#I was thinking today about how artists develop a voice in every medium | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thesims4blogger · 4 years ago

Text

The Sims 4 Paranormal Stuff: Developer Blog (Part 1)

SimGuruConnor has released part 1 of the Sims 4 Paranormal Developer Blog series.

Hello Simmers! Welcome to a small 2-part Dev Blog about our newest Stuff Pack, Paranormal Stuff! This pack has been an absolute blast to work on, and I’m excited to share what this pack is all about!

I’ll try not to reveal too many spoilers for the pack either, so I’ll keep things somewhat brief. Our topics for today are the new Scared Mood and the Haunted House Lot Type, plus an interview with our Audio Artist too!

Get Scared

Sims can now relish in the mortal dread of the Scared Mood! The Scared Mood affects Sims in a variety of ways, with my personal favorite, the new Scream Incoherently interaction, where a Scared Sim runs up to another Sim to scream their lungs out. This can result in the other Sim calming down the Scared Sim, or resulting in both Sims becoming Scared. This can create a Scared Mood wildfire if you’re not careful!

Whoa, whoa, whoa, it's okay!

Sims afflicted with the Scared Mood also have trouble communicating with others, the urge to panic-run everywhere, and are slightly more prone to accidents. If no other Sims are around to help calm down a Scared Sim, they might just have to Hide Under The Covers for a while.

But if being Scared just isn’t your Sims style, consider purchasing the new Brave Trait. This Satisfaction Reward Store Trait will rapidly reduce the incoming fear a Sim feels and help Sims regain their composure faster. While no Sim is totally fearless, this trait should help mitigate some of those creepy feelings.

The Scared Mood and the Brave Reward Trait are all base game features coming with the Paranormal Stuff patch on January 21st. Tons of previous Uncomfortable Buffs are now becoming Scared Buffs, such as the “Startled By Ghost” Buff or the “Thalassophobia” Buff from Island Living.

While being Scared might not be a common occurrence in your everyday Sims life, living in a Haunted House is a whole different story…

Happy Haunts

Introducing the Haunted House Lot Type!

The Duplantier Dwelling, created by Doctor Ashley! This “canon” Haunted House will be available in the gallery!

They’re like regular houses, only haunted! Although unassuming during the day, at night, these places get super weird. Your Sims may notice things like flickering lights, pipes rattling, or even creepy dolls staring at them in the corner. All are totally normal occurrences in a Haunted House, but it may take some time for your Sims to adjust to their new surroundings.

Sims living in a Haunted House will also be introduced to floating apparitions known as Specters. They’re cute little critters, but their motives aren’t entirely clear. You can try talking to them, or even offer them presents in hopes of establishing a good rapport. If they like you, they’ll drop special loot for you and your family. If they don’t like you, well, you’ve been warned.

o o o (> ‘ u ‘ )>

Learning to get along with your new ghostly inhabitants is crucial in a Haunted House. Things like botching seances, neglecting Specters, or letting accursed objects invade your house will have a negative impact on its spiritual serenity. There is a delicate art to co-existing with the entities of the house, and thankfully you’ll have an expert on the matter to assist you!

Meet Guidry

Claude René Duplantier Guidry was a seasoned Paranormal Investigator in his previous life, but now he exists to help anyone brave enough to live in a Haunted House! You’ll probably run into him eventually living in a Haunted House, but don’t worry, he’s a nice ghost!

Guidry will gladly offer his wisdom to those who seek it. If you’re confused, alarmed, or slightly uncomfortable by your new haunted surroundings, give Guidry a holler and he might be able to help. He can also offer valuable objects to help your Sims, too; all you need is to reach out!

Still got it.

All Guidry wants in return is to crash at your place for the time being. Sounds like a fair deal, right? But if you’d prefer to fly it solo, you can always disable his nightly visits—he won’t be too upset, maybe.

As mentioned before, Guidry was a Paranormal Investigator before his untimely demise. If he sees potential in you, he can certify you with a Paranormal Investigation License, granting access to the Paranormal Investigation Freelancer Gigs. Only those who are qualified enough can join the ranks of Paranormal Investigators, but more on that next time!

Be Brave!

Living in a Haunted House adds a layer of risk and reward for your Sims, and each successful night yields Reward Store Satisfaction Points for everyone in the Household. Specters can also drop treasure that can also be collected, consumed, or sold to an Oddity Collector. So although your Sims might go through a bit of peril, they’ll thankfully be compensated.

One of my favorite pieces of haunted treasure is the new Sacred Candle. Not only do they look cool, but they also help protect Sims from paranormal influences. Place them around your house to make sure Sims are properly shielded!

A properly protected Sim.

Things like Sacred Candles and performing ceremonies at the Séance Table are integral to keeping your Sims happy in a Haunted House. Without using these paranormal tools, the entities of the house might get a little bossy.

And while it might be in your Sims’ best interest to keep the spirits of the house in check, watching things go horribly wrong in a Haunted House can be just as fun too. So whatever works for you!

Like Tiny Homes, this Lot Type can be toggled on or off at any time. So whether you’re a casual thrillseeker who wants to spend a couple of nights in a Haunted House, or a seasoned Paranormal Expert who wants to take on a new challenge, this Lot Type should offer something for you!

Crosspack Stuff!

Pets get to share the fun too! They especially love the accursed objects that show up!

I think they’re gonna get along great.

As mentioned before, a ton of old Buffs from multiple packs are now being converted to the Scared Mood. I think 70 something Moodlets were converted? Honestly, I lost count. Anything that seemed more appropriate for the Scared Mood was transferred over.

Oh, and you might remember an old Lot Trait from City Living called Haunted. For clarity’s sake, it needed a name change, so now it’s the Spooky Lot Trait. It also benefits from being combined with the new Haunted House Lot Type and will have an increased chance of spawning Ghosts at night. So use both for maximum haunted-ness!

Audibly Frightened

Last but not least, I’d love to turn it over to our Audio Artist for this pack, Briana Billups! She did a killer job bringing Haunted Houses to life! Trust me!

Conor: Can you tell us what an Audio Artist does on The Sims 4?

Briana: Big, broad picture: an audio artist decides what everything in The Sims 4 sounds like. We record, create, and edit sounds to the art and animation of the game. Little, very detailed picture: creating the actual sounds is usually one of the smaller aspects of our job. We are meeting with other departments, like design, animation, and VFX, to understand the overall vision of new game features and how we can fit in sonically. We are meeting with each other to make sure all our new content still keeps the very fun and quirky vibe of the Sims. We come up with new tools and implementation where necessary.

Conor: What sort of things go into the creative process for creating audio?

Briana: Every audio artist/sound designer has their own creative process, but I like to make a “sonic mood board” of sorts. I typically like to have a good idea of what I want something to sound like in my head before I record or edit it, so it’s nice to have sound effects or music to refer to that represents my original inspiration or ideas. When I was in college, I would make Spotify playlists for whatever I was working on. I would listen to them once a day, adding and editing as necessary, so when I actually got to work, I was in the right headspace. Now I’m usually less formal about this sort of stuff, but for this pack, I would refer back to things like Vincent Price’s demonic laugh from Thriller or Casper the Friendly Ghost Cartoons and the looping soundtrack from the queue of a horror ride at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (Ghost Blasters)

Conor: What were you most excited to work on for this pack?

Briana: Definitely all the haunted house sounds! Good sound design is the crux of so many horror movies and video games, so even if we were keeping things more “Casper” and less “Poltergeist,” I still wanted to give a good scare here and there. I actually scared myself one day while playtesting another feature in the game!

Conor: If you had to choose, what is your favorite audio clip you’ve ever added to The Sims 4?

Briana: I would say my favorite SFX were the sports arena loops in EP08: Discover University. When you visit the arena for the soccer/esports match or graduation, you can actually listen to the whole game or ceremony. It was great to craft a whole story from start to finish using just sound. I also snuck in a lot of developer names when writing the scripts for our voice actors.

Thanks, Briana!

More To Come!

That about covers this first foray into the Paranormal Stuff Pack! This pack has been a ton of fun to work on, and watching my Sims flee in terror has been more enjoyable than I’d like to admit.

Next blog, we’ll focus on the Séance Table and developing your Medium skill, as well as the new active freelance career Paranormal Investigator.

Big thanks to the Stuff Pack team for helping this pack come to life, and thank you, Doctor Ashley, for building our featured Haunted House!

Until next time, SimGuruConor

#news #the sims 4 #ts4 #sims 4 #sims 4 paranormal #stuff pack

56 notes · View notes

filmhistorymptv1145 · 4 years ago

Text

Examine the ways in which films deal with social, political, cultural, and economic issues, both in direct and indirect ways. What is the political impact of cinema on audiences around the world and how do we see it? Should filmmakers directly engage with these kinds of issues or do so subtly? Discuss any of the films we have watched so far from this perspective, and draw upon other examples if necessary.

Social commentary exists in many forms. We read it in books and hear it in music of every genre. It does not discriminate, covering every issue from politics to economics. As film grew into its own medium, it became a new platform for artists to utilize in portraying their visions of the world. Whether they be whimsical and over the top, or down to earth and stunningly realistic, movies grew to become one of the largest entertainment industries. Directors and screenwriters, whether inspired by or displeased with their surroundings, came to use film as a method of sharing their thoughts and emotions. Be it through direct or indirect means, they would criticize politicians and governments to historic and current world events. Certain countries were more limited than others in controlling the content of films, pushing creators to become even more crafty and thoughtful when conveying their opinions on screen.

With the Motion Picture Production Code in full effect in the US, film makers who wanted to touch upon political issues in American society had to do so in a very subtle way. Take Force of Evil, for instance. On the outside, it reads like a classic gangster movie that was commonly seen in the 1940’s. However, it is deeply critical of the money and power-hungry American underbelly of society, digging into the Capitalism that has overtaken the country even in these earlier years. Irony is found in the two main characters, a pair of brothers. Joe is a lawyer who runs dirty deals with gang members, using his education and career to further their unsavory deeds. His brother Leo believes that his own line of work is earnest and respectable, when in reality it is not. Leo runs a ‘bank’ for the small number rackets that exist in New York City, mainly centered around bets that are placed on horse races. Leo strongly feels that he is not as morally corrupted as his brother, despite being in charge of an illegal business.

The mise-an-scene of the film is what really drives home the underlying critique of money and its corrupting force. Joe takes Leo’s former secretary Doris for a walk on Wall Street, taking her through a church cemetery. The church building is completely dwarfed by the towering buildings of Wall Street’s capitalist businesses. The implied message here is that money is the new God, that the hold it has over people is nearly as strong as religion.

For Polonsky, who was put on the blacklist by HUACC for his leftist ideals, this message is as true to him as it gets. In Polonsky’s eyes, people no longer feared God as much as they did losing money in capitalist America. Considering what the entire world had just lost three years prior in World War Two, it is almost insulting to showcase people like Joe and his associates on screen. Money grubbing is not what America wanted its people to think they had fought and died for, just the opposite. Justice and morality is what America wants people to think it stands for, not capitalism and the desire to supersede the people in their lives. Force of Evil is astoundingly subtle and simultaneously gritty, holding true to the film noir standard of the times.

At the end of the film, when Leo is killed by Joe’s nefarious associates, Joe goes to retrieve his brother’s body. Stairwells are used as a metaphor for an internal moral struggle. In a voiceover, Joe laments ‘I just kept going down and down. It felt like I was going to the bottom of the world.’ The decrepit area beneath the bridge is the exact opposite of the organized, shining city above. Finding his brother’s body is Joe’s moral rock bottom, both literally and metaphorically. It is a slap in the face for Joe, stripping away all of the justifications he has held for his less than moral behavior and actions.

Polonsky cuts to Doris as Joe says, ‘He is dead,’ juxtaposing the image of a living woman with the realization that his brother Leo is gone. It is jarring, but it also suggests a dual motivation rising within Joe. Inspired by Doris’ love and Leo’s death, Joe turns to make his way back up the enormous staircase. This finale leaves the viewers with some hope that Joe can possibly redeem himself after his selfish actions, but will it be as quickly as he ran down the stairs towards his brother’s corpse?

One wouldn’t think that in 1950’s America, a bold film would tackle such a hot social issue: equal rights for African Americans. Especially with the Motion Picture Production Code still in full effect. Typically, when reflecting on movies from that decade, our minds are filled with images of romantic melodramas, as well as musicals and other bright, cheery content. The Defiant Ones not only tackled the issue of racism in America, but it also set the standard for the ‘buddy’ films that are commonplace today. Two escaped convicts are chained together at the wrist, one white and one African American. The film goes back and forth between Johnny and Cullen’s escapades whilst on the run, and the officers who have been assigned to track them down and take them back to prison. The tone of the film is established in the first few minutes, when one of the officers refers to Cullen as the n-word. Later on in the movie, when Johnny and Cullen are apprehended by a group of townspeople after attempting to rob their general store, they start stringing up two nooses. Johnny is mortified, looking around at the townsfolk with terror in his eyes. ‘You can’t lynch me, I’m a white man!’ he pleads. The message is clear: lynching is something white people do to black people.

Not only does the movie look at the harsh reality of life for African Americans at the time, but the relationship that develops between Johnny and Cullen is in itself socially and politically charged. Over the course of the movie, the two convicts go from being at odds with one another to developing a close friendship. Not even Johnny’s mistake to trust the woman they holed up with can break their bond. Johnny leaves the woman behind to rescue Cullen from the dangerous swamps. At the film’s end, Cullen is cradling Johnny, who is wounded from a gunshot to the chest. They are collapsed on the grass together, sharing a cigarette while Cullen sings and the police detective approaches to apprehend them.

Not only has Johnny moved past his racist ideals, but one could also say that their positioning at the end of the film is borderline sexual. The way Cullen holds Johnny is almost as if it is in a lover’s embrace. Cullen’s portrayal in the film is especially bold, since he was portrayed to be well-spoken, intelligent and overall good. A far cry from films like Birth of a Nation where African Americans are put in the most negative light possible, portrayed as thieves and rapists while the Ku Klux Klan members are seen as heroic and noble. The Defiant Ones, supported by Sidney Poitier’s phenomenal acting, gave rise to a much more positive role for African American actors to portray on screen. Though the ‘righteous Black man’ did end up becoming a trope in Hollywood for many years, it was still a positive step in the right direction for civil rights.

Outside of the US, films were not constricted by strict standards of morality and content. They were much freer to openly criticize the societal norms and political atmospheres that were in place at the time of their creation. Hiroshima Mon Amour is a French made film that touches on the devastation of the nuclear bomb drops in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While the movie itself seems to be mainly centered around a couple who cannot be together due to extenuating circumstances and their own inner demons, it is also direct commentary on how Japan remembered the bombings, and how different it is from the perspective of the rest of the world.

The first ten minutes of the film are composed of an almost poetry-like sequence of shots of Hiroshima before and after the bombs paired together with the two main character’s voice overs. The characters, a French woman, and a Japanese man, are in bed together in a loving embrace. The opening shot features ash falling onto their naked bodies, which we can infer mimics the death ash that fell onto Hiroshima after the atomic bomb’s detonation. This frame cross fades into nearly the same image of the naked couple, but the ash is gone from their bedroom.

The woman is stating that she knows all about what happened in Hiroshima, from having seen the newsreels that aired after the bombs had been dropped. The man argues that she has no idea what really happened. She states that in the newsreels she viewed, bugs were already crawling up through the debris and dirt on the second day and that flowers were growing all over Hiroshima just a few days after the bomb had been dropped. This voiceover is paired with the footage of a young boy being treated for burns and lesions on his skin, the exact opposite of new life springing forth from the ashes. The obvious pain that the boy is enduring is starkly contrasted to how the French woman describes all the different kinds of flowers that began blooming after the bombs had been dropped.

