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petersasteria · 4 years

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Free - Harry Holland

Pairing: Harry x Reader

Requested? Nah

Harry Holland Masterlist || Ultimate Masterlist

Harry and the reader are both 23 x

* * * *

Seven years. You've been dating Harry for seven years and you were now engaged. When you first started dating when you were sixteen and both of you honestly didn't know that you'd last for so long. Now, here you were seven years later; still together and engaged for six months. You loved Harry so much and you knew that he was the one for you. Everyone said that you were a great pair because both of you loved working behind the camera. He was the director and you were the editor. It was perfect.

All good things eventually come to an end, though.

You didn't know when things started to change and you certainly didn't know that things were changing up until Sam told you that he was starting to notice something different about Harry. Of course, you decided to observe Harry. You thought it was ridiculous, but the more you observed, the more Sam was right.

Harry was shooting his newest short film and you noticed that he was starting to get close with the lead actress. You noticed that his smile was brighter around her. He laughed more, he was relaxed, he was carefree, he looked contented. If you weren't dating Harry, everyone would think that Sarah, the other girl, and Harry were dating.

You noticed that Harry was slowly starting to drift away from you. He talked to you less and less. He comes home late and when he's at home, the whole house was quiet. He wasn't present in wedding planning anymore and eventually, he didn't suggest anything anymore; leaving all the planning to you.

Everything started to feel different now. You began to realize that you and Harry weren't perfect for each other after all. As he started to drift away, you didn't put up a fight anymore. Maybe you should've fought for him, but you knew him. You knew him so well that you knew even if you did fight for him, he'd still choose the other girl. It didn't take long for you to find your own place.

You found a small apartment that was just right for one person and you immediately bought it. Whenever Harry wasn't home, you were packing up some of your things and moving it to your new apartment. You started buying new furniture for your new place and there was one weekend where you slept there. As much as you hated to admit it, you sort of liked it.

On Harry's end, he felt guilty for neglecting you. But, we can't help what we feel. He used to love spending time with you and he used to love the daily routine you two shared. Now, it felt like he was moving around because of muscle memory. Sarah was different. She made him feel things. He wasn't numb unlike whenever he's with you.

Harry didn't go on dates with Sarah. He didn't give her a lift in his car and he certainly never went to her apartment. Despite all the things he never did, he still felt like he was cheating on you whenever he spoke to her about her lines or when he would smile at her as he watched her behind the camera.

Sam frowned whenever he'd see it because he saw Harry decline your phone calls and eventually put his phone on silent. Sam watched as Harry texted you his suggestions for your wedding until he started removing the wedding related tabs on Safari. Sam knew that he had to tell you what was going on because he was starting to see that Sarah felt something for Harry.

One night, everything finally came out. You just got home from your new apartment and Harry was on the phone in the living room. You couldn't take it anymore. Harry couldn't take it anymore too. He was texting Sam about how to tell you that he didn't love you anymore and Sam just said: man up and tell her straight to her face. You owe her that.

You entered the living room and cleared your throat. Harry looked up from his phone and said, "I have something to tell you."

"I have something to tell you too." You said and sat next to him on the couch. You made sure there was distance between the two of you and you didn't know where to begin.

"You go first." You said. Harry nodded. He took a deep breath and looked down at his hands, "I don't love you anymore."

You looked at him and nodded, "Yeah, I figured. Everything hasn't been in place lately and Sam told me that things were starting to be different. He was right. It's Sarah, isn't it?"

"I'm so sorry, Y/N." Harry turned to you and frowned. "I'm really sorry."

"I have so many questions and I have so many things to say and I don't know where to begin. I lay awake in bed every night just thinking, 'how did things go wrong?'. I honestly didn't know we were falling apart until Sam told me." You cried.

"And to think we were going to get married. I imagine our sad marriage and we probably won't have kids because you don't love me enough to make love to me. When did things change, Harry? When did you stop looking at me like I was the only girl in the world? When did you replace me? When did she take over your heart like I used to?"

"I don't know." Harry sighed.

"I used to be more than enough for you and when did you realize that I wasn't enough anymore? Why didn't you tell me immediately so that you'd never come home to a disappointment such as myself?"

"Hey, don't talk like that." Harry shook his head. "You're not a disappointment. You're more than enough. Not loving you doesn't make your worth any less, alright? Y/N, you're such a huge part of my life. You've been in it for years and we've been together since we were sixteen. Y/N, you're a constant in my life that I'm not willing to let go. I care about you and I need you-"

"But you don't love me." You interrupted.

Harry sighed.

"Can you just tell me where I went wrong so that I know? I don't want to make a mistake for the next guy, so just tell me what I can improve on." You said.

"There's nothing to improve because you're amazing. You're an amazing person to be with and any guy would be luck to have you. I'm lucky."

"Was."

"What?"

"We're done now. So, you're supposed to say, 'I was lucky'." You explained.

Harry didn't bother to correct himself. Whether or not you decided to break up, he wanted you in his life. He couldn't imagine living a life without you and he will forever be lucky to have you in his life.

"You did everything to make me happy and I'm forever grateful for that." Harry said sincerely.

"I'm just so mad at myself that I didn't notice it early on. I feel so stupid. But now I know. I know that whenever you're with me, you're yearning for her. Whenever you hug me, you're thinking of her. All of those are painful, but what hurts the most is that you loved me first and you loved her last and you will love her for the rest of your life." You were sobbing which made Harry cry. He hated hurting you, but it was too late now. The damage was done.

"I know how much she makes you happy, so I won't force myself to stay with you thinking that everything will work out in the end. Look at us right now. Nothing worked out. We're damaged. When did you stop telling the truth?"

"What do you mean?"

"When did you stop saying 'I love you' and meaning it?" You sniffed.

"I don't know." Harry was heartbroken that you were feeling so crestfallen.

"Then why didn't you tell me that you loved someone else?"

Harry stayed quiet. He didn't know the answer to that either.

You wiped your tears, "I feel so stupid for thinking that this would never end." You chuckled humorlessly. You got up from the couch, removed your engagement ring and put it on the coffee table.

"I'm leaving." You said and went upstairs to pack the last of your clothes. You went down with two suitcases and went back to Harry who had his head in his hands.

"I wish you all the best, Holland. I really do. I hope she takes care of you and I hope she never makes you cry. I see it in your eyes, y'know? The eyes, they never lie. The look you give her is more than enough for me to stop fighting. I understand and I don't resent you for it. After all, if you're happy with her, why would I force myself to someone who's not meant for me? Fate is hard to fight with and I surrender." You cried once more. Harry couldn't look at you. He was hurt too.

"All I wanted to do was love you and I don't get to do that anymore. That's someone else's job now. Please don't contact me anymore. It hurts to be with you in the same room and speaking to you is like death. Goodbye, Harry. Thank you for the years we spent as friends that started when we were kids and I especially thank you for being my lover for seven years. It was fun while it lasted." You said and walked out of the house that used to be your home.

Harry looked up when he heard the front door closed and he looked out the window to see you drive off. He hated himself.

"I'm sorry it had to end this way." Harry whispered to himself as he watched your car turn to a corner and never see it again.

"Hey, Sam?" You tried not to breakdown as soon as he answered. You were driving to your apartment and you needed someone to vent to.

"What's up, Y/N? How're you and Harry?" Sam asked nicely.

You chuckled pathetically as tears streamed down your face, "There'll be no wedding, Sam. I'm calling it off tomorrow."

"Oh my god. I'm so sorry, Y/N." Sam said sadly. He was really rooting for both of you.

"It's okay. I'll be fine." You sniffed. "Things will be fine."

𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑...

Things turned out fine for you. At first, you didn't know how to function anymore. Eventually, you got the hang of it and everyday you wake up filled with hope that you'll one day find a man who'll love you and only you.

You never spoke to Harry and he didn't contact you. But he would ask Sam how you were doing and Sam wouldn't tell him. He'd just change the topic. Harry meant it when he said he won't stop caring about you and not knowing how you were doing sent his mind into a frenzy. You were his friend before dating and he still saw you as a friend.

Harry's short film was a success and your earlier edits were kept in the film. Harry didn't want your involvement in the film to be completely scrapped. It was the only thing he had of yours and he cherished it.

Sam was hurt that you don't talk to him as often as before, but he understood. Talking to Sam hurts you too and Sam didn't want you hurt. But everyday Sam would think of you and he'd pray for your health and safety.

You were walking back to your office when you bumped into someone. You looked at the person and smiled when you realized it was Sam.

"Y/N!"

"Sam!"

Both of you immediately hugged each other tightly for about a minute before pulling away. He looked at you and smiled when he realized you were okay.

"I'm so happy to see you! You have no idea. I haven't seen you since-"

"Three years ago." You continued and smiled. "We should catch up, but I have to get back to work. My lunch break just ended."

"Of course! Same number, yeah?"

"Yeah." You grinned and kissed his cheek.

"Sam, we need to- Y/N? Is that you?"

You turned and saw Tom. You chuckled and nodded, "I'd be concerned if I'm not Y/N."

"Oh my god, it is you!" Tom grinned and hugged you tightly. "I missed you!"

He pulled away and spun you around to look at you from head to toe. "Wow, you look good! New haircut, new hair color, new clothes-"

"New style." A voice said. It was Harry. All three of you stared at him but he was only looking at you. "I like it. You're constantly changing your style, but this one's my favorite. It suits you and it has 'you' written all over it."

"Thank you." You gave him a small smile. "I'm glad I found the right style for me."

"I'm glad that you're glad. How are you?" Harry asked.

"I'm good, actually. I recently got a promotion, but I don't know if I'll take it."

"What? Why? Tom asked.

"They're asking me to move to L.A." You said shortly. "I can't stand the thought of staying away from home."

"Oh." Was all Tom said.

"Anyway, how are you?" You asked in general, but only Harry answered.

"I'm engaged. Wedding's next month." Harry said. Sam wanted to hit Harry because it sounded so insensitive.

"Congratulations." You smiled genuinely. "Tell her I said, 'hi'."

"What about you, Y/N? Any special someone?" Sam asked.

"Yes, actually. I'll show you a picture." You smiled and opened your phone to show them a picture of you and your one year old son. "This is my son, Harvey. He's my whole world."

"Who's the father?" Tom asked.

"Not present and he won't ever be present. I was drunk one night and one thing led to another. Harvey's a blessing because just when I thought that I have no hope of finding love, he came along. I love him so much." You gushed and smiled at your phone before putting it in your bag.

"I have to get back to work now, alright? Sam, I'll be waiting for your call. It was nice seeing you all again. Bye!" You walked inside the building of the magazine company you work for and the three men continued on with their day.

"Motherhood suits her." Tom said. "Plus, the little guy is so cute!"

"I agree." Sam nodded. "What do you think, Harry?"

Harry smiled and said, "I'm just glad she's alright and happy. That's enough closure for me."

* * * *

I have an alternate ending for this one lmao

𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐘 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @sufwubi @abrielleholland @osterfieldnholland @purplepizza-summerrain @euphorichxlland @marshxx @lizzyosterfield @itstaskeen @ilarbu @justanamesstuff @dudethisvoid

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓: @marvelousell @justasmisunderstoodasloki @rubberducky-jrr @petersholland @osterfieldnholland @miraclesoflove @god-knows-what-am-i-doing @perspectiveparker @parker-potters @itstaskeen @call-me-baby-gir1 @the-panwitch @iamaunicorn4704 @chloecreatesfictions @holland-styles @halfblood-princess-505 @spidey-reids-2003 @herbatkazmiloscia @whatthefuckimbisexual @justanothermarvelmaniac @unsaidholland @musicalkeys @lost-in-the-stars03 @hufflepuffprincess24 @hollanddolanfangirl @parkerpeter24 @bellelittleoff

#harry holland #harry holland imagines #harry holland imagine #harry holland one shots #harry holland one shot #harry holland x reader #harry holland x y/n #in-a-lot-of-fandoms-tbh

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a-singleboat · 5 years

Text

Smile

Word Count: 1877 REQUEST: Can you do a Joven x reader with prompt 46 as like a smosh ganes goes to Disney or Harry Potter world and the reader is new but tags along and Joven finally warms up to them? - anon

You didn’t know what you did but as you sat in the van on the way to Disney, you were feeling less than the happiest you’ve been in a while. You might have just been being sensitive but when everyone but one person had welcomed you with open arms, you were less than thrilled.

Joven, one of the older members of Smosh Games, hadn’t been as keen to meet you or even warm up to you in the two weeks you had been here. You had heard about how friendly everyone would be and it was just a downer when one person seemed to not like you very much.

You shook it off, however, because you were going to Disney with the people you had quickly become fast friends with.

The way you had started to work for Smosh was not much unlike how Damien had, you were a low-level video editor for a company that didn’t give two shits about their employees and you had met Courtney when she put out a private ad for a part-time video editor. Long story short, Courtney hired you and you became more friends than having a boss-worker relationship and she recommended you to Smosh.

They hired you as an editor but you soon started to appear in videos for Smosh Pit and occasionally acting as an extra for regular Smosh comedy sketches. It wasn’t until Smosh Summer Games that you had really met anyone from Smosh Games. Up until then, you only knew them from seeing their faces in the gaming content you got to edit.

Now, you were sat in a packed white van with those members. While the squad was off filming at an outdoor location, you had been scheduled to film a type of vlog at Disney.

Well, the choice was between a day at the office and Disney and the latter won the vote. Obviously.

