#this kind of turned into a quick course on screenwriting

[perpetual-stories]

Starting Strong Scenes in Your Writing

Scenes are the fundamental building blocks of novels and short stories, and each one should propel a story toward the climax.

Generally speaking, your scene structure should mirror the story structure. In other words, take a novel-writing approach to a scene, crafting a beginning, middle, and end. Like a story, the beginning of a scene should have a strong entry hook that pulls the reader in.

Start with the setting. Often a new scene signifies a change in time and location. Establishing the setting at the top of a scene helps your readers get oriented. It also sets the tone and mood of what will unfold in the coming pages. A setting can serve as much more than a backdrop in literature. Have your scene take place somewhere that builds tension and hinders your protagonist. If you’re writing a thriller, describe a dark and foreboding place where the worst might happen. Be descriptive and use sensory details to make your setting come alive before you jump into the action.

Use visual imagery. In screenwriting, writers have to think in pictures. What images will excite an audience at the top of a scene? Your approach should be the same when writing any kind of fiction. As you write the opening of a scene, use descriptive language to engage a reader through detailed imagery. Think like a screenwriter as you’re writing scenes.

Drop the reader into the middle of the action. Hit the ground running by starting a great scene in media res. It doesn’t have to be a fight scene or a car chase, but physical movement creates momentum and builds tension in a story. It’s also a way to instantly engage a reader. Be sure you begin the scene before the high points of the action so you build up to the scene’s climax.

Write a character-driven scene opener. A good scene starts by giving characters a goal. Start by putting your protagonist in a situation that creates an obstacle or opportunity for both the scene and the overarching storyline. Try starting with dialogue, like an intense conversation between your POV character and a mystery character whose identity is revealed later in the scene. If you’re writing from an omniscient third-person point of view, consider starting a scene with a secondary character, even the antagonist, and use it as a chance for deeper character development.

Summarize past events. You might choose to use the beginning of the scene to do a quick recap of what’s brought your main character to this place and moment in time. A summary is especially helpful if you’re writing in third-person and a new scene switches to a different character. Take the opportunity to remind the reader where we left off. Instead of a straight-forward update, get creative. Go into deep POV and let a character’s thoughts provide the summary instead of the narrator. Be sure to keep this summary brief—just a line or two—so you can get back into the action.

Introduce a plot twist. The start of a new scene is a chance to pivot and take your story in a new direction. Start a new scene at a turning point in your story. Dive into a flashback or character’s backstory, revealing critical information that changes the course of the story going forward.

Keep the purpose of the scene in mind. Effective scenes are clear about what they set out to accomplish and how they contribute to the overall plot. They might include plot points or reveal important information needed to move a story forward. Establish your scene’s intention from the very first word and keep the rest of the scene on point.

Rewrite until you’ve found the perfect scene opening. When you’ve finished the first draft of a scene, go back and read it through. If your scene needs something, but you can’t figure out what, it might be how the scene starts. The best way to know if your opening works is by reading how it plays with the rest of the scene. Review the last paragraph and see if it ties back to your beginning. If the intro feels weak, rewrite it. Maybe your real opener is hidden in plain sight somewhere else in the body of the scene.

Make sure your opening scene is your strongest. While your entire book should be filled with compelling scenes that start strong, the very first scene of your book needs to lead the pack. This is the reader’s introduction to your story and where you’re revealing the characters, the setting, and kicking off the plotline with the inciting incident. This first scene has to hook the reader from the first line so they keep turning the pages.

Read a lot of books. If this is your first novel and you need some inspiration and ideas to help you start off your scenes, start by reading other books. Choose a book by a bestselling writer like Dan Brown or Margaret Atwood. Study the different ways they approach every scene. Reading other authors is a great way to hone your scene-writing skills.

Follow like and reblog if you find these helpful!

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #original writing #writers on tumblr #writersconnection #writerscommunity #short story #storytelling #writersupportingwriters

[waitmyturtles]

Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: Make It Right (Season 1) Edition

TW: dubious content, sex without consent, sex and alcohol

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. I’ve covered Love Sick and SOTUS so far, and today I offer my thoughts on the first season of Make It Right. This is a long post, folks.]

I admittedly started Make It Right with hesitation: there’s a lot of commentary here on Tumblr that MIR is a wholly problematic entity, a über-pulp of high school pulps, one that unabashedly doesn’t apologize for its questionable content or intentions. 

In the course of my undertaking my Old GMMTV Challenge, I asked for advice on taking on Make It Right, most of all to understand the trajectory of the high school pulps from what Love Sick had started. I thought this was an important endeavor, considering what Love Sick had invested a tremendous amount of time in depicting -- AND considering that one out of two Thai BLs (it seems to me, ha, that’s kind of a joke, kinda) are based in school settings.

What I did not expect, at all, in watching Make It Right, was to see an utterly sophisticated commentary on first sex, teenage sex and love, and queer discovery. It totally surprised me and I was deeply moved.  

I want to base this review in a few groundings that gave me tremendous perspective into what I was watching. 

1) I had the good luck to be able to engage with @bengiyo​ during my watching of this show, and he’s become a dear drama friend in the process. Ben gave me a perspective that, once I heard it, I realized that I needed to hold onto it and look for this perspective in any past and future dramas that I watch.

Ben gave me the perspective that the show’s writers and directors -- New Siwaj, Cheewin Thanamin, Yuan Tin Tun, and Andy Rachyd of Love Sick, all prolific Thai BL creators -- approached the making of Make It Right with experience and knowledge about early queer male experiences and discoveries. Ben wrote to me the following: 

“[New Siwaj] understands that many early sexual experiences are with other boys. And Make It Right asks what life could be if they just didn't turn against each other for it.”

How could I not be moved after I read that. You don’t need a magnifying glass to understand the implications of what Ben was indicating. All I needed was to reflect on my own teenagehood, and think about the casual homophobia that I grew up around -- and think about how devastating that homophobia was to people who wanted a fair shot at growing up happily, in a safe environment, discovering themselves without blame and shame from others.

Once Ben said that to me, I really sat up and paid full attention for the rest of my watch of MIR.

2) Ben also helped me to understand the New Siwaj oeuvre. I started MIR thinking that I hadn’t seen any of his work; but as it turned out, he was a screenwriter on Love Sick, AND he’s a screenwriter on a non-BL drama airing right now that I’m watching, Double Savage, featuring two former New Siwaj BL leads in Ohm Pawat and Perth Tanapon. 

So, a quick note on New Siwaj. I’m not familiar with his PROLIFIC body of work (Until We Meet Again, Between Us, A Boss and a Babe, My Only 12%, Love By Chance, the list goes on), because I haven’t gotten there on my watchlist -- but many of you, dear readers, have watched these. 

His work can be up or down, right? (Feel free to spoil me on ABAAB.) What Ben noted for me is that New is better with collaborators -- and that’s maybe why I found Make It Right to be so INCREDIBLY consistent and engrossing throughout the entire first season. For me, there wasn’t a bump. (Well, maybe except for Rod and Nine, which wasn’t my favorite ship, but I’ll quibble about that later.)

I’m glad I’m watching New Siwaj in order of the airing of his shows. I didn’t do that when I first jumped into Thai BLs. I went from KinnPorsche, to The Eclipse, to ATOTS, to Bad Buddy. Part of the goal of this project is to get oriented in the trajectory of Aof Noppharnach, whose work makes my bones ache in reflective emotional pain. But at least I get to start New’s work in chronologically correct order, and at least have an awareness of his impact on the genre.

So I’m keeping in mind that part of the magic of MIR/season 1 is the collaboration that a VERY young (like, 21-young) New Siwaj engaged in with his colleagues to make a show that, I can say with certainty, was unlike what early Thai BL fans had seen yet. MIR leveled UP by way of progressive queer content in BLs at this moment in time, in 2016, right before MaxTul debuted in Together With Me (which I understand to be the first high heat Thai BL, and is next on my watchlist).

3) The third grounding that I need to unwind is about the problematic nature of the way in which the two main ships, TeeFuse and FrameBook, were introduced. Both ships began with dubious content — one as a drunken hook-up without consent (TeeFuse) and the other as a non-drunken hook-up without consent and with initial refusal (FrameBook).

A lot of what I saw by way of commentary about MIR before picking it up was a discomfort with the way the ships were introduced like this, and how old the actors were in these scenes (Ohm Pawat was all of 16 and in braces in this first season).

Before I go on, I want to say that, unequivocally, I will never defend sex without consent in real life.

Will I defend it in art? That’s more difficult to unwind.

WHY?

Reflecting back on what Ben said about New Siwaj — what New and Cheewin were clearly going for here was a reflection on the young queer experience for teenage males in 2016.

Now, I’m not a young queer male. But I was young, once, in a big city during my college and post-grad years.

I’m also older than a lot of the majority audience here on Tumblr. I was a teenager in the 1990s. The age and eras of consent — the popular acceptance of a language of consent to sex — was not parlance in my youth.

I wonder, in MIR, if I was seeing what we label as “problematic content” as a reflection of scenes of realistically-inspired ways in which queer experiences actually came about at the time that New and Cheewin were young themselves.

In other words — why would New and Cheewin write and direct these scenes in these ways in the first place? What drove them to make their art this way?

I would argue that New and Cheewin included these scenes because they were reflective of what they themselves may have gone through as very young men.

Like I said — I was once a young lass in a big city, before the age of consent. My hook-ups? Many included alcohol. I didn’t have sex without consent, per se, but as that infamous song stated — there were certainly blurred lines at many times. I certainly wavered at times before and during a hook-up. I sometimes waffled before deciding to move forward in an intimate moment.

I think, in 2016, for New and Cheewin to make Make It Right, that as artists — if they needed to explore those blurred lines for the sake of their show, and what their show meant as a reflection of a young queer male experience — then I would defend their right to make their art. 

Myself and @bengiyo would also argue that we -- as viewers of Thai BL -- bear a responsibility for not judging past historical works through a currently modern lens (I’m paraphrasing dear @bengiyo​​​ here, who said this much more eloquently than me).

A major responsibility that I think us viewers should bear when consuming queer media -- especially cishet viewers, especially viewers who do not identify as queer -- is a required self-questioning and self-reflection on WHY an idea or a scene might make you feel uncomfortable. What makes a viewer uncomfortable about witnessing a queer hook-up that may occur outside the boundaries of consent? Boundaries which were only beginning to be talked about in popular media in 2016? (Is it because the hook-up lacked a kind of communication that you want to see in art? Is it because the sex was messy, and not perfect? Is it because, implicitly, a non-consensual queer hook-up might make you uncomfortable? Is it because, implicitly, you might judge someone for having lots of sex? IT IS OKAY TO ASK YOURSELF THOSE QUESTIONS AND EXPLORE YOURSELF -- I encourage it. You will discover characteristics about yourself that you might want to explore and improve on. Self-discovery is a fabulous thing!)

Remember that the start of 2022′s Between Us was remarkable for the sensuality of asking consent from Win to a drunk Team. And that was a New Siwaj piece, too. Can New grow vis à vis his art? Of course. Extrapolating from that: should his art of 2016 be negated for elements that we might argue are “missing,” particularly from the early scenes of intimacy? No. Because 2016 was already a vastly different era in BL, as this project is proving, versus the media we consume today, which has had the benefit of DEVELOPING, and being INFLUENCED by what we’re calling the problematic art of the early years of BL.

In other, much shorter words: things get better when there’s history to learn from. This BL art that we love so much will GET BETTER, because we’ll have new and old filmmakers creating community and consuming each other’s art, and they’ll be influenced by it, and pushed to make even better art.

AND: I would argue that if New and Cheewin needed to process the problems and the awkwardness of first queer intimacy for young teenage men -- then we as viewers have the right to watch it, or to walk away. But as I said before: we as viewers bear a responsibility to understand the context of what we’re watching before we write it off -- because I believe we have to look into ourselves to discover what really makes us uncomfortable about some art. And we have to give room to artists to make art that very may well reflect their own personal experiences.

PHEW.

Okay, then. On to the actual show! A show that -- for all of what I just meditated on -- is ABSOLUTELY WORTH WATCHING.

I immediately fell in love with the first two ships, TeeFuse and FrameBook. Tee’s unabashed crush on Fuse, and Fuse’s pain at his being two-timed by his girlfriend, Jean, was presented with an unexpected crispness -- it just MOVED, fast, and smartly, to get where we needed to be to get Tee and Fuse together for their first encounter.

Frame and Book started similarly -- more consciously on Book’s end, but similarly, with a dumped-and-broken-hearted Book going outside of his boundaries, and discovering Frame, literally, on the other side of those boundaries. 

I love that @absolutebl​ called Fuse a “chaotic bi,” and I’d throw Book in there, too. For me, the show centered on their struggles and realizations, and I really like how these two in their couplings, when juxtaposed with each other, demonstrated a VERY real sense of what happens in real-life love. 

Because real-life love is MESSY. Season one ends with Fuse in two (TWO!) relationships. Frame and Book, after their first (problematic, yes) sexual encounter, deal with an extensive aftercare sequence.

When I think about these two couples -- I look back and ADMIRE the details of how complicated they were presented. 

Fuse waffles between Tee and Jean. He’s OVER THE TOP in love with Tee, my gawd. Those two at the resort. The looks they’ve giving to each other as they’re presented with the couples sweets by the owner’s sweet son. (I LOVED THE MEANING OF THAT SCENE, I LOVED IT, I LOVED IT -- when you are accepted by CHILDREN, the world is a MORE PERFECT PLACE. The way Fuse held onto the child while sitting next to Tee. SWOON.)

Still in 2016 -- as what happened for most of Love Sick and Love Sick 2 -- Fuse’s reality in MIR/season 1 is that his relationship with Jean is not worth ending yet, even if she’s two-timing him. Fuse and Tee need to work out things with each other. There’s not a glimmer of what an OUT relationship looks like yet. We don’t even know yet, at the end of season 1, if out is what they want.

What Tee wants is to KNOW that Fuse is HIS. And I think season 1 ends with Tee realizing that Fuse IS HIS, despite Jean’s presence, because Jean’s presence is a necessity for Fuse in that moment. While Jean two-timed Fuse, Fuse’s reality is that he has a girlfriend, and that duality -- loving Jean vs. loving Tee -- is certainly a dilemma that’s presented as needing more time for Fuse to unwind through, thus leading us to the second season.

