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365days365movies · 4 years ago

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January 8, 2021: R.E.D. (2010)

Time to continue the action-comedy trend by getting away from the buddy cop trend, and hitting a different style of comedy: the ensemble. I’ll talk about this more during Comedy April, but one of my favorite comedies is an ensemble comedy. That would be 1963′s It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.

I cannot properly explain how much I love this movie. It’s only grown over the years, and I WILL get into this one day. Don’t know HOW...but I WILL.

Anyway, what do I mean by the ensemble? It’s a cast composed of many big names, especially those famous or popular at the time the film is made. Nowadays, superhero films tend to be our ensembles, as well as some other action films that I’ll get to later this month.

But in today’s case, the ensemble is different. Rather than purely action or comedy stars, they’re kind of all over the genre map. But ere we go, here’s the list of stars:

Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Karl Urban, Mary-Louise Parker, Brian Cox, Richard Dreyfuss, Ernest Borgnine, James Remar. Seriously. LOOK at the list of people up there. That’s one hell of an ensemble. None of them particularly well-known for comedy, and that’s handled in a surprising way. Which movie is this?

R.E.D. is definitely an interesting movie as action-comedies go, but let’s get into it, shall we? SPOILERS AHEAD, as a warning heading forward!

Recap

Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retiree living in suburbia, reading romance novels, and calling Sarah Ross (Mary Louise Parker), a girl working in the GSA pension office. Sarah Ross is most likely the Inevitable Love Interest of this film. The two decide to meet up in Kansas City, where she works.

But no time for that, as a group of masked assailants invade Frank’s house to kill him. But, see, it turns out that Frank’s ex-CIA. He handily takes them and turns the tables, then goes into the basement to prepare. Meanwhile…

Not very subtle, huh? I feel like the neighbors know what’s going on at this point. Frank takes on the rest, the house collapses, and he makes his way to Kansas City...directly into Sarah’s apartment. She freaks out (appropriate reaction), as he warns that people are trying to kill her, because they know how he feels about her via their (likely surveilled) phone conversations. She’s not buying it.

So he kidnaps her.

Good start, building trust, establishing boundaries, good start.

We now cut to an opulent estate, where The Butcher/Executioner/Judge Dredd Karl Urban is killing a man. He’s playing William Cooper, a CIA agent tasked to kill Frank. After Frank drops off Sarah at a motel (still kidnapped, remember), he goes to meet Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), another retired agent living at a retirement home, with his…

...hobbies. Using his connections, they discover that the hit quad after Frank also killed a reporter. The plot thickens. Sarah escapes, and calls 911, a call which was intercepted by Cooper. A fake cop nearly kidnaps her, but Frank saves her. Cooper catches up, leading to…

OK, yeah, that was a cool shot. Literally. Frank sets up Cooper to get arrested by the local police, and escapes with Sarah to New York City. There, they meet the mother of the NYT reporter killed, and discover clues that lead them to the NYU library, and a book with a hitlist hidden within it. They discover that everyone on the list is dead except for a Gabriel Singer. However, tempered with that, we get some unfortunate news.

Joe’s dead. Which sucks, I honestly liked Joe. He was already dying of liver cancer, but he sadly was assassinated by a mysterious assailant.

Anyway, back to Cooper. He goes to visit the Record Keeper (Ernest Borgnine), who gives Cooper the mostly redacted case file of Frank Moses. An extremely effective black ops agent in his day, the now older Frank’s been marked “RED,” or “retired, extremely dangerous.”

FLORIDA! There, we meet the paranoid and flighty Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich), who lives in the swamps of Pensacola trying not to get killed. He lives underground in a bunker whose entrance is a broken-down car, and I love it a lot. I love it a whole lot.

Turns out Marvin was given doses of LSD every day for 11 years while working for the government, which made him understandably paranoid. My MK Ultra senses are tingling, and Marvin retrieves a file detailing a case in Guatemala from 1981, in which Frank, Marvin, and everybody else on the hit list was involved. And with this, Marvin gets the pig.

