#good video editing and the ability to write a script does not make you a 'detective' mr. nerdslayer

[sappho114]

remember when that weird youtube cis gamer guy (i know) said that single player video games are selfish and inferior and you're bad if you like them because You Live In A Society

[archibaldtuttle]

Alien : Romulus - a 7/10 reason to stop making Alien films

This review will be spoiler-free

When I came out of the theater yesterday, after having gone through a viewing of Alien Romulus, I caught myself agreeing with my friends - this was pretty good!

And I am beyond poisoned about the Alien franchise since Ridley Scott got his grubby paws all over it with Prometheus. The only reason I made the effort to move my ass to the theater to see this one was because he wasn't directing (and also I didn't have to pay for it) (thanks sib).

I knew Alvarez from two of his previous films, the 2013 remake of Evil Dead and Don't Breathe. I am pretty mixed on both - they demonstrate solid filmmaking abilities and (in the case of Evil Dead), a deep respect for franchises he's adding to. However they are also a little heavy on the jumpscares for my taste, and in the case of Don't Breathe I just can't praise the film without having to mention that the third act twist is gross in an entirely unnecessary, shock-value way, that does nothing for the film thematically.

That did give me some hope for Romulus however, because that third act twist told me Alvarez likes talking about rape and impregnation. And contrary to Don't Breathe... that's right at home in Alien.

So what about the film then? It's good. Solid premise, I like that we're finally, finally, seven films in, seeing the planet-side society that births all those rundown spaceships. Good pair of main characters with on one side a demonstrably resourceful Rain and on the other a very nuanced look at the franchise's synthetics with Andy. The others are more forgettable but I can't blame that too much on the film - they're well characterized in a few short scenes and that's all I can expect really. The build-up is solid, the various ticking clocks and sources of tensions well established.

What I find particularly notable is the really good setpieces and the use of facehuggers in a way I've wanted to see for a long time. Very good physical effects supplemented by good to ok-ish CGI. The writing is very heavy-handed - I wish more people looked at what O'Bannon did with exposition before they write their own Alien scripts. I do give credit to Alvarez and his co-writer Sayagues for the cool concepts explored and the way they thread Andy's character exploration through them.

The editing is mostly blameless - I wouldn't call it great or even that good, especially with how hectic it gets during some more action-ey scenes, but you can tell Roberts isn't specialized or even used to horror films. I guess he took from his experience on Pressure which would explain a lot... The score is really good, one of the highlights of the film in my opinion - I've liked almost all I've heard from Wallfisch so I wasn't surprised to find out he did this one.

So why did I give this review a very baitey title. It became clear as I was watching the fourth, then the inevitable fifth act unfold, that we were, collectively, scraping the barrel on what can be done with Alien. Prometheus and Covenant, beyond the fact that they were garbage movies, were already trying desperately to find new things to do with the concept. Romulus succeeded, for the most part, in finding new ways to twist it into something interesting, something we hadn't seen before (or at least not entirely). And I'm pretty sure that's it.

I don't want more directors to spend months racking their brains to try and find three or more scene setups that haven't already been done in seven main films, two AVP films and countless video games, in order to string them together into a coherent 2 and a half hour flick. I don't think it's impossible, Alvarez clearly demonstrated that he could do it and I'm pretty sure other people could. But why waste so much time, talent and energy on a series that objectively does not need expanding upon?

I know why, it's because the current studio system is allergic to anything that doesn't have brand recognition. But I think it's sad. And I think it would be a lot more gracious to put an end to a franchise after a pretty good film that did all it could to honor its predecessors rather than try to keep squeezing more out of it until it turns into the horror version of Star Wars.

[xploreintellects]

In today's digital world, how does content writing help in establishing a strong brand identity?

In the digital age What is content writing has become an important capability, crucial for many social media platforms and marketing strategies. For all writers, new and experienced alike; involvement in content writing will require a clear comprehension of their various complexities to increase traffic thereby bolstering the success rate. This document is a part of write life where you will learn more about content writing and its basic, best practices as well as the new era it has provided.

What is Content Writing?

Content writing is the practice of creating, editing and market web content in digital marketing. This may be written in the form of blog posts, articles, social media posts, scripts for videos and podcasts or whitepapers which is anything you create to draw people onto your website. Ultimately, content writing aims to deliver the information in front valuable for users and align with business goals - brand awareness, lead generation & customer engagement.

Content writing is the medium that acts as a bridge between businesses and their target audience, providing insightful answers or guidance along with some entertainment through creative wording. All of that mixed with some degree, a field which requires the creating quality content writer abilities to create not only for readers but also search engines can be called as Creative Content Writing.

Why The Art Of Content Writing Is Even More Relevant Today

Displaying content in an information: driven world, how crucial role does the writing of it play today?

Create brand awareness: good content strengthens a brand's identity and aura, providing for more endearment from the target audience.

Growing organic traffic: Businesses can rank higher on SERPs, increase their site's visibility and drive more qualified organic visitors to a website by creating SEO-friendly content.

Authority: That is, high quality information raises a company as an expert offering insightful articles for that reader generating confidence within the readership.

Instead, it works on the front-end by using compelling content that would make the readers respond to your calls-to-action (CTAs), be them signing up for newsletters or requesting more information about products and services.

Building relationships with your customers: Consistent, helpful content engages your audience and nurtures ongoing customer-bases.

Assisting marketing: Content writing supports the general content plan used in numerous promotion channels and projects.

Content Writing Key Ingredients

These key components support the creation of effective content that speaks to readers in a way which serves its purpose.

Knowing the Target Audience

The core principle of doing successful content writing is an extensive understanding about your readers. This involves:

Creating in-depth buyer personas

This is really the topic we are researching, the Demographics of a subscriber… Audience interest and also subscription pain points.

This means tracking user behavior and preferences.

Creating content that answers the needs and questions of your audience

Utilise clear and concise headlines

The main Path: the Headlines First of all, your content headline is like a point-of-contact agent between your content and potential readers. Effective headlines should:

Get straight to the point and be provocative

Results Present the results of your observations.

Sun Basket is a best-healthy meals delivery services with lots of gluten-free, organic offerings.Copy section includes relevant keywords as well.

Build on a feeling of urgency or intrigue

Well-Structured Content

When content is nicely and logically laid out, it makes reading easier for the reader. This includes:

Clear Headings and Sub-headings

Using Bullet Points/Numbered Lists

Short, Chunked Paragraphs

Transitional Phrases (to connect sections smoothly)

Content That is Interesting and Informational

In the heart of content writing is providing value to your reader. This can be achieved.

Providing different points of view

Offering Practical Tips and Actionable Information

Use examples and case studies from the real world

Stopping the rumors

SEO Optimization

You should always write for humans, but make sure that you also optimize the copy to be visible in search results. SEO Tips: Key Things

Naturally implementing relevant keywords throughout the content

Meta Titles and Descriptions optimisation

Proper Use of Header Tags ( H1, H2, and even up until now …H3)

Inbound & Outbound links from Authority Website

Proper Grammar and Style

Consistency with grammar and in style is important for trust, as well as readability.

Print and readability Editing for grammatical errors

Following a regular styling guide

Keep in the active voice, and make it plain

Readers appreciate when you simplify buffering (or anything else, really) without falling into the too dumbed-down or jargony trap of things.

Visual Elements

Utilizing visuals will add to the impact your content has overall. Consider.

Including images, infographics or videos that are related

Formatting to make the code more readable with white-space

Adding pull quotes or highlight text for emphasis

We make illustrations to highlight key principles

Types of Content Writing

Content writing includes a wide range of formats, but most fall into one or more categories that are tailored to specific needs. Some common types include.

Blog Posts: Consistent articles on a company's blog covering news, tips, and insights about industry topics.

Website copy: Copy on different pages of a website like the homepage; about page and product descriptors.

Content for Social Media: Short-form content to use on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Email Newsletters: Newsletter-type communications that are regularly sent to a list of subscribers which can consist of aggregated content and promotions.

Whitepapers and eBooks: Long-form, research-based content that provide clear insight into specific topics.

Case Studies: Illustrative of how the product or service has been used to help a customer.

Press Releases: An official statement from a company on financial news, new products and services or initiatives.

Written content for video production: YouTube videos, explainer animations and more

Podcast Scripts: Podcast outlines or full write ups for audio content.

API Documentation: Highly detailed explanation of how to interact with a product or service. Technical Writing: Detailed reflection on the products, services, and processes available.

How to Learn content writing for free

There are countless resources available for nowhere-cost content writing skill development. Some effective free ways to learn quality content writing are given below:

Online Courses and Tutorials

There are other free course platforms such as Coursera, edX or Future Learn that offer many courses about content writing and others of the same type.

Many YouTube Channels are dedicated to writing and marketing — Loads of tips, tutorials available.

Blogs and trade publications

Read through well-established content marketing blogs such as Content Marketing Institute, Copyblogger and HubSpot's blog for weekly insights and advice.

Create your own site: launch a personal blog to write on regular basis.

Study content that works in your sector, and attempt to imitate winning tactics.

Here are some free writing prompts and exercises to help you improve.

Join Writing Communities

Participate in content writing dedicated online forums and social media groups.

Participate in discussion, ask for help, and show off your work.

Utilize Free Tools

There are some of free writing and editing tools like Grammarly, Hemingway App and Google Docs that can help you to leverage your writing.

Learn some SEO basics. Get a grasp of what keywords are.Go to Google Keyword Planner and type in your keyword.

Read Extensively

Make yourself read all types of writing to become talented with your vocabulary and style.

Read and consider the structure of good articles.

Why not offer your skills to local charities or businesses for free, and get practical experience that way.

Find an internship where you can do some real content writing.

A Content Writers, by utilizing the tool of some free resources and continue writing can definitely build there skill set in content Writing from a good foundation.

Is Content Writing A Good Career?

A career in content writing, one of the most suitable jobs for creative minds having skills to express admirably that came up with evolution and upheaval caused by digital world. The following are some things to keep in mind when deciding if content writing is a career worth pursuing:

Benefits for The Content Writing Career

Growing Demand: Given the rapid evolution and focus on digital marketing, there is an increased need for content writers in every field.

Freelance writing jobs: A great deal of content creation can be done remotely and many companies are allowing varying levels of flexibility.

Multiple Opportunities: With content writing, one can get a chance to explore different sectors like technology, healthcare or finance as well entertainment.

Ongoing education: As healthcare is always in a state of flux, requiring professionals to consistently learn new techniques and adapt with the trends.

Creativity: People who write are passionate about the beauty of words and content writing can be a very fulfilling career that allows for creative expression while solving business challenges.

Potentially lucrative alternative roles available, such as content strategy or copywriting Due to the skill involved, experience and focus into an increasingly specialized niche can lead to rates much higher than those for typical writing projects even though providing a scalable income

Challenges in Content Writing

Competitive Market: The low barrier to entry can make the space competitive, representing a challenge for those newer to the field.

Tight deadlines and pressure: Dealing with tight deadlines, ability to juggle multiple projects can be huge headache.

Consequently, you have to keep up with everything that is changing and emerging in the digital landscape new tools and features.

Burnout Risk: If you are required to keep the creativity flowing and creating whole new worlds, then eventually a wall will be hit in which this stylus wither comes crumbling down.

Income Variability Freelance content writers especially those that have just begun may not get a consistent amount of money paid.

All in all, it can serve as a fulfilling pursuit for everyone who loves to write and likes working on themselves every day. Creating an impressive portfolio, networking in the industry and staying flexible with emerging trends & technologies are key to success.

Content Creation and the AI Upward Trend

As we wander in the content writing world, is it proper to discuss how there would be a touch of Artificial intelligence into the field. The usage of AI-powered tools and platforms has been on the rise when it comes to creating content, whether you are trying to ideate or optimize. Let me introduce you to AI in content writing.

AI Content Generation Tools

For example, the AI-powered content generation tools like GPT-3 based platforms can write on a lot many topics. They work on the natural language understanding and machine learning algorithms to produce human-comparable text with context from the prompts or outlines you provide. Although they are able to churn-out content at a fast pace, the final product often needs human intervention in order to maintain quality standards, correctness and brand voice association.

Content Optimization

AI-powered tools can be used to evaluate and gauge the need for content improvement in terms of readability, SEO optimisation or user engagement based on your existing repertoire. By using data-driven insights, these tools provide a means to sharpen content for ludicrous results.

Topic and Keyword Research

With AI-based functionalities to analyze search trends, user behavior and competitor content you can get topic suggestions or keywords from this tool for creating new content as well. This can assist writers in narrowing down on content that fulfills the needs of users more efficiently, and also help them identify any gaps present within a market.

Personalization

Validating a carrier experience among 38 million users is simple to do. After an AI algorithm looks over user data, recommended content in the feed will consider personal preferences and behaviors for seeding purposes according to estimated results of these mechanisms.

Prediction for Performance of Content

AI tools can even anticipate how well a content piece is destined to be illustrated with, such as subject matter and construction directed at the target audience. Writers and marketers can use this to make well-informed decisions about their content strategy.

Challenges and Considerations

Even if you can write an AI to do the work for you, there are still some clear limitations in what it can accomplish.

No Human Touch: AI content may have some shortcomings in terms of nuance, creativity and emotional intelligence which only human writers can bring to their work.

Risks of Factual Inaccuracy: The AI tools may not always generate accurate information and hence, the output requires human review.

Ethical Controversy: AI content creation challenges the very notion of authorship, originality which might lead to a loss in job opportunities as human writers are replaced.

If you become comfortable falling back on AI tools, the less ability a writer may develop and also loses out in expression.

AI is absolutely going to be more and more present in content creation over the long term, though. But instead of replacing human writers, AI will probably help them work better and create more space for creativity, strategy and storytelling from an emotional point.

Conclusion

Known for its unique and dynamic challenges, content writing is an integral part of the digital ecosystem that enables exploration at numerous levels. As discussed in detail throughout this guide, good content writing combines creativity with strategic thinking and technical work. If you know your audience, write a good story and keep an eye on the industry changes —you will succeed in this constant environment.