It makes sense to me. New and Cheewin are still admitting, even in this more open world of queerness versus Love Sick (think of the very out and adamant Yok, who fearlessly says he’s gay to everyone -- including his disapproving mother), that casual/intentional/internalized/externalized homophobia still exists. And that may drive a high school student to not leave his het relationship while having a queer revelation, AND while his girlfriend is two-timing him.

I just really liked the reality of that. Life rarely gives us clean dualities. Life instead gives us lots of gray areas. Make It Right clearly exists in the gray. Fuse is in the gray. He’s chaotic. Pulled in a lot of directions. And sweet Fuse is just figuring that shit out -- all while falling more and more for Tee. 

I want to give Fuse a HUGE MOM HUG. That’s a lot to deal with. We need to know why Fuse still stays with Jean, and we need to continue to see Tee and Fuse working that out in season 2.

Going to Frame and Book: Frame and Book begin with a problematically wild hook-up, and with Book needing quite a bit of aftercare afterwards.

We complement shows like Bed Friend and Big Dragon now for containing scenes of aftercare and testing -- it’s fabulous. I had NO IDEA Make It Right went there in 2016. 

I mean, they’re teenagers! Like, as a mom, I’m like -- WOW, Frame just GOT Book IN HIS CAR and was like, WE ARE GOING TO THE CLINIC, and we are going to get you medicine so that you can feel better. Some viewers might argue -- well, Frame, if you hadn’t pushed the sex in the first place, Book wouldn’t have needed the aftercare.

Correct. HOWEVER. Book was clearly -- like me, when I was young -- waffling. WAFFLING IS REAL. He was figuring out if he liked Frame, he was figuring out if he liked guys. He was figuring stuff out, and we saw him figuring stuff out, and coming to terms with his feelings. 

My heart. The pain and confusion I felt in that waffling. Book knew Frame was a player. We could see his hurt when Frame jumped on the chat apps. We viscerally SAW and HEARD Book’s pain when Book mistook Frame’s aunt as a lover (yes, that happens, lol). 

The thing that I loved about how this coupling was written was that Frame could see that pain and hurt, too. He wasn’t ever oblivious to it. HE DIDN’T IGNORE IT. Book had been dumped by a girlfriend on a chat app. He was worried it would happen with Frame. 

Frame was direct with Book. Frame was very bisexual and sexually active. Yet, after their first encounter -- we (at least the viewers) did not see Frame in another hook-up. Frame knew Book was suspicious of something else happening, and Frame took his time to explore if Book would be serious about falling for Frame. 

And Book fell! He fell so hard! He wanted, not just Frame -- he wanted a THING with Frame, he wanted stability and commitment with Frame. He demanded it. Book! My man! Oh my god, my heart. 

Frame had to work around Book’s insecurities and issues with confidence and trust to get Book to trust him to be together. I think Frame was even a little surprised, when they were together in Book’s place, to discover that Book wanted exclusivity. 

And what I loved about seeing them come together was that Frame was willing to meet that challenge. He had to get Book out of his lack-of-trust-and-confidence space to get Book to trust Frame. Frame just pushed for it. He saw what Book wanted, inside of all that waffling, and was able to give Book what Book demanded.

It was complicated, it was funny, it was disorganized, and it was really heartening to see Frame confess his love so loudly in the school gardens -- reminiscent of another confession moment on a school campus.

The TeeFuse and FrameBook couplings delved into a tremendous amount of detail at the kinds of things that derail relationships, queer or not. I appreciate that New and Cheewin and their collaborators didn’t shy away from the ugliness and messiness of early courtship in school settings. And I also appreciated that New and Cheewin also showed homophobia, as Book’s friends confronted him about his relationship with Frame, with Book dealing with how to confront them back; and Tan confronting Fing about her potential dalliance with Mook (oh, yes -- GL side dalliance, fam!). 

I might argue that the one quibble I had about the show was New’s sometimes-penchant for too many ships in one show. I know @bengiyo is more sympathetic to the RodtangNine ship, but I don’t quite think I needed it. @bengiyo said to me that it was an important ship because Rod was first attracted to Fuse -- and then moved on, and was able to fall for Nine. The moving on was an important flow to show that an attractor doesn’t need to get stuck and obsessed only on one person -- that that demonstrates growth.

I’d just argue that the show had SO MUCH going on between TeeFuse, FrameBook, and FingMook, that there wasn’t quite enough room to get emotionally close enough to RodNine to care deeply enough for them. For me, as well, the acting of Rod was painfully bad. But that’s a minor and personal quibble.

While this piece is tremendously long, amazingly, it’s not over, because I haven’t watched season 2 yet. I’ll watch season 2 after watching Together With Me, to be chronologically correct (watchlist below). I’ll offer just one last note on the thoughts above.

If you read this and decide to give Make It Right a shot, I totally encourage it, and all the self-exploration that I spoke about before. I DEEPLY BELIEVE that TeeFuse and FrameBook are very much worth the time, for how sophisticated the writing around them is. 

If the show gives you the jibbles, sit with that and try to ask yourself why. If it’s too much, turn the show off and walk away. It’s not worth the triggers you might experience.

But I think there’s joy in watching imperfect things, because life is imperfect, and art can be imperfect, too. I don’t expect perfection in the art I consume. (Case in point: the AkkAyan debates around Our Skyy 2 x The Eclipse. Case in point: the Bad Buddy finale. Case in point: the finale of Eternal Yesterday.) I can’t wish for art to always go the way I want it, because I might demand closure that makes me comfortable.

I’m old enough to know that what I’ve learned from life is that -- instead of demanding clean starts and ends -- that things are often messy and painful and hurtful, and that the joy of my life is discovering myself in how I managed those things.

And I think that’s what Make It Right captures. The boys are learning how to manage, to make it right, for themselves, as they discover themselves as young men and young adults. And I can’t help but think that that will always be a beautiful journey that I want to see in the art I watch, time and time again. 

[Man, oh man. As usual: thanks and shout-outs to the family, ESPECIALLY to @absolutebl and @bengiyo for the encouragement to add and watch Make It Right -- and very especially to @bengiyo for engaging me in the most beautiful and awesome dialogue to this show. Thank you, friend.

I’m on to Together With Me, with the encouragement and convincing of @manogirl and @miscellar to explore the MaxTul ship and the first high heat in Thai BLs. Let’s go. And thanks to everyone else for their input on TwM: @shortpplfedup, @lurkingshan, @aliceisathome, @liyazaki, @aprilblossomgirl, @so-much-yet-to-learn, @clairificusrex, @respectthepetty, @nieves-de-sugui​, and @he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle.

Here’s the watchlist, for those who are following!

1) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 2) SOTUS (2016) (review here) 3) Make It Right (2016) 4) Together With Me (2016) 5) Make It Right 2 (2017) 6) Love By Chance (2018) 7) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) 8) He’s Coming To Me (2019) 9) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) 10) TharnType (2019) 11) Theory of Love (2019) 12) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) 13) 2gether (2020) 14) Still 2gether (2020) 15) I Told Sunset About You (2020) 16) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 17) I Promised You the Moon (2021) 18) Not Me (2021-2022) 19) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 20) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 21) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 22) My School President (2022-2023)]

#turtles catches up with thai bls #turtles catches up with the essential BLs #turtles catches up with old gmmtv #the old gmmtv challenge #ogmmtvc #fuse x tee #tee x fuse #teefuse #frame x book #book x frame #framebook #new siwaj #cheewin thanamin #ohm pawat #make it right #make it right season 1 #make it right meta

[vihattu-thethoroughbredofsin]

Have you seen the latest episodes of Earthspark? If you have...how you feel about them?

Hello, my unknown friend! I'm sorry that you had to wait so long, I didn't ignore the question, I just needed time to think about my thoughts about the last third of the season and the first season of the series as a whole.

In addition, given that my thoughts are not at all joyful in the end, I didn't want to spoil the mood even more for those who were happy about the new episodes and the end of the season. So I had to take the time and step away from the show a little bit.

But now I think I can give a quick answer. Disappointment? Indifference? No, indifference is definitely not, rather an empty aftertaste. It would seem that so many things happened, but they happened so quickly, and half of them didn't make sense. As if it leaves no emotional trace, only bewilderment and reflection.

Something like that. If in the first part of the season almost all the episodes were remembered and liked, in the second part there were fewer of them, then in this part I personally remember only the episodes with Grimlock and the double finale. The rest are kind of bland and not particularly thought out.

In fact, I am thinking over and writing a big post now with all my claims and criticism, just when it will not prevent others from rejoicing. But such things must be said. It's not for nothing that my blog is called "Concentration of negative energy", right?)))

Here I will list only the criticism from other viewers that I disagree with.

1. About the behavior of the Jawbreaker. Supposedly it is illogical and so on. People say he's out of character. But as if the problem is that he didn't really have a character. He had little screen time, he showed only one behavior model. And here, because of frustration and uncertainty in the choice of altmod, under the pressure of successful siblings, whom he cannot catch up and protect, excluded from their training – of course he is dissatisfied and upset! He wants to be on an equal footing, and not to be a "tender younger brother without an altmod." He literally says himself that he does not want to be considered someone with one character trait, that he wants to be different in different situations, like the rest. And the audience is unhappy that the character literally refuses to be a cardboard? Because if the character is cute, then let it be a cardboard? A very strange opinion. A Jawbreaker behaves logically for, firstly, a child who got what he wanted and wants to try everything, and, secondly, for someone who wants to show himself as capable as the others and get the approval of an elder. Probably, on the contrary, this is the most logical thing that the screenwriters did with his character.

2. Robbie and Mo save everyone at the end. I have a complaint about pianos in the bushes and energon at Terrans, but about this in my big evil post. Here I am against the opinion that Twitch should have saved the situation instead of Robbie and Mo. Firstly, Twitch has already been given the most time in the season, more than other siblings. Secondly, since the scriptwriters chose the way to turn off all transformers, then she had to turn off as well. Thirdly, there is narrative poetry in this ending. The story began with Robbie and Mo, they are the first and main protagonists, they are the chosen ones or something, activated Emberstone at the beginning and with its help, they saved everyone in the end. It is logical that everything should end on them, at least this arch. They activated their siblings, they helped all the transformers with the help of abilities, it's logical if we take the general plot for granted. In addition, the series has already begun to devote less screen time to them, so they had the right to moment of shine.

Somehow, so far. I am surprised that someone is interested in my opinion in principle, it was usually in the category of unpopular ideas, but thank you for your interest.

#transformers #Transformers Earthspark #tf earthspark #tfes #tfe #earthspark #answered ask

[pb-dot]

Film Friday: Fear Street 1994

Another Saturday Film Friday. What can I say, migraines were A Thing this week. Anyway:

I love me a good horror movie, I love me a bad horror movie, but the one thing I can't stand a horror movie being is hopeless. The most recent spate of Elevated Horror has brought a certain hopelessness and nihilism back into vogue, and I am quick to point out that while expressing these things can be emotionally honest, it's also a source of tedium and the worst kind of complacency. It's not that the protagonists need to win, necessarily, they just have to look the inherent hopelessness of their situation in the eye and go "No fuck YOU." Today's film is a good example of a film dealing with horror hopelessness, and it makes it a surprisingly good flick for its efforts.

Life in Shadyside isn't the easiest. The general hopelessness of the kind of socio-economic malaise one generally does not escape from permeats life in the town. The century-old witch curse that turns people into slasher-like serial killers at the drop of a hat doesn't help either. Nobody is more aware of the hopelessness of Shadyside than Deena, who after her girlfriend Sam split with her and moved to the neighboring Sunnyvale, is feeling the Shadyside Suck even harder. After a football game between the rival towns escalating to shenanigans, Sam, Deena, and Deena's friends find themselves targeted by the witch's curse in an unusual way, in that a parade of assumed dead killers are coming for their blood.

What follows is a bit of a romp, but an entertaining one. The movie sets up this 90s style think-y slasher that Scream popularized back in the day, and seeing the kids try to piece together how the curse works in this particular instance and how to work around it is fun. Granted, it feels like our heroes are a tad quick to abandon fighting back after their first set of countermeasures fail. It is like the screenwriter was a touch impatient to get to the emotional core of the story, but there are perhaps worse sins to commit.

Fear Street's main "thing" seems to be challenging the way slasher films flatten characters. Our heroes do fall into slasher stereotypes broadly speaking, but also challenge those roles. The guy who's kind of a comic relief burnout isn't the brightest, but he's kind and self-sacrificing and contributes with things he has learned from experience when he can. The Nerd has a surprising amount of game. The drug dealer is a person in a bad situation who works like hell to get out of it to live a better life. The two prospective Final Girls are sleeping together, that sort of thing. It isn't extremely deep, but it's a nice bit of nuance to the character that makes the peril they are in feel more real.

The above soupçon of nuance also does a good job of underlining the theme of hopelessness. The struggle against the witch's curse ties in with the protagonists general struggle against the similarly invisible yet seemingly omnipresent pressure of poverty. It is no small wonder, then, that our heroes almost immediately agree to concede and let the witch have her sacrifice. They've been fighting against capitalism grinding them down all their short lives after all. There wouldn't be much of a movie if this plan went through, of course, but it is still a relief when our motley crew thinks better of it and starts working the problem.

It all comes together to a slightly messy package in the end, but it is satisfying. I still remember the jolt of glee I got from the ending setting up a cliche horror movie ending only to pivot around and smack me in the face with a fun sequel hook that tied into the themes of the story pretty well.

#film friday #horror #slasher movie #also looking at gifs for this movie wow y'all like Sadie Sink in the second one of these #I mean I get it #just making note is all

[cielsosinfel]

reading log #1100111 1100001 1111001

I was keeping reading logs of books and comics I'd completed here, and then on Dreamwidth... but I think I'm gonna end up doing them here first again before archiving on Dreamwidth lol. I have had a very bad time following up on things like this the last few months but I HAVE been finishing books (or giving up on them in frustration.) So, here's some recent ones and some meandering thoughts (if I had typed these up closer to finishing the book I would have much more to say, but alas, memory is a sieve)

CW for mentions of CSA/incest in the "Angels Before Man" section.

A Man of Lies by Ben Crane: This came up in the library database when I searched for Queer Fiction, and it was described as a heist novel with a gay lead. It's the author's first novel, too- he was a film screenwriter (none of his movies seem to have been very successful, though.) It sure is a heist novel! The MC, Barret, is an enforcer for the biggest mob boss in the Midwestern states, and falls in love with the boss' top accountant, Mickey. They want more out of life than the criminal underworld, and hatch a plot to steal shitloads of cash from their boss and flee together. But the plot is of course found out, and Mickey is killed right in front of Barret, and now Barret is forced to pay off the debt or be killed himself. But he has a better idea- one more risky scheme to to make millions and live the life Mickey wanted for them.

