Great post Dave. I've been on sets where the Key Grip/Gaffer role is dual duty as well. I've yet to make a book light for myself, but this seems like a worthy venture.

Thanks for your comment, John, made me think. I think it has to do with which character's perspective you're taking. You mention a few motives there, but in the article from boingboing.net, the motive mentioned immediately before the quote from Jamie is Bruce Willis'. And that begs the question - which character wants TK? Does JGL or the mom want or care about TK? No. But Bruce Willis sure is interested in it, who is arguably an antagonist (even though we, the audience, sympathize for him). As does the anonymous Rainmaker (and I'm referring only to the man in the future, not the child). Also, I'm very into BioShock btw, and am thrilled to see it come to the silver screen.

I can see that point. Especially since the definition also encompasses "a potential threat". And I like your comparison to the vault in Ocean's Eleven. However, I think TK is still the MacGuffin in a sense that it's the plot device that drives the narrative, and the one that starts rather obscured, and ends up being huge. At any rate, well worth discussing.

I'm not a Citizen Kane kinda guy, but I agree that Rosebud is the quintessential MacGuffin.

http://i.qkme.me/3rq4si.jpg

Hi Barry, thank you for your minor correction and expansion. I will have to check out The DAM Book, if for no other reason than for respect of the title haha. Also, I did dig through some of the other resources at dpBestflow, and certainly appreciate you mentioning them again as well. In particular, I found this link of interest - basically a complete rundown of the video production process: http://dpbestflow.org/node/635