#I also need someone to record the VODs if anyone's interested or knows how to

[bimbelygimbly]

Hey Tumblr. How do we feel about me starting streaming again? I think I'd probably start by streaming various turn-based RPGs, Popcap games, boomer shooters, and point-and-click adventures 'cus that's what I got on my PC. Should I get a capture card, you bet your ass I'll add DS and any Switch game I got to the list.

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (March 29/2021) - Drista and the Second Shulker

For the first time since August, Dream streamed on the SMP! Or more specifically, with Drista taking over.  

And as usual when Drista visits, things get interesting: The server now has a second shulker box. Ranboo and Foolish make some negotiations over the ownership of it.

Hannah and Sam threaten to blow up the cat cafe where Niki, HBomb and Antfrost work, and Hannah gets officially hired as Sam’s bank manager.

---

VOD LINKS:

Ponk

Dream

Hannah

Connor

Ranboo

Captain Puffy

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- Dream (with Drista) runs around on the SMP. He sees the new Nether Hub and then the giant Kinoko Kingdom poster and is surprised at how nice everything looks.

- They VC Ranboo and Dream/Drista start fighting an Enderman (”Ranboo”)

- The Enderman kills them and they respawn in the prison. L

- Dream fills Drista in on Ranboo and Tubbo’s marriage

- Dream teleports himself to Ranboo, who is outside next to Bee ’n’ Boo. This is definitely how he canonically gets out of prison

- Ranboo tells him to not blow up too many things and then leaves

- Dream explores the hotel

- Jack joins the came and comes to the hotel. Dream hides behind a wall.

- Quackity joins the call

- Jack finds him and welcomes him to his hotel

- Dream/Drista breaks the window and jumps out

- They go back up the hotel and teleport Quackity over

- Then they /kill Jack and /tp him back

- Then Jack gets banned (and unbanned)

- Jack points out that Dream should be in prison. Drista says no and gives Quackity creative mode for three seconds

- Quackity asks for creative back, they start hitting Dream to send him back to prison, then Jack gets banned again and Quackity tries to start an offline hype train

- Quackity gets /killed

- Quackity says to get Dream back to jail again. Drista doesn’t know what Dream did, so Quackity fills her in on the fact that he tortures Dream every day (he pulls out the shears)

- Drista /kills both of them

Quackity: “I don’t even know where my moral compass on stands right now, because you’re not reassuring me if the things I’m doing are right or wrong, so.”

Drista: “Well, you’re naked, so you’re doing something wrong.”

- Foolish comes over, Quackity and Jack leave. Dream says hi to Foolish and George joins the call

- Foolish tells Drista that he’s working on a mansion, and she looks homeless, so if she just gives him a shulker box…

- George gets /tp’d over and whispers to give him stuff

- George says he has nothing but a seed and a plank. Drista gives him a diamond, a piece of honeycomb, some dirt, two pieces of leather, a block of dried kelp

- Drista offers Foolish that she flips a coin. Either he loses everything on him, or gets a shulker box. If Foolish loses his things, George gets it all but isn’t allowed to give it back to Foolish

- Dream gets a coin and asks if Foolish is sure about this. Foolish agrees.

- Dream flips the coin.

- Foolish gets the shulker box!

It’s lime green.

- George wants to make a deal as well, 50/50. 

He’s got, from his Ender Chest, a trident, an enchanted golden apple, three mending books, Netherite boots, a Netherite shovel, gold, a whole stack of golden apples, emeralds, a Netherite ingot, a creeper head, a speed potion, several music discs and “Taco Bell” by Dream, the Fundy Finisher and the bathwater offered up 50/50 for maxed-out full Netherite with tools

- Dream agrees to the deal and flips the coin.

- George loses.

Dream: “He made a deal with the devil and he lost!”

- George runs away into Ninja’s house and stares sadly at the bed, then logs out

- Dream gives a little speech thanking everyone for 20 million subscribers!

- Hannah and Sam see the cat cafe and agree that it’s worse than George’s house. Sam hands Hannah some TNT

- Hannah tries to spare UwU from Sam’s wrath as he rigs the place with TNT and asks HBomb for permission to blow it up

- Hannah tries to rescue the other cats

- Niki logs on and Sam tries to frame Hannah

- Hbomb logs on too and the two destroy the TNT. He says as prison warden, Sam should be a better role model

- Hannah tries to convince them that it wasn’t her

- Sam suggests they blow up Hannah’s house

- Hannah tries to negotiate for a cut of the bank’s earnings. Sam says no. Hannah then asks if she could work at the bank. Sam agrees to employ her.

- Hannah asks for a wage but Sam doesn’t agree. He says he’s just giving her a place to work.

- Hannah asks for a manager position. Sam agrees to make her Bank Manager.

- They start chasing HBomb around. HBomb threatens the skeleton horses, then says that if anything happens to the cat cafe, Hannah’s house is going down. Sam says he would fire her.

- HBomb leaves and Sam and Hannah try to heal the skeleton horse

- Ranboo has a plan to fill a chest with emerald blocks.

- Foolish asks Ranboo to speak for a bit

- Foolish tells him that he needs to sell Ranboo the shulker box, and then have Ranboo permanently rent it out to him

- Foolish says he’ll give Ranboo two Netherite blocks for it. Whenever anyone asks who the owner is, the owner will be Ranboo. Foolish is worried.

- Foolish arrives at Ranboo’s house.

