#(edited AGAIN (8/28) to add A Further Look to the timeline!)

[orbdotexe]

IIIII dont see any reason not to, so. Timeline I've been using (mostly as a guideline and summaries) for TFE! yippee!! (this is mostly for. non-content box ppl bc yall already had access to this--)

[Black Garden] The Young Wolf begins to hear whispers around Darkness-infected areas after the Black Garden, confides in no one and brushes it off when Ghost asks. The effects begin fading away, pushed out of memory, before the Red War hits and it is amplified until they get their Light back.

[?] Osiris and Drifter meet about the Sundial, where Osiris tells him he should meet the Guardian. [Encounter intro] [Original lore: The Sundial]

[Forsaken] Petra sees The Young Wolf holding the gun after Sundance bursts, Cayde does not get a chance to tell her. He falls into a coma after throwing Petra out of the way of an attack from a Baron, and is presumed dead by Wolf. The Young Wolf is exiled, under the belief that they had attempted to murder Cayde. Before Petra and Wolf race to get to Uldren, Ghost receives and ignores a message from Ikora, asking for their side of the story. Later, Wolf gets to Uldren first, and kills the Prince.

[?] Drifter has an impromptu meeting with Shin, where, similarly to Osiris, he is told to meet with Wolf—For different reasons. [Do They Know?]

[?] Crow wakes up, after the Dreaming City’s curse had set in. [Bury Me Shallow, chp1]

[during/ pre-Season of The Drifter/Joker’s Wild] The Drifter seeks out the Young Wolf under Osiris's (and Shin’s) recommendation and sets up an exchange of favors. [Questionably Fortunate Encounter]

[Shadowkeep] 

[Beyond Light] The Exo Stranger takes up teaching the Young Wolf how to control Stasis, in an attempt to help them tame the hallucinations from the Black Garden. Elsie found out because she began keeping a closer eye on them after a vague warning from Drifter about keeping an eye on them.  Later, Wolf takes up hunting Eramis. 

[Pre-Defeat of Eramis, Post-Wolf getting Stasis] Cayde finally wakes from his coma.  Shiro acts as a bodyguard, making sure Cayde doesn’t do anything to get himself into trouble for a few weeks.

[Hunt] Starts after Wolf has already taken out the first of Eramis’ Lieutenants. Crow multitasks hunting the Wrathborn and prying for information on what happened to Wolf and why they killed Uldren from Spider back in the Shore. Wolf, unknown to him, stalks Crow to find out more about their replacement, between receiving more information on Eramis’ forces. Shiro assists Crow's Wrathborn hunts while attempting to track the Young Wolf after hearing word of sightings of them, unable to pin down their purpose for switching between Europa and the Shore.

[Chosen] Wolf crashes some Rites of Proving, proceeds as usual (?)

[Splicer] The Young Wolf, learning of Lakshmi's plan to invite the Vex inside the City with the intent of getting rid of House Light, sneaks into the City and publicly executes her - both to stop her before it's too late, and to take the heat off of the Eliksni's backs. [Bury Me Shallow, chp2]

[Lost] Now desperate for information on Wolf, and determined to find out what happened, Crow and Cayde attempt to consult Savathun in-between saving Mara's Techuens.

[post-reclaiming Uldren’s memories] Cayde and Crow, under Mara's request, try to find the Young Wolf. Cayde, unable to leave, is stuck playing intel. Crow, deep in abandoned ruins that were already difficult to get through, finds them and is warned against trusting the Vanguard not to turn on him. [One Mirror, Two Reflections, chp1: Warning A Replacement]

[Witch Queen] 

[Risen] 

[Haunted] Wolf’s Nightmare is the Speaker, who taunts them for letting the Vanguard take their chance at life and for being too weak to stop it. Crow is the only support they have through it (?), and without the connection through the Harvester. The Nightmare of Safiyah taunts Zavala with failing both Hakim and Wolf, pointing out he’s fucked over both of his children now.  Cayde’s Nightmare is Sundance, who taunts him about failing Andal, her, and Wolf.  Calus is not repelled (?), but the Witness still drags his consciousness from the Leviathan for Lightfall.

[?] A fireteam catches wind of the Young Wolf’s whereabouts potentially being on the Leviathan, and are assigned to check out the validity of the report. [Impromptu Arsenal Check]

[?] Cayde and Wolf see each other in person again for the first time since the prison. [A Lot of Firsts]

[?] The (Secondary) Hunter Trio try to make up some patrols they fell behind on, and instead get some Horror Of The Unknown (or, more accurately—Rancher does.) [A Further Look Into Hunter Gossip]

[Lightfall] (Crow and Wolf train together under Osiris in using Strand.)

[?] Crow, Saint, and Osiris wear down Zavala, trying to advise him to unexile Wolf, as the Coalition is spread too thin. Empress Caiatl, despite having heard much of the story from Saladin and Zavala’s points of view, makes the final nail in the coffin in a private meeting.  If she can see past Calus and his crimes and turn to protect her people; if Saint can see past the Fallen to protect the Eliksni and the City; if Zavala can see past Ghaul and trust her with his own— Then he can see past the Prison and take the risk. He talks Ikora into allowing him to unexile the Young Wolf.

[?] After some time, Crow finally convinces Wolf to take the opportunity to see the City again, and they are brought out of exile. Later, after some adjustment, Crow takes them out to see how things have changed, and how other things haven't. [A Day In Town] (unfinished, unposted)

[?] Before leaving to follow the Witness into the Traveler, the Guardian takes Crow exploring to say goodbye, if only for now. [Intermission: STORMJOYS] (unfinished, unposted)

[Final Shape] Plight of The Honeybee.

[xkandy]

Psycho Pass - timeline and why you shouldn’t hate on S3 that much

I’ve been following Psycho Pass ever since the original run of Season 1 back in 2012. I’d like to make you and everyone who disliked S3 understand some things. Hope I structure this well, here goes.

Obviously there will be some spoilers.