I actually enjoyed this one a lot!! It's very fast-paced. There are way too many POVs- it switches characters every chapter, and the narrator PoV shifts from first-person when it's Barret to close-third-person for everyone else, so it felt hectic at times. I think you can definitely tell this was written by someone used to writing film scripts- so many scenes are written in such a way that feel like they'd perfectly translate to a film scene (I got the feeling the author might be wanting to turn this into a film at some point?) There's also some flashback fuckery near the end I found kind of obnoxious but oh well, it didn't detract from the book.

It's a super ridiculous book at it's core and definitely leans hard into the tropes of its genre. Some things made me roll my eyes, especially with Barret's narration (I'm a liar! You'll never know when I'm telling the truth!) but there were some sexy moments with his suffering. I REALLY liked Cass (long-time petty criminal with a bitterness toward the world, looking for her big break), Johnny Boy (Cass' pacifist friend who just wants to do right by everyone and keep his friends safe, but can never meet Cass' expectations and is always the target of her anger), and Pickens (long-suffering genius lockpicker who just wants to get paid without getting dragged into other peoples' bullshit. He is, dare I say it, my poor little meow meow.)

It ends in a ridiculous but good plot-twist that actually makes me want to read the sequel when it comes out (this is rare. I have very low patience for multi-book series anymore lmao.) So yeah. Quick, easy, fun read, excited for more.

Idol, Burning by Rin Usami (tl. Asa Yoneda): This is a book about a high school girl's life in idol fandom, but so much more than that. I wasn't sure what I was expecting going into this- I only heard about it because I saw someone talk about an essay they wrote on this, about how it shows how idol fandom could be considered feminist- but it really was not what I expected just going off that!!

This is about a girl who is being failed by many people around her. This is a girl who has undiagnosed dyslexia and learning disabilities; a girl who is very depressed, suicidal and self-harming; a girl with a worsening eating disorder; a girl with a total disconnect from the people around her. She falls into idol fandom for a particular idol, a boy who she has been obsessed with since she was a young child watching him as a 12 year old, performing as Peter Pan, and it becomes her solace, her refuge, and a crutch. She doesn't understand herself or her life, so she obsesses over trying to understand every ;ittle detail about her oshi, from the smallest facial movements to the tone of his social media text posts.

When her idol is suddenly in a media storm for hitting a woman- a woman he may have been secretly dating- it's like a spiderweb of cracks in a dam are suddenly broken through and she's struggling to tread water.

I feel like what this book really captures is how being deeply involved in fandom, and being super passionate for a hobby, and online communities of likeminded fans, can both help and hurt. The more depressed Akari gets because of her family life, of failing in school, of being treated as an idiot because of ableist barriers she doesn't even realize are blocking her path forward, the more she fixates on her idol- constantly watching and rewatching shows and interviews to try to see beyond her oshi's public persona, updating her blog with in-depth reviews of albums or summaries of interviews, buying up all of the merchandise she can for what amounts to an all-consuming shrine in her room filled with trash and uneaten food.

Her oshi becomes the only reason she gets up and leaves the house, the only reason she gets dressed (always in blue, her oshi's official color), the only reason she continues to work (she needs the money to support her oshi), the only reason she interacts socially outside her family (with fandom, with other obsessed fans who understand why she's so emotionally reliant on a celebrity that she'll nvver truly meet). But this hyperfixation is undeniably a large part of why her life is stalling and backsliding, even if it's not the /root/ cause, but a symptom presenting an out-sized impact.

Anyway, it like, resonated with me as someone who was also once a young girl with undiagnosed dyslexia/learning disabilities, with all-devouring depression, with suicidal urges, with eating disorders no one recognized. And no support structure but my hyperfixations on fictional characters and the friendships I had with other fans via internet communities. It's just such a painful, painful book to read because even though the cultural context and fandom context is so completely different (I was born and raised in the US, I have no idea what girls in Japan go through), it resonated SO MUCH.

The ending is also something I like a lot- it's not a Happy Ending(TM) at all, but I found it much more impactful in its realism. Akari is not "better," she is still in such a bad place, but she's taking these small steps to break the self-destructive cycle she's ended up with. And that's what's important- is the small steps, and the acknowledgment that there are steps to be taken at all.

Also, the ending of the English edition has a letter written by the author addressing her younger brother, who has dyslexia, and discussing the failures of the Japanese education system regarding disabled students. She says in the letter herself, that her brother will never read it because it's in English, and she'll likely never say any of what she wrote to him, but the letter was still so, so, so affecting... Just, this acknowledgment of both her brother's struggles, and how she added to those struggles when they were younger and she understood less. Much like how Akari's older sister in the novel can't understand why Akari struggles so much, and takes out her own frustration on Akari- her frustration at bearing so much responsibility in a family with a single, over-worked mother, and no matter how much she tries to steer her sister in the right direction and help her (taking on the role of a mother for her), nothing seems to help. It's not something children can help! It's the adults refusing to see that the system they set in place is not helping these children!!

But the letter also says that though the Japanese education system almost failed the author's brother, he was able to go to a school specifically for children with learning disabilities, and he excelled and now leads a happy, successful life. Akari doesn't get that in the book; Akari's story is the other side of the coin. But where the ending of Akari's story is not quite happy, it's like a soothing balm to read that the author's real, living, breathing brother got his own happy ending.

Angels Before Man by rafael nicolás (Did Not Finish lol):

OK. OK I SUPER HATE THIS BOOK SO MUCH JESUS CHRISTTTTTTTT OK. Ok. So this is a "queer retelling of the fall of Lucifer." Right? And I, being an ex-catholic trans faggot, am totally into reclaiming Lucifer in the name of being a filthy dirty gay heathen? Right??

But this book is sooooooooooooooo

I'm gonna make a bullet point list

It's extremely unimaginative when it comes to what Heaven and angels are like, for one.We have some mentions of chariots and ophanim who are these otherworldly beings, but 99% of the cast are just regular Joe Schmo cis dudes with wings. They live in a very run of the mill pseudo-Roman town with regular buildings and colisseums and bathhouses and stores. It's very uninspired imo. They pass their time talking, lounging, bathing, trading fruits and eating, and competing in the colisseum, and just... not very Angelic??

The first 150 pages is some of the most repetitive writing I have read in years. I kid you not, the book starts with Lucifer's creation and then for the next 150 pages it is just variations of: Lucifer is lost and confused; Lucifer cries; everyone compliments Lucifer's beauty; Lucifer cries over being beautiful; they eat some fruit and walk to see people; they go on flying lessons; repeat. repeat. repeat. EVERYTHING IS DESCRIBED WHEN ITS NOTE VEN NECESSARY FOR ANYTHING BUT PADDINGGGGG

Also Lucifer's shame over being beautiful: WHY is he ashamed? Every single time he gets attention because of his beauty and being God's favorite, every time someone compliments his beauty, we get a paragraph about how ashamed he is of his beauty and his body, but never WHY. There are no details about what is causing him this shame. And if God made him to be beautiful, to embody beauty, why would he have any shame over it? Why is he ashamed of the being he was made to be, the attribute he was hand-crafted to embody? We're not given anything deeper than "Lucifer is so ashamed and he cries and cries and cries." Stop crying over being pretty god damn!!

Basically none of the characters have any voice or personality except for like, Uriel and God. Lucifer's personality is crying and being confused and having a crush on Michael. I'm not even kidding. Maybe some hyperbole but everything in this book is so FLAT and LIFELESS.

Also Lucifer is created not knowing a single thing about existence- he doesn't know what roads are, or what water is, or what air is, or what creation is- but this is also close-third person POV and his internal narration is constantly making reference to things you'd assume he'd be unaware of. Sometimes there will be some metaphor or comparison to an object, that a few pages/chapters later Lucifer will be introduced to for the first time. It just really takes you out of the story, you know?

OK the big thing though

the thing that pissed me off the most?

The entire thing that brings about the fall of Lucifer is being raped by God.

lmao

lmao!!!!

OK see I could see this kind of narrative being potentially compelling and meaningful in the hands of a good, experienced writer but that's not this writer. No. It just is such utter fucking garbage that, to me, personally, was outright offensive as a survive of CSA/incest. This is horrible writing, and horrible handling of the subject matter. It's just, so poorly thought out in so many ways.

Literally the mainstream opinion in Catholicism already is that child sexual abuse survivors are sinned, stained, ruined by the abuse and violence they have suffered. This does not add a single new thing. ugh. ighhhhh!!!

On top of that the writing of the CSA itself and Lucifer's emotional interiority in the aftermath were really fucking shallow for a book that has this as the traumatic pivot of the narrative and Lucifer's character arc into becoming a fallen, corrupted being. It's literally "he's this poor shaking crybaby everyone loves->God violently abuses him->he has violently gone off the deep down and lost his mind in some of the most cliche writing I've seen yet"

And to top it off the writing is full of spelling errors, grammar errors, punctuation errors especially-- I do not say this lightly because I am someone who writes fanfic and holds it near and dear to my heart, but this reads more like someone took a fanfic directly off Wattpad or AO3 and slapped it into a book with no editing. It is so. Bad. good lord!

If this was just porn I would not care nearly as much, like whatever gets your noncon kink rocks off, but this isn't porn, this is trying to be a deep insightful exploration on sexual trauma and incest and I can't deal with how bad it was.

#reading log #mine poste #it took me over a week to finish writing this whew #two rambling reviews for books i loved and one rambling review of a book i LOATHE #this is probably the last of these i will write this year lmao

[scorchroots]

TV Writing Outlining — for Pantsers!

Hey everybody! I’ve seen a few posts around the writeblr community about writing scripts. I’ve been working with television formatting for a few years now, and as a chronic pantser, I struggled at first to outline within such a rigid format. Plus, even with the popularity of streaming platforms, shows do follow the same structure that they do when there are commercial breaks mandating when the beats hit the hardest!

I recently talked to a writer who is just now starting to work in scripts, and she commented that having the structure background of screenwriting is also very helpful for novels (even if it feels hard because the structure is much looser).

This will focus on outlines for hour-long TV, usually five acts, which is my expertise (I’m not that funny, haha), but it can be applied to the three-act structure for half-hours and can be adapted for novels as well.

If you learn screenwriting academically, this is usually taught as an hour long lecture, so it is long! Bear with me!

First, let’s cover why TV is structured the way it is.

If someone watches a TV show from the beginning, you have anywhere between 7-15 pages to hook the viewer. Why? Because that’s when the first commercial break hits. Viewers are willing to watch something they aren’t sure about until then, but if it’s not good by the first commercial break, they probably won’t stick around through the ads to see if it gets better.

Your show has to tell the viewer what they’re getting for the rest of the hour by the end of that. You have to end with the hook of the episode, so that people will be interested beyond that commercial.

However, the big twist moment of the episode comes around page 30. There has to be a seriously interesting beat at that point, because that commercial break is generally the longest of the episode (it runs about double the length of any other commercial).

The action after that generally drops, and then builds again, with one big beat around page 40, and then your climax beat at page 50, which is the “all hope is lost” moment before the fifth act wraps it up (and, since TV is serialized, usually still leaves on some kind of cliffhanger).

(In half-hours, the beats are around page 10 and page 20. They can be staggered a little further, as they probably will be in the editing itself.)

So we get five distinct acts:

Act I: 10-15 pages. Might start out with a 3-7 page cold open. This should introduce the show and present the hook of the episode. If it’s a pilot, it might set up the backstory, but if that’s how you’re writing it then you want to create the episode hook pretty immediately after.

Act II: ~15 pages, ends around page 30. This should be tension central; you need to build to a pretty big moment by the end. This is the biggest chunk you have so use it to establish stuff that will play out later.

Act III: ~10 pages, ends around page 40. There must be a vague resolution of whatever bombshell you dropped at the end of Act II. This is rising action, back to a smaller peak at the end of the act.

Act IV: ~10 pages, ends around page 50. Building up to the climax; much bigger peak at the end of this act. If you have a lot to set up for the next episode (many shows are heavily serialized now), you might resolve your climax at the end of this act, though that resolution should form its own kind of setup—asking more questions than it answers.

Act V: ~10 pages, ends around page 60. Resolves this episode’s plot and sets up the next. Might deal with the season arc, if the show has one (and nowadays, every show does, even comedies). Usually still ends on a high action beat.

(Sidenote: hour-longs are 60-page scripts, and half-hours are 30-page scripts, even though each page is roughly one minute of screentime and there will be commercials. Why? Because scenes will get cut at every step of the process until it hits the screen, and the writer is only step one.)

Okay, now how do you outline for this?

My strategy is to plan around those act endings. 

I grew up watching soap operas, so my biggest strength in writing is setting up cliffhangers. These are the moments that TV is built around, so build your writing around them!

I start with the ending. Where do I need to get the characters by the end of this script? That’s usually the easiest moment for me to plan. Especially if you’re writing pilots, this will lead into the rest of the episode. Set that last cliffhanger first.

Then find your episode plot ending. That’s your Act IV ending. 

After that, you want the beat that sets up the plot to get to that Act IV ending, which is the Act I ending, and then the big twist that happens halfway through (Act II end). The Act III ending is the least important to have set in stone at this stage, but once you do set it, I find that the rest of the episode is easier.

So, by now you have (in the order you planned them):

Act V end (show setup)

Act IV end (episode resolution)

Act I end (episode setup)

Act II end (big twist)

Act III end (small upbeat)

All five of these moments, by the way, should serve your A-plot.

Unless you’re writing a bottle episode (which is quite different), there are 2-4 plots in every TV episode, in order of importance:

A-plot (main plotline of the episode—usually focusing on conflict between or surrounding one or two characters)

B-plot (secondary plotline—might follow the characters in the A-plot but on a more emotional than physical journey, or it may be a totally different storyline surrounding a couple different characters)

C-plot (tertiary plotline—usually a small emotional journey; this doesn’t come up as much in half-hours, but most hour-longs have one)

D-plot (the smallest story; most episodes don’t have this but it can come up)

Now that we have our major beats and our 2-4 plots, we can do the outline.

Here’s the trick with this: I handwrite this on a blank piece of paper, and make a grid, five rows and three columns.

I label the rows with the acts, and the columns with the plots.

