#The Command to Look: A Formula for Picture Success.

[tracksidequeen]

Romancing the Parabolica

Summary: Toto takes you on a date around the old Monza Parabolica.

Words: 900+

a/n: Thank you for your patience, it’s been 7 months since the original fic randomly got deleted by tumblr. As soon as I realised back then I re-wrote it almost word for word, so this is the product of that. I tried not changing it too much, so it’s funny.. you can really see how my writing has evolved. Nonethless, I hope you like it.

******

“Before we go back to the motorhome I want to show you the big banking of the old track, wanna come?”

With a smile on his face and in good spirits Toto tells the Martin to take a little de-tour after the successful Monza win. The car enters the closed-off track and you realise he wasn’t kidding about the big banking. He looks back at you from the front seat with boyish excitement, to see your reaction.

Martin steers the car up the banking on Toto’s command, and it goes up in an angle you’ve never experienced before. You slide around the back seat, and desperately you try to hold on to something for dear life to keep yourself steady. He looks back at you, laughing at the fear on your face. 

“No, Toto, this is not funny! We’re sliding down!” He reaches his hand back to hold yours. “No worries schatzi, they used to drive here before.” But that did not calm you nerves at all. “Well, Martin here isn’t exactly a formula one driver.” You clench his hand tighter, and he realises you actually afraid. “Go down Martin,” he says with a stern voice. “Now.”

Without question Martin goes down the ramp, and suddenly the car was standing horizontally again, and it slowed down to a halt.

“We’ll be back in a moment.” Toto steps out of and opens your door.

The glow of the sunset on your face, the crickets in the background and the romantic atmosphere was set with Toto continuously flirting with you, trying to swoon you away with his awkwardly delivered pick-up lines.

“Fai impallidire la luna in confronto, perché sei la mia stella.”

You smile up at him,“sweetie, as nice as that just sounded, I have no clue what you just said.” 

“You make the moon look pale in comparison, because you are my star.” You smiled at how cheesy it was, but you secretly loved every moment of it. He placed his arm around you.

His pace goes to a halt abruptly, and he looks up at the banking with a grin on his face. “We should go up.” You look up at what looks like a normal wall. “There’s no way I am going up there. Besides, I’m not wearing good shoes,” you say with a faux sad face. He crouches down, “let me make it easy for you then.” He takes off your heals and places them at the bottom of the banking. Now you have no excuse other that your complete fear.

With ease he goes up, and looks back at the progress you’ve made. You walk up on all fours, not the most charming position. “You’re doing great schatzi!” You couldn’t help but laugh at his excitement, because you could just imagine how silly you must look. Focussed on not sliding down you hear the shutter of a camera. “I swear.. If these pictures become public-” He looks at them as is he had just taken a spicy picture of you. “No, they are for my enjoyment only”

You feel the cold asphalt slightly scraping at your feet. “Toto stop laughing and help me!” He goes down and stands at the foot of the bank with his arms reaching out to catch your fall. He loved teasing you, but he wouldn’t dare let something happen to you.

As you crawl backwards you hear the sound of another camera shutter. Toto takes you in his arms as soon as you’re down, and shows you his phone. You see a photo of you with your ass sticking up and your head looking back with a face of desperation - which is up for interpretation. “Now, this one I’m definitely keeping.” He looks at you with devilish eyes. “I’m glad my suffering is of entertainment to you.” You press you head against his chest, and chuckle, while you’re trying to calm down.

You continue to walk on, “you know the banking has an 80 percent gradient, now imagine-” He continues explaining it with so much passion, one hand around you, the other in motion of the story he is telling. 

You’re feeling slightly cold, and stupid you didn’t think of bringing a jacket. You nuzzle into him trying to warm yourself up with the heat of his body. “- are you aright, schatzi?” Without waiting for an answer he places his jacket around your shoulders and rubs his hands against your arm to warm you up.

He continues talking, and you look at him. The beauty he is. The way his undone hair bounces on his fore head, how his cheekbones and nose glow in the dimming light from the sunset, how the corners of his mouth curl up mid-sentence as he is talking, the slight stubble on his jawline. He caught you looking at him.“Shatzi, you shouldn’t be looking at me. Look over there.” He pointed at the curb of the parabolica in the distance.”

He continues his story and looks at you, “-it’s amazing, no?” You look at him with a smile. “Yes, it’s all very impressive.” “Have you even listened to what I said? I’m probably boring you.” “Yes I have heard every single word, and it is amazing.” You look at him with a smile. “And, babe, you could never bore me.” His arm around your shoulders pulls you in tighter, as he nods his head back towards the car in the distance. “Shall we go back? Then I can continue not boring you for the rest of the night.”

You walk back using the headlights of the car as a guide, as the sky as turned indigo and your surrounding have become nearly indistinguishable. The two of you go back to the motorhome where he spoils you for the rest of the night, pleasing you, showing you just how much he truly loves you.

-------

Tagsquad: @ricciardosheart @wetforwolff @panic-on-the-disco @black-repunzel99 @totowlff @f1thirsttraps @totostanxxx @tony-stank3 @fxshernoizu @sunsetwolffs @smoothoperator55 @mysticalnightenthusiast @oliviahoneymoon @purplewis44 @vroom-vroom-bitch @dr3-fangirl @the-lazy-leprechaun @nomnomnibblenibble @laura-naruto-fan1998​ @lilozg-123​ @lewisdidthat​ @thicc-matthews34​ @orchestratedemotion​ @intotowetrust​ @totonator555​ @pandasansoni93​ @totosbitch​ @totoscharm​ @formationlapsz​ @fede18​ @fuckyeahhangman​ @oneafterdark​ @misswolff​ @wetforwolff​ @eclairfromleclerc​  

#Toto Wolff #toto wolff x reader #Toto Wolff x you #formula 1 x reader #driver x reader #driver x you #mercedes

[stereotypcs]

𓏲  *   ⸺   pictures of damon jaehyun park,  the  twenty-seven  year  old  formula one driver,  have been showing up all over my feed, and considering the last time they were #trending, it was due to rumored tension in the championship team after a fight was overheard between the two teammates post race — i’m not likely to unfollow anytime soon. with their red bull team hat as the only spark of color in his otherwise all black attire, pulled together by his signature leather jacket, they’ve managed to garner a reputation for being more charismatic than impulsive. their critics say that they’re more mercurial than dauntless when they aren’t too busy focusing on their ichor that burns in your veins , a hunger barely contained , a rage fighting for freedom ; the roar of the engine as the lights go out , a contrast to how still you become as hard-earned skills takes over ; flashing a smile that is equal parts charming and dangerous ; they warn you that like icarus you too shall fall but you only sour higher and higher - you were not so foolish to forge wings of wax. reputation.com has taken to calling them achilles in order to avoid a lawsuit ( again ).

basic information.

full name: damon jaehyung park. nickname(s): dae ( close friends only ). age: twenty-seven. date of birth: march 29th. birthplace: new york city , new york. astrological sign: aries. gender & pronouns: cis man , he / him. orientation: heteroromantic , heterosexual. languages: english , korean , some french & spanish. occupation: formula one driver for oracle red bull racing , current & three time world drivers' champion.

personality.

positive: charismatic ,  dauntless ,  driven , clever , adventurous , flirtatious , bold. negative: impulsive ,  mercurial ,  arrogant , combative , headstrong , unforgiving , fiery. moral alignment: chaotic good. temperament: choleric. mbti: entj - the commander. enneagram: 8w7 , the maverick.

family ties.

father: christopher park , mechanic , deceased. mother: mina park née kim , nurse. siblings: none. family financial status: grew up middle class , his success in formula one has elevated their financial status. pet: duke , a male boxer.

history.

when damon park rose to prominence in the world of motorsports, no one would be able to say nepotism or legacy had anything to do with it. born to working parents in brooklyn, his life initially looked fated to be nothing out of the ordinary. but then his father was employed as a mechanic for a formula one team when damon was five and he was exposed to the world of motorsport for the first time. all it took was going to one race with his father, in monoco of all places, and damon refused to stop asking his parents if he too could race. his mother was hesitant, knowing how dangerous the sport was, but eventually agreed.

he was six when he started karting and seven when he entered his first competition. it wasn't a smooth road at first. not due to skill, but rather money. maintaining a kart and traveling wasn't cheap, and money wasn't something the park family had in spades, but they made it work. eventually, damon started winning not only races but titles and championships, proving himself against others in the league, making a name for himself, and getting signed to a karting team. throughout it all, his father was his biggest supporter. they worked on maintaining damon's kart together, discussed strategies, and christopher, who was still working in f1 and therefore traveling with the team, did his best to attend every practice or competition he could. when damon wasn't competing, he was often traveling with his father, his parents having agreed to homeschool him so he could dedicate himself fully to his dream.

the stars seemed to be aligning; he had graduated from karting to formula three, and he also joined the red bull junior team. it was all but confirmed that the next year he'd be brought up to formula one, skipping over f2 entirely, as a driver for red bull's secondary team, torro rosso. and then his father got sick. it was sudden and fast. damon barely had time to come to terms with the fact that his father was terminal before he was gone. the loss hit hard. were it not for his mother keeping him from acting rashly, damon might've left racing altogether. it'd always been something his father and him had done together whether it be watching races, working on cars, or discussing strategies. but grief faded and was replaced with determination. his father wouldn't have wanted him to give up so he wouldn't; he'd make history.

he didn't look back after debuting as a formula one driver at only seventeen years old. the entire time damon kept his eyes on his goals the entire time, adding victory after victory to his resume until he claimed his first world drivers' championship, followed by his second the next year, and his third the year after. the eyes of the world were on him. some of his fellow drivers preferred avoiding the spotlight but after working so hard to get to where he was, damon loved it, embracing the more glamorous lifestyle his growing success provided him, always having a smile for the cameras, so long as it didn't interfere with his racing. he might've been considered the golden boy of f1 were it not for his quick temper, because for as cool behind the wheel and charming off track as damon could be, his temper was just as fiery. if an article wasn't writing about his latest victory or public appearance then odds were damon was making headlines for getting into fights, normally verbal but he was caught throwing a few punches over the years.

inevitably it led to conflict amongst the team, particularly when damon and his fellow driver began getting into more arguments recently. his manager would tell him he needed get a better handle on his attitude, but damon knew that with his reputation and success, he wasn't really at risk of being dropped from the team. he's at the top of the world and has no intentions of coming down anytime soon.

headcanons.

known for his fearless and daring driving style. his overtaking skills are considered legendary amongst the f1 community. also well known for working with the team to plan out his race strategies, including adapting the plan mid-race based on how the car is feeling.

it's very rare for his temper to show itself during a race. his radio messages to his engineer normally calm regardless of what is happening on track, which then causes surprise when, if damon disagrees with the team instructions, he simply ignores them or when post race he'll confront another driver for a racing incident despite sounding calm when it happened.

mama's boy. the first big purchase he made with his winnings was to get her a penthouse apartment in new york. has told her repeatedly that she doesn't have to keep working but she insists she wants to.

actually a skilled mechanic in his own right. he likes to fix up cars in his spare time.

extremely charming. damon knows how to play the role for the cameras, and he plays it extremely well. but he can also turn it off equally as fast if someone pushes his buttons regardless if the cameras are still rolling.

isn't afraid to flirt and has dated casually but only had one serious relationship that ended suddenly two years ago and quickly became a topic that his team tell interviewers they aren't allowed to ask about.

owner of am act first, think second kind of mindset.

his go to mode of transportation is his motorcycle.

hates being a passenger when someone else drives but he also doesn't know how to drive slow so not many people like when he drives.

a huge adrenaline junkie! always up for going on an adventure. the bigger adrenaline rush it provides the better. during the off season, he often goes rock climbing or snowboarding.

has a good heart beneath his rough edges. the people who he is close to quickly discover that damon is incredibly loyal and protective; his friends are his family.

#i. damon park ›› intro. #wealth.intro

[onomatic]

The mind: being of organic matter and neurotrasmitters rather than electricity, is it ever strictly a thing that can be measured or characterized by chemical signatures alone?

This is a map of functions that are attributed to the effect of nootropics on the brain patterns of cognition, memory, problem solving, execution of commands, etc but no place for emotional content being the essence of what can drive the brain and it’s cognitive function in ways that are more complex than merely execution of commands and formulas or problem solving and memory recall.

What is the purpose of eliminating this aspect from the understanding it does not inhibit or complicate the more robotic functions but if utilized from a standpoint of being an advantage, a superpower, what would the outcome of these studies truly be?

If Bruce Lee believes emotional content can alter the effect of executing what would otherwise be a scientific formula for exerting a kind of force: emotional content drives the action in a way that merely muscle power or kinetic force by muscular precision cannot do, should we listen to this man who became a crystallization of his own philosophy which is evident in his work and life in obvious ways, or listen to scientists who only ever sit at desks and do math, observing from a distance cause and effect rather than gaining real life experience of applied action in somewhere other than the safety of a lab or other conditioned environment. We are not chemical beings we are emotional beings. To remove this aspect and think we can learn anything about the human experience is a strange luxury science has granted itself. But like all luxury it is only part of the bigger picture of life and value or quality, or even progress versus the agendas of perception, influence and ultimately power, looking at a small pool of data only yields a small pool of insight in a realm in infinite possibilities.

The measure of smartness is always in the mind of the beholder, to let any other human limit possibilities instead of illuminating paths where before there seemed to be only walls is a measure of conscience and bravery, to define oneself not by the standards of others but by our own ideas of success individually is the pursuit of honest self expression. Is it smart or foolish to wonder if every human who has ever become great because of an idea presented as an absolute for the sake of power not truth just a human wanting the leave their mark on life, to be remembered but not to be seen as anything other than just a human with big ideas who wants others to agree? Influence is everything.

Accepting no limitation as limitation is activating the power of duality to see beyond truth and illusion.

The human mind cannot behold the truth of reality outside of the human subjective experience. When will we evolve to see this as an advantage instead of a flaw in the design when objective reality would never truly be relevant to us as individual beings with no ability to experience life outside of these bodies.

And if we subvert consciousness to robotics without feeling anything at all what are we gaining? Superpower without adrenaline and endorphins? What kind of life is that? The ability to acquire all data without being able to feel an ocean breeze and smell it or feel the beauty of a sunset or the heat of the sun? What for? Virtual reality without sensory experience is actual not worth memory storage to a part of the brain which keeps this information because of the potential of sensory experience, not just an illusion or impression. We cannot trick ourselves into enjoying utopia if we cannot feel it, smell it, taste it, not just see and hear.

If Proust did not teach us this in six volumes I don’t think science will figure it out with all of the calculations in the quantum field. Life is not something to imitate it is to be lived. But to convince the mind that living is more than chemistry or levels of various juices squirting through our bodies and all of its tubes even knowing how soon the mind adapts to what is even ecstatic artifice with the study of tolerance for chemicals like MDA and MDMA to admit that our brains will outsmart us and our schemes and that another factor of complexity is required for the consciousness to be engaged in life beyond predictability, is just another limitation to be overcome.

A barrier of mathematical formulas by someone sitting in a chair in a lab not really living a life at all.

Every adversary becomes your master. True liberty is still just a myth.

