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maxbrodbeckfilmblog · 10 months

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Critical Reflection

Max Brodbeck - 40536303

LMD09166 - On Set Production

Critical Reflection – 2023

Critique of Process

When I signed on to The Hands of Men as Director of Photography, there was already a finished screenplay and cast and crew. After familiarizing myself with the script, I had one meeting with the director to discuss visual references and style, before immediately storyboarding, which worked quickly and efficiently, with almost no creative disputes. We filmed a rehearsal of scene three, which was great practice for working with our actors and gave me an opportunity to think more specifically about lighting, whilst also putting our storyboards into practice, confirming that our plan would work well to tell the story.

We shot the film over two days, in our producer Abbie’s bedroom. The shoot was a lot of fun, and everything went roughly to plan. The biggest problem for me was the small location and entirely white walls. I was using only halogens of upwards of 650W, which bounced all over the room and lit our space evenly wherever I pointed them. This made it incredibly challenging to create the dark, surreal and cinematic look that we wanted from our image. The small space meant that I was often not able to use as long lenses as I had originally wanted and had to empty the room between setups to move around equipment. In retrospect, I wish we had practiced lighting in the location so that I had longer to problem solve and didn’t have to come up with solutions on set. I’ve learnt that in future I must make sure to not exclusively use halogens and hire a more diverse range of lights. The dolly zoom was a struggle to perfect and took 17 takes, over 90 minutes to achieve, but I am very happy with its final form and would have loved to experiment with more unusual cinematic techniques like this as I think it is one of the film’s most interesting features.

Later in the production, I did the sound design and colour grade for The Hands of Men. This meant I was able to fix a lot of the problems I had on set with flat lighting and made a huge difference to the look of the final film. The sound design works alongside the picture to construct the tone of the film and reinforces the Lynchian aesthetic.

I am very happy with the result of our film. It matches the creative vision I had going in, and I think it is very effective in its own weird and surreal manner. I am really pleased with my own personal creative contributions to the project, in both the cinematography and the sound design. I would love to work with almost every member of the crew again and I can’t wait to screen our film in front of an audience.

Critique of Final Film

I was the Director of Photograpy on The Hands of Men. Whilst there are some notable problems with the cinematography, I think that overall, the picture works very well to tell the story. The visuals somewhat embody the guilt, betrayal and physical pain that we watch Richard and Violet go through, as well as highlighting the performances. The Hands of Men is shot largely on the 50mm prime lens. This choice lends itself to the characters faces and works with the 4:3 aspect ratio to focus entirely on expression and performance. It also means that the entire film is a little tighter and closer than you’d expect, which establishes a claustrophobic feel, especially as the space is never really established. The masters are in medium two shots, and it often doesn’t attempt to imply a world outside of what is in frame. I believe this is consistent with the screenplay and direction, as the audience is forced to watch and experience the events and feelings the characters go through.

The lighting is low-key throughout. It acts to highlight faces and darkens the background, one to three sources per setup to augment the effects of practical lamps seen in the production design. The tungsten or warmer colour temperatures make the film feel hot, internal and domestic, while the lighting’s placement and direction create a surreal and unsettling aura around the action. The lighting changes at 2:04 and 2:51 work well as additional surreal elements. They add visual intrigue, but the first happens at a far more significant moment than the other, and they work towards different purposes. I think there needs to be one or two more spotlight moments throughout to establish it as a stylistic feature, as currently the second one feels rather out of place and takes away from the tension of the final scene.

The camerawork could certainly be more varied. The static and stable feel to it doesn’t work in tandem with the established tone, and each moment could do with a little more time to leave the audience with their unsettling feelings. Scenes two and five deliberately parallel each other, but the result of this is just that the picture isn’t diverse enough. The Dolly Zoom at 2:05 is very effective and completely stands out against the rest of the film, which works perfectly as it is at the story’s most significant moment. I think this could have been made a recurring feature, and returned later to help personify the hand, or to out you in Richard's headspace during the amputation. Despite these things, I think The Hands of Men stands up quite successfully as a film. I think the cinematography is beautiful in places, disturbing in others, and tells the story well.

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phoenixiancrystallist · 2 years

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Days 217 and 218 of the Great Artscapade of 2022! Because apparently I forgot to update you guys yesterday? Which I could have sworn I did. Hmm. My brain must be playing tricks on me again.

ANYWAY!!!

Day 217 sees the end result of not one, not two, not three, but four golden turds! See, I was practicing gold shading techniques to see which one I liked best, and the answer was no. I liked none of them. Why was I practicing making golden poop, you ask? Well, hypothetical question-asker, I'm glad you hypothetically asked! You see, I have a Christmas present for a friend that is over a dozen years late, and this Christmas present requires I do art-related things, and like a dumbass I decided part of the art-related things must look like gold. So here we are.

Day 218 sees a much better result that I actually like and will be replicating on the Dozen Years Late Christmas Present! Some things will be tweaked in the final piece. For example, I probably won't do quite as many strong highlights. Or I'll do more, who knows! Not me, that's for sure. I can't predict the future. Wish I could, it'd make my life so much easier. Oh, well. Such is life.

#the great artscapade of 2022 #bobbi's being weird again #art #my art #shading practice #art practice #technique testing #y'all I did SO MUCH RESEARCH trying to find a good gold painting tutorial that would work with my style #I found a kajillion that would work if I was going for something more painterly and less anime #but alas #so I had to make it up as I went #I DID keep a lot of the techniques from the tutorials in mind #and like #I KNOW how to shade things to look metallic #like the physics and science of it #I know how the light reflects and scatters and diffuses and all that #I know that there's actually a stronger shadow near the highlight than you'd think there should be #and that there's a lot of bounced and reflected light that contributes to the highlights to make it look shiny #and the weird thing is that this is exactly zero issue for me with colored pencil?#or it was back in high school #I'd probably struggle with it now #but basically yesterday I'd tried to recreate the colored pencil techniques I knew as well as a few painterly techniques I'd learned #but it turns out I was going about things ALL WRONG for how I do my shading with digital art #anyway there is now a kitty on my tiddies so I need to stop typing lol

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alexcaldownapier · 3 years

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Week 15 (Final Post) - Film Narrative 2

I am very happy with not just the final film, but also the feedback received.

I have here, links to all the pre-production documents created -

Director’s Statement: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19KVLVP1G5PCHiTcOcuI42VNU3CzjQ-Uh27faf96X02I/edit?usp=sharing

Cinematography Inspirations: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZAWA3FF3YeOQn3VqHEBN_6C3yC1WWfhOKDWFjL5WBCI/edit?usp=sharing

Sound Inspirations (By Ben): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i1niHwm45eJ-LQtVOWEpiWR155wuORDjDG6cc0EBA-Y/edit?usp=sharing

Beat Sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xVBByh6u8C-cQZO0nG65Zt3IF0KEeKnuQBg9kd1i3FQ/edit?usp=sharing

Shot List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12Y1BPXi3voIXwtFhmsp5M-eM5n_J9Unp_4nNOjFuEZI/edit?usp=sharing

Sound Design Beats: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QAIHZPzOK-rHGhCxNoNqa2GJyWID6QGytfaAu-d4fJQ/edit?usp=sharing

Cinematography Guide (By Sam): https://docs.google.com/document/d/17wrpN92vydYefwTokgifcrhaxfGPjHqjLt9uKBhHFME/edit?usp=sharing

Roles

Producer/AD: James Fox

Cinematographer/Colourist: Samuel Tabotta

Camera Operator/Sound Recordist/Sound Designer: Ben Anstruther

Editor: Rowen Henderson

Director: Alex Caldow

Critical Reflection

While these documents and my previous blog posts detail a lot of the work done throughout the project, I will quickly recap before responding to the critiques.

Pre-Production

We began with a group call, brainstorming. By the end of that call, we were leaning toward James’ idea - an intense, emotional scene with a comedic twist. We reconvened, I think, after a week for another brainstorm. Ben and Sam had been chatting and came to pitch a film about two mobsters carrying a body across a bridge. The idea had some logistical issues so we pivoted, keeping the noir aesthetics and tense sound design but changing to a chase scene through the alleyways of old-town Edinburgh. We wanted to create a surreal landscape, editing the different locations to give the sense of one long maze (a great idea from Ben). We all chipped in, bouncing ideas of each other, creating an in-depth idea of the film.

Excited to get started, we all went off to create inspiration documents as we had already talked about possible inspirations during the call. Sam gathered images, Ben wrote about sound and I created a list of inspirations more based on tone and storytelling. This worked out well as, while we didn’t have concrete roles to begin with, these lined up well with our final roles.

Next, Ben, James and I (who are living in Edinburgh) went on a location scout around the old town, mainly on the Royal Mile. Some issues came from this in terms of realising our idea. Firstly, the alleyways were a little samey, very straight and often too short to hide the busy streets outside. Also a problem were the lights. We had originally planned o use warm dirty natural streetlights to light our scenes. However, many alleyways had colder, almost green-ish, lights which would clash with the orange tones as well as creating a strange skin tone.

We had a lengthy discussion after this recce about the practicalities of accomplishing our vision. To get over the hurdles, we decided to shoot in black and white as it added to our aesthetic and hid the clashing colours. Sam did a mock grade on some of the recce photos and we decided that they looked good.

I felt that the locations would cut together well so I created a flow chart matched to a beat sheet (that was developed from James’ original rough beat sheet) to communicate how it would all work. This lead to us taking on roles as Sam was very keen to take on the cinematography. Rowen, being away from Edinburgh, took on editing; Ben shared the cinematography, camera-operating on set. James and I weren’t too sure about roles, but Ben suggested, as I seemed to have the clearest idea of how the film would work, that I direct the film, leaving James as producer.

To better communicate the flow of the film, James and I went out again to our locations, taking example shots for my shot list - this is one thing I regret, I made a shot list without properly talking to Sam which is a (forgive my language) dick move. I did ask if there were any other shots Sam would like, but I think it’s hard to come up with shots when not at the location. The shot list with the location photos better showed how the locations would edit together.

We started casting, with Sam suggesting Theo who he had worked with before. I’d seen him in Sam’s tableau from last term where he put in a charming and believable performance. I knew he could play anxious and afraid and he had a strong look, with searching eyes. I think he was a good choice while also being very easy to get in touch with.

