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greyias · 5 years

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OC Asks 3. How did you choose their name?

Also asked by @captainderyn

Hahahahaha… okay, the short answer?: I’m an idiot. I didn’t realize I was going to love this game or this character as much as I did.

The long answer, well, I’ve alluded to it once or twice in the past, but I guess I should actually delve into it for real. But under a cut, because it’s probably going to get long.

I’m not sure if this should come with any kind of warning, but it’s kind of long and does delve into some personal stuff. So hopefully that doesn’t bother anyone!

Okay, so, when I first heard about this game in 2011, I had been out of fandom for several years, and had played a few MMOs here and there, but never really got into them for very long, mostly because I got bored very quickly with how repetitive they were. And then I read about this supposedly story and character-driven MMO, and I was intrigued. I was talking to my sister-in-law at the time about it, and ultimately realized I’d never be able to play because I didn’t have a PC capable of running it, and I was heavily into debt because of medical issues, to the point where I was having a difficult time affording my car payment, mortgage, and groceries.

So then Christmas rolls around, and my family has just about finished all of the presents when my brother and his wife go and bring in a special gift they’d been working on for several months: a frankensteined gaming PC that had one game installed on it, with several months of a subscription pre-paid: Star Wars the Old Republic

Needless to say, I was kind of bawling because no one had ever done something that nice to me before. And like? It’s kind of hard to describe what that previous year had been like without having a long, long side story but… it was difficult. It kind of sounds melodramatic to say it was hellish, but looking back on it? It kind of was. I was barely doing anything besides surviving, much less having fun. And here my sister-in-law had actually listened to a one-off conversation about how I was interested in this game but probably would never be able to play it, and like… took it upon herself to make that happen.

So of course the first thing I do is hook up my brand FrankenPC, load up the only game on it, and create a character! But it’s a MMO – and even though it’s billed on being story and character-based, I kind of don’t really believe it? Or at least don’t think my character is going to matter. So I do what I did with every other MMO, I used my online nickname to make a character (Greyias) so my friends can recognize me if they’re in-game, create a character that vaguely looks like me, and get to adventuring!

The last name came when they rolled out legacies, and hey, I used “Highwind” for my short-lived Pirates of the Caribbean MMO toon. It’s also the last name for one of the main characters in my abandoned steampunk novel series, but that’s another story for another time.

(And then after about three days of learning the mechancis, re-roll said character on a different server, because OOPS! That wasn’t the server my brother and sister-in-law had started their guild on. She looked a little less like me this time. Probably should have changed the name, but I just wanted to see how the story turned out and eventually quest with my fam)

I realized my mistake around Coruscant when Kira joined up as a companion and I went “…uh oh.”

Because I’ve started to recognize I get a certain feeling when I like something, really like something to the point when I get… ideas. Story ideas. Character conversations and wondering “what if”. Of course, this is still in the open beta period, the game hasn’t even launched yet, there’s still long queues to log in and the grind is real, and I just want to see where this story is going and what Darth Angral is going to do, and why is this character so damn sincere and genuine and I don’t like characters that are the literal embodiment of sunshine, I like snarky snarksters and–oh. No I actually do like the Sunshine Jedi. A lot.

Now, a few of you may be like “I really don’t see what the problem is” – this is kind of an old school thing, and something that seems to have thankfully gotten a lot of pushback in the time since I had left fandom and the time since I rejoined it, and that is: The Dreaded Mary Sue

From about the time I had started writing fic when I was in my early teens and onwards it had been drilled into my head that Mary Sues were a bad thing. And self-inserts were worse. Especially if they were *gasp* FEMALE CHARACTERS. (We can’t have those girls having characters they identify with now, can we?) And like, those very relevant discussions aside, I was kind of… ashamed? That I had made a self-insert without realizing it? Despite the fact that like, the character that resulted from my playthrough was very much not me. Like, a significantly different person.

But I was starting to get story ideas and snatches of character bits, and like, I hadn’t written in so long, I hadn’t been inspired in so long. And honestly I just loved this little do-gooder goober, in all of her naive, happy-go-lucky glory. As well as her red-headed sidekick and this amazing dynamic that I had only really seen depicted between male characters previously. And so I promised myself if I got a story idea, I’d write it out and… just change Grey’s name to something else. So no one would know my secret crime, and I would be free, freeeee to scribble in the margins of canon.

It was a great plan, except, I had been playing with subtitles for the game on, so every time Grey would speak, her name would appear above it. And wouldn’t you know? I associated that name with that face, and well, I didn’t get that story idea yet, so it was. Fine I tell you. FINE.

I kept playing the game. In fact, I played the game a lot in the middle part of 2012, because wouldn’t you know? I had another round of medical issues that put me on short term disability and I actually had to retrain my body to sit in a chair for long periods of time (look, it’s a really long story, and this post is long enough as it is). So let’s just say… I got really attached to my little Sunshine Jedi who could go out and save the galaxy when I could barely walk a hundred feet.

And continued to play it off and on over the following years, until finally, finally the devs removed the grind wall in preparation for KotFE, and I was able to finish the Jedi Knight storyline and see where her story ended up. Then I played the next expansion on Makeb. Which was fun. Then I made the mistake that we all know I was eventually going to make: I played Shadow of Revan.

And met Theron fucking Shan. And my perfect little Jedi suddenly fell in love and oh crap. I’m escaping out of cutscenes to rewatch them. Like rewatching them an absurd amount of times. And as I’m going to sleep I’m like, getting entire bits of narration and brand new scenes and fic ideas in my head, and oh god. It finally happened. I try and resist the pull, but I play up through KotFE and I have no more story to stall any more. And the snippets just keep lulling me to sleep every night and… okay.

I probably need to rename this character now. Like, there’s an actual ability to do that in-game so I should get to it. Chop chop.

Nothing works. Nothing at all works. This should not be that hard, she can have any name, no one will know. Why can’t I think of a different name? I go to every single name site known to man, and none of them are her. Besides the fact, that’s her name, and I’m starting to feel kind of guilty for taking it away from her. Poor girl has been through so much in canon and now I’m taking away her name? What kind of monster am I? Okay, fine. I roll up a different Knight during the Dark vs Light event, gave that one an actual name that was not my online writer name just to see if I could trick my brain into writing about them.

Nope.

Maybe I’ll change my online name? “Let her keep the name Grey and I can just have a different name and…” – at this point I’m starting to realize I might be getting slightly neurotic over this whole thing.

Completely annoyed with myself for spending nearly a year trying to come up with a new name I’m starting to get desperate, thinking up ways to maybe just… write around it and not let people know her name until they maybe fall in love with her and hopefully just forget how it’s weird. That can work right? Okay, whatever at least I’m writing and it’s shutting these two up, and it’s all going good for several stories in and then suddenly I get to a scene that has more than one female character and I’m like “Shit… the jig is up.”

Meanwhile, I’ve started up a Dragon Age Origins playthrough, and like a dumbass, DO THE EXACT SAME THING with a female Cousland, and start whining to poor @for-the-flail on Twitter, on my fainting couch about how I can never write this character’s name because I named her after myself, and, bless her heart, she’s just like: “…um. Why?”

And I’m like “Because… we share a name… and that’s weird for people…?”

She goes “It’s not that weird. Why don’t you just write your stories? People will like them or not.”

And sheepishly, I realized she was right, and stopped being so diligent about hiding poor Grey’s name, and eventually, because you are all such lovely and encouraging people, eventually embraced it. (Come to think of it, I never did wind up writing about poor Cousland!Grey. Oops.)

So! That’s the long and ramble story of how she got her name and why it never changed despite my best efforts.

In summary: I’m an idiot 🤷‍♀️ but I think you guys love me anyway?

#thank you for the ask!#oc: greyias highwind #oc asks #honekitteh #captainderyn #sorry this was so long

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moviegroovies · 5 years

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you know, i saw flatliners (2017) when it came out, but i never got around to watching the original until tonight. now that i HAVE seen it, i think i can safely say that the original was really good! it also, unfortunately, made me like the remake a little less than i did before.

i’ve been on a kiefer sutherland kick, if you can’t tell from all the fuckin’ lost boys posts. in that movie, and in a pretty big chunk of his earlier roles, sutherland plays an aggressive gang-member type, the express antagonist for the film. flatliners was a departure from that for him... but not that much of one.

the thing about kiefer sutherland is that i’ve yet to watch a movie where his character isn’t loud and aggressive at some point. even young guns, which has him play the softest & most affable of the guys in the gang, has some uncomfortable scenes where he’s just altogether frightening toward a girl with some obvious trauma, made worse by the fact that she’s ostensibly his love interest. i’m not here to pass judgement on how that translates to kiefer’s behavior in real life; it’s just something i’ve noticed. well, in flatliners, that trend wasn’t exactly kicked to the curb. his character in this movie is nice enough, an ambitious doctor with a calling to break the next great barrier of our time, and also... kind of a terrible person.

i’ve never been one for the “ambition is evil” trope, but this movie definitely plays with it. kiefer’s character nelson isn’t evil, not really, but he has a troubled past that is revealed as the movie goes on: apparently, at age 9, nelson’s bullying of another boy from his neighborhood saw him responsible for the child’s accidental death, as well as the crippling of his own dog. nelson was taken away from his family for this, and, though he says he thought the punishment he suffered after the fact had been atonement enough for what he did, it’s clear that there was an element of guilt attached to the act that never left him alone. in fact, the common thread that binds together the four main characters who flatline over the course of the film is that guilt--one way or another, each of them has done something they have to carry with them, and when they “die,” they come back unable to repress or excuse these things like they were once able to. aside from nelson’s manslaughter, the film also deals with joe (william baldwin) filming his sexual encounters with women without their consent, rachel’s (julia roberts) feelings of culpability in her father’s suicide, and david’s (kevin bacon) history of bullying a black girl who went to grade school with him.

the way that the remake treats the guilt/“crimes” each of its protagonists are carrying with them is the major point on which it departs from the original. in the original, two of the characters, david and rachel, deal with pain relating to people in their lives who are dead--whether they are actually culpable (as david is) or not (like rachel). additionally, joe’s guilt, while it does involve people who are still alive, deals with something that, for most of the film, only he knows about--how can you atone for something that no one holds you accountable for? the only one of the characters in the remake dealing with a similar guilt is ellen page’s character courtney, who feels responsible for the death of her sister in a car crash. the thing is (spoiler!), ellen page’s character is also the only character who dies.

now, i’m going to be upfront with the fact that it’s been a while since i watched the new flatliners, and unlike the original, i’ve only seen it once, so the details are fuzzy. if i get something wrong in my recollection, please be gentle and ascribe the error to human imperfection, lol.

that being said, i feel like the remake fundamentally misunderstood what made the original a great film, trying to remake it in a genre it was never meant to occupy, and as a result, it turned what should have been a suspenseful, thought-provoking story of error and redemption into... just another cookie-cutter horror movie with a nostalgic name. the ways the two movies deal with the guilt their characters face are fundamentally opposed; in the original, only one of the four characters who flatline face the person they wronged physically and apologizes. david, yes, goes to winnie hicks and tells her he was wrong for doing what he did to her in their youth, and when she accepts his apology and sees that he’s genuinely a changed person, he gets a moment of catharsis that’s similar to the one that seemed to be repeated in different forms throughout the remake. however, joe, nelson, and rachel have no such opportunity. in the remake, neither does courtney... and courtney dies.

that’s the difference that bugs me. never mind the way that the remake changed the nature of flatlining itself (as far as i can remember, unlike the 1990 flatliners, the 2017 version has actual demons/monsters/creatures/ghosts/whatever follow the protagonists out of their trip, which always felt like a strange turn from what started as a psuedo-scientific film, and seems even stranger when you compare it to the scene in the original where david finds nelson struggling against himself in the van, implying that the manifestation of billy mahoney that we and nelson had encountered was, in fact, a product of nelson’s guilty conscience), the thing that really fucking gets me is that the remake gives its characters one way to make amends: apologize to the person you wronged, and if you can’t, then you die.

