#i spent way too long trying to make the video sync with the audio

[grindingsugar]

its dangerous to go alone! take thisヾ(≧▽≦*)o

the PNGs 🥺🤲💕

[stargirlwnchstr]

I have a visual to share with y'all. Say welcome to my long ass 'The Foxes + tiktok' headcanon

@ nickythefox_es (part 1???)

Basically Nicky gets tiktok but all of the foxes show up eventually and just use his profile.

• Most of the videos are with nicky and allison, also matt and dan and occasionally neil.

• Allison and nicky learn so many dances.

• Their duet of make his pockets hurt with Mariah and Zane from the vlog squad is the first one to go v i r a l.

• Yeah most of their followers know them but some and a lot of the comments are non exy fans that just watch them because they're cool

• So many of the "what is exy" "stickball game??" "dont even bother explaining to me what is the sport they play I dont care I'm just here for neil." And related comments get a liked from creator (andrew told nicky to like them)

•The "Oh my god she's coming." "I'm so afraid of her." Audio are the twinyards and nicky shows up, he had to bribe them to be a part of that one.

• They post another version but it's Kevin that enters and Allison and Nicky talking

• So many comments thirsting over them and calling matt and dan parents

• "the real bisexual struggle is simping for matt and dan in the same tiktok." -> liked from creator nickythefox_es commented/replied: ASDGFKSSDWADKWB

• Someone makes a 'put a finger down: Neil Josten edition' and nicky drags him to do it. They both smile as they listen to the prompts and Neil obviously puts all his fingers down but they're like "put a finger down if you clapbacked/if you bad mouthed someone (bonus points if it was on national tv)" "put a finger down if you're under 6 feet" "put a finger down if you love exy" and the last one just says "put a finger down if andrew minyard." Neil does and smiles at someone off camera. Needless to say it goes viral as well. A few weeks after nicky gets verified.

• Allison becomes friends with thenavarose and wisdom sorry I dont make the rules (they're fashion tiktokers)

• They make a series of rating each of the foxes throughout the day, including one of Wymack.

• They do receive bad comments, from bitter ravens fans or just recalling their pasts and nicky sits down and makes a video telling everyone about how they do this videos for fun they dont need hate and negative comments on their videos and all that

• Then another one posted minutes after, neil comes in and nicky says "okay neil you have one minute. Rant off." And neil goes on this rant like how they already hit Rock bottom a single comment is not gonna hurt them and "do you get how insignificant and meaningless your lives must be? You took the time to write and post a comment that you thought was gonna cause an impact and failed. Also thanks for the comments though it helps nicky stay on the algorithm." NICKY SCREECHES AND THE VIDEO ENDS WITH THEM SMILING

• Allison vlogs neil and her going shopping or thrifting also cutting Neil's hair

• *neil walks into the room wearing his orange bandana* *camera moves and zooms on Andrew's face* he doesnt lip sync but the song sings "oh noo I think I'm catching feelings" andrew tells him to delete it "but it already has thousands of likes andrew"

• They post some of their work out routines per request

• One of them is the fast and "I'm spinning like a ballerina" chill of neil just running on the treadmill and doing sprints and squats and leg stuff while it cuts to allison doing a bit of everything but looking like a queen on a matching set.

• A fun one that goes viral for "vine energy" is: it's very quiet on the court and Kevin, very in the zone, throws the ball to the goal, which Andre's catches easily and almost without moving. The camera goes back to kevin as he screeches and let's himself fall on the ground. Neil is standing beside him shaking his head and looking at the goal with a smile on his face.

• They try to teach neil the dances but while filming one of them he just leaves. They post it either way.

• They're in the bus, nicky is on selfie mode and says "it is game day my dudes" he turns and shows the whole bus S C R E A M S, in the corner Wymack is covering his face.

• The iconic "they say drunk thoughts are sober words" or something like that and it cuts to a series of videos of the foxes drunk af. Example: Nicky grabbing Allison's face and saying 'Remember. Bread. Head. Leave.' And allison nodding.

• Nicky films kevin standing up and put the "do you ever wonder what is going on inside their head?" And it cuts to pictures of racquets and exy and Jeremy Knox and one that says history stuff.

• Another one that goes viral is kevin very seriously and p e r f o r m i n g, rapping Jefferson's side of the cabinet battle #1 from Hamilton then towards the end andrew stands up in front of him and with his iconic bored expression he starts rapping Hamilton's part. Behind the camera there's a soft "...oh my gOD" and kevin is shocked eyes widen open and then the camera zooms on Neil who's mouth is open in shock but GRINNING and ~impressed~

• Dan and matt do The challenge, you know the one that like has to flip them over and all that and they ace it, nicky points the camera to where andrew and neil are stating and Andrew says no.

• A few minutes later another video of the challenge is posted only this time is matt and neil.

• Nicky and allison are in full gear filming a dance video (maybe savage or captain hook) on the court and someone films them filming that and then Wymack looking at them SO disappointed cut to Wymack with nicky's phone, having confiscated it and nicky besides him "coach, it's cardio!"

• Hours spent trying trick shots

• Foxes: "get back! Move!" Ravens: "Let me in! I be the I g g y!" Trojans: "Oh my God do no let her in" Foxes: "I am trying!"

• Nicky lying down: "okay but someone needs to tell me how old is the shirtless pottery guy. I can't be part of another controversy. It's for science c'mon. *debby Ryan's*"

• Someone comments "he's eighteen. Simp away, nicky." And he makes a video with his feet swinging and smiling. Aaron gets on the frame and says "we are deeply in need of some bowls." The caption: hi @ papapots

• They are verified so obviously he gains a couple of thousands followers and he duets smiling and with a package in his arms. Text: thanks for the support (and hi new followers from sport side of tiktok hope you enjoy my pots) caption: hi @ nickthefox_es I got you aaron.

• After the package comes they duet it with nicky screaming and showing off the goods and then he moves stop show andrew eating ice cream out of one of them. Caption: AJSNEPWLDKSS THANK YOU DAX

• Allison and nicky do the "I love you!" "No you dont topper! You love the idea of me. You love being seen with me but you dont love me." But nicky is Sarah and allison is topper. Next day the obx ig page reposted it "we stan the psu foxes pogues for life." And chase stokes posts it on Twitter saying "yoo the palmetto foxes watch??? my show???" Nicky takes a screenshot and on green screen he says "hi chase!! We do! The whole team binged it. Currently we've been debating who of us is going to dress up as pogues for Halloween." A lot of voices start arguing and as nicky is gonna enter the debate the video cuts.

• Allison does the facetime *deep male voice says hey* prank on them. Neil doesnt react. Nicky doesnt look up from his phone but does the finger thing and says "get that d, allison!" Dan and renee look at each other and then at allison and she bursts out laughing.

• aaron studying to be a doctor: *two plus two is four etc sound* andrew (eating pretzels from the bag while watching a game show lying down in a bean bag) and his eiditic memory [basically not needing to study]: *three is a magic number sound*

• Nicky runs through the court and enters the lounge beside the photo wall there's a poster he shows the camera as the sounds says it "alive ahaha fuck"

• Somehow they convince all of them to show up and do the wipe it down trend that ends up with wymack throwing the towel at the mirror.

• Comment: so how many members of the team listen to girl in red or sweater weather? Nicky stands there with the color filter: 👁👄👁👉👈 caption: yes❤

• He gets neil to duet to the whole "british people be like". "Neil I'm not british." "Part of you is so just read the tweets." He does and the comments are all thirst and simping

• Comment: raise your hand if you've been victimized by neil josten. Where my fellow Simps at? (The comment gets hundreds of thousands of likes) they make a video, everyone on the team except aaron who walks out raises their hand as the sound says "welcome to simp nation" kevin rolls his eyes but raises his, says something that nicky captions "i simp over his exy skills". andrew doesn't at first, but next to him neil whispers something and after andrew says yes, neil grabs Andrew's forearm and raises it. Andrew looks away and neil smiles.

• Nicky lying down: okay but what if Jean moreau traded places with the french guy from here you know who, david.

• Comment "ugh your mind nicky" reply video: right? Big brain, many thoughts, head full all the time. But like actually the idea of david playing exy and Jean hanging out with ducks and making viral tiktoks just-

• Comment "i feel you and @ austincantdrive would make the best chaotic duo" reply: we would be too powerful together. Austin replies too: agree.

• Allison makes a sports jersey/comfy wear but make it fashion and she styles herself. Everyone on the comments d i e s for her.

• Comment "okay but what about the boys. help allison." She makes a video too with matt and nicky and at the end neil wears an orange crop top and the internet b r e a k s

• Comment "allison do you listen to girl in red?" video reply: her winking at the camera and lip syncing as sweater weather plays. The comments a lot of them liked by creator: a win for the girls (and the boys)

• Upperclassmen Back in 2003: okay but hey do we always have to be involved? Can we do normal stuff that normal people do, like, go for brunch? Us (aaron, andrew, kevin and me): what the fuck is brunch?

• Of course they do the mr blue sky trend. Nicky: drunkenly goes to flirt with a guy. Aaron: drunkenly follows to get away from kevin. Kevin: drunk on pure vodka reminds us we have practice in the morning.

• Or another one all of them. Neil: ready to insult a reporter. Dan: tries not to laugh on camera. Matt: gets ready to hug him afterwards Allison and Nicky: Filming everything. Wymack: the only one trying to stop it from happening and failing.

• Dan and matt duet their reactions to every video edit of them, smiling and saying "your parents love you guys!".

• Comment "literally what is wrong with the ravens/ravens fans?The foxes are such a nice group of people and they're doing great in the sport y'all worship just shut up you cult-y athletic hype house." video reply: "ladies and gentlemen. The volume inside of this bus is A S T R O N O M I C A L."

• comment video reply: okay so we're not gonna talk about nicky at the gym?? Bc C A K E. nicky lip syncing "I'm glad you brung it up because I've been dying to talk about this for a fucking hot minute. First of all-"

• Colin uses one of Neil's or Andrew's interviews replies as one of his sounds and nicky fanboys a lot

• Allison and nicky do the Kardashian sound compilation.

• Nicky with a picture of Erik on green screen: "hi I just wanna say if you look anything like this please contact me. Thank you." Caption: miss u baby. And Erik watches his tiktoks and he facetimes him immediately. Nicky takes a screenshot and duets his own video crying with the screenshot caption: SKALSBSKAJSL Erik comments: stop making tiktoks and answer the phone, hemmick. Nicky replies: yessir everyone below comments keyboard smashes and you got a good one. Goals. Lmao kids that's what we call bottom panic. We stan one healthy long distance relationship and after that a bunch of long distance relationship questions that he makes another video on.

• A video of Katelyn and neil chatting and it pans to the twins watching them with the *when worlds collide sound*

• He reposts a snippet of one of his interviews post game where he grabs the mic from the reporter and nicky: can I say something? Reporter: sure, go ahead. Nicky: thank you. *looks straight into the camera* all the birds died in 1986 due to Reagan killing them and replacing them with spies that are now watching us. The birds work for the bourgeoisie. Thank you." And leaves. IT GOES VIRAL INSTANTLY.

• Comment "is everyone else gonna forget that tiktok where he said he was already part of a controversy? We stan a problematic icon?" Video reply: guys I might have been part of a whole Twitter beef thing against my little hoodie and Bruce hallway but c'mon, like, c'mon you can't blame me.

• Comment "for neil: does the carpet match the drapes 👅😍?" Video reply: neil on selfie mode. "Allison gave me her phone, told me to answer this and ran away so umm." He reads the box on the screen and frowns he walks and stands next to the window, where Andrew is sitting down and is barely seen on frame. "uhmm, the internet is confusing. Our carpet is like this" he turns the phone and shows the floor (grayish carpet) and then back at him "but we don't have drapes so, technically they don't match, I dont know." Andrew's head goes up and simply says "Neil." Neil turns "what?" And the video ends.

