#I can describe the framing and blocking and how the shots are edited

[sethnakht]

there's an au in my head where vader shows up at jabba's palace before luke but after leia's capture on a tip call from boba fett. leia, captive on jabba's throne, senses his arrival well before she sees him; watching his descent into the throne room, she regrets conjuring the spectre of "powerful friends" to scare jabba. vader has strangled several guards by this point; jabba doesn't care; he receives vader as though they were old business partners, without a translator. vader interrupts jabba in the middle of a self-congratulatory overture - jabba is harboring the leader of the rebel alliance, he says, pointing at leia, and must surrender her immediately. this escalates; jabba offers han instead, vader counters that jabba will relinquish the princess or die, jabba reaches for the controls to his rancor pit, leia averts her eyes, unwilling to key vader into the trapdoor beneath his feet, and suddenly vader is gone and she and the whole throne retinue are sliding, lurching, falling; they're the ones in the pit, and when she looks up, she sees vader staring down at them with an ignited lightsaber, surrounded by poorly aimed blaster fire. she looks away just as he begins to deflect it.

vader has decided to pay boba and lure luke and punish jabba all at once; he leapt over the throne and pushed its occupants with the force, pickled frogs and leia included, into the rancor pit. he still fully intends that leia be made his prisoner - he doesn't want to kill his best line to luke - he simply assumes that since she's survived him, she can survive anything. as it happens, leia does escape the rancor because it feasts on the stunned jabba first, breaking the chain that connected her to him; dodging the panicking attendants, who also end up eaten or mauled, she finds the pit entrance and secures herself by bringing down the threshold gate. if vader's right about leia, though, he's wrong here about luke, who isn't provoked into appearing. becoming impatient - having slaughtered every guard who hasn't fled - vader deprives artoo of luke's hidden saber and decides to draw luke to him where he cannot fail to appear. stuck between gates in the dungeon, leia shrieks and missteps, slicing open her boot and her foot on a misplaced axe; vader has materialized silently, like a shadow that shouldn't be in the desert. he's in a foul mood; ignoring her limp, he pulls her out by the chain still attached to her neck (because he's petty and hasn't forgotten her comment about his 'leash') all the way to his private ship (the nubian j-type that symbolizes and effected his removal from tatooine, the ship he has in the comics). with usual bumbling luck (let's say his restraining bolt no longer works because jabba is dead), threepio trails them and ends up boarding too, commenting blithely about the ship's royal trappings.

well aware luke is on tatooine, vader doesn't leave the planet; flying in a way that leia first thinks is just intended to keep her off-balance, he heads for the lars homestead. lashed to the co-pilot's seat and without a sense of their direction, leia looks at featureless sand and can't help but call up the map in her mind to where obi-wan would have lived. it's popular fanon that vader can't read leia's mind owing to natural mental shields; I could see exploring an alternative where he can sense her strong emotions, where he does swoop in and catch the fish swimming right at the surface - only that what he catches is what she's chosen to sacrifice, or what she sees no reason to hide. what to him is a prize is to her an acceptable loss. so maybe in this au, there's this history between them: on the death star, she'd given up that obi-wan was part of her mission, anticipating that he'd be on alderaan and out of reach, while protecting the location of the rebel base; maybe that's why she survived her interrogation, because vader had gone so distracted with the bait that he'd lost interest in the fish. point being, vader is well aware that she's thinking about obi-wan right at this moment, and leia is chilled to realize, just from the quality of his silence, that she knows that he knows.

but this soon doesn't matter, because she realizes they're being pursued by what's left of jabba's guard and the millenium falcon. vader is possibly an even crazier pilot in atmosphere than in space, performing stomach-turning stunts like killing the ship's engines and going into a freefall dive to get each attacker but the more distant falcon to destroy itself; the falcon he shakes off by heading straight into a massive sandstorm. droid-like as he is, leia realizes he doesn't rely on the ship's instruments when the storm causes half to fail and they still make it past flying debris. after landing, vader orders leia to put on a flightsuit and helmet before they exit into the storm, lest she take unnecessary further damage. freeing herself of the mask the moment they're in an enclosed part of the homestead - which required passing through a courtyard open to the hostile elements - leia is first surprised by vader's choice of an abandoned hovel, then concerned when threepio reveals where they are. the more details threepio spills (the more the limits of his memory banks are revealed to vader), the more uneasy leia becomes. luke's family died because of the empire. but they'd still be alive, she can't help but think, had she not sent the death star plans to this planet. perhaps enjoying this dark turn to her thoughts, vader doesn't interrupt the flow of commentary. evidently unfazed by his own role in murdering luke's family, he prowls through their home as though it were his own castle. leia can imagine he's designing a trap for luke. silently, she implores him to stay away.

luke doesn't come. a massive piece of farming equipment, left unmaintained for too long and violently unmoored by the storm, smashes into vader's ship, taking out an engine. bounty hunters hired by angry hutts try to finish the job; vader kills them, but not before they've set his ship on fire. and vader starts to go slightly more mad than usual; the tatooine sand in his suit and smoke preventing use of his ship's hyperbaric chamber and luke's refusal to acknowledge his psychic pleading/threats and threepio's obviously mindwiped chatter and leia's scorching presence, her immense grief and scorn, her way of judging without having to speak a word - it all warps, and blurs, as he paces like the suit is cooking him from inside, and touches the wall disjointedly, and makes sudden disappearances to repair his ship with cheap moisturizer parts. for her part, leia is judging. she knows why vader wants her alive, and she's angry to be used again as bait, to say the least. and she's also judging her own chances: she's not eaten, not had access to water, she's lost a good deal of blood, her foot is bandaged with dirty cloth, and luke's lightsaber is hanging from vader's belt, tantalizingly near.

she tries to goad vader, to distract him from his ship repairs and the trap he's creating and the second lightsaber on his belt. he's become predictable, and luke won't come. she has no reason to hide her love for luke, so when vader lashes out mentally - jealously pilfering surface impressions of luke from her mind - he can remain blind to her intentions. only vader is paying real attention to her now that he's gotten to taste those memories, she's fed a hunger she hadn't known could devour, and she understands that he's draining her, taking from her, that she's shriveling up from thirst and regret and this connection. he's seeing her value as for the first time and isn't seeing her at all - and when threepio begins crying for help, drawing vader's attention away, leia is certain she is going to die.

vader wants to know when threepio entered her service. threepio is only too glad to answer exactly. leia is too depleted to care about what he shares - better that he spill the secrets of the dead captain antilles than having vader back in her head - she drifts into unconsciousness, and dreams. she's back at the palace in aldera, in the oval garden, where a stone statue of queen amidala had stood watch over beds of white asters. leia had liked to look into the child-queen's solemn face - her mother had often brought her here to tell her stories of amidala's adventures - but in her dream she is facing the statue's back, a meaningless circumstance that somehow chills her. she circles closer and yet can't get around to the front, and the harder she tries the more the details slip from her, until she can't even remember amidala's face. this too, she has lost.

anyway, that's the setup. it escalates from there. vader is paying enough attention to entertain new suspicions about luke's strong feelings for leia; amongst the many other threatening things he does, he finds desert cacti and makes leia drink the nectar. (for all she knows, it's poison, and the spikes on the surface cut her fingers and press against her face like needles.) leia, still certain she is dying, commits to saving luke as her final act, which she believes means killing vader. vader repairs his ship; leia ensures the self-destruct goes off while they're both on it. vader absorbs the blast, keeping leia alive at the cost of compromising his own life support; suddenly faced with the chance to fulfil her wish, luke's lightsaber in her hands, leia finds herself unable to follow through - because vader tells her to do it.

at last, a figure on the horizon. luke is come.

[armoricaroyalty]

Film Grammar for Simmers

What is film grammar?

"Film grammar" refers the unstated "rules" of editing used in movies and TV. Different types of shots have different associations and are used by editors to convey different types of information to the audience. Many of these principles were first described in the early 20th century by Soviet directors, but they're used consistently across genre, medium, and even language: Bollywood musicals, English period dramas, Korean horror movies, and American action blockbusters all use many of the same techniques.

Because these rules are so universal, virtually everyone has some internalized understanding of them. Even if they can’t name the different types of shots or explain how editors use images to construct meaning, the average person can tell when the “rules” are being broken. If you’ve ever thought a movie or episode of TV was confusing without being able to say why, there’s a good chance that there was something off with the editing.

Learning and applying the basics of film grammar can give your story a slicker and more-polished feel, without having to download shaders or spend hours in photoshop. It also has the bonus of enhancing readability by allowing your audience to use their knowledge of film and TV to understand what's happening in your story. You can use it to call attention to significant plot details and avoid introducing confusion through unclear visual language.

Best of all, it doesn't cost a dime.

The basics: types of shots

Shots are the basic building block of film. In Sims storytelling, a single shot is analogous to a single screenshot. In film, different types of shots are distinguished by the position of the camera relative to the subject. There are three big categories of shots, with some variation: long shots (LS), medium shots (MS), and close-ups (CU). This diagram, created by Daniel Chandler and hosted on visual-memory.co.uk illustrates the difference:

Source: The 'Grammar' of Television and Film, Daniel Chandler, visual-memory.co.uk. Link.

In film, scenes typically progress through the different types of shots in sequence: long shot, medium shot, close-up. When a new scene begins and the characters arrive in a new location, we typically begin with a wide establishing shot of the building’s exterior to show the audience where the scene will be taking place. Next comes a long shot of an interior space, which tells the where the characters are positioned relative to one another. The next shot is a medium shot of the characters conversing, and then finally, a close-up as the conversation reaches its emotional or informational climax. Insert shots are used judiciously throughout to establish themes or offer visual exposition.

Here's another visual guide to the different types of shots, illustrated with stills from Disney animated films.

This guide is almost 2,000 words long! To save your dash, I've put the meat of it under the cut.

Long shot and extreme long shots

A long shot (sometimes also called a wide shot) is one where the entire subject (usually a building, person, or group of people) is visible within the frame. The camera is positioned far away from the subject, prioritizing the details of the background over the details of the subject.

One of the most common uses of long shots and extreme long shots are establishing shots. An establishing shot is the first shot in a scene, and it sets the tone for the scene and is intended to give the viewer the information they’ll need to follow the scene: where a scene is taking place, who is in the scene, and where they are positioned in relation to one another. Without an establishing shot, a scene can feel ungrounded or “floaty.” Readers will have a harder time understanding what’s happening in the scene because on some level, they’ll be trying to puzzle out the answers to the who and where questions, distracting them from the most important questions: what is happening and why?

(I actually like to start my scenes with two establishing shots: an environmental shot focusing on the scenery, and then a second shot that establishes the characters and their position within the space.)

Long shots and extreme long shots have other uses, as well. Because the subject is small relative to their surroundings, they have an impersonal effect which can be used for comedy or tragedy.

In Fargo (1996) uses an extreme long shot to visually illustrate the main character’s sense of defeat after failing to secure funding for a business deal.The shot begins with a car in an empty parking lot, and then we see the protagonist make his way up from the bottom of the frame. He is alone in the shot, he is small, and the camera is positioned above him, looking down from a god-like perspective. All of these factors work together to convey his emotional state: he’s small, he’s alone, and in this moment, we are literally looking down on him. This shot effectively conveys how powerless he feels without any dialogue or even showing his face.

The same impersonal effect can also be used for comic purposes. If a character says something stupid or fails to impress other characters, cutting directly from a close-up to a long shot has a visual effect akin to chirping crickets. In this instance, a long shot serves as a visual “wait, what?” and invites the audience to laugh at the character rather than with them.

Medium Shots

Medium shots are “neutral” in filmmaking. Long shots and close-ups convey special meaning in their choice to focus on either the subject or the background, but a medium shot is balanced, giving equal focus to the character and their surroundings. In a medium shot, the character takes up 50% of the frame. They’re typically depicted from the waist-up and the audience can see both their face and hands, allowing the audience to see the character's facial expression and read their body-language, both important for interpreting meaning.

In most movies and TV shows, medium shots are the bread and butter of dialogue-heavy scenes, with close-ups, long shots, and inserts used for punctuation and emphasis. If you’re closely following the conventions of filmmaking, most of your dialogue scenes will be medium shots following the convention of shot-reverse shot:

To keep long conversations from feeling too visually monotonous, consider staging the scene as a walk-and-talk. Having two characters move through a space can add a lot of dynamism and visual interest to a scene that might otherwise feel boring or stiff.

Close Ups

Close-ups are close shots of a character’s face. The camera is positioned relatively near to the subject, showing just their head and shoulders. In a close-up, we don’t see any details of the background or the expressions of other characters.

In film, close-ups are used for emphasis. If a character is experiencing a strong emotion or delivering an important line of dialogue, a close-up underscores the importance of the moment by inviting the audience to focus only on the character and their emotion.

Close-ups don’t necessarily need to focus on the speaker. If the important thing about a line of dialogue is another character’s reaction to it, a close-up of the reaction is more effective than a close-up of the delivery.

One of the most iconic shots in Parasite (2019) is of the protagonist driving his employer around while she sits in the backseat, speaking on the phone. Even though she’s the one speaking, the details of her conversation matter less than the protagonist’s reaction to it. While she chatters obliviously in the background, we focus on the protagonist’s disgruntled, resentful response to her thoughtless words and behavior.

In my opinion, Simblr really overuses close-ups in dialogue. A lot of conversation scenes are framed entirely in close-ups, which has the same effect of highlighting an entire page in a textbook. The reader can’t actually tell what information is important, because the visuals are screaming that everything is important. Overusing close-ups also cuts the viewer off from the character’s body language and prevents them from learning anything about the character via their surroundings.

For example, a scene set in someone’s bedroom is a great opportunity for some subtle characterization—is it tidy or messy? what kind of decor have they chosen? do they have a gaming computer, a guitar, an overflowing bookshelf?—but if the author chooses to use only close-ups, we lose out on a chance to get to know the character via indirect means.

Inserts

An insert shot is when a shot of something other than a character’s face is inserted into a scene. Often, inserts are close-ups of a character’s hands or an object in the background. Insert shots can also be used to show us what a character is looking at or focusing on.

In rom-com The Prince & Me (2004) (see? I don’t just watch crime dramas…) the male lead is in an important meeting. We see him pick up a pen, look down at the papers in front of him, and apparently begin taking notes, but then we cut to an insert shot of his information packet. He’s doodling pictures of sports cars and is entirely disengaged from the conversation. Every other shot in the scene is an establishing shot or a medium shot or a close-up of someone speaking, but this insert gives us insight into the lead’s state of mind: he doesn’t want to be there and he isn’t paying attention.

Insert shots are, in my opinion, also used ineffectively on Simblr. A good insert gives us extra insight into what a character is thinking or focusing on, but a poorly-used insert feels…unfocused. A good insert might focus on pill bottles on a character’s desk to suggest a chemical dependency, on a family picture to suggest duty and loyalty, on a clock to suggest a time constraint, on a pile of dirty laundry or unanswered letters to suggest a character is struggling to keep up with their responsibilities. An ineffective insert shot might focus on the flowers in the background because they’re pretty, on a character’s hands because it seems artsy, on the place settings on a dining table because you spent forever placing each one individually and you’ll be damned if they don’t make it into the scene. These things might be lovely and they might break up a monotonous conversation and they might represent a lot of time and effort, but if they don’t contribute any meaning to a scene, consider cutting or repurposing them.

I want to emphasize: insert shots aren’t bad, but they should be carefully chosen to ensure they’re enhancing the meaning of the scene. Haphazard insert shots are distracting and can interfere with your reader’s ability to understand what is happening and why.

Putting it all together

One of the most basic principles of film theory is the Kuleshov effect, the idea that meaning in film comes from the interaction of two shots in sequence, and not from any single shot by itself. In the prototypical example, cutting from a close-up of a person’s neutral expression to a bowl of soup, children playing, or soldiers in a field suggests hunger, worry, or fear, respectively.

The Kuleshov effect is the essence of visual storytelling in a medium like Simblr. You can elevate your storytelling by thinking not only about each individual shot, but about the way they’ll interact and flow into one another.

Mastering the basics of film grammar is a great (free!) way to take your storytelling to the next level. To learn more, you can find tons of guides and explainers about film grammar for free online, and your local library doubtless has books that explain the same principles and offers additional analysis.

Happy simming!

[olderthannetfic]

Hi! So it says in your bio that you're both a filmmaker and novelist, so I'd like to ask you something. First, are you involved with the script part of filmmaking specifically, or fo you work mostly with other elements of filmmaking? Second, if you are, what are the major differences you've noticed between script writing and prose writing?

For context, I want to make comics, and I'd like to have a script to work from, but I've only occasionally dabbled in script writing. I know I could just use thumbnails and that's definitely something I want to be part of the process, but one of the reasons I want a script is so that I can have something to hopefully make my comic accessible to blind readers. I don't have the money to pay for an audiobook version to be made, so my thought process was if I make a text version of the comic, like a script, I can then make sure that at least a version of that copy is screenreader friendly.

So, do you have any advice for me?

--

I'm a film editor, or was, which definitely involves a lot of understanding of narrative, but that's different from being a screenwriter, and being a screenwriter and/or novelist is different again from writing scripts for comics.