The Hiroshima that exists in the French woman’s mind is completely different from the Japanese man’s. This speaks to the overall theme of the movie, that collective and individual memories, as well as one’s identity can be corrupted. That the human brain is not a perfect organ and at times, it can even be our worst enemy. The French woman protests that she has seen Hiroshima. She had been to its museums, she knew how it had been over ten-thousand degrees in Peace Square at the time of detonation, and she had seen the films that had been made about the devastation. Her partner states over and over during this intro sequence that, ‘You saw nothing in Hiroshima. Nothing.’ Her experience of the disaster when compared to his is hollow, a clever way of illustrating how two people can think of the same event so differently.

Even if the trend of filmmaking has changed, shifting from film noir and melodrama to the blockbuster and action movies, social commentary still persists throughout the media. As the world around us changes and moves forward (be it for better or worse), so does the real-life content that directors and screenwriters are inspired by. Seeing politically and socially charged movies, whether they are extremely subtle or right up in your face, helps us both cope with world events and immortalize what occurred. As if to say, ‘We were here. We saw what took place. This is how we remember it.’

#abraham polonsky #force of evil #the defiant ones #hiroshima mon amour

9 notes · View notes

byunsboyz · 5 years ago

Text

Jamais Vu - Part One

Exo Fanfiction

Baekhyun x Female Reader

Warnings: some light swears.

Genre: Fluff/Angst?

W/C: 2560

Part Two Part Three

_____________________________________________________________

Everybody has that ‘what if’. The one who got away....not quite regret, but thoughts that would drift by late at night when insomnia has set in and you’re deep into your latest existential crisis.

What if things had been different? What if you had said what had been on the tip of your tongue that day?

Byun Baekhyun was your what if.

He had been your best friend in college and the only person you had truly loved.

You had no reason to run into Byun Baekhyun. You didn’t share classes. You an Accounting major and him Architecture.

You didn’t run in the same social circles, he was part of a frat house and you opted to remain in dorms with your small group of friends.

But what had brought you together was music, meeting in your second year while working at the campus radio station.

You had applied for the role of Production Director on a whim, looking for a hobby outside of classes and studying and also benefited from the extra credit of managing the finances of the small college club.

The first time you met you were positive you’d never understand him. After all, you were complete opposites. He was loud and outgoing; always the centre of jokes and a far cry the quiet loner you were perceived to be.

But from the first show you ran with him, he has surprised you. Baekhyun was the On-Air Presenter for the Sunday night Jazz & Blues segment and as soon as the light would turn red he’d take on a completely different persona.

His voice would become soft and melodic as he’d whisper sweet nothings into the microphone about the classics of Miles Davies and Frank Sinatra.

You’d often be on the same late-night shift together; downing coffee after coffee, discussing your favourite artists and organising records until the early hours.

He wasn’t exhausting like the rest of your extroverted friends, his presence giving you a warm sense of comfort.

Without noticing you became joined at the hip for the rest of your college days.

Not to the point that you were a regular at his crazy frat parties but you’d hang out at the radio station, would marathon movie after movie at each other’s dorms on the weekends and crammed for all your major test’s together.

You hadn’t even realised you were in love with him until you’d just graduated, you even had the crazy idea to confess.

Then the news broke that he was moving to a different country.

He had been in two minds on whether to go. You’d always talked about living and working in the same city and he’d been concerned about you being alone and him going back on his promise.

Honestly. Who achieves their dream job at a globally famous architecture firm and worries about their dumb friend during the happiest moment of their life?!

You remembered that day vividly.

‘“Of course you should go! It’s your dream, Baek” you forced the enthusiasm into your voice.

Inside, you could feel your heart tearing at the seams. You weren’t selfish enough to show him just how much you would miss him, as much as you had wanted to.

He was always too considerate of your feelings.

This wasn’t some Rom-Com TV show, where Baekhyun would suddenly declare he couldn’t live without you. He wasn’t like Rachel choosing not to get on the plan for Ross.

You’d cried so hard the night he’d left. Almost texting the words you’d be aching to tell him for the last three years.

‘I am in love with you’.

But the alcohol had knocked you out before you could hit send.

He’d promised to keep in touch but over the years you drifted. As life and work became more and more hectic it devolved from video chatting on the weekends, to texting occasionally.

Fading into receiving a generic happy birthday post on social media and then nothing at all.

You’d pushed him to the back of your mind as you told yourself over and over that this is what happens as you get older.

And with that ten years had passed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You wake with a start. Back aching from where you’d fallen asleep in an awkward position while watching a random ASMR video the night prior.

*Clatter*

Your sleep-filled eyes search the room, trying to locate the source of the noise.

*Thud Thud Thud*

It appears to be coming through the wall behind your headboard.

Could someone be moving into the apartment next door? It’s been entirely empty the whole time you’ve been living here, about seven months now.

You've enjoyed the quiet solace of not having to share the walls with another person. Especially being one of the only two apartments on the upper floor, it was one of the reasons you love your apartment.

It’s also located near the subway and tucked far back enough on the outskirts of the city that it’s almost peaceful. There’s also a small cafe bar and a couple of small stores that remind you of the town where you grew up.

*Bang*

You groan again at the loud noises as you stretch your arms over your head and wonder about the people moving in next door.

Maybe a couple? Or a young family. It could even be a cute guy. You snort at the thought. Yeah right. What kind of a psycho moves into an apartment in the early morning anyway?!

You reach under your pillow for your phone to check the time. 8:30 am! SHIT. You overslept and if you don’t leave your apartment in the next ten minutes you’ll miss your train to work!

With no time for a shower, you rush to your bathroom to wash your face and brush your teeth.

As you drag a brush through your hair and pull it up into a simple, neat ponytail you start forming a contingency plan…

‘Skip the usual to-go coffee at Dunkin’ and settle for the instant stuff at work’ you think to yourself, ‘As soon as I get to work, throw on some BB cream and mascara with the time I’ll gain abandoning my daily vanilla latte with coconut milk…’.

You sniff sadly at the thought as you step into one of your tailored dresses, fumbling with the awkward zipper in the back.

Within 10 minutes you’re flying out the door and straight into the elevator. Using the short amount of time to button up your sweater and glance through your bag to check that you’ve got everything you’ll need for the day.

You’re in your own thoughts as you stride towards the lobby doors, and almost walk straight into your building manager.

“Oh! Good morning, Mr Sato!” you gasp in surprise.

“Good morning!” he smiles obliviously, not realising that you almost knocked him flying. You move to step around him as he continues. “There’s a package of yours with Ralph” (the doorman) “and I also wanted to let you know about a new tenant moving into the place next to yours...”

“Uh-huh, of course, that’s great!” You cut him off, waving your hands apologetically “I am so sorry. Please excuse me, I’m late for work!” you call out behind you as you make a mad dash out of the building to the subway station.

You make your train by the skin of your teeth, panting from the final sprint from the ticket gate to the platform. Feeling glad you skipped the makeup as you would have surely sweat a good portion of it off by now.

You currently work for a large accountancy firm Kim & Partners. You could have worked within a finance department of any company as most qualified accountants tend to do but you love the challenges and variety of working with different industries and clients every day.

You manage a small team of four and specialise in bookkeeping for small to medium enterprise, one of the smaller departments in the company but you have a pretty large client base and enjoy the satisfaction of helping others and providing a clear and efficient service.

“We are transferring you to manage corporate accounts,” your boss Mr Kim announces in the morning management meeting. You feel like someones just pulled a step from beneath your footing.

You were aware that your manager Mr Choi had wanted to transfer you out to provide more specialised management accountancy for larger corporate clients but so far you’d been convincing enough from the commission and reputation you’ve built for Kim & Partners to be able to continue as you were.

“Uh, thank you for the opportunity, Mr Kim, I-” you begin shakily, looking for the words or a reason to decline the transfer.

“Fantastic! You’ll handover to Jaehyun for the rest of today and you’ll start in corporate accounting tomorrow!” your boss claps his hands together enthusiastically and with that you chicken out of any further protest and nod your head.

Jaehyun is your second in command and honestly, he really deserves this promotion. You couldn’t think of someone more diligent and detail-oriented.

The rest of your day is uneventful. The handover goes incredibly smoothly despite a very surprised Jaehyun but the more things are explained, the more you realise that this progression will be good for everyone.

You’ll still oversee Jaehyun and his team but allow him more room to make decisions and develop while you work on the larger corporate accounts that keep your company in business.

There was even a hint at the opportunity to become a junior partner, which by your calculations would make you one of the youngest in the company.

You leave work feeling excited, passing up on celebratory drinks with your (old) team so that they can have more fun without their boss present.

“COME ONNNN” Hani, your junior accounts clerk had whined when you announced that you wouldn't be joining “You’re not a regular boss, you’re a COOL boss!”.

You appreciate the sentiment but everyone likes to complain about work and management when they drink and you wouldn't like to take that away from them.

You sit on the train heading back to your apartment feeling optimistic, texting your best friend Aria about the day and making plans for your own celebratory drinks.

You’re walking through the lobby of your apartment building, heading towards Ralph’s desk to collect the package Mr Sato mentioned this morning. Probably the new nutribullet you’d ordered while drunk Amazon shopping a couple of weeks back.

Normally you’d cancel the delivery but drunk you was really onto something this time. You giggle at a dumb vine quote Aria sends you and as you finish typing up your response-

THWACK! You hit a wall, falling ungracefully backwards onto your butt.

You grunt as the air gets knocked out of you when you make contact with rough carpet of the lobby.

“Seriously!” another voice snaps you back to reality as you realise you didn’t walk into a wall but another person.

A now very annoyed person, carrying what you assume was their groceries as you glance over at the produce and cans rolling around on the floor between you.

“I- oh my gosh, I am so sorry!” you stammer as you scramble to your knees and start frantically picking up some of the items in front of you. A can of beans, a bag of pasta and a lone orange trying to make its escape.

“I wasn’t even looking, I promise I’ll pay for anything dama-”, You begin as you look up, expecting to see Mr Sato or one of the other tenants of the building.

The rest of your sentence dies in the back of your throat.

“Baekhyun?...”

His name leaves your lips as a whisper, heart thumping against your chest as you almost drop the items in your hands.

He’s not looking in your direction, you hear him grumble something under his breath that you can’t quite make out as he scoops the remainder of his groceries into a battered paper bag.

Is it really him? Did you hit your head and you’re actually unconscious and hallucinating about a guy you used to know and haven’t seen in ten years?

It sure looks like him. A few extra lines crease his forehead, his hair is a darker shade of chocolate than you remember with a few flecks of silver glinting at the centre of his parting.

You glance to his left hand searching for the mole that sits beneath his thumbnail but it’s not there. Maybe it was on his right hand?

He finally looks up as if finally registering that you’re kneeling on the floor next to him, his lips part slightly in surprise as he looks you over. A tiny mole sits just above the corner of his upper lip. It really is him!

Before your mind has time to catch up you’re throwing your arms around him, allowing your excitement to overtake all of your other senses. You feel him instantly tense up.

“H-hey!” he shouts, pushing you off him abruptly. “What the hell are you doing!”

You shoot to your feet, shaken by the sharpness of his tone you take a step back to create some space. Your throat feels dry all of a sudden. His eyes look you over but there’s no familiarity in them, they’re so cold you almost shiver.

He takes a step towards you, “How do you know my name?” his tone sharp and accusing, “Are you some kind of stalker?”.

Your cheeks start to burn as the realisation set’s in that Baekhyun has no idea who you are. You struggle to swallow the lump forming in your throat as you search for a response. Words seem to fail you right now.

“Y/N, is everything alright?” you hear the worried voice of Mr Sato, by the time you remember to blink he’s already standing between the two of you. You look up at him, dumbstruck as you fight back the sharp prickles in the corner of your eyes.

He looks back and forth between you and Baekhyun, trying to piece together what has taken place. You realise you’re still holding Baekhyun’s groceries, practically hugging the bag of pasta to your chest and your cheeks burn even hotter.

You hear your name spoken again but it’s not Mr Sato’s voice this time, and you don’t have the nerve to look at Baekhyun again.

So you do the only thing you can think of and thrust the items you're holding at Mr Sato. Run as fast as you can to the stairwell, and find the nearest hole to jump into, aka your apartment.

Your knees ache as you force yourself up each flight. You can’t even remember the last time you used the stairwell and when you finally reach the threshold of your apartment you collapse against the door.

What on earth were you thinking?

What gave you the right to assume anyone would recognise you after ten years?

What was he even doing here? As that final thought crosses your mind someone knocks at your door.

You jump at the abrupt noise, chest still tight from the anxiety (or the running). But there’s no way you’re answering the door.

Your legs still feel like jelly and you really fear that Mr Sato has come to scold you or worse Baekhyun has followed you.

But he wouldn’t know which apartment you lived in. Would he?

You pull yourself to your feet and glance through the peephole.

You watch as Baekhyun turns away from your front door and disappears towards the next apartment.

No way.

*Slam*

Shit.

#baekhyun #byun baekhyun #baekhyun fanfic #baekhyun fanfiction #baekhyun imagine #baekhyun oneshot #baekhyun series #baekhyun drabble #exo fanfic #exo fanfiction #exo onehsot #exo imagine #exo drabble #baekhyun fluff #baekhyun angst #exo fluff #exo angst

178 notes · View notes

writemarcus · 5 years ago

Text

Watch This Space: Playwrights Train for All Media

As dramatists begin to write for all media, the nation’s playwriting programs are starting to teach beyond the stage.

BY MARCUS SCOTT

In 2018, a record 495 original scripted series were released across cable, online, and broadcast platforms, according to a report by FX Networks. And with the growing popularity of streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon (not to mention new players like Disney and Apple), a whopping 146 more shows are up and running on various platforms now than were on air in 2013. So how does peak TV relate to theatre?

Once a way for financially strapped playwrights to land stable income and adequate health insurance, television has since emerged as a rewarding venue for ambitious dramatists looking to forge lifetime careers as working writers. Playwright Tanya Saracho is the current showrunner for “Vida” on Starz. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is the series developer of “Riverdale” and “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.” Sheila Callaghan is executive producer of the long-running black comedy “Shameless.” Sarah Treem, co-creator and showrunner of “The Affair,” recently concluded the Rashomon-esque psychological drama in November.

To satiate demand for more content, showrunners have sought to recruit emerging playwrights to fill their writers’ rooms. It’s now common practice for them to read plays or spec scripts penned prior to a writer’s graduation.

Many aspiring playwrights have caught on, enrolling in drama school intent on flirting with virtually every medium under the umbrella of the performing arts. Several institutions around the country have become gatekeepers for the hopeful—post-graduate MFA boot camps bestowing scribes with the Aristotelian wisdom of plot, character, thought, diction, and spectacle before they’re dropped into the school of hard knocks that is the modern American writers’ room. Indeed, since our culture has emerged from the chrysalis of peak TV, playwriting programs have begun training students for a career that includes not only the stage but multiple mediums, including the screen.

Playwright Zayd Dohrn, who has served as both chair of Northwestern University’s radio/TV/film department and director of the MFA in writing for screen and stage since 2016, said versatility is the strongest tool in the kit of the program’s students.

“We offer classes in playwriting, screenwriting and TV writing, as well as podcasts, video games, interactive media, stand-up, improv, and much more,” he explained. “There’s no one way to approach the craft, and we offer world-class faculty with diverse backgrounds, professional experiences, and perspectives, so students can be exposed to the full range of professional and artistic practice.”

Dominic Taylor, vice chair of graduate studies at UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television in California, also agrees that multiplicity is the key to the survival of a working writer. “In the industries today, whether one is breaking a story in a writers’ room or writing coverage as an assistant, the ability to recognize and manipulate structure is paramount,” Taylor said. “The primary skill, aside from honing excellent social skills, would be to continue to study the forms as they emerge. Read scripts and note differences and strengths of form to the individual’s skill set. For example, the multi-cam network comedy is very different from the single-cam comedy—‘The Conners’ versus ‘Modern Family,’ let’s say. It’s not just the technology; it is the pace of the comedy.”

Taylor, a distinguished multi-hyphenate theatre artist working on both coasts, said that schools like UCLA offer a lot more than classes, including one with Phyllis Nagy (screenwriter of Carol). UCLA’s program also partners with its film school, and hires professional directors to work with playwrights to develop graduate student plays for productions at UCLA’s one-act festival, ONES, or its New Play Festival. Taylor also teaches four separate classes on Black theatre, giving students the opportunity to study the likes of Alice Childress, Marita Bonner, and Angelina Weld Grimké in a university setting (a rarity outside of historically Black colleges and universities).