First let’s take a look at the releases in the PP universe so far. We have:

Season 1

Season 2

Movie

Sinners of The System 1,2,3 (2 being a prequel)

Season 3

First Inspector

Before I write anything I’m going to stop you and say that nothing tops Season 1. So there,now that we have that out of the way let’s continue.

Season 1

Takes place in late 2112-2113

Central characters are Akane and Kogami and let’s face it, for many Kogami is the one who carried the show, even if some consider him to be a “generic edgy”  protagonist I think he’s pretty solid as a character at this point.

Akane has had MAJOR character development throughout the whole season and I’ll never forget how upset some people were that she was a noob. That was the whole point, she is a newbie and a model citizen who trusts the system, her character evolution revolves around coming to the realization that the system is flawed.

Makishima as a villain was phenomenal and not because quoting from books , but because his motives and reasoning were clearly established  and he made both protagonists question themselves and the system.

Season 1 is written by Gen Urobuchi , the following seasons (except the movie) are not written by him.

Season 2

Takes place in 2114.

A trainwreck, don’t even want to go here. The disappointment was huge.

I found Mika to be extremely annoying and unbearable with 0 character growth. The only highlights for this season for me were Gino and Akane.

Onwards.

The Movie

Takes place 3 years after the events of Season 1, in 2116.

Nothing of major impact happens but if you love the old cast , namely Gino, Akane, Kogami you’ll enjoy this and I have a feeling this is what they were betting on and wanted to see: the public reaction to the old cast.

The interaction between Akane and Kogami is the highlight (another one being Gino vs Kogami).

It’s clear as day that Akane evolved as a character and Kogami is questioning his past, so let’s say some minor character development.

Sinners of the System

If you enjoy the universe and aren’t too attached to the main cast you will like these, although case 3 is about Kogami so I’m sure it’s the one most people will like.

Case 1 has some minor Mika character development (she still sucks imho)

Case 2 is a prequel that sets up some details about the storyline that will be the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Case 3 is the one you’ll want to watch if you want to see S3/First Inspector as it revolves around Kogami and him coming to terms with his thoughts when he is asked by a young girl to train her as he sees in her a version of himself and where this will lead (girl seeks revenge) . 

His story arc regarding Sasayama’s death, revenge, Makishima is complete, it ends here as he decides to head back to Japan.

This triggers the potential for the future series/movies in the Psycho Pass universe to deal with the (possible) unresolved storyline of dealing with Akane once he gets back to Japan, because he will have to face her at one point.

So after Case 3 Kogami is already a complete character , there is no strong conflict or drive for him as the one which had driven the plot of season 1.

We already know everything about him.

Let me jump back to Gino for a brief moment, his first arc concluded when his father died and he became an enforcer, his current arc might be related to what I’ll get to in a second.

Season 3

Alright so here we are,a new season nobody was expecting and 2 new protagonists we expected even less.

Taking place in 2120 , 8 years after the events of Season 1 it follows Arata and Kei in their own CID adventures.

The tone of the series is vastly different from both S1 and S2, most notably :

it feels like those friendly buddy cop TV shows

the violence is greatly reduced, no more “shock value”

the side characters aren’t invested into, they’re just there for being there and plot devices (they’re alright, the new enforcers get some characterization but it’s not season 1 level)

Arata’s “skill” - if you think about it as high level empathy it’s gonna feel less dumb

Being new protagonists, the writers had to make sure we get to like them by offering us details about their past and what drives their motives, I’d say they did an ok job at that.

There’s no room for comparison to Akane and Kogami, those 2 are already established characters who have resolved story arcs and suffered changes.

Keep in mind Akane is 28 now and Kogami is 36, whereas the new protagonists are in their early 20s. They have time for character evolution, it’s easier to write new characters into the universe than deal with established ones such as Akane and Kogami.

Also, we see Kou visiting Akane while she’s in jail, her not being surprised means this may have happened before, which leads to further questions in the storylines that will definitely be explored in the new PP installments to follow:

Details on the incident which caused her to be in jail

What happened when Kogami returned to Japan and how the Sibyl system dealt with this

Kou reuniting with Ginoza, since both work for the hot blonde now

etc, you get the idea

First Inspector

It’s actually not that bad, I’m not going to spoil anything (well...not everything) but I suggest giving it a chance. If you don’t want to watch S3 just read about it and watch this, the most important things to take are from episode 3′s last scenes

Akane is released AS AN ENFORCER by Sibyl and will help Mika

Kogami is sent to get her, there will definitely be a recap between these two

Arata and Kei both have secrets regarding the case they worked on, not gonna spoil anything

Yayoi is alive, and will live with Shion. Just puttin this out there since they’re everyone’s favorite lesbians

Mika is still shit.

Gino is still based as fuck 

Also, there is a post credits scene with Akane saying something along the lines of “ let’s talk about the incident that got me jailed “ . This was only in the theatrical release so you can bet your ass we’re getting more PP in the future.

Thoughts

Lastly, what everyone needs to understand is that S1 made PsychoPass become a franchise. A franchise revolves around different characters in the same universe, sometimes the focus is on the OGs , but sometimes it isn’t.

I would like to note here that Gen Urobuchi is responsible for Season 1 (you know, the dude who wrote Madoka and other stuff like that...) and he did a great job writing a compelling story. Did he want PP to turn into a franchise? This I do not know and I have a feeling this might explain his absence from the later installments of the series. 

He wrote a complete story in 22 episodes which could have been left at that but seeing how well received the first season was it spawned a franchise.

What I want to say is please give Arata and Kei a chance (S3 protags) . They’re not that bad and they help the franchise stay alive as it seems they were pretty well received in Japan. Would you rather Mika be the main character again?! HELL NO

Now I love the main trio - Akane,Kou,Gino - as much as everyone but at this point they’re so high level it’d be hard to write a series just about them. Make one wrong move and the fanbase will hate you.

