The Omaha Oracle and Closing thoughts

Background:

The story that would become the Omaha Oracle began when I discovered Warren Buffett in January and began to collect and live by his philosophy. 

Who is Warren Buffett?:

The CEO of one of the most profitable Insurance firms on the planet, a great philanthropist, and the single most successful investor in Wall Street history. He is a man in possession of the rare Midas touch whose every investment brings great prosperity to him and his corporation. He has successfully predicted every bull market and recession for the past 60 years. He is the 3rd richest man on the planet and in my eyes represents the ideal that all of us should strive for: He is an incredibly Intelligent, driven and successful man who has reached the height of his profession and continues to build on his already outstanding track record of unprecedented financial success. 

The great Financial wizard Warren Buffett, I have read his biography,  listened to all of his lectures and Interviews and spent the past 6 months collecting and analysing his personal success and moneymaking philosophies. He proved a great canvas on which to build my financial superhero. 

From Idol to Superhero:

I was learning an incredible amount from this extraordinary man and I just couldn't believe how perfect and effective his methods were, to say I Idolise the man would be a very accurate statement and very soon I began to form ideas. I had never seen a man with such a spotless record of achievement and such an unprecedented talent for success, it was almost as though he was a god-like figure. 

And so I began to relate the great entrepreneur to the current financial recession. In the light of all the financial woe and the various market bubbles and stock market crashes the fact that Mr Buffett can continue to profit immensely and be called upon by the White House to advise the nation's finances! All of these correlations lead me to one conclusion which came upon me as if by divine intervention "what if he was a superhero". 

And so I began to write what would eventually become the Omaha Oracle (which in actual fact is one of the many nicknames I and fellow Buffetologists affectionately give him). The premise of my superhero parody was in actual fact an extension of Warren Buffett's financial activities. To most he is mild mannered financial wizard Warren Buffett making great investments and efficiently running Berkshire Hathaway one of the largest and most profitable businesses on the planet. Yet when mass hysteria ensues, when market prices are rising too quickly and when corporate greed tricks innocent people out of their common sense and money he become the Omaha Oracle protector of the ignorant and defender of long-term holdings. 

The Creditor:

Now that I had my superhero and my premise it was time to give him a villainous counterpart. I began to wrack my brain for the circumstances that would cause Buffett to leave his office and fight problems in the market. I read financial reports everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to the Guardian looking for an economic problem that everyone was aware and would be capable of understanding.       

It was during this research period that I came upon a BBC 2 documentary from the year 2010 only two years after the current economic crisis began.The premise of the programme was the many millionaires that have been created since the start of the 21st century. During this period more colossal fortunes have been made than during the industrial revolution, but during the industrial revolution the factory owners made their fortunes over periods of 35-50 years, the wealthy individuals this programme talked about had made their fortunes in a tenth of that time and made vastly larger amounts of money! 

One of the key points of interest in this programme that immediately grabbed my attention was the lack of compliance and regulation leading up to the crisis. I'm talking of course about subprime mortgages and the borrowing of cash assets. Many of these  ultra-wealthy individuals approved of and perpetuated these thoughtless and selfish practices with overwhelming financial results in their favour.

Unfortunately the common man was the complete antithesis of this success. People thoughtlessly bought into this newfound prosperity and financial freedom without realising that they were playing into the hands of the ultra-wealthy masterminds behind these schemes. And all of these fundamentally unstable practices were perpetuated by a banking system that saw opportunity for profit and just kept lending money to keep the ultra-wealthies' schemes in perpetual motion constantly making the wealthy wealthier. 

I was personally outraged by the fact that the very institutions that are supposed to guarantee the financial security of the population could be so reckless and arrogant in their decision making and all but completely disregard compliance procedure. 

From all of these hideous liberties wealthy individuals in the finance sector have taken I began to form the first of what will no doubt be my "league of financial evil".

I gave him the name "The Creditor" in honour of the free movement of money that preceded the recession and wrote his first scheme based around the gross miscarriage of social justice that I have just mentioned. His first plot concerned all of his customers or rather how he was planning to take them to the cleaners and milk them for every penny by raising the interest rates on their mortgages and cash assets. In basic terms he was going to wipe out their savings by making them pay more than they can possibly afford. Now that I had my villain it was time to write the first of my Omaha Oracle sketches.