Production

The day of the shoot, things began to take a turn. First, the lenses were broken. The 17mm lens could not focus properly which limited one idea we had had - using increasingly longer lenses throughout the chase to minimise how much of the location was shown and emphasise the feeling of being trapped. Sam and Ben are not keen on shooting on the 12mm so we were down to just the 25mm and the 35mm. Then, the gimbal was acting up which took up a lot of time. This meant that the lighting had changed dramatically from our opening tripod shot as the sun had completely set by then and the lamppost had turned on.

Working with Theo was interesting. I’m not the most experienced with working with actors, most of my previous films star family, friends or child actors. The action was quite simple and I think I was able to clearly communicate what I wanted. I am happy with the final performance but would also quite like a little more over-acting.

Overall, I was very happy with the shoot, there isn’t much that I would go back and change - we got all the shots we wanted and got enough takes of each.

Post-Production

I am not a technologically capable person. This is a definite weakness for me. I left Sam, a very technologically capable person, to organise the workflow. My contributions past this point were all just notes. We went through three picture edits before locking and two sound edits. Rowen used some interesting techniques and the development was very cool to see. He went from more classic, continuity editing to a looser, more expressive rhythm that really brought the best out of the material. Ben’s sound edit developed, mainly through the time spent on it, becoming more layered and interesting. There’s still small sections where there are issues which were highlighted in the crit, which I agree with, but nothing major and overall, it is really great, adding a lot to the atmosphere and the story.

Feedback

I agree with all the feedback given and it was just great to see how positive the response was from the class as well as the lecturers. All the issues raised I think would have been eliminated through time and more edits. Ben was a bit pushed for time and I think he could have easily polished the sound design with a little more time.

My Role

I have many mixed feelings about myself as a director. In all honesty, I don’t like myself when I am a director - it brings out the worst in me. I have specific control issues I think. I want things exactly how they are in my head and am just a tiny bit massively irritating when trying to get to that point. This leads me to push over into others’ roles like the cinematography which I’ve already highlighted. Having read Sam’s blog, where he mentions feeling ignored and left behind, I am thinking a lot about my directing and my style. If I decide to do more directing in the future, I will keep this in mind and try to be more open in the creative process and let other ideas in, because everything that people contributed that were outside my original vision were just great and added so much to the film. I am much happier working towards another’s vision and this will only However, all the work I did myself, I was pretty happy with. I really enjoyed the pre-production work and crafting the story. The final film, as well, is something I am proud of and I think, while it is not entirely the type of film I’m most interested in making, it has allowed me to be creative and craft a good story.

As a group, I think we worked well. We had our moments as I think Ben and Sam are much like me in terms of having very particular visions. But we talked through all the different issues (this was one aspect that was also impacted by mainly communicating through a group chat) and came to a conclusion each time.

Changes

There isn’t too much I’d change about our film, aside from my directorial style. The film is not quite what the original idea could have been, however, it is what iworking within certain limitations. The main things I’d change would be more close-ups in the chase to tie us into the character’s fear, more expressive performance and more range in the sound design to guide the audience through the emotional beats.

Overall, I am really happy with this project, the process and the outcome. Lots to mull over and process going forward.

#film narrative 2

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letterboxd · 4 years

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Horse Power.

The Nest’s writer-director Sean Durkin talks about creating atmosphere, watching films without judgment, and the best movies of 1986.

Downfalls in Hollywood movies tend to be chaotic, dramatic and a lot of fun along the way. From Citizen Kane to The Wolf of Wall Street, outsized ambitions are realized on screen in castles, exotic holidays, wild parties, sweeping us up in the extravagance of it all, before the inevitable crash. The Nest takes a slower, far more British view of ambition and its effects on family—or, as Charlie writes, “this movie is a reminder that people who call themselves entrepreneurs should instead be stay-at-home dads”.

The new film from writer-director Sean Durkin, the brain behind cult-survivor slow-burn Martha Marcy May Marlene, is less “strap in and enjoy the ride”, more “slow disintegration of all sense of sanity”—a tense psychological drama focused on the person who usually gets hurt the most: the wife. And that horse-lovin’ dream wife Allison, as played by Carrie Coon, is a character to behold (and the subject of many obsessive The Nest reviews on Letterboxd).

Just as Durkin takes time to carefully explore Martha’s vulnerability in his earlier film, in The Nest, he closes in on Allison, as she and their children adjust to 1980s life in an English manor, far from the comfort of Allison’s American home, while wheeler-dealer husband Rory (Jude Law) chases a new opportunity.

There are thematic similarities in both films; a case to be made that ambitious men wreak a comparable mental destruction on their families as cult leaders do on their followers, breaking them down with charm, persuasion, false promises. There’s also something about the juxtaposition of periods in the film—the fifteenth-century manor vs the ’80s bangers on the soundtrack—that adds to The Nest’s unnerving atmosphere (other parts of the soundtrack are composed by Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry in his first film-score credit).

Keen to understand more about Durkin’s influences and memories, Jack Moulton put him through the Letterboxd Life in Film interrogation.

Carrie Coon as Allison O’Hara in ‘The Nest’.

The Nest feels like a very personal film. In what ways are the emotions of the premise personal to you? When I was making Southcliffe in 2012, I was back in England where I spent my childhood and I hadn’t been back in close to twenty years. It really struck me how London and New York felt very similar now but they didn’t when I was a kid. I thought maybe I wanted to make a film about a family that moves in that time and how a move can affect a family. As I wrote the script, I became a parent, so it became as much a reflection of modern adulthood as it did about my childhood in the ’80s. Although it’s a period piece, I wanted to make it feel very close to today to look at the celebrated values of the time and how those are still very relevant.

The mansion the family moves into is the titular ‘nest’, and the use of space and atmosphere contribute so much to the film’s subtext. What were you looking for when location scouting for the house? Was it an easy or difficult process? Yeah, it was difficult. It was like doing an open casting call. I had a very specific idea in my head but [my production designer] was able to put it into actual architectural terms so we were able to find a house that a successful commodities broker would live and commute from in Surrey. We needed something beyond that, but if you go too far, you get small castles. Once we located the right exterior, there were a bunch of [houses] that would’ve been great, but when we got inside, there were no open spaces. I wanted to have long hallways to be able to see through multiple rooms to create that isolation—the opposite of the cozy American house that they were living in before, to really highlight the good life they left behind.

Carrie Coon and Jude Law in ‘The Nest’.

We love the soundtrack; not just the choice of songs but the way that they’re mixed. Can you give us some insight into the song selection? When writing, I build a playlist that I write to. This one was a mix of personal memories from childhood—like Simply Red, which takes me back to falling asleep in the back of my dad’s car—so there’s a way into writing there on a sensory level, and then I build upon it with songs that I love from the time. I was listening to Richard Reed Parry’s Music for Heart and Breath album a lot and he ended up being the composer of the film, so his music was always part of the heart of the movie as I was writing it.

I would spend my drives to set with my assistant talking about music and he would turn me onto some stuff that would make it into the movie. It was a mix of a long-running preparation and things that I pick up in the moment then making that all work at the right level so it feels of the world. Like with The Cure, we actually played that off a tape cassette when Allison walks into the room.

Since your debut feature in 2011, you’ve had a prolific career in television and as a film producer; you’re a founding member of Borderline Films with fellow directors Antonio Campos and Josh Mond. Do you see yourself more as a producer who only occasionally directs films yourself? No, I don’t really consider myself a producer. I’ve produced movies for filmmakers and friends and I help people where I can. I’m not someone who’s out getting properties and thinking about how to put together a film, I’m only thinking about my own work as a writer and a director. Between finishing Southcliffe in 2013 and The Nest in 2018, I had a five-year gap where I was developing lots of projects one after the other—two features and a television show—that were both so close to [being greenlit] but something fell through, which was really bad luck.

What film made you want to become a filmmaker? The Goonies and Back to the Future were those movies as a kid that first made me want to make movies and tell stories, but the moment where I realized what filmmaking is was seeing The Shining. I saw it for the first time when I was eleven or twelve and a friend showed it to me because his older brother had the VHS. It was my first time understanding atmosphere and direction and I just had a sense that I could do it too. It was a really crucial moment, and I kept that thought to myself for a very long time.

Cinematographer Mátyás Erdély shoots Carrie Coon in Soho.

What’s your scariest film that is not technically horror? AKA, your area of expertise. Oh man, scariest? Something I’ve watched recently is The Vanishing and it’s probably one of the most unsettling films I’ve ever seen. It was incredible to rewatch it because I’d last seen it when I was in college—I watched everything back then—and I’d also seen the American remake, so when I watched it this time, I was trying to remember things [that were different] from the remake. I was like “he’s gonna get out, right?—oh no, that’s in the American version!” I find it an astonishing movie. There’s a real human element to the pain of the killer.

Let’s nerd out: what’s your top film of 1986, the year that The Nest is set? [Laughs] I’ve no idea what came out in 1986. Can I look up a list and I’ll tell you? Let’s see, films of 1986… This is fun! Alright, “popular films of 1986” I’m seeing: Blue Velvet, Short Circuit, Stand by Me, Platoon, The Color of Money, what else have we got here? River’s Edge… Pretty in Pink… Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—Ferris Bueller’s gotta be up there. Big Trouble in Little China! That’s it! I’m sure there’s other things, but from my quick search, I’d say Big Trouble in Little China. That was a movie that was always on in my house because it was one of my dad’s all-time favorites.

Which is Jude Law’s best performance? I love The Talented Mr. Ripley so much. I constantly rewatch that movie—it’s perfect. I also loved him in Vox Lux recently.

Sean Durkin and Jude Law on the set of ‘The Nest’.

What is the best film about marriage and why does it resonate with you? Shoot the Moon was really influential for me. I’d say it’s a bit more about divorce and family than it is about marriage but [it depends on] if you take the ending to mean that they’re going to stay together—I kind of do. You could say a separation is part of a marriage. I love that movie for how it finds light in humor. Albert Finney is struggling with his masculinity where, even though he’s the one who left, he still thinks he owns it all, and Diane Keaton is quite liberated by this scenario. It’s like their journey to find language again. I find it very beautiful.

Which film was your entry-point into international cinema? I’m trying to think back to what I would’ve seen, there certainly wasn’t a lot growing up. In college I really discovered Michael Haneke and Michelangelo Antonioni. L’Avventura made a huge impact on me. I think [because of the way] the mystery kind of dissolves and it’s about the journey, not the solution.