Also, this one is for all you Kogami x Akane shippers, I view their relationship as professional only but I’ll be damned if I didn’t scream at those 2 short scenes these 2 had in S3 and FI .Can’t wait to see the interactions between grown up Akane and seasoned peace-of-mind Kogami.

If you’re still here thanks for reading my rant, hope I made sense. 

edited to add some stuff

[bigassheart]

Updated TUA Timeline

OK, so I posted some Umbrella Academy Timeline stuff a few days ago, but I’ve since re-watched a few episodes, read some other posts online, and made some adjustments. 

So here is my latest take on the show’s timeline: 

October 1st, 1989 - The Umbrella Academy kids are born.

Vanya trains with Reginald and is subsequently made to forget about her powers around age 4. (based on casting for the young Vanya and young Allison roles)

This is also when Grace comes to the house, therefore the kids all get their names around this same age. (I would assume Grace names them fairly quickly, but that is 100% just an assumption)

Klaus is locked in the mausoleum when he is 8. (again, based on casting for that role) However, it’s not quite that simple, because when Klaus is talking to his dad in episode 7, he says that his dad locked him in the mausoleum when he was 13. Complicating matters even further, there is a post somewhere out there that took a screen shot of Reginald’s journal with notes about locking Klaus in the mausoleum. (I have not been able to find that post again, so if anyone knows the one I’m talking about and has a link, I would love to put it in here). The date recorded on those notes is 2001. (I don’t remember the month, but I think it was summer) That would have made him 11 years old. It’s possible that this was just an inconsistency in the writing. Or it’s possible that Reginald locked Klaus in a mausoleum on at least 3 different occasions at age 8, 11, and 13. 

Five leaves when he is 13.

According to Pogo in episode 1, Five has been gone for 16 years, 4 months, and 14 days. The date in that episode is March 24th, 2019 (according to Vanya). That means that Five disappeared on November 10th, 2002, a little more than a month after the Umbrella Academy kids all turned 13.

That means the museum robbery, and pretty much all of the scenes with those actors are when the characters are 13 or (very likely) 12.

Five finds Delores pretty soon after the apocalypse (again, same actor, so I’m figuring a year leeway at most). He tells Klaus that he was with Delores for 30 years. That would make him about 43 when The Handler shows up. When Five gets back to the present, he gives a very specific amount of time he has been gone: 45 years. This means he spent 15 years working for the Comission, making him 58 at this point.

In episode 3, we learn that Vanya wrote her book 5 years earlier. (when they were 24) At this point, Ben is already dead and Luthor has not had his accident yet. 

In episode 6, Luther says that he was on the moon for 4 years, making him about 25 years old when he left. We don’t know how soon after the accident he was sent to the moon (days? weeks? months?), but based on the fact that he had not had the accident at age 24, it had to have been less than a year.

That brings us to the present. The members of the Umbrella Academy are all 29, except for Five, who is 58, and Klaus, who spent 10 months in Vietnam and is therefore 30 now.  EDIT 1: Actually, the kids may all be 30 (except for Klaus and Five). Diego mentions leaving at age 17. Alison mentions leaving the house 13 years ago. Granted, they may have left at different ages, but then there’s also a scene where Five tells Luthor he’s 28 years older than him. If those three numbers and their birth year are all accurate, then the “present day” events all take place in March of 2020, not 2019. EDIT 2: Nope. The Handler says that Five was flagged when he appeared in 2019, so season 1 does take place in March of 2019. Apparently the writers are just bad at math and that’s ok.  

There is of course one mystery left: Ben. Ben’s death is still a huge mystery in the show, but I’m going to argue that it happens when they are 16. Here’s why: 

Klaus mentions that Ben died “young and tragic”

Everyone left the house after Ben died, according to Vanya. 

In episode 3, Alison says that they left their mom alone for 13 years. (13 years ago, they would have been 16) We don’t know how quickly everyone left, if it took days, weeks, or even years, so it’s possible that 13 years ago was when Alison left specifically. It could be that everyone was gone by that date. Or it could be that this is when everyone started leaving. 

Ben’s statue does not have a date on it, but obviously he would have had to be at least the same age as he is depicted there.   

We also have the following portraits sequence in episode 1 that was used to show Five’s disappearance and Ben’s death. Here are all 4 portraits. 

Portrait 1 is done when they are all 12 or 13 years old. Everyone looks about the same age in portrait 2, so I’m assuming it Reginald had it commissioned right after Five disappeared. It would therefore make sense that portrait 4 was done right after Ben died. There are clearly several years age difference between portraits 2 and 3. It also looks like there may be another year or so age difference between portraits 3 and 4. Because of this, I would argue that the children are at least 15 years old in the final portrait. Therefore, Ben dies at age 15 or 16. 

And that’s all I’ve got so far. 

If anyone else has more clues from the show on Ben’s death or other details of the timeline, please add them to this post. I definitely feel like there are some things I’m missing…

[thesevenseraphs]

Bungie Weekly Update - 1/30/20

This Week at Bungie, we had to fix the timeline.

Earlier this week, when we deployed 2.7.1, we discovered an issue causing players to lose various currencies. Our team immediately took action and brought the game down for maintenance while we worked to discover the source of the issue. We did this to minimize any further impact to players. We ended up doing the first-ever character rollback in Destiny’s history to ensure that no one lost any of their hard-earned materials. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused by the unexpected maintenance and appreciated everyone’s patience while we worked to get the game back online.

We’ll continue to improve our efforts to minimize issues and downtime. Even though some bugs are always going to crawl through the cracks, we’ll be waiting on the other side with a swatter.

EMPYREAN FOUNDATION

Next week, the Empyrean Foundation rebuild effort begins. Saint-14 will ask all Guardians to contribute to building a beacon that will be a foundation for things to come next Season. The Tower Obelisk will be the focal point of this event, so make sure you have it unlocked and ready to go as it’s going to have some hefty benefits to take advantage of.

