#yes! yes it is! because it’s a character driven piece set against the backdrop of CATHOLIC MASS

[novelconcepts]

Every time I see someone complain about the wealth of monologues in Midnight Mass, I just want to shake them and whisper, “It is a direct reference to Catholic homilies. It is. It is a direct reflection of the heart of a Catholic sermon.” Every character is granted the ability, regardless of what they believe, to offer the audience their own sermon. Science. Experience with abuse or addiction or bigotry. Hopes for the future. Forgiveness. Every character is given the chance to reflect back to the audience, via a homily, the heart of what’s going on in their world.

It is intentional, y’all.

#midnight mass #midnight mass spoilers #if you’re not a character-centric person I get finding it slow #but every time I see a tweet or a complaint about it being ‘all speeches’ I just want to be like #yes! yes it is! because it’s a character driven piece set against the backdrop of CATHOLIC MASS #Flanagan loves his monologues. there’s no denying that. and it works for me in any context. #but ESPECIALLY in this show #because a well-deployed monologue is not about the character speaking #it’s about showing the importance of people listening to each other #and the Catholic homily is very much ‘here. you’ve got the basics now let’s digest what it means for the human side’ #I’m as far from Catholic as they come but I was raised in this world and seeing Flanagan use it to round out this cast was so smart #and I’m so. annoyed. every time someone just goes ‘yeah I tuned out of all the talking’ #the talking is the point! the community is the point! digest the story and apply it! that’s the whole thing! #Flanagan’s core theme of character is always that the most important thing we can do for each other is listen #which is why bev is so fucking maddening as a character—she is forever cutting other people off to talk over them #yeah the evangelical cruelty of her is the worst but we see it most often in her refusal to sit down and listen #vs Riley and Erin and all the rest of these people being so willing to just. take in other people’s stories and perspectives and pain. #it’s just so cleverly deployed in such a slow-burn fashion #it is so. so intentional as framing.

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

completely brainless 1am ramble

On the topic of stagnation, and the geopolitical plot vs. character-driven plot discussion people are having rn:

Maybe this is just a nostalgia-blinded bias of mine, having started with the Disc War, but...I’ve never minded the more character-based plots? Anyone who’s followed my blog for a bit knows that I love the Pet War, but I also loved the Disc War and the Final Pet War too. In those conflicts, the factions served as a backdrop rather than being the main focus, and the plot was driven by the characters and their grievances with one another.

One of my favorite smaller plots from Season Two was Fundy and Ghostbur. That had absolutely zilch to do with factions, or L’manburg, or geopolitics, but it was honestly one of the most well-acted and heart-breaking plots I’ve seen from the SMP in its entirety. 

I think that character-driven plots are places where the SMP’s really shined, at least to me personally.

Maybe that’s not everyone’s thing, but I don’t think it’s bad for the stories to be more character-driven! I think a lot more of the SMP than people realize has been like that this entire time. I think people sometimes overestimate how much the factions have actually mattered, in a sense?

Remember how the Disc War started? 

Tommy and Sapnap were a pair. Punz and Tubbo were a pair. Ponk and Alyssa were a pair. Dream logged on to stop the fighting and Tommy and Sapnap killed him, leading to Dream allying himself with Ponk and Alyssa. These weren’t faction lines dividing everyone, but personal grudges. That’s how the SMP’s entire plot started. “You and me, versus Dream,” right?

While the L’manburg War was amazing and a game-changer for the SMP storyline as a whole, I feel like the motivations, the driving forces for that war were actually a lot weaker than the recent conflicts. It was a cool bit of political roleplay, yes, but it was kind of just a war for the sake of a war, to be honest.

L’manburg was founded because some Americans got in the way of Wilbur and Tommy stealing everyone’s blaze rods. It went from a hotdog-selling business to a literal independent country because...revolution, I guess? And Dream declared war because...sometimes you just gotta kill some people sometimes, y’know...? 

It was the character-based conflicts from before that war that ended it. The discs ended the war even though they had nothing to do with the reason L’manburg seceded, because Tommy and Dream’s grudge against each other held more weight than the actual country. Who cared if L’manburg gained its independence as long as Dream gained the discs? That was a bigger win for him.

The conflicts that happened afterwards continued that trend of being character-driven rather than faction-driven. L’manburg kind of disappeared for a month as the Disc Saga continued with Tommy and Dream, Tommy and Quackity founded the Cartel and then the Pet War started up because of Sapnap.

None of these conflicts had anything to do with factions, really, and having all these little smaller stories gave a chance for people like Quackity, Fundy and Skeppy to get in on the drama more and throw their hats into the ring. 

That’s what I think is happening right now, except since there are a lot more people on the server now, they’re starting up their individual plots around the same time so that they start to overlap. 

And remember how Fundy and Tubbo started up the Dreamon Hunters plot, picked out new skins, built a new setting and everything just for that plot to never take off due to needing to prepare for the Manberg Festival? Such a cool plot idea, and it just never happened, really.

Well, now, the Badlands have been having fun creating their own Blood Vines plot, and since they aren’t very involved in what Tommy and Dream are doing, they have space to flesh out that idea and not have it be overshadowed by other things. Whether or not you, as a viewer, want to follow along with the side plot is your choice! But Bad seems to be having a lot of fun telling his own story. 

Quackity creating Mexican L’manburg and having that turn into a five-day plot that ended in war? That’s basically just the L’manburg War 2.0, and if you don’t feel like following along with the plot -- again, no need to! But Karl finally getting his chance to shine, Sapnap and George having character development with Dream, and Eret, Puffy and H getting in on some drama was honestly pretty exciting!

The thing about the SMP is that it’s not really built to be just one storyline. It’s never just been about L’manburg. 

While the Camarvan was built, Fundy and Eret were having their Prank War.

The same day Dream and Tommy fought to bargain with Skeppy, Fundy was getting into a court battle with Punz, Eret and Tubbo.

While the Election was happening, so was the Pet War.

In the middle of Pogtopia building its resistance, the Battle of the Lake happened with Tommy, Sapnap and the Badlands.

The SMP has always had storylines going on at the same time. It’s just that since most of the viewers have always focused on Tommy and Wilbur for the most part, a lot of the time those extra storylines slipped through the cracks of memory.

Now let’s get back to the geopolitics vs. character-driven thing:

This feeling of “stagnation” isn’t new! The SMP’s had periods like this, where it feels a bit slower and everyone’s a little confused about where it’s going before.

