#I watched a video about how makeup can be used to give insight to character

[hoverboards-and-dragons]

I do believe that Lilith is Good

But

she still has Master manipulator Gothic Queen of Night vibes, she's playing 4D chess but no one else will get on her level and its really getting to her

She tried for human solidarity back in Eden 'if we play our cards right we can uncover Heaven's Ultimate secret plan' and was met with a resounding "uh Why?" "Have you tried asking them?" from Adam and Eve

She really wants to find pride in her kin but they make it so difficult

[202213850dci2022]

Blog review on Euripide’s Medea

I am a student of the University of Hull blogging as part of my assessment for the module Drama, Conflict and Identity. All views expressed here are my own and do not represent the university.  

I used The Complete Greek Tragedies (Oct.1970) Translated by Rex Warner when writing this essay. 

I’m writing my blog on the Ancient Greek drama Medea, written by Euripide’s around 431 BCE. This tragedy play would have been written for the early spring season festival Great Dionysia where, Greek playwrights would compete and preform 3 tragedies, 1 satyr and 5 comedies. All dedicated to the Greek God Dionysus, God of wine, madness, pleasure and fertility. Theatre, for the Greeks, was a key an important part of their culture and religion.  

The play Medea shows the cathartic story of a betrayed wife, who plots her revenge against her unfaithful husband Jason, by killing their two sons, his new wife and father-in-law. Ending with Jason losing everything and Medea flying away in a dragon pulled golden chariot. The peripetia of Medea’s escape and Jason’s downfall is here depicted carved into the marble of a roman coffin. 

(Ilya Shurygin (2012) Coffin in Roman national museum.) 

The staging of an Ancient Grecian theatres was quite different to modern stages and theatre halls. With no use of modern technology such as microphones and lighting, Greeks had to create structures and methods which allowed the audience to hear and see. 

Actors would use big masks which clear and expressive faces so watchers in the back could easily determine who was who. This was a smart way of not only practically allowing people to see who was on stage from the long distance, but also shows the personality of the characters and mood of the play and scenes. The masks and outfits could be used to show gender, age and social standing. Specifically in Medea, although we know little about the original and first performance, we can expect that the servants had drab or tattered outfits, old characters such as the boys tutor or the king may have had pronounced beards. Needless to say, the constantly mourning Medea could possibly have had an extremely dramatic crying mask to show her despair and mentality. The stage would have also been designed specifically for sound waves to travel all the way to the back of the theatron. The seats were layered almost like steps so the voices and chorus from the stage at the bottom of the hill would carry. 

(Giovanni Dall’Orto. Greek Theatre mask Stoà of Attalus Museum) 

As we don’t know much about the first performance, modern adaptations are an interesting insight to Euripides old tale. To help me understand and gives another viewpoint I watched Robinson Jeffer’s 1959 play of Medea starring the talented Judith Anderson. Her grieving wail of Medea echoed throughout the late 20th century theatre scene. Specifically in the opening scene (From the video below 00:00 – 16:00) the use of Anderson’s voice and movement somewhat mirrors the eccentric movements of Greek theatre to extenuate emotions for far away onlookers. The use of frantically pacing and draping herself over a pillar shows her unstable and lamenting state, as well as her outfit that is loosely hanging off her and plain to show how she is unable to do anything else but weep. Anderson’s makeup also imitates somewhat the ancient Greeks expressive masks using wide eyes and strong makeup to harshen her tormented face. Unlike the original ancient Greek theatre Jeffers uses Greek archelogy of a large house to show, not only the status of Medea further dramatizing her immanent fall by being banished, but also immerses the watcher by having a realistic and interactable setting. With the use of stage, costume design and the adaptation Jeffers has made a stunning interpretation of Euripides Medea, and Anderson provided a spectacular performance fitting for the tragedy and misery of Medea herself. 

(Robinson Jeffer. (1959) Medea, Act 1 Time stamp- 00:00-16:00)  

This scene, in particular lines 215-267(Warner.R translation) (Time stamp 11:20-14:44) - in Act 1 opens the story and shows us Medea’s character and the conflict she is having. Ancient Greeks culture was very male heavy, the women were expected to be subservient and commit to their role in the household. There were few tales based on females that show men in a bad light, so when Euripides chose to victimize Medea, and show her side of the story while providing insight so some very feminist topics he shone a whole new light on gender identity and the strength of womankind in Ancient Greece.  

We see a change in Medea’s identity during this monologue, first she is seen as helpless and sobbing. She is weak and love mad wallowing in her misery starting the speech with “We women are the most unfortunate creatures” (line231). She continues lamenting over the misfortune of women, who must deliver children all while watching their husbands be unfaithful. Medea also shows the loneliness of her identity, that she is “deserted” and a “refugee” (line 255) this alienation and isolation to the whole of Corinth adding another layer of misfortunate to her conflict with Jason and Creon. Who will soon banish her, making her an exile from not only her home country Colchis but Corinth as well. All her conflicts and troubles are expressed however towards the end, we witness some slight foreshadowing as her demeanour changes from sadness to anger. In the 1959 play Judith Anderson begins shouting and almost growling when imagining Jacob kissing his new bride. In the Euripides texts Medea leaves the monologue with the ominous threat “no other soul can hold so many thoughts of blood” (line266) than a woman who has been betrayed in love. This is the turning point for Medea’s character and hints to her revenge plot which will result in the death of her sons, Creon and the young princess, Glauce. Her violent spree came from cunning knowledge and a need for revenge, that audiences in any other context would deem the villain of the story. However, you can't help but feel somewhat sympathetic with the misfortunes of Medea in this cathartic tragedy.  

Medea’s identity is heavily affected by her motherhood, her relationship with Jason and her gender. She is almost the exact opposite of the ideal Ancient Greek woman; she murders her two sons which seems monstrous especially since she is their mother. Being such a big part of her story and identity, most art forms dedicated to Medea depict her with her dead children.  

(Hernandes Amores. (1887) Medea, with dead children, flees from Corinth in a chariot pulled by dragons)

(Photographed by Francois TR. Medea’s monument in Georgia)

(Cleveland, Museum of Art. (1991) Medea on the chariot, the Nurse in despair and the Pedagogue beside the bodies of her children)

 Euripides and Jeffers 1959 adaptation show a troubled but cunning Medea who gets her revenge in a twist of fate which gives uncommon justice to the women of Ancient Greece. The Ancient Greeks use of staging and costume design would have created a dramatic flair that I only wish I could see in the modern day. Judith Anderson’s performance and Jose Quintero’s staging in Robinson Jeffers Medea (1959) was also excellent and really communicated the pain and drama of the characters.  

[niamhsperformancelab]

week 2~ performance lab

Over the weekend we set the task of creating a character for our performance/narrative. Before drawing anything up, I decided to research creatures and villains within Irish mythology to give me a base to create a villain character that links with the overall idea that we have decided on for our narrative. I found three main creatures that had the most potential to fit aesthetically into our project These are the Pooka, Famorians and the Sluagh. Upon looking further into each of these creatures, I decided the story behind the Sluagh would fit the most into the environment that we wanted to create. I then took elements from videos I watched on creating good character designs such as thinking about shapes (how they link to the characters personality, I selected curved shapes that ended in points to demonstrate femininity alongside a sharp end that would hint at the character's villain undertones), flow (simplify the design and have a focal point, I didn't want the dress to be overcomplicated with too many colours or textures), and threes (having three features/ items to draw attention to; I picked to have the wings, dress and makeup as the three in my design).I have picked up from research on character design to create what I think is a good first draft. (see below). This first draft was created digitally on an app called Procreate using an iPad and Apple Pencil. I also used inspiration from the mood board created last week.

Over the weekend, I also looked into Celtic knots as I thought they could be placed into the visuals of our performance, whether it was the set, lighting or character design. Specifically I think the shield knot (known for protection from spirits and opposing armies) and the trinity knot (known for the holy trinity and the christian church) would be most suited to the narrative of our project.

(Tuesday)

Firstly, Lara gave a presentation on visualising narratives. All of the examples given were new to me and I found them all very intriguing and different to anything I had seen before. The Triadic Ballet by Oscar Schlemmer was especially interesting to me as for a performance that was made In 1922, it seemed very modern in terms of design. After the session, I looked further into this ballet and found a video of the 1970s performance. The combination of music, costume and movement is just magnificent. Previously I had worried that the costumes would be awkward and restrictive from the image that Lara had included in her presentation however this was not the case as each character within the ballet was so personable and so distinctively Bauhaus, it created a beautiful piece of art that I felt was almost comedic.

Einstein on the beach had a similar feel to the triadic ballet. Both had emphasis on repetitive movements that were used to represent either the music or narrative. While there were some similarities, I didn't enjoy EoTB nearly as much as the Triadic Ballet. I think the performance choreography almost tried to hard to be "deep" or abstract. I feel as though the slower pacing of the performance was more difficult to stay engaged with also even though there were many things going on at the same time, I couldn't help feeling slightly bored by it. as it was based surrounding the idea of an actual person, different to the triadic ballet where the narrative was more on about the relationship between the set and music with completely new, never seen before ideas, the narrative was almost lost because as an audience member, I was more focused on how it related to Einstein and his life.

Es Devlin's explanation of her creative process was incredibly insightful and inspiring. Her way of creating so many iterative outcomes really reminded me of my A-level product design course but gave more ideas for once the design ideas had been narrowed down. Branching so many slightly different iterations from a singular idea really showed how small tweaks can make a difference to an outcome. Seeing her take those prototypes and turn them into a final piece backed up the idea of how circular the design process of anything is, no matter what stage you are at.

After our lecture, we were then off to our groups to continue working on our project. As our task for over the weekend was to create first drafts of our characters, we started off by presenting our work to the rest of the group, talking about why we had made certain design choices. This was a great task to complete in our own styles, away from each other as it meant each design was completely different from one another and could inspire each other when developing our ideas even further. We had Amie join our group so spent a small amount of time catching her up with what progress we had already made and what we had in mind for the next steps in our project. This lead to us honing in on a set narrative. Having designed our characters already was useful to create a plot and was more like connecting the dots between the characters. As we had already researched basic narrative structures, we could amalgamate the two together with little to no struggle. We also had to take into account the fact that our performance would only last 10 minutes so we would have to adjust the structure of the storyline to ensure it was engaging and satisfying. Our original idea for the plot was to have the characters of Amie, Hemza, Liz and Zoe to be in a church/ cathedral as a party (like dungeons and dragons games are regularly laid out). One of the characters would be injured, from a recent, previous battle. Zoe's character of the fairy would then leave all of the windows open (most emphasis on the west windows). It is unclear as of yet the reasoning behind her opening the windows, it is a very important plot point as this is what allows the sluagh villain entry into the cathedral. Next, we had two ideas for how the performance would end. Someone could be picked from the party to be sacrificed or one could have the ultimatum of having to pick between their powers or the deity they worship (this also links back to Zoe's dice and dungeons and dragons as the way some characters have super powers are because they worship a deity/ god).