Players will need to come together and contribute resources towards a common goal. To participate, players can donate their Fractaline using the Tower Obelisk. The event will have seven stages, each requiring increasing amounts of Fractaline to progress through. There will also be a hologram at the Tower Obelisk where you’ll be able to track the community’s progress in game.

Of course we aren’t going to ask you to fork over your hard-earned Fractaline without providing some benefits. Here’s what’s in it for you:

Contributing to the Empyrean Foundation costs 100 Polarized Fractaline.

Contributing generates a 25% flat progression for all Timelost weapon bounties in your inventory.

Your Tower Obelisk will generate Polarized Fractaline for you each week equivalent to its Resonance Power.

Increase its Resonance Power by upgrading other Obelisks

Players who donate more than 5,000 Polarized Fractaline before the end of the Season will earn a Triumph and emblem.

Everyone in the community will also receive a shader when all stages are completed. Here’s a look at community goals for the seven stages.

Stage 1: 400,000,000

Stage 2: 700,000,000

Stage 3: 1,200,000,000

Stage 4: ???

Stage 5: ???

Stage 6: ???

Stage 7: ???

Everyone is welcome to contribute. This event will be available to all Destiny 2 players and doesn’t require the Season Pass. You can start prepping this week by stockpiling Fractaline and making sure that your Tower Obelisk is powered up and ready to go.

PRIME TIME

Yesterday, we announced that we are teaming up with Twitch Prime to deliver in-game rewards to Destiny 2 players with an active Prime membership. We are planning to have six monthly drops, with each drop containing four rewards.

The first gear drop is live now and will be available until February 25. It includes the SUROS Regime Auto Rifle, the Coup de Main Ornament, the Skyline Flipside Exotic Ghost Shell, and the unsecured/OUTCRY Exotic ship.

GUARDIAN GIVEAWAYS

This week, the Bungie Store is celebrating Guardians everywhere with a giveaway contest featuring curated collections of Destiny gear, including sold-out

Shadowkeep Collector’s Editions signed by the Bungie team. For a limited time, a variety of discounted merchandise bundles are available on bungiestore.com and eu.bungiestore.com.

To enter, follow @BungieStore on Twitter, retweet the current giveaway post and add #GuardianGiveaways. The contest ends February 4, 2020 8:59 AM PST. Entries from EU, UK, USA, & CN only (see Rules for excluded provinces and states). 18+ to enter. Please see the Official Rules for more information.

GUARDIANS FOR AUSTRALIA

Our “Guardians for Australia” T-shirt is still available for pre-order on the Bungie Store and Bungie Store EU. Half of all profits generated by these T-shirt sales will be donated to NSW Rural Fire Service. The second half will be donated to WIRES, Australia’s largest wildlife rescue organization.

Purchase of the shirt also includes an exclusive Destiny 2 “Star Light, Star Bright” emblem. Thanks for helping us support Australia’s firefighting and animal rescue efforts.

ROLLBACK TO THE FUTURE

Player Support

has a key role of working with the entire team to make sure you are aware of deployments and efforts to restore service during outages.

This is their report.

UPDATE 2.7.1 AND ROLLING BACK ACCOUNTS

After Update 2.7.1 went live on Tuesday, January 28, the Player Support team began noticing a trend of topics where users had lost various Destiny 2 currencies and infusion materials. After verifying this issue, it was decided by several Bungie teams to take the game down in an attempt to prevent more players from being affected.

Due to this issue affecting all accounts, and with no way to determine how much each account lost in a timely manner, it was decided to roll back everyone’s account from our last account backup around 8:30 AM PST. Due to the rollback:

Any progress or quest that completed between 8:30 and 10:30 AM PST would have to be redone.

Any item gained during that timeframe would have to be earned again.

Purchases made during that timeframe would have to be redone, and Silver spent would be restored.

Platform store-purchased Silver bundles would not be affected since they are completed on the platform’s end.

After the rollback completed, Destiny 2 server came back online around 7:00 PM PST. We are continuing to investigate why this issue occurred and may provide more information about it in the future.

TWITCH PRIME SUPPORT To receive the gear drops mentioned in the Prime Time section above, players will need an active Amazon Prime account, Bungie.net account, and a Destiny 2 account. Once these accounts are linked, players can claim their drops on the Destiny 2 Twitch Prime website, then log into Destiny 2 and speak to Amanda Holliday in the Tower Hangar to claim the drops. For more information about how to link accounts and claim your Exotic gear drops, view our Twitch Prime Support for Destiny 2 article on Help.Bungie.Net.

CURRENT KNOWN ISSUES While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:

The Pigeon and the Phoenix lore book triumphs can no longer be viewed by players who unlocked them. This will be resolved in a future update.

Tower load times have increased after Update 2.7.1.

The Green With Envy quest is not properly recording Infamy rank for some players after Update 2.7.1.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

[strmyweather]

RP Cut #2: Non-Scale Victories

I will freely admit that I’m posting this ‘timeline’ mostly for my own benefit, so that I’ll have it to refer back to at a later date; it may not be of tremendous interest to anyone else. But as I type this, I have 24 hours to go until the ‘finish line’ of my second Renaissance Periodization cut. I’m once again feeling pretty satisfied, proud of the journey, and, in most ways, dramatically more prepared and mentally ‘settled’ about the endpoint than I was after my first cut. However, the one concept that continues to make me (irrationally) anxious is the prospect of slightly higher bodyweight potentially impacting my CrossFit movements—thus this post.

