#i wish there was a documentary on the filming process

[calliettes-posts]

I'm way more invested in the Don't Worry Darling drama than I'd like to admit

[smtown-tourist]

I don’t respect SM very often since they’re normally full of so much shit, but I can at least say I’m pleased that they decided not to be capitalistic, money-hungry bastards by forcing SHINee to make a repackage for Hard while Onew is on hiatus. I’d be fine if Hard never got a repackage if it means we won’t have to listen to an album composed of only songs recorded by Key, Minho, and Taemin

[chloeseyeliner]

help, now that i have stopped tearing up at every mention of the series, the young royals forever documentary and the bts videos have brought my past obsession with film-making back-

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

Quarterfinals, Match 2

expand to see all propaganda received! (wall of text warning oh my god this is a severe cautionary message)

Lauryn Hill:

"she paved the way and was hot as fuck the whole time"

"Girl c'mon. Look at her. You're gonna try and tell me that isn't the most beautiful and attractive person alive? Okay. You're lying but okay."

"if u freaks don't give ms. lauryn hill the respect she deserves..."

"actually one of the prettiest women ever I'm such a lesbian for her. like irl I'm already a lesbian but she is helping"

Damon Albarn:

"Don’t think Damon should be here? Why don’t you get your head checked by a jumbo jet? Maybe you’ll feel heavy metal and calm down."

"If Damon is in the “some guy” category, he’s the heavenly and heartbreaking version. Damon is the sort of significant stranger I’d see on the train out of Colchester but could never speak to, just a face seen in passing yet too radiant to be real. I’d fall in love for an hour and carry the ache for a month."

"Damon sets the standard for me. I think he’s the most fascinating man alive. What I find attractive in Damon is not just his gorgeous bone structure and boyish charm, but how wholly he’s committed himself to music. Damon is an artist who walked the walk: in one of his roughest years with some of his rawest songwriting, he said he was no longer excited by anything except the creative process. He was disillusioned with the celebrity of it all, with his relationships suffering for it, and only wanted to make art: nothing more, nothing less. He would go on to compose film scores, write operas and stage musicals, produce other artists’ records, form collectives to fulfill his passion for world music, and create some of the most globally successful music of his career in a completely innovative format that placed him as the phantom behind the characters. Whenever one band takes a break, he makes a solo record or puts together a supergroup to stay busy. He’s uniquely collaborative and still writes personal letters inviting artists to record with him, and yet can function as a one-man show, acting as a multi-instrumentalist, a singer-songwriter and a producer. He’s been a constant voice of bringing British music to the world *and* bringing world music into Britain. Sure, he’s won Brit Awards and a Grammy among others, but he also has a Guinness World Record and was named an Officer of the British Empire for his services to music; his long work with Africa Express earned him respect even from peers who’d previously dismissed him, and his commitment to support his Malian collaborators in the face of violence earned him the title of Local King in Mali. There is so much talent in the world, but there is truly no one else with a career that looks like Damon Albarn’s. Damon is far more than just a prettyboy to look nice on a magazine cover, but looks are the ultimate point of this tournament, so make no mistake: he was terribly, terribly pretty. You watch him performing in the 90s, you sift through photoshoots and interviews and documentaries, and it feels *cruel* how beautiful he was. If his talent was god-given, so was his face. To put a bow on this thesis: I don’t know if Gorillaz and Damon’s musical universe would be the experimental, globe-trotting, boundary-pushing community affair it is if Blur hadn’t become such a central figure in Britpop and if Damon had not been made such a media spectacle, and I don’t know if Damon would have been that spectacle if he wasn’t so ungodly pretty. The domino effect is that Damon’s cherubic face launched a thousand multimedia art school projects for decades to come."

"I wish I was basically any bloke in the 90s so I could tongue Damon Albarn down. Damon will see a man and ask “is anyone gonna kiss that?” and not wait for a response."

"I have a pillow with his face on it. I sleep with it every night 😊"

"“I’m more homosexual than Brett Anderson, always have been. As far as bisexuality goes, I’ve had a taste of that particular fruit, or have been tasted you might say…” is just the rawest most Shakespearean statement ever"

"he is the ultimate Pretty Boy ™. his glorious golden locks, his electric blue eyes. he is if Princess Diana was a Britpop Dude. he is the Regina George of Britpop. he is if Aphrodite took male form. Zeus would come down to earth to fuck him if he knew. he is a caffeinated orange cat let loose. he is deranged. he is unhinged. you never know what will come out of his mouth. he had sexual tension with every single man who knew him. he pulled justine fucking frischmann. his aura knows no bounds. he is a siren. he is a weird guy. but being so gorgeous stunning ethereal didn't stop him from also being one of the most prolific songwriters of his generation"

"THE MAIN BLUR"

"literally where do i even begin. i could write entire essays on this man. a good place to start would be the beetlebum music video, i suppose. i'll never forget the first time i watched that music video. something in me changed, my brain chemistry was altered, my life was never the same, i view the world a lot differently now. and a lot of the viewing i'm doing is of pictures of damon albarn's face because of boy do i have a lot of those saved. every time i try to look for a photo of something on my phone i can't find it because there's so much damon. okay that's maybe an exaggeration but this man has the most unfathomable beauty ever. his eyes? HIS EYES. god dammit i love his eyes i want to stare at them until the end of time like nothing else exists. i'm so normal about this man (lying) and while i'm usually very shameless about my interests i'm actually incredibly glad this propaganda is anonymous because otherwise. yeah. but the world deserves to see damon albarn's beauty and also hear his fantastic voice because what the fuck. his voice is literally the most gorgeous sound ever produced like bro sounds like that and expects me not to fall in love? i want this man to sing his silly songs and talk absolute nonsense to me until the sun eventually blows out and the world ends. cmon damon girlies let's demolish this tournament i know there are a lot of you."

"He’s beautiful. He’s a little rat. He’s a sweetheart. He’s a dickhead. He’s a musical genius. He’s a dumb bitch. He’s a jock. He’s a weirdo. He’s real. He’s an illusion. He’s everything. He’s just Damon."

"DAMON DAMON DAMON where do I begin oh jeez I've hyperfixated on this man for a solid 4 years and still going strong. Damon makes me wish that British people are real. That says A LOT. This man created a whole ass ANIMATED BAND WITH A SHIT TON OF LORE as a SIDE HUSTLE??? Not to mention, what other man has collaborated with Stevie Nicks, MF DOOM, Del the Funky Homosapien, Snoop Dogg, AND Beck?! People, we're literally in the presence of a god. And he's STILL GOING. Anyways, TL;DR, damon is so so so neat and cool and he should definitely win this competition. Thank you."

"Okay 90s Damon is The Perfect Boy yes yes, but the people who parrot the Daily Mail and say "he's ugly now" will never understand. I would still suck every drop from him on his deathbed."

"Vote for whoever you want to. But Damon is so pretty."

"i did not spend hours admiring this beautiful man's face on pinterest just to see him lose."

"Damon Albarn just brings me joy. When I'm watching him perform, following along as the camera lingers on and adores his pretty face, I get butterflies like I'm 15 again. It's nice to still feel that totally unguarded giddiness sometimes."