You were sat between Mari and Damien, talking softly with the both of them. The rest of the crew were wrapped up in their own conversations, taking no notice when you asked Mari and Damien the question that had been harping at your mind for hours.

“Does Joven not like me?”

Mari stopped her snacking, her hand halfway into a chip bag. Her hand came out of the bag and she wiped her hand on a tissue, a worried look taking over her features. “No, he does like you. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know, he just doesn’t give me the vide that he likes me very much,” you shook your head. “Sorry, ignore me.”

Damien closed his book, using his finger to bookmark his page. “No, this is a totally valid worry. I know Joven can seem offputting but there’s no doubt that he likes you.”

“I just feel like the way I joined was really unconventional and I don’t wanna seem like I’m intruding or,” you trailed off, biting your lip.

Mari put her hand on your thigh and patted it, reassuring you that you were not intruding and that they were all happy to have you there. She went back to eating her chips, “Besides if Joven really didn’t like you he would make it known by actually telling you. He’s not very good at hiding his hatred.”

While what Mari had told you had put you more at ease, you still liked to think the worse. When you had all gotten to Disney and practically stumbled out of the van, you had accidentally stumbled into Wes who then bumped into Joven, causing Joven to stare at both of you incredulously. It wasn’t a bad look, per se. It was just not the look you would’ve wanted.

When you were in the park, you were sent into two different groups in order to capture as much footage for the day that would probably result in a roughly five-minute video after all the boring content like waiting in line and walking had been cut out.

After deciding to stay with Mari and the groups had separated, you felt a sinking feeling in your stomach as you looked at Joven who stood there with his bucket hat and glasses, staring in the direction of the sun. Mari then proceeded to link arms with you and skip towards the man staring defiantly into the sun.

“Where to first?”

By the end of the day with both cameras on red, you had piled back into the car. You felt better about everything, considering you had somehow gotten stuck sitting in the same row as Joven.

It was you and Joven in the back, Wes and Damien in the middle, and Mari and Courtney in the front. The case of water that had taken up a seat was gone now which allowed you all to spread out. You almost considered how you all had drunk so much water that day before remembering the other van that held some of the crew members that had gone with you all in lieu of the squad.

You were quiet for a few minutes before Matt Raub had announced that you would be pulling over to get gas. You watched as the van pulled up to the pump and everyone piled out once again. Everyone decided the buddy system would be your best bet, Mari and Courtney heading off to the bathrooms and Damien and Wes immediately booking it for the gas-station snacks.

You and Joven had settled on a slow walk around the station, neither of you really hungry or really needing to use the bathrooms. You talked a little bit about Joven’s time with Smosh though he hadn’t really seemed to want to talk at all. You eventually stopped talking and just enjoy the walk you were sharing together.

As you rounded the corner, you saw everyone piling back into the van and you started getting anxious. “They better not fucking leave us or I swear Matt Raub is gonna face some legal charges.”

You heard a chuckle come from your side and you turned your head to see a man with an infectious smile on his face. Your face fell slack as you stared at him in awe. “Have I entered an alternate universe or did you really just crack a smile for me?”

He shook his head, the smile still stuck on his face. “What could you possibly mean?”

You threw your hands up in the air and let out a noise that slightly resembled a cat being strangled. “I went this whole day thinking that you hated me!”

“What?” he looked at you like you were insane. “Why would you think I hated you?”

“I don’t know you seemed so distant and you were kind of avoiding me a whole lot,” you shook your head. “And I was way overthinking things and blowing them wildly out of proportion.”

“Well now that that’s cleared up, what do you say to running to catch our friends because Matt Raub might actually leave us here,” Joven pointed at the van that was slowly pulling up to the exit area. You swore under your breath, cursing Matt Raub and all that he stood for before hiking up your shorts and dashing off toward the van with Joven not that far behind you.

You crashed into the side, hands pressed firmly on the back passenger seat window. So what you might’ve scared Courtney into another life, they would not be leaving without you two. Not with your phone dead and your power bank in the car. No way.

You heard Matt laugh and unlock the car door allowing you to slide it open. You shot the man a look that read, I will kill you and everyone you’ve ever come to love.

You and Joven clambered into the very back, everyone refusing to move back to allow you getting in any easier.

“We thought you were both asleep in the back,” came the excuse. You knew that if they actually thought that, they would’ve been long gone by then.

“I’m quitting,” came Joven’s sarcastic response, a playful venom in his words. You knew that you’d all joke about how you and Joven nearly got left at a gas station in the future so you let it slide, settling into the back seat for the long drive home.

You plugged your phone in and the second it came back to life, you groaned out in what only could be described as misery. “Fuck,” you swore, furiously typing on your small illuminated keypad.

“What’s wrong?” Joven lent over to read your screen and you let him.

“My roommate decided to go back to visit her mom thinking I’d be out longer than a day though I specifically told her that I would need a ride home. She even said she’d be up to it,” you were halfway through typing your angry response when a hand covered your screen and pushed it away from your face.

“First, anger won’t solve anything now. Second, I could drive you home no problem. I know you don’t live far from me,” Joven said matter-of-factly.

You gave him a look, “How do you know where I live?”

“I may or may not see you leaving right before me every morning.”

You snorted, tucking your phone away. “And what does your wife think of that?”

“She thinks it’s laughable how someone working for Smosh at the same job as I do manages to leave the house before me,” Joven laughed. “But really, I could drive you home no problem.”

“That’s really great, yeah thank you,” you smiled and pulled your sweater sleeves over your hands.

“And while you’re at it, maybe it’s time to move on from the roommate. I know it’s not my place but I do know this isn’t the first time this has happened. You get paid well enough to live on your own in the area we live in and I don’t think your pay will be going down anytime soon seeing as you’re basically doing what Wes did a few years back but less stressful.”

You nodded, “Yeah, Rebecca’s a sucky roommate anyways. But I’d feel bad just leaving her out like that.”

“You always complain about her being away so she never does any of the household stuff, where does she go?”

“To her boyfriend’s.”

“Problem solved, she goes to live with her boyfriend.”

You were silent, listening in on the other’s conversations. “I don’t know why I thought you hated me when we’re getting along so well right now.”

“I don’t know either, I mean I’m awesome.”

You lightly slapped his shoulder, laughing, “You keep telling yourself that, Old Man.”

“If I’m an old man, what does that make you? A baby?”

“Yes, of course! What else would I be?”

The time flew by and soon enough you were back at the office. You all left the van, waving goodbye to Matt as he left to go park it. Joven led you to his car, pulled out of the parking garage and drove until the office was out of the rearview mirror.

Joven dropped you off at home with promises of dinners at his place in the future and you left his car with a smile.

TAGLISTS

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@gretavanyeth @toms-order @starlightfound @rumoured-whispers @lemirabitur @grandmascottlang @lovelyh0lland @positiveparker @bippity-boppity-boopa

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scifrey · 4 years

Photo

2019 Writing Round Up

The new year is here, and with it everyone is talking about what they wrote this past year. The last quarter of 2019 was a brutal rollercoaster for me, emotionally and personally, so it’s good for me to have the chance to sit here and reflect on what I accomplished and the good things that happened too.

2019 started with receiving a grant from the Toronto Arts Council for The Maddening Science – said grant went to research materials for the novel, a new computer, printer, and keyboard, and paying off some debts. But 2019 also started in a place of utter burn-out, having slammed through writing, editing, and publishing five big novels in three years, as well as rewriting a feature film and completing the scripts for three seasons of a webseries.

I was also working two dayjobs – one first thing in the morning, for an hour and a half, and then a standard eight-hour shift in the evenings which got me home at around 10pm – so my sleep schedule was a mess and I was having trouble not only making time to write, but concentrating when I did have the time.

I started the year in a place of complete exhaustion and mild frustration that neither of my book series had really caught on, and as my agent once said, “burned out from tried to break out.” I’m not happy to say that I think I still occupy that place a full year later; but I’ve had the opportunity to rest more, and begin to refill my creative well again, and to reclaim my writing space by no longer needing a roommate.

I’m not quite there yet – turns out finishing two series in four years really takes it out of you – but maybe in a few more months I’ll be ready to sit down and begin to spin out a new novel. In the mean time, I’ve got lots of irons in the fire, as you’ll see.

January

The first third of 2019 was dedicated to rewriting The Skylark’s Sacrifice a second time. I’d rewritten it in the last third of 2018 and my editor ended up agreeing that while the rewrite was exactly what she asked for, we should not have gone down that street in the first place. It was what was asked of me, but it didn’t work. So I took it back to the drawing board, and started the re-write all over again.

I also published WORDS FOR WRITERS: The DO-ING Trap.

I finished the edits/polish on A Woman of the Sea, which I had begun in October 2018 and loaded the book onto Wattpad in preparation for serializing it.

February

I spent February rewriting and jobhunting. I tried to write a short story and Did Not Do Well. It’s half done and likely to end up on the Pile Of Unfinished Tales.

At least I got some new words on the page with WORDS FOR WRITERS – Beta Readers.

And I began releasing A Woman of the Sea a chapter at a time on Valentine’s Day.

March

I completed the Skylark rewrites and handed them over to Reuts Publications. I also published WORDS FOR WRITERS – From Signing to Signing.

At this point I tried to start The Maddening Science, the book I received a Toronto Art’s Council Grant for in 2018, and bashed out a few chapters and a few scenes. But something was off about it, and I couldn’t pinpoint why, so I kept going into the file and only put a few hundred words in here and there. I couldn’t really sit down and dig in, and because I don’t believe in Writer’s Block as a mystical magical reason for why people can’t write (there are always reasons), I had to step back to try to figure out why I was struggling. I assumed it was probably because I was in the middle of job interviews and decided to try again later.

April

I started a new copywriting job, leaving my other two dayjobs, and it sucked up all my brainpower and creativity and made it very hard to want to sit down and compose yet more words at the end of the day.

I resumed working piecemeal on The Maddening Science, pecking out what I could one molasses-slow sentence at a time. I realized that the incidents in the news regarding the current political comment and the toxic white supremacist misogyny that is rampant in our society today has made it very hard to figure out how to tell a responsible story about a supervillain as the protagonist.

I’m still working on that. In the mean time, while I figure out how to restructure the tale, the book and the progress blog are on hiatus.

May

Still brain-dead from work, I only managed to bash out WORDS FOR WRITERS: How do social media and writing/publishing work together?

June

There were some final edits on The Skylark’s Sacrifice to be discussed, but I really did nothing this month beyond marketing pushes and watching all the webseries I judged for TOWebfest.

July

The director of my feature film, To a Stranger, was going to start shopping the script around to executive producers, so before he did that I got some actorfriends together to do a table read. The read, and their feedback, revealed some character motivation gaps in the film, and I set about organizing their notes and figuring out how to solve the issues.

I also wrote and published WORDS FOR WRITERS – How To Write a Synopsis.

This was also the month of TOWebfest, the festival itself, and I spent a lovely day with fellow creators and spoke to some executive producers about my own webseries to try to garner interest.

I was a guest at Pretty Heroes Con for the first time and LOVED it. It’s great to celebrate strong female leads in SF/F and I loved Sailor Moon as a kid, so I was in nostalgic nirvana. It was lovely to introduce those Girl Power-loving fans to The Skylark’s Saga.

August

I restructured and rewrote To a Stranger, added extra characters and extra scenes to clear up some character motivation in the screenplay. It’s now back with the director and I hope to hear that he’s got a production house and an Exec attached to the project soon.

I appeared at FanExpo Toronto to do some panels, sell some books, and judged the short fiction contest. I also wrote and published WORDS FOR WRITERS: How to Create a Pitch Package.

September

The Skylark’s Sacrifice was published! Yay! I had a wonderful launch party at Bakka Phoenix, and got to simultaneously launch the incredible book trailer for the duology animated by Elizabeth Hirst to a song by Victor Sierra. Friends Adrianna Prosser and Eric Metzloff, and Danforth Brewery made it extra special.

I also got to read at Word on the Street, which was been a career-long dream, reading on the new Across the Universe Stage.

However, September was also the month when I lost the copywriting job. I saw it coming, so I was shocked when it happened and how it went down, but not surprised. I wasn’t fitting in well with the team, the original project I had been hired for had been vetoed by the execs, work was being taken away from me and given to freelancers, and I didn’t have the training they wanted (though that makes me wonder why they hired me in the first place.) In retrospect it’s been a blessing, as the workplace was not at all a good fit for me and was slowly becoming toxic, but at the time it was a devastating blow to my confidence and my coffers.

Just a few days after I was fired, on my 37th birthday, I won a Watty Award for A Woman of the Sea. Happy birthday to me! I was offered a place among the Wattpad Stars program and accepted – and wow, is there a lot of paperwork for that – and I’m still trying to figure out what benefits the program offers. (Though I’m pretty chuffed with my free Canva Premium subscription!) A Woman of the Sea was featured on the home page as an Undiscovered Gem and as of today has about 82k reads. Whoa!

I also wrote and published WORDS FOR WRITERS: How to Plan a Series.

October

I spent most of the month sleeping and crying and working through how I felt about getting fired. When one identifies oneself as a writer, to finally get a job in writing was a thrill and felt like a confirmation that although I was struggling with my next book, I was a writer and I’d get through it. Being fired from the job – even though the reason was an exec decision to eliminate my project and thus my role – felt like a very personal blow. I wasn’t a writer after all. (Or at least, that’s what it felt like).

This had me thinking long and hard. Especially about where I wanted my writing career to go next – as much I’ve been writing in the realm of SF/F the past decade, I’ve begun to realize that was I really am is a Character-Driven Romance writer. Romance set in spec fic and fantasy realms, sure, but Romance and Character Work are my wheelhouse and how I should be selling myself.