Objectively, I do recall from my last cut-to-maintenance transition that the concept of improved fueling / increased glycogen stores pretty effectively offsets any slight bodyweight bump. However, I’ve been CrossFitting for over five years and just gained the bulk of my gymnastics skills within these past six or seven months. In other words, I’m still so new to this ‘toolbox’ that any performance fluctuations (which I’ve long been accustomed to with a barbell) still feel irrationally frightening on this new playing field—like, but I could do FIVE strict pull-ups yesterday, and today FOUR feels hard; therefore THE WORLD IS ENDING! (…My coach is continually talking me off the ledge in this regard. :))

At any rate, this is one reason why I kept track of certain gym accomplishments (a.k.a. ‘non-scale victories’) as the cut progressed. I am definitely not someone who PRs barbell movements on a cut (quite the contrary; my strength has suffered significantly this year), but my gymnastics have improved literally beyond all recognition, of which I am very proud. As such, I wanted to keep track of my performance milestones at various bodyweights along the way, so that I’ll have this mental tool for the inevitable struggle bus days. When sets of handstand push-ups feel impossible, it might help to be able to look back at this post and say to myself, no, your bodyweight is NOT the issue, because you did this same thing in a metcon when you were TEN POUNDS heavier! It’s just time for a rest day, that’s all. :)

Without further ado, I give you RP Cut #2: the Non-Scale Victory Edition! :)

Week 1 average: 148.4 lb (although, admittedly, about a pound of this was Bagel Bloat from my massive cheat weekend in NYC just prior to starting the cut—I had been averaging 147.4 prior to the trip) Non-scale victory: recaptured a 193# back squat (which is only 7# off my all-time best despite weighing 20-25# less than I did at the time I achieved that PR).

Week 2 average: 146.4 lb Non-scale victory: 2 sets of 5 unbroken handstand push-ups (single abmat, no plates) in a metcon setting!

Week 3 average: 145.3 lb Non-scale victorIES: five unbroken strict pull-ups! three unbroken ring dips! 4 sets of 50 unbroken double-unders! ...It was a big week :-)

Week 4 average: 144.2 lb Non-scale victory: PRed Fran at 8:28. Definitely still on the slower side, but I was thrilled by consistently large-ish sets (thrusters as 14/7, 8/7, and 9 unbroken; pull-ups as sets of 3-5 the whole way!). Afterward, my coach made the point that I likely could have gone faster for competition purposes by doing smaller sets, but that this was the right approach/stimulus to use for training.

Week 5 average: 142.6 Non-scale victory: basically blitzing through a metcon that included both TTB and HSPU (two relatively new skills for me), and staying consistent with both. Did all the sets of 10 TTB as 6/4, and sets of 5 HSPU as unbroken 5s (albeit again to just one abmat, no plates).

Week 6 average: 141.2 lb Non-scale victory: weighted pull-ups with a 10# plate! Also, sets of 4 HSPU with 10# plates—something I had struggled with as recently as three weeks prior—felt EASY. (The high point of this week was the moment when my coach grinned at me after a particularly sharp set of those and said, “See, this is why, when you get salty about stuff, I say to you, ‘remember when you couldn’t do a handstand push-up negative?’” :-))

Week 7 average: 141.0 lb (but this was a bit artificially inflated because it was the week that I ‘should have gotten’ my period; in reality, this was also the week I broke the 140 barrier / saw a couple of weights in the 130s for the first time ever in my adult life!). Non-scale victory: not a big flashy accomplishment, but I was pretty pleased when I felt basically fine / barely sore at all after doing the equivalent of about 90 pull-ups in one training session.

Week 8 average: 140.9 lb (but again somewhat artificially inflated, this time by being home for the holidays) Non-scale victory: non-gym-related, but: going home for 2.5 days for Christmas and meeting both of my goals, which were (1) getting my protein in every day and (2) eating and enjoying normal food without ‘cracking out’. I was also proud that I could recognize the exact moment (on the morning of the third day) when I was starting to lose my restraint, and was able to use the clock as a tool to reel myself back in.

Week 9 average: 138.7 lb Non-scale victory: there were three this week: (1) got my first truly RXed handstand push-ups (abmat + 25-lb plates), on New Year’s Eve, (2) did 50 burpees in 2:58 (!), and (3) did a set of 10 easy unbroken toes-to-bar that felt as though I could’ve kept going!

Week 10 average: 138.1 lb Non-scale victory: ‘graduated’ to performing official muscle-up attempts! I have all the ‘pieces’—five strict pull-ups, three strict dips, sharp transitions on the low rings, strong hollow swings on the high rings—I just have to figure out the combination of mental cues that allows me to put it all together.

Week 11 average: 137.2 lb Non-scale victory: sets of two RXed HSPU in an EMOM setting—that actually felt dramatically easier than the singles I had done two weeks prior! Also, coach started programming my wallballs with the 20# ball—which I obviously despise, but also secretly love, because it feels like a vote of confidence. :)

Week 12 average: 135.4, with a nadir of 133.7 lb (!!!) Non-scale victory: sets of 3-4 unbroken false grip ring pull-ups (which feel weird and uncomfortable, but several of the boys in the gym spontaneously commented on how good they looked and how “you just add a little kip in there, and [you’ve got your muscle-up]!”, which felt really good to hear. :)

…I’ll soon link this post back to the fuller/longer one detailing more of the multidimensional ins and outs of this second cut, but thought that the above timeline deserved its own section (in the interest of partitioning the various aspects into manageable ‘chunks’, rather than writing my usual rambly novel :)).

I’m very much looking forward to maintenance—to sleeping through the night again, to having more than one tablespoonful of peanut butter per day, to NOT feeling freezing cold all the time, to watching my butt and legs reappear, to having creamer in my coffee once in a while—but honestly, the biggest reason is that I truly cannot wait to ‘feel strong’ again. This cut has served its purpose and I’m grateful that I tackled it when I did, and with the degree of dedication that I did—but, as CrossFit athletes, we ‘specialize in not specializing’, and I have felt rather one-dimensional for the vast majority of the past year. Objectively, I’ve knocked FORTY POUNDS off my bodyweight in the past 11 months (whaaaaat?!?)—so now let’s see about sticking some of that weight back onto the barbell, shall we? :)

[bizmediaweb]

How to Make a Blockbuster Twitter Video for Your Business

If content is king, video is the crown jewel of the online world. Indeed, one million minutes of video will be shared online every second by 2021, According to Cisco. And by then, 82 percent of all internet traffic will be attributable to video.