The style:

In choosing a style theme to wrap around my premise and allow the general public to digest the vast swathes of information I was pouring into my satire. I had to take into account many tangible factors from the age of my hero to the subject matter. I needed a style that would reflect the age of Mr Buffett, the nature of the battle and the satirical nature of the overall programme the Omaha Oracle would be part of. I racked my brain for a style that would befit all of this until I came upon the paramount studio Superman cartoons of the 1940's, their fantastical plots and superb music provided the perfect format for my "capital appreciation crime fighter" and I soon began to mimic the format using my voice and editing: 

     This would later become the introduction (in various pieces and orders) to my Omaha Oracle sketch and would first serve as the great inspiration for what was soon to become my most intelligent and well presented satire to date. 

The Episode: 

To quote the creditor the entire plot seemed to "flow like water to my brilliant idea". The entire plot was designed around the creditors' grand master plan and the efforts of the Omaha Oracle to stop him. 

Warren is innocently composing a letter to the shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway when suddenly his partner (the equally ingenious and modest Charlie Munger) calls to inform him the that he is about to recieve a fax from their old sparring partner (in reference to similar schemes and circumstance in past instances). It is a boastful message from the creditor in which he claims the great returns on his subprime mortgage and money lending businesses have made him a superior financier and that Warren Buffett is losing his once great touch. Outraged that the creditor is exploiting the ignorance of the general population to their ultimately detrimental ends he dons the guise of the Omaha Oracle and tracks the financial fiend down. 

We soon learn that the creditor is up to no good, and upon arriving at the creditors' office Buffet is imprisoned. As the evil equity builder explains his diabolical plans to the imprisoned Oracle the two argue over the ramifications and consequences of what he's about to do. The Creditor unleashes his evil plan unto the world, and as his bank account swells the Oracle uses his power of "Kinetic Carnegie coercion" to destroy consumer habits and force them to abandon the market trends that are destroying their savings. He then informs the creditor of the great overwhelming loop hole in his logic. The two then work in unison to obliterate the creditors' scheme and free Mr Buffett. Buffett now free saves the market by buying up more newly devalued stock and earning Berkshire a profound amount of new income. 

Buffett and Munger now relaxed and talking of the future remind us that wherever there is financial abuse the Omaha Oracle will not be far behind. 

The Explanation:

The entire episode is a satire of the way finance works and the colossal mistakes that wealthy intelligent entrepreneurs are capable of making even with all of their supposedly sound business practices. I wanted also to highlight just how much power these wealthy influential men have over the common man, a single decision made by a figure of influence in the financial sector will have incredibly far reaching consequences for the common tax-payer.

I also wanted to highlight that all great economic problems are caused by the bad habits of the masses. When projected on such a scale any bad spending habit can result in extremely far reaching consequences for the entire economy. 

The ending of the piece was simply re-connecting with reality, the individuals that took liberties with the economic system that threw us into this horrific recession nightmare have cashed in their chips frozen their assets and left the vast majority of us not only to suffer but to continue to fund their lifestyle! 

In Memoriam...

This was the first time I had attempted satire from an entirely invented concept, in retrospect there are many things I would change and some aspects of the script I would spend more time developing though overall I was very pleased with the end result. 

In my eyes it was a  very successful satire that stands to spawn many subsequent episodes. I already have plans for an adventure to Mexico, the search for the perfect discount and an encounter with the great but unproductive anti-hero Modern portfolio man (satirizing modern portfolio theory). 



     


               

            

My Dracula Spectacular

The Monster is finished

It took me 3 weeks to put it together but It's finally finished. The subject as you might have guessed was Bram Stokers' Dracula. The process heading up to this particular closure was interesting one which I will now guide you through. Though of course like any story I must start from the beginning...

5 weeks ago...

This is where the idea was first conceived, upon noticing a modern take on the novel set in the present day and the many inaccuracies and unforgivable artistic licence the creators took with Bram Stokers'

The unfortunate inspiration for my comic feature, upon seeing the film and the many liberties it took with both the original story and the vampiric legend it claimed to represent I realised a statement had to be made about the hideous lack of originality, creativity, or even basic respect to the original novelist. 

classic story. 