This realization has been pretty freeing because it means that the frustrations and roadblocks I’ve been coming up against can maybe be dissolved by reframing my brand and rethinking my career map.

Wattpad added the sample of City By Night that’s on Wattpad to their Halloween Reads list on the homepage and I decided to put the whole novella up on the site for people to read. Read it now, though. It won’t stay up forever as the eBook rights to the novel are signed with an indie publisher. This is just a limited-time promotion.

And knowing that readers were asking what I would be posting next on Wattpad after A Woman of the Sea, I rejigged Triptych for the site and started serializing it from the start. You can read it here. This story also won’t stay up forever, for the same reason.

I also started serializing Words for Writers on Wattpad. I won’t be copying over all 75+ articles I have on my website, just the ones that are specifically useful for Watties.

I also polished a webseries and sent it to a producer with a major broadcaster after our convo at TOWebfest for consideration. I’ve followed up but there’s no reply. I’ll follow up again in January 2020 but I can pretty well assume that No Answer is my ‘No’ Answer.

I am thinking about maybe pitching it as a graphic novel in the future, though I’m going to have to reach out to my friends who write them for publishers to figure out how to put at pitch together.

November

In 2017 I handed over a YA contemporary re-telling of “Northanger Abbey” to my agent, and it was lukewarmly received by both her and the handful of editors she showed it to. It was then shelved for possible future reworking.

In the first part of the NaNoWriMo month, I decided to tackle this reworking, and I was still wrestling mentally with The Maddening Science. This reworking was inspired a lot by reading Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston in October, and realizing that the tone I’d been going for with my narrator hadn’t been irreverent or GenZ-y enough for the story I was trying to tell, and not grounded enough in the technologies and social media that my modern-day Catherine Morland would have access to.

I reworked the Pitch Document for the novel, now currently called “Title TBA”, and got to chapter seven during NaNo. I’ve got some thinking to do about structure for the novel, and how far into using Social Media As A Storytelling Tool I want to go with the idea, but generally speaking I’m pretty pleased with the result of the rewrites.

Partway through NaNo, it occurred to me that there was another story that my Wattpad readers were asking for, and one that would be a lot of fun to write. In A Woman of the Sea, my fictional Regency-era Jane-Austen-analogue authoress Margaret Goodenough writes her debut novel “The Welshman’s Daughters”. As I describe this non-existent novel in A Woman of the Sea, it’s a gothic romance that’s very Elizabeth Gaskell-and-Jane Austen-esque in terms of it being a character study driven romance, with some of the fun high melodrama and gothic tone of Anne Radcliffe. And, in the world of A Woman of the Sea, it’s the first queer kiss in Classic Western Literature.

A handful of readers have asked where they can find this book, or have confessed to going to the library to ask for it, only to learn that it’s not real. I made it up.

And I thought… well, why not make it real?

So I’m working on the pitch doc and the first chapter now, to see if a) this is something I want to pursue and b) this is something that will help me break through my burn-out slump. I hope it will, but I think I still need to take time to rest before I really push into it.

And I still have the “Title TBA” rewrites to complete.

December

I published WORDS FOR WRITERS: How Do I Get An Agent?, and spent the rest of the month just trying to chill. I’ve become a bit of a reluctant reader, so I am trying to push myself to read a little each day, to remind myself why I fell in love with storytelling in the first place.

A Woman of the Sea was turned down for Paid Stories, unfortunately, because of the structure of the romance. The Stars Team explained that romance stories like this one, with one romantic partner in the first half of the book, and a different one in the second (a la Brigit Jones’ Diary) doesn’t tend to do well on Paid because readers are reluctant to shell out for a romance where they don’t meet the HEA partner until later. It’s heartbreaking to hear, because I was really hoping that this might become a viable stream of income for me. At least the team who turned it down were very kind and expressed how much they loved the story in and of itself.

But no matter – onwards and upwards!

What’s ahead for 2020

Well, I’m not sure. This has been a really, really difficult year and I have really, really struggled with trying to figure out who I am and what I want, both in life and as a writer.

Certainly, there will be lot of hard thinking about the future of my writing career. I have ideas that I love and want to pursue, but this post-firing-return-to-the-job-hunt-depression is killing my desire to create. And honestly, the fact that I’ve worked so hard for so many years and haven’t managed to get any sort of break-through or cultural foothold or ability to even really to pay my bills with this job is disheartening. I’m still paying more in marketing every year than I’m making in Royalties.

However, I have some new opportunities on the horizon – conversations happening behind closed doors, as well as Divine Paradox Films still working toward filming To A Stranger, and Alpaca vs Llama shopping The Skylark’s Song as a teens animated series. And the webseries I wrote is under consideration with a new production team, so I can keep my fingers crossed.

Who knows, perhaps the rewritten “Title TBA” might be just the thing to propel my work into a realm where I’m really earning money. Though I had originally envisioned it as the first of a series, the more I work and think on it, the more I feel like it would be best as a stand-alone. I think it would slap a lot harder if it was a one-off.

And I am genuinely liking the plot of The Welshman’s Daughters, and all the research reading and viewing I am doing to get the tone and mood of the book right (please recommend me your favourite Gothic Romances – film, TV, or books!)

But I’m not going to rush anything. It’s nice to be able to remember how to putter with a book and have no looming, razor-blade deadlines hanging over my neck.

2020 will be, I hope, a year of renewed creativity, motivation, and the year where I complete at least one of the three novel projects I’ve started.

For now, I think I’m going to go have a nap.

If you want to stay up to date with my writing and happenings, sign up for my newsletter.

#J.M. Frey #about the author #words for writers #writing round up #2019 writing round up #writing #writing community #writeblr

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fieldfullofbangtan · 5 years

Text

Idols Dream: Chapter Eleven

☁️ au: idol!au

☁️ chapter word count: 2.3k

☁️ chapter summary: Kris’ MV drops, it’s your big break and omg a giant teddy.

The music video shoot was honestly the most fun and exhausting thing I’ve ever done. Kris and I goofed around on set like two idiots but in the end after 2 weeks of constant shooting we were absolutely dead.

“That’s a wrap guys! Good job everybody and thanks for all the hard word. If everything goes as planned the video will be up the day after deadline!” The director yelled out as everybody started to get ready to leave, giving eachother praise for all the work.

Me and Kris stayed on the set and we both breathed out like a weight had been lifted off our shoulder. When we started filming the MV everything was going as planned and the date of it dropping was released. Not only was the release day made public but they also posted a few teasers on Kris’ social media platforms. Since it was his first release in a while the news spread like wildfire and now everybody is anticipating it.

Unfortunatly thanks to some clumsy folks on set the shoot took longer than expected and we were all on edge because of the possibility of it not being finished on time. We worked 18 hours straight a few days just to make up for the lost time. So when we heard the director tell us we would most likely make it before deadline, it felt like a choir of angels appeared before me.

“We did it!” Kris finally said after processing the good news, he held his hand up waiting for a high five.

“I’ve never been so stressed about a deadline before” I breath out and dramatically use one hand to lift the other to give him a high five.

“Oh trust me, there will be plently of deadlines just like this one in your future”

He probably said it to warn me or prepare be but all I feel is exitement. I’ve never been so happy while ‘working’ before. Even if the hours were long and tiring I always looked forward to being on set or in the studio. I never really believed the ‘Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life”, but damn it’s true.

“So what now?” I ask Kris after we’d changed into the clothes we came in and started to leave the building.

“Deadline is in...” Kris checks his phone, “like 48 hours. I say we sleep until then.”

I re-count the time since it sounds so short. I look at my phone as well. Wednesday 22:25. The video is suppose to be edited and reviewed, then posted on Friday at midnight.

“49 hours and 35 minutes actually.” I smirk at Kris and he rolls his eyes but can’t help smiling.

“Smart-ass”

Kris gives me a ride home and it almost feels weird to say goodbye since we’ve been wokring together for more than two weeks at this point.

“We can take tomorrow off and just recuperate, but how about we meet back at the studio on Friday? We could watch the release together” Kris is tired as hell but still manages to show some exitement.

The video will be previewed before it releases but only by the CEO’s and editors. I’m not allowed to see it. I’m not exactly sure why but I’m guessing it’s to minimize the risk of it being leaked.

“Sounds good”

He gives me a thumbs up and I start to enter the building. I hear him drive away much slower than usual, probably because he’s as exhausted as I am. Walking into my apartment a new wave of exhaustion hits me and I zombie-walk to my bedroom, collapse on the bed and fall asleep.

The time flies by, probably because I spent most of it in bed sleeping or on my couch watching netflix and eating. Jackson couldn’t come over since he was still trying to handle the situation with his ex, poor dude has been stressing over that for weeks now. During my free day I finally had the time to call my family and Jess, I told them all about the release, the shoots, my sister interrogated me about Kris and it was just wonderful to finally talk to them again.

Friday crept up on me, I again slept through most of the day but at 16:00 I went to the studio to meet Louis and Kris. Exiting the elevator I’m met with the familiar sight of the cute receptionist.

“Good afternoon Ms (Y/L/N)” He smiled. “Are you exited for tonight?”

I hadn’t processed it yet since I’ve been way too tired to even think these past two days.

“God I don’t even know... I don’t think I really get it yet” I chuckle and continue to the studio.

I’ve been here so much there’s no longer a need to knock before entering. Louis and Kris jump out of their seats to greet me and look kinda like two happy children seeing santa on christmas.

“Guys what’s going on?” I laugh, Kris is rushing me to the couch while Louis hands me a full bottle of champange.

Louis looks at me like I just disrespected him and his entire ancestry. “What do you mean? It’s you first release ever! Aren’t you exited?”

I shrug, it’s like my mind isn’t getting it. As if the past weeks of work we’re so exhausting my brain has just shut off all emotion.

“Huh, not the reaction I was expecting. I could barely sit still when I first debuted with EXO...” Kris looks at me confused as he sits down beside me on the couch.

“Don’t worry” Louis sits down on as well. “It’ll hit her” He nods and smiles at me.

We just sit back and chill. When dinnertime came Kris and Louis start arguing about what to eat and I had to play referee and pick. They truly behaved like two kids and I can’t lie, it’s entertaining.

Midnight crept up on us. Kris’ phone started to buzz, alerting him that we were 5 minutes away from the MV dropping and I could feel my heart start to beat faster. Jess started to spamm me with texts about her refreshing the Youtube page and the situation finally started to sink in. This is actually happening. A little over a month ago I was nobody, and now I’m in an MV with Kris Wu. The worlds going to see this. This is my big break.

“Ready?” Kris turned on a projector that displayed Kris Wu VEVO onto a projector screen. As he pressed refresh for the forth or fifth time the video showed up.

Just seeing my face on the thumbnail sent a shiver down my spine. What shocked me more was the title. “ft. questionmark? But I’m not in the song?”.

“It’s just to signal that you’re someone important, and not some random model for a music video.”

I nod, I guess that makes sense. Usually people don’t really focus on anyone else than the artist.

“Not that anybody is gonna think your some random person after our run in with the paparazzis that one time” Kris chuckled, “But anyways, you ready?”

“I guess...” I pretty much whisper as I grab onto Louis’ arm as a way to make myself feel more stable.

Kris clicked and the video started to play. For the first 30 seconds Kris was the only person on screen. Louis and Kris started talking about something related to the MV but I couldn’t stop focusing on the video. Any second now... I’ll be on screen any second no-

There I was, sitting on a couch in the purple-neon lit room. The emotions I was clearly lacking a few hours ago came all at once and I felt so overwhelmed I just burst out in tears.

“Damn y’all look so good” Louis hypes us up only to realize I’m beside him sobbing like a baby.

“Hey... hey what’s wrong?”

Louis’ audible concern makes Kris turn toward me and notice my state as well. He paused the video.

“Do you not like it?”

I was too embarrassed to lift my head and too overwhelmed to say anything. I just shook my head.

“What’s wrong then?” Kris continued.

I took some slow deep breaths, trying to calm my sobbing down as they patiently waited for me to collect myself. After one last breath I finally said “I’m just... so happy”.

The boys both visibly calmed down. I dried my tears with my sleeves but they just kept pouring down.

“I’m sorry I don’t know how to stop it” I manage to laugh through my sobs.

“Now that’s the reaction I remember having” Louis pats my back. “This is totally normal, you just gotta let it out. After a while you’ll be dyhydrated”

Louis says it jokingly but a part of my thinks that’s my only option. After getting my O-K to keep watching the video Kris turned it on again. It was surreal and so rewarding to see something we worked so hard on become this complete thing.

Jess called me as soon as the video was over.

“Oh my fucking god dude” I heard as soon as I picked the phone up.

I couldn’t help laughing because I could see her shocked face in my head.

“What do you think?”

“That was...”

There was a moment of silence and due to the boys curious looks I turned on speaker.

“FUCKIN’ AWESOME” Jess yelled and we all shared some amused and proud looks. “But why does it say feat. questionmark?”

“We’re trying to keep (Y/N)’s identity a mystery for a little longer” Kris said, “Get people talking”

“Well it’s working, are ya’ll seeing the comments?”

Kris pulled up the comment section beneath the video.

The video had only been up for a few minutes but the comments we’re flooding in. To my disbelief the majority of the question we’re about me. People were speculating whether the “?” was my artist name or if it was a man hunt. They very quickly figuered out that ‘the girl in the MV is the same one from Kris’ paparazzi incident’.