Remember that period from like, October 18th to November 6th or so where pretty much nothing happened to progress the plot? And since none of the other streamers on the SMP were doing their own plots, it was just kind of this period of...”who knows what’s happening right now?”

The thing about a politics-based plot vs. a more character-driven, million side-stories type deal is that as long as none of the country leaders were online, nothing could really happen to progress the main plot, and since the character-driven stuff wasn’t the main focus, that couldn’t drive much either.

So...yeah, you got the Tubbo Bathwater stream three days after the Festival happened. That’s just kinda how it went.

Schlatt only got on very rarely, Wilbur a bit less rarely, and Dream logging onto his own server was always more of a surprise more than a routine. Tommy and Techno were getting into hijinks, but there weren’t really any political stakes. Even though he was supposed to be exiled, Tommy just moved back into his house anyway, because who was going to stop him? The one person who cared about him staying out wasn’t there to do anything.

Yes, the Big Plot Days like the Festival and the Meeting were jaw-dropping and amazing! I loved them! Incredibly-written, incredibly-acted. 

But what about what happened between them? 

One thing I’ve enjoyed about the recent period is that it feels like a lot more streamers are keeping track of their characters and holding onto longer plot threads. It feels like more people are interacting with each other instead of doing builds by themselves. And even the main plot is progressing at this more subtle, bit-by-bit pace where there’s a bit of new development with each stream. The big event days still happen, like the New Festival and the Execution, but the pacing’s a lot more consistently spread out. And with all these other streamers keeping their own mini stories as well, it’s more of this melting pot of different people interacting, each with their own arc and tale to tell.

Ponk and Jack, for example, are keeping their ongoing rivalry. Sam, Bad and Ant are getting into their own storyline whereas before, the Badlands weren’t really doing much of anything. And Karl’s been doing the same fun side-things that he’s always done for months, but he’s recently started to try and find a niche for himself by trying these light-hearted events or his new Tales series, which could end up being really cool the more he refines it! 

I feel like a lot of the “chaos” feeling isn’t really from how the SMP’s main storyline has been written; most of the main plot has still kept to L’manburg and Techno.

It’s just that more people are taking notice of all the side hijinks that are going on in the background all the time, and some of the people who weren’t involved in the main plot before have started creating their own storylines for fun. 

I will say it again and again: you don’t have to follow along with every storyline! If it overwhelms you to try and keep up with the Blood Vines? That’s okay! You as a viewer have the freedom to create the viewing experience that makes you the most comfortable, that brings you the most joy! 

But I also think people could try and branch out a bit too. Give some new creators a try. No pressure or anything, and it’s fine if you just want to stick to Tommy or Techno! But there are a lot of talented people on the SMP, and I feel like some of these smaller stories are worth paying attention to if you’re interested!

Aaaaanyway, this is just a long, long post with some nonsense thoughts that I felt like getting out. Feel free to disagree! The SMP’s an interesting piece of media that everyone’s going to experience slightly differently. What may be my cup of tea might not be yours, and vice versa! :]

#dream smp #long posts #meta #dream smp analysis

[agrestenoir]

brand new eyes (a cholya fic)

Title: brand new eyes Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug Pairing/Characters: Alya/Chloe Summary: Chloe didn’t mean to fall in love with Alya. It happens anyway. Notes: commission for the wonderful kaligulas Word Count: 1990 words

READ ON AO3 

i.

Chloe doesn’t remember falling in love with Alya.

If anything, there’s just a moment when they’re sitting next to each other, and Chloe looks up, catching sight of Alya against the backdrop of the Parisian sunset, and suddenly the world turns quiet. I love you, she thinks as she stares at her, all wind-kissed cheeks and wide eyes from their race through the city. I love you, and I always have.

ii.

It starts with photography, of all things.

Managing the Ladyblog has turned into more of a chore than a hobby, and even as she fights to write about her experiences or vlog about the latest events, Alya just can’t seem to meet the demands of her fan following. Chloe should know, as she stalks the blog on the regular to learn more about her favorite superheroes and has browsed through the hundreds of comments left on every post. For as good as she is, Alya’s only talent comes from writing. Her videos and poor quality of pictures do not appease the fans, and Chloe is tired of waiting for the light to click on for the journalist.

“I’ve gotta do everything myself,” Chloe grumbles as she perches on the corner of the rooftop of the Le Grand Paris. With the downward trend Alya’s been going on, Chloe knows the blog might be at risk for deletion, and Chloe Bourgeois will absolutely not stand to see her favorite blog be taken down; where else would she get her primetime Ladybug content?

It’s clear Alya needs her.

Camera in hand, she scans the Paris skyline until she locks on two forms in the distance, whipping around buildings on a yo-yo string and vaulting over chimneys with a baton. She waits until they’re in view, the image sharp and in focus, and she snaps a quick photo. Before Ladybug and Chat Noir can disappear, she takes a dozen or so more pictures, and once satisfied, she uploads them to a flash drive.

The next day, Chloe hands Alya the flash drive without a word of explanation. “Thought you could use this,” she tells the blogger. “You need all the help you can get honestly. I don’t know how you’ve survived this long without me.”

For the next week, Alya displays the photographs on the front page of the Ladyblog. Once she’s run out of photographs, Alya asks Chloe for some more, and for some odd reason, the blonde agrees and submits more pictures the next morning.

They never speak more than a few murmurs of Alya’s gratitude and Chloe’s quiet appreciation for the Ladyblog.

And so it continues until the tagline at the bottom of the front page of the Ladyblog reads “© 2017 Alya Cesaire & Chloe Bourgeois”.

iii.

Chloe takes on the reign of Queen Bee when the call for help arises, joining Ladybug and Chat Noir on the city rooftops as they defend Paris from evil and the rest of the melodrama that comes with being a teenage superhero. When Rena Rouge joins up, it gives her someone to rely on. Both are new, fumbling through the steps of a dance that Ladybug and Chat Noir have long since mastered. They spend long nights on the Paris streets, learning their powers and each other, because if Ladybug and Chat Noir are partners, then they need to be too.

If she must provide a concrete answer as to why she accepted the job, Chloe chooses to blame duty. So here she stands, duty-bound and driven, just like her father to mayor Paris, just like Ladybug and Chat Noir to protect people, just like Alya to run the Ladyblog…

If there’s one thing she’s learned over the past few months helping Alya run the Ladyblog, it’s that sometimes she really is the only one who can do it. People depend on people like her, and who is she to turn away when they need her? She is the only reason Paris remains standing half the time anyway.