Now that we knew what the narrative would be (settling on the sacrifice instead of the power vs god ending), we gave each member of the group a task to complete by Friday. Hemza would create all of our characters in a 3D AI style that would allow us to visualise them in greater detail. The rest of us would then focus on story boards to convey different elements of our performance. Zoe would do the story board containing the plot, I would do one based on sound, Liz would do one based on Lighting and Ashe would do one based on the set. Amie's task was to catch up with us and complete her own character design so that we would be able to include her object into the narrative. Because we knew we wouldn't have much time to complete this project, we were going to have to do most of the making/ researching outside of our Tuesday and Friday sessions in order to take advantage of the time we had together as a group, being able to discuss, explore different ideas and make important decisions together as a team.

The afternoon section to our day consisted of our first workshop with John Trevor. It was based mostly on collaboration and how to do this in a team setting. One of the points I took from the session was John's emphasis of not trying to be unique or think outside of the box. As an artist I find that this is something that we strive for, to create something different and innovative as if you just create something that Is the same as something else, there is no use for it. Whereas his view was that to collaborate affectively then you should go for the obvious which would make the team function a lot more smoothly.

(wednesday)

John returned on the Wednesday to give us a workshop that was still improv based but was directed more towards skills that could be used in a presentation. I found the day to be extremely useful as we were given different activities that made us aware of how we hold ourselves in front of an audience and how to think on our feet. We worked in a small group of 4 as that was how many people showed up to the session. It was definitely out of my comfort zone and I did feel slightly overwhelmed at certain points (specifically when doing the task where we were to narrate a fairytale and found it difficult to deliver a specific line in a sad way) John pushed me to try again and again in order to improve and as when you present to an audience you are putting yourself out there to be critiqued. When the session had finished, we had a group discussion with John about what we thought/ found useful from the day. As a group the one thing we all agreed on was the "colour, emotion, advance" tactic was extremely useful in order to engage the audience in whatever narrative we were using as a base. I feel as though this would be a great tool to use when creating the script for our performance.

(friday)

Our reading for the week was one extract about audience, and another about space. Again, there were very few that had read the text so the discussion wasn't in great depth but the main points that I had taken from extract about audience and spectator was that a performance is determined by its audience and how they interpret it. Some are aimed at a certain demographic however most theatre pieces want the widest audience possible.

The Friday session for my group was on the quieter side as everyone was either late or absent. Hemza went through the method he used to create his versions of each of our characters. This was using an AI generator called Art Breeder.

After our group tutorial and brief presentation to the class, it was evident that having 5/6 separate mannequins (one for each character) would be impractical and too time consuming based on our strict timescale so we had reduced this back to two separate ones. One would be a combined mannequin of Zoe, Hemza, Liz and Amie's characters and the other would be a stand alone of my character. We decided on dividing it this way as after looking into audience placement on the blueprint of the studio, we wanted to have the combined mannequin within the black space and the villain mannequin outside of the space. An issue that had been raised about this would be how to use the lighting design on the mannequin outside of the black space. Light projection would be less visible as there is a lot of natural lighting in our studio. This will require experimentation and research of different light methods to see with is the most suitable for our needs. So far we have thought of regular overhead lighting that is attached to the black box's frame, use of mini projectors for spotlights and projection mapping.

As I had the sound story board, I took samples of each of our objects to import into GarageBand and started to experiment with the midi keyboard to create a soundtrack for our performance. This would be mostly to create atmosphere and build an immersive experience.

[cw-s12]

Weekly Wrap Up

Part 4

Even before this week starting I’m so excited for this week out of everything. I ended up spending 10 years of my life so far learning about the media industry as a whole and narrowing that down to film and television it feels crazy to me, considering I always kind of thought I’d end up as a teacher. I could not wait for this week so I'm glad I enjoyed it as much as I did otherwise I'd be regretting all my life choices so far.

Monday

Today we spent the whole day with the BBC talking to investigative journalists and producers that work there. We each needed to come prepared with an idea that could be turned into a story. I choose the issue of Type 1 Diabetes cases being linked to COVID as an autoimmune disease it can be triggered by such infections. My sister was actually diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 27 about 4 years ago, which in itself is strange as most people will get Type 1 when they are children. She was hospitalised after going into a Diabetic Ketoacidosis Coma after getting a cold that triggered the autoimmune disease, which was shocking for us considering our family don’t have any history of diabetes. I thought this was a really interesting topic to look into because a scenario like this can increase the likelihood of more people getting diabetes as the diagnosis cases almost doubled at the peak of the epidemic.

We also spoke with Vinnie Shergill, a producer on Strictly Come Dancing, talking through her career and how she got to where she is. Along with this she gave her advice for interviews and made sure to tell us to do our homework on the company before being interviewed.

Tuesday

This was such a good day getting to learn about a lot of job roles within Warner Media and finding out how shows such as Repair Shop and Glow Up are actually filmed. Today and yesterday did cement my love of television production and I think although film will always be something I love but TV is the area I would rather work in. We started with The Repair Shop getting insights from Sian Bantock, a set producer, and Chandler Hollobone, an AP, camera and sound technician. Getting direct information from 2 people working in an area of TV that I would love to work in was so useful just finding out how they got to where they are now.

We then went on to Food Unwrapped talking with Glenn Swift, a series producer, and Ayaan Ahmed, an AP. They had us break into groups for topics that could be featured on Food Unwrapped, our group was given drinks and we looked at scorpions and snakes in alcohol. Looking into this topic was interesting although very disgusting considering snakes are sometimes put into the bottles alive to drown where in one instance someone was actually bitten by the snake from the bottle.

We then went on to talking with Sophie Doyle and Anna MacCormick, who are both production coordinators. They talked with us through all of the documentation they need to complete and take with them on shoots. I’ve worked with call sheets and schedules before but having a run down on them from these two was a great reminder.

We then moved onto First Dates with Jamie Merrins and Jon Crisp and how they actually cast for the show. We had 3 tasks with them the first was to get 3 ideas for dream characters, dream backstories and dream love/loss stories. Our second task was to get 15 questions that we could ask during the casting process of their dating experiences. Finally we needed to come up with a dream casting for one of their previous cast member Freddie after watching his introduction video.

Our final session we had Leah Caffrey and Zinia Scroggs, producers for Glow Up. They gave us information on how they film the series and how long it roughly takes to film each episode. Our task for them was to come up with a professional assignment for the MUAs and then link it to a creative brief challenge. Our idea for the professional assignment was to have the MUAs completing looks for backing dancers in a music video or for a festival. Our creative brief was to then have them take their favourite music genre, artist or song and create a makeup look to represent that. We also were shown the first few minutes of the new series and needed to create a rough script for the voice over in order to introduce the series.

Wednesday

We had a session with Matty Groves on the Art of Filming in regard to documentary making and each talked about an item that has meaning for us. I really enjoyed this session because I love documentaries and at university instead of writing a dissertation actually made a documentary so going back to that format is always something I love doing. He talked us through the basics of documentary making and our homework from this was to create our own documentary based on an item of importance to us.

Thursday

Today we had UKTV with us having an introduction to their company and what it takes to work in their company. Our main time in this masterclass was spent creating our own TV channel service with help from someone from UKTV. We were teamed with Becca Hollister and came up with a channel for women showing women led or created shows for young and older audience by including I Love Lucy, Bewitched and Golden Girls but also having newer comedies such as Fleabag, Chewing Gum and Miranda. Also being a group of only women we decided that working with an idea based around women worked the best with us because we could relate the most to. We called W.I.T. for the reason of women in comedy do tend to use more witty comedy as a whole and to use the acronym Women In Television so that there was a duel purpose. Our channel was to blend and unify 2 generations and it can grow as women make more comedy as at the moment women write only 16% of comedy so it could encourage a development. We had to pitch our ideas Dragon’s Den style, which was terrifying, but our group won but I loved this idea and I am actually quite sad it doesn’t already exist.

Friday

We spent today with Samantha O’Neill from Sphere London who gave us loads of advice with our job searches and employability tips. She gave us some websites to look at for jobs and told us that before going for interviewing connecting and researching the company does show them you’re being proactive.

The second part of the day we had Yasmin and Lisa from Channel 4 giving us advice into applying for Channel 4 and what they offer as a company. We spent the next part of the session casting for a new series of The Celebrity Circle and picking 2 celebrities that we think would work well on the format.

[itsjesseich]

The True Value of Joker

In the major motion picture of Joker, the main character Arthur Fleck is a struggling mentally ill man just trying to make it in 1970-80's Gotham in New York City. Arthur wears two masks -- the one he paints for his day job as a clown, and the persona he projects in a futile attempt to feel like he's part of the world around him. Isolated, bullied and disregarded by society, Fleck begins a slow descent into madness as he transforms into the criminal mastermind known as the Joker.  Joaquin Phoenix is the main actor in the film and has since gained tremendous recognition for his performance in the Joker also earning him an Oscar. The movie incorporates controversial mental illness, societal problems, development of character, and issues that face people, who are different than you in everyday life. Overall Joker is a film that opens the world's eyes to a new topic that has not necessarily been shown before and illustrates how many different factors may play a role in one’s thoughts and actions. The use of performance, cinematography, and ideas away from the norm develop the true value of Joker.

The opening scene gives you an unsettling tone that only grows throughout the film. Arthur is depicted in front of a mirror partially crying as he finishes painting on his clown makeup while smoking a burning cigarette as the silence of the room is broken by the news playing in the background. Many others are present in the room, but Arthur sits alone at his vanity trying to “keep a happy face” as his mother had always told him. As a blue tear drop of paint flows down his cheek, he hooks both sides of his mouth and forces himself to smile. That continuous uneasy feeling of the movie keeps us hooked “even though Joker and Gotham city is fictional, the theories employed to interpret reality in this setting can be taken as a mirror of the world”.(Sreelakshmi, 2020). The director Todd Phillips aligned the Joker with the stereotype of the mentally ill, socially isolated loner whose disenfranchisement leads him to commit violence.  

