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miss-nov · 4 years ago

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Freddie Lounds Headcanons Because She Is A Boss Bitch Who Deserves A Backstory!!! (NBC's Hannibal).

Was born and raised from ages 1-13 in Southern Connecticut (Westbrook) before moving to Lafayette, Louisiana where she lived before moving to Orono, Maine for College (The University Of Maine) and stayed there to go on with her Journaling Career.

She was born November 5th, 1976. (I'm assuming the show takes place in the early 2010s as the show doesn't seem to be necessarily in the same year as the books are per se). Her full name is Fredrica "Freddie" Lisa Lounds.

Freddie is vegetarian because in her younger years she couldn't stomach the sight of butchered animals of when her father went hunting and decided to not eat meat.

Freddie's father is named George James Lounds and he's a country man through and through and has worked as both a fisherman (in Lafayette) and a ranch hand (Westbrook). Comes from a Christian background. Only moved to a more urban area for his wife. They married September 12, 1969. Born January 23, 1956 in Westbrook, Connecticut.

Appearance: Pale Blue Eyes/Red, Curly Hair/ Pale and Freckled/ 6'3"/ Burly.

Freddie's mom is named Laura Lisa Lewis. While she's never worked a job she is know to volunteer and be active in her community. Very much a charismatic busy-body. Comes from a Christian background. Always dreamed of living in a nice cottage in the country side of France and seriously plans to in her retirement plan. Born July 17, 1957 in New Haven, Connecticut.

Appearance: Dark Brown Eyes/ Strawberry Blonde Wavy Hair/ Tanned/ 5'2"/ Slender.

Freddie's older sister is named Christine "Chrissy" Renee Lounds. Is a stay-at-home mom and mother of Danny James Turner. She married Grant Roger Turner in April 4, 2002. Lives on a small farm in Wolftrap, Virginia. Agnostic beliefs. Regal and able to hold a mean grudge. She has rather rocky relationship with Freddie. Born December 4, 1970 in Westbrook, Connecticut.

Appearance: Wavy, Partly Sunbleached, Red Hair/ Pale Blue Eyes/Tanned/5'5/Lithe and Slightly Toned.

Freddie doesn't know her grandparents on her Father's side because they're alcoholics. She knows virtually nothing about them, not even their names.

Freddie is/was close to her grandparents, Kenneth Hiram Lewis and Lois Renee Miller, on her mother's side. Kenneth was born March 30, 1930 and died in 1991. Lois was born June 25, 1928 and is still presently alive.

Freddie is Bisexual and while her parents are accepting it is difficult to them to understand everything that comes with it so it isn't a topic that comes up often at Family Events.

Freddie is a decent enough cook but the only thing she can bake is bread. Other baking things tend to burn.

Her father and her tend to be slightly emotionally distant.

Freddie bonds with her father by fishing though she never actually eats the fish or help gut and clean them but she likes the comfortable silence. It makes her feel close to him.

Freddie bonds with her mother by helping pick out knick knacks to cram into the kitchen and living room. Her mother insists she takes one to take home with Freddie everytime she visits. Freddie always caves in and does.

Freddie and Christine rarely bond and mostly fight and bicker but when they do it's mostly over watching/playing with Danny. Occasionally one of them reaches out to mend their relationship but it never ends up working out. They can go months without talking to each other but both sisters know that when it really counts they're there for one another.

Danny James Turner is a hyper and energetic boy who wants to be firefighter when he grows up and went as far to convince his mom to get a Dalmatian puppy which he eloquently named her Dotty.

Danny is one of Freddie's pride and joys. She isn't sure if she'll have kids herself but enjoys her visits with Danny. She taught him how to play basketball.

Freddie isn't close with her brother-in-law but she is polite and cordial with him.

Freddie visits her parents on every single holiday without missing a beat. It slowed once they got a cottage in France when she turned 30 but she still makes time for them.

Has no Aunts and has one Uncle, Jessie Hiram Lounds (May 18, 1954), on her Father's side but he only visits on Christmas.

Freddie tends to be an attention seeker as she felt Christine was favored more. Her envy of her sister multipled in high-school as Christine got better grades, was nicer and more well-liked, got all the boys' attention, and all the teachers' praises. Freddie felt she couldn't live up to her sister's standards and harbored a little resentment because of this and it caused the rift in their relationship. It worsened as Freddie entered college but evened out when she graduated.

It's because of her jealousy of her sister that she wants to be rich and famous so that can set Freddie apart from Christine once and for all.

Freddie calls Christine "Chris" to annoy her.

Freddie, since she was a young girl, had always been found eavesdropping and listening to the gossip that circulated between her mom, her grandma, and their friends. She was the type of person to stir the bot whenever she got bored because she found it incredibly entertaining.

Freddie contemplated going into law in her Junior before settling on Journaling as a Senior.

Freddie was in her high-school's newspaper club, photography club, and the lacrosse team.

In Freshman year Freddie would publish rumors in the school newspaper if you paid her and even made a gossip column for it. This lasted up until Junior year before getting permanently shut down after Freddie posted a raunchy rumor about one of the teachers. This almost got her expelled and kicked out of the newspaper club. In the end she got two months detention and had to write about school games instead.

Freddie has almost gotten suspended twice after getting into fights with people after she published cruel gossip about them.

Freddie took Advanced English classes.

Freddie favorite elective was creative writing.

Freddie is trilingual and speaks English (Native Language), French (Secondary Language), and Spanish (Third Language).

Freddie can sign almost all bad words in ASL and half the alphabet. She doesn't know anymore than that.

Freddie wants to go on a trip visiting all the hotspots of Spain before she turns sixty.

Freddie is a huge horror fan. Her favorite horror movies are Psychological ones.

Freddie LOVES trashy, reality television. The trashier and more dramatic the better.

She also enjoys true crime though the episodes where it ends up being a cold case makes her incredibly upset.

Freddie has a green belt in Karate.

Freddie enjoys Yoga and on a biweekly basis goes to a dance studio down the street of her apartment for lessons.

Freddie had a rebellious streak all throughout high-school and her Freshman year of College.

In College Freddie double majored in English and Journaling. Freddie minored in law and when she had a free period, secretly popped into the criminology classes. She was never caught. She played on the lacrosse team and the basketball team.

Freddie hasn't dated much and had only one long-term relationship (Two Years). She only is bothered by this when she thinks how much she wants a kid.

On three separate occasions had thought about adopting and raising a child on her own but chickened out; She's convinced she'd be a terrible mother.

Freddie adopted a black, stray cat fresh out of college, on the first night she moved into her apartment. She named him Pesky.

Freddie likes hyper-sexual pop and sorrowful balleds, there's no in-between.

Freddie writes poetry occasionally, sometimes about something important and other timesfor no reason at all, but it's always in the same format.

Format: Near rhymes/steady meter/rhythm/ short/ last stanza is always two lines.

Every poem she writes about Pesky is pinned all over the side of her fridge.

Favorite color is a tie between Sky Blue and Pastel Green.

Has a secret blog under the name "RedFred" where she critiques horror films.

Freddie hates serial killer with a vehement passion due to the fact that her best friend and first crush, Hannah Mayes, was murdered by one. The killer ended up in prison for life but Freddie felt like it wasn't enough. It was one of the deciding factors of the Lounds moving from Connecticut.

Freddie still has nightmares about it.

Anywho that's all I got for now!! I hope you enjoyed!!

#hannibal #nbc hannibal #hannibal nbc #freddie lounds #freddie lounds headcanons #freddie lounds hc #freddie lounds post

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cookiedoughmeagain · 4 years ago

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Haven DVD Commentaries; 5.05 - The Old Switcheroo (Part I)

Notes on the commentary with Adam Copeland (Dwight), Adam Higgs (Writer), and Bian Millikin (Executive Story Editor). Officially this commentary is just with the two Adams, but Brian is there as well (setting up the equipment??) and joins in after a while.