[f1]

Pitt stop: actor Brad takes to Silverstone track as Formula One meets Hollywood

With Formula One hosting Brad Pitt and a full-scale film production at the British Grand Prix this weekend making a movie about the sport with Lewis Hamilton as a producer, the two different worlds have adapted remarkably well to make the project come together at Silverstone. The film about Formula One, as yet unnamed, opened filming this weekend in front of the fans with the British Grand Prix as both set and backdrop. The fictional 11th team, APX, has its own garage and pitwall stand for drivers Sonny Hayes, Pitt’s character, and Joshua Pearce, played by British actor Damson Idris. They are running an F2 car converted to look like an F1 car for filming between the usual sessions and races that make up the weekend. Hamilton has been involved from the off and on Friday the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, explained how the team too had been closely involved in the process. “I spoke to the director a few weeks ago expecting him to say he was in Hollywood,” said Wolff. “He said: ‘I am in my apartment in Brackley’, so it’s not all great being a movie director …” “We were involved pretty early when they had the first discussions. We sent Brad to a driving school in France, going through the formula cars from Formula 4 all the way up and that was important.” The picture is being made by Apple Original Films, directed by Joseph Kosinski, who made Top Gun: Maverick, and is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, a long-time successful Hollywood producer. There has been a strong commitment to making the film as accurate and believable as possible, as Wolff explained. “We tried to be helpful with the narrative,” he said. “Lewis is a producer and he wanted to make sure that when the movie comes out it is as realistic as possible. It’s a very, very good narrative and then there is the effort they put in. “We helped them to use an F2 car and build the bodywork around it so it looks like an F1 car. The garage and the pitwall, all of that, we tried to be helpful and gave them the design so they could be as realistic as possible. When you go into the garage the whole set-up behind is really unbelievable.” The film has the full support of F1, which sees it as another way to further draw in a new audience that have come to the sport in recent years, especially with the popularity of the Drive To Survive series. The mocked-up garage belonging to Pitt’s character, Sonny Hayes, in Apex. Photograph: Dan Istitene/Formula 1/Getty Images Pitt, who is 59 and who has been advised by Hamilton, will play a veteran driver returning to F1 after some time out of the sport. He will drive the car this weekend and the film crew will also shoot the race itself using 20 cameras, the two separate sets of footage will then be merged putting Pitt and his fictional team apparently in the heart of the action. skip past newsletter promotion after newsletter promotion In the genuine article during F1 practice Max Verstappen was the star of the show again. He led first practice for Red Bull, almost half a second up on his teammate Sergio Pérez. In the afternoon session Verstappen was once more on top. He was in fine form at the old airfield but was far from having it all his own way, pushed very hard by last year’s winner, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who was just two-hundredths of a second behind. Williams’ Alex Albon also enjoyed a productive day, third in both sessions. Mercedes struggled, however, George Russell was 12th and Lewis Hamilton 15th in free practice two. Verstappen goes into the tenth round of the season with a commanding lead in the world championship, 81 points clear of Pérez and looking for his sixth consecutive win in his 150th start for Red Bull. His team remain unbeaten in all nine meetings thus far this season. via Formula One | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/sport/formulaone

#F1 #Pitt stop: actor Brad takes to Silverstone track as Formula One meets Hollywood #Formula 1

[edie-baby]

Les Fleurs du Mal Chapter 3 | Pierre Gasly

Summary: Sava Dvorakova had big dreams for Formula One. An opportunity of a lifetime comes around, so she takes it and runs. She proved just about everyone wrong, and is awarded a very controversial seat on the F1 grid. There’s smiles and grins, hugs and kisses, love and laughter. There’s tears and sobs, fights and break ups. There’s evil where you least expect it, hidden in the garden of eden. The Flowers of Evil.

Warnings: a lot of swearing, shitty parents (they’re a recurring theme), sexism, i ignored a lot of actual f1 rules because i couldn’t be bothered writing it into the story tbh, yuki is fcking adorable, a lot of smut eventually, like a lot.

Pierre Gasly wasn’t quite sure what to do. After coming into the F2 paddock to talk to his future teammate in the Carlin garage, he passed a small girl with pink hair, a pleated skirt and big, chunky boots. She was being guided through the paddock by a woman he had seen around the Carlin garage a few times before. He had heard whispers of a teenage girl taking the ‘spare’ seat for the remaining three races of the season, but seeing her in person completely consumed his mind. Distracted by the bubbly teenager, Pierre almost passed the Carlin garage completely, quickly correcting himself and keeping his head down so he didn’t make more of a fool out of himself.

“Pierre!” Yuki’s high voice called, waving to his friend with a large smile on his face that creased his eyes. Pierre walked over quickly, dapping his friend up and beginning the regular small talk about the car, and the weekend ahead.

“So, did you hear about my new teammate?” Yuki almost giggled. He had seen the reactions throughout the paddock and in the hotel that morning, and knew the Frenchman would have his own thoughts about the pocket rocket.

“The girl?” Pierre questioned, attempting to bide his time and think of appropriate questions to ask. Yuki nodded with a smile, his own thoughts disrupted by the bubbly, high energy, almost crackhead personality of the teenager.

“She’s very pink. I heard she qualified P2. I’m not really sure what to think about her, because I haven’t watched her race, but I guess I’ll see her soon. I saw her talking to Esteban this morning.” Pierre finished with a grimace. The mutual dislike between Pierre and Esteban was common knowledge, however Yuki still found it puzzling when he would speak so openly about how much the other Frenchman gave him a sour taste in his mouth.

“She’s very good. Considering she has only ever raced in go-karts before this, she’s going to give Juri a run for his money this weekend.” Yuki laughed again, already picturing the battles the two Eastern-European drivers would get into over the next 3 race weekends.

“I’ll keep an eye out. I should go back, our quali is starting soon. Good luck Yuki!” Pierre called, waving to his friend before he made his way out of the F2 paddock, and back toward his own.

The sprint race, and ensuing feature race had been entertaining, to say the least. After the shenanigans of the sprint race on Saturday, there was a large spike in viewers for the Sunday feature race before F1’s grand prix. And, as Amelia so proudly reported to Sava later that afternoon, it was the highest ratings an F2 race had ever gotten.

Headlines that Sunday afternoon were emblazoned with Juri Vips and Sava Dvorakova’s names and cars. The two had battled it out all weekend, a few close calls and both drivers finishing a maximum of two-tenths apart. Juri had won the sprint race on Saturday, where Sava came in P2, while she took P1 in the feature on Sunday, with Juri riding her gearbox for the entire race.

To say Dr Marko was pleased was a gross understatement. He hadn’t smiled, nor been so friendly as he was that weekend, since Max Verstappen won his race in Spain in 2016. It seemed to be an absolute miracle, and Alex Albon who had fared quite poorly through the weekend, was thankful to the new driver for cheering up the man who would have ridden his ass to hell and back.

After Sava’s first P1 finish, and the ensuing podium celebration, she was greeted by a few of the F1 drivers who had made their way over to congratulate the enigma. Esteban and Daniel were the first to stride toward her, enveloping her into a three-way hug where she was basically swallowed whole by the tall men. Daniel pinched her cheeks and pushed her around while they discussed her successful divebombs throughout both races, while Esteban leaned his elbow against her shoulder and listened in to the conversation. Both the men bid their goodbyes and left, allowing the next two drivers to approach her. To her surprise, it was George Russell and Lando Norris. She hadn’t interacted with either of them prior, so there was a small moment of internal fangirling before she greeted the men with a smile so large it completely obscured her eyes.

“Hey, we just wanted to say that you drove amazingly. Lando was yelling at the telly whenever you got cut off or nudged away. Alex was going to come over and say congrats as well, but he got held up with Horner.” George explained, his accent processing very slowly in Sava’s head. So, to her chagrin, she ended up staring at the ground, eyebrows furrowed, eyes bulging while she tried to process the words. Even worse, Lando leaned down to look up at her face, laughing that high-pitched squeal of a laugh that finally broke Sava’s concentration.

“Ah, fuck. I am sorry. Your accent, I have not heard one similar before, so it took a few extra moments to process. Sava.exe stopped working for a moment, but I am back, no need to worry. I must say, I am surprised the two of you are here. I thought you would have been concentrating on your own races for this afternoon, especially you, George. You might not be able to lose positions starting at the back of the grid, but you can definitely gain many.” Sava giggled, attempting to convey to George that she really was kidding and hoped it wasn’t a sore subject to be brooching. Lando squealed again, even going so far as to run away before circling back to the small group. George stood there, stunned.

“You just got owned by the new kid!” Lando yelled, pushing on George’s shoulder before the two waved and walked away, seeing the two men standing behind Sava, waiting their turn to speak.

When she turned around, she wasn’t expecting to see the man of her dreams and her teammate waiting patiently. Sava’s breath caught in her throat for a moment, and was left standing in front of Yuki and Pierre shaking like a leaf.

“Pierre, this is Bunny! He wanted to meet you after watching your races.” Yuki smiled down at his teammate who was still unmoving save for the tremble in her hands.

“It’s nice to meet you, Bunny. It was a really amazing drive today. A lot of those moves require more balls than most of the guys in F1 have.” Pierre smirked, and Sava swore she would have fainted on the spot.

“Holy shit wow, thank you so fucking much. You honestly have zero idea how incredible I think you are. Had I known that my social media would be released to the world, I would have definitely taken down all of my posts singing your praises before I actually met you because now that you’re here it feels fucking creepy. But, I meant everything I said, including the threat about Christian Horner, so if you ask, I will obey.” Sava spoke quickly. She glanced quickly into Pierre’s gorgeous blue eyes, the words tumbling out of her mouth before she had registered them. After she had basically told Pierre, to his face, that she would obey any command he told her, she was whisked away by Amelia toward the media pen, sending Yuki and Pierre a quick wink in the process.

With Pierre caught off guard and staring in the direction Sava had walked off in, Yuki coined the new nickname 'Pierre the Pedo'.

He might have gotten a quick kick to the ass because of that one.

#pierre gasly #Pierre Gasly fanfic #Pierre Gasly imagine #Pierre Gasly x reader #pg10 #formula one #formula 1 #f1 #f1 fanfic

[introvertguide]

Influential Directors of the Silent Film Era

Upon hearing that I am a fan of silent era film, people will ask if I have a favorite actor or movie from the time period. However, when I am asked about my favorites from other fans of silent film, it tends to involve my favorite director. This is because silent film actors had to over gesticulate and performed in an unrealistic way and could not use their tone or words to convey emotion. The directors also did not have a way to review as they shot and would have to use editing skills and strategic cover shots to make sure that everything was done properly and come out the way they imagined it. It was up to the director to be creative and they were forced to be innovative and create ways to convey their vision. Luckily for many average or poor directors of the time, audiences were easily impressed. However, today's more demanding and sophisticated audiences can look back at some of the genius behind the films of silent era Hollywood.

Alice Guy-Blache: Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913) and The Fairy of the Cabbages (1896)

Art director of the film studio The Solax Company, the largest pre-Hollywood movie studio, and camera operator for the France based Gaumont Studio headed up by Louis Lemiere, this woman was a director before any kind of gender expectations were even established. She was a pioneer of the use of audio recordings in conjunction with images and the first filmmaker to systematically develop narrative filming. Guy-Blanche didn't just record an image but used editing and juxtaposition to reveal a story behind the moving pictures. In 1914, when Hollywood studios hired almost exclusively upper class white men as directors, she famously said that there was nothing involved in the staging of a movie that a woman could not do just as easily as a man.

Charlie Chaplin: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1923), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940)

It is unfortunate that many people today think of Chaplin as silly or for screwball comedy when, in fact, he was a great satirist of the time. He created his comedy through the eyes of the lower economic class that suffered indignities over which they had no control. He traversed the world as his "Tramp" character who found his fortune by being amiable and lucky. The idea that a good attitude and a turn of luck could result in happiness was all that many Americans had during the World Wars and the Great Depression. He played the part of the sad clown and he was eventually kicked out of the country for poking fun at American society. Today he is beloved for his work, but he was more infamous than famous during a large part of his life.

Buster Keaton: Sherlock Jr. (1924), The General (1926), and The Cameraman (1928).

That man that performed the most dangerous of stunts with a deadpan expression, Buster Keaton was a great actor, athlete, stuntman, writer, producer, and director. It is amazing that you could get so much emotion out of a silent actor who does not emote, but Keaton managed to do it. He was also never afraid to go big, often putting his own well being at risk to capture a good shot. Not as well known for his cinematography or editing as many of the other directors of the time, he instead captured performances that were amazing no matter how they were filmed. Famous stunts include the side of a house falling down around him, standing on the front of a moving train, sitting on the side rail of a moving train, and grabbing on to a speeding car with one hand to hitch a ride. If you like films by Jackie Chan, know that he models his films after the work of Buster Keaton: high action and high comedy.

Cecil B. Demille: The Cheat (1915), Male and Female (1919), and The Ten Commandments (1923)

Known as the father of the Hollywood motion picture industry, Demille was the first director to make a real box office hit. He is likely best known for making The Ten Commandments in 1923 and then remaking it again in 1956. If not that, he was also known for his scandalous dramas that depicted women in the nude. This was pre-Code silent film so the rules about what could be shown had not been established. Demille made 30 large production successful films in the silent era and was the most famous director of the time which gave him a lot of freedom. His trademarks were Roman orgies, battles with large wild animals, and large bath scenes. His films are not what most modern film watchers think of when they are considering silent films. That famous quote from the movie Sunset Boulevard in 1950 in which the fading silent actress says "All right, Mr. Demille. I'm ready for my close-up," is referring to this director.

D.W. Griffith: Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916)

Griffith started making films in 1908 and put out just about everything that he recorded. He made 482 films between 1908 and 1914, although most of these were shorts. His most famous film today is absolutely Birth of a Nation and it is one of the most outlandishly racist films of the time. The depiction of black Americans as evil and the Klu Klux Klan as heroes who are protecting the nation didn't even really go over well at that time. Some believe that his follow up the next year called Intolerance was an apology, but the film actually addresses religious and class intolerance and avoids the topic of racism. At the time, Griffith films were known for the massive sets and casts of thousands of extras, but today he is known for his racist social commentary.

Sergei Eisenstein: Battleship Potemkin (1925)

This eccentric Russian director was a pioneer of film theory and the use of montage to show the passage of time. His reputation at the time would probably be similar to Tim Burton or maybe David Lynch. He had a very specific strange style that made his films different from any others. The film Battleship Potemkin is considered to be one of the best movies of all time as rated by Sight and Sound, and generally considered as a great experimental film that found fame in Hollywood as well as Russia.

F.W. Murnau: Nosferatu (1922), Faust (1926), and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

I think that most people would know the bald-headed long-nailed vampire Nosferatu that was a silent era phenomena. It was so iconic that the German film studio that produced the movie was sued by the estate of Bram Stoker and had to close. Faust was his last big budget German film and has an iconic shot of the demon Mephisto raining plague down on a town that was the inspiration for the Demon Mountain in Fantasia (1940). Also, Sunrise is considered one of the best movies of all time by the AFI and by Sight and Sound as well as my favorite silent film. Fun facts: 1) more of Murnau's films have been lost then are still watchable and 2) he died in a car wreck at only 40 when he hired a car to drive up the California coast and the driver was only 14.

Erich von Stroheim: Greed (1924)

Maker of very strange German Expressionist films, Stroheim films are often listed as Horror or Mystery even though he considered himself a dramatic film maker. His most famous movie Greed was supposed to be amazing with an 8 hour run time but it was cut drastically to the point that it makes no sense and was both critically and publicly panned when an extremely abridged version was released in the U.S. Over half the film was lost and a complete version no longer exists. Besides this film, Stroheim was even better known for being the butler in the film Sunset Boulevard as a former director who retired to be with an aging silent film star. He also made a movie called Between Two Women (1937) that told the story of a female burn victim that was inspired by the story of his wife being burned in an explosion in a shop on the actual Sunset Boulevard.

Victor Fleming: The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone With the Wind (1939)

Although not known for his silent films, Fleming did get his start during the silent era. He was a cinematographer for D.W. Griffith and then Fleming directed his first film in 1919. Most of his silent films were swashbuckling action movies with Douglas Fairbanks or formulaic westerns. He is the only director to have two films on the AFI top 10 and they happened to have come out the same year.