• of course nicky and allison do the WAP dance, on the court, when they should be running drills.

[carryonsimoncarryonbaz]

NEW FIC!!!

Written for the Carry On Quarantine event organized by @xivz​ for the prompt of food delivery. My thanks to @fight-surrender​ and @basic-banshee​ for the beta reads and support!!

Baz is a teacher quarantined at home and Simon is doing temp work delivering food for The Girl and the Goat, a local pub. A craving for a burger leads to Baz ordering from the pub, followed by weeks of mutual pining, the slow burn of a developing relationship thwarted by the physical constraints of social distancing, and a refrigerator full of pub food. Movie nights, exasperated friends, lots of texts, way too much food, and multiple awkward encounters. 

Let My Love Open the Door

Baz

I close my laptop and drop my head down onto it. I’m knackered. The metal feels cool against my forehead. I roll my face from side to side, relishing the smooth chill of it against my cheeks. And then I remember.

Fuck, now I have to disinfect the damn thing.

I’m done. Done for the day but also so done with this.

How can I be expected to effectively teach students—Sixth Form students at that—from a computer terminal? I’m almost three weeks into this, but their looming A Levels and GSCE’s are still on schedule for May.

That’s less than two months away. Five weeks and three days, to be exact.

Thank fuck it’s Friday. I’ll at least have two days to prepare next week’s frightfully inadequate lesson plan.

I grab a disinfecting wipe from the canister and methodically wipe down my laptop. I’m not sick—not a cough, not a sniffle—but I’ve bought into this not touching my face directive and I shouldn’t be smearing my germs on random surfaces. For all I know I could be carrying this thing. One of the asymptomatic Typhoid Marys, spreading it far and wide.

Not that there’s anyone to spread it to, seeing as I’m on my own here, but I wipe the laptop down anyway, unnerved by the whole idea of it.

I’ve washed my hands more in the past month than I have in my entire life. I spent the first day at home wiping down every surface, laundering the bedding, mopping the floors. My house went from having a pleasant, woodsy scent to the overwhelming stench of bleach instead.

It gave me such a headache that I had to open the windows and damn near froze. Bloody coldest March we’ve had in years. April’s not proving to be much better.

My mobile buzzes. I should have left it in the bedroom but I’ve become painfully attached to it.

If I’m not planning out curriculum, video conferencing with my class, answering frantic emails from parents, students, the other teachers at my school, or compulsively cleaning and reorganizing my house, then I’m moodily scrolling through Twitter and Instagram and ratcheting up my anxiety.

I should delete my social media.

My mobile buzzes again.

I glance at my watch. It’s six o’clock.

Bound to be Wellbelove.

Wellbelove: are you done yet?

Wellbelove: Baz!!

Wellbelove: you can’t still be doing classwork it’s after 5

Wellbelove: BAAAAZZZZ

Me: Give it a rest, Wellbelove. Some of us are actually working from home.

Wellbelove: I am working, you poncy bastard I’m obviously far more efficient than you.

Me: Look, some of us can’t just post our morning exercise routine and somehow have that count as work.

Wellbelove: Why are we friends again? Can you remind me why I put up with this slander from you?

Me: Because of my sparkling wit and undeniable charm.

Wellbelove: more like your fashion sense and propensity to pick up the bill when we eat out. Neither of which are in evidence at the moment so I may have to rethink my devotion to you

Me: Still, I’m indispensable.

Wellbelove: then buy me dinner. what are we watching tonight?

This all started at the end of that first week, when Agatha couldn’t concentrate on the book she was trying to read and I’d reached the pulling-my-hair-out state of lesson planning. She suggested we watch a film together—FaceTiming while our Netflix accounts played in sync.

We’ve done that almost every night since. Dinner and a movie, separately, from a distance.

We spend almost as much time arguing over what to watch as we do watching, but that’s just how we are. I’ve known Agatha Wellbelove since we were toddlers at the same crèche when our parents were at uni. Same primary school, same secondary school.

We drifted apart during our uni years, with Agatha at Brighton for phys Ed and Oxford to read for English Language and Literature for me.  

It was some bizarre twist of fate that we were both hired to teach at the same secondary school in Chilham. She was the last person I expected to see on my orientation day.

We picked up where we left off, latching onto each other as we navigated our first real world experience after uni.

It’s been three years now and I think the past three weeks have been the longest stretch we’ve gone without seeing each other since we moved here.

She’s self-centered, brutally straight-forward, horribly short-tempered, dreadfully impatient, and devastatingly gorgeous.

A perfect match for me if I wasn’t so irrevocably gay.

And if she wasn’t . . . well, categorically uninterested in me in that way is probably the best way to phrase it.

But she’s my best friend and I know it hasn’t been all that long but fuck, I miss her.

Wellbelove: WHAT ARE WE WATCHING BAZ ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION

She’d be kicking me in the shin by now, if she were here. Maybe I don’t miss her quite that much.

Ugh, it’s my night to choose. I don’t know what I want to watch. Something soothing, not one of those action films or plucky sports dramas she likes so much. I actually like Bend it Like Beckham but not those sappy American ones she’s inflicted on me.

I need something familiar. Comforting.

Me: Pride and Prejudice.

Wellbelove: 2005. Kiera Knightley. I will accept no substitutes.

Me: The 1995 version is superior.

Wellbelove: Colin Firth doesn’t look like that anymore Baz. Let it go.

I start to type “Keira Knightley doesn’t either” but fucking hell she does still look the same.

Wellbelove: and you owe me dinner

Me: 2005 AND dinner? You are greedy and demanding, Wellbelove. I’ll agree to Knightley. Make your own dinner.

Wellbelove: I want a burger I’m ordering out since you’re being a berk and won’t send me food

Fuck. I’m craving a burger now too.

I don’t even want to think about cooking anything. I’m so sick of pasta, even though I’ve tried to make it a different way each time, with my dwindling pantry supplies. And much as I love the curry place down the road I can’t eat it every day.

I used to think I could. I used to say I’d be happy eating tikka masala every day for the rest of my life, but I was mistaken.

And no more chippies. I can’t do another chippy.

Me: Who’s delivering burgers? Please tell me you aren’t getting McDonald’s.

Wellbelove: why would I get McDonald’s when I can get a lamb burger from The Girl and The Goat?

Me: they’re not still open?

Wellbelove: of course they’re still open you stupid git.

I don’t know why I hadn’t thought to check. Why I assumed the pubs would close down, when they all have kitchens and food service, just like the chippies and fast food places.

Me: why didn’t you bother telling me, you hag?

Wellbelove: You are a grown man Hunter gatherer type you should be able to forage for your own food

I want one of those burgers. We don’t go there all that often but The Girl and The Goat has some of the best burgers in town. Fucking hell, I’m salivating at the thought of it.

Me: Text when you’ve got dinner and we’ll start the movie

Wellbelove: you’re ordering from The Goat aren’t you you hypocrite and not even paying for mine

I close the messenger app to look up The Girl and The Goat online. I scan the menu and then ring them up.

The warm, cheerful voice on the line assures me the order will be delivered to my door within a half hour. I give my mobile number so the driver can text when he arrives.

“Just be looking for the text, love,” the woman’s warm voice continues. “Simon will leave everything at your door, no need to open up until he’s gone. I know how wary people are these days so we’re trying to make it easy.”

A little over a half hour later my mobile buzzes with a message from an unknown number.

Unknown number: Food’s here!

Unknown number: I’ll ring when it’s on your doorstep

The doorbell chimes and I peek at the doorway video display only to startle at the huge grinning face looming on the screen. I push the audio button.

“Yes?”

“Hullo! I’m Simon. I’ve got your order from The Goat. Lamb burger and chips.” He holds up a gloved hand carrying a bag. “I’ll just leave it right here for you.” I get a brief glimpse of a broad back clad in a brown leather jacket as he bends down, before he’s back to grinning at the camera again. “Thanks for ordering from The Goat. We appreciate the business. If you text me back you’ll get a discount for next time!”

“Text you back what?”

He leans in closer and shrugs. “Whatever.”

He’s got brilliant blue eyes. A scattering of freckles dotted across his face.

“Um, right, ok then. Thanks.”

He waves and then he’s out of sight again.

I move to the front window and twitch aside the blinds to watch him get in a blue car with “The Girl and The Goat” displayed across the door in white lettering.

I wait until the car is long gone before opening the door, gloves on, carrying the parcel of food as if it’s radioactive until I reach the kitchen, where I can dispose of the bag and transfer the food to my own dishes.

It’s likely overkill, I know, but I find being wary and methodical helps calm me.

I settle down in front of the television with my meal and my mobile, ready to message Agatha, when I see the text from the unknown number again.

I’d not say no to a discount. I click on it to text back. What exactly does one text to an attractive delivery man?

I shake my head. He’s just the delivery man, it’s irrelevant if he’s attractive or not.

My finger is still hovering over my mobile. I’m having an existential crisis over what to text a delivery man so I can get a discount on a pub meal. These are the depths that I have sunk to with this self-quarantine.

It would help if he were ordinary looking. It really would.

Me to unknown number: Whatever

I hit send before I think too hard about how unoriginal and trite a response that was.

My mobile pings back a moment later.

Unknown number: 15% percent off the next order. Just say Simon said when you call it in! :)

Read the rest at ao3!!!!!!!!!!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23590015

[makeitquietly]

A quick recap of what criticism I remember reading about this Blu-ray set: nobody agrees about the picture quality, or on which films it’s best/worst, but it’s on the waxy/soft side mostly because of too much digital cleaning or whatever, the sound is said to be good, some hissing, out of sync in the 1936 version of Berth Marks, extras are good too, no Blu-ray logo on the case, no booklet, awkward menu always reverts back to beginning, no play-all possibility, the films are not in the order of making/release.

But a lot of people worked very hard for a long time to make this set available. Which is why nothing negative should be said about it? Eh. Next time go for quality instead. Or don’t sell your product. Make it a fanwork.

Anyhow, if I was all powerful and had commissioned someone to restore these films, I’d make them go back and do it again if this set was presented to my ruling eyes.

OTOH, I paid 99 euros for this package and have had lots of fun with it and if there’d been Stan’s scrapbook (pages) amongst the galleries, I’d happily paid double. It’s not about the money spent except when people imply that negative reviews aren’t allowed. I’d paid 99 euros for the galleries alone.

It’s about the fact that the films aren’t as well restored as they should/could be. Beyond me, why it’s so difficult to admit. And it’s clearly not only an issue of getting waxified during some final cleanup or somehow being ruined when transferred to Blu-ray disks.

Any idiot (me) knowing nothing about the processes involved can easily confirm this by watching how different films on the same disk have different quality, likewise first reel can be almost okay, the second much worse, scenes and cuts have often annoyingly varying quality, even single frames look like they came from different prints and nothing was done to make them fit more seamlessly in their surroundings. And I’m not talking about that one wandering frame in Scram!, which must be some person’s idea of a joke, how else could it be so out of place?

Or didn’t anyone watch these that one last important time since it wasn’t removed, nor were the countless spots still there in most of the films? I know, when things get cleaned up that one remaining crumb is much easier to spot... er... see my point?

There are also jumpy frames, which I imagine would’ve been easy to adjust, and to prevent those ubiquitous flashy cuts, you’d only needed to adjust the brightness of that single frame causing the flashing. Even I have done that on GIMP when making gifs. I’m guessing too much contrast on, say, Me and My Pal isn’t a problem created by the wax people either.