(It is possible I’ve mixed Brian and Adam Higgs up sometimes, sometimes all the different voices blur together a bit in my head. Adam Copeland’s is easier to separate because his is more familiar.)

AH: We’re going to give a shout out to Cindy McCreery and Scott Shepherd who wrote these two episodes (we’re just talking about 505 right now, but we’ll get to 506 in a bit), and they sadly couldn’t be with us today but we’re going to do our best. AC: This is very important to the Havenites; pancakes. And the fact that they are not enjoyed [by Mara] which is very strange because Audrey loves her pancakes, but Mara doesn’t. AH: Do you like pancakes? AC: I devour pancakes. Some call me the master of pancakes. Yeah I’m like Paul Bunyan. AH: What do you put in a pancake? AC: Well I usually just buy them because I would butcher it, and I know that going in.

AC: That is the Grey Gull. AH: And it’s a grey day. AC: Which in Nova Scotia is not necessarily that strange, but a beautiful place, one of my favourite places and favourite sets. I actually contemplated buying the Grey Gull because it’s for sale. But I think there’s no plumbing, or no toilet. AH: That would be a bit of a difficulty. AC: Yeah. So that was my reason for not buying the Grey Gull. What do you think about that Brian Millikin? BM: I think that was a smart investment move on your part. AC: That’s Brian Millikin, sitting in the rafters. AH: There’s Manteo. Who do we know who has ties to North Carolina? Brian Millikin, maybe you and Nick Parker (another illustrious writer on the show)? BM: I love the way North Carolina looks just like Nova Scotia. AH: Yes, we did not actually go to North Carolina to shoot these episodes. AC: If we had it would have been closer to my home in Ashville, so it would have been a lot easier for me. AH: We should have just shot at your house.

AC: Ah, Richard Donat, aka Vince Teagues, one of my favourite men that I’ve ever met. Such a quiet and strong presence on set. He pretty much just rocks. I’ve been told that’s what I will look like when I’m his age. AH: Maybe it’s time travel. You’re a younger version of Richard, sent from the past? Or the future? AC: Yeah. It could be the case. That could be a spoiler alert. *laughs all round* AC: OK. It’s not. But it could be! Who knows; Dwight Teagues. I just heard all your minds blowing out there, Havenites. AH: Well there is a lot in this season; we’ve got a lot of father/son dynamics between the two of you. Maybe it could explain it. AC: It could explain all of it. AH: Both leaders of the Guard at different times. I’m just saying. AC: Yeah, the alpha male, banging of heads. We both have large craniums. You know, it could fit. AH: I like this theory.

AC: North Carolina was a nice change of pace, to take it out of Maine. AH: I haven’t been on the show very long, but Brian Millikin who has, and is still sitting in the rafters, how many times have we left Haven on the show? BM: I’m going to go ahead and say this is the second time ever. We went to Boston at the beginning of season four. AC: Brian was actually on a swing hanging from the rafters of the building, and he’s now hopped off so he’s back with us.

[As we see Vince and Dave switching bodies] AC: This is one of my favourite bits actually, because John Dunsworth (Dave) and Richard are just amazing, and I love them both. So to see them inhabit each other’s characters was fun. AH: And this was a nice episode too, because one of the things we wanted to do was give them a bit of a spotlight epsiode. We never get to spend as much time as we want to with the brothers Teagues and we decided, well let’s do it - let’s have them drive a plot and have fun with it.

[As Vince knocks his head on the doorframe in the cafe] AH: I love that gag. We had so much fun with the height thing when we were coming up with this episode. AC: But it makes total sense, that’s the great part of it. If you were that tall and suddenly you’re in a frame … you know because Richard is 6’3”, 240 pounds; he’s a huge man. And John is, not. [As Gloria comes up to talk to Vince in Dave’s body] AC: Ah, I love Jayne Eastwood, I love Gloria. This is a combination I’d been dying to see together, just because of the comedic talent involved. These two, they’re comedic … we’ll I’ll say legends, in Canada. Both so funny, so I was really looking forward to that short interaction. AH: And it’s been fun, it’s the miscommunications and it’s very much a farce kind of episode. Besides the murder and death. AC: Besides the choking and murdering and psychiatric wards, you know. AH: And this is not the first time we’ve been to the Freddy. I look again to Brian Millikin who has moved down from the rafters. BM: This is the first time since season one, episode three. AC: Wow, you are a fountain of Haven knowledge my friend. BM: I have been here since the very beginning. AC: A veritable fountain. BM: I’m going to cut in though for a second, I’ll say this much; as someone who has been here from the very beginning, the body swap idea for an episode is sort of the low-hanging fruit for any genre show, any supernatural show will eventually get there. And we always knew that we were going to have to do it at some point in time. People were asking, they asked at comic book conventions and they asked on twitter. They asked in the street. When are you going to do it? Primarily because of Duke and Nathan. They have history with each other, they’re both great characters, strong actors. It just made sense that they would have to switch places at some point. Especially because Nathan can’t feel anything. But we just needed a time, like we needed the story to make sense. We didn’t want to do it just to do it, we wanted there to be a reason, so it did feel like we were just doing the thing. Like, our groundhog day episode is another low-hanging fruit of a genre show but it felt like it really fit in the moment because of the story we were telling. So we were super-lucky that this one came into play. We knew that we were going to do this Vince and Dave road trip, but we needed to tie what they were doing to what was going on in Haven. And that’s where we started thinking, now we can do the body swap. And then, we didn’t want to just do Vince and Dave, we didn’t want to just do Nathan and Duke, we wanted to somehow work in Dwight. We were like, who do we do? We can’t do Mara, because she’s immune to the Troubles. So who else is there. And then we were like; oh my god. We now have Jayne Eastwood, we added her last year. So we were like; what if we swapped Dwight and Gloria? And as soon as that came out of someone’s mouth, our showrunners Matt and Gab were like, So we’re definitely doing that; we’re doing this episode, and that’s happening before the Nathan/Duke swap. And as soon as we landed on that, there was no turning back. [As we see the swapped Dwight and Gloria walk up to each other, Gloria checking out her new face in the mirror] AC: This was an interesting shot, because Eric Cayla our DP was on a handheld and had to whip around and follow me, so the timing on that was really interesting. BM: You were so good in this episode. AC: This was my favourite ad lib. AH: I love that. BM: So funny. AC: That was an ad lib, no one knew that I was going to grab my crotch, but thankfully they went down with me and I saw they went down and I thought; OK good, I hope they use that take. And they did. BM: Now, I heard a rumour, I don’t know if it’s true but as soon as we heard it we were like; I hope it’s true. Because we heard that you went back and watched episodes of Haven that she was in, to sort of learn her tricks. AC: I did. I watched all of her scenes. I tried to stand like her and pick up her mannerisms BM: You can tell. AH: Yeah, all those funny little touches. AC: The way that she’s just kind of over it. And her kind of sarcastic nature. But after watching her episodes, I tried to relate her to a male actor who I could then watch and see how a man would do it. BM: Such a good idea. AC: And so she was De Niro from Meet the Parents. BM: Yeah! AC: So then I watched Meet The Parents, and I watched how De Niro acted. And I tried to take her stance with hands on hips and slouched forward a little bit, and tried to maintain that posture throughout, which was … I did forget sometimes. But this was a lot of fun when I found out this was going to be happening. I knew the comedic potential on this. Which up until this point as Dwight, I haven’t really had the ability to show. BM: Yeah, a couple jokes but that’s it. AC: Yeah, so I was really looking forward to sinking my teeth into this because I don’t know if anyone really knew if I had comedy in me. And in WWE initially my character was all comedy. So it was nice to be able to dip back into that. [As Nathan is getting Mara out of the bronco] BM: Well look and even in the background of this shot right there [Adam in his hands on hips stance] AC: Yeah she would stand sometimes with her hands on her lower back, so I really just tried to watch everything that she would do. BM: Well, we just got such a kick out of watching it. Or even writing it. Because this was the only one where it was a gender swap also. And a real age swap. You know, Duke and Nathan are the same age. So, this was really going for it. And you crushed it. I remember when the dailies would come in and we would just pause what we were doing in the writing room and we would just put them up and watch them. We were just having so much fun with it. AC: Well it was interesting because Dwight as a character is kind of reserved and close to the vest, so it was more of a challenge for Jayne to figure out how to pull of Dwight. Because he’s not very over the top in anything that he does, and that was by design, that’s how I always tried to attack Dwight. So it was a big challenge for Jayne I think because Gloria’s character there’s so much to work with, there’s so much to play with. And with Vince and Dave there’s so much to play with. [On screen Vince is checking the wound on Dave’s leg] That was pretty nasty. Great job by the makeup department. It looked really gross that day too. I was like; that looks disgusting. [As Vince is answering Dave’s phone] Is that a Blackberry? AH: Well this is taking place in the past. What year is this actually in Brian Millikin? BM: This would be the year 2011, going on 2012. AC: OK. BM: Despite the fact that it aired in 2014. AH: And this is something we would constantly have to remind ourselves when we were writing the show, like - wait a minute it’s not 2014, it’s actually … And we’d just all look at Brian. BM: It’s a real problem in serialised TV shows. Like Lost, the first three years took place over 90 days. AC: Wow. And that’s always a challenge too from the performance aspect for the continuity. And also just in each show, because everything’s shot out of sequence. So you’re always questioning, what did we just come from? What did we just do? Why are we here? And that can be a huge thing to keep track of sometimes. And thankfully there’s people on it, as well as you’re supposed to be on it too. But, it can get lost sometimes.