"God let the intrusive thoughts win making Damon. What if he's a beautiful blond twink with eyes like saucers and dick to his knees, he reads Herman Hesse and plays footie and is insufferable about both, he'll be the most prolific musician of his generation and write operas and seminal albums in 5 different genres and also he's gonna be the dumbest bitch alive? He'll also be kinda bi, but only kinda. And send."

"when i found out about his existence, my life was changed forever. i wish i could use him like the hannah montana boot milk pillow and chuck him at the wall so he makes a loud thud"

"Think of the drama and anon fights it'll cause if Damon wins it all! And think of how quiet it'll get after Damon's out. You'll miss him when he's gone, like memories of a noisy house years after it's grown silent. Choose Damon, and keep the messy train chugging."

"Even the Gallagher brothers have the hots for him."

"Kiss kiss I love him also you can't vote for any of the Seattle men they're literally copy and paste it's not fair. We need Brit representation"

"I want to take care of him, I want to provide for him. I need to gauge his baby blue puppy dog orbs out to I can clean them with wood varnish, paint shades of Pantone 320 C in his eyes, spray eau de parfume by dior in them and sew it back into his eyes like that scene in Toy Story 2."

"Seeing as simply filling the page with ‘Damon’ written 10000000 times isn’t going to cut it 😅 may I admit/submit: I DO have him tattooed on my being (no descriptive, is this anon?); he’s inspired somewhat unhinged late night/early morning fandom conversations in which I’ve served as ‘parish’ priest hearing confessions from all manner of folk about what they’d like to do to him/receive from him; sadly I lost an essay where I detailed why the letters that make up his name suit him so well, and described him as the hot caramel sauce to Graham’s cool vanilla ice cream. He’s a faerie princess with a nose that makes people weep and a voice that feels like the warmest home and he gives amazing hugs. He loves trains and chickens and his tuxedo cat. He’s annoying and sweet and somewhat unhinged and his music saves people and all this is on top of that fantastic dick. He’s a dream yet very real and we’re fucking blessed to be on earth at the same time as him, amen"

"Damon Albarn was a beautiful, beautiful boy. The world saw that, regardless of if every individual reading this has the same taste in men; it felt like a truth of the universe at the time. They don't make celebrities that angelic in face and erratic in personality anymore."

"I need to touch his eyebrows, nose and prostate just one time JUST ONE TIME COME ON"

[percheduphere]

people saying, oh it wasn't intended from the beginning so it wasn't intentional thus has to stay fanfiction bug me. like, shows can develop organically based on chemistry. they can surprise you and take you in a direction that wasn't planned but now just works. like, fucking, chandler and monica wasn't planned from the beginning! but the actors had chemistry and the writers tried it out and it became iconic. you don't throw something away just because it surprised you instead of being pre-planned; you cultivate whatever gold you find!

With Hollywood entertainment in particular, I think there is a lot of ignorance regarding how the creative process, production process, post-production process, and business all work. It is readily apparent that in Hollywood, there are many hands in the kitchen when it comes to creating a movie, documentary, or show. The "Original Intent" argument is weakest when it comes to Hollywood art, and in fact fails to be a viable argument in multiple areas. I will discuss how the "Original Intent" argument fails in Hollywood in more depth under the read more, using what I know from having worked in the industry myself as a writer. And to be honest, the fact I have to pull my private professional history out online, just to prove I'm not being delulu when it comes to the importance of queer subtext in film, pisses me the fuck off.

To be clear, since this whole discourse mess on my Tumblr is likely the result of someone thinking I'm an anti-sylki: I AM NOT AN ANTI. I have an extensive analysis on Sylvie as an integral character to the Loki series, Sylki in canon, and her relationship with Mobius here.

I agree with you: a lot of amazing art deviates from the original intention, especially writing. If deviating from original intent in the writing process did not exist, we would not have DRAFT REVISIONS, we would not have IMPROV, we would not have EDITORS (whose entire job hinges on giving the writer not only grammar corrections, but feedback on how to IMPROVE character, plot, and pacing, which inherently means making changes from the original intent!). This is to say nothing of the thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands, of media scholars--with actual PhDs--who spend years of their lives performing meta-analysis to write academic papers on subject matters like this. Papers that become formal publications and contribute to how queer history is taught in universities! This is no different than academic scholars analyzing women and race representation and resistance in film. Why should analyzing queer representation and resistance in film be treated any less?

LET'S TALK ABOUT ORIGINAL CREATIVE INTENT VS POWER HIEARCHY & POLITICS IN HOLLYWOOD

For context with respect to this ask, a different Tumblr user critiqued against queer subtext in one of my posts using the "original intent" argument for the Loki series and Lokius specifically. By this logic, if original intent is always honored, then the original script for Loki's S2E5 (written by Eric Martin) would not have been NUKED by the executive powers that be at Marvel. [source] But no, the original intent was not honored, it was rejected. So how does one square the primacy of original intent with original intent being rejected by people who are not the artist but the people who manage Disney's finances?

In television, "Executive Producer" (i.e. Tom Hiddleston, Michael Waldron, Eric Martin, etc.) is a title that can be given to a writer or actor who has more creative say in the execution of a story than a regular staff writer or actor on crew. It also indicates that the writer or actor is in a much higher salary range compared to their professional peers. It does NOT mean the same thing as a CORPORATE "Producer" of Kevin Feige's level, who ultimately has the FINAL SAY on what does NOT end up on the cutting room floor. The corporate Producer must take into account the wishes of corporate's shareholders and board of directors, who are often multi-million if not multi-billion global investors who need the distribution of the product to succeed internationally in countries like China, which is very anti-LGBTQAI+. This is how a script like Eric Martin's S2E5 can be nuked and the writer can be contractually gagged from talking about its specific contents by Disney, lest they be SUED TO HELL for breaking their non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

This doesn't even take into account politics.

In 2020, Ike Perlmutter, Chair of Marvel, "gave $575,000 to Trump For Victory, $35,500 to the Republican National Committee in April, $5600 for Texans For Ronny Jackson in February. 2019 saw him donate $248,000 to the Republican National Committee, $466,100 to Trump For Victory, $5,600 to Donald Trump For President." His wife, Laura, mirrored those donations. "In late 2016, he also gave $5,000,000 to the Great America PAC." [source] Ike was only recently laid off from his position in March 2023 [source]. Perlmutter was in a power-struggle at Marvel with Kevin Feige for years. Feige was promoted to Chief Creative Officer in 2019, which brought the power struggle to a head, ultimately contributing to Perlmutter's departure.

There is also Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, who was famously quoted during the Writers Guild of America strike for saying, “It’s very disturbing to me. We’ve talked about disruptive forces on this business and all the challenges we’re facing, the recovery from COVID which is ongoing, it’s not completely back. This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption”

This is the worst time in the world to negotiate to pay your writers, YOUR CREATIVE LABOR FORCE, who entertained millions of people while they were stuck in their homes for 2 years, fairly?

And these are just two men in executive power at Marvel and Disney. We're not even talking about all the other board members and shareholders. You think Tom Hiddleston, Michael Waldron, and Eric Martin have any real power compared to these guys? They do not. They are peons by comparison. And these artists (despite their "Executive Producer" title) are always at odds with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), who are ultimately not artists but FINANCIERS.