The only downside of spending so much time as Queen Bee is that she can’t provide pictures of the heroes for Alya as frequently as before.

It hurts her, more deeply than it should have, when Alya corners her after class one day and asks hesitantly, almost unsure, “Are you going to send me anymore pictures?”

What is Chloe supposed to say? I became a superhero and don’t have the time. Sorry, loser, but you’re on your own?

The Ladyblog is Alya’s reason, her lifeblood—something she’s spent hours and days and months crafting to perfection. Chloe knows this, and somehow through matters she hadn’t meant to spur into play, Alya has given her a piece of it too.

© 2017 Alya Cesaire & Chloe Bourgeois

“No, of course not,” Chloe tells her, waving her hand in a flippant gesture in front of Alya’s face. “My camera broke, I’m getting a new one. You don’t need to be so demanding.”

Alya bits her bottom lip. “Thank you.”

Chloe freezes, and a soft smile slowly stretches across her face. “What’re friends for, Cesaire?”

Chloe brings her camera to the next patrol, much to Ladybug’s protest, but she doesn’t care. After becoming Queen Bee, Ladybug has lost her charm as an idol, and is now resigned to a teammate, an ally, a somewhat annoying friend that Chloe’s grown to care for. After they finish patrol, Chloe begs the rest of her team to stick around so that she could gather a few snapshots for “a friend”. Rena Rouge is more than happy to help, Ladybug a bit begrudgingly agrees, and Chat Noir laughs and asks who the “lucky lady” is.

Chloe kicks him off the top of the Eiffel Tower.

“So a ‘lucky lady?’” Rena Rouge teases, nudging Chloe with her elbow. “You in love, Bee?”

“Something like that,” Chloe tells her honestly. After snapping a few more shows, she sits down on a metal beam, legs hooking around one of the struts, and clicks through the images, letting out an appreciate hum.

Rena Rouge swings down beside her, grasping the metal strut to keep her balance on the beam. “Can I see them?” she asks, referring to Chloe’s pictures.

Chloe pauses, camera clasped tight in her hands, and tries to form a proper response. Her photography, unlike much of what she does, isn’t something she broadcasts to the rest of the world. What she gives Alya for the Ladyblog is pieces she’s critically gone over and edited to the best of her ability. She’s never let anyone see the raw footage before.

But the look on Rena Rouge’s face, like she actually cares about what Chloe does, seals the deal.

“Knock yourself out,” she says, handing Rena Rouge her camera. Shoulders tense, she watches warily for the other hero’s reaction because Chloe Bourgeois refuses to sit idly by if she’s just going to be torn down. “I already know they’re good though.”

Rena Rouge accepts the camera with a murmur of thanks, an eager smile stretching across her face. Chloe watches the smile slowly fade, lips dropping in a small oh of surprise, as Rena Rouge studies the picture, a stupid sunset full of purples and pinks. It’s something Chloe could’ve taken in her sleep, just a boring old scenic shot that anyone with a camera could capture, and it cries mournfully into the late evening air.

A laugh falls from Rena Rouge. “These are… unbelievable.” By now, Ladybug and Chat Noir have joined them, perched on either side as they stare at Chloe’s pictures. “These are… You’re really talented.”

“I know,” Chloe says because she feels like she has to, but inside something burns deep. She hopes Alya feels the same way.

Rena Rouge rests a soft hand on Chloe’s shoulder. “These are really good. Trust me, I know a photographer who’d say the same thing. Your friend is going to love these.”

Numbly, Chloe takes the camera back from Rena Rouge. “I hope so,” she murmurs, voice low and rough. “I hope so.”

She just wants Alya to like them.

(She just wants Alya to like her).

iv.

When she presents the photographs to Alya the next day, the other girl wastes no time in hooking them up to her laptop and uploading them to the Ladyblog. “Thanks, girl. People have been asking for these all week.”

“People can wait for perfection,” Chloe says, not unkindly, and sits on the edge of the desk, waiting for Alya’s reaction. It’s the first time she snapped photos up close, and she’s eager to hear what the other girl has to say. “They’re a little different…”

There’s silence as Alya looks at the pictures. Her eyes flicker between the laptop screen and Chloe as she struggles to form a sentence. “Do you know… I mean, how did you…”

“Are they that bad?” Chloe asks, cocking her head.

Alya stares at her then, really stares at her. “Are you….” Voice lowering into a whisper, she asks, “Are you Queen Bee?”

There’s silence once more, and the only sound is each other’s heart beats, banging in their chests from the shock and revelations. “W-What?” Chloe laughs. “That’s a stupid thing to say. What makes you think I’d be a superhero?”

“Because I’ve seen these before,” Alya hisses. “I saw them last night when Queen Bee was taking them.”

Chloe’s breath catches in her throat. “You’re Rena—”

“I’m the friend,” Alya says with growing horror. “I’m the friend you were taking the pictures for, your lucky lady, oh god, oh god, you like me—” Hysteria is slowly setting in, and Chloe can hear it in the growing panic of Alya’s voice.

She acts on the first thought that enters her mind.

She reaches forward, cups Alya’s jaw, and kisses her to shut her up.

It works.

Alya’s lips are warm, and after the shock, she begins to kiss back and that is not what Chloe’s intention was, but who is she to argue? After a few moments of silence, of kisses and revelations, they pull away and sit back in their seats in the empty classroom.

“You’re Queen Bee,” Alya repeats in awe, shock still filtering through her. “You like me.”

Chloe can only shrug. “Yes,” she says. “To all of the above.”

v.

Back on the Eiffel Tower, donning the masks and camera, Alya leans against Chloe’s chest as they stare out over the slumbering city. “What made you like me anyway?” she asks curiously. “We used to hate each other.”

Chloe shrugs against the cool metal pressing into her back. “I don’t know,” she answers honestly. “I guess, in the beginning, you needed me, and… somewhere along the lines, I realized I needed you too. You sort of gave me… a reason, I guess? I actually wouldn’t have agreed to be Queen Bee if it wasn’t for you.”

Alya perks up, gaze resting on Chloe. “Really?”

Chloe smiles because she know shoe easy it had been for Alya to slip on the mask. “Yeah,” she tells her, “You taught me a few things about duty. I couldn’t say no after that.”

“Well I’m glad,” Alya says, resting her head in the crook of Chloe’s neck, pressing her nose against the warm skin. “It wouldn’t have been the same without you.”