AH: There’s a lot of little humour things, just Mara reading the “Me, Myself & I” schizophrenia brochure. I think in a lot of ways these are probably our most humorous episodes of the season, which was a lot of fun. We can be very grim and gritty some days and just to take a step back and come up with some of the little goofs and gags for what everyone can do once they’re swapped was a lot of fun. AC: Well yeah Haven can be a pretty heavy place, so when you can kind of lighten that weight a little bit it’s nice. [As we see Nathan talking to Audrey in the Freddy] This was a really interesting change for Emily. And you can just see the switch in her eyes which was really great. AH: Yeah credit to her acting there. AC: Because you knew instantly; something just happened. Just from the look in her eyes. AH: Yeah; that’s Audrey not Mara. Which is not an easy thing to do, and she pulled it off. And it became very complicated on the page when we were going, OK so these people are in different bodies but now this is Mara, but Audrey’s come to the surface. And trying to keep that whole piece together was interesting. Brian do you want to tell the story here? Or just give a little insight into the behind the scenes scriptwork that had to be done on the formatting of the scripts here. BM: Oh my gosh, well maybe it showed our level of inexperience with bodyswap episodes from other shows that have done them before; we probably should have looked at them. But one issue that we ran into was that it happened with so many different characters, you know a lot of shows it’ll just be Sam and Dean Winchester from Supernatural or whatever. But we eventually got hold of the Freaky Friday scripts, the original one way back when, just to see how they did it. Because the problem we ran into was that you couldn’t tell from reading the script who was who. We got the script in, and it was great, but at no point could you ever tell what character was saying what to whom or why. And so it was impossible. A script is like a blueprint and you need to be able to read it and know what you’re seeing on screen. And when the actors read it at a table read, they need to be able to know who is who. And it was impossible. Because, when it was you speaking in the scene right now Adam, it would have said Gloria then parentheses Dwight. And then you’re talking to Gloria parentheses Dwight. And it was just like; I don’t know what’s going on here. So we eventually had it just say Dwight in quotation marks. It was important for it to say who it is that you’re looking at, so that you [Adam] knew you’re still reading the Dwight dialogue but we’ve got these quotes around it so you know that’s not quite Dwight. AC: And what was interesting was, Gloria in Dwight’s body, she doesn’t have bad eyes but she instinctively goes to squint. So those were little things that Dwight’s not used to wearing glasses, so just all of those little things that we tried to add in. Gloria’s always so bemused which, I knew it would be so much fun to play her. And it was. BM: That’s amazing. We kind of didn’t know how far to go with some of the gags. Like with the bathroom gag. How much … would she check herself out? What are we doing here? What show are we working on? So I think we went too far and then pulled it back.

AH: I remember the table read for this was a lot of fun. AC: And it was interesting at the table read to see everyone take on the other character and to see the reaction from the other person watching their character and their mannerisms be recreated at this table read. It was actual fun to be a fly on the wall for it. AH: And I don’t know if we’re doing the bloopers this year but some of the stuff between takes were just as fun. Like; I do that? What are you doing? I do that?

[As Gloria in Dwight’s body is finishing up her milkshake] BM: We loved the idea that she was put into like, Captain America’s body. Like a super soldier so she can now just do whatever she wants. At one point we were she was going to be eating doughnuts and stuff in every scene. AH: Every single scene. AC: Thank you for not doing that to me. BM: Pizza. AH: Yeah it was just non stop. Burgers. AC: I think that was actually ice tea that I was slurping because I wanted to do a nice long exaggerated slurp on it. This was a lot of fun to do this episode, it really was. As we’ve talked about because it was such a departure from the norm. And I think a chance for the audience to just take a breath. AH: Yeah because it was about to get heavy. AC: Yeah and you kind of need that small gap to take a breath, reboot, get ready for… AH: And just have some fun with the characters. AC: Yeah. And see a different side of them too.

AH: Now I remember Brian, and fill me in if you recall this stuff too, but in the room we also played a lot with the distance between Haven and North Carolina. BM: Are you asking to insert an apology to people who live on the East coast? Because we make it seem like they can get around a lot faster. The distance between coastal Maine and the outer banks of North Carolina, that’s … you so could not do that in a single day. AC: I’ve driven it. And it’s not a fast drive. There was also debate about how to pronounce Manteo *tries out different possibilities* AH: That’s right. But we had experts in the room, thankfully. AC: Yeah. But there were a few takes where the wrong pronunciation still snuck in. AH: And the other one was Croatoan that we had in this episode as well. Where there was a pronunciation issue. BM: That’s right. It’s a pretty popular local legend down in that part of the world, that’s where I’m from. I had not know that it was … There was a lot of people working on the show who didn’t really know about it. AH: I had not heard about it. And I remember being in the room and everyone talking about it as if it was something everyone should know about. And I think I pretended for the first hour and then opened up the Wikipedia … Ah, I see. BM: We were shooting the last episode before this one, when Croatoan first gets named dropped, when Sleepy Hollow had an episode where they also dealt with it. They go to the lost colony and everything else, and we all slapped our foreheads because we thought we were so clever. So that was very upsetting.

[As Duke and Nathan are talking while Mara is asleep] AC: By the way; Lucas Bryant and those cheekbones. AH: *laughs* full stop. AC: I always bust his chops. AH: The fans love his cheekbones. AC: They do. You could … It’s like climbing a cliff, those cheekbones. Essentially my job, besides being Dwight, was trying to bust Lucas Bryant’s chops BM: It’s an important job. AC: It is, someone had to do it. AH: You guys’re from really close to each other, right? AC: Yeah, we … for the Americans we grew up about 20 miles apart. AH: That’s crazy. AC: Yeah. Unbeknownst to us. We didn’t know. So we obviously hit it off pretty quickly because we both watched Polka Dot Door growing up as a child. All the Canadians will be going whoop whoop. AH: Yeah, the Polka Dot Door! Polkaroo! AC: Polkaroo! *The two Adams start singing what I assume is the theme tune* AC: Casey and Finnegan. The Friendly Giant. The Friendly Giant made us both cry as a matter of fact. Being both sensitive souls, and creative souls as Lucas and I are, we cried during the music for The Friendly Giant. AH: I remember when he passed away, that was very sad. It was a great show. AC: Yeah. *another snippet of song*. There’s so many people right now going; What the hell is he talking about? While we’re on the subject i also loved the Hilarious House of Frankenstein. You’d like it Brian. AH: You would actually. That would be right up your alley. BM: You guys are speaking a different language. AC: Yes. It’s southern Ontarian. AH: Now you know how it feels when you mention Croatoan to a Canadian.