Upon seeing this atrocious film my observation of artistic licence with the vampire legend began to snowball, I began to notice it everywhere from Sesame Street, to Twilight and Mel Brooks (though the last one I'm a very big fan). What I noticed was in effect a consequence of the present day and its ridiculous need to contemporise everything. I realised that my opinion on the matter would be useless unless I could turn it into something tangible. So I set upon channeling every one of my opinions on the matter into the script that would become Bram Man's Dra Cool. 

4 weeks ago...

Well on track to creating what I think could be my comic masterpiece I continued to hone my comic material. During this period I was researching many different sources of vampiric legend.

The Original Novel

I read through the original novel noting down key plot elements and characters to ascertain the key elements of the story and any dramatic conventions that I could parody.

The Dracula Films 

This really goes without saying, it would be criminal to make a Dracula parody and not take reference from the dozens of excellent Dracula films not only for their reputation but for their iconic portrayal of the character. I watched every cinematic portrayal of the Count to date from Nosferatu (1922) to the Hugh Jackman financial disaster Van Helsing (2004). Through each of them I did as I had done with the novel and I noted every possible source of humour and character in order not to repeat modern interpretations and be absolutely certain that my portrayal would be an accurate and justifiable work that would not in any way slander the original.

The Dracula parodies

 When in Rome do as the Roman's do, I noted every source of parody and cross-referenced them to be certain that I wasn't missing a single comedic device or convention. Many of these parodies themselves I noted had very wide disparities in quality and faith to the novel, needless to say that very few of them conveyed Bram Stoker's gothic period drama or even retained the themes and names of the original novel. The most peculiar if most useless in terms of transferable narrative and comic devices was the Andy Warhol produced Blood for Dracula (1974). Allegedly a black comedy the film was obscene and took many artistic licenses with Bram Stoker's vision, to the point that the film was technically useless to my cause and was quickly abandoned from reference.

In most cases the parodies' lacking was of greater advantage than the parodies' substance as I quickly realised the lacking areas had the greatest potential for comic effect and substance. This would prove my most rewarding endeavour as it gave me a firm base on which to build my artistic vision and form a complete erudite and precise parody that would satisfy needs befitting a great work of literature.

Modern vampirism

I watched every available documentary on vampirism and the legend s surrounding Wallachian prince Vlad Dracul. Now that I had amassed a profound understanding of contemporary opinion on the character and the book I could leave no stone unturned in my search for the perfect parody. I began to research the contemporary vampiric culture (yes that includes twilight lord have mercy on me), I poured  over immaculate records of fan art from Vampiric tribute societies (yes they exist) and the character that the vampire has taken in modern society. I was both intrigued and disgusted by my findings as I found that the legend had grown beyond conventional practice to become a full blown alternative lifestyle and subculture. Where once we could readily recognise a vampire through bloodlust and weakness to sunlight we are now confused by an almost indistinguishable host of vampiric sub-groups. 

The only thing stopping me from burrowing further into this phenomena besides my immediate disgust and inability to comprehend was the fact such bizarre and unsettling information would not aid my parody but instead would change the tone and purpose completely. And so I moved away from contemporary treatment of the character toward the origins of the legend and its unprecedented persistence to the present day. 

Vampiric Folklore

A profound insight into Vampiric culture was exactly what I needed to be absolutely certain I was doing the legend and the monster justice. I gained a profound insight into the mythological practices that gave these creatures life and the real life figures who perpetuated the satanic practices expected of these monsters. 

I was especially intrigued by the satanic practices of Miss Elizabeth Bathory and the man whom the legend of Dracula is based upon Prince Vlad Dracul. 

We'll start with the vain lustful and above all else evil Hungarian queen Elizabeth Bathory and her diabolical practice of devouring young women. No she was not a cannibal it was much more barbaric and evil than that. Elizabeth Bathory was convinced that the natural process of ageing and atrophy could be negated by drinking and bathing in the blood of young virgins. This was a practice that she extended to her chambermaids, all 600 of them! Each one she brought to her chamber she tortured and humiliated before murdering them and bathing in their blood. Due to her station she could not be penalised by the law, she was placed under house arrest before her accomplices were brought to trial. With newfound confidence witnesses poured in to testify against her (sometimes 35 at a time). Bathory was never brought to trial (being of royal lineage) but was instead imprisoned for life. 