Then I fill in the major beats for the A-plot, writing them at the bottom of each row. This grid should take up the full page! 

You should also have similar emotional beats for your B- and C-plots, by the way. Fill those in.

Then, write down each moment that you need to get from beat to beat. I usually have around 5 for acts I and II, and 3 or 4 for the rest. If your moments in between feel like they jump too much, add another moment in between. But because you already laid out your main beats, the in between pacing should be roughly correct for an episode of television.

Eventually, you’ll want to break these down into individual scenes, which vary in length and emotional impact, but this is the basic structure for how I outline scripts.

I hope this was helpful!

#this kind of turned into a quick course on screenwriting #but the outline structure is at the end #screenwriting #writing tips #writing #writeblr

[nclkafilms]

A master’s lacking homage to a masterpiece 

(Review of ‘Mank’)

*Warning: contains minor spoilers*

In recent years, Netflix have really upped their awards season contributions by giving either huge budgets, total creative freedom or a mix of these to some of Hollywood's biggest directors. In 2018 Alfonso Cuaron gave us his deeply personal and technically impressive 'Roma'. In 2019 we received Martin Scorsese's long and long-awaited epos 'The Irishman'. Both received 10 Oscar nominations, but both also struggled to invite their viewers fully onboard (The Irishman in particular). In 2020, Netflix is back with 'Mank'; this time giving David Fincher a platform to create a black-and-white love letter to screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, the often overlooked writer of 'Citizen Kane'. 'Mank' has also received 10 Oscar nominations, but has Fincher learned from Cuaron and Scorsese by making a more inclusive film experience?

In the story we follow Howard, or simply Mank as he is mostly referred to, as he has been asked to write the screenplay for Orson Welles’ first film for studio RKO. Welles has received full creative control of his films and has head hunted Mank to be his writer. Mank - being trapped to his sickbed due to a car accident - is put under pressure by a strict time limit, his secretary Rita Alexander and Welles’ desire to keep Mank away from alcohol, to which he has succumbed for years. It is, however, through numerous flashbacks to Hollywood in the 30’s that we slowly unravel the true inspiration behind Mank’s now historic screenplay for ‘Citizen Kane’. Hollywood is - as the rest of America - suffering the consequences of the recession and the film studios are under pressure from decreasing ticket sales and the threat of a democrat (or socialist as they denounce him as) running for office in California. As hinted at here, ‘Mank’ tells stories of everything from the film industry and the process of writing a screenplay to politics, media and the blurred lines between these industries while adding some remarks on Hollywood’s male dominance along the way and plenty of easter eggs to ‘Citizen Kane’ itself. We rush back and forth between Mank’s writing process and the ghosts of his past, and it is definitely an advantage to either know quite a bit about this period of time or give the film a second watch to fully understand the details of the story.

As Herman J. Mankiewicz, Gary Oldman gives another transformative performance. Oldman is without a doubt an extremely talented actor, who it is always a pleasure to observe. As Mank he gives it everything he has as the drunken screenwriter who after having fallen from the stars suddenly end up producing his best work. His acting when Mank is at his most drunk, most uncontrollable is balancing just on the edge of feeling overdone, and I am having a hard time relating to him in these scenes. It is, however, in his more subtle scenes as when he realises the potential consequences of a quick remark about the power of the film industry in relation to politics or in his final conversations with people about his screenplay, that Oldman shines the brightest. Is it an Oscar-worthy performance, though? I’m not sure. 

The other Oscar nominated performance is from Amanda Seyfried as the actress, Marion Davies, the mistress of media mogul William Hearst. Seyfried - as Oldman - gives everything and her character ends up being both more relatable and compelling than Oldman’s titular character. What she does is not overly showy, but she manages to create a character who is both seductive, funny and interesting, when it comes to her trying to find her place in the grand political and artistic puzzle that she has been caught in. The scene in which she refuses to help Mank, not necessarily because she disagress with what he’s asking, but simply to save her face, is in particular well-acted and saying for the character.  Sadly, Seyfried is not given that many scenes or material to work with, and as such Davies remains a character that I would have loved to see more of and explore further.

In additional supporting roles, Lily Collins as Rita Alexander, Charles Dance as William Hearst and Arliss Howard as film producer Louis B. Mayer stand out the most. Lily Collins manages to give Oldman some competition in their scenes especially regarding Alexander’s missing husband, Ian. Not unlike Marion Davies, though, Alexander is never explored in depth. We get a much clearer idea of who William Hearst and Louis B. Mayer were. As Hearst, Charles Dance delivers an icy performance as the mighty media mogul, who unknowingly becomes the focus for Mank’s screenplay. Dance is always interesting and his turn as Hearst is no exception. Especially the scene in which he recites the parable of the organ grinder’s monkey is memorable and satisfying to watch. As Louis B. Mayer, Arliss Howard also gives an icy, yet more explosive, performance as a man in power. If I was a film producer who has worked with Fincher, I would probably look in the mirror an extra time after seeing Howard’s performance as Mayer. He - along with Fincher - creates a cynical and often two-faced character, who ultimately follows the money and influence despite preaching about the importance of his MGM family (only to ask them to half their wages in the following scene). As such Hearst and Mayer are used to portray the cynicism and moral corruption caused by money and power; a familiar topic for Fincher, who this time aims his cinematic weapons at his own industry.

Another guarantee from a Fincher film is his impeccable attention to detail and unapologetic perfectionism when it comes to the technical aspects of his films. And ‘Mank’ is no exception; above everything else it is a technical marvel. The vision to create the film as if it was made in the 40’s has been executed close to perfection. The black-and-white cinematography in 2.20:1 aspect ratio (wonder why they went for this rather than 1.33:1) is a feast for the eyes; the addition of reel-change circles as part of the “degrading” post-production of the visuals does feel rather gimmicky, however. I got the “old film” feel without that, but it is without a doubt a detail held dear by Fincher himself. I would have preferred to either not have them or for the film to have been shot on film, though. Especially since the production design is beautiful and manages to create a believable and buzzing Hollywood aesthetic, which didn’t need the additional digital ageing on top.  The sound design works better, adding to the “old film” feel first of all because of the fact that it is in mono, but also due to it being deliberately recorded, mixed and toned to sound “old”. It feels less gimmicky than the visual aspects of the film. To round off the film’s sound is a close to perfect score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who once again proves their versatility by creating a playful score that oozes Hollywood in the 40’s.

Hollywood is also the main focus of the screenplay by David Fincher’s late father; a project close to the hearts of both father and son for years. But despite the endearing narrative of this aspect of the film, I cannot help but feel that the old Fincher’s script is one of the film’s main problems. It simply lacks focus and a structure that aids the story. The film is presented as the story behind the greatest screenplay of all time, but in reality it seems least interested in the screenwriting process. Of course, this holds a meaning too; about the different things influencing a screenplay, but instead it ends up standing on too many legs for it to be well balanced. The flashbacks do tell the overall story of Mank’s screenplay influences, but Fincher’s screenplay seems more interested in the politics, the film industry portrayal and the depiction of Mank’s inner demons. It never fully lands any of these plot lines to absolute satisfaction. The closest is the political story about the sudden invention of post-truth politics or “fake news”, which obviously is a comment to the current political climate. It features interesting thoughts on the ideas behind and consequences of this kind of political work, but it also distances me from the main plot, which is further sidelined by the - obviously deliberate, but questionable - lack of Orson Welles in the story. He is always in the periphery of the story, but never lands as anything but a caricature of the slightly arrogant wonder boy stripping our main hero from proper acknowledgement (for a long time). 

Now, let's return to my opening question: is 'Mank' a more inclusive film experience than other Netflix awards season darlings such as 'Roma' or 'The Irishman'? Well… While 'Mank' has been the most entertaining of the three in my eyes, the regrettable conclusion must be a "no". Looking at the individual parts they are all exquisitely executed, apart from the disjointed screenplay, and the film is an immense pleasure to look at and listen to. Ultimately it is just less than the sum of all its individual parts. It has all the components to become a masterpiece, it just never weaves them into one. It is a party that we are never fully invited to. This does not mean that I do not applaud Fincher for sticking to his visions or Netflix for giving him creative freedom, I simply just wish they did not keep me at an arm's length throughout the 131 minutes.

3,5/5

#Film #Movie #Film Review #Movie Review #Oscars 2021 #The Oscars #The Academy Awards #Oscars Warm Up #Mank #David Fincher #Gary Oldman #Amanda Seyfried #Lily Collins #Charles Dance #Arliss Howard #Atticus Ross #Trent Reznor #Best Picture #Best Actor in a Leading Role #Best Actress in a Supporting Role #Best Directing #Best Costume Design #Best Cinematography #Best Production Design #Best Makeup and Hairstyling #Best Sound #Best Original Score

[marsapartment]

Hi, I'd like to start learning about directing and filmmaking in general and i was wondering if you knew about any free learning material (PDFs, videos, online courses) ? I can't really go back to school and I don't have 300$ to put in websites like masterclass so I'm looking for free online stuff and cheap books about filmmaking. thanks

Hey!! Okay so here’s a bigass secret:

I’m currently completing a communications/filmmaking degree, and yet a solid amount of everything I’ve learnt has just been on my own/online. Youtube is your best friend! Watching movies with director commentaries is the best! Podcasts rock! If you’re curious about a specific question, google it!

A couple of resources:

Books:

Basics, you have to *have* to understand the three act structure, especially before you try to break it. Try “Writing Screenplays that sell” or Robert Mckee’s book on screenwriting.

(side note: 1) if you’re not interested in screenwriting, still read one of these^ , I guarantee you you will need to know about narrative construction. 2) if you *are* also interested in screenwriting, start writing! Find a buddy who will read through your work and give feedback!)

Youtube:

Indy Mogul

No Film School

David F. Sandberg (really good low budget ideas!)

Watch film reviews! It’s a good way to develop an understanding about good/bad filmmaking

Lessons from the Screenplay

This Guy Edits

Every Frame A Painting

Not youtube but, like I said, listen to director commentaries from directors you think are good. Also, watch foreign films and films you wouldn’t typically go to watch.

Podcasts (listen on the go):

Scriptnotes with Craig Maizen and John August - one of *the* most helpful screenwriting resources, ever.

 The Cinematography Podcast

The T-stop Inn

You’ll naturally find more free resources as you go along. However:

The Most Important Thing

It is super important that you start making connections. The no.1 helpful thing about doing a film degree is that it pushed me out there to make friends in all kinds of fields. I was super nervous about this, but trust me, you get over it quick. Filmmaking *is* teamwork - you’ll need to find friends that will be your camera operators, hold lights on set, etc., and you have to develop good relationships with these people, because they, in turn, might be the person who ends up hiring you for a good job in the future. 

If you have friends currently that are interested in doing film things with you, start doing them now! You’ll only get better by making things (and yes, the rule is that your first projects will be terrible, but that’s how you learn). 

If you don’t know anyone currently, you should look around you area and see if anyone is doing student films locally and looking for some free help - I guarantee you, there is always a student crew with $0.00 on hand that will be THRILLED if you offer to help out. Even if the set is terrible, awful hellfire, that’s how you’ll learn, even if it’s learning what “not” to do. 

But seriously, can’t stress enough - you very much can learn theory on your own. The catch is just that you need to be making your own projects, putting yourself out there and crewing on small, student sets or look for other crewing jobs so that you can learn from experience. Filmmaking and directing is practical work!

Good luck! :)

#Anonymous

[areallyshittywriter]

Death Certificate

It was bright and cold. The sky wavered a dark mystic blue, with children of grinning stars shining brightly in its darkness. The wind was carrying newborn snow to the parents below, but never once ever howling in complaint. It had not a hint of human impurity, not even a breath in the sky. It was simply heavenly.

This only lasted of course, until a scruffy, thin, senile man scorched the soundless peace, with his ragged breaths and limping strides. Every wisp of his grumpy mumbling, creating a vivid cut in the air. Every inconsistent grunt felt like a lobotomy with a sharp ended stick. And every sight I took of him being a waste of a memory and a waste of time. He took his time, dragging himself from the misty abyss of the forest.

I could feel the length of my finger begin to tap mercilessly against the dark crusted parasol. Silver rusted flakes were cracking and falling against the snow, bringing another wave of heat to reverberate along my crooked bones.

“Would you please hurry up? It takes time for nature to clean up the contamination you’re polluting,” an evident coldness, leaked from my lips.

It took the goat a further 357 seconds before he finally reached a metre apart from me. Even then, I still took a step back from him; “How strange it is, that your filthy race has managed to charge straight through nature’s innocence, and still it took you 23 minutes to climb a measly slanted hill.” 

Only a gruff was his response. His gaze never reached my own; the only pleasing thing about this occasion.

“To think this would be added to an eternal list of failures, Eric Blair. Or would you prefer I call you George Orwell?” Malice and stillness were left in my words.

The man froze silent. Even his deeds and actions cannot be concealed to my omniscient species. It is vital to know everything when coming to a conclusive judgement. Actions will reveal intent. Intent creates judgement. Simple.

“Tell me, George; why did you keep your books to yourself for all these years? Surely, someone would’ve read them?” 

He took a deep breath and sighed, wiping the icy sweat from his rotting hands. 

His croak, weak against the wind, “they would never be goin’ anywhere. The books. They were only an out, from this godforsaken world.”

How, ironic. 

“Hmm, well let’s continue this discussion. The snow can only fall for so long before it touches the ground.” I began reading,

Death Certificate

Eric Arthur Blair

Date:  June 8th1984

This is to certify that the records in my office show that Mr Blair, 

Died at 7:30am on 8th Day of June 1984

That day was the official declaration of Stalin’s kingship over the world. No government had managed to prevent his dictatorship, nor any future ones. With the books kindled in fire, no one will ever achieve the ability of intellect, to fight his ruling. I could feel the second wave of heat roll over me as my tapping commenced again.

“That was a Friday. It seems you couldn’t even make it to the weekend.” There was no cover of the harshness in my voice. And still, the geezer ignored my comments and continued his sadistic stroll. I continued;

Gender: Male

Age:    47

Cause of Death: 

“Oh that'll be interesting” 

Injuries. This includes the carving and removal of the corpus unguis, cutting needles puncturing the retina and internal ear area and repeated fisted blows to the frontal lobe. Ultimately, created breakage in the cranium, acute deafness and blindness in the left eye, thus resulting in death.

There wasn’t an ounce of surprise within his eyes, let alone soul. How disappointing. Fortunately, though, I am aware of everything that occurred after the death. And I must say, it was absolutely barbarous; lucky me.