honestly, the nuance the original showed, the way that joe couldn’t ever really fix what he did to those girls, the way that nelson didn’t easily give himself over to regret, even mocking billy mahoney at his grave (“wake up, you little shit, you’ve got company!”), the way that rachel had no real reason to feel guilt for her father’s death except for the fact that it’s easy for a child to take the blame for something that’s out of their hands; all of that was what made the film good for me, and all of that is what i think the makers of the remake sort of missed. a 2017 reimagining of flatliners could have been really incredible; i’ve seen many posts praising the inclusivity of the cast (and yeah, after the original’s sausage party with one token female and no people of color whatsoever, the cast of the remake is a breath of fresh air), and i think that advances in science in the 27 years between the two films could have made the psuedoscience the original thrived on a little more believable. however, when it came down to the heart of the thing, the same understanding of them human psyche just wasn’t there--and honestly, i don’t think it was ever supposed to be.

in comparison, flatliners 2017 just felt cheap.

that’s just my two cents in hindsight, though. i think, coming out of the theater, i really did like the film... it just didn’t hold up the way i feel flatliners 1990 has.

i don’t want to end on a bitchy note, so let me just say a few more things i admired about the original while i’m pouring my heart out. basically: i loved julia roberts’ hair and general Look in this film, i liked the subplot with david the atheist reaching a point where he rallied against god for nelson’s life at the end, and i really enjoyed nelson’s entire plotline, the way he teetered on the edge of batshit crazy without ever quite taking the plunge. from the beginning nelson is set up as an ambitious genius, a real victor frankenstein type, and his pride definitely gets the better of him multiple times throughout the film. despite being a promising student in their medical school, nelson is never very professional in the resuscitation when anyone else is flatlining; he pounds joe’s chest when he doesn’t immediately respond to the cpr, he goes on a little bit of a power trip and plays with david’s life, and he very nearly injects rachel with a fatal dose when the defibrillators short circuit. additionally, when rachel insists on getting a try at flatlining and is backed by the rest of nelson’s handpicked team, he accuses them all of being tourists riding his coattails. he’s kind of messy, and never exactly nice. it fucking ASTOUNDED me that he got to live at the end of the movie, but honestly, i’m really glad he did. as we got to know more about him, it was clear to me that nelson was generally a person with his heart in the right place, acting out of residual trauma and a pretty obvious dose of jealousy. there were always signs that he wasn’t all bad, though: he let the others take over with joe when his way wasn’t working, he listened to steckle and david and refrained from injecting rachel with the stuff he was certain would save her, and by the end, his remorse for his act which killed billy was so genuine that he was willing to kill himself to make amends. in general, i think that nelson was clearly a more troubled and gray-moraled person than page’s courtney, but he was a character in a movie with more forgiveness for wrongs done, and the end product was kind of fantastic.

anyway, fuck all of this. must a movie be good? is it not enough to see kiefer sutherland, unhinged?

#flatliners #flatliners (1990)#flatliners (2017)#text post #okay so i shat on 2017 a LOT but i will say i fucking love diego luna he can do no wrong okay goodnight #full disclosure i think that by the end kiefer was looking SO sexy in that movie so if you're like #'did you really think it was a better movie or do you just want kiefer with all those facial scars to fuck your brains out'#i don't honestly. have an answer for you #'that's the wrong reason.' 'it's the right idea'#lol

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weremarkable · 5 years

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Armie's interview that will set the tongues wagging

Can't believe they're not sharing pictures of Armie splayed across the bed! 😞

When I walk into Armie Hammer’s suite at New York’s Crosby Hotel, Hammer is splayed across the be. It’s the middle of the day on a Saturday, and Hammer is still fully dressed in a maroon sweater, black jeans, and sneakers. “I’m not going to be laying down here during the interview, I promise,” he says. “This is going to be like therapy — I’m going to lay down on the couch.” In one fluid motion, the six-foot-five actor peels himself off the bed and relocates to the couch, kicks up his feet, and smiles. “Can we talk about my deepest fears?” he deadpans.

We’re in his suite to talk about something similarly daunting: Hammer’s new movie, Hotel Mumbai, in which he plays a tourist on holiday in Mumbai with his wife (Nazanin Boniadi) and baby when a series of terrorist attacks begin to unfold across the city. Directed by Anthony Maras, the film is based on the real 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, and though many of the characters (including Hammer’s) are composites (rather than based on real victims), the film is a bleak, difficult watch. It’s also something of a departure for Hammer, who’s beloved in the public imagination for cavorting sexily through Italy with Timothée Chalamet.

So perhaps it’s appropriate that we’re talking about Hotel Mumbai in patient-therapist format. We also delve into some less-bleak subject matters: the status of Call Me by Your Name’s much-anticipated sequel, whether Hammer is going to play the Invisible Man or Batman, and why he’s suddenly gone quiet on social media.

Hotel Mumbai is a very dark, very violent film. Why take it?

The script was incredible. Brutal. It was just dripping with humanity. And I saw a few of Anthony’s short films, and he made a short film called The Palace that was so fucking intense that I literally had to pause it at one point and stand up and pace around the room. And be like, “What is he doing? Why is he doing this to me? This is a personal attack! I’m being attacked by this man and this direction!” And I thought, If he can do this in a short …

How were you able to get in and out of this really dark place on set?

I had no choice, really. You’re being pursued by men with guns, screaming at you in a language you don’t understand, running through smoke-filled corridors. It felt really firsthand. And also, it was a very serious set. And not just because the subject matter is so intense, but because we all couldn’t help but just feel and be reminded that people had really gone through this. And they didn’t have the luxury of yelling “Cut!” when things got too intense for them. It was really somber, and the way we dealt with that was to celebrate each other’s presence at night. We’d go to dinner and just sit and have meals and talk and just laugh and joke and have wine, and really try to enjoy life, knowing that these people didn’t have that opportunity. We were filming in a situation where the idea of life felt really fleeting, so we tried to make the best of it at night.

Was your family on set?

Elizabeth [Chambers, Hammer’s wife] was there. Harper [Hammer’s daughter] was there. Not on set on set, because there was a lot of gunfire and blood. Elizabeth was like, “Aah, I don’t want to do this.” And Harper is so young, I don’t want to subject her to that.

You’re subjected to some serious violence in this movie. Was it particularly upsetting for Elizabeth or your family to see you in this one?

The overall violence was more upsetting than [mine] specifically. Just feeling like you were in a first-person terror attack was really jarring. So it was about the bigger issue more than me — that this shit happens, and that fucking sucks. It just happened again [in New Zealand]. How about we just stop fucking shooting each other? Antiquated, extremist ideas. Xenophobic philosophies. Extremism, indoctrination. Enough. It’s so dumb.

You’ve been pretty politically outspoken on Instagram and Twitter, but lately you’ve gone quiet. What’s that about?

Healthy emotional boundaries.

When did you put those up?

Not soon enough. [Laughs.] It was fun for a while, the whole social media thing — “I can say whatever I want,” “Ooh, that got me in trouble,” “Oh, I can say this,” “Ooh, that got me in trouble, too.” It’s a dangerous dance partner. You might have a moment of fun dancing, and then it’s gonna stomp on your feet. I’m just like, I’m getting too old for this shit. I’m done.

Was there a specific moment where you were like, “I’m done”?

No, it was kind of gradual. It was a generalized thing, built up of specific moments.

Like when you were fighting with Jeffrey Dean Morgan?

Yeah. Part of me was like, “Oh, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, really, lashing out here? Methinks thou doth protest too much, my man! Do you feel guilty about posting a picture of you and Stan Lee after he died?” [Laughs.]

I heard a rumor someone lost a hand while filming Hotel Mumbai

No, the director lost a thumb! He stuck it into a fan by accident. In India, they don’t have the same safety precautions; they don’t have OSHA. He tried to move a fan that didn’t have a grate over it. His thumb went into it and it just went [makes the noise of a thumb being cut off by a fan]. It shot blood everywhere. And Dev [Patel] ended up finding the thumb on the floor; they ran on foot to a hospital. Tried to reattach it, and they couldn’t.

He has no thumb?

He’s got, like, half a thumb.

How long did it take to start filming again?

He was out for three days in the hospital, and finished directing the movie from a hospital gurney on set.

Holy shit, really?

Yeah, it was hilarious. This was toward the end of the movie.

I have to ask about the Call Me by Your Name sequel. It’s in my contract.

Is it really?

No, but we do care so much. So what’s the latest?

Timmy’s out! I’m not sure why. Timmy said the only way he’d do it is if they paid him $15 million. [Laughs.] No, the truth is, there have been really loose conversations about it, but at the end of the day — I’m sort of coming around to the idea that the first one was so special for everyone who made it, and so many people who watched it felt like it really touched them, or spoke to them. And it felt like a really perfect storm of so many things, that if we do make a second one, I think we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment. I don’t know that anything will match up to the first, you know?

The experience of filming it, or the movie itself?

Both.

Do Timmy and Luca feel that way, too?

I don’t know. I haven’t had that conversation with them explicitly. But I mean, look. If we end up with an incredible script, and Timmy’s in, and Luca’s in, I’d be an asshole to say no. But at the same time, I’m like, That was such a special thing, why don’t we just leave that alone?

That’s new, though, because you’ve said for a while now that you guys were saying it was definitely happening. What shifted for you?

I’m not sure that it was ever really definitely going to happen. People just seemed so excited about it that we were like, “Oh, yeah, fuck it! We’ll do it, sure!” [Turns to publicist.] Was it ever really like, real real

Publicist: I think it’s not real until it is.

Hammer: It’s not real until it is. And I won’t do it for less than, uh, $10 million! [Laughs loudly.]

So there’s no script or concrete plans.

No. I was talking to Luca, and he was like, “I think it might be fun to do this, or it might be fun to do this!” And I was like, “Those all sound like great ideas!” But that’s as real as it is right now. And I was joking about $10 million. I want $12 million.

Okay, I’ll make sure to write that down.

$12.5 million actually. Let’s go $12.5 million. Plus 10 percent commission for my agent. [Laughs.]

When was the last time you talked to Timmy and Luca?

Timmy and I texted yesterday. Luca, I talked to him the day of the Indie Spirit Awards.

The last time you spoke to Vulture, you did this great profile with Kyle Buchanan. And you spoke about how, in certain ways, you had fallen in love with Luca on set. When he read that profile, what was his response to it?

It didn’t really come up. But it was the thing we both felt. It’s not like he read it and was surprised. He was like, Aw, nice of you to say. I feel the same way. It’s a really intense process to make a movie in a foreign country. And when you do it with people you really resonate with, it forms a special bond.

I’m really excited about your upcoming remake of Rebecca. How are you going to make your version of Maxim de Winter different, Armie Hammer–ish?

Well, he’s going to look like me. It’s funny because we’re still really getting into it. There’s a new draft of the script coming up soon, and Ben [Wheatley] is such an amazing director and so collaborative that I feel like we’re going to come up with something really interesting and different than the Laurence Olivier version. With that being said, we haven’t started getting into it yet. It’s a couple months out; we’re filming this summer.

And what about these Invisible Man rumors?

I recently read those myself! What is the Invisible Man?

It’s part of Universal’s Dark Universe.

What is the Dark Universe?

They tried to build a franchise around their classic monsters, like Frankenstein.

Okay. I don’t know what that is. I’m not against it! So it’s a peripheral universe?

They had these big plans to create a universe, and it failed, and there are rumors they’re trying to restart it again … with you.

Shows you how much they’ve talked to me about it. I haven’t heard anything about it from anyone who makes actual decisions. I read about it online: “Armie Hammer might play the Invisible Man.” I was like, “Okay! Do I have to be in it?”

That’s true, because you’re invisible.

I know, that’s the thing! Voice-over job? That would be so easy. I would do that in a second.

You could literally phone it in.

I would literally phone it in!

Do you have a Google alert for yourself?

No, no, no. That’s part of the healthy emotional boundaries. I feel like a lot of the things on the internet, like Twitter, are largely populated by the people that go on Yelp and write one-star reviews just to be like, “Fuck that place!” I don’t want to take the brunt of that. I used to. Full disclosure, I used to have a Google alert for myself, and search myself on Twitter. It never gave me anything other than anxiety, so I was like, ��Maybe it’s best to just not do this.” If you don’t Google yourself, and you don’t know about something, it doesn’t exist at all.

Though you did know about the Invisible Man.

I did. Because I get asked about that, and also about Batman: “Are you gonna do Batman?” I’m like, “No …” They’re like, “Are you gonna do the Invisible Man?” And I’m like, “Who is making these calls?! No!”