That said, I have written scripts. The biggest difference is that if your script is intended for someone else to direct, you are asked to leave out a lot of commentary and stage direction that director-written scripts tend to have and that novels would have.

--

Dialogue is a fairly minor aspect of both novels and films—at least most good ones.

In a novel, much of the actual characterization is done in the actions characters take or in the way things are described in the narration.

In a director-written script, the writer will often include a lot of stuff that isn't put into actors' mouths to remind themselves of what the point of a given scene is. What would be narration in a novel becomes cinematography and editing choices.

As a rando writing scripts, you're not supposed to shove in that stuff because you're telling the director and other creatives how to do their job. You're just the writer: you don't get to decide those things. The script is less a finished blueprint and more a main melody line that someone else will improvise on top of.

Unfortunately, most of the ~great scripts~ people are told to look at for inspiration are by someone with more creative control (director, showrunner, creative producer) and do have a lot of interpretation already baked in. That makes them more fun for a layperson to read, but it doesn't always make them great examples of how to write commercially.

--

My impression is that a comics script is a specific thing in the pro industry, and it's not a thing that would necessarily be ready for blind readers. If you want to make an accessibility aid, I think you're looking at descriptive commentary along with any dialogue. Depending on the nature of the comic, it might be useful, or it might be pointless.

I would indeed storyboard your comic, not for future readers but to help you plan layout. The visual storytelling is a key part of any visual medium, and a good comic does more than just put the key actions on page. Where are people standing relative to each other and relative to the edge of the frame and how does this create a balanced composition or an awkward tension? Do you need the equivalent of a film insert shot and why? How is the eye being directed around the page, and does this make it easy to follow or chaotic?

What kind of comics format you're doing will matter a lot, obviously, but even in a basic 3-panel webcomic, you can control things like how close to the edge of the frame characters stand.

If you want some 101 on visual storytelling from a film perspective, one of the best regarded books is The Visual Story by Bruce Block. I personally also greatly enjoyed The Eye Is Quicker by Richard D. Pepperman. I remember the latter having more on film editing but nice storyboards and the former having a lot more visual arts-adjacent commentary on cinematography: line, color theory, negative space, etc.

--

People focus way too much on words as a crutch because they don't understand the far more important grammar of visual storytelling.

If your visual story—comic, film—cannot do 90% of its work without the words, it probably sucks.

That's my biggest piece of advice.

[writerpeach]

Shutter

Fromis_9 Saerom x Male Reader

5223 words

Categories: smut, oral, model! saerom

---

Read on AFF

Read on AO3

It’s not every day that a model walked into your studio who by every definition of the word, was perfect.

Dozens of gorgeous women came by each and every week, each one more beautiful than the last and you couldn’t ask for a better job.

The elevator doors opened and the woman scheduled for your afternoon appointment stepped inside your studio on the ninth floor, and you had never seen such an attractive woman with such stunning features.

Calling her gorgeous would almost be an insult. Words could not and would not do her beauty justice, or would be enough to describe how attractive she was.

She had dark shoulder-length hair and walked with confidence in an elegant looking black and grey dress and her sexy aura filled the studio.

“Hello, I’m Saerom!” she shyly introduced herself, a small smile on her rosy red lips and you melted just by hearing her voice.

“Nice to meet you, Saerom,” you replied.

“Please take care of me,” she said and bowed politely. Her hair and makeup styled perfectly, nothing looked out of place and the smile on her face only made her look even more beautiful.

“Shall we get started, Miss Saerom?”

Saerom nodded and you directed her to the set as you still had a few things to set up beforehand. She stood against the white backdrop, eyes roaming the bright lights and other equipment spewed everywhere, tripods and lights all ensuring that each model looked as best as you could make them look.

You readied your camera and glanced at Saerom, realizing how busty she was and what a curvy deadly body her dress showed off.

“Ready when you are,” you said as you removed your lens cap, giving one final check to all your equipment hoping to somehow do justice to the actual goddess standing in front of you.

Saerom flashed her best smile as you pressed the camera shutter and took the first shot of the shoot, capturing her beauty as best as possible. Her side profile was perfect, her features flawless in a way that they had been sculpted by the gods. Her striking jawline, her cute nose, her perfectly formed lips. The ideal woman put together as if to say it won’t get better than this.

Your finger moved faster than a cheetah hunting a prey, taking hundreds of shots per minute as Saerom displayed a variety of poses and facial expressions, each one perfect in their own way.

“How am I doing?” she asked.

“You’re doing amazing. The camera loves you.”

Truer words had never come out of your mouth. Saerom behind a camera was a natural fit, her smile beaming with confidence, every pose and angle flawless as she was. After all, when you’re being paid to be beautiful for a living you’ve really made it.

“Make sure to capture my best side.”

“You don’t have a bad side,” you responded. Saerom blushed cutely.

Two hours flew by, Saerom’s experience playing a huge part and even with makeup touch-ups and additional wardrobe changes there was time to spare.

“That should be a wrap. Thank you for your hard work, Miss Saerom” you said. You never wanted to stop taking pictures of her and definitely took more than necessary, but more was always better than less.

“Can I see some?” Saerom eagerly asked.

“It’ll take some time to get them all transferred and processed if you don't mind waiting,” you said as you removed the card from your camera and slipped it inside your laptop on the nearby table.

“Not at all! I’ll wait over here,” she said as she took a seat on the nearby black leather couch.

You had taken literally thousands of pictures and it would take some time to add them all, much less edit them. Sorting quickly through a handful of different outfits and looks you picked the best ones, doing a quick edit on them before transferring them over to the large monitor next to your laptop.

You gestured for Saerom to come over and she scurried over right away. Her eyes grew wide as she looked through the handpicked batch of pictures, proud of the hard work both of you had put in and the satisfying results.

“You’re an amazing photographer,” she shyly said.

“An artist is only as good as their art,” you replied, almost regretting spewing out such a cheesy line but earning another smile out of Saerom.

“We still have some time left don’t we?” she asked. Most of your appointments were scheduled in three-hour blocks, allowing plenty of time for preparations and in case something went wrong. And something almost always went wrong.

“You are correct, Miss Saerom.”

“Perfect. Can you shoot some more of me then?”

“I’d love to.”

Saerom returned to the set, the look on her face uncertain as you went to set up your camera again.

“I don’t have any more outfits to wear,” she said, unsure of herself.

“There’s a closet in the corner with spare outfits, I don’t know your size but they should fit.”

Saerom hesitated for a moment. “That won’t be necessary.”

In a moment’s notice, Saerom acted on impulse and shedded her dress, baring her immaculate body and the incredibly sexy pair of matching lace black lingerie underneath. You weren’t expecting this moment of spontaneity and your jaw dropped.

“What?” she smirked. “You’ve shot women in lingerie before haven’t you?”

“Y-yes, but-”

“Then you won’t mind me getting more comfortable will you?”

“N-not at all-”

“Good.”

Saerom continued with a playful smile and kicked her heels off to the side, leaving her standing in the middle of the set barefoot in her underwear, the insane curves of her tight body front and center for your viewing pleasure.

Her full breasts were barely covered, showing abundant cleavage and the flimsy piece of lace did little to contain them, showing off the size of her perfect chest as if they wanted to escape from their prison. Her gorgeous legs led up to soft creamy thighs, and Saerom’s toned abs looked as delicious as the rest of her body, clearly the result of hours of work at the gym.

"Incredible," you said in awe.

"Like what you see?" Saerom asked with a cute giggle. You found yourself speechless.

"I've always wanted to be an underwear model. My company would never let me though, they love protecting my image," Saerom said sarcastically as her eyes rolled.

"You certainly have the perfect body for it."

"Thank you," Saerom said as her cheeks reddened. "I work very hard for it."

"It shows."

Saerom switched from shy and cute to sexy instantaneously as she flipped her hair seductively, running her hands through it as she lifted her arms over her head. Your camera shutter went crazy as you started shooting your newly undressed model, not wanting to waste a second.

"How do I look?" she asked as she bit her lip.

"You're very sexy, Saerom."

"Am I? How about some closeup shots then?"

Without even responding you practically ripped your heavy camera from its tripod as you detached it, closing the distance between you Saerom, taking a deep breath as you approached.

“Think of these as exclusive shots. Just for us,” Saerom said, showing off to the camera.

While the previous shoot was rather professional, Saerom was rather quiet for the majority of it, focusing on her poses and angles. Now that she was opening up in more ways than one you wanted to get to know her.

“Tell me something about yourself, Saerom.”

“What would you like to know?” she asked, pouting her lips at the camera.

“Something...interesting.”

“Interesting?” she pondered. “I share a place with eight other girls.”

“Eight? That’s insane. I can’t imagine how long the line for the bathroom is.”

“You get used to it, it becomes fun most of the time. Having time on my own like this is actually kind of weird for me now.”

“I’m exhausted just thinking about it.”

Saerom laughed and you could tell she was becoming more comfortable around you,

“It was difficult at first but I think I would be bored living by myself now,” Saerom said as she spun around on her heels and placed her hands on her hips, bending over enough to give a good look at her plump round ass as her eyes kept contact with your camera, trying to keep your pants from tightening.

“Fuck, you have a really nice ass, Saerom,” you blurted out even without thinking. She didn’t seem to mind.

“Thanks. It’s my favorite part of me,” she proudly said.

You couldn’t stop staring at Saerom’s heavenly sculpted backside, wondering how soft those cheeks felt, but you quickly tried chasing those thoughts away as you didn’t want a bulge forming in your pants in front of her.

“You’re one of the best models I’ve had the pleasure to work with,” you said, distracting yourself.

“Really? You’re just saying that to make me feel good.”

“I’m not. Most models that show up don’t give me any trouble, occasionally you’ll get a spoiled diva that shows up late and clearly doesn’t want to be here and it ruins the atmosphere of the whole shoot.”

You made sure to get closeup shots of every part of Saerom’s body, taking extra care in framing her ass perfectly before walking to the front of her sexy body and taking several shots of her wonderful breasts.

“But you walked in and this whole place lit up.”

“That’s sweet.”

“It’s the truth.”

Saerom paused. “What do you think?” Saerom asked, cupping her breasts. You felt your heart racing.

“They’re perfect.”

“How about a closer view then?” she asked. You zoomed in and aimed at her chest, but Saerom shyly smiled and aimed your camera down.

“That’s not what I meant.”

Before you could put any thought into her words Saerom reached behind her back and unclasped her bra, divesting it from her body as she exposed her sizable pale breasts, bouncing as they were freed.  

“Holy shit, Saerom.”

“How about you put that camera down and we have a little fun?”

Without having a chance to respond you got rid of your camera as Saerom’s topless body walked towards you, your eyes immediately drawn to her full round breasts and salivating over them.

“Do any of your models ever let you touch them?”

“I try to keep things professional.”

“That’s boring,” Saerom said with a seductive smirk as she grabbed your hands and guided them to her breasts, helping you squeeze them. You moaned at their softness and how they fit in your hands, the weight of her breasts, and how perfectly shaped they were made you lose your mind.

“You’re so perfect,” you said as you squeezed and groped Saerom’s tits, squeezing two perfect handfuls as her pretty pink nipples hardened against your palms as she looked into your eyes. The fabric of your pants constricted and there was no stopping it this time.

“You can touch all you want. Taste me.”

“I will,” you said hungrily as you crashed your lips against hers and wrapped your hands around her bare waist, The taste of Saerom’s cherry lips entered your mouth. You pulled her in tighter as she returned your advances, tongues dancing together as the scent of her perfume lingered in the air. You wanted Saerom, bad. You wanted to rip her panties off and fuck her against your set, forcing to pace yourself and keep yourself under control.

You broke the kiss and exchanged lustful stares, not wasting a second as you dove into her breasts, licking stripes up and down her cleavage, and brought your mouth to her tits and teased her sensitive nipples. Saerom moaned as you flicked delicate circles around each one before sucking tenderly, earning gasps and whiny moans.

Schedules be damned, you took your time with each of her breasts, giving each equal attention and not leaving your hands from her flesh, not moving on until her hard nipples were covered in your saliva.

“Mmm, fuck,” Saerom moaned, caressing your hair as you devoured and buried yourself in her tits. Playful licking turned into loud slurping, and when that wasn’t enough you nibbled on each of her swollen pink nubs, grazing on her stiff nipples in between your teeth gently as her moans grew louder and whinier.

With all of your attention on Saerom’s tits, you sucked and sucked with no intention of stopping until your lips were numb, looking up every so often to see the pleasure running through Saerom.

Meanwhile, with your mouth full of Saerom’s breasts you felt a hand move down to your crotch and squeezed as she felt you up through your pants which became painfully tight.

“I must be turning you on,” she giggled.

“You are, you really are. Fuck, you’re so hot, Saerom,” you growled.

“I could say the same to you,” she said. “I got you all worked up, didn’t I? It’s only fair I do something about it.”

Saerom stopped you in your tracks and led you over to the couch, playfully pushing you against it as you fell down and took a seat. Slowly lowering to her knees she rubbed up and down your thighs, biting her lip, watching as you removed your shirt in preparation.

“How many women have you fucked on this couch?”

“Not enough,” you smirked.

“Time to add one more to your tally then.”

With a sly grin on her pretty face, Saerom unzipped your pants, quickly yanking them with your boxers down to your ankles with your assistance. Your cock sprang free, throbbing in the cold air and Saerom’s eyes went wide at the sight of it.

Saerom licked her lips, feeling an insatiable desire and hunger deep inside her at the sight of your unleashed manhood. As she admired your rock hard shaft, finding herself unable to draw her eyes away as her long slender fingers wrapped tightly around your hard cock, applying firm pressure and began stroking you up and down, feeling every inch.

“You have a very nice cock,” Saerom said, lips curling wide as she pumped you slowly and drizzled her fingers with your leaking pre-cum. She kissed the very tip of your cock, making your whole body jerk as her soft lips explored your cock and traveled down your base.

Every kiss on your shaft was loaded with hunger, and once Saerom reached the end of your cock she flattened her tongue against your base while you watched her every move. You moaned as her wet warm tongue moved slowly up and down your shaft, giving delicate strokes until she found your sensitive tip and swirled around your swollen head, lapping up every leaking drop.

“Yummy,” she said, spitting on your cock several times and spreading it all over your shaft, jerking you off and keeping eye contact.

Saerom kissed your tip one more time before she parted her plump red lips with your cock, taking the first few inches of you into her warm wet mouth.

“Oh f-fuuck,” you moaned loudly as Saerom hollowed her cheeks and sealed her lips tight around your cock. Saerom sucked you off slowly and tenderly while her sexy gaze was glued to you, full lips sliding up and down your shaft.

With constant eye contact Saerom built up your pleasure, taking her time with sucking your cock, enjoying it just as much as she moaned around your shaft.

“Fuck, Saerom," you moaned and threw your head back."That feels fucking good."

She smiled with your cock in her mouth, the bright studio lights letting you see her face perfectly as she began to bob her head up and down, her tongue playing with the underside of your shaft.

Saerom upped her pace as she swallowed more of your cock inside her warm mouth, the redness of her lips fading as her dark lipstick began smearing on your shaft, combined with streaks of her spit.

Her pretty hands did not stay idle, using one to stroke up and down your thigh, digging her nails in as the other cupped and fondled your balls.

“So heavy and full," she said as her nose nudged against your cock and planted messy wet kisses on your balls."I'll make sure they’re empty when I'm done with you."

Saerom continued to pleasure your balls while jerking off your needy cock, licking wide stripes, and glazing your sack with drool. She sucked on each one tenderly, giving your balls equal attention and hungrily slurping on them individually as you moaned louder, letting your satisfaction be known.

Using both her lips and tongue all over your balls, Saerom blew hot air against each of them before bringing your cock back into her mouth. Those deadly eyes glued to your own as she sucked slowly from tip to base, swallowing up every last inch as you hit the back of her throat without any real effort.

“Oh god, Saerom…”

The satisfaction in her eyes was obvious as she took you down her mouth with ease, her throat tightening around you as she relaxed her muscles, not even letting out a single gag.

Her soft wet lips felt so good wrapped around your cock, and you instinctively grabbed the back of her head, guiding her movements as she bobbed faster, lips kissing your base with each stroke.

It wasn’t long before you encouraged an even quicker pace, Saerom hungrily slurping down every inch that impaled her throat, desperately trying not to go wild and fuck her throat as much as you wanted to.

Saerom kept your wet shaft deep down her throat, working her muscles and keeping her lips sealed around every inch as she played with your balls, drooling all over your cock.

"Fuck, Saerom. You're so damn good at that."

"I've had a lot of practice."

Saerom hummed and gave your cock one more slow satisfying slurp from base to tip, releasing it with a loud messy pop as she furiously jerked off your messy wet shaft.

Not even bothering to wipe off leftover spit and lipstick on her face, Saerom's lust-filled gaze focused on you as she made you wait in anticipation.

Keeping your cock in her small delicate hands, Saerom carefully made a show of

sliding her panties down her toned legs, tossing them onto your set.

"A little present from me. Keep them."