What film do you wish you’d made? I don’t. Filmmaking is personal and it’s so much an expression of perspective when done with care and love—though obviously, there’s stuff that’s just churned out. I never see something and say “I wish I made that”. One of the things I find hard is when people critique films and say they would’ve done this differently. I’ve become very sensitive to that over time because every choice you make as a filmmaker is so specific and thought out. I try to consume movies without knowing anything about them or making any kind of judgment. I just let them be what they are and wash over me.

Which newcomer director should we all keep our eyes on? I don’t think I’m looking out for new stuff necessarily. Once I get to see something, everyone else already knows about it. One person I would say is Dave Franco, who I just worked with on The Rental. I was an executive producer and I was a creative bounce-board for Dave through the process. It’s his first film and it’s astonishingly directed. We were getting dailies from the first week and we were like, “This is his first movie? This is insane!” I think he will do some exciting things.

Finally, what’s your favorite film of 2020 so far? I was absolutely blown away by Eliza Hittman’s film Never Rarely Sometimes Always. I miss having retrospectives at local theaters, which I’m always keyed into no matter the city I’m living in. I’ve started watching a lot of Criterion Channel and I watched a movie recently that’s taken over my brain: Variety, by Bette Gordon, from 1983. It’s set in New York City around Times Square, and it’s this incredible journey that this woman goes on that captured my mind.

Related content

Sean Durkin’s Life in Film list

Sean Durkin’s Sight & Sound Top 10

Clarissa’s list of films that burn slowly

Everything Carrie Coon watched during quarantine (and the best of that huge list)

Tracy Letts and Carrie Coon’s 24-Hour Movie Marathon

Follow Jack on Letterboxd

#sean durkin #the nest #film director #filmmaker #jude law #carrie coon #slow burn #psychological thriller #letterboxd #life in film #martha marcy may marlene

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aworldoforange · 5 years

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Singular Act 2 Album Review

Here is my track by track review of Singular Act 2 by Sabrina Carpenter. (idk who’s interested but I’m doing this because I want to lol). I will be ranking each song out of 10 points, Feel free to tag this or comment with your fave tracks if you have heard the album.

In My Bed (10/10): A mellow but moving opener to the album. The song explores the emotions you feel when you overthink something or are overly anxious and it makes you want to stay in your bed or mentally be in bed and not deal with it. The song’s tempo starts slow then slowly increases into a steady rhythm that perfectly fits the moody self-reflective vibe of the song. The lyrics are very relatable anyone doubting themselves or struggling to balance their emotions to get what they want or need. I definitely recommend this track to anyone who asks I think everyone will be able to relate to it in a way.

Pushing 20 (9/10): An upbeat bouncy beat that stays steady with the no-nonsense confident and impatient lyrics regarding someone who is wasting Sabrina’s time and not taking her seriously despite being on the verge of adulthood. Despite the song referring to turning 20, anyone can relate to this song in terms of getting rid of the people in your life who waste your time and don’t give you anything but frustration, The lyrics are sassy and fun with the chorus being chanty and easy to remember so don’t be surprised if it gets stuck in your head.

I Can’t Stop Me ft. Saweetie (8.5./10): A trap inflected anthem about liking what you like and not being ashamed of it no matter what anyone says despite you knowing it may not be the best thing for you.The mixed message and Saweetie’s adlibs cutting off Sabrina’s vocals may make this track offputting on its first listen but it may just be a grower as it took me three listens to get into it. Saweetie’s verse exudes her confidence that comes across as far more mature than Sabrina’s lyricwise but contributes to the powerhouse atmosphere of the song in a way that works solidly.

I’m Fakin (10/10): This self-confronting song has light hearted breezy slightly tropical production that may hide the true subject matter of the song. Sabrina admits that despite the issues she is having in a relationship she never truly intends on leaving and only says it seem like she has the upper hand when she really wants to stay. For me this song is the easiest to bop along because of its airy yet swift beat that gives this song a pleasant moment that offsets the lyrics that may be taken more seriously with different production and give the song a different vibe. The chorus is a real earworm that may bounce around in your head for a while but you may not mind it at all.

Take Off All Your Cool: (9/10): This song about liking a person when they act like themselves and not try to put on a facade comes with a unique building production that seems to lead to heavy beat drop but pleasantly surprises you with a chill beat drop that reminds me of the sound of a water droplet dropping into a puddle of water. It feels refreshing after the heated and commanding vocal delivery Sabrina displays in the prechorus that gives the song a romantic and summery vibe.

Tell Em: (10/10): Tell Em is a sensual and romantic song that is the musical equivalent of a warm embrace. The production may be reminiscent of the R&B influenced songs from Ariana Grande’s sweetener or maybe even thank u next. However, Sabrina offers hushed and intimate vocals that makes the song much more personal and delicate than any of those songs. The song is about knowing the relationship you have with someone but not needing to tell anyone else because it is so valuable between the two of you alone. This is another song I definitely recommend as a must listen song and a highlight of the album, and as a highlight in Sabrina Carpenter’s discography overall.

Exhale (10/10): Raw and revealing lyrics about the true mental state Sabrina is facing power this stripped back ballad about needing to take a breathe from all the stress and tension in her life from her family, record label and her own anxiety and self-doubt. This song handles the topic matter of anxiety in a very raw and realistic way that feels much more like a confessional then a glossy, broad take on the subject that is too generic for anyone to truly understand how the singer is actually feeling. The only problem with this song is too short (2 minutes and forty seconds) but you feel as the song ends you feel Sabrina got everything off her chest and exhaled and the song suddenly feels more complete than before.

Take You Back (10/10): Sabrina jumps back into her sass mode as she snaps at someone in her life who she previously let in but realizes isn’t actually making her happy and only giving her problems so she wants to get rid of them. She relies on lyrical humor to relate getting rid of this person to taking back a product she wasn’t happy with back to the store, calling her decision to be with them a case of “buyer’s remorse”. The title alone is ironic since it may fool the listener into thinking they will be hearing a song about wanting somebody back in their life when it is exactly the opposite. This track is my personal favorite for its lyrical themes and humorous approach alone.

Looking At Me (10/10): The album comes to a powerful close with an upbeat Latin-influenced thumping disco beat about being so confident with yourself that when you’re in a room with lots of people you say know their eyes are all on you because you give off such confidence. Sabrina gives us more playful lyrics and powerful sassy vocals to bring the album to a riveting close. Out of all the songs on the album this definitely seems like the best choice for a single. This song could very easily start up a dance party and get everyone on the dance floor. If you ever need a boost just turn up this song and dance your heart out.

Overall this album was very strong and definitely has replay value in pretty much all of its tracks for me. I definitely recommend giving the album a listen I don’t think it will disappoint anyone who does,

Grade: A

Must Listen Tracks: Take You Back, Looking At Me, Tell Em, In My Bed, I’m Fakin, Exhale

#sabrina carpenter #singular act 2 #music #opinion #album review #fave album of year #check out singular act 1 too if you like

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lauramcdphotography · 4 years

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Pre-Production - Inspiration Five examples of Still Life images that inspire me.

1. Micheal Corrigan - Spanish Pomegranate

This photograph was taken from a YouTube video that inspired me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n02FWpgxz4&t=187s

Micheal is a still life and freelance photographer who works in Seville, Spain and has many still life photographs that inspire me on his website.

I really love this final image as he has used his torch from his phone to create a light source and he has enhanced all of the highlights and deep rich colours in the final image using photoshop. I really like the way in which he highlights the spoon and the seeds that are falling off by making it look as though there is some sunlight coming from above through a small crack shining down from the roof. This makes the image so successful as it was made entirely from artificial light.

Here is another image from Micheal Corrigan that inspired me using the same idea. “Sunflowers”

2. Bruce Wunderlich

Bruce is a photographer from Marietta, Ohio. He became interested in photography as a teenager in the 1970s, and has been a passionate student of the art ever since. Bruce recently won Photographer’s Choice award at the 2014 Shoot the Hills Photography Competition. He also teaches local photography classes in basic digital photography.

source- https://digital-photography-school.com/author/brucewunderlich/

I really love this image and I think that it is so successful as it has been cleverly lit by a candle from behind the object and the photographer has clearly dappled the light along the top of the flower heads to create a highlighted effect. the brightness of the flowers and the colour of the bottom of the vase go together and draws the eye in. This image almost looks as though it is in the spotlight but in reality it has been lit by a very small light source which adds to the success of the image.

3. Cheryl Woods

Cheryl Woods is an accomplished photographer, designer and branding consultant with a career spanning 20+ years. Her photographic work includes editorial, fashion, portraiture and product photography for major companies in the consumer products field including QVC and Hanover Direct.

source - https://savageuniversal.com/blog/how-to-photograph-glass/

To me, this photograph of the whiskey glass is so successful because it captures all of the highlights and delicacy needed to achieve this beautiful aesthetic. The dark background contributes to the success of the image as it makes the glass stand out more from the highlights created by the soft lighting from either side and also slightly above the glass at the back to create that reflection at the front. This could be something that I could incorporate into my own photography as it makes the glass look very expensive and as if it is good quality purely just from the light source.

4. Stacey Hill

Stacey invested in her first DSLR back in 2007. While having many adventures out and about in the South Island of New Zealand, Stacey took to blogging about her experiences learning photography. Recently she discovered the fun and creative possibilities to be had with Photoshop and still life.

source - https://photzy.com/lighting-for-still-life-photography/

I find this image aesthetically pleasing as the photographer has incorporated lots of dark shadows, making the colour tones rich and intense, and this lighting scenario works very well. She used a dark flag to increase shadow and she has bounced or reflected light back onto the plate to lighten the fruit up. The light source seems to be coming from the side and this creates a ‘glossy’ look over the berries which draws attention to the rich colours which adds to the success of the image.

5. Rick Ohnsman

‘Photography is about sharing my personal vision. From the ’70s, with a film SLR and a garage darkroom, college work with 4×5 view cameras, Kodachrome slides and into the digital age, I’ve pursued photography for over 45 years. An enthusiastic member of the Boise Camera Club, I share this common passion and enjoy teaching new members.’ - Rick Ohnsman

source - https://digital-photography-school.com/author/rick-ohnsman/

I find this image to be successful as the photographer has quite clearly ‘painted’ the parts of the still life set up that he would like to be the most visible and has highlighted the chopped apple slices by using an artificial light source from above, creating a luminous effect. Rick has enhanced the colours of the apple skins by turning up the saturation whilst editing using adobe photoshop and has used a torch to light his subject, creating a whiter looking light source to bring out the richness of the colours. The use of a dark background also brings out the highlights and details of the image which contributes to the success of the final image.