The ridiculously softly glowing Brats might be, there’s an awful lot of glowing in One Good Turn too, and in parts of Sons of the Desert, for example, where faces are dangerously close to have that overly scrubbed look, which is a big problem in The Chimp and Come Clean.

When it comes to wax, Helpmates and County Hospital are the most hideous, the latter must be the worst looking of all the films in this set, being also awfully spotty as well as too dark. It’s got other faults too, like wonky frames. The Music Box has a pretty decent first reel (except for the opening scene), and despite not being able to see the stripes on Stan’s and Ollie’s pants because of too much contrast, Me and My Pal is also clearly better wax-wise in the first reel.

It’s interesting to watch some of these films for the first time, thinking that this is crap quality picture, but then the second reel is even worse and suddenly there’s a whole new level of crappiness.

I think the sound is ever so slightly out of sync for a bit in Way Out West and One Good Turn. At least it is compared to those same films on my 21 DVD set. In addition to being very clearly out of sync in that Berth Marks reissue like others have noticed. Berth Marks also has a weird stripey “cover” over the actual film. I suppose it was impossible to remove.

Even with some sync problems, if I had to choose the best restorations from this new collection, Way Out West would be on my list, together with Busy Bodies, Hog Wild and Towed in a Hole. Some parts of Sons of the Desert look gorgeous. With grain and all. Pretty much like Atoll K but unfortunately not as consistently. (Atoll K was restored by different people, I gather.)

The much anticipated but already online for free since 2019 The Battle of the Century then? Well, the first reel is quite good, or would be if it wasn’t a weird blend of an ugly greenish yellow or yellowish green. Sepia isn’t what it used to be. And I would’ve thought they’d made sure to get all those black spots removed at least from this one what with it being one of the “new” things on this set. The second reel is worse except colour-wise. But at least it’s there complete with Charlie Hall and the “what pie fight” ending.

Haven’t mentioned The Midnight Patrol, Their First Mistake or Twice Two yet. The last two are pretty evenly waxy, and comparing The Midnight Patrol to Come Clean and The Chimp makes it not that bad. There’s no actual need to bleach faces or an excuse for Billy Gilbert’s patternless shirt, is there?

For me the treasures from this set can be found on each disk under galleries. Even for those not interested in scripts, press material, posters and assorted documents, there are circa 1,400 photos, many of which really are rare, or at least I’d never seen them before. One of the gems are the about 140 photos from Babe’s Vim days. Awesome! Nothing as gemmy from Stan’s past before Laurel and Hardy, and someone put wrong names on the photos where he appears with the Hurleys, not the Cookes. Yes, there’s a short, handy description for most of the photos. 

So many of them and I must peruse more, of course, but I’m going give a special mention to Stan with both Loises on the set of Brats for adorableness and likewise to Thelma Todd for previously unseen (by me) variations from her photoshoot on that bathroom set. Love the six new-to-me photos of Stan and Babe together on the 1932 British tour especially. Great stuff. Oh, and Mae Busch, Dorothy Christy and Charley Chase in their Sons of the Desert portraits look fabulous.

Another treasure are the interviews with only a couple of slightly dubious moments. Joe Rock made me grin. George Marshall made me cry. Walter Woolf King made me laugh. Most wonderful. Short introduction by Randy Skretvedt for each interview. He’s the one who did the interviewing too. There’s 15 of them altogether. Plus a chance to hear composer Marvin Hatley perform Honolulu Baby and Will You Be My Lovey-Dovey. The audio only interviews come with some more great photos.

I kind of adore how Richard W. Bann casually debunks Anita Garvin’s The Battle of the Century story with one dry line during his commentary of the film. Hurts so good. Let’s have more debunking!

Speaking of the commentaries, and maybe more about them on some other occasion, Bann only comments The Battle and The Music Box, all the rest, including That’s That and The Tree in a Test Tube have commentaries by Randy Skretvedt.

I was expecting Bann to tell the whole story of why it took so long to get The Battle on video but he didn’t; fair enough, I thought, but then in his other commentary he goes on about his grudge with a dead guy, so I guess it was not his, um, politeness that stopped him from dishing on the much more recent and therefore interesting stuff. What then?

Perhaps a third person sharing the commentary duties would’ve been a good idea. That was my thought when Skretvedt obsessed over Stan’s smoking for the third time. By obsessed I mean he listed all the films where, according to him, Stan smokes. What for, you may wonder. I did. No answer. I remember reading somewhere that Stan not smoking in the movies means he’s a child. (Yes, some Laurel and Hardy fans are somewhat weird sometimes. Aren’t we all?) Maybe Skretvedt was trying to debunk that theory? Hehe, okay, I know he wasn’t, because he did the “they’re children, Hal Roach said so” routine in his Their First Mistake commentary, complete with Charles Barr quotes to prove there’s nothing gay about Ollie liking Stan more than his own wife. Made me fume. I don’t know why. Nothing new.

I don’t know why it doesn’t occur to him that if Ollie didn’t spend so much time with Stan, Mae wouldn’t be the lonely, disappointed wife who ends up wanting a divorce after one too many lies from Ollie and accuses Stan of alienation of Ollie’s affections. But no, apparently it’s no wonder that Ollie likes Stan more than his wife because she hits him with the broom. So the hitting came first and then too much time spent with Stan? I don’t think so.

Anyhow, third person, more variety, something newer, or at least an explanation for Stan’s smoking being of particular importance. Ollie’s smoking isn’t mentioned. Also, to digress even more, I always found the claim that Stan doesn’t smoke because he is a child odd, not only because he does, but also because he drinks alcohol too and manages to be married in several films. But the Laurel & Hardy child squad of course thinks the wives are actually their mothers. (Yes & again, weird.)

I did and do also wonder if there would’ve been anyone available and even if there had been, if these old school fans had accepted someone with different views. Probably not.

Still waiting for Skretvedt to notice Stan’s camera looks. Maybe he just hasn’t been a fan for long enough yet... 😛

I’m out of steam now. Need to rehydrate.

One more thing: No booklet, so maybe nobody involved wanted to spread about their name more than absolutely necessary knowing the restoration work was, shall we say, uneven?

Tl;dr: Uneven restoration work. Great extras. Mostly interesting commentaries.

[sambart93]

Touken Ranbu The Movie [Review]

It’s finally here! It’s finally arrived! We waited so long and it’s finally here! I’m hoping I can see it at least one more time before it stops at the cinema because it is so good!

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: This was amazing! I absolutely adored and loved so many parts of this movie!! I loved the story, I loved the reinterpretation of history, I loved the twists and surprises (there are so many that you don’t expect!), I loved the action, I loved the colouring, I loved the cinematography and the camera shots, I loved seeing their pretty make up and their pretty faces on a big giant screen! They all looked amazing!! My honest to god only complaint is that (1) there is a very obvious voice dub within the first 15 minutes of the movie; (2) some of the editing and transitions between scenes were just not smooth at all. The editing was really rough compared to how amazingly produced everything else is in this movie. A few cuts really pissed me off and some transitions were so jarring. I do have one more complaint but it’s spoilery so I’ll list that below. But everything else was amazing! Cannot wait for the DVD! Rating: 8/10 if only the editing had been better.

SPOILER REVIEW

Story

We are back at Honnouji no Hen trying to stop the Jikansokougun from interfering with it. You know the story if you’ve read the history and/or watched the first stage.

Now to the spoilers...

The TouDan think they’ve finished off the Jikansokougun and go back to the Honmaru, but in fact there was still one left who grabs Oda and takes him to a safe place. When Oda wakes up he has the whole Jikansokougun army within his grasp and one of the commanders ‘Mume’ can talk to him and stays by Oda’s side. The TouDan realise what’s happened and goes back. While there Jiji actually saves and rans away with Oda. Everyone feels betrayed but they continue their mission of keeping and eye on Hideyoshi. Jiji takes Oda to Azuchi where Hideyoshi raids and tries to burn down (as per the correct history) but again the Jikansokougun interfere.

I’ll stop there so you’re not too spoiled if you did carry on to read more.

*

Using the star format as usual so it’s easier and quicker for me to get through reviews. 

General Comments

☆ This was so BEAUTIFULLY SHOT! Some of the shots are so well done and they all looked so damn pretty! They must’ve had a very nice budget for this movie because it’s visually beautiful, the colouring used is beautiful, so many shots are just PERFECT!

☆ I loved the close ups of all the swords! Being able to see their pretty faces  (which had a lot lighter make up than what they wear on stage so their natural beauty shined out more!) so close up was just wonderful ^_^

☆ Also their makeup! I absolutely adored their make up in this!! All of the swords except Nihongo have eyeliner half way across their bottom lashes (yeah this is how good the quality is and how well you can see the makeup and how goddamn observant I am xD). And they all looked SO NICE! 

☆ NIHONGO’S ONSIE for uchiba/Internal Affairs is freaking ADORABLE!!!! It’s a freaking Onsie! A ONSIE! I was losing it!! And he looked so good in it too!! It was this freaking adorable great onsie!! I can’t get over this... I can’t! xD

☆ Jiji has plot armour in this movie too as expected because he’s always givemn bloody plot armour. He REALLY should’ve died in this one. Scientifically and by Touken Game standards he SHOULD have died. But alas ‘we can’t hurt the fan favourite precious Jiji’ oh fuck off, hurry up and kill him already! Fuck sake.

☆ I really liked Fuma’s Honebami. Just like the stages, we didn’t get enough time with him. We didn’t really get to know him. But I think something between His and Mitsuya’s Hone is what I expect Hone to be so I like Movie Hone. BUT, Hone should’ve died too by the way. Just from the dire situation he ends up in, he really should’ve been killed and died. It’s not like we can’t bring these swords back!

☆ I died a little when Uguisumaru said his famous line!

☆ Tomoki as Uguisumaru was perfect JUST as I had predicted! He was great! I loved the looks between Jiji and him where they completely understood each other without having to speak! I absolutely adored how soft his voice was, very nicely matching Ugui’s image. 

☆ Also I did start laughing at one point when I remembered Suzuki and Tomoki had been in YowaPeda together. I just imagined Suzuki’s Arakita and Tomoki’s Makishima dressing up in their sword outfits. Them looking like TouDan but with their Peda character’s personalities just cracked me up SO MUCH!

☆ You can definitely appreciate the amount of LEG shown by Yagen and Fudou in this movie! The camera itself really loved focusing on Yagen’s legs! Many times there are obvious shots that are there JUST for his legs xD and there’s a scene at the honmaru where Fudou goes to sleep and you can see all the muscles in his legs and it’s beautiful ^_^ highly appreciated and thankful for these shots!

☆ I do like movie version of Hasebe. I liked him somewhat in this one. There wasn’t so much forehead acting from Wada in this (thank god) so I liked Hasebe this time around. 

☆ And I guess movie version of Jiji wasn’t as much of a dick as he is in the stage too. I do like Jiji quite a bit in this one too, but he still got that god damn plot armour.

☆ In some shots you can see the knee support around Maki’s right leg - he was still receiving rehabilitation on his knee after his surgery when he stupidly went off to film this.

☆ I am here for the utter and complete tag team of Yagen and Manba! I absolutely adored all their scenes together! I was SO down for this pair up! They were great together!

