#shoot reflection

[lewisn-napierfilm]

Kings Folly Blog

Kings Folly was the last film I worked on this year, and probably the last film I'll work on at Edinburgh Napier. This is obviously sad but something I'll talk about more in my next blog, the reflection. I think what I enjoyed the most about this film was working with theatrical lighting. The rest of the films I worked on this trimester have been very realist in their approach to lighting. Trying to hide the light and motivate it through practicals. In contrast, this film had the lighting as a clear story device, using it emphasise the stress of performing and the importance of the role.

However, I did have some challenges with continuity. I wasn't able to make all the shoot days and turned up halfway through the shoot. This meant that I was trying to match lighting setups that I hadn't worked on to ones I had. Despite this I think I did some great work an I'd love to work on more projects that utilise theatrical style lighting in the future.

[technically-human]

The ultimate seduction.

@sevi007 this one was your idea! When in doubt, ask for marriage, Eggman!

[kiyrian]

Gustave would choose Verso's ending. Maybe because he's been in some way modeled after real Verso, the same way Painted!Verso was. Maybe because that's just how love works.

When Gustave wants to find Maelle after the beach he speaks about bringing her home. Lune tells him it was her decision to come. She swore the same oath. She pressures him about the future of Lumiere being more important than one life.

And what do we get in our endings? Either the end of Lumiere that pushes Mealle to grow and hopefully live her life outside of the paiting. Or the survival of Lumiere, based on trapping her in unprocessed guilt over the death of her brother.

I really liked a comparison made in Jacob Geller's video about Expedition 33 between Maelle's ending and "The ones who walk away from Omelas" with Verso being the child stuck in the basement - his conscious suffering the price of happiness of everyone. But Maelle isn't getting a happy ending either. She too is stuck pushing her brother to play a role he doesn't want, stuck in a manipulative role that rings hollow as people she truly loves gather around her.

Gustave wouldn't want that for his sister. Never in a million years. He never answers if he believes in the priority of the mission but we know. We know what or who he dies for.

[sunshinetrinket]

new ask game what do you think is wrong with me for real

[ruporas]

chapter 90 vash

[ianthedebonair]

Heat Stroke by GQ Los Diablos

1 | 2

[fyllophobia]

colour warmup 230225

[astrologysaysno]

I wanna introduce a concept for an SVSSS AU. But first I need to explain the context of it.

I think about the Omegaverse in the concept of Demographics and Population Composition.

When we tell a story in the backdrop of an Omegaverse, we naturally assume of a specific ratio between secondary genders with Beta being the vast majority and Alpha and Omega being minorities yet retaining major influence.

Despite the large proportion of Betas, it feels strange that A/B/O stories focus mainly around the Alpha/Omega pairing despite it's rarity. The Doylist explanation for this is that, for a world made with the idea of getting men pregnant, it would be optimal to use the most key trope within the setting you have created.

The Watsonian explanation on the other hand is very interesting, of natural groupings formed by Alhpa and Omega communities towards each other to better find people who understand the concept and struggles of how their biology is.

I'm getting off topic here, but it was just a thought.

Examining the proportions in which we make each secondary dynamic, the Alpha and Omega subtypes being so much smaller is at least a subconscious understanding to emphasise this group as the important. They are the rare ones, they are the ones that we should focus on due to their unique biology.

My question is, what would happen if Betas were the minority.

From a typically imagined 1:8:1 A/B/O ratio to a 9:2:9 A/B/O ratio, I want to speculate on how different genders would interact.

How would perception of these genders differ in this new scenario. Would they be at the social hierarchy that would typically be reserved to Alphas in the normal scenario? Would the stereotypes between genders change, with Beta stereotypes being seen as more reliable due to the more stable and uneventful nature of their assignment? How would attitudes revolving Alpha and Omega dynamics differ now that they are the biggest groups?

Now I will add my SVSSS Delusion into the mix.

I would imagine that, actually, Betas would hold a good portion of the peak lord positions. The most obvious one being An Ding, where being a Beta would be most advantageous since a major worry of An Alpha or Omega peak lord would be their biological cycles and how that would leave them incapacitated, which would be bad for a peak that runs constantly and consistently. A Beta Peak Lord would negate that worry and would be an ideal candidate.