#recycle #preproduction

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fuse2dx · 5 years

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January ‘20

I felt like trying this for a bit again.

Untitled Goose Game

Where Journey and its ilk blew up the idea of a short, single-visit game, Untitled Goose Game feels closer to the next evolution of this ultra-focused style of design. It’s a perfect elevator pitch of a game - surmised exactingly in its abstract, and not even needing to commit to a ‘proper’ title… and yet more immediate and relatable than countless other games. Your aims are clear and simple, and a compact suite of commands elicits a range of responses from its environments and characters to help you achieve them. How one begets the other is just logical enough to work for its two hour duration, but does suggest it’s unlikely to have had scope to go much beyond this without repetitive tedium, or becoming bewilderingly obtuse. That’s not to say that it’s challenges are totally intuitive, or even that it’s free of moments where janky controls entangle you - but again, you’ll easily endure through it given how briefly you’re expected to stay. The primal appeal of being a horrible goose is easy to be ensnared by, and is neither overdone nor worn thin, once again thanks to the length of it. Its elegance and charm complements the simplicity of it all wonderfully, and though not revolutionary, or pushing any particular aspect of the medium to new highs, the quirk, laughs and originality of it is the type of bottled lightning that is unlikely to be replicated any time soon. Honk.

Wattam

It’s a game by Keita Takahashi. You can assume plenty; warmth, charm, whimsy, colour, humour - and you’d be right. Divorced of a big studio and the legion of other talent that comes with it, his solo work continues to be mechanically light and missing a few layers of polish, yet is simultaneously far more experimental and groundbreakingly humane than most anything you could care to mention. Trying to explain in regular video game terms what you do is somewhat redundant, but to at least give it a shot; you play a large green square - The Mayor - who’s initially alone, but slowly coerces its population back, repopulating the world through various interactions within it.

I’ll be straight with you: I’ve had to rewrite this passage, as some of the first sessions I spent with this drove me up the wall and lead to a less-than-favourable commentary. Fully aware that talking predominantly about how it plays was “doing it wrong”, I nevertheless took to highlight how I found the camera frustrating, the characters’ erratic and independent movement to be testing, and the rapid-fire sampling of children’s cries laid over the jazzy background music to be cacophonous and anxiety-provoking rather than joyous. That I persevered and made it through the rest of the game is not to say I don’t still harbour some negativity towards it, but the last portion of the game did do a far better job of bringing me around to its charms than those earlier moments where I felt a bit too much like I was wrestling with it. I knew I wanted to see it all and to love it; the idea of being on the outside of something so light being quite so glum, but it didn’t come quite as easily as I was expecting. Don’t be too put off, but perhaps don’t also expect it to be completely painless either.

Neo Cab

Neo Cab’s setting shines a miserably relatable light on a dystopian city and the people living within it. There’s an increasingly downtrodden population of gig economy workers, a police state whose corporate favouritism is not remotely subtle, and a growing number of people whose sentiment against this climate is rallying them together, and turning to action. There is not a lot of digging required to expose the game’s politics, or to join the dots to whom it really wishes were held to justice.

Normally when talking about visual novels, or even just narratively-focused ones, I tend to find myself on the back foot, expecting folks to turn off, and having to find ways to walk it back to more traditional game tropes. Here, I was actually quite pleased with how well Neo Cab defies any lack of interaction - to the point where I’d actually be pretty comfortable recommending this to near anyone. A big component of this is set up early on; a wearable device is forced upon your character that visibly broadcasts her current mood for all to see. As well as mood limiting what you’re willing to say (crucially though, not stopping you from contemplating these options), it’s also un-conveniently right there on her wrist for folks to see when they’ve hit a nerve. As a cab driver by trade, branching dialogue options you need to assess are incredibly frequent - and give your cues are often assuming, intrusive, or just plain rude - your management of them becomes all the more immediate and crucial. Ride quality influences your rating as a driver as well as your income, which in turn impacts which rides you can take, who you can meet, and who you can rely on in future. Sometimes your choices are simple, whereas other passengers may be more obtuse, or inadvertently land you in a quandary more moral in nature. It’s not a long game, and while I naturally don’t want to say too much, it does a good job of keeping the focus grounded on its key characters, who really make it all tick over nicely. I thought Neo Cab was pretty great - it’s got a simple but stylish look to it, and gives you just enough to think about.

Demon’s Tilt

Pinball tables may not have changed much in the layman’s eyes over the years, but video game versions certainly have. In paying quite unsubtle homage to Naxat’s series of tables that blessed a number of 16-bit systems, the passage of near three decades has given Demon’s Tilt plenty of space to grow into. Larger, higher resolution screens gives us bigger play spaces and more detailed imagery, while increased technical grunt lends itself to a seemingly limitless crescendo of frenetic, often incomprehensible action. I mean, why not throw a little bullet hell into the mix? Goodness grief.

Given my particular fondness for Devil’s Crash, which to Demon’s Tilt is the clearest, most singular inspiration, I was naturally drawn to this. I’d played a little before in early access, but a more complete Switch version was appealing enough to revisit it. I was already safe in the knowledge that it’d managed to build upon and flatter my favourite pinball game without reducing itself to an imitation, but the option of portable play (with a FlipGrip, even) was particularly exciting. As it happens, trying to condense so much to a small screen wasn’t quite such the modern convenience I’d hoped - it’s a neat showcase, but quite impractical to actually play with. Not thrusting yourself within an inch of the screen and having to squint may give a smidgen more a fighting chance, but a bigger display also allows you to appreciate the slick blend of neon effects spewing themselves over the striking gothic imagery. The music contributes yet more welcome intensity to things, and though I’ve begrudged a few near misses and unfortunate bounces, in calm retrospect it’s clear the this is far more a reflection of my skill rather than any lack in ball physics. For those who are practised in ways I am not, the table itself has plenty of opportunity to flex your muscle, but even though my games aren’t the feats of endurance I’d wish for, I’m still coming away each time clamouring to go straight back in.

198X

I missed this game’s crowdfunding attempts, but after seeing its trailer - a moody and romanticised nod to all things 80s arcade culture - it was very clear this was making a direct appeal to my sensibilities. It’s a coming of age story about a bored suburban teen, whose discovery of the local arcade ‘changes everything’. Now, I love arcades far more than most, but even I found the story to be over-egged. The Kid’s monologuing through the game’s cut-scenes jumps at such breakneck speed that it genuinely made me feel uncomfortable about their state of mind. Pre-arcade, all is miserly and monotone, whereas the escapism they indulge in after this discovery is worryingly unhinged. The pixel art propping them up may be quite tasty, but I think most people will find the story being pushed to be a touch cringeworthy.

The game that’s book-ended by these scenes are actually a series of mini-games, each clearly inspired by a particular 80s title. In short clips and stills, you could be fooled into thinking these are not just dutifully upgraded, but maybe even improved homages to the given classics. Visually, yes, there is some argument to be made here as there is some terrific pixel artistry being conducted here, but as there’s only about 15 minutes of each to play, it’s no surprise that some corners have had to be cut. Generally speaking, the balance of each isn’t quite so nuanced, and unsurprisingly this leans towards them being easier than you’d expect, but there’s specific shortcomings in each too. For example: definitely-not-Final Fight has some shocking collision detection, and of particular disappointment for myself, definitely-not-Outrun has but one gear, and hardly any impression of speed. While not fatal flaws, my point is simply that you’d not choose to play these over the original games they intend to pay their respects to. A second part being teased at the shortly-reached end is likely a downer for those expecting value, but I think it’s two-hour runtime is probably just about right considering it’s best viewed as a novelty.

#untitled goose game #wattam #neo cab #demon's tilt #198x

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thepixelary · 7 years

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Filmic Colors in Blender and Light Linearity

By Mike Pan

First of all, a huge thanks to Troy Sobotka, the creator of filmic-blender, for the relentless push to help me understand all of this. This post is a summary of my understanding of color and light as it applies to my work as a CG artist.

From a physics perspective, light and color are inseparable, they are one. You can’t have one without the other. In a pathtracer such as Blender’s Cycles, they are basically the same thing. So I’ll be using these 2 terms interchangeably from now on.

This is going to be a long one, so stay with me. Let’s start by looking at a classic Cornell Box rendering with 1 light source:

You’ll notice I sampled a few random locations on the image and included their RGB values next to it. We have a red, a grey, and a pure white. So far, so good. Remember, this scene is lit with a single light source from the top. Let’s see what happens when we double the light’s energy from 10 to 20.

Okay, the overall image got brighter as expected. But if we sample the other 2 locations, we notice something strange. Even though we doubled the intensity of the light, the pixel values didn’t double. Huh.

Let’s look at these previous two images in another way:

Here I added another row below the first. The ‘display’ value on the top row refers to what we had in the previous images - those are the values as sampled from the JPEG image. The ‘scene’ value is what the rendering engine was actually working with - it represents the light energy level at that pixel. As we can see, even though the display value didn’t double when we doubled the light energy, the scene value indeed doubled as we expected. (They are also not clamped to 1, as evident by the sample on the light panel.

So if the scene values represent the ‘true’ values of the 3D world, why is the final image not showing these values to begin with? And how does the computer transform those scene values to display values?

This is Gamma at work. The history of Gamma is really not important right now. All you should know is the magical value of 2.2. This value is used to transform the scene color into the display color we saw earlier.

Don’t believe me? Raise any scene value to the power of 1/2.2 and you’ll get the corresponding display value.

But why is this transform needed? What does this scene look like if we use the scene color value as-is? In another word, without any transformation?

Yuk. Not only is it way too dark, it’s just unpleasant to look at due to the high contrast.

This is the first concept we have to learn today: Scene-referred values and display-referred values are two different things. At the simplest level, we need to apply a gamma transform to the scene-referred color space to get a pleasant looking image in display-referred space.

So now we know how gamma transform is used to change our rendering data into a pleasant looking image, let’s see if there is more we can do to make it look even better. Instead of a simple gamma transform, let’s try to use a look-up-table and that’s designed to give the image a more film-like look, specially the filmic-blender.