“This’ll be fun” Louis smirked as we kept on reading very frustrated commenters, all trying to figure out my identity. “We won’t make them wait for too long tho. Just a few days”

“What?”

“Oh right we haven’t told you yet!” Louis and Kris share suspiciously smug looks. “You’re releasing your first singel this week.”

“What?!”

“You are relea-”

“No no I heard you I’m just-... What?”

Kris chuckled at my confusion, “We talked about it and we think you should release your first singel by the end of this week, then when the hype is at its biggest you drop another one, and then the full album.”

“Wait you guys are serious? But we’re not even close to finishing!”

“We’ve already worked that out. We’ll do it in stages, so we finish the first singel this weekend, and we’ll just drop the rest when its done! I promise it won’t take too long.”

That’s true. I picked 14 samples and we already have 12 base songs, I’ve written lyrics to 10 of them and all we have to do is finish the last bits and perfect everything. If it goes smoothly we’ll be finished within a few weeks.

“Ok I’m in.” I say after enough thought.

Louis claps his hands together, satisfied with my answer and starts to shoo me out of the studio. “Well then you better go home and sleep cause if we plan on being done we have a long day tomorrow!”

I follow their orders and go home. I’m in deperate need of sleep after my emotional explosion from before. Usually Kris and I leave the studio at the same time so he gives me a ride home. Tonight however Kris needed to stay with Louis to sort out some promotional stuff so I had to walk home. Not complaining though, the July weather in Shanghai is best at night, so a 20 minute walk is actually really calming.

Arriving back at my apartment I was again met with my apartment door being unlocked. I’ve been forgetting to lock it a lot these past few days, unsafe I know, but a lot has been going on and my brain just can’t seem to catch up.

I pray to whoever is listening that I haven’t been robbed and open the door. It’s dark and everything looks normal, I slap my wall a few times and manage to turn on the lights.

“What the-”

As I enter my bedroom, the biggest teddybear I’ve ever witnessed in real life is just sitting there, on my bed. Walking closer I find a bottle of champange in it’s lap with a little note hanging off it.

‘Hey,

Sorry I couldn’t be there for your big break. Hope the bear makes up for it.

Jackson’

Can’t lie I was pretty salty about him not being here tonight, but the giant bear did make it suck a little less. He went to Hong Kong earlier today to visit family, lucky bastard. Since Jackson, Kris and Louis are the only people I hang out with we’ve managed to get pretty close, I just wanted to share this moment with them.

I let it go and accept the bear as an apology. There will hopefully be more moments like this so why dwell. To my disappointment the bear took up way too much of my bed and I had to move it so that I could sleep. Sorry Teddy, maybe next time.

I reach for my noisy phone on my nightstand but fail miserably as I roll off the bed. Thank god for me moving that bear because it caught me and spared me from a pretty hard fall. I let my eyes adjust to the annoyingly bright daylight shining though my windows and finally look at my phone to see what the ruckus was about.

“Ooooh shit.”

My instagram notifications we’re blowing up, I was getting maybe 10 follow requests a second. My username isn’t even my name, and my profil picture is a meme, how in the actual hell did they find me?

Louis called a second later.

“(Y/N)? We have a problem.”

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kashaifilms · 5 years

Video

GORE/BLOOD AND MENTIONS OF SUICIDE TRIGGER WARNING

So this was my next major project in university, it was quite a big jump going from live studio magazine show to pre-recorded drama. The biggest change was the actual flow of production. Instead of being put into large groups, that class was split into groups of 4-6. My group was a group of 6. The brief was to make a film that was 10 minutes long but with the main focus being on telling a narrative. So when we asked the Lecturer if the 10 minute thing was heavily enforced he said that it was more of a guideline and to use as much time as necessary to tell the story we wanted to tell. For this production module the whole class was given training on new equipment that we could use, those being the canon c100 mark ii camera’s and also learning more advanced premier pro techniques, with the only major thing being how to use green-screen (which we didn’t end up using).

My roles during this production were as a Co-writer, the Director, an Assistant Editor. My role as a Co-writer consisted of me and James spending hours coming up with sass and quick wit for Lucifer to have as well as deciding what jokes and religious references we’d put into the project. We were heavily inspired by the (then) FOX show ‘Lucifer’, the version of Lucifer from the Neil Gaiman Sandman series, and the version of Lucifer from the book ‘I, Lucifer’ by Glen Duncan. We wanted our Lucifer to be an amalgamation of the 3, having the anger at god that Glen Duncan’s version had, the childish yet very sinful version of from the FOX series, and finally the main inspiration for his appearance being the Neil Gaiman version. We also, much to our own disbelief, managed to actually write a copy of the book that Lucifer talks about during the interview in time for the submission date, which we are currently getting printed for the crew and cast as memento’s of the project.

Now after writing the script for everything and got the teams approval that this was definitely what we were doing the next step was casting for the role. To do this I set up a starnow account to try and find some actors who needed to add to their portfolio or who were willing to work unpaid. However after setting this up and posting the ad for the search I was shocked at how many people applied ofr Lucifer alone . After only a week we had 86 applicants and after 2 weeks there were 114. We closed the ad after the third week because we believed we had enough applicants and we also were shortlisting as we went. and thought we had quite a good number of people for the project. After looking through all the applications and shortlisting we sent out a task for everyone to do, which was to read a section of the script and then record and send in a video audition based on how we described the characters. The deadline was set for two weeks after we sent the message. All people who didn’t apply were automatically sent a message saying that they didn’t get the role. The boy who got the role, Isaac, sent his application in on the day of the deadline. It had us worried as he was our personal top pick for the role, as he looked the part and his portfolio and theatrical background would add to the role. He sent in his application wearing the signiture purple suit that he wears in the interview and as soon as he began James and I looked at each other and we knew that he was the one. After casting Isaac as Lucifer we then put out and add for the role of the interviewer, not as many people applied but it was still quite a lot, with 46 applications in the first week. after doing the same process for shortlisting, instead of having them send in a video audition we wanted to actually sit down with them, with Isaac, to see if they had the right dynamic. And once we met Dani we knew she’d be perfect for the role. Then we put out an add for Interviewer 1 and done a similar process, with a phone interview instead of a video audition. after this we got Ben, who played his part exceptionally well.

After this all we asked the cast how long it would take them to learn the script, which they responded with 4 days, and so all needed to do was secure dates for the studio and book out equipment which didn’t take long at all.

As a Director my role was to be in charge of pretty much everything while on set. The role as a whole was a very fulfilling one and luckily for me the cast and crew we had for the project were very very good at what they did. The whole experience was amazing. seeing the talent work had me mesmerised to the point that I forgot to call ‘cut’ a couple of times. The cast themselves needed little direction after the set was ready and all the camera and lights were in position. All I had to do was say ‘action’ and then let them do what they were doing.

During the actual set up process I have to thank my DOP Alex and my cameraman Matt for their amazing efficiency in setting up the camera’s and tripods while I dealt with the set and Lighting. I literally didn’t have to tell them anything apart from the type of shots I wanted and then just left them to it, It helped a lot and allowed us to get straight into filming when the actors arrived.

We had 4 days to film so I decided to have the first be rehearsal and then get straight into it for the rest. On the second day we managed to film the entire first half but then when we went back into the studios for the third day, someone had moved our lights, meaning we had to preposition them even when we did the scene didn’t look the same, so we re-done the entire first days worth of shooting, leaving the last day for the rest. When the last day came round everything was left alone after I left some notes and had some words with the technician/studio supervisor. This meant that everything could carry on as planned.After shooting concluded it was an amazing feeling that we were almost done.

We had about 3 1/2 weeks left to edit the project, which was more than enough time, but gave us more time to polish the film into a shining beauty it is. James was the head editor for this project, and I had the role of assistant editor. Even though I was the assistant editor, my role consisted mainly of me walking James through things that he couldn’t do or doing more complex things myself due to me being the more experienced and knowledgeable editor. The things that I walked him through were the ending credits and a few effects used for colour correction and the like. Things I did myself were the Opening title sequence thing and the effect on Lucifer’s eyes when he wakes up in the bath.

As a whole I am very proud of the experience and filming the short was the most fun I’d ever had during a production thus far. I am very happy with the results or our hard work and I believe that I learned quite a lot during the production, especially in terms of directing. Before this I had little to no experience as a director of works and I had always said before I even got into university that I would definitely like to do it, or at least try it to see if i liked the role, and yes, I like the role. This gave me the confidence that I previously lacked in a leadership role.

#vaikriya #sex drugs and ice cream #lucifer #drama interview #long post #gore warning #suicide mention #adult language #short film

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bthenoise · 5 years

Text

Q&A: Here’s How Some Of Your All-Time Favorite Music Videos Were Made Thanks To The Brilliant Max Moore

So you want to make music videos? Well, we have some good news and we have some bad news. The bad news? It takes a TON of hard work. The good news? We have some pretty solid advice from one of if not the best music video directors in our scene.

Working with the likes of Converge, Code Orange, Knocked Loose, Motionless In White, Movements, New Found Glory and a ton more, Max Moore has built quite the reputation of being an ultra-consistent, ultra-creative and incredibly hard-working director working his way up from the DIY hardcore community.

Talking with The Noise about getting started behind the camera and what he suggests to up-and-coming filmmakers, Moore commented, “I think it's so easy to get caught up in the comparison game of what camera somebody has starting out or where you live.”

“I don't live in Los Angeles,” Moore said. “I live in a random ass city in the Midwest. And if you can just get away from all the bullshit and just focus on making really creative, cool ideas, then you're going to be somewhat successful over the people who just freaked out about the new stabilizer or piece of gear.”

With a resume of nearly 100 music videos, commercials and short films under his belt, Moore clearly knows his stuff -- which is exactly why we wanted to reach out to the talented 28-year-old and find out how he got his start making some of our favorite music videos.

To check out Moore’s story and insightful guidance for future directors, be sure to look below. Afterward, for more, head here.

How long do you think you usually spend on an edit? Obviously different videos vary but what’s your average time?

MAX MOORE: Well, not all directors edit their own stuff. But for me, it's a big part of what I do. And in terms of having control over the final product, I mean, you can shoot and direct something amazingly [but] if you don't have a good editor, it can all kind of fall apart there. So editing is the one thing that I still do all myself. So as you can imagine, it just depends on the project. But even more so than that, it really just depends on the timeline from the label or management or whatever.

For example, the [recent] Knocked Loose video, I edited it in like a week. And you know, that's like working on it six to eight hours for a few days or something like that. But I've also had crazy deadlines where it's like, “Hey, the video is literally supposed to come out in three days from when we shoot it.” So I'll just hunker down and edit nonstop for like 48 hours. So I've literally shot a video in LA, flew (because I actually live in Kentucky -- Louisville, Kentucky -- where Knocked Loose is from) back home and edited a video and turned it in and it came out like two days later. So yeah, it really just depends. But I think the biggest thing is just if the labels are like, “Hey, it’s not due for a while,” I'm gonna let it sit. [laughs] I'm not trying to kill myself just to get it done.

youtube

Do you ever overlap with videos? Or is it usually one project at a time?

I usually always kind of have multiple projects going at the same time. It's varied in different years. I've been doing this full time for about six years. Some years, I did insane amounts of music videos. Some years, I do a little bit less. I think the most I did one year was like 40 music videos or something crazy. So if you think about that, there are only 12 months in a year. So there's obviously going to be some crossover. But these days, I'm trying to -- when I was first doing this I was like, “I want to do as many as possible and work with as many artists as I can.” But these days, I'm trying to be more selective about what I take on and I'd rather do fewer, really good [videos] than just pump them out. So I've also started directing commercials as well. I don't want to do 40 music videos a year. It’d be nice to do a handful of ones I’m really passionate about.

For young filmmakers and directors who are just learning, what’s your time management like or the schedule that you give yourself on a day-to-day basis?

I think the biggest key, especially when I was getting started, I would get a lot of offers to do videos and I was just so excited to have the work that I didn't know how to say no yet. So I kind of overbooked myself, like the year I did almost 40 videos, that was so stupid. Like, truly. I mean, I worked like seven days a week for the entire year basically. So I think it starts before you even get the work. By that, I mean learning when to say no. You know, “That video sounds really cool, I like that band, but I just don't have time.” Or you know, “Hey, it's a good budget. I don't care about this artist. Nah, I'm going to pass.” You know what I mean? So I think it starts from the get-go and I'm learning to be better with that.

As the years have gone on, in terms of the day-to-day, I think it's just like any business. It's prioritizing things that need to get done based on when they're due. I think that sounds like a really non-answer but I think it's important to keep to your schedule -- especially when you're self-employed and you do a lot of it yourself. It's really easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. But I like to stay organized by keeping a well-established schedule and prioritizing by what's due when and knocking it out in that order if that makes sense.

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Is there one video in particular you had to turn down that you're super bummed about?

Yeah, I mean, there's been lots of cases over the years. But it's been less of that, like, “Hey, we want you to do it” and I feel like I have to pass. The things that I mostly get more bummed about are the videos where I write it -- so the way the normal process works is it's not usually, it happens a lot for me [with] someone I’ve worked with several times [where] we're directly working together and they know “Hey, we want Max to do the video.” So we’ll figure out the treatment and what the video is going to be, but I am working directly with them.