I can’t wait to find out what the pig is. Because I know it’s gonna be some crazy weapon. And I’m excited for it. Now, we head to Mobile, Alabama to catch up with Singer (James Remar), the only living person on the list. Marvin then briefly holds a random bystander hostage, and he might be juuuuuuuuust a little unstable.

They meet Singer, and he explains that his job on the Guatemala mission was to carry a passenger in the middle of the night, for unknown reasons. Singer’s quickly assassinated from a helicopter after giving this information, and may I just say...these guys aren’t subtle about their assassination techniques. I feel like somebody would notice this stuff happening, throughout the entire movie.

Anyway, a group of assassins comes in to kill the group of 3. Including this person.

Nice. And as if that wasn’t enough, we now discover the purpose of the pig. It contains a grenade launcher. Of course it does. We get a cool firefight in which Marvin hits a grenade like a baseball, and Marvin and the woman from before face off in a Western standoff. And then…

Yeah. This is awesome. Seriously, I’m loving this so far.

Next destination, as our guys head to the Russian Embassy, where we meet Ivan Simanov (Brian Cox), an ex-KGB agent and former enemy of Frank Moses. The two catch up in a funny exchange, and they reminisce over their old days as agents and assassins. Almost sweet in a macabre way. Frank’s there to ask Ivan for help in breaking into the CIA, using schematics that they probably have.

Using the assistance of Sarah (who’s enjoying this a LOT, apparently), they get into Langley, making this the second movie I’ve seen this month where the protagonist breaks into the CIA. There, they meet the Record Keeper Henry, who immediately helps them, and gives them the Guatemala file. They also find out about Cooper, leading to Frank meeting him at his office, where a kickass fight ensues to some kickass music.

Frank’s not looking stellar after this fight, not that Cooper’s doing great either. They escape by setting up an explosion, stealing a firefighter’s uniform, and escaping to an ambulance There, they’re greeting by Marvin and…

Joe! He escaped, and killed the assassin. Now, it’s Joe, Frank, Marvin, and Sarah on the run in an ambulance. But Frank isn’t doing great, as he was shot in the struggle with Cooper. They head up to Chesapeake, Maryland, to the Eagle’s Nest. It’s there that we meet Victoria Winslow (Helen Mirren), yet one more R.E.D. agent, and a talented assassin as well.

They discover that the file has one redacted name, which is found on the reporter’s list as Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfuss), an arms trafficker and gangster, apparently protected by the CIA. Using Joe as a pretend buyer, R.E.D. infiltrates the mansion, as Dunning sneaks Joe into a safe room, where their negotiating can take place. Soon though, though, Frank and Marvin join in, and it turns from negotiation to interrogation.

We find out here that the Guatemala mission was meant to clean up the destruction of a Guatemalan village performed by the current vice president, Robert Stanton. Yikes. Apparently, he went nuts and murdered the entire village. And so, the hits are meant to cover up with war crimes, allowing him to run for President without fear of persecution.

After that reveal, Cooper calls the trio; looks like the mansion’s been surrounded by FBI, who were surveilling Dunning’s mansion anyway. Cooper, who’s been in doubt about the motives of this mission, tells Frank to surrender, and he’ll hear his side of the story. With little option for escape, Joe, who’s dying anyway, volunteers to take his place, as they know he will most likely be killed immediately.

And unfortunately, they’re right. Joe’s shot and killed, and Frank and Marvin escape with Victoria’s help. In the escape, however, Sarah falls and is captured by the agents. They escape with the aid of Ivan.

They need to get Sarah out of Cooper’s custody, while also deciding to end the cause of this: Vice President Stanton. Frank makes it into Cooper’s home, and calls him from there. This, of course, is a threat meant to protect Sarah. He also tells Cooper that he plans to kill the Vice President, who will be at a gala that night.

Vice President Robert Stanton (Julian McMahon) announces his intention to run for President, as Cooper, Victoria, and Ivan watch on. Ivan sprays a gas throughout the ballroom, while Victoria blocks the doors. Ivan causes a distraction, claiming the smell of gas (which he’s caused), then pulls a fire alarm. The Vice President is routed through the back entrance, where Victoria and Marvin are waiting with a machine gun.