Hal Roach: Lonesome Luke films starring Harold Lloyd, Our Gang shorts, Laurel and Hardy shorts, and Of Mice and Men (1939)

It is not really fair to put Hal Roach in the silent era directors because he was influential at the time but he had a 75 year career. He was a producer and film studio head and even had a studio named after himself. His biggest contribution to the silent era was his production of Harold Lloyd short comedies and he continued to produce films in the early talkies including Laurel and Hardy shorts, Our Gang shorts, and Wil Rogers films. Roach was the inspiration for the film Sullivan's Travels, in which a famous director who only did frivolous comedies goes out into the world to find inspiration to find a serious drama. Roach did direct a single serious drama, Of Mice and Men, but it came out in 1939 and was buried underneath the works of Victor Fleming. The wealthy cigar smoking studio head that many people think of when they picture a film studio suit is based on this guy. The man would not quit and stayed in the business into his 90s and lived to the ripe old age of 100.

#directors #silent films #old Hollywood #1920s #introvert #introverts #influential

[tobyjenny]

Hetaught me some chords in an after school class, and he also made me love poetry, especially Edgar Allan Poe.

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[aion-rsa]

5 underrated Richard Donner movies you need to see

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Richard Donner will forever be remembered as the filmmaker who created the blueprint for the modern superhero blockbuster with 1978’s Superman starring Christopher Reeve.

Yet that doesn’t tell even half the story of the Bronx-born filmmaker’s brilliant filmography.

Donner was in his late 40s by the time Superman came along, having made a name for himself in Hollywood two years earlier, with 1976’s suitably terrifying The Omen.

Prior to that, he was a budding director making the transition from the small screen to the world of cinema. Donner worked on everything from Gilligan’s Island to The Twilight Zone. Even then, it was clear he was destined for bigger things though, as anyone who saw  “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”, the iconic episode of The Twilight Zone he directed, starring William Shatner, can attest.

While a disagreement with producers ultimately saw him walk away from Superman II, the 1980s saw Donner establish himself as an incredibly versatile big budget director capable of handling everything from the epic family adventure fun of The Goonies to the balancing act of action and comedy found within the buddy cop antics of Lethal Weapon.

It was a skillset that drew admiration from the very best in the movie industry, including Steven Spielberg who was among the first to pay tribute to Donner after learning he had passed away, aged 91.

“Dick had such a powerful command of his movies, and was so gifted across so many genres,” Spielberg, who worked with Donner on The Goonies, said.

“Being in his circle was akin to hanging out with your favourite coach, smartest professor, fiercest motivator, most endearing friend, staunchest ally, and – of course – the greatest Goonie of all.”

Donner may not have had the same impact in the 1990s and early 2000s but he still enjoyed major success with the Lethal Weapon franchise and as a producer with movies like Free Willy and X-Men.

More importantly, the other films he made during that period and in the years between some of his biggest hits remain well worth revisiting or seeking out for the first time – starting with these five.

Ladyhawke

Coming hot on the heels of The Goonies and two years prior to Lethal Weapon, Ladyhawke represented another major departure for Donner. A dark medieval fantasy, it centred on Rutger Hauer’s mysterious Captain Etienne Navarre and his female companion Lady Isabeau (Michelle Pfeiffer), a pair of star-crossed lovers on the run from a vengeful bishop who has placed a demonic curse on their heads. While Navarre transforms into a wolf by night, Isabeau exists as a Hawk by day. Teaming up with petty thief Philippe Gaston (Matthew Broderick) they embark on a quest to overthrow the evil bishop and break the spell.

Something of a passion project, Donner had attempted to get Ladyhawke off the ground several times before finally getting the green light from Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox in the mid ’80s. The film then suffered another setback when Kurt Russell, originally cast as Navarre, dropped out during rehearsals. 

That ultimately proved a blessing in disguise with Hauer going on to deliver arguably his best performance since Blade Runner. Not everything about Ladyhawke works – Broderick’s character feels a little too close to Ferris Bueller while the runtime could be trimmed down – but it remains a beautifully realised fantasy epic, full of memorable action set pieces, stunning cinematography and a spellbinding turn from Pfeiffer.

A box office bomb upon release, Ladyhawke has stood the test of time too, garnering a cult following as an authentic and fresh take on the sword and sorcery formula. 

Maverick

Maverick is the film Will Smith must have hoped Wild Wild West would be; a funny, clever action comedy based on a classic TV show. Coming in an era when most westerns were deadly serious, Donner’s film also felt like a breath of fresh air and benefited hugely from a masterful William Goldman script that was both witty and unpredictable.

The latest in a series of films featuring Donner’s muse-of-sorts, Mel Gibson, this time out Mel plays Bret Maverick, a brilliant card player and equally impressive con artist trying to collect enough money to earn a seat at a high-stakes poker game. Along the way he is forced to contend with a fellow scammer in the form of Jodie Foster’s Annabelle Bransford as well as lawman Marshal Zane Cooper, played by James Garner, who starred in the original TV series.

While the glut of cameos from country music stars and the likes of Danny Glover can be a little distracting, there’s something wonderfully charming about Maverick with Gibson, Foster and Garner all on top form and boasting an undeniable chemistry that helps keep things entertaining. 

The climactic poker game which sees Maverick face off against Alfred Molina’s psychopathic Angel is also expertly handled by Donner, who cranks up the tension as Maverick reveals his final, decisive, hand with a slow-motion toss of the final card towards the camera. A critical and financial success, Maverick has been largely lost in the shuffle since its release but should be sought out.

Conspiracy Theory

There’s something strangely prescient about Conspiracy Theory given the current predilection for such thinking on the internet at large. One of Donner’s most inventive and intelligent outings alongside Gibson, this time out Mel plays Jerry Fletcher, a New York City cab driver with a penchant for paranoid conspiracy theories.

Jerry’s life takes a turn for the strange when he finds himself being targeted by a set of shady government goons led by Patrick Stewart’s Dr Jonas. He quickly realises one of the conspiracies he has been promoting in his weekly newsletter (this was the ‘90s) is based more in reality than he thought. The question is: which one?

An engrossing thriller featuring Donner’s trademark dashes of witty humour, Conspiracy Theory is bolstered significantly by the presence of the ever-reliable Julia Roberts as a government lawyer with a soft spot for Jerry. Despite a lengthy run time, Donner also keeps the action moving along at an engaging pace while Gibson’s performance is just the right side of manic to keep you rooting for him.

A first foray into the kind of deep state conspiracy thrillers that were commonplace in Hollywood at the time, the film also boasts some genuinely striking moments, not least the sequence where Jerry undergoes “psychotic testing” at the hands of Dr Jonas, which wouldn’t have looked out of place in A Clockwork Orange.

Though it was a hit with audiences, Conspiracy Theory earned mixed reviews but appears increasingly worthy of reappraisal.

Timeline

Some movies are big, dumb but lots of fun. Timeline sits firmly in that category despite what many naysayers would have you believe. It’s a brash, simplistic sci-fi flick to rival the likes of The Core and Geostorm and thoroughly entertaining to boot.

The fact that it features Gerard Butler, as well as the late, great, Paul Walker only adds to that sentiment.

Walker plays Chris Johnston who, along with Butler’s Andre Marek and a team of fellow archaeologists travel back in time through a wormhole to 14th century France to rescue their professor, Dr Edward Johnston (Billy Connolly), who just happens to be Walker’s character’s dad too.

Based on a book by Michael Crichton, Donner had been in the running to direct Jurassic Park a decade earlier and jumped at the chance to adapt Timeline for the big screen. While filming went off without a hitch, Donner repeatedly clashed with Paramount Pictures in post-production and was forced to re-cut the film three times in a development that saw the release date pushed by nearly a year. The resulting edit did not sit well with Crichton either, who disliked it so intensely he stopped licensing his work for a few years after.

Whether Donner’s original cut would have earned better reviews or Crichton’s approval remains to be seen but what remains of Timeline is still a well shot, enjoyable sci-fi yarn with some neat medieval action flourishes. 

16 Blocks

Donner’s final film also ranks among his most unappreciated. On the surface, 16 Blocks sounds like the perfect fodder for a game of buddy cop movie bingo.

It stars Bruce Willis as Jack Mosley, a worn-out NYPD Detective with a drinking problem tasked with transporting Mos Def’s trial witness Eddie Bunker to court. Problems arise when some of Jack’s fellow officers arrive to kill Eddie and prevent him from testifying. Eager for redemption, Jack decides to take the would-be assassins on and get Eddie to court on time.

A formulaic enough premise, 16 Blocks is emboldened by the fact it plays out in real-time with Eddie required at the courthouse by no later than 10am. In this sense, Donner found himself in new territory with an action thriller that thrives on a unique sense of urgency. 

While the filmmaker is no stranger to the action formula, this setup sees him imbue events with a renewed sense of chaos, as Jack and Eddie fight their way through armed adversaries, busy crowds and bustling traffic, all against a cacophony of shouts, car horns and gun blasts.

Ostensibly a chase movie on foot rather than four wheels, the action traverses 16 blocks in 118 minutes and rarely lets up for a second with Donner proving a dab hand at balancing the action with the engaging back-and-forth between Willis and Def who are both understated yet effective throughout.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Throw in the ever-watchable David Morse as the leader of the shady cops baying for Eddie’s blood and you have arguably one of the most underrated action thrillers of the early 2000s 

The post 5 underrated Richard Donner movies you need to see appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[sgtduckybucky]

The Unknown

Genre: Hurt/Comfort + Angst (?)

Warnings: SPOILERS

Word Count: 3212

A/N: The ending was rushed and makes no sense but so did the ending for endgame so. Also not proofread so be warned.

Y/F/N = Your Full Name

Y/N/N = Your Nickname 

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

“Y/N, there’s hope.” There was a sense of urgency in Tony’s voice.

Almost all of the Avengers were gathered in your living room at your small house near the woods: Steve, Natasha, Clint, Rocket, Nebula and Scott.

You shook your head, interrupting whatever it was Tony was saying, “Don’t.”

Clint and Natasha shared a look while Tony watched as you got up from your couch and walked towards the dining table that had around twenty pots of various plants.

Steve patted Tony’s shoulder before walking closer to you, “Y/N,” he called your name softly, “I know that this is too much but we have to try.”

You snorted at the Captain, unbothered by the fact that he was older than you by at least 70 years, “Try? You think I haven’t been trying?” Steve could only look at you with sympathy.

“What do you think I’ve been doing the past five years?” You took turn into watching their expressions, “I’ve been trying to get them back.” You laughed humorously, “And I’ve failed. Multiple times.”

“How?” Scott asked as he observed the plants surrounding you.

You sighed, “I’ve gathered my father’s and everyone else’s particles to see if I could trace. If I could revive them maybe. Sounds insane, I know.”

“Not really.” Scott gave you a constipated look, “We’re trying to build a time machine.”

That seemed to catch your interest.

“So, we’re basically following the plot of Back to the future.” Scott and the rest of the time spent around an hour trying to explain their plan. To go back in time, collect the stones and undo Thano’s snap. It’s a big risk but it might work.

“Essentially.” Agreed Scott with a sheepish smile. Tony could only roll his eyes.

“I don’t know.” You sighed dejectedly. You’ve been trying so hard to find ways to bring everyone back. To bring back your father and…but it was impossible. This plan was crazy-

“Can’t be worse than trying to riving the dead through plants.” Snorted Clint, looking older than he actually was but he had a point.

“I’m in.”

“So you control plants?” Scott asked during the plane ride towards the city.

“I do.” You answered.

“But you’re allergic to every plant known to mankind?”

“That’s sweet irony for you, my friend.”

As Scott tried to process your abilities, you were reminded of a similar encounter you’ve had about seven years ago.

“I’m Peter Parker.” His bright smile added to his boyish charm as he extended his hand and introduced himself.

Your glasses slid through your nose as you were unable but to return his smile, “Y/F/N.” and accepted his handshake.

“Ms. F/N is studying bioengineering. She also happens to control plants even though she’s allergic to them.” Mr. Stark explained with a slight tone of amusement in his voice.

You rolled your eyes playfully but felt yourself blush at the look Peter was giving you, “That sounds so cool but also scary.”

You chuckled at his cuteness, “That’s irony for you my friend.”

“Alright, kids. Enough flirting. Time to work.” Tony tried so hard to mask his smirk at the massive blush covering your cheeks and Peter’s neck.

Working with Peter in Tony’s lab was wonderful. A friendship was born between the both of you as the protégés of Stark Industries. Mr. Stark unfortunately doesn’t let you on missions much but after the whole incident with Peter at his school, he decided to give it a shot.

“A monthly trial!” was what Tony had called it.

Every evening and night after Peter finished school, you would train combat skills for three hours with each other before he has to leave. It was fun trying with Peter. He was so full of positivity and energy that you couldn’t help but to try and keep up with him and be his equal.

“Mr. Stark tells me you don’t go to school.” Peter brought up one night after training and practically begging Mr. Stark and your father to let you go with him to some rundown Chinese restaurant.

“I can’t. Almost everything could kill me.” You explained. You looked down at your glove covered hands.

“Then how are you out here…with me?” he added hesitantly.

You smiled at him, “I have to take these shots every time I leave the house to protect me from the pollen but they only last two hours. The reason my dad started working for Stark was to find a way for me to overcome my energies. We haven’t found a cure yet but we’re trying to change the formula of the shots so that it could at least last me 24 hours.”

Peter nodded his head in sympathy, “Must be rough.” His hand shyly rested upon yours, making you blush and avert your gaze.

“Not anymore.”

“Y/N.” Mr. Stark spoke up as everyone dressed in their suits, “If this doesn’t work.”

“I know.” You smiled reassuringly at her, “I’ll let Mrs. Stark now.”

“You, rascal.” Tony chuckled at your cheekiness.

“Now remember, Y/N. Your job is to make sure that the universe hasn’t altered. Keep an eye out for any changes.” Mr. Rogers instructed.

You tried not to roll your eyes. You weren’t that fifteen-year-old anymore. You were twenty years old and a functioning adult, “I will.” You said instead.

He saluted at you before vanishing with the rest of the Avengers.

The past five years have been agonizing for you. With your dad and Peter gone thanks to Thanos’ snap, you felt hopeless. You fell into a spiral of depression and guilt after successfully blaming yourself.

If only I wasn’t so useless. If only if I could use my powers without killing myself. I wish…

For a year you repeated the same cycle of depression, wishing and hoping that you had the opportunity to protect everyone you loved.

It was when you were looking at the many pictures of you, Peter and your father when you decided that enough was enough.

In a random burst of adrenaline, you snatched your hoodie and put on some pants and walked to the front door.

You spent hours trying to improve your abilities. Controlling the trees so that you can use their branches as weapons, use the ground to erupt and sprout vines in any area. But your allergies always stood in the way and one time, you almost died trying perfect your skills. Had it not been for the emergency shot you had in your pocket, you surely would’ve died.

So instead, you spent the next two years working on your father’s experiment. Enhancing the shot so that it could last for 24 hours and allowing you direct intact with the planets so that you could use your powers.

Finally, after years of studies and failed experiment, you were able to enhance the shot. You have to inject the bright green liquid at the back of your neck, right were your spine held your skull, for it to work properly. It was painful but it was the only way.

After that, training was easy. The next two years flew by and you were able to improve both your combat skills and your super powers. It felt good to be this powerful. To feel a sense of usefulness. It gave you hope. Which was why you tried for a cure, a way to bring everyone back. To bring Peter and your dad back into your life.

A loud pop brought you out of your thoughts.

The Avengers were exactly where they were before left just an hour ago. “Did it work?” you ask as everyone removed their helmets.

“I think it did.” Bruce replied absent minded as he watched everyone open their hands to reveal the shiny stones.