“My oh my, it seems we’ve forgotten a few very crucial and interesting details, my dear Eric.” 

The decaying goof discarded my comment and continued his striding destruction of baby snow. Even so, I’ve learnt how to pull the shakiness and tears from any pathetic human soul, so I continued my unsparing talk;

“The certificate has seemingly never stated what happened after your death! What a shame, since you never got to find out. Well, I guess I could always do a small favour and simply just add it in, can’t I?”

After death, the corpse was then taken to a guillotine to have the head sliced from the lower body. 

“Well, it stills seems quite connected to me”

The corpse was then dowsed in octane and was set ablaze with phosphorous sulphide. 

The corpse was burnt to a point of unrecognition along with a wide collection of books. 

Finally, I got him.

His treachery upon the land had seized, along with his mumbles and grunts. His burnt brown eyes were glazed in a fear so indescribably amazing, that I couldn’t help myself but grin.

There is a rule amongst my kind that we could never take pleasure in the sufferings of tyrannical beasts. However, knowing how fully capable this monster had in completely altering reality, just with a single stroke of a pen, was collapsing in the chains of fear. Well, I couldn’t help the laughter that overtook me. Especially when his lifeless grasp went to touch the very place his own kind, own friends tried to cut from him.

Although, he simply closed his eyes, took a deep breath and continued walking. As if it didn’t matter to him. Disturbing. Even after death, he can continue to accept his pitiful existence. Monotonous, I finished the last disastrous parts of the certificate. 

Occupation(s): 

Author, Novelist, Current Affairs Writer, Bookseller, Screenwriter, Literary Critic, Poet, Essayist

Marital Status: 

Married to Eileen O’Shaughnessy

Witness:

Joseph Stalin, Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Kato Svanidze, Winston Smith, Emmanuel Goldstein, Keke Geladze,….  

“…basically, the entirety of Russia”.  

It was here where I finally halted. The certificate was finished, and his final moments were known to him. That is the job I own; to bring the knowledge of the final moments of the deceased to light, and to make a judgement.

Eric Blair is a special exception, however. There’s a peculiar complication of his intentions about his books. Although, a verbal recognition intent has never concerned me. Actions will always reveal intent.

Eric had turned quietly to meet my gaze.

His voice was cutting and yet somewhat like a cold croak, “I guess this is the end then”

Well, to a usual one of my species, he would be right. However, “No, it isn’t”.

 His eyes were sinking heavy and an abyss of mist swirled amongst the forest. My final torment would have to be quick.

“Mr Blair I’m afraid I have never informed you of what my species is”

Callous, he spoke, “I already know. Your somethin’ like death, or like a Grim Reaper”

“Yes, I guess in a sense. Except my species can do something yours still tries to grasp an understanding of. You see we reap the lives of not just your people, but people in other timelines as well.” 

The mist began to crawl and cling to edges of brown-skinned boots. Grasping and rising like the dead gripping to their mortality. Time was dwindling.

“I hope you understand well when I say that there is a reality where you actually published your books. And those very same books could’ve prevented the creation of your timeline.”

A living and breathing boil was breaking from its cavity within me. Glazing my cool bones in shakiness and heat, blistering an irritation that rivalled natures quakes. The gruelling fog began its pace, growing and falling in rhythmic tides, encircling its victim within. However, that never pulled away the attention of the monster from me. His eyes were locked and wet, awaiting his sentence.

“To put it simply,…”

Finally.

“You are the reason that civilisation crumbled. You kept your revolutionary words tucked away, like children. And just like that, you had allowed Stalin to rule a world, that’s unrulable. You caused the destruction of your timeline…”

The white cool mist began to mature into a black swirl of darkness, gradually picking up speed as enclosed the monster into a tight ring. His mudded wet eyes wandered in circles, as he inevitably realised his end was soon. Even so, the beastly Blair had grasped every drop of my bloodless confrontations;

“..All because you were simply too weak, too afraid to have any remote strength. You clung lonely to your books. You hid them from the world. You took knowledge from what could’ve saved the very few innocent people living. You are what all the demons in hell revere.”

The mist was cold and dark, raging like a wildfire around the decaying skin of Blair. Shapes of burnt cracked skinned hands clung to his arms and dragged him into the pulsating heart of darkness. Dragging him into the cold clutches of demons and villains below, where nature will never come to free him from the depths of his sins.

“And that is my judgement”.

So you’ve read my horrible writing. Congrats. It’s only going to get shitter from here. Please give some feedback tho

#1984 #george orwell #alternative reality #writing #shit #school is going to be the death of me #shitty hashtag

[airis-paris14]

Dress Up 3

My lady?” Sirobie wakes to find a young women, head bowed standing at the foot of her bed. “Good morning,” Sirobie yawned looking at the woman. The woman curtsied slightly before looking up. “Good morning Lady Sirobie, her majesty requested that I wake an escort you to breakfast.” “You know that I..”

“Yes ma’am, all of your waitstaff knows. Do not worry, we all have sealed our lips as the americans say. I’ve already laid out some outfits from you to choose from in the bathroom. I will walk you to the Dining Hall whenever you are ready.” 

“Thank you,” Sirobie smiled as she peeled out of bed. “Would you like some assistance with your hair?” the maid called. “No thank you,” Sirobie trailed off. “Eshe, my lady.”

“Please, Sirobie is just fine. I will be out in a moment.” The maid nodded before walking into the sitting room adjacent to Sirobie’s chambers. Sirobie choose the matching red and yellow skirt and bandeau top set from the outfits. Quickly brushing her teeth and washing her face she changed into the outfit and accompanying jewelry laid out for her by Eshe. She undid her scarf from the night before and separated the curls. After a quick once over and fluff of her hair, Eshe escorted her to the dining room. The young woman knocked twice before pushing open the grand door. Sirobie nervously ran a hand over her edges before walking in. 

The morning sun bathed  over the furniture of the room. Sirobie smiled as she noticed Queen Ramonda and Shuri already seated. The head of the table sat empty, she inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, doubting whether or not she could face the king yet. Shuri beamed once she noticed her entrance, the teenager waved her over causing Queen Ramonda’s eyes to fall on her as well. Sirobie took a seat in between T’Challa’s seat and Shuri. 

“Good morning. I am sorry to keep you all waiting.” 

“No problem my dear, you are just on time,” Ramonda smiled. “Unlike someone else we know,” Shuri muttered. “Is the king usually late?” Sirobie asked, secretly worried that his absence may have something to do with her arrival. “Always,” shuri answered as queen Ramonda opened her mouth. The mother glared at her. “Unfortunately, but now that you have arrived we should start eating.” The queen nodded to the waitstaff and they began to place food in front of the women. The first few minutes of breakfast were silent, except for the sound of silverware on porcelain. 

The Queen wiped her mouth before addressing Sirobie. “What brings you to Wakanda my dear? I understand you are in school?”

“Yes ma’am. I am a film major, but I have a minor is African and African Diaspora studies. I am considering a masters degree in screenwriting and directing after I finish.” Sirobie explained. “Do you plan on setting up your own production company?” The queen inquired. “I do, I have some friends on the business and marketing side of things. As well as some other amazingly talented creatives on board with the idea.”

“You plan to work in LA?” Shuri’s eyes lit up. “Maybe, maybe New York or Atlanta is a hot spot for movie production right now as well.” 

“You have to take me to all of the award shows when you win,” Shuri smiled. “Of course, If I win.”

“When,” Shuri corrected before taking another bite of her food. “What of your family?” 

“There really isn’t much to say,” Sirobie frowned. “We aren’t very rich, I am at school on scholarship and I rarely see them because I can’t afford to go home often. Or I am away like I am now.”

“Have you spoken to them since you have been here?” the Queen asked. “I write letters weekly, but international calling is expensive.”

“Mmm,” Ramonda hummed. “Well my dear, we have a busy day ahead. Today we start training, and you will take over some of Kamyra’s responsibilities. Simple paperwork, speaking requests, and attending council meetings. And we must find you a talent. We have yet to announce Kamyra’s talent  formerly, so we will not be messing anything up. She will just be multi talented.” The Queen spoke more to herself than Sirobie in the following moments. The doors to the dining room interrupted the queen as T’Challa strode into the room. 

“Look who finally decided to wake up,” Shuri teased.”Good morning to you as well sister.” T’Challa kissed his mother’s forehead before nodding in sirobie’s direction. 

“Since everyone is here, I would like to formally apologize for my behavior last night. I am sorry for any embarrassment I caused.” Siorbie’s voice wavered, her gaze never rising far off of her plate. “I hope you all can forgive me.”

The king remained silent, opting to dive into his breakfast. “My dear, you have nothing to apologize for, anyone in your predicament would have reacted the same.” The queen reassured her. “My mother is exactly right you have nothing to apologize for. Right T’Challa?” Shuri addressed the still silent king. Ramonda pinched her son under the table to get him to reply. “Your apology is accepted. Do not embarrass me again. People are going to talk but you must be stronger than that. Last night was a huge disappointment, you cannot simply flee a party in your honor just because of a few council members. That is something you can not do. I hope we do not repeat last night’s episode Ms. Sirobie.” T’Challa glared, before turning back to his plate. 

“T’Challa!” Shuri hissed. “What, it needed to be said, she embarrassed us and she must never do it again.” 

“If you’ll excuse me,” Sirobie, stood from her seat, fighting the tears of shame back from her eyes. Queen Ramonda, Shuri, Your majesty,” the woman dipped her head in greeting to each of the family before walking out. 

Ramonda glares at her son, until Sirobie is out of the room. “I can not believe you T’Challa. I did not raise you to be this kind of king. Where is your compassion? Your sympathy? All of the things that my son made sure to excercise when he took that throne? You need to apologize to your fiancee.”

“I agree, it is a wonder you have gotten far with any woman,” Shuri scowled. “For the last time, she is not my fiancee!” The king fired back. “T’Challa. We will not have this conversation again. I will not have to repeat myself again.” The queen glared at her son, the disappointment and anger written all over her face. 

The king stood from the table. “She told you,” Shuri instigated. “Shuri,” Queen Mother reprimanded as T’Challa glanced at her. “Go,” the queen gestured, turning her attention to her oldest. T’Challa walked out into the hall, catching a glimpse of Sirobie as she turned a corner down the hall. “Sirobie,” he called, hurrying to catch up to the girl. Her tear stained face, and her haste to wipe the tears from her face broke his resolve. His words from the breakfast table haunting his memory. “Your Majesty,” the student bowed her head. “Please, T’Challa is just fine.” The king waved a hand. 

“I.. came to,” he started, momentarily distracted by her eyes. The way they glew in the sun flooding the hall through the large glass windows. “Are you alright your majesty?” 

“Please, T’Challa is perfectly fine.” the king stalled once more. “With all due respect, your majesty.I must get ready to meet with your mother.” 

Sirobie’s refusal to call him by his name spoke volumes to the young king. He had never had to try to get someone to want to talk to him as a friend. Quite frankly, after what he had said to her, he would not want to talk to himself either. The guilt settled uncomfortably on his chest and throat. In front of him Sirobie shifted from resting on one hip to the other, her hand coming to settle on the hip that was now propped out. 

“The day after tomorrow,” he started.

“Thursday,” Sirobie interrupted. “Yes,” the king cleared his throat, “Thursday we will be visiting the Women and Children’s Hospital. As a couple. We will leave as soon as breakfast is over.”

“I will be there,” Sirobie nodded, turning on her heel. Quickly making her way to her room. She pushes open the door, wiping the last traces of her tears from her eyes. She looks up to find Eshe and three other women packing things away and cleaning her room. 

“Oh I was not expecting you back so soon,”Eshe, paused to bow before Sirobie. “Please do not mind me. I am just heading to the balcony. Thank you all for your work. The room looks beautiful.” Sirobie smiled. 

“It is our pleasure, your grace. This is Lesedi, Leena, and Kagiso.” The three women all curtsied in turn. “Are you all taught how to do that correctly?” Sirobie asked. “It takes a little practice yes,” Eshe smiles. “Well, you’ll have to teach me sometime.” 

“As you wish.” The women smiled. “May I ask one more question?” 

“Of course, your grace,” Kagiso smiled. “Please call me Sirobie, but have any of you seen my art supplies? They confiscated them when I first came in.”

“I have not, but I will keep an eye out for them if you would like,” Kagiso smiled. “If you don’t mind,” Sirobie smiled. “I left some paper and pencils on the balcony. Okoye mentioned that you liked to draw.” Eshe gestured out onto the balcony. 

“Okoye?” Sirobie frowned. “The woman who escorted you in to the palace,” noticing the fear that drained into Sirobie’s eyes, Eshe gently squeezed her hand. “She is much nicer than she seems, you just look like someone who is perpetually on the general’s bad side.”

“That’s comforting,”Sirobie muttered. 

 “I will be back tonight to help you prepare for bed.”Eshe curtsied once more before all of the women gathered their things and walked out of the room. 

Sirobie continued out to the balcony. She grabbed the sketchbook and began to sketch the Wakandan countryside. The large panther mountain catching her attention. She converted the mountain side it was carved in, to a woman. Her hand sat upon the panthers head. Seemingly calming the alert panther, flowers and trees wove a beautiful mountain dress for her strong posture. Pausing just before she got to the face, Sirobie sighed. A knock broke her focus. She walked into the room and placed the sketchbook on her bed before opening the door. 

The bald headed warrior from her first memories of the palace  stood in front of her door. “Ms. Sirobie, Queen mother requested that I escort you to her chambers for lessons.” Okoye informed Sirobie. “Of course,” the woman walked out into the hall, shutting the door behind her. The two walked in silence until Sirobie spoke up. “General Okoye?” she started, the question floating in the air. “Thank you for the sketch pad, that was very sweet of you.”

A pregnant silence followed, the women both aware of each others presence, neither wanting to pop the bubble once more. “I hope you take it as an apology. I am sorry for the way I treated you when we first met. But, Kamyra and I have never got along. So when she ran away, that was the ‘last straw’ as you American’s say. I hope you can understand.”

“I will try,” Sirobie smiled. “That is more than I deserve,” Okoyes bowed her head in thanks. “May I ask a question?”Sirobie broke the silence this time. “Anything,” Okoye replied. 