A good performance from the actor is crucial, as the most we see from them is their characters interactions and reactions. If those aspects are not believable or don’t feel real enough to the audience then the message is not going to be delivered successfully. ‘Successful’ films need to have impactful deliveries because they all convey the same medium. For your movie to stand out you need to have someone outshine the competition. Many actors are very accredited and well known, so how can you continue to stand out? You must switch up the take and shy away from what’s trending. That is why Joker is so controversial. The message within this movie and how Phoenix delivered it alone adds tremendous value to the film. It is such a different story then what everyone was expecting.  He spent a considerable amount of time doing research himself to better understand and convey his role. By reading the script through a mental trauma lens allowed Phoenix to provide empathy that eventually helped him better understand the life of Arthur Fleck. Joaquin’s drive for understanding every aspect of his performance gives directors options not many films can capture like this which increases the film’s specialty.  

Cinematography is simply the making of motion pictures and Joker’s cinematographer, Lawrence Sher, used complimentary colors, camera movement, and different camera lenses and angles to contribute to a successful film. Color can be very simple to use, but also can be as complicated as you want it to be. The color in films is used to create contrast, depth, separation, and mood. This was achieved with the use of complimentary colors. You can see the juxtaposition with Joker’s green hair and contrasting red suit. Camera movement and camera angles were used to make connections and draw attention to the audience.

The big topic that is surrounding Joker would have to be the director's controversial take on Fleck’s backstory and portrayal of mental illness. Mental illness is not normally the starring spotlight on a big film or show. The film gives a voice to the suppressed and oppressed which is not normal. Many films focus on the hero and how to fix everything but this movie’s focus on the events that lead to spiraling chaos. John Goodwin and Izzat Tajjudin (2020) argue that Joker depicts stigmatizing representations of people with mental ill-health. However, opening our eyes to this type of interaction from a closed space makes you look at the situation differently, which allows you to take a step back and self-reflect on the way you view and treat others. Even though there are negatives about the topic we can turn it into a positive. Pertaining to Fleck’s backstory many people just expected the movie to be way different than what it was. People's general curiosity draws them into the story. The general reaction to the movie was different, unexpected, and darker. The idea of not being what you would expect is what makes it so intriguing.

“You have to make movies aware of your audience but not for your audience” (Sher, 2020).  

I would recommend this movie to anyone that is looking for something different and not so typical of a villain - superhero movie. Although reactions surrounding the film are controversial, keep in mind that everyone is different and holds different opinions and values. It is worth the watch to evaluate your own opinion. I find the movie to be insightful, powerful, captivating, and knowledgeable. After watching the film, it took me a day or two to truly digest and reflect. The film wasn’t meant to have a specific message, but it is meant for you to feel how you wish and think.  

Overall surrounding Joker is a lot of controversy and praise. Aspects of cinematography, Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, and visual representations of mental health unprecedentedly make this film very successful. Expect the unexpected and get comfortable with the uncomfortable. How does the movie make you feel?

References:

American Cinematographer. (2019, December 19). The making of Joker with cinematographer Lawernce Sher, ASC. [Video]. Youtube

Goodwin, J.,& Tajjudin, I (2016). “What do you think I am? Crazy?”: the Joker and stigmatizing representations of mental ill-health. Journal of Popular Culture. 49(2) 385-402.

Sreelakshmi, M.(2020). Reclamation of history: a tryst with subaltern studies, marxist criticism and chaos theory in the movie Joker. Our Heritage. 68(1). 9083-9091.

[wtfzodiacsigns]

The Signs as People I've Come To Know

Note that everyone described was born under the sign they are listed next to.

Aries: He doesn't really know fear, but when he does it's intense fear. More than anything, he is a daredevil, going from place to place and from person to person quickly and dangerously. He tells jokes until they're soiled and sour and you just wanna tell him to shut up, but you know you aren't going to because his stupid jokes that often make no sense and aren't even funny are all a part of what makes him who he is, so you can't help but laugh, and at the end of the day that's a person you find yourself always coming back for. A person you just genuinely want to be around for a long time. He can be air headed, but he protects ferociously and is endearingly kind to strangers. Inside, he never quite lost his childlike nature, something I hope he can one day embrace. I also hope he can one day understand, he is not his mistakes.

Taurus: She has a lot to say that she keeps inside, but whenever she does speak it is always soulful and insightful beyond description. It's so easy for her to get lost in her own mind, and though she doesn't care to admit it, it happens a lot that she shuts down and isolates herself. But everything is honestly better when she's around. Sometimes it's hard to convince her of that, but she has an inner and outer beauty that glows on everyone she meets. She doesn't realize other people take notice of her radiance. When she retreats, it's not uncommon for her to be quiet and not really know how to explain why she's feeling the way she is, and yet she approaches things with such an extreme level of insight and consideration. She makes everyone around her proud. Introverted as she may be, she pampers all her friends, even when they may not deserve it, and she's more brave and outspoken than I think she understands. She is one of the people who genuinely makes me happy.

Gemini: She is curious about almost anything and everything, and invests fully into things that interest her. It's actually beyond pleasant to watch her work out a task she loves working on, or talk about anything she loves in general, because her eyes light up and she has this smile on her face and you can just tell in that moment she loves being heard and she loves sharing what she's come to find wonderful with someone. I wouldn't call her quiet, at times she is, but I would first use the adjective "thoughtful" to describe her, as her mind is constantly generating new ideas. She processes and remembers information quickly and speaks about her feelings almost fluently. More than anything, I hope she knows I am always there for her. I hope she knows how much people love her. She is so kind, and a delight to be around.

Cancer: She has been through a lot. She used to walk through life with a heavy heart, but she is trying to learn how to remove the crutches and take everything as it comes. Very driven by her emotions, she experiences drastically different periods of highs and lows, but never lets anyone go to bed without knowing how much she loves them and cares about them. She has certainly been done wrong by the world, and this has led her to experience frequent trust issues and to on occasion become suspicious about other people's motives. However, this doesn't stop her from giving her all to those she loves, even if at times they may not completely deserve her help or her advice. She often settles for less than what she deserves, but I hope that she can eventually come to understand she need not settle and need not cater to people who do her wrong. She should look out for herself too, it's something she owes herself.

Leo: Though I haven't known her for very long, it's clear how influential she is and how in tune she is to other people's feelings. She seems very open to the world around her, and has no problem expressing herself without fear of what other people may think. She always does her makeup almost flawlessly, and you can tell she dresses for herself and no one else, and only worries about impressing one person, her. She is extremely loyal to those she cares about, and often talks about them as if they are wonders of the world. Even if you haven't spoken to her before, you will want to, because she gives off extremely positive and warm vibes, and publicly stands for everything and everyone she happens to believe in. She has a big personality, but a beautiful one at that, she is a true individual, and is one of the only other Leo's I've come to know, as well as one I hope to know better soon.

Virgo: She is wise beyond her years. She often works harder than most adults I've seen, although she is young in age. She always wants to make sure she has a say, but it's just as important to her that other people do, too. Other people don't always treat her as nicely as she deserves to be treated, and it's because they think they don't understand her, but in reality, they wish they had the heart and bravery that she does. She has accomplished and been through so much in such a short period of time, and she never let it taint all the love in her heart. She can be a bit anxious and scared, waking up at night after a nightmare or worrying she has not done her best, but she always gives her all, and I strongly believe there is nothing she cannot surmount or accomplish. Always willing, always eager to help. I wish I had her strength. I wish I had the beauty of her soul. I hope she someday sees how magnificent she is.

Libra: He is a character, he has always been a character dating back from the first day that we met. Everything he does and everything he says is with good intent and magnifies his already vibrant personality. Overall, he is a people's person, friends with everyone who is kind and attentive toward him. And he plans to keep it that way. He always tries to see the best in everyone. Although sometimes he cannot continue this and experiences outbursts of anger, they are usually temporary and he can move on from situations quickly. He is a marvelous friend. Creative, funny, often indirect, but always there in some form. Half the things that Come out of his mouth are jokes, but when he speaks and he's being serious, all you can hear is his heart speaking too. He's great to have around.

Scorpio: He says that he has a twisted mind, but really he's just into a lot of horror movies and has extreme reactions to otherwise small situations. I couldn't see him harming a fly, unless the fly went and did something to really piss him off. He can be a little self centered, but he is also self sufficient and just wants to make sure he himself is okay. When he starts something, it'll get done before he moves onto the next thing, and he's not really one to leave anyone with unanswered questions as he's pretty intense and direct. He's great to talk to because no silence is ever awkward, some of those silences are necessary and he knows it. He won't let things stay quiet for too long, either. One of my favorite things about him is once you've been a part of his life, he'll never forget about you. Even if you're miles and miles away.

Sagittarius: He gets extremely excited about small things, like going on a trip or hanging out with his friends and playing video games. He knows no part of life is insignificant, and that everything we go through either means something or leads to something else, but he also knows when to let go and stop worrying about things that are out of his control. Overall, he loves to have fun. He loves to laugh with his friends and share what makes him happy. When people disagree with him, he can become rather snippy, and might even resort to telling them they are flat out "wrong." He doesn't realize he's being rude, but often it just doesn't come out the way he would like because he speaks exceedingly freely. That's what he is, a free spirit. He makes decisions for himself and is not afraid of his opinions. He will share them willingly with anyone who asks and takes great pride in being who he is and leading the adventure called his life.

Capricorn: She is aware of who she is, what her limits are, and what her intentions are as well. Though sometimes she surprises others by acting the way one wouldn't have expected, she is consistently trying to take responsibility for things she know she's done wrong and does not like it when people refuse to acknowledge it when she has been acting like a fool. She holds herself accountable for many things, even when they are not exactly her fault, and she refuses to be kept in the dark for too long. When people don't like her, she wants an explanation, because she always tries to do her best and be the best version of herself she can become. It hurts her to consider that she is not doing well with that. She wants stability and security, she wants to be able to feel safe in situations, and that's all a part of what she fights for. Overall, life is a fight she does not want to lose. And one she will not allow herself to.

Aquarius: She is one of the most artistic people I've had the privilege of meeting, and decorates everywhere she goes and everything she creates with her glowingly positive vibes. She cares deeply about her friends, and however quiet she has a brilliant way of words, and is a phenomenal person to have a late night (or any time of day really) conversation with. She understands life on a deep level that not a lot of people do. Although she may not always feel comfortable completely showing her emotions, she is not afraid to be in touch with them and always knows how to nicely phrase them. I'm grateful that when I ask her what's wrong, she doesn't lie to me and she trusts me enough to talk to me about it. I know it's not always the type of thing that's easy for her. She is artistically talented in every aspect, and aims to perfect her performance in all she does. But honestly, the way she adds her own flair to all she accomplishes and makes it so original is an amazing thing to witness in itself.

