

The reason that I'm bringing up this film is because its trailer - that just got released a couple of days ago - wasn't good at all. It was really disappointing and I wasn't able to make any sense of its story when I watched it.

Especially considering that the film is a weird combination of live action stuff and animated parts, it was really hard to follow the preview. There was no clear narrative and it felt like the film had no clue what it was supposed to be about.

What made this trailer so disappointing is that Robert Zemeckis has been known for making solid films over the years. He's the guy who has directed classics like 'Back To The Future', 'Forrest Gump' and 'Contact' among other movies.

In this case though, it seems as if he's fallen in love with special effects and hasn't paid enough attention to the script. It seems as if there's way too many things going on in the trailer and that the parts in it don't fit together.

In the end, I obviously cannot say with certainty that 'Welcome to Marwen' is going to be a bad movie. I can't be absolutely certain that the film is going to be a mess and that it's not going to work when it gets released later this year.

At the same time, considering that the trailer so obviously lacks a coherent narrative, things don't look good here. Things don't look good and it's more than likely that the film is going to be a disappointment and won't be as good as it should be.

Are you going to watch The World Cup?

When it comes to this year's World Cup, even though I wasn't that excited about the tournament at first, I've started watching the games this time too. I have found time in my schedule to watch almost every game that has been played so far.

After all, we're talking about FIFA World Cup, the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world. Anyone who's even remotely interested in football is likely going to follow the tournament and watch these games.

So when it comes this year's World Cup, there are two things that people have been talking about before the tournament. Both these things about the tournament have been in the media and have been discussed almost to death.

The first topic, of course, has to do with the fact that the World Cup is being held in Russia. Some in the media have been saying that since Russia is run by Vladimir Putin, they shouldn't be allowed to host the tournament.

After all, ever since the country was sanctioned for their annexation of Crimea four years ago, this topic has been discussed. There have been talks that they shouldn't be allowed to host the most prestigious sporting event in the world.

In terms of sports though, it's safe to say that Russia deserves to host the tournament as much as any other country. Even though they have never won the World Cup, they have won Euro Cup (in 1960) and are known for their world class players (Lev Yashin for example).

Nevertheless, even though there has been a lot talk about this political side of the tournament, the other thing that has been talked about has to do with the game itself. It's about making sure that the matches are being judged as fairly as possible.

In this case, FIFA World Cup 2018 will be known for introducing the VAR system. This new system (video assistant referee) means that every important game moment will be reviewed in real time by the video team that will assist the referee on the pitch.

In reality, this is a great improvement, because over the years there have been so many horrible calls by the referees. There have so many horrendous calls by clueless - sometimes even corrupt - umpires that have ruined these games.

After all, when you have decisions that involve things like penalty kicks, red cards, offsides and whether the ball went past the goal line, it's not easy not to make mistakes. It's not easy to make correct split second decisions all the time.

In that sense, now that the tournament has been going on for some days, it's obvious that the new VAR system works. The new system has managed to correct already more than a dozen wrong decisions made by the referees.

After all, even though the VAR system hasn't and won't be able to eliminate all the bad calls in the game, it will eliminate most of the mistakes that the referees make. It makes it much more likely that the right team wins in the end.

In the end, that is what should be the most important thing when it comes to this 'beautiful game'. It should be about making sure that we get to concentrate on the game itself and not on the umpires screwing things up.

After all, even though there are those who say that bad referee calls are an integral part of the game, I don't agree with that. I don't think that we should tolerate awful decisions just because we've gotten used to those over the years.

On the contrary, those bad calls will only hurt the game. They will only hurt the game and will make us concentrate on all those bad things about the game instead of the good ones that are more important and that actually matter.

How to manage your writing routines?

Over the last week or so, I've been  working on my latest writing project. I've been adapting my animated movie screenplay into a book, which has turned out to be a more demanding task than I had thought at first.

After all, even though I haven't spent that much time translating the script on a daily basis, it's still been exhausting to keep going. It takes an emotional toll to relive the story, especially considering that the translating process is so slow.

Nevertheless, when it comes to getting this project done, the most important part in the process has had to do with routines. It's absolutely crucial to write on a steady basis and that you write even when you don't feel like doing that.

So when it comes to me setting up my routine for the project, I managed to come up with a daily goal that was both realistic and not too demanding. I set myself a goal that I knew I could do without hurting myself in the process.

Since I wasn't in a hurry, I thought that perhaps thirty days or so would be a fairly realistic estimate for the project. I thought that I would be able to find myself enough time to handle three or so pages per day and that it wouldn't be too much.

What made this project so special is that unlike with my previous projects, this time I was willing to give myself some leeway. I thought that it would be enough if I'd only write during the weekdays and not during the weekends.

After all, since I had already written the original screenplay that included that characters and the storylines, I wouldn't have to stress that much about the adaptation. The 'hardest' part had already been done with the story.

Still, this was not an easy decision, because in every other project before this one, I had always written every day. I had never taken any days off from writing, since I was so afraid that I would stop writing and give up if I'd take a day off.

In that sense, when it comes to managing your projects, it's really that crucial that you know how important it is to have writing routines. It's crucial that you know how demanding and how much creativity is expected from you.

After all, if you're dealing with a project that requires a lot of creativity, you should be aware of how much it takes to get things done. You can't take anything for granted, which means that that you need to be prepared.

Especially if you're not used to writing a full length screenplay, you should write every single day. You should do everything in your power to make sure that you meet your daily quotas and reserve enough time for the process.

In the end, even though there's no guarantee that you'll manage to write a great screenplay, it would be unfortunate if the only reason that you didn't write that script was that you didn't have a writing routine and gave up because of that.

After all, it doesn't really require that much to be able to write every day. You just have to make sure that you're prepared every single time and that you know that you have enough time to get in the zone before you start writing.

In that sense, even though in my case I haven't really enjoyed working on the task, that is still not going to stop me from getting the job done. I'm not going to give up just because I don't feel like writing and because I feel like I'd rather do something else.

On the contrary, the reason that I'll get the project done is because I'll stick to my writing routine. I'll stick to my writing routine and make sure that no matter what happens, I'll keep writing and I won't stop before I've finished the project.