With barely any time to react, you stole a glance at Saerom's beautiful bare pussy as she straddled you, the warmth of her naked body radiating around you as her comforting thighs rested against your own.

Saerom really was like no other woman, as cliché as it sounded. You could see it in her eyes that she wanted your cock, not just for her own satisfaction but for yours, aching to share in mutual pleasure.

The way she held your cock in her hand, aiming it between her spread thighs and between the pink wet flesh of her pussy, slowly rubbing it against her folds was agonizing, deliberately teasing both of you with a sly expression on her face.

You understood what she was doing as Saerom continued to run your cock through the wet warmth of her hole, but that didn’t make it any less easy to hold out, each sensation running through your body making it harder to maintain an ounce of composure.

“Saerom…”

She didn’t say a word as she collected her slick on your shaft, mixing it with leftover saliva, coating your cock in her fluids. Saerom thankfully shared your impatience and knew when enough was enough.

“I’m so wet,” Saerom bluntly said, the first set of words that left her lips in several minutes.

In what felt like the longest few seconds of your life Saerom lifted her wide hips up in the air, aiming herself carefully, and sank down on the first few inches of your cock.

Saerom gasped loudly and you shared an equally loud groan at the feeling of penetrating her body, the intense sensation of entering her pussy for the first time was unlike anything else. There was a lot to take in. Saerom’s wetness surrounded your cock as expected, followed by extreme warmth and tightness that overwhelmed you.

Gently moving her body up and down Saerom took it easy at first, letting her wet walls be parted with more of your hard cock, clinging tightly around your shaft that gradually disappeared in between her thighs.

“How do I feel?” Saerom asked as she wrapped her hands around the back of your neck, using her hips and sliding up and down your cock, coating more of your shaft in her juices.

“So fucking tight.”

She beamed at your response, sinking deeper and deeper until she almost bottomed herself out and stopped just above the base of your shaft.

“You feel really good inside me.”

Her eyes closed and her head whipped back as you both moaned together and felt her tight walls squeezing you tightly, letting herself get used to the rock hard flesh fully entering her body.

“I need every inch inside me,” Saerom pleaded, not that you were in a position to stop her, letting her control every movement. You watched between her beautiful thighs every move she made as her slick lips gripped your cock, ensuring you never left the warmth of her body.

In one swift movement, Saerom lifted herself from your cock, moving so just the tip of your shaft was inside her, and slammed her hips down and impaled herself to the hilt, moaning at being completely filled.

“Fuck!”

Saerom didn’t allow herself any adjustment, she didn’t need it and neither did you as she smiled devilishly.

“Ride my cock, Saerom,” you demanded and your orders were followed right away as she began bouncing on your dick, her mouth agape as she threw her head back in pleasure. You snaked your hands around her slim waist and grabbed her ass with both hands, kneading the soft flesh and encouraging her to continue dictating the pace.

“Stretch me out...stretch my tight little pussy just like that. Fuck, I wish I could ride you all day.”

“I could always cancel the rest of my appointments.”

“F-fuck, don’t tempt me. But I have my own schedules after this too,” she frowned.

“Guess we’ll have to schedule another session then.”

Saerom nodded in response and your hands squeezed her cheeks tighter, giving her ass a few quick slaps as she gasped, looking at the way she was falling apart already as she rode you.

Continuing to test the waters you gave repeated smacks against Saerom’s plentiful backside, the satisfying sounds of both raised palms striking her bare cheeks filled your ears. Saerom whined cutely in response as her walls clenched around your cock with each impact, not using enough force to sting but just giving her body a little something extra.

“You like being spanked, Saerom?”

“I-I do.”

“I’ll have to remember that for next time,” you smirked. Saerom took the opportunity to increase the pace, allowing herself to adjust and found the perfect angle to take your shaft inside her, bouncing her delicious big ass on your cock.

“You’re drenched, Saerom. Do you always get this wet?” you asked. She hesitated before shyly nodding.

“It’s mostly your fault,” she timidly replied, establishing a harsher rhythm as she rode you with more intensity and fervor, her perfect set of tits bouncing hypnotically with every movement.

“I take full responsibility.”

Settling into the sharp pleasure Saerom gave in to her desires and rode your cock faster, covering the entire surface of your shaft in her slick as you explored her voluptuous naked body and ran your hands up every inch of her bare skin you had access to.

You started with Saerom’s creamy thighs, caressing them softly before moving on to her sexy toned tummy, feeling her tight sculpted abs against your fingertips. She reacted to every touch audibly as your hands made their way back to her luscious breasts, cupping them and keeping your hands filled as she slammed her ass harder against your cock, creating more pleasure.

"You ride me so well, Saerom," you said as you pinched her nipples, feeling her pussy tightening and more of her juices leaking out. You kept your hands filled with her wonderful pale breasts as her ass repeatedly slammed down on your crotch, using your cock for her pleasure.

"It helps that I love your cock," Saerom said as she rode you faster and faster as sweat began to mist all over of your bodies, thighs crashing against your own with every bounce.

"And I love you creaming all over my cock."

The mere act of Saerom taking your cock in and out of her body with ease was driving you crazy, her hot wet pussy wrapped so tightly around your cock you felt like you could burst at any moment.

You couldn’t keep up with all the sensations running through your body, each time Saerom’s ass smacked against your body brought you closer to the point of no return, her juices flowing down her thighs confirming that she was equally reaching past her own limits.

Saerom's tight pussy began pulsating around your shaft as she became breathless, every forceful slam of her full hips brought down on your body making her wetter and wetter as she was barely able to keep her eyes open.

"Are you close, Saerom?" you asked. It took several moments before she could form an answer, and even then she could only nod in response.

"I need you cumming all over my cock."

"I w-will, fuck. Can you cum with me?"

"I'd love to," you said as desperation and need filled her eyes, knowing neither could hold on much longer. You watched her riding your cock just a little longer before growing tired of being passive and grabbed onto her hips, thrusting deep into her tight dripping cunt as she impaled herself on you.

You wanted every bit of pleasure out of Saerom's body and you were going to take it.

"Oh fuuuck! Just like that!"

It took a few thrusts to find the perfect timing, hitting Saerom's spot at just the right angle, keeping a firm grip on her sweaty body and trying to match her rhythm, both of you working together to achieve your collective goal of reaching climax.

You couldn’t help but stare at her, watching her gorgeous features contorting every time you filled her to the hilt. The air in the room grew harder to take in as you drove yourself in Saerom with desperation, both aching for release. The loud slapping of hot flesh against flesh fought for dominance against the equally loud moaning escaping Saerom’s lips.

“Fuck, fuck, baby, I-I'm gonna cum!" Saerom cried out, the three most beautiful words you had heard all day as you held onto her body tight, preparing yourself for the intensity of what was about to happen.

"I am too, fuck!"

“Cum inside me, please, I need you to fill my tight little pussy,” Saerom begged, and you did everything you could to hold out just long enough to let her achieve orgasm first. You weakly smiled and savored the last few moments before the inevitable.

The final few seconds arrived as your breathing deepened, looking dead center into Saerom’s beautiful eyes filled with need and desire. Without another word you felt Saerom’s juices overflowing as her pussy tightened almost painfully so, thighs trembling violently as her cunt squeezed the life out of your shaft as she came, leaving a mess over your cock and wrapped her arms tighter around the back of your neck and desperately moaning into your ears as her body turned to jelly.

Saerom looked beautiful as her orgasm took over her body, unable to control the volume of satisfied moans leaving her lips as she slowly came down from her intense high. She rocked her hips back and forth to ride out her orgasm and helped you join her as you felt all the tension in your body being released.

Unable to take anymore your cock throbbed inside Saerom, letting out needy grunts and moans as you exploded inside her, emptying your thick hot cum deep inside her pussy and pumping her full of your seed as her body took spurt after spurt as she was filled to the brim.

She rested her head on your shoulder, swaying her hips to coax every drop out of you, the feeling of your warmth deep inside her satisfying her to no end.

“You feel so warm,” she faintly said as your bodies took a much-deserved rest and stared into each other's eyes, both trying to catch a breath at the wonderful experience you just shared.

“That...was...amazing,” you said, heavily gasping.

“It was. I haven’t been fucked like that in a while,” Saerom smiled and kissed you, giving you one more taste of lips as she savored the warmth left in her body.

She gradually lifted her body off yours carefully as your cock plopped out and the huge thick load you had left inside began slowly dripping out of her pussy, running down her flushed thighs. Responding only in tired gasps she tried to catch her breath, watching the mess inside her continue to show itself.

Both of you too tired to move let alone speak, Saerom knelt and licked your shaft clean and tasted your combined juices, lips slurping slowly from base to tip to not miss a drop.

She headed over to your workstation with your cum still dripping down her thighs, grabbed your camera and took several full-body shots of her naked sweaty body, running her hand through her messy hair and smiling for the camera.

"Thank you," Saerom said as she ended up in your naked lap again.

"For what?"

"For taking such pretty pictures of me."

"It's all part of the job. It's easy when I have such a pretty model."

Her cheeks reddened again, the smile etched across her lips something you couldn’t ever get enough of.

"I can't wait to see the full versions."

"I'll have them sent to your company by the end of the week. Just the ones for the magazine of course,” you said.

"I look forward to it. I had a lot of fun today."

"I did too, Saerom."

"Can I see you again? After work?" she asked.

"I usually don't finish until the sun goes down."

"I don't mind, I'll be pretty busy myself. Maybe I'll even take some photos of my own for you."

"Oh? I didn't know you were a photographer as well."

"I'm just an amateur," she shyly said. "It’s just a hobby when I have the time."

"I'd love to see some shots."

"I'll send some then. They might not be as risqué as what we took today."

"As long as you’re in them I’ll love them."

Saerom accepted your praise with a grin on her features and regretfully dressed and left quietly, leaving you tired, sweaty and in need of a shower with her occupied in your thoughts.

Whoever the next model was you knew they couldn’t compare to Saerom, and you couldn’t wait for work to be over.

[centrally-unplanned]

Allocating Your Aesthetic Budget: Sailor Moon Edition

Sailor Moon is a show that undoubtedly built a powerhouse of a visual brand. Should I even bother posting a screenshot of the sailor scouts, given that I am 100% confident anyone reading this can recall them instantly? I guess it won’t hurt: 

Anime is often really good at creating iconic designs like this, through repetition of the visuals. It is awkward in live action shows if characters just wear the same outfit every scene (what, they only own one outfit? Are they homeless/work in the tech industry?), but animation gives us enough aesthetic “distance”, an awareness that this isn’t accurate to real life, that you can buy into the conceit. By wearing the same outfit every time, it just becomes the character. Not to mention a studio can really save quite a few bucks by streamlining production with neat tricks like having only one character design to animate - when you are on a shoe-string budget, like pretty much every anime in the 90’s was, every cut corner counts.

What is interesting about Sailor Moon is that most of the time it doesn’t really use this conceit at all.

-----------

Episode 15 of Sailor Moon’s first season has, in its opening act, this shot of all of the Senshi (at the time) talking to the plot-of-the-day character, who clearly trains rock Pokemon in 16-bit caves in his off hours:

If you knew nothing about these three characters, you could probably infer about 80% of their personality just from their outfits. Usagi (the blond one in the middle, if that's necessary) is wearing:

Light pastel colours, with pink on top of that: girly, feminine, bubbly and breezy

Short-but-not-too-short of a skirt, and red heels: cares about fashion, wants to project an image of being a woman with a romantic hint to it

Long-twin tails w/ buns: Contrasting the shoes, she is still immature and childish. It also means she is the protagonist of an anime 

Rei (far right) rocks a very different look:

T-shirt and jean shorts, shoes over heels: sensible, practical, a bit sporty

Very short shorts, long black hair: Confident, a bit aggressive, and suggestive of a more overt sexuality

Ami (far left) settles into a more restrained vibe with:

Full, long, but sleeveless dress, bob-cut hair: Chaste, more conservative, but not to the point of prudishness; particularly with the length (and the hand posture, shielding her body) probably a bit shy

Monochrome blue colour in outfit & hair: reserved, serene, possessing a calm demeanor

I know I have seen the show already, but really none of these details are a stretch - this is just the language of fashion. And all of these outfits are outfits that the characters have never (or rarely) worn before up until this point. The cast of Sailor Moon, far from that animation conceit of “standard outfits”, change clothes all…

the….

time.

     I just randomly clicked on episodes to find these, it requires no hunting

And while it isn’t always as spot on as the top picture, they all in some way embody the language of visual design to speak to the personality of the characters. If you want to see more, check out one of the multiple tumblrs dedicated to the everyday clothing the Sailor Senshi wear, because of course those exist.

If this was a 2010’s Kyoto Animation show, pointing this out would be the end of it - every one of their shows has this level of impeccable detail. Sailor Moon is notable in that it is not at all that kind of show; the animation and designs in Sailor Moon take perpetual shortcuts to get the job done. I don’t think the transformation sequences need to be belabored - the way they permitted the team to recycle identical animation sequences, multiple times per episode, was surely a godsend to the production schedule. Yet not all of the budget limitations are so prettily masked:

     I’m sure they finished the background art in the...VHS release?

The show is filled with dirty animation, unfinished backgrounds, backgrounds that are a simple color gradient for no clear reason, and so on. It is clear that the Sailor Moon team did not have the resources for every detail - which is why the decision of what details they did choose to prioritize is so interesting.

----------

What is the point of Sailor Moon? I do believe that shows have “points”; and by that I don’t mean a message or theme but a core appeal to an audience, something specific that they will get out of the show. Almost every show appeals along multiple axes, and Sailor Moon is no exception, but I want to focus on one: aesthetic identification.

If you learn someone is a Sailor Moon fan, there is the obvious follow-up question you have to ask, namely “which Sailor Senshi are you?” It’s the which-Harry-Potter-house-are-you question of anime, a horoscope where you can choose your sign (in this case literally). The premise of this concept is not hard for media to execute on - it is just personality traits and aesthetics grouped together under a label, a basic building block of media and clickbait internet quizzes. Harry Potter, ironically, raised up its memetic question almost by accident, as its focus is so squarely on House Gryffindor that the others are almost forgotten; it was just so mind-bogglingly popular that it didn’t matter. 

Sailor Moon, however, takes this concept and allocates so much of its aesthetic budget into making it a centerpiece of the show. Sailor Moon herself is a klutzy, lazy romantic, Sailor Mercury is a shy, earnest bookworm, and so on, with none of them ever really becoming very complex characters. However, the show devotes itself to making you *feel* these archetypes as strongly and intricately as possible. All of those outfit changes are chosen because not only do real girls care about their outfits and can therefore identify more strongly with characters who do the same, but so they can constantly emulate their archetype in diverse, different ways. The show doesn't have the budget for intense action scenes, so after Sailor Moon engages in her hyper-serious transformation sequences, she proceeds to, nearly every time, bumble through the combat scenes like this:

Oh sure, the scenes are done this way because it is funny (and good comedy can be done on any budget - these shots are frequently still frames with motion lines!), but it is also done this way because Sailor Moon is a total screw-up, and if you identify with that it is validating to see someone “just like you” able to pull off wins despite it all. The transformation sequences are not only beautiful animation that showcases aspirational power, but are also crafted to highlight the personalities of the Senshi in question - unless you think aggressive, combative Rei got fire powers by coincidence. Half of the run-time of every episode is spent, not on the plot du-jour, but on light-hearted personal squabbles between the cast because those scenes are not just funny, but also allow for far more moments of character expression. 

All of that work pays off in building with the audience, not a connection with a character who reflects their identity in total, but a connection that reflects one aspect of their identity in an extremely deep (dare I say multifaceted?) way. I think if you were to describe Sailor Moon as a “shallow” show, you would actually be right to say so, in a sense. These characters will never have the true depth of personality, themes and so on of a more ‘adult’ show. But those adult shows have to spend their effort somewhere - for all that the themes of say Evangelion or Paranoia Agent are pristinely detailed and impactful, you aren’t ever going to be memorizing the moves of their transformation sequences. The way Sailor Moon committed so strongly to fleshing out the archetypes the Senshi stood for is, I think, one of the keys to how this cast of five became so iconic.

     Not even their school uniforms match! They had to spend time in-universe *justifying* this!

----------

A Final Note:

At least, everything I’ve said here applies to Sailor Moon at its peaks. The show, however, is not one without its stumbles, even in Season 1. This section doesn’t flow into the core essay too well, but I wanted to note it because if you were to watch Sailor Moon today, you might struggle to feel the dynamic outlined above. The biggest culprit here is the length - Season 1 is 46 episodes long, and sections of it most certainly drag. They also take a startlingly long time to introduce the cast - this choice builds tension around their arrival, but it also means the later Senshi get a lot less time to establish themselves. Sailor Venus in particular gets hamstrung by this - she is introduced and then immediately arc plot elements sweep the narrative, and so she is left as a hollow shell for some time. The pacing of the show is undoubtedly flawed.