BM: I’m going to add one other comment here. Since we’re looking at Emily Rose as Audrey/Mara. She was one of the other reasons why we did this bodyswap episode. She in a sense for this entire season, got to do that. I think it’s a nice thing to be able to deliver to one of your actors that they (especially in the fifth season of a show) get to play a different character. And we sort of felt, almost a little bad that it was just her. And even the year before with the Lexie/Audrey of it all. And so I think emotionally we wanted to deliver a bodyswap two parter just so that you and Lucas and Eric got to do some of that too. We didn’t want her just to have all the fun. AC: Well it is fun to throw on a different skin after you’ve worn that skin for four or five years. But there’s something uncomfortable about that too, but it’s a nice challenge. And I know Emily had fun with it too. AH: Absolutely, she killed it. AC: Because Mara was so different, and so evil, and so vile. BM: And big, you know? AC: Yes. BM: And she did a great job. AC: Yes. And I know she had a lot of fun with it. And it’s interesting too, although also the challenge of how she was so evil - I think that was a part of the challenge. Because, you know Emily in having to take on this evil character had to say things that were just horrible. Like talking about Dwight’s daughter and all of those things, I know it bothered her. And to be able to step up to the plate and do it, there’s something to be said for that.

AH: And there’s a doughnut! How many doughnuts did you eat? AC: It was about four. And that was the one where I got so deep into it, I knew that ... BM: It’s not easy to get the perfect amount of schmeer. AC: Well that was the one where it was so deep and I was like, I’m going to have to do the rest of the scene with chocolate all over my face. *much laughing over Gloria and Dwight in their swapped bodies* BM: We should have just kept you guys. AC: I think Nathan slash Lucas had a really good time being the straight man for it as well. Because he was the straight man for their interactions a lot of the time. BM: We so wanted to send you guys off to the crime scene. But there was just going to be so many people in those scenes it would have just taken forever, schedule-wise. But we wanted to get you guys in on the action. We wanted it so bad but we couldn’t do it. AC: Well in the morgue we got into some of it, with the mitts fitting the gloves and feeling like she could punch through ceilings. BM: And we wanted her to … or you, but Gloria’s body … to have to chase after a perp, run him down, you know, like an action sequence. Or you have to punch somebody and not know how strong you are. There could be an entire show. AC: Well and then the interesting aspect is, does she know how to throw a punch? Or does Dwight’s body just automatically know how? And there as a performer you go, well which is it? AH: It’s a good question. BM: I think it’s the former, not the latter. I think she would know what to do. It’s a different brain in there. AC: Right? Because it’s a different brain but instinctively, like with the glasses Dwight doesn’t need them but Gloria thought she did so she squinted but then realised she didn’t need to. So I think there would still be a moment of … um BM: I think we just came up with the Haven spinoff by the way. You two swap again; can’t switch back; solve crimes. AH: I would watch that. AC: I could work with Jayne Eastwood for the rest of my life without a doubt. BM: But you have to be swapped with her. AC: Yes. BM: But, we also like you as Dwight so maybe, go back and forth. AC: Yep, but the majority of the time if I got to play that, that would be a whole lot of fun.

[As Gloria and Dwight are on the video call with Vince and Dave] BM: I imagine this was a tough scene to shoot because there was nothing on that screen, right? AC: Yeah, it’s an empty computer. AH: And they add it in in post AC: And your eyeline on the computer has to be right, and all of those - sometimes those technical things are the most difficult becuase you’re acting to nothing.

AC: What’s interesting too is to see how over the seasons and years how everyone has grown. And not just from a character perspective but from a personal perspective. AH: You get to grow up a bit as a family, it’s nice. We were just talking before we came in here about how much older everyone’s kids are getting and everything. AC: Yeah. And well I mean Emily, they had their son. Beth and I we had our daughter. Lucas and Kirsty’s daughter has grown. And just all of the families that have grown or have started since the beginning of this show, it’s pretty incredible. AH: And it’s always interesting when you look at a show that lasts this long, with the crew sometimes relationships have formed, or there are kids because of relationships that have formed, and it’s just amazing to see the community that grows up around a television show. AC: Yeah it always felt good walking on set too. Because there was just a sense of comfort to it.

AC: Jayne really played straight so well. Because playing that straight when you’re someone that’s usually so animated, it’s hard. And she pulled it off, she really restrained her natural kind of … I guess her natural charisma.

[As Duke and Nathan are swapping bodies] AH: And I’m sure everyone at home was just waiting for this to happen. It just had to at some point. AC: And then at this particular moment as well. [As Duke in Nathan’s body realises he can’t feel] AH: And just a little tease of what’s to come with the Troubles not transferring with the soul. AC: This was a really interesting swap to watch, because Eric, Duke, has the same job as Jayne and Gloria had, in that Nathan is a very reserved character. So pulling back, because Duke is very animated, as you’ll see from Lucas’s portrayal of Duke, so it was pretty hilarious. On both sides. AC: The hands, that was what I really noticed. AH: The pointing is my favourite. AC: Yes, and the hands on the hips. And I know for Lucas that was a lot of fun. Because Nathan is a very reserved, stoic, contained character. And Duke is the opposite of that. BM: Yeah. Well, Lucas Bryant is also the opposite of that. AC: Yeah. Yes, Lucas is a complete moron *laughter*, so the fact that he gets to be more animated is much closer to his actual personality. It also goes to show that having acted and worked with someone for that long, how much you just inherently pick up from just spending so much time together as those characters. Even just those things like the delivery … AH: The delivery, the timing. And this was a good idea to have this early conversation between the two of them, just so that you can really see the difference. AC: Yeah, it was fun. And this was actually fun at the table read too. It was also really interesting because you get so used to seeing Duke as Duke, or Eric as Duke and Lucas as Nathan, it was interesting to see them play completely different characters. Like, there were times when I would go out to dinner with some of the crew and they’d see me without the bullet proof vest and be really surprised - because you get so used to it. You know, like; wow you wear real clothes, you don’t walk around in a bullet proof vest, I forgot. So when you inhabit those characters for so long it’s interesting to see all of that get flipped on it’s head. How about that orange house back there by the way? [Behind Eric’s head outside Audrey’s apartment]. AH: It’s kind of a scene stealer. AC: Yeah, right? That’s one of the great things about Nova Scotia too. You’ll have a purple house with seafoam green shutters. Which on paper sounds disgusting, but it works. BM: They pull it off. That house, we actually finally shot outside of it in …. Hmmm I don’t remember. AC: You don’t remember?! *surprised noises from both Adams* Woah. Hold on, record scratch. BM: Was it season three, at some point?

[As Vince in Dave’s body starts to get affected by the thinny] AC: I love that part! Because Vince does that! He would kind of do the tasmanian devil spin to get his mouth going sometimes, and John picked up on that. These two were so needed to the show. And always brought a sense of levity, but every time they popped up on screen I would smile.

AH: Well, thank you for listening and we’re going to be right back doing 506.

#it might not be the most promising start talking about pancakes #but i found this one really interesting #recommended reading if you've ever wondered how Adam Copeland felt about playing Gloria #short version? he absolutely loved it #haven syfy #haven dvd commentaries #5.05 - the old switcheroo I

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ayellowbirds · 7 years ago

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Keshet Rewatches All of Scooby-Doo, Pt. 18: "Nowhere to Hyde"

("Scooby-Doo, Where Are You", Season 2 Episode 1. Original Airdate: 9/12/1970)

AKA, "The First One With a Song"

The episode opens on a nighttime view of the "Movart Collection", a display of expensive jewelry highlighting large gemstones. At the window, a ghoulish face appears, casing the joint. He slides open the window, steals a single enormous pendant, effortlessly climbs down the wall, and makes his escape as a police officer catches sight:

THE GHOST OF HYDE!