Which man will you be, Armie?

The bat or the invisible? But, no, neither.

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thenightling · 6 years

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My Fictional Character obsessions as depicted in gifs

My obsessions from age ten onward as depicted in gifs. Some of these characters have alternated in cycles over the years. The ones with the * next to them are ones that have stood the test of time or are particularly strong obsessions. I am not posting them in a particular order, that would take too long to sort out and may change depending on my mood, however the current strongest obsession is at the bottom.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my fictional character obsessions through the years... Or as Tumblr calls them... My “Garbage children.”

Note: I know only some of them count as “garbage children.” So please don’t be offended that I may have called your favorite character a garbage child.

Rumplestiltskin as depicted in the show Once Upon a Time, particularly seasons 1 through 3.

*Loki from Norse mythology and Marvel comics. Tom Hiddleston is a great actor but I felt I should note that the MCU version is slightly disappointing, I wish they wouldn’t downplay the magick and try to pass them off as “alien.”

*Dracula. There are many depictions of Dracula that I am fond of / obsessed with. Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula books for example, The Frank Wildhorn Dracula musical, and a few movie and TV versions.

I love the 90s Dracula TV series even though he’s blond in that (not to be confused with the awful NBC show version from the twenty teens) but I have no Gifs of the 90s one. Nor do I have any gifs of Rudolf Martin as Dracula in Buffy or Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula though I love that one. But here’s the most recent version to feed my obsession. Dracula of Castlevania (The Netflix series). Look at that Adorkable vampire!

*Jack Skellington of Nightmare before Christmas was one of my first truly all-consuming obsessions. I played the cassette of the soundtrack to death. I had a shelf of the toys (which were actually rare in the early 90s). I became fixated on Danny Elfman’s singing voice as well as the gorgeous and haunting visuals.

Sally, who helped kindle my first Frankenstein obsession because until then I had never seen an intelligent Frankenstein monster. I hadn’t yet learned that in the original novel he was articulate (once he learned how to speak) and intelligent, and did not have a flat head or neck bolts. Sally and later The Bride (1985 movie) eventually got me to read the novel and pointed me in the right direction.

The ORIGINAL Peter Vincent from Fright Night, as played by Roddy McDowell. I loved his character growth. I loved watching him go from cowardly pretender to being the hero he always pretended to be and still having that B movie cheese to him. Peter Vincent is my favorite vampire hunter. Named after two of my favorite horror movie actors. Peter Cushing and Vincent Price.

Lestat. Yes, I went through an Anne Rice obsession in my teens. What 90s teenager didn’t?

The Dresden Files TV series, particularly Bob The Ghost AKA Hrothbert of Bainbridge as played by Broadway great, Terrence Mann. Though short lived I loved that snarky ghost and this introduced me to the book series. It was also the first TV series I enjoyed after my mother passed away so it has a special bittersweet place in my heart.

Another ghost character I love but I have no picture for him is Captain Gregg from the novel, movie, and TV show The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. And Patrick Stewart as The Canterville Ghost from 1995 (as well as the original Oscar Wilde Story).

Jareth from Labyrinth (and David Bowie). Does he need an explanation?

Morbius from Marvel comics. Because I just loved that emo SOB.

Nick on Forever Knight. I went through an emo vampire phase in the 90s, okay...

The Doctor on Doctor Who

Methos from Highlander the series. Highlander the series was a LOT better than people give it credit for. And Methos was the first fictional character with a truly dark past I had ever seen, who mostly became a decent person after years of penance and self analysis. It was through Highlander that I finally saw fiction and characters with shades of grey and realized things aren’t always black and white. When they revealed Methos’ dark past I was so worried it was an excuse to kill him off and show that he was secretly evil all along but no. They didn’t do that. Highlander taught me just how much people CAN change. And it also taught me a lot about history and inspired me to be curious about our world and its past. (It also often helped me with Social Studies tests.)

Frank Langella as Dracula.

Faust from Goethe’s Faust. (The 1926 silent film is the most faithful adaptation and actually covers Faust and Faust Part 2. Most adaptations leave out Part 2).

Thomas Jerome Newton from The Man who fell to Earth. Movie and novel by Walter Tevis. Yes, depicted in the movie by David Bowie... You’re lucky Bowie doesn’t turn up more in this list than he already does.

Maleficent. This one is kind of a guilty pleasure...

As a long time book lover (One the first books I remember reading and loving was In a Dark Dark Room by Alvin Shwartz at age four...) Belle from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was the first Disney Princess I truly related to.

Elisa and “Charlie” from The Shape of Water.

The Beast / Prince and Belle in Le Belle et la Bete original 1740 novel and the 2014 French film (even though that film isn’t all that faithful and Belle is a little cold, I love the visuals).

*Luke Goss as the Frankenstein Monster from the 2004 Hallmark mini-series of Frankenstein. The most faithful adaptation of the novel to date. Woefully under-rated. Note, this spot is for the literary character too.

*Puck from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream AND Disney’s Gargoyles. I love that little bastard.

Mina and Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992 film)

Emily The Corpse Bride. Also pretty much anything scored by Danny Elfman gets a slight nod here. I love that man’s music. It just catches me. And I always can tell when it’s one of his scores (And no, I don’t think they all sound the same). They’re just so beautiful and haunting.

The Frankenstein Monster in Penny Dreadful. The second most accurate to the novel. They even go the eyes right.

The Real Ghostbusters animated series. Egon is what inspired me to want to study parapsychology. I loved the nerd characters in shows like this.

Barnabas Collins in the original Dark Shadows. And 1990s version. And Doctor Julia Hoffman, a surprisingly empowered character for a 1960s TV show, which is why it annoys me that more “modern” versions always make her sexually obsessed with Barnabas or a villain or both whereas in the original show she was Barnabas’ closest confidant and even the one Barnabas cried out for whenever he was in trouble. (Admittedly it took hundreds of episodes for them to develop that dynamic but they got there).

Lucifer. TV show incarnation and Sandman comics incarnation.

Cain and The House of Mystery (The House of Mystery counts as a character)

*Morpheus from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. My current biggest obsession. I’m making up for lost time. This is something I SHOULD have been obsessed with in my teens. I’m thirty-six-years-old and was thirty-five-years-old when I read it for the first time. Why the Hell did no one describe this thing well to me back in the 90s!? Yes, Sandman started when I was only seven-years-old but it was most popular in the mid-90s and I would have probably loved it if I only really knew what it was all about. Instead it was always “He’s like a Goth Jareth” (which almost worked) and “You’ll love Death! She’s so cute!” (which totally didn’t work at all...) Don’t protect me from spoilers, damn it! Tell me about his character growth, the gorgeous artwork, the horror hosts residing in The Dreaming, tell me about the mythology and Shakespeare references, the lore, tell me about the ambiance, the atmosphere, the humor and pathos. For God’s sake, I SHOULD have loved this thing a LONG time ago!

You’d be amazed how hard it is to find a gif of Morpheus- he’s never had a film or TV adaptation but there are fan films! (The gif is from The Sandman fan film, 24 Hour Diner).

________________________________

Honorable mentions:

Lydia from the Beetlejuice animated series (My mother’s best friend often compared me to her but I think I had a crush on the character...)

Xena: Warrior Princess (when I figured out I’m not entirely straight). Though I think I liked Gabrielle a little more than Xena, herself.

The mermaid in She-Creature (2001 film, not the black and white film of the same name)

The Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt.

Carmilla (vampire novella and Hammer horror film The Vampire Lovers)

Duncan Macleod from Highlander the series.

Various characters from Buffy The Vampire Slayer (TV series) including Buffy herself, Giles and Spike.

Doctor Strange (And in relation to that, Doctor Craven from the Vincent Price movie The Raven from 1963.)

Bruce “David” Banner in The Incredible Hulk, particularly as depicted by Bill Bixby. Though that was more of a role model personality type that I saw as a truly good man in a bad situation.

Dorian Gray from the Picture of Dorian Gray

Elisa in Disney’s Gargoyles but I idolized her more than obsessed about her. There is a difference.

The reason those aren’t properly on the list is because those aren’t precisely obsessions but just characters I happened to really like a lot.

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him-e · 6 years

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It bothers me people complaining about Luke in tlj, I know int the ot he's this hopeful hero and I know the character is iconic but you can't expect Luke to be the same before and after rotj, I mean, Vader death and redemption affected him, becoming a master affected him, Ben and the rise of the first order affected him. If they have put a Luke that was the same than in ep iv it wouldn't be realistic, Luke has grown, it's not the same 19 years old boy

Sometimes growth weighs you down, instead than lifting you up. Also, I feel like this sort of (not really) antiheroic-anticlimatic approach is just par for the course with the setup for this new trilogy. The OT’s curtains closed on such a finite, unequivocal happy ending that a sequel trilogy couldn’t be anything but disruptive of this happiness and fulfillment not only on a galactic scale, but on a personal level too. (after all, the “star wars” in star wars are all but a backdrop to this huge familial drama, aren’t they?)

You have what’s basically a carbon copy of the old Empire on the rise, and this happens despite the fact that our heroes have been in charge of the galaxy for all these years. So what went wrong this time? Because, obviously, something DID go wrong. And this time you no longer have the Jedi Order or the corrupted Republic of the prequels to blame. By signing up to the entire premise that kickstarts TFA, you must know you’re going to be faced with some hard truths, uncomfortable truths about your heroes, sooner or later.

and like, I’m a major Kylo/Ben stan and even I don’t think that Luke’s misstep destroys his characterization. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t devastating from Ben’s perspective, because it was—waking up to your uncle and most powerful jedi in the galaxy hovering on you with his lightsaber ignited because he’s afraid of you? TERRIFYING. Twice as traumatizing if you consider that Ben’s parents (from his perspective) gave up on him and passed him off to Luke, so the moment when Luke, the last person entrusted with his *soul*, no longer thinks he can be saved, is the moment when Ben just stops fighting and lets his shadow loose (and for god’s sake, I can’t stop thinking about this, it’s haunting me. when did this account become so deep).

But on Luke’s part, it’s just human. A human error.

And to be clear I think there’s a fundamental difference between the joyous, abstract idea that “everyone can be saved”—and getting to actually save in a blaze of glory, age 24, your absentee murderous father whom you have never spent more than 3 hours in total with—versus living every day, every hour of your life with someone who is practically your own child and pouring in him all your love and your wisdom AND YET. The darkness continues to only grow and grow in this kid, and it seems that whatever worked on your father isn’t working on him for some reason and maybe you’ve grown old and the Light has dimmed in you and maybe you were wrong and some people are just too dark to be saved and maybe…. Luke doesn’t outright say it, but I think these thoughts were the dark side tugging at him without he realizing it. Not Snoke, just Luke’s own dark side that has always been there. It tugged and tugged until something snapped. And you know the rest.

So what is that destroys Luke’s character? This one moment in which he thought he could save a million lives by killing one à la Stannis (or, like any parent of a problematic child knows, has a fleeting “I wish you were never born” thought and instantly regrets it)? The fact that he didn’t try to fix it immediately later? The fact that maybe he felt so ashamed and guilty and devastated that he had to literally cancel himself from existence, not even telling Leia? (he still can’t tell the truth to Rey, a perfect stranger who has almost no dog in this fight, six years later, so it’s clearly something that ripped him apart)

Oh, okay, Luke isn’t hopeful anymore. And? I will always scoff at the idea that once people subscribe to a happy, bright, optimistic version of yourself, you are forever obligated to perform that character even if it doesn’t represent the real you anymore, and you’re not allowed to show your scars. Life has a tendency to break you. Especially as you grow old.

But what prevents it from being a bleak narrative is that Luke actually has his own [ redemption ] arc in this movie and reacts. He reacts because Rey makes him react, she violently calls him out on his apathetic bullshit and leaves with so much of his old stubborn hopefulness that it reminded of who he STILL is (so much for *Rey only revolves around Kylo*—Rey is MUCH more proactive and assertive of her own agency in this film than in TFA, where she just reacted to what happened to her. In this movie? She’s deliberately the catalyst for MANY things. She actively makes choices. On her own).