Here's another quote from a studio executive that occurred during the writer's strike:

"Receiving positive feedback from Wall Street since the WGA went on strike May 2, Warner Bros Discovery, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Paramount and others have become determined to “break the WGA,” as one studio exec blatantly put it.  

To do so, the studios and the AMPTP believe that by October most writers will be running out of money after five months on the picket lines and no work.

“The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” a studio executive told Deadline. Acknowledging the cold-as-ice approach, several other sources reiterated the statement. One insider called it “a cruel but necessary evil.”" [source 1] [source 2]

Fortunately, this negative press and the WGA members' solidarity led to the WGA getting everything they demanded. I still have friends in the industry, specifically in the WGA and MPEG. A lot of them were indeed starved out. My friend who's a film editor is still unemployed because pre-production has only recently started to ramp up again and her profession is all in post. She has to wait for production to catch-up and finish in order to get work.

If the AMPTP is willing to use clearly unethical tactics to underpay their writers and actors (don't forget the SAG-AFTRA strike that joined later), do we really think members of the AMPTP (the studio execs) are willing to honor artists' original intent if the original intent may be "offensive to some viewers" and therefore can potentially cut into their financial bottom line?

We're not naive. We know the answer to this.

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH, KILLING EVE, AND GOOD OMENS

But what about OFMD, KE, and GO? These shows are on MAX, BBC, and Amazon Prime respectively. These corporations have a different branding image than Disney. Disney touts itself as "family friendly"; (read: on-screen LGBTQAI+ affection between two lead characters is "not family friendly"). MAX and BBC's branding type also affords them the luxury of creating content for niche audiences. Disney, on the other hand, makes additional revenue through using their plethora of licenses to make toys, additions to their theme parks, and other merch. If a parent is offended that a canonically queer character like Loki has romantic love not just for Sylvie but also for Mobius (a same-sex relationship), what are the odds of parents like them not buying Disney's merchandise? We can apply this same question to Star Wars, Pixar, and any of Disney-branded animation or live action movies. How deeply can audience offense potentially cut into Disney's bottom line? If there were no discrimination taking place, we would have LGBTQAI+ representation through a lead character in any one of their licenses already. We do not, and that is a huge red flag.

In addition, these entertainment corporations (who do not tout themselves as "family friendly") generate other sources of revenue elsewhere. Netflix generates international revenue through the production of international programming like "Squid Game" and other K-dramas such as "The Glory" or Mexican shows including, "The Surrogacy" and "Haunted: Latin America". MAX is struggling. They were bought out for that reason. With AppleTV and Hulu, their target audiences are more diverse, they offer a variety of media product, and their business strategy is ultimately different from Disney. All of this grants them more freedom in what kind of characters they choose to represent, including LGBTQAI+ characters.

Remember House and Wilson from House M.D.? That show was on FOX. We know the political alignment of FOX. Dean and Castiel from Supernatural? WB Television. Both shows came out before streaming became dominant, and thus, these shows had to cater to anyone who might happen to land on their channels. When the market demands that you cater to the widest possible audience in order to generate the largest revenue, the creatives are forced to create relatively conservative artistic product. Hence, creative censorship and our long history of queer subtext.

At Nickelodeon, the artists actually had the support of corporate to move forward with Korrasami because the final season Legend of Korra was only available online. It did not air on their channel. If that had not been the case, corporate would not have approved Korrasami. However, that approval was contingent upon the artists being subtle subtle about Korra and Asami's relationship. Even in this canon ship, the animators relied on subtext for queer romance.

Not helping Disney's case is the cancellation of "The Owl House". Why was "The Owl House" canceled? It didn't fit Disney's "brand". [source]

THE FAILURES OF THE "ORIGINAL INTENT" ARGUMENT IN HOLLYWOOD

The "Original Intent" argument fails when it comes to art in Hollywood because:

Original Intent can change, and often does change, during the creative process. This applies to all forms of art, not just Hollywood.

Multiple artists are involved in pre-production, production, and post-production. At any point in this 3-part process of filmmaking, original intent can be changed for a variety of reasons.

Studio Executives, Boards of Directors, and Corporate Shareholders have more power than the artists in Hollywood. If they think a product will not make money, they will order changes accordingly.

Disney specifically touts itself as "family friendly". Its lack of a lead character (in ANY of its live-action licenses) being in an openly queer relationship with someone who presents as the same sex, is the direct result of not wanting to lose conservative audiences.

Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are common in Hollywood and prevent artists from providing specifics regarding original intent. This is done not only to safeguard corporate's intellectual property (IP), but to also safeguard their public relations image.

THE ORIGINAL INTENT ARGUMENT WEAPONIZED

The "original intent" mindset can be either very naive or very cynical, depending on the thinker's motives for choosing this belief. Naive, in that thinking creative purity actually exists (it does not) or that oppression does not still occur in Hollywood (it does). Cynical, in that either the thinker doesn't believe in artists intentionally finding ways around mass produced arts' media censorship, which has in turn created our rich history of queer subtext in film, OR the thinker wants the "original intent" argument to invalidate a change they do not like.

The last motive is the same strategy used by fans who reject Miles Morales as being a real Spider-Man. The same strategy fans use to deny that Shuri is indeed the new Black Panther. Both are tactics used to mask racism and sexism beneath the veneer of "creative purity". Fans who have internalized racism, sexism, or queer-phobia may also use this tactic at a subconscious level to protect themselves emotionally from disappointment. Finally, there are fans who use this argument to invalidate another ship, usually a queer ship that cannot be formally canonized because of corporate studio power.

Regardless of the reasoning, using this argument is frequently insidious because it perpetuates straight white male dominance in media representation.

PERSONAL LIVED EXPERIENCE

I'm an old poc queer and have worked in Hollywood long enough to know that the writers' original vision rarely ever--IF EVER--pans out as originally intended. If you ever sit through a movie and wonder why the story feels so weird in certain parts, I can guarantee you that about 2/5ths of the time, a corporate producer stepped in and messed with the original story in post-production (usually in an poor, over-worked editor's dark editing bay) and ordered reshoots the director may not have agreed with.

I've also worked in the industry long enough to know that it is an absolutely toxic work environment in which women, people of color, and queer people still struggle to get a creative foothold anywhere. My first experience pitching a script to a prospective agent involved being asked to meet at a hotel for drinks. We didn't talk about my writing at all. What I thought would be a pitch meeting was actually the writer's version of the "Hollywood casting couch". Yes, I was propositioned. No, nothing happened to me. I walked out. This happened to me in June 2008. It was not my last experience. The "Me Too" movement that came years later in 2017 was in response to situations I have encountered like this.

Those of us who succeed are very rare, and 97% of the time, the executive staff is very, very white and male. There is absolutely oppression and exploitation of all sorts still happening in Hollywood. I fucking lived it and continue to have nightmares about it.

QUEER SUBTEXT STILL EXISTS

Thus, to deny queer subtext's validity as an art form and to only accept the words of those who are either in power or limited in what they can say because of those in power, undermines not only the artists' efforts to tell the story they want to tell but cannot tell explicitly, it also undermines queer joy and queer resistance in cinema. And yes, sometimes those artists are cis straight white male allies who want to tell these stories because they simply make sense for the characters. These people are the artists, not the financiers.