“Why does no one seem to like Kamyra?” The college girl looked to the woman on her right. “Besides her being just a horrible person to be around, she is using T’Challa. I am not quite sure of the particulars, but there is some old obscure promise that King T’Chaka swore T’Challa to keep. It requires him for some reason, as he insists, to marry Kamyra. Since she knows, that she will be queen no matter what, she has never hidden her disdain for our country, and everything that will be required of her as our Queen.” 

“But, she does know that as queen she will have to abide by atleast some of the rules right?” Sirobie frowns. “She has T’Challa wrapped around her little finger. The man is too scared to even confront her about it,” Okoye frowns. 

“Shouldn’t a queen love her country though?” 

“Spoken like a true queen,” Okoye smiled. “No,” Sirobie immediately dismissed with a small smile, “I am simply an imposter. Besides, the king hates me.” 

Okoye stops in front of a door, “He doesn’t hate you, trust me. The Queen is waiting for you.” 

Sirobie smiled, “Thank you Okoye,” Sirobie smiled.

taglist: @kumkaniudaku @iliketowrite1996 @chaneajoyyy @royallyprincesslilly @almostpurelysmut @blackbypurpose @hutchj @tchoking @sisterwifeudaku @wikiwakanda @90sinspiredgirl @thedelightfulone @autumn242 @purple-apricots @queertrex @kaciidubs @halfrican-heat @skysynclair19 @dramaqueenamby @leahnicole1219 @kreolemami @mzbritt @derangedcupcake @lalapalooza718 @ororowrites @sarcastic-sunshines @sarahboseman @waitingonafriend @fatassbitch

#tchalla #tchalla x reader #tchalla black panther #tchalla imagine #tchalla fanfiction #dressupfic #tchalla x oc #tchalla x you #tchalla x black! reader #apbpfics

[writing-prompts-for-friends]

Notes on Robert McKee’s “Story” 18: The Three Levels of Conflict

We all know that any and every story must have a conflict. A guy wants to get The Girl, but their families oppose their union, for example. 

But do you know all of the types of conflict? I didn’t until I read this section. Also, I just gave the major conflict of Romeo and Juliet, but there is more than just the major conflict. A good story has a minor conflict at every turn, as McKee explains in this next section.

The Similarities and Differences of Real Life and Story

When we decide to start writing, the first thing we ask ourselves is, “What will my character do?”

“All characters, in pursuit of any desire, at any moment in story, will always take the minimum, conservative action from his point of view. All human beings always do. Humanity is fundamentally conservative, as indeed is all of nature. No organism ever expends more energy than necessary, risks anything it doesn’t have to, or takes any action unless it must. Why should it?”

I read this section was thinking to myself, “Well Mr. McKee has clearly never worked for a corporation before, because my job just loves making tasks as convoluted and silly as possible.”

But he foresaw this doubt within us and continues:

“In life we often see people, even animals, acting with extreme behavior that seems unnecessary, if not stupid. But this is our objective view of the situation. Subjectively, from within the experience of the creature, this apparently intemperate action was minimal, conservative, and necessary. What’s thought ‘conservative,’ after all, is always relative to point of view.”

Do you remember that scene in the first Avengers film where Captain America and Tony Stark first meet, and Steve asks him, “Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?” And Tony answers, “Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist?” 

Well, right after that Steve says, “You’re not the guy the make the sacrifice play, to down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you.”

To which Tony replies, “I think I would just cut the wire.”

Here we can see how different characters come to choose different “conservative” actions. 

Of course, this is done in real life all the time as well. You need to call your dentist and make an appointment, but you’ve forgotten their phone number. So you call your mom and ask her to make the appointment for you instead. Perhaps your friend if in the same situation would just Google the number of the office, call and make the appointment themselves. Maybe your grandmother, who doesn’t trust those cell phones, drives to the dentist office and makes an appointment in person. 

About 99% of the time, we make the right decision and take the most “conservative” action. Your mom gives a sigh but makes the appointment and texts the date and time to you. Your friend calls the dentist and gets their appointment booked. Your grandmother went in, and as luck would have it, there was an opening and she was seen by the dentist right then and there. 

Minimal effort expended, and our desires are fulfilled. 

McKee says: 

“This is the great mass of experience, hour by hour, in life. BUT NEVER, EVER IN A STORY.

In story, we concentrate on that moment, and only that moment, in which a character takes an action expecting a useful reaction from his world, but instead the effect of his action is to provoke forces of antagonism. The world of the character reacts differently than expected, more powerfully than expected, or both.” 

You call your mother and say, “Hey, sorry to bug you, but could you make me an appointment with the dentist please?” and she shouts, “How did you get this number? Don’t you ever call me again!” and hangs the phone up. Now there’s something interesting.

The World of a Character

This entire chapter of McKee’s book is trying to identify the substance of a story from the perspective of a writer who has placed himself at the very center of the character he is creating. 

“The ‘center’ of a human being, that irreducible particularity of the innermost self, is the awareness you carry with you twenty-four hours a day that watches you do everything you do, that chides you when you get things wrong, or compliments you on those rare occasions when you get things right. It’s that deep observer that comes to you when you’re going through the most agonizing experience of your life, collapsed on the floor, crying your heart out... that little voice that says, ‘Your mascara is running.’ This inner eye is you: your identity, your ego, the conscious focus of your being. Everything outside this subjective core is the objective world of a character.”

That’s a rather pessimistic self haha. I hope not everybody thinks that negatively about themselves and that your inner voice is a bit more loving to you, because you deserve it. ♡

The Three Levels of Conflict

Bam. Here they are. 

McKee goes on to explain that a character’s world can be imagined as a series of concentric circles surrounding a core of raw identity or awareness, circles that mark the levels of conflict in a character’s life. The inner circle or level is his own self and conflicts arising from the elements of his nature: mind, body, emotion.

For example, when a character takes an action, perhaps his thoughts aren’t as quick/correct as he wishes. Maybe his body doesn’t move quick enough and he fails to dodge the attack. The closest level of antagonism in the world of a character is his own being: feeling and emotions, mind and body, all or any of which may or may not react from one moment to the next in the way he expects.

The second circle is for personal relationships, be they with friends, lovers, or family. 

The third circle marks the level of extra-personal conflict -- all the sources of antagonism outside the personal: conflict with social institutions and the character, like government/citizen, boss/worker, man/nature, etc.   

When your character attempts to seek their desire, a conflict of some form will rise up and cause an unexpected outcome. 

Until I read this section and next one (to be covered in my next post), I knew that any story needed a main conflict, but I never gave much thought to all the scenes leading up to the big conflict and its resolution. But now I can see that each action my character takes towards the main conflict needs to be met with smaller conflicts. 

Because, in the words of Coraline in Neil Gaiman’s book Coraline, “What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted? Just like that, and it didn’t mean anything. What then?”

Source: McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. York: Methuen, 1998. Print

#creative writing #writing inspiration #writing inspo #writeblr #creative writing methodology #creative writing theory #writer #author #write #writing #robert mckee #writing novels #writing fiction #writing fantasy #plotting #story plotting #novel plotting #conflict #writing prompts for friends notes on story

[rosedavid]

andi bonds with tj over motorbikes and she then helps him get together with cyrus

This is so long overdue! I’m so sorry!

Send me prompts 

Outside, the air is hotand dry. Heat wafts across the landscape, causing a visible ripple effect. Inthe driver’s seat, Andi squints as she makes her way along the dirt road, handsclutching at the steering wheel. Beside her, Buffy is resting her feet on topof the dash, basking in the cool air blowing from the vents. Meanwhile, in theback, Cyrus is spread out horizontally, one arm hanging over the edge of theseats as he presses cheek into the cool leather.  

“Are we almost there?”Cyrus groans. “We’ve been driving for forever!”

“It’s only been likethirty minutes,” Buffy reminds him.

“Exactly!”

Andi rolls her eyes ather friends’ bickering. “Don’t worry, Cyrus, we’ll be there soon.”

“You said that 30 minutesago!”

Earlier that afternoon,Andi excitedly texted the group chat about a surprise she had for them. Cyrus,of course, expected something predictable such as lunch at the Spoon or a dayat the museum; however, Andi obviously had another idea in mind. She assuredthem it would be fun, but Cyrus had yet to experience it.

“Trust me, it will beworth it,” Andi assures him with a smirk.

True to Andi’s word, theyarrive only a few minutes later. She parks her truck close to a prodigiousboulder. When they all hop out, everyone immediately feels the intense, overwhelmingheat. The sun sits at its peak in the sky as it scorches the earth. Cyrusstarts uselessly fanning himself.

“This is worse than thecar! I’m dying from the heat,” Cyrus whines. “Is this the surprise? Sufferingin the middle of the desert during the hottest part of summer?”

“No! Of course not,” Andisighs, walking to the bed of her truck. Buffy and Cyrus share a confused glancebefore following behind her.

They watch as Andi opensthe back of the truck and unlatches her tarp in the back. Cyrus peers overcuriously, watching as she pulls the tarp off with a flourish. It’s revealed tobe Andi’s bike and gear, which Cyrus honestly almost forgot about. Despite thebig reveal, he’s still confused as to what exactly they were doing, as Andiknew that Cyrus would never get on that deathtrap, and Buffy wasn’t interestedin bike riding either.

“So, I’ve been practicingriding a lot more recently,” Andi begins, “and I came across this group here intown that also does motocross for fun! I decided to join, and now, once everyother week, we get together and practice! Sometimes, they even do races, andthis is my first one I’m participating in so I thought you both could comewatch!”

Cyrus is immediatelyrelieved that he doesn’t have to ride Andi’s bike. After all, the only type ofbike he can handle is foot pedals.

Buffy smiles, “That’sgreat! I’m glad you found another hobby. We’d love to see you race.”

“Of course,” Cyrusagrees, “Anything to support you, even if it feels like I’m slowly melting outhere. So, where is everyone else?”

Andi heaves her bike andgear out of her truck, then motions for them to follow her. They walk behindthe group of boulders where numerous other cars are parked and a bunch of peoplesit on their bikes, all decked out in helmets and gear. A few others sitagainst the largest boulder, hiding out in the shade to watch the action.

“Hey, Mack! Took you longenough. You ready to lose?” A male voice taunts from beneath a helmet.

“As if,” She grins as shegets ready to go. First, though, she turns back to Cyrus and Buffy. “You twocan go sit with the others and cheer me on.”

Cyrus eagerly hurries tothe slight amount of shade provided by the rock, Buffy following. He feelsextremely out of place as he looks around at all the bikers. After all, Buffyis at least a sporty person, but Cyrus doesn’t have an athletic bone in hisbody. He’s thankful that Buffy at least is there to keep him company.

As more bikes start,Cyrus continues to flinch at the loud noises, trying his best not to cover his ears.He watches as Andi lines her bike up to the other four bikers. She looks smallcompared to all the others, but Cyrus knows better than anyone to neverunderestimate Andi Mack.

Someone raises a flaghigh into the air before quickly bringing it down, officially starting therace. Cyrus watches with rapt attention as Andi and the others kick off andstart biking around the homemade racetrack. They soon enter the first turn, kickingup dust with their tires. For a few seconds, Cyrus can’t see anything, and heworries that Andi may have crashed. Then, he sees her fly out of the dust inthe front of the pack, neck in neck with the biker she was talking to earlier.

Cheers fly out of the crowd,despite it only being a few people, and Cyrus can’t help but join in to cheeron his friend. Buffy rolls her eyes at him but soon finds herself caught up inthe moment as well. The race is so intense that it makes Cyrus’s heart poundand hands shake. The intensity of the heat doesn’t help, either. His eyes stingfrom the dryness and dirt being kicked up. Still, he finds himself having morefun than he thought he would.

“She’s so good!” Cyruspractically shouts over the noise of the bikes.

Buffy nods, “I know,right?!”

Although the other bikersare putting up a valiant effort, Andi and the other boy are clearly the starsof the race. The boy edges closer to Andi, barely taking over the lead as theygo around another corner. Cyrus can’t even imagine being out there. He’d be waytoo overwhelmed. In fact, he’s overwhelmed just watching them.

“Go Andi!” He shouts intandem with Buffy.

The bikers approach thefinal corner. The boy still has the lead over Andi. As they head into the turn,though, Andi maneuvers her bike tightly around the corner right beside him, soclose that Cyrus thinks they might crash into each other. Thankfully neither ofthem crash, and Andi straightens back out only to have a substantial lead. It’sthe final straightaway, and she urges her bike faster. The boy is close behindher, but not close enough. Andi finishes first. Cyrus and Buffy cheer and clap wildlyfor her.

She rides up to them andparks her bike before removing her helmet, a wide smiling gracing her face.They all high five each other and laugh together at Andi’s helmet hair.

“I can’t believe you hidthis from us for so long,” Buffy mentions, “You were amazing out there!”

Andi’s face is red, bothfrom the heat and the compliment. “Thanks, but I’m really not that good. And I’m sorry I hid it from you both, I was justnervous.”

“You are that good.” Cyrus replies, “And it’s okay, we’re just glad wegot to cheer you in your first race!”

They pull each other intoa group hug, ignoring for a moment how hot and sweaty they all are. The soundof another bike breaks them apart. It’s Andi’s main competitor who rides up tothem. She smiles when she sees him, smacking his shoulder lightly as he getsoff his bike.

“Told you I’d win,” Shelaughs.

He groans, “Yeah, yeah, beginner’sluck. I’ll beat you next time, for sure Mack.”

The boy reaches to takeoff his helmet, and Cyrus gasps quietly when he does. The boy underneath thehelmet is undeniably gorgeous. Much like Andi, his hair sticks up everywhere.It’s blonde and soft looking and Cyrus just wants to run his hands through it. Hisgrin is infectious, and it makes Cyrus’s knees feel weak and throat close. Theboy’s green eyes shine in the sunlight, and Cyrus can just barely make out afew freckles dotting his nose.

“Aren’t you going tointroduce me?” he says with a smirk, breaking the moment of silence. Cyruswants to melt into his shoes.

Andi rolls her eyes. “Thisis TJ. He’s kind of okay when he’s not being a jerk. TJ, this is Buffy and Cyrus.”

Cyrus notices her lingeringon his name, but quickly moves on as he and TJ make eye contact. He tries notto do anything too embarrassing under TJ’s gaze. He ends up tapping his fingersagainst his thigh and biting his lip nervously. TJ smiles at him.

“Don’t listen to her,” Hesays, gaze still focused mainly on Cyrus. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Another voice calls out somethingthat Cyrus doesn’t really hear, and he sees Andi wave a hand before dragging aconfused Buffy with her down to the other biker. Cyrus immediately feelsawkward, lacing his hands together and dragging his eyes down to his feet.