Dohrn, a prominent playwright who is currently developing a feature film for Netflix and has TV shows in development at Showtime, BBC America, and NBC/Universal, said that television, like theatre, needs people who can create interesting characters and tell compelling stories, who have singular, unique voices—all of which are emphasized in playwriting training.

“Playwrights are not just good at writing dialogue—they are world creators who bring a unique vision to the stories they tell,” Dohrn emphasized. “More than anything else, a writer needs to develop his/her/their unique voice. Craft can be taught, but talent and creativity are the most important thing for a young writer.”

For playwright David Henry Hwang, who joined the faculty at Columbia University School of the Arts as head of the playwriting MFA program in 2014, success should be a byproduct, not a destination. “As a playwright, I don’t believe it’s possible to ‘game’ the system—i.e., to try and figure out how to write something ‘successful,’” he said. “The finished play is your reward for taking that journey. The thing that makes you different, and uniquely you, is your superpower as a dramatist, because it is the key to writing the play only you can write. Ironically, by focusing not on success but on what you really care about, you are more likely to find success.”

Since arriving at Columbia, one of Hwang’s top priorities was to expand the range of TV writing classes. This led to the creation of separate TV sub-department “concentrations,” housed in both the theatre and film programs. All playwriting students are required to take some television classes.

“We are at a rather anomalous moment in playwriting history, where the ability to write plays is actually a monetizable skill,” said Hwang, whose TV credits include Treem’s “The Affair.” “Playwrights have become increasingly valuable to TV because it has traditionally been a dialogue-driven medium (though shows like ‘Game of Thrones’ push into more cinematic storytelling language), and playwrights are comfortable being in production (unlike screenwriters, some of whom never go to set). Once TV discovered playwrights, we became more valuable for feature films as well.”

Playwrights aren’t the only generative theatremakers moving to the screen. Masi Asare is an assistant professor at Northwestern’s School of Communication, which teaches music theatre history, music theatre writing and composition, and vocal performance. The award-winning composer-lyricist, who recently saw her one-act Mirror of Most Value: A Ms. Marvel Play published by Marvel/Samuel French, said that the world of musical theatre is not all that different either; it’s experiencing a resurgence in both cinema and the small screen: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, Justin Hurwitz, and Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have all written songs that were nominated for or won Oscars. The growth of YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter have offered new ways for musical theatre graduates to market and monetize their songs and build an audience.

“The feeling that a song has to ‘work’ behind a microphone in order to be a good song is really having an impact on young writers,” said Asare. “The song must sound and look good in this encapsulated video that will be posted on the songwriters’ website and circulated via social media.” She noted that in this case, the medium of video is also changing the medium of musical theatre itself. “Certainly it may lead to different kinds of musicals—who knows? New experimentation can be exciting, but I think there is a perception that all you have to have is a series of good video clips to be a songwriter for the musical theatre, a musical storyteller. I think that does something of a disservice to rising composers and lyricists.”

Some playwriting students, of course, are not interested in learning about how to write for television. But many who spoke for this story agreed that learning about the different ways of storytelling can be beneficial. One program in particular that has its eyes on the multiplicity of storytelling mediums is the Writing for Performance program at the California Institute of the Arts. Founded by playwright Suzan-Lori Parks in 2001 as a synergy of immersive environments, visual art installation, screenplay, and the traditional stage play, the program has helped students and visiting artists alike transcend theatrical conventions. Though Parks is no longer on the CalArts faculty, her spirit still infuses the program. As Amanda Shank, assistant dean of the CalArts School of Theater, puts it, “Every time she came to the page, there was a real fidelity to the impulse of what she was trying to communicate with the play, and the form followed that. It’s not her trying to write a ‘correct’ kind of play or to lay things bare in a certain prescribed way.”

That instinct is in the life fiber of CalArts’s Special Topics in Writing, a peer-to-peer incubator for the development of new projects that grants students from across various departments the opportunity to develop and produce writing-based projects. Shank defines the vaguely titled yearlong class, which she began, as a “hybrid of a writing workshop and a dramaturgical project development space.” A playwright and dramaturg, Shank said her class was born of her experience as an MFA candidate; she attended the program between 2010 and 2013, and then noticed her fellow students’ lack of ability to fully shepherd their projects.

“I was finding a lot of students that would have an idea, bring in a few pages or even bring in a full draft, but then they would kind of abandon it,” said Shank. “I wanted a space [that would] marry generative creativity, a place of accountability, but also a place that was working that muscle of really developing a project. Because I think often as artists we look to other institutions, other people to usher our work along. Yes, you need collaborators, yes, you need organizations of supporters—but you have to some degree know how to do those things yourself.”

Program alum Virginia Grise agrees. Grise has been a working artist since her play blu won the 2010 Yale Drama Series Award. She conceived her latest play, rasgos asiaticos, while still attending CalArts. Inspired by her Chicana-Chinese family, the play has evolved into a walk-around theatrical experience with some dialogue pressed into phonograph records that accompany her great uncle’s 1920s-era Chinese opera records. After developing the production over a period of years, with the help of CalArts Center for New Performance (CNP), Grise will premiere rasgos asiaticos in downtown Los Angeles in March 2020, boasting a predominantly female cast, a Black female director, and a design team entirely composed of women of color. Her multidisciplinary work is emblematic of the direction CalArts is hoping to steer the field, with training that is responsive to a growingly diverse body of students who may not want to create theatre in the Western European tradition.

“You cannot recruit students of color into a training program and continue to train actors, writers, and directors in the same way you have trained them prior to recruiting them,” said Grise. “I feel like training programs should look at the diversity of aesthetics, the diversity of storytelling—what are the different ways in which we make performance, and how is that indicative of who we are, and where we are coming from, and who we are speaking to?”

As an educator whose work deals with Asian American identity, including the play M. Butterfly and the high-concept musical Soft Power, Hwang said that one of his goals as an educator is to train a diverse body of students and teach them how to write from a perspective that is uniquely theirs.

“If we assume that people like to see themselves onstage, this requires a range of diverse bodies as well as diverse stories in our theatres,” Hwang said. “Institutions like Columbia have a huge responsibility to address this issue, since we are helping to produce artists of the future. Our program takes diversity as our first core value—not only in terms of aesthetics, but also by trying to cultivate artists and stories which encompass the fullest range of communities, nationalities, races, genders, sexualities, differences, and identities.”

The film business could use similar cultivation. In March 2019, the Think Tank for Inclusion and Equity (TTIE), a self-organized syndicate of working television writers, published “Behind the Scenes: The State of Inclusion and Equity in TV Writing,” a research-driven survey funded by the Pop Culture Collaborative. Data from that report observed hiring, writer advancement, workplace harassment, and bias among diverse writers, examining 282 working Hollywood writers who identify as women or nonbinary, LGBTQ, people of color, and/or people with disabilities, analyzing how they fare within the writers’ room. In positions that range from staff writer to executive story editor, a nearly two thirds majority of this surveyed group reported troubling instances of bias, discrimination, and/or harassment by members of their individual writing staff. Also, 58 percent of them said they experienced pushback when pitching a non-stereotypical diverse character or storyline; 58 percent later experienced micro-aggressions in-house. The biggest slap in the face: When it comes to in-house pitches, 53 percent of this group’s ideas were rejected, only to have white writers pitch exactly the same idea a few minutes later and get accepted. Other key findings from the report: 58 percent say their agents pitch them to shows by highlighting their “otherness,” and 15 percent reported they took a demotion just to get a staff job.

But there was more: 65 percent of people of color in the survey reported being the only one in their writers’ room, and 34 percent of the women and nonbinary writers reported being the only woman or nonbinary member of their writing staff; 38 percent of writers with disabilities reported being the only one, and 68 percent of LGBTQ writers reported being the only one.

For Dominic Taylor, the lack of diversity and inclusion in TV writers’ rooms can be fought in part by opening up the curriculum on college campuses, which he has expanded since joining the faculty at UCLA. “Students need a comprehensive education,” Taylor pointed out. He noted the importance of prospective playwrights being as familiar with Migdalia Cruz, Maria Irene Fornés, James Yoshimura, Julia Cho, and William Yellow Robe as they are with William Shakespeare, and looking at traditions as vast as the Gelede Festival, the Egungun Festival, Shang theatre of China, as well as the Passion Plays of Ancient Egypt.

“All of these modes of performance predate the Greek theatre, which is the starting point for much of theatre history,” explained Taylor. “It is part of my mandate as an educator to complete the education of my students. Inclusion is crucial to that education.”

After all, with the growing variety of platforms for story and expression, why shouldn’t there also be diversity of forms and voices? Whatever the medium of delivery, these are trends worth keeping an eye on.

Marcus Scott is a New York City-based playwright, musical writer, and journalist. He’s written for Elle, Essence, Out, and Playbill, among other publications.

2 notes · View notes

joyofcrime-elinorhigh · 6 years ago

Text

Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared REVIEW:

Hello there everybody! My name is JoyofCrimeArt and I do review-y type stuff on rare occasion! I've been a fan of online original content ever since I was a kid, ever since I first got into "Homestar Runner" back in 2010 (before that most of my internet time was spent playing flash games online and listing to Phineas and Ferb songs on Youtube.) Me and my brothers fell in love with Homestar Runner, as well as the various spin-off series that came from Homestar like the "Teen Girl Squad" and the "Strong Bad Emails." While I'm sure there where some web series I had seen before then it was Homestar that was the first big one and ever since I have been enamored with online original content. As time went on I became fans of other online web series, like Death Battle, TOME, RWBY, and many many others. There is something I find just magical about online original content. It's completely unfiltered content. Online you can do or create anything you can imagine, have it run for as long as you want it to (assuming you have the money or dedication to keep producing it) without the threat of it "not meeting the right demo" or "not pulling in high enough ratings." If you can imagine it and have the gumption to put in the hard work you create anything you want to. It like the artist equivalent of the American Dream. You can do anything you want, and be as creative as you want to be! Sorry if that came off as a bit long winded and cheesy but that's how I feel about this exciting new medium. And while there are tonnes of web series I would like to talk about in a review at some point, (and hopefully I will get to some of them in the future) for today I want to talk about a web series that brings whole new meaning to the word "creative," Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. "Don't Hug Me I'm Scared" is a British web series created by Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling. Also TomSka was an executive producer for episodes 3-6. Which...actually explains a lot. Basically DHMIS Is a six part miniseries that ran from July 29th, 2011 to June 19th 2016. The series is basically an education series in the style of "Sesame Street" starring three puppets named "Red Guy," Yellow Guy," and "Duck Guy." (And yes those are there official) names as they learn different educational lessons from different "teachers" in each episode. Now if you haven't seen the series yet I highly suggest you check it out before continuing the review because this is the kind of show where the less you know going in the better, plus combined the series is only about a half hour long. However, I feel like I must warn you, this series is not for young children. It is for adults. (Because come on, it something online and it looks wholesome. Of course it's actually fu*ked up.) Don't go into this series unless your in the mood to see some messed up sh*t. So before you advance be aware, SPOILERS! Anyway, you back? Okay, so for those of you who already know the show or don't care about spoilers, the show is really a dark parody of pre-school televisions that should either be classified in the horror genre, the REALLY dark comedy genre, or BOTH, depending on ones personal point of view. Each episode tends to follow the same basic formula about some teacher showing up and trying to teach our main characters a lesson, but somewhere along the way the message becomes corrupted and usually ends with the puppets being traumatized or killed. Episode Two, for example, is at first about time, but slowly but surly ends up becoming about the impending death or everyone and thing. Episode Three starts talking about love and ends up being about cult indoctrination. It's pretty messed up stuff. But I know what you're thinking, who cares? There are tonnes of stuff that take kiddie things and makes them adult, especially on the internet. What makes DHMIS so special? Personally, I think want makes Don't Hug Me so special is the amount of detail and that was put into it. Even without the shock value the series is still a well made and interesting spectacle to see. So let's talk about the characters. While this form of simple and short form series doesn't lend itself to any complex characterization the main three puppets still have distinct personalities, even if there not the deepest characters out there. Red Guy is the sarcastic and rational one, and always talks with a deadpan tone to his voice. He is the smartest one of the group and is the fastest to figure out that something wrong is going on. Yellow Guy is naive, childlike, and not very bright. He is the most excepting of all of the puppets. He's my favorite character in the series, because by the end you just feel so bad for him (watch the series if you want to know what I'm talking about, I don't want to spoil to much.) Duck Guy, honestly, is my least favorite of the main three puppets. He seems kinda foppish and a bit more likely to kinda acts as the smart one when Red Guy isn't used for that, but overall I feel he's the weakest of the main three characters and doesn't have as much character development.

(...) (What did you say to me, b!tch?) And I say character development because, shockingly, all three characters do go through some character development as the series progressive. The characters become more self aware, and eventually start to expect something bad to happen once there weird "teachers" show up, instead of just going with it like they did in the earlier episodes. One of my favorite blink and you miss it style jokes in the series is when Duck Guy freaks out when The Computer mentions being able to tell the time, because he remembers the "lesson" about time he already learned from the clock. It's cool because they are learning form past experiences. Also there's individual arcs for the characters as time goes on like Red Guy learning to be less of a downer and being more creative. The show starts following a basic formula, with a teacher teaching the puppets a lesson through song, then something messed up happening and the world resets. However what I really admire is that this show plays with that formula, starting with episode four onward. The shows starts to lose it's status quo and, as mentioned above, the characters start to become more self aware. The episodes start having frickin' continuity! For real! It's really unexpected and, in my opinion, was a really good idea. The audience where starting to see the formula, and after the first episode where just waiting for the episodes to become messed up. So they decided to create a story to draw the audience in. If they just keep doing messed up things over and over again the show would become boring but the twist of actually telling a story, couple with the brevity of the story, managed to keep the story interesting the whole way through. The story is...weird. It's very much up for interpretation and cryptic. Sort of in the "Five Nights at Freddies" kind of way. Hints and Easter eggs are hidden in the various episodes and there are tonnes of theory videos online about what it all "really means." So if that's your kind of thing then you'll love this series. there are so many weird hints and recurring motifs that I haven't seen a single theory that covers everything. The final episode feels like the story is solved but heck if I know what the story even was about. I think the point of DHMIS isn't about actually solving the mystery but rather making up your own conclusion. I don't think there is a one hundred percent "definitive" answer, partially because of the theme of "creativity" that is in the series a lot and partially because Becky Sloan in an interview said in regard to fan theories that "they are all correct." and I love it when creators say that. They leave things up to the audience to decide what to take away form the series, instead of telling them. Don't Hug Me I'm Scared's attention to detail goes beyond the recurring motifs and Easter eggs though. What I really appreciate about the series is the attention to detail when it comes to the parody aspect of the show. Now this is a subjective thing, but I've always felt that the best parodies are the ones that either respect the thing that they are parodying. If you like the thing that your parodying it will give you a better understanding of it and make it easier to parody, cause you know exactly why the thing works and is good. It is possible to parody something you hate if you really get what your parodying, but it may end up coming off as sounding bitter. (Not always mind you, but sometimes.) It is clear that there was respect and love for educational programming like Sesame Street, and thus the parody ends up working a lot better. The high production value also helps the parody aspect. The puppets in DHMIS look really good! They look like they could be legitimate puppets in a real children's educational television program. This ends up making the twist that it's actually a horror story even better because the audience doesn't know what to expect if there going into the series blind. They might stumble upon the video and think it's a clip from some real British television series. The series wouldn't be able to work the way it does now if the puppets looked creepy from the start, there would be no contrast. To be honest the puppets in this show look less creepy than some real children's educational puppet shows.