It's more mature to embrace, or at least leave alone, the loud joy others experience from shipping and performing meta-analysis instead of publicly pissing on them with the profoundly weak and ignorant argument of "original intent". Don't mess with me on this. The number of scripts I have worked on that completely warped from what I wanted, and then to have my writing credit removed or stolen, still makes me sick. Yes, I'm bitter, but I'm also glad I left.

[jmdbjk]

Bangtan Weekly Report

Been a while. How are ya? We got a lot of shit going on and it has not been easy keeping up. I'll be glad when they are back together in 2025 so we can rest. Lol. Just kidding... I guess.

In a few hours we get Golden. I am excited to hear what Jungkook's chosen for his first album. I am excited to hear him explore these genres of songs. I am sure he's learned a lot during this process just as all the others have. He did a pre-release "press conference" and here is Dispatch's video of it: Watch Kookie's interview here.

He was very poised and articulate... dare I say "mature"? He is doing well. I'm very proud of Jungkook. He and his dance team are very excited to show us what they've created. I'm sure it will be amazing.

He mentioned a future Korean song as a gift? Don't tell me he means his gift to us before he leaves for MS...

😭

Taemin with Jimin special appearance on Suchwita. Finally watched. The dynamic between Jimin and Taemin and Jimin and Yoongi was fascinating.

I don't know a lot about Taemin. Of course I've seen he and Jimin's performance from a while back. Taemin is a great performer. He seems like a very sincere person.

Jimin's Dior campaign.

So lovely that we finally get to see him in motion. Ever since Hobi's LV campaign with the bags, I've been wanting to see Dior or Tiffany take advantage of Jimin's fluid motion and FINALLY they woke up and showed him moving. Not a fan of the oversized knit vests but those suits are wonderful.

Namjoon... Mr. Black Void for an IG pfp... showing us some images from his trip to London.

Fun fact: That Kodak Portra 400 35mm film is anywhere from $15-$25 per roll of film... then you have to pay to have it developed.

His hair is dark in the image... not taken while he was in London... but when? Japan? That sand looks black. Ibusuki Beach? Except for that ship out there... hmmm.

His documentary will be coming down the line at some point, it will be jam-packed with his meanderings from these past two years. Maybe we'll find out where he's been.

The BTS documentary will be out in December. Our Christmas present. I'm looking forward to it. There will be new footage in it.

Tae channeling him some Elvis for Celine is interesting. I suppose this is from an upcoming campaign or magazine spread.

And this was shared with us.

Jung Hoseok achieving his Corporal promotion ahead of time which I think means he would have three bars on his shirt pocket instead of the two as in this photo from his IG.

Less than a year left until Hobi's discharged and 7.5 months left before Jin is discharged.

It was the anniversary of The Astronaut this week. Can't believe this year just flew by. The reluctance to wish time to fly by but at the same time wanting it to slow down in order to live in the moment...we were so worried this time last year. We are making it through this ya'll. We are getting there.

Samsung campaign giving us Yoongi in tan pants. Doing god's work if you ask me:

Xylitol also keeping the Bangtan flame lit ...

How come Jimin and Jungkook are the only ones with their left hands in their pockets? Jikook always jikooking. You are me I am you is strong with them.

[angelofverdum]

Renaissance a Film by Beyonce

Beyonce the artist that you are.

I love this movie so much I can't stop thinking about it. Beyoncé's mind works in a way that is so fascinating to watch.

I don't know how many times she is going to solidify as one of the best performers to ever exist, but I hope she never stops. She was born to be an artist.

Homecoming is one of my favorite albums, in my mind, there was no way she could top that performance and documentary, and then she did it.

It's terrifying thinking that she would top the Renaissance tour.

I'm a sucker for bts content, but because Beyonce doesn't promote anything, watching her behind the scene is way more fascinating to me.

Beyonce is a great filmmaker. The way she created the storytelling for this movie is amazing.

I love every part of this. It had so many funny and touching moments.

Like what do you mean people were gaslighting her. If she tells you that there is a bigger lens you find a bigger lens, damn.

And the part where creative director Blue Ivy didn't let her cut Diva, exactly queen. She risked her neck for us.

I love that she said she has nothing to prove to anyone at this point because she is so right.

Beyonce once said to Chloe and Halle: ‘Don’t worry about trying to dumb yourself down. The world is gonna have to catch up to you.' and that's one of the major reasons I love Beyonce.

I feel like she is the only artist out there who creates a whole concept for an album. She doesn't collect a bunch of songs and throw them in an album together. She was ahead of time when she said "People don't make albums anymore"

Also she looked so pretty the whole movie. Like it made go Damn this bitch is beautiful.

Like look at her being gorgeous while mad at the incompetence of other people.

I just wish we could've seen more of the process of creating the tour.

I want to see why she put a tank in the middle of the show. Was it because of the knee?

Why no opening act?

Why did she decide to have so many outfits?

Why did she cut Thique/AUIYM and Drunk in love, just to bring them back in some shows. Was it because she got sick?

What did she think about the mute challenge? Did she expect it to become this whole thing?

What does she think about the beyhive naming her horse Reneigh?

I feel like she shared so much but she was still holding back.

I love to see Blue and her work ethic. Rumi is so lovely and funny. I love her saying she was in "Texas bama, Houston". She was so funny for that and doing the Alien superstar's choreography.

Also, It's so funny to me that when people knew that she was going to talk about the power outage in Alien Superstar we were going to see her cussing people, but nope she understood and just took advantage of the situation.

I just love Beyoncé so much. I need this movie in a streaming service by yesterday. I need to rewatch it every day.

[louisupdates]

BILLBOARD

Louis Tomlinson’s ‘All of Those Voices’ Documentary Headed to Theaters: Here’s When It Arrives

The singer said he "wanted to share my story 'in my own words.'"

By GLENN ROWLEY 8/2/23

Louis Tomlinson announced Wednesday (Feb. 8) that he’s prepping the release of his new documentary All of Those Voices.

In partnership with 78 Productions, Trafalgar Releasing is set to premiere the music film in theaters nationwide on March 22 for a limited time. Tickets will go on sale exactly one month prior to the release date on Feb. 22, with specific theater listings also being unveiled that day.

A release for All of Those Voices promises that the film will allow fans an “intimate and unvarnished view” of the former One Directioner’s life and career through the process of creating and releasing his second solo album, Faith in the Future.

“From the highs of superstardom to the lows of personal tragedy, Louis’ story is one of resilience and determination,” the tease continues, adding that “the film shows a side of Louis that fans have never seen before, as he grapples with the pressures of fame and the weight of his own voice.”

“This has been something I’ve been working on for years,” Tomlinson said in a statement. “I’m really excited to finally put it out into the world. I’ve said it a million times but I’m lucky enough to have the greatest fans an artist could wish for, and as they always go above and beyond for me, I wanted to share my story ‘in my own words.'”

Released back in late November, Tomlinson’s latest studio effort became his first top five hit on the Billboard 200 when it bowed at No. 5. The LP also landed at No. 2 on the Top Album Sales chart after notching the singer a career-best sales week of 37,000 copies.