“Where’s, Nat?” the green giant asked.

Clint looked away and you knew exactly what it meant.

“Clint?” Bruce called out again, “Where’s Nat?”

Hawkeye could only shake his head.

There was tension in the room. Bruce was on edge and Clint was full of regret but there was no time to fully mourn. You had to carry out the plan.

Once Mr. Stark fully shield the room, he gave the signal to Bruce to put on the glove, “It’s all you.” He said but you knew he meant ‘Be careful.’

Bruce nodded his head and slid the glove on. His face contorted in pain as he let out painful screams while his gloved hand lit up.

“Take it off, take it off!” Shouted Thor somewhere around the room. Your eyes were glued to the glowing gloves, praying with all your heart for it to work. Bruce finally snapped his fingers before quickly shoving the glove off of him and falling to his knees. You pushed the gauntlet away while everyone checked to make sure was alive.

The shields lifted up just as Bruce let out a groan, indicating that he was alive.

“Did it work?” Tony asked, failing to mask the slight hysterics in his voice.

In your peripheral vision, you watched Scott leaving the room.

A sudden buzzing noise made you jumped. No one reacted to it except for Clint as he walked towards the desk, shoulders tensed.

“Honey?” he breathed out once he answered the call.

You could faintly hear his wife’s voice on the other end and your shoulders slugged in relief. You were about to announce your success when you noticed something.

“Where’s Nebul-”

A loud explosion occurred and the whole building collapsed.

When you regained continuousness, the entire building had come down and you were buried under it. You forcefully pushed some of the rubble with a painful shout. You then placed your hand on the ground and commanded for it raise up and bring you upwards.

The sight that greeted you was frightening.

It was like the end of the world had just happened. The sky was black. Most of the trees were dead. And a large spaceship was in the middle of it all.

“What’s he doing?” You heard Steve ask Thor.

“Nothing. He’s been doing nothing.”

You assumed the figure sitting in the middle was Thanos. Fit the description; huge, purple and ugly looking.

“You know this is a trap.” It wasn’t to be a question. It was an obvious statement.

“Yup.” Replied Tony nonetheless.

“I don’t care.” Steve held his shield closer.

“Me neither.” You added, feeling the ground rumbling by your power beneath you.

The battle was intense but you couldn’t give up. You were all so close. If Clint’s wife was back, then surely everyone else was too. But, there was no sign of them and there was an army of aliens. There’s no way you could all defeat them so easily.

Suddenly, a whooshing sound came of you and you recognized the flying object as Falcon. Multiple portals began opening up and you watched as the Black Panther walk through, followed by a large army from Wakanda as they let out a loud battle cry.

And almost instantly, you heard the telltale sound of webs slinging. You whipped your head around and watched as Spider-Man zoom by you and land just a couple of feet in front of you, right where the Black Panther was standing.

“Peter.” You breathed, eyes stinging with unshed tears as your lips stretched into a smile of relief. Peter was here. He was alive.

There was no time for you to rejoice, though. There’s a war to be fought and lives to be protected.

“Avengers!” Steve shouted, “Assemble.”

The fight was long and exhausting.

It was difficult to fight an army of aliens with little plant life but you managed as best of you could. Several times you watched as Peter swung by and kill the aliens that came close to you. You couldn’t talk but that’s ok. Knowing that he has your back was more than enough.

“Peter!” You screamed after falling painfully down to the ground where Mjolnir landed. You wanted to run towards him to see if he was ok but you were surrounded by a large number of aliens. You fought as best as you could, summoning the grounds to swallow them up and using some of the roots underground to fling them away from you. Once you’ve defeated them all, you managed to run towards Peter.

A sudden glowing figure was descending where Peter lay on the ground so you ran with all of your might.

“Nice to meet you, Peter Parker.” You heard a woman’s voice say, “You have something for me?”

“Peter!” the two figures standing just a few feet in front of you turned to your direction.

“Y/N?” And Peter was engulfed in a hug, your arms tightening around him, “I thought I lost you.” You whispered.

“You didn’t.”

The sound of someone clearing their throat made you pull back, “The glove?” the woman with short hair reminded Peter. He quickly handed to her, “How are you going fight him alone.”

“She won’t.” You spoke, your arm still around Peter’s waist. Suddenly, you were surrounded by Wakandans, a female looking alien, the scarlet witch and Pepper.

“We got her back.” One of the women from Wakanda added, making the short haired woman smile in gratitude.

You hugged Peter one more time before following the women.

It was finally over. The war was won but a great price. You fell to your knees as you watched Tony Stark, a man who has helped both you and your father and became very important in your life, struggle to catch his last breathes.

“Mr. Stark?” You chocked out, “Please.”

“We won Mr. Stark. Please. Mr. Stark,” Peter was in disbelief as he tried and failed to have Tony’s attention. He would’ve clung to him till the very end had it not been for Pepper to pull him off and push him into your arms where you held him tightly as he cried. Body jerking with each sob.

The aftermath of the war took its toll on everyone.

Many rejoiced with their loved ones and you got to witness the world reviving, it was magical almost. But that did nothing to your aching heart as you stood with everyone at Tony Stark’s funeral. Everyone who had known the man was there, mourning the loss of one of the greatest heroes the world has witnessed.

“It’s going to be ok.” Your father whispered as he pecked your temple, his arm wrapped around your shoulder.

You didn’t say anything. It was too difficult to speak without crying.

“So you grew up.” A small smile formed on your lips at the familiar voice coming from behind you. You were currently standing in the patio of Tony’s house while everyone went inside to eat and drink. Not feeling in the mood for anything, you excused yourself for fresh air and watch the leaves move through the wind. It was soothing.

“I have.”

Peter’s smaller and shorter frame stood next to you, watching whatever it was that you were watching, “Where does that leave us?”

Where indeed.

There was no denying that there was some attraction during the years spent working with Tony. The sneaky glances, the shy smiles and the hesitant were a secret to no one except for you. If things with Thanos hadn’t happened, Peter would’ve been the same age as you. Things would be normal where you could grow old together and maybe, just maybe, be more than friends.

“I don’t know.”

Peter nodded his head.

“Call you in five years?” he asked hopefully, making you snort at his words.

“I don’t know; you’d be too young for me. Need myself an older man.” You playfully teased as Peter joined in with your laughter.

“I wish…”

“Don’t” You turned to face Peter, nose red and tears brimming your eyes, “What’s done is done and we can’t undo it.”

“But I love you.” Peter pleaded.

“I know.” You smiled through your tears, “I love you too.”

Being back in school was strange for Peter. He got to reunite with Ned and Michelle retell the tale of the adventures he’d been through but what’s the point when the only person who came so close to being a father figure in his life has died? What’s the point returning to normalcy?

“Alright, class. Settle down.” Mr. Grey the English teacher spoke over the loud chatter.

“With all that we’ve been through, let’s start our lives fresh and not waste this second chance we’ve been given. I hope that you’ll do many great things.” He smiled at his students, “Now, I’d like to introduce you to our new student. It’s her first time being in a school so go easy on her.”

Excited chatter filled the room as they waited for the new student to enter the classroom but Peter blocked them all out as he rested his head on the desk and stared out the window, dreaming of an alternative ending.

“Hi. I’m Y/F/N but you can call me Y/N/N.”

Peter’s head snapped upwards and his eyes grow wide once they landed on you. You looked…younger. How is that even possible?

You smiled at Peter as Mr. Grey scanned the room for you, “Peter Parker?” he called out. Ned had to smack Peter for him to raise his hand, “You’ll be neighbors with Y/N. Play nice.”

“What are you doing here?” Peter asked once everyone was out the classroom after Mr. Grey ended his lesson.

“Attending school like every other teenager?”

Peter tried not to groan in frustration, “No, I mean. How are you…You’re young. You’re 15 again. How?”

Seeing Peter freaking out was nothing new but you did take pity on him.

“Captain America went back in time and never came back as planned. He grew old and lived his life. It gave me an idea so I asked Mr. Banner if I could do the same.” You calmly explained as you walked through the hallways.

“But,” Peter stuttered, “How did you become young?”

“Apparently, during Ant-Man’s experiment with time travel, he was able age up and de-age. I asked him to do the same for me and it took me a couple of times but I finally de-aged 5 years of my life and time traveled to the weekend after Mr. Stark’s funeral.”

You still had the mind of a 20-year-old but it wasn’t mature, you didn’t get to experience life and grow properly. Your mind had one goal and it was to bring everyone back. The emotional and mental development weren’t part of it.

“I’m so lost.” Peter stated quietly, “So you back to the future-ed yourself basically? Is that what you’re saying?”

You laughed loudly, “More or less.”

“Wow.”

“Hey,” You bumped his shoulder, “There are aliens and people living in space that don’t age at all. I’m just part of the family.”

Peter chuckled, “I almost miss the simple times before I became Spider-Man where things were normal.”

Time travel was a dangerous thing; Peter knows that for sure. He had been tempted to build a time machine, just to see if it could be possible, but the huge responsibility prevented him from that. But, he was glad that it was possible because, now, one more very important was back in his life at the right time and the right place.

#avengers endgame spoilers #endgame spoilers #peter parker x reader #peter parker imagine #peter parker x you #marvel imagine

[blackjack-15]

The Force of Nature and the Cackling Madman: What Hux Should Be (and What ROS Won’t Be)

Warning: two mentions of the leaked/newish pictures. They will have spoiler warnings bracketing it, along with the appropriate tags connected to the post. You’ve been warned.

INTRODUCTION

With RoS mere months away, this meta really can’t be delayed any longer before it becomes moot, so here we go!

TLJ was a lot of things — some good, some bad —  but what it wasn’t was surprising (unless you count just how shockingly bad 90% of Finn’s storyline was). This is generally a good thing in movies nowadays, where surprises come not from clever writing, but from enormous missteps in the writing or the desire to feel clever by putting in a twist that isn’t foreshadowed, or even just by breaking the rules of your universe.

Ignoring all but the main storyline — which is about Rey and Kylo Ren and their obstacles/conflicts — TLJ didn’t bring any surprises, but instead followed on the lines that TFA set up. As this is obviously the storyline that’s been hashed out from the start and is the point they’re building to, it’s thus safe to say that RoS is simply going to do the same, and follow the lines that TLJ set up.

SPOILER WARNING BEGINS

(Side note: this is why, when the absurdly stupid tuning-fork-lightsaber of Rey’s showed up in the first looks at RoS, it was immediately obvious that she was going to be able to “break” off half of it to give to Kylo when his saber is ultimately gone/self-destructs. Not only does the spoiler picture all but confirm this, but it’s also the obvious trajectory from the two fighting over a lightsaber in TLJ and breaking it in half.)

SPOILER WARNING ENDS

Anyway, with this framework in mind, and with the knowledge that every Star Wars media since the OG trilogy is in some way an adaptation of the OG trilogy, let’s examine what this means for the villain.

TERROR AND STAR WARS VILLAINS

There’s really no getting around the fact that one of the weakest facets of any Star Wars movie — yes, the OG trilogy is included here — is the villains that accompany them. A few SW video games fare a bit better in this, but most follow the movies’ path. This isn’t shocking — Star Wars is a Hero’s Journey, and in a Hero’s Journey it’s the presence of a villain, not the nature of the villain itself, that’s the important part — but it is crucial to understand.

Darth Vader is by far the most iconic and scariest villain that Star Wars movies can boast of, and for those born after 4/5/6 came out, he’s not really that scary, because those viewers go in knowing who Vader is and that he’s (at least partially) redeemed through his sacrifice. The greatest contribution that Rogue One made to that viewership is the scene with Vader at the end, where he is legitimately an object of terror as he was when 4/5/6 were first out.

This leads to a discussion of Palpatine-as-villain in RotJ, where the best that can be said for his status as terror-inducing villain is that at least he has Vader to do most of the heavy lifting for him. As a villain, Palpatine is just not scary. Maybe it’s the makeup, maybe it’s the fact that he gets thrown out like a sack of garbage to his death, maybe it’s the cold ham delivery he gives to what should be properly menacing lines.

Darth Maul’s visuals in TPM alone are scarier than all of Palpatine in RotJ, and, before it’s brought up, Palpatine is even less scary than that in the prequels, so I’m not even considering that part.

The thing that most Star Wars villains have in common (aside from Tarkin, who is my person favorite movie-verse villain) is that they’re forces of nature; they have the force and/or use lightsabers, they’re larger than life and beings of immense power and reputation, and they’re there to sort of loom over movie, causing overwhelming-yet-non-specifc terror to motivate the plot in a “avoid the bad guys” sort of way.

This is especially obvious in the prequel movies, where Darth Maul (ignoring his awesome visual effect), General Grievous, and Count Dooku are all basically meant to Stand There And Look Menacing, rather than having anything about them that’s actually interesting.

And here’s where the interesting things in the sequel trilogy begin.

WHY SMOKE SNOKE?

There was never any way that Snoke was going to live past TLJ, just like there was no way that Hux wasn’t going to survive TLJ. Remembering that the sequel trilogy is in a lot of ways an adaptation of the OG trilogy (as all Star Wars movies are), TFA was trying to get you to think of Snoke as Palpatine — an overlord that survives until the last bit of the last movie and Hux as Tarkin — the non-Force user who is Evil and all but dies b/c he’s too smug and petty.

But neither one of those things were actually true. Because that would position Kylo Ren as the Vader analogue, and all of TFA is dedicated to showing just how wrong that assumption is.

Because Kylo’s not Vader, Hux isn’t Tarkin, and Snoke isn’t Palpatine. Thus, Snoke has to die, because we can’t go into the last third of the trilogy with competing big bads (and no, Kylo and Hux don’t count there, either — Kylo isn’t a big bad at all, unless you think that the Big Bad Villain’s job is to fall for a British honeypot with a lightsaber).

I’ll admit, I was a bit smug when Snoke died and left only Hux alive and kicking out of the Three Bad Guys (as Kylo/Ben isn’t even pretending to be a bad guy anymore), because that’s what I had predicted — a fake-out with a Palpatine-style, force-of-nature villain only to reveal that the real Big Bad was with us all along — a mortal; a cackling madman: General Hux.

PLOTTING WITH PALPATINE

When spoilers first indicated that Palpatine would instead make yet another appearance in a Star Wars film, I was optimistic. Optimistic not in the “hey the Rebels will totally win” sort of way; no, optimistic in the “these kind Jedi will definitely free the slaves and not just take the kid because They Must Deal Kindly With Illegal Slavers”. AKA misplaced optimism rather than genre-savvy faith in the heroes to prevail.

Because actually bringing back Palpatine would be a stupid move all the way around, I tried to figure out why they’d advertise it and not try to hide the bad idea in a Secret Twist.

So here’s where we get the interplay between the Force of Nature and the Cackling Madman.

In a world where the Force exists, it’s easy to imagine that those without it feel rather powerless — or at least overshadowed — when near those who do wield it. Certainly, that’s true for most of Tarkin’s council, and true of Hux. 

Over and over again in TFA and TLJ, we see Hux trying to prove that he’s every inch Kylo’s Equal. Even after Snoke’s death, he uses no deference to the new Supreme Leader and repeats his commands so he can believe that the First Order soldiers are following him.

Hux’s scene in TFA where he’s commanding the troops shows Hux at his finest (and most evil); apart from any Jedi/Sith/Force influence, he is himself to a glorious extreme: the Cackling Madman.

THE CACKLING MADMAN

I don’t use this title to say that Hux is insane (though he’s clearly a bit off) but rather to show the difference between a villain like Hux and a villain like Palpatine. Unlike the Force of Nature villain, a Cackling Madman is usually present over the entire story, seen as a person rather than as a shadowy figure, and is allowed to fail and succeed at multiple times during the trajectory of the story, rather than only failing at the very end when the heroes triumph.