(That top pic is from 80's direct to VHS education series "Peppermint Park" by the way, and also sorry if I accidentally gave you any nightmares.) Speaking of which, the production values of this whole show is frickin' incredible! Admittedly the production values for the first two episodes aren't as good as later episodes, but starting with episode three the series becomes amazing to look at. Every prop is is made of felt or cloth and the world is heavily decorated down to the smallest detail. The show also incorporates a multitude of different art styles throughout the series. Sure it's ninety percent puppetry but they also incorporate stop motion, flash animation, purposely bad CG graphics, and even some live action film making in certain parts. Every episode features a different song, and most are really catchy (Though the series tends to focus less and less on the songs as time goes on in order to focus more on plot, which is kind of a bummer.) The humor won't be for everybody, it's that sort of dry and surreal humor found in say, and old adult swim show. It's not for everyone but I really like it. It would be so easy to just make this show a kid show that ends up becoming disturbing, but this show does offer other positives so you can still enjoy the series after on re-watch. If I had to pick a favorite episode out of the six I would probably say episode three. I like the song, moral, and environments the most out of any episode and I feel like the comedy in that episode is the best of the whole series. Episode three also acts like a nice breather episode as it's one of the least terrifying one. My least favorite episode would probably be episode five. The song isn't that catchy in my opinion and it keeps getting interrupted by the plot, which isn't bad for the episodes necessarily but it does hurt the song.) Also I honestly can't tell what the message is. Most other episodes have a message, even if it is a dark and twisted one, like how episode four is about the dangers on the internet, how it just wants information from you, and how easy it is to get sucked inside it. But episodes five's moral, I just don't really see it. I still like the episode but I just find it a bit subpar compared to some of the other episodes. And no disrespect to you if you love episode five or hate episode three, it's just my personal opinion. So yeah, I highly recommend DHMIS. It's bright, it's disturbing, it's funny, it has incredible production value for a Youtube series, it has great songs, it has chicken picnic's and aspic, what more can anybody want! While it's in no way the perfect series it's a really creative show that I think really pushes the envelope of what a Youtube series can be, because honestly that's probably the most impressive thing about Don't Hug Me. It managed to become popular without feeling the need to conform to what everybody else on Youtube was doing. It is something completely unique. While there may be tonnes of online gamers and film reviewers (And I'm not trying to knock those type of Youtuber's as I am a fan of many people that fall into that category) but there is only one online surrealist, horror, dark comedy, musical, puppet show! And that's Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared. It's not for everybody, but if your a fan of things like "Too Many Cooks" than you'll love this. So that's my review of Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared (Hopefully it didn't come off as too rambly and fanboy-y). Have you seen the series? If you have, what do you think? Do you have any theories or interpretations on the ending? What's your favorite episode? Tell me in the comments bellow if you'd like to. I'd love to have a civil discussion about it! I'd love to hear what you all have to think, even if you disagree with what I think. Also I'd love to know what you think about my review style, and what I could do to improve upon it in the future. Please fav, follow, and comment and If you liked the review and I will see you all next time! Have a great day! (I do not own any of the images in this review.) .......Okay, I change my mind. This guy is my favorite character.

https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/Don-t-Hug-Me-I-m-Scared-REVIEW-629975791 DA Link

#cartoon review #Don't Hug Me I'm Scared #Peppermint Park #review #puppets

64 notes · View notes

artcenterstories · 5 years ago

Text

A Visual Conversation: Meet Art Director Samantha Kallis

ArtCenter: What are you working on right now? Samantha Kallis (BA Illustration '10) Art Director of Development at Disney Television Animation: I can't give specifics, but broadly I work on Disney projects before they go into production. My job is to generate artwork in the early stages of the storytelling process, shepherding a project along until it's green lit.

I help the showrunner or creators figure out visually what they're going to say. It's more like a visual conversation. I'm just planting seeds because eventually another art director will come in after me. It's just enough to draw out the core story points, so those who end up making the show can have their own voice.

AC: What’s the most unique thing you’ve designed? SK: As animation evolves, I’m constantly thinking about how my work also has to evolve. I’m seeing a big movement toward the VR space — if viewing is headed in this direction, it poses a whole new area of visual problem-solving. I've been trying to figure out how to design for a medium that might go beyond linear narrative since the audience in VR can look wherever they want.

AC: How do you define success? SK: For me, success has never truly been tied to the work. It's about doing something that allows me to live a full life outside of the work. Success is balance, which I'm not always successful at.

AC: What’s the design cliché you’re most tempted to use? SK: I don’t think we need to be too afraid of clichés, so long as you are designing to the story you’re trying to tell. Clichés are shorthand storytelling. Part of my job is to get the easy read — it’s the most effective tool when you don’t have a lot of time on screen.

AC: Do you have any superstitions? SK: I try to force a previous solution in a new situation, and I have to relearn each time that a new problem requires its own unique approach. It's a craving for a formula, but for me the only thing that’s ever worked is to research obsessively.

AC: What’s the one tool you can’t do without? SK: Pinterest is a real lifesaver. It allows for tangential researching; clicking on one thing, then another. The drawing and painting come fast, but the research takes a long time.

AC: What’s the first site you look at when you open your computer in the morning? SK: WhoWhatWear. I find I can't jump straight into working.

AC: What do you do to detox from media and screens? SK: Hiking — I'm Swiss, so it's pretty much required. I live in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, and on the weekends, I'm pretty ready to go off and not look at a screen.

AC: If you could trade jobs with anyone for a day who would it be? SK: I've always wanted to do what I do, so that's a tough question. I wouldn't mind trading with the head of the studio, so I could green light anything and raise my salary a couple million. Or I'd do something completely outside myself — like a spy in the CIA. I've been catching up on Homeland.

AC: What book is on your bedside table? SK: I have a few right now: The Dutch House , The Witch’s Daughter, and Red, White & Royal Blue. For me, reading is an escape, and I like to switch between books based on my mood.

AC: Who are the most interesting designers working today? SK: Those working in VR; they're pioneering the next iteration of viewing. I'm excited to see how it could be applied to our pipeline. Although choosing where you point the camera is such an important part of filmmaking. I just saw 1917 and how the camera was used to create a third character and enhance the narrative and drama — that’s something I’d miss if VR became the norm.

AC: Describe a moment in your childhood when you first identified as a designer. SK: I come from a line of artists, so it was like going into the family business. My great grandfather was an art director; my grandfather was an art director who worked on movie posters — the most famous one he worked on was the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. My uncle was a writer for television; my dad has done documentary films; my grandmother was an illustrator for magazines.

My grandparents had a studio with an old, mid-century modern cabinet with a thousand drawers full of every art supply you could imagine. We were allowed to open any drawer we could reach and play with all these amazing, professional art supplies. Growing up, you got a crayon instead of a rattle.

AC: If you could have a superpower, what would it be? SK: Definitely teleportation. I'm so sick of my commute. And for dinner — how about Rome?

AC: What’s your most prized possession? SK: I have a lot of art from my grandparents hanging all over the walls of my house. I love being surrounded by it all; it’s like a hug.

AC: Where is your happy place? SK: In my front garden. We live in a 100-year-old Victorian cottage, and we recently redid the garden with plants native to California. It attracts so many butterflies and humming birds. In every place my grandmother has lived, she’s always had an amazing garden. And I knew I'd do the same.

AC: How would your closest friend describe you? SK: Competitive, I hope trustworthy and compassionate. My husband says I have an over-active sense of moral responsibility that keeps me in line; I get very upset if people don't play by the rules.

AC: What’s your best piece of advice for an ArtCenter student who’s interested in following your career path? SK: Many of the people in animation had such a different path than I did. So I would say not to compare yourself to others and don't expect something that worked for someone else to work for you. When I was a student at ArtCenter, I wanted to be a freelance editorial illustrator. But I realized I wanted the lifestyle of going to work in a studio, having a regular paycheck and working collaboratively.

I was attracted to animation, so I pursued becoming a storyboard artist. But once I got the job, I absolutely hated it. So my other piece of advice would be to trust your gut and don't be afraid to change course.

AC: If you could add a course to the ArtCenter curriculum, what would it be? SK: Television animation classes. The majority of jobs in animation are in television, especially with streaming. The industry will likely grow exponentially in the next couple of years, and there just aren't enough artists.

#artcenter #artcenter college of design #animation #disney #television #samantha kallis #illustration #entertainment

1 note · View note

disneytva · 6 years ago

Photo

How To Bring 101 Dalmatian Street To Life

The series was developed by Disney’s London-based original animation team working with Gigglebug Entertainment in Helsinki, which provided concept development and is creating short-form and digital content to accompany the series.

We got involved in the summer of 2016. At the time, we were working on a pilot for another show with Disney Channel, and were asked if we would also be interested in a heritage property it wanted to adapt for a modern audience. When it was revealed as 101 Dalmatians, it was only ever going to be one answer.

At Passion, we have a huge heritage in animation that goes all the way back to our foundation in 1987 and the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.

We have produced a great deal of high-profile work – the CG meerkats for Compare the Market and music videos for the animated band Gorillaz. And we have been lucky enough to win Oscars and Baftas for our work.

But when it comes to a full animated TV series, this was our first outing. As such, I thought setting up an animation workflow for 101 Dalmatian Street would be a real challenge.

What I learned is that you can try to predetermine an animation workflow but, in reality, every show requires its own bespoke pipeline. Regardless of the style of animation, or the technology used, the most important thing is to put in place a structure that enables the creatives to do their very best work.

As a result, 101 Dalmatian Street has several bespoke pipelines with different workflows for our series director and for our episodic directors.

It all happens internationally too, with work taking place in London and Vancouver, where our animation partner Atomic Cartoons is based. We send our locked, edited animatics to Vancouver, with all the episodic background designs, character designs FX designs and launch notes, and Atomic’s team animate and composite it in a software called Harmony.

Cara Speller - My tricks of the trade

Every animated show requires a bespoke pipeline – and sometimes more than one.

Devise workflows that enable key talent to do their very best work and not burn out.

During the casting process, think of your animated project like a live-action drama.

This is definitely not voiceover work. The actors need to inhabit their characters and convey all the acting that they would normally be able toco mmunicate with body and voice.

Find the most talented creative teams wherever they are. Choose partners who not only produce great work, but who have a similar company culture and values to your own – it will pay dividends in the long run.

At the start of the project, I joked with Disney that we would only really know how to make the series once we got to the end of the first one. It was a flippant remark, but it is probably not so far from the truth. We have been in full production for 18 months, with another nine to go – and it is only now that we are really hitting our stride.

Because of the legacy of the property, we all felt it was important to give 101 Dalmatian Street a hand-drawn look. That meant the series was always going to be 2D, albeit digital 2D. The style we use is referred to as ‘pose-to-pose’.

This was a deliberate decision. In the original film, all the movements are fluid and lifelike. When a character moves its head, for example, you can see every bit of motion and every frame. It gives a smooth and steady result.

With pose-to-pose animation, emphasis is placed on creating strong key poses at significant points in the action, refining those key drawings, and then creating the in-between frames. It is a stylistic approach that Miklos Weigert, the series director, applied at the very outset of the project.

It gives the show a snappy and energetic feel that works very well with the characters and the writing style.

We referenced the original movie’s look and feel throughout, especially with background environments and FX elements like water, rain and fog.

As is abundantly clear by now, we were hyper-aware of the original movie while making the series. This heritage is incredibly exciting and inspiring. But we also found it daunting to create a spin-off from a film that so many people view with such warmth and nostalgia.

Making the best show we possibly can when it’s an IP that the public hold in their hearts so dearly – I think about that every day. We are waiting with bated breath for TX and the public reaction. At that point, we will know how successful we’ve been.

RECREATING THE ORIGINAL HAND-DRAWN LOOK

Although 101 Dalmatian Street is produced digitally, the animated characters have a hand-drawn outline style. This look reflects the style of the 1961 film, which was produced using xerography, the same process used in today’s copiers and laser printers. With xerography, the animator’s drawing is copied directly onto the acetate animation celluloid.

The original 101 Dalmatians was the first Disney feature film made that way. On previous films, the animator’s drawings had always been traced over by an ink and paint team to produce a super clean line. Instead, xerography transferred the warmth and roughness of the original line directly into the final shot, giving the film a different kind of life and texture.

We wanted to capture some of that feeling in 101 Dalmatian Street, even though the production design and processes are radically different from the original. The Passion and Atomic teams have successfully achieved this.

London itself is another crucial ingredient. Secretly, my team and I have been looking for an excuse to make an animated show that is both set and produced in our home town, and this was the perfect opportunity.

THE LONDON LOOK

The series is infused with the vibrant energy of London, its neighbourhoods, landmarks and urban wildlife of all kinds, including humans. Dalmatian Street itself is based on a particular road in Camden – I leave you to guess which one.

We wanted the show to be grounded. With animation, it’s easy to let your characters float around in a highly ambiguous netherworld, but it’s already unreal because of the medium. And our show is all about talking dogs, which are kind of rare in reality.

The London setting has been beautifully rendered by the amazing artists on our crew, so even though we’re not making a documentary, the series has a real sense of place.

#101 Dalmatian Street #101 Dalamatians #Disney Channel #Maria O’Loughlin #Miklos Weigert #Passion Animation Studios #Disney EMEA #Orion Ross #submission

46 notes · View notes

thevividgreenmoss · 6 years ago

Video

youtube

A good or great writer may refuse to accept any responsibility or morality that society wishes to impose on her. Yet the best and greatest of them know that if they abuse this hard-won freedom, it can only lead to bad art. There is an intricate web of morality, rigor, and responsibility that art, that writing itself, imposes on a writer. It’s singular, it’s individual, but nevertheless it’s there. At its best, it’s an exquisite bond between the artist and the medium. At its acceptable end, it’s a sort of sensible cooperation. At its worst, it’s a relationship of disrespect and exploitation.

The absence of external rules complicates things. There’s a very thin line that separates the strong, true, bright bird of the imagination from the synthetic, noisy bauble. Where is that line? How do you recognize it? How do you know you’ve crossed it? At the risk of sounding esoteric and arcane, I’m tempted to say that you just know. The fact is that nobody—no reader, no reviewer, agent, publisher, colleague, friend, or enemy—can tell for sure. A writer just has to ask herself that question and answer it as honestly as possible. The thing about this “line” is that once you learn to recognize it, once you see it, it’s impossible to ignore. You have no choice but to live with it, to follow it through. You have to bear with all its complexities, contradictions, and demands. And that’s not always easy. It doesn’t always lead to compliments and standing ovations. It can lead you to the strangest, wildest places. In the midst of a bloody military coup, for instance, you could find yourself fascinated by the mating rituals of a purple sunbird, or the secret life of captive goldfish, or an old aunt’s descent into madness. And nobody can say that there isn’t truth and art and beauty in that. Or, on the contrary, in the midst of putative peace, you could, like me, be unfortunate enough to stumble on a silent war. The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There’s no innocence. Either way, you’re accountable.

Today, perhaps more so than in any other era in history, the writer’s right to free speech is guarded and defended by the civil societies and state establishments of the most powerful countries in the world. Any overt attempt to silence or muffle a voice is met with furious opposition. The writer is embraced and protected. This is a wonderful thing. The writer, the actor, the musician, the filmmaker—they have become radiant jewels in the crown of modern civilization. The artist, I imagine, is finally as free as he or she will ever be. Never before have so many writers had their books published. (And now, of course, we have the Internet.) Never before have we been more commercially viable. We live and prosper in the heart of the marketplace. True, for every so-called success there are hundreds who “fail.” True, there are myriad art forms, both folk and classical, myriad languages, myriad cultural and artistic traditions that are being crushed and cast aside in the stampede to the big bumper sale in Wonderland. Still, there have never been more writers, singers, actors, or painters who have become influential, wealthy superstars. And they, the successful ones, spawn a million imitators, they become the torchbearers, their work becomes the benchmark for what art is, or ought to be.