☆ If you’ve never seen the Eiga Dorobo video, I highly recommend you see it! It’s often shown in movie theatre before the movie starts and it’s gold! (see here) so for Touken Ranbu they made special ones with the cast joining in! They even had the Jikansokougun too! So far there have only been 2 episodes out and a third one should be coming. So for the two different episodes we had the appearance of:

Eiga Dorobo 1: Uguisumaru, Fudou, Hasebe

Eiga Dorobo 2: Honebami, Nihongo, Yagen

☆ Watching the movie, I had this huge moment of ‘fuck, I love Touken Ranbu’, because there are so many versions of it and anyone can make any version they want because the creators of the game gave so much leeway as to how to interpret the swords, the personalities, how they defend history, the lore of the Jikan, there is just so much god damn potential in this series and there’s so many ways and stories you can write with these boys! I just got so happy and proud while watch the movie. We can literally make up whatever shit we want so long as history goes back to normal at the end! It’s GREAT!

☆ However, as already stated above, there were some super dodgy editing in this! I really need to find out who the editor is and send them an email because some of the editing was cringe worthy. We literally had one shot where Jiji walks out but the shot is focused on Jiji’s feet for about 5 seconds while Jiji talks. No shot of Jiji actually talking, no shot of Jiji’s face, just his FEET! HIS FEET! What the hell was that shot of Jiji’s feet at the beginning of the movie?! I’ve watched this movie TWICE and I have absolutely NO idea what the point of that shot was! That was the worst one. 

☆ Other things like in the very first opening scene we are have a VERY OBVIOUS audio dub over one of the guys. Why they dubbed over the man with different lines to what his mouth creates, I don’t know why, but it does not sync up at all and it is very obvious.

☆ And the transition between scenes/days and the cut backs to older stuff in the movie was just very poorly edited too. If a scene ended, it would fade to black and for like 2 seconds there would be nothing, no music, just a black scene and then suddenly a new song would start, it felt VERY stage-y and not like a movie at all! It was cringe worthy and really wasted precious seconds we could’ve spent on the movie. Also we had some ‘flashback’ scenes and the music and sound immediately cut off from Cut 1 -> Cut 2 would be the flashback and be absolutely silent, no music -> go back to Cut 1 and suddenly the music has restarted again. I REALLY didn’t like it! It REALLY pissed me. LET ME FUCKING REEDIT THIS GOD DAMN MOVIE! The post production for most of this movie SUCKED. The editing and the sound mixing SUCKED. Ugh... that person needs firing.

☆ Also, this movie was WAY too short! We get 3 hour long stages from Marv, so why is the movie less than 2 god damn hours?! It’s barely 1 hour 45! Give me more gungi! Give me some comedy! (There is NO comedy in this besides ONE line from Hasebe!) Give me them enjoying time at the god damn honmaru! 

☆ Upon looking back, I realised that they did not show one of the bigger fights at all that happens towards the end of the movie. I really wish they had shown that fight scene rather than having it happen off screen. There was so much potential and so much you could’ve done with that fight scene. You could’ve easily had swords pop up here, there, everywhere and they could’ve done it in a real stylistic way if they didn’t have the time or money to get actual actors. They could’ve just done close up shots of swords’ costumes, or their feet landing next to the Jikan, or show two swords clashing, or a danshi jumping into the fight etc. You could’ve easily ‘brought in’ many swords into that fight scene without actual hiring any actors (especially if certain actors did not have time) and it could’ve been very creative, stylistic and interesting and it would’ve been a big flail for the fans.

☆ Also MAJOR SPOILERS HERE: the ending part with the new sword? Don’t just IGNORE that for fuck sake! Give him and the audience an explanation! Let him speak! Let him have his moment as to what happened to him and where he’s been and what he went through shit! God damn don’t just NOT explain that! Don’t just have him pop up, save the day, say his name and FINISH! What the fuck.

Wow the more I think about this movie, the more dissatisfied I get... okay, last one!

☆ Also Nishii Yukito had SUCH a small role!!! I was hoping he’d have so much more screen time than what he actually got. He has about 1 minute max *so sad*

I DO pin a lot of my complaints and nitpicks on the fact I have a cinematography background; I studied film, I’ve made films, I’ve always watched BTS of making films, I love the process of film making. And I think because of that, that’s why I’m being so particular on HOW it was made and on post-production and how I would’ve made the movie. So if you’re not into the whole film making side of movies then none of these are gunna bother you. If you’re not into this stuff then I really think you’ll enjoy this movie a lot! You will definitely have a good time and be satisfied and enjoy it so much!

Okay now onto:

MAJOR SPOILER TERRITORY COMMENTS

☆ I loved this version of Saru and how he isn’t just a nice guy and isn’t just the idiot that history leads us to believe. In this he’s cold, and mean, and turned against so many people! I loved Saru suddenly going against Hasebe too! It was such a plot twist! He invited Hasebe and Nihongo into his clan but as soon as our swords let down their guard, Saru’s men attacked them and they had to run! It was such a shocking twist! And Hasebe getting shot because of this ambush too was insane!! I know it’s spoiled in the trailer but seeing it happen in that moment! I was not expecting it at all!

☆ Also I am glad I got to see Hasebe actually almost physically harming Jiji, and Manba straight up being like ‘yo I don’t trust you Mika,’ and Yagen siding with Manba! Oh my! It was such a great scene! I loved all the suspicion going on around them and them not exactly wanting to agree or listen to Jiji. Argh! SO GOOD! I was like ‘HIT HIM HASEBE! DO IT!’ and I guess this is another reason why I like Movie Hasebe much more than Stage Hasebe.

 ☆ Seriously! I absolutely loved the teaming up of Yagen and Manba!! And now I want them forever on my team in the game now too! xD

☆ My heart hurt a little when Oda called Jiji ‘Munechika’, I was like ‘YOU HAVE NO RIGHT CALLING HIM BY HIS GIVEN NAME!!’ because clearly Jiji deserves more respect than Oda xD but I think it’s purposely put in so we do feel this way.

☆ I absolutely loved the twist for Oda’s story: he didn’t die at Honnouji, he actually died at Azuchi Castle and only Jiji knows the true hsitory because he was the only one there at the time! Such a great twist! And how Jiji tricked Oda into going to Azuchi, making Oda think he’ll be fine there and making Oda think that they are changing history together! Such a good plot twist! I loved it!

☆ Even though I was spoiled for the new sword, it’s very heavily implied throughout the entire movie. Especially when Akechi uses him in defense again the Jikan, and suddenly the danshi’s (who is clothed in Jikan armour and wear)  eyes turn bright yellow (Jikan’s eyes are all a glowing red). It’s a really good and random reveal!

☆ As Jiji tries to leave Azuchi castle, Honebami meets up with him. But fucking Oda pullings his sword on Hone and pins it at his neck! He tells Jiji to work with him or he’ll kill Hone and Jiji is like ‘I can’t help you, this is how it’s supposed to be’, just, I was like YESSSSSSSSSS!!!! But in the end Oda let’s Hone and Jiji go -__- I’m sorry but Hone SHOULD HAVE been killed there!

☆ One of my favourite lines from the movie is from Jiji (surprisingly) where he says: 守りたいことが増えばっかり。 // Things I want to protect just keep increasing. Which shows just how different of a Jiji we have in this version! He actually fucking emotionally cares in this one!

☆  The very last scene has ALL the Stage swords who have appeared in TouStage up to now were ALL at the Honmaru in this final scene. Except Daihannya & Ookanehira. Those two swords were NOT in this final scene. As for the actors; every one of the TouStage actors, except Hirose Daisuke and Kento, were as their Swords, in their costumes in this final scene. Ichigo and Tsurumaru ARE in this seen but are clearly NOT the actors. They clearly had body doubles / standins in this scene and their faces were out of focus. Also in the final ending credits, these two actors' names were not listed. I was flailing so hard!!! This was a HUGE shocker and I am so happy how many of them were able to come back for this one scene! So this is the scene where the new Saniwa is revealed and we finally got a female Saniwa!!!! I was like ‘YES JUSTICE!!!’ I spent most of the movie like ‘why the fuck is it always a Male Saniwa?!?! Why not hire someone ambiguous like Yuzuki or Toman as the Saniwa?!’. But alas we got our girl at the end!! The very very very last scene is absolutely ADORABLE! The saniwa (she’s like 3 years old) grabs onto the back of Jiji (he’s sitting down and drinking tea) and holds him for a piggyback, he smiles, picks her up and piggybacks her around the honmaru! It’s ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE!! I was in absolutely tears at this scene! Ughhh someone give Suzuki babies!!! I was in a MESS of tears. And the very very very last line is him where he says ‘ Aruji.... the stuff I want to protect just keeps increasing’ arghhhh my heart!! *dead* IT’S SUCH A GOOD ENDING!!!

*

And that’s all! I hope you enjoyed this review and I hope you watch, buy and enjoy the movie!

As stated, I feel like a lot of my complaints come from my cinematic background so general people who just want a good movie are really going to enjoy this!! ^_^  Also if you ever see spelling mistakes, don’t ever hesitate to yell at me! xD

[brod-anthropology]

Hjank- Making of

Link to Hjank script and notes

Initially comingnup with Hjank we started by riffing some ideas- Andy had given us a task as a starting point but Charlie and Kit didn't vibe with the task at all and wanted to start compltetly from scratch. After joking around for a while we decided to do a crime drama with a gritty detective and in all honesty I don't know how we came up with the idea of having a goose be the killer, I think Charlie honked at one point and we said we could dress him up as goose and then that evolved to the goose being a killer and ansock puppet because you know, getting a real goose wouldn't work and dressing someone up would be terrifying- this is also how we settled on a sock puppet, we thought that that would be the easiest way to make a goose and it would be the funniest thing to just have a really serious gritty Nordic noir inspired film and just play the goose completely deadpan, like not even acknowledge that he's a goose or a puppet at all and have it as serious as possible. This then posed the issues of what I would write about and how I would make a puppet.

Hjank

Making hjank was at first very difficult, I tried any number of paint and cardboard beak and a whole tube of gorilla glue and went through a fairly large amount of Primark White sports socks but the main success we had was after Jade suggested using food colouring (i hadn't used actual dye as its expensive and there was no guarantee it would've worked with the socks or been the right colour). This the had the issue of consistent colour but I solved that by doing test swatches and then making a bulk batch and I ended up staining most of my bathroom and all of my hands a faint orange for about a week BUT Hjank was born! Albeit he wasn't dry by the day we were shooting but you know my hand was already dyed so you know.

Writing

With writing I did a lot of watching of old noir interview scenes and more modern Nordic noirs and who-done it police shows and wrote out the basic storylines of each and tried to plan out the stereotypical scene between a detective and a criminal- it basically goes “set the scene, establish backstory and relationship, reveal evidence/guilt/admission, reveal of motive (and occasionally revels twist like that he's actually her dad or he's actually got a gun or was just stalling for time or something along those sort of lines)”. Using this template I set about writing out the scene, going step by step writing the bare basic plot and then going back over to add in emotion or edit the interaction or add in a bird related joke and then went back over to add in the different camera angles and editing techniques that I was picturing so that Charlie (cinematographer) could get an idea of what I was going for and Kit (creative producer) could get an idea of what she needed to find props wise and what vibe we were going for.

Needless to say both of them read through half of it and decided it was Good enough so that was fun explaining the plot and directions to them on the day but hey ho!

Shooting

It went really well!

Kit and Charlie turned up  late and seeing as Kit had all the bookings me and Nathan set up as best we could and they brought the equipment from the ERC when they arrived and after sorting out some battery issues and generally hanging out and going through the script I decided to kind of get the ball rolling and actually start setting up so everyone would get the message. After we rushed through a bunch of the opening scenes for the montage and got as much of that done as possible (there was a miscommunication at this point about B roll so I did end up having to shoot a bunch at home and colour match it but eh)

After that we realised how late it was and after taking a short break to get more batteries we went into the bulk  of the filming. For that it all went pretty smoothly, there was some discrepancies between what charlie thought would be best and what I actually wanted and envisioned for the shots but we compromised a lot so we both got what we wanted and actually for the most part, once he understood what I wanted and he’d set the shot up he really liked what I’d imagined. We’d recorded Hjanks voice as well as the Detectives monologue a couple times too we finsihed up pretty on time.