They rig it to autofire, and chase the VP back through the building. Victoria’s shot in the process, and Marvin detonates a smoke grenade to aid their escape. He then rigs up a bomb to his chest and chases the VP away, into a vehicle driven by, of course, Frank.

Cooper’s defeated, and Frank has the VP, offering to trade him for Sarah. Cooper calls his boss, all of whom head to the rendezvous point. And alongside Cooper’s boss arrives Alexander Dunning. Surprise! He kills Stanton, and is in command of Cooper’s boss. And Cooper is NOT happy about that.

Cooper kills his boss, Marvin and Victoria kill the bodyguards, and Frank and Marvin kill Dunning. Cooper lets the REDs leave, unencumbered and free. But Ivan reminds Frank of his favor to him, and I smell a sequel as Frank and Sarah kiss.

Whew. That’s R.E.D.! And what a fun ride it was! Might not have come across in this recap, but this movie is hilarious fun, and I’ll explain exactly how in the review section, coming up next!

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landlordrecords · 4 years ago

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Bassline (& 2020 in general): Re-e-wind

What a strange year, as everyone, everywhere has said a million times… Writing-wise, I’d been doing Record Collector magazine since 2014, and uDiscover (the Universal Records online mag) for not much less, & that all just seemed to (understandably) stop dead with the onset of the pandemic. Since then, I’ve polished off my chapter on the work of Simon Morris and the Ceramic Hobs for Palgrave, & that’s about it, so you’re more likely to find me over on Twitter at Sniffy (@philblackpool) / Twitter these days, blurting out the odd sentence. I hence thought it might be time to revisit a very old piece…

Like many, I’ve been working from home for much of the year, and although I’ve occasionally wanted to pull out my own eyeballs, it has generally been very pleasant for a voracious music-lover. I started by catching up on the vast majority of my insane, years-deep second-hand vinyl buy piles, and then chomped through a load of ‘long listen’ stuff I’d had on the backburner forever (including, astonishingly, eventually getting through something like 40 hours of Pan Sonic live sets someone had dumped online). I graded hundreds of releases for sale on Discogs, and revisited umpteen musical thangs extensively, including 90s gabba, Sun Ra, music hall, Schoenberg, dancehall reggae, the acknowledged worst albums ever, happy hardcore, Italian house, bounce and makina (I’ve lost track of how much time I’ve spent checking out youtubes to try to identify a couple of most-wanted bounce and makina tunes), Britpop (!), cosmic disco, and Belgian popcorn. It’s been an extraordinary year, packed with cultural discovery and rediscovery. In amongst this, in no way ashamed of my abject love of Discogs, and already having used and edited it for many years, I read the entire guidelines and decided to go hard on sorting out stuff I care about on there. Seeing they’d finally added various more recent ‘styles’, I’ve spent the last month and a half doing a ridiculous amount of edits on a dozen or so niche genres of importance in recent times (footwork, Jersey Club, yadda yadda). My tweakings around Bassline and UK Funky eventually drew me to the attention of UK Garage legend Karl ‘Tuff Enuff’ Brown, a fellow Discogs obsessive not so keen on the editing side of the site, who wondered if I might give him a hand sorting out the mess of his own and his label’s (2Tuf 4U) discographies. His entertaining phonecalls were enough to convince me.

I dug out all my stuff related to Karl’s label to listen to along the way, and found myself noticing how much UKG has been back in the spotlight of late (key, and brilliant, article here: RA: Like A Battle: The Push For UK Garage's Future (residentadvisor.net) ). While by no means unaware of this (I’ve had some lovely promos from Kiwi and the like of late, plus some moodier bits from various El-B worshippers), my status as a confirmed middle-aged semi-retired raver had hidden much of this from me. This leads me onto one of my big philosophical points of recent years: I listened to dance music avidly before I ever went out dancing, and listen to it now in lockdown, and in semi-retirement. There is far too much an emphasis among ever-rejuvenating dance music correspondents on ‘the club’ as the only way to enjoy dance music, but we know that OG disco fans are 60+ and unlikely to be out every weekend these days – is their experience now worthless? Online fans talk up their love of dance music for exercise soundtracks, bedtime calming soundtracks, etc: this is reality. Dance music is as valid to all these people as rock is to people who haven’t been to a gig in 40 years.