In short, Star Wars has never had, in the movie-verse, a Cackling Madman as the main villain. The prequels play at it for about .5 seconds with Senator Palpatine, but he’s still the Force of Nature, ultimately, just pretending to be a Good Guy.

As the sequel trilogy, is, once again, and like any other SW media, an adaptation of the OG trilogy, I was really excited for this shift in formula — it would play on audience expectation that Snoke would just be Palpatine 2.0, only to reveal — with the proper set up, as shown in TFA and TLJ — that the true villain was there all along, just unnoticed for what he was.

THE FACADE OF THE FORCE

So where would the intervention of Palpatine go in this shift from the formula?

Hux as the ultimate Big Bad would know that he would need the support of a powerful force user — or, at least, the appearance of support of a powerful force user.

And, in the Star Wars universe, you could do worse than to claim the support of (in the EU) the eternally clone-happy Emperor. Hux’s only problem is that the Emperor is dead, and thus not really up to supporting a ginger with dreams of Ultimate Power.

So any support would have to be a facade. And how is Star Wars uniquely equipped to handle facades?

We’re talking holograms, baby.

Holograms of a weakened yet still powerful Emperor — maybe missing a hand or something, a few attacks “directed” by the Emperor meeting wild success, manipulation of the Holograms to say Hux’s name and offer support of him as his Preeminent General or whatever, and Hux has the galaxy at his feet.

IMAGINE MY DISAPPOINTMENT (SPOILERS HERE AGAIN)

And then the spoiler pictures of Palpatine came out and — disappointment was prevalent, but I wasn’t surprised.

The big problem with the Sequel Trilogy is that it has one well-plotted plot line — the main plot line with Rey and Kylo/Ben — and then every other plot line is pretty much left up to the whims of the moment. It’s especially evident in Finn’s TLJ plot line, but it’s present to some extent in every other plot line throughout the two movies currently out.

What Hux should be is the danger lurking in plain sight; the villain seen but not understood, and the evil present but not accounted for. That alone would add a dimension to the Sequel Trilogy that it’s lacking right now — and lacking even more with the advent of Palpatine’s return. Not only would it acknowledge its freedom as an adaptation to play with audience expectation, but it would demonstrate something that both it and the Prequel Trilogy lack: trust in its audience.

THE ULTIMATE CONCLUSION

What RoS should be is a movie that delivers something new but still authentic to the Star Wars universe. Ultimately, that’s all it would take to please the majority of its audience, because those who are watching the ST without having seen any other Star Wars media are few and far between. 

The shame is that what RoS will be is a movie that (wrongly) doesn’t trust its audience to consume  nuanced media, and instead tries to placate them with false advertising (trying to give off the air that RoS will be a trio movie with Finn, Rey, and Poe when everyone knows it won’t be) and with the return of old characters and the descendants of old characters. It’s like adding blue flashing lights to an old snow globe and declaring that you’re recaptured lightning in a bottle.

#star wars #star wars spoilers #rise of skywalker #SWROS #SWTLJ #SWTFA #star wars meta #my meta

[him-e]

I’ve been thinking about the Night King and why the showrunners decided to create a supervillain out of the amorphous, faceless, eldritch evil that the Others are in the books. 

One reason, as I suspected early on when I saw Hardhome, was the need individualize and narrow down the threat to a classic Protagonist VS Antagonist formula, for dramatic purposes. Instead of facing an impersonal evil, Jon, the champion of the Night’s Watch (and by extension humanity) is directly antagonised by the Night King---the champion of darkness. A bit of a Evil Wizard archetype, a bit of a demigod à la Sauron---the NK is someone who, albeit silent, has a degree of characterization, a personality (we can easily infer he’s smug, he’s ambitious, he’s single-minded, he toys with our heroes in a mocking way, he used to be a human being until the CotF turned him into a magical creature with unlimited powers; he even has flaws that we can conceptualize as human). It’s the bare minimum of characterization but it’s still a characterization, and it’s both a positive and a negative thing. Positive because it gives the audience something to latch on, a Villain With A Face and, to a degree, even a motivation---negative because it undermines the sheer eldritch horror of the Others being quintessentially inhuman in every possible way.

The other reason is probably because d&d needed to give the White Walkers an Achilles’ Heel so that our heroes could defeat them---all of them. I think the Others will have an Achilles’ Heel in the books too (maybe whatever lies beyond the Curtain of Light?), but perhaps either GRRM still didn’t know what it would be when he sat down and talked about the endgame with the showrunners, or GRRM’s version of it is something d&d couldn’t do on the show for budget and/or time limitations, so they had to come up with an alternative or a shorthand for it. Either way, it’s food for speculation.

I’ve already talked in favor of Arya, and not Jon, being the one who killed the NK. While I’ve seen people warm up to the fact that this totally makes sense for Arya’s arc, many still resist the idea for what it supposedly does to Jon’s arc. What about the Azor Ahai prophecy? What is the significance of his arc now? What was the point of building up this one-on-one antagonism between him and the NK if Jon didn’t actually defeat him? Well, imo the idea behind this decision wasn’t shock value for shock value’s sake, but rather an attempt---I won’t argue if successful or not---to subvert the Chosen One trope, almost Tolkien-style, in the sense that the chosen one gets so, so close to complete his mission yet ultimately, tragically, fails. But the... small metallic object... is still delivered in the right place to destroy the Evil Overlord and his entire army, and the person who does is an unexpected one, in an unexpected way. So the bittersweetness of this anticlimax, the way it feels both right and wrong, is probably intentional---because the Chosen One(s) both won and failed. Jon and Dany will likely be remembered as the heroes, the Azor Ahai’s, the great commanders, the princes that were promised, but they know deep in their hearts that, had it been for them, humanity would have been destroyed.

speaking of Tolkien, and looking at it from another angle, the last moments of the battle did remind me a bit of RotK in the way Bran (and according to some interpretations of the scene, Jon too) kept *the eye of Sauron* distracted so Arya/Frodo could get close enough without being noticed. Not only them---the entire battle can be seen as a giant distraction game to blindside the NK and take him off guard.

all of this will, of COURSE, play completely differently in the books. But if there’s anything in all of this that can put us on the right track in our book speculation (and imo there is---remember, GRRM talked about the books’ ending in broad strokes with d&d, they didn’t entirely come with this on their own), it would be useful to take a step back and try to see the bigger picture, the most basic gist of it, rather than the flaws of the execution. I think it’s reasonable to expect a degree of subversion of the chosen one narrative, bittersweet tolkien vibes, and the Others being defeated in some sort of anticlimax in the books too.

#got** #got for ts #got thoughts #// #/// #the night king #bow #the long night #show vs books #the white walkers #the others #the chosen one #tropes #subversion #got meta #arya** #jon** #btw pls don't @ me with angry messages re: jon being robbed #i come in peace offering an alternative reading and also what's probably the rationale behind this choice #(yes i know they said 'lol we did it because it was unexpected' #but they're most famous for saying the dumbest shit in interviews so no i won't stop at their explanation) #still don't like it? okay! that's your prerogative! #like i said i'm not going to discuss the quality of the execution or whether this attempt was successful or not #it's not the point of this post anyway

[mrlnsfrt]

Persistence > Talent

Maybe you don’t feel like you’re talented. Perhaps you feel like everyone else seems to have more talent than you. Maybe that’s why you keep giving up. Things get hard and you quit, you fizzle out, you give up. You figure if only you had more talent you would keep going. Maybe you think that those who succeed do so because they are more talented. Sure, talent plays a role in success, but I would like to suggest that persistence is actually a bigger factor in determining success than just talent, especially when it comes to the spiritual realm.

Mersenne’s Prime

In 1644, a monk named Marin Mersenne gets obsessed for a while with prime numbers.

You remember prime numbers? They're like the atoms of math, indivisible. They cannot be divided by any other number than themselves. So 3 is a prime number. You can only divide it by 3. Versus 4, which you can divide by 2, and you can get 2.

Remember? OK.

So Mersenne had a formula that he thought could predict prime numbers, OK?

Paul Hoffman, who wrote about this in his book The Man Who Loved Only Numbers.

He says that mathematicians had been searching for a formula like this to find prime numbers for nearly 2,000 years at that point.

Euclid, way, way back, 2,300 years ago, had proved that there's an infinite number of prime numbers. But he gave no formula for how to find them. I mean, they're easy at small numbers. We can do the math in our head. 7's prime. Nothing divides into it. 11's prime. If I give you a really big number, now you're going to have to start calculating, OK?

So this monk, Mersenne, came up with a formula. He creates this formula. And he uses it to spit out prime numbers. And one of the prime numbers that he said that he discovered was-- and this is going to sound a little bit technical-- 2 raised to the 67th power-- that is, 2 times 2 times 2 times 2, 67 times-- minus 1. And if that was confusing, all you need to know is this number of Mersenne's, 2 raised to the 67th minus 1, was famous among mathematicians.

That's how his paper ended. He said it was a prime number. This is 1644. So 250 years later, we're into the 20th century. I think it's 1903. And you have this mathematician that shows up at a mathematical conference that takes place here in the United States.

His name is Frank Nelson Cole. And he gave his talk a very unassuming title. He titled his talk "On the Factorization of Large Numbers." And he went to a blackboard. And he wrote, 2 to the 67th minus 1--

He says nothing. He says not a word.

He just walks over to the blackboard and just, writes that. And of course, everybody in the audience knows that that's the famous Mersenne prime. And he writes, equals, and then he writes out a 21-digit number—(2 67 - 1 = 147,573,952,589,676,412,927)

In other words, when you take 2 and then multiply it by 2, 67 times, and then subtract 1, that is this number, 21 digits long. 147,573,952,589,676,412,927. OK.

Then he moved over to a blank piece of blackboard. And he wrote down two numbers. One is a nine-digit number, times a 12-digit number. He writes those two numbers out. 193,707,721 and 761,838,257,287

OK, so that's two numbers that were sitting there on the board, multiplication problem, and?

And then he did the multiplication, just like the way they taught us back in second grade to do it. 7 times 1, he put down the 7. He went through the whole thing, step by step.

Just long multiplication. He says not a word. Everybody sits there silently.

Now, remember, the whole idea of a prime number is you should not be able to take two numbers, and then multiply them together and get a prime number as a result. It's supposed to be indivisible. If you multiplied two numbers together and you got this 21-digit number as a result, then that 21-digit number is not prime. And if Mersenne thought it was prime-- which he did-- his formula supposedly spits out prime numbers, this one of them, then his formula, 250 years old, is just wrong.

So, picture it. There's Frank Nelson Cole at the blackboard, slowly doing long multiplication, these two huge numbers. It takes a while. They're big numbers. It takes minutes, as this room full of mathematicians just watches him, lots of them, I'm sure, scrutinizing him for any math errors. He still has not said a word. And then, he gets to his result.

And indeed, it ends up being that 21-digit number, 147sextillion, 573quintillion, 952quadrilion, 589trillion, 676billion, 412thousand, 927. Now, the whole place erupts into applause. Legend has it, this is the first time at a math conference that people got up and applauded. And he just returns to his seat without a word.

And then later, someone asked him, "How long did it actually take you to figure out that Mersenne was wrong, that indeed this number has two factors?" And he said that he spent three years of Sundays working on this.

Three years of Sundays. Paul says these three years of Sundays were probably spent solving the problem by trying every possible solution-- dividing that huge number, 2 to the 67th power minus 1, by one number and then the next number and then the next. Three years of Sundays is 156 Sundays. For 155 of them, Frank Nelson Cole failed. Until finally, on the 156th Sunday, Frank Nelson Cole found a number that would divide it evenly, which, Paul says, is par for the course.

Notice how we don't talk about the researcher who spent two years trying to find what this gene did and then gave up or spent three years trying to find a planet outside the solar system and gave up, and someone else eventually did. Progress and discovery are often a combination of insight and hard work. We talk about the ones who did not give up, the ones who persevered and persisted.

(Adapted From This American Life: TRANSCRIPT 450: So Crazy It Just Might Work Transcript ORIGINALLY AIRED 11.11.2011)

Joseph in Prison

Genesis 39 ended with Joseph being thrown in prison after being falsely accused of attempted rape. But while Joseph was in prison God blessed him and he became the second in command in the prison (blog post with more details here).

Genesis 40 picks up the story with the addition of two men to the prison.

It came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker. 3 So he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, the place where Joseph was confined. 4 And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them; so they were in custody for a while. - Genesis 40:1-4 NKJV

I believe it is worthwhile noting that even though Joseph had authority over all the prisoners who were in the prison (Genesis 39:22-23) Joseph did not use his position of authority to take advantage of the prisoners. Joseph did not “lord it over” them, it is almost as if Joseph had studied Matthew 20:25-28 in his small group meeting.

25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. 26 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. 27 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” - Matthew 20:25-28 NKJV

As much as I would love to expound on this theology of leadership I will have to leave this for another post, though I briefly address it on this post.

Joseph was in charge of everything at the prison but chooses to serve the prisoners. Joseph uses his position of authority to serve and bless those around him. This relationship opens doors for Joseph to further help those under his authority. If Joseph had focused on how unfair life was and how he had been mistreated and how terrible his personal position was he would have missed an opportunity to witness and bless those around him. Joseph did not waste his time in mourning over the injustice of his accusers, which had deprived him of his liberty, rather he focused on his present and future doing his very best to bless those around him.

5 Then the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, had a dream, both of them, each man’s dream in one night and each man’s dream with its own interpretation. 6 And Joseph came in to them in the morning and looked at them, and saw that they were sad. 7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in the custody of his lord’s house, saying, “Why do you look so sad today?” - Genesis 40:5-7 NKJV

Joseph has shown that he cares, he has earned the right to enquire about the wellbeing of those under his care and they feel comfortable opening up to him and sharing what is on their heart. Their willingness to open up to Joseph will allow Joseph to further minister to them and their needs according to his abilities.

8 And they said to him, “We each have had a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.” So Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please.” - Genesis 40:8 NKJV

As the prisoners open up to Joseph he is able to witness to them about God, the true God! And those men were willing to open up to Joseph about what was happening in their lives.

9 Then the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “Behold, in my dream a vine was before me, 10 and in the vine were three branches; it was as though it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. 11 Then Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” - Genesis 40:9-11 NKJV

The dream was complex and odd. I would not have been able to interpret this dream, but as Joseph had clarified earlier, the interpretations belong to God.

12 And Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: The three branches are three days. 13 Now within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand according to the former manner, when you were his butler. 14 But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. 15 For indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews; and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon.” - Genesis 40:12-15 NKJV

Joseph interprets the dream, and he is so sure of the meaning of the dream that he even added a special request since he was talking to the cupbearer

"The cupbearer was an important official in the Egyptian court. Because of the sensitivity of his position—he personally served wine to the king—his loyalty in what was a perpetually intrigue-ridden household had to be beyond reproach. Ready access to the monarch could make a savvy cupbearer a trusted advisor and place him in a position of great influence. Egyptian documents testify to the wealth and power of such officials."  -- Sarna, N. M. (1989). Genesis (p. 277). Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

The chief baker noticed how the cupbearer received good news and was motivated to share his dream with Joseph as well. 16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, “I also was in my dream, and there were three white baskets on my head. 17 In the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head.”

18 So Joseph answered and said, “This is the interpretation of it: The three baskets are three days. 19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree; and the birds will eat your flesh from you.” - Genesis 40:15-19 NKJV

Sadly the dream of the chief baker did not have a positive meaning. The commentaries I read did not agree regarding the details of the execution of the chief baker since the text is a bit confusing (death by beheading, hanging, impalement or some type of crucifixion) but they agreed that he would die and his body would be exposed to the birds.