It’s like he suddenly wakes up.And what he does is going to confront Kylo, who is entirely his demon, his own Frankenstein’s monster, created by his hubris (so much of TLJ is about hubris and its natural consequence, failure), and ask Ben forgiveness. This is truly the most heroic thing to do, for someone who spent years wrapped up in his own guilt and unable to process it and believing the only way to atone was to die like a hermit. I was actually surprised they gave the climatic Jedi vs Sith lightsaber battle to Luke (I was expecting Rey), and I’m still shaking for how beautiful and poignant that scene is. “See you around, kid”.

That’s a lot like Obi Wan in ANH but also… much more complex than Obi Wan in ANH. While Obi Wan was guilty of seeing the darkness too late, Luke is guilty of being hyperaware (perhaps, it’s precisely Anakin & Obi Wan’s cautionary tale that made him paranoid about Ben’s darkness, effectively turning his legitimate concerns into a self fulfilled prophecy). In the end, the stakes of Luke’s sacrifice are even higher than they were for Obi Wan in the OT, because a) that’s literally all that’s left of the Resistance that he’s dying to save, and b) we know that the root of Ben’s wrath is precisely his relationship with his family and specifically with Luke. Luke who failed Ben so BAD because it was a relationship that involved trust, parental care, and power imbalance. Luke who still loves Ben so much. Luke who was probably (at some point) Ben’s one true hero, even more than Han. We already have the backstory at this point in a way that we didn’t when we saw Vader strike Obi Wan down—but Ben/Luke is much more visceral, much more painfully the decisive factor in Kylo Ren’s villain origin story than Obikin ever was in the creation of Darth Vader. So the last duel is emotionally charged in a way that the OT’s Vader/Obi Wan one wasn’t, because we have taken young Luke’s place in watching his mentor (and hero) sacrifice himself for him (for us) and it’s much clearer that he’s also sacrificing himself for the villain, too.

#but most importantly:#it bothers me how depression and inward tragedy/trauma are always treated by fandom as 'bad' storylines #or 'bad' characterization #that's all #bye #anon #asks #luke**#tlj wank #tlj discourse #sw wank #sw**#sw asks #sw for ts #ben solo #luke and ben #sw discourse

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cursed-saphire-hart · 7 years

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All Hallows Eve

Ok, for some reason the finished her wasnt posted the first time...

@croctus @misssnicket @supernaturalcakes @blotink

Title: All Hallows Eve

Pairing: N/A

Au: Frankenstein

Word Count: 1,452

Rating: T

Summary:

Everyone likes a good party.

"You want to know what All Hallows Eve is?" Zero repeated the question as Otis nodded his head.

While it had been time for Otis' piano lessons, the creature instead asked him a question the moment the scientist walked into the room. This was a bit out of character considering it was always Ser the creature went to first when he had a question.

"What brought this on?" the smaller man asked taking a seat on the piano bench. Otis wrote in his black board and held it up. [I overheard Ser and Dre mention it before they went to town.]

[Ser sounded excited.]

[I looked on the shelves, but you don't have any books on the subject.]

The scientist scratched his neck, wondering the best way to explain it so Otis could understand. Children grew up with holidays and didn't need to question them because of that, but Otis' case was different.

"Well, All Hallows Eve is a festival." he answered simply, bit Otis just cocked his head to the side like a dog, not quite understanding, [Festival?]

Zero nodded his head, "It's like a big party, there are treats, and people dress up in costume and just have fun."

"Story goes that the 31st of October is the night the vale between our world and the next becomes thin, so to scare away evil spirits, people dress up as monsters." he hoped he was explaining it correctly, as well as Otis absorbed knowledge, at the same time he could be a bit slow with certain things.

The creature have him a confused look, [That doesn't sound like much of a celebration]

[It sounds ominous to be frank]

"well you're not wrong about that…"

"But there's more to it, there are games, people hand out sweets," he reassured the other, "thought it's also meant to celebrate the coming harvest, and to celebrate those who are now long gone-" he paused for a moment. He looked up at the creature but was a bit surprised by his reaction.

[It sounds fun.] The corners of his mouth were lifted into a small smile, but than he wrote, [Anyways, should we get back to today's lesson?]

The scientist paused for a moment but just shrugged, "Sure thing big guy." and the two got on with that day's piano lesson.

Otis rarely used facial expressions, but if he managed a small smile, that meant he was a lot more interested than he would let on in his writing.

The real problem was, that he never liked to trouble the three, and even if he wanted to join the festivities, there was the matter that he had only ever been to town once.

And his first experience hadn't been the absolute best.

...

"- so that's what happened." Zero sighed picking up a cookie to eat, "He really looked like he wanted to attend too."

"I doubt he'll actually ask us if he can though, you know how he can be." Dre added.

"Well, it was bound to happen, he may have been reanimated, but a part of him is still human too," Ser said stirring his tea to cool it down, "and it's not like we could have kept him here forever, at some point he would want to try something like this."

"Lets just be thankful he doesn't have a child's mind, All Hallows Eve is the scariest night of the year after all."

"To be technical, Otis is only 6 months old you know."

"Not the point Zero…" Dre rolled his eyes.

"If the point is that we should all go to the party, than I agree," Ser chirped smiling, "I think Otis would really enjoy it, and it would be nice to go too."

"Than it's settled." they all agreed.

…

The rest of the week, was spent getting ready for All Hallows Eve, Zero even bought Otis a children's book about the holiday so he could have a better idea of it.

The evening of the party they four of them got ready for the night ahead. Like always, Otis made sure to cover up his scars and patched skin when getting dressed, Dre had gotten them all outfits with coloration that fit the theme of the party, they had decided to go all out and just have fun.

"Are you nervous?" Ser asked as he helped the other pull his hair back with a black hair tie, and Otis nodded. "Well don't be, I know your first time in town was a little nerve wracking, but the three of us will be right by you the whole night." the smaller man smiled and again, the creature nodded his head.

There was a knock at the door before it opened, "You two done yet? It's time to get going." Dre told them and the two nodded, "We're ready."

The four of them climbed into the motor vehicle and drove to town.

The streets of the town were lit up with the festivities, Jack 'o lanterns lining the streets along with other festive decorations, like fake bats and spider webs.

Children in costumes were running about going door to door getting treats, and people gathering in town square for the party.

Needless to say, Otis was both nervous and excited, and it showed by the way he was sticking close to Ser as they walked around. It reminded the other two of the first few weeks he was reanimated.

"I guess I should have expected you three to be here to night." the three scholars stiffened recognizing that voice. The group turned around to see Detective Edna standing there with her arms crossed, "Hey Eddie! Enjoying-"

"Save it Void, what are you three up to this time?" she interrupted her suspicions already on high alert. "Nothing! I promise!" Zero reassured taking a step back, "Just enjoying the party is all."

"Why do you have to be so suspicious of us?" Dre smiled, "Because, whenever there's trouble you three tend to be the cause-" the detective stopped finally noticing Otis who had been standing there like a statue. The blond cleared her throat, "I see you have a fourth member with you…"

"Yes, and?"

The detective stared at the taller man for a few more moments, "Nothing… nevermind…" she sighed shaking her head, "You bunch better not cause trouble." she warned before walking off.

But even though she had just met him, something in the back of the detective's mind told her she had seen that man before, she just couldn't remember where or when.

…

As the night went on the group enjoyed the night, playing the games set out and the snacks people brought. Otis was particularly good at any of the games that involved strength to win, the end result was that he had won a few prizes, three of with were stuffed dog toys he gave to the three scholars.

And despite the fun he had, again, Otis couldn't help but get the feeling of being watched, and it was a feeling he couldn't seem to shake.

"Are you having fun?" Zero asked patting the creature's back, and he just nodded.

"Ya know, it wouldn't kill you to actually talk to us," he joked and Otis gave him a look before writing on his blackboard, [Dr. Void, I will drown you in the bobbing for apples barrel…]

"No you won't," the scientist laughed calling the other's bluff making him growl. "Zero don't tease him," Ser laughed pushing the other as Dre chuckled.

Over all…

While they were a weird group, Otis was glad he went with them. If would admit to anything honestly, it was that he really did enjoy his new life with them all things considered.

….

The detective had been going through a few files trying to get them organized when she came across the photo, the case was still open and a few months old by this time, but she knew she had recognized that face despite the differences.

Styx Overland, age 29, cause of death unknown, and his body had gone missing at the morgue where he was supposed to have been cremated.

No evidence to who the guilty party was or motive behind it.

Along with the case info there was also info about the corpses appearance, black hair, blue eyes, tanned skin with freckles, and a large build.

She was sure the two looked similar, but at the same time, she couldn't be completely sure they were the same person.

Still, a leade was a lead...

#frankenstein

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ofgoldenblood · 7 years

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I had to take the time to come fangirl in your inbox because I am truly in love with your writing. I read your latest update for the 'more than a ghost au' and you managed to make me commit to the story despite my not shipping Lightstar. It's a true testament to how talented you are. My jaw dropped at the quality of this verse. I think your insight into the inner workings of Jonathan's twisted mind is extraordinary and

your portrayal is nothing short of brilliant. You make him human and it’s all that I could ask for when he is the most misunderstood character in this fandom. I especially look forward to every update of your abo verse and your hooker au since Jalec is my otp. These stories make me genuinely happy and there are no words that could possibly express how grateful my Jalec heart is for having such a wonderful writer pen my favorite pairing. From a fan

First of all, thank you so much for this lovely message. Your words really cheered me up & I loved hearing that you enjoy my portrayal(s). There’s a lot of controversy about Sebastian and it’s always nice to meet someone else who appreciates him, despite his obvious shortcomings & villainy!!Tbh, I will never understand why people watch shows like SH & then non-stop point out ‘bad’ things and complain about the bad guys. If you want drama-free & entirely harmless then maybe you should watch something like Dora the Explorer instead of hating on people who enjoy a good drama-driven story. Drama requires villains or at least people fucking up, otherwise there would be no conflict and conflict (& its resolve) is usually what makes a story thrilling or interesting. I’m sure most of us want drama-free lives, but who wants to WATCH that, really? BUT I AM SORRY FOR RANTING… so I will continue to rant under the cut.

I agree with you that Sebastian is misunderstood, even if most people in this fandom immediately start fuming when someone says that. Because they think misunderstood = poor mistreated little cupcake. That is not what he is. He is a killer, he is cruel & merciless and he knows no remorse for the things he does and the lives he takes. I am not excusing those actions.He is, however, deeply disturbed and a victim of tremendous abuse. He was drugged literally before he was born, with something that altered his very being & gave him no chance to grow up a ‘normal’ boy. His mother abandoned him because the only other choice she saw was to kill him. As far as he knos, she never even considered trying to save him. His father never loved him, called him a monster that nobody could ever love & literally whipped him (& probably other things, lbr). He isolated him from any healthy human contact & effectively stole his entire childhood. This is severe emotional and physical abuse and I wish people would stop disregarding that and instead only focus on the fact that Sebastian kissed his sister.

Valentine turned him into not a soldier but an (almost literally) soulless weapon. He made him the possibly loneliest person alive. I once saw a post in the Seb tag where someone said something along the lines of ‘I can tolerate Valentine but Sebastian is just pure evil and needs to die‘ & it pissed me off so much, because it blatantly disregards the fact that it was Valentine who made Sebastian the way he is. We’ll never know for sure, I guess, if Jon/athan Christopher hadn’t turned out to be a sociopath too (you don’t need demon blood for that), like Maia’s brother Daniel for example, but he certainly wouldn’t have been the monster that we see in the books. I really like drawing the connection to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in Seb’s case. The monster - as the Doctor himself calls it - is presented as a vile nightmare that haunts Frankenstein and destroys his life - but really all his negative & frightening features are a result of Frankenstein’s treatment, neglect & horror. He created the monster AFTER bringing a dead person back to life. We don’t know how much of Seb’s cruelty comes from his demon blood& how much is Valentine’s influence, but I like to remind people that warlocks are half demon too, and nobody would go around saying Mag/nus is at least 50% evil.