Since it introduced video functionality, Twitter has become one of the most popular places people to watch, share, and talk about videos online. Since early 2016, tweets with video have increased by over 50 percent.

Here’s our guide to using Twitter video to grow and promote your brand.

Why use Twitter video?

It’s easy to see why video content is so popular. Video can engage, inform, entertain, and generally move people in a way other mediums struggle to.

From explainer videos to live streaming and brand stories, marketers have taken to video in a big way—and with great success. Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing 2017 report found 79 percent of consumers now prefer video to text to learn about a product, and 84 percent have been converted into buyers through a brand video.

Our guide to social video and where it fits in your marketing plan provides more general video for business stats and advice. When it comes to Twitter marketing, there is a convincing case for building video into your plan. Here are five of the most compelling Twitter video stats for your next presentation:

Ninety-three percent of Twitter video views happen on mobile devices. This makes Twitter video an ideal way to reach consumers on their phones in real-time.

A Promoted Twitter video can take consumer action even further. Twitter users who watch a branded video are 28 percent more likely to buy.

Twitter videos get six times more retweets than photos, and three times more retweets than GIFs.

37 percent of Twitter users would like to see more Twitter videos from their favorite brands.

41 percent of Twitter users favor Twitter as a way to discover video content.

Twitter video will continue to take off as the network develops new features for users and marketers.

Types of Twitter video

There are a few different ways to create and share Twitter videos.

Recorded video

Use the Twitter app to record videos through your phone camera, and then edit and share them from within the app.

Imported video

Import videos from your phone camera to the Twitter app.

Uploaded video

Upload videos to twitter.com.

Live-streamed Twitter video

Broadcast a live video to your followers using the mobile Twitter app.

Promoted videos

Twitter offers a range of video advertising options for companies looking to use video to target and engage with their customers on Twitter. Promoted videos show up in targeted users’ feeds and are labelled “Promoted.” With promoted videos, advertisers can choose between a few different format and placement options:

First View: Grab the most prominent real estate on Twitter—the top of the timeline ad slot—for 24 hours to really make a splash with your Twitter video.

Conversational video: Add campaign hashtags and call-to-action buttons to promoted videos to drive conversation and encourage sharing.

Instant Unlock Card: Combine conversational videos with a call-to-action that invites people to Tweet your promotional hashtag and message to unlock exclusive video content.

Video Website Card: Create a promoted video featuring an auto-playing video, headline, and a URL Twitter users can click to go to your website.

In-Stream Video Ads: Show a video ad before, after, or during other videos, including live-streamed video, to target people while they’re already viewing related video content.

Twitter video specs and requirements

Each Twitter video type has a its own specs and requirements. Here’s a rundown of must-know Twitter video specs.

Twitter video length

0.5 to 140 seconds.

Select advertisers can post promoted videos up to 10 minutes long.

Twitter video file format

Mobile: MP4 and MOV video formats.

Web: MP4 video format, with H264 format with AAC audio.

Twitter video file size

You can upload videos up to 15 MB (sync) / 512 MB (async) within the length limits.

Longer promoted videos should ideally be no more than 1GB for optimal performance.

Twitter video file resolution

Minimum: 32 x 32.

Maximum: 1280 x 1024.

Twitter video aspect ratio

Between 1:3 and 3:1.

Twitter video frame rate and bitrate

Maximum frame rate: 40 fps.

Maximum bitrate: 25 Mbps.

How to use Twitter video

From recording a quick video within the app to streaming a live event, here’s a quick guide to how to get started the various Twitter video types. You can even use Hootsuite to schedule tweets with video.

How to record and share a Twitter video from the mobile app

Tap the Tweet icon.

Tap the photo icon.

Tap the video icon to access video mode.

Hold down the record icon to record a video and release to stop recording.

To add more to your video, press and hold the record icon again.

Drag up video clips to delete part of your video, and edit their order by dragging and moving your video clips sideways.

Tap Done when you’re happy with the video.

Preview your video by tapping the play button, and do any final edits.

Tap Tweet to share your video with a message.

How to import and share a Twitter video on mobile

Tap the Tweet icon.

Find the video you want to share in your saved videos and select it.

Edit the length by dragging the bar at the bottom.

Tap Trim to finish your edits.

Preview your video by tapping the play button, and do any final edits.

Tap Tweet to share your video with a message.

How to upload and share a Twitter video from your desktop

Click the Tweet button.

Click Add media.

Choose your video and click Open. Make sure it’s the right format.

Edit the length of your selected video.

Click Done to finish your edits.

Click Tweet to share your video with a message.

How to create a live Twitter video from the mobile app

Tap the compose icon.

Tap the live video icon.

End your live recording by swiping down and tapping End video.

How upload and share a Twitter video using Hootsuite

In the compose message box, click Attach media.

Click Choose files to upload, select the video file and then click Open, or drag and drop a video file from your desktop.

Click Post later to schedule a specific time or Autoschedule to let Hootsuite find the perfect time to post your content.

How to create promoted videos

You can run Twitter video ad campaigns and promote your video content using Twitter ads.

There is a self-serve option, but some of the more advanced options require you to go through an advertising account representative.

Twitter video tips and ideas for business

There are tons of ways to use Twitter video. You might tweet out videos your organization has created, retweet relevant video content your audience would find valuable, or explore ways to share real-time video on Twitter.

We can’t turn you into Steven Spielberg, but here are a few ideas and some best practices to help you get the most from Twitter video.

8 ways to use Twitter video

1. Reply to tweets

Responding to tweets demonstrates that your account is active and engaging with people, which may inspire new people to follow you.

Replying to a tweet with a video is a meaningful and creative way to engage with your audience. A video gives you room to surprise, delight, and hopefully inspire retweets. This can be especially useful in a customer service context. Replying to a specific query with a how-to video or live video message is much more engaging than a generic message.