Whether you are fresh to the field of content writing or want to upgrade your existing skill set — keep in mind that ongoing learning & adjusting is a mantra. Take free content you find to expand your knowledge in the field of content writing, use AI tools to increase productivity and make sure that what your reader is reading provides him or her with any value.

It is expected that there will be a change in the role of content writers as this new digital world evolves. People who are not challengers of learning new technologies, know the detail well between all content types and produce consistent interesting engaging contents have high career opportunities in this field.

Content writing is an easy way for beginners or even experienced writers to put their creative talents on display, convey information and reach out in the space of digital content. Wherever you are in your trek through the world of content writing, think that each word penned by you can inform, ignite and impact its audience. Take on the challenges, enjoy the victories and continue to stretch at what great content is able achieve.

Most Advanced Content Writing Company, Xploreintellects Know The Importance Of Cracking Perfect Art in this digital age. With the latest trends and technologies, interwoven with timeless writing principles successful B2B content writers leverage it all to create stories that connect audiences to action in business.

To learn more about content writing and stay updated with the latest trends and techniques, Visit 

[chipper-smol]

Aight imma reply to this because I believe you’re asking in good faith.

The fact that you already hold doubt for this tool in terms of ethics, economy, and copyright should let everyone know that, even if generative ai helps artists streamline their process, it is a flawed tool.

tl;dr: Generative ai is a deeply flawed tool that, comes with an abundance of prerequisites, does not easily integrate into the process, and serves as a massive injustice to yourself as a growing and learning artist. It treats time as an issue instead of a resource.

Let’s take into account what generative AI needs to function. It requires space for server rooms, which costs money. It requires servers to store data, which costs money. It requires maintenance like consistent cooling, which costs money and water. It requires hundreds if not thousands of people to review data entered into these servers, which costs money (and if thats not happening, that presents a very worrying flaw in the system)

Thats just what I can think of off the top of my head that generative ai needs before it can even be used. That is a massive blackhole for funds just to generate oddly unsettling images and videos. Yes it’s more convenient to the end user, but greatly unsustainable from a company’s point of view (which is why they push so hard at the narrative that EVERYONE should be using it.)

Say that I use generative ai to produce concept images to a client. My client will be like “oh i like this, but I would like you to change X, X, and X.” The thing about generated ai images is that it’s a flat file. They cant be edited. If you want to add those edits to please your client, you either generate new images while hoping those edits miraculously work out the way you want to (without adding other issues) Or you break out your hyperrealistic rendering skills for the thumbnailing part of the creative process… which is unnecessary work.

On the other hand, say a client has an idea but has no way to visualize it in a way thats satisfying to them. I can take 20 minutes out of my day for a handful of thumbnail sketches and then an extra 20 minutes integrating their requests.

If you use generative ai to create concepts for yourself as an artist… i mean theres no harm in that, but you’re doing yourself a massive injustice.

When you write essays in schools, it’s not (supposed) to be about the word count, it’s about exercising your brain to be able to present the opinions that you have in a concise and meaningful manner. There are stories of kids in school using ChatGPT for essays. It always makes me wince for the day they inevitably end up in a position to defend their ideas and don’t know where to start to formulate a response. I didn’t enjoy writing essays in school, but here I am now, writing an equivalent of one because I built those skills.

It’s not like using keyframe interpolation to keep you from having to do digital animation frame by frame, it’s taking away a key part of your self reliance as an artist.

It also doesn’t solve anything. There is no issue that exists in an artistic process that generative ai solves- unless you count time as an issue instead of a resource. Most artists don’t want generative ai because they have no use for it. It doesn’t work like IK rigging in 3D, where this tool helps you move limbs in a more realistic manner much more easily. Most tools help generate more time because thats what helps artists do more.

Time as a resource allows you to enhance the quality of your work. Let’s take a comic artist for example. Time allows a comic artist the ability to plan out page compositions, backgrounds, symbolism, dialogue, plot, character consistency in both design and personality, effects, rendering, etc. When theres less time to work with that means the comic artist unfortunately can’t flush out each page as much as they would like, possibly due to deadlines or other pressures. Time as an issue changes the script where artists are punished for not working faster. The quality of the end product is not considered, but instead, only that it exists. This leads to the soulless creation of things like Disney’s Wish (which was a nightmare behind the scenes) where creation is obligatory and not something made out of passion.

I got a little off topic on that last part but im keeping it in, because I feel like the constant pressure to Create Content goes hand in hand with generative ai

If time is the issue generative ai solves, then that generated image has nothing that makes it worth working with.

one thing that irks me about tech bros is that they fundamentally misunderstand how artists seek out tools to help their process

the thing about creating innovations and tools is figuring out how to streamline an annoying part of the process so you can get to the fun part of the process.

If I don't have to worry about drawing every strand of hair on a cat, that makes it easier for me to draw a cat: and so people in the community have made so so so many hair texture brushes with all these different and shapes to help me create that cat

in motion graphics animation, it'd be a massive time sink to manipulate a model Frame By Frame without keyframe interpolation. Keyframe interpolation is where you tell the computer to move an object from point A to C and the computer fills in what point B is. Its a feature and a tool that reduces the workload of a project and allows you to focus on what you really want to do instead!

which is why anytime I read and hear about a tech bro going off about the wOndERs oF Ai I wonder if they actually have any knowledge of the field they're trying to solve problems for, or if they're just moonlighting as Explorers of the New World granting Savages new technologies that they're too dumb to understand

[arapydea]

What I learned after making 20 Videos

I’m just gonna go through each of my videos and what I learned from them because now seems to be a good time for that considering the upgrade that will happen soon-ish 

So in the beginning I was only writing notes, little reminders for what I wanted to talk about in my videos. I realized quickly that this made the recording phase longer than it had to be, made the video disorgenized and added a ton of time in editing.  Because I had to make something good out of a recording in which I wasn’t only not confident in what I was saying but it was also all over the place (more so than my videos now which is surprising). 

So after 4 videos of weird notes and too long recordings I decided I would write scripts. Word for word for what I was gonna say. (I’ve always been told that my reading aloud sounded rather natural, that paired with my ability to write how I speak gave me an advantage on that.)

But I did actually write a word for word script for the channel trailer though I generally don’t count that as an actual video. 

For the first few actual videos (Miraculous Truth & Lies Rant - AngryArapy 🌋 /Merlin - BabbleArea 🌌/Why the Haikyuu Characters are great - BabbleZone ☄️/Gravity Falls - BabbleArea 🌌) I did not have scripts and it shows. The videos were a good start because I had something to work off of and it showed me a lot of how I shouldn’t do things.

So since “Reaction Streamers are parasites - AngryArapy 🌋” I have been writing scripts.  These solid scripts cut down my recording and editing time significantly (which does not mean it’s quick…)

Though looking back this video isn’t good…which I think is mostly because I had the entire script ready and then 3 new things came out that I wanted to incorporate and just overall I just wasn’t ready to talk about this kind of topic. If I ever get to it I would like to re-do this video in a proper way to do the topic justice and explain my viewpoints better.

I personally think that from “Marinette is NOT a normal girl ☄️ BabbleZone” my thumbnails have become good(-ish).  At least from then on I felt like I kinda knew what I was doing. 

After that I did “How I made my Persona” which was a very lengthy process which I am still pretty happy with that.  As far as I remember the video was fun to edit, I don’t think I learned a lot from this one besides that it’s good to keep track of what you are doing so you can talk about it later.

The first NameAnalysis (which is a format I am not sure I want to continue but we will see) was…a pain to say the least, this was around the time were my fascination with Miraculous turned to pure frustration. The research for this was somewhat boring and the editing bored me even more. This was the first time I truly noticed that when I am bored I am slow in editing (which I will come back to later)

The first Speedpaint Commentary was a new experience! “HeRos Creation Explained” was pretty fun for me because it was a new experience, I don’t think Speedpaint Commentaries are really my thing but it challenged me to develop my editing skills further and think outside of the box I was in before. 

“Avatar: The Last Airbender 🌌 BabbleArea” was…said lightly…a straight run into a wall. I edit in Shotcut and at the time I didn’t know what it could do and with the knowledge I had I hit the wall so hard I wasn’t sure if I could continue. With what I know now about what Shotcut can do I think I could do this Video better but at the time i just simply didn’t have the knowledge and thought it would be fine. This video was a big reason why I tried Davinci Resolve (which we will also get to later).

What I have not mentioned until now is that I edited all of these videos on a 10 year old laptop with a whopping 4GB RAM (which if you don’t know, isn’t a lot…) As you probably can imagine, editing was a pain.  Shotcut crashed on me more than I want to remember (but as Shotcut has automatic saving I never really lost much). 

Around this time I started looking for a new laptop. 

“The ending of Digimon Frontier could’ve been genius ☄️ BabbleZone” I think I still made on the old laptop (but that was just a quick video to get out of my head and just have another video so I wasn’t that attached to making this one good)

But both “Miraculous…WHY Power-Ups AND Fusions?? 🌋 AngryArapy“ and “Kitsuyoi Artwork 🖌️ DeaDraws“ were edited on the laptop of my dear MamaDea (which has 8GB RAM, and damn was it nice to not edit in fear of a crash and slowness.) [Around that time I was looking/waiting for my new laptop and couldn’t bare working on the 4GB RAM anymore.]

And then I had the new laptop, and immediately did the dumbest thing I could do.  Throw out everything I know and make an entire Video in Davinci Resolve without getting enough info about how the programm works and what it can do. (And not informing myself what the limits of Shotcut are)

“Pokémon: Hisuian Snow 🌌 BabbleArea” was the first video I made on the new laptop and in Davinci Resolve (even though I think the audio editing I still did in Shotcut because it was easier for me). 

Between this Video and the one before were (if my math is right [and it’s probably not]) 94 days of no uploads. Changing to a completely new device and a completly new editing programm with no planned buffer or a planned slow learning process is just not the smartest move.  I tried to learn Davinci Resolve while making a full video which is just simply not how this works.  (Additionally to that I didn’t even like the Video I made in DaVinci. Learning how to not to things is also good kids.)

And here I just want to share a thought because I think there is a difference between DaVinci Resolve and other video editing programms because DaVinci just doesn’t seem to be a video editior, it’s a movie editor. 

It surely can be used as a video editor and in some cases I guess it makes more sense but at least for me and the type of content I want to make, a video editor (if actually understood) should be able to do everything I want to do without giving me 4 Pages I do not understand and will never need.

From “Miraculous Rewrite Summary - Season 1 🐞🐱” I have been editing in Shotcut again and have been learning the absolute limits of Shotcut because I think it can do more than it looks like it can and it should be able to do everything I need as soon as I figure out how. 

In “How I Made My Channel” I didn’t learn as much in editing but I did realise again that my scripts are lacking. 

Through “Digimon Adventure is a pretty great movie 🌌 BabbleArea“ I realiesed 3 things. One: my scripts are not getting better. Two: BabbleArea as a format in itself is severely lacking. Three: I need to get my editing done in at most 2 weeks because if it takes longer than that it takes longer than it needs and I get confused with what I wanted to do. 

“Pokémon Pokémon copied from Digimon ☄️ BabbleZone” confirmed point one and three from above again but also let me know that as long as I fully believe in a video until I need to start the visual editing process the video is at least okey. 

What I learned overall is that scripts are always good because they save time not only in recording but also in editing, allow for easy subtitling and probably much more.

I think I naturally learned how to make better Thumbnails (but stll have much to learn).

In the beginning I actually purposefully kept my editing as simple as possible because I wanted to avoid copyright issues and just not spend that much time on it because it was just this “I’m going to try it out" thing but I will try some more things in the future and take some more risks.

As much as I would like to just do what I am comfortable with now, if I don’t try new things I won’t learn new things and I won’t have a proper chance at making my content more interesting. 

So I’m going to try more things and keep going for as long as I can ! ^^

[phoenotopia]

The Last Phoenotopia Blog Update

(Date 2021 MAR 01)

I debated how to open this blog post, but perhaps the main crux of this blog post is the best place to start. The blog is being retired.

The purpose of this blog was to be a "development" blog for Phoenotopia, and well, Phoenotopia's development is done. I'll still be doing bug fixes and maintenance on the PC and Switch versions, and playstation and xbox ports are underway (by a publisher). But I'm not going to be making any more major changes to the game. At some point, you put the paintbrush down and say it's done. Blemishes and all.

Recent Events

The game launched on Steam last month, and like any launch, it was hectic. Bugs Galore. This is our first commercial PC launch, so it was a real baptism by fire. Unlike Switch's one configuration, the PC has multiple configurations and factors to account for. The game needed to be able to handle multiple control schemes, screen resolutions, refresh rates, and more! I had a 60Hz monitor going into launch and didn't know anything about Hz (I do now). There was a troublesome stutter that some players were sensitive to that my whole team didn't notice since our eyes compensated it away. There were a few times where in fixing something at one party's behest, it introduced problems for another party. A few times, due to disorganization, I unwittingly rolled back a fix that was meant to be applied. For some, the game couldn't play at all (really glad Steam allows refunds).

It was messy. It was tiring. I.AM.BEAT.

I think the worst of it is over... I'll still be around to do the last updates and bug fixes, but I'm ultimately ready for what's next.

SO what is next?

What isn't next... is Phoenotopia 2. As you may have heard down the grapevine, the game couldn't be what you call successful. No one's earned even minimum wage on it.

Maybe there's hope in the game's long tail. A year or two down the line... maybe. I won't hold my breath though. At some point in the past few months, I finished processing (or grieving) and it's time to move on.

The game has at least earned enough for us to continue our modest operations. As long as we don't expand the team, and we don't take another monster six-year dev cycle like what Phoenotopia took, we can continue. We'll have to be smarter and faster. Perhaps the most valuable thing we gained from all this is experience.

The Experience

It is a dev blog. Here are some of the lessons I've accumulated from this game's development.

- Have a good menu design. Menus aren't just that in-between fluff before you get to the good stuff. Menus are KEY. Your menus need to be robust, expandable, and *understandable* (to you, the developer). Because once the game's out, you will invariably be asked to add more options. And if your menu design is bad, every time you have to add a new menu option, it becomes a whole new pain all over again. Support mouse from the get-go, etc.