"Thinking of his own two dreams, and realizing that God was still with him, Joseph sought to help the two dejected men in their perplexity. This desire to help others later proved to be the key to his own release from prison. Bearing his own unearned misfortunes with cheerful resignation and admirable fortitude, Joseph, by his friendly nature, was led to sympathize with other unfortunates, who lacked the inner strength that buoyed him up. It was not out of curiosity but with an earnest desire to assist those in need that Joseph offered the two men his assistance. At the same time he pointed them to God, his own source of strength and consolation."  -- Nichol, F. D. (Ed.). (1978). The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (Vol. 1, p. 442). Review and Herald Publishing Association.

Joseph’s interpretation was correct and the dreams had indeed been revelations from God about what would happen in the near future.

20 Now it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. 21 Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. 22 But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23 Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. - Genesis 40:20-23 NKJV

As Joseph witnessed the fulfillment of the dreams he must have been reminded of the dreams that God had given him. I can imagine Joseph eagerly waiting for his freedom. Joseph had served and helped the butler at the lowest point of his life and surely he would remember Joseph now that he was re-established in a position of power and influence.

"[The cupbearer] had seen the interpretation of the dream exactly fulfilled, yet in his prosperity he forgot Joseph in his affliction and confinement."  -- Spiritual Gifts. (1858). (Vol. 3, p. 148). Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association.

Joseph was completely forgotten. Notice how the biblical text repeats the statement in two different ways highlighting the plenitude of the forgetfulness. It will still be two years before Joseph leaves his current condition.

Joseph was talented, he had the gift to interpret dreams. Joseph had also received dreams from God, though he might have reason to question the origin or veracity of the dreams he had a young man. Joseph had every reason to become bitter, to give up. Joseph could have said

“I tried being good. I tried following God. I was good, I was honest, I was kind, I always did my best. And what do I have to show for it? I betrayed by those closest to me, sold as a slave, I was falsely accused and thrown in prison, I was forgotten by those I helped…”

If Joseph had decided to give up, I would completely understand. I believe I have given up on things for less. But Joseph seemed to understand that it was not enough to be talented. Joseph seemed to understand that persistence was greater than talent. Sure, Joseph was talented, but without persistence, it would not have benefited him much.

In Genesis 37:2 we read that Joseph was 17 when his father made him the coat of many colors. In Genesis 41:46 we read that Joseph was 30 years old when he finally stood before Pharaoh. So even though we don’t have exact dates or references to Joseph’s age at this point we can know that he spent about 13 years of his life as a slave in or in prison. That is a long time to persist and persevere and press on. I wonder if Joseph could tell that during those years God was preparing him to rule one of the mightiest nations of the ancient world. I wonder if Joseph realized that because of his willingness to persevere, because of his persistence, God would use him to save the lives of many. I wonder if Joseph had any idea of how much power and wealth he would one day possess. Right now things were tough. Right now Joseph’s talent was not enough to make a significant difference in his destiny. Right now, all that Joseph had was persistence. He had to continue to trust God, to continue to do his best, to continue to learn and grow and care and bless, trusting that God was in control and that the dream that God had given him would one day come true.

But perhaps in your mind, you are arguing, thinking

“Sure, but that’s Joseph! He’s a Bible character. He is different. God gave him dreams and the ability to interpret dreams. But I am not talented like Joseph. It feels nearly impossible to persist in my situation.”

Well, I have another story for you.

Mary Jones

More than anything in the world, Mary Jones wanted to learn how to read. The main reason was her great desire to be able to read the Bible for herself. Like most people during the late 1700s, and especially in Wales, she only had access to the Bible when the pastor would read it at church once a week during the church service. But she was not satisfied with just a few stories once or twice a week. Mary wanted more, she wanted to read the Bible for herself. But there were no schools nearby to teach her how to read.

Finally, when Mary was about 9 years old a new school was started and it was only one hour away from her house! Mary longed to read the Bible and now it seemed like her dream would finally come true. She would wake up early so she could do all her chores and walk one hour to go to school. Mary was very poor. Her father had died when she was four years old and she was raised by her widowed mother. Her mother would go out and do whatever work she could at the neighboring farms and Mary would go to school.

Mary wanted to learn so much that she quickly rose to the top of her class. However, learning to read was only the first half of Mary’s dream. When Mary learned how to read she found a kind neighbor that allowed her to come over and read their Bible every weekend. Her kind neighbor lived two miles from Mary’s house. Mary would come over every weekend. Mary had heard some of the stories at church, but she found it so much better to be able to read the stories for herself. The Bible came alive to her, and the time would fly by. Soon, weekend visits were not enough. The hours spent at the neighbor’s house only fueled Mary’s desire to have a Bible of her own in the Welsh language.

However, there were very few Welsh Bibles and they were prohibitively expensive. So Mary began to save money and look for ways to earn money. She would do odd jobs, watch children for their parents, mend clothes, sell firewood, she began to raise chickens and sell the eggs. Mary spent six long years working hard and saving every penny she could. But this was not easy, sometimes some of her money had to be used to help feed the family. Many times Mary felt like it would be impossible to ever save enough money for her to have a Bible of her own. But after six long years, she finally had enough money to buy a Bible in the Welsh language.

Now that Mary had finally saved enough money sh had a new challenge to overcome. Welsh Bibles were exceptionally difficult to come across. They were very expensive, and there were very few of them. There were no Bibles that Mary could purchase in her village. However, Mary noticed that her new school teacher had a Bible, she asked him where he got it and he told her of a minister by the name of Thomas Charles who lived in the village of Bala, 25 miles away and had Welsh Bibles for sale.

Try to imagine Mary’s excitement! She had learned how to read, she had spent six years working and saving all that the could and finally had enough money to buy a Welsh Bible and now she knew where she could get one. So Mary began her journey, early in the morning she set off, barefoot, for a 25-mile journey over very rough terrain to the town of Bala. Her epic trip would be immortalized in history. Unknown to her she was also helping fulfill Bible prophecy.

When Mary finally arrived in Bala, it was late evening. Candles were starting to be lit. She knocked on the door of the house of the local minister who took her in for the night. The next morning he took her to see pastor Thomas Charles. Thomas Charles welcomed Mary and listened intently as she shared her story.

“I love the Bible,” Mary explained, “I have loved it my whole life, even from when I was much younger and would listen to the pastor reading from it at church. When I turned 9 they opened a school in my village and I was finally able to learn how to read. Now there is nothing I would love more than to have a Bible of my own so I can read it a much as I want whenever I can.”

Pastor Charles could hardly believe his ears.

“You walked 25 miles barefoot to buy a Bible?” He asked.

“Yes,” she said, “and I have the money right here!”

“How did you manage to get enough money to buy a Bible? I thought you said your father had died when you were young and that he had been a weaver, I don’t think your parents were very rich.”

“I worked very hard, I mended clothes for my neighbors, I raised chickens and sold the eggs, I gathered and sold firewood, I watched children, and cleaned and swept houses and saved every penny. And after six long years of working very hard, I finally have enough!”

The coins jingled softly in the purse she clutched in her hands.

Thomas Charles then turned to the other pastor and said:

“Mr. Edwards, isn’t it said that such a brave girl, such a smart and dedicated girl, such a consistent Christian who worked so hard and traveled so far just to have a Bible and I do not have one for her? I do not have a single Bible to spare and there is no hope of getting one either because the Religious Tract Society has decided to no longer print any more Bibles for Wales.”

“Do you mean to tell me that we do not even have one for this young girl?” the pastor asked.

“The few Bibles I do have were already promised to other people, I do not have any Bibles to sell to Mary, not even one.”

The words fell like heavy hammer blows on Mary’s ears. Her heart sank. She was devastated. She began to weep and then her body began to shake uncontrollably with heavy sobs. She could not stop weeping because of the thought of having to go back home empty-handed after a lifetime of wanting and waiting and studying and working so hard to be able to have and read God’s word. Her tears wet her cheeks and dripped from her chin. Mary could not stop weeping. Thomas Charles was moved deeply moved with compassion from the core of his being as he beheld Mary and pondered the tragedy of her story.

Pastor Charles got up from his chair and placed his hand softly on Mary’s head and said,

“Mary, you will have a Bible, no matter what. One of these bibles was going to a man who can also read English. So I will let him have an English Bible and I will give you the Welsh Bible that was intended for him.”

He went to his bookcase and got a Welsh Bible and gave it to Mary.

That day a very excited 15-year-old walked 25 miles home, hugging her very own Bible.

Pr. Charles was deeply touched by Mary’s story and in the year 1802, he went to a religious tract society meeting and told them what had happened. After he finished he asked the men there to consider starting a new society dedicated to printing and distributing Bibles in the Welsh language. During the discussion, as Thomas Charles made his passionate appeal for bringing Bibles to Wales in the Welsh language a Baptist minister named Joseph Hughes said that “surely a society could be formed for this purpose. But if for Wales, why not for the British Empire, why not for the entire world?”

That December day, the British and Foreign Bible Society was born. The society held its first meeting on March 7, 1804, and 700 Pounds were raised to begin printing and distributing Bibles all around the world. From God’s perspective this was a profound moment, for this was the catalyst for a global spiritual awakening opening the door for millions of people to have access to the Bible in their language. The moment had come for the fulfillment of Daniel 12:4

“But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” - Daniel 12:4 NKJV (bold mine)

One humble country girl with persistent and unshakeable faith paved the way for the whole world to read and learn about the love of Jesus. Not only that, but she also played a crucial role in the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy.

When Mary walked the 25 miles to Bala in the 1800s, the Bible was available in only 67 languages.

By 1900 the Bible had been translated into 524 languages.

There were a total of 428.2 million scriptures being given out by international Bible Societies in 2014, including full Bibles, Testaments, Gospels, and other smaller scripture items. (source)

(I wrote this story by compiling information from several sources including https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbfKGmXkqkk&t=1005s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd5vUs0JDbc&t=1409s, http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/uploads/content/projects/mary_jones_story.pdf, https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/ )

If God used Daniel while he was a slave and while he was in prison. If God used a humble country girl. Imagine what God can do through you if you choose to persist?

God does not need talent, He is the one who gives the talent. What God needs from you is persistence. God needs you to not give up. If you persist, God will do amazing things. He wants to use you to bless others, to bring the good news to those who are living in ignorance. God wants you to be salt and light. We know it is His will. The question is, are you willing to persist long enough to accomplish God’s will in your life?

Sure, maybe you don’t feel like you have the talent you wish you had or that others seem to have. But I am not here to ask you about how talented you are, I am here to ask whether to not you are willing to be persistent.

#persistence #don't give up #persevere #Narrative #Old Testament #Joseph

[romancatholicreflections]

11th February >> Daily Reflection/Commentary on Today’s First Reading for Roman Catholics on Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time (Genesis 1:1-19). Today we begin reading the Book of Genesis and the story of Creation.

One evaluation of this book says this:

If the Hebrew Bible is indebted to any one biblical book for its daring historical argument, that book is Genesis. It is Genesis that transforms the history of a small, vulnerable kingdom at the juncture of three continents into a history of the world and humankind. Even without its first chapter – the magisterial account of creation – Genesis tells of nations being weighed in the historical plan of God. One lone God, Creator of all things, is portrayed restlessly juggling the fortunes of individuals and peoples to right the balance of moral justice. This is, properly speaking, neither a tragic nor, as often maintained, a “salvation” his­tory – for its original audience believed its true outcome to hinge on present and future events. And so, Genesis, like the scripture it introduces, is sublimely open­-ended, a preface to the present.

Joel W. Rosenberg, Harper-Collins Study Bible

Although Genesis is at the beginning of the Bible that does not mean that it was the first book to be written, still less that it represents an “eyewitness account”. In fact, experts distinguish a combination of accounts written at different times. In the final form in which we now have it, it is a later, sophisticated work, written with a specific purpose in mind. It is not a scientific account and it does not clash with more recent scientific discoveries because it is written on a completely different level.

It is more about God and our relationship with God than about how the world actually came to be. The central message is: There is only one God and he is the source of all that is; he is totally good and everything he creates is good.

It acts as an introduction to the five books of the Pentateuch, the Law of Israel, and shows how God brought order into a chaotic universe.

In our present selection of readings we only cover the first 11 chapters, which deal with what is called the ‘primeval history’ or pre-history, the Creation, the various ‘falls’ and ending with the incident of the Tower of Babel. The rest of Genesis is concerned with the origin of God’s people, with the first patriarch, Abraham and his immediate descendants – Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and his brothers. (We will cover that second part of the book in Weeks 12-14 of Year I.) The last word of Genesis is ‘Egypt’ and leads immediately into the Book of the Exodus, describing a much later period, where we find the Israelites living in Egypt.

Today’s reading begins with God bringing into existence what we might call the infrastructure of our world. This section introduces the whole Pentateuch and in a way the whole Bible. It shows how God brought an orderly universe out of primordial chaos. It forms a background for the call of Abram and the real beginning of the biblical story in chapter 12.

This first version of the creation story is attributed to the Priestly source. As such it is less detailed and more theological. Its primary focus is on God’s role. It aims at a complete logical classification of beings whose creation is deliberately fitted into the framework of a week which closes with the Sabbath day of rest. The text makes use of the primitive science of its day. It would be a mistake to look for points of agreement between the picture given here and the data of modern science. (Hence, the futility of the debate between the so-called ‘Creationists’ and ‘Evolutionists’.)

The text uses a scenario found in other creation myth stories but the emphasis here is very much on our world as the creative work of one, transcendent and all-good God existing before the world he brought into being.

Recounting the origin of the cosmos and its glorious centrepiece, earth, it shows God masterfully orchestrating the events of creation. Each phase follows more or less the same basic pattern established on Day One: divine command, result, divine approval, enumeration of the day. The effect is anything but monotonous. Like a musical theme with variations, the story shows the world gradually becoming more mobile and complex, until, by the sixth day, it is ready for self-perpetuation through procreation. (Harper-Collins Study Bible)

“In the beginning” is not seen as a beginning from infinity as suggested by the opening of John’s gospel, “In the beginning was the Word..” (John 1:1). It is not a creation from nothing; it is the beginning of recorded history rather than the origin of being which the philosophers seek to understand. The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the abyss/deep. There was a total lack of order and no light. God was absent. But with God there came order, an astounding and undeniable feature of a universe whose existence is often attributed to pure chance.

A “divine wind” hovered over the chaotic watery wastes of the deep. This is not the creative wind of the Spirit. Creation is said to have been brought into being either by the “word” or the “act” of God. But other translators do see the Spirit of God present in the phrase.

The deep or the abyss is the primordial ocean according to the ancient Semitic understanding of the universe. After God’s creative activity, part of this vast body forms the salt-water seas (vv.9f); part of it is the fresh water under the earth (Ps 33:7; Ezek 31:4), which wells forth on the earth as springs and fountains (Gen 7:11; 8:2; Prov 3:20). Part of it, “the upper water” (Ps 148:4; Dan 3:60), is held up by the dome of the sky (Gen 1:6ff) from which rain descends on the earth (Gen 7:11; 2 Kings 7:2,19; Ps 104:13).

The rest of today’s reading deals with the first four days of creation. First, there is light but the sources of the light are not yet mentioned. Light is created but not darkness, which is a purely negative concept. The creation of light is mentioned first, since the succession of days and nights is to be the frame in which the work of creation takes place. God saw the light as good and God separated light from darkness. It was “good” in the sense of being both acceptable and also intrinsically good. The light was called Day and the darkness Night.