A key thing about Seb for me is that he doesn’t understand himself. He is literally misunderstood in that way. He’s never had a chance to figure out who he is or what he wants without someone’s influence in his ear (Valentine or Lilith). He grew up with a distorted understanding of right/good & wrong/evil, so how is he supposed to agree with the ‘good guys’ when they say that it is not okay to kill someone who poses a threat to you & your plan (which is, essentially your entire life’s purpose??)? Or that desiring your sister in a way that this society finds wrong is despicable? (We literally can’t even agree here on tumblr how ‘bad’ inc/est is!!) He never experienced love, never received, felt or understood it, so he tries to bind people to him to fight his loneliness any other way possible. He is a drowning man who can’t ever escape the water but desperately struggles to stay afloat, because there is literally no alternative.

When his hate & jealousy for Jace (who is not even Valentine’s real son but somehow ends up getting everything that’s supposed to be Seb’s - his father, the illusion of a childhood, time to develop, Clary, even Jocelyn for a while, a parabatai, LOVE) threatens to destroy him, he turns them into the opposite and starts obsessing. He binds Jace to himself, tries to consume him, perhaps to somehow make Jace’s life his own. He will never get love anyway (he doesn’t UNDERSTAND IT, it’s like wanting something you don’t even know) so he’s content to have Clary & Jace with him, even if he has to keep them by force.

Now, none of this means I excuse what he does or did. I just like to think about what makes him tick & try to understand him. I love complex villains. My favorite villain is probably Hann/ibal Lec/ter (more in NBCs Hann/ibal than in the books/movies), who absolutely deserves to sit in prison for all eternity, but still is one of the most fascinating characters ever created, imo. His world view, his morals, his motivations to kill and his excuses for it need to be looked at outside any moral judgement if we want to understand human nature better, I think. You can love a character for their complexity and still judge their actions - and I think that is what most people in this fandom don’t accept. Liking Sebastian does not mean I cheer for his murders and ra/pe attempt.

AS FOR THE MORE THAN A GHOST AU, it’s one of my absolute favorites, atm, because it actually goes against my firm belief that death was the best option for Seb at the end of COHF. He’s not prepared to survive & nobody else is either. He is forced to face the consequences of his actions but suddenly lacks the conviction that they were necessary, good or even acceptable. For the first time he recognizes himself as the villain. Not as a monster- which is something wrong & unlovable - but as someONE who did horrible things & has to take responsibility for them. He is willing to do that, even if he feels like a different person & it’s actually Alec in that verse who kind of allows him to adopt that thought of Sebastian being a different person from Jonathan. That gives Jonathan hope, but at the same time it is his ultimate kryptonite. Whenever he is disappointed in his own inability to be ‘Not-Sebastian’, he regresses to telling himself he can never be anyone other than Seb. Jonathan is an idea without an anchor in reality & on his bad days Jon is convinced Alec is just telling himself & Jon a lie everyday to not feel guilty about loving his brother’s murderer.

I also headcanon that Jon doesn’t immediately become a nice person in the beginning of the verse. He ‘learned’ how to be ‘good’ so he could be able to impersonate Sebas/tian Verl/ac, but he never really internalized it. He is still impatient, more easily angered, looks to violent solutions faster than to peaceful ones. He is used to calculating damage against gain & will choose the most effective way, not matter the cost. Since he has feelings now that he didn’t have with the demon blood (presumably) and also a conscience he wouldn’t wage a war for the hell of it or to get what he wants, or sacrifice innocent people.. but he has yet to LEARN who the innocent people are. If there was a young werewolf struggling on their first full moon, threatening to hurt people, Jon would choose to kill them, whereas Clary & Co would try to help them. He still has to unlearn the rac/ism against Downworlders Valentine nurtured in him. He still has to learn how to take and deal with rejection in a way that doesn’t completely destroy him. There are just so many aspects to this scenario & that’s why I love it so much!!

I AM SO SORRY about how long this turned out, and you didn’t even ask for ANY OF THIS *hides, ashamed*

Thank you again for your message & your kind words. I currently also really love the hooker AU and the a/b/o AU, so I’ll hopefully get to continuing those soon c:I have a drabble planned for the hooker AU in which I’ll write about the first time Jace took money for se/x, if you’re interested in that.Unrelated, Andy & I also talked about a short drabble based on ‘The Other Side’ by Ruelle, so if you enjoy having your heart broken, you have that to look forward to.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.:*

#( ooc asks. )#HERE GOES NOTHING #sebastian morgenstern #malikaesthetics #( saved. )

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nickdouglas · 7 years

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Nirvanna the Band the Show: Creator interviews

I recently interviewed the makers of Nirvanna the Band the Show for Splitsider. Below, for superfans, are much longer edits of the interviews.

Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol

How would you describe the new series to current fans and to new people?

Matt:

To people who knew the web series, we say it's the exact same show. Matt and Jay are still trying to get a show with the Rivoli. Picture it as more episodes of the original series.

And the people who have never seen the show before, we try not to say very much. What's interesting about the show is that it's masquerading as this stupid sitcom about nothing. It's pretending to be something extremely innocuous. Explaining that it's really this crazy show where there are no rules, and that we're trying to have our characters do things that you can't ever do on TV—that's very difficult, to describe a show that way to somebody and have them take you seriously.

We actually try to make it just as difficult to approach as we did with the web series. I think it’s more approachable in the sense that it's structured like normal television, whereas the web series just wasn't. Now because it's actually on TV, I think that we've established trust with audiences in a way that we never could've before.

There’s a lot of recognizable music in the show, like the Jurassic Park and Star Wars soundtracks.

Matt:

Making the feature films that we did, we learned an amazing amount about Fair Use and what you legally can use without permission. We're at the tip of the spear in terms of what you can get away with legally on television. You'll notice that in the first five episodes of the show, three of them are scored wall-to-wall with John Williams music.

Is it the same with the Ben Folds stinger?

Matt:

That we're paying for. And believe it or not, Ben Folds stars in a major episode in season two, where he replaces Jay in the band. We struck up enough of a relationship with him that he was happy to give us that song for every episode of the show.

Season two? You're already shooting that?

Matt:

We've already shot season two and some of season three. Think about it from our perspective. We're basically ten friends in Toronto that are all working out of the same house. It's not like we need to get permission or do even too much planning to go and shoot something, so because we don't need to run things by the network, and we don't need to pour a ton of preparation into each thing, it makes so much sense for us to just be ready to go out and shoot if Jay and I come up with something.

Yesterday for example, we said, "Oh, we should really do an episode about the stock market based on the movie Hook." I'll play Robin Williams from the first act of Hook, and Jay will play Jack, my son. We're talking about shooting that episode at the end of the month.

Because it's the same group of friends who are writing, editing, and shooting the show, you don't need to catch anybody up. It's not like when the footage gets delivered they're like, "Well, what the fuck is this? Season three? What the hell are you guys doing?" There is no like, boss who's saying, "You guys can't do this." And the network is really trying to make it so that we can do this the right way.

When we talked about the web series, you said you guys would do a lot of re-shoots and re-edits. You would re-upload new versions of episodes months later.

Matt:

It's worse than before! Jay and I are more guilty of doing that now than we were then. In the process of making these two films, and working on this show as closely with Jay as I've been doing, you realize that that was the key to good work. We talk about it as though it's this scientific process as opposed to the creative process. Jay and I now recognize that that exchange of being like, "Okay, we shot it, it's not quite perfect, let's put it together ... Okay, let's completely change this now"—now that's a part of our creative process. We don't see that as a mistake. We see that as step one of the writing. So we aren't even into the hardcore writing of an episode until we've already shot the entire episode.

Jay and I, we just did a first pass screening of an episode where we steal a kid from the sick kids hospital and steal his "Make a Wish", and we take him to an amusement park. We shot that episode in the summer, edited it up until now, re-shot a bunch of stuff for it two weeks ago, and completely and totally changed the story twice. Just this week did we watch it and say "Wow, okay. Yeah, we've got something here." The number of times it changed made it what it is.

I'm really glad to hear that that process is still part of it. I would have thought you’d lose that going to TV.

Matt:

Dude, we should've lost that part of the process, and that's what we found when we started pitching similar shows to networks in the States. There's no way in hell that they were going to go for that, because they wanted to control the production of the show. No production company in the world that's trying to turn a profit is going to be like, "Yeah, we're going to keep production on this one episode open for a year." That's ridiculous, right? You go shoot it for two days, you edit it for maybe a week, a month, and then you deliver.

Jay:

It helps that our whole team are friends. It's a lot easier. We can look at each other and be very honest when something's not coming together. When everybody's bleeding for the show, we're not happy until it's good. There's no one that's going to be pumping the brakes saying, "Well, you know, this is good enough. This is good enough and I want to be home for dinner tonight."

Matt:

That is what works everywhere else. But we for some reason have found the respect for one another to be like, "Okay we shot something, it's not working, and that's good. We're happy that it's not working, because we're going to use the part of it that worked to create something new that’s different than what we all decided would be funny." We're faced with the fact that what we thought would be funny on the page, or just in conversation, is not funny or compelling or fill-in-the-blank when we shot it and cut it together. We're going to use that as the jumping-off point for the real episode.

You actually see that breakthrough of using production and editing as writing, and viewing it as writing, and not being down on yourself, and not feeling like, "Oh, we failed. Oh, we're stupid or we can't shoot." None of that language enters the model at all. It's, "All right, yeah, okay, so, for step one what did we find? Oh, we found this and this and this? Great. Let's link them together with step two."

Jay:

The episodes are like Frankenstein monsters that go through makeover after makeover until they’re gorgeous.

Matt:

I can give you a perfect example from the pilot. This is a testament to how a team like this can come together to really make an episode work. In the pilot, Jay and I decide that we want to take a photograph with us with cigarettes, because we think that will help make us look cool. It was a very stupid idea, and eventually those cigarettes end up burning down a banner with the very picture that we took of ourselves.

Now, so we knew that we needed cigarettes so that we could light that banner on fire. What we had written was, we ask people on the street about cigarettes, and hopefully one of them will say that cigarettes are relaxing. And then Matt and Jay are, later are like, "Okay, so I'm really stressed out. How can I relax? Oh wow. That person we saw in act one told us that cigarettes will relax you, so that'll do it." So that's what we had written.

We went out and shot all this stuff with real strangers. We got footage of people telling us, "Oh yeah, cigarettes will relax you." Then when we edited it together, it just wasn't thrilling. There was nothing fun about it. So we thought, "How else can we do this?"

So Rob Hyland, one of our editors, said, "Well, you know in the montage, you guys watch Jurassic Park for fun." It was just a little throw-away moment where we watch Jurassic Park and are having fun. What he did was, he used all of the footage of Samuel L. Jackson smoking to give us the "cigarettes relax you." So from that moment, we worked backwards and made Jurassic Park the central idea of the episode that we connected everything together with. It's way funnier. It's way more on-concept with what the show is, and in my opinion, it's the best moment in the whole episode.

Jay:

We did stuff like that all the time.

Matt:

It'll be somebody with a great idea that's always too late. It's always a, "Boy, it sure would've been nice to have known that when we were shooting." Our model accommodates that. The episodes are always open until we deliver. If somebody's watching the show, and they have a great idea, we go do it.

It seems like you're also making a lot of practical choices so that it's affordable and possible to go re-shoot.

Matt:

Yeah. I think advice for any young creators doing anything is, own your production company. That doesn't mean you need to actually start a production company, but you need to be the person who the budget is going through. You can't be service providers for another company that is trying to have things delivered in a certain way at a certain time. That's how you get fucked. You need to be in total control of your production model.

[For the web series] Jay and I owned our cameras, we owned the microphones, and that was a small thing. We didn't really think about it, but it was huge in terms of our model, because then we could go shoot whenever we wanted to. We never needed to think about production versus non-production. You have to meld all these things together to teach yourself that you don't need to make a big thing about going out to shoot. It shouldn't be a big thing. It should be the same as sitting down with a pen and writing, right?

If you remove the sanctity of what people think of production as, then all of a sudden, you get rid of all that bad voodoo that's on this. "Oh shit, we're spending money. Oh God, we're running out of time. We're running out of daylight. We gotta go now, we've got 10 people on set."

The show has a much bigger budget than the web series did, but in terms of how we shoot, it's the exact same model. The cameras are functioning identical apart from being HD cameras, and the mics are better mics, but otherwise everything is, we still don't use studio lights. Because we built the set, Jared and Andy set up the house with practical lights everywhere. They've got lights and lamps all over the place. It's all practical lighting.