I think Sailor Moon is a show that you do have to keep its time and place in mind for - namely, middle schoolers and anime nerds watching it on broadcast TV in the 90’s. As an adult you “get” the point of the show pretty quickly, and get satiated on it almost as fast. Watching it all in a few sittings only heightens this problem. For a younger audience, and one that is waiting for a week between episodes with no internet for plot reminders, all that extra time is needed to jog memories and build connections. And younger audiences just have that limitless commitment to the things they love! If you think no one could actually enjoy seeing the same transformation sequence for the 30th time, watch it with someone who would have died for this show when they were 10 and you will be disabused of that notion *very* quickly. 

Still, we can’t travel back in time - Sailor Moon is a show of its era. There are “filler-reduced” guides out there, though I caution that the plot of Sailor Moon is absolutely not the point of the show in comparison to the character dynamics, and so sometimes the filler is the best part (Cat-Rhett Butler is the best character in the show YOU KNOW I’M RIGHT). Certainly, however, some method must be used to cut down on its length. If you are going to be a first time viewer in adulthood, that reality should be kept in mind, and if you do accept it for what it is you can really appreciate its core appeal - and don’t forget to finish it off with a 1990′s era internet personality quiz to really wrap it up!

[afishlearningpoetry]

Still seeing people call us a cult in 2021 😑 🚬 Is there anything that broke this blogging website's brains more than a 2010s BBC show?

Tbh and I’ll get to why it connects to what you’re saying but what really broke this website’s brains is the crab bucket culture of disposability and cycle of online abuse that it nurtured for years until it spread to the rest of the internet... like the early social justice awakening to the yfip blogs and call out posts and anonymous stalking and commenting (that carried over partially from livejournal/older fandom, tbf) that’s translated into like, faulty, second-hand sourced fanwiki websites tracking the perceived dancing with the devil transgressions of some person, a random stranger essentially, has made in their online life, and for what reason, really? For what purpose? Like I think a lot of us gained some awareness at a certain point that these tactics were thinly veiled guises to harass and take personal shots at basically random people for mostly petty reasons (clearly plenty of people are pretending that’s not what it is and went back to it), but I also wonder what it did to the brains of like the youngest people on here, who started using the website since they were children, not just high school age or close to, but even younger people.

That frame of mind is everywhere now, especially with younger fandoms, not just on here. Twitter is pretty terrible. I was watching the Mask Off video from Lindsay Ellis recently and it’s just horrifying to me the way this website essentially birthed that form of harassment. Every step of the way, the way that she (and Natalie, in her own video) detail how it happened is absolutely identical to how it happens on here, except it’s happening in daylight where public figures are in the same fight-to-the-death arena as the rest of us, which is what makes it easier to articulate. This is not to dismiss anything someone like Lindsay has to go through, considering what she disclosed in the video and that she’s been harassed by the alt-right for years, but she also has enough of an online standing to publicly face those charges and refute the majority of them. Like Natalie also said, but what happens to someone else? Someone with no name, or social or financial security, and that’s basically what I’m getting it. That kind of online abuse happening over and over and over and over again trickles down to everybody else. That’s what broke people’s brains. That’s what ruined this website.

And it isn’t just the reactionary, cringe culture post-fandom nihilism that shifted into online culture in 2016 and onwards (I’ve mentioned this before, like, the constant jokes about bad and infamous moments from tumblr), but harassment that still happens on here. You can accuse people of being a pedophile with no credibility, harass them about their eight year old fandom history, or dox and shame them out of public life without much effort, granted there are enough people willing to hop in the crab bucket with you. It has nothing to do with genuinely caring about anything but being an asshole. So for most of that to be distilled into people hate following tjlc (which was named such as a self-aware joke) for literal years when it was largely one of the most fun, positive, creative and dedicated fan spaces I’ve ever been in, and then finally having the wind at their backs to essentially cut everyone down and collect some heads because series 4 finally got the critical backlash they were waiting for to do so with widespread permission (they tried this with series 3, but it just didn’t take because the quality was too consistent), is severely aggravating.

I’ve had plenty of other, smaller negative experiences on here, whether they be trends or staples, and I’ve certainly contributed, but there’s always been enough good for me to stay. But after series 4 that was no longer the case. I just hit a breaking point where I couldn’t be as personally invested anymore, it got so bad. As much as I still want to come here for specific reasons and contribute what I can, I have a lot of trouble engaging with anything because I’m ready to see any new blog or topic I follow to dip into those same habits all over again, which is inevitably what happens. To watch anti-intellectual post-fandom nihilism — and if you’ve been here at all between end of 2016 to now you know the kind of attitude, posts, rhetoric and style of speech, and blogs I’m talking about — kind of dominate this website, has been a large part of why I only pop up sporadically. After Nov. 5th it’s been ironic watching so many people I’d describe that way unironically get into the paranormal show again. Not because I think that’s bad, I follows blogs that talk about it and think it’s cool, I made an edit at the time, or that anyone should be “above it”, we’re on tumblr after all, but because that kind of venomous behavior is still there underneath, like we’re not all also blogging specifically about superwholock shows.

A few months ago when someone accused me of being part of a q anon-level conspiracy and that we’re all “monsters of your own making”, this being before the capitol riot where dozens of members of the US house were nearly murdered en-masse, one of the things they said was that we couldn’t admit that our show was bad, but it was fine what they were doing with the other show because they were just having fun, and that we couldn’t, I don’t know, do anything or whatever about it until we were ready to admit our show is also bad. Which is a pretty revealing look into how that line of thinking, all the way from the early tumblr days, to other places like twitter, all the way back to here again has evolved despite staying the same. This bizarre blend of ironic detachment, self-deprecation, moralizing over a show’s perceived wrongdoings as perceived personal transgressions, bullying, rumors, fan wikis, and years of witnessing or being in on online harassment rewiring people’s brains to the point where not only is it impossible to do anything without jumping through twenty mental hoops before you do it, it’s essentially a both a constant threat and entry-level trial by fire into having any kind of existence in an online fandom space.

Of course it’s not just the barraging from people on here that’s contributed to that kind of culture, it’s everywhere else, because it spread everywhere. Think pieces by people not involved in the space, summaries of what happened mostly written by people who were hate following it to begin with, academic papers by ex-fans, faux-investigative pieces from wanna-be media critics trying to canonize their version of what happened into definitive internet history after preemptively blocking everyone involved so no one can respond to what they say — it’s extremely exhausting every step of the way. I can’t blame ex-tjlc people for just abandoning this place or any online space completely, because it’s still relentless four years later, and if the initial experience of series 4 wasn’t already distressing enough, whatever you think about it now, everyone’s faced the same challenge of being gradually smothered into relinquishing any ties to it through that cycle of shame that’s been perfected and streamlined right down to quick and recognizable beats on this website for over a decade.

[actuallyprobablyafaerie]

more of my rewatch of the usj arc prt three to be exact

im posting this later than i wanted too whoops i meant to put this out like days ago :/

highlights from episode 12

- starting off the episode strong with am ripping off his tie so that we know for sure its serious time (in case the fact that he's not smiling didn't clue us in enough)

- everyone stands there frozen just staring at him for a few seconds like you could've killed all three of the kids sitting in front of you in that time shiggy but ok stare at am instead

- once again instead of doing something productive like killing the kids he keeps meaning to kill shiggy takes the time to call am the trash of society

- direct quote from my notes- "a lot of the villains haven't seen am in person yet and swiftly get educated on how busted his powers are" and i think that about sums it up

- no seriously am's powers are BUSTED he's literally moving faster than the eye can see and thats not even as fast as he could move in his prime

- why does anyone in this universe ever think its a good idea to give a middle school this amount of power

- am knocks the hand off shiggy's face and he literally panics and puts his own hand on his face as a replacement and stumbles around for a few seconds before he gets his original hand back man is COMMITTED to the creepy severed hand thing

- also am poses happily with a peace sign magic girl style and smiles at mido while holding aizawa's unconscious bloody body i literally laughed out loud he could've given him a thumbs up or something but instead he went with a peace sign

- kuro tells am that he doesn't want blood and guts flowing through his portals but he would be happy if they were am's

- i see everyone in the rooftop trio is bloodthirsty nice ok

- mido hands his homeroom teacher's unconscious bloody body to best girl tsu so that he can do something stupid

- he hands aizawa over and tsu and the grape bastard are like 'wait but you're not going to go do something stupid' and he just turns around and runs back to the villains where am is about to be torn in half in like three different directions

- when baku todo and kiri jump in to save am it shows us a shot of shiggy's face after his plans are foiled for a second and according to my notes 'we cannot see shiggy’s face but it framed to be very serious and undaunted by the new heroes.'

- However, I know shiggy personally and I am well aware that he is fighting back tears and on the verge of combusting very angrily like a 5 year old stuck in time out

- shiggy describes the situation he's in as 'being in a pinch'

- baku calls kuro a careless bastard which is bold talk coming from him (who almost murdered a classmate a few episodes ago? it wasn't kuro)

- baku to kuro 'i would love to commit homicide right now please give me a reason im not joking move please i DARE you i DARE you if you even blink like a little bit i'm going to kill you' and he's making this face -> >:[

- shiggy literally tells am that mido tried to kill him by punching him head on last ep and am either blocks him out and doesn't register that at all or really doesn't care

uhhh this is getting long so i'll probably finish the ep in the next part

part one here and part two here

EDIT: part four

[world-of-aus]

You’re My Mission One-shot Soul Mate AU!

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Word Count: 4,932

Warnings: violence, angst, fluff, here lies a twist

Author’s Note: Anything italicized is something occurring in the past! Here it is finally, i’ll be honest i’m not sure how i’m feeling about it but i decided to step out of a comfort zone and do a twist that i hope i made obvious enough. Literally last minute while i was editing i had the brilliant idea to change the ending and well, i hope it doesn't suck to bad lol. I hope you’ll enjoy it none the less, behind the screen coming out tomorrow!

You awoke with a pounding head; a pained groan fell from your lips as you tried to move your aching body. Panic seeped into you when you found you couldn't move your arms, pins and needles prickling at your fingers as you struggled with the ties that had you bound. You looked around with wide eyes, but there wasn’t much to make out in the dimly lit room. You scourged your hazy brain for something, anything to tell you how you had ended up here in this situation. Your eyes widened in horror.

You quickened your pace as you pushed yourself into the sea of bodies, you pushed against them as you tried to get away from his watchful eyes. You felt the coldness of his stare on you, watching you, studying you, much like the day before, he had only continued to draw closer as the week had passed. At first you had just thought you had stumbled upon the most mysterious man, with the most marvelous crystal blue eyes.  Though when you were walking through the minuscule isles of your streets corner market and bumped into him once more you had chalked it up to fate playing games. The third and fourth time had you biting your lip with nervousness, surely you would have seen this man before if he really did have the same schedule as you, unless, you had shaken your head of those thoughts, it couldn’t be. You had decided to swallow down your nerves and approach him on the fifth day, you hadn’t known he was there until you felt a chill run up your spine, the feel of eyes watching your every move as you ordered your favorite caffeinated drink from the overly friendly barista. Sure enough when you had handed your payment to the cashier, you chanced a glance over your shoulder to already find his gaze on yours, he had your breath catching in your throat.

You moved off stiffly to the side to allow the next customer to move up, you gazed away from the predatory eyes focusing on the baristas behind the bar, you took a deep breath deciding that you would go over to the mysterious man and confront him, in your mind there was simply no explanation for why he was always appearing in locations you had never seen him before. Your name was called and you took uneasy steps forward taking the warm cup from the smiling teen. Turning on your heel you steeled yourself as you made your way towards the man sitting in the middle of the local coffee house. Taking a breath, you found your words, “excuse me,” you voiced warmly, “ I feel like I've seen a lot  of you in places I've never seen you before, and maybe that’s just a coincidence, do I know you?” you questioned.

His eyes were locked on yours as he shook his head once, you swallowed fingers tapping on your Styrofoam cup nervously.  

“are you-” you paused, “are you following me?” you questioned voice dropping.

Your nearly dropped the hot drink in your hands when his head nodded once, rather than questioning him any further you probably did the last thing you should have done, you ran. Your heart was racing in your chest as you raced out the doors and onto the busy streets. You looked behind you with wide eyes to see he was feet away. You quickened your pace, continuing to push through the crowds, eventually the crowd thinned the closer you got to home. You didn’t dare chance a glance back over your shoulder, you already knew he would be there. With a thrumming heart you continued to push forward, the heels of your ankle high boots thumping against the cemented side walk. If you strained your ears enough you could hear the pair of feet trailing you.

You were still another 3 blocks from your home, you began to grow desperate as the people on the streets became fewer and fewer. You did what could be described as your next biggest mistake, the one that was going to do you in. You ran, and in your hurry to get away from him you truly weren't thinking, and you ran into an alleyway, a choked sob fell from your lips as your hit a dead end. You baked away from the stoned brick, silent tears fell from your eyes, a silent gasp fell from your lips when you backed into something hard behind you. Turning ever so slowly, you looked up with wide eyes, your mouth fell open in a scream but nothing ever came as the world around you went black.

The sound of a steel door slamming had you jumping in the wooden chair you had been bound too. You waited with baited breath as you heard heavy footsteps approach you. He appeared under the single industrial pendant light. His eyes were set, jaw stiff, nostrils flaring as he looked you over, your body tensed when they landed on the knife in his hands.

“You know, you almost had me thinking I had gone after the wrong person,” he grunted.

Your eyes widened slightly, a look of horror coming over your features, “i don’t even know who you are, what do you want?” you whimpered.

His jaw clenched, “cut the shit and drop the façade y/n, it's just me and you,”  

You quivered in your chair, “i- I don’t know what you’re talking about, how do you know my name?” you questioned shakily, “please just let me go I swear I won’t tell anyone anything I sw-”

A fist to the face cut off your words, your head snapped to the side, blood seeped from your split lip.

Your jaw clenched, spitting the blood that had gathered in your mouth you turned your head back towards him, he was closer now.

You adjusted yourself in the uncomfortable chair, “did you really forget that I can’t feel the pain you inflict on me?” you glared.

Though Bucky’s face had remained the same stoic stare, his eyes looked away from yours, you scoffed. “You know you could jeopardize this entire mission for us right, what the hell are you even doing Barnes, what the hell is all of this?” you questioned pulling at the restraints.

He let out a tense breath through his lips, “I just,” his fist clenched at his side, “I just needed to make sure you were okay,”

A sarcastic laugh left your lips, “and this,” you growled tugging at the restraints, “this is your way of making sure I was okay, didn’t think you cared, if I recall it was you fleeing the moment you found out we were s-”

“don't say it,” he growled, eyes growing dark as he glared at you.

You shook your head at the man in front of you, “see you still haven’t accepted it,” you muttered, “yet here we are, with me tied to a fucking chair because you wanted to make sure I was okay.”

The two of you grew quiet as you murdered one another with the intensity of killer eyes, “can you untie me my arms uncomfortable,” you muttered. Though Bucky personally couldn’t inflict any pain on you the ropes binding your hands now that was another story.

Bucky didn’t utter a word as he went behind you to cut the restraints, your arms fell limp at your sides, a inaudible pained groan fell from your lips. You pushed yourself up on wobby legs, gathering your bearings. Once the feeling had returned to your numbed limbs, you turned to face the stoic man next to you. It took you a second to reel your hand back, your fist flying into the side of Bucky’s cheek throwing him off guard, your foot was the next thing to swing taking a direct hit into the middle of his chest sending him flying a few feet back.

A growl left his lips as he stood, a pained expression on his face, “that’s what you get Barnes,” you hissed standing your ground, “it's been a damn year, and now all of a sudden you decide to “care”, if you even want to call it that,”

“y/n” he tried

“I don’t want to hear it,” you muttered, “does the team even know you’re here, that you’ve been following me?” You seethed, “Pierce could very well have caught on, he has eyes on me, it’s been a year and the asshole still doesn’t trust me, and now you showing up out of the blue to come check up on me, what the hell bucky!”

You could see his façade fall the longer he stared at you, “the team hasn’t heard from you, they were worried,”

An angry groan tore from your lips, “fuck you Barnes, why is it so hard for you to give into your feelings,” you yelled, “the teams well aware I wouldn’t be in contact until I got everything I needed to frame pierce, and IF they were worried why not send someone else, why YOU!”

Bucky stood unmoving, he didn’t know what to say, what could he say after he pushed you away.

You sat on his untouched bed, fingers twiddling in your lap as you waited for him. You were lost in your head as you went over the words you’d like to share with him, to express to him. There were so many emotions coursing through you, but the one shining through the brightest was disbelief. You had heard the stories, seen the headlines, even witnessed the love of two souls becoming one, you had just never thought it was in the books for you, you had never felt that tug towards someone, and you had been okay with it. Until today; you had never trained with Bucky, it was usually Natasha and occasionally Steve if he was willing to get rough housed. So when you had been informed that Steve and Natasha would be out of the tower for a few hours, you decided to try and coax the guarded soldier out of the confines of his room.

Bucky was always very guarded, you only ever saw him really let his walls down around Steve and that in itself was a rare occurrence, so having him here in the training room with you and watching him crack the smallest resemblance of a smile at you had you nearly falling to your feet.

“don’t let your guard down, keep your stance,” he murmured from his end of the mat.