“There was evening and morning, the first day.” In ancient Israel a day was considered to begin at sunset. According to the highly artificial structure of the creation story, God’s activity is divided into six days to teach the sacredness of the Sabbath rest on the seventh day in the Israelite religion. (We might remember, too, how in the Gospel the Sabbath begins on the evening of Friday. That was why Jesus had to be buried before sundown on Good Friday, when the Sabbath would begin, cf. Mark 15:42)

On each of the succeeding days the same formula will be followed:

– “God said: Let there be…”

– What was commanded comes into being

– God sees that his work is good

– The number of the day is given

God then made a dome or vault in the midst of the waters, separating waters from waters. The vault, that is, the sky or the heavens, now divided the waters above the dome from the waters below it. This is the universe as the ancients understood it in their visual observations from a vantage point they believed to be the centre: a flat earth and a curved and solid heavenly dome surrounded above and below by primordial waters. The water below produced springs from which rivers and lakes originated; the water above explained the rain which came through apertures in the vault. (The understanding of cloud-forming evaporation was still centuries away!)

Evening and morning made the second day.

The waters under heaven now are brought together and reveal dry land, thus producing ‘earth’ and ‘seas’. God saw it was good.

Next vegetation and plants appear bearing all kinds of fruits and seeds. (What is remarkable is that the succession of creations harmonises with a contemporary understanding of evolution: vegetation, swarming creatures, fish, birds, animals [mammals] and human beings.) Again, God saw it was good.

Evening and morning, it is the third day.

Lights are now created in the vault or dome to divide the day from the night. Light has already been created but now its dissemination is divided among the heavenly bodies. These will also mark seasons, days and years and give light to the earth. There is one great light to rule the day and a lesser one to rule the night, as well as the stars – to separate light from darkness. The names ‘sun’ and ‘moon’ are deliberately omitted because these were often treated as gods by neighbouring peoples. For God’s people they are no more than heavenly lamps dividing day and night and marking the seasons and times for festivals.

God saw it was good. Even and morning it is the fourth day.

Through all this there is the underlying refrain: “God saw that it was good.” The message is clear: there is only one God and he is totally good and everything he does is good, very good. Why then is there so much evil and suffering in the world? The answer to that question will come later.

[drummcarpentry]

Are You Ready to Sell Like QVC?

A photo. Some text. A shopping cart button.

It’s the setup you’ve been used to since you were Internet-years-old.

Electronic commerce has existed since the 1970s, passing through a prescient experimental phase of telephone-based TV shopping in the 1980s, and setting the tone for the future with Stephan Schambach’s 1990s invention of the first standardized online shopping software. US consumers spent $861.12 billion with online merchants in 2020. By making the “add to cart” ritual so familiar, it may seem like we’ve seen it all when it comes to digital commerce.

But hold onto your hats, because signs are emerging that we’re on the verge of the next online sales phase, akin to the 19th century leap from still photos to moving pictures.

If I’m right, with its standard product shots, conventional e-commerce will soon start to seem dull and dated in many categories compared to products sold via interactive video and further supported with post-purchase video.

Now is the time to prep for a filmed future, and fortunately, the trail has already been blazed for us by home shopping leader QVC, which took over television and then digitally remastered itself for the web, perfecting the art of video-based sales. Today, we’re going to deconstruct what’s happening on QVC, and how and why you may need to learn to apply it as an SEO, local SEO, or business owner — sooner than you think.

Why video sales?

A series of developments and disruptions point to a future in which many product sales will be facilitated via video. Let’s have a look at them:

First, we all know that humans love video content so much, they’ve caused YouTube to be the #2 search engine.

Google has documented the growth of video searches for “which (product) should I buy”.

When we look beyond the US, we encounter the phenomenon that livestreaming e-commerce video has become in China, highly-monopolized by Alibaba’s Taobao and creating celebrities out of its hosts.

Meanwhile, within the US, the pandemic caused a 44% increase in digital shopping spend between 2019-2020. We moved online last year for both our basic needs and nonessentials like never before.

The pandemic has also caused physical local brands to implement digital shopping, blurring former online-to-offline (O2O) barriers to such a degree that Internet transactions are no longer the special property of virtual e-commerce companies. This weirdly-dubbed “phygital” phenomenon — which is making Google the nexus of Maps-based local product sales — can be seen as a boon to local brands that take advantage of the search engine’s famed user-to-business proximity bias to rank their inventory for nearby customers.

At least, Google hopes to be the nexus of all this. The truth is, Google is reacting strongly right now to consumers starting half of their product searches on Amazon instead of on Google. Are you seeing ads everywhere these days informing you that Google is the best place to shop? So am I. With that massive, lucrative local business index in their back pocket and with GMB listings long supporting video uploads, Google has recently:

Acquired Pointy to integrate with retail POS systems

Made product listings free

Amped up their nearby shopping filter

Attempted to insert themselves directly into consumers’ curbside pickup routines while integrating deeply into data partnerships with major grocery brands

Experienced massive growth in local business reviews, and just released an algorithmic update specific to product review content (look out, Amazon!)

Experimented with detecting products in YouTube videos amid rumors flying about product results appearing in YouTube

Been spotted experimenting beyond influencer cameo videos to product cameos in knowledge panels

Meanwhile, big brands everywhere are getting into video sales. Walmart leapt ahead in the shoppable video contest with their debut of Cookshop, in which celebrity chefs cook while consumers click on the interactive video cues to add ingredients to their shopping carts.

Crate & Barrel is tiptoeing into the pool with quick product romance videos that resemble perfume ads, in which models lounge about on lovely accent chairs, creating the aura of a lifestyle to be lived. Nordstrom is filming bite-sized home shopping channel-style product videos for their website and YouTube channel, complete with hosts.

And, smaller brands are experimenting with video-supported sales content, too. Check out Green Building Supply’s product videos for their eco-friendly home improvement inventory (with personable hosts). Absolute Domestics shows how SABs can use video to support sales of services rather than goods, as in this simple but nicely-produced video on what to expect from their cleaning service. Meanwhile, post-sales support videos are a persuasive value add from Purl Soho to help you master knitting techniques needed when you buy a pattern from them.

To sum up, at the deep end of the pool, live-streamed e-commerce and shoppable video are already in use by big brands, but smaller brands can wade in with basic static goods-and-services videos on their websites and social channels to support sales.

Now is the time to look for inspiration about what video sales could do for brands you market, and nobody — nobody — has more experience with all of this than QVC.

Why QVC?

“I didn’t even know QVC still existed,” more than one of my marketing colleagues has responded when I’ve pointed to the 35-year-old home shopping empire as the way of the future.

The truth is, I’d probably be sleeping on QVC, too, if it weren’t for my Irish ancestry having drawn me to their annual St. Patrick’s Day sales event for the past 30+ years to enjoy their made-in-Ireland product lineup.

About seven times more people with Irish roots live in the United States than on the actual island of Ireland, yet the shopping channel’s holiday broadcast is one of the few televised events tailored to our famous nostalgia for our old country home. My family tunes in every March for the craic of examining Aran Crafts sweaters, Nicholas Mosse pottery, Belleek china, and Solvar jewelry, while munching on cake made from my great-grandmother Cotter’s recipe. Sometimes we get so excited, we buy things, but for the past few years, I’ve mainly been actively studying how QVC sells these items with such stunning success.

“Stunning” is the word and the wakeup call

QVC, which is a subsidiary of Quarate Retail International, generated $11.47 billion in 2020 and as early as 2015, nearly half of those sales were taking place online — consistently placing the brand in the top 10 for e-commerce sales, including mobile sales. The company has 16.5 million consolidated customers worldwide, and marketers’ mouths will surely water to learn that 90% of QVC’s revenue comes from loyal repeat shoppers. The average QVC shopper makes between 22-25 purchases per year!

Figures like these, paired with QVC’s graceful pas de deux incorporating both TV remotes and mobile devices should command our attention long enough to study what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.

“Enjoy visiting Ireland, but buy your sweaters on QVC!”

While supplies last, I want to invite you to spend the next 10 minutes watching this Internet rebroadcast of a televised segment selling an Aran Crafts sweater, with your marketer’s eye on the magic happening in it. Watch this while imagining how it might translate as a static product or service video for a brand you’re marketing.

TL;DW? Here’s the breakdown of how QVC sells:

Main host

QVC hosts are personalities, many of whom have devoted fan bases. They’re trained in the products they sell, often visiting manufacturing plants to school themselves. When on air, the host juggles promoting a product and interacting with models, guest hosts, callers, and off-screen analysts. The host physically interacts with the product, highlights its features in abundant detail, and makes their sales pitch.

For our purposes, digital marketers are fully aware of the phenomenon of social influencers taking on celebrity status and being sought after as sales reps. At a more modest scale, small e-commerce companies (or any local business) that’s adopted digital sales models should identify one or more staff members with the necessary talents to become a video host for the brand.

You’ll need a spot of luck to secure relatable hosts. Just keep in mind that QVC’s secret formula is to get the viewer to ask, “Is this me?”, and that should help you match a host to your audience. This example of a nicely-done, low-key, densely-detailed presentation of a camping chair by a plainspoken host shows how simple and effective a short product video can be.

Guest hosts

Many QVC segments feature a representative from the brand associated with the product being sold. In our example, the guest host from Aran Crafts is a member of her family’s business, signing in remotely (due to the pandemic) to share the company’s story and build romance around the product.

Depending on the model you’re marketing, having a rep from any brand you resell would be an extra trust signal to convey via video sales. Think of the back-and-forth chat in a podcast and you’re almost there. Small retailers just reselling big brands may face a challenge here, but if you have a good portion of inventory from smaller companies and specialty or local manufacturers, definitely invite them to step in front of the camera with your host, as higher sales will benefit you both.

Models

Frequently, sales presentations include one or more models further interacting with the product. In our example, models are wearing these Irish sweaters while strolling around Ashford Castle. More romance.

Other segments feature models as subjects of various cosmetic treatments or as demonstrators of how merchandise is to be used. Models and demonstrators used to be standard in major American department stores. QVC brilliantly televised this incredible form of persuasion at about the same time it disappeared from real-world shopping in the US. Their sales figures prove just how huge the desire still is to see merchandise worn and used before buying.

For our scenario of creating online sales videos, such models could be a convincing extra in selling certain types of products, and many products should be demonstrated by the host or guest host. One thing I’ve not seen QVC do that I think e-commerce and O2O local brands definitely could do is a UGC approach of making your customer your model, demoing how they use your products in their real-world lives. Almost everybody can film themselves these days.

Callers

There are no live callers in our example, but QVC traditionally increases interactivity with the public with on-air phone calls.

If your sales videos are static, you’re not quite to the point of having to learn the art of handling live calls, but your product support phone and SMS numbers and links should be featured in every video.

Method

“If you go up there with the intent to sell, it’s all going to come crashing down around you...The real goal of QVC.... was to feel like a conversation between the host, the product specialist (us), and ‘Her’ – the woman age 35 to 65 who is sitting at home watching television.” - I went on air at QVC and sold something to America

There’s an element of magic to how QVC vends such a massive volume of products, but it’s all data-based. They’ve invested so heavily in understanding customer demographics that they’ve mastered exactly how to sell to them. Your consumer base may be totally different, but the key is to know your customer so well that you understand the exact approach to take when offering them your inventory of goods and services.

Another excerpt from the article cited above really gets this point across when talking about guest hosts:

“Our experienced guests tend to focus on the product. But our best guests are focused on the viewer. Is this for the viewer? Everything goes through that filter. And if you do that, everything comes out more naturally.”

Here at Moz, there may be Whiteboard Friday hosts you especially enjoy learning from. As a business owner or marketer, your job will be to identify talented people who can blend your brand culture with consumer research and translate that into a form of vending infotainment that succeeds with your particular shoppers. Successful QVC hosts make upwards of $500,000 a year for being so good at what they do.

Being good, in the sweater sample, means pairing QVC’s customer-centric, conversational selling method with USPs and an aura of scarcity. I’ll paraphrase the cues I heard:

“These sweaters are made exclusively for QVC” — a USP regarding rarity.

“Enjoy visiting Ireland, but buy your sweaters on QVC” — this is a strong USP based on having better prices than a traveler would find if buying direct from the manufacturer.

“Reviews read like a love letter to this sweater” — incorporating persuasive UGC into the pitch.

“Half of our supply is already gone; don’t wait to order if you want one of these” —- this creates a sense of urgency to prompt customers to buy right away.

Analytics

The example presentation probably looked quite seamless and simple to you. But what’s actually going on “behind the scenes” of a QVC sales segment is that the host is receiving earpiece cues on exactly how to shape the pitch.

QVC’s analytics track what’s called a “feverline” of reaction to each word the host says and each movement they make. Producers can tell in real time which verbal signals and gestures are causing sales spikes, and communicate to the host to repeat them. One host, for example, dances repeatedly while demoing food products because more customers buy when he does so.

For most of the brands you market, you’re not likely to be called upon to deliver analytical data on par with QVC’s mission control-style setup, but you will want to learn about video analytics and do A/B testing to measure performance of product pages with video vs. those with static images. As you progress, analytics should be able to tell you which hosts, guests, and products are yielding the best ROI.

Three O2O advantages

In a large 2020 survey of local business owners and marketers, Moz found that more than half of respondents intend to maintain pandemic-era services of convenience beyond the hoped-for end of COVID-19. I’d expect this number to be even higher if we reran the survey in mid-2021. Online-to-offline shopping falls in this category and readers of my column know I’m always looking for advantages specific to local businesses.

I see three ways local brands have a leg up on their virtual e-commerce cousins, including behemoths like Amazon and even QVC:

1. Limited local competition = better SERP visibility

Virtual e-commerce brands have to compete against a whole country or the world for SERP visibility. Google Shopping’s “available nearby” filter cuts your market down to local map-size, making it easier to capture the attention of customers nearest your business. If you’re one of the only local brands supporting sales of your goods and services via videos on your website, you’re really going to stand out in the cities you serve.

2. Limited local inventory = more convincing authenticity

QVC is certainly an impressive enterprise, but one drawback of their methodology, at least in my eyes, is that their hosts have to be endlessly excited about millions of products. The same host who is exuding enthusiasm one minute over an electric toothbrush is breathless with admiration over a flameless candle the next. While QVC’s amazingly loyal customers are clearly not put off by the bottomless supply of energy over every single product sold, I find I don’t quite believe that the joy is continuously genuine. In my recognition of the sales pitch tactics, the company feels big and remote to me.

70% of Americans say they want to shop small. Your advantage in marketing a local business is that it will have limited inventory and an owner and staff who can realistically convey authenticity to the video viewer about products the business has hand-selected to sell. A big chain supermarket wants me to believe all of its apples are crisp, but my local farmer telling me in a product video that this year’s crop is crisper than last year’s makes a world of believable difference.

3. Even a small boost in conversions = a big difference for local brands

Backlinko recently compiled this list of exciting video marketing statistics that I hope you’ll read in full. I want to excerpt a few that really caught my eye:

84% of consumers cite video as the convincing factor in purchases

Product videos can help e-commerce stores increase sales by up to 144%

96% of people have watched an explainer video to better understand a product they’re evaluating

The Local Search Association found that 53% of people contact a business after watching one of their videos and 71% of people who made a purchase had watched an online video from that brand

Including filmed content on an e-commerce page can increase the average order value by 50+%

Video on a landing page can grow its conversion rate by up to 80%

If the company you’re promoting is one of the only ones in your local market to seize the opportunities hinted at by these statistics, think of what a difference it would make to see conversions (including leads and sales) rise by even a fraction of these numbers. Moreover, if the standout UX and helpfulness of the “v-commerce” environment you create makes you memorable to customers, you could grow local loyalty to new levels as the best resource in a community, generating a recipe for retention that, if not quite as astonishing as QVC’s, is pretty amazing for your region.

Go n-éirí leat — good luck!

Like you, I’m longing for the time when all customers can safely return to shopping locally in-person, but I do agree with fellow analysts predicting that the taste we’ve gotten for the convenience of shipping and local home delivery, curbside pickup, and tele-meetings is one that consumers won’t simply abandon.