The other Peak Lord position I can think of would be Qiong Ding. Though the idea of leadership is typically reserved for Alphas in A/B/O Universes, I think a Beta peak lord would be a standard because, do to their nature being less volatile overall, it would be much easier to engage in diplomatic pursuits.

[I have no clue what I am doing, but here I guess]

[squicky-fannish-discourse]

Contd. to this event

MASTER POST OF THIS AU

Hiromi imagined her first beyblading match to be vastly different. Probably with some other rookie in a smaller, more manageable stadium, and under less threatening circumstances.

Not against one of the strongest bladers of their generation, and Kai may kill her. And she wants to save him.

Whatever.

If... the desire to win, or love beyblading is a source of motivation for her team... then is... wanting to save people... a source of motivation?

And then she thought of the sleepless nights lately.

She thought of Grandpa, waiting for Takao to come home.

She thought of Mao crying on the phone.

This Blake ... he has control of her team.

And the flames around her grew in response to her feeling of frustration.

"Hey!" she screamed through the flames. "KAI!"

He wasn't listening, as he was getting angrier.

"KAI!"

"These disgusting flames!" he snarled. "I will extinguish them."

"What?" she asked slowly.

She looked around herself at Blue Suzaku.

Why does... her bit-beast infuriate him?

Whatever!

"Kai, I don't know if you can hear me, but you're part of our team. Takao, Myself, Max, Rei, Daichi, Kyoujyu," she called out to him. "You fought with us for BBA, against Brooklyn, against the odds—"

"SHUT UP!"

"YOU WERE AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR TEAM!" she yelled.

But it doesn't matter anymore who he beat... does it? This is not him... is it? What does she really know of Kai?

He roared in anger. "SHUT UP!"

Her Suzaku and Suzaku clashed at the heart of the warehouse, as they both yelled in unison, lighting up, and blowing off the rooftop as their beyblades rammed into each other. Sparks flew. The windows blew out. The night sky was lit up with sparks. Heat and wind surrounded they yelled their attacks.

"SUZAKUUUU! FIRE ARROW!"

"SUZAKUU!" she repeated. "FIRE-ARROW!"

"STOP COPYING ME!"

They both clashed and set the entire warehouse walls on fire as Hiromi felt the bit-beast surround her with blue flames to protect her from the onslaught. Her beyblade collided into his.

For a brief second, a sliver of a second, through fire, sparks and smoke, she saw his eyes clear from that cloudiness. He stared at her. Hiromi was thrown back.

"I..." she got to her feet. She may not know everything about him. But one thing's for sure. "YOU ARE NOT A PUPPET!"

For a split second, he widened his eyes at her.

And then he clutched his head.

"SHUT UP SHUT UP!" he screamed.

"NO!" she yelled back. "IF MY VOICE ANNOYS YOU! LET IT! THIS IS NOT WHO YOU ARE! YOU'RE NOT A PUPPET!"

Hiromi got to her feet, ignoring her burns.

"I SWEAR WHATEVER IT TAKES, I'LL DRAG YOU AND THE OTHERS OUT OF THIS HELL, BUT STARTING WITH YOU! WE'RE GOING BACK HOME. I'M NOT GOING TO LET HIM USE YOU!"

Then she felt it. A link. Something tethering the two of them.

This... Connection. Their flames started to connect, creating a circle around them.

The fires around Kai collapsed, as he's struggling against something, the mind-control or whatever. He trashed around, as he crashed to his knees.

She tried to cross over towards him.

Then circle of flames collapsed.

His flames barred her.

"I..." she thought. "I'm not strong enough to brave Suzaku's flames... but still... I can't do nothing. He's so close."

The flames increased in intensity.

"Kai..." she held out her hand.

He had his head in his hands.

"Kai, listen to me," she said. "You're strong enough to break free of this. You're stronger than you think. I..."

He then stood up as the flames around started to coil, and they increased in ferocious intensity forming a powerful fire vortex around him.

His eyes were red again.

Hiromi stared at him with wide eyes.

"Suzaku," he said. "Burn her."

Seriously?

Hiromi stared up at the powerful vortex.

She... she can't copy this one... This... true Suzaku is too powerful. She felt her helplessness fight against her frustration.