Editing

Editing was incredibly stressful but that’s on me- I decided to knock all of the editing out in one big sitting and and part way through realised that we hadn’t actually gotten any close ups of the actual pinboard by itself. This meant that I had to actually shoot some close ups of the board itself in my room (luckily I hadn’t taken anything off of it which was great) and then try and colour match in Premiere. I did manage to colour match as best I could, it was my first time actually editing colour in videos so I had to play around a lot but I think I got it as close as I reasonably could. I won’t lie, the beginning montage of the detective's monologue literally took me like 5 maybe 6 hours and the rest of the video took me maybe 2 at max? I don’t know why the first half took me so long, I guess it was probably the filming and colour matching? I also had the music to work with that Charlie made which was insanely good compared to what I was expecting which was great to be able to work with but when there’s music to a montage you want it to work rhythm and pace wise so I guess that added to the time? I also spent a long time trying to make the shadowy ‘4 years’ bit better but decided that there was no point and i was going insane but yeah- after that I had to match the audio files to the right clips which was annoying. I’d edited the whole video before matching the audio files which meant I really had no way of finding the right clips right at the start, I just had to see if it synced so I’ll learn from that next time. I also realised that so much of the audio was so loud, like i’d say 70%+ clipped so badly so I had to bring the volume all the way down and it was just a big mess, like trying to even out the levels between nathan speaking and him yelling was so difficult and because it peaked so badly a lot of the audio quality was lost- there was nothing I think I could’ve done to fix it anymore more than I did and it’s not that bad but I notice it and I know it could be better, so it’s just something I’ll have to keep in mind when Kit records sound next time (like I’ll make sure it very rarely peaks at 6 on the zoom rather than consistently peaks at 6 and I’ll be sure to tell that to whoever is recording the sound). After I synced the audio as best I could and fixed the quality and volume as best I could I made the credits and added the music in at the end which went well but then in putting in the background noises of the cars/siren/street outside (that I recorded from my window earlier) I accidentally wiped out the music so had to go back and do that later. With the background noise I used my old film camera’s buttons and mechanisms to make the recorders sounds and just stuck my arm out my window to get the general sounds for the streets and I think it matches well with the vibe and theme. After I added the music back in and just adjusted all the volume for both the detectives lines and also for Hjanks ADR and watched it through a couple times, added and adjusted little bits here and there and then exported to see what the group thought. They all adored it as it was so I didn’t go back and edit anything and just went to bed and slept off my late night editing session instead.

[aksbrillmindz]

Tips For Successfull mobile App For Beginners

At present, there are 30 million Android apps in the Google Play Store as Android app growth is rising at a great pace. Today, companies, as well as developers of android applications, want to create unique applications that can cater to areas of pain. Moreover, the average hours spent on mobile apps are also increasing year on year. Have a peek at the numbers

We're going to learn about the top five tips in this blog post that any beginner really needs to listen to. If you're struggling to build an Android app or are in the process of developing an Android app, these tips can help you a lot.

These tips would be super helpful if you shouldn't miss this blog at what stage you're struggling. This blog will also address your problem with the stuff you are facing, such as Android studio installation or some other stuff. Let's talk about it, then,

Some Of The Points

Should have the good internet connection This is a tiny but vital tip you have to follow. In order to create & learn Android apps, it would help if you had a secure internet connection. I'm not writing this because you may want to explore a lot of stuff on your own or you may want to stick around at Stack Overflow to explore a lot of issues you face, this is about the items being mounted. Now, when you instal Android Studio, it's very important to have a secure link to the internet.

I don't mean to suggest by the word secure internet connection that you should be able to continuously stream Youtube videos. This is not a continuous internet connectivity test at all, and I have typically found that the mobile connection you are using is not as reliable at all.

You face issues at the end of the Android studio installation, such as the Gradle sync problem where the link has been reset. This indicates that during the Android studio installation, your internet was not strong enough to have a constant & secure internet connection. You have faced the problem, therefore. So, if you are on a mobile network, don't instal Android Studio. For every nation and every student, I'm not saying this is true because a lot of students are fortunate and also able to instal Android studio on mobile networks, but this is not always the case.

Typically, Android Studio needs to have a Gradle sink in 90 percent of the case, and that sink is only possible if you have a secure internet connection. So this secure link to the internet will solve your problem a lot. So get yourself broadband or go to some cyber cafe or university so that the Android studio is still properly built for a few users. I have a failed Gradle sync problem on the entire internet on Android, the most asked question on the entire internet. It says the link has been reset, so what should I do now? Get a secure internet connection for yourself.

Whenever there is going to be an upgrade in the cradle it just updates all the freaking time like 2.1 to 2.3 it just does it all the time like that and if you have that update again you will need a stable internet connection.

Usage of Original Tools This is the most significant thing that I can say to you, by far. Get original as well as recent stuff for yourself. I have now seen people download the Android studio like a month ago and want to instal that this will not work because Android studio updates are quite regular and the Gradle updates are quite frequent in particular. But you would want to get the latest Java build and the latest Android Studio build as well. It's super important. On top of that, your operating system is also critical. Make sure that it's modified to the new High Sierra if you're using a Mac.

You must make sure it's the new one. It doesn't say there's a Mac update available. Coming on to the Windows section, most of the problems are actually faced here by the students because windows only rollouts updates crazily without warning. They come almost every single week, so yeah, make sure you've absolutely updated them properly. A particular problem that is used by pirated Windows by a lot of Android app developers. This is not at all good for the development of Android applications since these pirated Windows are not typically properly updated and are not good for the new Android studio version.

What the guys from the Android studio do is try to make sure that whatever the latest Windows, Mac or Linux operating system is, they try to make it compatible with that operating system, and if you use a pirated system, it's outdated. Some people I've seen use Windows 7 and that version is even pirated and still say that their android studio doesn't work well. It's not going to, as it wasn't meant to work well. So make sure that you get proper and original tools for yourself.

I can also understand that a number of individuals are unable to afford to purchase extra windows. If you can't buy that go ahead, get Ubuntu or maybe Fedora as these are free operating systems, and if you can't afford anything that means that you probably don't need that strongly. So you can get rid of it and instal Ubuntu. The Android studio is still running flawlessly on Ubuntu.

Donot Use to Much Of Java I am totally aware of the fact that Android is fully designed and runs on Java. They are also native, but let's talk about the majority of individuals and still strive to learn Java-like a mad amount of Java. Let me be honest with you. Too much Java won't make you a good developer for Android. Yeah, even though we all know that all the code is mainly written in Java for Android, and Java is used to build all those apps. But I still saw a lot of people just learning about Java.

You are not going to be studying Android if you are going to stick with Java forever. You are absolutely ready to switch to Android if you are familiar with loops, functions, classes, objects, and a few other things like that. There are two very different things about working with Android and working with Java. They are entirely different things, even though they are used interchangeably.

There are a lot of things you do on Android, and a lot of ways you do them. You're learning them on Android and you're not learning them in Java, particularly the GPS and card stuff. All these are done on Android itself. They don't have a friendship with Java. So don't just hang around with Java too long if you want to become a good developer for Android. No doubt, you can still be stuck around for it like forever in Java is great, but if your goal is to become a successful Android developer, make sure you turn as soon as possible from Java to Android.

Yeah, there will be several of your solutions available in Java, and you will be implementing them on Android. Yet, I'm absolutely sure that you'll be able to understand that code if you understand loops, functions, classes, and so on. So again, you're absolutely ready to get the trust and take my words that you're ready to step into Android, not just start too much for Java. Get yourself a favour right now and switch to Android.

Getting The First Version Right Version one is going to be terrible, but the most significant thing is that. Now, your first goal should be to hit the Google Play Store as soon as you learn Android. It can be a simple calculator or maybe just a button on which you tap and adjust a context. Your app may be a little crappy. But it also gives you a lot of faith to access it on an actual computer as well as on the Google Play Store.

Once again, your friends or family may say this is a crappy app that I don't like. But for you, that's super important. You have to spend a lot of time on it if you want to learn or focus on something on any specific app. It's not like you're going to be extreme about that in two days or a month. You have to spend a lot of time working with that app to develop its functionality and improve its compatibility or speed, but the most important part is version 1 if you're not going to be working on version 1.

So make sure you now typically have a version 1 to a convent what the big nurse does and there is nothing wrong with wanting to understand and discover a range of choices they can find in Android. Now it's not as fruitful for these beginners to stick with only one app that calls it version 1 and do everything in that app, but I really encourage you to go ahead and explore and create a variety of apps. Camera, audio, GPS, firebase or anything like that could be used by some apps.

So make sure, as a novice, you try a range of choices. If you have understood all the aspects of most features, such as shake function, animation, or maybe firebase, if you really want to do so, you can step on to build your very first mega-scale app.

Conclusion

We BrillMindz one of the best mobile app development companies in dubai have given the tips for beginners to develop a mobile app and we are capable of building any kind of app

[benwillismedia]

Week 12

So, this week was a cool week of hearing from the people who created/curated the collections that we are messing with, to see their opinions on our work.  A common complaint that Nick from ACMI had was his annoyance with adding additional noise and scratches onto already aged footage, but like we didn’t do that, but also I don’t see the problem behind it even if we did, audio isn’t magically unaffected in real life due to degradation. Like if you have a screwed-up VHS copy of a Toy Story, I can say from experience, buzz and woody look and sound screwed up in certain parts. Emulating this is fine in my opinion. BUT ANYWAY, stuff actually important to Chloe and my project, ‘Indoctrination’, Ben (yes another ben, the best name) said how he liked the fact that our glitch effects weren’t just white noise and boring, so that was cool. He also pointed out visually, that he liked how the glitch effect and also how the world that is rotoscoped, doesn’t effect the protagonist, and basically its about how the world around the protagonist baby distorts, when in reality it’s his brain that’s distorting his reality. This was all encouraging, and basically, we just wanted to push that idea going forward into the final week. I basically want to vary the atmos textures and make the transitions of them fading away a bit more prominent, just to further drive that point home, not only visually, but just stronger sonically.

Nick also said we have a strong visual design and concept but felt like it needed more of the ear pod/iPod motif throughout the video just to drive home the ‘indoctrination’ of the kid. So basically, this week has been both of us trying to get some sort of 3D model ready to implement into the video. We started with Blender and modelling is fine, but from previous projects I knew it was a pain doing all the compositing in Blender rather than just importing a model straight into After Effects with the PAID plugin, Element 3D (so basically this was a dead end because it’s like expensive af).

I watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRJsojJ-La4 on someone modelling an ear pod, but I basically gave up on trying to make stuff for 3D as I had a ton of other stuff going on this week outside of this class and this was gonna take a lot of time that I don’t have. Also, we decided against doing a straight copy of Apples earpods just to avoid the whole copyright thing to keep it generic, but still a nod to “hey these are earpods but not, *wink*”.

And then we PiVOTed once again, because that was too hard, so Chloe went through Turbosquid.com to source some stock 3D models of generic iPod related models. It was also at this point we decided on a phone rather than motion tracking earpods on the kid, as it would look janky given the time we have, compared to a static object motion tracked to the environment and scene. Also, the fact that the earpod would be in the foreground on the kid would REALLY draw the eye to any poopy animation and keyframing. SO basically, we going for that subtle approach, which still conveys the point effectively in our opinion.