“Yeah,” Chloe echoes. “It wouldn’t.”

Together, they watch the lights blink out in the city as people turn in for the night, but they choose to stay on the Eiffel Tower, long after patrol. Pressed against each other, together at last, Chloe tries to imagine her life without Alya. The truth is, though, she can’t. And somehow that’s the most important thing.

I love you, she thinks. You changed my life, and I love you for that.

Someday, she knows she’ll tell Alya, but for now, she’s content to just to hold onto the other girl.

She has all the time in the world.

#miraculous ladybug #cholya #chloe #alya #ml fic #my writing #my fic

[shanitadoeseverything]

Sand: The Musical - 2015 (artist/designer)

Sand: The Musical was an original musical produced by Indigo Soul Project and staged at Teater KuAsh in 2015. The show followed the forbidden love story between a Rajput princess and the court jester’s son, accompanied by live original music, dynamic choreography, vibrant costumes and the vivid narrative backdrop of 17th century Jaipur, Rajasthan. The production featured Abi Manyu and Swathi Sivadas in the lead roles of Ram and Princess Vaidhehi, alongside Afham Zainal as Prince Irham, Sudhan Nair as Mottu and Lenny Wan as Arbaaz.

Other notable credits include:

Selva Kumar - producer and director Santosh Logandran - composer and music director Vix Chandra (Sayla) - lyricist and actor (Veer) Mahani Suleiman - choreographer Vandad Zoughi - scriptwriter Shalina May Kumar - story writer Priyangka Satsitananda - costume designer and actor (Dai)

I had the honour of creating a series of posters and illustrations that were used in the promotion of Sand. The first one I created was the poster above, depicting the two main characters against the stunning backdrop of sunset in Rajasthan. This illustration was made shortly after we decided on the concept and setting, long before we had a script or cast. It was sent out mainly to promote our auditions and to let people know a new show was in the works. Everything in this poster except the wording was drawn entirely by hand, with ink pens, coloured pencils, watercolours and tea. (Yes, tea!) The artwork was then scanned into the computer and the text was added later.

As the story developed and the characters and visuals became more vivid, I had almost endless sources of inspiration to draw from. I created two more posters based on key items in the story: the first being a comb and jasmines, and the second, a chess set.

These were made in much the same way as the first poster -- drawn by hand, and scanned to add the text in digitally. For all three posters, I stained the paper with tea first, sketched in the layout of the poster with pencil, and added detail with coloured pencils and ink pens (and watercolour, in the case of the first poster).

We only needed three main posters, but that didn’t stop me from making even more artwork just because I wanted to. These spontaneous pieces ended up being used for social media promotions. One of the illustrations I’m particularly proud of is this tea, ink and coloured pencil drawing of an old hourglass. We used this as a countdown image on social media in the week leading up to opening night.

This was a pencil drawing I made of Afham Zainal in his role as Prince Irham, one of my favourite characters from the show.

Here we have a little ambigram of the title of one of my favourite songs from the show, “Life Oh Life.”

And a line from the high-energy opening/closing number-slash-theme song, “Welcome to Jaipur.”

I also began this illustration of a peacock, which was intended to be a poster but ended up being scrapped because it wasn’t directly related to the story the way the others were.

Sand was an incredible experience for me not just as an artist, but as a member of a passionate, driven team all working together and giving their best to create something we could all be proud of. We were all challenged in various ways to step up to the plate and deliver work we didn’t know we were capable of, and were rewarded accordingly -- Sand: The Musical was nominated for nine (nine!) BOH Cameronian Arts Awards, out of which we won four! Not bad for a debut musical.

I’m very proud of what we achieved with Sand. It was a huge learning curve and set the bar high for our coming projects. And that’s exactly how we like it!

Check out the videos below for more Sand: The Musical (and a teeny tiny little interview with yours truly)!

And for even more Sand related photos and content, check out the show’s Facebook page here!

#shanita lyn #art #design #illustration #artist #designer #illustrator #sand: the musical #indigo soul project #performing arts #original musical #malaysian performing arts #boh cameronian arts awards #shanita does everything #poster design #poster illustration #traditional art #details #artists on tumblr

[twh-news]

ComingSoon.net | CS Discovers an Uncharted World and New Adventures on the Kong: Skull Island Set

[worth reading in full, Tom's interview included in the article]

There’s a sort of wonderment that fills you when you begin to see Hawaii coming into sight from the airplane window even for a movie fan who didn’t quite get the attraction of the island’s recreational mystique. You know, when you’re of the sort to prefer the inside of a movie theater more than toasting outside in the sun. So you could imagine my surprise when all of a sudden the Jurassic Park theme started playing in my head upon arrival to visit the set of Kong: Skull Island.

It really makes you think about how we look at iconic locations as movie fans.

Here is this place that, like many, I first gazed upon in a movie theater experience with Jurassic Park and continued to watch over and over again on a quickly-fading VHS growing up in urban Inglewood, CA. The sort of place where going to Hawaii didn’t quite appeal, perhaps because it’s not as accessible.

And yeah, arriving there you do get compelled to take part in some of the island’s offerings, like walking out into the beach in a swimsuit, because you know if you don’t try to do “Hawaii things” people back home, who would if they were in your shoes, would be sorely disappointed. Just don’t Hawaii so hard that you fall off some rocks into a shallow section of the ocean, and have a minor brush with genuine coral while face-timing loved ones. Already, this visit was off to an adventurous start.

The next day as the press group was driven out of touristy Waikiki through the island mountains to the north side of the island of Oahu, the John Williams score started mentally playing again. Okay, it’s hard to avoid bringing JP, but everyone in the van also thought it and I’m pretty sure we hummed along to the tune at some point in the long drive.

The Kong set itself was nestled in Kualoa Ranch, where – yes JP was shot. What? We totally saw the Indominus Rex enclosure RIGHT THERE! And drove by locations with O.G. JP signs STILL THERE!

Okay, geeking out aside, it makes perfect sense. A different side of the Island’s mystique starts to creep up on you. Away from the city in the middle of the jungle of Kualoa, you’re transported to another world. That’s when it hits you: The realization that the only human things there are the people on set, equipment, and transportation, but that there’s so much more of everything else made by nature that’s bigger than you. So, it’s no wonder that this place is so often used as a backdrop for a fictional fantastic violent landscapes where predators have the upper hand over prey and prey must scramble to find ways to survive.