But usually, the way it works is that my rep, my music video rep, which is just like (that's what they call it, it's like my agent, basically) and so she will send me tracks from record labels and say, “Hey Max, do you want to write on this?” And so say it's a really awesome artist that I would love to work with, it’s like, “Oh yeah, I would love to write a treatment for that.” She says okay, so then I spend the day putting together a music video treatment, sending it off to her and she sends it to the label. But the label is also collecting several treatments from several different directors and you don't know how many, who's writing, who else is also writing on it or how many.

And so back to the original question. I've definitely gotten bummed like, “Oh my god, I'm writing a treatment for blah, blah, blah, whatever band or artist. I'm so excited!” And then it's like, “Yeah, they went with somebody else.” And then you’re like, “Ahhhhh.” [laughs] This is the name of the game. It's as frustrating as it can be music video directing, or directing for some production in general. [You] kind of just gotta have tough skin. And if you get your feelings really hurt by not getting a job or the client not liking the video or the edit, or whatever, you gotta just have thick skin and roll with the punches. The people that can roll with the punches consistently and keep trucking even though they get bummed on not getting stuff, those are the people that are successful and can have consistent work. Not saying that's me [laughs], but yeah.

When you're writing treatments, do you feel like the ideas come to you pretty instantly? Or do you have to think for a few hours, sometimes days?

I think it just depends on the specific situation. There have been times where I'll get sent a song and I immediately have something come to mind and the treatments done in like an hour. Then there are also times where I've literally sat at a computer for hours and hours and hours and gone on walks, took a shower, left and drove around and there's nothing I can do [because] I'm 100% in writer's block. I finally just end up being like “Alright, I’ll write this down and submit it.” But I think it just depends on the situation. I think it's always easier in a situation where it's an artist that I know and that I've worked with previously. Like a band like Code Orange or Knocked Loose. I've worked with both those bands multiple times and we have a rapport, a creative rapport that we can kind of reference previous videos or it's really just a trust thing. Those kinds of artists that I’ve worked with trust me and trust what I'm writing is going to make sense for the song or the record or whatever. So it's always easier when I have a direct relationship with the artist rather than when it's just more the standard business thing where there's several layers of middlemen in between– my manager, or my rep, their manager, a video commissioner. That's where the creativity is a little harder to pin down.

It’s interesting having a job in a creative space because there isn’t just some button you can push to come up with ideas. Like when people say, “Hey, think of some ideas for this.” It’s really not that easy.

Totally.

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But talking about the artists you've worked with. You mentioned Code Orange and Knocked Loose. When you came up in this music scene was that the music you were listening to?

Yeah. So when I was younger, I'm 28 now, but all through middle school and high school, I played in lots of different punk and hardcore bands and toured. Did that whole thing. My friends were in a band called Xerxes that was signed to No Sleep Records, which was kind of a poppin’ label back in the day and so that was very much my world that I came from like the DIY punk hardcore scene. So naturally, a band like Code Orange -- I was friends with them and that was the music I was already playing and it sort of just kind of lent itself for me taking on those kinds of videos. I didn't like set out to specifically direct music videos, it just kind of happened naturally from the fact that I had a big background in music and all these friends that were in bands and all these connections.

But at the same time, I stopped playing music and went to film school and then those two things just naturally lead together into one. But yeah, to answer the question: Yeah, I mean, that's the world I come from and that's kind of why so much of my work has been in that scene, whatever you want to call it. Obviously, I've worked with lots of different kinds of bands like pop-punk bands, indie bands, stuff like that. But it's all really under the umbrella of “alternative music,” that’s what I would call it. But the cool thing about having my rep is that she and the production company I'm signed with, they can kind of give me opportunities to write for artists and bands that are kind of outside my own connections. Like a pop artist or hip-hop artists or something like that. So, though I come from punk and hardcore, I love all kinds of music. I listen to hip-hop mostly these days. And so even though [punk and hardcore is the] majority of what my work is done in, I definitely have a strong desire to branch out and flex creative muscles in a different genre or different types of video. If that makes sense.

Yeah, so who are some dream artists you'd love to work with?

I mean, I’d want to do the biggest of the big. [laughs] I want to do a Beyoncé video [laughs]. I’d do anything, man. But the cool thing about my background is people kind of pin me down as always the “hardcore director.” But in reality, if you actually know me personally, you know that my kind of interests is so much broader than just hardcore. When I was 17, I was a hardcore kid. At 28, I'm just Max [laughs]. I can like Drake. I can like Beyoncé. I can like whatever. So really the dream artist is anybody who's willing to give me the time. I know that’s kind of a cop out answer, but yeah. Anybody who's just down to let me make some cool stuff. I'm always interested in working with them.

So do you think some advice to incoming videographers is to not pigeonhole themselves into just one category and instead branch out and try everything?

Yes and no. I think, oddly, some of the reasons why I've had consistent work over the last few years is because there is this network of bands in the scene. Whether it's the record labels I work with, I think just like any business you get hired because you get good at one thing where you specialize in something, like you know, a plumber or electrician or any type of business. A plumber is going to get hired to do plumbing and in that way, it's been good for me to continue to work with bands in a similar genre because it just keeps the ball rolling and you’re able to create a style.

But that’s why I think, starting out, I think it is kind of cool. This has just worked for me. The thing about music video directing, or directing as a whole, is that there's no right or wrong path. It's not like becoming a doctor where you have to take a test, you pass the test and someone gives you a piece of paper and says you’re a doctor. Everybody's path to music video directing, or directing any type of production, looks very different. So I'm just speaking personally and what’s worked for me. So I think working in this kind of genre of music has allowed me to basically make a living. But I think once you get to a certain level, or have a certain amount of videos under your belt or if you're just bored and want to try something different, I think breaking out and not being afraid to branch out, that's the biggest thing. Be consistent and put yourself out there but at the same time, don't be afraid to try new things with new kinds of artists or people.

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A good example of that as far as your music videos go has to be the Chapel music video you directed with all the giant breakfast stuff which we assume was pretty challenging for more reasons than one. Speaking of, what has been the most challenging music video for you to shoot personally?

I would probably say, the most challenging would probably be the [Code Orange] “Forever” video -- and then I'll have the worst day on set story, I'll share with you. But with [“Forever”], there was just a lot of logistics. I actually self-produced the music video. We shot in Louisville, Kentucky. So there's just a lot of working parts to the video. I mean, there's so much in it and the biggest thing, the challenge is the big pyrotechnic stuff at the end of the video. You know, if we were shooting in LA or somewhere like that, getting a pyro person is no problem. They're everywhere and you can get them. Normally, when I’m shooting in LA, there’s a production team, the producers will handle all that and make it happen. But trying to like, you know, maximize the budget and put everything I could into this video, shooting in Louisville was a better option, which is where I'm from and just finding a pyro team in Louisville, Kentucky was not possible. [laughs] There isn't anybody. So we had to bring people in from Nashville and it was just a lot. I remember being totally overwhelmed. If it was any other artist, I would have been like, “I can't.” But because my relationship is strong and special with that band and I care about the art and believe in what they're doing, I was like, “You know, this is an important record, this is an important single” and I just felt that it was like “You gotta go hard on this one.” And yeah, they ended up getting nominated for a Grammy for that song. I'm super proud of what they've done and seeing them grow. So I think just because I cared so much, that's why that was the most challenging one if that makes sense.

Totally.

And then the worst day on set was with this band called Motionless In White, which also involved a ton of pyro behind the stage. It was just the longest day and our gaffer, who had all the lights and equipment, he was a no-call no-show the morning of the shoot and set us behind. And then the pyro thing, we had all this fire on the stage inside this warehouse and it popped the sprinklers and sprinklers went all over everything and I had my camera in my hand and I'm like running out. And it wasn't clean water, this was like an old warehouse and it's black fucking sludge coming out of the sprinklers. And I was like, “Oh my god, dude.” I was freaking out like, “It's done. It's over.”

But then somehow the crew like shop-vacuumed it all up and we kept shooting and then finally the stage caught fire. There was like 300 screaming tweens -- they were just fans but they were in the video and it was just straight chaos. Anyways, it was a crazy day. The video turned out, came out and that's all that matters. So what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

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What do you think is one of the biggest things people misinterpret about being a music video director?

I think the biggest thing that people don't understand, the biggest part of my job that I didn't even know was the biggest part of the job is it's not just about “Hey, can you direct a video? Or can you make a video?” As a working music video director, it's all about writing. That's something I had no idea about when I first got into it. Like, you can yell action and you can shoot and you can edit and produce and make an amazing, clean product. But you will not get work consistently or at all really if you don't know how to write a treatment and accurately portray your idea and write it and set it up in a way that all parties involved can clearly understand.

So the biggest misconception is that it's not just about being on set. So much of my day-to-day is writing and pitching. In that way, it’s not good enough to just be a good director. You have to be a good writer and a good salesman for the ideas that you have and that you believe in. And even if you don't believe in it, you have to make them think that you believe it. And then when you get there, and it turns out it works, everybody's happy. But I think that's the biggest misconception of what a day-to-day music video director is. It's a lot of sitting in front of a computer and finding reference images for your treatment or searching online for that one still [image] you remember from a movie that will be great to go into the treatment or coloring reference images in Photoshop. I mean, most of my job is that. It’s pitching. And then, that's intercut with the shoot days and the edits. But it's a lot of hard work and it's not for people who, you know -- production isn't like the cozy nine-to-five thing. You got to really want it and you’ve got to be willing to continually be putting yourself out there. And it's hard but when you find some level of success and work consistently [and] see people really dig the videos -- like the Knocked Loose video came out the other day and people were digging it -- that's when it feels like “Hey, you know this is really hard and sucky sometimes but wow, it's worth it.”

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A post shared by Max Moore (@maxmoorefilms) on Apr 18, 2019 at 12:24pm PDT

What are some of your favorite music videos you've seen that really inspired you or made you wish you thought of first?

I think watching older Smashing Pumpkins music videos is huge for me. Also weirdly, My Chemical Romance. I was right in that era where they were huge when I was like in [my] teen years and I was certainly into hardcore and all that but I'm a sucker for pop-punk. I was into that kind of stuff and I was watching Fuse after school and stuff like that. So, those era music videos are iconic to me.

From a young age, I always thought those videos were sick. [And] like Underoath videos and stuff like that. There's a theme of like, darker imagery that I was just naturally drawn to. But those are things growing up like, “Man, that’s so cool. I would love to do something like that.” [And] now I've gotten to write on some Underoath music videos recently, so it's all kind of full circle. I would love to do a Smashing Pumpkins video, that’d be amazing.

Did you ever watch Making The Video on MTV?

Totally! Looking back on that era of music videos, the music industry has changed so much since then with streaming and how the budgets were bigger for music videos. But I think now music videos are so much more important and relevant than they have ever been. You know, when I first started directing music videos, YouTube was really in its infancy for music videos. Vevo wasn't a thing, viral content was just getting on record labels’ radar. So I kind of slipped into the industry when it was in a lull, like YouTube wasn't this giant thing where music videos lived yet and here comes this little kid and I just had a DSLR and got into the DIY punk thing. Then as that rose back up and labels started to put in more money for music videos, I kind of rose with that as the internet gave a rebirth to the music video in some ways.

I mean, certainly there was always the major label people that were getting good budgets even during this slump when streaming stuff started to come out. But for me, in punk and hardcore, I was able to slide in there and just -- there is such a big disconnect between watching Making The Video and then my early music videos because it's like a kid shooting in his bedroom some close up that is on a shitty $600 DSLR [camera]. I think even now, the biggest budget things I do now, I still always have that DIY, do it yourself, punk mentality. At the end of the day, even if I have like a 60-person crew, 40-person crew, 20-person, 10-person crew, I'm steering the ship and no one's going to care more about this video than me. And I just still try to take that kind of DIY spirit into everything that I do, even today.

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Is there anything else you want to tell the people reading this?

I have a lot of kids DM me or email me asking like, “Hey, what lens should I get? Or what cameras do you shoot on? Or how do I get into directing?” And I think to kind of mass answer that or to give some encouragement -- I always say this but I think it's important -- I think it's so easy to get caught up in the comparison game of what camera somebody has starting out or where you live. I don't live in Los Angeles, you know. I live in a random ass city in the Midwest. And if you can just get away from all the bullshit and just focus on making really creative, cool ideas, then you're going to be somewhat successful over the people who just freaked out about the new stabilizer or piece of gear.

There's a time and place for that, you certainly have to be good at the craft. But beyond that, it's all about being creative and sticking to being DIY. If you want to direct music videos, there's no reason why you can't. Especially [since] everybody's an artist or some SoundCloud rapper these days. So everybody has someone that they probably know, at least by like a few degrees that is making music. And like, my phone shoots 4k [laughs] so there's no reason not to be able to make something if you want to do it. So just get away from all the bullshit and all the distractions and really just focus on creating cool ideas that are unique and push the boundaries.

That's really great advice.

For sure. And I think it's, you know, people always hit me up because they want an easy-to-click answer. But the fact of the matter is everybody's path is going to look different. And if you just want it enough and you have that drive, you're going to figure it out. I think that's just with anything in life, for the most part. So the last thing I want is to come off like, “[If] you do this, you will be like me and have this.” I just work hard and I try to work with artists that I like and that's basically it.

#Max Moore #Interview #music video #Knocked Loose #Code Orange #Movements

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eptfilm · 3 years

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Meet the editor behind EPT.

As promised, after the release of the exclusive footage for our backers - we have conducted an interview with our editor, Ditha Angraini about her process. We have included questions that you sent us on twitter, instagram and facebook.

You can read the FULL INTERVIEW over on our KICKSTARTER.