Pisces: He doesn't understand the impact he can have on others. It is not uncommon for him to get so lost in his thoughts he forgets about the rest of the world, but he seemingly always finds his way back. Whenever he drifts, he will usually talk about it at one point or another, and he always has all these philosophical things to say that never cease to amaze me. His speech is always sweet and fluid, and he always sees things, both their interior and their exterior. Even though sometimes he asks silly questions, he's highly perceptive and caring. He loves having a good time, but he loves talking about life and all it entails as well, and he knows that both those things can overlap. He's one of the greatest friends I think I will ever know, and he always tries to be, even if at times he can't. I wish he came out everyday.

Source:avenge-my-ghost

[bombshellsandbluebells]

6x04 Thoughts

The Good: 

One of the reasons I’ve been annoyed with Jordan’s romance this season, even though it makes character for them to both rush things, is that I felt like it was being used as a cheap, lazy way to make us invested in him, rather than actually developing him as a character on his own. I really did enjoy hearing him talk about his parents at the beginning of the episode - not only was it a real moment of emotion on his part and a look into his head and feelings, but it’s interesting to hear more about his dynamic with Harper and Monty. And it’s just nice to bring them up once in awhile again.

Raven’s talk with Clarke was exactly what I’ve wanted someone to say to Clarke. The problem isn’t with her not apologizing - Clarke has no problem saying the words, “I’m sorry.” But when she goes around and makes the same decisions over and over again, it makes every apology pointless and it proves she hasn’t actually regretted the actions she made that others were hurt and upset by. This was also another moment of actual emotion and character/relationship building (whether they’ll act on it with Clarke is another story) - and it actually landed for me a LOT better than the snarky comments of the first two episodes. This had actual hurt behind it. And it isn’t just a recap of past events; Raven actually stated in words the reason why people keep getting mad at Clarke and why Raven feels like she can’t trust her. It was more about emotions than a bullet point list of things Clarke has done to them.

Echo’s backstory scene at the end and the Becho makeup scene was probably my favorite scene in the whole show. For one thing, the filmmaking probably worked the best during this scene, so that’s an instant few points from me. It was nice to dig into Echo’s backstory, it felt like something true to the character, it was a scene based in emotion, and it actually gave Bob and Tasya the room to act. This is probably the MOST convincing scene on an emotional level of the entire season so far, if that makes sense. I also love that they didn’t try to suggest that Bellamy and Echo had never talked about their pasts before (they’ve known each other 6 years now) - but that Echo had kept that story secret because she didn’t want to revisit it.

It was also great insight into how Echo processes emotions (though certainly nothing unexpected) and it’s a relief to hear SOMEONE talk about mourning Monty and Harper and how their loss affects them. Plus it showed just how supportive they are of each other and how much they love each other, and that forehead kiss was SO SWEET.

Jordan covering Madi’s ears to protect her from hearing Raven allude to sex was absolutely adorable.

The Bad:

There’s....a lot. First off, there’s just too much happening this season. I forget clearly important plot points until I’m reminded of them because there’s too much to focus on (shiedheda who?). The pacing of every episode is off because we’re trying to run through too much plot. This episode might have had a few good moments for some characters, but other characters we care about get shoved to the side because there’s STILL SO MUCH PLOT TO MOVE THROUGH, as well as NEW CHARACTERS every single episode. (We’re moving at a rate of like, three new characters an episode at this point.)

@blodreina-noumou already wrote a great meta covering The Bellarke Problem and how badly the writers have fumbled their dynamic so I won’t dive too much into it. Not a single interaction between them this season has been believable to me, and I can’t buy Clarke telling Bellamy he’s important to her or Bellamy hugging her like a dear friend when really nothing has been shown to me to make me believe it.

The acting and dialogue are both very stilted and fake - and not just of new characters, but of actors I know are better than this. I have to believe that clunky dialogue is causing a lot of the problem and probably some bad directing too. And maybe some of them are just phoning it in, who knows. I’ve mentioned before (and so have others) that the dialogue is so bad this season because it’s just so on the nose. People aren’t really talking like real people, they’re talking like characters that need to give exposition or advance the plot. I’m getting the feeling this - and the general lack of subtly and subtext - might be the result of TOO MUCH PLOT, because they feel like they need to tell you exposition/plot points directly so you can follow along with their breakneck pace.

The Becho fight makes absolutely zero sense. It COULD have made sense, except for the fact that the writers completely glossed over the impact of Monty and Harper’s deaths at ALL. Aside from one short scene of Raven being upset - that really just led to a Zaven sex scene - NO MEMBER OF SPACEKRU has been shown mourning or emotional about their deaths at all. I can buy that Echo would bottle up her emotions and not show them, but it feels like Bellamy’s critique of that comes from nowhere and is hypocritical when no one has been particularly upset about Monty and Harper. Hell, even BELLAMY hasn’t shown much emotions around.

It really feels like Monty and Harper’s deaths aren’t relevant to their family unless it’s plot relevant - we don’t need to see how Spacekru handles their loss, but as soon as it offers up an easy way to make Becho fight, then it’s time to talk about Monty and Harper again. I think the fight works in theory, but it doesn’t work in the context of three episodes showing us NO ONE getting emotional about Monty and Harper. I do like the backstory, but there was a way to bring it in that didn’t involve a fight that breaks out for hard to buy reasons.

The Ugly:

This is my moment to be a nitpicky filmmaker. It was just rough. Bad shots, bad editing - all likely the result of bad directing, even though this director has done better on this show before. I won’t get into specifics - okay, one: WHY ARE YOU SCARED OF USING TRIPODS THE HANDHELD CAM ISN’T WORKING - but it was just...very frustrating for me. Again, I’m overly critical of this kind of stuff.

The tavern scene, which I think had the opportunity to do some intersting worldbuilding - is one of my least favorite scenes on this show to date. I just kind of felt like I was watching a cheesy, overacted video game cutscene. No one really moved or acted naturally, the dialogue was unnatural and clearly meant to spell out exposition, and the music FELT LIKE TERRIBLE VIDEO GAME MUSIC.

So on the one hand, I suppose this solved last week’s problem of All Plot, No Emotions/Character - but it still overall suffers from having too much plot to get through and it still maintains it’s problem with writing dialogue. This season lacks subtly and subtext and seems determined to just tell us everything directly to make sure we don’t miss anything in the high speed, overly complicated plot.

There are some scenes I really enjoyed, but unfortunately it’s not giving me high hopes about the rest of the season solving the problems presented in the first few episodes.

(But let’s talk about that Becho scene for the rest of forever because it was Very Good.)

[rabba002-blog]

The Highs and Lows of Social Media

New technology, communications and social media have taken over the newest generations by storm. The “digital age” emerging from the late 1970’s after the invention of the first personal computers have changed the way society will function forever. Now, with the click of a button you have your entire social circle at your fingertips through imessage, social media, and search engines; everyone is connected all the time. Social media has by far had the biggest impact on today's society; especially on the younger generations. Kids are now looking to Twitter and Facebook not only for the hottest trends in fashion and hollywood, but for insights  on politics and world views. Through social media, young people are building their ideologies and beliefs about the world, politics, relationships, body image and social standing. Although being connected and having accessibility to such a wide variety of opinions and ideas all the time can be seen as freeing and invigorating, it has had a detrimental effect on the mental health and thinking of the new generation. Social media has its positive attributes, but can also be extremely negative; which has been proven through research and examination of social constructs.

Firstly, the positives of social media should be highlighted. Social media has created a space for the new generation to voice their opinions, make changes and speak on social constructs. It is also used constantly as a creative outlet all while keeping our society connected. Youtube, for example, has blown up immensely since its start in 2005. Creators have built lives out of their Youtube channels and their creative outlets have become their careers. However, Youtube has become a huge space for political activism, issues about bullying and self image; overall a place for people to go and  realize they are not alone. Youtube has content for any individual, whether it be gaming videos, cooking channels, comedy, makeup and fashion or lifestyle. The culture of looking into someone’s life and building a connection with them through a screen has become huge in the past ten years; arguably becoming one of the most important platforms created. The most positive impact Youtube has had on our generation is educational. The amount of educational videos on Youtube is astonishing, and not only is it used by students worldwide but professors have turned to educational Youtube videos to teach their students much more increasingly. The freedom social media has given the new generation is highlighted by Croteau and Haynes. They state “the fact that the internet encompasses nearly all forms of communication is a big part of what made it a game-changer…… in addition to blurring boundaries between private and public, the internet enabled people to be more active, more easily, than ever before” (Croteau and Haynes). This freedom is proven by the theory that we are not only consumers of social media but users of it, and that the user has control over what he/she sees and puts out. Twitter, for example is one of the most popular social media sites as of now. It is a place where you have the freedom make raunchy jokes, cry-laugh with your friends about memes, catch up on which Kardashian did what,  to rant out that one crappy customer that came into work or to speak out about political issues like “black lives matter” and body shaming. Twitter gives its users the freedom to use their platform as an outlet, and that is something that is very important to our generation. It gives the user the feeling of “what I have to say matters”. These are a few examples of how social media can be seen as having a positive impact on today’s society.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, social media has had massively negative effects on society and the younger generation. Social media, although it can be freeing, also causes mass amounts of pressure on the younger generation. To focus on women in specific, social media can make you feel ashamed of your own body and the attributes you have been given. The rise of the “instagram baddie” persona has taken over social media over the past two years. Girls feel as though they must all have a tiny waist, huge boobs and a huge butt in order to fit into what is considered ideal for today’s beauty standards.  Girls are praised and shown off for looking and acting a certain way, and if you do not fit into that box then you’re not considered in. The most prominent example I have noticed on twitter recently is “makeup vs no makeup twitter”. Girls who opt for the more natural look continuously bash girls who prefer to wear a lot of makeup. This creates a toxic environment, as women bash each other when, in this day and age where men reign supreme, should be supporting each other. This toxic environment has shown an increase in suicide rates as the Centers for Disease Control and prevention reports “suicide has become the third leading cause of death for teens and more than 4,600 young people are lost each year” (The Press Enterprise). Not only has social media had a negative impact on teens body image, but on their way of thinking. Our generation has become desensitized to the way they speak to each other, because at the end of the day were all just hiding behind a screen and there are no real consequences to what you say or post. A prime example of this can be shown by the amount of celebrities that go off the handle because of the amount of hate they receive from the public. Most recently, singer Mac Miller died, and Ariana Grande has been continuously receiving backlash for his overdose as people blame her for his drug use and call her an “attention whore” and other vulgar names causing her to take a hiatus for two months. This stigma that our generation has that they can say anything to anyone they want, no matter how hurtful because there are no consequences shows the toxicity social media has had on our generations thinking. Lastly, as highlighted by Baran culture can be limiting, because you grow up surrounded by generally the same characters and beliefs throughout your whole life. Baran states “think back, to the stories you were told and the television shows and movies you watched growing up. The heroines were invariably tall, beautiful and thin. The bad guys were usually mean and fat” (Baran). From the time that we are toddlers are minds are shaped to believe that we must look one way in order to be accepted by society, and if you fail to look that way then you’ll always just feel a little bit out of place. This ties in even more now that social media is so relevant to our day to day lives. Our generation looks up to the superficial standards set by reality tv stars and rappers as an expectation to what our lives should look like, inevitably causing mass disappointment and self-hatred because realistically, we’re not all going to have enough money to get plastic surgery in order to look like our favorite “instagram baddie” or have the money to ride around in a 100,000 car. Social media has created a false sense of expectations for our generation to follow, which leads to a general unhappiness in the reality of our lives and the cards we have been dealt.