This was one of the most hideous stomach churning acts I have ever heard of, which paradoxically gave me subconscious motivation to ridicule such a hideous monstrosity and rob it of its power. I treated the deplorable yet mutually admirable legacy of Vlad the Impaler with this same willingness to tone down the evil. 

Vlad the Impaler was Bram Stoker's original source of inspiration for the Dracula character so it seemed only natural that I should research this mysterious medieval mastermind. He was a brilliant leader and military strategist who in present day Romania is reveered as a national hero. Yet his reputation as a sadistic and cruel warlord does not grant this opinion much grace or even justification. He won many great victories that kept the Ottoman Empire out of the kingdom of Wallachia, but in revenge for his years of captivity under them he left no prisoners, and those he did leave he watched impaled on wooden spikes as he ate his meals. 

The total number of his victims has been estimated in the region of 40-100,000 equal to over four centuries of European witch hunts. Before he met a grisly end in 1476 when he was assassinated. 

In summission the man was an unstoppable cold and calculating killing machine. I realised all of this very quickly and again I saw it as my unconditional duty to rob these evil myths of their power. 

My Interpretation

Once I had all of my quantifiable information it was time to convert it into a tangible product. I decided to create characters and situations that were the complete antithesis of the novel the differences of which I will mark in the following paragraphs: 

In the novel the characters are upper class members of the gentry in respectable professions (Jonathan Harker is the count's solicitor), the count is a Hungarian nobleman who buys an estate in England for the purpose of claiming new brides and expanding his estate. Renfield is a delusional psychopath who eats flies and collects various animals in even numbers so that they logically eliminate one another. Abraham Van Helsing is a Dutch Physician and a close colleague of Dr Seward and an expert on vampiric legend. And finally Dracula is a blood sucking agent of satan that is killed using only holy crosses and a stake to the heart. 

If I was to have any comedic Impact or resonance with my audience there was never any question that my interpretation would have to be a complete antithesis to the novel: 

I turned the upper class British characters into wiggers (white men who act as though they are black gangster rappers) and had them engaging in various unscrupulous activities. I turned the count from a Hungarian Nobleman to a Romanian night club owner. I completely defaced the vampiric legends of old that made the legend so powerful and turned the count into a "funkpire. 

Funkpire Funkology   

The mythology I created with this brainwave was one of a monster that was given eternal life through the draining of rhythm. In basic terms I will now guide you through the mythology of funkpireism. 

Vlad the Inhaler (the name I created for the funkpire Vlad Dracul) was a partygoer who smoked many a shisha and gave many a great party banquet for his victories over the Ottoman Empire, until one night of extreme Alcohol poisioning threatened to kill him. In his desperation he turned to a local witch doctor who perform the Super sexy funkpire Vraja which condemned him upon death to become a funkpire. 

The funkpire is a supernatural creature terrorising nightclub scenes across the globe, it feeds on the rhythm of partygoers to feed its insatiable lust for thoughtless debauchery and modern dance music. It can only be repelled with highculture, if you have the misfortune of facing one you must play every operatic recording you can find and ward it away with paintings from the renaissance and high-brow literature. 

There is only one way to kill a funkpire and that is to overwhelm his hard bass heart with high culture.

Armand Van Helsing

The iconic character of the vampire slaying physician was turned into Armand Van Helsing (parodying international house DJ Armand Van Helden) a DJ master of the macabre who specialises in funkpire funkology and deals in matters of international deck spinning. 

   

       
3 weeks ago...

Now it was time to record all of the voices and create my Dracula Spectacular. The first step on the road to comic perfection was to record the various voices and pieces for the show. This was a more time consuming process than I originally hoped it would be and would consume my entire week before I had every recording. 

2 week ago...  

Now began the monumental task of editing my Dracula spectacular. It was a haphazard process that seemed to take an age. The soundtracks and all other materials were uploads from various online websites and were instrumental in bringing my vision to life. It was a supreme exercise in creative vision, persistence and patience. But even with my firm work ethic and creative vision I was not capable of making my vision complete, the reason was very ironic and I was forced to leave it after the piece exceeded 40 minutes in length. 


  In Memoriam...
The final result was a parody that I think was written and edited extremely well. Yet I can't help but think that I could've made it funnier if I'd had just a little more time and I didn't cause the programme to exceed capacity.          