Here is a selection of the questions from the

Q&A with DITHA ANGRAINI

Tell us about yourself and your background.

I’m Ditha, most people call me Dee. I’m an editor, a camera operator, and a photographer. Most of my work is corporate video productions and live events, specializing in (but not limited to) short form content. A big chunk of my professional work is live events related, I do a lot of on-screen content building for it and I do show ops as well.

Film is something that I’m passionate about, I’ve worked on quite a few short films in post-production as an editor, as well as in production, usually as a camera assist, and occasionally on screen, and more recently I have been working towards building experience in stunts and choreography.

How did you get involved with EPT and what is your role?

My role on EPT is as the editor. Prior to EPT, I worked with Robert Johansson, who plays Gunnur and is also the stunt coordinator on EPT. He brought up EPT in early 2019 when it was still in pre-production, and he asked if I’d be interested to be a part of it.

After hearing about the project, Robert and I basically geeked out about it over coffee, of course I told him that I’m interested. Shortly after, I met with Fil Kopelman, the Director, and after seeing the script and meeting other people involved - I knew I made the right decision. It does help that I’m a huge sci-fi geek myself too.

Which films inspire you in terms of their editing?

It’s hard to narrow it down, but in general, Sally Menke’s work; I absolutely love Inglourious Basterds, but the one that made me fall in love with her work was Kill Bill.

I also love the editing in Alien. It is my favourite film of all time anyway; I remember being so tense and glued to the screen while being scared to the point of having nightmares the first time I watched it. Though to be fair I was very young then, but that made me want to be able to grip audience attention like that.

Being an Asian and growing up in Indonesia, I also watch a lot of Asian films and dramas (tv series), which have their own flavours and rhythm that I’m influenced by.

It is often said that a film is made in three steps; in the writing, the directing and finally in the edit. What is your approach to editing EPT? Is it different from other projects you work on?

My basic approach to editing any project is the same, but I’ll do research on the films/series that have a similar feel to the film I’m editing. In EPT’s sense, I ended up re-watching a number of 80’s sci-fi films as well as character driven dramas. However, on any edit, I play it by ear - at least the first time I see the footage - seeing what I can come up with. Then I hone it in to a feeling that’s suitable for the film.

What does your and Director Fil Kopelman's communication look like? Can you provide any insight on how you translate the Directors vision?

Fil is good at communicating and is very clear about what he wants, which is great, because I get a clear direction of how to create his vision. We use an online reviewing platform for scene reviews, and often we jump on a call to discuss these. We also chat on Messenger quite a lot, sometimes when a random thought for EPT comes up, we end up chatting for hours about it. He’s also open to suggestions and my own interpretations, so it has been a very enjoyable collaboration.

Without spoiling the story of Excavation Point Thestias – talk about a scene that has been fun or challenging for you to edit.

The most fun must have been the argument/discussion between the MEV and ground crew, and it is actually my favourite scene. Basically because it has four people involved in the conversation happening at two different locations, and emotions are running high. I initially ended up with 3 or 4 versions of it before I presented 2 to Fil, and we discussed it further before nailing it down.

What is your hope for the future of Excavation Point Thestias?

I hope that this gets the recognition and attention it deserves. I wish to see EPT in film festivals and for it to be enjoyed by many.

I also hope that this will grow into something bigger, maybe a feature or a continuation? Or perhaps a story about another crew? Because I love the universe the story is in, and I would love to see and work on more.

Where can people find you and support your work?

For my work (what I can share publicly), you can find them at @SilverDuckNZ on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter. And for everything else (the martial arts, the stunts/stage combat, the me), it’s at @bona92 on Instagram & Twitter.

You can find and follow Ditha at

Website: https://silverduck.co.nz / https://www.ditha-angraini.com/

Instagram: @SilverDuckNZ / @bona92

Facebook: @SilverDuckNZ

Image sources:

● Screenshots from EPT

● Photos supplied by Silver Duck.

#eptfilm #excavation point thestias #EPTcrew #editor #film editing #film making #science fiction #scifi film #scifi movies #short film #indie short film #indie films

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daggerzine · 5 years

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Teen Movie Hell author, Mike “McBeardo’ McPadden speaks!

Ok, so the second I saw the title I was hooked. I mean, come on, Teen Movie Hell: A Crucible of Coming-Of-Age Comedies From Animal House to Zapped. Having been born in the mid-60’s I came of age right when many of these movies were being released and of course I had to see every single one.

But, I didn’t see every one, not even close. I thought that because I watched Class and Zapped a few decades ago that it made me some kind of expert? Well, I was dead wrong.

Mike “McBeardo” McPadden is the real deal. In this 350 plus page tome McPadden reviews hundreds of movies, many ones I had never heard of. He digs deep. He really gets to the meat of it all.

I was so curious about the origins of the book and his fascination with this genre of movies that I had to toss some questions his way and being the true gentleman that he is was more than happy to answer them. Read below and in the meantime pick up two copies of this book (because you’ll wear out the first copy).

Thank you again to Mike McPadden!

Do you remember where you were and when it was that you decided you wanted to write this book?

It was in 1994. I was at the Tail o’ the Pup hot dog stand with my great friend Aaron Lee. We were on a lunch break from our editorial jobs at Hustler magazine.

One of the most profound bonding elements in my early friendship with Aaron was our devotion to the movie review compendiums that so impacted and shaped who we were—particularly the annual Leonard Maltin guides, the Medved Brothers’ Golden Turkey Awards books, Michael Weldon’s Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film and, above all, the work of author Danny Peary, in particular his series of Cult Movies books.

Aaron and I just sort of hit on the idea at the same moment—“Let’s write a book about teen sex comedies!” In time, our paths split professionally. I moved back to New York. Aaron went into stand-up comedy.

Over the next 25 years, I kept at the teen sex comedy book in one form or another. Aaron went on to a terrifically successful Hollywood writing career and was an Executive Producer of Family Guy. But—hey!—I got to write Teen Movie Hell!

Why the title- Teen Movie Hell?

I’m a fan of calling the book what it’s about, as in the case of Cult Movies. That’s why Heavy Metal Movies is titled just that. So, initially, the name of this book was. There was a time when that might have flown. Now is not that time.

A version of the book almost got published in 1999 under the title I Lost It in the Locker Room!, an allusion to Pauline Kael’s I Lost It at the Movies. At the eleventh hour, the publisher shut down the division that was handling my book and laid off my editor, so ILIITLR got scuttled.

At Bazillion Points, the books started life as Going All the Way. Then publisher Ian Christe came up with the almost perfect title Last American Virgins.

Finally, as we were doing edits, I came up with the idea to have an art show as the book’s release party and I thought—“How can I make the idea of participating in the show palatable to all these subversive artists I know and admire, beyond just saying, ‘It’s about Porky’s movies!’?”

Anne Elliott of the mighty Sideshow Gallery in Chicago offered to host the show. Sideshow specializes in witchy-groovy-occulty iconography, and I’d recently attended a show there full of devil imagery. That’s when the name “Teen Movie Hell” hit me. And, in short order, it just made perfect sense to apply that to the book—these movies took me through the hell of adolescence and they may well have sent society to hell at the same time.

In addition, Bazillion Points specializes in books about heavy metal, hardcore, and punk rock, and it has a very metal aesthetic. So calling the book Teen Movie Hell automatically made it feel like it was more of a piece with the other Bazillion titles.

From an intro in the book it appears that music and film zines both played a part in your inspiration (Conflict, Rollerdeby, two of my personal faces, etc.). How do they play a part?

I discovered zines in 1980 by way of The Uncle Floyd Show Gazette, a Xeroxed newsletter dedicated to a brilliantly hilarious and self-aware kiddie show that aired from New Jersey. I got a subscription.

A year or two later, the New York Daily News ran a profile of Rick Sullivan, publisher of the horror zine, The Gore Gazette, also from New Jersey. I love New Jersey. I ordered a Gore Gazette and it blew my 12-year-old mind.

From there, it was a short leap to tracking down The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film and understanding that it, too, had started as a zine. Then, leaning into punk culture as a teenager, zines became a crucial element of my existence, though they weren’t always easy to track down at first.

At the end of the ’80s/dawn of the ’90s, zines erupted with people doing surprising, personal things beyond just reviewing movies and music. I found that very inspiring. Gerard Cosloy’s hilarious, backhanded brashness in Conflict was a huge influence. Lisa Carver’s Rollerderby made it clear to me that anything was possible.

All that led to me publishing my own zine, Happyland, in 1991.

Aaron Lee and I met by mail after he sent me his zine Blue Persuasion in 1993. It was the best.

What was the criteria for inclusion of the movies in the book?

In cultural terms, the book covers the 20 years between American Graffiti in 1973 and Dazed and Confused in 1993, with a little smudging on either side into the years around them.

What the movies have in common is that they’re about teenagers and were made specifically for a teenage audience looking for a good time. The marketing angle has a lot to do with it—“Hey, kids! There’s a party raging up on the screen here and you’re invited! All you have to do is buy a ticket or take that VHS box cover to the rental counter!”

Exceptions exist. Bachelor Party, for example, is about clowns in their mid-to-late 20s, but they act like teenagers and it’s essentially just transferring the format to another setting. Same with Police Academy.

How long did it take you to complete the book?

In one form or another, I worked on it in spurts over 25 years. But, in earnest, once I got the Bazillion Points contract, it took three years.

For those of us around when these movies were being released why do you think they play such a huge part in our brains? Is it just the sex or something else?

What comes to mind is a bit of wisdom from Lorne Michaels. He said that anytime somebody tells him what they think were the best seasons of Saturday Night Live, it’s almost always the period when they were in high school—because you’re allowed to stay up late enough to see it, you’re watching the show by yourself or with friends rather than with your parents, and you’re getting jokes that maybe even just a year earlier would have sailed over your head.

I think it’s the same with these movies. Fast Times at Ridgemont High opened in theaters on the very first Friday of my freshman year of high school. Ferris Bueller opened four years later the exact day after I graduated. That period represents the very heart of the teen sex comedy genre and I was there, being a teen. These movies were made about us and, more importantly, for us.

How did Bazillion Points respond when you told them of your idea for the book?

Bazillion Points published my book Heavy Metal Movies in 2014 and did a superhuman job with it. Bazillion honcho Ian Christe and I have long talked about teen comedies and, back in the ’90s when I was pitching a book on the topic, it turned out he actually was too! I’m glad our knuckleheaded dreams got deferred and we were able to make it a reality together.

How was the response been so far?

So far, so cool.

Of all the movies you reviewed what is your personal favorite?

The two best-made films in the book are American Graffiti (1973) and Risky Business (1983), followed closely by Animal House and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). Those are legit classics of cinema I love each one of them.

My heart truly belongs, however, to lunatic outliers on the order of King Frat (1979), Zapped! (1982), Joysticks (1983), Screwballs (1983), The Party Animal (1984), and Hamburger: The Motion Picture (1986)

What’s next? Care to spill any upcoming ideas?

Back in 2015, I announced Teen Movie Hell way earlier than I should have. Lesson learned. There’s more to come, but I’m playing it close to the coconut buttons of my Hawaiian shirt.

The man himself

www.teenmoviehell.com

https://www.bazillionpoints.com/product/pre-order-teen-movie-hell-the-crucible-of-coming-of-age-comedies-from-animal-house-to-zapped-by-mike-mcbeardo-mcpadden/

Here’s my review of the book, posted earlier in the month

https://daggerzine.tumblr.com/post/184504282732/teen-movie-hell-a-crucible-of-coming-of-age

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ucbcomedy · 7 years

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Tales from the Set of Divorce Complex!

UCBComedy and Digital Team Gordon are proud to debut Divorce Complex, a short film you can watch here. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, it tells the story of a very divorced man, living in an apartment complex full of divorced people, who learns who he is when no one wants to be his emergency contact. It’s a story of looking for that special someone...or, honestly, anyone.

We asked the amazing artists and comedians from Gordon about some of their favorite memories on set and about all the work that went into production.

Here’s what they had to say!

Emily Maya Mills, Performer (Wendy) & Co-Producer:

We knew the complex was going to be a character in the story and I love that we achieved the claustrophobia and strangeness we were dreaming up in development...I'm all about heartache in comedy so it was really satisfying to run at it so completely - and with so many deeply funny people.

Marie Lively, Producer & Story Development:

One of the apartments that we were using was owned by a very nice, but particular guy. It was clear his bedroom was off limits, and he wasn’t super stoked we were using his kitchen and living room as Basecamp. One day when he was at work, we locked ourselves out of his apartment, so naturally I looked for a way in. We ended up breaking into his bedroom by climbing through the window. We agreed best to keep it to ourselves and not let him know. However, later he says, ‘Was anyone in my bedroom?’ I played dumb and said, ‘No, I don't think so.’ He ask if I could come look at something. There on the bedroom wall was a dirty black handprint under the window and a red sharpie on the ground that had fallen out of my pocket. We all had a big laugh, and I realized any hopes I had to be a cat burglar were dashed.

Emily Alpren, Co-Producer & Production Designer:

The challenge for Gordon isn’t unique to web series: how can we create a visual world that authentic to the story and characters without spending much more than a dime? However, what’s unique is the spirit and generosity of the team. For art and production design for Divorce Complex, probably 98 percent of art came from the team. We tear down curtains in our homes, ransack our own personal shelves, walls and storage spaces to pull together a cohesive look for Ron and the supporting characters. We were able to find a location (apartment complex) that was filled with members of the UCB community. So this production was really homegrown. Production wise, being able to use multiple - we used three - apartments in the same complex was a dream.