- They draft up a book of negotiations transferring ownership of the lime-green shulker box to Ranboo

- Ranboo points out that this will put him in danger, so the payment has to be substantial, for dealing with the amount of danger. He knows, because of the document, people might try and get him to hand it over when war starts to go around.

- He tells Foolish that he’s already very rich, and Foolish is already building a house for him.

Ranboo: “That’s the thing, Foolish, is that...what is worth security, you know? What is worth giving up a small potential sense of security in order to be able to be able to have your -- of course you -- have the shulker box and everything, and me being the fall guy for it, of course, ‘cause that means that I’m gonna have to get involved in stuff that I’m probably not gonna get involved in at all, that I probably wouldn’t have gotten involved with at all if I wanted to.”

- Ranboo points out all his riches

- Ranboo wants two things: one, to not quit the building project anymore.

- The second...

Ranboo: “When stuff happens on this server, people always...choose sides, they always try to figure out their own morality and everything, they try to figure out ‘oh, I should be on this side, I should be on that side.’ 

The one thing that I ask from you, Foolish, is that if that ever happens...if you are ever doing something in which there are clear-cut sides...it’s gonna basically be...let’s just say a war favor."

-  If something, not even necessarily involving Ranboo, happens, then Foolish has to do something for him, but it wouldn’t have to do with the shulker box.

- Foolish asks that it not be murder. Ranboo says it won’t be.

- It could even just be delivering a message for Ranboo where it would look bad if he delivered it himself. In any case, it wouldn’t put Foolish in danger.

- Foolish is glad that it would never involve killing somebody else. He can’t do that anymore, can’t go back to that path...

- Ranboo tells Foolish to take a break from the mansion if he needs.

- Ranboo writes in the contract that he is the rightful owner of the box, but agrees to rent out the shulker box indefinitely in exchange for favors agreed upon off the record. 

Ranboo: “Foolish, Foolish, Foolish, Foolish, Foolish...I am someone that -- I can’t be scammed, alright. But I have a way -- I have a sort of way to...be able to get my way most of the time based on, well, the ability of me speaking. So if somebody did come and try to get the shulker box...then...they’re gonna be giving me things and not even realize it.”

“I just know emotions, Foolish, and I know how to...deal with them.”

- Foolish reviews the terms

- Ranboo tells Foolish that there are certain things on the server that he cares deeply about, so...there may be a situation. But Foolish has his word that Foolish will have the shulker box in his possession. Just, if push comes to shove, Foolish may need to give it up, but Ranboo will return it.

- Ranboo signs the book, but Foolish gets to keep it

- Ranboo says in order for it to be a thing, they do have to also do a transfer of funds. Ranboo tells Foolish to grab something from his Ender Chest, anything.

- Ranboo throws Foolish the shulker and in return Foolish throws him lapis.

- Ranboo holds a grass block and says goodbye to Foolish at the door.

Foolish: “Sweet dreams -- if Endermen dream, I don’t know...”

- Foolish leaves and Ranboo returns to his goal of getting tons of emeralds.

---

Upcoming events remain the same.

[ruby-whistler]

Small thing- i did my research and as it turns out c!tommy has never stolen dream's chestplate, the only time he took anything remotely like that from dream was when dream died of fall damage once and tommy briefly picked it up and returned it -curious anon (unless u have a vod or something but idk)

hey! this ask has been sitting at the back of my inbox for a while now - and that is because i actually went back and made an analysis of the original disc conflict which is what i was actually talking about.

this is gonna be very in-detail because that's how i do stuff. word-by-word, frame-by-frame.

this is not quite roleplay yet, but the "war" is in minecraft and it's all completely lighthearted, so, i'm saying this just as a disclaimer.

i started analysing tommy's video "So I Started a Minecraft War VS Dream…", not the stream. if anyone knows that the stream has additional, important information, i'll watch it as well.

so, let's start off.

sapnap had a fight with ponk and alyssa - tommy joined in to help sapnap kill them. "however dream doesn't like when people fight on his server" - he already has the reputation of being a mediator. this is very interesting to note for later.

dream logs on after which ponk and alyssa, who have just been killed, start asking him for help.

dream shows up in iron armor, sapnap and tommy fully decked out.

dream is not an idiot. there are two people with stronger gear coming at him, yelling in a stream he has open "LET'S KILL DREAM" at the top of their lungs, having just killed two server members.

the two are charging at him, so he shoots to knock them back. after this he runs while tommy and sapnap proceed to assault him.

they're killing someone who can't protect themselves for fun. dream is the underdog in this situation - funnily enough, this event gets often cited as dream being tyrannical despite the fact.

dream runs himself into a corner besides the fence. sapnap kills him and tommy is mad that he didn't get the kill.

all of dream's stuff is laying on the ground and they pick it up.

[ Sapnap: NOONE CAN TAKE US ]

we can see gold, iron, gapples, food, spare items and materials, which they pick up - and most importantly, dream's crossbow. since his armor and weapons are decent and best, his crossbow is probably his most important item, and tommy gloats about having it.