And that’s where Warner Bros. and Legendary‘s Kong: Skull Island starts.

Kong The Story

Making the choice to keep the focus on man meeting Kong in the wild post-Vietnam war appealed to director Jordan Vogt-Roberts as something that’s never been explored. Standing on a beach — much like the one his film starts on — he explained, “You’ve seen Kong in the ’30s before, you’ve never seen him against modern-issue weaponry.” He painted a scene as it would unfold on Skull Island. “Just the aesthetics of choppers, and napalm, and Hendrix playing while you’ve got Kong punching down helicopters is something that I’ve never seen and I think something that could only exist in our movie. Because obviously choppers, napalm, and everything that is ‘Apocalypse Now’ and ‘Platoon’ mixed with ‘King Kong’ is awesome – just from like a genre mash up perspective.”

Already the colors and palette he was drawing inspiration from attracted our interest. Kong plus lots of explosions? Awesome. In between his break and before the lot of us were to be taken to a hot set, leading man Tom Hiddleston sat down on the beach to affirm the choices that were being made. “I think we were all talking the other day about the size of these movies and the fact that you can contain incredible spectacle, human drama, jaw dropping visuals, and really deliver something entertaining”. he echoed Vogt-Roberts. However, Hiddleston did remark that this interpretation is much more than just action and war. “You’re also retelling a story that we keep telling ourselves. Which is that man is small in the universe. There’s something really powerful about that. I think that Jordan’s master stroke in his conception of the story was post Vietnam 1972.”

Back on the other side of the beach Jordan shared, “Specifically what got me really interested in it was thinking about taking characters and taking the thematics of the time period in which the world was kind of in chaos and we were sort of one foot in the old guard and one foot in the new guard and people were trying to find their place in the world.”

With that, we were already beginning to see a departure from the original 33’s gentle giant tale and Peter Jackson’s beauty and the beast take on the icon we’re familiar with. Even with touches of the action in the Toho universe, Vogt-Roberts aims to re-imagine Kong’s mythology for a new generation that looks back on a time gone by while mirroring things happening today.

Later, while we were tucked in a tent away from set, actress Brie Larson came over to share her excitement about the film. “That’s the interesting thing about this movie. It’s a group of misfits that are all coming from different angles looking at the same thing,” she observed in agreement with Jordan’s vision. “You get to see many different views in regards to nature and how we should handle it and how it’s dealt with from many different perspectives.”

Offering the film’s antagonistic perspective, as his character represents man’s militaristic ambition to sit atop the food chain, is star Samuel L. Jackson, who described the clash in the film as, “The misunderstanding of what one beast’s purpose is in nature as opposed to another.”

Coolly sitting in military regalia of the film’s era, Jackson gave us insight about how his character functions to illustrate the timelessness of civilization’s pursuit of power in the story. “We live in a world that we control a little too much” he elaborated. “ When we get rid of one thing it allows another thing to proliferate. We put things out of balance. Hopefully this will speak to that and people will understand how we do that and what the consequences of us doing those things are.”

Unconsciously prescient, as we visited this set over a year ago, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts pointed out how his film speaks to a time where the country pushed against forces bigger than it. “We were losing wars for the first time, we were in sexual revolutions, and racial riots, and political scandals and things were crumbling and then presenting people with an island that’s untouched by man,” he explained.

To Jordan the film’s conflict is represented by man finding an island that seemed ripe for the imperialistic agenda of the time but would prove to be not as easily overpowered because its nature is, “Something pure in a very impure time” that the characters find. To him, it’s a way in for the audience that gives both the people in a theater and the on-screen ensemble, “…a sense of catharsis with this island. ‘Oh my gosh what a wonderful place this is!’“, he exclaimed. “One of the most incredible accomplishments that we don’t talk about as people is that we don’t get eaten by things anymore. We used to get eaten all the time and now we don’t. Swim out in that ocean and you’ll get back in the food chain, but while they go to this island and they’re presented with this beautiful catharsis – very quickly they’re back in the food chain and that ties back into what happens when you see a god. What happens when you’re back in the food chain how does that make you react? And then realizing that, ‘We should have never come here.’”

The World Building of Skull Island

Not yet having seen much of the set, the scope was still a little bit just in the words being pitched to us, a group of slightly-jaded film nerds who have had to put up with CG landscapes that promised immersion but haven’t been able to meet the level of films we grew up on – films like Jurassic Park where we knew the characters were actually there.

Sure enough, that changed when we visited the Boneyard set, which was testament to the dedication behind the film. Utilizing the rugged terrain, a heap of giant gorilla bones lay littered across a huge field. There were giant rib pieces sticking out of the dirt, leg bones you could walk around of an incredible 80-foot beast and majestic skull nestled nearby that you could stand right in front of.

Okay, now we were in the world, now we were in Skull Island.

Because he’s awesome and decided to hop in our van to set, Tom Hiddleston shared on the ride over that he had the reaction we were about to have and he was right. He described the moment as he hung over the passenger seat enthusiastically, “There was a day about two weeks ago when the entire troop of about 15 of us were trekking across over these ridges and we stop at the top of the ridge and look down into a boneyard. I was at the front of the line and we all stopped and fanned out and I was next to Brie Larson, Thomas Mann, John Goodman, John C. Reilly, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins,Tian Jing, John Ortiz, Eugene Cordero, Shea Whigham – it was like this is a gang!” he praised, “I’ve made big movies like this on sound stages surrounded by a green screen where you supply everything with your own imagination and the other day we were in that crater in the valley of the volcano and there’s beautiful mountains on every side. Blue sky and nothing left to imagine – you’re just there. Sam and I were saying if you can’t get excited for this, you can’t get excited by anything! This is as good as it gets in terms of big movie making.”

When you’re used to the small-screen version, being planted in the actual landscape was bonkers. Just to give you an idea of my size walking among the artistry, I was as small as Simba in the Elephant Boneyard scene from The Lion King and laughing-in-the-face-of-danger small. Vogt-Roberts wasn’t kidding back on the beach earlier. “We’re framing for a giant ape and also having humans in the frame. I just want to have a lot of imagery in this that’s the same and also feels unique to our movie with the action and with the composition. We want to make a lot of stuff that really could only exist within the confines of the movie we’re making. This is our Skull Island, this is our Kong, and you couldn’t find these sequences or this imagery in another film.”