- Focus on features that people will actually care about. For instance, I've never seen anyone praise the camera's zoom feature. In practice, people try that feature a few times and then never use it again. But that feature was a constant consideration factor for every level. Run through it multiple times to make sure the level didn't break, think about which zoom levels made sense, resize rooms because they worked at one zoom level but not the other, and so on.

- Don't do boxes that you can move around. Other 2D platformers avoid movable boxes because they're a huge headache to program and they really complicate the game space. Enemies need to respond to boxes you throw in their path and either navigate around or attack it. When you're moving the box, you have to worry about constantly changing your collision size and reconciling when the box gets snagged on the environment. The boxes were also a constant source of bugs because people can manipulate them to soft-lock themselves and more.

- More focused script. Phoenotopia's 100,000+ word script was panned more for being bloated than it was praised for being lengthy. Long scripts take a long time to write and make the game more unwieldy, increasing the costs of translation and upkeep. Every update we're addressing some textual error or mistranslation. There are some highly renowned games (e.g. Hyper Light Drifter) that do without a script at all!

- Be flashy! A bat and a lightsaber take the same amount of work to program, but the lightsaber will draw a lot more attention and interest.

- Slopes, surprisingly! Six years ago when I started, Unity was ill-equipped for 2D games. If you used the physics that Unity provided you'd have a really floaty character that wouldn't adhere to the slope when going downhill. There were a hundred different tutorials saying different things (use forces, use move position, use translation, etc). You can get rectangular collisions done in a day, but to do slopes took weeks. Meanwhile, games can actually get by fine without slopes. Most people won't even notice. Did you know the Phoenotopia flash game didn't have slopes? Neither does Hollow Knight or Rogue Legacy. You can save yourself a lot of work by avoiding slopes.

(big entities look weird on slopes. Bad slope!)

I could write enough little knowledge nuggets like this to fill a book! But I'd rather just make the next game. 

So… what IS next?

As mentioned previously, it's not Phoenotopia 2. Pirate and I are mostly just tossing some ideas back and forth right now. We'll go silent for a year (or two). Our next game's scope will be more modest in some ways, more ambitious in others. It will definitely be more smartly designed. (There will be a map!)

We'll announce it when it's ready for the public. It might be necessary for us to do a kickstarter. I've tried to avoid kickstarters having been burnt on quite a few myself and also because I worry that mismanaging a kickstarter would earn the ire of backers.

But I did keep this blog regularly updated for six years. So I've gained some confidence in my abilities to at least manage a kickstarter well.

Is it really the last Phoenotopia Blog update though?

Okay, not really. There is some news that I'll need to announce, and this blog is one of the game's main outreach channels. Here are the events that will cause me to update the blog:

Announcing the launch of the xbox/playstation ports when they're ready

If a physical edition of the game happens

If a new language is getting introduced into the game (Korean is a high possibility)

When we're ready to talk about our next game

If (BIG IF) we begin development on a Phoenotopia sequel. I do want to do a sequel one day if we have the means and the demand is there. 

Those updates will be more on a "when they happen" basis, rather than me reporting in every couple months.

Fan Art

As always, I'm very happy to see fanart of Phoenotopia. Major thanks again to Pimez for collecting all the artwork from the corners of the internet! Since this is the "last" blogpost, Sir Pimez can finally take a rest from collecting the fanart :P

ÆV made a series of pictures that tell a story. A Pooki is humanely sheared of its wool to create a hat. The Pooki is unharmed. Nice! Gotta love Gail’s expressions.

Amagoo Mazeru makes a stunning landscape shot of a full moon and shooting stars. It’s a sharp and clear vector art. I like the faint glow of the moon and the fire and the subtle gradient in the night sky. Very skillfully done!

Hah hah. I got a chuckle out of this one. I imagine this is how Gail's enemies see her by the end of the game. CaESar made this image based on TerminalMontage's famous youtube videos. Nailed it!

CrownStar drew two pictures of Gail. I'm a big player of JRPGs, so the first shot instantly reminded me of Persona 4's art style. (Hmmm... Phoeonotopia as a JRPG... there’s potential there...) Next, Birdy is shown carried off after her defeat. I really like Birdy's expression here - she just seems mildly uncomfortable.

There's a bit of a story behind the first image. As Firanka shares it, she wasn't able to defeat the Big Eye monster at the end of the flash game, so she believed a tall tale that what awaited after was a 6 armed Kobold boss. Hilarious! The second is a rendition of the lonely Anuri elder. A rare subject. The loneliness is portrayed well here. I feel lonely just looking at it!

Koo_chop draws the clash between Gail and Katash at the top of the towers. I really like this interpretation of the game's art style. It’s faithful to the in-game graphics. And the lighting, from the glow of Gail's bat, to Katash's sword, and the lightning in the background... Amazing!

Lime Hazard shows Gail with a salute pose. Very appropriate for this occasion. I also like how there's a slight tilt in the angle that Gail is portrayed. Those dynamic angles are always hard to get right, and Lime Hazard pulled it off very skillfully. See you next mission!

Lyoung0J with a digital painting of Gail posed sitting on a rock. I like how it almost seems like she was caught in a candid moment - she’s smiling, but also feeling self-conscious. Cute! The art style really pops, and I like how Gail is sporting what I call the old anime style nose. 

MyUesrNameIsSh*t with a sketch of Gail performing a skillful slingshot. I like how Gail is depicted with her tongue out in a mischievous manner, the way all mischievous people with slingshots do.

Niitsu Kentaro returns with a 2021 Happy New Year picture. That happened didn't it? A New Year... Gail's pose gave me a chuckle with how she seems to be waving the bat around as casually as one would wave hello. And "Phoenotopiyear"... Well said! One day we'll have our Phoenotopiyear...

Ochan Nu breaks all records with a stunning NINE pictures in one session :O

There's so many goodies here. My favorite would be the one with Gail staring intently at the screen - it's like she's looking directly at you. You almost feel uncomfortable.

Next, there's an Animal Crossing villager dressed as Gail and sporting her pink hair. It even looks like a house Gail would live in. Gail is a connoisseur of the arts and likes Mona Lisa. Yes :)

There are various comics of Gail pointing out Gail's weird food habits. A picture of Fran looking really cool, and even Gail rocking a bathing suit. (bathing suit image linked here in case NSFW). Wow!

Pimez didn't just collect the arts, he creates them as well! This one, which he aptly named 'The Year 175' is a depiction of when the dragons invaded the towers as told by an elderly Daean woman. Great pixeling skills! I got a good chuckle from the ice dragon leaving with its stuff slung over its shoulder.

Quo made a stunning picture of Gail playing the flute surrounded by the 5 musical notes and the Phoenix logo behind her. The theme seems to be "fire" and it works really well. Gail herself looks awesome depicted in her red suit - it's like she's leading a marching band!

Rai Asuha depicts Gail in the late game with her red suit, and night star bat, and holding a lamp. She looks ready for adventure! I really like the white outline here and Gail's poofy shoulders here - the art style feels reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics.

Seri also draws Gail bearing her late game equipment. Unique to Seri's drawing is how all of Gail's equipment is accessible from a pocket on her shirt. I also like how Gail is depicted with her lucky earrings - that accessory is often forgotten.

Treedude depicts Gail with a bat and wearing a funny smirk. She looks like she's ready to hurt someone!

Warotar returns with everyone's favorite Great Drake, Bubbles! It seems so happy to be featured!

I'm really grateful for all the fanart this game has received. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Closing Notes

Pirate drew a picture to mark the occasion. It shows Gail enjoying a hot chocolate with marshmallows and a pumpkin muffin. A rest well-earned...

Goodbye! Until next time!

[queenlua]

hey, i started following you recently and ur bio says ur a hacker? any tips on where to start? hacking seems like a v cool/fun way to learn more abt coding and cybersecurity/infrastructure and i'd like to explore it but there's so much on the internet and like, i'm not trying to get into anything illegal. thanks!

huh, an interesting question, ty!

i can give more tailored advice if you hit me up on chat with more specifics on your background/interests.

given what you've written here, though, i'll just assume you don't have any immediate professional aspirations (e.g. you just want to learn some things, and you aren't necessarily trying to get A Cyber Security Job TM within the next three months or w/e), and that you don't know much about any specific programming/computering domain yet.

(stuff under cut because long)

first i'd probably just try to pick some interesting problem that you think you can solve with tech. this doesn't need to be a "hacking" project at first; i was just messing around with computers for ages before i did anything involving security/exploitation.

if you don't already know how to program, you should ideally pick a problem you can solve via programming. for instance: i learned a lot back in the 2000s, when play-by-post forum RPGs were in vogue.  see, i'd already been messing around, building my own personal sites, first just with HTML & CSS, and later on with Javascript and PHP.   and i knew the forum software everyone used (InvisionPowerBoard) was written in PHP.  so when one of the admins at my RPG complained that they'd like the ability to set multiple profile pictures, i was like, "hey i'm good at programming, want me to create a mod to do that," and then i just... did. so then they asked me to program more features, and i got all the sexy nerd cred for being Forum Mod Queen, and it was a good time, i learned a lot.

(i also got to be the person who was frantically IMed at 2am because wtf the forum is down and there's an inscrutable error, what do??? basically sysadmining! also, much less sexy! still, i learned a lot!)

the key thing is that it's gotta be a problem that's interesting to you: as much as i love making dorky sites in PHP, half the fun was seeing other people using my stuff, and i think the era of forum-based RPGs has passed. but maybe you can apply some programming talents to something that you are interested in—maybe you want to make a silly Chrome extension to make people laugh, a la Cloud to Butt, or maybe you'd like to make a program that converts pixel art into cross-stitching patterns, maybe you want to just make a cool adventure game on those annoying graphing calculators they make you use in class, or make a script for some online game you play, or make something silly with Arduino (i once made a trash can that rolled toward me when i clapped my hands; it was fun, and way easier than you'd think!), whatever.

i know a lot of hacker-types who got their start doing ROM hacking for video games—replacing the character art or animations or whatever in old NES games. that's probably more relevant than the PHP websites, at least, and is probably a solid place to get started; in my experience those communities tend to be reasonably friendly to questions. pick a small thing you want to do & ask how to do it.

also, a somewhat unconventional path, but—once i knew how to program a bit of Python, i started doing goofy junk, like, "hey can i implemented NamedTuple from scratch,” which tends to lead to Python metaprogramming, which leads to surprising shit like "oh, stack frames are literally just Python objects and you can manually edit them in the interpreter to do deliberately horrendous/silly things, my god this language allows too much reflection and i'm having too much fun"... since Python is a lot of folks' first language these days, i thought i'd point that out, since i think this is a pretty accessible start to thinking about How Programs Actually Work under the hood. allison kaptur has some specific recommendations on how to poke around, if you wanna go that route.

it's reasonably likely you'll end up doing something "hackery" in the natural course of just working on stuff. for instance, while i was working on the IPB forum software mods, i became distressed to learn that everyone was using an INSECURE version of the software! no one was patching their shit!! i yelled at the admins about it, and they were like "well we haven't been hacked yet so it's not a problem," so i uh, decided to demonstrate a proof of concept? i downloaded some sketchy perl script, kicked it until it worked, logged in as the admins, and shitposted a bit before i logged out, y'know, to prove my point.

(they responded by banning me for two weeks, and did not patch their software. which, y'know, rip to them; they got hacked by an unrelated Turkish group two months later, and those dudes just straight-up deleted the whole website. i was a merciful god by comparison!)

anyway, even though downloading a perl script and just pointing it at a website isn't really "hacking" (it's the literal definition of script kiddie, heh)—the point is i was just experimenting a lot and trying a lot of stuff, which meant i was getting comfortable with thinking of software as not just some immutable relic, but something you can touch and prod in unexpected ways.

this dovetails into the next thing, which is like, just learn a lot of stuff. a boring conventional computer science degree will teach you a lot (provided you take it seriously and actually try to learn shit); alternatively, just taking the same classes as a boring conventional computer science degree, via edX or whatever free online thingy, will also teach you a lot. ("contributing to open source" also teaches you a lot but... hngh... is a whole can of worms; send a follow-up ask if you want that rant.)

here's where i should note that "hacking" is an impossibly broad category: the kind of person who knows how to fuck with website authentication tokens is very different than someone who writes a fuzzer, who is often quite different than someone who looks at the bug a fuzzer produces and actually writes a program that can exploit that bug... so what you focus on depends on what you're interested in. i imagine classes with names like "compilers," "operating systems," and "networking" will teach you a lot. but, like, idk, all knowledge is god-breathed and good for teaching. hell, i hear some universities these days have actual computer security classes? that's probably a good thing to look at, just to get a sense of what's out there, if you already know how to program.

also be comfortable with not knowing everything, but also, learn as you go. the bulk of my security knowledge came when i got kinda airdropped into a work team that basically hired me entirely on "potential" (lmao), and uh, prior to joining i only had the faintest idea what a hypervisor was? or the whole protection ring concept? or ioctls or sandboxing or threat models or, fuck, anything? i mostly just pestered people with like 800 questions and slowly built up a knowledge base, and remember being surprised & delighted when i went to a security conference a year later and could follow most of the talks, and when i wound up at a bar with a guy on the xbox security team and we compared our security models a bunch, and so on.  there wasn't a magic moment when i "got it", i was just like, "okay huh this dude says he found a ring-0 exploit... what does that mean... okay i think i got that... why is that a big deal though... better ask somebody.." (also: reading an occasional dead tree book is a good idea. i owe my firstborn to Robert Love's Linux Kernel Development, as outdated as it is, and also O'Reilly's kookaburra book gave me a great overview of web programming back in the day, etc.  you can learn a lot by just clicking around random blogs, but you’ll often end up with a lot of random little facts and no good mental scaffolding for holding it together; often, a decent book will give you that scaffolding.)