Chloe’s next plan was to use the dynamic link feature of Cinema 4D with After Effects. Cinema 4D was just a pain to navigate apparently, so she tried to navigate that, while I watched a couple of tutorials on how to actually use the software (as I’ve only used Blender before), but I kind of gave up on that too.

AND what we have settled on, is Chloe took a pic of her phone and motion tracked it onto the background of the footage, which looks sick, especially with the clean masking she has done. I think its really effective despite how subtle it is, but I think the fact that its such a foreign and modern piece of technology juxtaposed to the old footage, its like enough to make it stand out and be recognisable, and then establish that conceptual connection to the corruption of the baby and its indoctrination.

AS FOR SOUND, Chloe adjusted some of the timing of the video, so I had to adjust some of the sound cues. I also spent a lot of this week going through recordings of Chloe’s nephew, and finding recordings that actually sync to the visuals and the baby on screen. I ended up finding a balance between using some of my own recordings from last week for more subtle mouth movements by the baby, but using Chloe’s nephew for the more animated laughs just to give it some more authenticity (I know I am still a baby, but my voice has changed somewhat over the years).

https://youtu.be/kph62LISRms

As for “The Way Back”, I worked on creating some more edits in the audio to sync up with some of the smaller visual edits. Basically 1:05 was the big one, where I low passed and distorted the audio to give some sort of extra motion in the audio, mirroring the energy of the text, “VIRUS”, that appears on screen.

https://youtu.be/kDSrQ4MgcPQ

Also I finished my work with Margaret for her project this week through creating a victory screen looping score which used same elements from both the in game score and the menu score, and made a sort of chill version of the in game soundtrack just to give the players a rest after fighting each other for money for 2.5 minutes. This also plays into the dynamic range thing where they need a rest from being pounded with a barrage of sound from the final 30 second intense score. I basically slowed down the BPM and made it more chill musically.

https://soundcloud.com/benjamin-willis-409703317/victory

Apart from that, we listened to François Tétaz (WHO I found out lived in Geelong, like i currently do, and worked at Faggs mitre 10 which just so happens to be on the street “WILLIS place”, therefore he is basically my long lost uncle, just like Bruce Willis)

and Richard Grant on Wednesday and heard a lot about the ins and outs of the music industry and what it takes to succeed. The main takeaway I got from that was just how to sort of diversify your income streams as well as well placed gambles. I loved hearing about how writing a hit song, or just how royalties in general work as a passive income stream. Not having to worry about pressure to find work all the time is probably ideal, where a passive income like that would take away some of the stress of work that is like less passive income. Also knowing when to give up some short term money now, and working for less for a period of time to put more effort into something that might have greater longer term benefits, whether that means earning more money due to polishing a product longer instead of pooping out a project and moving on as fast as possible, considering royalties again. Also considering that goodwill and loyalty and reliability as well as just getting experience with collaborators may also be worth taking a lesser cut, to have a longer-term sort of benefit in forming those relationships and getting that experience. Anyway, that was the main takeaways that I need to consider going forward into my career and it was amazing to listen to François and hearing his wealth of knowledge.

[savps-blog]

Sound + Vision: Week 7

Following our formative assessments, I’d spent a lot of time over the past week rethinking the concept behind my visual materials for the MEADOWS festival. Mike and David were absolutely right in much of what they said, and I was determined to improve upon what I already had in-line with the feedback they had given me. One of the big issues was my concept, and I’ve decided to take the visuals in a different direction. Informed by the percussive, almost Japanese nature of my soundtrack, my visuals will now be focusing on the cherry blossoms that bloom in the Meadows in Spring, which is when my festival will be held. I’m hoping to salvage the typography used within my previous concept and to adapt it to this new one, but of course, if it doesn’t work well I’ll be finding a different solution for the typography. At this early stage, I’m not certain how I’ll be incorporating blossoms into the animation within my visual materials, but I’m quite excited to play around with this.

Trailer Pre-Production:

Anywho, this week we had a pre-production workshop with David in order to make a start on our trailers for the MEADOWS festival. I was actually quite excited to get started on my trailer, it was a good opportunity for me to begin developing a new concept for my visuals and I was very keen to see where I could go with a fresh direction. David kicked off the workshop by showing us his process for planning and creating a music video for MIAOUX MIAOUX within After Effects, which was actually incredibly interesting to see. I always enjoy seeing how other people work, and then trying to implement parts of their process into mine to see if it makes me work more efficiently. 

Whilst presenting his process for planning motion graphics, David handed us all a quite comprehensive hand-out that gave an overview of the pre-production and production stages of a motion graphics project. This hand-out ran through different steps in the production process, such as scripting, storyboarding, animatics, scheduling, animating etc, and gave us some rough guidelines for how we should go about working in each stage of the production process.

Notes from David’s presentation of his working process for motion graphics

We were also given templates by David for the production outline, script, and AV script. The outline is exactly that, an outline of the concept behind my motion graphics. The script is a description of what would actually be happening within my motion graphics; and the AV script is an even more detailed version of the script, and outlines what’s happening within the motion graphics, at what time, whilst what audio is playing, etc.

For the remainder of the workshop, David had asked us to first fill out our production outline and script, then he would give us some quick feedback on our plan before we moved on to filling out our AV script. My primary concept for my visuals was now to salvage the typography from my pre-formative outcomes, and bring those in to new visuals that focused on cherry blossoms, which are informed by both the cherry blossoms that bloom on the Meadows in the spring, as well as the Japanese-percussive style of my soundtrack. Within my outline and script, I planned to animate cherry blossom petals in different ways, and then to use these animations to reveal different pieces of text with details of the festival, such as times, location, acts etc. I also wanted to time and coordinate these animations with different sections of my sound, in order to bring a greater cohesion between my visuals and my soundtrack.

Outline and Script for my MEADOWS trailer

I then ran through my outline and script with David. He quite liked my new concept which I was super relieved to hear. David suggested that I try and make my shots dynamic rather than just panning for each and every shot as this may not hold the audience too well. He also remarked that I could try and end my trailer by cutting to my final scene rather than panning back as I initially planned. I’m glad that David had commented on the panning, as I hadn’t really thought about retaining the audience through the duration of the trailer, so I’ll be sure to include some variance in how I animate the different shots in order to keep my audience engaged.

Feedback from David on my Outline and Script

Towards the end of the pre-production workshop, I began working on my AV script. It had been specified that our trailer was to be 30 seconds long, and my soundtrack had roughly 5 second sections that I could time my animation with, so I split the time column of my AV script into 0-5 seconds, 5-10 seconds etc. Next I wrote some quick notes under the audio column so I could tell what sound would be playing at different points in the trailer. I matched these different parts up with the times I had just wrote down, to create a sort of map of how my soundtrack would build up, reach it’s climax, and recede back down again. Alongside these times and audio notes, under the action column, I then wrote what I planned to happen on screen at each section of the trailer. For this I mainly used my script and made some slight changes to a few sections based on David’s feedback. Finally, for the notes column, I wrote down a few details for each section regarding things I wasn’t sure of yet and would figure out whilst I was designing the trailer. I did this to ensure I didn’t forget about certain or smaller details that I might need to amend later on during the production stage.

Completed AV script

Right at the end of the workshop, David had asked us all to produce an animatic for Week 8 that would act as a draft of our trailer. This ‘draft’ would help to work out the timings for each scene, whether parts of the soundtrack fitted well with certain scenes, etc.

Storyboarding, Soundtrack Editing & Animatic:

The next day, I began drawing up a rough storyboard for my trailer using a template provided to me by David. I used my AV script to fill in the details of the scene, such as timings and scene details, and then I began to draw rough sketches of what I planned to happen in each scene. I had split each scene to coincide with different parts of my soundtrack, and in total at this stage I had around 6 scenes, with 2 or 3 of those scenes incorporating multiple shots. These scenes were all based on the idea I had to use cherry blossoms to reveal information about the festival throughout the trailer. 

MEADOWS Trailer Storyboard

Before moving on to creating my animatic, I first needed to make one last change to my soundtrack. The current version of my soundtrack was double the length of time we had allocated for the trailer, and so I needed to rearrange the elements within my sound to shorten it’s length so that it wouldn’t run longer than the trailer itself, and also so that it would sync up with the timings I had designated for the different shots and scenes.

I jumped back into Audition, and began moving around the different elements within my soundtrack in order to shorten it’s length. I quite liked where my soundtrack was at and how it sounded, so I decided not to make any drastic changes to it’s structure. Rather I simply halved the length of each element within the soundtrack and repositioned them; this made the soundtrack feel like it was running a bit quicker than it should, but the main character of the sound was still there. I tightened up the position of each element, and exported the sound out of Audition. Given this new draft fits well with my trailer, I shouldn’t have to make any further changes to it, and thus this will be the final version of my soundtrack.

Trimmed down soundtrack structure within Adobe Audition

https://clyp.it/0npb4mru

Link to hear MEADOWS Soundtrack Final

With my soundtrack ready to go, and my storyboard completed, I then set about creating an animatic for my trailer. For this I decided to simply scan in the sketches on my storyboard, drop them into Premiere Pro, and time them accordingly with my soundtrack. At this point, I wasn’t too sure of the ideas I had on my storyboard, and so I didn’t want to jump the gun and start designing different elements before I had first gotten feedback on the idea itself, and how it flowed with the soundtrack. The animatic indeed looked quite rough, but it worked well at communicating how different scenes and shots would be displayed within the trailer according to the timing of different elements within the soundtrack.

MEADOWS Trailer Animatic

[immedtech]

Elgato's Cam Link turns your DSLR into a souped-up webcam

Most of the time, I buy cameras for specific purposes. My DSLR exists to capture vacation photos and product shots for Engadget reviews. When I go on hikes or long bike rides, I pull out a GoPro Hero4. For some reason, however, I just can't bring myself to buy a dedicated webcam for Twitch streaming or YouTube vlogs. I already have a handful of great consumer cameras -- shouldn't I be able to use one of those? In reality, that's easier said than done: Most cameras simply aren't designed to push a live feed out to a PC. It's a problem I've spent hours trying to solve, but never did. Then, I heard about the Elgato Cam Link, a USB capture device that can turn any camera with HDMI output into a functional webcam.

If that sounds familiar, you've probably Googled "how to use a GoPro as a webcam" before. Unless your camera is designed to be used as a webcam, an HDMI capture device is usually your only option. In fact, content creators have been using capture cards to integrate higher-quality cameras into their workflow for years -- but Elgato's take on this idea is just a bit more streamlined.

Instead of finding a workaround to make an HDMI capture device work natively with various apps as a webcam, Elgato's dongle does it in one shot: getting the Cam Link operational is as simple as downloading the latest version of the company's Game Capture HD software and plugging an HDMI output up to the device. That's basically it -- and with the exception of a few hiccups, it actually works really well.

This is mostly because of how your PC recognizes the Cam Link compared to most HDMI capture cards. If you hook up a camera to Elgato's own HD60 Game Capture device, for example, it will be recognized by broadcasting software as a USB video capture device. Most of the time, that's perfectly fine, but what if you want to use it as a camera for Skype or through your operating system's native camera app, you'll need to download additional drivers and software to trick it into behaving as a webcam. The Cam Link, on the other hand, does that by default. Better still, Elgato's own Game Capture HD software recognizes the Cam Link as a separate capture device, which makes embedding a "face cam" over gameplay a snap.

Because my main PC is a desktop computer and doesn't have a built-in camera, this made the Cam Link an incredibly convenient way to pipe decent video to my machine for Twitch streaming and Skype calls. Elgato's software takes some of the guesswork out of it, too -- when I stream a webcam through OBS, I usually have to add an offset to make sure my webcam feed syncs up with my gameplay footage. The Game Capture HD desktop suite did that automatically. I even used it to record an unboxing video for YouTube, and was able to embed my external microphone's audio directly into the recording. Normally I have to sync that up in editing. It was nice to have one less thing to worry about.