The style I felt myself most drawn back to was bassline (largely via Karl’s low-key issue of some DJ Q material). My love of UK Garage and all its offshoots largely stems from how physically removed I have been from it from virtually its entire history. Only my 2000-03 stint in Essex perfectly matched the garage waveform, and that was the 2-step era, quite the opposite of bassline. Despite being largely a northern phenomenon, Blackpool is largely untouched by bassline, being all about punk and bounce to my mind. An instant love for me circa 2007, bassline feels like one of those genres with unfinished business, but remains one I’ve rarely danced to. Cut off in its prime, it is now back, enormously popular, and rightly so, but, due to the vagaries of the digital music world, some of its key material remains tough to access in any decent form.

I originally wrote the piece I have butchered for this one in March 2008, on Myspace (remember that), in reaction to the exciting waves of bassline and UK funky then reinvigorating the world of UKG. It looks a bit embarrassing now, with more writing experience, although I continue to applaud my own willingness to be open about my innocent appreciation of things I love but am not truly part of.

The most notable misstep in my original piece was the presumption that bassline would become the latest enormous chart sensation. Like happy hardcore before it, the ball was, in reality, fumbled. Instead of hoped-for freaky innovation, the producers also opted, as many in years gone by, for smoothed-out commerciality (in unholy alliance with low-grade grime crossovers), although the main adversarial issues seem to have been police crackdowns and the London-centric ‘cool police’. Although I was long aware of such problems with Niche in Sheffield (the genre’s spiritual home), it appears that the police interference had a devastating effect across the board ( Banned From Sheffield: How Jamie Duggan fought for bassline… And won (ukf.com) ). This largely explains why many of the bassline producers gravitated towards the largely wack bass house/house & bass style so beloved of teenyboppers in recent years. Thank heavens that era is now largely over.

Niche reputedly specialised in an arguably unholy mixture of dated late 90s speed garage and ‘bassline house’ (think ‘Let Me Show You’ by Camisra, and MK’s ‘organ house’), way past their sell-by date (I still only really like a handful of Shaun Banger Scott bits in this style, one single 2009 Brummie CD EP, and one Virgo remix). Ultimately, though, this experiment unexpectedly created something magical. The crucial element here is the 4/4 beat. While undoubtedly skippy, the vast majority of the material favoured had a firm 4/4 beat, always favoured across all key scenes in the north of England from northern soul onwards. When they ran out of tunes to rinse, in time-honoured fashion, they made their own. Long, rumbling walls of bass, organs, and hoppy-skippy beats, with raggafied samples and gunshots over the top. Popular in Birmingham as well (pretty much the centre of a vinyl glut at the time, and now notable in the popularity of DJs such as Chris Lorenzo and Hannah Wants), B-side titles hinted of coke overload. Disenfranchised by London’s movement away from the holy 4/4 (despite a slight revival in the early noughties), and via messenger services and the like, northern producers began to exchange a new hybrid in the mid-00s which took these speed garage and bassline house influences and updated them with current R’n’B bootlegs, with influences from grime (regional grime producers were key here) and, most notably, with rococo basslines. Its most obvious comparison point was Sticky’s garage productions, concurrent with the early grime era. Southern producers such as Agent X, Delinquent (who featured Gemma Fox on their magical 2006 ‘Boxers’), and Dexplicit (Fox again, 2005’s ‘Might Be’) ran with that, and the north lapped it up. Key early pointers also included DJ Narrows’ superb 2001 4/4 tune ‘Saved Soul’, and early 00s DND work (Artwork, later part of dubstep supergroup Magnetic Man). A notable increase in output came in 2006, and 2007-9 were the genre’s original glory years. And the bulk of producers and up-&-comings delivering serious anthems to the scene came not from London and the south-east, but from Leeds (T2, Wittyboy, Nastee Boi), Bradford (TS7), Manchester (Murkz, Burgaboy, Subzero), Nottingham (Virgo, IllMana), Leicester (JTJ, H20, FB & Zibba), and Wolverhampton (EJ, TRC, Brett Maverick). EJ’s Ejucation mix series (all up on Soundcloud) is a good place to start, beginning as the bassline house began to be overtaken by the pure bassline numbers.