That's when another beyblade entered the fray. "You ain't gunna do that to her, KAI!" she heard. "YOU'LL REGRET IT!"

"Wolborg! ATTACK!"

And an ice-bridge divided them protecting her from Suzaku's onslaught.

"FALBORGGG!"

"SEABORG!!"

What?

Hiromi kept her eyes trained on Kai, who glared at them, and Suzaku shattered the ice. He was struggling.

Suzaku churned within fire, as a maniacal grin overtook Kai's face, and Hiromi's heart broke.

And with one final clash, Suzaku sent their beyblades flying. The Flames covered his departure through flames and smoke, as he looked over his shoulder at her one last time.

She thought she saw someone else through the flames.

She got to her feet.

Huh?

And then she broke into a run.

"OI!" Yuriy yelled at her.

She ran through the warehouse, past the smoke and fire, and the falling beams. And out into the cold night, where she saw nothing. HIromi spun around.

"Kai?" she called out into the night. "KAI!"

The sound of the waves crashing against the shoreline met her followed by the sound of another beam falling.

.

.

.

"I dunno what to do!" Boris said. "We looked all 'round for 'im, and can't find him."

Hiromi walked up to them, past the warehouses which were on fire.

"Drat," Yuriy said. "So he's gone or something."

"I was gunna beat 'im up before he tried to beat me up!" Boris said.

Sergei nodded solemnly, and he glanced over at Hiromi.

"What do we tell Kyoujyu? Is this the girl he was worried about?"

There was... a moment there... She sighed. She's so tired.

"Oi," Yuriy called out to her. "Are you the one who Kyoujyu was worried 'bout?"

"Oi, GIRL! YOU! GIRL!" Boris said. "If we weren't gunna save ya, you'd be roasted. Where's our thanks?" He wagged his finger at her.

She blinked as she looked up.

"Oh," she said with a smile "Thanks for that."

And they stared at her awkwardly, like they didn't expect her to thank them.

"Kyoujyu sent you?" she continued. She had been talking to him on the phone when she spotted Kai around the town.

"I didn't know Takao's teammate could beyblade," Yuriy said as he squinted at her.

"I don't."

"Huh!?" Boris said. "Then whaddya doing beyblading Kai?! Are ya crazy?"

"Haha. Well he was in town... for one reason or the other... likely to finish off Brooklyn, and I ran into him on my way back."

"Oh."

"Oh okay?!?"

"GUYS!"

She spun around to see Kyoujyu.

"You guys are safe! And Kai didn't destroy you guys."

"Whaddya mean Kai can destroy us?" Boris got all up in his face.

Yuriy stared at Kyoujyu and then he pointed at Hiromi, who rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish look.

"She was beyblading him, actually."

"Huh!?" Kyoujyu asked her. "I... I thought I told you not to do that!"

"Kyoujyu," Hiromi said with a smile.

"We don't know the capabilities of... something like that?! Incomplete Suzaku. What kind of... it's so cold and weird...?!"

"Kyoujyu."

"And beyblading Kai?! Are you serious!? Do you want to die!?"

"Kyoujyu."

"I KNOW WE'RE both frustrated! But you can at least wait for Brooklyn and me?!"

He pointed at the warehouse which was still burning.

"Kyoujyu!"

"What!?"

He was fuming. The Demolition boys stared between them.

"I think..." she said with a sooty smile. "I think I almost managed to break control off Kai."

He stared at her with wide eyes.

"Wot," Yuriy asked.

[wankelmuth]

Berlin, 2023/ 2024

Photo: Roland Helbig

[lewisn-napierfilm]

Familiar Strangers Shoot

This was the only film that I worked on that was all exterior. From a lighting perspective this brought about new challenges but also simplified the work that I could do. As we were shooting outdoors with no generators and limited batteries, I wasn't given much variety in lighting choices. This was annoying as it's my main interest and why I was brought to work on the film. However, it meant that I had to think more creatively and use reflectors & diffusors in more ways than I had before. For instance, the skylite is something I've not used before but Max booked it out for this film. It was really useful in keeping lighting soft and diffused, especially in changable weather conditions across the 3 days I helped. In some aspects, this shoot was reminiscent of Bowl as the exterior scenes had to motivate sunlight with the challenge of keeping it consistent.