The Influence of Brian Tracy and Napoleon Hill upon my future plans

These two men I have mentioned in the title are highly successful businessmen and motivational speakers with philosophies on perseverance hard work and success that completely revitalised my drive for success over the half-term period.

Brian Tracy:

A man who failed to graduate from High School in the U.S. and went on to amass a net worth of over $20 million dollars through his chain of motivational seminars and his position as CEO of Brian Tracy International. His remarkable stories and philosophies on personal success have provided me with something that was severely lacking in my work up to this point "personal vision".

Napoleon Hill:

The first man to ever examine and write and about personal success in individuals, Napoleon Hill compiled his writings with the aid of 500 of the most successful entrepreneurs of the time including but not limited to Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Edison. His inspirational first book Think and Grow Rich was a tantalising and highly inspirational read that alongside my Brian Tracy materials has given me fresh insight into how I can succeed and apply these techniques to my life.

Why am I telling you this?

There are many principles that I have adapted from these men that have considerably enhanced my quality of life and allowed me to focus on my career goals and objectives. But there are many factors within my control that I have yet to work to my advantage. One of these is our very own Foundation department. A tremendous hotbed of creative talent that I've noticed is not being utilised to its full potential. My own ambition is to create every type of actors' medium through my own efforts and to in effect become my own producer, but I can't do it alone.


This course has the potential to produce outstanding work and to give everyone on it a boundless horizon in which to discover personal ambition and to utilise the natural talents of everyone on board. But if this is to happen reforms will be needed. My goal is to achieve my ambitions and to lift the spirits quantity and quality of the people on this course and the work they produce from the philosophies I've learnt from these highly successful and respected men and I have every confidence I can do it If I stay true to my integrity and personal vision. This I believe is my first great challenge on the long road to personal success that will see me ascend and go on to live a happy and contented life living and doing the things that I love and cherish. I guarantee if allowed to institute reform and share these radical ideas with my colleagues in Media and throughout the whole of foundation it will improve every area of work and encourage boundless creativity, an unfledging strong work ethic, efficiency and productivity, self belief, personal ambition, mutual co-operation and networking, and who knows perhaps it will even improve the quality of all of our lives.  

Film a Month: January

The first in what will hopefully be a succession of monthly dramas has so far proved to be an unprecedented success. Our drama has so far reached production stage meaning that my role within the group has already contributed significantly. My feelings about the project were initially mixed as I did not understand what the purpose of the initial concept was and I questioned its source material. Though I persevered and concentrated my efforts on the narrative until it was developed into something that I felt extremely proud of.

My Role within the group: 

I was one of the groups' 3 script writers and oversaw all the narrative aspects of the film, It was refreshing to be able to work on a drama this time round as my previous screenplay vodka trees was a satirical comedy. My first task was to sit down with the scriptwriters and bring the characters and narrative meaning and life. My background in theatre served me very well here as I was readily able to invent dramatic situation and to create character in lines where there previously was none. The initial script though providing solid foundations for development did not initially seem to reflect character or situation. I and my narrative colleague miss Miranda Myles thusly set about going over the screenplay and hiding the "invention" that created story and character and giving the characters a life beyond the page so to speak.

The results of our efforts were startling, my partners' profound understanding of human nature and my own sensibilities created a proud piece of storytelling that I and the production team simply can't wait to see brought to life.

Current progress of the Drama:

As of today the drama is in the filming stage of production, I regularly receive updates surrounding progress and current initiatives and objectives, and when I say regular I mean REGULAR. The advent of facebook means that the group is in contact 24/7 at all hours of the day (on many occasions I've been on walks and had my playlist continually interrupted by progress). Over the weekend we had a test shoot of the drama at the location and the results were very promising indeed:



      This was the first of our test shoot photographs, as you can see aesthetic qualities of the film (though primitive and simple at this stage) have been given firm foundations for continued development.  The following shots bellow should give an impression of the shot composition and aesthetic qualities the production team would like to bring to the film. 

Having worked on the narrative of the film I feel it is my responsibility to oversee the creation of the story and to insure the integrity of the writers' vision is upheld. Overall I am very optimistic about this production and up to this point I am delighted to say that this project has thus far been an unprecedented success and has given me a firm blueprint for my proposed reforms to foundation.