The difference between the original(left) and the filmic version(right) might be subtle. Note the hotspot on the red wall is gone, replaced by a much more natural looking glow. The over-saturated banding on the orange dome is gone too, and its reflection is far less overexposed. To me, that’s the main benefit of filmic-blender, it is able to show off a much wider dynamic range, and gives the image a much more refined look near over-exposed values, especially on saturated colors.

In summary: The filmic-blender lut is a powerful imaging tool that transforms the linear scene-referred values into nonlinear display-referred values.

But filmic cannot work alone. To really make the most use out of it, the scene has to be lit in a physically accurate way. Cycles is a pathtracing rendering engine, this means for it to work its magic, the lights need to be set to realistic values. Real world has a very wide dynamic range, something that we are not used to in a CG world.

Whenever you are lighting in Cycles, keep in mind that the energy level of the sun lamp is measured in Watts/m². All other lamps use Watts [source]. That means for the most accurate light transport, a single household light bulb should be in the 60-80 range, while the sun should be set to 200-800 for daylight, depending on time of the day, latitude, and cloud cover.

Without proper lighting ratios, your scene will look flat even with filmic lut. Light will not bounce enough, and it will just look artificial. In the image above, the left has a sun set to a low value of 50 because the artists is afraid of blowing out the highlights, but when we set the sun to a more realistic value of 500 as we did on the right, light distribution becomes far more realistic.

Don’t be afraid to let the image blow out. The real world rarely fits within the dynamic range of a camera. The filmic lut is especially helpful in cases with high energy lights, because it’s able to tame those overexposed areas into something that looks far more pleasing. Just compare the room rendered with and without the filmic lut, using the physically correct light ratio:

See all those ugly highlights and super saturated hotspots on the left image? They are gone in the right. Filmic allows you to push your lighting further without worrying about nasty artifacts from overexposure.

So we learned that Filmic is a lut, it transforms your linear scene data into a beautiful nonlinear image. But that doesn’t mean you should use it on every image. Sometimes, you need a linear image to work with.

Let’s talk a bit more about linearity of light.

Light is additive. That means I should be able to separate the contribution of each individual light source and then add them up, to get the exact same image as if all the lights sources are rendered together. The ability to do this, and do this correctly, is crucial for compositing and visual effects where light and color are often adjusted in dramatic ways.

So let’s try that with our room scene. We rendered each light in a separate layer and saved them as 32bit TIFF images:

Huh, that’s didn’t work at all. The combined image is a hot mess.

Even though we saved the individual images as 32bit tiff so the color values are not clamped, the tiff did not record the scene values. When the image is saved, it underwent the scene to display transform, so the values we are seeing is not the linear scene-values, but the nonlinear display-values. This happens regardless if we are using the default sRGB EOFT lut or the Filmic lut.

This is a huge problem because any light or color work manipulation we do is now on a nonlinear dataset that’s not designed to be manipulated in this way. The correct way is to only save and operate on data in a linear format such as EXRs.

Let’s try the same process with EXRs. (Because EXRs are linear, these are mapped to Filmic for display on your screen)

Now everything works exactly as it’s suppose to! Using linear data for compositing is really the only way to ensure that your scene remains physically accurate.

In Blender, all image file formats respect the color management setting(e.g. sRGB or Filmic). Except for EXR, which is always saved in a linear format without any transforms.

Because lights are additive, and we rendered each light of this scene to a separate EXR layer, we can play around with the color and contribution of each light in post and get very different images without any rerendering.

That’s the the flexibility of working with scene-referred data directly.

So we are finally near the end of this post. There are some simplifications I’ve made in order to make this post more understandable, and there are a lot of issues that I haven’t mentioned. On the color front, we haven’t explored wide gamut and the different color profiles. On the content creation side, there is something to be said about ambient occlusion and clamping and the various compositing nodes that work only on clamped display-referred data(the short version is: don’t use these).

But hopefully this has been a fun but educational journey for you. Stay tuned for Part II.

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acoolguyscoollife · 5 years

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Chapter 8: Caste, Waste and Haste

“Well, here we are!” Aki said, making a small pose as if to say ta-da with her body, arms outstretched to show off what was ahead of us. We had finally reached the custom-built areas of the underground society, and it showed. The pipe’s flooring beneath us had changed to cobblestone, which, after a few more moments, had turned to grass as green as if it had been outside. In fact, looking up, it was barely even possible to see the stone roof of the cave, instead seeing bright blue skies manifested by magic abilities. I wasn’t sure how mutations allowed for magic, but then again, I wasn’t sure how being in a simulation allowed for magic either, and I sure wasn’t going to question that. Just ahead of us was the main castle, white with gold trim and patterns covering every part of the wall it could, causing the “sun”light to bounce off of it well and shine even more than it already did.

“Where’s this?” Tabitha asked, pointedly looking at Aki instead of Amy or I, since both of us could answer too.

“It’s Castle Freestone, where the royals of the underground live. I figured that if you guys were outsiders, it would be good to bring you here to meet with the royals.” Aki replied, glancing over at the drawbridge, which was already lowered. “It looks as if they were expecting people already, actually.” She added, putting a finger and thumb to her chin and lower lip, which was pursed slightly as she looked over, confused. Not seeing anything else to do, I began to move forward, motioning for the others to follow, and strolled leisurely to the drawbridge, glancing down at the waters beneath it as I did so. Unlike the sewer water, the moat’s water sparkled with clearness, and I might have washed my shoes in it if it weren’t for the fact that this water was most likely actually the main source of water in the underground. Two normal-looking people stood guard at the entrance to the courtyard, holding spears made out of twinkling rainbow light, meshed together in a worryingly sharp way.

“Hold.” One said, commandingly. “What business do you have here?” He asked, and I tried hard to think of a valid reason from the game that I could use.

“We’re here to-” I began, but was stopped by the abruptness of a spear being pointed at my jugular.

“I wasn’t asking you, dirtcoat.” He said angrily, and a cold chill went down my spine as I remembered exactly why the white coat that Tabitha wore worried me so much. I turned away from the guards, huddling myself with everyone else.

“Tabitha, we have a problem.” I said, and a glance over to Amy told me that she’d now remembered it too, her face as grim and stony as mine most likely was.

“What’s up, CG? Why was that guy threatening you?” Tabitha asked, and I breathed in, knowing that I was going to be spending a lot more time than I would have liked explaining this.

“The society down here operates under a mutation-influenced caste system, with people being grouped together and made to wear easily recognizable clothes to distinguish who has what abilities.” I said, barely taking a minute to space out my words.

“The hell is a caste system?” Seth asked, and Amy answered him before I could.

“Basically, a way of dividing people, segregation through differences in societal positions, race, religion, money, or literally any reason someone wants to make themselves better than someone else. In this case, it’s clothes and abilities.” Amy said, reminding me that she had spent a long time learning socio-economic stuff in high school and college. “In basic-ass terms, it’s just yet another reason for people to be assholes to each other.”

“Amy and Cool Guy are right; this is why I’m forced to wear these clothes.” Aki said, using a thumb to hold out a corner of her now-noticeably dark brown clothes, in a very similar shade to my own jacket. “I purrsess no contribution-worthy mutations, and as such, am on the lower end of the caste spectrum.” Aki seemed a little dejected saying it, but masked it quickly with her usual smile.

“How many different castes are there?” Tabitha asked, and I took a moment to count the ones that I could remember in my head. Eventually, a solid number came up in my mind.

“There’s thirteen, including the white one, which is the one assigned to royalty. Bronze, which is the one Aki and me are wearing, is pretty much the lowest.” I replied, glancing over at everyone else’s clothes. Amy’s tank top was turquoise, which was most likely closest to the Teal ranking. Seth’s V-neck, on the other hand, was Burgundy, basically placing him on the lowest end of the mutationspectrum.

Amy

CG, I don’t get you sometimes, how do you know words like turquoise? It’s such a random colour name, just say light blue.

Cool Guy

Is turquoise not a commonly known colour?

“Okay, so what you’re saying is that I’m in charge, even though I’ve never played this game before, and won’t know what to do?” Tabitha asked, and I nodded, not really able to do much else. As much as this situation sucked, there weren’t really many alternatives we could use. Changing clothes was possible, I suppose, but I would have had to take off my jacket. Plus, at the very least, Tabitha had abilities concurrent with the white she was wearing. All I had was the ability to swing a sharp bit of metal around, which, while totally badass, wouldn’t really help my case. “Well… shit.” Tabitha replied to my nod. “So give me a rundown, what are we trying to do here?” I moved to speak, but Amy was way ahead of me.

“Okay, so basically, we need to break the barriers of the caste system that’s in place, uniting the splayed factions of the mutants, while at the same time finding a way out of here. Normally this’d take centuries, but… well, it’s a video game, so we’ll be able to solve literally every problem in the world in enough time if the game wanted us to. Any questions?” Amy finished, giving a recap of all the important plot points of the game. Truth be told, the fact we had forgotten about the caste system was kind of dumb on our parts. It was very much a main part of the story, so apparently, we’d been tossing the idiot ball between the two of us.

“Only one.” Tabitha began, before turning to me. “Where the hell did you get that backpack from?” She asked, pointing to the shoulder strap of the backpack I’d forgotten I even had. The Court of the Court hadn’t taken it off of me when they’d kidnapped me, and I hadn’t realised that it would come with me to the next simulation.

“Oh, this?” I said, unshouldering it and unzipping the bag. “I picked it up in Apocalypse, but forgot all about it with the whole kidnapping thing happening.” I took out the newspaper as I talked, thumbing through it again and looking at the highlighted words. Multiple colours, on different pages, but seemingly no meaning, no matter how I ordered them. Tabitha took it off me, looking at the words herself and flicking through the pages. Her expression turned from curious, to unsure, then to something else, her eyes widening as she flicked through the newspaper quicker, then back to the beginning again, repeating this action a few times.

“Holy shit.” She said, then folded the newspaper back up, taking the backpack off of me and putting it on herself, the newspaper back where it was before. “Come on, you guys. I’ll explain more when I can. We’ve got a job to do.” Tabitha added, being oddly cryptic for someone like her. She approached the guards, who once again readied their weapons, but a flick of her hand and the spears were forced to the ground, with the guards either having to let go or be stuck holding a now-incredibly heavy spear. “We’re here to see the king.” She said curtly, staring down at the two of them behind her glasses. “Now.” She added, and the two quickly complied, straightening themselves upright and saluting her.