This was largely succesful however because we were shooting over a larger area with less time for each shot, the process was a bit more stressful than it was on Bowl.

[a-lost-crow]

I love scrolling through Pinterest and seeing this genre/art style of Sniper fanarts

[i-may-be-an-emu]

Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime

I make sfth fanart on company time

[exercise-of-trust]

seemingly cool fiber arts person i followed a little bit ago just put radfem shit on the dash, anyway the blanket statement that the only contributions of men to textile production are capitalist/exploitative and the only contributions of women are household-centric/victimized is patently untrue. while less of a documented presence, women in medieval europe [1] absolutely participated in weaver's guilds and commercial cloth production [2], and men have been participating in household knitting in all parts of europe for as long as knitting has been a thing there [3]. like i'm not trying to say women haven't been deeply excluded from economic opportunities in the textile trade for centuries but you cannot be making sweeping statements like that about everyone in every part of the world through all of history and expect them to be true. do, like, a basic level of research and have a basic understanding of nuance, i beg of you [4]

footnotes/sources/etc under the cut, sources are a bit basic because i just grabbed whatever was nearest to hand but they should suffice to prove my point:

[1] i'm only referring to western europe here because that's the only region i feel comfortable talking about in any detail without embarrassing myself. systems of medieval cloth production in european guilds are not gonna look anything like the systems of hundreds of servants employed to do textile production for a household in china. don't make categorical statements about everyone everywhere all at once, you will end up with egg on your face.

[2] quotes from "when did weaving become a male profession," ingvild øye, danish journal of archaeology, p.45 in particular.

england: "in norwich, a certain elizabeth baret was enrolled as freeman of the city in 1445/6 because she was a worsted weaver, and in 1511, a riot occurred when the weavers here complained that women were taking over their work" + "another ordinance from bristol [in 1461] forbade master weavers to engage wives, daughters, and maids who wove on their own looms as weavers but made an exception for wives already active before this act" germany: "in bremen, several professional male weavers are recorded in the early fourteenth century, but evidently alongside female weavers, who are documented even later, in 1440" -> the whole "even later" thing is because the original article is disputing the idea that men as weavers/clothiers in medieval europe entirely replaced women over time. also: "in 1432-36, a female weaver, mette weuersk, is referred to as a member of the gertrud's guild in flensburg, presently germany" scandanavia: "the guild of weavers that was established in copenhagen in 1500 also accepted female weavers as independent members and the rules were recorded in the guild's statutes"

[3] quotes from folk socks: the history and techniques of handknitted footwear by nancy bush, interweave press, 2011, don't roast me it was literally within arm's reach and i didn't feel like looking up more stuff

uk/yorkshire dales: "...handknitting had been a daily employment for three centuries [leading up to 1900]. practiced by women, children, and men, the craft added much to the economy of the dales people." (p.21) uk/wales: re the knitting night (noson weu/noswaith weu) as a social custom practiced in the 18th/19th c.: "all the ladies would work on their knitting; some of the men would knit garters" (p.22) uk/channel islands: "by the early seventeenth century, so many of the islands' men, women, and children had taken up the trade of knitting that laws were necessary to keep them from knitting during harvest" (p.24) -> this one is deeply funny to me, in addition to proving my point uk/aberdeen: "the knitters, known as shankers, were usually women, but sometimes included old men and boys" (p.26) denmark: "with iron and brass needles, they made stockings called stunthoser, stomper, or stockings without feet, as well as stockings with feet. the men knit the legs and the women and girls made the heels" (p.32) iceland & faroe islands: "people of all ages and both sexes knit at home not only for their own use but for exportation of their goods as well" (p.35)

[4] actually? no. i'm not begging for shit from radfems. fuck all'a'y'all.

[epickiya722]

Wait... what do you mean Katsuki wasn't in the opening? Technically, he was.

It's not that Katsuki wasn't in the opening. He's just not the focus.

And given what the opening implies (manga reader here), I don't think he should be in this particular opening a lot.

Look, I like Katsuki, too. But for once, he doesn't need that much emphasis, especially when after what happens... he isn't present for a while. And I think that was a clever way of reflecting that.

[krickficet]

The quartet is complete!