Last week, Tomlinson also announced the dates of his upcoming tour of Asia, which kicks off in Japan on April 17 in support of Faith in the Future.

[enchantedlandcoffee]

drabble prompt: harry texting louis during the premiere and then louis calling him to tell him how it went 🥰

H♡ - Hey babe. Good luck for the premiere! Sorry I couldn't be there tonight! x

H♡ - Saw your outfit on Twitter. I know you already sent me a pic but you look a lot hotter when you're in your element. Gotta say this is my favourite of your premiere outfits. x

H♡ - Say hi to the girls and Liam for me! x

H♡ - Okay, I'll leave you to it now! Good luck and talk to you later x

H♡ - Ooh I also found a cool new book for us to read! And I made sure the London house was stocked with your favourite food tonight!!

H♡ - I'm done now, I swear! Have fun! xx

Louis chuckled as he read through his husband's text messages, the last one having been sent just over 2 hours ago. He clicked the small profile photo to enlarge Harry's contact information, smiling softly at his husband's smiling face. Before he could process his next move, he clicked the call button, immediately swearing as he attempted to end it.

He fumbled with his phone before the ringing tone stopped, a sleepy voice calling out "Lou?". Louis winced slightly and placed the phone to his ear.

"Hey love. I'm sorry if I woke you up." He apologised, remembering that it was really late for Harry.

"It's fine, Lou." Harry mumbled, sounding mid-yawn. "How'd the premiere go?"

"It was fookin' brilliant, Haz." Louis commented, shifting in his seat to get comfortable. "Just- being in the Q&A and seeing my sisters, my grandparents, Liam, it was just- amazing!"

"It sounds it." Harry sighed wistfully, "I wish I could have been there."

"You're busy with your tour, love. Plus, you've already seen the film hundreds of times."

"I know. Just wanted to be able to support you." Harry mumbled again, his tone breaking Louis' heart slightly.

"Haz, you are the most supportive husband I could have. Who else would fly to another country because I broke my arm being stupid again? Or encourage me to go through with this documentary? You are bloody amazing, Harry Tomlinson."

[nicklloydnow]

“The transfer of True Lies has a truly vile quality to it, a feeling like someone clandestinely dosed you with LSD just a hair below the threshold. At times it can look passable in motion, but then you notice something out of the corner of your eye: a thick fold of skin, a framed photo of a child, folders that are too thick at the margins, cheeks that look rendered. It’s that familiar dread at the pit of your gut when you spot AI generated imagery, a combination of edges not looking quite right and surfaces that are simultaneously too smooth and too sharp. A crime was committed here, and you can tell.

The transfers of Aliens and The Abyss are markedly less bad than True Lies, but I still have difficulty watching them. The skin looks sterile and waxy with too much film grain removed. Everything looks like it has raytracing on. Both transfers are, however, within acceptable parameters for most normal people.

The recent transfer of Titanic got a similar treatment, with similarly mixed reactions online.

“Why would you do this?” is a logical question. It’s worth contextualizing who handled these “restorations” – namely Park Road Post, a subsidiary of Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films. They have worked on multiple films in the past, but the two that are most germane here are Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old and the 3-part Disney+ documentary The Beatles: Get Back. Both movies recontextualize pre-existing footage and, importantly, do so with an aggressive use of machine learning. They Shall Not Grow Old upscales and colorizes old World War I imagery in an attempt to set the bloodshed in a more modern context, while Get Back recycled footage shot for Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Let It Be, including moments never before seen by the public, to elucidate the process behind the creation of some of The Beatles’ most iconic songs.

(…)

I wish we had stopped Jackson then and there. As my good friend Danielle joked, this was a trial balloon. People praised Jackson for doing this to Lindsay-Hogg’s footage in the name of restoration, and it emboldened him to do worse things. Before the True Lies debacle, the most recent example of this was the aggressively saccharine and confusing Now & Then, a long unfinished demo now finished by Ringo and Paul, edited together with archival footage of younger John and George composited in an a fashion that can be charitably described as tremendously weird.

Lest I am accused of being a luddite, I firmly believe there are many use cases for this technology. Nvidia’s DLSS and competing variants generally work very well on the games they are trained on. I regularly use Flowframes in the rare case that I need interpolation. I have often used waifu2x and now chainner if I need to photoshop a still and my source is bad, and there are databases of countless AI upscaling models. But the flip side to this is that these technologies are often used in place of proper ingest. “Crap in, crap out” is a truism for a reason. I spend a lot of time regularly capturing VHS and Laserdisc at the highest possible quality for fun, and when I see people who should know better say “Just use Topaz” (a commercial AI upscaler) instead of learning how to correctly ingest footage and deinterlace it, it makes me want to pull out my hair, because it almost uniformly looks bad to anyone who works with video professionally.

When you finally do see a piece of footage transferred well, it can be breathtaking. Good archival practices require a lot of institutional knowledge and labor. It’s an art when done well, and the people who do it care so much about what they do. But the modern application of much of AI is precisely about taking labor out of the equation. Why transfer a tape correctly when we can just have a computer guess badly instead? What if crap goes in, and it doesn’t come out?

What makes all of this worse is that True Lies, as I understand it, did not need to be shoved through the AI wringer. According to The Digital Bits, Park Road Post had a recent 4k scan of True Lies from the original camera negative. Park Road Post’s own website claims they have a Lasergraphics Director 10K film scanner on the premises. So what is the purpose of adding AI to this mix? Why do that to a perfectly fine-looking film? What is gained here, other than to slightly yassify an Arnold film? At this point, maybe they are simply doing it just to say that they did, because the technology is lying around, like a loaded gun with the safety off.

Nerds who post on blu-ray forums as a rule often need to calm down, and the forum threads I have read about this are no exception, but there are certain cases where a filmmaker is just wrong about how their films should look. Lucas is the infamous notable example, but Cameron is not innocent here in his treatment of his own films. Wong Kar-wai is another notable example, as what he did to Ashes of Time is criminal as was his recent “remasters” of his movies like In The Mood For Love. In certain rare conditions like this, it’s healthy to question if directors have the best interests of their own films in mind, as Cameron himself personally approved of these remasters.

What actually chills my blood more than anything is the thought that a lot of people think this all looks pretty good. You see this mindset at work whenever an AI fetishist posts a stable diffusion image of a woman with 13 fingers, 40 incisors and comically huge breasts. There’s an entire portion of the population that takes overt pleasure in the over-smoothed, perverts that prefer all media to be fast, high frame rate, and scrubbed squeaky clean. The cameras on our phones don’t simply capture images anymore, they compute them and ‘optimize’ them. It’s Italian Futurism in 4k, a noise reduction death drive. It’s not simply enough for much of digital cinema to look crystal clear and lifeless; the past should be denoised, grain managed and cleaned to conform to that standard. It is expedient and profitable if people don’t remember what film is supposed to look like.

I don’t think anyone gets into preservation to destroy film. I believe that everyone involved with this process worked hard and had the best interests of the film in mind, but the exact nature of restoration itself can vary wildly. I believe that some companies get blinded by new tech, get high on their own supply, and that can result in work that is destructive instead of restorative. I don’t know what the solution to this is in the world we live in, outside of decoupling film preservation from the profit motive whenever possible.