In summary, social media has taken over the new generation and shaped their ideas about politics, beauty standards and social standing. It is ridiculous to overlook the positive impact social media has had by giving us the abilities to speak our minds whenever, wherever. But this accessibility has also proven to have a negative impact on the general well being and mental health of the new generation.

Cited Sources:

Whiting, David, and David Whiting. “New Pressures for Perfection Contribute to Rise in Teen Suicide.” Press Enterprise, Press Enterprise, 20 Mar. 2018, www.pe.com/2018/03/17/new-pressures-for-perfection-contribute-to-rise-in-teen-suicide/.

Croteau, David, and William Hoynes. Media/Society: Technology, Industries, Content, and Users. SAGE Publications, Inc., 2019.

Baran, Stanley J. Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture, Updated Edition. McGraw-Hill Education, 2015.

[rndyounghowze]

Threatened With Good Mime Continues The Techno Mime Hilarity

Can you give an award for “Best Mime Work By A Dog”?

By Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

Sour Grapes Productions @gennyyosco

Venmo:@rndyounghowze

Review 189

Genny Yosco is probably one of the nicest producers with remarkable insight into how small teams of creatives can dominate the digital theatre landscape. She also has a huge heart which is dedicated to building a team of actors created out of love and mutual respect. You can’t go on the Sour Grapes Productions Facebook or watch an episode of Bard Brunch without finding her shouting out the whole team and talking about them. Silent But Deadly the Mime Experience is just one of those many productions of Sour Grapes poised to take over the internet. With their newest video “Threatened With A Good Mime” we see not only her dedication to doing more but the whole team’s dedication to going Bigger and Better! We were stoked to see their work and feel we have a new mission for a team that have become leaders in the digital theatre world.

The parts that we connected to the most are the ones that used the digital format the best. A mime makeup tutorial that goes on forever? Yes please! A scrolling memorial to all the mine actors that have gone on before us? Hell yeah!

However the opposite is true that the ones that we didn’t really connect with completely were the ones that got a little bit more conceptual. Scenes where characters are trying to kiss via digital mistletoe or feel entitled to what’s yours and get punished in a rather violent way rang a bit hollow. Oddly enough (or rather ironically) the mimed violence didn’t hold up. Why are some characters holding real cups to drink out of but are miming eating cookies from a real box that says “Do Not Eat”? They lacked the polish and consistency that we have seen this group have before. In a way those were also the ones that seemed harder to film and edit. We already know that these silent performers are amazing because we’ve seen them so many times. Maybe it’s a good time to start the year off with building a stronger foundation.

We’ve gotten the silent treatment from these guys a lot so I will go out on a limb and say that their solid foundation comes from their branding, their irreverence, and their humor. We have strongly branded characters that are very distinguishable people but they haven’t become characters yet to us. We laugh out loud at their mime jokes but where can those become long form story ideas? They have this absolutely refreshing brand of humor but it doesn’t always come out exactly the way that it should. If this foundation was worked on and made unshakable this group could go from amazing to unassailable in a year.

What we would like to see is more in depth storytelling, more world building, and rounding out the characters. What makes these characters different other than wig color? What are their other personality quirks? How do they react with the world? Silent But Deadly has already shown us that they can get bigger. They’ve already shown us that they are getting better. However focusing on what makes them special and competitive will only guarantee that when they take off they’re never coming down.

We love these wonderful performers and everything Sour Grapes Productions has ever shown us. If it looks like we’re criticizing it’s only because we’re shoving with love and want them to be the best version of themselves that they can be. You should love them too and watch everything that they do on their YouTube. They were one of the first groups to take us in and accept us as digital theatre reviewers and they will always hold a soft spot in our hearts. We hope to see bigger and better things from them as they build the framework for an awesome future. If they help set the standards for this new field the world will have to follow!

Like our review? Take a look for yourself here!

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[gwsseuphoria]

“Pilot”-E1 Karli Heikkila

Diving right in, this review will be based on Euphoria season 1, Episode 1. Let me just say, it is a lot to grasp in 50 minutes. Right off the bat, Rue the main character gives a monologue about her life story leading up to her current state. She addresses her mental health issues and how she was prescribed drugs at a young age which led to her turning to drugs later on as a coping mechanism, which then led her to drug addiction, and almost an overdose. This experience forced her into rehab, the beginning monologue closes off with a powerful statement; “I know it all seems sad, but guess what? I didn’t build this system, nor did I fuck it up.” A powerful message that resonates. The transition after this last statement goes from her monologue straight into a scene where she is walking through a party, the lights flashing a deep pink and blue, there’s loud music, and she is drinking. It shows her eyes go into a sorrowed state. This transition felt powerful because the cinematic experience leaves you feeling connected to the music and the moment all the while allowing you to visually analyze the fact that Rue being fresh out of rehab is going straight back into her cycle with substance abuse. During this scene, she addresses how she chases the moment where she can have the “2 seconds of nothingness,” through the use of drugs and alcohol to numb the overwhelming state of her mind. This scene being the introduction to the first episode of the series is important because It not only introduces Rue and her struggles with addiction, but it highlights a deeper rooted issue within the system that is the mental health industry and the prescribing of what are highly addictive pain pills or opioids (Big Pharma) to younger children, especially young black children in America. Rue also is depicted as defying her gendered role as a female because it shows her dressing in a predominately masculine way.

Then the episode goes onto introducing the other main pivotal characters through Rue’s narration. To start we have Jules the new girl in town who is shown at the start on a dating app connecting with an ab photo of an older man whom she plans to meet up with the night of the first party she was invited to. This party was being thrown by the high school stereotyped jock Nate Jacobs. The embodiment of toxic masculinity, Nate is at the center of his male athletic peer group. The male athletic peer-group theory talked about in a book by Michael Messner is a theory that is justified through this first episode. The structure of the male athletic peer group provides an understanding of the enablement of power and inappropriate actions or words that male athletes in high schools have and act on. Nate is at the center of the structure. Then follows Mckay who is introduced as a college boy who is pining after a high school girl whose name is Cassie, Nate introduces Cassie by calling her a whore and showing the entire group of men who they are with before the party videos of her having sex with other men. Mind you she’s in high school. This makes Mckay feel bad but he doesn’t tell Nate what he’s doing is wrong he just tells him to turn the videos off and moves on from the situation. Nate and Mckay play into the ultra-masculine athletic stereotypes that exist in current high schools. Cassie is then introduced as this hypersexual, and a sexualized girl that is sweet, along with her best friend Maddy who is introduced as self-serving and manipulative. Ultimately rues introductions give insight into the stereotypes these main characters have while also giving some backstory to create this multidimensional understanding of who they are and what they are going through behind the surface level judgment and intertwined portrayals.

Overall this first episode transcends any other narrative that assumes and tries to tackle the issues that are relevant in current high school populations. It gives a thoughtful and triggering description of each of these characters' lives and issues. The complexity of the storyline deals with the relationships these teenagers have with themselves and others. Euphoria breaks boundaries by showing the graphic and raw aspects of these teenagers' lives that are a reality for a lot of kids today. Aspects such as Jules being a transgender woman. In this first episode, Jules goes to have sex with the older man she matched with at the beginning of the show. This man graphically dominates her in this episode. Jules then proceeds to go to her first party in this new town where she then proceeds to get verbally assaulted by Nate Jacobs who is “joking” while yelling at her, however, after being yelled at Jules rather than breaking down, screamed back at Nate and had an overwhelming amount of anger that the viewers can determine stems from her bad experience with the older man she had had right before the party. After this scene the episode closes off with Rue the main character asking Jules if she is okay and introducing herself, Rue then goes home with Jules where she strips down into undergarments revealing her transgender body, both of them climb into bed and share an intimate moment through their gaze. The surprising twist right before the episode ends and after this scene between Jules and Rue switches to showing Nate's family photo revealing to the viewers that Nate's dad is the older man who met up with underage Jules to have sex. Right after this reveal, the episode closes with rue saying to Jules while laying next to each other in bed; “Ive got an idea, wanna get high?” This closing statement is the most ingenious way to end the first episode because after they revealed a shocking moment and It just ends with rue saying they should get high connecting her idea of using drugs to mask the complex issues in her mind. So by her saying this, it reveals that all of the problems these teenagers are having can be avoided or suppressed through the use of drugs or other vices. This episode is just the beginning of a storyline that not only breaks down stereotypes but also grapples with gender roles and how they play into the identity of each of these characters and their experiences with life, substances, relationships, social media, and more. An intricate and volatile expose that uses creative cinematography, makeup, and narration to create a heightened experience for the viewers watching the show. The scenes that are shot are very obviously creative and give off “euphoric feelings” create a lens's to Mimic the feeling of drugs or substances that rue uses to numb herself. We as viewers are bombarded with these really graphic, deep, and sometimes interconnected narratives that are a lot to take in, so at random points, there will be scenes that make us feel this euphoric feeling through the music, lighting, and makeup. The same way drugs for rue mask the chaos in her mind, the creative scenes shot in the show are used to mask these storylines making it exciting and addicting to watch based on the feeling you get as a viewer.

Levinson, Sam. “Euphoria - Pilot” Episode. HBO Max 1, no. 1. New York, New York: HBO, June 16, 2019.

[rscenarios]

Sam - Making Up

So I believe these were two anon requests that I combined. “Can you write a scenario of Sam forgetting your birthday and he does everything to try and make it up to you, please?” and “Could u write a fluffy scenario with sam where he and his gf does a youtube video for her gf's chanel and his gf is a famous youtube” I have been out of the Lunafly loop, but this vlog from Sam was super helpful and gave some insight into what’s been happening. I’m sorry if this is out of character for him. I will do my best on the other Lunafly requests pending -Admin Em

Warnings: none

You wake up to almost a hundred notifications on your phone and smile. Slowly you start reading some of the YouTube messages wishing you well and then you move onto your other social media sites. It was amazing that your fans remembered your birthday and took the time to send little messages. There are plenty of text messages from your family and friends as well. The amount of love you’re receiving is almost overwhelming.