[ Dream: give me my stuff back ]

tommy responds to this by saying "watch, no, watch this", insulting dream, and then killing him with his own crossbow.

dream has a track record on the smp, that he keeps throughout the l'manberg war as well, of giving people their stuff back if he kills them - this would usually happen to stop them from assaulting someone else. his one rule he enforces is "don't be a jerk", so don't steal things or ruin things people have worked for. this is seemingly why he "doesn't like" conflict.

he doesn't genuinely want anyone to lose the stuff that they've earned, and he expects this same attitude towards himself.

this is why he comes towards tommy with no armor, seemingly completely trusting he would be given back his stuff. this doesn't happen, as tommy wants a dream kill under his belt. tommy chases dream down as he tries to get away. alyssa, seemingly without any items - it's reasonable to assume they were also taken by tommy and sapnap, or maybe she doesn't have anything for some other reason - gets killed again when she runs by tommy and dream. thanks to this fact, dream gets away, and sapnap and tommy start trying to devise a plan to kill dream again.

dream gets punz and ponk to help him, of which punz is the only person with full armor - all three are wearing armor. by this time, tubbo has joined, who has inferior armor to even dream, but the three have much better gear overall. it's unsurprising then, that during this encounter, sapnap and tommy manage to kill all three - sapnap kills ponk and dream while tommy gets punz.

[ Tubbo_: punz wth? ]

during this encounter, tubbo doesn't engage, but watches from the top of the fence.

[ Sapnap: STOP THIS MADNESS ]

tommy then goes to chase dream down in order to finally get the kill he had wanted. dream combat logs, and tommy boasts about how many diamonds he managed to gain by stealing from the people he killed during the fight.

tubbo comments that he doesn't think anyone's won, because things on the server were destroyed during the battle. tommy kicked him from the call, telling sapnap that he's not on their side.

dream relogs and gets immediately killed by tommy.

[ Sapnap: STOP THIS MADNESS ]

[ Sapnap: WE ALL NEED TO TALK ]

[ Sapnap: you just lost a 3v2 ]

[ Tubbo_: why don't you guys just- (cut off) ]

[ Sapnap: 4v2 actually ]

[ Dream: I had nothing ]

[ Sapnap: we can talk ]

tommy suggests to vc, saying "all war stops now". he tells ponk that they've already won, to which sapnap alerts him to dream's messages that he sent in chat.

[ Dream: I have the music discs ]

[ Dream: and I'm going to burn them ]

[ Dream: unless my stuff is returned ]

here we can see that dream literally only wanted his stuff back - when negotiations failed and he was killed three times over, he decided to retaliate and get his items - which he had, much like tommy with the discs, worked hard for - using another method.

this was not him targeting people's attachments or targeting sentimental value. he knew tommy had worked for hours to get them, which is why he used them as leverage.

tommy is understandably distraught after this.

[ Punz: rekt ]

[ Punz: don't touch dream ]

tubbo and sapnap watch dream walk past them, looking into tommy's chests. they don't do anything besides telling tommy.

dream proceeds to kill tommy as retaliation, probably thinking tommy would have his stuff on him.

sapnap kills ponk and doesn't get the discs back from dream.

[ TommyInnit: Dream ]

[ TommyInnit: Where are the discs ]

tommy then tries to blame sapnap for this happening, despite the fact that he was the one to chase after dream and refuse to return his items. sapnap says that they attacked them, which is also not true.

sapnap and tommy scheme to try kill dream, to which dream kills tommy again to set them back and stop them from doing so.

dream manages to kill sapnap with his bow. he then boasts about winning a 1v2 in chat, seemingly replying to sapnap mocking him earlier for losing a 4v2.

dream joins the call after which tommy begins yelling at him about him killing him and stealing his stuff.

"i was walking down a path when two fully decked out people 2v1'd me and killed me. and then i came back, and i killed both of you, i took all of your stuff."

dream here explains that he was just walking down the path, confirming he wasn't planning to attack them, but they jumped him pretty much out of nowhere and essentially mugged him of the few items he had. he doesn't feel bad for retaliating for this unfair treatment.

he then proceeds to say he was not an idiot; he heard them shouting that they were going to kill him because he had had the stream open.

tommy denies all these accusations, dismissing dream's rightful anger. he refuses to apologize.

dream says that he will return his stuff, but burn his discs as punishment for killing people and not apologizing. he speaks on behalf of not only himself, but also punz and alyssa.

tommy tries to negotiate via tricking dream, but dream says he'll keep the discs specifically so that tommy wouldn't kill him again. sapnap apologizes, saying it was an accident (it really wasn't but dream takes it), tommy simply saying he's on his side now instead of a proper apology. dream steps away from saying he will burn them, returning tommy's gear, specifically his chestplate and his sword.

alyssa comes to ask for items and gets killed by dream, then sapnap. dream asks if anyone has his steak. alyssa complains in chat about having all of her items stolen from her and being killed repeatedly. i really feel bad for her in this because she gets the worst treatment from everyone.

dream says he'll keep the discs safe, but that he doesn't trust tommy.

he leaves the call and leaves the room, seemingly not wanting to engage with the conflict anymore. sapnap gets mellohi from dream and gives it to tommy, who goes to hide it, while he keeps him off.

as the disc war goes, the two are stubborn and continue to battle for the discs. this is however what started it, and it did happen because of tommy's (and to a degree sapnap's) actions. he held the discs as leverage because tommy refused to return the few items he had.

