Saturday, October 17, 2009

Glory Shot

Please join me in welcoming romance author, Mima to KF! Mima lives in a small village on the Erie Canal where she rearranges her perennial garden, is a teacher-librarian to one thousand delightful children, and string partner to a wee black cat.
Take it away, Mima...




I’m a browncoat, which in geekspeak means I’m a Firefly fan. Toward the end of the movie Serenity, there is an image that Joss admits was one of his inspirations for the whole story. Blast doors open after all hope is lost, and there is River, their damaged little girl, standing in a pile of bodies with two gore-covered axes. And then the military pulls the wall down, silhouetting her. We all hold our breath. Will she attack them?

This is what I refer to as a glory shot. I’m not sure what the technical movie term is for it, but basically it’s the source of trailer editor’s dreams. A glory shot leaves your heart pounding, and your eyes dazzled in awe.

I am vain enough to wish a few of my books would be turned into film (starring Nathan Fillion wouldn’t hurt). When I imagine my books, I do see at least one “glory shot” in each of them. A glory shot from my newest book, Spirit Within, is one that happens early. The heroine, at that moment nameless and identifying only as Slave, enters a barren stone cell to find a shapeshifter hanging in chains. When his amber gaze lifts to hers, he puts his rage away to smile at her. Well. I may have rewound that scene a few dozen times in my mind.

Readers, do you have these kinds of visual memories from the books you read? I love it when an author has led me down that path, and those blast doors pull back, leaving me with frozen moments of beauty and impact.



Mima
www.mimawithin.com
Buy Claimed!

9 comments:

Emily Ryan-Davis said...

You know I'm a drooling fan of your futuristic novel IN SERVICE (http://www.loose-id.com/prod-In_Service-787.aspx) for others who find their chins too dry today.

I'm curious which scene from IN SERVICE is your glory shot. As I was reading it, the scene that hit me that way is the scene where Shon and Grady are suited up and ready to do battle with unknown treachery, emotionally worn down and exhausted and each a wreck, and Malla appears (in my mind silhouetted by the gaping mouth of her banged-up-and-beaten shuttle).

That would totally be a movie trailer moment. I'd watch it on YouTube over and over again.

catslady said...

Some books and movies leave permanent impressions. Mostly the scary ones lol. I'm just getting into paranormal and furturistic books and yours sounds fascinating.

Mima said...

awww, thanks Emily. My glory shot for In Service would be when Malla is standing in the middle of a futuristic urban intersection, and laser fire is flying in all directions. She looks over and sees Vel get pulled down, she looks up and sees Shon get shot in midleap onto the gunship, she sees Kor and their rescuee get blown into the air from their cover, and Grady turns to her and screams at her to retreat.

That bombardment, where she loses all her men, and she's standing there in her singed Luo armor, useless... I can see the disbelief on her face deepen as each of her men gets ripped away in four consecutive seconds, and I can see the horror as she turns to go, leaving Grady to be swarmed. It's physical and emotional chaos.

Emily Ryan-Davis said...

Your glory shot gave me chills. I can totally see that now!

Mima said...

Emily, tell me about one of your own books' glory shots.

Interestingly, I was just reading my newest EW (the one with Dave Letterman on the front--gag) and Mark Harris had this great, scathing critique of the new 2012 trailer, which is nothing but "destructo-porn" where we're supposed to cheer watching world icons and cities blow up. I agree= some glory shots are so empty of feeling and taste they're disturbing. I won't even watch TV commercials for the SAW movies.

Emily Ryan-Davis said...

Um. I'm not sure if I have any glory shots. The defining moments in my books tend to be small and quietly meaningful. I chicken out on the climax. It's a flaw I'm working on. :)

Elise Logan said...

Glory shot for Fire Within (which, Emily, counts as one of your works and will be available in Dec from LSB).

There are a couple. One is R-rated. I'll just call it the Chair. That scene came full blown to my brain and very, very visual.

The other is the pool party, with Eden peering around Michael and locking eyes on Seth. Seth's in full firefighter gear, pumped up and ready to be the hero he is, and he's absolutely floored to find her there, with another man.

Yeah.

Mima said...

thanks for sharing Elise!
chairs are useful things, aren't they...

VangieWilliams said...

OOOOooo! You exposed - the glory spot. Intense is an understatement. Too hot for blogging.