So, that's one of the oddities we're dealing with, in this episode, in this world of Scooby-Doo. It's the convention of fictional worlds that other works of fiction are real within them; Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is not a well-known novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, but a fact of history.

The scene cuts to a malt shop, where the Mystery Machine is parked, and the Ghost of Hyde opens the back doors and sneaks inside. Fred, that terrible driver, has no sense of security, and has left the van unlocked.

Meanwhile, the gang have just received their orders. Five double-fudge sundaes, one with a pickle on top for Shaggy. After Fred says that they enjoyed the magic show at the high school (mind, not a confirmation that they have been going to classes, but merely that they attended an event there), Scooby declares that he wants to demonstrate his own magic trick: a disappearing act where he swaps Shaggy's ice cream from its bowl and onto his own sundae, and eats it in one go.

I will remind you that chocolate is fatal for dogs. But Scooby is clearly something other than a dog, so i suppose that's okay. For whatever reason, Shaggy’s pickle-on-top is also consistently drawn as a pickled pepper, and i can’t decide whether that makes this more or less appetizing.

The gang wrap things up, and settle into the Mystery Machine, driving who-knows-where as Fred takes a “creepy shortcut”. Unfortunately, the heater is busted, so Scooby reaches back for a beach blanket...

...which happens to be the hiding place of the ghost. As he rears up with a ghastly grin, the gang flip out, and stop the van to run and hide as the creep makes his escape. Velma recognizes him from the papers as the Ghost of Hyde, and the gang follow him to an old house. Shaggy’s not bothered at all by the situation, no.

I’d say “you don’t know where those have been,” but you know exactly where those have been, and that makes this worse. Y’all just walked through a swamp.

A fall through a trap door puts the gang inside a laboratory belonging to one Dr. Jekyll, who enters and discovers them hiding. He explains that, after a test of a “vitamin formula you only have to take once in your life”, he started blacking out and awakening under circumstances that convinced him he was taking after his ancestor and turning into Mr. Hyde... the ghost of Mr. Hyde!

Danny Phantom, he ain’t.

The gang are convinced something’s fishy, because the mud on Dr. Jekyll’s shoes is dry, which makes no sense if he just transformed from the Ghost of Hyde, who was running through the marshlands near the house. The begin to investigate, with Shaggy and Scooby checking out the attic.

There’s a great gag where Scooby draws his paw across a particularly large web framed between some pieces of wood, and it produces a sound like the scales of a harp. Seconds later, Shaggy opens a “creepy old chest” to discover it’s full of live bats, though how they got in there will forever remain a mystery.

The bats are drawn even more adorably than usual. Investigating the rest of the chest’s contents suggests that “somebody around here must’ve been in show biz”, as it’s full of pieces of costumes. More investigation of the attic doesn’t go very far before the boys catch sight of a spooky shadow, and start to run around in a panic, trying different doors.

Scooby opens one to reveal... another, smaller door. Which hides another, behind which is yet another, which conceals one last tiny, tiny door.

A mouse exits the door on its hind legs, squeaks angrily at Scooby while shaking a fist, and slams the door behind. We don’t have time to process the utter absurdity of this comedic non-sequitur (by which i mean, it’s a completely random gag that does not flow organically from the characters or situation and feels shoehorned into the episode for the sake of slapstick, there wasn’t even a second door visible in earlier shots) before the shadow reappears, and Scooby and Shaggy huddle together in a trembling panic.

Except it’s only Helga, the housekeeper. She assumes they’re “friends of the doctor”, with an air of disdain in her surprisingly pleasant and youthful voice—for a cartoon of the era, the way she’s drawn and the name she’s given would suggest an older voice. Her voice actress, Susan Steward, would also be involved in the writing of several songs in episodes later this season.

Helga complains that the boys “have made a mess of the attic, just after I finished cleaning it,” and begins to dust.

In contrast with the mouse door, it’s a gag that flows from the situation and characters: Scooby and Shaggy’s unease with “creepy” environments, the decrepit appearance of the house, and the air of mystery all combine to make it amusing while also adding to the idea of Helga as a suspect.

Meanwhile, the rest of the gang have found something in the fireplace, a scrap of old newspaper that it looked like someone was trying to burn.

To be honest, while this makes Helga’s youthful, teen-like voice all the more dissonant, i want to draw your attention to the smudged “writing” at the very bottom. Part of that looks like it could say, “ON MONDAY”, but there’s even more that is not recognizable as even fragments of Latin letters. There’s a triangle, and a sort of [-] shape. These sorts of glyphs are so typical of newspapers and other on-screen writing not meant to be read, that i have to wonder about who was responsible for them. Was there a standard set of non-letters, or was it made up as they went along?

While Fred, Daphne, and Velma wonder about why someone who specializes in unassisted climbing of walls would be working as a maid in a place like this, the boys are busy in the Doctor’s library.

The episode does a lot to convince you that Helga is the Ghost of Hyde, but let’s be honest, that bookshelf settles Dr. Jekyll as the culprit without a doubt. We see books on Snakes, Plastic Surgery, Ogres, Medicine, Lizards, Plato, Marquis de Saude (sic), Biology, Murders in the Rue Morgue (obscured above by Shaggy), Chemistry, Dracula Manual, a Hundred and One Ghosts and Ghouls, Vipers, History of Make-Up, Origin of Species, and Bats. So, various works of horror, books on stereotypically “creepy” animals, and several more on outright monsters as well as a couple on changing your appearance.

Shaggy doesn’t have time to contemplate the obvious clues the background artists are providing, however, as the Ghost of Hyde is, well, hiding behind the first book he pulls. As they run and hide, the boys try a deception of hiding inside a broken television and playing at being actors on-screen, including a regrettable bit of Shaggy as a 19th century soldier and Scooby as a native complete with feathered headband. The deception doesn’t last, but their flight leads to another “clue”, as Velma insists that Hyde couldn’t have been Jekyll, since she and the others just saw him in his study—and Scooby finds a feather duster, pair of muddy shoes, and green jacket hidden on a fold-out ironing board in the basement.

As the rest of the gang follow the clues and investigate Helga’s room—finding a can of phosphorous paint (an absolutely nonsense “clue”, since the ghost never glows visibly) and a bottle of “knockout drops”—Shaggy waits outside and raids a bowl of fruit. Freddy, Velma, Daphne are convinced they’ve solved the mystery, but Shaggy interrupts...

...and the Ghost of Hyde snatches him from behind! While the gang hunt the house to rescue him, Shaggy finds himself strapped to a table in the basement, where the madly laughing Hyde gestures to a book to indicate he plans to use the Doctor’s chemicals to turn Shaggy into a frog. Or, as Shaggy puts it, “croak me”.

He screams the series title in despair, and so begins the very first musical chase scene! “Recipe for My Love”, a performance credited to George A. Robertson, Jr., who also sang the new opening theme and was better-known for his musical career as Austin Roberts.

As Shaggy and Scooby crash back into the house, Freddy wonders why the Ghost was after Shaggy in the first place, when the rest of the gang was holding all the clues.

The others shrug it off, concluding that “the Ghost of Hyde is a 24-carat phony” (what????) and that they know who he really is.

A 24-carat phony? Did that line make sense in the Seventies?

The boys bait Hyde, luring him to pull apart a curtain, which reveals... another Ghost of Hyde!

Fleeing, he encounters another, with an oddly high-pitched laugh, and a peculiarly petite one who offers a familiar-sounding “boo!” before he runs in terror, screaming about GHOSTS! Velma, Daphne, and Fred remove their Hyde masks in triumph as they watch the original run back towards the very same trap door that caught them when they first arrived, sending the Ghost of Hyde crashing down into...