[sleepyskunk]

Deconstructing the 2017 Movie Trailer Mashup

Why deconstructing a mashup? Because these videos are often perceived as a random mess of pretty images from movie trailers. While that’s absolutely true, there’s an opportunity to explore themes and also pay a few obscure tributes to elements that don’t belong in the video itself but that are generally widespread within pop culture. These montages have been going on for a few years now, and it’s hard to edit the footage in a way that won’t feel reminiscent of one of the many great retrospectives put out by other talented editors in years past. I have to say that trying to build a narrative with all that footage has now become more enticing to me than to highlight the moments that made the year in cinema within their proper context. Let’s get right into it, shall we?

Someone on Reddit commented: “starting off with GEOSTORM, that’s a bold move!” and it didn’t even cross my mind. The shot was exactly where I wanted to go right off the bat - a blend of childlike wonder and eerie caution reminiscent of earlier Tim Burton films. The track was composed for a television spot called “A Wonderful Day” from IT and it showcases major Danny Elfman influences. Thus, this was my small tribute to the Burton/Elfman collabs happening under snowfalls like EDWARD SCISSORHANDS or BATMAN RETURNS. I loved the contrast in dialogue from PERSONAL SHOPPER which was such an under-appreciated indie film this year. Every mashup has its horror section, but I am gently sneaking you in by the supernatural door this time around. It’s just innocent enough to deceive those who hate horror.

Childlike wonder flawlessly captured in one shot, from the lens of Matt Reeves. I can’t say I connect emotionally with his APES movies, but the quality control on every frame, CGI or otherwise, it pretty much above and beyond all industry standards. That facial expression is exactly what I needed, you can tell she’s not too sure whether she’s safe or not but without feeling properly scared either. This is like the part in the original POLTERGEIST where kitchen chairs are moving on their own and the family still thinks it’s kind of fun. Kind of.

KING ARTHUR is the best type of release when it comes to trailer mashups because 1) it had a fantasy undertone 2) it was tracking poorly and 3) it went way over budget. Big studios know months in advance if they have a major bomb on their hands, and they have two choices at that point: either stop spending a penny on it and dump it for a quick theatre run and VOD release (more common if the movie didn’t cost that much) or, like in this case, spend extra millions of dollars to sell the shit out of that movie on opening week-end before everyone realizes it’s bad. Those extra millions go towards CGI money shots like the one above, which is really meant to make the marketing more attractive and oh dear lord, did KING ARTHUR have some last minute money shots to offer or what? It was a joy to pick and choose from its nine trailers.

This is where I put my cards on the table, whimsy never happened and I am taking you all to creepytown. That shot from ANNABELLE: CREATION is one of the many that upstages the featured evil doll in that wonderful movie and the film’s cinematographer Maxime Alexandre reached out because he was happy so much of his work was featured. You never know in front of who your videos can end up and industry people are keen on celebrating the year in film, especially if their own works are included. This is just a top notch unsettling shot clearly inspired by THE SHINING (the girl’s dress and the way her arms look lifeless.) On a side note, I always manually add all sounds including that floor cracking. If anyone reading this is starting off editing mashups, I promise you one thing: using professional, isolated, studio-recorded sound effect packages such as BOOM library is much superior to the original trailer track (unless you get a clean sound within the trailer.)

Another random insight (if you’re interested in making your own movie mashups) is to try as much as possible to avoid that one marketing shot everyone recognizes. You can revisit a memorable moment but going straight to the most oversold shot of a film hurts you. While you’re eager to make everyone relive the most epic imagery of the year, some value gets lost when a studio bombarded the same shot over and over and you go for it. Two quick examples: Giant hologram JOI pointing at Ryan Gosling in BLADE RUNNER 2049. I wanted that moment, but the original side-scroller shot was so overused that I went with her from a closer angle (see video thumbnail). Another example is that uncomfortable sniffle from Daniel Kaluuya in GET OUT which I favored over the super overplayed mouth open crying paralyzed shot from every marketing piece. In both cases, I assume you know which shots I am referring to without having to show them. Trying the alternative makes us relive the moment without its obviousness. It gives that other shot they didn’t choose its moment to shine (and more often than not, it’s just as effective.)

Someone’s not getting much sleep. A CURE FOR WELLNESS is a gorgeous-looking film no matter what you think of its bizarre plot points. I spend much of the first segment flirting with the creative key points from IT. One I tried to play around with is the idea of Pennywise as a half-real/half-fiction monster, and how similar to Wes Craven’s A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET his realm of terror extends. A few winning concepts in both films: 1) He isn’t real but he can really hurt you so you have to stay on your guard at all times and 2) Only a select few have been cursed with having to deal with him, adding a psychological layer to an already spooky premise. Dane Dehaan looks like a kid from Derry, or Elm street if you prefer, whose mental focus seems affected by the fact that he saw something, and his friend saw him too. Meanwhile, I throw in a completely out of context quote from Vanessa Redgrave which ties in that mysterious “sickness” from Verbinski’s film.

A shot from PROFESSOR MARSTON AND THE WONDER WOMEN from a trailer edited by Kees van Dijkhuizen Jr. for Annapurna Pictures where he works as an in-house editor now. In 2015, I talked about Gen Ip’s storytelling approach and last year I praised Matt Shapiro’s famously epic crescendos, so this year, let’s talk about Kees a little bit because I find all their influences fascinating. My first observation is how far his much-adored Cinema series has taken him, and that one of the top production houses in the business (if not the top, sorry A24 and Fox Searchlight) hired him so he could bring his own distinct style onto their major features. The whole trailer mashup craze started off only a few years back and so many editors were recruited right off YouTube to turn their passion into a livelihood down in Los Angeles. I can think of at least six editors whose names you’d recognize and who are now living the dream, and I consider this to be really inspiring because none of them initially got into it thinking something like that was ever possible. (side note: I also moved to L.A. and was poached by a trailer house but prefer to keep things on the low-end until it’s been long enough. I wouldn’t want to jinx it.)