Hiddleston supported the sentiment. “When Jordan and I met we talked about aspiring to make something that was like the best adventure stories, ’cause he and I are the same age, we talked about Raiders and we talked about Jurassic Park and those films take you to a place, put you into a context, and give you a great time. You just follow the story,” he described as we drove into the familiar wild of Isla Nublar and further away from civilization. The legacy of which, Hiddleston bears in mind as they prepared to unleash Kong into the world. “I think of that first Jurassic Park and it really is about man coming face to face with what he doesn’t understand. All that stuff that Jeff Goldblum says you know it’s a simple idea, but it’s a big idea. We can only hope to make a film as good as that and we’re trying,” he said.

Samuel L. Jackson, who happened to be in the first Jurassic Park, did share an interesting tidbit of info about the Spielberg shoot while we hung out in Hawaii with him. “I never got here,” he laughed, “never got to come here, because the set that I was supposed to work on got destroyed in the hurricane that season. Hence my arm hanging in some anonymous place.”

And he’s finally here for Kong, no less! But yeah – whether it’s Sam Jackson versus Dinos or versus Shark or snakes on a plane, the cult hero actor chalks up his resume of taking on the animal world to a love of adventure stories. “I’ve always liked King Kong movies. I like big things that roar and scare people. Running from things and shooting back at them,” he explained.

As Jackson prepares to be the character aiming to go toe-to-toe with Kong, Jordan Vogt-Roberts imagines the visuals of the war between them as one of bad-ass motherf*cker proportions. He revealed, “When you look at King Kong, that original movie there’s frames you could pause. Almost every one of those scenes – there’s a frame that you remember, there’s a frame you could blow up, and there’s a frame you could put on your wall. As we’re framing for a giant ape and also having humans in the frame. I just remember like when I was in college whatever the frames were from Pulp Fiction – those single images you would have as your desktop background, or that you would print out in middle school to put in your trapper keeper binder and be like, “I love that image!” he said of bringing two cinematic icons together.

Totally game, Jackson looks forward to bringing that to life, “The fact that we’re on location and not in a studio is totally different. It’s out in the elements. It’s happening and you can actually see that and I think the difference will be very palpable to an audience.”

Back in the press tent with Larson, the future Captain Marvel praised the production, “Every time I look in the monitor I’m so excited by, and in awe of, and it’s so much bigger in scope and in scale than anything else that I’ve done. I’m doing things I’ve never done before, like working with CGI and doing things that are very physical. Everything I’ve done before is more visceral and more emotional and more subtle. There’s such a huge group of us and everyone is just like at the top of their game, and I’m learning so many new skills.” After our conversation with her, we saw her work in action when we watched a scene where her character would not stop snapping pictures in awe of Kong, though she should probably run away.

And while yes, Kong is the only star not on set (He’ll be CGI of course), Vogt-Roberts assures that everyone is on the same page to create real reactions to the mighty God of the Island, “Really to me a lot of it is about being able to linger on these characters’ faces, seeing how not just this creature, but this island is affecting them. We truly want Skull Island to feel like a tangible, tactile place and that’s why we’re shooting so much of this practically as we go from Hawaii, to Australia, to Vietnam, it’s to really feel these guys within that space. So it’s a huge help for the actors just to be in real jungles and real settings and things like that. That just adds to that reality when you’re staring up at this completely fictional fake thing.”

And being there on the Hawaii set, I couldn’t agree more, because it does transform and transport you. I totally felt like the kid who’d look at ripples from shaking water cups as a sign that a T-Rex was near. No really, you divert into that mentality when you’re standing deep in the dark jungle legitimately anticipating a great beast whenever the wind would rustle leaves around you.

“We’ve never seen King Kong in that arena,” Hiddleston summed up, “it gives every character somewhere to come from.”

And as I looked down at the Island on my way home, I was filled with great excitement for the movie and to see Kong charging through where I stood. And yes, also with a newfound appreciation for Hawaii as a movie nerd.

#tom hiddleston #kong skull island #kong: skull island #Article #interview

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Interview: Costume Designer Amy Roth Follows in Her Family's Footsteps in ‘Motherless Brooklyn’

Set against the backdrop of 1950s New York, Motherless Brooklyn follows Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton), a lonely private detective living with Tourette Syndrome, as he ventures to solve the murder of his mentor and only friend, Frank Minna (Bruce Willis). Armed only with a few clues and the engine of his obsessive mind, Lionel unravels closely guarded secrets that hold the fate of the whole city in the balance. In a mystery that carries him from gin-soaked jazz clubs in Harlem to the hard-edged slums of Brooklyn, and finally into the gilded halls of New York’s power brokers, Lionel contends with thugs, corruption, and the most dangerous man in the city to honor his friend and save the woman who might be his own salvation. Motherless Brooklyn also stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alec Baldwin, Cherry Jones, Willem Dafoe, and Bobby Cannavale.

Talented costume designer Amy Roth (The Looming Tower, Indignation), the niece of Oscar-winning costume designer Ann Roth, based many of her stunning creations for this film on unsentimental photographs from the period including the work of Saul Leiter, Dorothea Lange, and Robert Frank. Working closely with writer/director Edward Norton, Roth stayed away from glossy depictions of the 1950s and instead examined the gulfs between New York’s rich and powerful and the very people they displaced. Sometimes she literally worked with scraps of vintage clothing to showcase how voiceless and neglected some of these characters were.

Danny Miller: I so love your work on this film. I imagine that Edward Norton is the kind of director who gets involved in every detail of his film. Do you remember your first meeting with him?

Amy Roth: Edward’s script really spoke to me, and I did a ton of research on my own before we met. I did a “look book” for him and we just hit it off immediately. He looked at it and said, “That’s my movie!” It was a funny interview because he started moving around in his chair and got very excited. We basically decided to work together then and there which is not usually how it happens. Edward started asking me about the color palette. I told him I thought it should be sort of muted to contrast against the very colorful language and all of these spectacular actors.

Do you think Norton’s own experience as an actor colors his role as director?

He has so much respect for actors. He never wanted to be intrusive at the fittings and always wanted to actors to be happy with what they were wearing and to find the character on their own. He certainly had ideas about how some of the characters should look, but then he’d always say, “You should just talk to them and see what they like.”

It always seems like costume designers have more of an intimacy with the actors than almost anyone else on set. Did the actors on this film have a lot of opinions about their wardrobes?