THE FIRST TRAP THAT EVER WORKED RIGHT

But there’s still a twist. “If our calculations are right, it should be Helga, the housemaid,” Velma says, as smugly as possible

Well, you win some, you lose some.

Fred explains that the Doctor’s repeated failures in utter unscientific nonsense led him to turn to a life of crime, hastily coming up with the idea of framing his maid and coming up with fake clues while hiding the genuine ones—the suction cups he used for wall-crawling, which Helga wouldn’t have needed.

As the episode ends without commentary on the fact that, while this Dr. Jekyll faked his transformation, there was apparently an actual historic Mr. Hyde, the culprit sulks, his head hung in shame.

There will be no “meddling kids”. Will there ever?

(like what i’m doing here? It’s not what pays the bills, so i’d really appreciate it if you could send me a bit at my paypal.me or via my ko-fi. Click here to see more entries in this series of posts, or here to go in chronological order)

#scooby doo #KRAOSD

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dippedanddripped · 4 years ago

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At a passing glance, it would appear that hip-hop has been defanged when it’s needed most. This is the most intense political era in living memory, and instead of rousing, politicized music from the genre that revolutionized rousing, political music, we’re mostly still getting more of the same hedonistic club bangers. Escapism is one thing… but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Beginning life within the celebratory escapism of The Bronx’s block parties, its move away from frivolous, crowd-pleasing wordplay gave way to something groundbreaking. Looking past the throngs of revelers to their broader surroundings, hip-hop became a vehicle for rappers to articulate discontent towards the entrapping tactics and disparities that ravaged their communities.

So for every exercise in elation, you had a stark but danceable piece of political commentary, such as Grandmaster Flash’s iconic journey through urban squalor on “The Message.” And in times where systemic discrimination reared its head most acutely, hip-hop responded in kind, providing a prescient and educational soundtrack. At the height of their powers, Public Enemy’s Chuck D enlightened NME on the pivotal purpose that hip-hop serves in broadening otherwise shuttered minds: “It’s a college course in black life,” he remarked in 1988, “as a matter of fact, it’s a whole damn degree you can earn.” Speaking just months before full-scale rioting engulfed Miami after police shot and killed 23-year-old Clement Lloyd, the commonality between the unrest of 31 years prior and today epitomizes why hip-hop’s sermons on injustice are still integral to the curriculum.

Yet in a time where activism is at a sustained height, what’s seen as the genre’s mainstream feels increasingly estranged from the struggles that necessitated its creation.

As calls for police reform reached a fever pitch, Nicki Minaj and Tekashi 6ix9ine’s “TROLLZ” was breaking YouTube’s record for most views of a hip-hop video in a single day. While Nicki has insisted that a “portion” of the proceeds will be allocated to The Bail Project, the track itself exists in its own gaudy vacuum. A microcosm of much of what Spotify re-designated as “Pop Rap” within their 2019 “Wrapped” findings, it plays up to all the clout-oriented egotism and excess that’s besieged the chart’s upper-reaches. To many casual listeners, these traits seem like prerequisites for that coveted Billboard success, dispensed without nuance or the faintest desire to surpass the one-dimensional.

Often miscast as a generational divide, the real crux of the matter is that some artists are content within the safety net of banality, while those who believe in hip-hop’s mobilizing power recognize the need for dissenting voices. Here, in the latter, we find the blossoming future of “political rap,” unbeholden to typecasting and producing engaging, 360-degree dispatches from Black life.

Although she was specifically discussing women in hip-hop, Chicago’s Noname captured the mood of the age when she declared that rappers “need to exist in multitudes.” Exemplified within her own 2018 magnum opus Room 25, a gripping track such as “Blaxploitation” neatly coexisted with a wide array of topics, biting humor, and slick demonstrations of lyrical prowess. Granted further autonomy by the online sphere, Noname’s assessment has set the tone for a new norm where rappers don’t need to sideline or fully focus on their conscious side to reach their audience.

Idealistic as it may sound, this state-of-play has been vividly illustrated by music made in both the preceding months and immediate aftermath of the callous murder of George Floyd. Proving that not only is hip-hop still intrinsically linked to its activistic roots, but also that this spirit is kept alive without rescinding artistic identity.

Run the Jewels stand out as a defining example of this trait. Driven in equal parts by cartoonish violence and stirring social commentary, they thrive on their duality. Not above sonic bombast or puerile humor, EL-P’s willingness to rhyme about “a cat shitting on my carpet” while “[Killer] Mike’s shooting a poodle” encapsulates the aura of fun and camaraderie that’s helped make them such a riveting duo. By the same token, their new album Run the Jewels 4’s unflinching portrayals of an ill-governed world on “Walking in the Snow,” “Ju$t,” or “A Few Words for the Firing Squad” anointed the project as a soundtrack to global revolt. Operating in every terrain they see fit, RTJ are a prime example of the modern, multi-faceted approach. As opposed to being a wafer-thin caricature, they juggle the whimsical and socio-political profundity with similar poise.

A product of both artistic vision and vigilance, the group’s instinctual tie to civil disobedience was summarized by Killer Mike as he explained, “In my mind, things are never not happening.”

Much like Noname’s call for eclecticism, the Atlanta veteran believes that it would be impossible for social insights to be absent from his work, invoking the old adage that “if you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.”

Released days after George Floyd’s passing, Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist’s Alfredo wasn’t earmarked for incisive commentary on police brutality. Yet in the same vein as RTJ, both Freddie’s first-hand encounters with prejudice and his cognizance of today’s fractious climate ensured it naturally came to the fore. While “Gangsta’ Gibbs” may have routinely quashed Tupac comparisons, he’d turn prophetic on the stunning “Scottie Beam,” proclaiming “the revolution is the genocide. Yeah, my execution might be televised.”

Speaking to Billboard after its release, Freddie discussed both the cultural osmosis that led to this poignant bar and its immediate adoption as political sloganeering. “It’s crazy I’ve been seeing people with ‘my execution might be televised’ signs at protests, but I didn’t really think about that when I was making Alfredo. I made that record before George Floyd. So it was no problem to make that song because I breathe that shit.”

Reaching communities where his calm contemplation is recognizable, as well as others in which which this tenuous grip on mortality is unthinkable, the fact that Freddie is as perceptive as he is entertaining means that by existing in more than one sphere, he, like RTJ, can infiltrate both dismissive and receptive minds.

Just as Freddie’s contemplative bar felt candid and spontaneous, hip-hop’s power to convey the realities which form the hardened exterior made Conway the Machine’s “Frontlines” register as an extension of his pre-existing catalogue. Responding to the latest atrocities in real-time, Griselda’s lieutenant struck an innately human note, declaring “just ‘cause he from the ghetto, that don’t mean he sellin’ crack/ He drivin’ home from work, you pull him over ‘cause he Black.”

Where Buffalo’s premier boom-bap crew normally trade in luxury brands and clandestine enterprise, Conway proved that, in the same vein as Freddie and Mike, the usual myth-making recedes to the background when it’s time to stand up and be counted. Encouragingly, he’s far from the only one.

Debunking the notion that hip-hop’s youth are blissfully ignorant, Lil Baby threw his fans a curveball with new track “The Bigger Picture.” Practically broadcast live from Atlanta’s demonstrations, everything from its powerful title to its track length that exceeds anything on his recent album to his description of how “they shootin’ protesters with these rubber bullets, they regular people I know that they feel it,” proves that when push comes to shove, hip-hop should always use its platform for something more, regardless of who it alienates. And in Lil Baby’s case, it also painted the chart-topping artist in a more multitudinous light than ever before.

By refusing to pigeonhole themselves as political, non-political, or anything in between, hip-hop’s solidarity with the change in the air wields more power than ever. Holding court as popular music’s leading force, the genre, when used purposefully, has the capacity to be the most far reaching anti-racist weapon available. And at a time where discrimination emits from the highest corridors of power, rappers confronting systemic hatred with a broad lens or as crisis response disseminates the message with more impact than books or social media campaigns ever could.