(also, it's pretty useful if you can find a knowledgable someone to pepper with random questions as you go. finding someone who will actively mentor you is tricky, but most working computery folks are happy to tell you things like "what you're doing is actually impossible, here's why," or "here's a tutorial someone told me was good for learning how to write a linux kernel module," or "here's my vague understanding of this concept you know nothing about," or "here's how you automate something to click on a link on a webpage," which tends to be handier than just google on its own.)

if you're reading this and you're like "ok cool but where's the part where i'm handed a computer and i gotta break in while going all hacker typer”—that's not the bulk of the work, alas! like, for sure, we do have fun pranking each other by trying dumb ways of stealing each other's passwords or whatever (once i stuck a keylogger in a dude's keyboard, fun times). but a lot of my security jobs have involved stuff like, "stare at this disassembly a long fuckin' time to figure out how the program pointer got all fucked up," or, "write a fuzzer that feeds a lot of randomized input to some C++ program, watch the program crash because C++ is a horrible language for writing software, go fix all the bugs," or "think Really Hard TM about all the settings and doohickeys this OS/GPU/whatever has, think about all the awful things someone could do with it, threat model and sandbox accordingly." occasionally i have done cool proof-of-concept hacks but honestly writing exploits can kinda be tedious, lol, so like, i'm only doing that if it's the only way i can get people to believe that Yes This Is Actually A Problem, Fix Your Code

"lua that's cool and all but i wanted, like, actual links and recommendations and stuff" okay, fair. here's some ideas:

microcorruption: very fun embedded security CTF; teaches you everything you need to know as you're doing it.

cryptopals crypto challenges: very fun little programming exercises that teach you a lot of fundamental cryptography concepts as you're going along! you can do these even as a bit of a n00b; i did them in Python for the lulz

the binary bomb lab is hilariously copied by, like, so many CS programs, lol, but for good reason. it's accessible and fun and is the first time most people get to feel like a real hacker! (requires you know a bit of C beforehand)

ctftime is a good way to see when new CTFs ("capture the flag"s; security-focused competitions) are coming up. or, sometimes CTFs post their source code, so you can continue trying them after the CTF is over. i liked Stripe's CTFs when they were going, because they focused on "web stuff", and "web stuff" was all i really knew at the time. if you're more interested in staring at disassembly, there's CTFs focused on that sort of thing too.

azeria has good ARM assembly & exploitation tutorials

also, like, lots of good talks out there; just watching defcon/cansecwest/etc talks until something piques your interest is very fun. i'd die on a battlefield for any of Christopher Domas's talks, but he assumes a lot of specific x86/OS knowledge, lol, so maybe don’t start with that. oh, Julia Evans's blog is honestly probably pretty good for just learning a lot of stuff and really beginner-friendly?

oh and wrt legality... idk, i haven't addressed it here since it hasn't come up in my own work much, tbh. if you're just getting started you're kind of unlikely to Break The Law without, y'know, realizing maybe you're doing something a bit gray-area? and you can cross that bridge when you come to it? Real Hacking TM is way more of a pain-in-the-ass than doing CTFs and such, and you'll learn way more with the latter, so who cares lol just do the fun thing

[k1ttyadventurer]

AvA Thoughts and Ideas

Yes, this is my first blog post. I can’t believe it was Animator vs Animation that made me want to interact with people on this site.

@sammy8d257 (I’m the anon that wanted to add to your theories) and @inksandpensblog, I’m tagging you guys because I really like your AvA theory crafting and I want to share my thoughts with you. Hope you don’t mind getting tagged. (Also, I’m so down to discuss this stuff in DMs or on Discord if you want? I’m craving AvA discussion.)

Edit: Rephrased a few things to flow better or be better understood. Also added a new point I just thought of. Edit 2: Fixing things that didn't get fixed the first time.

-

Okay, so, AvA.

(Also, I will be calling Orange/Second ‘Orange’ because that’s what Alan calls him, unless I’m referring to “avatar-state” Orange, then I may refer to him as ‘Second’.)

((Also, also, my thoughts jump around quite a bit, sorry about that! Hope you can follow my thought process.))

(((Also, also, also, my opinions and headcanons expressed here are not set in stone. They could definitely change, which has already happened over the course of writing this.)))

-

1) Chosen’s relationship with Dark. - I definitely think that Chosen liked Dark (no offense to shippers, but I’m talking purely friendship here), however, I would guess that Dark considered the two of them much closer than Chosen did. - Chosen initially followed Dark’s lead when destroying things. It was all he had known, and Dark wanted to do it. But Chosen started noticing it was actually hurting others, and didn’t really achieve anything. - When they came to odds, Chosen struck first, while Dark just tried to stubbornly continue with his plan. It makes Chosen look like he immediately jumped to attacking, but I’d like to point out, in the flashback, he actively wanted Dark to stop attacking others when they were on the Newgrounds page. I think this means that this tension had been building up for some time. It wasn’t a sudden thing of Chosen deciding to attack Dark. It was likely sudden for Dark, because Chosen didn’t communicate with him (probably), but for Chosen, I think the creation of the virus was simply the last thing that convinced him that his former friend was actually an evil person. - (I would love to see a reformed Dark and Chosen being friends! But, I think trying to say he wasn’t all bad in the first place is severely glossing over the fact that he did--and was going to do--some awful, awful things.) - Chosen had no hesitance when he returned from defeating the first spider virus. He was going to beat Dark. - (I also find it interesting that Chosen knew where this second location was. From what I can gather from the AvG reaction, it was meant to be a more secret location for Dark? Did Chosen watch him from afar and discover it? Just thinking.) - TLDR: Chosen had already started expecting Dark might become an enemy before Dark revealed the virus.

2) Chosen’s opinion of Alan. - Plain and simple, I don’t think Chosen hates Alan. I don’t think he even holds a grudge anymore. - Yeah, he definitely hated Alan when he was chained up. He held a grudge for a long while after he escaped. But. I think as he watched Dark’s actions and the impact his destruction had on others, he started to see what Alan saw when Chosen was destroying Alan’s PC. - When he entered Alan’s computer, and started trying to defend Alan’s PC, he was now in Alan’s shoes. He was the cursor, the anti-virus, who didn’t want or choose to have this destruction happen. - After the fight, he sees other sticks on the computer and is forced to consider it may have been his own fault he got 'tamed', since the proof of Alan getting along with, or at least tolerating, stick figures was in front of him. - It doesn’t mean what Alan did was right, but Chosen now sees why Alan chained him. After all, isn’t Chosen himself now on his way to destroy Dark? He and Alan aren’t so different. He nods to Alan, acknowledging him, even forgiving him. Alan nods back. There’s a level of acceptance that has been established between them. Alan respects stick figures significantly more, and Chosen sees Alan isn’t a heartless monster. - So, when Alan’s cursor joins the fight against Dark, they were already on the same page. Preventing needless violence with violence. Not to mention, have you seen how many hits Alan purposely took for Chosen? As soon as the black blades came out, Alan got between them and Chosen as often as he could. Alan came to help Chosen, not just to defeat Dark. - If Chosen could ally so quickly with Dark, and then turn on him when he realized Dark’s morals were wrong, why can’t the reverse be true with Chosen realizing Alan had changed for the better?

3) Chosen’s opinion of Orange. - I believe it was Inks who said that Chosen feels something along the lines of submissive towards Orange at the end. While I do agree that Chosen’s bow doesn’t seem worshipful, I don’t think it’s Chosen ‘giving up’. I think it’s simply showing respect and gratitude in a very similar sense to how the five bowed to him after dealing with the virus. He’s just... far less emotive. It’s a nice parallel.

4) The effects of the virus spiders and blades on Chosen. - Personally, I think the reason it looks like the virus has so little effect on Chosen is because of his coloring. Orange is, well, orange, so the black wounds are obviously going to show. - You can see Chosen showing weakness in both his fight with the spider virus and his fight with Dark. The weakness shows itself in hesitation, slower response, straight up laying in a crater or the water for an extended period of time. - I think at the end, when the Dark sends the virus to infect the internet, Chosen is laying there unmoving because he literally can’t move. His body language reads of someone looking up weakly, unable to do anything but wanting to. The viruses temporarily disabled him (but, notably, it took all of them to do so). Dark can’t actually kill Chosen or delete him, but he’s been successfully incapacitated, so Dark can move forward with his plan, unhindered. - I just don’t think Chosen would ever, ever give up. If he can fight back, he will. He has never backed down once, even when there seems to be no way he can win. He almost lost to a spider virus--there’s even subtle hints later that he’s afraid of fighting them--but he still attacks the whole swarm until he literally can’t anymore.

5) Dark fighting Orange. - With stabbing Orange, it becomes clear that he’s not being as quickly affected by the blade as his friends. That’s why the Dark lord raises him off the ground; he grew impatient. (Also, Chosen reacts to Orange being stabbed? Is it because he knows Orange is one of Alan’s creations as opposed to the other four sticks? Or does he literally feel something?) - Dark becomes absolutely furious at Orange’s attempts to attack him and frustrated that Orange won’t simply die. Too reminiscent of Chosen. Also, I would like to note that, before he even stabbed Orange, Dark hits him the hardest out of the four still standing.

6) Orange’s powers. - Before I say anything about Orange’s avatar-state, I want to point out that his talents seem a whole lot more like Victim’s than Chosen's? I don’t know, if it weren’t for the fact that he has some label saying “The Chosen One’s Return,” I’d say he’s actually the ‘second coming’ of Victim. - Okay, now to his powers. Almost all of them are souped up versions of Chosen’s, with two exceptions. The whole reviving/restoring code ability, and the ability to fly/float without flames. The latter of these two abilities is something we see Dark do after he puts on his black band. The former could also very well be associated with Dark, considering Second had to go to Dark’s console to revive his friends. Food for thought. - There’s a trade off here in the power scaling. Second is so much stronger than Chosen, but obviously can’t tap into his powers whenever he wants. Not to mention, he seemingly can’t use them indefinitely. If Dark somehow managed to avoid getting blasted into the beyond, Orange would be in major trouble if his super-state has a time limit. - Then there’s the whole sleeping thing in videos that likely take place later chronologically? On the build competition video where Orange literally can’t stay awake for fifteen seconds despite punching himself in the face, there was something Alan did that always struck me as odd. He hearted a comment saying something like ‘should we be concerned about Orange’s narcolepsy?’ almost implying that we should be concerned? Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I haven’t seen him just heart “funny-haha” comments before. (I would also like to point out it is very possible for this to be planned out. These AvM video scripts were likely written after AvA’s scripts even if the videos were finished first.)

7) What next for Chosen doing things with the color squad? - I think, despite the many, many issues that will come up if Chosen ‘play-fights’ with the others (as I stated as an Anon to Sammy), it would be incredibly healthy for him once he can do it safely and have fun. He was born wanting to fight. It’s his calling. And he’s really good at it. Finding a way to do it without hurting others? That’s the best thing he could ever have. - Okay, and, what if, Chosen doesn’t quite understand why Orange doesn’t remember going super, but he decides that he’s going to get to the bottom of Orange’s powers and, in the process, starts training Orange. (It probably starts with Chosen being all, ‘come here’ and flies up, while Orange is just, ‘what? I can’t do that.’ ‘Yes you can. Do it.’ Of course, that blunt method of teaching is not going to work, so Chosen has to learn to communicate better.) Training may or may not actually be successful, but imagine him and Orange bonding. - Both the color squad and Chosen adopting each other. They both parent the other in their own ways, and just. Be cute together. Chosen learns how to people and relax, and gets, like, super attached to these weak little sticks? So, the color squad now has an overprotective higher being watching over them, and the awe they have of his power is quickly cut short when they learn he’s never played cards before? - The sticks also show off their skills to Chosen and he’s just. Confused. Why would you tap blocks just to make a sound? Make something to harvest wheat when you can do it by hand? Why are you eating that. Animals? Okay, actually, holding this cat is nice.

-

(I deleted my old conclusion on accident, and I don't remember what it said. I don't think it was important, though. Thanks for reading! Please share any thoughts if you have any!)

[intombedarc]

random headcanons: mundane edition.

liz hates the summer. however, she does like the beach to lay out and be lazy in the sun.

zatanna loves to collect rare crystals and give it to her occult friends as little gifts. these crystals are real and they do hold powerful energy, unlike the novelty crystals that people sell.

rogue loves to go clubbing. after she was ‘fixed’ with her abilities (and i use that term loosely), she dragged kitty, kurt and bobby all around new york looking for a places to dance the night away.

gwen plays drums and is learning guitar from mj. she takes inspiration from jo.ey jo.rdison and da.ve gro.hl, those are her idols in terms of drumming.

felicia owns three cats, two siamese (ruby and obi) and one black cat (diamond). she gives them the best food and babies them like they’re her kids.

it’s been said before but elektra doesn’t like roses. she thinks they’re a cheap flower to buy and there’s no consideration into getting them. she really loves orchids though.

jessica use to write poetry when she was younger, well into high school and sometimes when she’s not working on a case to get her mind off. it’s one of her few creative outlets.

lorna watches a lot of trashy television. she’s also into conspiracy documentaries, she finds them to be hilarious.

amora only visits midgard quietly if it’s fashion week and to stay in beautiful countries for a period of time. she thinks of the planet as a vacation spot.

kate is the karaoke queen. she can carry a good note and she’s classified as an alto. her parents took her to music classes, focusing on chorus when she was a child.

helena listens to em.inem, sli.pknot and hale.storm. those are her favorites to listen to when she’s training.

raven gets up early every morning to meditate. she does this to keep her powers in balance, one of the many teachings she’s learned during her time on azarath. her cat, dexter loves to join her on her shoulders.

dana only takes up the mantle of batwoman when terry goes out of commission or he’s needed elsewhere besides gotham city.

ivy grows fond of harley’s pets but she does not like the fact that they attempt to eat her plants. she’s banished them from her greenhouses until they’re trained to be restrictive.

manson’s guilty pleasure is listening to nsync. as soon as tucker found out about it and blabbed to danny, it’s been a on going joke between the two of them against her. she figures it’s a small victory against beating them both at video games.

yennefer enjoys reading scripts in her spare time. it’s the only part of her life she values the more, a little less than excelling in magic.

lily has snuck out of hogwarts more times than she claims. she has gotten much better at stealth, she’s never regretted doing it. she can thank sirius for her rebellious streak.

jesse does not sleep well so she takes suppressants to help her. she still gets up at five in the morning to run all throughout central park until she needs to report for duty and run the oldest house.

jyn is not good at taking care of herself medically. she’s terrible at stitching herself up and looks to cassian for extra help.

mara still has nightmares about her days with the empire. there are days where she questions her own morality and even her connection to the light of the force rather than the dark. she will always stand by her claim of being a grey jedi.

merrin hates to be left alone. she has a fear that she’ll be left behind again to fend for herself. while she tends to act like she doesn’t like being consumed, she’ll always want to be close by and give the other person their space.

jade doesn’t really know how technology in the modern world works. she eventually learns how to but you can’t give her an iphone and expect her to make a phone call. she’s more likely to break it apart to understand it from the inside.

eden eventually settles down on dantooine after the war is over so she can raise her daughter properly. she vowed to not let warfare get in the way of her raising tyla and asked her brother eron to watch over her in case something were to happen.

sersi has grown to explore her personality outside of the empire once she and her master, tara alayne, escape. she’s much more bubbly and observant, her stoic outlook is replaced with curiosity and light. she also reprograms id-9 to operate on freewill instead of the empire’s protocol.