This had been going on for the last thirty minutes, you two had yet to touch, you had just been dancing around one another, taunting, critiquing, building each other up for the first initial contact. Having had enough of this dance you two were doing you took the first step towards him, he was quicker though his foot sweeping you off your feet, your back and head meeting the mat instantly, but that’s not what had your breath catching in your throat. It was the chilling thought that you had felt no pain from his hit, it took the impact to bring any sort of pain to the forefront.  

“you let your guard down?” he smirked reaching his hand out to you.

In your confused fueled driven state, instead of taking Bucky’s hand, you drove the palm of your hand into his cheek, the slap resonating through the room. Bucky looked at you wide eyed, “did you-” you took in shaky breath, “did you feel that?”

Bucky didn’t say anything as he retracted his hand, you had your answer the second he bolted out the door without so much as a word.

The door creaking open had you looking up, Bucky froze at the door, his eyes glued to your form, he closed the door ever so slowly behind him. He didn’t say anything as he stood there, just staring “You’ve heard the stories, haven't you?” you questioned, he didn’t say anything just continued to stare, “when two soulmates are meant to connect, there will be no pain, instead there will be joy in your soul, laughter, calmness, inspiration so much so that there will be hope in front of you, it will be like a beacon,” he still remained stoic in front of you, you were beginning to grow nervous, “ Bucky, I didn’t feel the moment you took me down, I only felt when my body hit the mat, and you can’t tell me that you felt, the slap to your face,” you murmured.

“it doesn’t mean we’re soulmates, it doesn’t-” he glared, pausing over his words as if he knew he might regret them.

Though you knew what he was getting at, what he was doing, and it didn’t keep your face from falling, “you can’t stand there and tell me you don’t feel it, that there’s not something there,” you murmured.

“what,” he grunted, “what do you want to be there y/n, there’s nothing there,” he hissed, “we’re barely even friends, we can barely call each other acquaintances, and now you want me to call us soulmates?”

His eyes were only growing colder, “it’s never going to happen, there’s just no way, all of it is just made up,”

“but buc-”

“but nothing y/n” he growled effectively quieting you, “there’s nothing there, no tug, no feelings drawing me to you, nothing,” he hissed, “so drop it, we’re not soulmates, you not feeling pain and me not feeling your wimpy punches means nothing, it just means you need to work harder, that’s, it,”

“But b-”

“drop it y/n” he grunted stepping closer to you, “there’s no connection between you and I, whatever it is you think you’re feeling it’s not real, so drop it,”

A part of you had started to believe maybe you had made this feeling up, because while soulmates were supposed to be the last person to bring you any semblance of pain, the ache growing in your chest, the ache in your soul was too much for you to bear.

You nodded numbly at him head casted down as your lower lip wobbled, eyes growing glassy with unshed tears. You didn’t murmur another word as you stood from his bed, you stepped around him, needing to get out, but the more steps you took away from him, the louder the crys of your soul got, the tug was overbearing as you pulled open his door stepping out silently as you let it click behind you.

Bucky had been caught off guard at not feeling the pain from your slap, you had been right, he had seen the articles, heard the stories, he just didn’t think it would ever happen to him, that he would meet his soulmate. Truth was Bucky had been overwhelmed at the thought of meeting his soulmate, and to discover that you been in front of him all this time really had thrown him. After everything Bucky had been through, all the trial and tribulations life had put him through he didn’t think he was deserving of having someone his soul was bound to, especially not someone like you. You were a pure soul, he didn’t want to taint you, to hurt you like the many people he had, but isn't that what he had done. He had pushed you away because he was scared of hurting you, of the evil that lurked in the hidden shadows hurting you.

“I’m sorry,” he tried head casted down, a scoff fell from your lips, his eyes darting up to yours.

“You're sorry?” you questioned exasperated, after you rejected me, rejected our tie, you’re sorry, well I'm sorry to say Bucky, but it’s a little too late,”  

Tears were threatening to well in your eyes, it pained you to even have those words fall from your mouth, but what’s a little more pain.

“y/n”

“No Barnes, don’t you think you’ve put me through enough, why are you even here?” you questioned again growing agitated with this back and forth, “a year ago you couldn’t even bring yourself to acknowledge me after I tried to get you to open up about the possibility of us being soulmates and you pushed me away, the week before I was sent on this mission I had barely even caught so much as a glance of you, but now you’re here, and for what, what are you here for,” Your arms flew up in the air in frustration, “you can’t tell me it's because you finally decided to acknowledge any feelings because that would be a lie, you can’t even admit to being here to check on me because YOU wanted to see if I was okay, no you’re here because the team was worried not because you were.”

Bucky couldn’t find the words, he knew he had been wrong in pushing you away, he knew what could happen if either of you fought the strong connection that two soulmates had towards one another, but that’s exactly what he was doing. What had he expected though, was he expecting you to just run into open arms, forgive him as if the pain he put you through was nothing, he knew you would be upset, he just never thought he would be on the receiving end of your anger.

Your phone pinging in your pocket brought the both of you out of your angered states, you groaned as you reached for it, eyes widening slightly as you looked over the message, “shit” you muttered.

You turned on your heel, you needed to get out of here quick, Bucky was quick to notice your leave reaching out to a get a grip on your bicep. You turned to glare at him with storm filled eyes, “Let go Barnes,” you growled.

“No y/n we need to talk about this,”

You let out a harsh forced laugh, “I don’t want to talk anymore Bucky, you’ve already caused me enough trouble, and now pierce may very well have my head because of you,” you hissed, “do us both a favor and go,” you said ripping your hand free from his hold. You didn’t look back, you knew if you did, this whole mission could go sideways. Once you were out of sight of his watchful eyes, you pulled out your burner typing three in three urgent letters to Steve; S.O.S. ,just like you had gone over.

Your head snapped to the side a pained hiss leaving your lips, “you must think me a fool y/n, did you really think I wouldn’t find out,” he questioned beady eyes trained on your bloodied face. Did you really think I wouldn’t be keeping tabs on you this entire time, that you wouldn’t have a watchful eye over you, I have eyes everywhere, inside the office and definitely out, I need to make sure I know who’s been sent to work for me” he hissed dealing another blow to the side of your face. After receiving the message from Pierce you knew you were in for it when you actually came face to face with the man. You just didn’t realize how bad it would get, you could only hope that Steve would get your message and know how to locate you before your time ran out.

“took you long enough, surprised you didn’t confront me sooner, you know with you having a watchful eye on me,” you snarked spitting out a glob of blood at his feet.

You took another backhand to the face, your head cocking to the side from the force, “I'd watch your words very carefully agent, though the year that you’ve been under me you havent watched much of what you let out” he hissed, “you think you have the upper hand here, that you’re not just a pawn to the bigger picture?”

“What are you on about?” you gritted.

A laugh left his lips in the form of a scoff, his hand grabbed at your chin roughly, “you really think you’re the one with the upper hand here, that you would be getting anything out of me I've been watching you, hearing you y/n?” he laughed, “you really should have watched what you said in the dead of night in a hushed tone into the damned burner phone of yours.”

Your faced scrunched in confusion, “the winter soldier,” he hissed shaking your head, your eyes widened “all this time you thought you’d be getting an upper hand on me, oh but how the tables have turned agent, oh how they have turned,”

Your faced morphed from confusion to anger, “you bastard you won’t get away with this!” you yelled.

He got in your face then gripping your cheeks tightly, “oh but I already have, and you’re going to have a front seat agent, and don’t worry I'll make sure your death is slow and painful, shouldn’t have to wait much longer,” he grunted swinging you around to the door. You waited with baited breath, but soon gunfire was ringing through the cemented walls outside the door you were being held in. You could hear thumps of bodies heavily flying into the walls and floors, suddenly the rooms door you were being held in was kicked down with heavy force. Bucky and Steve stood at the door way, their breathing heavy as they glared at the man behind you.

“so glad the two of you could make it,” he spoke from behind you, “shall we get this show on the road?” he questioned. A click sounded through the room, your eyes met Steve’s and then they moved over to Bucky’s, your eyes used the words that you couldn’t speak in that moment.

Желание. Ржавый. Семнадцать.  

The minute those words sounded through the room, it threw all of you into action, well you and Steve, Bucky was a frozen mass of muscle at the door. You watched with wide eyes as Steve raced to you, Pierce sidestepping him as he went to stand closer Bucky.  

Рассвет. Печь. Девять. Добросердечный.

The next four words had Steve working at the restraints bounding you to the steel chair, “Steve hurry!” you rushed watching Bucky’s eyes grow darker, face growing colder. Steve cut and pulled at the string the fastest that he could, whispering into your ear, reassuring you that the two of you would be okay. You weren’t sure if you believed him, did he really think you could pull this off, even you were beginning to think maybe there had been faults in this missions plan.

Возвращение на родину. Один. Товарный вагон Солдат.

You were pulled from your restraints at the last second, a tense silence washed over you before chaos broke loose. Steve pushed you off to the side when Bucky charged him, “y/n go get out of here,” Steve grunted attempting to dodge his friend's hits. “Go!” he grunted, though you didn’t get far when Pierce lunged for you at the door, a pistol in his hands stalled you, but it was the gun going off where Steve and Bucky stood that froze you. You looked over in horror, as blood seeped from the middle of Steve’s suit, you rushed forward, Pierce not stopping you as you fell to your feet, hand pressing down onto the bleeding wound. Your fingers were stained in blood as it poured from his suit. It wasn’t long before Bucky was turning on you his fingers weaving in your hair as he threw you into the corner of the wall. If even for a second you were glad you couldn’t feel the pain, that he was about to bring. He didn’t waste a single second as he went at you, his hands merciless as they rained down on you. Your eyes widened as you saw him reach for the gun, the same gun he had just shot Steve with, you looked over to Steve while still trying to hold off Buckys towering frame, a cry fell from your lips as you saw the captain slouched over, eyes closed, breathing coming out unbelievably slow. Your eyes then looked past Bucky’s shoulder to see Pierce at the door a smug smirk on his face as he watched the scene.

You continued to shove at Bucky’s hand that held the gun, trying to fight it off though you knew the imminent was near and no training could have ever prepared you for it. A fist to the face had you falling to the floor his gun aimed at you, it took less than a second before a round was going off, a pain coursing through your body, you were falling off to the side, your sight increasingly going blurry. You watched Bucky walk stoically over to Pierce gun still clenched tightly In his hand, your eyes were rolling as the darkness pulled at you, luring you in, the last thing to ring through your mind was the sound of a round going off, another body falling to the floor.

Your body screamed in protest, eyes twitching behind your closed lids, your groggy head moved slightly the cotton pillow a welcome. With the strength you could muster up you fought your heavy eyes cracking them open ever so slightly. Two bodies hovered next to you, you pushed a little harder, your eyes finally fluttering open. Steve was the first to greet your line of sight, a small smile pulling at his lips, “how you feeling?” he questioned.

“Like absolute death, what the hell did Bucky shoot me with?” you groaned.

Steve scratched the back of his head, “you might want to ask Stark when we get back to the tower, if it was enough to take me down, can’t imagine what it would have done to you, what it did to you.”

You nodded your head, not trusting your body to do more with the haze it was still in, “hey at the briefing do you think we could bring up how uncomfortably sticky dyed corn starch with chocolate syrup is, I get it’s the most believable but my goodness, my clothes feels like a second layer of skin.”

Steve laughed at that, “noted, I'll definitely need a good scrub down myself, I was honestly worried with how quickly the concoction was seeping through my suit, had you not obstructed Pierce’s view he could have caught on.”

You swallowed the lump in your throat, Steve could sense the underlying question dancing on the tip of your tongue, his head fell slightly, “Bucky took care of Pierce,” he murmured. Your eyes glanced at Bucky where he stood off on Steve’s side, he was staring intently at your form, had he been staring this entire time?

“Actually,” Steve said suddenly, “we should be approaching the tower soon, so I'll give you two sometime,” he murmured, offering you a small smile patting Bucky on the back before he was moving away from the two of you.

Bucky moved up to the spot Steve had been in, “sorry about all this doll,” he murmured indicating the bruises that adorned your face.

“No need to apologize Bucky, I'm just glad this mission didn’t go sideways, I was worried for a minute that he had caught on to the actual plan we had set, its been a year of this, I forget half of the stuff I said to Steve over the phone” you groaned as you adjusted yourself on the cot. Bucky offered you a helping hand as he pulled you into a sitting position, your body slouching against the seat.

“Well we all held our part pretty well, especially you, I almost thought I had messed up all over again, it all felt so real” he murmured.

“You know,” you spoke drawing his eyes up to yours as you pulled at the intel device buried in the crevices of you ear, “I’m still mad at you for pushing me away the way you did," you added a teasing glint in your eye, “i think this mission may have sparked the underlying anger I still have,”

Bucky pushed at you shoulder slightly, “don’t start,” he warned “see I told tony it would be a bad idea to involve our history like this, do you know how bad I wanted to break character with those words spilling from your mouth?” he questioned, “I actually did, when I said that we needed to talk, but then you walked away and you didn’t turn back and its like something in me snapped again and I knew I needed to keep it together to see the mission through, I almost thought I had messed it all up because I couldn’t bear the fact at you being mad at me.”

An understanding smile pulled at the corner of your lips, “well then it’s a good thing we worked past all your mess, before we took on this mission,” you teased, though you could tell there was still some underlying insecurities in Bucky’s eyes. Your hands reached for his, “It was just a mission buck, yeah the words we shared held some truth, but we worked through those issues did we not?” you questioned. You saw him nod his head slowly, “it’s been a year of having to live out a past that we would rather keep behind us,” you sighed, “a past that was hard for both of us but hey we worked through those struggles then we can definitely work through it now.”

“i fought hard for you then, i’ll fight hard for you now,” you murmured bringing his hand to your lips.

YMM Tag-list: @lovely-geek​

[zerochanges]

Robotech: Unboxing + Rant

Anime licensing and localization has come a long way since the dark ages of the medium where you had to track down old fan subbed VHS tapes or hope you can catch some heavily edited version of a show on one of your local networks before cable was even a thing. The latter describes the place in history that Robotech holds, and for many it was a landmark experience and a gateway into anime--and that should have been its legacy whole stop but well, corporate greed is a bitch. I’m sure I don’t have to sit here and explain the myriad of ways license holder Harmony Gold has more or less been super scummy. From downright patent trolling, to blocking any attempt at localizing certain series and even preventing video game releases; they have become infamous in the anime fandom--so much so to the point where I just don’t want to talk about Robotech anymore. 

Which is a damn shame! Robotech is legitimately a fairly fascinating and well crafted attempt at bringing over anime for its time. The writing is sharp, the voice acting holds up surprisingly well--and it is some of the earliest known roles for a bunch of now prolific voice actors in the anime dubbing community like Tony Oliver and Wendee Lee. Most importantly however the material is treated with respect, and while a bit clumsy at times, there is an obvious love from the staff being put into the work. It’s easy to see how generations grew up with this Frankenstein of an adaptation and became lifelong fans of anime. 

For me personally Robotech will always occupy the same part of my heart that loves the work of Ted Woolsey and other earlier localization figures who took a mess of bland too literal translations (sometimes ones that didn’t even make sense in English) and reworked them with a lot of character and charm despite some really insane restraints of the time. It’s not for everyone, but I do enjoy these early localizations for what they were.

Sadly it seemed Robotech would only be remembered in infamy for Harmony Gold and its (very well documented) downright criminal powers-that-be. Until this past April, where out of nowhere anime fans’ prayers seemingly have been answered. Now the agreement between the three companies is still not fully understood, and it’s hard to say for sure where this will go but for now I like to have goodwill that things will be different from now on. Which is what I want, I easily do love Robotech, and this new agreement brining new Robotech blu-rays is great, but I also want Macross blu-rays too! Hell, I don’t want just that but also Southern Cross and Mospeada releases too, even if they have to be on SD-BD. Over the recent years we have seen blu-rays for all kinds of tangentially related Robotech properties: Megazone 23, Zilion, Orguss, it would be great to have all of Macross as well as the main three series that comprise Robotech to go alongside with them on my blu-ray shelf.

With all that out of the way, I will stop ranting now and show off the most recent Robotech Collector’s Edition from Funimation as well as some comparisons to a past set I posses. 

The box itself is absolutely gorgeous and the contents inside of high quality too. The asking price may be a bit steep but for fans it really does pay off. 

I was especially impressed with the figure which I had no real interest in (and will still keep stuffed in the box lol) but was shocked to find out it can indeed transform between the three iconic forms of the Veritech fighter.

The blu-rays themselves are housed in a nice sturdy chipboard box and each set has unique art separate from the standard retail release.

Anyone familiar with Funimation’s previous release of the anime series Zillion will easily notice the similar “retro” (or maybe even VHS???) look of the packaging. 

I was somewhat annoyed at this graphic design choice when Zillion came out. I love older anime art and want to appreciate it for all its worth. I get how the vintage VHS look is a fun idea but still! Despite saying that however I ended up really liking it for this latest Robotech set. Probably helps that the o-cards aren’t made of the usual glossy paper stock and are instead really heavy and thick cardboard giving them an almost old book type feel. 