As a result, everyone from RTJ to Lil Baby and countless others have exemplified a new era where defiance is woven into the fabric of their artistry. While the world actively combats intolerance, hip-hop’s finest are doing their part by dutifully informing audiences that anyone can listen, just don’t expect to be pandered to.

#run the jewels #freddie gibbs #conway #westside conway #noname #public enemy #music blog #poltical hiphop

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janvba2film-blog · 7 years ago

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Post T: Creative Investigation - First Draft

Essay – Is Wes Craven an Auteur?

In this essay I will be evaluating whether Wes Craven is an auteur by analysing his works in accordance to the late Andrew Sarris’ three premises: technical competence, distinguishable personality, and interior meaning. The three works I will be analysing are: his debut film The Last House on the Right (1972), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and Scream (1996).

Firstly, I will be evaluating the use technical features used in my three focal films as technical competence is the first premise of Sarris’ of auteur theory. This includes the microtechnical and narrative features used by a director in a film to make it personal to their style. It is the opinion of many Craven fans that the man has re-invented the horror genre. According to Eli Roth in the documentary Scream: The Inside Story, “Wes Craven has influenced horror in the 70s, with ‘Last House On the Left’, in the 80s, with ‘Nightmare on Elm Street. You cannot overstate how incredibly influential Wes Craven has been to the horror genre and has continually made horror movies for different generations that feel so contemporary”. Such praise from a contemporary horror director indicates the influence Craven has had in the genre. After all, without predecessors like Wes to develop the genre what could contemporary directors work on?

‘The Final Girl’: “the one girl in the film who fights, resist and survives the killer-monster. The final girl…dominates the action, and is thus masculinised. [In] the slasher film like…Nightmare on Elm Street [1984] …the final girl becomes her own saviour.” - Christine Gledhill in The Cinema Book. Wes has used this common horror trope in several different ways across my three films. In The Last House on the Left, it appears Wes will use this technique, until he kills off his two female leads, a sort of red herring. As Jon Towlson’s Subversive Horror Cinema puts it, “Part of the film’s power is to create empathy between the audience and the villains, which makes it impossible for us to view them - despite their sadism - as inhuman. Conversely, the film shows the process by which normally empathetic people, such as the Collingwoods, can demonize others in order to justify acts of vengeance.”. This technique had not been used in a film before, so for Wes to use it in his debut film shows he is a strong contender for auteur status. He uses this same red herring again in A Nightmare on Elm Street, having Tina die early on only to be replaced with Nancy. However, as the Renegade Cut describes it in his video in which he compares the movie against the horror tropes listed in Carol J. Clover’s: Men, Women, and Chainsaws, “Nancy is the final girl, but she is not only the final girl. She is the character with whom the audience identifies”, in which he points out that Nancy is more than a trope, as many films have utilized female leads; she is a 3D character with relationships with people who are not just people in the film but actual characters with real connections. And finally, the technique is used again in Scream when we believe, then megastar, Drew Barrymore would be the protagonist, only for her to be tormented and killed in the opening 13 minutes of the film. The use of the trope does not end there, however. During Sid’s phone call with the murderer she says: “What’s the point? They’re all the same; some stupid killer chasing some big-breast who can’t act, running up the stairs when she should be going out the front door. It’s insulting!” This is a reference to The Final Girl, a common horror trope. What makes this better is that when she is chased she does this herself. Obviously an argument which rises from discussing the use of tropes is that Wes is just a genre director, as opposed to a genre director, but Robin Wood argues, in an analysis of It’s a Wonderful Life and Shadow of a Doubt taken from Film Genre Reader III, “No critic, obviously, can be free from a structure of a structure of values, nor can he or she afford to withdraw from the struggles and tensions of living to some position of “aesthetic” contemplation”. This tells me that, despite being an individual filmmaker, people are still confined to some aspects of the process such as genre, indicating that Wes may still be a contender for auteur status.

Much of the evidence I am about to use was obtained through the careful eye of the creator of this source - Cristobal Olguin. (2017). Scream - Manipulating Expectations. He mentions how Wes creates tension to play with our expectations through the use of framing as she opens the closet after walking down the stairs, as it offers a prime opportunity for a jump scare, but does not act upon it. Furthermore, the camerawork of the shot following her to the couch (having the camera follow her) pays homage to the POV shot of killers popularised by other slasher movies.

Another use of misdirection is how the shot of Ghostface’s shoes in the bathroom stall is emphasised because he is wearing the same type of shoes as the police chief, which were emphasised while he put out a cigarette in the station.

The author states that the film sets Billy up as the murderer in the first 30 minutes, but uses other micro-technical techniques to make you question whether he is. For example, the use of emphasised scissor noises when the principal picks a pair up, the way Dewey holds up his flashlight to his face after asking to go for a walk alone with Gale Weathers in the forest. Billy’s position as the killer is disguised as a red herring but there is plenty of evidence to suggest he is from the start. When Billy is talking about his and Sid’s relationship a low angle is used and ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ is playing in the background, which is appropriate as Ghostface dawns a Father Death costume. The same is true for Stu. After Stu jokingly says, “I’ll be right back”, Randy responds with “You see, you push the laws, you end up dead. Okay. I’ll see you in the kitchen with a knife”. The next time we see Randy alone, Ghostface is creeping up behind him after exiting the kitchen, holding a knife. Another use of clever subtlety is how Billy and Stu are first seen wearing similar grey tops; grey is an unemotional colour thus conveying that they have been in cahoots since the beginning. When Billy enters through Sid’s window after she is chased for the first time, he enters wearing the same grey sweatshirt and a black jacket, accompanied by low-key under-lighting, which is a common technique used to portray antagonists. To mislead the audience into believing that Billy is innocent, he wears white tops (signifies innocence) and blue (conveys trust and loyalty) over-shirts, much like he did when we first saw him. This all stands as evidence to suggest that, despite Craven not writing the film, his use of microtechnical features and directing still present him as a contender for auteur status.

Distinguishable Personality is the second of Sarris’ premises and is important when considering what makes an auteur’s films individual and easy to separate from the rest.

Despite Wes’ use of microtechnical features and interior meaning in his debut film, I feel it important to mention that the film itself is not very highly rated. “The Last House on the Left was Craven’s debut film, it’s a notorious and quite shocking film but one that’s not actually that good. The film’s biggest flaw is the woeful misjudgement of the tone as the film’s jumps from the torture and humiliation of the girls in the woods to a pair of bumbling cops falling off a truck that’s full of clucking chickens”. I think it is important for a director to be able to balance social commentary with appropriate filmmaking techniques, which makes me question Craven’s auteurship. Conversely, according to Sarris: “directors, even auteurs, do not always run true form”, implying that an auteur will not always make a great film. Another factor to consider about the film is that, according to The Mary Sue, “the film is an acknowledged loose remake of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring”. I see no reason for this to interfere with Wes’ status as auteur, however, as established auteurs, such as Kubrick and Hitchcock, have adapted pre-sold works into films. Considering it is listed as a “loose remake” it appears that there are barely any similarities due to Craven projecting his own personality onto the film.

Another great example to analyse is Wes’ work on A Nightmare on Elm Street and its sequels. The film has spawned 6 sequels, two spin-offs, and a remake. Wes worked on 3 of these: the original, Dream Warriors, and Wes Craven’s: New Nightmare. Firstly, it is important to discuss his work on the original, or rather the influence others had on him. According to Never Sleep Again, the producer, Robert Shaye, was important to the ending to leave audiences with a hook so sequels would be in the forefront of people’s minds. This ending was extremely confusing and ambiguous to many, and detracted with the empowering ending which left Nancy a hero. Furthermore, he sold the rights to New Line Cinema, just so they could afford the budget for the first film, which, in the eyes of many (myself included), derailed the series, causing the search for artistic value to be replaced with money-potential, which has led to the poor critical reception of many sequels. All except the ones that Wes was involved with. After the failure of the sequel, Wes was brought back on to refocus the series. This tells me that Wes can be considered an auteur as the universe which he created could not work without him. However, his script was altered by Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont, who are now established horror writers. According to Russell, the script was originally a lot darker until they altered it, but this upset Craven as, according to him, “The fact that they made Freddy more and more jokey took him farther and farther away from that child-molester thing that kind of sticks to you in a way you don’t like”. Freddy was made to be more jokey and full of quips later in the series, which admittedly made him less threatening. In fact, it became apparent that the series started aiming their films at kids, thus making him even less imposing. This further supports my point that without Wes’ guidance, the franchise quickly declined in quality. This implies that his exposure to the horror genre for so long has made him, at the very least, a strong contender for status as a genre director.