#TDF2016 The answer to the fan Q&A question – by @RSinkeldam, @simongeschke and @RoyCurvers.https://t.co/PKLM2xI3f3

— Team Sunweb (@TeamSunweb) July 18, 2016

2. Host Q&A sessions

Offering your audience the opportunity to ask questions directly via video, shakes up the Wizard-of-Oz-behind-the-curtain vibe and humanizes your brand. Twitter is an excellent place to host these sessions because of the millions of users engaging with the app at any given time. You can even do a live Q&A.

LIVE on #Periscope: Chit chat get ready w/ Jen & Deanna 💋😘✌🏼️ https://t.co/bmMjFU34vM

— tartecosmetics (@tartecosmetics) November 22, 2016

3. Share real-time updates and events

Periscope lets anyone broadcast live video on Twitter. You could do this from a fun promotional event or just an average—yet interesting—day at the office.

Live videos should feel like a conversation between you and the viewer. For example, if you are a craft brewer you could broadcast the pouring and tasting of the first pint from a new batch of freshly-brewed beer.

You can also do live tutorials, broadcast keynote speeches, award presentations, and live-stream other events your audience might find interesting.

Sea For Yourself! — Sea otters in the morning! https://t.co/hqAzijRETV

— Monterey Bay Aquarium (@MontereyAq) March 7, 2017

  4. Educate and inform

Create a Twitter video to teach your audience something interesting about your brand or tell them something fascinating about the world. The secret is to be entertaining as well as informative, and captions are an excellent way to reinforce your messages without requiring your audience to listen to audio.

General Electric is one of the most prolific Twitter video brands.

As the tallest QB in the draft, Paxton Lynch's height gives him an incredible 👀 advantage on the field #DraftScience http://pic.twitter.com/mgianWA8vK

— General Electric (@generalelectric) April 29, 2016

5. Promote, advertise, and share teasers

Promoted Video on Twitter allows you to target specific, engaged consumers. With Twitter’s recent addition of auto-play, all videos automatically begin to play as users scroll through their timelines, encouraging interaction with the video by tap or click. If you are planning a live Twitter video event, use video teasers to promote it in the run-up to the big day.

  6. Offer exclusive content and behind-the-scenes peeks

Offering a sneak peek is a great way to generate excitement for your brand. A video that stirs up emotion, fascinates, or leaves the viewer in awe can prompt your audience to share and return for more great content. Food Network Canada is one of many brands using video to both promote themselves and provide interesting and shareable content.

Making fudge has never been easier. Recipe: https://t.co/MCwrMVeAww http://pic.twitter.com/PQW2gnLqT4

— Food Network Canada (@FoodNetworkCA) January 1, 2018

7. Entertain

You can’t really go wrong if you create something truly entertaining. Old Spice went above and beyond with this hilarious video of a face painting robot. No doubt this video took time, effort, and creativity. Worth it? You decide.

A robot arm that paints nacho decals on football fan’s faces… who needs universal healthcare?https://t.co/LSGCUOxsBo

— Old Spice (@OldSpice) November 29, 2015

And being entertaining can also be profitable, as Doritos UK proved with their video-heavy #BabyDragon Twitter campaign.

Discover how #BabyDragon became a mini-celebrity on Twitter – and helped @DoritosUK generate £3M in UK sales.

— Twitter Marketing UK (@TwitterMktgUK) October 17, 2017

8. Collect and share user-generated content

People love to be recognized. Challenge your audience to submit fun videos around a brand-related theme and then reward them with replies and Retweets. A user-generated content campaign can take your social media marketing to the next level.

GoPro have an advantage in the video game for obvious reasons. Unsurprisingly, they make full use of user-generated video in their Twitter feed, which in turn encourages more people to tweet them with their own videos. Getting other people to create your content is a winning strategy on many levels.

Good times at @tristarskates last night! #cleveland 📹: @gopro #hero6 http://pic.twitter.com/OTD46og948

— Sean Malto (@sean_malto) December 30, 2017

7 ways to engage more people with Twitter video

1. Hook viewers in the first few seconds

You need to grab people’s attention quickly, especially on Twitter where so much other content is competing for your audience’s attention. The good news is that often viewers only need one second to be able to recall a memorable video.

2. Cut up longer videos into bite-size chunks

You put so much effort into creating content, it makes sense to get the most value from it. Chop up longer videos into small, standalone vignettes or GIFs to provide more fresh content. Twitter users love sharing short content.

3. Put people front and center

People respond to people. Twitter found that viewer retention doubles when people appear in the first few frames of a video. Short, people-focused videos can also help tell your company story and introduce your people to your customers—helping to humanize your brand.

4. Don’t be afraid of branding your videos

Videos with prominent branding in the first few seconds get the most attention, and adding a logo increases purchasing intent by nine percent.

5. Use captions to reinforce your messages

News organizations in particular are becoming adept at creating short videos that tell a story well even if the sound is off. The BBC, for example, makes good use of this technique.

Tommy was abused in a care home as a boy. Now, at 81, he's powering through a bucket list and making up for the childhood he never had. http://pic.twitter.com/DxFOjIudXU

— BBC Stories (@bbcstories) October 23, 2017

6. Go live

You can’t beat a live Twitter video to increase brand affinity. It’s a great way to break down the barrier that often exists between customers and businesses.

7. Bring products to life

Video is the best way to bring products to life and show them in their natural habitat. Twitter video can help you sell products in a variety of ways—from different uses to how-to explainer videos.

Use Hootsuite to easily schedule, publish, and promote your Twitter videos. You can then engage with your followers from the same platform that you manage all your other social channels from.

Get Started

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[film-and-tv-cameron-regan]

Unit 8 Final Major Project- Production

(N.B: Our second project, the music video, will instead be a behind the scenes view of our short drama. After presenting the idea to the class and tutors, it was decided that a music video may be too difficult and time consuming to fit around the shooting of a short drama. I will maintain my role in this production as a sound engineer, a role which main responsibilities include recording the crew views on certain scenes with a Marantz. Due to this being a secondary role for myself, all of my recorded research, production and evaluation will be for my role as director and the short drama.)