The second observation about Kees is how much influence he’s had on every mashup that gets uploaded on a daily basis every December (me included) - I will link his Cinema series below. Instead of pairing clips into a horror bit, an action bit, a laughing and dancing bit, a kissing and crying bit, Kees was always out to create new feelings and nothing ever seemed more important than proper flow. Many shots would pop-up that you would never expect thematically, images of moving objects like a breaking glass transitioned with a girl’s hair waving through the wind (also see the lie detector in the previous shot.) He would connect nature documentaries right along with major superhero blockbusters and the movements flowed so perfectly that nothing ever felt out of place, quite the contrary. He was the best shot curator we’ve ever seen, and the order in which he put them together was beyond logic and predictability. Imagine “One Perfect Shot” but with 275 perfect shots back-to-back. If you want a prime example of what I’m referring to (random objects and flow), check out 2:49 - 2:52 from his Cinema 2011 (links below). Kees set the bar so high that attempting an end-of-year mashup certainly felt foolish at times, but hoping to improve made the editing process all the more inspiring.

CINEMA 2008 | CINEMA 2009 | CINEMA 2010 | CINEMA 2011 | CINEMA 2012 

So apparently, they have the internet and flat-screen TV’s in RINGS but landline phones are still a thing. Quite frankly, I haven’t seen RINGS and I bet it’s aggressively ordinary, but how retro horror is that shot? Paired up with the voice of THE SNOWMAN saying “Mister Policeman” it’s a throwback to Nancy being terrorized by Freddy in the original Nightmare of Elm Street (minus the tongue.) I was also pleased with the aesthetic of HAPPY DEATH DAY, clearly the product of horror fans who grew up during the low-budget slasher craze of the early ‘80s. It’s got MY BLOODY VALENTINE written all over it (meanwhile their poster was paying homage to APRIL FOOL’S DAY.) Retro horror, in all its disturbing practical gore glory! Rick Baker, Tom Savini, how much we missed you in our modern times where only a few major productions have enough VFX money to escape the uncanny valley (and even then... *cough* JUSTICE LEAGUE.)

I always tend to edit right on tempo, which means switching shots at the exact moment the music beat tells you to. But over here, I thought this elevator drop from FLATLINERS looked so frenetic and out of control that I started it half a second before as if the beat couldn’t keep up! Like in cartoons when the car accelerates so fast that it takes off but their eyeballs are standing still for a little fraction. This whole mashup sequence is meant to be a little cartoony and tongue-in-cheek. To anyone who found this to be disturbing (and yes, I heard from a few viewers who said it was too much) I must admit that it wasn’t my intention. I won’t apologize for my work, people choose to watch if they want to or not. But if I really tried my best to scare the crap out of you, I can assure you THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE wouldn’t have made the cut.

Now channeling a CHILD’S PLAY vibe thanks to this retro television shot from the highly underrated BRIGSBY BEAR. A kids program works well as an element of fear because it’s supposed to be a safely protected zone of positivity and care, just like a doll or a clown for that matter. Once that turns on its head and begins to attack, you basically have nowhere else to hide. It also makes for great contrast, and Andy Muschietti must have had an absolute blast this year incorporating this component into his remake of IT. The bear costume was one of the many shots that wasn’t from a horror movie and yet I used to great effect in this section. I know there was a new CHILD’S PLAY movie this year but sadly, it didn’t hold a candle to the Hitchcockian original.

“At the end of the day, people are out for themselves.” That’s not true, and only people who are out for themselves could believe that. Because if you’re weighing low on the morality scale at some point in life, you still wanna go to bed thinking you’re a good person. So if you can’t justify what you did, the best logical next step is to convince yourself that human nature is to blame, that everyone else would have done the same as you. Ask people who were charged with insider trading on the stock market, they’ll always say “everybody was doing it.” I could refer to a certain World War to keep hammering that point but instead, I’d like to point out the interesting contrast between this and Part 3. I try to disprove that very statement by showing in the finale that everything we do that matters is for others, and others are the only thing that matters once everything else has come and gone.

The KING ARTHUR studio spending extra millions of dollars to sell the shit out of that movie on opening week-end before everyone realizes it’s bad money shot festival continues. EPIC! In fact, that shot is so gorgeous, you could place it anywhere in any mashup ever and it would probably work.

Having a bit of fun giving a more literal visual cue to IT’s “We all float down here” with Guillermo Del Toro’s hypnotically beautiful THE SHAPE OF WATER. However, it’s not the tudum tssshh, get it? movie connection that works here. It’s the underwater sound effect and the incredible sound mixing by trailer house Buddha Jones so that Georgie’s voice seems to come from the bottom of the ocean. This is likely the best sound work you’ll hear in the entire mashup, and I didn’t mix it, the editors behind that teaser trailer did. In fact, their work was so effective at scaring people that it earned twice the amount of views on YouTube than what Avengers: Infinity War received. A fact Kevin Feige will likely never admit.