Finally, I must comment on the fact that Wes did not actually write Scream; Kevin Williamson did. This creates quite a dilemma as André Bazin argues that “a director must at least co-write their films to be considered an auteur”. However, it could be argued that Craven was a perfect choice for the post-modern film due to his experience on the 7th installation of the Nightmare series, Wes Craven’s: New Nightmare. This film was extremely meta in its approach, having the cast members of the original film play themselves in a film ending with the “script within a script” trick. According to Paul Wells, as read in The Horror Film, Scream is undoubtedly a postmodern horror film, however, to him he feels strongly that by becoming self-referential post-modern horrors “abdicate [their] political responsibility to reflect upon, critique, or challenge its surrounding (and non-generic) culture”. If considered true, this contrasts very much with Wes’ earlier style, instead “Becoming preoccupied with genre conventions rather than external anxieties”. However, in Scream: The Inside Story, Wes specifically stated that we need to “stop externalising our anxieties”, and to look at ourselves.

Interior meaning is important when comparing auteurship by Sarris’ premises, as the depth at which microtechnical and narrative techniques are utilised by a director to convey meaning elevates a movie beyond simple entertainment.

Sexuality - There are several instances of sexuality present in my focal films, one of which is the use of on and off-screen rape in The Last House on the Left which is most likely involved due to the influence of William Cassey’s behaviour during the My Lai Massacre, in which he murdered 22 people and raped several women, as many of my sources have stated the subtle social commentary on the Vietnam, which I will expand upon shortly. Another theme in the film is puberty is mentioned in the film. When discussing the “I’ve changed this winter [...] My breasts filled out!”. This is important because it reoccurs in all three of my focal films, showing it to be of important to Wes as a director also present in A Nightmare on Elm Street. As the Cracked article Why the Nightmare on Elm Street Series was Deeper than You Thought points out, “The viewer is even present for a scene representative of Nancy's first period. As Nancy lays in the bathtub asleep, Freddy's clawed glove breaks through the surface of the water between her open legs. This isn't just one of the most intense scenes in horror history. It's clear foreshadowing of all the trouble that's about to happen between your legs.”.

The article rightly points out that Tina is the “You’re not cool unless you’re making out” friend (i.e. she is sexually active and is trying to pass that behaviour on to her less-developed friends), which is amplified by her loud coitus session with Rod contrasting with Nancy, who sleeps in a separate room to her boyfriend, with a crucifix above her door. The article also mentions how Freddy’s head poking through the wall is akin to a condom, signifying the looming presence of sexuality. More so, the use of the phone with the tongue emerging from it is significant as it Nancy reacts to it with disgust, “exactly how everyone still trying to understand puberty reacts when they first hear about tongue kissing”. It also ties in to the use of dangerous sexuality in the film, which is Freddy and his sexual urges.

Doctor Brickman, in her book New American Teenagers, contributes to this idea as “Nancy and Glen, who never consummate their relationship despite plenty of opportunity, can be understood better as brother and sister than as boyfriend and girlfriend, which, of course, would not preclude sexual desire”. Much like with his debut film Wes explores dangerous sexuality as well. According to a Craven in Never Sleep Again, they were required to “soft-pedal the sexuality” (i.e. Freddy’s sexual preference for children) of the movie due to multiple paedophile cases occurring at the time. Later, Heather Lagnenkampf states: “Nancy and Freddy’s relationship has always had a sexual component”, which she said about ‘Lust’ being written on the wall in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. Finally, in Scream, sexuality is used more like a subversion of the horror genre than a thematic motif. When Randy lists the fact that “You can never have sex” as a rule to surviving horror, shots of Sidney and Billy having sex quickly follow this line.

One frequently occurring use of interior meaning relates to the use of social commentary in his films. This is the example that makes me want to consider Wes as an auteur. When reading Jon Towlson’s Subversive Horror, I found that this film has several instances of subtle social commentary relating to Vietnam, mainly the US’ reaction at the time. He wanted to show them the atrocities of the Vietnam war using the on-screen rapes and murders committed by William Casey. Not only that but he was heavily inspired by two photos which came out of the war: the image of children running after being struck by Napalm (which inspired Mari’s rape because of how disgustingly intimate it was) and the 1968 photo of the execution of Vietcong soldier Nguyem Van Lem - “That methodical execution style was translated right to the shooting of Mari at the lake”.

“Although the Vietnam footage was censored, Craven felt that it was candid about violence in a way that Hollywood cinema was not. Craven […] objected on moral grounds to the sanitization of violence by Hollywood, and saw it as part of the ideological apparatus that enabled the State to condition Soldiers for warfare. “The more you can know about violence, the more you can walk away from it and not be attracted to it.” Craven stated in 1999.”. I find this truly fascinating as Craven took the position he had to elevate his film above simply “a horror movie”. Lastly, So The Theory Goes states: “One of the more prominent themes within Craven’s work is that of the psychological idea of the villain. His films tend to subvert the idea of the villain/hero leading the viewer to believe they are completely aware of a situation before abruptly leading us in a different direction. One of the clearest examples of this can be seen in his directorial debut The Last House on the Left where our initial antagonists are Krug et al. However, by the end of the film, we see Mari Collingwood’s parents take on this role.”. This is obviously very representative of the sort of message Wes was trying to send to the American audience.

This established a common theme in Wes’ films: incorporating real-life inspiration into his films. Through Never Sleep Again, we learn that the story of the film was inspired by Asian teens dying without observable cause in their sleep. Apparently, they refused to go to sleep but their parents refused to listen and sent them to sleep anyway by using sleeping pills, a common piece of mise-en-scene used in the franchise. This attitude is carried over into those of the parents in the franchise. What’s more, Freddy was based around a man who persistently stared at Wes through his bedroom window one night. Wes described him as “enjoying putting fear into him”. It seems this was well translated into the film as Freddy has more of a quirky attitude and plays with his victims. He was named after Wes’ childhood bully, and his jumper came from an article Wes read stating that those two colours were the hardest for the human eye to pair together. Finally, the glove was based on a claw of a predatory animal as it is significant. While Wes was inspired by real-life events, he did have to adapt them using his vision as a director/screenplay writer. To even further support my point, Scream was based on the infamous Florida Killer. Between November 1989 and August 1990 Danny Rowling murdered 5 students and was dubbed the Gainesville Ripper. However, it is very important to note that Wes Craven did not write Scream, Kevin Williamson was responsible for that.

Is Wes an auteur?

To conclude, I must say that I do not believe him to be an auteur. He may pass Sarris’ premises, but only on a basic level. As So The Theory Goes states in their article Auteur: Wes Craven, “Wes Craven’s general style of filmmaking is visually similar to a number of horror film-makers. The conventional use of camera angles, editing to create scares and using lighting to enhance a scene are all evident within his work. However, […] his understanding of the genre and the conventions have allowed him to use them to his advantage”. Instead, I would consider him a horror genre auteur, having only one exception from the trend: the 1999 musical-drama Music of the Heart, as well as what Alexandre Astruc describes as a ‘camera-stylo’, which defines a director who uses the camera to tell a story. We have seen from analysing Craven’s work against Sarris’ first premise that he is technically competent for the most part, but nothing has ever stood out in his filmography that we haven’t seen before.

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