[circumstellars]

14. How long does it usually take you to make a set? and 49. How much would you say you’ve improved since you first started giffing? for the gif ask!

Questions for gif-makers ask game

14. I wish there was an easy answer to this but there’s so many things that affect time. One day I swear I’ll do like a speed gif process video or something to show how many things there are.

> Find footage (ie. scroll through 20 episodes of TUA finding one or more scenes/clips dependent on the theme)

> Cut and clean footage. Narrow down the few seconds or minutes needed into one or more shortened clips (which I refer to as stock). Some gif makers might do this slightly differently but I use a script based editor so I clean my stock when I cut it, rather then after. There’s a lot of little technical stuff I don’t need to babble about here. Either way this takes a *long* time, but part of the blame on that is my weak laptop. A lot of waiting around, which is extended if I’m cutting in 2160p/4k. Longer stuff I’ll use a good 1080p for the sake of my sanity.

> Load into PS, and preliminary editing, I decide size and shape, and fine tune the frames/video/speed, cutting it into smaller gifs sometimes.

> Lighting, colouring, sharpening and any further cleaning. The more fun stuff of giffing that I like. If this is a simple set like of Rob Sheehan looking sexy and nothing else, skip to encoding once satisfied.

> For specialty sets, with special effects, textures, timing effects, any and all weird things you sometimes see my gifs do, all of that is done here. Add several hours to the project depending on how well I know what I’m doing, if I’m winging it or not. Sometimes, like writing and drawing or other art, you go through a bit of trial and error and scrap things until it works tho. Sometimes I have a clear design in my head. It all depends, but either way its fairly labour intensive on the usual. 

> Encoding. THE WORST. Equally tedious as processing and de-interlacing, but again, a lot of this may be my crap computer and poor RAM, which photoshop eats like it’s its job. This can take anywhere from 5-45 minutes per gif, it sucks. Then once it finishes and alows you to save, I usually find problems that need tweaking, mainly if the size exceeds tumblr’s limit, or timing errors or any number of fixes.... so you have to go back edit, try again, and see what comes out lmao. The life.

So I dunno if writing it out like that gives you an idea of the time. Definitely some of it is on my slow computer so I might sound melodramatic that it takes centuries to do, ‘cause not always lmao.

So in the end, simple cut and colour sets maybe a couple hours depending on if it’s 4 or 8 or 10 right, and artsy/specialty sets vary greatly, but it’s usually upwards of 5 hours, or more but spread out over a couple days (I hyperfixate and tend to try and finish in one sitting like a lunatic sometimes tho.)

--- 49. This is a lil easier to answer hurhur. I think my sharpening game is a little more involved and that’s improved, and I think since shedding my bad habits and learning to gif in timeline (in PS) has greatly expanded my ability to do things I already knew how but were too labourious manually, and also gave me an opening to learn and experiment with new effects in the last few months, so I’m pretty happy about the upgrade in that respect!  Thank you for the ask I’m so happy :> I always like to talk about gifs like a nerd.

[superwinkies]

Super Junior:  Dating a Popular Broadway/Musical Actress

//weee back at it again with another headcanon! Hope the anon who requested it liked it! Tell me what you think! Also, i’m including Sungmin in all my writings now! But, it will be him and his wife! Sorry if you’re an OT9 or what! //

Boyfriend Leeteuk would never fail to monitor your performances.

but, it’s not like would comment on your skills or abilities.

it’s the small things like, how you gaze at the cast in some scenes, or like your hand motions when you do some actions.

he won’t criticise but would give you his feedbacks, which you appreciate most of the time.

also, it’s his thing to attend only the last performance. 

“end it with a bang!” he says

and when he does, it’s grand. Him dressing to the nines, biggest flower wreath for you, packed dinner box for all the cast and crew.

however, will always send you an encouraging text each night of your performance.

your relationship with him was not low key at all. it was kinda hard to keep it on the DL at first but you were relieved when you two went official.

You two now go anywhere and everywhere without caring a bit of the cameras and papparazis.

ooh biggest supporter Kim Heechul!!

he would always say, “not bad,”, but then you see him going on his youtube live and showering you with endless compliments.

“I thought you said it was not bad?”

you would then see him smiling shyly scratching the back of his head shyly.

Heechul is a busy man, so it is expected that he would miss your performance often.

but, he always makes it up! Either by sending gifts to the whole cast, or a simple dinner when you come back home.

dates with Heechul are mostly Netflix and Chilling at home. 

both of you being popular sometimes made it hard to go do normal couple things.

you mentioned once that you want to go picnic

lo and behold, Heechul prepared a picnic in his house. Set up fake grass, with a mat and picnic food.

constant harmless bicker but Heechul accommodates to you a lot. He probably would do everything for you

OKAY HE”S SWEET PLEASE!

Boyfriend Yesung would always go to your performances. You told him going once is enough but he insisted that you are too good to only watch once. 

Every performance he goes, he is always bringing different people. He says he wants everyone to see you perform.

Yesterday was his brother, the other day was two of the members and tomorrow will be with his school friends.’

Always a single stalk of rose for you which he will give once he meets you backstage at the end.

as much as your relationship was publicised, Yesung rarely ever posts about you on his social media. 

at first you thought it was because he was ashamed of you, but later you find out he didn’t want you to just be known as “Yesung Girlfriend” or get hate comments. 

also, you two would travel a lot together. If it’s not to a new country, it would be a short drive to the neighbouring city.

you liked that because people don’t swarm the both of you. you have your privacy and it’s usually one or two people who recognise you. 

also, both of you love going to record stores to find some hidden gems. 

a lot of cafe dates! and also museum dates!

for some reason Shindong do not want to publicise the relationship.

he went through it once and he don’t want you to go through the hate or scrutiny especially not when you are the country’s best musical actress.

Shindong is very careful. At first it kind of frustrates you but you slowly got to understand where he is coming from and to be quite honest, you like keeping it low key.

Dates with him are usually evening drives, watching movies in a less crowded theatre or walks at his nearby parks.

But, mostly chilling in his each other house.

No fancy public gestures, no surprise or anything on your performance day.

But, he will attend at least once, at least with his group of friends to not make it obvious. 

Come the end of the performance, you went to his home to relax and wind down.

You entered to his house decorated, with balloons and music and stuff, with CONGRATULATIONS hanging off the wall. 

He took your hands and made you sit.

Shindong would play the video he secretly took of you performing, you practicing in his house. 

You know he feels apologetic.

“I love it,” you would say as you softly caress his cheeks.

shut up our favourite dumpling is married to an actual musical actress!!

so cute okay!! please!!

Sungmin would be the most supportive person ever okay! Making time to see his wife before she starts performing!

Always sending her words of encouragement!

If he can attend, he would in a heartbeat. But when he can’t he would send you a text to ease her nerves!

He would definitely post on his social media about her performances night. 

Going on YT live together, doing fun tiktoks together, featuring on each other channel!

Just cute married couple things okay?

A lot of dates at home because our resident married couple gets tired easily!

Eunhyuk appreciates musical but even more so after dating you.

He admires the effort and hours of practice you do every single day. 

You would say, “babe, it’s the same for you?”

“Nah, I just dance. You belt out all your high notes like you’re talking!”

You would often shake your head and he would always like gently pull your closer using his arms and kiss the top of your head.

Man would attend your first performance, sitting first row. Doesn’t matter if he’s alone or with his members. 

When you would make eye contact with him, he would put out a small wave so as to not distract you. 

Somehow, this always makes you more confident. Like a boost of adrenaline. 

your relationship with him was mostly “accepted” by the general public and his fans. 

in fact, his fans would sometimes do an ad for your performance or even like send your cast and crew gifts.

likewise, your fans would sometimes send a coffee truck to his concert.

Dates with him were more free. Shopping dates, food dates. Basically normal couple dates. 

But, every date must have a slot for the both of you to eat ice cream because both you loves ice cream too much. 

sometimes, you two would go to the park, get a tub of ice cream from a convenience store and people watch as you dig in to your tub. 

Hae is the biggest fool for you to be honest

like everything you do is beautiful to him. Your smile, the way you smile, when you sing, when you focus on your script. 

He just loves everything about you OKAY

your biggest supporter! He would always post your performance on his social medias, telling his fans and followers to go support you!

He just loves tagging you, in the most random meme, edits of the both of you made by yours or his fans.

Donghae would never miss your performance. He goes to any night available if he’s free.

The one time he couldn’t was when the group toured South America.

Facetiming you to send you his words of encouragement and support! He would also ask his brother to send you a flower wreath on his behalf.

Donghae enjoys going out with you. Whether it’s to run errands or exploring new food, or even going to museums. 

His camera roll would be filled with his secret recordings of your perfomances or your candid photos he couldn’t bare to delete.

siwon is your #1 fan without a doubt!

siwon wouldn’t show his support publicly but he motivates you to be the best musical actress you can be.

“what is one challenge yo want to embark as a musical actress?”, he would ask one day randomly.

It took you a while to give him an answer. 

you eventually did

“I want to be at the top of my game. I want to perform at Broadway and have the public acknowledge my hard work”

He looks at you, only amazed and respect.

and that has become your goal since then. you were thankful for siwon for helping you realise your directions.

Siwon would usually attend at least one of your performances because #1 fanboy.

When he couldn’t he would make sure he calls you and cheers you on.

Siwon loves going on dates with you.

Sometimes, it’s exciting dates like a theme park or disco roller skating. Other times, it’s cultural appreciation dates. Occasionally, quiet chill dates at each other’s houses with books of your choice and coffee.

definitely each other support system! 

somehow, loves taking selfies with you!

“for memories,” he would always say. 

being an established musical actor himself, Ryeowook would always ask you to monitor him. 

More so than he monitors you.

Ryeowook would want like one feedback from you after each performance you attended.

It’s always things like “maybe you can vibrate your notes at the end?”, “keep your hand motion smooth?”

He takes your feedback seriously and he respects you. 

Wook also likes the fact that he don’t have to keep his relationship private.

Would also attend your performances and like standing ovation each time, even if he is doing it alone.

But, he does keep it low key. Only ever mentioning you vaguely in his vlogs.

with him, it never felt like you are dating a celebrity. likewise for wook. And he absolutely loved that feeling.

It makes going out with you easier. 

He absolutely loves going on walks with you. You were sure you went to more parks than you ever did your entire life. 

Dates with him are mostly at Incheon because he likes to show you the places he grew up in. 

You absolutely love going on coffee runs with him. You enjoy just grabbing coffee and sitting with him as you talk about your lives. 

in private, both of you love drinking. It’s like a thing for the both of you if both of you do not have schedule. 

also, a private duet when you are your house. Him playing the piano and harmonising as you sing.

power couple OKAY?!?!

Top musical actress and idol turned musical actor was sure to get people talking. 

it did!

but it was a lot of positive reactions and endless support.

so much so that the public and fans wants the both of you to star in one musical together. 

when it happened, tickets were immediately sold out. They had to extend more slots. 

Ads and news of the two of you were everywhere!!

Both your fans were always sending gifts to the cast and crew, and there were always endless flower wreaths on your performing nights. 

Despite the blow up in support, Kyuhyun and you were still wary. You realised that one wrong move could backfire the two of you and the support you two have been receiving. 

wary or not, the two of you still go on dates, sometimes public sometimes private. Mostly private. 

You like going on escape room dates or the movies or finding the best tteokbokki with him, but you also like cooking said tteokbokki and eating with him at the comfort of your own homes. 

[benmcm18]

Other Projects

Friend of Foe Short Film

Pre-Production

I’m making a movie! 

I kind of just want to shoot someone with an arrow (In a movie) so I just went off to see what I could make. I have been working on this film for about a week now I’ve completed the script, storyboard, mood boards and character sheets I’m fairly happy to move forward into filming. 

I did a location scout to figure out how I was going to frame my scenes. Taking advice from Andrew last Trimester I use the lens that I thought would be appropriate and took photos of the shots I wanted to use. It was really helpful in allowing me to visualize the project. 

Looking at the writing whilst I’m quite happy with some parts there is definitely a lot I need to improve on. I constantly show my friends scripts so I can get another opinion on the film. I never seem to get the reaction I’m hoping for but by constantly working on the scripts I make I hope to one day create a project they are all really excited about. Don’t get me wrong! They aren’t reacting negatively, they just don’t seem as jazzed as I would hope and I don’t expect them to be I just would really love it if I created something they were pumped about making.

Production

So I’ve filmed all the scenes within the script. David and George were fantastic actors. This is the first time they had to bounce off each other and they were superb. We had three locations to film in. The first two when smooth as butter. However, the last scene had several problems. We were filming in the woods and a family who were out on a picnic had taken the location. We had to think on our feet. It then began raining. This dampened the mood quite a bit. George kept me focused though. He suggested we go somewhere else and the location we found nearby I would argue was better. So thanks to George for that.