Even though I’m responsible for Production Design and Art, it’s Gordon that makes our shoots possible to look so good. (My apartment, on the other hand, has been stripped of any interesting touches since our first Gordon production.)

Will Hines, Performer (Ron) & Writer:

I enjoyed getting to be sad on purpose for the sake of art.

Carissa Dorson, Director of Photography:

The apartment that we shot in was perfect because a handful of our friends within the UCB community live there. They basically let us take over their apartments for three days, and we are eternally grateful for that!

I’m amazed at the production quality that we achieved on zero budget. The only money that we spent on equipment was to rent some Lomo anamorphic lenses. I was really excited to shoot with them and add a distinct style to the short.

I chose anamorphic lenses because they really served to isolate our main character, Ron, in his world. The depth of field of anamorphic lenses is really special - the out-of-focus area in the background takes on a painterly quality, and it really helps draw the audience's eye to the subject. The Lomo anamorphics also have a significant amount of distortion, which gives a heightened vibe to the shots. It really matches the world of Divorce Complex, which is slightly ‘off.’ Anamorphic lenses automatically make films look more cinematic, and we are the ‘cinematic narrative’ team, after all.

Danny Cohen, Head Writer:

It was important for me to make Will Hines roll his eyes when we were writing. That’s how many of the dumber things made it into the script. And we still have never met each other.

Dave [Theune] said he was a huge pizza fan, even suggesting places to order from. When we finally had pizza for lunch, he quizzically declared ‘what the hell is this?'

Diana Fishman, Editor:

Carissa [Dorson], our Director of Photography, shot on a RED Dragon camera in 4 and 6k, and I edit in Avid. This was the first project for which I have done an offline edit and then an upres myself without an assistant editor so it was a good challenge and learning experience for me.

A fun tidbit that I was nervous about on set, was that we had to cheat a lot of the apartment entrances because the doorways of the actual apartments weren't right for the scene. We would shoot the exterior at a different location than the interior of the scene. Ryan [Moulton], Carissa, Emily [Alpren] and I figured out the framing so that the shots could be cheated and it was very satisfying to have it all work out in the edit.

As for editorial process, I did a first rough-cut and put some temp music in, which I sent to Danny [Cohen], who composed all the music and Ryan, who directed. Then Ryan and I worked together for several days to try different takes, refine the edit and make cuts. Danny fed us new tracks to score with as he created them and we gave him feedback and new videos as we adjusted the edit. The process was smooth, very collaborative and went quite quickly as we wanted to submit to festivals. When Ryan was happy with the director's cut, we sent to the rest of the team for notes and eventually to Nate [Russell] for his input. Everyone was super positive and gave constructive notes which we were able to incorporate.

In Divorce Complex, we found our voice as a team: a quirky melancholic tone that doesn't take itself too seriously, that is funny yet grounded in real human experience. Once we locked the edit, my husband, who is a re-recording mixer and mixed our last project Pricks, enhanced the sound design and did the audio mix and Carissa with the help of a colorist friend did the color correction. I'm really proud of how Divorce Complex came out, particularly since it was entirely a labor of love and so many people helped us just because they believed in the project. I hope that lots of people will see it and enjoy it.

Check out Divorce Complex on Vimeo now and have a great Valentines day!

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trademark-blue · 4 years

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HOW DID YOU GET HERE? FEATURING TAKASHI OKABE

It’s hard to imagine a more modest, humble and conscientious guy than Takashi Okabe. Known as Taka, he not only has (frustratingly) incredible and unique natural style, but is one of the nicest and most sincere people you could hope to spend time with. Hailing from Tokyo and getting his first taste for vintage (and black coffee) at a local vintage store when he was 13 years old, Taka has lived a life based on his passions (with the exception of a stint in the IT industry). From studying sport to becoming Director of Clutch Cafe London and co-founder of menswear brand Allevol, Taka follows his passions without compromise. We sat down with him to learn more about his journey from Tokyo to London and everything in between. It left us humbled and inspired. Thank you, Taka-San.

Name: Takashi Okabe

Occupation: Director of Clutch Cafe London / Co-Founder Allevol / Men’s File Tokyo Editor

Location: London

IG Handle: @taka.okabe / @clutchcafelondon / @allevol / @mensfilemagazine

Website: www.clutch-cafe.com / www.clutchmagjapan.com / www.allevol.com

Q: Who is Takashi Okabe? What did you study and where? Where did you grow up? What jobs did you have?)

A: My name is Taka (I started using this short name since I came to the UK, as it is easy to remember and pronounce), I was born and raised in Fukuoka in southern Japan. I was always into football (played quite competitively) and I came to England when I was 20 years old to learn football coaching!

I was studying at preparatory high school and everyone around me was studying to pass the entrance of University exam. As I played football in a National competition, I was able to go to university by playing football, not taking an entrance exam. But as I spent most of my final year of high school football in rehabilitation, I wasn’t keen to do that for 4 years (in the worst case scenario) at University. I was kind of burned out and wasn’t really sure what to do. Then my younger brother was complaining about his football coach who was actually a basketball coach, and he didn’t know what he was doing. That’s when I started helping the teacher and teaching football to kids. I found football coaching fascinating. The more time I spent teaching football, I realised that my coaching skills needed to improve, so I decided to travel around Europe (planned to visit London, Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona) to see not only how to coach, but how football culture was integrated into people’s lives.

After graduating high school, I worked really hard (sometimes 3 jobs at the time) to save money and I travelled to London for initially 3 months. I couldn’t speak English, so I decided to go to English school, which was a mistake! It was just so fun! There were so many different people from all over the world and of course it was in London. I was so shocked by how culturally diversified London was and I was also shocked by how many cute girls there were! The 3 months passed by so quickly and I decided to study a Sport Management degree. After studying English for a year, I went to Northumbria University in Newcastle for 3 years.

After graduating University, I wanted to be in the Sport industry, but somehow ended up in the IT industry. The company I worked for allowed all employees to dress down on Thursday and Friday. As I was wearing sporty clothing for the previous few years, suddenly, and desperately, I needed to have a good pair of jeans. So I went to Central London, looking for a pair of good denim that I usually could find in Japan. But I could not find a good pair, only pretty good ones from Nudie, Edwin, Evis and APC. I just wanted to have simple 501 or 505 shape selvedge jean, but I really struggled to find them. That’s when I started Allevol, which led to me working for Men’s File and Clutch Magazine.

Q: Tell us, have you always been into clothing and fashion?

A: Clothing or fashion has always been my hobby. It all started when I visited my local vintage clothing store called Miyar's (now it’s called HHG) in Sumiyoshi Fukuoka. I think it was when I was 12 or 13 years old. The shop was located 5 mins walk from my house, on my way to my primary school. So I passed by it almost everyday and when I was coming back from school, there were guys hanging out outside of the shop. Most of them were smoking, drinking and tattooed, riding Harley Davidsons or Vespas and they looked so scary and also super cool! One day, I looked the inside of the shop through the glass window and I saw all those vintage Americana goods that I’d never seen before. So I started talking about it with my friend and we gathered our courage to enter the shop when no one was around. When we entered the shop, the shop owner (Mr Sakamoto) said “Irasshai” (which means “Welcome" in Japanese) and he offered us black coffee. I had never drunk proper coffee before (it was hand dripped Ethiopian coffee!) but I didn’t want to be rude, so drunk it little by little (this may be the reason why I wanted a cafe space in Clutch Cafe, but I never thought I would open a shop…). The shop was about 8sqm and you didn’t really have space to move even your arm around. Therefore, you don’t have space to run away from Mr Sakamoto! However, I don’t actually remember what the conversations were that we had during the first visit. It must’ve been so natural and a comfortable experience, but I certainly remember the bitter black coffee taste and smell! My friend and I talked with other friends in the school and many people were fascinated to know other things, so we went back to the shop and started spending serious time with Mr Sakamoto almost everyday. That’s when he kindly introduced me to old Americana culture, like films (I watched many 50s films then!), cars, and clothing. I was so lucky to touch those vintage pieces at an early age and that’s how I become interested in fashion and clothing.

Q: You co-founded Allevol, tell us more about the brand and its product?

A: In 2005, my then girlfriend (and now wife with two kids) and I decided to start a brand called Allevol. Allevol is a combination of two words, ALL and EVOLVE. I was from Japan (and jeans were manufactured in Japan), my wife is from Slovakia (and we were making t-shirts from scratch and some technical jackets in Slovakia) and we were based in London. Everything was mixed up in a nice way to evolve forward. That’s where the brand name came from. It was just simple 5 pockets jeans in 4 different silhouettes (Edit: Oh, I would say to my younger self, start with 2 silhouettes!) in a raw denim. We exhibited at a tradeshow called To Be Confirmed (TBC) in 2006 and we had 3 trade customers (Moscow, Amsterdam, and UK). Our stockists grew little by little and we had about 20 stockists in Europe by 2009, when Lehman shock started. The problem was that we manufactured our jeans in Japan (paying in Japanese Yen) and we were getting paid in British Pounds (GBP). GBP lost more than half the value at its worst and my production costs more than doubled. We were taking advance wholesale orders and when we delivered the goods, we were actually making a loss on every pair we sold.

I stopped making jeans in 2012 but started making products in the UK. Now I am re-launching Allevol by making British vintage inspired products including some heavy outerwear jackets and simple comfortable shirts, with all items made in UK (I’m sure some products will be made in Japan soon though!)

When we were struggling with Allevol, Nick Clements (Editor in Chief of Men’s File Magazine) kindly featured my jeans in his magazine. I sent a ‘thank you’ email and we met at a cafe near Holborn. He said that he’d been following Americana culture for a long time and he would like to feature more Japanese brands. That’s when I started helping him with some translation for the magazine. In 2011 or 2012, I exhibited at Bread & Butter in Berlin and that’s when I met Mr Matsushima (Atsu-san from Clutch Magazine) for the first time. Nick and Atsu san had common friends (it’s a very small circle in this clothing industry!) and they felt that it was good time to combine strength together. They weren’t really sure what to do first and Atsu-san came up with the idea of having two magazines sealed together. That’s how I started being involved in Clutch Magazine and it’s been really successful over the last several years.

Q: You work with Men’s File and Clutch Magazine. Tell us about your day to day work for the magazines? Do you travel a lot?

A: Working for a Clutch Magazine requires me to travel around the world. We exhibit at most of Men’s Fashion trade shows every 6 months including Tokyo, London, Milan, Berlin, Paris, Florence, NY, and LA/Vegas (I wish I had a bit of time to visit all those football pitches!). We also attend some denim fabric trade shows like Kingpins and Denim Premier Vision.

After exhibiting at all those trade shows and events, Atsu-san had an idea of curating what we believe in. Something that Clutch Magazine was all about, and that’s when we decided to open Clutch Cafe. We have everything at Clutch Cafe (although it is still in progress!); good clothing, good coffee, good vintage furniture, and most importantly good magazines. Now that we have settled pretty well for the first two years of business, we would like to expand this venture in the future.

Q: You have many different roles, tell us how do you spend your time?

A: I currently work for Clutch Magazine Japan. My role entails advertising and sales, magazine distribution and promotion outside of Japan, and photography. Many different shoes at the same time! I also work for Men’s File magazine as the Tokyo editor (although as my boss Nick Clements travels to Japan twice a year for CC show now, I only work a small amount). Clutch Magazine opened Clutch Cafe in February 2018 in London and I am the Director of the company with Atsu-san (Editor in Chief of Clutch Magazine). I am also co-founder (with my girlfriend and now wife) of the clothing brand ALLEVOL which was established in 2005.

I wake up pretty early in the morning, to work with Japan time. Then I often go to Clutch Cafe and deal with European customers. Luckily, I don’t need to deal with the West Coast in the USA as there is a California team of Clutch Magazine in LA!

Q: What would you tell your younger self?

A: Travel more to see the world

Q: What is your favourite part of what you do?

A: Meeting interesting people.

Q: What was the last item of clothing you bought?

A: I bought an oversized open collar shirt from Jelado for SS20. And of course you can buy at Clutch Cafe here.

Q: What is your best vintage purchase?

A: It’s hard to decide the best purchase to be quite honest. But when I travel, I try to visit vintage stores. So when I go to Northern England, I visit Jojo at Rag Parade and probably buy British made outerwear. When I visit Melissa from Stock Vintage in New York, then I will try to look for Americana products. When I visit Paris, I will see Gautier from Le Vif or Paul from Brut Clothing, and probably buy something French. When I go to LA, I visit the Rose Bowl, and enjoy all the cool Californian vintage items. They are all great and I cannot just simply decide on one best piece!

Q: What are your favourite Japanese vintage stores?

A: Hard to say, but if you are in Tokyo and looking for Americana; Ber Ber Jin or Fake Alpha. If you are in western part of Japan and looking for European; Capri, Mitsuru or Acadia

Q: Where is the best flea market in Tokyo?

A: A brother publication of Clutch Magazine called 2nd Magazine organise a flea market every year. As the sellers are well curated by the 2nd Magazine editors, the quality of the items being sold are very good and reasonable.

Q: Who or what inspires you?

A: Again, those interesting people inspire me a lot. Because of my work, I am extremely lucky to visit mills, artist’s ateliers, shops, factories and so on. What they are thinking, why they are doing what they are doing, the way they are doing it etc. really inspires me. I once visited a small indigo dye fabric mill and the gentleman was hand-dipping the yarns. The movement was just so perfect, it was so smooth but at the same time very sharp.