Stretching out, you remain in bed a bit longer to reply to your family and friends before getting up to make yourself a light breakfast. As you eat your food, you start saving some of the messages to look back on whenever you have a bad day. It’s during this process you note that your boyfriend hasn’t sent anything. Reminding yourself that Sam is a busy person, you tell yourself not to dwell on it. He had promised you last week that he would make time for a birthday dinner with you.

You go out for lunch with some of your friends, your small group catching up on each others lives. Afterward a few of them decide you should all go shopping. “You all just want my fashion advice,” you tease.

“Why do you think we keep you around?” one of them laughs.

“Yeah, we have to make sure you are worth of the internet fame,” another adds.

“I think I proved that since you do your makeup the way I taught you last month,” you point out.

“That’s the makeup tip. We have to check the fashion.”

You roll your eyes as you smile and follow them along. After several fun filled hours, your entire group ends up with at least two bags of assorted items.

Once you’re home, it dawns on you that you haven’t checked your phone. There are a few new birthday messages, and one from Sam. “Hey baby, I’m going to go out for some drinks with some friends tonight. I will see you tomorrow :)”

You read the message twice. He was going out with his friends tonight...on your birthday...after he promised. You read the message a third time, seeing if maybe there was an invitation that you just weren’t seeing. Nope.

If it were any other day you wouldn’t mind him suddenly going out with his friends. But after being so busy and making so many promises, he forgot your birthday. Strangers from the internet can send their well wishes, but your own boyfriend can’t remember.

You don’t bother to reply.

Instead you make plans with your parents to visit them for dinner. When they ask where Sam is you simply say he’s busy. You try to always keep any issues you have between you and Sam, it wasn’t anyone else’s business. Talking and being with family takes your mind of things. Being home relaxes so you stay a while after dinner before deciding to head home. As you leave, your mother presents you a bouquet of your favorite flowers. You thank your parents again, hugging both of them tightly.before leaving.

The following morning you wake up to a message from Sam, telling you he would stop by your place around noon. You send a quick answer, saying you look forward to seeing him. You have cooled down a bit since last night. It still hurt that he seems to have forgotten, but you think that maybe he could still give you a late birthday surprise. So with that in mind, you start getting ready for the day.

By the time you’re done with your makeup you hear Sam’s key in the door and smile, excited to see your boyfriend. You quickly go over and give him a kiss on the cheek. “You look beautiful, as always,” he smiles at you before taking off his shoes.

“Did you have fun last night?” you ask as he lies on your couch.

He pats the cushion, signalling you to lie down and cuddle with him. “It was nice being with some of the guys. Nothing too exciting. What did you do yesterday? Did you buy those flowers? They’re lovely.”

“My parents gave them to me when I went to their place for dinner. I spent most of the afternoon with friends for lunch and shopping. Bought a few new makeup brushes and a shirt for work.”

“Sounds like a special day.”

“It was,” you say a bit dryly.

“What do you want to do today?” Sam asks, lazily playing with a strand of your hair.

At this point, you aren’t sure if he’s asking as he normally is, or if he means it for your late birthday. You could tell him what you’d hoped to do on your birthday, but you feel a bit petty and want him to make a plan. “I don’t know. What would you like to do?”

“Hmm, since we both went out yesterday, how about just a relaxing day here? We can go out again next time or for a special occasion.”

You’re certain now. He’s forgotten.

“Sam...did...did you forget my birthday?” You ask slowly, afraid to hear the answer. But you need to know. You don’t want to feel bitter for no reason.

“No, I would never. Your birthday is-” he stops as he’s about to say yesterday’s date. “Oh no. Baby, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize.”

“It’s okay, I know how you lose track of the days.”

“No, it’s not okay. I promised you a nice dinner, so let me take you out tonight and do anything to make it up to you,” he says, shifting to look into your eyes. You can see how sorry he is so you give him a quick peck.

“Anything?”

“Yes.”

“So...you’ll let me do your makeup for a video?”

The last video you had done with Sam about men’s fashion had been a big hit, and since then you had wanted to do another, but this time using him as your makeup model. “You promise nothing extreme?”

“Hmmm, I would just do some basics...but since you’re in the dog house I would like to a bit more. But since you’re sorry, I’ll make you a deal. I will pick some old Lunafly videos and for every cringe-y reaction, the more extreme the makeup gets.”

Sam thinks things through before kissing your forehead. “Let me make a dinner reservation and wash my face while you get set up.”

And so you quickly gather the makeup supplies in your spare room, which acted as your film studio. You load a few videos and by that time Sam is sitting beside you. “So I’m going to start with a little intro and then you can come in and say something if you want before we move to the first video,” you tell him, earning a nod in return.

You turn to the camera, checking the monitors to make sure everything looks good before starting to record. “Hey everyone, I want to start off by thanking everyone who sent birthday wishes. They all really meant a lot to me. Today I’m going to be doing something a little differently with my boyfriend,” you glance over at Sam, who sits in the seat beside you. “So Sam got himself into a bit of trouble recently and to make up for it, he’s acting as my model today. But since he’s so willing to remedy his mistake and is an all-around sweetheart, the catch is that depending on how he handles watching three Lunafly music videos is how extreme his makeup will get. Do you have anything you want to say before we start?”

“I already regret this,” Sam says with a laugh before you hit play so that How Nice Would It Be starts playing.

Almost immediately as the multiple whispers of “Lunafly” start does Sam make a face, but remains calm. He stays calm until he starts singing, then he seems to cringe a bit more. “Why did I think that hair was a good idea?” He says after a while. When the video concludes he proudly says, “That wasn’t so bad. Just us in the studio.”

“Had to give you and easy start,” you tease before starting Fly To Love.

“The cheesy graphics....the outfits....the yellow lipstick,” he whines softly now and then, but for the most part he softly sings along while swaying to the music. You can’t help the smile on your face at how cute he’s being.

When you play Special Guy, you can tell he has some mixed emotion, but he makes no comment. At the end of the video he comments about how many people had been involved. “To anyone watching that may have been involved, thank you,” he smiles.

“Alright, so you kept positive about all this, so I’m going to do a bit more of a male rock star look for you. So there will be darker, stronger eye makeup and maybe something to make the cheekbones stronger,” you inform Sam.

He gives a nod and lets you do your thing, talking to the camera about the products you’re using and what you’re doing. Occasionally the two of you will joke with one another about what you’re doing or how he looks. It doesn’t take long for you to finish and when Sam can finally look at himself he laughs. “I think I pull this off for the most part,” he grins, looking into the camera and checking different angles.

The two of you say a few parting words, thanking everyone for watching and reminding people to subscribe and check the links in the description for the products you used. Once the video camera is turned off, you get a few photos of Sam from the angles you want before taking a few goofy selfies.

“Am I allowed to take this off for our dinner?” Sam asks as he notes the time.

“Hmmm....I suppose,” you laugh. When he returns with a fresh face, he kisses your cheek. “That was fun.”

“I’m glad it was fun,” you kiss him as he takes your hand, leading you to his car to take you out for a magical night.

[beyoubecausethatscool-blog]

(D) Youtube Commercial  Analysis:

Commercial #1- “Peer Pressure Progressive Insurance Commercial”:

The popular insurance company Progressive is known for their comical commercials with a main character/saleswoman named “Flo”. In the particular commercial above, the subject matter is regarding the concept of using peer pressure when trying out and buying a new product. Throughout the commercial the saleswoman Flo asserts phrases such as, “You wanna see something cool?” and “Try it and see what your good driving can save you, unless you’re scared.” While trying to sell her intended product, she was using peer pressure tactics such as saying forceful and a bit of overpowering remarks. By saying “...unless you’re scared” she is making the other person feel threatened and rather small which will create an atmosphere where they’re more likely to give in. This commercial has strong connections to my overall research question because of the explains of peer pressure that are shown throughout the scene. In addition, this commercial gave me further insight on how peer pressure can be used in multiple situations and environments. Looking deeper into the scene of the commercial, there seems to be stereotype/generalization aspects used. For instance, Flo is seen in a dark ally way trying to convince the two men to use her product in a “sketchy” way. By using this type of setting, a stereotype of an unsafe neighborhood and the behavior within these areas are implied. I would also consider this part of the commercial to be a fallacy because of the fact that it is a generalization to a certain behavior in an area which can often be seen as offensive. 

     Commercial #2- “Peer Pressure”:

This next commercial has a very unique take on peer pressure and the effects it can have. The producer of this commercial is by Values.com, The Foundation For a Better Life. The start of the scene displays a group of young kids that walk into a music store who seem up to no good by their behavior. The following dialogue within the group of kids consist of phrases such as, “Just do it quick, no one’s watching” and “You have to if you wanna hang with us.” The young boy who looks the most suspicious is being told these phrases. By watching this so far, you can make an assumption that these kids are peer pressuring him to steal something from the store. Adding to this, the kids are dressed in dark clothing, heavy black makeup and piecing giving the scene a generalization/typical stereotype of troublemakers. All of a sudden, the boy starts taking CD’s out from his pocket and placing them back on the rack. This action was the exact opposite of the implied situation that I had originally predicted.

This approach of peer pressure is so unique to me because of the positive overall message conveyed. While the first impression of this commercial was a group of delinquent kids shoplifting, when in reality it’s a group of very good kids pressuring the boy to do the right thing. This type of subject ties into one of my pervious blog posts where I explore the idea of peer pressure having the ability to have a positive outcome rather than a typical negative one. The scene ends with a saying going over the screen “Do the right thing, pass it on”. Personally, I think this message is great and is promoting positive behavior and sharing it with others rather than behavior that is destructive and wrong. This commercial allowed me to see peer pressure showcased in a more positive light  which was refreshing. Further more, I’ve learned there are many more ways to exhibit peer pressure with a positive impact on an individual if intended that way. 

Commercial #3- “Peer Pressure: Positive or Negative?”

The final commercial I evaluated has a different approach than the other two. The video titled “Peer Pressure: Positive or Negative?” was by the youtube channel “StraightUpVC”. The style of this video seemed to be more of a public service announcement rather than a typical commercial, although there is still a strong message being conveyed like any other commercial would. The video starts with a dramatized series of small interviews with adolescent teens while they describe what peer pressure is and how it can effect your life in the long run and present such as “When you do something for other people, but you don’t do it for yourself.” “It kind of sucks, especially if you’re not strong with yourself...it can ruin your life”. These are just some of what these teens were saying throughout the video and displayed just how much of an impact peer pressure can have on a person. As the video continues, a scenario is acted out where a girl walking alone passes a group of girls whispering about her “Guys she’s coming.” and “Do you think she’ll do it?”. The tone of the scene seems very tense with the black and white feature and has great anticipation of what these girls are planning to do. Once she passes by the scene turns into color and the girls ask if she wanted to be in their band rather than any other negative pressure that was assumed to take place. The ending quote reads “Peer pressure, You can make it positive” turning this video into a more positive outlook towards the end. 