Nowadays in India the scene is almost farcical. Following the recent commercial success of some Indian authors, Western publishers are desperately prospecting for the next big Indo-Anglian work of fiction. They’re doing everything short of interviewing English-speaking Indians for the post of “writer.” Ambitious middle-class parents who, a few years ago, would only settle for a future in Engineering, Medicine, or Management for their children, now hopefully send them to creative writing schools. People like myself are constantly petitioned by computer companies, watch manufacturers, even media magnates to endorse their products. A boutique owner in Bombay once asked me if he could “display” my book The God of Small Things (as if it were an accessory, a bracelet or a pair of earrings) while he filmed me shopping for clothes! Jhumpa Lahiri, the American writer of Indian origin who won the Pulitzer Prize, came to India recently to have a traditional Bengali wedding. The wedding was reported on the front page of national newspapers.

Now where does all this lead us? Is it just harmless nonsense that’s best ignored? How does all this ardent wooing affect our art? What kind of lenses does it put in our spectacles? How far does it remove us from the world around us?

There is very real danger that this neoteric seduction can shut us up far more effectively than violence and repression ever could. We have free speech. Maybe. But do we have Really Free Speech? If what we have to say doesn’t “sell,” will we still say it? Can we? Or is everybody looking for Things That Sell to say? Could writers end up playing the role of palace entertainers? Or the subtle twenty-first-century version of court eunuchs attending to the pleasures of our incumbent CEOs? You know—naughty, but nice. Risqué perhaps, but not risky. It has been nearly four years now since my first, and so far only, novel, The God of Small Things, was published. In the early days, I used to be described—introduced—as the author of an almost freakishly “successful” (if I may use so vulgar a term) first book. Nowadays I’m introduced as something of a freak myself. I am, apparently, what is known in twenty-first-century vernacular as a “writer-activist.” (Like a sofa-bed.)

Why am I called a “writer-activist” and why—even when it’s used approvingly, admiringly—does that term make me flinch? I’m called a writer-activist because after writing The God of Small Things I wrote three political essays: “The End of Imagination,” about India’s nuclear tests, “The Greater Common Good,” about Big Dams and the “development” debate, and “Power Politics: The Reincarnation of Rumpelstiltskin,” about the privatization and corporatization of essential infrastructure like water and electricity. Apart from the building of the temple in Ayodhya, these currently also happen to be the top priorities of the Indian government.4

Now, I’ve been wondering why it should be that the person who wrote The God of Small Things is called a writer, and the person who wrote the political essays is called an activist. True, The God of Small Things is a work of fiction, but it’s no less political than any of my essays. True, the essays are works of nonfiction, but since when did writers forgo the right to write nonfiction?

My thesis—my humble theory, as we say in India—is that I’ve been saddled with this double-barreled appellation, this awful professional label, not because my work is political but because in my essays, which are about very contentious issues, I take sides. I take a position. I have a point of view. What’s worse, I make it clear that I think it’s right and moral to take that position, and what’s even worse, I use everything in my power to flagrantly solicit support for that position. Now, for a writer of the twenty-first century, that’s considered a pretty uncool, unsophisticated thing to do. It skates uncomfortably close to the territory occupied by political party ideologues—a breed of people that the world has learned (quite rightly) to mistrust. I’m aware of this. I’m all for being circumspect. I’m all for discretion, prudence, tentativeness, subtlety, ambiguity, complexity. I love the unanswered question, the unresolved story, the unclimbed mountain, the tender shard of an incomplete dream. Most of the time.

But is it mandatory for a writer to be ambiguous about everything? Isn’t it true that there have been fearful episodes in human history when prudence and discretion would have just been euphemisms for pusillanimity? When caution was actually cowardice? When sophistication was disguised decadence? When circumspection was really a kind of espousal?

Isn’t it true, or at least theoretically possible, that there are times in the life of a people or a nation when the political climate demands that we—even the most sophisticated of us—overtly take sides? I believe that such times are upon us. And I believe that in the coming years intellectuals and artists in India will be called upon to take sides.

Arundhati Roy, The Ladies Have Feelings, So . . . Shall We Leave It to the Experts? (Based on a talk given at the Third Annual Eqbal Ahmad Lecture, Amherst, Massachusetts, February 15, 2001; compiled in The End of Imagination)

#*#arundhati roy #the end of imagination

38 notes · View notes

richincolor · 6 years ago

Photo

Poetry Favorites

I cannot remember a time when I didn't love words. Poets use words efficiently and effectively and quite often evoke strong emotions, so poetry has also always appealed to me. I tend to seek out anthologies, novels in verse, and even books with poetry sort of sprinkled throughout. Here are a few of my favorites.

Anthologies:

No Matter the Wreckage by Sarah Kay Write Bloody Publishing

Summary: Following the success of her breakout poem, “B,” Sarah Kay releases her debut collection of poetry featuring work from the first decade of her career. No Matter the Wreckage presents readers with new and beloved work that showcases Kay’s knack for celebrating family, love, travel, history, and unlikely love affairs between inanimate objects (“Toothbrush to the Bicycle Tire”), among other curious topics. Both fresh and wise, Kay’s poetry allows readers to join in on her journey of discovering herself and the world around her. It’s an honest and powerful collection.

Voices in the Air by Naomi Shihab Nye Greenwillow Books

Acclaimed and award-winning poet, teacher, and National Book Award finalist Naomi Shihab Nye’s uncommon and unforgettable voice offers readers peace, humor, inspiration, and solace. This volume of almost one hundred original poems is a stunning and engaging tribute to the diverse voices past and present that comfort us, compel us, lead us, and give us hope.

Voices in the Air is a collection of almost one hundred original poems written by the award-winning poet Naomi Shihab Nye in honor of the artists, writers, poets, historical figures, ordinary people, and diverse luminaries from past and present who have inspired her. Full of words of encouragement, solace, and hope, this collection offers a message of peace and empathy.

Voices in the Air celebrates the inspirational people who strengthen and motivate us to create, to open our hearts, and to live rewarding and graceful lives. With short informational bios about the influential figures behind each poem, and a transcendent introduction by the poet, this is a collection to cherish, read again and again, and share with others. Includes an index.

Dreaming in Indian by Lisa Charleyboy & Mary Beth Leatherdale (Not solely poetry, but containing some poetry) Annick Press

A powerful and visually stunning anthology from some of the most groundbreaking Native artists working in North America today.

Truly universal in its themes, “Dreaming In Indian” will shatter commonly held stereotypes and challenge readers to rethink their own place in the world. Divided into four sections, ‘Roots, ‘ ‘Battles, ‘ ‘Medicines, ‘ and ‘Dreamcatchers, ‘ this book offers readers a unique insight into a community often misunderstood and misrepresented by the mainstream media.

Emerging and established Native artists, including acclaimed author Joseph Boyden, renowned visual artist Bunky Echo Hawk, and stand-up comedian Ryan McMahon, contribute thoughtful and heartfelt pieces on their experiences growing up Indigenous, expressing them through such mediums as art, food, the written word, sport, dance, and fashion. Renowned chef Aaron Bear Robe, for example, explains how he introduces restaurant customers to his culture by reinventing traditional dishes. And in a dramatic photo spread, model Ashley Callingbull and photographer Thosh Collins reappropriate the trend of wearing ‘Native’ clothing.

Whether addressing the effects of residential schools, calling out bullies through personal manifestos, or simply citing hopes for the future, “Dreaming In Indian” refuses to shy away from difficult topics. Insightful, thought-provoking, and beautifully honest, this book will to appeal to young adult readers. An innovative and captivating design enhances each contribution and makes for a truly unique reading experience.

See also their other two collections: Urban Tribes & #NotYourPrincess

Novels in Verse

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo HarperTeen [Audrey’s Review]

A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself.

So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out, much less speak her words out loud. But still, she can’t stop thinking about performing her poems. Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman Nancy Paulsen Books [My Review]

Summary: Padma Venkatraman’s inspiring story of a young girl’s struggle to regain her passion and find a new peace is told lyrically through verse that captures the beauty and mystery of India and the ancient Bharatanatyam dance form. This is a stunning novel about spiritual awakening, the power of art, and above all, the courage and resilience of the human spirit.

Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

Summary: A cannon. A strap. A piece. A biscuit. A burner. A heater. A chopper. A gat. A hammer A tool for RULE

Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.

And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator.

Gabi, a Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero Cinco Puntos [My Review]

Summary: Gabi Hernandez chronicles her last year in high school in her diary: college applications, Cindy’s pregnancy, Sebastian’s coming out, the cute boys, her father’s meth habit, and the food she craves. And best of all, the poetry that helps forge her identity.

July 24

My mother named me Gabriella, after my grandmother who, coincidentally, didn’t want to meet me when I was born because my mother was unmarried, and therefore living in sin. My mom has told me the story many, many, MANY, times of how, when she confessed to my grandmother that she was pregnant with me, her mother beat her. BEAT HER! She was twenty-five. That story is the basis of my sexual education and has reiterated why it’s important to wait until you’re married to give it up. So now, every time I go out with a guy, my mom says, “Ojos abiertos, piernas cerradas.” Eyes open, legs closed. That’s as far as the birds and the bees talk has gone. And I don’t mind it. I don’t necessarily agree with that whole wait until you’re married crap, though. I mean, this is America and the 21st century; not Mexico one hundred years ago. But, of course, I can’t tell my mom that because she will think I’m bad. Or worse: trying to be White.

Jumped In by Patrick Flores-Scott Henry Holt and Co. [My Review]

Sam has the rules of slackerhood down: Don’t be late to class. Don’t ever look the teacher in the eye. Develop your blank stare. Since his mom left, he has become an expert in the art of slacking, especially since no one at his new school gets his intense passion for the music of the Pacific Northwest—Nirvana, Hole, Sleater-Kinney. Then his English teacher begins a slam poetry unit and Sam gets paired up with the daunting, scarred, clearly-a-gang-member Luis, who happens to sit next to him in every one of his classes. Slacking is no longer an option—Luis will destroy him. Told in Sam’s raw voice and interspersed with vivid poems, Jumped In by Patrick Flores-Scott is a stunning debut novel about differences, friendship, loss, and the power of words.

Shame the Stars by Guadalupe García McCall Tu Books [My Review] [Interview with Guadalupe García McCall]

Summary: Eighteen-year-old Joaquín del Toro’s future looks bright. With his older brother in the priesthood, he’s set to inherit his family’s Texas ranch. He’s in love with Dulceña—and she’s in love with him. But it’s 1915, and trouble has been brewing along the US-Mexico border. On one side, the Mexican Revolution is taking hold; on the other, Texas Rangers fight Tejano insurgents, and ordinary citizens are caught in the middle.

As tensions grow, Joaquín is torn away from Dulceña, whose father’s critical reporting on the Rangers in the local newspaper has driven a wedge between their families. Joaquín’s own father insists that the Rangers are their friends, and refuses to take sides in the conflict. But when their family ranch becomes a target, Joaquín must decide how he will stand up for what’s right.

Shame the Stars is a rich re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet set in Texas during the explosive years of Mexico’s revolution. Filled with period detail, captivating romance, and political intrigue, it brings Shakespeare’s classic to life in an entirely new way.

Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson Bloomsbury [My Review]

Summary: Jade believes she must get out of her neighborhood if she’s ever going to succeed. Her mother says she has to take every opportunity. She has. She accepted a scholarship to a mostly-white private school and even Saturday morning test prep opportunities. But some opportunities feel more demeaning than helpful. Like an invitation to join Women to Women, a mentorship program for “at-risk” girls. Except really, it’s for black girls. From “bad” neighborhoods.

But Jade doesn’t need support. And just because her mentor is black doesn’t mean she understands Jade. And maybe there are some things Jade could show these successful women about the real world and finding ways to make a real difference.

Friendships, race, privilege, identity—this compelling and thoughtful story explores the issues young women face.

If you want even more great titles, check out our Poetry Month posts from the past.

Poetry Month (2018)

Pieces of Poetry (2017)

Poetry Link Round Up (2016)

Novels in Verse (2014)

Piles of Poetry (2013)

8 notes · View notes

shawol9196 · 6 years ago

Text

Love Paint (Oneshot; Minkey; ~1K) (AFF Link)

While it’s not wholly uncommon for Kibum to call Minho in to sit with him -- regardless of whether he’s modeling or not -- there’s still something special about the invitation. About being requested to exist in Kibum’s safe haven.

(Uhh I don’t think there’s any needed warnings but there’s like one (1) dick joke at the end)

A/N: this was based on Nu’est “Love Paint (Every Afternoon)”

“Will you come model for me, dove?”

Though they’re rooms apart, Kibum’s voice carries well enough that it’s almost as if he’s standing just behind Minho.

“Just as soon as I finish tidying up.”

“I have to prep everything anyway, take your time.”

Sweeping up photo paper trimmings, Minho tries to hurry in the cleanest way he can. Their new apartment with extra rooms for work spaces had turned out to be the much needed change in their life. FInally done tidying up, he walks down the hallway to Kibum’s paint studio. Per usual he has all the windows wide open, sheets spread out to protect the floor and walls.

“How am I to pose, maître peintre?”

Kibum laughs softly at the attempted French as he finishes drying his watercolor palette.

“Just come lay down near me. The afternoon sun’s going to be coming in soon.”

Minho does as he’s told, taking care not to knock anything over as he attempts to get comfortable. While it’s not wholly uncommon for Kibum to call Minho in to sit with him -- regardless of whether he’s modeling or not -- there’s still something special about the invitation. About being requested to exist in Kibum’s safe haven.

“Any idea of what you’re painting today?”

Kibum smiles. “Nope.”

“I feel like having no starting idea is harder for a painter.”

“As compared to a photographer?”

“Yeah. I might not know what I want to photograph when I go out, but I’ll know it when I see it. Like, the project I’m working on now. I had no preconceived idea of what it would be, but when I saw it it just clicked.”

“Like us?”

Minho hums and starts getting lost in the memory. His childhood friend and now dance prodigy Taemin dragging Minho along to an art exhibition that he was required to attend for a class. Though Minho had always had a penchant for visual arts, the fact that the exhibit was mostly focusing on up-and-coming painter Kim Kibum turned him off from it. Kibum’s work -- self described as vivid impressionism -- was obnoxiously bright and egregiously abstract in Minho’s opinion. And the fact that Kibum had made a comment in an interview about how Minho’s art was “stiflingly gray” and “incredibly barren.” Somehow -- by some miracle -- Taemin was able to appreciate both artistic visions and even orchestrated -- by some even greater miracle -- a joint exhibition between them: Minho took photos of Taemin’s self-choreographed senior recital and Kibum painted his own interpretations of the routine. After the opening of the exhibition, the three had gone home to Taemin’s tiny apartment for some celebratory drinks. A drunken heart to heart revealed that their differences in artistic style were driven by almost the same thing: Minho’s clean, minimalist grayscale photos sprang up out of his desire to simplify the world around him; Kibum’s loud, lively, messy paintings developed as an escape from the constraints of the world around him. Armed with newfound understanding and a handful of almost sober kisses, the two made an agreement and effort to improve their relationship. Though some of the smaller arts papers were saddened by the loss of their favorite intermedia rivalry, the two quickly became the beloved princes of the local art scene. And now, 5 years later-

Minho’s train of thought is interrupted by the sensation of something cold on his hand. Blinking back to the present, he looks at his hand.

“You weren’t listening to my posing instructions so I changed my mind and decided that you’re my medium today. I hope you don’t mind.”

Minho laughs but tries to keep his hand still in Kibum’s.

“Sorry, I was thinking about us.”

“I assumed you were. You had that funny dreamy look.”

“What’s funny about it?”

“It just seems odd to romanticize about our original rivalry is all.”

“How do you know that’s the part I fantasize about?” “I said romanticize not fantasize.”

Minho sighs in fond annoyance and Kibum goes back to painting.

“Can I at least see what’s being painted on me?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Why?”

“Because I want you to trust me.”

Minho chuckles and shifts around so his arm is in a more comfortable position.

“There’s finally proper reviews of my last exhibition out.”

“It took them this long?”

“Yeah. Well, at least for the serious people.”

“But didn’t it close last week?” “Yeah. They came to the last day so they could interview me about it.”

“Ahh.”

Minho waits for Kibum’s interest to come to the forefront of his mind; he recognizes the focused look in Kibum’s eyes. Five years later, he’s learned to appreciate and love the look of Kibum painting.

“So what did it say?”