If we’re talking about football, I love Xabi Alonso (Spanish footballer), his long passes ware so beautiful…!

Q: How many languages do you speak?

A: Japanese, English (a bit) and Slovak (very very tiny bit).

Q: Where is the most inspiring place you have been?

A: Actually I haven’t been anywhere exotic, like Tanzania, Peru or Tibet. So those are actually on my radar!

Q: Where is your favourite Hotel?

A: I’m not a luxury hotel person but I like the Palihouse in Santa Monica. I love their dining/reception room! I’d love to stay in Tenku in Kagoshima, maybe one day…

Q: Coffee or Tea?

A: Tea, leave the bag in the cup and add lots of milk…(used to be full fat milk, but now Oatly!)

Q: Tell us one thing that people might not know about you?

A: My dream is to own football team (it could be a small local team!). I guess I’m learning how I might do this everyday at Clutch Cafe, like budgeting, managing cashflow, assembling a team, etc.

Q: If you were a super hero, what super powers would you have?

A: I would probably be Spider Man, as my kids love Spider Man.

Q: What would you do if you won the lottery?

A: I have never thought of it, as I don’t usually buy a ticket. I probably wouldn’t like to win the biggest prize, as it messes up your life. But winning £5,000 would be nice for a family holiday.

Q: What do you do in your free time?

A: This is currently the problem that I have. I’m not saying I don’t have free time, but tend to do extra work or extra projects. But I like reading!

Q: You must spend a lot of time on planes! What’s your favorite airline?

A: Within Europe, I travel with LLC like Easyjet or Ryanair. When I go to Japan, I like both ANA and JAL.

Q: What is your oldest pair of jeans?

A: I actually don’t have any super vintage denim but the oldest is a pair of late 50’s / early 60’s model Levi’s XX.

Q: Describe how your favourite jeans make you feel in 3 words?

A: (Marlon) Brando, (James) Dean, (Steve) McQueen.

Q: What does the future hold for Takashi Okabe?

A: My focus now is for Clutch Cafe to grow in the next 5 years and I would like to carry out different projects when possible.

View this post on Instagram

Boxing Day..... that surprising feeling is always good one. ••• Jacket: @misterfreedom Tops: Vintage sweatshirt @hangupvintage Pants: @stevensonoveralls Watch: @tusenowatches Beautiful pictures by @adnatt & @cityofgents #misterfreedom #hangupvintage #tusenowatches #stevensonoverall #mensweardaily #mensfashion #streetfashion #mensstreetstyle #mensstyleguide #今日のコーデ

A post shared by Takashi Okabe (@taka.okabe) on Dec 26, 2019 at 11:16pm PST

#SHOP

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR / KELLY HARRINGTON

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTOR / WILLIAM VARNAM

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computerguideworld-blog · 5 years

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The filmmakers behind Searching know why youre skeptical about computer screen movies

New Post has been published on https://computerguideto.com/must-see/the-filmmakers-behind-searching-know-why-youre-skeptical-about-computer-screen-movies/

The filmmakers behind Searching know why youre skeptical about computer screen movies

If you’re not sure about watching a whole movie where your point-of-view is limited to computer and smartphone screens, you’re not alone — “Searching” filmmakers Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian told me they had very similar reservations.

Chaganty said that when the pair was first approached by Timur Bekmambetov’s Bazelevs (the production company behind the “Unfriended” movies), the idea was to contribute a segment to an anthology of short films set on computer screens. That’s when they came up with the basic plot of “Searching” — after a teenaged girl goes missing, her father (played by John Cho) goes through the laptop she left behind in an effort to find her.

But then the studio proposed turning the idea into a feature film, with Chaganty directing, Ohanian producing and the two of them writing the screenplay.

“It was this incredible moment where no filmmaker ever gets this opportunity,” Chaganty recalled. “But in that instant, I said no.”

It seemed to him that they’d come up with a way to make the format more than a gimmick —but as a short film. He worried that extending it into a feature might “stretch it right back into a 90-minute gimmick.”

Chaganty and Ohanian kept talking about the idea, though, and ultimately moved forward after coming up with an opening sequence — which is indeed the opening sequence of the finished film. It’s a seven-minute montage of footage stored on a desktop computer, which doubles as a compressed (and surprisingly emotional) history of the Kim family.

“In that moment, there was a click, there was a lightbulb that went off, where we realized the potential of this format with this story,” Chaganty said. “And we realized, despite the films that had existed before, there was a way to make this feel not only new … but also for once emotional, engaging, cinematic.”

“Searching” is in limited release this weekend, before opening more widely on Friday, August 31. You can read more about how Chaganty and Ohanian actually made the movie in the edited transcript below.

Director/writer Aneesh Chaganty and Debra Messing on the set of “Searching.”

TechCrunch: How much of this started with the format, and how much with the kidnapping plot?

Sev Ohanian: Honestly, it was almost neither of those things. Aneesh and I are writing partners — he directs, I produce, we met each other at USC film school. We had made a two-minute short film that takes place on the Google Glasses, if you remember those at all? It kind of blew up — it was called “Seeds” — and one of the results of that was he got hired by Google to come out here and start writing commercials for one or two years.

I’ve been an indie producer for a couple of years now and I had an opportunity to meet with Timur Bekmambetov’s company Bazelevs. He had just released “Unfriended,” it was super successful, and he asked me if there were any filmmakers I wanted to collaborate with. I immediately thought of Aneesh, of course.

Aneesh Chaganty: When I came in and we had the meeting together, they were like, “We want to follow-up ‘Unfriended’ but we don’t want to follow it up with a traditional feature, we want to follow it up with an anthology feature, basically comprised of a bunch of shorts, all of which take place on computer screens.”

Immediately to me, that was a lot more interesting than a feature film, because we had seen all the feature films that took place on screens and none of them were proof that this was a direction we should be going in. A short film, though, I knew we could make it into not a gimmick, which I think all the other films were. [Pauses.] Sort of rude, but whatever.

About a month and a half later, we ended up texting each other with the idea for “Searching” — first as a short film, that’s how it started out. Same plot. Basically, Dad breaks into his daughter’s laptop to look at clues to find her.

We thought in eight minutes it could be not a gimmick and really cool and engaging and get out before anyone got bored. And we sent a few pages back to the company and I happened to be in Los Angeles a few weeks later for a Google photo shoot and they called us into a board room. All of a sudden, it was Sev and myself in front of a big table of execs and financiers and all that stuff.

They basically told us, “Hey, we don’t want to make the short.” We go, “Well, that’s a bummer.” And they go, “We want to turn it into a feature. Sev and Aneesh, you guys can write it, we’ll pay you guys to write it, Sev, you can produce it, Aneesh, we’ll pay you to direct your first feature, and we’ll finance the whole thing. What do you guys say?”

It was this incredible moment where no filmmaker ever gets this opportunity — but in that instant, I said no.

Ohanian: He said no!

Chaganty: On my left side, he was like kicking me, like, “What are you doing?” and everything like that. But in the moment, it felt like what we were being asked to do was take a concept that we had found to not be a gimmick and then stretch it right back into a 90-minute gimmick. And more than that, make a film not because ours had any artistic merit, but because another film was a hit. Not that ours deserved to exist.

And so for the right reasons I said no, and for the right reasons, Sev said, “We’ll be in touch.” And we left the room and we just kept talking about the enormity of the opportunity, obviously, and how that never happens, despite the parameters of what we were being asked to do. And we were like, “If we hit a wall, we hit a wall, but we should pay respect to this by talking.”

So for two months we just tried to figure out a way into the story and we couldn’t. Until one day, I was living in Williamsburg at the time, and I was texting Sev, and I was like, “Hey, I have a really random idea for an opening sequence.” And Sev goes, “I have an idea for an opening sequence.” And we get on the phone and we pitch each other the exact same opening scene. And to this day, that’s the opening sequence of the film, which is a standalone, very unique seven-minute montage that takes place over 16 years of a family’s life stored on their desktop computer.

In that moment, there was a click, there was a lightbulb that went off, where we realized the potential of this format with this story. And we realized, despite the films that had existed before, there was a way to make this feel not only new, but also for once emotional, engaging, cinematic.

Director/writer Aneesh Chaganty and John Cho on the set of “Searching.”

Ohanian: Our idea with the opening scene was, we wanted to create something that within five minutes, audiences would just forget that what they were watching was unfolding on screens and just get sucked into the story. Hopefully we did that.

Chaganty: So we put together a longer pitch, because immediately [after] that idea of the opening scene, we were like, “And I guess the next scene would be this, and the next scene would be this.” And we started plotting it out immediately. We had a structure very quickly.

We sent that structure back to the company, they bought in, they were like, “We’re paying you guys to do this.” I quit my job at Google, and I got on a flight, moved to L.A. and we made a movie.

TechCrunch: My understanding is that you had created a lot of what happens on the computer screen first, and then John and Debra [Messing] and the other actors were acting on webcams to a certain extent based on what you’d already created.

Chaganty: The way that we like to describe this movie is, we sort of made an animated movie, then shot a live action film, and then put the live action film within the animated film and just kept refining it and refining it.

The reason we started with an animated movie was Sev’s idea, and basically coming from a movie called “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.” It was made in a very similar way, in the sense that it was made before it was made.

Basically, what we realized was that in our film, there are two cameras. There’s all the footage that you’re seeing on this screen, and then there’s the way that you’re framing it, because the camera in our film is always moving around. We realized those two need to play with each other and also inform one another. We need to know what the final product is going to look like, before we even went to set.

So basically, seven weeks before we even hired the actors, we brought in the editors to the film and took them to a room about this big, with two iMac computers, and said, “Welcome home.” And literally just said, “Go.”

They started screen capturing the Internet, like doing text messages, voicemail, whatever, every single thing, zooming in, putting together a cut. And by the end of seven weeks, we had an hour-and-40-minute cut of the entire film, starring me playing every role — dad, daughter, brother, mother, father. You know, all of the friends, talking to myself. And we would understand how the camera was moving and everything, and how to make this movie.

We showed that cut to the crew the night before we started shooting and it was in that moment that they were like, “Oh, that’s the movie we’re making.” Because up until that point, this movie is impossible to talk about. Now we have a trailer, we have a poster, it’s all very easy to be like, “Oh, this is what we made.” But before that I’m saying, “We’re making a thriller, but it takes place on a computer screen, but it’s going to be really good.” And it’s really hard to sell people on that idea. So for them to finally see what we were thinking was very helpful.

And then on set, John’s character, who’s literally operating the computer in the movie, his eyeline — he needs to know exactly where every button is, where every cursor moves, where everything pops, where every video message comes in, he always needs to have a perfect eyeline in the film and know what’s happening. We literally needed to show him that temp video as he’s shooting, so he understands where what he’s shooting is actually being placed in the larger film.

Debra Messing and John Cho in “Searching.”

Ohanian: And the idea with that previz version of the movie was, we wanted the final version of the film to feel polished and cinematic and grab the audience’s attention. It’s a studio movie now with worldwide distribution, but it started off as an indie film. You’ve seen the movie: There’s aerial stuff, car stuff, crowd scenes, water, ravines. We shot it in 13 days.

And part of the idea of doing this version was that we wanted to spend every one of those days making them count as much as we can, and the final product would have consistency and good screen composition and mise en scene and all these amazing things. So it wouldn’t feel accidental, it would feel polished.

TechCrunch: When you were working with the actors, how much did they instinctively know what to do, and how much, given that this is not a format that exists already, did you have to train them for a different kind of acting?

Chaganty: I think every single person on the cast and the crew had to relearn aspects of the job to make this movie. Michelle [La, who plays the daughter Margot] actually says this, that it’s a lot easier for her to behave in front of a screen than it was for John. Maybe it’s a generational thing or whatever, but for us, all the rules visually are different. None of us have ever made another movie like this. I know for a fact, none of us are going to do this again. We’re on-set, we’re all learning together.

I really equate this whole movie with cast and crew holding each other’s hands, we all walk into a dark cave, every single person thinks the person to their right knows a little more than them, but nobody does. And I’m on the far right being like, “Uh, I don’t know … ” But jumping in, and at every point of this cave, in the pure darkness, realizing that there’s one person on this crew or cast who knew how to get to this next challenge.

TechCrunch: It sounds like you guys aren’t necessarily looking to make “Searching 2,” and in fact, I know you already have another project lined up.

Now that you’re at the end of the process, to what extent do you feel that okay, [computer screen movies are a genre] where other directors can come in and do interesting stuff? And to what extent to do you feel like this is probably something that you can make four or five films with, and at the end of it, the possibilities are exhausted?

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Chaganty: At the end of the day, I keep saying this, but I think that if you asked Christopher Nolan how many more backwards films are going to happen [after “Memento”], is he starting a subgenre with backwards films? I don’t think the answer would be yes.

We feel the same way about this movie. This, at the end of the day, is a gimmick. It’s a style of telling the story. We found a way, I think, to make it not that and tell the story first, but at the same time, a computer screen only has set imagery. It’s even more limiting than traditional found footage, because with traditional found footage you can set yourself in Singapore, or Hong Kong, or New York, or whatever. You’re always on a laptop screen with a computer screen film.

Maybe the lesson people will learn from us is something that I’ve learned: There is a way still to show technology accurately and honestly — because I don’t think Hollywood has done that yet — using screens and using traditional cinematic language when you’re showing screens. You can still combine that with a live action film, and in a way that feels consistent with your tone and style and genre of whatever larger piece you’re making.