I thought this approach was very effective and ties into some of the ideas I explore throughout my blog, while also connecting to the previous commercial titled “Peer Pressure” above. The ending quote tied everything together in my opinion by stating that peer pressure doesn’t always have to have a poor ending and any situation can be turned in the right direction if you let it. Throughout the video I did not detect any stereotypes or generalizations which worked in the filmmaker’s favor. One fallacy I did notice was the audio in some interviews was a little patchy and hard to hear, but overall the video was well organized and the message was conveyed in a clear way. 

[colourmelime]

If you are somewhat around the online beauty community you pretty much have been hearing comments left and right about lipsticks this past week, and it likely sent you on a path of not trusting any lipstick and probably checking all the ones you got on your vanity (even though some of them you got when the first Jojo pop star appeared- Alexa play Jojo-Get out).

The moment I saw that Jaclyn (Hill) was releasing a line of cosmetics many questions came to mind. The first one was about how she would name her line since we all call her Jaclyn -Hill- which is the name she got when she married her ex-husband. The second was of what kind of flaws people would find on these, let’s face it Jaclyn has not had a smooth ride when it comes to product releases, but before she was dealing with other brands and their labs and so on, so I had good hopes that she would put out something that people would not bash because she was doing her own thing. As soon as the first insights of the products came out I could hear people ragging at having so many nude shades, of how boring it was … it is not my kind of product and I am neither a Jaclyn follower so I didn’t care for it, but this product was fitting of Jaclyn. She is known for wearing nude lipsticks and smokey brown eyeshadow, it would be out of character to release a box of rainbow shades.

As I had expected, as soon as people starting receiving their lipsticks issues started to be raised, holes, black dots, sweaty spots, bending at the base, melting, hairs, fuzzy bits… And you start to question if these are about to become the subculture of lipsticks or just a few people trying to reach some sort of attention. (you can read more in-depth news about it here. ) RawBeautyKristi made a video comparing the lipsticks she paid for versus the PR, finding that her PR lipsticks did, in fact, have a ‘safer’ look than the ones she bought with her own money. (you can watch it here) . With this whole thing of people focusing on the issues with this one brand, I came across a post by Temptalia that goes over several issues she has had with lipsticks over the years, talking about what we should consider normal for a lipstick. Some of the pictures she shows look quite similar to the issues that have been raised by people over Jaclyn cosmetics (you can read about it here.)

Jaclyn came out last night, on a more candid kinda way, feet on the chair showing her knees on camera and thankfully the video was under 15 minutes instead of the common 40. She addressed the many issues raised by customers and cleared out rumours that the lipsticks were old and with mold. She deemed them safe (from my understanding) but people aren’t happy with this. Here are my thoughts on the situation.

– Jaclyn knows her releases are VERY likely to get backlash, not going steps further to make sure there is nothing people can go and pick on is a big thing. When you know people have their eyes on you and will likely find even the smallest of things to call you out on, you have to make sure you don’t give them that. And it seems like Jaclyn missed that crucial step. -Beware of the circumstances your makeup gets delivered. If you are ordering bullet lipsticks and your package sat outside on the Sun for hours and you get home and open it to swatch it with bullet fully up and painting your whole arm, that’s not a good idea. When I swatch a bullet lipstick I lightly swatch my hand to see the colour and never had issues of the product breaking. -If a brand tells you a product is safe but you feel that it doesn’t look like it, don’t use it! I personally wouldn’t put on my lips some of the defective lipsticks I have seen around, this product goes on your lips and even if you don’t want to to, you will likely still ingest it. -Know the return policies of a beauty company before buying from them. If a brand is new to you and you want to be safe that you can get your money back before buying something, make sure they have a good policy, either for money back returns and product replacement.

Marlena Stell , who is an OG youtuber and owner of a makeup brand has come out speaking of this situation and has mentioned some interesting things. (will attach screenshots)

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lipstick gate 2k19 If you are somewhat around the online beauty community you pretty much have been hearing comments left and right about…

[recentanimenews]

The 10 Best Faces of Anime: 2017 Edition

The human face – one of our species' most entrancing, fascinating traits. Capable of revealing the depths of the bearer's soul or hiding a person's true intentions, the face is the external cradle of emotion, the heart's fairest and yet most complex messenger. Tonight, on NOVA...

  Just kidding! You're not here for a deep dive into the nuances of human faces and delicate insights into what the expressions we make say about who we are, what's important to us, and the human psyche – you want some gosh dang goofy anime faces, and I'm here to provide. Good anime faces are one of the medium's greatest treasures, with each new season of anime bringing with it a brand-new set of contenders reaching for the crown of best anime face. Some of these contenders bide their time, breaking out truly stellar faces for a moment of ideal impact, while others seek to make their mark with torrents faces.

  Let me tell you, it was no easy task to break down an entire year's worth of quality anime faces to a list of just ten of the best contenders, but I have tried my darndest and present before you the fruits of my labors. You can either read all the reasoning, or just look at the pictures and start yelling in the comments. Your choice! And so, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the top 10 best faces of 2017 anime!

  #10. Aguri Dies (Gamers!, Episode 3)

Gamers! (Pine Jam, Summer 2017) was sneakily good in a lot of ways, feeding us rich material on the smugness of nerd self-deprecation, touching little reflections on romance, and a late bounty of dunks on video games courtesy of my favorite character in the show – Aguri. But there was one area where Gamers! needed no subtlety: its excellent face game. Trying to narrow down the faces from this show was a truly daunting task, but this one wins out for a number of reasons. First, the mismatched combination of heavy, marker-like lines and traditional thinner lines provides an odd contrast that frames Aguri's deformed facial features – her mouth trailing off her face is probably the detail that makes the whole thing work. But the most impressive thing about this face? I don't have the foggiest clue what it was in reaction to, but it still works devoid of any context. In many ways, that's emblematic of what makes silly anime faces great – their ability to stand on their own apart from the context of their show. How about that? Weren't expecting actual analysis on silly anime faces here, were ya!

  #9. Jean's Smirk (ACCA, Episode 12)

  This shot of Jean Otus from ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. (Madhouse, Winter 2017), on the other hand, is one of the most context-rich faces in today's list. While those of you who haven't seen ACCA might be able to appreciate the smug upwards tilt of Jean's mouth and his coy eyes, the people who did watch the show have the privilege of appreciating that this smile is the culmination of an entire show's worth of political intrigue, spywork, and plotting. The twist and triumph this one smirk represents gives the audience a sort of deep satisfaction that offers an entirely different sort of appeal from the instant amusement that your typical anime face grants – and that earns it a spot on this list.

  #8. Sana's Pout (Alice & Zoroku, Episode 7)

  There's your typical anime girl pout, and then there's filling up the entire darn screen with your pouting. Leave it to an actual sulking child, like Sana from Alice & Zoroku (J.C. Staff, Spring 2017), to pull a feat like that off. In fact, Sana pulls a plethora of fantastic faces throughout the duration of Alice & Zoroku, including a ton from my personal favorite anime face genre, then > <. That being said, there's no way a pout this powerful, which conveys both her childishness and her earnest cuteness in one shot, could be anything less than the show's best face – and one of the best of the entire year.

  #7. Takao Melts (Tsuredure Children, Episode 3)

  What other sort of face are you supposed to make when a pretty girl seems like she's about to confess to your extremely low self-esteem self? It was pretty much all out war in the Tsuredure Children (Studio Gokumi, Summer 2017) camp for this spot on the list, as the show's face game was, frankly, unbelievable – with wobbly mouth smiles, tears by the gallon, blushes so numerous they probably contributed to global warming, moments of shock, embarrassment, and awkwardness galore. But Takao's face here topped them all on two specific strengths. One, his head is very round. Two, the mix of sweat, full-face blush lines, pitch-perfect pink shading, and his huge mouth are a truly phenomenal combination that make it look like he's just about to melt. #relatable.

  #6. Todoroki's Rage (My Hero Academia S2, Episode 7)

  Todoroki takes a page out of All Might's book as he storms away from Endeavor in this scene from My Hero Academia's second season (BONES, Spring 2017), complete with the intense lines and dark shadows – except, in his case, it's a face chiseled by rage instead of heroism. Pretty much everyone knows about famous BONES animator Yutaka Nakamura's contributions to Todoroki's fight, but the figure behind this epic face is anime character designer and chief animation director Yoshihiko Umakoshi. Although this shot is based on mangaka Kohei Hirokoshi's excellent original drawing, Umakoshi's distinct style still shines through in the inky lines and sharp angles. In the end, the anime version isn't hugely different from the manga version, but it's got just enough extra style to stand all on its own. You can really feel Todoroki's fury!

  #5. Drunk Chain (Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond, Episode 3)

  What's better than a sexy werewolf lady who can crush your heart with her hand while it's still in your body? How about one who can drink you under the table without batting an eye, like Chain Sumeragi from Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond (BONES, Fall 2017)? While not the most intricate offering on the list, the simple chibi-like design is actually part of the face's charm. There's a pleasing asymetry to the whole thing, what with the back-and-forth linework of her mouth and the goofy puff of her left cheek. The empty shot glass of otherworldly liquor is just the chaser that makes the face irresistible.

  #4. Gabriel's Stare Contest Face (Gabriel Dropout, Episode 10)

  I didn't watch Gabriel Dropout (Dogakobo, Winter 2017) myself, but that doesn't mean I'm not familiar with the show's inescapably good face game. The studio behind GabDro, Dogakobo, has made a name for itself doing cartoony comedies with fun animation and great faces, and Gabriel Dropout is just another in a prestigious ouvre that includes cult favorites like Love Lab, widely beloved offerings like Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, and transcendent meme shows like Himouto! Umaru-chan, but on faces alone GabDro certainly stands on level ground with the rest of the studio's productions!

  #3. Mikasa's Death Glare (Attack on Titan S2, Episode 11)

  Can an anime face be just one eye? I'm not sure, but I'm sure as hell not going to argue with Mikasa Ackerman when she's looking at Eren like that! I'm not the biggest fan the show, but this chilling moment from Attack on Titan S2 (Wit Studio, Spring 2017) got my attention in a big way simply because of how much intensity and emotion was packed into a single open eye. The much-discussed makeup animation crew (more on that here) appeared many times during Titan's second season, but I'd argue this moment is their crowning achievement – if only for how impactful and terrifying it is. 