“That it was very experimental for me, and that even though everything was still monochrome, that it seemed as if you’re finally starting to rub off on me in the brightest way.”

“It would really kill you to have more than one color wouldn’t it?”

“One color is enough for me, just like one boyfriend is enough for me.”

Kibum furrows his brow, amused skepticism coloring his face.

“Was there doubt about this?”

“One of the comments on the article was if I had enough lovers who used such bright colors that eventually I’d end up with full color photos.”

Kibum puts his paintbrush down and laughs til there’s tears in his eyes.

“I thought of commenting back ‘sorry I only need one shade of love paint in my life’ but didn’t want to seem like I super care about public opinion on my private life.”

“Love paint? Is that what I am?”

“What? You’ve made my life literally and metaphorically more colorful, haven’t you? Painted my existence with love?”

Kibum rolls his eyes and picks up his paintbrush again. “Don’t make me paint a dick on your hand.”

“I’m being honest! And also you wouldn’t.”

“Oh wouldn’t I?”

“Why would you put the effort into consciously painting a dick on my hand when you could just put yours in my hand?”

Kibum huffs in unadmitted defeat and starts washing his brush. Minho sneaks a glance at his half dried hand and forearm: the sight of grayscale paint makes his heart swell.

#i love them ok #art gays minkey is a concept we should all think about #minkey #minho #kibum #1 shot 2 shot just for 1 #writing

11 notes · View notes

ciathyzareposts · 6 years ago

Text

Return to Zork

Where should we mark the beginning of the full-motion-video era, that most extended of blind alleys in the history of the American games industry? The day in the spring of 1990 that Ken Williams, founder and president of Sierra On-Line, wrote his latest editorial for his company’s seasonal newsletter might be as good a point as any. In his editorial, Williams coined the term “talkies” in reference to an upcoming generation of games which would have “real character voices and no text.” The term was, of course, a callback to the Hollywood of circa 1930, when sound began to come to the heretofore silent medium of film. Computer games, Williams said, stood on the verge of a leap that would be every bit as transformative, in terms not only of creativity but of profitability: “How big would the film industry be today if not for this step?”

According to Williams, the voice-acted, CD-based version of Sierra’s King’s Quest V was to become the games industry’s The Jazz Singer. But voice acting wasn’t the only form of acting which the games of the next few years had in store. A second transformative leap, comparable to that made by Hollywood when film went from black and white to color, was also waiting in the wings to burst onto the stage just a little bit later than the first talkies. Soon, game players would be able to watch real, human actors right there on their monitor screens.

As regular readers of this site probably know already, the games industry’s Hollywood obsession goes back a long way. In 1982, Sierra was already advertising their text adventure Time Zone with what looked like a classic “coming attractions” poster; in 1986, Cinemaware was founded with the explicit goal of making “interactive movies.” Still, the conventional wisdom inside the industry by the early 1990s had shifted subtly away from such earlier attempts to make games that merely played like movies. The idea was now that the two forms of media would truly become one — that games and movies would literally merge. “Sierra is part of the entertainment industry — not the computer industry,” wrote Williams in his editorial. “I always think of books, records, films, and then interactive films.” These categories defined a continuum of increasingly “hot,” increasingly immersive forms of media. The last listed there, the most immersive medium of all, was now on the cusp of realization. How many people would choose to watch a non-interactive film when they had the opportunity to steer the course of the plot for themselves? Probably about as many as still preferred books to movies.

Not all that long after Williams’s editorial, the era of the full-motion-video game began in earnest. The first really prominent exemplar of the species was ICOM Simulations’s Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective series in 1992, which sent you wandering around Victorian London collecting clues to a mystery from the video snippets that played every time you visited a relevant location. The first volume of this series alone would eventually sell 1 million copies as an early CD-ROM showcase title. The following year brought Return to Zork, The 7th Guest, and Myst as three of the five biggest games of the year; all three of these used full-motion video to a greater or lesser extent. (Myst used it considerably less than the other two, and, perhaps not coincidentally, is the member of the trio that holds up by far the best today.) With success stories like those to look to, the floodgates truly opened in 1994. Suddenly every game-development project — by no means only adventure games — was looking for ways to shoehorn live actors into the proceedings.

But only a few of the full-motion-video games that followed would post anything like the numbers of the aforementioned four games. That hard fact, combined with a technological counter-revolution in the form of 3D graphics, would finally force a reckoning with the cognitive dissonance of trying to build a satisfying interactive experience by mixing and matching snippets of nonmalleable video. By 1997, the full-motion-video era was all but over. Today, few things date a game more instantly to a certain window of time than grainy video of terrible actors flickering over a background of computer-generated graphics. What on earth were people thinking?

Most full-motion-video games are indeed dire, but they’re going to be with us for quite some time to come as we continue to work our way through this history. I wish I could say that Activision’s Return to Zork, my real topic for today, was one of the exceptions to the rule of direness. Sadly, though, it isn’t.

In fact, let me be clear right now: Return to Zork is a terrible adventure game. Under no circumstances should you play it, unless to satisfy historical curiosity or as a source of ironic amusement in the grand tradition of Ed Wood. And even in these special cases, you should take care to play it with a walkthrough in hand. To do anything else is sheer masochism; you’re almost guaranteed to lock yourself out of victory within the first ten minutes, and almost guaranteed not to realize it until many hours later. There’s really no point in mincing words here: Return to Zork is one of the absolute worst adventure-game designs I’ve ever seen — and, believe me, I’ve seen quite a few bad ones.

Its one saving grace, however, is that it’s terrible in a somewhat different way from the majority of terrible full-motion-video adventure games. Most of them are utterly bereft of ideas beyond the questionable one at their core: that of somehow making a game out of static video snippets. You can almost see the wheels turning desperately in the designers’ heads as they’re suddenly confronted with the realization that, in addition to playing videos, they have to give the player something to actually do. Beyond Zork, on the other hand, is chock full of ideas for improving upon the standard graphic-adventure interface in ways that, on the surface at any rate, allow more rather than less flexibility and interactivity. Likewise, even the trendy use of full-motion video, which dates it so indelibly to the mid-1990s, is much more calculated than the norm among its contemporaries.

Unfortunately, all of its ideas are undone by a complete disinterest in the fundamentals of game design on the part of the novelty-seeking technologists who created it. And so here we are, stuck with a terrible game in spite of it all. If I can’t quite call Return to Zork a noble failure — as we’ll see, one of its creators’ stated reasons for making it so callously unfair is anything but noble — I can at least convince myself to call it an interesting one.

When Activision decided to make their follow-up to the quickie cash-in Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 a more earnest, better funded stab at a sequel to a beloved Infocom game, it seemed logical to find themselves a real Infocom Implementor to design the thing. They thus asked Steve Meretzky, whom they had just worked with on Leather Goddesses 2, if he’d like to design a new Zork game for them as well. But Meretzky hadn’t overly enjoyed trying to corral Activision’s opinionated in-house developers from a continent away last time around; this time, he turned them down flat.

Meretzky’s rejection left Activision without a lot of options to choose from when it came to former Imps. A number of them had left the games industry upon Infocom’s shuttering three years before, while, of those that remained, Marc Blank, Mike Berlyn, Brian Moriarty, and Bob Bates were all employed by one of Activison’s direct competitors. Activision therefore turned to Doug Barnett, a freelance artist and designer who at been active in the industry for the better part of a decade; his most high-profile design gig to date had been Cinemaware’s Lords of the Rising Sun. But he had never designed a traditional puzzle-oriented adventure game, as one can perhaps see all too well in the game that would result from his partnership with Activision. He also didn’t seem to have a great deal of natural affinity for Zork. In the lengthy set of notes and correspondence relating to the game’s development which has been put online by The Zork Library, a constant early theme on Activision’s part is the design’s lack of “Zorkiness.” “As it stands, the design constitutes more of a separate and unrelated story, rather than a sequel to the Zork series,” they wrote at one point. “It was noted that ‘Zork’ is the name of a vast ancient underground empire, yet Return to Zork takes place in a mostly above-ground environment.”

In fairness to Barnett, Zork had always been more of a state of mind than a coherent place. With the notable exception of Steve Meretzky, everyone at Infocom had been wary of overthinking a milieu that had originally been plucked out of the air more or less at random. In comparison to other shared worlds — even other early computer-game worlds, such as the Britannia of Richard Garriott’s Ultima series — there was surprisingly little there there when it came Zork: no well-established geography, no well-established history which everybody knew — and, most significantly of all, no really iconic characters which simply had to be included. At bottom, Zork boiled down to little more than a modest grab bag of tropes which lived largely in the eye of the beholder: the white house with a mailbox, grues, Flood Control Dam #3, Dimwit Flathead, the Great Underground Empire itself. And even most of these had their origin stories in the practical needs of an adventure game rather than any higher world-building purpose. (The Great Underground Empire, for example, was first conceived as an abandoned place not for any literary effect but because living characters are hard to implement in an adventure game, while the detritus they leave behind is relatively easy.)

That said, there was a distinct tone to Zork, which was easier to spot than it was to describe or to capture. Barnett’s design missed this tone, even as it began with the gleefully anachronistic, seemingly thoroughly Zorkian premise of casting the player as a sweepstakes winner on an all-expenses-paid trip to the idyllic Valley of the Sparrows, only to discover it has turned into the Valley of the Vultures under the influence of some pernicious, magical evil. Barnett and Activision would continue to labor mightily to make Return to Zork feel like Zork, but would never quite get there.

By the summer of 1992, Barnett’s design document had already gone through several revisions without entirely meeting Activision’s expectations. At this point, they hired one Eddie Dornbrower to take personal charge of the project in the role of producer. Like Barnett, Dornbrower had been working in the industry for quite some time, but had never worked on an adventure game; he was best known for World Series Major League Baseball on the old Intellivision console and Earl Weaver Baseball on computers. Dornbrower gave the events of Return to Zork an explicit place in Zorkian history — some 700 years after Infocom’s Beyond Zork — and moved a big chunk of the game underground to remedy one of his boss’ most oft-repeated objections to the existing design.

More ominously, he also made a comprehensive effort to complicate Barnett’s puzzles, based on feedback from players and reviewers of Leather Goddesses 2, who were decidedly unimpressed with that game’s simple-almost-to-the-point-of-nonexistence puzzles. The result would be the mother of all over-corrections — a topic we’ll return to later.

Unlike Leather Goddess 2, whose multimedia ambitions had led it to fill a well-nigh absurd 17 floppy disks, Return to Zork had been planned almost from its inception as a product for CD-ROM, a technology which, after years of false promises and setbacks, finally seemed to be moving toward a critical mass of consumer uptake. In 1992, full-motion video, CD-ROM, and multimedia computing in general were all but inseparable concepts in the industry’s collective mind. Activision thus became one of the first studios hire a director and actors and rent time on a sound stage; the business of making computer games had now come to involve making movies as well. They even hired a professional Hollywood screenwriter to punch up the dialog and make it more “cinematic.”

In general, though, while the computer-games industry was eager to pursue a merger with Hollywood, the latter was proving far more skeptical. There was still little money in computer games by comparison with movies, and there was very little prestige — rather the opposite, most would say — in “starring” in a game. The actors which games could manage to attract were therefore B-listers at best. Return to Zork actually collected a more accomplished — or at least more high-profile — cast than most. Among them were Ernie Lively, a veteran supporting player best known to a generation of ten-year-old boys as Cooter, the mechanic from The Dukes of Hazzard; his daughter Robyn Lively, fresh off a six-episode stint as a minor character on David Lynch’s prestigious critic’s darling Twin Peaks; Jason Hervey, who was still playing older brother Wayne on the long-running coming-of-age sitcom The Wonder Years; and Sam Jones, whose big shot at leading-man status had come and gone when he starred in the dreadful Flash Gordon film of 1980.

If the end result would prove less than Oscar-worthy, it’s for the most part not cringe-worthy either. After all, the cast did consist entirely of acting professionals, which is more than one can say for many productions of this ilk — and certainly more than one can say for the truly dreadful voice acting in Leather Goddess of Phobos 2, Activision’s previous attempt at a multimedia adventure game. While they were hampered by the sheer unfamiliarity of talking directly “to” the invisible player of the game — as Ernie Lively put it, “there’s no one to act off of” — they did a decent job with the slight material they had to work with.

The fact that they were talking to the player rather than acting out scenes with one another actually speaks to a degree of judiciousness in the use of full-motion video on Activision’s part. Rather than attempting to make an interactive movie in the most literal sense — by having a bunch of actors, one of them representing the protagonist, act out each of the player’s choices — Activision went for a more thoughtful mixed-media approach that could, theoretically anyway, eliminate most of the weaknesses of the typical full-motion-video adventure game. For the most part, only conversations involved the use of full-motion video; everything else was rendered by Activision’s pixel artists and 3D modelers in conventional computer graphics. The protagonist wasn’t shown at all: at a time when the third-person view that was the all but universal norm in adventure games, Activision opted for a first-person view.

The debate over whether an adventure-game protagonist ought to be a blank state which the player can fill with her own personality or an established character which the player merely guides and empathizes with was a longstanding one even at the time when Return to Zork was being made. Certainly Infocom had held rousing internal debates on the subject, and had experimented fairly extensively with pre-established protagonists in some of their games. (These experiments sometimes led to rousing external debates among their fans, most notably in the case of the extensively characterized and tragically flawed protagonist of Infidel, who meets a nasty if richly deserved end no matter what the player does.) The Zork series, however, stemmed from an earlier, simpler time in adventure games than the rest of the Infocom catalog, and the “nameless, faceless adventurer,” functioning as a stand-in for the player herself, had always been its star. Thus Activision’s decision not to show the player’s character in Return to Zork, or indeed to characterize her in any way whatsoever, is a considered one, in keeping with everything that came before.

In fact, the protagonist of Return to Zork never actually says anything. To get around the need, Activision came up with a unique attitude-based conversation engine. As you “talk” to other characters, you choose from three stances — threatening, interested, or bored — and listen only to your interlocutors’ reactions. Not only does your own dialog go unvoiced, but you don’t even see the exact words you use; the game instead lets you imagine your own words. Specific questions you might wish to ask are cleverly turned into concrete physical interactions, something games do much better than abstract conversations. As you explore, you have a camera with which to take pictures of points of interest. During conversations, you can show the entries from your photo album to your interlocutor, perhaps prompting a reaction. You can do the same with objects in your inventory, locations on the auto-map you always carry with you, or even the tape recordings you automatically make of each interaction with each character.

So, whatever else you can say about it, Return to Zork is hardly bereft of ideas. William Volk, the technical leader of the project, was well up on the latest research into interface design being conducted inside universities like MIT and at companies like Apple. Many such studies had concluded that, in place of static onscreen menus and buttons, the interface should ideally pop into existence just where and when the user needed it. The result of such thinking in Return to Zork is a screen with no static interface at all; it instead pops up when you click on an object with which you can interact. Since it doesn’t need the onscreen menu of “verbs” typical of contemporaneous Sierra and LucasArts adventure games, Return to Zork can give over the entirety of the screen to its graphical portrayal of the world.

In addition to being a method of recapturing screen real estate, the interface was conceived as a way to recapture some of the sense of boundless freedom which is such a characteristic of parser-driven text adventures — a sense which can all too easily become lost amidst the more constrained interfaces of their graphical equivalent. William Volk liked to call Return to Zork‘s interface a “reverse parser”: clicking on a “noun” in the environment or in your inventory yields a pop-up menu of “verbs” that pertain to it. Taking an object in your “hand” and clicking it on another one yields still more options, the equivalent of commands to a parser involving indirect as well as direct objects. In the first screen of the game, for example, clicking the knife on a vulture gives options to “show knife to vulture,” “throw knife at vulture,” “stab vulture with knife,” or “hit vulture with knife.” There are limits to the sense of possibility: every action had to be anticipated and hand-coded by the development team, and most of them are the wrong approach to whatever you’re trying to accomplish. In fact, in the case of the example just mentioned as well as many others, most of the available options will get you killed; Return to Zork loves instant deaths even more than the average Sierra game. And there are many cases of that well-known adventure-game syndrome where a perfectly reasonable solution to a problem isn’t implemented, forcing you to devise some absurdly convoluted solution that is implemented in its stead. Still, in a world where adventure games were getting steadily less rather than more ambitious in their scope of interactive possibility — to a large extent due to the limitations of full-motion video — Return to Zork was a welcome departure from the norm, a graphic adventure that at least tried to recapture the sense of open-ended possibility of an Infocom game.