So you're not lighting Jay, and then lighting Matt.

Matt:

Exactly. Never. I would never. And because Jared's been shooting this show since we were kids, he knows that we can't take two minutes to reset a light, because then the scene's dead.

Jay:

They've developed a good counterpoint to our dramatic style. Because it's unscripted, Matt and I know what we've got to do to get a certain read to facilitate some sort of plot point. But we want to be able to use the space as freely as possible, and not be constrained to a frame or something that the camera guys are telling us. So we use the space. Jared is so used to doing his sort of ballet-like dance, jumping around the room and hopping over couches in real-time. I would say that's how we spend most of our time.

Matt:

To be honest with you, when you watch the old web show, I think one of the great joys of it, is that you feel like it's out of control. That you're watching this show made by these kids in Toronto at the time, and you're like, "Well, what are they going to do?" An episode starts and you really have no idea what you're going to see these characters do. I think one of the biggest things that happened, was when Jay burned down that person's apartment. It was like, "I can't believe that. I can't believe this show went there." That was something that we wanted to keep up.

We really want people to sit in to listen to the pilot in particular, and be like, "Okay, so this is a super low-budget, super stupid comedy about two people who are obviously friends, and they're just going to try to make us laugh with the dumbest shit that they can come up with." Then we take it to these unbelievable "You Can't do That on Television" places, and try to defy the expectation that the framing, the sound, and the lighting set up. We try to tell you, "Don't worry, this show is a piece of shit, and you don't need to take it seriously. This show will never do anything interesting, because it's just a stupid comedy. You can relax. In fact, you can even turn it off, because if you don't want to watch this, don't worry, nothing fun is going to happen here."

Then when all of a sudden these insane things start happening, you can't believe it's the same show, and it really does make it feel like it's out of control, hopefully. That's one of the things we're doing very consciously, is we're trying to use the budget that we have to actually do things that are unbelievable.

You were talking earlier about pitching to other networks. How far did you ever get with any other network?

Matt:

We had a pilot deal with FX last summer to make a show. We were actually really happy about it, and then out of nowhere Vice offered us a full season of any show we wanted. So we thought, "Well, are you willing to let us do sort of whatever we want?" They said yes, and it was like the exact right timing, because if that offer had come like one month later, we would've been making this other show.

One thing for sure that everywhere you go when you try to make a TV show, they're going to try and oversee it every step of the way. Which is smart! It just goes against everything about how we make this show.

Submitting scripts is just so meaningless. If we submit a script for the Nirvanna the Band, there's no way the final product is going to resemble anything about it. It's not indicative of anything that they're going to get. With Nirvanna the Band, we submitted scripts or outlines for ten episodes, didn't think about them. Then we started delivering the episodes, and the network was like, this is nothing close to what you told us it was going to be. Luckily they liked it, but it was definitely a learning experience for them where they were like, "Oh I see. So, these scripts mean nothing, right?" We kind of had to be honest with ourselves and say, "Well, they don't mean nothing. They are an honest departure, like that's where we're starting, but we're trying to deliver you guys a good show, not the show we pitched."

The thing is that they gave us the chance to do it our way, and then show them that, "Hey, this is what we're going after here." When we showed them even the earliest sort of roughs of one of the episodes, they went over really well. Spike Jonze, an executive producer and president of Viceland, responded really well to it. He's just great. He saw that we were kind of in the same vein. They gave us a chance to do it our way. They still make notes here and there, but they're very good at it. It's not like any network that we've worked with before.

In fact, I think it's because of Spike that we even have the deal that we have. It's rare to have somebody with as much creative experience, and who's so unbelievably respected in the industry, as the head of programming. Normally it's a bureaucrat or an industry person who's making these calls. But because it's someone like Spike, I mean, who's going to argue with him at the network? It's almost like we couldn't make the show unless he was there saying, "No, they can do it."

He talks to us about how they would do things with Jackass. His producer Derek Freda is also giving us the most practical advice on how to get things done on a day-to-day basis. Those two have so much experience in this space, that anything they tell us to do, we take very seriously.

Do you two argue as much as you did back in the making of the web series? Matt would talk about the "no but" approach, where you argue over what the story is, and once you can convince each other to buy in, that's when things start rolling.

Matt:

Yeah, that's what every single episode is. I think Jay and I do that less now, because we're a lot more on the same page in terms of what a good story is, but with every single episode there is a major convincing element to it that works into the plot. I need to be pitching something that's a little bit too far, and Jay needs to have a slightly more sensible attitude over it.

Jay:

If I'm resistant to an idea, Matt will snap into action and in real-time pitch me harder, and it'll refine itself right there on the spot. Just because he was chasing some piece of magic that maybe wasn't even fully thought out yet. Likewise if I'm pitching to Matt. We don't go forward with it until we convince each other.

Matt:

One of the reasons that Jay and I were at each other's throats so much back when we were younger, was because he and I were doing everything with only Jared. It was a three-man operation. Now Jay and I only need to debate the creative side of the show, because all the hard work is being done by other people. Matt Miller, our producer, is in charge of all the shit that used to make Jay and I fight one another. We're in the office right now with the production team. They go after clearances. They figure out how to clear music. They talk to the lawyers. They figure out locations.

I would say our biggest line item obviously is staff, and the next is music. So we spend all of our money on staffing and music, and then what's left at the end we make the TV show with. Even then, it's like way more money than we made the web series for, so they still feel it. Also, because the show is so easy to shoot, we're really good at making a small amount of money look bigger than any TV show.

[The pilot] cost probably a tenth of what an episode of any other sitcom on TV would cost—a sitcom that’s a bunch of people standing around talking to one another where nothing dynamic happens. You would think that a show where we're running all around a city in twenty-five different locations, lighting things on fire, sneaking floats into parades, it seems like that would cost way more, but it's nowhere close.

Since you guys are doing everything so fast and loose, has anything really gone wrong in a shoot? Has anyone literally been injured?

Matt:

Our team is too cautious to let us do anything like that. The most dangerous thing that's happened is probably me driving that truck.

Jay:

I almost got beat up too.

Matt:

Oh yeah at Sundance.

Jay:

I was trying to get into a party that Matt is in, which is in character. I'm trying to get into this prestigious film party, and I'm showing these fake credentials, and I've got this attitude where I belong in there. I have to play that for the part, and the bouncer's just having none of it. I'm not being rude, per se, but just being pretty ignorant, and kind of pushing. Finally he kind of snaps on me, takes a step forward and saying, "All right. You know what? I'm not letting you in here buddy. I'm about to throw you over the edge." When we went up to him afterwards, and told him, "Hey, it was just for a shoot," he's like, "I don't give a damn. I'll throw you over the banister here."

It sounds like even in the midst of doing publicity, you guys are also still in production?

Matt:

Yeah. We're actually shooting a few little tiny pieces to fill in one episode of season one that we've been working on for a while. And we're shooting a bunch of episodes for season two, just sort of piecemeal here and there. We plan to be working on this show for the next year and a half.

Afterwards, we're going to go make a movie. Right now it's a movie about Albert Einstein building a time machine to send an assassin back in time to kill Hitler, but everything goes wrong. It's a bit like The Bourne Identity, except with an assassin going to kill Hitler. It’s not in the style of the things that Jay and I have been doing before. It's not a fake documentary.

I remember you were working on an adaptation of Lord of the Flies.

Matt:

That's funny, yeah. I was. But as soon as I realized how much work it was going to be to do all these things, I was like, "All right. I'll do this when I have time."

I think that the way things worked out, we were given the best possible opportunity we ever could've asked for, and it only made sense that once we got that, it would be like, "Okay, so I think this is all I'm going to do, and I'm not going to worry about all these other things.” I want to do the work that I love, and right now that is making Nirvanna the Band the Show all the time, and not thinking about anything else.

Matt Miller and Jared Raab

On how the team came together:

Matthew:

I knew Jared, who worked on the first feature I made. We had gone to the same film school and when I was working with him, he was also working on the web show. I remember he gave me the DVDs one day and he was like, "You should watch them." And I threw it aside and I'm like, "This is ridiculous, I don't even like Nirvana that much." He was like, "No, no, it's not about Nirvana." And then I finally watched it and I thought it was the funniest thing I've ever seen and I demanded to meet Matt immediately. I met Matt about it, in 2009. I believe his words were, "I'm done with Nirvana the Band, I never want to revisit that material. I have this school-shooting comedy that I'm really interested in making." And then I ended up producing The Dirties with these guys, and Operation Avalanche.

On the production process:

Matthew:

The writers budget line versus the editorial budget line is probably a total inverse of what any Hollywood production’s would be. They spend a lot of money on the writing development, but that's the cheapest part of our process. Even production is pretty cheap. Where we spent all of our money is on the ability to re-shoot, and restructure and re-shoot again, and re-cut. The turnaround time is—we shot an episode at Sundance literally a year ago and we just wrapped it this year. These episodes are taking about 10 to 12 months, almost like if we were animating them or something. TV is used to turning things around pretty quickly. We're an odd show.

Jared:

We came out of a film school experience that was extremely collaborative. It was such a shock to me when I graduated film school and learned the industry didn't work like that. It wasn't groups of close friends working together on projects they really cared about.

[Working with the Nirvanna team] felt like kind of recreating that quintessential film school experience: working those long hours, down to the wire, trying to make something really great and inexpensive, giving your own sanity in some cases. The other thing is that I'm a huge music fan and I grew up with music of the 60s from my parents. The music scene really works that way, where collaborations are familiar, where everyone plays on each other's records.

I look other collaborative [film] teams and they have a very different setup in terms of directors’, cinematographers’, and producers’ relationships. There seems to be this rigidity that doesn't always serve the personalities well. In general filmmaking would be pretty well served by adopting a few more relaxed methods of crewing up and dividing up the labor.

I would say the way that we do things is not about having no rules, it's just a completely different set of rules. Like having no bad vibes.

Matthew:

Yeah, we're a very vibe-dependent institution. From my perspective, the producer's job on every other production is always saying no. To me, no is the last resort, which is hard sometimes if creatively I disagree with an idea or I'm looking at the budget or I'm looking at our schedule. It's very easy to say no. “No” costs nothing. Nobody's putting their neck on the line with a no. It also doesn't lead to the best results.

My number one rule is to not say no. To sort of figure out how we can do the stuff that we want to do. That involves things like always leaving time and money for re-shoots. We always talk about how crazy it is, that people don't re-shoot stuff because they have to deliver, or because they're out of money. It's integral to us that we have that flexibility later in the game.

It's as simple as not settling. It's easy to say, "Well, you know, we tried and this was the best we could do. And we made six pretty good episodes so if this one's not that great." We take this stuff pretty personally and we think that we're going to have to live with it forever. We all feel that we've been given this tremendous opportunity and we don't want to fuck it up. It's ridiculous to talk about this show like that because it's sort of such a silly irreverent show. But if we're going to kill ourselves and sacrifice everything—our personal relationships, time with our families and friends, significant others—then it's got to be a good reason to be doing all that.

Another rule is that you can't just not like something, whether it's a story idea or at the concept stage, or something in an edit. You can pitch a solution, or an idea. Again, it's very easy to say, "I don't like that." It's much harder to say, "Well what if...” or “Can we try it like this?” or “What happens when..." It leads to positive energy.

Jared:

Another is, people are constantly eating their own ego. Inevitably I think, people get so proud and so happy with the work that they're doing, because they're putting so much into it. But you must constantly check your ego. I think that happens in the edit, it happens in shooting.

As a cinematographer, I don't even have words to describe how little ego I can have with how footage looks. It has to look so bad. I think that that's something that you may not have to do on a show that you are as proud of otherwise. I think normally people would say, "Oh yeah, I did the best work I can do and it shows on screen and you can attribute this piece of it directly to my work.” It's a show where no one is really going to be able to detect who did what and how it came together, and I think everyone is getting very comfortable with that idea.

Matthew:

Yeah, we're used to having Matt take credit for all of our genius.

On maintaining the fluid approach on their biggest shoot:

Matthew:

Ninety percent of the time, the production consists of our field producer Matt Grayson running around the city with Matt and Jay and Jared. They're so good at doing their thing, and Jared's so good at giving notes and feedback—just kind of thinking on the fly where it's not even like he's thinking about it, it's just like muscle memory.