I’m trying to improve on my directing as I’m beginning to understand that Directing is not simply telling actors to “be angry” I’m trying to get into the approach of working alongside the actors to figure out for themselves what the character is feeling. Because of this, I want to work harder on character sheets and encourage my actors to do research into the characters to get a greater understanding. Overall, I don’t feel I achieved my directing outcomes this time but practise does make perfect. 

In regards to filming scenes. I mentioned in a previous post that I want to try longer takes as it allows actors to get more into the character and appear more natural. This of course comes with problems. The actors have to be on the ball when it comes to understanding the scene and the script. This can only really be done through rehearsals and read throughs. I attempted longer takes this time and George and David handled it well. They knew their lines and that makes me so happy. It shows they really care about my project and it makes me want to do my best possible work for them in return. Thank you again to George and David. 

Post production

I’ve actually edited all the scenes now. Taking the learning from class and implementing them into the edit and overall film. I will talk about the things I like first before talking about the cons.

Firstly, I love the performances. I challenged David this time by giving him a very dominant role in which he manipulates his friend. George on the other hand was a wildcard, I’d only heard him scream on film before but he made it clear he was passionate and I had faith in him. Two really solid performances that I think they will be happy with when they see the finished product.

Secondly, the story I think is pretty good. The characters change throughout the film and whilst it isn’t subtle at all I’m happy to say I attempted it. The person George is at the start of the film compared to the end is very different.

Furthermore, The editing and colour correction I’m proud of. As I said previously, I plan on working with more coverage in the future as continuity issues begin to pop up like in this film. But I believe this film shows progression in my post production work.

Additionally, the cinematography. There are definitely some shots in this film that disgust me. I should have used a wider frame or re-filmed the scene but its a learning process and I believe there is some excellent use of power dynamics within the frames.

Finally, The special effects. Whilst, they are not perfect were a lot of fun to work on. I’m fairly new to after effects but this project definitely taught me a lot about what I have the ability to do. Are the arrow shots perfect? No. But I did have fun filming them. And my brothers scream is dope.

Here is a link to the video that taught me how to do the arrow VFX if anyone wants to try and create something similar.

Now onto the negatives:

I am not happy with the level quality I’m making. It seems rushed and that is because it is. I don’t see the point trying to fix it when I can just improve next time but then again there is something terribly wrong with that mindset. I want to take care with my work and create something the people working on it can be proud of.

Additionally, as I said some of the shots I hate and its because I rushed it. I need to take my time and look for solutions to my problems.

My directing style is not up to the standards I want. I need to talk to the actors more and instead of commanding them, assist them in finding what I want them to do. 

My whole editing process needs some work. I get so intrigued watching the finished film that I rush to finish it.

If you are beginning to see a pattern, it appears I rush things too much and have to be more patient. 

Finally, my writing needs some work. I never sought out to create a life changing movie I just wanted to experiment but I’d like to understand the fundamentals of storytelling and narrative a lot more.

Final notes:

I need to film some additional shots to fill in gaps between scenes however overall I’m very happy with this project. Thanks again to everyone who helped on it and here is a little sneak preview of one of the scenes!

David recommends watching this scene at 50% speed. Enjoy... 

[selkiewife]

I know i’m late on this but I wanted to talk about The Dragon Demands videos based on the Game of Thrones Season 8 blue ray commentary and the original archived scripts for Game of Thrones, Season 8.

Basically, YouTuber, The Dragon Demands went to the Writer’s Guild Library where he was able to see the archived scripts of Season 8 of Game of Thrones. Both the archive scripts and commentary on the blue ray confirms that most of the destruction in King’s Landing was originally supposed to be caused by the caches of wild fire left by Aerys being accidentally set off by Drogon and not because Daenerys herself “went mad.” The script says that civilians being used as human shields are caught in the crossfire as Daenerys is targeting Lannister soldiers in a strategical maneuver right before she heads to the Red Keep to enact revenge on Cersei. However, Daenerys is never described as specifically targeting innocent civilians needlessly.

My thoughts under the cut:

I have to say, that this makes me feel slightly better in a strange way. I mean, it doesn’t erase the bad writing, the ridiculous way the war against the white walkers ended, the misogyny, the inconsistency, etc etc ETC... but this crucial plot point was the one I just couldn’t let go of because it was just baffling to me. With other controversial plot points, I would disagree with them, but I could at least understand what they were going for and what the motivations of the characters were. But Daenerys turning on innocent civilians was truly baffling to me because it comes out of nowhere, is entirely out of character, her motivations are incredibly unclear, and was not set up at all. But with all the fandom discourse, I had really started to think that maybe I am lacking comprehension skills or something. But no, there is actually a reason it made no sense. The “madness” plot line was added later. Emilia Clarke was never given the opportunity to portray Daenerys as mentally unstable. Emilia was portraying grief and revenge on Cersei (as the original script and directors told her to do) in contrast to D&D’s final editing which was portraying the “mad queen.” No wonder it came across as completely false and bewildering- before we even get into the discussion of whether or not this is in character or not.

I think this is definitely more than just a theory that the script was changed pretty late in development because of all the evidence- it is confirmed by Emilia’s commentary, the Visual Effects team member’s commentary, and also the original concept art. But even if there wasn’t all that evidence, there is also the fact that the original ending makes so many other confusing things in Season 8 suddenly make SENSE.

For example, when Jon confronts Daenerys in the throne room and he talks about the women and children that were burned, Daenerys responds with “She used their innocence as a weapon against me.” Which makes total sense for Daenerys to say if she thinks she is talking about civilians that were used as human shields that died in the crossfire. But it doesn’t make any sense if she carpet bombed the city- although it does make her seem delusional, which is probably why Dave and Dan kept those lines in- hoping it would make her appear “mad,” since Emilia was never actually given the opportunity to portray Daenerys as mentally unstable.

There is also the scene where Jon asks Tyrion, “Was it right?” to assassinate Daenerys and Tyrion responds, “Ask me again in ten years.” There is really no reason for them to have that dialogue if Daenerys really did target and massacre innocent civilians. That is the kind of dialogue they would have if they were discussing someone who had done something more morally ambiguous.

Then there are the lines that are out of place in the final version but that would have made complete sense in the original wild fire version, such as Jon saying “now and always” as he stabs Daenerys. “Now and always” as any Theon fan will tell you, is a phrase that belongs to Theon and Robb and what they said to each other when Theon was pledging loyalty to Robb. Having Jon say this to Dany as he is killing Daenerys represents the ultimate betrayal but also calls back to Theon’s struggle and how difficult it is to chose between loyalties- between families. In this case, Jon is choosing the Starks over the Targaryens. Kit Harrington even says that this is motivation in an interview he gave with winteriscoming.net. But given the fact that in the final edit, Daenerys massacred innocent children and civilians on purpose, Kit’s motivation for Jon seems like a relic of an earlier script:

Kit Harrington: “Jon essentially sees it as Daenerys or Sansa and Arya, and that makes his mind up for him. He choose blood over, well, his other blood. But he chooses the people he has grown up with, the people his roots are with, the North. That’s where his loyalties lie in the end. That’s when he puts the knife in.”

And Yara Greyjoy’s lines. She surprisingly remains completely loyal to Daenerys, despite the fact that she massacred the entire city for no reason:

Yara Greyjoy: I swore to follow Daenerys Targaryen.

Sansa Stark: You swore to follow a tyrant.

Yara Greyjoy: She freed us from a tyrant. Cersei is gone because of her, and Jon Snow put a knife in her heart. Let the Unsullied give him what he deserves.

This kind of conversation only seems plausible if they are discussing Daenerys taking out Cersei after she had surrendered and killing human shields in the process, something I can see Yara completely defending- since she was always in favor of attacking King’s Landing as seen during her war counsel scenes in Season 7.

There is also the Emilia Clarke quote in the behind the scenes video HBO put out after the episode where she explains that Dany was targeting Cersei herself:

Emilia Clarke: “It’s just... grief. It’s hurt. And she has this ability to make that hurt a little bit less just for a minute. And here she is, sitting on this ridge and there’s the emotion and there’s the feeling and the feeling is to fucking kill her.”

Note that she does not say “the feeling is to fucking massacre the city,” or “the feeling is to target innocent civilians.” She says “the feeling is to kill her” as in Cersei Lannister- who is responsible for the death of her dragon and Missandei- and who massacred countless innocents herself when she blew up the goddamn sept lol.

Not to mention all of the set up lines between Cersei, Tyrion, and Varys about Cersei using “human shields” which never came to fruition in the final edit, now make complete sense:

Cersei: Keep the gates open. If she wants to take the castle she’ll have to murder thousands of innocents first.

Varys: Tens of thousands of innocents will die. That is why Cersei is bringing them into the Red Keep

And yet, lol, we never actually SEE Daenerys attacking the Red Keep. We never see innocent civilians inside the Red Keep. We only see civilians being massacred in the streets.

I also remember people who had seen the post Season 8 Game of Thrones Live Concert saying that Ramin switched to footage of the other wildfire scenes in past Game of Thrones seasons during his Bells sequence, instead of showing the massacre of innocent civilians by dragon fire. I use to think he did that because Daenerys was his favorite character. But given what we now know about the original ending, he probably chose to show the wildfire scenes because that was what he had specifically written music for before it was changed- the destruction of Kings Landing by wildfire.

I really wish they had kept the original script the way it was. It still would have been an incredibly controversial ending. Daenerys still goes after soldiers and a Queen who is surrendering- and that action unintentionally leads to the destruction of the entire city. Jon Snow still assassinates his lover and betrays one part of his family for the other. But, it would have at least made logical sense. People would have gone back and forth over whether it was in character or whether it was a good ending. But it would have been something people would be able to actually debate on an intellectual level- the way we debate Daenerys crucifying the slavers (who themselves crucified children) or Jon Snow executing Olly... It is a very grey and tragic ending with a lot of moral questions. It still might have gone over like a lead balloon. But... the ending we have is so much worst because it’s nonsensical.

The only reason I can think that they changed it was to make Jon and Tyrion appear less morally grey for plotting Daenerys’ assassination. They probably knew that the ending would be very problematic and were trying to smooth that over by turning Daenerys into a super villain. Yet they did this too late in the process after already showing Daenerys to be heroic in fighting with the north and then having Emilia Clarke finish her filming still believing she was playing a complex and at times ruthless character but not “mad” or “evil.” And then, there is also the intensely problematic issue with them conflating mental illness with mass murdering super villain. Even if it had been clear throughout the entire season that Daenerys was losing her grip on reality and becoming more and more mentally unstable, it still would have been incredibly controversial and I am not entirely sure it would have made the men look any better anyway.

Even though it is tragic af, at least with the original wildfire ending, all of the characters are incredibly complex and morally grey and you can understand the motivations for everything they do, even if you don’t agree with them. For example, if Daenerys attacks Cersei after she surrendered, it is wrong, but it is also completely understandable. And in my opinion, it’s even more understandable when you remember that Cersei cannot be trusted. She can’t be trusted to send her armies to the north- why should Daenerys trust her to surrender in good faith? This kind of ending would also have said something very powerful about unintended consequences. Even though Daenerys did not intend for so many people to die needlessly, they did because war is horrific. And that message becomes even more powerful if her motivations are understandable. But yeah, this kind of ending would have still been hated and debated but... at least the debates would have been more about the story itself rather than everyone trying (and failing) to make sense of what the story even is.

[entrepreneurnut]

Funnel Scripts Review – Write Pro Copy In Half The Time

New Post has been published on https://entrepreneurnut.com/funnel-scripts-review/

Funnel Scripts Review – Write Pro Copy In Half The Time

Are you struggling to write great copy to sell your products?

Perhaps you’ve been blowing a brain cell trying to think of what to write in your email sequences that will captivate your audience?

You may have been spending a ton of money on ads only to avail in a measly amount of clicks?

Or maybe you’re trying to promote affiliate offers but people just aren’t clicking your links?

There’s no denying it, good copywriting skills is an essential part of building a successful online business.

Without it, you’ll likely make next to no money and eventually quit.

However, when you get it right then just a few small tweaks can make a huge difference.

For example, as a blogger, I was surprised the first time I made a tiny tweak to a headline by using the free Funnel Scripts headline generator and saw the impact it had on both clicks and sales.

If you’ve been trying to learn copywriting yourself then you’ll already realize it’s difficult and it takes a long time to master.

The common alternative is to pay a professional copywriter to write your copy for you. If you can afford it, that is; they’re pretty expensive.

However, professional copywriter Jim Edwards and his marketing buddy, Russell Brunson have created another alternative that they say is much quicker and more cost-effective.

It’s a push-button software program that can write your sales copy for you. They call it Funnel Scripts.

Since I recently purchased this product, today, I am going to be diving deep into exactly what it can do and whether or not you really need it for your business.

So, here in my Funnel Scripts review 2021 I will give you the lowdown on the complete software, including the free headline generator you can use to test it out before you buy.

Get Funnel Scripts Lifetime Deal Here

Funnel Scripts Review: What Does It Do?

Funnel Scripts has been developed to give everyone the ability to quickly create professional-level sales copy without having to pay expensive copywriters to do it for you.

It works by using templates based on some of the best performing copywriting scripts in history and structuring them around the content you input that is specific to your market, audience and the products or services you are promoting.

Jim Edwards, the creator of the Funnel Scripts software, has included templates to enable you to create sales copy for a large number of reasons including, ad copy, landing pages, video, and written sales letter scripts, bullet scripts, headlines, email sequences, webinars and more.

Basically, you spend a few minutes inputting some data about your audience, product, the benefits and so forth, then press a button. Funnel Scripts will then generate multiple variations that you can choose from. 

Who Is Funnel Scripts For?

Most businesses need to use some kind of sales copy. If you’re trying to sell your own products, promote offers as an affiliate, collect leads, you need to write ads or you need to email your subscribers then you will need to have some kind of copy.

As a blogger, I also realized that I can benefit a lot by improving the headlines of my posts.

Copywriting is a hard to learn skill and does not come naturally to most people. However, if you already have this skill then it’s probably not necessary for you to buy Funnel Scripts unless you just want a faster way of doing it.