“This way, ma’am.” The first one said, leading us down one of the castle’s twisting hallways. The inside was ornate, lush red carpets with gold trim fitting the stereotypical castle look, as well as the golden chandeliers that hung above us.

“If Tabitha is this strong with her magic, I think this is going to be easier than we thought.” Amy whispered to me as we walked, and I nodded in response, thinking about what Tabitha had seen in that newspaper that I hadn’t. I had thought to check the words that weren’t highlighted, but there was too many of them to discern any kind of hidden message. So what, then? Why was she now so focused on making her way through this place? I had to say, the mystery of everything was pretty damn exciting, and taking a moment to indulge all the cool scenarios I envisioned was incredibly fun. But at the same time, this wouldn’t be something I’d admit, as I was much too cool for that. One more turn, and we were in the King’s throne room, which was, no surprise, where the King sat. He wasn’t known as anything except King in the game, so I didn’t expect much. You mainly interacted with the prince in the game, so it wasn’t too exciting to see the King.

“Atlas, why do you bring people to my presence?” He asked nonchalantly, barely taking the time to actually look at us. In response, Tabitha shoved Atlas out of the way, snapping her fingers and creating a ball of flames in her hand, which she quickly sent flying towards him. It narrowly missed, even though he had no time to react, and he shot upright from his lounging position, about to move for his trident.

“Okay King, I’ve got some requests for you.” Tabitha said, and the tone in her voice took me aback for a second. It was cold, collected, and with a hint of irritation. “First, you’re going to end this stupid system of discrimination, and make every mutant equal.” A second fireball knocked the golden trident out of his hands, sending it flying to the side. “Second, you’re going to answer some questions of mine about someone I’m looking for.” The King glared at her, the fire from her third fireball reflecting in his eyes.

“And if I say no?” He asked, but the tone of his voice gave away that he wasn’t going to.

“Do you know what happens to a mutant that’s set on fire?” Tabitha answered his question with one of her own, and the King shook his head. “The same thing that happens to everyone else.” Tabitha’s words were getting angrier, but she was interrupted from starting a new sentence from a tap on her shoulder.

“Um…” Seth began, as she turned around to look at us. “First off, that line was not as cool as you thought it was. It wasn’t even cool in the movie you stole it from.” He said, and Tabitha shrugged, but she seemed to be calming down slightly. “Secondly, I’m sure there was a much more diplomatic way of doing this. Why are you rushing so much?” Tabitha took off the backpack, producing the newspaper that we had taken. A flick to the first page with highlighted words, and she handed it over to Seth.

“Each sentence is in a different colour, and spread out across the pages.” Tabitha said. “Read them. I’ll explain it after I ask this guy some questions.” Tabitha turned to the throne, but the King was gone. In fact, so was Atlas, which was an incredibly worrying scenario. I had a feeling that soon people were going to break through any one of the many doors leading into here, so I thumbed through the newspaper, this time reading the message properly. When I had reached the last word of the final colour, I handed it back, wordlessly. I wasn’t sure about what I had just read, but I knew it meant that something bigger was happening.

Travel between different worlds can be achieved. I have to find him; I know he’s in here somewhere. Keep yourself safe, and don’t try and find me. He isn’t alone.

#cool guy #A Cool Guy's Cool Life #original fiction #story #creative writing

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homeguidedesignsg · 6 years

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Light ranks as one of the seven key elements of beautiful interior design in Singapore, the others being space, clean lines, form, colour, texture and patterns. When combined in one or another, these elements result in a solid and comprehensive home décor concept.

Many of the elements will have no significance at all in the absence of light – colour, texture, patterns, etc. Light sets the mood, it makes the living space warm and inviting. Experienced Singapore interior designers can “manipulate” light in ways that enable them to achieve a specific outcome.

Both natural and man-made light can be used to brighten up a Singapore home. A tendency for the more effective utilisation of natural light has been obvious for some time already. If you’re considering a home renovation or you’ve just bought your first HDB apartment, you should definitely examine the numerous ways in which natural light can be transformed into a powerful décor element.

Use Solar Tubes to Maximise Light

Though you may want to maximise natural light, the task could be impossible to accomplish due to the property’s location, the size and the availability of windows.

If you believe that the light is simply not enough, your interior designer could suggest the use of solar tubes. This solution is more suited for landed homes.

Solar tubes start at the roof and they’re used the “carry” the natural light from there to your apartment. In a sense, a solar tube will give you a chance to borrow light from the higher levels of the building and bring it into your apartment.

Again, the placement of these and the parts of the house that will be illuminated have to be selected carefully. It’s a good idea to direct light to strategic décor elements that you’d like to highlight and make more prominent than the rest of the interior design.

Shiny Surfaces + Natural Light = Beauty

Shiny surfaces are highly reflective. This means that they’ll reflect a lot of light and make the place appear much brighter than it already is.

To use natural light as a décor element, you will very often have to overcome its scarcity. Light can be combined with other design elements to achieve a more powerful effect.

Glossy wood, stainless steel, varnishes and stained glass surfaces can reflect a lot of light and make your apartment appear brighter.

The reflections can also result in some interesting visual effects that will have a good aesthetic effect. Thus, the shiny surfaces should once again be placed strategically. Their placement should increase the brightness and it should also create interesting reflections that will enhance either the ambiance or the aesthetic appeal of the respective room.

Filtering and Regulation of Natural Light

One very interesting residential and commercial interior design concept involves the regulation of the amount of natural light allowed to reach a certain part of the property.

The amount of natural light can be blocked or filtered through the use of temporary solutions aimed at achieving a specific goal upon necessity.

Temporary dividers and sliding walls are a great choice for quickly modifying the amount of light permitted into a specific space.

Open-floor plans benefit from a lot of natural light. The light makes the living space look cleaner, brighter and incredibly modern. If you want some seclusion and a place that’s a bit more intimate, however, you can easily pull out a temporary divider and cut off a portion of the room.

Interior design companies experiment with such ways to filter and regulate natural light. Some of the outcomes are incredibly creative because one living space can be transformed into something completely different through the selection of a practical, inexpensive and easy to pull out divider.

One more very simple example of a natural light regulator is window shutters.

Shutters come in all shapes and sizes and their appearance contributes to the home décor concept. In addition, shutter position can be adjusted in a number of ways. Through their use, you can regulate the amount of light into every single room without having to opt for a more expensive filtering solution.

Balancing Natural Light

Apart from allowing a lot of natural light in, it’s also important to balance it properly.

If there’s a lot of natural light entering the apartment from a glass wall, for example, there should be at least one more source of light allowing the rays to come from another direction. Whenever sunlight enters the property from just one direction, it will create a lot of glare and cast shadows. These will hinder people from experiencing the beauty of all home décor elements with equal intensity.

Whenever multi-directional light permeation is not possible, the source of natural light should be placed as high as possible.

The higher the source of light, the deeper it will be capable of penetrating the property. This is one of the reasons why the extension of windows up to the ceiling has become quite a popular interior design strategy.

Natural light can also be balanced through the strategic placement of mirrors. This way, a clever designer can get the light bouncing from one place to another and creating an incredible effect along the way.

If you believe that your HDB apartment is gloomy, you should hire an interior designer to address the issue. The absence of natural light can be overcome in a number of ways. In addition, natural light can be manipulated for benefit maximisation.

Home Guide is an HDB licensed interior design company that has worked on an extensive range of residential projects.

Whether you’d like a small apartment to look bigger or you’re interested in an open floor clean and minimalist design, you should get in touch with us today. The knowledgeable and creative Home Guide interior designers will work hard to understand your original home improvement concept and elevate it to the next level.

#Blog #home #homedecor #homeinterior #interiordesign #residential

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footyplusau · 7 years

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Generation Why? Discovering Lou Richards

The AFL is surging into a brave new world, and nothing illustrates this better than the week we’ve just had. To start, there was the long-awaited release of AFL Evolution, a footy video game that allows you to experience what life would be like as an AFL player and/or coach. After losing just one match, I was suddenly taken into “contract review mode” and a media van pulled up outside my property. So realistic!

On Sunday, there’s the first AFL match for points played outside Australia and New Zealand and yes, I am still trying to figure out if calling the goalposts “The Big Chopsticks” is considered inappropriate. I am also curious as to whether the Shanghai audience should be seated anywhere near Dustin Martin, who might see said “Big chopsticks” and wondered if he’s being trolled.

Magpies legend Lou Richards waves to the crowd during the 2014 AFL grand final. Photo: Getty Images

We also sit on the cusp of another huge leap – the inaugural women’s draft – where players will be fighting it out for pay rises worth tens of hundreds of dollar. And a free hat!

But amid all of this bold innovation, we were also reminded of the AFL’s past. Lou Richards’ passing made many people of a certain age pause and reflect on how we got here.

For people of my generation it was a reminder that not only was Lou a remarkable part of the Collingwood legacy, but that his off-field contributions helped build a wider culture around the game.

It not only helped sustain the sport, but made room for the television shows such as Friday Front Bar, The Bounce, The Footy Show, Before the Game, Before the Bounce and Before whatever other football word you want to slot in.

The key thing to remember is that Lou managed to do this with good humour, wit, flair and without the use of blow-ups dolls. What a champion.

As the week rolled on there was not one person who had said a negative thing about Lou. The only negatives were the fact that he died without the word ‘legend’ officially attached to his name. But then, Lou was so big did he even need that artificial rulebook confirmation?

Case in point. Last week social media went into meltdown with news that something might have happened to the Queen. “#BuckinghamPalace” began trending internationally and soon I was sitting by the television waiting to hear whether the Queen had died, Prince Phillip had died or if the corgis had exploded. As they are wont to do.

Now as I’ve since learned, it turns out when the real death of our monarch occurs, the news will arrive far-less ambiguously. According to reports, the first step will be the waking of the Prime Minister as the code “London Bridge has fallen” is communicated via secure lines to other leaders of the world. A newsflash will go out to the Press Association while in Britain, blue “obit lights” will begin flashing in radio stations signifying a state of “national catastrophe”. There’s also a rumour that at the exact moment it happens, British subjects around the world will suddenly feel a strange sensation of bored disapproval before demanding tea. But whichever way it goes, it’s suspected that within 15 minutes of Queen Elizabeth’s passing, we’ll all know.