On the last episode of our first season, that's the closest we got on the show to kind of making a movie. We had over a hundred people on set between cast, crew, background actors, security, etc. That was humongous [for us]. Suddenly it's like, "Okay, we only have this location for a certain amount of time." You're faced with all the challenges that a regular production is faced with. Keeping the flow, and keeping what is special and unique and natural about this process alive in the face of all that, is really about tuning everything else out. It's on those days that the role definition and everybody understanding what it is that they're supposed to be doing is the most important.

Jared:

Interestingly enough we did it the same way, where everyone was throwing in notes, and it worked out okay. It went pretty smoothly considering we were doing a much more high-budget model. There are people on set that work on normal productions, and they were shocked to find out even who the director was.

Matthew:

I would argue that we have just as much fluidity even then, because the on-set portion of the show and of these movies is tiny in comparison to the post-production process. Curt Lobb, the lead editor, has been on set maybe three days the entire production. But he's one of the most integral collaborators we have and his voice is the stronger on the show than anybody's, Just because of how he is able to influence the show through the edits.

On how the show came to be:

Matthew:

Matt met with some of the folks [at FX] and they really liked what we had done. They committed to giving us a little bit of money to shoot a pilot or a test reel. That was not Nirvanna the Band, it was a completely different property. We really like the people there and obviously FX is a terrific brand, and we like so much of the stuff on that network.

Then this network Viceland was watching, specifically Viceland Canada. We had tried to do stuff with Vice prior to when we did the show, and it just never ended up working out. So when they came knocking it seemed like, okay we could go and make a season of Nirvanna the Band, and keep everybody who had [worked] on Avalanche, and they would have jobs. Or we could go and do this pilot and develop it for who knows how long and maybe get nothing at the end of it. That seemed like a no-brainer to us. I think FX was disappointed but I also think they understood. I hope that that door is still open.

Jared:

Part of what made the show happen simply was coming on the heels of Avalanche and The Dirties, which was made with the [production] model being part of the form. So the creative depended on the model, and the model depended on the creative. I think that that was part of the picture in the very beginning: "Oh, not only is this a show, it's a whole new system of doing things." And there's a team that is well versed in how to pull things off in this crazy style, where we'll be shooting right until we deliver. It's less scary because we had these two examples to point to, where it did work and the work was finished.

Matthew:

With Nirvanna the Band, we were never going to make a pilot. We’d get stuck in development, the executives wouldn't get the show, and they would try to morph the show into something else. Our argument was always, "We don't need a pilot, there’s a ten-episode web show. If you like that, then let's go, and if you don't then we'll go somewhere else.”

On working with Vice:

Matthew:

I'm sure if any other producer looked at what we did they would think we were crazy, and a lot of them do. Which is why it was so great to partner with Vice on this show, because of their background and their executives like Spike Jonze and Derek Freda. These guys come from making stuff like Jackass and shooting in the real world with real people, shooting without permits, getting clearances retroactively—things that are integral to our process. We're not needing to explain every step of the way. They get it.

On the show’s team:

Jared:

Pretty much everyone on the team is either somebody who was there from before the features, like me or Matt and our other producer Matt Grayson. It's gotten a little bigger, so we've been able to bring people in. Almost everybody was already a collaborator of a collaborator. There are very few fresh hires. I'd say there are almost no open-call positions.

Matthew:

It's pretty much twelve people who work on the show every day, specifically on the show. And then there's a roster of people over at Vice that are working on the show. Everybody either basically went to York University at sometime in the early aughts (which is myself, and Jared, and Jonathan, and Matt Grayson), [or is someone] I used to teach. Our three editors were all students at a place called Humber College here in Toronto. When we needed help on The Dirties, we had no money, so I went to these students who were clearly top of their class and really sharp. They came and worked for free, happy to be in assistant editor positions and stuff like that. When we got money to make Avalanche they all elevated up the ladder and now basically the entire editorial department of our show are my former students.

Jared:

And there’s people from the Toronto film scene. It's a very tight knit group. We're working very closely together and it's an incredibly hard show to make and I think, not only would it be difficult to work with people for whom it was just a job, it would be impossible.

On influences:

Matthew:

I grew up obsessed with American Zoetrope and the independent film movement of the 70s in the US: George Lucas with Frances Coppola, and Brian De Palma, and Walter Murch, and all these guys living together and working together. When I came to film school that was my dream. Then I had some experiences working on bigger productions with more money. It was unionized. I was getting yelled at for moving a sandbag because somebody else was supposed to do it, and that’s how they were going to get overtime. That didn't appeal to me at all.

I remember at the beginning of 2000s, like when David Gordon Green was making those first couple movies. George Washington and All the Real Girls, he seemed to be working with the same crew and roster of actors over and over again. Then he and Jody Hill were doing their thing. Much in the same way, the Apatow kids all sort of double up. I don't think it's quite the same, because I suspect it's not quite as collaborative. Literally we could have an intern give a note on a cut, because that's a safe space and they feel like they can do that. And it’s hard to get to that.

Advice for aspiring filmmakers:

Matthew:

Just make stuff. When I was finishing film school—I’m a little bit older than everybody else, and we were still shooting on film, and we needed to get grants and equipment and all these things. You kind of had to know what you were doing because that technology was more cumbersome and challenging.

All of those barriers have disappeared, so it's kind of like ... It used to be like, "Oh this person made a great short film, let's give them $500,000 to make a first feature." That would never happen in a million years anymore. Now you have to come to the table with that first feature. What Matt did, which was really smart, was he didn't make that first feature right away. He was like, "Oh I'm just going to go make a web show." It happened to be, in my opinion, a fantastic web show.

Jared:

Then remember, after we made that web show, we thought, "Man, we made this great show. Okay, now people will come knocking, we'll get to make a real TV show."

Matthew:

Nobody cared.

Jared:

It took ten years for that real TV show to come. Ten years of working.

Matthew:

Ten years and two movies. Just keep making stuff. It's also important to finish stuff, because it's very easy to write something and then not make it. Or shoot something, and then stop halfway through or not finish the edit. It's so important to see it through to the end and to screen it for people. If you saw the first cut of either of [our] movies or any of these episodes you would think it was just garbage, the worst thing you've ever seen. You've got to finish it, you can't just give up halfway through.

#interview #Nirvanna the Band the Show #Matt Johnson #Jay McCarrol #Matt Miller #Jared Raab #Splitsider #television

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Haunted Hollywood Host David Del Valle Scares Up More Movie Madness

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“The police don’t believe in monsters,” we learned in Ed Woods’ 1955 B-movie horror favorite Bride of the Monster. But Full Moon Features does, and they know where to find them. On Friday, July 31, the channel and app dropped seven cult classics to their new 20-film series Haunted Hollywood. Every Friday for 13 weeks, they will add a new scary flick. Some of these films are frightening in their content, others for the stories behind the film. For some of these movies, the most horrifying thing is they ever got made in the first place.

Real life and Hollywood history blend in macabre ways, and no one blends these stories better than David Del Valle. The film historian and agent to the stars hosts Haunted Hollywood, opening each showing with a personal story. Del Valle hosted a series of television interviews entitled “Sinister Image,” speaking with moviemakers as varied as Cameron Mitchell to Russ Meyer. He also produced and was the on-camera host of the only interview Vincent Price ever gave about his horror film career.

For the film Flesh Eaters, a guilty pleasure for horror purists where particles eat their way out of victims’ bodies, Del Valle opens with the story of the mad scientist who spiked their drinks. Martin Kosleck spent his career playing onscreen Nazi villains and perverts, Del Valle got to witness the actor’s debauchery first hand. For Horror Express, he tells the story of the stages of grief Peter Cushing passed through after the death of his wife. For Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster, he talks about the delusional world of the man who played Kelton the Cop.

David Del Valle spilled deeper stories all over Den of Geek in a terrifying talk about Haunted Hollywood.

Den of Geek: What cemented you as a horror aficionado rather than any other genre?

David Del Valle: I started going to the movies when I was four, or five, or six years old. So the first movies I saw were the Universal horror films, with Lon Chaney Jr. as the Mummy, and Bela Lugosi as Dracula. And then I started watching the films of Vincent Price, especially at the drive-in, when I was in high school, because that’s what they showed, nothing but triple-feature horror movies. So as a kid, that was what I watched, as an escape from school and all that kind of thing. And I’m sure my story resonates with a lot of people, because you start out with that genre when you’re a little boy. That’s the way that works.

What’s the criteria for the films you choose for Haunted Hollywood?

I was given a list of films, and those were what we chose. They tried to find Vincent Price titles for me, because I’m rather well-known for having done one of the only on-camera interviews with Vincent Price on his entire career, called Vincent Price: The Sinister Image. And if you ever buy from Screen Factory, the Vincent Price Collection has my hour-long interview with him. So the first one I taped was House on Haunted Hill.

We dropped with Horror Express with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. That’s what they call Euro-horror, because it was shot in Spain, and it’s very good. It’s a great movie. It’s called Panic on the Trans-Europa Express, that’s what it was called in Europe. They changed the title for American audiences to something a little more lurid, Horror Express. The cool thing about it, like The Thing, the John Carpenter film, or earlier, the Howard Hawks film, is that the creature absorbs the knowledge of everyone it kills. So by the end of the movie, he’s absorbed dozens of people, so he knows as much as anyone could know about being an alien. That’s a really good movie with a strong narrative, and it’s one of the better pairings of Cushing and Lee, I think.

You tell an interesting story about the death of Peter Cushing’s wife.

When Peter’s wife died, the light just went right out of him, and the only thing he had was work. And if you noticed, and Christopher Lee told me this as well, he lost so much weight, that he weighed like 90 pounds. It was really scary, because his health was at stake. And Christopher would say all he had for lunch is an apple and a slice of cheese. Christopher and his wife, Gitte, invited him for meals, and I think they shot it during the winter, so Cushing spent Christmas with the Christopher Lees.

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I knew Christopher when he lived in Los Angeles, so I would call him up, and he was kind of lonely, because his wife traveled a great deal, and he wasn’t making a lot of films here. He made an Airport movie here. He actually made a film for Charles Band, I believe, called End of the World. I think it’s part of the Full Moon Features.

Vincent Price was dubbed the heir apparent to Boris Karloff after the film Diary of a Madman. Why that film rather than Haunted Hill or The Fly or House of Wax?

Vincent really didn’t become a horror star until he started working for Roger Corman. House of Usher was the film that really put him over, and then he made six more, then he had a contract with American International, and he made a number of horror pictures that really made him a hero amongst the youth culture of that time. Remember, that was the ’60s, so you had drugs, rock and roll, a lot of rebellion. The world was changing, and Vincent Price was like the rock and roll monster. He wound up doing rock videos with Alice Cooper and Michael Jackson, so he had a very different life.

House of Wax would’ve been a turning point, but that was shot in 1953, and he would go back to just being a character for a number of years. And in The Fly, he’s a supporting character. David Hedison is the fly. But House on Haunted Hill is an important picture, because he did that and The Tingler for William Castle. Vincent, he didn’t take a salary, he took a percentage, and House on Haunted Hill made him a millionaire. And then two years later, he did The House of Usher.

Both Karloff and Price appeared in Tower of London. Do you have any interesting stories from that?

Vincent Price was under contract to Universal, and that was the second or third picture he did. He was still very new. He had been a Broadway star. Karloff had already been an established movie star. Vincent’s recollections of Karloff, they became very, very good friends, he said that the first time he was on the set of Tower of London, Karloff was in his makeup as Mord the executioner, with his head shaved, and a hump on his back, and his elevator shoes, and he had an ax. He was the executioner for Richard the Third. And so, he goes up to Vincent, and he goes, “I just want you to know that I’m not as evil as I appear.”

Vincent was just so bowled away by what a cultured, wonderful guy he was. And like Peter Cushing, you will never hear a negative about Boris Karloff. He was beloved by everyone that knew him, as was Vincent Price later on. All these guys of that period were very cultured, very sophisticated men. They were all grateful that they had this niche in which they could work, because they all made other kinds of movies. Vincent Price worked in every genre, and so did all the rest of them, except perhaps for Bela Lugosi. They all did Westerns and costume pictures and film noir and musicals.