If copywriting is something that gives you a headache, it’s a task that takes you hours without really knowing how effective it’s going to be or if you outsource it but pay a hefty price for it then Funnel Scripts will be a big benefit to you.

Watch The Funnel Scripts Webinar Here

What I Like About Funnel Scripts

When you first buy Funnel Scripts and get inside the member’s area you will notice there is a huge amount of stuff in there for you to dive into.

There are several features I really like, but some of my favorites are the following:

Large Number of Scripts Available

Funnel Scripts is not just a headline generator; it’s not only used for writing ad copy; it can be used for much more than just creating your email sequences.

It is a very powerful program which, gives you the ability to create copy for any kind of purpose you could imagine.

Funnel Scripts Produces Good Quality Copy

When I first heard about Funnel Scripts, I must admit I was a little skeptical as to how good the copy it produces might be.

Many years ago I purchased a headline and sales page generator, but it was mediocre at best. However, that was around 2007 and fortunately, software has come a very long way since then.

I was more than pleasantly surprised to see that the quality of the copy produced by Funnel Scripts not only reads well, but it also keeps to the structure of professionally written copy that creates engagement.

You Can Create Copy Very Quickly

There are no two ways about it, Funnel Scripts is fast.

Compared to writing copy yourself or even outsourcing it to a professional and waiting for your copy to come back, Funnel Scripts can bash out your copy in minutes.

When you use one of the script generators, it will ask you to fill in some boxes with data about your product and target audience. Depending on the script you’re using this can take around 10-20 minutes.

Then, all you do is hit the build button and wham! Your copy is generated.

The copywriting script generators will produce a few different variations for you to choose from, all of which are fully editable by you if you need to.

Free Copywriting Training Included

If you’re using Funnel Scripts then you don’t need to learn copywriting yourself.

However, knowing a bit about the formulas of creating great copy and how it leads your audience to take the action you desire will help you to get even better results with the copy you generate.

I have always been interested in copywriting and the psychology behind it.

While I do now use Funnel Scripts myself, I am still interested in and fully intend to learn more about it to improve my skills in this area.

So I was pleased to see a number of training videos that are also in the member’s area if you do have the inclination to learn more about writing great copy.

Monthly Copywriting webinars

Creator, Jim Edwards, is really passionate and proactive about Funnel Scripts.

Since copywriting is a skill that is close to his heart and he wants his members to get the most out of using his product, he holds monthly training webinars that you can sign up for for free.

You can also watch the latest webinar replay in the member’s area if you can’t make it live.

Pimp My Funnel

If you want expert help with your sales copy, from Jim Edwards himself then you can apply to be featured in an episode of Funnel Scripts Tips, which are Jim’s copywriting tips webinars.

Since there’s so many users of the software it’s not guaranteed that you will get chosen. However, you can keep applying if you want to get his help directly. If you are chosen then it can make a huge difference to your business.

Extra Funnel Scripts Bonuses

When you buy Funnel Scripts you will also notice you get 4 extra bonuses in the member’s area. These bonuses are:

Bonus #1 – Inception Secrets

This is a training that marketer Russell Brunson gave to his inner circle a few years ago. He shows you how to be able to sell anything to anyone and make it seem like it’s their idea to buy from you. It will teach you how to plant the seeds of desire inside a person’s head so they will naturally want to buy your stuff.

Bonus #2 – 5 Fast Funnels

Here they give you access to the 5 most popular and commonly used funnel that you’ll likely need to use online.

Bonus #3 – Copywriting Secrets Master Class

This is a course Jim created to help people get high-impact results from their sales copy without having to hire a copywriter. He also teaches you some simple tweaks that can make a huge difference to your conversions.

Bonus #4- Live Monthly Training with Jim

Each month you can join Jim live on his monthly webinars to learn how to get the most out of Funnel Scripts and sell more stuff.

Get Funnel Scripts Lifetime Deal Here

What I Don’t Like About Funnel Scripts

Funnel Scripts Navigation Is a Bit Crowded

Since there’s so much inside the Funnel Scripts members area it can take you a while to get to grips with it.

Some of the features are hidden within other tabs, which can take you some time to find where everything is when you first use it.

It’s Quite Expensive

The sale price of $797 might be quite steep for a lot of small businesses and solopreneurs to shell out at one time.

However, if creating effective sales copy is a big part of your business then it will save you a lot of money over time not having to pay a professional copywriter, whose fees are usually very high.

Funnel Scripts: What Scripts Are Available?

In this section, I’ll share with you all the different kinds of scripts you can create and show you screenshots of each section so you’ll know exactly what you get with Funnel Scripts.

Not only are there quite a few different categories of scripts you can generate, but each category also has several different types of scripts. This is good so you can drill down to create exactly the right kind of script you need for the right channel you are promoting through.

While most scripts work directly from the dashboard, others are available to you form the dashboard as downloadable wizards.

Some of the most common scripts people use include:

Email scripts

Ad scripts

Headline scripts

Bullet scripts

Sales letter scripts

Video sales letter (VSL) scripts

Besides these, Funnel Scripts also has a ton more. Check out the full list of available scripts below.

Get Funnel Scripts Lifetime Deal Here

Funnel Scripts Pricing

Funnel Scripts used to be a yearly subscription at $497 per year.

However, in 2019 the Funnel Scripts pricing changed to $797 for lifetime access.

While this is a fairly high price to pay initially, if you will need to write good sales copy in your business on an ongoing basis then this is a better deal than the original price of Funnel Scripts.

Basically, you need to consider how important it is to you and your business to write good copy before you buy Funnel Scripts.

For example, if you need to regularly write emails to your list, headlines for your blog posts, ads, and landing pages or if you’re regularly creating ads and need them to always perform well then it may be worth it to you to invest in the Funnel Scripts lifetime deal.

Whether you should buy Funnel Scripts or not will depend on several factors. You need to weigh up the following:

How often you will need to create copy

How much money would it cost you to outsource it to a professional copywriter

How much time would it cost you if you decide to learn copywriting yourself

How much might it cost you in both time and money to do it yourself through trial and error

Funnel Scripts Free Trial

When people hear about this software they often ask, is there a Funnel scripts free trial?

The answer is, Yes.

However, while there are a large number of scripts you can create with Funnel Scripts to make copy for all kinds of reasons, there is only the Funnel Scripts free headline generator that can be used on the free trial.

If, while you’re reading this Funnel Scripts review, you’re interested in taking this sales copy generator for a test-drive then you can try the Funnel Scripts headline generator for free here.

Personally, I would like to see a free trial of other scripts besides only the headline script. For example, I think it would be really helpful to also include an ad script and a bullet script trial so people can get a clearer picture of what Funnel Scripts can actually do before they purchase.

However, the headline generator script is a good tool and gives a reasonable insight into the Funnel Scripts software. Just be aware that the tool can do so much more than just create fancy headlines.

Funnel Scripts Webinar

Jim Edwards and Funnel Scripts co-founder, Russell Brunson created an hour-long copywriting webinar that teaches some important fundamentals of copywriting that marketers and entrepreneurs need to understand.

While, of course, this webinar does also promote the Funnel Scripts product, they show you everything the software can do, what you get when you invest and how to get all your copy from sales letters, webinar scripts, ads, and even email sequences written in under 10 minutes.

If you’re not interested to buy Funnel Scripts but you do want to learn more about copywriting then I still recommend you watch this webinar.

You can watch the Funnel Scripts webinar here.

Where Can You Buy Funnel Scripts?

The owners of Funnel Scripts would prefer you to first watch their free Funnel Scripts webinar and then move through their sales funnel. This way they can hook you in and sell you more stuff.

However, if you just want to buy Funnel Scripts without having to go through the sales funnel then here’s the back door where you can buy Funnel Scripts directly.

Funnel Scripts Pros and Cons

Like any product you buy, there will always be pros and cons. Here are the pros and cons of Funnel Scripts:

Funnel Scripts Pros

Instant access once you purchase

Easy to use

Instruction videos for each script

Many different script types for all kinds of marketing needs

Easy to use script generators

Data input fields allow you to customize scripts with your personality and to fit your audience

Multiple versions of each script generated to give you choice

Scripts can easily be edited

Example scripts included

Additional downloadable wizards for more complex script creation

Lots of training videos

Monthly webinars

Additional bonuses included

Funnel Scripts Cons

Some scripts take time to enter all your data into the input fields

Sometimes the script can be a bit generic – fortunately you can customize and edit the scripts as needed

It can take a while to get your head around all the different available features

Initial price can be high for some small business owners and solopreneurs (fortunately, this has been improved slightly since Funnel Scripts has now been made a one-time purchase)

Funnel Scripts: My Final Thoughts

When you buy Funnel Scripts you certainly get a lot for your money. There are a ton of scripts available inside the members area, and you also get access to a few downloadable wizards for more advanced scripts.

Russell and Jim have included scripts for all kinds of copy you might need to create.

While the initial price tag of $797 can be expensive for a lot of entrepreneurs, if you’re going to be using it regularly then, in my opinion, it is worth the investment as it can save you both time and money moving forward.

So now, the question is, do you and your business need it..? Only you can answer that question.

If you’ve not already tried the free headline generator, why not try it out to see what it can do.

If you want to have a more detailed look at the product that goes beyond this Funnel Scripts review, and see it live in action then I highly recommend you join the free copywriting webinar with Jim and Russell.

Get Funnel Scripts Lifetime Deal Here

Want A Funnel Script Alternative?

If you’d like to see what other copywriting software options are available on the market then check out my article on the 3 best Funnel Scripts alternatives.

If you want to read more marketing software reviews that can help you to grow your business then you can find them by visiting my homepage here.

[theanimeview]

Aniplex Online Fest - How to Produce an Anime - Notes!

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (PDT) | Aniplex Live Stream | Sunday 5 July 2020

Panel Description: Anime producers will talk about behind the scenes of anime production. Master of Ceremonies/Host: Hisanori Yoshida Guests: Shizuka Kurosaki (Aniplex, Producer) Masami Niwa (Aniplex, Producer), Atsushi Kaneko (A-1 Pictures, Producer), Toshikazu Tsuji (CloverWorks, Producer)

_

Credit: Casea Mhtar | @madamekrow & Peggy Wood | @peggyseditorial

How Do You Produce An Anime?

Here’s the process for an anime: first proposal, the script, the storyboard, the key animation, painting, compositing, editing, and recording and that’s when it’s ready to be shown.

Step 1: Planning

There are mainly three different ways that proposals tend to come in during this planning stage. The first is when the publisher tells us about one of their hit products (games, a manga, etc.) and they ask us about adapting it into an anime. The second is when we find a series we like from a light novel or manga we’re reading already. Like, “Hey, this is cool!” Then we ask the publisher/get their permission to make the anime. The third is when a producer from an anime studio, or a director, or a staff member brings us something that they personally want to do. These are the most likely ways we come to a proposal for a new series and, of them, the third probably happens the most often.

Next comes the decision stage. A few more patterns emerge when we’re discussing whether to adapt or create an original series.

With originals, you are starting from scratch so the project is much more involved and time-consuming. Generally, a lot of staff members are involved and all of them want different things and, on top of that, the producer’s job is to make sure it does well. That it sells well, that it’s received well, that the team feels good or great about the project, and so on. So we have to find a way to respect everyone’s vision, while also guiding the project to profitability, which is pretty demanding. This also includes what I want to do as a producer. It’s fun to create something from scratch, but it also comes with so much risk. For example, originals don’t have a built-in fanbase, they don’t have the same support.

Shizuka Kurosaki provides an anecdotal example of a series he started 8 years ago that he is still working on from time to time. According to him, the series is still nowhere close to being produced. It’s just a sign of how hard it is to get it all to come together, especially when things change as time goes on.

Adaptations are different but still tough and demanding. First, you have great source material. Naturally, there are fans of the source material with what they want for the original. When we depict it through anime, there are things that were fine in the source but have to be changed for animation. We are pretty sensitive about how the original’s fans would see the results of our decision-making. Needless to say, that is a struggle that we don’t face when creating an original anime.

One of the hardest parts about adaptations is that novels and manga, which are largely still images and text, as opposed to anime, which is video, all have different rules of depiction. And when the time comes for us to make changes, we’re presented with options. Depending on what the scene is, certainly, some viewers will say, “Why couldn’t you just stay faithful to the original?” However, there are also times when changing it to be more anime-like gives it a shot of energy absent from the printed version. There's really no right answer so the process is like groping around in the dark and hoping that you find what works.

Producers don’t tend to have a lot of free time and when they do, like Masami Niwa mentioned, it’s mostly spent on things that will help at work. For example, reading what’s trending in novels or manga, watching movies, and even other animes from other companies. While it may seem like entertainment and is often enjoyable, these all serve one’s work as a producer in the field.

Step 2: Scripting

Generally, a “scenario meeting” or script meeting is held first. It’s when we look at what a writer has come up with and plan out some “book reading time.” For adaptations, it means reading the source text(s). Additionally, the planning producers and animation producers hold these meetings where the discussions start with talking about the potential series and gathering the team/assembling our staff. We already have a director in place by the time we have the first script meeting. The script is only done once the staff, including the director, gathers and is written.

Live-action scripts have hardly any screen direction when compared to anime scripts. Anime scripts are packed full of exposition. In the case of live-action scripts, if it’s like an ordinary office story. You pretty much recreate normal life. Whereas in an anime script, even if it’s an ordinary office story, there might be an employee with mind-blowing supernatural abilities. To depict something that doesn’t exist in real life, you need screen direction. And in the eyes of someone from another industry, I think it would seem like a really complex script because of the sheer amount of detail regarding action, layout, and such.

Step 3: Storyboarding

The storyboard is drawn from the script. Normally, the director draws the storyboards. But since the number of episodes keeps increasing for TV series, lately we’re seeing several storyboard artists dividing the labor.

Here are some samples of storyboards from Saekano the Movie: Finale, one of Toshikazu Tsuji’s past projects shared with the panel:

Envelopes like these, sometimes referred to as “shot envelopes” contain the layout drawings and artwork that become the key animations and in-betweens of individual scenes. By the end, all the materials that make up each scene and the finished ones are all inside one of these envelopes.