But I am certain about one thing. For a while, much of gaming tried looking like Aliens. Now, Aliens looks like a video game. And that doesn’t sit right with me.”

[unorthodox-oblivion]

It's weird but I think that if Anatomy of a fall was real, it would the subject of too many true crime documentaries, podcasts and there would be endless debates about Sandra's innocence online.

Oh, how I wish this hadn't been an anon ask because I would looooove to discuss that movie with someone who has ACTUALLY seen it.

IF YOU HAVENT, STOP HERE

I think you're ABSOLUTELY right.

If you think about it, Anatomy of a Fall isn't too different from The Staircase, the difference, of course, being that one is entirely fictional and the other is already exactly what you say, a true crime documentary and a drama miniseries playing out the events of the story.

I think people - myself included - enjoy true crime for a variety of reasons. My personal reason is that I love the investigative side of it, the puzzle, the procedures and steps taken in order to piece it together. My thing is always the investigative and the psychological analysis aspects of it.

Some people watch it so they can form their own opinion, whether or not the person has been charged with murder at the end. Because people have the need to have an input and, with how our society is now, even more so, with social media like Twitter and what not basically requiring us to share our every thought on everything we see. But people seem to see everything in black and white. Everyone is either good or bad, no in between, which is also a huge problem, because no one is just one thing or another.

Other people might watch true crime to try and understand how someone could do such a think, because, in their minds, they think they'd never be capable "of such evil". There's an inherent "I am better than that person" quality to it, which falls within the judgement and opinion category from the people above, but not necessarily in a way that must be shared or displayed publicly.

And of course, once you have an audience, the entertainment industry will do whatever they can to monetize it, ignoring any impact it might have on the person being accused (whether or not they are found guilty) and the surviving family of both them and the victim.

The film does bring the media into play and shows us some of the impact their sensationalism has on the son and the effects of that, and it is no different in real life.

So because I enjoy the investigations, I tend to lean towards content that focuses more on that, usually the docuseries where you have original detectives talking about the process of their investigation at the time and then the new detectives talking about how they picked up from where they left off, with the new technology that is available now.

Anatomy of a Fall is, to me, one of the best films of the year and a solid contender for best picture, although I do not believe that it will win. But it was nearly flawless from start to finish and I hope more people watch and really sit with it, let it resonate with them because it is brilliant and Justine Triet did a fantastic job.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

A perfect succinct summation of current university expectations of minorities in America:

The soft bigotry of low expectations.

And the hard fragility of high entitlement.

The way this plays out often goes via proxy, however. Many students become represented against their will by activists with a particular ideological mindset. And often, they're "allies" demonstrating their virtuous bona fides, not members of those groups.

Note that the request that set off this shit-show was from "a non-black" student.

This (white) commentator rattles off some bogus pseudoscience to insist he "should have" complied; the same author has also decided that "divorce isn't fair" because her ex-husband isn't poor, so that tells you the mentality.

"I really wish his parents would give me that money"

As a timely reminder, Mike Nayna is releasing his Grievance Studies Affair documentary, "The Reformers," on his Substack over the next couple of weeks. Part 1 (free) and Part 2 (subscribers only) are already up, and Part 3 is coming next week.

Just today he's also released an accompaniment called, oddly enough, "The Reformers: An Accompaniment." This is essentially a re-cut of his previous three-part Evergreen State College documentary into a single film. I believe it's free to view.

Part of the way through the film, a former president of the college - who is black, by the way - is receiving an award and a building being named after him. During his speech, some entitled student barges up, takes the microphone and starts ranting like a nutcase.

Nobody does anything. Nobody cuts the mic. Nobody tells her to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up because everything is not about her and her tantrums all the time. When she's done, the former president tries to address some of the points, and she and her pals start talking and chanting over the top, rambling about their "oppression."

Keep in mind, this is a liberal arts college in one of the most blue states in the entire US. These are extremely privileged people acting out a perverted, ideological Live Action Roleplay. They have few, if any, real issues; they're out there fighting postmodern dragons. At the time, this was shocking, and the language and mental processes were bizarre and alien. But nowadays, that language and mindset are everywhere.

The film proceeds along to the notorious takeover and hostage situation where students invade and lockdown the admin building, and the then-president tells everyone to go along with it. The students even yell at him over the placement of his hands, and laugh at him about bathroom breaks for the hostages. Nobody pushes back on this. The president even tells security to stand down.

To this day, nobody can tell you coherently what any of this complete meltdown was actually all about, and to my knowledge, little if any disciplinary action was taken against the perpetrators. If there's one person you'll see time and again through the footage, it's a guy called Jamil Bee. He was essentially the ringleader of the whole thing, but he was never expelled, he was never disciplined, and he was held up as a hero and invited to talks and lectures, Kendi-style.

So what he and his activist friends learned is that they could do whatever they wanted. He's even quoted as saying:

"Nothing is the limit to reparations." "There is no limit that can be set over us in being able to squash oppressive behavior."

The definitions of which he and similar activist types get to decide themselves: "you don't get to decide what's racism - only we do." This type of narcissistic authoritarianism has been celebrated and rewarded, rather than ridiculed and mocked as it should be, or held to the fires of the institutions policies and rules on appropriate conduct. They just let him slide.

And part of that was, as you mentioned, bigotry of low expectations. Nobody will tell these students "no." But also the fear of being called a mean name by intellectual infants: "racist," "white supremacist," "transphobic" or something similar. These words are only useful because they're not a pervasive problem any more; they're aberrational. Calling someone "racist" during Jim Crow wouldn't solicit any meaningful moral panic or defensiveness. But now the accused let them get away with this because it's easier than having to defend themselves from some baseless pro forma accusation of bigotry.

And that screws everything up for the majority of students who aren't mentally ill sociopaths.

This is something that plays out again and again and again. Colleges submit to the emotional outbursts and tantrums of students instead of doing the right thing and putting them in a time-out until they can come back and apologize - Yale and Stanford have had this sort of thing play out again and again.

What's not spoken about is that behind the scenes, it's often college administrators themselves - and particularly the apparatchiks in the DIE bureaucracies - facilitating this, teaching students this "harm" and "unsafe" and "danger" and "words are violence" mentality in the first place.

[focsle]

Can you talk to me at length about harpoons used in whaling? I recently became enamored with them. Its just so... shaped. It's big, sharp, strong, lightweight, and very useful in mundane situations! What's not to love? I really like harpoons and I wish i can learn how to use them or at least looked at hd pictures of it online and learn all of its varied forms throughout the centuries.

Oh I certainly can haha!

I'll preface this in saying that I'll talk about the design of some harpoons used in the U.S. commercial fishery during my very narrow first-half-of-the-19th-c window of focus, with the acknowledgement that they've been used for thousands of years by indigenous people all over the world, and the acknowledgement that other forms of 19th/early 20th c harpoons existed in the commercial fishery like bomb lances and harpoon guns. This post won't go into exploring any of those because it'll be long enough as it is!