“So, Cyrus,” TJ begins, “Everridden a bike before?”

“I’ve ridden a bicycle numeroustimes, but I can hardly handle that let alone one of these bikes,” He rambles,unable to stop himself from spewing out words.

“I’m sure you could do it.”

Cyrus blushes, shakinghis head. “No way. I don’t have an athletic bone in my body! I almost failed P.E.”

TJ giggles, and it makesCyrus swoon. He risks a glance up at the biker, who is smiling fondly at him. “You’readorable.”

Cyrus tries to form acoherent sentence in response. “I—you, what?”

“Do you want to hang outsometime?”

“You’d want to hang outwith me?” Cyrus asks in disbelief.

“Yeah, why not?”

“Because I’m me and you’re…you,”He trails off, motioning between the two of them. “I’m not interesting. I don’tlike normal stuff that boys should enjoy like sports. Instead I like dinosaursand musicals and screenwriting.”

TJ steps closer. “Hey,you don’t have to be interested in sports. I think that stuff all sounds cool.”

Cyrus finds himselfinching forward slightly. “Really?”

“Yeah,” TJ breathes out quietly.Then, he pulls a phone out of his pocket and hands it to Cyrus, who staresblankly for bit. No one has ever really wanted Cyrus’s number let alone askedfor it so directly. His fingers fumble over the letters as he types in his nameand number before gently handing it back. As he does this, his fingers justbarely brush TJ’s own, sending shivers throughout Cyrus’s body.

TJ types out a quickmessage on his phone, smiling as Cyrus’s own phone goes off. Cyrus opens histexts.

(***)-***-****: It’s TJ (:(: (:

Cyrus sputters at theexcess amount of smiley faces. He looks up at TJ with a smile before texting back,feeling a sudden boost of confidence

Cyrus: Three smileyfaces? You sure know how to make a guy feel special.

TJ bursts out laughing. “Ihave to go, but text me later?”

Too flustered to speak,he nods.

He likes motocross a lot more than he thought he would. 

#tyrus fanfic #tyrus #andi mack #cyrus goodman #tj kippen #fanfiction

[hilarymp]

PET SEMATARY (2019) REVIEW

SPOILER WARNING! This review contains spoilers for Pet Sematary (2019), Pet Sematary (1989) and the novel.

    I’ll admit straight out of the gate that I went into Pet Sematary (2019) with a negative attitude. For whatever reason (one that I am still struggling to comprehend) the studio decided not only to make a rather large divergence from the source material’s plot, but to also spoil this “twist” in the trailer and promotional material. That alone was enough to convince me that this remake/reboot/reimagining/whatever the fuck you want to call it probably wasn’t going to win me over. So let’s discuss that first and foremost.

    I am not at all opposed to film adaptations making changes. Case in point, 2017’s new IT. IT and it’s miniseries predecessor are among some of my favorite horror films of all time, despite the fact that they were not 100% faithful to the novel, especially the more recent installment. For me changes are totally fine as long as they a.) maintain the spirit, themes, and tone of the original story and b.) make the film more frightening.

    With those rules in mind the change prominently displayed in the trailer for 2019’s Pet Sematary, the fact the Creed’s eldest child Ellie is the one who is killed and brought back from the dead instead of toddler Gage, already failed at rule b. Don’t get me wrong, any reanimated evil corpse is going to be scary, but why on earth would you deny us an evil murderous baby just to give us yet another creepy little girl. The ‘creepy little girl’ trope in horror is so tired and overused it makes my head hurt. The Ring, Orphan, The Exorcist, Silent Hill, The Shining, Alice Sweet Alice, The Bad Seed, Let the Right One In, Hereditary, Sinister, I could go on and on and on. The use of the trope isn’t inherently terrible, but why would you go out of your way to use it when something less used and much scarier (a straight up homicidal TODDLER) is an option? The simplest and most likely reason, in my opinion, was for convenience. Is directing a 2 year old more difficult to direct than an 11 year old? Yes, of course, obviously. But it’s definitely possible, as Mary Lambert proved while directing Miko Hughes as Gage in 1989. (Honestly, to this day I can not believe the performance she got out of that little boy.) So to me the change is not only a disservice to the film, but also an indication that the filmmakers were unabashedly lazy.

    So now that you know why I had set myself up for disappointment to begin with, let’s break down what the film succeeded at and how it failed.

    Whatever problems I have with the film, at least I can say that I loved the cast. John Lithgow was extremely endearing and likable. His performance as Jud was a refreshingly grounded and heartfelt departure from Fred Gwynne’s high camp in ‘89. Jason Clarke was as engrossing as ever. I always enjoy Clarke’s performances, and he often brings extra depth to characters that would have otherwise fallen flat (Dr. Price in ‘Winchester’ being a prime example). And Jete Laurance was nothing short of incredible. You would never expect that this little girl could transform into something to sinister so effortlessly. Her performance in the first half of the film is filled with such sweet sincerity, that her turn into undead Ellie is all the more frightening. Not as frightening as being terrorized by a little ankle biting toddler, mind you, but enjoyable nonetheless. ESPECIALLY compared to Ellie in the 89 film. Do you remember her? My God, she was so annoying. 

    Speaking of annoying, Amy Seimetz as Rachel was the only weak link in the cast. Instead of being deeply troubled and complex as Stephen King wrote her, Seimetz’s Rachel is so one dimensional that by the third or fourth time we see her crying, I wasn’t just unmoved, I was borderline irritated. ‘The weepy mother’ role in horror films are never especially fulfilling, but in this instance Rachel was meant to be much more than that. And the cheapening of the Zelda subplot doesn’t help matters either. 

    To me Zelda, Rachel’s late sister who suffered from spinal meningitis, was hands down the scariest part of the book and original film, so I was extra disappointed here. I’m fully aware that the character of Zelda is extremely problematic and portraying her as a monster is ableist as fuck. (Let’s be real, 99% of all Stephen King’s works are problematic but if we pull on that thread we’ll be here all day.) But the in the new film she is completely under utilized. Her appearances have been shrunk down to generic Conjuring-like jumpscares. Like most horror movies these days, the film relies on quick cuts, loud bangs, and obnoxious music cues to startle us instead of showing us anything particularly alarming. There is one prolonged sequence of incredible suspense, as Louis slowly walks through his basement in search of his daughters reanimated corpse, that filled me with so much dread that I was finally genuinely scared. Alas, *sad trombone*, it was undercut with a cheap jumpscare just like all the rest.

    On top of uninspired jumpscares, the filmmaking as a whole was ‘meh’ at best, especially the production design. The houses nearly hidden among the picturesque dense woods are definitely more visually interesting than the ones presented to us in ‘89. It also makes the danger of the nearby highway much more palpable, with the road being both closer to the house and more believably prone to accidents, with the thick foliage hindering the drivers’ ability to see. And the ‘pet sematary’ itself is serviceable enough, not much different from what we’ve seen before. But once we are taken beyond the dead fall to the cursed burial ground, the scope of the film shrinks drastically, making everything feel cramped and cheap like a paper mache Haunted house, even with cheap smoke machine effects to match.

    There are a lot of loose ends in the film as well, though it’s hard to tell if they were caused by the script or the editing. For instance, when Jud is explaining the burial ground to Louis, he mentions the wendigo that is suspected to be the source of the land’s power. But… that’s all he says about it. He doesn’t explain what a Wendigo is, what it does, or why it does it. If you’ve never read the book, or have never heard of a wendigo before, the word means nothing. Why bring up the Wendigo at all if you’re not even going to tie it into the lore properly. They could just have easily just said ‘cursed Indian burial ground’ (it in and of itself a tired trope, but still) and we would have just went with it. Another example is when undead Ellie is terrorizing Jud, she turns herself into Jud’s dead wife, and mentions that says something along the lines of “Your wife is “n hell for what you did to her before she died”. What? What the hell did he do? Why the fuck would you even put that out there with zero follow up?!

    Oh and let’s talk about Pascow. His role in the film is minimized so much, they might as well have left him out entirely. If I’m remembering correctly, late in the novel Pascow appears to Rachel urging her to come home. In the first film he appears to Rachel instead, who tells Rachel they need to come home. But in this film he appears to Gage. A toddler. Who can barely speak. Now as disturbing of a notion it is to have a very small child being haunted by such a gruesome image (and you all know how much I love disturbing shit), it’s also kind of pointless and dumb. If Pascow wanted to get Rachel to come home, why would he appear to Gage who, again, can’t talk, instead of just appearing to Rachel? One could argue that Gage’s crying and saying the name Pascow freaks Rachel out so much that it makes her want to go back, but you could just as easily say she left to get away from her memories of Zelda in her parents house, or the fact that Louis wouldn’t answer his goddamn phone

    We’re also missing out on some crucial motivations to explain Louis’ terrible decision making. No scene of Louis and the grandfather fighting at the funeral, no Louis being blamed for his child’s death, no knocking over of the casket. I might be biased since, for me, that sequence is one of the most upsetting moments of the 89 film. But on top of a missed opportunity to shock, it also takes away the debilitating guilt that motivates Louis to resurrect his child, despite knowing it won’t go well. The guilt is still vaguely implicit, but sometimes horror films need to explicitly illustrate cause and effect, if for no other reason than to keep the audience from screaming “Why the fuck would you do that!?” at the screen for 2 hours.

    Speaking of motivations, what are Ellie’s? What even is Ellie for that matter? The film can’t seem to make up its mind. Undead Ellie has Ellie’s memories, remembers how she died, and holds grudges against her parents for both her death and her resurrection. So there must be some part of the real Ellie in there, right? But when Rachel says “You’re not my daughter” undead Ellie agrees with her! So if it’s not really Ellie why does she keep trying to guilt and punish her parents? If she’s just an evil demon or spirit possessing Ellie’s corpse, you’d think it’d be glad that Louis was stupid enough to bury her up there. Free meat suit, hurray! The spirit clearly wants more bodies buried up there, seeing as it takes out the entire family just to bring them back like she was. Surely she just wanted to kill them all for funsies, right? Who the fuck knows. The screenwriter sure doesn’t appear to.

    Another super obnoxious thing about this film is it’s cheap fake-outs. It’s one thing to change iconic moments from the first adaptation, but constantly calling attention to it is another. Like the ominous close ups of Jud’s heel and him kicking the bed before Ellie gets him on the stairs. Yeah we get it. ‘The old movie had Gage under the bed, but watch out, we’re mixing stuff up in this one!’ Yup. Got it. Thanks for the reminder. Or the whole ‘Gage almost being hit by the truck’ fake out before Ellie is actually hit. This one is especially stupid since you already fucking showed us in the trailer that Gage isn’t going to die. Why even try to fake us out like that when we already know you’ve changed that too? You have successfully irritated and underwhelmed me, movie, no reason to draw more attention to it.

Here’s a quick list of some other petty little things that bugged me. These aren’t even necessarily the movie’s fault, some just come from the book itself.

If Rachel is so traumatized and adverse to talking about death, why the fuck did she marry an ER doctor?

You expect me to believe that Louis, pragmatic Louis who doesn’t even believe in an afterlife, would just follow Jud over the deadfall, through the woods, across a swamp and up a bunch of mysterious stone stairs, with zero explanation? No questions asked? I’d be asking “What the fuck are we doing?” about every couple of yards.

Why in god’s name would Rachel’s parents not only still live in the house where their daughter suffered and died, but also KEEP THE DUMB WAITER SHE DIED IN?

Why don’t movies ever address the fact that when you’re buried your eyes and lips are sewn or glued shut beforehand? And the scene where Louis is bathing Ellie and he sees the staples in her head and is all freaked out - wouldn’t she have huge fucking staples all across her chest and down her abdomen from the funeral home too??

    Despite my complaints, Pet Sematary isn’t completely devoid of entertainment value, not by a long shot. It’s not bad, it just could have been so so much better. Pet Sematary is riddled with missed opportunities,  and if you‘re an overly analytical jaded horror fan with a devotion to Stephen King like I am, they are much more obvious. I’m not mad, Pet Sematary, I’m just disappointed. To quote Tyra Banks, we were rooting for you, we were all rooting for you! You had so much potential, you just dropped the ball. Just like losing a loved one, there’s a mourning period that must be observed. Time to cope with the loss of what could have been. But rest assured, by the time you come out on blu-ray, I’ll be ready to try again.

#Pet Sematary #pet semetary 2019 #pet semetary spoilers #movie review #stephen king #horror #horror films

[the-desolated-quill]

And The Winner Is... - Inside No. 9 blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

After the spine chilling depravity of the previous episode, And The Winner Is... offers a welcome respite. A jury of actors and filmmakers deciding who should win the Best Actress Award. Nice and simple. By that I mean the episode of course. The decision itself is anything but nice and simple. And The Winner Is... dives headfirst into the internal politics of the television industry and no one comes out looking good.

On a first viewing, this episode seems rather tame. Especially compared to the previous episode. There’s nothing truly dark or sinister going on here. The characters aren’t harbouring any disturbing secrets. This is a fairly straight forward, comedic episode. But the episode does serve another purpose. Mainly to serve as a scathing critique of how the industry actually works.

I know many fans are disappointed that Inside No. 9 hasn’t received the same amount of recognition as Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror. But in some ways, And The Winner Is... provides a counter argument as to why award recognition is not necessary for a show like this. Film and television awards should be a great honour, but the truth is they’re not because of a lot of behind the scenes antics. It’s this that’s spelt out throughout the course of this episode. Steve Pemberton’s character Giles is quick to remind everyone that that they are to judge the nominees based solely on their performance, but at no point do the jury ever truly do so. One nominee is rejected simply because she won the award several times before. Another is rejected because she had sexual relations with one of the jurors. The acting ability of the performers very rarely comes up and this is sadly true to life. Awards have more to do with politics than they do with genuine talent. A few years ago, for example, there was a ton of controversy surrounding the film 12 Years A Slave winning an Academy Award for Best Picture when it was revealed two of the voters never actually saw the film. So they didn’t pick 12 Years A Slave because they thought it was a genuinely good film. They just thought that’s the kind of film people would want to see win.