This is what storyboards look like:

This is an excerpt from the live performance scene at the top of Saekano the Movie.

Using Saekano the Movie as an example--it was a tad difficult to associate the “live scene” of the script to the animation. In the script, the directors and team have endless discussions of what they want to see within however many seconds of the animation. This is described to the animators, the people who is actually drawing the actions/storyboards/etc., who only remember parts of the conversation or only get a few words and they have to create these complex drawings after hearing the phrase “live scene.” Sometimes there is a lot of direction in those discussions while in the original novel it may just say, “they fought, they won,” but the battle leads into an epic space war.

Producers are always excited to see the storyboards. They know it must be a lot of work, hard work, to get them but they’re amazing. Animators sometimes get mad at the scripts and the different “grammar” of the adaptations between the novel and the anime script, but they do great work. To the producers, it's almost the same feeling as a fan seeing the anime for the first time.

Back to the Saekano the Movie example, in the live performance scene above, the animator that was asked to draw the scene knew how to use the instruments being played. That experience is indispensable in some cases as it helps make the movements more accurate and realistic. In the worst case scenario, producers sometimes go with motion capture or use recordings of live performances that are then 3-D rendered for the key animations.

Step 4: Key Animations

Key animations are a part of the storyboard. They are often more detailed images used to depict specifics in individual scenes, with other frames used for movements happening in between. They are often discussed and detailed during and post conversations between the animator, director, super director, and the producer.

The above is an example of a key animation. It’s not something that stands on its own, rather, they’re made out of multiple drawings. This is where she utters the “meee” from the lyrics (Saekano the Movie). This key animation is to clarify that she’s saying “meee” from the lyrics as the shape of her mouth changes. The words on the page are helpful, but not necessary.

Next we see a sample of timesheets (image below).

Time sheets are like a blueprint. This is a 3-second shot described in a timesheet and it contains all of the information going into that 3 seconds.

At the top of the timesheets are numbers and that’s where they write where they want the key animation positions to be. Since this is a live performance scene, it ends on a unique shot, and for normal shots, they’d insert some dialogue, or time a movement there. There are also instructions for Compositing. The timesheet is filled with all these details.

There are all kinds of key animations, and a key animation that’s cleared every step in the process is what we call an in-between.

Step 5: In-Betweening

In-betweening is creating the materials that fill up the spaces between the key animation positions. Since anime is all about movement from point a to point b, we have several pages to make characters and items move in-between the two points.

(Image from: https://boords.com/animatic/what-is-the-definition-of-an-animatic-storyboard)

The above is an example. On the left, you see and anamitc--which is essentially a storyboard shown in order to create the story. The frozen frames make up the key animations prior to details. On the right, you have the fully animated piece. All of the movement seen in-between those key animations seen on the left, come together to create the moving animation seen on the right is an example of the in-betweening discussed here.

Going back to the time sheet--if you look closely you can see numbers going vertically which say 1-2-3-4 etc. Those are key animations. And the tiny dots you see in between, those are in-between animations. So drawing between the first and second key animations is the job of the in-between animator for this scene.

Step 5: Painting & Compositing

Next comes painting and composition--it’s where all the colors are applied. Years ago, this used to be done with real paint. Today though, this process is usually done digitally and it’s done for every frame (all of the in-betweens, key animations, etc.). The painting process includes Compositing. It’s not until after it’s been Composited that it’s truly finished.

During compositing, all of the different piece of paper shown in this panel so far are transformed into the animation you later see. Compositing gets the timesheet you just saw, with the materials for the backgrounds and cells, the animations and such, and then they work from that blueprint to create the full animation.

In the images seen above from the Saekano the Movie example, what you’ve seen is less than a single second but it took that much work to get there. As the producer, sometimes it’s your job to step in and help if the animators taking on that workload get overwhelmed.

Animators probably leave their personal mark somewhere on the key animations they create, something that only they know about. So if that storyboard can be thought of as a blueprint for drawing, then the key animations have their character settings, and they’re drawn by diverse people with unique intentions. That’s what we try to go for, and it’s really great to be able to see it all before anyone else as a producer. Like a character who’s never made a gesture like that in such a situation in the original story, but then when a certain animator draws that character, you’ll see that gesture and it will bring life to the image. If you start looking, it’s pretty endless. But seeing all these personal stamps is what makes it so intriguing. As long as it doesn’t stray far from the story, it’s not usually a problem for the producer. It what makes anime adaptation so enjoyable for one of the panelists.

Final Step (6): Recording & Editing

After the visuals are done, comes the sound production and voice actors. Once you find the people for the roles needed, they move onto recording, and then background music is added, and finally you get the finished product that viewers see. Editing happens then too, though it also happens throughout the process as things are added and taken out over the course of production.

An example of the finished product: 

The producer can change the whole feel of the show as they often make executive decisions on music, editing, marketing, etc. They have to oversee the process, as we’ve seen throughout the panelists’ discussion on the production process. It’s worth understanding from an analytic point of view as you see how their styles, focuses, and insight can influence the creation of a series.

[moulinrougefanfanfans]

Moulin Rouge for VOGUE!

(These are the HQ Photo Versions!)

Moulin Rouge!’s Broadway cast, photographed at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn. Sittings Editors: Hamish Bowles, Alexandra Cronan. Produced by 360pm. Set Design: CJ Dockery at Mary Howard Studio; Costume Designer: Catherine Zuber; Choreographer: Sonya Tayeh

Photographed by Baz Luhrmann, Vogue, July 2019

July 2019 Vogue (Online)

BAZ LUHRMANN WAS BORN to reinvent the movie musical for a new generation—which is exactly what he did in 2001 with Moulin Rouge!, his deliriously romantic mash-up, set in 1890s Paris, of La Bohème, La Traviata, and the Orpheus myth, with a soundtrack that exploded with modern-day pop songs, lavish Technicolor sets and costumes (by his wife, Catherine Martin), and a hyperkinetic cinematic style that drew on MGM musicals, MTV videos, and Bollywood spectaculars. The motto of this blatantly artificial world, served with a knowing wink (which nevertheless swept us up in its very real, very breathless emotions), could be borrowed from William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: “Enough! Or too much.”

In his own way, the brilliant theater director Alex Timbers—whose work includes Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Here Lies Love, and, most recently, Beetlejuice—was born to reinvent Moulin Rouge! for the stage, as another generation of New York audiences will discover when his electrifying, eye-popping, and blissfully over-the-top adaptation of Luhrmann’s masterpiece opens on Broadway, after a smash run in Boston, this month.

“I’ve spent my life taking classics and interpreting them in radical ways,” Luhrmann says, “so how could I not applaud someone taking a work of mine and interpreting it in a radical way? You have to interpret things for the time and place you’re in. In the end, it’s still a tragic opera, but Alex applies himself to it in such a dexterous way that there’s irony and fun and music and emotion.”

Luhrmann grew up in Herons Creek, a tiny, remote Australian town with a total of seven houses in it, where, he says, “if you didn’t have a good imagination and an ability to create worlds in your mind, you were lost.” Fortunately his family, which ran a gas station and a pig farm, also ran the local movie theater and had a black-and-white TV set (which showed exactly one channel), and Luhrmann devoured a steady diet of old movies, including musicals, with which he fell in love. His mother was a ballroom-dance instructor who started giving him lessons early, and his father insisted that Luhrmann and his siblings study painting and music. Before long he was staging little shows, performing magic tricks, making films with his father’s 8-millimeter camera, and acting in school plays.

Apparently it was the ideal upbringing to produce an artist of dazzling originality, one with a singular, idiosyncratic vision and an expansive playing field: film, theater, opera, commercials, music videos, pop songs. After the success of his first two films, Strictly Ballroom and Romeo + Juliet—both of which had healthy doses of movie-musical DNA encoded into their cinematic language—Luhrmann wanted to take on the genre itself. He and his co-writer, Craig Pearce, set their film in Belle Epoque Paris, in and around the legendary Moulin Rouge nightclub, telling a tragic love story straight out of verismo opera with the Orpheus legend—a young poet and musician travels to the underworld in search of his dead love, Eurydice, and is reunited with her only to lose her again, emerging forever changed—as its mythical underpinning.

But Luhrmann also had what he calls a “preposterous conceit” that allowed his Orpheus—a Bohemian poet named Christian, played by Ewan McGregor—to metaphorically enchant the very rocks and stones to follow him because of his voice: “When our poet opens his mouth, ‘The hills are alive with the sound of music’ comes out of it,” he says. “Whether you like The Sound of Music or not, it’s a giant hit that’s got artistic cred—so it’s a funny, concise way of saying ‘The guy has magic.’” Preposterous or not, the conceit turned the love story between McGregor’s Christian and Nicole Kidman’s doomed Satine, a nightclub star and courtesan, into a pop fantasia, giving the music its audience had grown up with—from “Your Song” to “Lady Marmalade”—an operatic grandeur.

Luhrmann had long wanted to bring Moulin Rouge! to the stage but felt that he wasn’t the right person for the job—he worried that he was too close to the material and might be overprotective of it. Enter Alex Timbers, 40, a downtown wunderkind who has brought the cheeky, postmodern spirit of his theater company Les Freres Corbusier to Broadway and shares with Luhrmann a restlessly playful and inventive mise-en-scène. “When I saw Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, I could tell that his aesthetic and the way he told a story—very high-energy, very theatrical, ironic but also moving—had a certain kinship with mine,” Luhrmann says. “And after I met him, I knew that he would have his own interpretation but also understand the language of the film.”

The biggest challenge Timbers and his team faced was how to bring the film’s hypercinematic exuberance alive on a stage. “We had to create a visceral and kinetic excitement using an entirely theatrical vocabulary,” Timbers says. “We don’t have any of those virtuosic techniques like close-ups and Steadicam and music video–style editing, but you want the show to be able to leap over the footlights—emotionally, but also as a spectacle. So we use a lot of techniques to do that.”

Do they ever. From the moment you enter the theater, it’s clear that Timbers has realized his mandate to make the show—which he’s been working on for the past six years—“360.” It’s as if you’ve walked into the Moulin Rouge itself, courtesy of the gorgeously overwhelming set (by Derek McLane) that greets you: There are hearts within hearts, chandeliers, the stage flanked by a windmill on one side and an elephant on the other. Then out come the corset-clad boys and girls of the night (who come in all colors, shapes, and sizes) and the fashionable members of the Parisian demimonde in Catherine Zuber’s fabulous costumes. The next thing you know, “Four Bad Ass Chicks from the Moulin Rouge,” as the script identifies them—propelled onstage by Sonya Tayeh’s wildly exuberant choreography—are belting “Hey sista, go sista, soul sista, flow sista,” and we’re off to the races. “I wanted to build this exotic, intoxicating world that felt beautiful and dangerous and gritty and sexy,” Timbers says. “It felt really important for the sets and the costumes to use period elements, and for us to be ruthless about that, but to put them in a form that feels contemporary and surprising.”

The seven-time Tony-winning costume designer Zuber (The King and I, My Fair Lady) has done that and then some, tipping her hat to Catherine Martin’s designs for the film without imitating them. She’s even managed to design Belle Epoque finery that allows the dancers the freedom of movement to execute Tayeh’s propulsive choreography. Zuber is also a master of using costumes to reveal character and situation, as with the ornate gown she designed for Satine after she becomes the Duke’s courtesan and enters his glittering world. Inspired by designs from John Galliano’s 2006 couture collection, it features a bodice that looks like a cage and three rows of lacing down the back. “It’s almost like she’s a prisoner,” Zuber says.

Playing Satine this time around is Karen Olivo (West Side Story, Hamilton), who brings very different qualities to the role than Kidman, both physical (Olivo is a woman of color) and temperamental (desperate, determined, and down-to-earth, as opposed to ethereal). Aaron Tveit (Next to Normal, Catch Me if You Can), meanwhile, sings like a dream and brings the requisite dewy idealism to the naive Christian, but with a hint of something edgier.

The story is very much the same as the film’s: Satine is the star attraction at the Moulin Rouge, owned by the rapacious Harold Zidler (Danny Burstein), who is in financial hot water and in danger of losing the club. Christian and Satine meet and fall head over heels, but she has been promised by Zidler to the villainous Duke (Tam Mutu), who can give her the bejeweled life she’s always dreamed of, forcing her to choose between that and true love. Meanwhile, Christian and his pals Santiago and Toulouse-Lautrec (Ricky Rojas and Sahr Ngaujah) are writing a show, bankrolled by the Duke, that is meant to save the Moulin Rouge from going under. Then, of course, Satine has this persistent cough and . . . well, you know.

The big difference in terms of the storytelling is that book writer John Logan (Red) has fleshed out and deepened the characters and the relationships between them. “We looked at the major characters, asked what their backstories were, and tried to figure out how grounded they could possibly be in psychological realism and yet still be heightened in that way that musical theater demands,” Logan says. “How did Satine get to be this sparkling diamond—and what’s the price she’s paid along the way?”

But the boldest change—and in many ways the heart of the show—is in the new songs, which give Moulin Rouge! fresh emotional resonance (and whip the crowd into a frenzy). Along with the familiar Bowie, Madonna, and Elton John tunes, expect to hear from the likes of Outkast, Sia, Beyoncé, Fun, Adele, and Lorde, to name but a few (there are more than 70 songs in the show). To curate Moulin Rouge!’s dizzying playlist, Timbers, Logan, and music director/genius Justin Levine holed up in a Times Square hotel room with a digital keyboard, dredged up their musical memories, and took note of what worked. Their taste is impeccable, whether using a song for its sheer exuberance, as with a rousing version of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” or to reveal a character’s inner desires, as Satine does with Katy Perry’s “Firework.”

Logan has been blown away to see how powerfully audiences have connected with the show—and the songs. “I went to a wedding recently, and when the dancing started, I heard half our score being played, which was wild,” he says. “And when you see audience members respond to the songs—‘They’re using thatsong? Oh, my God! No way!’—you can feel how excited they are. It’s an experience I’ve never had before. It’s magic.”