Indeed, there are enough good ideas in Return to Zork that one really, really wishes they all could have been tied to a better game. But sadly, I have to stop praising Return to Zork now and start condemning it.

The most obvious if perhaps most forgivable of its sins is that, as already noted, it never really manages to feel like Zork — not, at least, like the classic Zork of the original trilogy. (Steve Meretzky’s Zork Zero, Infocom’s final release to bear the name, actually does share some of the slapstick qualities of Return to Zork, but likewise rather misses the feel of the original.) The most effective homage comes at the very beginning, when the iconic opening text of Zork I appears onscreen and morphs into the new game’s splashy opening credits. It’s hard to imagine a better depiction circa 1993 of where computer gaming had been and where it was going — which was, of course, exactly the effect the designers intended.

https://www.filfre.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/rtz1.mp4

Once the game proper gets under way, however, modernity begins to feel much less friendly to the Zorkian aesthetic of old. Most of Zork‘s limited selection of physical icons do show up here, from grues to Flood Control Dam #3, but none of it feels all that convincingly Zork-like. The dam is a particular disappointment; what was described in terms perfect for inspiring awed flights of the imagination in Zork I looks dull and underwhelming when portrayed in the cruder medium of graphics. Meanwhile the jokey, sitcom-style dialog that confronts you at every turn feels even less like the original trilogy’s slyer, subtler humor.

This isn’t to say that Return to Zork‘s humor doesn’t connect on occasion. It’s just… different from that of Dave Lebling and Marc Blank. By far the most memorable character, whose catchphrase has lived on to this day as a minor Internet meme, is the drunken miller named Boos Miller. (Again, subtlety isn’t this game’s trademark.) He plies you endlessly with whiskey, whilst repeating, “Want some rye? Course you do!” over and over and over in his cornpone accent. It’s completely stupid — but, I must admit, it’s also pretty darn funny; Boos Miller is the one thing everyone who ever played the play still seems to remember about Return to Zork. But, funny though he is, he would be unimaginable in any previous Zork.

https://www.filfre.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/rtz3.mp4

Of course, a lack of sufficient Zorkiness need not have been the kiss of death for Return to Zork as an adventure game in the abstract. What really does it in is its thoroughly unfair puzzle design. This game plays like the fever dream of a person who hates and fears adventure games. It’s hard to know where to even start (or end) with this cornucopia of bad puzzles, but I’ll describe a few of them, ranked roughly in order of their objectionability.

The Questionable: At one point, you find yourself needing to milk a cow, but she won’t let you do so with cold hands. Do you need to do something sensible, like, say, find some gloves or wrap your hands in a blanket? Of course not! The solution is to light some of the hay that’s scattered all over the wooden barn on fire and warm your hands that way. For some reason, the whole place doesn’t go up in smoke. This solution is made still more difficult to discover by the way that the game usually kills you every time you look at it wrong. Why on earth would it not kill you for a monumentally stupid act like this one? To further complicate matters, for reasons that are obscure at best you can only light the hay on fire if you first pick it up and then drop it again. Thus even many players who are consciously attempting the correct solution will still get stuck here.

The Absurd: At another point, you find a bra. You have to throw it into an incinerator in order to get a wire out of it whose existence you were never aware of in the first place. How does the game expect you to guess that you should take such an action? Apparently some tenuous linkage with the 1960s tradition of bra burning and, as a justification after the fact, the verb “to hot-wire.” Needless to say, throwing anything else into the incinerator just destroys the object and, more likely than not, locks you out of victory.

The Incomprehensible: There’s a water wheel out back of Boos’s house with a chock holding it still. If you’ve taken the chock and thus the wheel is spinning, and you’ve solved another puzzle that involves drinking Boos under the table (see the video above), a trapdoor is revealed in the floor. But if the chock is in place, the trapdoor can’t be seen. Why? I have absolutely no idea.

The Brutal: In a way, everything you really need to know about Return to Zork can be summed up by its most infamous single puzzle. On the very first screen of the game, there’s a “bonding plant” growing. If you simply pull up the plant and take it with you, everything seems fine — until you get to the very end of the game many hours later. Here, you finally find a use for the plant you’ve been carting around all this time. Fair enough. But unfortunately, you need a living version of it. It turns out you were supposed to have used a knife to dig up the plant rather than pulling or cutting it. (The question of how it should survive even this treatment, considering you don’t plant it again in a pot or anything — much less how you can dig anything up with a knife — goes unanswered.) Guess what? You now get to play through the whole game again from the beginning.

All of the puzzles just described, and the many equally bad ones, are made still more complicated by the game’s general determination to be a right bastard to you every chance it gets. If, as Robb Sherwin once put it, the original Zork games hate their players, this game has found some existential realm beyond mere hatred. It will let you try to do many things to solve each puzzle, but, of those actions that don’t outright kill you, a fair percentage lock you out of victory in one way or another. Sometimes, as in the case of its most infamous puzzle, it lets you think you’ve solved them, only to pull the rug out from under you much later.

So, you’re perpetually on edge as you tiptoe through this minefield of instant deaths and unwinnable states; you’ll have a form of adventure-game post-traumatic-stress syndrome by the time you’re done, even if you’re largely playing from a walkthrough. The instant deaths are annoying, but nowhere near as bad as the unwinnable states; the problem there is that you never know whether you’ve already locked yourself out of victory, never know whether you can’t solve the puzzle in front of you because of something you did or didn’t do a long time ago.

It all combines to make Return to Zork one of the worst adventure games I’ve ever played. We’ve sunk to Time Zone levels of awful with this one. No human not willing to mount a methodical months-long assault on this game, trying every possibility everywhere, could possibly solve it unaided. Even the groundbreaking interface is made boring and annoying by the need to show everything to everyone and try every conversation stance on everyone, always with the lingering fear that the wrong stance could spoil your game. Adventure games are built on trust between player and designer, but you can’t trust Return to Zork any farther than you can throw it. Amidst all the hand-wringing at Activision over whether Return to Zork was or was not sufficiently Zorky, they forgot the most important single piece of the Infocom legacy: their thoroughgoing commitment to design, and the fundamental respect that commitment demonstrated to the players who spent their hard-earned money on Infocom games. “Looking back at the classics might be a good idea for today’s game designers,” wrote Computer Gaming World‘s Scorpia at the conclusion of her mixed review of Return to Zork. “Good puzzle construction, logical development, and creative inspiration are in rich supply on those dusty disks.” None of these, alas, is in correspondingly good supply in Return to Zork.

The next logical question, then, is just how Return to Zork‘s puzzles wound up being so awful. After all, this game wasn’t the quickie cash grab that Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 had been. The development team put serious thought and effort into the interface, and there were clearly a lot of people involved with this game who cared about it a great deal — among them Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick, who was willing to invest almost $1 million to bring the whole project to fruition at a time when cash was desperately short and his creditors had him on a short leash indeed.

The answer to our question apparently comes down to the poor reception of Leather Goddesses 2, which had stung Activision badly. In an interview given shortly before Return to Zork‘s release, Eddie Dornbrower said that, “based on feedback that the puzzles in Leather Goddesses of Phobos [2] were too simple,” the development team had “made the puzzles increasingly difficult just by reworking what Doug had already laid out for us.” That sounds innocent enough on the face of it. But, speaking to me recently, William Volk delivered a considerably darker variation on the same theme. “People hated Leather Goddesses of Phobos 2 — panned it,” he told me. “So, we decided to wreak revenge on the entire industry by making Return to Zork completely unfair. Everyone bitches about that title. There’s 4000 videos devoted to Return to Zork on YouTube, most of which are complaining because the title is so blatantly unfair. But, there you go. Something to pin my hat on. I made the most unfair game in history.”

For all that I appreciate Volk sharing his memories with me, I must confess that my initial reaction to this boast was shock, soon to be followed by genuine anger at the lack of empathy it demonstrates. Return to Zork didn’t “wreak revenge” on its industry, which really couldn’t have cared less. It rather wreaked “revenge,” if that’s the appropriate word, on the ordinary gamers who bought it in good faith at a substantial price, most of whom had neither bought nor commented on Leather Goddesses 2. I sincerely hope that Volk’s justification is merely a case of hyperbole after the fact. If not… well, I really don’t know what else to say about such juvenile pettiness, so symptomatic of the entitled tunnel vision of so many who are fortunate enough to work in technology, other than that it managed to leave me disliking Return to Zork even more. Some games are made out of an openhearted desire to bring people enjoyment. Others, like this one, are not.

I’d like to be able to say that Activision got their comeuppance for making Return to Zork such a bad game, demonstrating such contempt for their paying customers, and so soiling the storied Infocom name in the process. But exactly the opposite is the case. Released in late 1993, Return to Zork became one of the breakthrough titles that finally made the CD-ROM revolution a reality, whilst also carrying Activision a few more steps back from the abyss into which they’d been staring for the last few years. It reportedly sold 1 million copies in its first year — albeit the majority of them as a bundled title, included with CD-ROM drives and multimedia upgrade kits, rather than as a boxed standalone product. “Zork on a brick would sell 100,000 copies,” crowed Bobby Kotick in the aftermath.

Perhaps. But more likely not. Even within the established journals of computer gaming, whose readership probably didn’t constitute the majority of Return to Zork‘s purchasers, reviews of the game were driven more by enthusiasm for its graphics and sound, which really were impressive in their day, than by Zork nostalgia. Discussed in the euphoria following its release as the beginning of a full-blown Infocom revival, Return to Zork would instead go down in history as a vaguely embarrassing anticlimax to the real Infocom story. A sequel to Planetfall, planned as the next stage in the revival, would linger in Development Hell for years and ultimately never get finished. By the end of the 1990s, Zork as well would be a dead property in commercial terms.

Rather than having all that much to do with its Infocom heritage, Return to Zork‘s enormous commercial success came down to its catching the technological zeitgeist at just the right instant, joining Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, The 7th Guest, and Myst as the perfect flashy showpieces for CD-ROM. Its success conveyed all the wrong messages to game publishers like Activision: that multimedia glitz was everything, and that design really didn’t matter at all.

If it stings a bit that this of all games, arguably the worst one ever to bear the Infocom logo, should have sold better than any of the rest of them, we can comfort ourselves with the knowledge that Quality does have a way of winning out in the end. Today, Return to Zork is a musty relic of its time, remembered if at all only for that “want some rye?” guy. The classic Infocom text adventures, on the other hand, remain just that — widely recognized as timeless classics, their clean text-only presentations ironically much less dated than all of Return to Zork‘s oh-so-1993 multimedia flash. Justice does have a way of being served in the long run.

(Sources: the book Return to Zork Adventurer’s Guide by Steve Schwartz; Computer Gaming World of February 1993, July 1993, November 1993, and January 1994; Questbusters of December 1993; Sierra News Magazine of Spring 1990; Electronic Games of January 1994; New Media of June 24 1994. Online sources include The Zork Library‘s archive of Return to Zork design documents and correspondence, Retro Games Master‘s interview with Doug Barnett, and Matt Barton’s interview with William Volk. Some of this article is drawn from the full Get Lamp interview archives which Jason Scott so kindly shared with me. Finally, my huge thanks to William Volk for sharing his memories and impressions with me in a personal interview.)

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/return-to-zork/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

2 notes · View notes

anniversary-magazine · 6 years ago

Text

Q+A with Irina Boersma, the Photographer Capturing the Environments of Our Dreams

Irina Boersma is a product and interior photographer based in Copenhagen. While working on projects internationally, she captures the places and brands at the core of our aesthetic desires in a delicate and harmonious manner.

We recently took the time to ask her some questions to learn more about how she succeeds in creating the perfect scenography for each pictures; the one you wish you could spend your Sundays in.

EL: Can you tell us a little bit more about how you started as a photographer? When did you realize you wanted to pursue this path in your life?

IB: When I was studying at university, I was studying Film and Media, and though I loved the storytelling through audiovisual media, I wasn’t satisfied with the creative process of filmmaking. I found it too slow and heavy, and most of my energy ended up in managing and organizing details of film production, which in the end took space from my creative contribution to the process.

I changed course to photography, which had been present in my life on a hobby basis already, and went to an art photography school. At this point, it was quite clear to me that I wanted to work with photography as my primary medium. I had always been very creative as a child, painting and drawing a lot, and the artistic expression was very natural to me. At the Art Photography school, we learned to find our own visual language and photographic voice, working with exhibitions and book projects. Afterward, I assisted one of Denmark's prominent art photographers Nicolai Howalt, which gave me a good insight into the working life of an art photographer. I admired and loved his work but wanted to have an everyday life with more photographing and less gallery networking and fundraising for art projects. After all, what I loved to do was really the act of photographing.

So how could I have a working life shooting more images I thought… That would be to do more commercial photography work next to my art projects. And to become a better commercial photographer, I started assisting one of the best photographers in that field, Peter Krasilnikoff. This began an almost seven-year-long work relationship, first as his full-time assistant, then he hired me as a photographer to take on some of the clients and the last two years we have been business partners in the studio we shared. Now he has retired from the commercial work, and I am continuing the work with our old clients and a lot of new ones on my own.

Peter taught me a lot of technical knowledge about photography, how to give shape to objects with light, and also a lot of business knowledge on how to approach commercial clients and organize large-scale photoshoots with a lot of practical details. And throughout those years I have been behind the camera every day, which is what I wanted.

Now that I have worked with commercial projects for years, I am finding myself returning to the more artistic expression in photography. It is like closing a circle, really, combining the two worlds I have been trained in - commercial photography and art photography.

EL: Were you always more attracted by shooting spaces and objects rather than portraits? Why did you decide to take this direction?

IB: Throughout the many years of working with photography, I have been around a lot of different genres of the medium. I have worked with food photography, travel reportage, wedding photography, interior, and portraits. I have always liked portrait photography because of the connection you get with the subject in front of the camera, and the empathic process and psychological challenge to get the right emotional state out in the image. So this type of work has been present along the way. I have chosen not to focus on it because I prefer the creative process of creating a universe and atmosphere around objects. You start from scratch and build up a world around the story you want to tell, and for me, that is very gratifying and a great creative outlet.

I do shoot portraits sometimes, but I never show them anymore. Now I think about it, it is a different way to use the medium - instead of catching a moment unfolding naturally before your lens, I am creating the scene and atmosphere unfolding before the lens. It is still a vivid process and often with several other creatives involved, like stylists, art directors, etc. so the process is not 100 percent predictable, and never gets boring to me.

“Now I think about it, it is a different way to use the medium - instead of catching a moment unfolding naturally before your lens, I am creating the scene and atmosphere unfolding before the lens.”

— Irina Boersma

EL: There is a precise aesthetic direction surrounding your body of work. Is harmony something that is important to you? Why is that so?

IB: This is an excellent question, because I do believe visual harmony is essential, but I don’t think about it consciously all the time when I work. It happens intuitively somehow. I look at the image and arrange things in a way that they feel harmonious and leave nothing to disturb or distract the eye from the story I am telling.

I think it must be because I want to convey an emotion in the spectator when they look at the image, and I don’t wish distracting elements to lead them away from the atmosphere and feeling I am creating. It is not just a space with some pretty things put in there, I want the image to convey some kind of atmosphere or emotion, even if it is very subtle. It can also be so subtle that the spectator doesn’t notice that he is being told a story, there is just a feeling of a beautiful scene.

“It can even be so subtle that the spectator doesn’t notice that he is being told a story, there is just a feeling of a beautiful scene.”

— Irina Boersma

EL: Do you work differently when you are shooting personal and commercial work? How do you manage to bring that artistic touch to your commercial projects?