So when the news hit that Lou Richards had passed away, I was reminded that there is one facet of Australiana that does elicit a similar, gut-deep sense of national pride. The same pride I imagine the British feel every time they see Her Majesty cutting a ribbon or smiling painfully at some boring function – which is a lot. I am of course referring to those within our community who have helped shape our sporting pursuits into vitally significant parts of our national identity.

To highlight why acknowledging these figures is important, I have to quote another British icon. A couple of weeks ago, Dame Judi Dench stood beneath a newly unveiled English heritage blue plaque of her dear friend John Gielgud and took time to tell off an entire generation of young performers. “What is so shocking now is that young actors don’t want to find out about the legacy that we’ve been left,” she admonished her youngers. “They’re just not curious. It’s just non-curiosity. I think it’s terribly important to know the huge history of theatre that we have, why you’re in it, what people did before”.

It’s something we 20-somethings should also ponder also. Freeman, Benaud and Lap (Phar, that is) are the names that have shaped our nation’s cultural history.

Because until this week I knew all about AFL Evolution, the AFLW and the inaugural game to be held in Shanghai. But the fact of the matter is that I knew very little about Lou Richards.

World of Sport stopped screening on television a year before I was born and given that The Footy Show Thursday or Sunday isn’t my super-dooper favourite program, I really wasn’t exposed to the living legend on a regular basis.

So under the withering glare of Judi Dench, I hereby resolve to go back and learn what came before.

I’m going to delve into Lou’s playing career, ponder all his dares and pay respects to our own sporting royalty. In fact I’d already be surprised if, right now, in the guts of the Collingwood change rooms there’s not a small light gently flashing on and off – in black and white of course.

Oh, and let’s not worry about officially calling Lou Richards a Legend. Let’s get him on a stamp.

The post Generation Why? Discovering Lou Richards appeared first on Footy Plus.