They're so big. At a place I used to work at I was once taken into a vault where we had a lot of them and it took my EVERYTHING not to touch them. The iron itself was 2-4 ft long, and then it was fitted into a wooden pole that was 5-6ft long.

These 1920s photos, courtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum, can give a sense of how they were handled.

This was taken by William Tripp of whaler Philip Gomes, who was a boatsteerer on the bark Wanderer.

And here's an image from Down to the Sea in ships, a 1920s silent film. The man in the boat is actor Raymond Mckee, but while it was a fictional drama it also functioned as part documentary, containing footage of actual whaling processes.

The driving force of the harpoon was one's back hand pushing forward to provide most of the power. Ideally a boatsteerer wasn't darting the harpoon very far, if at all, because that minimized how well it fastened into very thick blubber.

The design of the tip also played a role in how well they fastened.

The earlier harpoons had two flues, first figure. They weren't the most effective because the two flues meant they often didn't penetrate into the blubber very well and could draw easier too. Then harpoons with a single flue came in--they fastened better without as much force and their shape made it so they also didn't draw as easily. The last three are toggle harpoons, which were an improvement on both designs. They basically had a fastening in the toggle that would break under strain once darted into a whale, thus opening the toggle head and creating a T-shape that created a more secure hook. The modern design for the toggle harpoon was created in 1848 by a Black man named Lewis Temple who worked as a blacksmith in New Bedford. He had been inspired by much earlier examples of the toggle technology in Inuit harpoons. It wasn't ever patented however, so people stole and reproduced his design wildly and it became the standard on whaleships shortly after that.

Harpoons were also usually stamped with the name of the ship they belonged to, as well as the specific whaleboats they equipped (LB for larboard boat, WB for waist boat, etc.). This was largely in the the event that if a whale broke away and died shortly after, the ship crew that killed it could lay claim to it. But I came across one instance in a journal where the crew of the ship Covington on her 1856 voyage tried and successfully skirted around this:

“Early one morning just before sunrise we discovered it [a whale that had been killed by a different ship’s crew] close to us adrift. It not being light enough to be seen from the shore, we lowered away and towed it alongside. We got their irons out as quick as possible and stowed them away out of sight, but had no sooner done so than their boat came alongside claiming it. They were told that they were mistaken, as we had taken it ourselves, but they insisted that it was theirs, and finally the skipper told them that they might wait and see it cut in, and if their irons were found in it they might have the whale, which was a very safe statement on our side, for their irons had been extracted and ours shoved into the places they had occupied. They insisted, notwithstanding, that it was their whale, but in the absence of all positive evidence they were obliged to forego their claim, and left us declaring that they would play us a trick if they ever had a chance, but that chance they never had for the whales that we took were few and far between.”

If you want to see a ton of images of harpoons, the New Bedford whaling museum has hundreds in its collection that's searchable online. They also come up at auctions a lot too, so looking at the marine sale catalogues of auction houses will likely give you a number to look at. The specimens that survive in museums and auction houses however weren’t necessarily ever darted into a whale. When all was said and done, this was what a working iron looked like:

[miyatsumhoe]

Prod! Diluc x fem! actress! reader x Police! Kaeya modern au; angst; supernatural; romance; cw: alcohol; swearing; proof read who?

Second leads… Second leads who have everything often end up with nothing. Ironic. But why though? Is it something I’ve done wrong? When did this catastrophe start?  I was often told when I was a kid that “Having too many things is bad!” maybe that’s what makes me share everything I have. But is it wrong to be selfish for once?

“Y/N. Will you marry me?”

Is it wrong to wish she would say no to my brother?

The booming claps of the station were heard as she said yes. Everyone and things are so lively, what can we expect? We have to congratulate someone who just got engaged, that’s common courtesy. Maybe that’s what I’ll do too, that’s also easier to do than what I’ve been doing right now.

“What are your thoughts while Mr. Alberich is proposing to you?” “Uhmmm… I could say I was really surprised! I still can’t process this right now hahaha look! /shows trembling hands/ my hands are shaking! Hey! Diluc! Did you know he would do that?! Ahhhhhhhhh! you could’ve given me a heads up! I actually cried!”

No, I didn’t know that. If I did, then I could’ve said what I wanted to say. My brother... He’s someone you can see do predictable things, but you would never know what’s going on in his mind. He’s so cunning, It makes me pissed sometimes.

“That’s it for today’s filming. Charles, tell the others we can wrap up now.” “Yes, Producer.”

To congratulate them and leave, paint myself as the bad guy… that’s more bearable than watching everything, knowing their thoughts and reactions, filming their lingering stares, knowing how they both truly love each other. It makes me sick. Nauseous and Dizzy. I just want to go home.

Breaking News: Actress Y/N L/N confirms engagement

Mondstadt, Teyvat (SBT) Actress star Y/N is getting married, a statement from the Actress-singer's management company confirmed today (August 25, 2036). Y/N, who is an actress and soloist confirmed the news with a handwritten letter after TMT Entertainment released a statement saying the star will marry his alleged boyfriend Police Captain Kaeya Alberich According to staff in the entertainment industry, Y/N, and Captain Alberich’s relationship has been an open secret for a long time. They expect the two to get married next October. Moreover, the actress stated that she would be releasing her 10-year anniversary documentary for her fans where her boyfriend-

“Can you please turn off the TV?”

Diluc isn’t an alcoholic, but for once he understood why everyone keeps coming back to his bar, he didn’t expect that he too would get drunk as fuck like there’s no tomorrow. His normal self would be disgusted if he sees him drinking Bacardi with 75% alcohol at 11 pm in the evening. 

He didn’t come. 

He didn’t even hesitate about not coming to his team’s job well done-slash-congratulations to the engagement get-together. His weirdo coworkers might spread rumors about him being suspicious of why the Producer-slash-the brother of the groom-to-be didn’t bother to attend the party. On a regular day he’ll go just not to blow his cover, but today he decided to be truly honest. Not to someone else but to himself. Diluc Ragvindr is known to be an honest man, and today he made it clear to himself that he can never be truly happy you’re getting married.

Mind empty, hearts full of regrets he uttered such words

“I would really pay anything just to go back in time. Where it all started”

And just like that, his vision turned black.

----

“Young Master??? Good morning! You have to get ready! How did it come to this? You went to bed at 8 in the evening as always. How is he still asleep Adeline? And he chose to sleep more on his 1st day of school on all days. It’s so- uhh what’s that word again?”

“Weird.”

“Yes, Right. Weird.”

Waking up with Adeline and Elzer staring right at him wearing concerned faces, isn’t really a great way to start a day. He can’t help but put a wrinkle on his forehead upon seeing the date.

March 2, 2022

“What the fuck just happened.”

[4seasonswithiu]

[TRANS] 230330 <DREAM> Film Press Conference - IU (Lee Jieun)

The upcoming sports comedy film <Dream> held an offline press conference with director Lee Byeong Heon, actor Park Seo Joon, IU, and more at MEGABOX Seongsu, Seoul on March 30, 2023.