IB: The commercial work has a specific framework set up by the needs of the clients, whereas the artistic or editorial projects are freer. So the process changes a bit, but my approach to every kind of project is the same, very serious and professional and I’m always trying to push the situation to the best outcome possible. What I try to do with the commercial work is to push clients bit by bit to become braver and expand or move their framework to include some artistic expression. It has to be done respectfully because after all the images need to push their business, create income, and therefore also finance my work. I also think it is about finding the right clients that see some value in adding a little extra feeling into the marketing material they need to produce.

EL: What role do you think images play in the lifestyle industry?

IB: Today images have become such an integrated part of our life and perception of ourselves and the world we live in. Obviously for a lifestyle industry images are crucial to presenting a universe surrounding their products. It is a straightforward way to connect to the consumer especially because we all spend so much time every day looking at images on Instagram and other media.

Personally, I think the overconsumption of images today is working a bit against the creatives in my field, in the sense that people don’t take the time to observe and feel the work we are presenting. You look for two seconds in your Instagram feed, think “oh that’s beautiful,” put a like and on to the next images. The attention to the image, and therefore also the emotional response to it lasts for a very short period.

As a photographer, I will probably embrace the analog ways of showing images again at some point in my career. This could be exhibiting printed images, having editorial projects in biannual magazines and making book projects. Showing pictures to an audience that takes the time to actually look at them! This would lead me back to the starting point of my photographic career, art photography, and the circle has been completed once again. I’m not impatient to get there though, right now I love where I am and embrace all the challenges that come my way.

EL: What are your upcoming projects for 2019? What would you like to accomplish this year?

IB: For me, this year is really about integrating the artistic expression into the commercial work and having good working relations in both the commercial and editorial photography field. I will release several great editorial series that I am working on and still continue to work with my current and hopefully some new commercial clients.

This already has been my focus for a while, and I will continue working in this direction. Expanding my international network is also very important to me this year, as it gives me a lot of new inputs and inspirations for my work. I want my photographic work to develop continuously, so to expand my visual horizons I want to see some other colors and ways of doing things. That feeds the creative brain with inputs for new photographic projects in the future.

All images by Irina Boersma

#Irina Boersma #Photographer #Copenhagen #Architecture #Design #Lifestyle #Featured

1 note · View note

dotsonabrahamsen63-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Remembering Stan Lee: The Amazing Origin Story Of The Marvel Comics Scribe

Strangely enough, Lee said he would cast himself as the opposite of all that in his own imagination, drawing a comparison to the cynical, Stan Lee Thank You For The Memories Shirt uncompromising newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson. “I’m very frustrated that by the time they made the movie I was too old to play the role,” Lee said. “I modeled him after me. He was dumb and loudmouthed and opinionated. Of all the characters he helped create, Peter Parker remained his favorite. “In a way Spider-Man is more special than the others,” he said. What made him Lee’s favorite? “Nothing ever goes right for Peter. I think for most people in the world, nothing ever goes right. He hates people he’s never seen — people he’s never known — with equal intensity — with equal venom. “Now, we’re not trying to say it’s unreasonable for one human being to bug another. But, although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, it’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race — to despise an entire nation — to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance. For then, and only then, will we be truly worthy of the concept that man was created in the image of God ― a God who calls us ALL ― His children. 2.99. Available in North America and Europe. Oscorp Search & Destroy Pack - In The Amazing Spider-Manvideo game, Spider-Man has his own smartphone to help navigate around Manhattan, locate missions and challenges and fight crime. With this pack, Spider-Man's smartphone will feature two mini-games inspired by classic arcade fun. 2.99. Available in North America and Europe. Lizard Rampage Pack - The notorious Lizard is on the loose again in Manhattan! Take on the role of Dr. Connors' terrifying alter ego in a race against time. Go berserk through the streets using his devastating stomp attack and tail swipe to defeat Oscorp guards and earn mega points.

Lee knew his work was different, proudly noting that stories were drawn out over several issues not to make money but to better develop characters, situations and themes. He didn’t neglect his villains, either. One, the Moleman, went bad when he was ostracized because of his appearance, Lee wrote, adding it was “almost unheard of in a comic book” to explain why a character was what he was. Lee’s direct influence faded in the 1970s as he gave up some of his editorial duties at Marvel. But with his trademark white mustache and tinted sunglasses, he was the industry’s most recognizable figure. The Amazing Spider-Man is getting a whole bunch of DLC today, including a few different packs that will have you playing as people other than the titular wall-crawler. The Lizard Rampage pack will open up a level where you play as the Lizard, along with a new Spidey suit to wear. 49.99 on Steam, including complete integration with Steam achievements. A Nintendo 3DS demo is also now available in the Nintendo eShop. Rhino Challenge Pack - Take control of the massive, genetically engineered villain Rhino and rampage around Manhattan in an exclusive gameplay challenge of pure destruction! As Rhino, players will be able to unleash his formidable powers to destroy anything and everything in his path in a timed event full of speed, combo streaks, and of course, a ton of things to break! The Associated Press in a 2006 interview. Lee considered the comic-book medium an art form and he was prolific: By some accounts, he came up with a new comic book every day for 10 years. He hit his stride in the 1960s when he brought the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man and numerous others to life. His heroes, meanwhile, were a far cry from virtuous do-gooders such as rival DC Comics' Superman. The Fantastic Four fought with each other. Spider-Man was goaded into superhero work by his alter ego, Peter Parker, who suffered from unrequited crushes, money problems and dandruff.

XXX in the world of comic books were awesome. I happen to think they’re not exactly what a lot of people think but I don’t doubt their size and endurance. I knew him since 1970, worked for him a few times, talked with him at length and fielded an awful lot of phone calls from him asking me questions about comic books he worked on. He really did have a bad memory, if not when he first started telling people he had a bad memory, then certainly later on as he turned more and more into the Stan Lee character he’d created for himself. That’s all I’m going to write now. That’s where it begins and ends with me. To those of us who have been so deeply affected by the humanity of his imagination, the understanding of reaching beyond our potential and the necessity of tapping into our immeasurable imaginations, we thank you and are forever indebted. Rest In Peace Dear Stan. You made our time here a better one. What a man. What a life. When I first broke into Hollywood, he welcomed me with open arms and some very sage advice I’ll forever take to heart. A true icon who impacted generations around the world. Rest in love, my friend. I have to say I am deeply touched by the passing of Stan Lee… I always looked forward to seeing his cameo parts in all his great movies. 1 - Maybe you haven’t noticed, but there is a spiritual quality in all the Stan Lee movies… always the good guys win. Eventually, not always right away, but eventually. And his movies most of the time ended on an upbeat thought… that allowed us to ponder our existence. 2 - Stan Lee was also a man who could have been a musician but he was not good at music at all.

Legendary Marvel Comics co-creator Stan Lee — famous for giving the world beloved superheroes including Spider-Man, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk — died Monday. According to TMZ, Lee suffered a number of illnesses over the last year, including pneumonia. His daughter J.C. told the site, “My father loved all of his fans. Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber to Romanian-born Jewish immigrants in New York City, spending much of his early life in Washington Heights. He returned to Timely Comics in 1945 and married wife Joan two years later. In 1950, Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman tasked Lee with creating a new superhero team to rival DC Comics’ Justice League. “Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them — to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning hater — one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. If his hang-up is black men, he hates ALL black men. If a redhead once offended him, he hates ALL redheads. If some foreigner beat him to a job, he’s down on ALL foreigners. Stan Lee, the comic book mastermind who changed the landscape of the superhero genre, has died at age 95. Lee revolutionized the comic world by creating Marvel Comics superheroes such as Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk. An attorney for Lee's daughter, J.C. Lee, said the creative dynamo who revolutionized the comic world by introducing human frailties in superheroes such as Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk, was declared dead Monday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. In a statement to Fox News Shane Duffy, CEO of Stan Lee’s POW! I think everybody loves things that are bigger than life. I think of them as fairy tales for grown-ups," he told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview. "We all grew up with giants and ogres and witches. Well, you get a little bit older and you're too old to read fairy tales.

How long would this superhero movie thing last? He didn’t know. He was glad to be along for the ride. Happy to see the old characters he helped create being brought to life onscreen. We began talking about the origin of Spider-Man, born in 1962 after a string of other successes had made Stan Lee a powerhouse scribe at Marvel Comics. He had started working there when he was 17. Back then, Marvel Comics was known as Timely Comics, and he was known as Stanley Lieber, son of Jewish Romanian immigrants from the Bronx. His dream was to become a writer. But before any of that could happen, he earned cash by working a series of small jobs. As a theater usher, his first claim to fame was tripping and falling while showing Eleanor Roosevelt to her seat. “Are you all right, young man? Remember, this was six years before Iron Man and the launch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The films were not yet interconnected, not that there were many to string together. Stan Lee cameos were not yet a phenomenon. He had played a beachside hotdog vendor in the X-Men film. That was it. (“You missed me?” he teased. “I was like the lead of the movie! ] idea was, I was selling sunglasses in Times Square and I was talking to this little girl, showing her a pair of glasses as Peter Parker walks by,” Lee recounted in his gruff, nasally voice. Think about the incredible characters that derived from the mind of this man. Iron Man, the X-Men, Thor, Daredevil and Dr. Strange. These are characters everyone knows and loves. Look at this list of Stan Lee's creations and think about which ones have gone onto success in other media as well as had very successful runs in comics. Every single one of them almost. Granted, a lot of that success is due to the efforts and contributions of those writers and artists who developed the characters through the years. But Stan Lee's fingerprint is on each and every one of them and will always be seen and felt. Can you name one single creator in comics that has contributed as much in terms of longevity, creativity and uniqueness? You can't because there are none. There are plenty of creators that have made great contributions and have written or drawn amazing characters and stories. But none can say they changed the face of the industry quite like Stan Lee can. No matter what happens from this day forward; no matter what superstar creators land at the Big Two. Stan Lee, Marvel Comics' own living legend, stands head and shoulders above the rest. LOS ANGELES (AP) — Stan Lee, the creative dynamo who revolutionized the comic book and helped make billions for Hollywood by introducing human frailties in Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Incredible Hulk, died Monday. Lee was declared dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to Kirk Schenck, an attorney for Lee’s daughter, J.C. As the top writer at Marvel Comics and later as its publisher, Lee was widely considered the architect of the contemporary comic book. He revived the industry in the 1960s by offering the costumes and action craved by younger readers while insisting on sophisticated plots, college-level dialogue, satire, science fiction, even philosophy.

1 note · View note

waftr · 6 years ago

Link

Being in financial crunch situations is not new to many. If you too are one who gets into financial complications in life, I recommend you to give a try on these websites to make money online. There are numerous ways with the help of websites to make money online. If you are looking for a constant stream of additional income into your life, you must check out the 10 options that I have listed down.

Here is the list of top 10 websites to make money online.

1. Fiverr

Fiverr is a platform where anyone and everyone with skills can do freelancing work. As the name suggests that every task gets paid $5, it is not the same anymore. A freelancer now can charge up to $750 for a task done on the website. All you have to do is create your FREE account, create a gig that pertains to how you can help others. No matter what your skills are – whether it is in writing, digital marketing, graphics design, website development or anything else, all you need to do is list yourself. Since, millions of individuals and companies who seek some or the other job to be done, you are almost assured of getting projects on a daily basis. The best part is you can have as many gigs as you want based on how many skills you possess. Fiverr is definitely my top website to make money online.

2. Freelancer

Freelancer.com is a marketplace filled with individuals and companies who like to work on client’s requirements. Although it is same as Fiverr, it is different in the way you get your project based on your skills – In Freelancer, a client posts his job on a feed along with all information related to the project, including the budget he has for the project. Freelancers who are interested in taking up the listed project must bid on it. The client will individually connect with ones who he feels the best and allocates the project to him. In my experience, Freelancer can be too taxing for beginners, however, if you are ready to bid at lower compared to others, higher are the changes you will make some really good money from Freelancer.

3. Etsy

Are you a good craftsman? Do you have a special talent in craft forms that you can showcase to your prospective customers? If yes, Etsy is the place where you can sell your stuff online. From handmade jewelry, shoes, paintings, toys, collectibles, carpentry work, wall decors, clothing etc you can sell everything here on Etsy. For artistic folks, Etsy is the website to make money online over the internet.

4. ShareASale

ShareASale was founded back in the year 2000 and it is one of the most trusted and reputed affiliate marketing network available out there.With 17 years of experience, they have been trusted by over 4200 merchants to sell their products on affiliate marketing basis including well-known, medium and small merchants. Register with ShareASale, get access to thousands of products that they have listed for marketers just like you. Put up a website and start writing about these products with affiliate links embedded contextually. When someone clicks on the link and makes a purchase you get a commission. Some commissions can be as high as $200 per sale made from your link. If you are good at blogging ShareASale is the place you want to register with.

5. Mturk

So, what is MTurk all about? MTurk is the short form for Amazon Mechanical Turk. MTurk platform lists various Human Intelligence Tasks or HITs in short, which can be picked by workers to choose micro-level jobs, complete them and submit. For each submission, workers are paid.

“Amazon Mechanical Turk was conceptualized based on the premise that there are a variety of tasks that machine intelligence cannot perform and human interference is required to perform them efficiently. Tasks such as secondary research data mining, identifying objects in an image, transcribing video and audio files etc require human intrusion.

The best part is to complete these micro-level jobs one need not possess special skills and anyone who is computer literate can accomplish these jobs. If you looking for part-time job opportunities to make some dough on your side, register with MTurk today.

Each of these micro-level tasks varies in the amount of time required to finish and submit and so does the payment for each.

6. TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit is primarily very local in nature. This means to say that you select locally available freelancing jobs in your neighborhood. Some of the categories of jobs that you can get on TaskRabbit include – Moving and Packing, Furniture assembly, Gardening, Home Improvement, Installations and Mounting work, electrical works, plumbing works etc. All you have to do on the website is a search for the jobs near you. If you think you can take jobs listed for you, approach them to start working. If you really have a lot of spare time, especially during the day, earning up to $2,500 per month is very much within reach.

7. CafePress

Are you good at designing? Do you have good hands-on knowledge of image editors? Here is an opportunity to make some extra buck on your side.

CafePress is that opportunity, where you can submit logos and designs that can be printed on CafePress’ products. CafePress basically is an eCommerce platform that specializes in selling mugs, t-shirts, wall arts, stationeries, bags, clothing etc.

If your designs are accepted to be placed on CafePress’ products, you become eligible for royalties against each product sold.

So, how to join CafePress? There are no registration fees to join CafePress. All you need do on the platform is to register, create your own store and portray your designs. Pick from the array of product lines that you want your logos or designs to be placed.

If the combination of the products and your design gets sold, you earn a percentage of the selling price as a royalty. Fair enough?

8. ThredUp

ThredUp is an online Thrift and Consignment store where you can sell your old clothes. Based on how good they are, you can earn equivalent money on your side. Next time before you opt for a yard sale, hold on! Reach out to ThredUp before you do anything that might fetch you less money.

9. UserTesting

To start working on User testing, all you need is an internet connection and a microphone. On this platform, all you have to do is test websites and applications. Voice record each testing scenario along with the video played on your computer and earn. One can expect to be paid up to $10-$20 for a single testing activity for up to 20 minutes. Whenever there are testing jobs available you are notified by UserTesting.

10. Gazelle

If you are in need of money urgently, Gazelle is the platform you should log into. Here on this website, you can make money by selling your old mobile phones and other gadgets. Once you have uploaded all required information about the mobile phone, you will be offered a value to the device. Once you accept the offer, you will be sent with packaging materials for you to ship Gazelle the cellphone. Not to worry, Gazelle covers the shipping costs. Once they have received the gadget you can opt for the payment mode to receive the payment. Yes, this is not an income stream that can fetch you money week on week, but surely is a way to pay your rental bills for the month.

Life can sometimes get itchy financially. Since there are no legal shortcuts to make money, it is best to be focussed and work harder. An additional stream of money can work wonders in your life. For this exact reason, we have compiled the list of websites to make money online, just for you.

The post Money Making Websites | 10 Websites to make money online appeared first on Waftr.com.

#Websites #Make money online

1 note · View note