Sales videos tackle one of digital marketing’s largest challenges by letting customers see people interacting with products when they can’t do it themselves, and 2021 is a good year to begin your investigation of this promising medium. My top tip is to spend some time this week watching QVC on TV and examining how they’ve parlayed live broadcasts into static

product videos that sell inventory like hotcakes on their website. I’m wishing you the luck and intrepidity of the Irish in your video ventures!

Ready to learn more about video marketing? Try these resources:

17 Best Ecommerce Product Video Examples

The ABCs of Video Content

8 Beginner Tips for Making Professional-Looking Videos

How to Film Creative Product Videos

YouTube Dominates Google Video in 2020

How to Track YouTube Videos in Google Analytics Using Google Tag Manager in 4 Steps

Need to learn more about local search marketing before you start filming yourself and your products? Read The Essential Local SEO Strategy Guide.

[lakelandseo]

Are You Ready to Sell Like QVC?

A photo. Some text. A shopping cart button.

It’s the setup you’ve been used to since you were Internet-years-old.

Electronic commerce has existed since the 1970s, passing through a prescient experimental phase of telephone-based TV shopping in the 1980s, and setting the tone for the future with Stephan Schambach’s 1990s invention of the first standardized online shopping software. US consumers spent $861.12 billion with online merchants in 2020. By making the “add to cart” ritual so familiar, it may seem like we’ve seen it all when it comes to digital commerce.

But hold onto your hats, because signs are emerging that we’re on the verge of the next online sales phase, akin to the 19th century leap from still photos to moving pictures.

If I’m right, with its standard product shots, conventional e-commerce will soon start to seem dull and dated in many categories compared to products sold via interactive video and further supported with post-purchase video.

Now is the time to prep for a filmed future, and fortunately, the trail has already been blazed for us by home shopping leader QVC, which took over television and then digitally remastered itself for the web, perfecting the art of video-based sales. Today, we’re going to deconstruct what’s happening on QVC, and how and why you may need to learn to apply it as an SEO, local SEO, or business owner — sooner than you think.

Why video sales?

A series of developments and disruptions point to a future in which many product sales will be facilitated via video. Let’s have a look at them:

First, we all know that humans love video content so much, they’ve caused YouTube to be the #2 search engine.

Google has documented the growth of video searches for “which (product) should I buy”.

When we look beyond the US, we encounter the phenomenon that livestreaming e-commerce video has become in China, highly-monopolized by Alibaba’s Taobao and creating celebrities out of its hosts.

Meanwhile, within the US, the pandemic caused a 44% increase in digital shopping spend between 2019-2020. We moved online last year for both our basic needs and nonessentials like never before.

The pandemic has also caused physical local brands to implement digital shopping, blurring former online-to-offline (O2O) barriers to such a degree that Internet transactions are no longer the special property of virtual e-commerce companies. This weirdly-dubbed “phygital” phenomenon — which is making Google the nexus of Maps-based local product sales — can be seen as a boon to local brands that take advantage of the search engine’s famed user-to-business proximity bias to rank their inventory for nearby customers.

At least, Google hopes to be the nexus of all this. The truth is, Google is reacting strongly right now to consumers starting half of their product searches on Amazon instead of on Google. Are you seeing ads everywhere these days informing you that Google is the best place to shop? So am I. With that massive, lucrative local business index in their back pocket and with GMB listings long supporting video uploads, Google has recently:

Acquired Pointy to integrate with retail POS systems

Made product listings free

Amped up their nearby shopping filter

Attempted to insert themselves directly into consumers’ curbside pickup routines while integrating deeply into data partnerships with major grocery brands

Experienced massive growth in local business reviews, and just released an algorithmic update specific to product review content (look out, Amazon!)

Experimented with detecting products in YouTube videos amid rumors flying about product results appearing in YouTube

Been spotted experimenting beyond influencer cameo videos to product cameos in knowledge panels

Meanwhile, big brands everywhere are getting into video sales. Walmart leapt ahead in the shoppable video contest with their debut of Cookshop, in which celebrity chefs cook while consumers click on the interactive video cues to add ingredients to their shopping carts.

Crate & Barrel is tiptoeing into the pool with quick product romance videos that resemble perfume ads, in which models lounge about on lovely accent chairs, creating the aura of a lifestyle to be lived. Nordstrom is filming bite-sized home shopping channel-style product videos for their website and YouTube channel, complete with hosts.

And, smaller brands are experimenting with video-supported sales content, too. Check out Green Building Supply’s product videos for their eco-friendly home improvement inventory (with personable hosts). Absolute Domestics shows how SABs can use video to support sales of services rather than goods, as in this simple but nicely-produced video on what to expect from their cleaning service. Meanwhile, post-sales support videos are a persuasive value add from Purl Soho to help you master knitting techniques needed when you buy a pattern from them.

To sum up, at the deep end of the pool, live-streamed e-commerce and shoppable video are already in use by big brands, but smaller brands can wade in with basic static goods-and-services videos on their websites and social channels to support sales.

Now is the time to look for inspiration about what video sales could do for brands you market, and nobody — nobody — has more experience with all of this than QVC.

Why QVC?

“I didn’t even know QVC still existed,” more than one of my marketing colleagues has responded when I’ve pointed to the 35-year-old home shopping empire as the way of the future.

The truth is, I’d probably be sleeping on QVC, too, if it weren’t for my Irish ancestry having drawn me to their annual St. Patrick’s Day sales event for the past 30+ years to enjoy their made-in-Ireland product lineup.

About seven times more people with Irish roots live in the United States than on the actual island of Ireland, yet the shopping channel’s holiday broadcast is one of the few televised events tailored to our famous nostalgia for our old country home. My family tunes in every March for the craic of examining Aran Crafts sweaters, Nicholas Mosse pottery, Belleek china, and Solvar jewelry, while munching on cake made from my great-grandmother Cotter’s recipe. Sometimes we get so excited, we buy things, but for the past few years, I’ve mainly been actively studying how QVC sells these items with such stunning success.

“Stunning” is the word and the wakeup call

QVC, which is a subsidiary of Quarate Retail International, generated $11.47 billion in 2020 and as early as 2015, nearly half of those sales were taking place online — consistently placing the brand in the top 10 for e-commerce sales, including mobile sales. The company has 16.5 million consolidated customers worldwide, and marketers’ mouths will surely water to learn that 90% of QVC’s revenue comes from loyal repeat shoppers. The average QVC shopper makes between 22-25 purchases per year!

Figures like these, paired with QVC’s graceful pas de deux incorporating both TV remotes and mobile devices should command our attention long enough to study what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.

“Enjoy visiting Ireland, but buy your sweaters on QVC!”

While supplies last, I want to invite you to spend the next 10 minutes watching this Internet rebroadcast of a televised segment selling an Aran Crafts sweater, with your marketer’s eye on the magic happening in it. Watch this while imagining how it might translate as a static product or service video for a brand you’re marketing.

TL;DW? Here’s the breakdown of how QVC sells:

Main host

QVC hosts are personalities, many of whom have devoted fan bases. They’re trained in the products they sell, often visiting manufacturing plants to school themselves. When on air, the host juggles promoting a product and interacting with models, guest hosts, callers, and off-screen analysts. The host physically interacts with the product, highlights its features in abundant detail, and makes their sales pitch.

For our purposes, digital marketers are fully aware of the phenomenon of social influencers taking on celebrity status and being sought after as sales reps. At a more modest scale, small e-commerce companies (or any local business) that’s adopted digital sales models should identify one or more staff members with the necessary talents to become a video host for the brand.

You’ll need a spot of luck to secure relatable hosts. Just keep in mind that QVC’s secret formula is to get the viewer to ask, “Is this me?”, and that should help you match a host to your audience. This example of a nicely-done, low-key, densely-detailed presentation of a camping chair by a plainspoken host shows how simple and effective a short product video can be.

Guest hosts

Many QVC segments feature a representative from the brand associated with the product being sold. In our example, the guest host from Aran Crafts is a member of her family’s business, signing in remotely (due to the pandemic) to share the company’s story and build romance around the product.

Depending on the model you’re marketing, having a rep from any brand you resell would be an extra trust signal to convey via video sales. Think of the back-and-forth chat in a podcast and you’re almost there. Small retailers just reselling big brands may face a challenge here, but if you have a good portion of inventory from smaller companies and specialty or local manufacturers, definitely invite them to step in front of the camera with your host, as higher sales will benefit you both.

Models

Frequently, sales presentations include one or more models further interacting with the product. In our example, models are wearing these Irish sweaters while strolling around Ashford Castle. More romance.

Other segments feature models as subjects of various cosmetic treatments or as demonstrators of how merchandise is to be used. Models and demonstrators used to be standard in major American department stores. QVC brilliantly televised this incredible form of persuasion at about the same time it disappeared from real-world shopping in the US. Their sales figures prove just how huge the desire still is to see merchandise worn and used before buying.

For our scenario of creating online sales videos, such models could be a convincing extra in selling certain types of products, and many products should be demonstrated by the host or guest host. One thing I’ve not seen QVC do that I think e-commerce and O2O local brands definitely could do is a UGC approach of making your customer your model, demoing how they use your products in their real-world lives. Almost everybody can film themselves these days.

Callers

There are no live callers in our example, but QVC traditionally increases interactivity with the public with on-air phone calls.

If your sales videos are static, you’re not quite to the point of having to learn the art of handling live calls, but your product support phone and SMS numbers and links should be featured in every video.

Method

“If you go up there with the intent to sell, it’s all going to come crashing down around you...The real goal of QVC.... was to feel like a conversation between the host, the product specialist (us), and ‘Her’ – the woman age 35 to 65 who is sitting at home watching television.” - I went on air at QVC and sold something to America

There’s an element of magic to how QVC vends such a massive volume of products, but it’s all data-based. They’ve invested so heavily in understanding customer demographics that they’ve mastered exactly how to sell to them. Your consumer base may be totally different, but the key is to know your customer so well that you understand the exact approach to take when offering them your inventory of goods and services.

Another excerpt from the article cited above really gets this point across when talking about guest hosts:

“Our experienced guests tend to focus on the product. But our best guests are focused on the viewer. Is this for the viewer? Everything goes through that filter. And if you do that, everything comes out more naturally.”

Here at Moz, there may be Whiteboard Friday hosts you especially enjoy learning from. As a business owner or marketer, your job will be to identify talented people who can blend your brand culture with consumer research and translate that into a form of vending infotainment that succeeds with your particular shoppers. Successful QVC hosts make upwards of $500,000 a year for being so good at what they do.

Being good, in the sweater sample, means pairing QVC’s customer-centric, conversational selling method with USPs and an aura of scarcity. I’ll paraphrase the cues I heard:

“These sweaters are made exclusively for QVC” — a USP regarding rarity.

“Enjoy visiting Ireland, but buy your sweaters on QVC” — this is a strong USP based on having better prices than a traveler would find if buying direct from the manufacturer.

“Reviews read like a love letter to this sweater” — incorporating persuasive UGC into the pitch.

“Half of our supply is already gone; don’t wait to order if you want one of these” —- this creates a sense of urgency to prompt customers to buy right away.

Analytics

The example presentation probably looked quite seamless and simple to you. But what’s actually going on “behind the scenes” of a QVC sales segment is that the host is receiving earpiece cues on exactly how to shape the pitch.

QVC’s analytics track what’s called a “feverline” of reaction to each word the host says and each movement they make. Producers can tell in real time which verbal signals and gestures are causing sales spikes, and communicate to the host to repeat them. One host, for example, dances repeatedly while demoing food products because more customers buy when he does so.

For most of the brands you market, you’re not likely to be called upon to deliver analytical data on par with QVC’s mission control-style setup, but you will want to learn about video analytics and do A/B testing to measure performance of product pages with video vs. those with static images. As you progress, analytics should be able to tell you which hosts, guests, and products are yielding the best ROI.

Three O2O advantages

In a large 2020 survey of local business owners and marketers, Moz found that more than half of respondents intend to maintain pandemic-era services of convenience beyond the hoped-for end of COVID-19. I’d expect this number to be even higher if we reran the survey in mid-2021. Online-to-offline shopping falls in this category and readers of my column know I’m always looking for advantages specific to local businesses.

I see three ways local brands have a leg up on their virtual e-commerce cousins, including behemoths like Amazon and even QVC:

1. Limited local competition = better SERP visibility

Virtual e-commerce brands have to compete against a whole country or the world for SERP visibility. Google Shopping’s “available nearby” filter cuts your market down to local map-size, making it easier to capture the attention of customers nearest your business. If you’re one of the only local brands supporting sales of your goods and services via videos on your website, you’re really going to stand out in the cities you serve.

2. Limited local inventory = more convincing authenticity

QVC is certainly an impressive enterprise, but one drawback of their methodology, at least in my eyes, is that their hosts have to be endlessly excited about millions of products. The same host who is exuding enthusiasm one minute over an electric toothbrush is breathless with admiration over a flameless candle the next. While QVC’s amazingly loyal customers are clearly not put off by the bottomless supply of energy over every single product sold, I find I don’t quite believe that the joy is continuously genuine. In my recognition of the sales pitch tactics, the company feels big and remote to me.

70% of Americans say they want to shop small. Your advantage in marketing a local business is that it will have limited inventory and an owner and staff who can realistically convey authenticity to the video viewer about products the business has hand-selected to sell. A big chain supermarket wants me to believe all of its apples are crisp, but my local farmer telling me in a product video that this year’s crop is crisper than last year’s makes a world of believable difference.

3. Even a small boost in conversions = a big difference for local brands

Backlinko recently compiled this list of exciting video marketing statistics that I hope you’ll read in full. I want to excerpt a few that really caught my eye:

84% of consumers cite video as the convincing factor in purchases

Product videos can help e-commerce stores increase sales by up to 144%

96% of people have watched an explainer video to better understand a product they’re evaluating

The Local Search Association found that 53% of people contact a business after watching one of their videos and 71% of people who made a purchase had watched an online video from that brand

Including filmed content on an e-commerce page can increase the average order value by 50+%

Video on a landing page can grow its conversion rate by up to 80%

If the company you’re promoting is one of the only ones in your local market to seize the opportunities hinted at by these statistics, think of what a difference it would make to see conversions (including leads and sales) rise by even a fraction of these numbers. Moreover, if the standout UX and helpfulness of the “v-commerce” environment you create makes you memorable to customers, you could grow local loyalty to new levels as the best resource in a community, generating a recipe for retention that, if not quite as astonishing as QVC’s, is pretty amazing for your region.

Go n-éirí leat — good luck!

Like you, I’m longing for the time when all customers can safely return to shopping locally in-person, but I do agree with fellow analysts predicting that the taste we’ve gotten for the convenience of shipping and local home delivery, curbside pickup, and tele-meetings is one that consumers won’t simply abandon.

Sales videos tackle one of digital marketing’s largest challenges by letting customers see people interacting with products when they can’t do it themselves, and 2021 is a good year to begin your investigation of this promising medium. My top tip is to spend some time this week watching QVC on TV and examining how they’ve parlayed live broadcasts into static

product videos that sell inventory like hotcakes on their website. I’m wishing you the luck and intrepidity of the Irish in your video ventures!

Ready to learn more about video marketing? Try these resources:

17 Best Ecommerce Product Video Examples

The ABCs of Video Content

8 Beginner Tips for Making Professional-Looking Videos

How to Film Creative Product Videos

YouTube Dominates Google Video in 2020

How to Track YouTube Videos in Google Analytics Using Google Tag Manager in 4 Steps

Need to learn more about local search marketing before you start filming yourself and your products? Read The Essential Local SEO Strategy Guide.