Yes, but they’re all very different. I remember how wonderful Fisher Stevens was on this film, he’s so creative and he started to get very excited with a lot of ideas. “Oh, I love this, can I wear this, too?” He just went through everything and tried on a lot of things. Cherry Jones was the same way. Gugu was more methodical, really looking at herself and questioning. She wanted to make sure she didn’t look like she was above the fray.

Oh, so interesting because I had the impression that her character in the film would wake up in the morning and be very deliberate about everything she puts on and the image that she’s conveying to the world.

Precisely!

Do you use a lot of vintage pieces for a film like this or do you create everything from scratch?

A little bit of both. A lot of the great vintage stuff is disappearing, sadly. You end up building a lot of clothes using some older pieces. But I love to make the clothes. I made all of Gugu’s clothes and most of the suits for the lead actors. Remember that we often needed multiple copies of each outfit because there were stunts involved, so that also affects how many vintage pieces you can use.

I loved that coat that Gugu wore in the film.

Oh my God, that was one of my favorite pieces in the film! I made that for her based on a vintage coat I had seen. I actually found this vintage fabric from the period, it was quintessential 1950s. I had it slightly dyed which scared me to death. They wanted two, and I said too bad because I really wanted the coat and we didn’t have enough material.

We know that Alec Baldwin and Cherry Jones’ characters were based on real people from that time period. Did you study photographs of them to create their costumes?

I did look at those photos a lot and read a lot about Robert Moses because he was so fascinating to me. I understood that this is not a guy who’s very refined. He grew up with money but I saw him as a guy who had his suits made without a lot of thought. He just went to the tailors on Seventh Avenue and didn’t think much about it. His tailor probably chose the fabric and cut of the suits. So I didn’t want to dress Alec in a manner that made him look like he understood the beauty of what he was wearing.

Kind of like Donald Trump who has all these resources and wants expensive things, but has no real understanding of style.

Exactly. With everything monogrammed because he likes seeing his name so much.

Which seems so different from Willem Dafoe’s character who is down on his luck but still understands and appreciates quality.

Yes. With him I knew that he once had money in his life and he would probably hold onto some of the finest things from his past. For him I did find a vintage suit because I thought I’d never be able to create that kind of patina on a suit. So I got him a very beautiful suit from the 1940s. I used a shirt that was threadbare. Nothing was from the 50s, the tie, the hat, the coat.

Yeah, I had a feeling that no matter how poor he was at the moment, he appreciated the finer things much more than Alec Baldwin’s character did.

I remember thinking of those amazing Dorothea Lange photos of people standing in bread lines in the 1930s. You see all these men who are thin and hungry but they are wearing these beautiful, elegant suits.

I also loved the look of Leslie Mann’s character even though she has a small role in the film (as Bruce Willis’s wife). I wanted her to come back later in the story!

I know! Our producer kept saying he wanted to tell her story in the next movie! Leslie came in for just a couple of days. I wanted to ground her in the reality of what this woman would have worn. The only thing I changed was that I put her in lingerie the night her husband died. Edward loved that. We talked about how she probably thought she’d be seeing Bobby Cannavale’s character that night so when she opens the door she thinks it’s Bobby.

Wow, so there’s an example of how a costume choice that you make can influence an actor’s performance and the back story of the character. Her character almost feels like she’s driven in from a different film, possibly one directed by Douglas Sirk! I love the stories of Walter Plunkett torturing actresses on Gone With the Wind by making them wear real corsets and other period garments under their clothes. What’s your take on that?

Oh, I do the whole thing. I have women wear girdles and other things that I could never wear if my life depended on it. But they love it, and it can help the performance because it sort of dictates the way you’re going to stand and sit and walk. And sometimes I’ll veer from that on purpose. We had two white girls in the jazz club scene and I made up this story in my head that they were from Barnard and they’re not wearing their girdles. They’re just going out in their skirts and sweaters and they’re not going to put on a girdle to go listen to jazz.

I wanted to mention that your incredibly talented aunt, Ann Roth, did the costumes for two of my father-in-law Oliver Hailey’s plays on Broadway. Did you grow up learning the trade from her?

Oh, wow, I just left Ann, we’ve been doing some interviews together, I will tell her that! She’s just amazing. She started out in theater at Carnegie-Mellon and was painting scenery at the Pittsburg Opera. But then she met costume designer Irene Sharaff who told her that the boys will never let her get anywhere if she keeps working on scenery and that she should move to costumes! So she started working for Irene, including in the movies, but she’s continued in the theater as well all these years.

Did you start out in the theater, too?  

I haven’t but I would love to do some. I’m actually going on Monday to see the new To Kill a Mockingbird stage production that my aunt did the costumes for. My cousin, her daughter Hannah, and I are almost the same page. So when Ann would do a film on location, she’d always bring us and let us help. She was so generous, she just took me everywhere. I got to see so many things I never would have otherwise.

#Amy Roth #Costume Design #Edward Norton #Motherless Brooklyn #Interviews #What's Hot

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Interview: The Hulu Documentary 'Jawline' Shines a Revealing Spotlight on Boy Internet Stars

In rural Tennessee, Austyn Tester, a 16-year-old newcomer to the live-broadcast ecosystem, attempts to become the next big Internet crush. Teen girls all over the world tune into online “boy broadcasts” like Tester’s, in a 21st-century version of Tiger Beat, where all your favorite heartthrobs might actually interact with you online for a minute or two — or more for the right price. But Tester’s earnestness sets him apart, peering wide-eyed into his laptop camera and professing unconditional love and support to his female fans for hours on end. What’s he selling? Male validation. In return, he asks for fame and a better life for his family. Will Tester’s open heart give him celebrity status and a chance to escape from his dead-end town, or is this new ecosystem built for failure?

Liza Mandelup’s fascinating documentary Jawline, now showing on Hulu, distills complex concepts about growing up in today’s connected world with its new and fleeting versions of the American Dream with a moving human portrait that questions the values we’ve passed onto our young people. Mandelup approaches this peculiar world with an intimate air of BFF confidentiality and finds that as esoteric as the Internet and its niches feel to some, boy broadcasts represent modern youth’s starvation for love and acceptance and susceptibility to exploitation — a tale, unfortunately, as old as time.

I sat down with director Liza Mandelup, and then separately with Austyn Tester, the earnest subject of the film, and Michael Weist, the young and driven entrepreneur/talent manager who is Tester’s polar opposite.