It's an easier way to solve a cumbersome problem -- but it still has some pain points. Like any HDMI capture device, it can only deal with the signal you give it. That means any overlay menus that your camera displays over its video-output will appear in the Cam Link stream, too. That wasn't a problem for my GoPro, which has an option to disable the overlay, but I had trouble with my other cameras. My Canon Rebel T3i has a great lens, but you can't get a clean HDMI signal out of it unless you use a custom firmware like Magic Lantern. The quality of that image depends on the camera, too. I can get a 1080p signal out of my action cam, but my DSLR won't push anything higher than 480i.

That resolution issue comes into play even if you have a camera with decent output. In a best case scenario, the Cam Link can only capture 1080p footage. In my tests, 1080p recordings over HDMI were about the same quality as videos captured directly by the camera -- but if you have a camera that shoots in 4K, you won't be able to get that kind of fidelity when streaming through the Cam Link. Finally, I had one or two instances where the Game Capture HD software simply didn't save a video I shot with the dongle. Elgato support is looking into it for me, but it made me cautious enough to move my workflow over to OBS.

What Elgato's Cam Link does isn't technically a new idea, but it's a consumer-ready implementation of it that's easy to set-up and use. In my perfect world, it still wouldn't be necessary -- I still think it's bizarre that my GoPro isn't natively recognized as a usable camera by my PC -- but the Cam Link does exactly what I want with almost no hassle at all. If you have a nice camera that can output a clean HDMI signal, and you desperately want to use it as a webcam, the $130 Cam Link is an easy way to get it working.

- Repost from: engadget Post

[mastcomm]

Lip-Syncing Her Abduction, Matter-of-Factly – The New York Times

The day before rehearsals resumed for Lucas Hnath’s new play “Dana H.,” the star, Deirdre O’Connell, was quietly expecting her bad dreams to return.

Having performed the piece last year in Los Angeles and Chicago, she knew what would happen when she slipped back into the role of the playwright’s mother, a Florida chaplain, sitting alone onstage to recount the story of her violent abduction in 1997 and the five brutal months that followed, as her captor dragged her across the South from motel room to motel room, frightened and isolated.

“There’s a nightmare that gets stimulated inside a person, just thinking about this stuff all the time,” O’Connell said the other afternoon, in a brightly lit room at the Vineyard Theater’s downtown Manhattan offices. “I loved doing it. But it’s sad, and it’s scary.”

It is also, for Hnath (pronounced nayth), personal — a story he had long thought of telling in a play. “And at various points,” he said, “my mother had expressed interest in me telling this.” Given how far its details veer from mainstream experience, though, the trouble was finding a way that wouldn’t leave audiences wondering which parts were true and which he had made up.

Enter Steve Cosson, artistic director of the Civilians. He asked Hnath over coffee in 2015 — before “A Doll’s House, Part 2” and “Hillary and Clinton” took the writer to Broadway — if he had any interest in making a piece of documentary theater.

“I have the memory, and it probably is a false memory,” Hnath said, “of it clicking in that moment and thinking, ‘O.K., this is the right story and that’s the right approach: for someone who is not me to interview my mother.’”

Why not him?

“Because of course we know each other,” Hnath said, his evident discomfort — with giving an interview in the first place, with discussing a play about his mother’s trauma — evaporating for an instant as he laughed. “I was interested in her telling the story to someone who knew nothing. So that there’s no shorthand.”

That someone was Cosson, who spent several days interviewing Hnath’s mother, Dana Higginbotham, who these days works with hospice patients. The show’s dialogue is audio culled from those recordings. Audiences hear Higginbotham describe her experience in her own voice, in her own emotional register.

And O’Connell, the Obie Award winner embodying her, lip-syncs every word as Higginbotham recalls being yanked out of her ordinary life into a terrifying subculture where she discovered that help was out of reach.

Now in previews Off Broadway at the Vineyard, where it is directed by Les Waters, “Dana H.” arrives at an interesting moment for stories of violence against women, with society re-evaluating its own metric for what constitutes a persuasive witness.

Reviewing the show in the Los Angeles Times, Charles McNulty deemed it “a sly referendum on how we process a survivor’s story,” while the critic Chris Jones, in the Chicago Tribune, noted that it prompts “the question of whether or not you are listening to a reliable narrator.”

Hnath, well aware of what he called the “circular and wobbly shape of memory,” said it was vital that the play “match the reality of somebody recounting something really, really horrific that happened to them.”

Unspooling recollections of her captor — a man raised in the Aryan Brotherhood, whom she had counseled in the hospital where he was a psychiatric patient — Higginbotham offers no florid displays of feeling as evidence of having suffered.

The striking calm of her tone on the recordings came as no surprise to Hnath, 40, who was an undergraduate at New York University at the time of her abduction, and who stipulated, before the interview for this story, that he would not fill in any biographical details or discuss the events of the play.

The matter-of-fact way that his mother speaks of that episode in her life is the same way he is forever asking actors in rehearsal to deliver lines that might otherwise seem to call for screaming or crying. (He suspects maternal influence as a possible factor in his preference for toning things down.)

To Hnath, the recording — meticulously edited though it is — serves as proof that he is not inventing details, and that a real person remembering severe, sustained emotional and physical stress might be subdued rather than agitated, might laugh in unexpected places, might weep only sparingly.

“I wanted that one layer of verification, of ‘This is what it really sounds like,’” he said. “We sort of judge the legitimacy of what people are saying by how they perform it, which I think is extremely dangerous.”

Of necessity, O’Connell’s own performance hews to Higginbotham’s expressively muted account, piped into O’Connell’s skull through earbuds.

Yet her portrayal is as fully realized as any other she might give, except that she has to squelch her voice while appearing to speak precisely in time with Higginbotham’s. There is no room for error, because the recording plunges ahead, regardless; even her breathing must match it.

It’s a skill that took a few grueling months for O’Connell, 66, to learn, with the help of a lip-syncing coach, Steve Cuiffo.

Hnath with his mother, Dana Higginbotham, whose abduction is recounted in the play.  Credit…Ryan Miller/Shutterstock

“As an actor,” she said, “I can imagine being really interested in my interpretation of her telling this story. But this is much more my really having to surrender to her interpretation of the story, and I felt like there was a sort of purifying fire inherent in that problem, in having to lip-sync her.”

Hnath, whose oeuvre hopscotches from one form to another, was in graduate school at N.Y.U. when he developed a fascination with lip-syncing and dived into the works of the experimental theater maker Reza Abdoh.

“I went to the performing arts library every weekend and watched almost everything that they had on tape of his,” he said. “Even on video, you got the sense of the sort of strangeness, and that it almost feels like the performers are possessed.”

Lip-syncing has an uncanny effect in “Dana H.,” a show that requires from O’Connell an unusual degree of isolation. Already alone onstage, she is also cut off from most of the sound of the audience. Out of town with the play, she was solitary much of the time offstage, too. So she is glad to be performing it at home in New York, where that won’t be the case.

On the day before the first rehearsal, she was high-spirited and funny, joking that she was in denial about how intense it was going to be.

“I think, ‘Why was I so tired in Chicago? Why was it all I could do to get myself from the theater to my apartment every night? What was wrong with me?’” She laughed. “But I have this memory of being kind of a broken spirit and stumbling into my apartment, and I would make a nice bath of Epsom salts and watch a cooking program.”

It’s not a physically demanding part. Emotionally is a different matter. Knowing that this is a true story “makes the world a darker place,” she said.

And, in O’Connell’s view, the play taps into a lot about the moment we’re living through, and the way that women in general — and second-wave feminists like her in particular — are lately looking at the world with fresh eyes.

Higginbotham, whom she met at opening night of “Dana H.” in Los Angeles, is “a tough cookie, and she’s very smart,” O’Connell said.

They have that in common. O’Connell remembered with perfect matter-of-factness her desire, years ago, “to be a tough enough broad to work late in the bar and walk home with my tips and not get killed.”

“I felt like my toughness and my freedom were very connected to each other,” she said, “and I feel like this play is a lot about that. About being tough enough to find yourself in a situation that would kill a lot of people, and not die. And then you have that as a sort of badge in your life.”

You also have the wounds, of course. Part of the hope of “Dana H.” — and, it seems, of Higginbotham — is that it can do something to mend them.

“What she cares about a great deal,” Hnath said, “is how can she help those people who have undergone extraordinary trauma, how can she help them heal? So I think of myself less as telling her story than as being complicit in that mission.”

He laughed to dismiss any loftiness.

But O’Connell looks at “Dana H.” as the work of a “very feminist son” trying to aid his powerful mother in taking care of her own trauma. And she finds that heartening.

“He’s helping shepherd that,” she said, “and I feel like that’s a good thing to be happening right now, as we try to make a very different world.”

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/lip-syncing-her-abduction-matter-of-factly-the-new-york-times/

[topicprinter]