The interior art for the amaray cases as well as the disc art are all great looking. I was especially impressed with the art used for the Masters Saga set which opted to feature protagonist Dana instead of a mech.

The earlier mentioned chipboard box. The entire set looks great in it but it does lead to my major complaint for Funimation about the packaging; it’s all Macross. Yes, the Macross Saga is great, hell it’s a common sentiment amongst fans that “The Macross portion of Robotech is the best part”. But really what makes Robotech what it is was the mixing of multiple shows. Really bummed out that Southern Cross or Mospeada got no love this time. 

The Collector’s Edition blu-ray standing next to the 2013 A&E DVD set, which was the only one I could really find laying around at the time of this writing. 

The first of these two images is a screenshot directly taken from the 2013 A&E DVD set, and the second of the two is a screenshot taken directly from the 2021 BD from Funimation. This pattern will be followed for all subsequent comparison shots; DVD on top then BD below it. 

The colors really pop when the image is done right--with darker frames advantaging the most while brighter ones are too oversaturated.  

Overall there is greater detail and the colors presented better reflect the original animation work in the BD but it isn’t too uncommon for it to look a bit garish and oversaturated at times too. 

I’d still say this BD upscale is a noticeable improvement at least from the 2013 DVD set I had on hand but well any fan of DBZ will know the song and dance with Funimation and how they remaster old footage. The similar issue of them working off a copy of a master and not the original film itself probably also is equally in play here as it is for their many botched DBZ sets. I’d also argue this set is a bit too heavy on grain (and I say that as a huge lover of grain) but the oversaturation may be the true culprit behind that feeling. 

Overall Funimation’s BD is a nice upgrade but I don’t see myself dipping any more into Robotech unless they actually can recreate the show from the original film master, by this point any more work will just be negligible.

It’s a steep price tag, and the entire series is fairly easy to stream now too if you have a Funimation account, but for the right kind of fan it makes a great piece for your collection. Until next time, let us all hold out hope for potential Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada blu-rays.

[narcisocacoplex]

The modern light novel’s core sensibility is insecurity

You learn a lot about where a writer’s coming from based on what they decide needs justification and what can stand on its own. I know here in this discourse community, folks are inclined to read that as a statement about worldbuilding—how much time and effort should be spent unpacking your magic system if your fantasy world doesn’t have black people in it?—but I mean it much more broadly.

A man taught me once that a story’s highest aspiration is to communicate the apocalyptic transformation of someone’s inner life purely through actions and objects. A masterful writer, he argued, could communicate vast depths of human interiority by arranging, with immaculate precision and focus, those depths’ material signifiers. Instead of telling us what a character thinks about the importance of wealth, tell us about the car they drive. Instead of unpacking a character’s relationship to violence, describe the gun they own. Then, crash the car. Make the gun jam. Make the object live and transform under the character’s gaze to betray how the character is transforming.

The man in question turned out to be a rabid, scheming motherfucker, so I don’t trust his approach all that much. But it’s a philosophy that betrays certain assumptions about what you can and can’t expect a reader to grasp immediately and what they’ll make an effort to unpack under their own power. Some of them are useful assumptions—your reader needs to know what they’re looking at before you can hope to communicate the huge thematic turning point you have in mind. Specificity is still king.

The first light novel I ever read was a volume of Haruhi Suzumiya selected effectively at random (god rest my soul). I was 15, maybe 16, visiting Seattle for a week or so in the summer, and I had set aside a little of my time to drag my family out to Kinokuniya, because I was a hopeless weeby midwesterner bewildered by the idea of an entire bookstore full of weeb shit instead of a dedicated corner of my local Hastings with, in retrospect, a weird amount of obscure ecchi shit tucked away here and there.

And when I sat down and gave it a read, I was struck by a realization:

this prose is a bit shit, huh?

Ten years later, I read a lot of light novels, because I make more money editing them than I did as a graduate assistant, and I make it doing, frankly, way less work. And my impression persists:

this prose is a bit shit, huh?

Except it’s not just a bit shit. It’s a bit shit in a remarkably consistent, predictable way from author to author. It runs deeper than the staple obsession with genre trappings over substance, or flimsy characterization, or rote and stilted dialogue (though these are also of concern, obv.); it’s a matter of what the author believes is detail the reader needs unpacked for them.

Over and over again, I’ve encountered moments in the volumes I’ve edited where the author grinds the scene to a halt so that they can set aside a paragraph or two explaining why a character made a decision. I’ve seen light novels establish and resolve a massive societal upheaval in a sentence or two, and then spend an order of magnitude more time and effort justifying the timing of a character’s arrival on scene based on the intersection of their established habits, personal preferences, and situational pressures, when I never questioned the timing in the first place. There is no tiny, persnickety detail of behavior light novelists won’t explode into a character study in order to litigate a point about said character that I would already grasp if they just said they did the thing and moved on.

This fear of letting actions and exterior markers speak for themselves pervades into everything else. Scenes with extended dialogue tend to be stiff and insubstantial, because if the author was doing anything but the bare minimum of in-scene blocking (to lift from stagecraft vocab), they’d feel obliged to unpack every change in posture or expression, rendering the exchange unreadable. More broadly, the impulse turns every scene into an uphill battle as attention is constantly drawn away from the specific present action that actually makes plot happen in order to establish the more abstract, summatively-described context that frames the present action—often retreading material that an attentive reader should already know.

I blame the framework in which these people are learning how to write—namely, from each other, in forum posts. Most writers in the industry today are culled from the ranks of enthusiast amateur authors who’ve already built a reputation in one of a handful of deeply incestuous message boards. The closest equivalent we’ve got is serial-numbers-filed-off professionally-published fanfiction a la Mortal Instruments, Fifty Shades, and that Wattpad One Direction thing.

One of the knock-on effects of cutting your teeth on fiction writing serials online is that you learn to write with a very direct, low-latency discourse with your audience in mind. So long as you have an audience, feedback is something you can anticipate rolling in about as quickly as your work goes up, and replying to that feedback happens just as fast if not faster. In an extremely competitive environment—and let’s remember that every published light novel author in the prevailing format of the field has clawed their way to the top of a pile of broken bodies to get there—getting holes poked in your work by a vast army of pedants and fellow writers looking to secure their spot is just par for the course.

So it’s really no surprise that the single most consistent tonal thread in the rhetoric of these books is a lack of trust in the reader to draw their own conclusions from what the author puts in front of them, given that the reader that these writers have been trained to write for is one reading in an extremely uncharitable light whose objections need to be preemptively shot down whenever possible.

Come back next time, when I try to unpack where so many light novelists’ attachment to needlessly edgy and ghoulish premises and story beats comes from!

[tcm]

The Romance of Murder...The Murder of Romance by Theresa Brown

George Stevens— director of SHANE (‘53), GIANT (‘56), GUNGA DIN (‘39) and WOMAN OF THE YEAR (‘42)—won the first of his two Best Director Academy Awards for A PLACE IN THE SUN (‘51), one of the iconic screen classics that started off the 1950’s. (His second Oscar was for the epic GIANT). A PLACE IN THE SUN is truly textbook filmmaking at its finest. The movie has six Academy Awards to its credit. Stevens takes us by the hand and masterfully lays down bread crumbs for us to follow. His filmmaking here is romantic with scenes flowing seamlessly from one into the next, using a few wipes and many super slow dissolves. Superimpositions linger onto the next scene like ghosts. His slow dissolves make me swoon.

A PLACE IN THE SUN is based on a Theodore Dreiser novel and is a remake of the 1931 film directed by Josef von Sternberg. Stevens’ version stars Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters, all three acquitting themselves very nicely in a morally ambiguous triangle. Frankly, I’m torn. I want to be a good and ethical audience member of society...but I’m swept up by the romance of the film.

Montgomery Clift gets an utterly fantastic intro into the movie. Underneath the film’s credits with great musical fanfare, the movie starts with a young man hitchhiking on a highway. Thumbing for a ride, he backs up into the camera and after George Stevens’ director title card disappears, Monty (if I may be so informal) turns to face the camera. Stevens slowly dollies into a close-up of him. My God! That beautiful face of Clift’s fills up the entire screen. Man or woman, if you’re not a goner by that point, then you need more vitamins. 

And that’s just the first five minutes of the movie! Maybe THAT’s the lure...and the danger of this film – the beauty of Montgomery Clift’s face. (Or maybe it’s just my moral code that’s a bit askew.) His character seems like an unassuming young man. He’s in town to get a promised job from his rich uncle. He’s shown to be the type to work for what he wants; willing to start at the bottom. He’s not looking for something on a silver platter. He doesn’t seem manipulative or calculating. When he meets his rich relatives, they barely hide their condescension. At one point, he’s at the front gate of the “big house” during a party of arriving guests. He wants but has no entry into this world.

It’s kind of amazing through Stevens’ direction how unseen Clift’s George Eastman is. At one point, when he is invited to a big party, in his best blue suit, the camera follows him into the mansion. The butler doesn’t acknowledge him. He’s not greeted by his cousins. No one talks to him. He wafts through conversations with nary a person turning their head. The hoi polloi doesn’t see him. He is alone amidst a crowd of people. He goes off to play pool by himself. He’s unseen until...

Look who does see him when he goes to work at the family business; all the gals on the assembly line. They make with the wolf whistles. Working class women see him. Here, Stevens introduces us to another leg in this triangle: Alice Tripp. Let me give a hand to the great Shelley Winters, who didn’t shy away from unflattering roles. Here, in a nowhere job, she lives alone in a rooming house, goes to the movies alone. A cog in the wheel of life. She’s a nice girl...a nice enough girl. She eases into a relationship, of sorts, with George. They drift together, keeping company. 

Stevens does something interesting when trouble begins for George. He keeps him in the dark: keeps him hidden. He keeps us from seeing him. When George makes his “Valentino” moves on Alice with the help of a loud radio and her living on the ground floor (easy access?), they’re both hidden in the dark and slightly out of frame when he takes her to bed. We see this motif again when George comes over to Alice’s place (finally) to celebrate his birthday after his dizzying night in the arms of an angel. We don’t see either of their faces when she has to tell him she’s in ‘trouble.’ Interesting set-up the way Stevens blocks the scene – he has Shelley’s back to the camera AND her body obscures Monty from our view. Another time he’s in darkness is when Winters goes for that god-awkward doctor’s visit (“I... cannot...help...you”). George waits in the car’s darkness to find out what the doctor can “do” for her. Why is he not seen?

Alice’s desperation is palpable. She demands he marry her. That’s understandable. So why am I not sympathetic to her? I’ve tried several viewings to suss “why” from my psyche. They would have gone on to have a pleasant and unremarkable life together. He would never know what he’d missed out on. But there is that nail in his coffin...and a most beautiful nail it is.

When George is fully and finally SEEN, it’s by an Angel.

To say Elizabeth Taylor is beautiful is quite an understatement. She plays Angela and she is absolutely a ravishing thing of beauty. We see her when George sees her earlier in the movie. He is not registering on her radar, even though she was on his. And since there’s none so blind as those who cannot see, she has not seen him, though he has seen her several times during the movie. It’s him making that pool shot that finally catches her attention. (“Wow!”) She is quite a vision floating into that billiard room in a stunning Edith Head dress (who won an Academy Award for Costume Design), as though she’s on a white chiffon cloud. It’s love at first sight. Instantaneous, magic. 

We can see they’re right for each other. She’s his passport to getting recognized. No no, he’s not using her. His own idea for a cost proposal for his uncle gets him kicked upstairs into an office and out of the factory line. Angela adores him, gives him entree into her world. She takes him by the hand and pulls him out of that lonely room into the party. As they’re embraced in a dance, Angela notes the intrusion of us, the audience in the dark: “Are they watching?” They are dreamy. They are beautiful.

But there IS an intrusion, a very real one, when Alice confronts George with her pregnancy. She stands between him and paradise. Is it murder if you merely wish someone dead? Yes, Monty should do the right thing. Make a clean breast of things. Would he be forgiven? Would he lose everything? The thought of paradise lost is unbearable. I’ve tried to put myself in Alice’s shoes. But it’s heart over head; emotion over logic. Who doesn’t want what they want? Perhaps I struggle because I wonder, how COULD I give up the thing I want most in the world, the thing just within my grasp. Could you?

A PLACE IN THE SUN is a masterpiece of filmmaking, acting and checks all the boxes. But we were set up! I think the movie is a set up for George and for us. Sound is used effectively in this. The loons...the dog’s bark permeating...the radio news of a drowning is itself drowned out by the roar of a speedboat. Franz Waxman’s Academy Award-winning music in this does me in, whether it’s romantic, foreboding or narrating Monty’s inner dilemma. Waxman’s love theme puts me in a trance. William C. Mellor’s cinematography wins him an Academy Award with breathtaking scenes. In the movie, there is a moment in the woods between Monty and a Ranger that stops me as dead in my tracks as it stops George. I can’t even describe HOW it’s lit, but it looks unlike anything else in the movie. I wait for it. William Hornbeck won an Academy Award for Film Editing and the screenplay by Michael Wilson and Harry Brown also won an Oscar.

But I put the onus and blame on George Stevens for breaking my moral code. He set us up for failure by putting the beauty of Monty and Elizabeth in our path. I’m not a bad person...I want to do the right thing by society...one should face consequences for their action. But Monty and Elizabeth together; she holds out all one can dream for and paints a picture of a loving paradise he fears will slip through his fingers.

Now I ask you: is that fair?

[movienotesbyzawmer]

October 26: Friday the 13th Part VIII - Jason Takes Manhattan

(previous notes: Friday the 13th Part VII - The New Blood)

I know that this is devastating news for you but I'm almost done watching the Friday the 13th movies and posting here about them. Believe me it hurts me a lot less than it hurts you. Or something. Whatever, I'm not enjoying these movies so I look forward to moving on to a slightly more worthwhile project, such as those Fantastic Beasts movies. That's a joke get it, those movies blow.

So to recap… Jason drowned as a little boy in Camp Crystal Lake and his mom perceived negligence on the part of horny teenage camp counselors so she kills a couple of them before her son even drowns and then twenty years later she takes up that cause again bigly. She gets beheaded but Jason, still a boy in the lake, pulls his mom’s killer in the water which makes her very whelmed. Then a few years later Jason is an adult-sized monster who stalks that camp and the houses in the area, violently murdering everyone he can, and in different methods whenever that is feasible. At one point he gets so stabbed that he is apparently definitively dead enough to get buried in a spooky graveyard, but the guy that originally stabbed him so effectively thinks he needs to dig him up and extra-kill him. But lightning strikes a pole that got stuck in Jason so he just stops being dead and goes back to being a murder monster. He eventually gets anchored to the bottom of Crystal Lake but a girl who lives on the lake has powers which mostly involve moving things with her mind, but she also was able to inadvertently will Jason up from the lake so he could just keep doing the same death stuff. After many killings and poorly-thought-out chases through the woods, the magic girl uses her power to have her dead dad come up from the lake and pull Jason into it in such a manner as to convince her that Jason is just gone forever.

So then how can there be another movie I don't understand.

Maybe the first seven movies were all a dream, and this one is just a movie.

What does it tell you that I'm putting off starting this movie.

Again I haven't seen this eighth movie. It came out when I was 18, but even though it promised a tongue-in-cheek, self-aware, campy experience I just didn't fit it into my busy schedule of wanting girls to like me even a little. I do remember kind of rooting for it to be fun and funny, but based on having just watched the first seven movies in the series, my confidence that there will be any decent humor here at all is very, very low. Okay. It is time. This truly is the beginning of the end.

It begins and an unfamiliar narrator describes the intensity of The City as we see Manhattan-at-night imagery. Totally doesn't seem like the other movies right off the bat. Oh also the score is a pop song that sounds like it is approximately 36 months older than this 1989 movie.

Okay… we're actually apparently back to Crystal Lake, and now that narrator is apparently a radio DJ who is giving a shout-out to the graduating kids of Crystal Lake. For some reason he cares about them and says something that is strangely both welcoming and mournful about them coming to the city.

These two attractive people are getting busy on a large boat on the lake. It is Crystal Lake, that is established, but this boat is too large for this lake. This is like having a Jet Ski on an above-ground backyard pool.

They drop the anchor and it catches on a high voltage cable that is running at the bottom of the lake! It makes sparky electro-fire under there, and it jolts probably-Jason's body under some of the collapsed dock stuff and he un-dies and climbs out of the water! We even hear a warlocky "ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Jason goes into the room where the couple is having another go, and he shoots a harpoon at the girl but misses! But he has some other stabby thing and he stabs the guy with it. The girl got away, but he finds her where she's hiding and kills her kind of slowly. Like, he very slowly bears down on her as she screams and it's like they have time for someone to save the day. But there is no one. No one saves the day. The day ends with her just getting stabbed with the harpoon.

Now it's new characters in a new place. Looks like the eastern seaboard, an ocean port, and some students are getting on a boat that is going to New York. It's the graduating students the DJ was talking about. There is a girl who interacts with a woman who is apparently her admiring teacher and a man in a suit who is her legal guardian. Something about her being troubled. Then there's this captain, and he's talking to one of the kids like they are father and son. His name is Shawn and he is handsome like a movie star.