<Dream> tells the story of a top footballer Hong Dae (PARK Seo-Joon), who gets involved in an assault case and winds up being appointed as the coach for the national football team. This team will compete in the ‘Homeless Word Cup’. A documentary producer Somin (IU - LEE Ji-eun) films their story while Hong Dae struggled to coach the homeless because of his misconceptions about them. He treats them like a bunch of rag tags. Despite his reservations, the team puts their best foot forward and he has a change of heart about them. Now they’re more than ready for the big event, but things get out of control when they actually start playing.

Looking lovely and sophisticated in her all white dress, the actress cheerfully greeted the press and audience, “Hello, this is IU who plays Lee So Min in <Dream>. It’s a pleasure meeting you all.”

Although IU made her official feature film debut through <Broker>, the filming of <Dream> took place before the former. When asked the reason she chose <Dream> as her first feature film, IU answered, “As you mentioned, it was about three years ago. At that time, I have played roles full of deep stories for dramas. And just when I was thinking about giving roles without stories a shot, I received <Dream>’s casting offer, so I happily took part in it.”

Amidst the buzz, the two leads opened about their experience working with each other for the first time in a film. Park Seo Joon shared, “I have always been a huge fan of IU, so I was beyond excited and curious to film the movie with her. Our characters bicker a lot in the movie. Filming with her, it felt so nice and enjoyable that I wished we had more scenes together as we were approaching the end of filming. It was a great experience.” IU commented, “I, too, was excited to film the movie. Director Lee often gave impromptu directions to us on the set, but Seo Joon would always instantly catch on to what he said and act it out flexibly, owning those scenes. So as I was watching him act closely, I was impressed by and envious of his talent, and that also motivated me a lot.” Jung Seung Gil added, “It was such an honor to film with big stars like Seo Joon and IU, and I had a whale of time shooting the movie too.”

When asked to describe the strengths of each other’s character, Park Seo Joon said, “So Min leads an incredibly fierce and diligent life” while IU wittily responded, “It’s none other than Hong Dae’s amazing visuals, he could debut right away like that.” About flaws, Park Seo Joon said, “So Min has no flaw!” IU gasped in surprise and added, “Hong Dae has a lot of flaws…. haha” to which she earned a side-eye from her co-star.

About the bickering scenes between Hong Dae and So Min, Park Seo Joon confessed, “We were bickering in almost every scene, so I think I felt some sort of pressure to maintain that chemistry well when working together. It was also hard filming those scenes because of the weather, I found myself losing focus when bickering due to the heat. But acting-wise, it was so much fun.”

About the film preparation process, director Lee Byeong Heon frankly shared, “It took me and the team more than 10 years to prepare the film from writing to planning stage. I believe this applies to every project, but producing a film is actually a process of persuading countless of people, and rejections are inevitable. <Dream> had lots of obstacles like that too, but I think I can now prove to those rejections that the movie is much more meaningful and interesting than you think. I’m confident to some extent is all I can say.”

About approaching her role, IU said, “For me, I closely observed and learned how the producers, directors and cameramen carry their cameras around or how they monitor the results. I also discovered that many of them always hang a small tower around their neck during outdoor filming. So I applied few of these traits or habits to my character too. My perspective has changed ever since I took on the role of a documentary producer, so I try have fun more in front of the cameras to make sure those behind the lens can secure at least one fun scene. I will try to keep my posture and smile up throughout the press conference for the reporters and media that are here too today.”

When asked if IU has finally decided on which name to go by for her acting endeavours, the actress responded, “Yes, I’ve made my decision. Originally, I used the name Lee Jieun for my acting activities and credits, but they always end up addressing me as IU, so I thought this could be confusing. As you know, I’m also actively promoting as singer IU. Say, if I go by (singer) IU in March then (actress) Lee Jieun in May, the reporters and fans could be confused too, so I decided to unify all the names into IU from now on, since I’m just one person. (To the reporter), thank you for asking me this question!”

About the reason he cast IU as his new movie’s leading lady, director Lee Byeong Heon answered, “Actually, it’s kind of awkward for me to answer this question, as in the reason for casting IU. I mean… She’s IU. It’s awkward because it’s likely that IU chose me, rather than the opposite. Now just imagine this, if someone ask ‘why did I cast Heo Joon Seok?’, that does not sound awkward at all, right? [Audience: LOL] ‘Why did I cast Hong Wan Pyo?’, that sounds totally unproblematic either. But ‘Why did I cast IU?’ just sounds kind of awkward lol. How dare I… It’s right to say that I cast IU because she is IU.”

IU has made news as an established singer and TV series actress. Now that all eyes are on her to see if she will also succeed in commercial films, it is no doubt that some burden would fall upon the actress’ shoulder. Regarding her thoughts on this, IU said, “When it comes to films, I’m just getting started so I don’t think I’m in such position to say that I feel under pressure. Rather than ‘burden/pressure’, I think ‘a sense of responsibility’ would better describe what I feel right now. <Dream> was the first feature film that I shot, so I tried my best to live up to the director’s expectations and directions with a strong sense of responsibility on set. I will also promote the movie diligently ahead of its premiere with that sense of responsibility too.”

As the host wrapped up the press conference, IU gave her final greetings, “<Dream> is a film in which a breath of fresh air and warmth co-exist, I ask for many of your support at the theatres. Thank you!”

<Dream> will soon hit the domestic theatres on April 26, 2023. 

Source: https://youtu.be/K2chivPuKyA 

Translated by IUteamstarcandy with love.

[passiveagressiveukulele]

Let the games begin

Three weeks in and still I have contributed nothing to my blog... Between my dissertation supervisor's office and the dentist's I am left with no time for Tumbr as I am 2 wisdom teeth lighter and 5 books on forgotten Easter European film heavier.

I think that the reason I found it so hard to type anything out is because I've had a hard time choosing a project I will commit to over the course of the upcoming semester and then the following year. With so many incredible ideas on offer the workaholic in me has considered doing 5 projects at once. I don't think my dentist would like that very much though, I wouldn't have any time for him...

Jokes aside I think that the issue occurred once I started unpicking my filmmaking process and realised that at the core of it lies my love for editing. I shoot to edit and when I shoot I already edit in my head. Those two weeks of my third year placement spent in an edit suite made me feel like I was meant for an office job. I love being surprised by the creative process and have things just fall into my lap (or in this case, onto a timeline) - this is what editing editing feels like to me. It's a feeling led process and lends itself well to solitary weirdos like me.

So now that I've found my calling (I think) I'm unsure what to do about my other supposed calling - camera. I've detected certain blind spots and now they stand between me and fiction. The way I see fiction cinematography is like painting - a blank canvas upon which you need to impose a scenery, build in shadows and highlights, carefully position subjects and draw in a viewer's eye following certain rules and geometrical lines. I've never been good at painting. Which is why I always opted for wood printing or sculpting - there is already an existing material before me, I just have to shape it to my liking. Kind of like in documentary cinematography.

Contrary to what the previous paragraph suggests, here I am advocating for hard work over talent or innate ability. Yes, I find fiction cinematography harder than documentary, but I'm not giving up on it. This semester I wish to expand my skill set and find a project that will push me out of my comfort zone whilst still playing to my strengths. I love watching the world and constructing my own through a lens, I just need more practice doing the latter. (And with David Byrne's Friday's classes something tells me I'll be up to speed faster than anticipated).