Hey all! I'm a small business (print shop) owner and, having established my business locally over the past few years, have decided to spend 2019 studying and immersing myself in online marketing- Facebook/Instagram/Youtube/Tik Tok...I spent the past few months studying the Tik Tok alogrithm, figuring out what makes videos successful and best practices are when using the platform. Below is a rough draft of a write-up I'm planning to release on Linkedin in a few weeks. I think it's got some very useful info for those new to the platform and am open to debate with anyone who has successfully built a following and disagrees on any of the points :)Thank you!----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What is Tik Tok:If you haven’t heard of Tik Tok yet, it’s time to start familiarizing yourself with the social networking platform. With over 500 million active users and a higher organic reach than every other social media app on the App Store, Tik Tok is well on it’s way to overtake instagram (just like instagram overtook Facebook) as the must-have app for millenials and gen Z in the next half decade.I was put on the app by my younger brother, now twelve, who started using Tik Tok over two years ago. Back then the platform wasn’t as popular in the US, with most of its user base being centered in China and India. It also went under a different name- “Musically”. In 2017, the company was bought out by ByteDance and rebranded. Since then it has seen explosive growth in the United States, mainly among kidsA strange shift has occurred. Rather than gen Z following in the footsteps of millenials and adopting Facebook and Instagram as their platform of choice, zoomers found their own place on Tik Tok. Stranger still, month by month, I see my friends and peers downloading and using the app, and the older demographic on the app growing.For those not in the loop, Tik Tok is an app that allows users to take short, 15-60 second videos and share them with followers and strangers. The in-app video editor features a host of features, including fun filters and effect (like those seen on Snapchat and Facebook Messenger) and an audio embedding feature that plays a pre-recorded audio loop behind you clip. Users can borrow each others audio clips and record their own video over them sort of like a template, fostering as meme sharing culture. It’s really much easier to understand simply by hopping on the app and spending a few hours watching videos.Personal Experience:As I mentioned before I first heard of the app through my brother, Jimmy. He has been on the platform for about two years now and makes at least a video a day without fail, sometimes more. Most clips are shot in his room and the content ranges from short, highly edited, silly dances to 60 second videos of him talking about his day. He averages about 50 views a video and, on a good day, may get 15-20 likes.I made myself an account over a year ago but have only been a lurker up until last week, when I decided that I understand the ecosystem enough to throw my hat in the ring. I shot my first video on my iphone 8, made some minor edits on my computer, and posted the clip. Within the first 48 hours the 16 second video had over 200 thousand views and 30 thousand likes (edit: now 300k+ views and 50k likes). What’s even more impressive is that the clip wasn’t a random dancing video or funny skit, it was a product video. Specifically, it was a short montage of me printing a tshirt at my home studio, a tshirt I sell online. I’ve since posted several other clips with various success and hope that Tik Tok will be a viable marketing platform for my business and my personal brand in the coming years. (feel free to check it out at @this_is_jonjon on TikTok)The success of my first post was not a fluke but a function of proper search engine optimization and my familiarity with the Tik Tok algorithm. While the video itself was nothing out of the ordinary, everything else- the caption, the thumbnail I chose, the hashtags used, even the backing track in the clip were all vital to it’s reach. Below is a more detailed explanation of the Tik Tok algorithm and a list of the factors I believe made the clip go viral.The Algorithm:I’ll mention right off the bat that no one other than ByteDance developers know exactly how the Tik Tok algorithm works, however, while minor points can be debated, the overall idea of how Tik Tok distributes and "rates" content isn't a secret.When you first load the app, you land on the “For You” page, similar to the discover page on Instagram or Facebook/Linkedin news feed. This is where you, as a consumer of Tik Tok content, will spend most of your time. The app will show you videos in all sorts of random categories- car videos, funny videos, dancing videos.. And will decide based on view time (how long you continue watching each video before clicking away) and interactions (whether or not you like/comment/ or follow the creator) whether or not you have any interest in said category. Despite only working with these limited variables, Tik Tok very quickly figures out what you’re interested in and begins feeding it to you, still occasionally throwing in unrelated content to see if you’ll “bite”. You don’t need to tell Tik Tok anything about your interests, they figure it out for you, and they’re almost always right.The content that ends up on your “For You” page isn’t content that’s made by your friends like on instagram or creators you subscribe to like on Youtube, it’s completely random content. Whenever someone uploads a video, regardless of what category the video is in, Tik Tok will try to show it to 50-100 people to gauge the viewers’ reactions. If the video has a good engagement rate, Tik Tok will continue showing it to random users, and if it has bad engagement, it will be swallowed by the void. About a quarter of the videos on my For You pajjge are these “tester” videos, made by unknown creators and with (usually) less than 50 impressions. Tik Tok found a perfect balance between showing you proven content you’re genuinely interested in and showing you “tester” content to figure out whether that content is worth sharing with more users. If the app senses you’re getting bored, it will feed you less “tester” content and more videos with proven positive responses, and visa versa.Gaming the System:Your first video)There is one final detail I failed to mention in the previous few paragraphs. The first video that any user on Tik Tok posts gets an instant spike in impressions. As a new user, Tik Tok metaphorically “throws you a bone” and will in most cases show your video to more people right off the bat than it would a video by a repeat poster. This means that it’s vital to make your very first post on Tik Tok engaging.Unlike Youtube, for example, where you can feel free to post tons of crappy content as you get comfortable in front of the camera and find your voice, Tik Tok will literally punish you for having a bad start. The app will rate you based on your first video, and while it’s possible to climb back up after a bad start, it’s better to just hit the ground running.Consider making a “tester” account to try out a few different video formats before having an official launch on another account, or simply take several videos and save them all as drafts until you find something that’s worth launching your Tik Tok journey with. Whatever you do, don’t open your account and launch with a boring “Hello World” style video, it’s instant death.Follow general video guidelines)Your videos need to be engaging, so it should go without saying that they should be of decent quality. If your video is grainy and pixelated people will click away before even hearing your message (I’m calling you out, Android users!). The majority of Tik Tok creators are teenagers filming on the cheap, front-facing camera on their smartphones. Simply using the back-facing camera on a newer model iPhone and finding good lighting is enough to set you apart from the competition. I mention iPhones for a reason, by the way. It’s not because I’m an Apple fanboy, it’s simply because apps like Tik Tok and Snapchat are better coded for working with Apple hardware.Make sure not to go the opposite extreme, however. Tik Tok culture values authenticity, high definition videos filmed on 4k DSLR cameras come off as too professional and almost feel like advertisements. Tik Tok users want to see you filming on a handheld device, they want you using the in-app filters and sounds, and will click away instantly if they sense your content is fabricated and ingenuine.Trend hopping)In my personal experience, understanding the culture of Tik Tok is the most vital part to anyone’s success on the app. My viral post used an audio clip that had just become popular a day before, and therefore rode on the success of about a dozen other viral videos using the same clip. Just like a musician can gain their first small group of followers by doing covers of trending songs, many Tik Tok influencers gained notoriety by jumping on trends that were already proven to be popular. Much like Tik Tok feeds its users popular videos and interjects “tester” clips every once in a while, many popular Tik Tokers post mostly trending videos- clips of them lip syncing popular songs and copying current memes, and interject personal skits and less popular content within.There is no way to explain Tik Tok culture and current trends in an article like this, especially since new memes and trends appear literally every day. The best advice I can give to aspiring influencers is to download the app and spend 30-60 minutes a day over the course of the next two weeks browsing the For You page. You’ll quickly begin to recognize common themes and motifs, and will get an understanding of the culture I’m talking about.Ask for the close)Even at only 20 years old, I find a lot of the content on Tik Tok cringy and childish. This is likely because, though the user base is growing, gen Z’rs still make up the majority of content consumers on the app. Regardless of the reason, attention-seeking behavior tends to do fairly well on Tik Tok. Actually, very well.Simply adding “I worked super hard on this vid pls like” at the end of your clip is enough to boost conversion. My biggest mistake in my first post was not asking for the close. I didn’t embed my Tik Tok username in the video, I didn’t have good profile picture or bio on my account, and I didn’t ask people to follow me in the description. As a result, no one followed me. After the first 24 hours or so the video had reached over 100k views and 15k likes but I had about 50 followers on my account. Upon realizing this I quickly changed my profile picture to a clear photo and changed my bio to something along the lines of “follow me for more cool content”. My follower count more than quintupled within the next few hours.Though this may seem in-authentic to the average marketer, it really isn’t. Tons of kids on Tik Tok pour their heart and soul into their content and genuinely want people to follow them. These creators, as well as most of the audience, see nothing wrong in asking for likes or follows. Asking for the close, in the Tik Tok community, is seen as more of a friendly reminder than a pushy sale.more info on: https://influencermarketinghub.com/tiktok-statistics/ (this is not my website, just a source)Thanks for reading! Hoping this helps some people launch/grow their account. I haven't seen a decent writeup on Tik Tok best practices yet so I'm hoping this can serve as a foundation. Please debate/add on points in the comments. -Jonathan.

[booksbyjoshr]

March 31st 2019 Two Sides Of The Same Coin

  It’s currently four thirty in the morning and I can’t sleep, yet I was able to text something profound. Joshes and Joshettes, don’t worry this isn’t one of my typical philosophy posts. I’m shooting from the hip with this one, which means no quote today. So let’s dive into today’s post.

  So what was the magical text that made me pull out my laptop at four in the morning? I was comparing lust to affection and I was trying to explain how they are basically two sides of the same coin. Right when I hit send, my mind began to wander. Before I can go deep into the post let me explain what this saying means. Two sides of the same coin means two opposites create something however, for this creation to exist both opposites must be present. Most of us have heard about Yin and Yang, light (good) can not exist without darkness (bad). The only thing is Yin and Yang take it a bit further than that, there is a bit of Yang in Yin and a bit of Yin in Yang. So why did I decide to write a post about this topic? Reddit! Before sending the text I was browsing Reddit (r/entrepreneur and r/selfpublishing threads) and some of the Q&As shocked me. But the thing that stuck with me was when you self publish a book 50% of your effort goes into writing the book and the other 50% of your effort goes into marketing aka advertising your book. If you want to succeed as a self-published author you have to know both how to write and market yourself hence Yin and Yang. As you can probably guess this post is going to be about the “hidden face”.

  Hidden Face, what is that? This is another one of our exclusive terms. Since this is the first time you heard this term let me define it for you; The hidden face is basically the back side of the coin, it is an essential component in achieving whatever goal you have and is often overlooked. A prime example of this is the success iceberg. Did I just use another term to define this term, yes I did. The success iceberg basically means the part of the iceberg that we see is the success but the part we don’t see is all the hard work that goes into it. Let me be nice and explain it without using more terms. Let’s use the topic of getting in shape, how do you get in shape? Most will say you need to diet and exercise, which is true but there is a hidden face. You need to have the right mindset/motivation or you will fail. So hours before the Reddit threads and the text message, I was having a deep conversation with someone about why they ran. I’m not talking about regular running I’m talking about half and full marathons. The whole thing is no matter what they had to run no excuses. Weather horrendous? Run! Drank too much last night? Run! Didn’t get enough sleep? Run! This is why your mental state is key and why people like Tony Robbins get paid to change the state people are in. Your mindset is the hidden face for getting in shape/losing weight, which is why many people fail because they weren’t fully committed mentally. People join a gym as a new year resolution but the majority quit and it’s because it’s hard and you need to have a strong resolve.

  Josh, that makes sense in that example, but how does that affect you and this site. I’m glad you asked, this post is the hidden face. As I type this sentence it is now six thirty am (man this post took me a while), I am exhausted and haven’t slept yet. Many of you are screaming at your screen telling me to sleep but I need to produce content. The hidden face of content creation is the amount of time and effort that goes in that not many see. The last blog post I wrote was on the 25th and I wrote it in the exact place I am now the hospital. I’ve produced other content in the back end (book writing) but only a select few have access to this content so, the average person might get the impression that I don’t produce content often (which is true at times). I don’t know about other content creators but it takes me a while to produce content, let me break it down. A blog post usually takes me anywhere from an hour to three hours depending on the length and how in love with the topic I am {I tend to rewrite ALOT (I know it’s two words btw)}, then I have to make an excerpt find a thumbnail and post to social media. If I have a podcast topic on hand (which I almost never do) I can just press record and in an hour I am done recording. Editing, creating a video, and uploading takes about thirty minutes. A book takes me about 512hrs to just write, not include editing and formatting. I saved video production for last because the last two videos killed me. I launched a new series and Murphy came knocking because everything went wrong. The remote trigger for my camera app did not work properly, I had to record outside which made each video take twenty takes, I spent almost twelve hrs editing because the audio and video kept exporting out of sync. Even after producing all of these different forms of media, I have to market them to an audience. I’m always changing the way I work but I just want all my readers to see the hidden face of content creation, work. Content creation is not as easy as many people think and that’s why hard work is it’s hidden face.

  Wow, that was a long paragraph so let me dial it back now. You may not agree with me but there is a hidden face in everything in life. When you buy a bottle of water at the supermarket you have to pay tax and a bottle deposit (select states). See sales tax and bottle deposit can be considered hidden faces, most people forget about the cost of tax. Many of those in my inner circle are salesmen and the hidden face of that profession is rejection. If you can not handle rejection then a sales job is probably not for you especially door to door sales. The salesmen I know have learned how to overcome nearly every possible objection because they have heard them all. They know the hidden face, yet they have made it their strength and become better salesmen because of it. Relationships have hidden faces too, it’s compromise. When I typed that line the lyrics of She Will Be Loved came into my head, it’s in the song for a reason. I can go on for a while about relationships but anyone who has ever been in one knows it takes work. Best way to settle an argument is compromise which is why we have peace treaties.

  This post like many before it is about mindset. How we view the world affects our actions and our success. This post tackles the way we view life by talking about the hidden face of things. We all know it’s there but we overlook it, which we shouldn’t. The purpose of this particular post is to make you the reader aware that in order to achieve something requires more than meets the eye. Let me know in the comments below your opinions on this post. Like I stated multiple times, I was sleep deprived while writing this but I believe it came out well.

Remember to be successful it's your right, duty, and responsibility.