0:16:00 - Whoa, Jason is suddenly on the ship! This is totally not Crystal Lake, and the ship has left the port, but Jason emerged from the water and grabbed onto the ship! Then Shawn runs into a creepy deckhand who tells him this cruise is doomed. That is important to the formula, apparently. It is then established that Shawn is the boyfriend of Troubled Girl. How troubled can she be if she has a boyfriend who looks like he was rejected by New Kids On The Block for being handsomer than the rest of the group.

The rollout of this motley cast of characters continues with a rocker girl and a longhaired filmmaking auteur. The rocker girl walks around with her guitar rocking, and the auteur films her for a video. But then they part ways, and she goes down below decks to experience the primo echo acoustics or something. She just rocks down there by herself with nothing but her rad axe. Not even an amp, even though she succeeds in playing loud rock music. But Jason shows up! He chases her a bit, gets his hands on her electric guitar and bashes her to death with it.

0:23:14 - Whoa, surprisingly ambitious shot they pulled off! In all one shot we see Jason come down some stairs onto like a promenade deck, then he looks at the porthole window of a room, and the camera goes through the porthole and continues through the room in a way that is not at all obvious to understand how they did it! Good job!

It's Troubled Girl's room. She has a vision of a drowning little boy. Little Boy Jason, I guess. If I’m supposed to know her relationship to Jason, I must have missed it.

So suit guy is Troubled Girl's uncle, I get that now. But also he is chaperoning the kids on this cruise so he's like a teacher. And he is very stuffy.

There are two new characters, boy-crazy girls, and between them and Troubled Girl there is a lot of hairspray in this movie's budget.

Uncle Suit walks in on Boy-Crazy 1 & 2 doing cocaine! He doesn't quite catch them in the act, so he just says something menacing about how one of them has a project due. But aren't they graduating? And on the "we made it" celebratory cruise? One of the Boy-Crazy girls (2 I think) is played by Kelly Hu, who has had plenty of success these past 30 years. But for now she is just Boy-Crazy 2.

Someone is in the sauna, this little ship has a sauna. I have no idea who the boy is in the sauna because he covered his face with a towel. Jason comes in and grabs a scalding hot rock, way bigger than the hot rocks that usually are in saunas, and kills the boy by shoving the big rock through his chest.

Boy-Crazy 1 has gotten it into her head that Troubled Girl is the one who got Uncle Suit to walk in on them doing drugs, so she bumps Troubled Girl into the water! Before getting fished back onboard she has a vision of Little Boy Jason pulling her down. Some other unrealistic interactions take place when she gets back on deck, but then she has really scary visions in the bathroom.

0:35:00 - In perhaps the most gruesome scene in this series so far… Boy-Crazy 1 is in her cabin wearing a silk robe. Uncle Suit walks right the fuck in and gets all huffy at her about "where's your biology project". He's serious! And she is ready for that question because she jettisons the robe to reveal that she has drawn some artful anatomy references on her underwear'd body! She's unambiguously seductive and kisses him and pulls him into bed! He is mostly not having it and eventually wriggles his way away from her scoldingly. But Auteur was filming! It was all a blackmail plan of some kind.

The next scene is Boy-Crazy 1, just moments after blackmailing Uncle Suit, getting out of the shower in her bathroom as Jason comes in. She sees him come in and look around and decides to just stay in the bathroom and be scared. But he smashes his arm through the door, tosses her around a little, smashes the bathroom mirror, and after another drawn-out approach, stabs her with a piece of the broken mirror.

In the very next scene, the ship's pilot is piloting when Jason creeps up from behind and kills him with something long and sharp and snippy. Then the Dad Captain comes in and finds the body, and just like that Jason is behind him with a knife. It's just a run-of-the-mill throat-slash but it's edited with a stylish frame-rate effect so it's still fresh and exciting.

Shawn finds this carnage right away and since he's the Captain's son he has some ship cred, maybe he can get the ship back to shore! But when he tries to radio for help, Jason cuts some cable somewhere to thwart it. And he just seems disappointingly clueless about what to do otherwise.

Everyone assembles in the cockpit - what do you call a cockpit on a ship, I forget - and Creepy Deckhand repeats his warning that the cruise is doomed, and this time he says he knows Jason Is on the ship to kill everyone, but Uncle Suit is so mad at that story that he grabs a knife and comes at the creepy deckhand! Others are around though so the fight is broken up.

Boy-Crazy 2 wasn't with everyone who went to the cockpit; she decided to go look for Boy-Crazy 1. But when she finds her body, she runs around screaming! And instead of ending up someplace where there is anyone, she ends up in the unoccupied disco. Loud music is playing. Lights are swirling. Sensory overload. And Jason is there! He kills her by strangling her to the kind of music that all the kids like nowadays.

Auteur always has his camera, and now he is shuffling around the ship with his camera in one hand and a shotgun in the other. Someone suddenly appears in front of him and he accidentally shoots the guy. He starts to feel bad about that, although continuing to film, but then Jason shows up, knocks the camera away, and chases him. He kills Auteur by picking him up and throwing him so hard at an electrical console that all the electricity blows up and makes him be on fire and twitchy and dead!

Shawn's friend from before is just wandering scared on the decks when he runs into Jason, so he climbs a ladder up a mast. Even though he climbs up way past Jason, Jason can still somehow reach up and throw him on some stuff, we don't see what stuff, but it makes him be Dead Friend.

Pretty chaotic on this ship; Jason watches some of them trying to figure out a place to be. Uncle Suit, what is his deal. He had an argument with someone about using the flare gun. There's a storm so no one will see it, someone says, but Uncle Suit makes some sinister comment about there only being one person that needs to see it. The fire is super problematic from Auteur getting killed, and now the ship is flooding for some reason? Is the storm just that bad?

Uncle Suit yells at Shawn, he says "this is all your fault!" What the hell is he talking about. Shortly thereafter Creepy Deckhand shows up and Uncle Suit aims the flare gun at him, he just thinks he needs to shoot Creepy Deckhand with the flare gun, that was his strategy all along! That and blame all these violent murders on one of the kids who fancies his niece. But the flare gun does nothing and Creepy Deckhand was already about to die anyway because there is an axe in his back.

The survivors have all now gotten into a lifeboat, and now they are just rowing away on a lifeboat. It's taking forever to get anywhere, just how far off shore were they? Their rowing is extremely weak and devoid of urgency to a level that puts it among the more unbelieveable things in this movie.

Uncle Suit literally snarks at Shawn, "I hope you can find shore soon, CAPTAIN! We don't all want to drown out here!" I admit, if they make his death really violent it will be satisfying. Yes indeed. Well played, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. Well played.

1:03:40 - Oh, the reason it was taking them so long to get anywhere in their little lifeboat is that they had to end up in New York harbor, right off Manhattan! They find a dock area and start looking around for help… and Jason also climbs up on the dock because he just was able to follow them there somehow.

Also, by the way, Troubled Girl's beloved dog came with them in the lifeboat.

They get mugged right there at the dock. Because Troubled Girl is pretty, the muggers take her away! They take her to their little headquarters in a gap between two warehouses, say "welcome to the casbah sister" and inject her with liquid narcotics… but Jason shows up and finds the needle that just got used, and he actually stabs the first mugger with the needle! Because he's Jason, he can stab someone so hard with a three inch needle that it writhes painfully all the way through his body and kills him! Another mugger tries to shoot Jason, but mugger bullets are no match for Jason Voorhees, so he clangs the guy to death on a metal pipe while Troubled Girl runs away.

One of the remaining students somehow runs afoul of Jason shortly thereafter, not sure how he got separated from the rest of the group. But Jason chases him onto a roof of a nearby building, and I'm sitting here typing this as many, many of this movie's seconds are spent with this student trying to beat up Jason with his fists! He just punches him and punches him and punches him repeatedly for a while, and Jason just sort of barely notices. Finally, Jason takes one swing and knocks the guy's head off.

Just as quickly as they all got inexplicably separated, the four remaining people from the cruise all run into each other with an NYPD cop, so it looks like everything is going to be okay… but when they get into the squad car, a mugger head is on the dashboard! Jason is there! He gets the cop! The rest are in the car so Troubled Girl drives away… but she has a stylish vision of Little Boy Jason, and that ends with Actual Jason on the ground inexplicably unmoving, the cop car ramming a building and exploding violently, and Troubled Girl's hair looking more fabulous than ever before. Three of them got out of the car before it exploded, but the teacher who was nice to Troubled Girl at the beginning isn't with them so maybe she blew up with the cop car.

1:17:00 - Oh a flashback! Young girl who is probably Young Troubled Girl is lake boating with Uncle Suit. POS that he is, he tells her that she needs to learn to swim or Jason Voorhees will get her, and he even pushes her into the lake so that she'll learn the hard way! What a tool! Little Boy Jason is down there, we see, grabbing at her ankles to hold her down.

Back to the present day, she confronts him about it and runs away. Then Jason gets up and walks at Uncle Suit! Why, he wasn't dead at all! Then a very strange thing happens which I don't think was a fully baked cinematic setpiece… Uncle Suit runs away into a building. Seconds later, Jason throws him out of a second floor window of that building. Then Jason is next to him in the alley where he fell, and he grabs him and shoves him in a barrel of sludge until he drowns.

All that's left are Troubled Girl and Shawn. She reveals that one of the reasons she's so troubled is that her parents died in a car accident and she was at school when she heard the news. Well of course she's a basket case, it's no wonder no one understands how to deal with her. That is the most intense story I've ever heard in my life. Or they just never got around to writing a more interesting story for this moment in the movie. But anyway, she and Shawn then shove their mouths together and it looks like that's the first time that's ever happened in all of human history. But Jason interrupts them and it's a chase down into the subway.

They get on a train. So much graffiti! What a dystopian nightmare! Is this the future the liberals want???!!! Jason is there though. There is no escaping Jason.

The train stops and Jason chases them down the tunnel. Shawn tackles Jason very bravely, and boy does that work out well for him because Jason totally fries up from touching that rail so hard. Shawn is fine though even though he was also rolling around and touching rails.

Troubled Girl and Shawn get up to the surface and are momentarily blinded by the dazzling lights of The Borough Of Manhattan, America's Most Exciting Borough, but then Jason, just fine as always, shows up. He chases them into a diner, makes some trouble there, and then chases them into a dead end alley. There is one way out though… through a manhole and down into the sewers!

They actually run into a sewer worker down there. Much of Manhattan has been inhabited only by gangs in this movie, so this is a pleasant surprise. He tells them that the sewer is about to have its regularly scheduled nightly flood of toxic waste so it's a good idea to not be in the sewers pretty soon.

But Jason catches up with them and kills the sewer worker by taking his wrench and clubbing him with it in a way that is cool shadows and blood spatter on the sewer wall.

Jason comes after Troubled Girl, but she spots a vat of toxic liquid and douses Jason with it! It messes him up! They are able to climb up a thing but all it gets them is a few feet above Jason’s head. But he can't follow because he's been toxic'd and that is making him gravely flummoxed. We hear the abstract sound of a drowning boy crying for help as a flood of toxic liquid rushes through, but just below where Troubled Girl and Shawn are clinging. It drowns Jason and when it goes away he is a little drowned boy. Shortly thereafter, they are strolling along Times Square and that dog finds them. It is the last thing that happens in the eight Friday the 13th movies that were released between 1980 and 1989.

So this movie was not campier or wittier than any of the others, and it didn't really try to be. It very much changed the setting, even though most of it was on that ship. It wasn't good. You should not watch it. I would advise against it. But if you do, may I please review your notes?

[anghellrose]

Confessions Of A Novice Video Gamer

The third level is set in space, where you must escape the planet surface in the Millennium Falcon and destroy the Tie Fighters chasing you, each kill accompanied by a cheer from Chewbacca. The third arcade release set in the Star Wars universe sees Atari go back in time, to a previous episode in the series as well as to the vector graphics format of the original game. Keen Star Wars fans will notice that the Death Star is actually the second Death Star featured in Return of the Jedi, not the one from the original Star Wars film. If the standard stand-up version of the Star Wars arcade game were not exciting enough, there was also an inspired special edition cabinet that allowed gamers to actually sit inside the game, like climbing into your very own X-Wing ship. There some great games on the PS3, best game on the PS3? I messed up the skeletons before, so I have to reinstall the game. I have never before been so moved and captivated while playing a video game. Journey employs an orchestral soundtrack that is truly unique, and syncs with the game seamlessly. 

The highlight of this game or games is its wonderful complexity. Playing the games in 3D is different. Obviously this is not the end of good games to play. You can play any of the missions over and over again to help you advance your rank. It debuted on March 2012, over the PlayStation Network. Despite never being as popular as the X-Box or PlayStation 2 and also having a reputation is a 'console for kiddies' there were plenty of worthy titles developed for the unit. To illustrate, if you refer to the section pertaining to Cartoony Toons, there is an example of three images that are stripped-down cartoon faces without bodies and we are informed that is all a character needs. Adobe Dreamweaver, Microsoft FrontPage, are examples of web development software. If you feel that, your skills go beyond Adobe flash then take a close look at Maya or Autodesk is its common name. Each time you level up you can then improve your action skill. Some key frames are specified at extreme positions, where others are spaced such that the time interval between them is not too large. Star Wars was such a popular movie series, I have no doubt all of these games are riveting!

Nowadays, filmmakers rely so much on animation to bring their scripts to life on the movie screen. Multimedia: Movie Edit Pro, Sony ACID Music Studio and Maya. I'm not sure how to describe how superb this game really is, words escape me. That is, he or she first draws the first frame of the animation, then the second, and so on until the sequence is complete. An artist or cartoonist is this case will dream up a character then draw it. Exaggeration, for instance, can be used in poses to draw attention to what the character is doing. Its main aim is to draw the attention of the audience to the most relevant action, personality, expression or a mood in a scene so that it is easily recognizable. The 2nd and 3rd waves feature the Hoth battle scene from the Empire Strikes Back, and a final showdown with Darth Vader from the Return of the Jedi, as well as the destruction of the second Death Star.

The gameplay of Empire Strikes Back followed a similar theme to Star Wars, replaced with classic scenes from Episode 5, starting on the surface of the Ice Planet Hoth. Functionality: The idea behind using a three-dimensional scanner is creating a Point Cloud of the Geometric Samples on the subjects surface. Relational database management systems like SQL, Cloud SQL and Oracle are used in complex installations to manage vast data and ensure data integrity. Security and client identification systems. Custom applications are tweaked to suit the changing demands of the client organization. General purpose applications are designed as feature-full packages while custom software are tailor-made for a client. Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal are dynamic web creation tools which are installed offline on localhosts or online on web server platforms. They work on top of browsers and use crawling or spider-like scripts to search for user requests from every corner of the world wide web.

Web apps are installed and/or run on web browsers. It also permits a user to access websites that are usually blocked in ordinary browsers. In this case lesser people are involved and the production cycle is shorter and tighter. Watch people and things around you to find out how character transports through movement. For example, a bouncing ball tends to have a lot of ease in and out when at the top of its bounce. Top Notch software have features to covey this function alone. Thus, while creating an animation sequence, the animator should try to have motion following curved paths rather than straight line paths. The shots may come easy but the motion and lighting sets the difference between an average animator and a pro. While online looking for video reviews, I noticed some other future games that I may try, such as Crysis 2, Rage, and Mass Effect.

jasa animasi  jasa pembuatan animasi  jasa video animasi

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Your writing and analysis are always an inspiration, especially when I seem to be stuck in the endless loop of writer's block. I've tried writing but every single time I manage to finish a chapter or two, a better idea ends up making me scratch the chapter. Now, I'm on the 3rd edit of my prologue, re-edited my 1st chapter, and the prologue doesn't seem to have what I'm searching for! I'm trying to tone down writing too much with an author's bias, but I feel that years of being in the - karo pt 1

First off: The burnout you describe is the exact reason I balked over studying English or Creative Writing in college. Can’t say it was the right choice, but at least it was a valid one.

Second: How do you write? Longhand or typing?

Depending on your answer there’s a couple of tricks I have in my back pocket that might help. 

If you don’t already write longhand, try starting. For me, I write slower longhand, so my brain has a chance to think ahead better and I have a longer view of my story, which helps cut down on the bigger revisions. I also do more edits as I go, compared to writing on my pc. 

Plus, if you write longhand, you then have to type everything up– which is another step in my revision process. If something feels clunky, I can change it when it goes into the word processor. 

If you are already writing longhand, you can help establish more structure for yourself in little ways. If you have warring ideas all clamoring for attention, block out your writing time– “okay, I’ll spend thirty minutes on jotting down the new idea, then spend the remainder on my current wip.” (PS jotting down an outline often takes a lot of the urgency out of new ideas for me)

You can also assign different story ideas to different pens, and make a rule that you can only work on that specific story with that specific pen. If you only have one specific pen at a given time, “oops! Sorry, intrusive thought! I can’t work on you until I have your pen.”

Building/finding playlists that match the theme or mood of your fic can also help immerse you in a project. The more immersed I am, the less intrusive thoughts I have of other WIP projects.