That moment when you realize your manic pixie dream girl wears white socks! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I've used vulgarity in the past but not every year, depends whether it brings value. Some of you may remember “Game on, c***suckers” from KICK-ASS 2 in 2013 or “Nap time, motherf***ers” from COOTIES in 2015. Perhaps there’s another guilty pleasure at play here, however, which is that feeling of pure creative freedom. As mentioned earlier, not everyone digged the horror undertone of this year’s Part 1 and that’s okay because it went exactly where I wanted to go and no compromise was made. No client notes. No studio revisions. No censor beeper (which makes it worse because we seek to find out what the word was.) If you get into professional careers that are creative in nature, you’ll find that teamwork, compromise, and not taking anything personally are all essential components for success. But when the movie trailer mashup comes around, I report to no one. And that moment from THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI is one I wanted included as soon as the red band trailer came out.

This shot comes from a small movie you should seek out called MY NAME IS EMILY starring Evanna Lynch (aka Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter movies.) The film was directed by Simon Fitzmaurice who was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease (ALS) a few years ago, the debilitating disease for which the viral ice-bucket challenge was based on. He wrote the screenplay for this movie while his body was entirely paralyzed, and the only way he could communicate with the cast and crew while shooting the film was through eye gaze technology. There was a documentary following his brave journey that played Sundance called IT’S NOT YET DARK. Check it out if you need some real work ethic motivation and want to feel truly inspired about overcoming challenges. Much better than THE DISASTER ARTIST which is a spoof about a millionaire with no talent who mistreated the people who worked on his film. Okay, it’s still very entertaining and James Franco is hilarious but I don’t get a ‘never give up’ vibe from it, more like ‘maybe this isn’t for you.’

With the second segment, I was going for a British Gangster film vibe, hence the music cue Main Offender by The Hives. No movie captured that feeling better than Ben Wheatley’s FREE FIRE this year. I find the criminals in British movies are equally as clever in their quips as they are dangerous and often have the appearance of fair, well-behaved citizens until they have a reason to go mad. Jon Hamm’s performance in BABY DRIVER was also a textbook definition of that archetype, because all the build-up scenes where he acts friendly and discusses music with the titular character only bring an element of surprise at the end of his arc (spoilers: he’s not that nice in the end) I am aware that BABY DRIVER takes place in America but it’s directed by a Brit so it counts!

If Kubrick only knew his famous jump cut from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY that connects a flying bone to a space shuttle would lead to this fifty years later. What a shit show jump cuts have become! But they’re fun, and let’s be honest here: 7 minutes of serious quotes about life would get a little heavy. The way you edit jump cuts is the same way to solve a puzzle with over a thousand pieces. Extract dozens of short action clips onto your timeline and try to make them fit with one another over and over until you’re entertained. I mean, the music stays the same in the background, all I am doing here is deciding which projectile this pair of underpants from CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS will become. The answer was a tranquilizer from the underground mall chase sequence in Bong Joon-ho’s excellent OKJA. Maybe we should try one really long domino of jump cuts one day. Should take forever to edit, but how much fun would it be?

Did you know that Academy Award winner Alicia Vikander was a professional ballet dancer before she started acting? Work ethic applies in everything you do. When you hear about successful actors, you often discover people who are world-class at delivering under pressure and dedicating themselves to their craft with an insane amount of work. Acting is hard and yet so many people think they can do it, which makes it even harder. At least ballet puts constraints right off the bat, you need flexibility and a specific body frame. Part 3 is about finding your passion AND putting in the work. Just finding your passion is hard! It’s not always the bottomless pit one could hope for, especially when it becomes a real job with hours upon hours of work. Many people don’t even know what their passion is, they know what they’re good at but don’t love it. “Without your passion, it’s very hard to find our place in the world.” I don’t think you need your income to come from your passion in order to find said place, but I wish everyone that many of the limited hours they have each day goes towards their passion, and not towards something that feels like a waste of time. Wanting to wake up has everything to do with what happens after your first cup of coffee. Put your time towards something meaningful to you, even if it’s only on evenings and week-ends and you’ll never make a penny from it. If you love animals, volunteer at a shelter. If you love to travel, just GO!

But what happens when your family conflicts with your passion? Would you leave them behind to pursue your dreams? We all remember the tragic scene from DEAD POETS SOCIETY where a young scholar gets forced by his father to become a doctor instead of his passion and commits suicide. And then we have this year’s COCO, Pixar’s big comeback, where music is prohibited in Miguel’s family but it’s all he dreams about. But that conundrum doesn’t even have to be confrontational in nature. What if you wanted to work in a low-paying field like online journalism because it’s what you love but your single parent (who always took care of you) became sick and needed you to take care of their treatment. What happens then? What comes first? I humbly try to answer that later in the segment, of course.

We always told you Daniel Radcliffe... you’re special. That’s why you have a scar on your forehead that looks like a bolt... Just kidding, poor guy. I look at Mark Hamill in THE LAST JEDI and keep thinking that if studios are still a private enterprise in 40 years, some new Harry Potter movie will come out in which an old bearded Radcliffe will be teaching at Hogwarts. (PS: he keeps making bold choices, so much so that I am willing to watch anything he’s in.)