Danny Miller: Liza, I came to this film knowing next to nothing about this world. At first I was thinking how great it was at leveling the playing field, at giving someone like Austyn who had no resources and was kind of miserable in his small town a real chance to follow his dreams. But by the end of the film I saw it more as a cautionary tale. Do you see it that way at all?

Liza Mandelup: No, I don’t think I would call it a cautionary tale because I think the film gets into a lot of the positive aspects of this phenomenon as well. Like finding a community when you don’t feel that you have one and providing refuge to young girls who are feeling lost or even suicidal. I was very surprised by those aspects of this world.

Yes, I was moved by some of those girls, too, especially in the lower key settings where they got to spend time with Austyn and were so honest with him about their feelings. Unlike some of the other online personalities you see in the film, Austyn seems so sweet and unassuming, a real innocent.

That’s what I loved about him and why I picked him. We were shooting for like a year without a main character. I started by talking to the fangirls. Then I started making contact with some of the boys to see who I might shoot. The boys I spoke to all had around 10 or 20 thousand followers and they all had managers and did these big tours, something I wasn’t that familiar with — it took me a while to understand the system. That’s when I found Michael Weist who was such an interesting character. When I eventually heard of Austyn, he didn’t have a manager and hadn’t even done a tour yet.

And when Austyn finally got a manager (not Michael) and went on tour, that’s when everything started to go downhill for him, right?

After he did his first tour, I followed him back home with my camera and I had these visions that he’d be walking all over town giving high fives to everybody, that girls would be running from different directions to see him, and that he’d be this local celebrity wherever we went. But instead I found him to be very anxious, not wanting to leave his room, and not being that into broadcasting anymore. I felt so bad because he’s had a really difficult life and he was really starting to get the kind of attention that he so craved as a means to get out of his town.

He seemed so real, like he wasn’t faking his sincere attitude at all.

Oh, he clearly wasn’t faking it or else he would have continued faking it! Instead, some things happened to him that really hurt his feelings and he started to lose interest. I purposely chose someone that I thought had very good intentions, not some ruthless, obnoxious person who would do whatever it took to get to the top, so his being a little fragile was a risk I was taking.

When you starting shooting Austyn, did you have it in your head that maybe he’d be super famous by the end of the film? I did!

To be honest, I genuinely thought that he might be because of those qualities you mentioned. Girls just loved him! But there’s something very arbitrary about this world, and I’m not sure he was prepared for it. But I’m so grateful that I met Austyn because he took me to a place that’s way more human than I ever could’ve hoped for. When I started making film, I was worried that the film would lack humanity.

Austyn had none of the veneer or blind ambition that so many of those boys seem to have, including Michael Weist, the manager.

Right. I’m very happy to have Michael’s voice in the film but I also wanted someone who could reflect a very human experience, not just the statistical side of things like how to increase the number of your followers. I kept reminding myself that even though we were telling a story against the backdrop of social media technology, it was still a human story.

Which is why I found Austyn so appealing. Do you think he’ll be able to use the attention he’ll get now that the film is out to reboot his social media presence?

I kind of hope so. As a documentary filmmaker, I’d like to give back to him in some way and I hope the attention that the film gets helps him to figure out how he wants to exist in this world. But to be honest, I don’t know if he wants it anymore, I feel like we may have caught a moment in time. That’s the crazy part about documentaries that exist in a very specific timeframe. When we made this film, Austyn wanted that kind of success more than anything in the world. But in the course of making the film, he changed.

He’s such an interesting case study.

At the end of the film he kind of returns to his previous life. Now he has this opportunity to come back but I’m not sure how that will go. He was so young when we started filming and he’s still trying to figure out who he is, both in his real life as well as online.

After talking to Liza, I went down the hall to talk to young entrepreneur Michael Weist looking like a Hollywood superagent. Austyn was supposed to be in Los Angeles that day as well but had some family issues he had to deal with in Tennessee so he joined Michael and me via speakerphone.

Michael, I admit I had no idea that all these young online personalities even had managers, I learned so much about how it all works.

Michael Weist: Yeah, it’s kind of like a subculture that most people don’t know anything about. I’m glad that the film finally shows that to the world.

Austyn, I think you come across so great in the documentary but it ends on a bit of a questionable note regarding your Internet career. Have you gone back to that at all since the shooting ended?

Austyn Tester: To be honest, I’m not doing it right now, no. I’ve just been really lazy. Since I went on tour with all these famous social media people, I’ve had to come back home and get an actual job. I’m working at a Starbucks now.

Do you both like how you come off in the film? Are there any moments that make you cringe?

Michael Weist: Watching it back is definitely like seeing this time capsule of your life. But ultimately, it shows who I was at that time. I think Austyn can attest to that, too, that’s just who we were then. I don’t think there’s anything I’d really change because all that made me who I am today.

Austyn Tester: When I watch myself in the film, there are moments when I cringe. I was pretty young and I think some of the stuff I do online is pretty bad like the lip-synching! Things have changed a lot on social media since the film was made, so I’d really like to figure that out.

Cool. Michael, I assume you still have your business managing online people?

Michael Weist: Yes, I’ve been able to refine my company a bit more, trim off pieces that needed to be trimmed, and grow in the right areas. The world of social media has changed quite a bit and only people who adapt to it will survive.

What are the qualities you look for in a client?

Michael Weist: Number one, you need to have consistency on all your platforms. You need to be very determined, you can’t half-ass it. You have to be very personable, very outgoing. That’s the formula for success.

Austyn Tester: I know if I jump back in, I’d have to be consistent which I haven’t been at all lately. I get it, though. Why would people follow me if I’m not giving them anything to watch?

It was moving to see all those girls at your public events getting so much joy out of interacting with you. Was that ever overwhelming, dealing with those hordes of girls?

Austyn Tester: I always felt it was friendly, but sometimes it was a bit too much! I was always super nervous before a live show, though, just sweating and hurrying through it. I saw all the screaming girls and would think, “Oh my gosh, what if they don’t like me?”

Were you surprised when you watched the film and learned how much you helped some of those girls who were really struggling in their lives?

Austyn Tester: Yeah, that was amazing to see, I’m so glad I helped people with my social media presence, that’s all I ever wanted to do. I always tried to remain positive and inspire people. It was kind of crazy because I was like 15 or 16 changing these 13-year-old girls’ lives. You suddenly realize, holy cow, you really do have an influence on people. It’s kind of hard for me to believe that happened.

#Austyn Tester #Documentary #Hulu #Jawline #Liza Mandelup #Michael Weist #Interviews #What's Hot