  #2. Sagiri's Bleh (Eromanga Sensei, Episode 6)

  At this point in the list, we're well and truly into meme face territory, with Sagiri's infamous "bleh" face from the middle of Eromanga Sensei (A-1 Pictures, Spring 2017). I didn't watch the show myself, so I have basically no idea what the context is, but as we've discussed with some faces on this list already, many of the best anime faces are accomplished because they can be divorced from their shows. And, in the case of ones like this, they go on to become memes in their own right, ways of expressing emotion and feeling through our computer screens. Ah, for the face of an anime girl that expresses my true heart...

  #1. Kazuma Looks Dumb as Hell (Konosuba S2, OP)

  As much as it physically pains me not to have an Aqua screencap in this spot, was there ever any doubt that the most memorable anime face of 2017 would be this incredibly goofy Kazuma face from Konosuba S2 (Studio Deen, Winter 2017)? The face was an instant legend among the community as soon as the show aired, and went on to be discussed at length on Twitter, Reddit, and pretty much everywhere else for the entire season. As for the merits of the face itself, the bulging eyes, tiny pupils, streaming tears, garbled mouth, the general upwards slant of everything including Kazuma's hair, and the hilarity of the moment itself all pull together to make the best anime face of 2017.

  And with that, I sincerely apologize for the fact that I could not fit more anime faces into this post. As a token of my regret, here is a small album of some of the runners-up that I compiled for you all. With that out of the way, it's time to hear from you guys! What was your favorite anime face of the year, and which anime had the best overall face game? Chime in down there in the comments!

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Isaac eases his compulsive need to write about anime on his blog, Mage in a Barrel. He also sometimes hangs out on Tumblr, where he mainly posts his drawing practice as he seeks to become a renowned idol and robot fanartist. You can follow him on Twitter at @iblessall or on Facebook.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[rkbahuja]

Rajkummar Rao’s transformation into a 300-year-old character in Raabta is almost unrecognizable. The credit of which goes to Zuby Johal and her team from Dirty Hands Studio. The ace prosthetic artist has in the past worked on films like Gangs of Wasseypur 1 & 2, Finding Fanny, Raaz 3, Trapped and more. Films are however fillers for Johal who has her hands full with hypperrealistic mannequins created for a number of museums across the country.

In a freewheeling and highly informative chat, Zuby Johal gives us an insight into the world of prosthetic makeup – from the materials used, to the time invested, the challenges faced by the artists to the changing mentality of the industry and more.

Zuby Johal and Rajiv Subba

How did your foray into prosthetic makeup happen? How did it all begin?

My partner Rajiv (Subba) and I graduated from NID, Ahmedabad. During our placements, an alumnus, Amardeep Behl who has a company named Design Habit came to us and showed us the work of Ron Mueck, the Father of Hyperrealism. He does fabulous work with silicone. Amardeep asked us if we could achieve something similar for the Sadhu Vaswani museum in Pune. He wanted that someone who comes in to the museum be transported to the time when Sadhu Vaswani was alive. Rajiv is a sculpture, and we work with various materials and know how to make moulds etc. But we had not worked with silicone at the time. However, the technique to a certain extent remains the same.  We were open to trying it out and believed that we could achieve at least 90% of it.

So we called for the material from USA as it is not available here in India. Luckily, the museum got delayed by a year, and we got that time for some trial and error to understand things. We have not studied prosthetics from any school as such; it was more of researching on YouTube, watching videos, reading about it and experimentation. Ultimately, we made 19 mannequins for the museum. Since we had achieved this, Rajiv and I started discussing as to where all could we use our experience. We felt that movies could be a good area.

During that time, a colleague of ours was working with Anurag Kashyap. So we went to meet Anurag who is undoubtedly one of the most fabulous people in the industry. I would say that he’s our mentor. Because the moment we walked in, we had carried just one sample head with us, and he immediately gave us the scripts of both Gangs of Wasseypur 1 & 2! He asked us to read the script and tell him the prosthetics we could create.

And we did do a lot of work on both the films but the Censor Board cut out a lot. We had some cut fingers, some accident scenes, Richa Chadha’s pregnant belly, Ramadhir Singh’s cut head and so on. Gangs of Wasseypur was our first film, but it didn’t release for about two years after we had done it! And it was getting very difficult to sustain because you need a lot of people to work on something like this. There’s someone for hair grafting, someone for mould work, sculpting, it’s a long procedure! So I called Anurag and asked him what do we do since the movie hadn’t released. He suggested that we approach a few production houses and show them the work we did for Gangs of Wasseypur; he was very understanding. Then we approached Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt, got Raaz 3 followed by Finding Fanny, Badlapur and so on.

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Hyperrealistic silicone cut head of Ramadhir Singh played by Tigmanshu Dhulia in Gangs of Wasseypur

Hyperrealistic silicone prosthetic pregnant stomach developed for Richa Chadha for Gangs of Wasseypur

Created for Gangs of Wasseypur

Movies are like fillers for us. We’re doing a lot of other work too. We make hypperrealistic mannequins for museums. We’ve done the Sadhu Vaswani museum in Pune, Shaurya Smarak in Bhopal, D.S. Group Museum in Noida, we’ve recently also done a museum in Amritsar based on Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s life.

We also have another company that works only on glass installations. So, we consider ourselves more of industrial designers. And we’ve always wanted to educate people in India, to teach people here instead of outsourcing the work from abroad. Initially, when I started in around 2008, people were only using latex. We’re the pioneers who actually got silicone here and started working with it.

Now, people have started accepting that Indian people can also do well though it’s still very challenging. We have also collaborated with a team in LA who had approached us. Our partner Logan has done films like Fan, Kapoor and Sons etc. and he heard my name in a lot of places, so he connected with us to collaborate. The one thing I told him was that I could collaborate only if he would come down and teach our people here. They come with a lot experience and have a lineage since they have been working with silicone for a long time. That experience helps. They are also manufacturing their own materials, so the materials are easily accessible and reasonable for them while we have to pay a bomb for custom duty.

My main objective of getting into Bollywood was to open up the arena of prosthetics, which is so beautiful, for more people

Do you’ll work only with silicone or other materials as well?

Silicone comes in various grades. For prosthetics, you need to transform the person entirely, take for example Rajkummar Rao in Raabta, so you need breathable silicone. The silicone used for mannequins is different, while the one used on people is different. If you need to simply age a person, wrinkle him a little, that’s a different material. So it depends on the design brief from the client. Silicone is available in semi flexible, very flexible and other variants. One needs to understand what is happening to the person or prop in the movie and then decide the kind of material to be used.

When a project comes to you, what is the process that you’ll follow to get the prosthetics in place?

The first thing that I do is to read the script. I need to know what is happening to the person who is getting the prosthetics, or if it’s a prop, what is it being used for. We read the script and discuss everything in detail with the client. Then it goes to the production that closes the budget.

For Raabta, they wanted Rajkummar (Rao) to look 300 years old. They gave us the script, which is when one understands the actor’s role in the movie and you accordingly give your inputs as the prosthetic artist; what you think the look should be. You then hear the director’s vision and come to a mutual consensus. Sometimes, the director might have something in his mind, and you might have something better. So we work back and forth.

We also need to know where the actor is shooting geographically, the time needed to get the character ready, the lighting is very important, does the character interact with water, how many times does the prosthetic need to be removed, etc. Everything is discussed and then the brief is formulated.

One needs to understand what is happening to the person or prop in the movie and then decide the kind of material to be used

Raabta has two parts to it – contemporary and ancient. What did your research for the characters entail? Did you have any references?

We were asked to transform Rajkummar into a very old guy, so we watched a lot of movies like 300, old period films etc. We gathered some references and spoke to Dino (Dinesh Vijan, Director) to understand what he had in mind.

Dino initially wanted Rajkummar to have long dreadlocks. But at the last minute, when we went to Mauritius and were getting Rajkummar ready, we realized that the dreadlocks weren’t working because the face wasn’t visible. Immediately, we took a call to remove the dreadlocks. So one needs to keep improvising even on set.

Also, while developing the prosthetics you need to be very accurate. For instance, we need to know the exact skin tone expected for the character. Dino was very clear that he wanted the skin tone to match Rajkummar’s real skin tone.

We then started researching what happens to the person when he gets really old. A person’s skull remains the same, but the skin begins to sag. Now, one knows how a 100-year-old person looks, but no one knows how a 300-year-old person will look! So, you take a few assumptions and use Photoshop to understand where the prosthetics can be placed and accordingly create the look. That helps in creating the image that you have in your head, which should ultimately match with what the director has in mind.

The biggest problem for any prosthetic artist in India is the supporting material

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Making of the live mould of Rajkummar Rao

Rajkummar Rao plays a 300-year-old man in Raabta

With Rajkummar Rao, Jim Sarbh and team

As a prosthetic artist, what are the challenges you encounter?

The biggest problem for any prosthetic artist in India is the supporting material. For instance, if I were to order silicone now, I’d have to wait for a month for it to deliver, even on express delivery. Silicone has a flammable aspect to it because of which you need a lot of paperwork to get it to India. We also pay heavy custom duties.

So, as Indians, though we’re very good with skills and our work, the materials are not available to us. You can’t even invest and stock the materials because they have a short life. That’s a big complication.

Otherwise, we’re getting more work, people are understanding the material and opening up to more realism coming into the script and are listening to prosthetic artists now, as compared to 2008-09 when people were just understanding what prosthetics were all about.

Also, people need to understand that prosthetic artists are not makeup artists. I do makeup only on my prosthetics; I’ll make the wig etc. But I do not work on normal makeup or take up normal characters. In India, we need to have the division that prosthetic artists do not come under makeup artists. It is a different segment. There should be a separate department for prosthetics, even for awards, there needs to be a separate category for prosthetics altogether.

Lastly, people should be more open to prosthetics. They should be ready to pay the amount that is needed for good prosthetics. If you need good quality, you need to give good money and time! Time is the biggest challenge for us. There are people who come to me and ask if I can give them a body in one week. How is that even possible? The prosthetics are not machine made or it’s not like wood or a stone sculpture. Silicone needs time to dry, you need to model it, make a mould, cast it, take it out, then you paint it, graft it, graft the beard, etc. It takes a lot of time. For me, it’s important that I do minimum movies but I give in my best.

Another challenge is that make up artists are very old school, they feel that we (prosthetic artists) are taking their jobs. So they have a tendency to hide things, whereas I believe in sharing knowledge and teaching people. That’s why I make it a point to regularly go to FTII and teach kids because they are going to enter the industry and they should know what prosthetics is all about. My main objective of getting into Bollywood was to open up the arena of prosthetics, which is so beautiful, for more people.

Zuby Johal on the mesmerising world of prosthetic makeup and hyperrealism Rajkummar Rao’s transformation into a 300-year-old character in Raabta is almost unrecognizable. The credit of which goes to…