A man’s reach... (or woman, btw) should exceed his/her grasp. Words from a poem by Robert Browning, suggesting that, to achieve anything worthwhile, a person should attempt even those things that may turn out to be impossible. The downside with attempting the impossible is two-fold, however. 1) You may spend your life trying and never succeed. 2) If you do get there after so much sacrifice and effort, the world will expect you to do it again, or to keep doing it at the same level or better. If you won a Gold medal at the last Olympics, what are the expectations for the upcoming Olympics? That’s where passions and dreams enter a darker road, one many people choose to avoid altogether. But whatever happens, it’s worth the risk as long as you have the one thing along the way that’s a hundred times more important. And that thing is...

...people who love each other! Look at this guy, he just figured it out!

Kate Mara in MEGAN LEAVEY really seems to be the one thinking out loud in this shot while we hear a quote from THEIR FINEST. I had a blast with the Freddy Krueger references earlier but this is my favorite part. Audiomachine make the best tracks to bring that crescendo to its proper peak. You can say this part of the mashup is more in my comfort zone. And the influences from Kees that I discussed earlier can be felt here. Some shots of objects and landscapes that aren’t thematically connected but keep a nice flow. I also handpicked the best cinematography of the year all at once here. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS was a damn pretty movie, then SHAPE OF WATER, then THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS, then OKJA. Every shot looks like a million bucks. Notice the use of paper, letters and ink. I want to see you again, a character from EVERYTHING EVERYTHING writes on a sheet.

Family comes first is nice, but along with family comes conflict and distance at times. Things we said that we regret. Times we let each other down, or weren’t there when we needed to. All the papers dropping from the bridge, all the shots that refer to letter writing, that’s where I was going with that. Not always obvious because it moves so damn fast which is why I do this deconstruction blog post every year!

The final big lift from Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST! Also, the first frame I added onto my AVID timeline. This is how I organize my work basically. I pick the right songs, then I identify the exact moments in that song where a big moment should happen - if you use trailer music, it will be crystal clear what those are. And then I try money shots in each of these spots over and over until one really, really fits. Then, I ask myself how did we get here, how can I get to that point? And build around these big moments. The second shot I added into the mashup was the little girl in Part 1 under the bed who points to another version of herself sleeping in her bed and says “Shhh! That’s not me.” I put that in right when the music stopped, it became a big moment, and then I built around it in order to get there. Every editor works differently, but I am just sharing how I personally prefer to do it. Back in 2012, the first clip I added onto the timeline was “I have an army. We have a Hulk.” from THE AVENGERS which means I’ve been editing this way for five straight years.

Those letters of reaching out to people you care about. Apologies or wondering how they’re doing. Flying everywhere around Winston Churchill (that’s my dog’s name, he’s a Pembroke Welsh Corgi!) I guess you should always be the one to reach out in difficult situations with important people. The mistake is to not reach out, or convince yourself that they were dragging you down and you’re better off without them. That’s rarely the case, and you’ll never get over them when you know that’s not the case. Maybe they will reply someday, maybe they never will. But you swallowed your ego and you decided to give it one more shot. That’s the bravest thing we can do in this life, and I hope you’ll see it that way if the time comes. Happy New Year! Achieve your passions, take care of the ones you love and make it a wonderful day! (Halle Berry: “Aaaarrh!")

- Sleepy Skunk

[charity-angel]

On Buns and Ovens (15/?)

[Part 1]   [Part 14]

[Read on AO3]

“Say you’re right,” Skywalker said, rubbing at his temples. “Say this was all set up by Palpatine, what was the ultimate goal here? What’s really going on with the Banking Clan?”

“Gain direct control of the cash-flow,” Wolffe said immediately. “Presumably there’s some evidence that points the finger at shady deals between the bank and the Seppies, so the Senate can take over and no-one will object.”

“He can’t, surely,” Kenobi said, looking up from the mug of tea he was now cradling between his hands. Sabé had thoughtfully provided refreshments – tea for Kenobi and Amidala, and enough caff to float the Redeemer. Sinker had even produced one of Koon’s specialised, atmosphere-locked drinks so that he could join them.

“That would be absurd. The Banking Clan must remain neutral.”

“Actually, it kind of makes sense,” Jesse interjected before anyone else could speak. “If you want to control the galaxy, you need to control the money and the military. If they don’t sort this out now, it would be more difficult to get control once they’ve overturned whichever government they’re getting rid of.”

“The Separatists,” Amidala said. “Not only would it make sense for Palpatine – Sidious – to be in control of the power they intend to remain, but Wolffe is right; we have found evidence pointing to something wrong. The Separatists haven’t been paying interest on their loans from the Banking Clan – they’re getting their money for nothing, and there is also money being siphoned off into… well, we haven’t managed to trace that from the records we have, but I wouldn’t be surprised at this point if they turn out to be Separatist-controlled accounts.”

“But what was the point of the fight?” Ahsoka asked. “I know he wants Skyguy all crazy, but he could have just left well enough alone and let jealousy work its way in. He specifically goaded you so that there would be an actual fight.”

“Senator, what would you have done if Ahsoka hadn’t called us?” Kix asked. “If she hadn’t called me?”

Amidala thought for a moment, staring into the depths of her cup. “I… I would have sent for a med droid. There are some in the building should any of us ever need one. But I don’t see how that helps us: I am much more grateful that you are here, and that things are more out in the open now, but a med droid isn’t going to help us get the information about the mystery accounts.”

“Maybe it could,” Jesse said shrewdly. “I mean, droids can be tampered with. Who’s to say that the droids haven’t been re-programmed to have that information?”