from Footy Plus http://ift.tt/2r4fHvF via http://footyplus.net

#Footy Plus

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tinymixtapes · 8 years

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Feature: SXSW Film 2017

In Drib, one of the selections at this year’s SXSW, the film’s subject invokes critic Manny Farber’s comparison between “termite art” and “white elephant art” — more or less the difference between art made in the margins and that created with the blessings of prestige. It is useful to reflect on this difference in light of the festival itself, which has, over the past decade, transformed from music fest sidebar, to bastion of zero-budget filmmaking, and finally to red carpet premiere destination for studio and higher-budget indies. As SXSW has evolved into more of a marquee American film festival, it has sometimes struggled to balance its new life as a celeb destination with its name-making reputation for finding, and sustaining, new voices with unusual ideas. It is maybe telling that some of the filmmakers first nourished by the festival have returned this year with their most accessible films to date — and yet, the festival’s programmers have remained committed to finding space (sometimes, indeed, on their program’s margins) for emerging filmmakers trying to find something else. This dialogue between the mainstream and the underground gives SXSW a lot of its particular flavor, and part of the excitement of being here is the potential to stumble into films you didn’t even know you were looking for. What follows is an imperfect hunt through the festival’s underbrush. Some movies that are very much worth your consideration — particularly Janicza Bravo’s Lemon, Erik Ljung’s The Blood Is At the Doorstep, Mónica Álvarez Franco’s The Cloud Forest, and Yuri Ancarani’s The Challenge — are overlooked, which is regrettable, but you should find those movies and watch them. –Dylan Pasture --- Rat Film (dir. Theo Anthony) The only film at this year’s SXSW I was hard-pressed to find anyone with a bad thing to say about it, Rat Film charts the history of vermin control in Baltimore to weave a dense parable about the city’s legacy of racial segregation. Anthony pulls from many sources (interview, portraiture, primitive 3D imagery, android narration, historical record) to bring hard, damning evidence about who is valued — and who gets thrown away — in America. Anthony shows his skill as a filmmaker by saying much of this through his imagery, which is frequently unforgettable, and does the heavy lifting of tying complex ideas together naturally. If the film has any weakness, it’s that the visionary rat-controlled sound generator by Baltimorean Dan Deacon (who also contributes the score here) gets frustratingly little screen time. A great film that speaks intelligently to the long, horrific road that led to this period in American history, and whose closing image will haunt you for the rest of your days. --- Lucky (dir. John Carroll Lynch) A kind of special effects-driven movie where the “effect” is age, Lucky (the first feature from beloved character actor John Carroll Lynch) is defined by its lead performance from Harry Dean Stanton. Ninety years old and still going, Stanton seems to be the film’s reason for being, and the legendary actor gives the picture more than just a presence: co-written by Stanton’s longtime assistant Logan Sparks, the script borrows much from the man’s biography to tell the low key story of a long-retired crank shuffling through a lifetime’s worth of regret in a marginal desert town. It is quirky in the way we now expect ‘indie’ films to be, and full of the sort of big moments often found in films directed by actors, but Lucky has heart, is stacked with memorable cameos (Tom Skerritt’s one scene soliloquy is a highlight), and stays enlivened by Stanton’s easygoing, “I’m here for the cigarettes” performance. Plus, you get to watch Stanton and longtime friend/collaborator David Lynch (no relation to John Carroll) bounce lines off each other for what feels like half the movie (Lynch looks pretty good in a hat, in case you were wondering). --- Easy Living (dir. Adam Keleman) As driven by its lead as Lucky but in every other way made on a different planet, Easy Living is the sort of movie one hopes to find at film festivals but rarely does: independent, personal, and bonkers. Director Adam Keleman’s vision of an alcoholic makeup saleswoman (an incredible Caroline Dhavernas) starts off with a familiar dynamic: will our hero clean up her act, or stay a trainwreck forever? At times edging into Lifetime movie territory, Keleman gradually ups the crazy while matched step for step by Dhavernas’s willingness to “go there.” By the time the film hits its out of nowhere third act, you just kind of have to go along for the trip, unforgettable dialysis machine sequence and all. Like a pizza with every topping, Easy Living gives you more than you ever asked for: melodrama, high camp, robberies, townies, a primer on small business loans, and an ultimately sincere look at the difficulties of living life on your own terms. In a film culture that withholds so much, it is refreshing, for once, to be granted plenty. --- Satan Said Dance (dir. Kasia Roslaniec) The third feature from Polish auteur Kasia Roslaniec has a curious double life: though screened here in a feature-length cut for festival purposes, Satan Said Dance was conceived as a nonlinear, interactive piece in which viewers use an app to assemble its scenes into a sequence of their choice. Though the official synopsis describes it as an “Instagram film,” this is simply a film through and through. Telling the transfiguration story of a fledgling novelist who crashes, burns, and comes back to life (not necessarily in that order) through the crucible of the European hipster party world, Satan embraces the fragmented feeling of online videos to more deeply capture its protagonist’s view of the world. The avalanche of party scenes can feel repetitive, and in this viewer’s opinion not all of the sequences work — but in taking the risk to find a new language native to this era instead of just cynically throwing together an app-based social media campaign, Roslaniec deserves a lot of credit for succeeding at the high level she does. That the filmmaker asks you to decide for yourself what works and what doesn’t provides a freedom few directors allow or encourage, a trait which, in its best moments, makes Satan Said Dance seem nearly heroic. Here’s hoping that other filmmakers act on the challenge Roslaniec has thrown down. --- Sylvio (dir. Albert Birney) Another, very different film drawn from the landscape of the internet, Sylvio began life as “Simply Sylvio,” a long-running series of Vine videos starring the eponymous anthropomorphic gorilla. The Vines were charming and, well, simple, qualities that largely carry over into the creature’s feature length debut. Co-directed by “Sylvio” creator Albert Birney and SXSW legend Kentucker Audley (the man who put “Movies” on a hat), the film grafts an underdog-battles-the-odds plot (and a backstory) onto its silent star, throwing the hapless ape into a quest to save a local public access talk show while staying true to his autobiographical puppet show (long story). Slight and stunningly low-stakes, Sylvio is at its best when it relies on what the Vines did well: deadpan physical comedy and Sylvio’s natural charm. Those with a weakness for meticulous production design and tender fantasy will most likely fall for the yearnings of this young, sensitive primate trying to find his place in a mixed-up crazy world. --- Person To Person (dir. Dustin Guy Defa) Can kindness be a radical act? Person To Person seems to suggest as much, and your appreciation for it will probably depend on your ability to accept a film on terms this gentle. Set over one ambling, reasonably paced day in New York City (and one with really nice weather to boot), Dustin Guy Defa’s follow up to SXSW alum Bad Fever is as open-hearted and pleasant as his debut was one long angst nightmare. Defa has made a series of accomplished shorts between these two features (including the excellent introduction to this film’s “Bene” character from 2014, also titled Person To Person), and one can’t help but see this latest work as the culmination of his half-decade of experimenting with character. Though the film features some recognizable faces (Michael Cera and Abbi Jacobson maybe most of all), Defa privileges nobody and depends on his full ensemble, building a series of stories that don’t so much interlock as run parallel to create a unified, lightly connected image of city life. Person is probably nails on a chalkboard to somebody not receptive to its particular, breezy vibe; this viewer, however, fell hard for its tribute to friendship and the modest doses of happiness that make life worth shuffling through. Generous throughout, Person To Person returns the affection it invites from you right up to its final, heart-stopping declaration of love. --- Maineland (dir. Miao Wang) Miao Wang’s previous, excellent feature Beijing Taxi used the stories of local Beijing taxi drivers as a gateway for the director to understand the ways in which her native city had changed in the years since she had moved to the U.S. In Maineland, Wang flips her strategy, following a group of upper-class Chinese teenagers as they leave home for a boarding school in Maine. Perhaps reflecting her own young expatriate journey to the states, Wang’s film dives into the emotions of these kids in an unfamiliar place, showing both the difficulty they have relating to their new home as well as the occasional comforts (scenes of the students meeting up at the local nondescript Chinese takeout place are both touching and a little sad). As they debate what to make of their futures, their personalities, and capitalism, Maineland reveals itself to be not only a portrait of these children of the elite — and probable future leaders of the free world — but of the complexities of adolescence itself. --- Win By Fall (dir. Anna Koch) In its own way a fitting companion piece to Maineland, Anna Koch’s Win By Fall (not to be confused with the similarly titled Joe Swanberg movie that came and went here) also uses the documentary form to chart the growing pains of a group of boarding-school students. In her case, however, Koch stays at home and digs deep into her native Germany to chart the trials of a quartet of girls at Frankfurt/Oder’s “Elite School of Sport,” a highly competitive wrestling program. Using the familiar structure of a sports film (we even have our countdown to the Big Game), Win By Fall elegantly compares the agony of failure, and the thrill of victory, to inherent anxieties about the body, status, and identity by blowing it up to a competitive level. Gorgeously shot, and edited with a crispness that always gives you just as much as you need at any moment, Win By Fall nevertheless seemed strangely overlooked at this festival. Perhaps the world of German teenage wrestling is too niche for a general audience, but for those willing to seek it out, Koch has given you a great, memorable film about the big questions of youth. --- Drib (dir. Kristoffer Borgli) If Kiarostami’s Close-Up was about branded content, and also totally jacked-up, you might get something like Drib, a metafictional account of one prank artist’s attempt to troll the system — and how it undoes him. Andy Kaufman-worshipping Norwegian comedian/viral video star Amir Asgharnejad recounts his attempt to get a famous energy drink company to hire him as their spokesman, and things predictably go from bad to worse. Complicating the tale, however, is the presence of his friend Kristoffer Borgli (the director of Drib), who stages reenactments of Asgharnejad’s story starring… Asgharnejad himself. As these mirrors fold in on themselves, Borgli asks us to puzzle out the truth not only of Amir’s story but his own reenactments of them, raising the question of whether it is ever possible for someone to tell a story honestly through mediation. A bitter bloodletting session about this present era of Vice-approved “edginess” (embodied in the film by Amir’s antagonist, a perfectly cast Brett Gelman as an insufferable, Faustian ad exec desperate to stay relevant), this film speaks so immediately to its moment it feels as if it’s being made while you’re seeing it. Animated by an extremely on-brand score from PC Music associate Felicita, and stuffed with the same hi-gloss, ad-world imagery it parodies, Drib is dizzying, compulsively watchable, and a real blast. Don’t forget to like and subscribe for additional content. --- I’d also like to give an honorable mention to Kristen Lepore’s short film Hi Stranger, which screened in the Midnight Shorts block and sat on my mind like a curse ever since. Perhaps describable as “dark ASMR,” Lepore’s brief, deeply unsettling animation is best seen with no preparation —other than to say that if you have problems with intimacy, well, hold on tight. Hi Stranger can currently be viewed for free on Vimeo. [pagebreak] With any film festival, there’s always going to be a mixed bag of movie quality. Some are exceptional without any need for asterisks or further qualification, while others are good “for a first time director” or have an interesting idea or performance that elevates the rest of the film. Then there are many that are just okay, with highlights across the board, but ultimately aren’t too noteworthy or memorable. Lastly, there are those wretched films that somehow got passed through by a programmer that makes one question what anyone ever saw in that movie. SXSW 2017 was no different, with its own assortment of various tiered films. Luckily, out of the 26 movies I caught, most were very good (and most of them recounted below), a handful were just okay, and only two were pretty awful with very little saving graces. Perhaps the most interesting twist is that at least three of the big Hollywood films (Baby Driver, The Big Sick, The Disaster Artist) were really good, while the other offerings from established studios were mostly unexceptional in every way. It was a year that covered many topics with some recurring themes — sexual trauma, revenge, power of music. The Midnighters section was surprisingly lacking this year, with one clear standout (see below), but otherwise the film was stacked with some excellent examples of cinema, and even a few that will stand the test of time as classics of the genre. –Neurotic Monkey --- Prevenge (dir. Alice Lowe (III)) Alice Lowe’s debut as sole writer and director is an excellent hybrid of dry British humor crossbred with gonzo-horror premise. A pregnant woman is compelled, possibly by the voice of her unborn child, to seek revenge on others in bloody and spectacular fashion. The humor is coal-black and great, and there are many excellent sequences that work well to meld the tension of horror with hilarious dialogue to underline the absurdity of it all. It’s a completely unique plot, built on many revenge movies of the past, but works so well because of the myriad tones Lowe is able to synthesize together into one coherent piece. --- The Transfiguration (dir. Michael O’Shea) Michael O’Shea’s filmmaking debut is mostly a good one, fueled by an interesting premise, strong performances, and a unique setting not often showcased in horror films. It’s a bit of a misnomer to label it a “vampire film,” as it’s more in line with either Romero’s Martin or even Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer as it depicts a budding sociopath’s attempt to direct his darker impulses and mesh them with his fantastical beliefs. The two leads (Eric Ruffin and Chloe Levine) are outstanding as two young people stuck in a wasteland without much hope, and bring a lot of smart character decisions to their portrayals that seem beyond their young ages. While the film underscores some of its narrative — often stating out loud something that audiences can easily infer — that’s to be expected of a first-time writer/director who is uncertain if viewers will pick up on the subtleties. Still, it’s a strong debut that is unflinching in its depiction of outsiders and willing to wallow in the darkness of their minds and lives. --- Hounds of Love (dir. Ben Young) Another breakout feature-length debut, this time from writer/director Ben Young, Hounds Of Love is incredibly well-stylized, fueled by tremendous performances from its actors and a shocking amount of restraint from the filmmaker. The film is disturbing, ratcheting up the tension in a masterful way, but it never feels exploitative or indulgent thanks to Young’s ability (aided by his cast) to humanize its participants. The story of a couple that kidnap, sexually assault, and torture high school girls should be the stuff of grindhouse fare, but Young elevates it to a much more artistic exploration of survival, love, and the twisted devotion that the worst of abusers can inspire amongst others. It’s not a comfortable or easy watch, but it is a strong film that defies its genre roots to be an artful examination of an extreme event. --- Baby Driver (dir. Edgar Wright) Edgar Wright’s fifth film (and first time writing without a partner) was perhaps my most anticipated film of SXSW and 2017. I’m a devotee of Wright’s kinetic direction, cracking dialogue, and whip-smart editing, so I was curious to see what he would do in the crime genre. What Wright delivered — while still owing to works like Walter Hill’s The Driver and even Refn’s Drive — is an utterly original mashup of the pulp thriller with the musical, as diegetic songs accompany and even fuel every moment of the movie. Great stunts, car chases, and action sequences are perfectly executed to a great beat, while the cast (including Ansel Elgort, Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, Kevin Spacey, and others) turn in some gritty and fun noir character work. The ending doesn’t quite work as well as it should, and takes away some of the punch of the movie, but the rest of it is so good and original it’s easy to forgive and simply enjoy the 95% that did work like gangbusters. --- The Disaster Artist (dir. James Franco) It would’ve been very easy for James Franco to have turned the making of Tommy Wisseau’s The Room into an extended joke, complete with awful impressions of the “auteur” and merely relying on awkward references to the cult classic. Instead, The Disaster Artist emerged as my favorite film of SXSW 2017 because not only is it hilarious, but it is a sincere and heartfelt depiction of a man struggling with his place in the world and an artist struggling to realize his (rather unfortunate) vision. A spiritual successor to Ed Wood, The Disaster Artist is the story of a dreamer whose visions far surpass his talents, and the tension that emerges between those two realities. Franco’s performance as Wisseau avoids being a caricature, but instead is a lived-in, sympathetic portrait of an enigmatic man who simply wants to be loved. It’s a touching film that speaks to the artistic dreamer in all of us, while still being hilarious due to all of the (true) absurd shenanigans that occurred in the making of the film. --- Tragedy Girls (dir. Tyler MacIntyre) My second favorite film of the festival, and clearly the best of the Midnighter program, Tyler MacIntyre’s Tragedy Girls is an utterly fun romp into dark comedy and horror tropes. Depicting two girls’ obsession with status, built on the backs of a horrible murder spree in their hometown by a masked slasher, the film feels like a social media-infused version of Heathers meets Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon. It’s funny, raucous, and very smart about the various genre clichés it uses and subverts, all while delivering an engaging film firing on all of its multiple levels. A takedown of online celebrity, a Mean Girls-esque satire of high school hierarchies, and a love letter to horror conventions, Tragedy Girls is a great film that will leave audiences cheering thanks to its wit and heart. --- Patti Cake$ (dir. Geremy Jasper) Already receiving a ton of buzz after its premiere at Sundance, Geremy Jasper’s Patti Cake$ deserves all of the hype with its sincere but ridiculous take on the musical underdog subgenre. Played like 8 Mile seen through a quirky indie filter, the movie tells the story of three outsiders in New Jersey with dreams of escaping their downtrodden fates through music. While not particularly realistic, it does still treat its characters like real people, with motivations and arcs that viewers can follow and with which they can sympathize. The songs are incredibly catchy, and the performances don’t feel like cardboard cutouts of “funky” figures that are just made for laughs or randomness. While the story is a might predictable, I think this film will be a sleeper when it’s released by Fox Searchlight, eventually accumulating a cult following of people who can’t help but join in the infectious joy that comes with the struggle of the main characters. --- Small Town Crime (dir. Eshom Nelms/Ian Nelms) Small Town Crime, by fraternal filmmakers Eshom and Ian Nelms, plays like a grittier version of a Shane Black detective story. There’s less lightheartedness and more grounded action in the Nelms’ movie than a Black film, but intriguing characters that spout pithy and memorable dialogue populate it. John Hawkes continues to impress in his role as a disgraced cop turned private detective who finds himself in way over his head with a case of a dead girl. With nods to Raymond Chandler and various neo-Westerns, the film is an exciting dive into a seedy world, entertaining and engaging throughout. There are plenty of twists and turns, and strong performances from every member of the cast. --- Most Beautiful Island (dir. Ana Asensio) Ana Asensio’s Most Beautiful Island is a strong movie that centers around a narrative twist that arrives late in the game. So, to avoid spoiling it, as that is part of the perverse pleasure of this film, all I will say is the film is about a haunted immigrant struggling to survive in NYC. It’s a clash of classes as the poor are subjugated for the ultra-rich, and it becomes clear that dreams of a better life, or at the very least an escape from the past, can come with a hefty price tag. Asensio’s movie does a great job establishing the world of New York populated by the invisible working class just trying to get by before quickly ratcheting up the tension in the third act to reveal the shadowy undercurrent that exists in any bifurcated society. Excellent debut by the writer, director, and lead; it’s an occasionally tough film, but the payoff is worth it as Asensio is incredibly assured in the journey she’s taking the audience. http://j.mp/2nHXkuV

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