As for the revisions, as far as fanfic goes TRUST that your readers will be very forgiving. They aren’t looking for perfection. And even if they are, they probably won’t flame you for missing a spelling error. This is something fun, that you do in your free time, for FREE. For me, I was just too thirsty for feedback that I had to wipe my hands of it and say “there! you’re free. enjoy.”

(also, if you’re threshold is for a single story before distraction happens to be 2-3 chapters? frame your story as 2-3 chapters! Do a series of one shots you can pick up and put down as your brain allows. I personally have a whole slew of fics ideas I’ve tucked away because I know it’d be upwards of 30 chapters and I just don’t have the mental capacity for it.)

Above all, be kind to yourself. Writing should be fun. Try different styles and practices until you find one that fits you.

[wittypenguin]

War and Peace (Война и мир or ‘Voyna i mir’) [1965–67] (Post 1 of 5)

I am officially insane.

After resisting for some time, I finally caved and bought this because its price dropped by $4 on Amazon. While it really is one film in four parts, the running time of the entire thing is just under 6 hours, exclusive of intermissions. I’m watching it all in one single day.

It’s entirely in Russian and French, with English subtitles for the Russian parts only. The Russian Court of the Czars spoke French, as it was still the Lingua Franca of Aristocracy. The novel by Leon Tolstoy even reflects this reality, with the original Russian language printings apparently having the dialogue in French for those conversations, so the film adaptation honours that source material. After all, a bound copy of War & Peace is so huge that if it is correctly thrown, it can kill a man at 20 paces, so the film is (the films are) almost 7 hours in total length; so why should a simple matter of a foreign language get in the way of things?

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK AM I DOING…‽ 

Sorry… that sort of talk isn’t going to get us both through this experience, is it? 

Let’s try this getting this underway one more time, shall we?

What I’m going to do is talk about each of the four parts on their own, then do a quick ‘overview’ thing at the end about… [:: very weary sigh ::] the work as a whole. 

I might edit a bit, I may not, I may give up the will to live altogether and leap off my balcony to the sweet relief from the Russian Epic Film provided by the concrete below. 

Read on to find out what happens… won’t you?

Part I: Andrei Bolkonsky

3:06pm — it begins.

I’m drinking fizzy water with a shot of lemonade and eating nachos with salsa. FIGHT ME, PURISTS!

We start with growing thing, then trees, with music that sounds like 1950s SF film. Odd.

Now we’re flying over fields, which cross-cut to other fields using a dissolve effect that looks like a bunch of birds blocking the camera as they pass through the frame. Also odd. 

Sound of horses and battle, other sounds, then VO of unity of good men bringing strength. Okaaaay… 

Leo Tolstoy gets above the title

Bolkonsky below. 

There’s a Pyrotechnitian credit. 

More aerial shots of clouds and fields with titles

There are no subtitles for the French but I’m sort of getting this. 

Napoleon is described as the Antichrist, so John Roderick’s mom would love this part. 

Much of the important French dialogue is repeated in VO as Russian, so we get subtitles!! 🎉

Pierre: “What are you going to war for?” #######: “I don’t know. War is necessary.”

During a party, there is much disorienting handheld camera work, reflecting the drunken debauchery. 

Oh, and there’s a live bear there. He’s being given bottles to drink. Obviously.

War has been declared with France. Austria has been defeated, now Russia is taking him on. The old Hussars say that this is a good thing and no one should debate it. 

The young woman ######### is so full of joy and energy, she’s wondrous to behold. 

Pierre is illegitimate, but if the Tzar recognizes him as his father’s son (as has been asked), then he will inherit the title of Count Bezukhov. Pierre seems to be indicative of the upper-class populace at the time: torn between support of the war and entering the military, or entering the Diplomatic Corp.

We see the Father lying on his death bed, the Church Officials attending to him in some of the most ornate costumes ever presented. They put the Papal vestments to shame. 

Meanwhile we cut to people dancing and making merry, either in the same vast mansion, or somewhere else; it isn’t clear. Pierre is amongst the merry-makers. His father calls for him. Not taking his father’s hand, he watches him breathing his last. 

I am stunned at how opulent the rooms and clothing are. Periwigged servants with tailcoats and high-ceilinged rooms in blue with white woodwork seem more appropriate to the Sun King of France than early-19th Century Russia, but this certainly explains the animosity for the Usurper Emperor Bonaparte. 

There is some incredible cinematography here. Given the quality of the sets and costumes, as well as some incredible faces and performances of the actors, it’s greatly helped, but still the lighting and composition is wonderful. 

The massive crowd scenes really have to be seen to be appreciated for their epic dimension. 

Additionally, the war sequences are a tapestry of different frame rates, odd angles, and rapid changes of POV which brilliantly capture the anarchy and incomprehensible events as they pile upon one another. There are double exposures where one shot panning across a battlefield from left to right is superimposed on a pan moving in the other direction. Images go in and out of focus, sometimes clear in the centre of the frame, sometimes overall obscured as to subject. We see the battlefield both from the ground as well as hundreds of feet above, as though from a cloud or bird’s eye view, the smoke coming up to us, the patterns of troop movement moving in ever-concentric circles, as one side traps the other.

The explosions are hellacious, as flame billows into a mushroom cloud above its point of origin. The fires of any purpose — camp fires, burning bushes, cannon fire, so on — are one of the few times I’ve seen fires look real: they’re orange and light the surroundings without shadows disappearing into impenetrable blacks. It’s beautiful, though sadly showing Hell on Earth. 

At 1:36, there’s a moment where ####### imagines himself being belovèd of troops and civilians alike, but the fantasy is revealed by what seems to be a wipe from left to right, but stops in the middle, leaving him looking at the left half of the screen where his dream is taking place. I don’t think I’ve seen a split screen done that way before, or since; barring things like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. or other digitally edited films. 

It’s 5:05pm. That was only PART ONE OF THE 1st FILM? Dear God, what have I done to myself?

It’s winter! Horsies pulling a sleigh! A sleigh bearing Nikolenka home to his family, a hand-held camera following him in and around the room as he is embraced in a dance of welcome and love. Then we’re upstairs where his father(?) is still labouring away on his millwork hobby. He almost seems disappointed his son has escaped death and capture. Yet he weeps with joy, as does his daughter. 

Or maybe his son did die, those were tears of loss, and the celebration we saw was a fantasy or someone else welcoming him, or maybe someone else’s son…? I’m confused and cannot bear the thought of rewinding to find out which is the case. 

There’s a duel with pistols which is possibly the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Its outcome is surprising, but not impossible. It’s shot really well, too, with the viewer left caring deeply about both men, and wishing the results were far from what we see. 

Pierre — now Count — Bezukhov seems to be plagued with some sort of mental health issue; possible schizophrenia or merely an internal critical voice, but plagued he is no doubt. He staggers around repeating things in his head about how he is stupid, how others laugh at him about his wife having an affair (we have no idea if she is), and so on. 

Ah! It seems the rumour is that his wife is having an affair, but she merely enjoys the other man’s conversation and no more. Upon hearing her husband has fought a duel over the matter, she criticizes him as a fool, chastising him for being inattentive to her and to the world in general. Her taunts echo in his head as he disengages from reality, begging her to give him peace. She has been faithful to him, he suggests they part, which she yells in reply she would welcome only if he gave her a fortune. He screams at her to leave him in peace, raising a huge marble tabletop above his head, threatening to kill her with it. He is entering the part of madness where rage resides. 

Okay, so here’s the guy they thought was dead in the war, just in time to see his wife give birth. He’s arrived with the doctor, so maybe he was at someone else’s place before, or that was someone else…? I’m not sure. All of the uniforms make people look the same, and I don’t recognize the settings, so knowing one mansion from another is difficult. Look: half the time I’m looking at the set and thinking about how much I love the lamp or a writing desk, okay?

Mother of God, it’s 6:00pm and I’ve only got to THE END of THE 1st FILM‽

[:: orders pizza ::]

★★★★★

[hornyliverpudlianputz]

The art of making The Monkees

I got an ask recently to do a post on the cinematography of The Monkees TV show. Well. I love an excuse to rant about all things film so here it is! (Thanks again for the ask anon!) To start. What is cinematography? Simply put, it is the art of film making. More specifically, it is all the work that goes into making each shot look exactly the way it needs to in order to convey the “artistic vision” of the director. Things like lighting, framing, focus, camera movement, frame rate, and filters. Everything shot with a camera has it. How does it apply to The Monkees? Well..

The Monkees, having started its run as a typical 60s sitcom, actually didn’t push a lot of cinematography boundaries. (Head is another story, but that is for a different post.) Towards the end of the second season it was starting to play around a lot with editing and writing, but not so much cinematography. That’s not to say the show didn’t have it, like I said everything shot with a camera has some amount of cinematography. So. What I can talk about are elements that The Monkees did use, because it has some great examples of some classic cinematography techniques.

Let’s do lighting first. Lighting is one of those things in film and TV that you don’t really notice unless it’s done badly, or if it’s very, very dramatic. Lighting tells us where to look in the shot, if it’s outside or inside, what the temperature is, and whether it’s day or night. Compare these two shots from inside the pad, facing the window: x x

In the first shot, it’s obviously supposed to be daytime while the other shot is clearly night. How do we know this? A combination of scenic design and lighting. The backdrop outside the bay windows has been changed in the second still to reflect a nighttime view. The lighting in the second shot is also much more shadowy and slightly dimmer. The first shot is very cleanly lit in its entirety, mimicking a room that is lit by a large bay window on a sunny California day. Then there’s this beautiful shot which has some thematic implications x:

Notice the shadows of the harp strings on Peter’s face. That could have been avoided by simply not lighting Peter directly from his right side, which means the fact that the shadows are there is deliberate. This is the point in the episode (”The Devil and Peter Tork” of course) where everyone realizes that Peter has apparently accidentally signed his soul away in order to play the harp. The vertical shadows on his face are not only ominous and unsettling, they also create an instantly recognizable image of bars, as in a cage or a prison.

Later in that episode during the “Salesman” romp we see some great examples of dramatizing the lighting using obvious color and glare. In fact, because of the crazy camera angles, we can actually see the lighting instruments being used on set x :

There’s also some great use of colored lighting for comic effect in “The Audition”, both when Peter has “hay fever” and when he is “sea sick” x

Notice how the other boys are arranged around Peter so that none of them get in the field of the colored light. You can also see some spill over from the light on Peter’s shirt, and obviously his hands are affected when he puts them near his head.

Now let’s talk filters. These can be used on either lighting instruments or the camera itself. The boys actually do a short bit with some of the lighting frames (these include both texture and color filters) in one of the “minute short” interviews, watch here. I’m going to discuss camera filters here, which are essentially the same thing except when used they cover the entire shot evenly rather than affecting only the area hit by the light. (For example, in the above bit with Peter a light filter was used, not a camera filter.)

These are a little trickier to spot as any color filter over a camera is designed to be subtle, but they do use a texture filter in “The Chaperone” and it’s in a really classic way (I can’t get a good source on this gif, but it’s not mine):

Notice how the image is a little “fuzzy”? It’s not because the camera is foggy, here’s a shot from immediately before this (same problem as above, no good source but not my gif):

See? No fog. That texturing technique was very commonly employed in the 60s to “soften” a shot or make the mood more romantic, usually when a very pretty girl had just entered the room and a main character sees her. Here the point being made is that the General is instantly smitten with “Mrs. Arcadian” because he thinks “she” is very pretty. The cinematographer used a camera filter to cue the audience with a technique they would have been familiar with to hammer the joke home.

Camera movement. This covers a few new terms so you get a vocab lesson with examples! A “static” shot is one where the camera is still. It’s not moving at all, it is simply focused in one area and all the action happens within that frame. This and the next type are probably the most commonly used shots in The Monkees. (Like I said, they didn’t push too many boundaries on this front.)

A “pan” or “panning” shot is one where the camera is stationary, but swivels from side to side on a fixed point, usually following a subject walking across a room. 

“Tilting” is doing the same but vertically rather than horizontally. So the camera is in a fixed position but “tilts” up or down to follow something that would otherwise move out of frame.

A “tracking” shot is one where the whole camera moves, usually on a dolly or tracks (hence the name) to follow action sideways. This is typically used in large areas, like when a subject is moving down a street. (In this case, the Monkeemobile)

A “dolly” shot is similar to a tracking shot, but instead of moving the camera side to side a dolly is used to “push in” or “pull out” on the subjects. This is used in place of zooming in/out.

A “crane” shot is one where the camera is physically put on a crane to lift it either away from or towards the subject. This can also substitute for zooming in/out.

This variant on a crane shot was accomplished by putting Davy on the crane with the camera which is both hilarious and cool:

Here’s a behind-the-scenes picture that makes it more obvious x:

Finally there is the “handheld” camera which is exactly what it sounds like. A camera person will physically handle the camera, usually on their shoulder, and track the subject themselves. This is typically gives a jerky, “homemade” feel to the shot. The Monkees uses this technique frequently during romps or in the early episodes during dancing scenes, because the bouncy shot makes the viewer feel like they are being jostled.

Next we have framing and/or focus. I’m putting these two in the same category, partially because they are very similar and partially because I don’t have any good examples of The Monkees actually “using” focus. Focus, firstly, is exactly what it sounds like. Focus determines which object or subject is in “perfect” focus and which are in “acceptable” focus. Obviously this affects exactly what the viewer is looking at in a frame. When the focus is “raked”, it’s visibly changed from the foreground to the background, or vice verse. Like I said, The Monkees don’t really play with focus that much, so I’ll leave it alone.

Framing, on the other hand, is a different story. Framing is also exactly what it sounds like, it’s how ever the shot is “framed” in terms of what subjects are in it. Usually it’s characters who are talking or reacting to events. But framing also includes zooming in/out, and The Monkees frequently used this for comically dramatic effect.

Here, for example, in “Too Many Girls” it’s used as a gag reveal:

Or in “Royal Flush”:

In this bit of course, Mike zooms himself in:

There is also a “tilted” frame, which is different than a tilt shot. A tilted frame is where the camera is physically tilted so the frame is on a diagonal. This is usually used to create a sense of unease or “unreality”. The Monkees use it in “Captain Crocodile” when they do the “Frogman and Tadpole” bit, to emphasize the point that this is completely fictional within The Monkees universe. x

Last but certainly not least, frame rate. The Monkees plays with this quite a lot, especially early on, so it’s a big one to cover. Frame rate describes how many frames (the still images on a film strip) are moving past the “eye” per second. The film standard is 24 frames while the TV standard is 30. (I have no idea why they are different.) Because the industry standard will always be to play the film at a rate of 30 fps, a camera person can speed up or slow down the end result by shooting fewer or more frames. 

This is called “undercranking” or “overcranking” in reference to when film cameras were hand operated with a crank. When a shot is “overcranked” deliberately, you end up with more than 30 frames captured per second of real time. When this is played back at a 30 fps rate, you see the results in slow motion. 

The opposite, “undercranking”, means that you have captured less than 30 fps in real time. When an undercranked scene is played back at a 30 fps rate, the image speeds up. Sound familiar?

Now. Having said all of that I do need to make a point about The Monkees specifically. Cinematography in general is basically the reason that “blocking” exists. (Blocking is essentially choreography for not-dancing, it is worked out beforehand exactly where actors will stand/move within a scene and at which cue they move on.) Blocking needs to happen mostly so that lighting and camera movement can be planned in advance. Lighting especially, shadows in the wrong place can really mess up a shot, but also if the specific type of camera equipment to do a certain shot isn’t on set, the shot can’t be done. The camera operators also need to know who their mark is and how/where they will be moving so they can properly do their job.

This means that physical improvisation is very, very difficult to actually do. Verbal improvisation is no problem, but when an actor is moving around unpredictably it takes a damn good camera operator to keep them in frame. Not to mention the fact that lighting is now a total crapshoot. But, you may say, The Monkees is known for improvisation! Correct. What happened with The Monkees is basically “planned improvisation”. What I mean is, the camera/lighting crew went into the scene knowing there would be improvisation. I assume this was typically employed during romps, but who knows in the second season.

There was an interview (or maybe commentary I don’t remember) where someone talked about Micky letting the crew on set know that he was going to be improvising during that scene. He told the lighting crew to lights the set as evenly as possibly, and the camera crew to be ready to follow him “up”. I believe it was actually “The Chaperone” romp because it’s the only one I can think of where Micky goes climbing around like a maniac. And when you look at some of it, it’s clear that the camera person was having a little trouble following him around.

Watch here when he jumps off the balcony:

You can see when he lands the camera person overshoots slightly and Micky goes partially out of the top of the frame.

Compare to this scene from “Monstrous Monkee Mash” when Mike falls down the stairs, which was likely scripted (if it’s not I am very impressed with the camera operator) x:

The only time that Mike goes out of frame is when his leg gets caught on a step, which was likely an accident. The camera moves exactly to a set point that was probably planned in advance. In the second gif, Mike stands abruptly but remains nearly perfectly in frame. Again, probably because it was planned in advance.

But I digress. Point is, even though The Monkees didn’t experiment too heavily with cinematography in their heyday, they did put it to excellent use both practically and comically.