Amidala glared at him. “I know that Clovis is not the most popular person with anyone here, but he isn’t stupid. He would question the validity of any data coming from a source like that. He would never present it to the Senate.”

“Let us return to this particular step later,” Koon suggested. “Were you and Clovis to present hard evidence of underhanded dealings between the Banking Clan and the CIS, what would happen next?”

“The Senate would push for the heads of the Banking Clan to be stripped of their leadership,” Kenobi said. “And the Muuns would support that wholeheartedly – as a whole, they despise dishonesty. It’s why they gained control of the banks in the first place. They would have to install someone neutral as the head – someone supported by the Clan and both senates.”

“Clovis.”

Skywalker started to react to that – everyone saw his face contort before he sagged against the sofa. “Sorry. It’s hard, even knowing that everything in my head has been twisted. But the man’s a traitor to the Republic – there’s no way the Senate would endorse him.”

“They would if he brings this to light,” Amidala said, standing by her prediction. “By doing that, he would prove himself trustworthy. The Separatist Senate is nothing but Dooku these days, so there would be no problems there: he’ll do whatever Sidious tells him. And Clovis was raised by a Muun family – he’s one of them as far as they are concerned. That’s all three bases covered. But having him in power doesn’t benefit the Sith.”

“Not unless they have control of him,” Wolffe suggested darkly.

“Well, there’s a disturbing thought,” Ahsoka said. “The question now is: do we let things get back on schedule, or do we keep things as they are and stress out our resident Sith lord even more than we already have?”

“I vote for stressing,” Skywalker said: “he’s more likely to make a mistake we can take advantage of.”

“That’s true, and ordinarily I would agree with you,” Kenobi responded, “but in this instance I think we need to play things safe. Should we push too many of Sidious’ buttons, he is likely to issue Contingency Order Sixty-Six ahead of whatever schedule he is keeping. We need to find a way to protect the men en masse before we do too much rattling of our gilded cage. And I suspect that may be something you can assist us with, Anakin.”

.oOo.

The decision was fairly unanimous after that: Clovis would be brought into part of the conspiracy – this specific part – and asked if he would play his part in trying to uncover a mole in the Republic Senate. Amidala was confident he would agree, since he wanted his people to be free to act impartially and, more importantly, kept free from the war raging in the rest of the galaxy.

General Koon – a fairly neutral third party – offered to return in the morning to help with Clovis, and was gratefully accepted. As they left 500 Republica, however, he strong-armed Skywalker into allowing him to borrow Kix so that he could work with An’uram, the 104th’s medic in identifying and removing the chips. Kix tried to protest that the healers they had been working with at the temple knew more than he did, but he lost that argument somewhat spectacularly.

And Wolffe was right – traipsing more and more troopers through the Temple would get mightily suspicious quickly, and they didn’t want that. Rotating them through routine medical checks while they were between missions, however, was something to be expected.

Also, it would be good to get his hand in – neither the 501st nor the 212th would be grounded for much longer given that the restrictions had been lifted following Fives’ apparent escape into hyperspace in a malfunctioning shuttle, and it would be good to be able to carry out removing the thrice-damned things from his brothers while they were away.

They all agreed to start in the morning, which would give Kix some time to round up Ryll and get him involved in the chip operations too – Ryll was going to be looking after the whole of the 212th when they shipped out, and it was best if he knew what to do as well.

(Kix had been very grateful to learn that Ryll still had batchmates in the 212th, and that there were a lot of vod’e there who knew their favourite little medic well enough to spot the warning signs of his tremors early enough to get him to stop. He would be looked after there. And probably not get himself shot by a fucking sniper, or blown up, or (honest to the kriffing Force, fucking 212th) eaten by a carnivorous plant.)

.oOo.

Next morning found Ryll and the Zeltron healer, Tayla, joining them in the infirmary of the barracks the 104th were using (right next door to the 212th/501st ones). Bringing the healer was a good idea – she knew the surgery well by now, and ensured that the three clone medics knew the precise technique when it came to their turns. Unsurprisingly, it was the surviving members of the Wolfpack who submitted to the procedure first. Sinker was used as the example, since he already knew of the conspiracy and it seemed unfair to leave him any longer than necessary with that ability to self-trigger the chip.

Kix was given the honour of removing Wolffe’s non-functional chip next. They all agreed that it wasn’t worth the risk leaving it in there, just in case it wasn’t as non-functional as they thought; and Tayla wanted it for her and Awaraven to study. It might hold the key to disabling the lot. Kix doubted it, personally, but anything was worth a shot.

An’uram took Boost, and was as no-nonsense about the removal as he was with anything else.

Ryll was last, removing Comet’s chip. As always, he was as steady as a rock during the surgery, and looked rightfully pleased with himself as he handed over the mass of tissue to be preserved for study.

Before they could make any decisions as to how they were going to go about removing the chips from the rest of the three battalions, the 212th got their marching orders. Ryll gathered up his helmet and asked them to let him know whenever the decision was made.

(It wasn’t going to be made without him; they all knew that. But it was nice that he asked.)

Ahsoka pinged a message through to Kix’s comm a few minutes after Ryll’s departure saying that the bait had been taken. So it had been something to do with the med droid, then? That was the only thing that could have happened this morning, surely? Amidala had summoned the med droid to check on ‘her’ patching up of Clovis last night, make sure that nothing had been missed. The hope had been that things would progress as they were supposed to from there, and it looked like they had been right.

[Part 16]