It’s through the episode’s stellar characterisation and the cast’s performances that the flaws of the industry become apparent. Zoe Wanamaker stole my heart the show for me. She plays the domineering diva so well and got loads of laughs. Her character ostensibly is the 12 Years A Slave voter. She hasn’t seen any of the candidates’ performances and is merely going on what she believes people would want to see. There’s also Rupert, played by Kenneth Cranham, who is there supposedly to bring his acting experience to the jury, but in reality provides very little insight or help. Turns out he has a conflict of interest, having had sexual relations with one of the nominees, and he doesn’t care for the other nominees, using petty excuses to disguise bigoted views on race and class. Meanwhile screenwriter Clive, played by Reece Shearsmith, doesn’t give too shits about any of the nominees. He just wants to suck up to fellow juror Gordon in the hopes that he’ll direct his script. (This got quite a few belly laughs from me. No one does crawling arse-kissing quite like Shearsmith).

Out of all of them, Noel Clarke’s character Gordon seems to be the only one who seems to somewhat care about what he’s doing. He clearly has great respect for his craft and offers insightful comments for each of the nominees. However it soon becomes apparent that’s not why he was invited. He’s merely there to fulfil a cynical diversity quota. They deny it of course, but Rupert’s comments do have a slight ring of truth to them. Movies and TV shows will often try to include at least one POC not because the producers genuinely want to encourage diversity and inclusivity, but rather to appeal to an increasingly liberal market, to the point where the talent of the individual in question doesn’t even factor into it. So long as they’re not white, it’s considered a win. Another box ticked. (Quick side note, please don’t misinterpret what I’m saying. Obviously diversity in media is extremely important and needs to be encouraged, but if you’re disingenuous about it, for example like JK Rowling with regards to Professor Dumbledore and LGBT representation, merely using diversity as a means to feather your own nest and win more brownie points for yourself, people will notice).

By far the most damning criticism of the industry comes in the form of Fenella Woolgar’s character June. A TV critic and journalist. I find her character most interesting of all for a number of reasons. She enjoys the perks of the creative industry without actually contributing anything to it. But the thing is she could contribute something to the industry if she tried. The purpose of critique isn’t just to recommend films and TV shows to the audience, but to also help inform creators about their own work. Offer helpful advice that a filmmaker or producer can take on board and keep in mind for their next project. Or at least that should be the purpose of constructive criticism, but nowadays that’s rarely the case. Instead critics have essentially become another arm in the industry’s PR department. There’s less interest in offering helpful feedback and more interest in providing an entertaining think-piece for the reader in order to generate buzz about the film or show in question. June is the very epitome of that. Just take a look at the conversation she has with Jackie (played by Phoebe Sparrow). Both wrote reviews about The Great British Bake Off, but whereas Jackie, a member of the public (or so we initially think), offers genuine opinions and feedback, June takes the opportunity to use her own review in order to boast her own wit, writing it in the style of a recipe. And as the episode goes along, the cracks in her character begin to show. She gets to enjoy the privileges of the industry and meet all these famous people, but those same people couldn’t give two shits about her. She has a thankless job. When she writes negative reviews, the other characters belittle her and when she writes positive reviews, they don’t give her the time of day because why should they? She made them look good. She validated their own egos. That’s all they want from her.

Jackie is the only person whose opinions seem genuine. She’s a member of the public. She has no ulterior motive. Yes the reasons behind her opinions may be thin, but they’re a darn sight more honest than the rest of the jury’s. And yet the jury can’t help but patronise her at every opportunity. Even Giles, who seems like a nice and well meaning person, doesn’t seem to take her seriously. When she leaves in tears near the end, my heart genuinely broke. At the end of the day, the most important people in this industry are the viewing public and they have forgotten that.

And then there’s the final twist. Turns out Jackie wasn’t a member of the public at all, but one of the nominees trying to influence the vote. This I didn’t see coming and I applaud both Phoebe Sparrow and the makeup department for doing such a good job disguising it. The episode is even ballsy enough to show a closeup of a photo of the nominee and I legitimately didn’t connect the dots until right at the end. I know some other people predicted the twist, and well done if you did spot it, but honest to God I was completely fooled. I legitimately saw no similarities between Jackie and the nominee.

In short, And The Winner Is... is a sharply written and well executed satire that doesn’t hold back on its criticism of the industry and I enjoyed it immensely.

#and the winner is... #inside no 9 #steve pemberton #reece shearsmith #bbc #review #spoilers

[bandoms-are-fandoms]

Ghostwriter

Prologue

I’m not quite sure how I ended up in this kind of situation; when this all started, I didn’t think we would commit a crime. They came to me in need of help, but I never expected a huge scandal to break because of helping a boy band. With all seven boys on either side of me, I can’t even comprehend the group of people flashing pictures at me. The continuous clicking and the shouting of the boy's names, all I can think about is how all this started. I look to my right where this perfect boy - no, I guess he’s not a boy anymore, he’s a man - this perfect man sits next to me.

He gives me a quick side glance and a reassuring smile, trying to tell me that everything was going to be alright. Except, the problem was, no matter how reassuring that smile is, his eyes are just as scared as my heart is.

“Why did you lie to your fans?” A reporter calls out and suddenly I was back in reality. That’s right, now isn’t the time to hide from the people, we called this press conference for a reason, all we want to do is maintain some sort of control over this situation.

Namjoon leans forward and starts talking into the microphone, “We didn’t lie, we just needed a little bit more help when it comes to writing some of our songs.”

“Then why hide your ghostwriter?”

“Does she have more meaning than just that of a ghostwriter?”

“Why didn’t you just come out and say something about her?”

Reporter after reporter come forward to ask us questions and truthfully, I have no answer. Why did we lie? It’s not like this is the first time someone had another person write their music for them. It’s not that I have more meaning to the boys, I’m just here as a work colleague, nothing more, nothing less. Why didn’t we say anything? I’m a nobody, a common girl. How would people react if a nameless writer started spewing about writing the lyrics for the global superstar boy band, Bangtan Boys?

“One question at a time!” Namjoon tries to calm down the audience. Each member trying to get in edgewise.

“Please don’t think ill of Sakka,” Hoseok tries to defend me. All I’ve done is cause them trouble.

“Then where does the lie start? Where does it begin?” This reporter’s words struck a chord with me. A lie…? I guess we really are being blamed as liars. Called frauds for hiding the fact that none of the boys could write a thing.

“This isn’t a lie and you shouldn’t call it that without all the facts!” Jimin interjects and all the boys at once start raising their voices to try and defend me. I look to Jungkook once more and give him a vague smile. Confused, he gently takes my hand under the table, giving it a squeeze. I shouldn’t let them slander their name anymore just because I made the mistake of agreeing to be their ghostwriter. Taking a deep breath, I leaned forward into the microphone.

“I have something to say,” I murmur, my voice is small, not filled with its usual confidence. How did I let it get this bad? The camera flashes suddenly turn to me and each boy stares at me in confusion. Jungkook tries to tighten his hold on my hand, whispering furiously to me.

“We told you not to speak!” He covers my microphone. Determined, I reached over to grab his microphone standing up.

“My name is Sakka Tsukama,” I began, looking out to the crowd, “I’m an aspiring screenwriter and after a series of events, I somehow became the ghostwriter for BTS,” Taking a deep breath, I move from the stage onto the floor, “If I could steal some of your time, I’d like to explain what has transpired over the course of this year. If I can, I’d like to tell you of how I became the ghostwriter for BTS and how this is not at all their fault…” Looking back at the boys, I began to delve into my story, “It all started back in January…”

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Author’s Note:

Hey guys! Hoped you liked the prologue to my fanfiction! Criticism is welcome if you have any thoughts! Be as thorough as you like! I do not own BTS, but I own this plot and Sakka! Please check out my blog (even though it’s new and nothing is there) This also roughly like the Voltage game Scandal in the Spotlight and any themes that are like those plots belong to Voltage, but I don't believe my ideas follow SITS all that much. If it does, please let me know! I'm a small child with anxiety! TT_TT

Here is the link to chapter 1:

#bts #bts imagines #bts reactions #bts scenarios #bts jungkook #bts v #bts jimin #bts suga #bts jhope #bts rm #bts jin #jungkook #jungkookie #bangtan imagines #bangtan #bangtan scenarios #bangtan fanfiction #bangtan fanfic #jungkook fanfiction #jungkook fanfic

[kaylinwrites]

Deals With the Devil (Short Story)

So first, some context. My English class read The Devil and Tom Walker back in December, and we had an assignment to create our own satirical modern interpretation of the Faust “sell your soul to the devil” story. At first, all of the ideas I came up with were more political than I wanted to get in an 11th grade general English class, and also... kind of angsty. And then I started thinking about how stupid GrimDark media is. And then I started thinking about Gravity Falls and our good friend Alex Hirsh and what if that didn’t go so well. And then I was thinking I might actually have some fun with this assignment, ‘cause it’s not every day you get such a reins-free creative writing assignment, and then I went absolutely buck-wild in the typical ‘I write for fun’ fashion. So, this was the result: 

The Devil That is the Entertainment Industry and John Washer

[January 2018, unedited]

By: someone who did not try at all with the names

No one could deny that John Washer was a dreamer. But not the sort that sat a desk job, only to spend it staring out a window imagining how his life could be different. John was the sort of dreamer that made his dreams come true, moving to New York City and pitching his ideas to anyone who’d listen. 

Ever since he’d taken a screenwriting class in college, John had been perfecting his first and greatest television script. It was John’s pride and joy, and it was perfect just the way it was. 

Upon moving to New York, John hired an agent. She was kind and optimistic, and she loved John’s vision almost as much as he did. Melanie knew her way around the business, and she had contacts that she was sure would take a risk on John’s show. But each one she called declined a meeting. 

Just as John began to get disheartened, a big production company took an interest in his project. 

Melanie and John were excited to have a chance to pitch to such a renowned company. They met with the head of the company, who sat quietly listening as John explained his show. 

“Well, Mr. Washer,” the man said. “I’ll be honest with you here. I don’t think your show will sell. It’s not interesting enough.”

John was disappointed to hear this. 

“But,” the man continued, “if you’re flexible and can work with us, I could open doors for you. Get your show in shape and make you the most popular man on the air.”

“That sounds--” John started eagerly. 

“Wait a minute, John,” Melanie said. “Let’s talk about this for a second.”

“Of course,” the man said.

Melanie pulled John aside. 

“Are you sure you’re thinking this through?” Melanie whispered. “It sounds like he wants to change your show. I mean, this is your vision, John, you’ve been perfecting it for forever.”

“Yes, and I want to get it out there,” John said. “So what if we have to change a few things to make it work?”

“Well...” Melanie started. 

“It’ll be fine,” John said, and turned back to the man sitting patiently at the table. “I would like to accept your offer.”

“Excellent!” the man said. “Just sign here and we can start Monday.”

Monday came quickly and John started to work with a team of writers and directors. They asked a lot of questions, but at the end of the day, John felt confident he was finally moving towards his dream. 

A month of production later, the first episode aired. It was exactly like John imagined it would be, and people were talking about it already. John got his first paycheck, and went out and bought a new apartment. Melanie was very happy for him, and decided she must have been wrong about the company wanting to change everything. 

As production for the first season continued, John noticed the writers making more and more suggestions. It started innocuous enough:

“Maybe it would be better to have this character do that instead.”

“Maybe we should word that differently.”

“Don’t you think we can leave that part out?”

John thought this was all fine and good. Small changes, small sacrifices when he was living the dream. Melanie, who still kept in touch with John even though her job was technically over, started to get a bit skeptical. 

As the months flew by, and season two, then three, were aired, the suggestions got more demanding.

“You know, zombies are really In right now. Put in zombies.”

“People are practically dying for a hetero-normative romantic subplot.”

“We need to kill off a character. Nothing tragic has happened in a while. It’s getting boring, John.”

John thought this was all perfectly fine. His dreams were coming true, after all. Small... small changes. Fine. 

Melanie decided she needed to heave a talk with John. 

She knocked on his office door and let herself in. 

“John? Can we talk?” she said.

John looked happy to see her. “Melanie! I actually need some advice on something. I need your opinion on who should die in the next episode. George has the highest ratings, but if we kill Fred, it’ll make the love triangle so tragic--”

“Hold on,” Melanie said. “Just... listen a second. You never had it in your plan to kill characters. Or have a love triangle. Or zombies, John. Don’t you think this has gotten a little... out of hand?”

“No?” John looked genuinely confused. “It’s just, you know, show business.”

“It’s not your vision, though,” Melanie said, frustrated. “Can’t you see that? This isn’t even your show anymore.”

“Yes it is! John said. “I can’t believe you’re saying such awful things. If you hate me living my dreams so much, you can just leave.”

Melanie glared at him. “Fine. I will. But when’s the last time you checked out what people are saying?”

She walked out, leaving John fuming. She didn’t know what she was talking about. 

John checked the forums that night. It turns out people were complaining about the recent directions the show had been going. A lot of people said they wished it would go back to how it was in the beginning.

They didn’t know what they were talking about either.

A few more weeks went by, and John was in a meeting with the boss to talk about the ending of season five. It was going well, until the man said, “and in season six...”

“Season six?” John said, gobsmacked. “What do you mean? Season five is the last one.”

The man looked at him like he was stupid. 

“Why would we end it?” the man said. “It’s still making money.”

“We end it because it’s over,” John said. “That’s the end of the story. I’ve always intended this to be a story with an ending. This is non-negotiable for me.”

“Is it.”

“Yes,” John said with conviction.

“You’re fired,” the man said. 

“What? You can’t do that!” John said.

“I’ll sue you, too, if you don’t get out of my office right now,” the man said.

John did not want to test that. He left. None of his coworkers seemed particularly sympathetic. He got his last paycheck in the mail the next week. He moved out of his apartment, and got a cheaper one, and a job at Starbucks. There were a lot of Starbucks in New York City. There were a lot of failed screenwriters working at Starbucks in New York City. 

John spent most of his time watching what had become of his show. It got more and more ridiculous as the seasons dragged on. It was almost laughable. John couldn’t find it in him to laugh at it, because all he could think about was how great it could have been. 

Fin.

[Just a quick end note, my English teacher wrote my absolute favorite piece of feedback for this. She was all like, don’t think this is bad because you finished it in study hall and didn’t edit it, and, I quote, “you obviously have no idea of the drivel that gets turned in.” (Dang girl! Roast ‘em!) Then she recommended I take the creative writing class next year, which, of course I was already planning on, but knowing she thought I should take it was just some extra confidence points. God, why are English teachers always so unbelievably cool? This was the same teacher that brought in her lapdog one day with the reason “Dogs make people happy and I think that’s great.” Absolute legend.]

#short story #The Devil and Tom Walker #Faust #satire #writing