One of my favorite Karloff movies is actually a gangster movie, Smart Money. And in Bride of the Monster, Billie Benedict from the Bowery Boys appears just a few scenes from where Kelton the Cop is called a “junior G-man.” Was Ed Wood that clever?

Oh, I’m sure not. I don’t think people were making references and homages in those days. I knew Paul Marco quite well, who played Kelton the Cop, and he was a real character, that guy. I mean, he lived that part. He was one of what you call in Hollywood a “delusional actor.” But those pictures were shot in five or six days.

Smart Money was made in the early ’30s. I think the year that Karloff did Frankenstein. The Criminal Code and Scarface are the movies that Karloff made at the time, because of course, he didn’t realize that that was going to change his life, until the movie came out. He’d been a working actor in Hollywood for 10 years before Frankenstein was made.

You did the last major interview with Vincent Price. Did you learn anything you didn’t expect?

I did my interview with Vincent Price when he had finished a movie called The Whales of August, which was practically his last picture. I worked on one of his last pictures, From a Whisper to a Scream, with Jeff Burr, who’s a great director and needs to come back and make more movies. Vincent, after Witchfinder General, was not really all that comfortable with the violence and the way movies were changing. Edward Scissorhands was really his swan song. I think that’s a beautiful way to go out. Tim Burton just worshiped him. Christopher Lee also made some of his last onscreen appearances for Tim Burton.

Do you think we will see a resurgence of Giallo films like Mario Bava’s?

The era of the killer with the black glove and the white telephone, you’re talking about period films. I did admire The Witch, that’s of course, a period film. And I thought it was very well done, very well-written, very well-acted. Giallo, I love those movies too. But if you compare the two Suspirias, the remake is really a movie on its own. I mean, it really has nothing to do with Suspiria. But the people who didn’t like the remake of Suspiria, didn’t like the aspects of it that weren’t like the old Suspiria, which you can’t remake. You just can’t go back in time and recreate the elements that made those movies work. Mario Bava was a very unique filmmaker, because he was also a cameraman, he was also an art director. He was a renaissance director. Who do you think is interesting of the new directors today?

I’m liking Del Toro a lot.

Yes, Del Toro is a big horror fan. But for me, the best of the Del Toro movies are the ones he made when he was still in Spain. Pan’s Labyrinth and Chronos, I like those a great deal. Richard Stanley is the most intelligent and the most quirky horror director working today. I like The Color Out of Space a great deal, and I’m very anxious to see what he does with The Dunwich Horror.

What about the social horrors of Us and Get Out?

Yeah, I’m not a big fan of those, to be honest with you. But I mean, it’s also, we’re going through a very difficult time now. I don’t enjoy them. They’re not pleasant to sit through, which is why I don’t like the torture porn films that much, like the Saw series. We’re just going through so much now. I would never revisit those pictures, but that’s just me.

Alan Parker died on July31. My personal favorite horror movie is Angel Heart.

I love Angel Heart. I think it’s got one of De Niro’s best. I love Mickey Rourke. I love movies that are set in New Orleans. I love voodoo and hoodoo and aboriginal horror, all of these weird religious things are very quirky. I love The Skeleton Key, which talks about Hoodoo. I like The Believers that talked about Santeria.

Alan Parker, I liked his films. It’s interesting, because Fame doesn’t age well. It’s got some moments in it. The end of it, I Sing the Body Electric is interesting. But for me, the best thing Alan Parker did was Angel Heart. That’s just my favorite of his pictures. He was a very nice man, Sir Alan Parker.

Do you think that the New Orleans voodoo movies might ever steal back the zombie genre from the reanimated corpse?

That is exactly where it needs to go. You absolutely hit it on the head. I said this to Paul Schrader when Cat People came out. That was another one set in New Orleans. Angel Heart is set in New Orleans. The Skeleton Key is set in New Orleans. Yes. And when Dan Curtis was revamping Dark Shadows, I was working for him, and I said, “Dan, if you’re going to remake Dark Shadows, get David Bowie’s wife, Iman, to play Angelique. Don’t get a blonde, blue-eyed woman.” He said, “What are you crazy?” But you couldn’t change Dan’s mind at all.

I wanted to set Dark Shadows in Haiti, and start with Angelique’s curse on Barnabas, but all Dan wanted to do every time you would talk about Dark Shadows, he said, “Forget it. Here’s how it starts. ‘My name is Victoria Winters. I’m on the train to Colinwood.'” Blah, blah, blah. And you couldn’t convince him otherwise. Great lady, by the way, Lara Parker, but Angelique should have been a kind of sorceress. You know what I mean?

I always thought that Angelique was more important than Barnabas. She created him, she created Barnabas.

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I think so, I think so. Of course, my favorite character on Dark Shadows was Grayson Hall as Dr. Hoffman. She was a scream, that woman. In fact, if you ever seen a TV movie of the week called Gargoyle’s, Grayson Hall is hanging upside down a telephone, with her hair in curlers, holding a cocktail. She was a hoot, that woman, and she and Jonathan Frid, what a couple. Very sexually ambiguous, shall we say. That was really the fun of Dark Shadows.

But getting back to your original question, I do hope that if zombies are going to be around for a bit longer instead of them just shambling along, eating brains, it would be nice to set it back into the history of voodoo, and to really use New Orleans, which is a marvelous, photogenic place. Isn’t it? I mean, yeah, I’d love to see more of that.

Will there be any White Zombie or those films in Haunted Hollywood?

You know what? I believe White Zombie is. I would love to do a whole series on the Monogram movies that Lugosi and Karloff made, although the Mr. Wong’s are kind of a snooze-fest, so I don’t know if anyone would want to sit through those. They just put out a Karloff movie called The Ape. It’s probably one of the most boring movies ever made, but it’s out on Blu-ray, so go figure. But I would love to do more Lugosi. I’d love to do the Monogram’s Invisible Ghost, and especially Voodoo Man. These were all shot in nine days, with a very low budget, but they were fun. It’s funny, White Zombie was made right after Dracula, and a lot of people admire it more, because once again, a movie like Dracula didn’t age that well. It has an incredible performance by Lugosi, but as far as Todd Browning, it’s one of the worst things Tod Browning ever directed. At that point, he was battling alcoholism, and I don’t think he was very on set with that picture. Dracula, it’s all Karl Freund, who was the cameraman, and then became a director.

Karl Freund directed The Mummy with Karloff, which is basically Dracula set in Egypt, so those pictures are very similar. The plots are almost identical. It’s just, one’s a vampire, and one’s a mummy, but they both have this obsession with one woman, blah, blah, blah. That kind of thing.

I’d like to see some Val Lewton.

My favorite Val Lewtons are I Walked with a Zombie, The Seventh Victim, Body Snatcher, The Leopard Man, Curse of the Cat People. I even like Ghost Ship. It’s the first appearance of Lawrence Tierney from Reservoir Dogs. Ghost Ship is really good. Larry gets killed by having chains wrapped around him at the end of it, if you haven’t seen that one.

What is it that you most want to bring out about these films or these stories?

I think the important thing with Hollywood in general, is the movies that we’re talking about in this series, everyone who made them was very passionate about them. Everybody made them with a great deal of love. I mean, on one hand, I’ll say, it’s a job. What are you going to do? It’s a job. But not really. I mean, Val Lewton, and Bela Lugosi, and Boris Karloff, and Vincent Price, and Todd Browning, and Roger Corman, they all loved what they were doing. And that is what I think we respond to when we watch these pictures, is that everybody had something invested in them. And it makes us love them all the more, I think. Don’t you feel that way about the ones that you’ve seen more than once? What do you keep going back to?

I watch Angel Heart at least once a year, Phantom of the Paradise.

Yes, yes, I love Phantom of the Paradise. We had a big screening at the Cinerama Dome for the Phantom of the Paradise that was sponsored by a store that’s closed now, called Creature Features, and he got everybody, except of course, the late William Finley, to show up. In fact, I was going to post a picture of me with Paul Williams today, who played Swan. And of course, Jessica Harper. Jessica Harper, man, has been in the weirdest movies. She’s in Suspiria, she’s in a Woody Allen. She’s in Phantom of the Paradise, and she’s good in it. And I love the songs in it. What a clever way to reimagine The Phantom of the Opera. I love that movie. I love a lot of De Palma’s pictures too, of course.

I saw Hi, Mom and Greetings in an art-house in New York, years ago, and I loved the work he did with De Niro back then. It was so improvisational.

People don’t realize that Robert De Niro really started his career with Brian De Palma. For a man that’s known for gangster films, De Niro did his share of genre movies too, didn’t he?

Lara Parker also was in Brian De Palma’s early films.

Yeah. And Lara’s in a great little movie, called Race with the Devil. Peter Fonda’s in it, and Warren Oates is terrific.

In some of the stories you tell, it seems like the players are as haunted by Hollywood as the films. Is that often the case?

Oh, definitely, definitely. The Ed Wood group were kind of on the periphery of show business. They weren’t really well-established. The one thing, as is shown in the Tim Burton movie, Ed Wood attached himself to Bela Lugosi because he was a name, but also, because he really admired him and grew up with his pictures. But what Ed couldn’t understand, as the movie points out, Lugosi was in decline. He wasn’t really getting work anymore. And so, having his name attached to something, didn’t really get you very far, whereas Karloff was a far better businessman.

Vincent Price used to say to me that Hollywood could be one of the most evil places to work, because you’re only as good as your last picture, or you’re only admired because you’re good-looking, or you’re young. And if you’re not good-looking and young, then you have to already been established, and then your name is used because you’re established. So these things, I don’t think necessarily change with time. It’s just that in today’s world, there are no horror stars anymore. I think the closest thing you get to a celebrity in the horror genre are the directors.

Roger Corman, of course, is the most respected and the most famous of all the directors, and he goes to every genre. Roger’s a very unique figure in show business. Next you get someone like John Carpenter. John Carpenter is a horror star director. George Romero had that same thing. People like Brian De Palma are established world-class directors. Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, people like that. But I don’t think there are any horror stars anymore.

I mean, yes, there’s Robert Englund, but Robert Englund is known for one character, playing in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, and he made a number of other horror pictures. But aside from Robert Englund, I can’t think of anyone that’s known for horror pictures.

Are there any more recent films which you think would make a list of Haunted Hollywood?

Well, that, I couldn’t really say, because you have the independent horror films. I don’t know. I think the future of horror film, really, is in television and cable. The Walking Dead, it’s a phenomenally successful series, it’s known all around the world, as is Game of Thrones. I thought Penny Dreadful was terrific. I love True Blood.

The real acting, the real great writing is all on cable. And now that we’re in this kind of new world with the pandemic, everything’s going to be online. We’re going to be watching all this out of our homes. I’m kind of pleased with the resurgence of the drive-in. Because when I was a kid, when I was in high school, the drive-in, man, that’s where you saw all the horror films, triple-features. And that’s coming back, because I don’t see movie theaters coming back for a long time now. I think people are getting accustomed to watching movies at home.

Could there be a “Haunted Burbank?”

It’s very hard to tell. I’m not Nostradamus. The future of the business is not something I can see. I just can tell you that based on how we’ve been living the last six months, it’s all going to be on television. It’s all going to be streaming. That’s the future, and you might as well get used to it.

The 20-film series Haunted Hollywood will premiere a new cult classic every Friday for 13 weeks starting July 31 on the Full Moon Features channel and app.

The post Haunted Hollywood Host David Del Valle Scares Up More Movie Madness appeared first on Den of Geek.

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trendingnewsb · 6 years

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What We’re Still Not Teaching Kids About Consent

If I’m remembering correctly, sex ed in the ’80s consisted of the following lessons:

— First grade: Tell someone if a grownup (who isn’t a doctor) touches your private parts

— Fifth grade: You’re going to bleed from your private parts one day, catch these free diaper-sized maxi pads as we lob them at your head

— Tenth grade: You know what sex is, right? Don’t do that unless you like making babies. And if you’re going to have sex, wear a condom because of AIDS. Good luck!

If you’re wondering where the big lessons on consent were, so am I. If I’m being generous, I can conjure up a fuzzy memory of a tenth-grade coach/teacher in belted short shorts telling the boys in the room, “Guys, no means no. I mean it.” And that would have been the final word on the subject, because we all thought we were using the same language when it came to consent. Yes was yes, no was no, where’s the confusion?