PRE PRODUCTION PLANNING

I hand drew a storyboard for this production, photographs of which are below, and used a website that one of my teachers recommended to me called www.celtx.com to write the script. The website was excellent and offered pre-programmed layouts for the script as well as other facilities for storyboards and shot lists, and also allowed people I was working with to access and alter it online. Unfortunately the site only offers a free trial period of 28 days, however I can see how paying for the service could be beneficial in an industry setting.

Our three scheduled filming days are Fri 05/05/17, Mon 08/05/17 and Mon 15/05/17. We aim to complete filming on these three days to allow plenty of time to edit and solve any problems that arise, possibly by organising further filming days.

This is the necessary paper work for our project.

[Due to technical difficulty a video of the paper work folder could not be placed here, but it has been placed above the project proposal in this blog]

SHOOTING DAY 1 Mon 08/05/17

Unfortunately, due to unavailability of some of our team, who could not rearrange their part time job shifts on a Friday, a day which we are not usually timetabled to be at college, our original shooting day (05/05/17) had to be reorganised to Friday 07/05/17. This means our first shooting day was now Monday 08/05/17. We travelled to Eight Ash Green, to film interior shots at a crew member’s house and exterior shots in the alley ways nearby.

These are the photographs I took to document our filming that day using both handheld and tripod techniques.

SHOOTING DAY 2 Fri 12/05/17

Today was our rearranged shooting day, originally scheduled for 05/05/17. We asked our college department to borrow a small classroom which we would make up to look like a detective’s office, and also a morgue, mostly by using different lighting techniques. Fortunately, one of our tutors had recently lead a workshop in lighting techniques so we used our knowledge to change how the set looked (See the Research Section) . We also rearranged furniture in a way that would convince the audience that they were in a dark, depressing office, or a cold, still morgue, rather than a classroom.  We knew we would be shooting conversations between two actors as well as a long sweeping shot of a dead body, so we also hired out a slider to mount the camera on. This was our first time using this piece of equipment and it gave us a pleasing result, adding a bit of movement to the conversations and allowed us to slowly reveal information to the audience with a long horizontal scroll, which would have looked shaky and unprofessional if done hand-held.

These photographs document our use of the slider to capture long moving shots as well as how we used lights to change the mood of the room as well as improve the picture quality.

SHOOTING DAY 3 Mon 22/05/17

Unfortunately, due to technical issues with transport, our original planned date for day three of shooting was delayed to a week later. This day was for shooting outside scenes in Harwich, location we had used before and had excellent results due to the derelict buildings there. We used the natural light available and used an ND filter to eliminate any overexposure being captured.

These photographs show us, using a variety of camera angles as well as the boom mic to record clear sound in our outdoor location.

EXTRA SHOOTING TIME Thu 01/06/17

During our editing stage we noticed several opportunities to improve our project with extra footage. We decided to book out a camera and sound kit and filmed a short conversation scene on campus and a scene in a car park near one of the crew’s houses.

POST-PRODUCTION

We edited our footage using Adobe Premiere Pro. We started the day after our first filming day and continued throughout, adding new footage to the timeline when we filmed it.

Colour Grading

One of the main visual features in Guy Ritchie’s and Danny Boyle’s films are the colours, which are achieved in post-production by adding adjustment layers and changing the amount of red, blue and green in the picture. I used the films I had previously researched as a comparison to shots from our film and I think the correct colours have been recreated.

Warp Stabilizer

To keep to the action genre well and use my research of Guy Ritchie and Danny Boyle effectively, I asked my camera man to keep the camera moving and follow the actors in various walking or running scenes. To make this footage look smooth and cover up any jolts or sudden movements, we used the warp stabilizer function in Premiere Pro. This adds a professional feel to the film and sets it apart from an amateur project.

ADR

Some dialogue was unclear or uneven, despite the use of a boom mic to capture sounds. To fix this problem we used a Marantz and microphone to record the dialogue again and edit it back in to the timeline.

This is the screen in Premiere Pro which allowed us to alter the RGB levels that an adjustment layer would show when placed over the video. By removing small amounts of pigment, the picture was more dark and gritty, the look I was hoping to achieve.

Using After Effects

During the editing process I noticed an opportunity to improve my software skills and add a bit of flair to our finished product. Guy Ritchie uses unique and instantly recognisable title sequences in his films and I was interested to see if I could replicate the comic book style graphics. I researched the opening titles of Rocknrolla and Snatch to see how well they fit into the film. My film had a perfect freeze frame and with music over the top, would create a perfect homage to the director I used as inspiration for this film. I looked up a YouTube tutorial which walked me through how to achieve the process using After Effects, the link of which is here: https://youtu.be/jCOXBWdkNPA

These are examples of titles from Snatch and RocknRolla.

This is the screen in After Effects where I built the animation up.

This is the finished animation that will feature in the film.

FIRST SHOWING AND GROUP FEEDBACK Mon 05/06/17

Today we showed our project to the rest of the groups in our class in order to get an unbiased opinion of our work and to find out how to improve our work in the final week of editing. The main points risen were the sound quality and some of the types of cut. To improve the sound quality we raised the volume of our ADR and decrease the volume of some of the foley sounds because they were currently at unrealistic levels and the information we wished to convey through sound was unclear. We also added a royalty free rock track from YouTube to run under the sounds of the opening scene and to grow louder and louder until its dramatic conclusion at the title scene, to give it the full Guy Ritchie effect. We also received some positive feedback from the group, commending our colour grading, the clarity of the story and all round camera quality, with good lighting, focus and stability, due to our use of LED lights and a slider whilst on set, and warp stabilizer and adjustment layers in post-production.

We used the Marantz to record dialogue (left) and then placed it on the timeline and synchronized it to the video (right).