Distribution for serious UK garage music has often been woeful, with only high street compilations & the chart singles (‘Heartbroken’ by T2, ‘What’s It Gonna Be’ by H20, etc) making it all over the country, and this helped stymie the true development of bassline, although vinyl prices, dreadful video promos, and the leap to digital in some ways didn’t help. Years on, as an incorrigible vinyl fanatic, I still only have handful of bassline 12”s. Yes, you can now access this stuff the world over via Youtube etc, but decent, high-quality copies of full-length tunes (they are often hacked about to great effect, but in a way which obscures the original intentions, in the mix) are not always the easiest to come by, although the classic producers are increasingly putting out digital compilations of their original work. Material that would, for previous genres, be fiended after, is lost to being just more online links. At the time, I looked high and low for 12”s, succeeding only rarely, largely on the flip of UK Funky releases. The (mixtape) audience, going by comments online, were often extremely young, are probably now still only in their mid-twenties, and are seemingly happy enough with this chaotic model. Bassline originally, as all rave genres, largely ran off mixtape boxsets, and a 2007 ‘Pure Bass – Fantasy’ box from Stoke remains my key document of that era: seven bassline CDs, with many tracks repeated, but packed to the gills, with most tracks only lasting a minute or two in the mix. As with all rave mixes, it has taken me years to suss the majority of the track IDs. In the Resident Advisor piece linked above, DJ Q (from Huddersfield) talks about thousands of lost bassline tunes, the bad side of the digital revolution. My recent Discogs ferreting suggests more bassline tunes than one might imagine did make some sort of decent release, but too many only made white labels, promo CDs for commercial releases (before being snipped from the main release), mix CDRs, or Youtube’s grainy depths. Classics such as TS7 featuring Bianca’s ‘Seems Like’ appear to never have had any decent release whatsoever, despite TS7 going on to be a big name in bass-oriented house, and Bianca Gerald having kept at the vocal turns ever since.

T2 hit biggest, with ‘Heartbroken’, a gorgeous, smashed-vocal garage dub so popular that it even inspired a Jersey Club refix. His catalogue was immediately deep, although I get the impression he has stopped adding to it. One complaint about bassline, including some of the T2 work, regards the untutored vocals, which can sometimes be rather flat, and certainly lacking in dynamics compared to the dazzling US vocalists featured on some earlier UK garage pieces (I refer here, as always, to TJ Cases’ remarkable ‘Do It Again’). I kinda like that - it shows amateur enthusiasm not far removed from punk, and most obviously links to lover’s rock, as does the production at times: it gives a feeling of melancholy entirely suited to the vocals. Other bassline heroes include TS7, who briefly brought to the fore sassy female garage MC T Dot. His productions also include ‘Smile’, one of my very favourite bassline tracks, full of that Simon Reynolds-quoted 'weird energy’ possessed by DJ Hype & co in the early nineties. Male bassline vocalists such as Ideal also remain unfairly forgotten, although some of the female vocalists have gone on to work in related genres since bassline’s peak.

Paleface, an ex-member of London garage rap crew Stonecold GX, runs Northern Line Records (FB, TRC, Wittyboy, Nastee Boi), something of a quality mark for bassline productions, while also making highly successful UK Funky tunes as part of Crazy Cousinz, and later progressing into commercial house territory. He chronicled much of bassline’s high-water mark (including being married to Kyla, since sampled by Drake). Wolverhampton-based Northern Line signing TRC proved particularly adaptable, spewing out a legion of original tunes and remixes before retreating for a while to grime. Leeds’ Nastee Boi was a favourite of mine at the time, with his pitch-black gangsta bassline tunes, but pushed on towards a mixture of underwhelming R’n’B vocal cuts and nursery grime toons. Wittyboy started similarly punishingly but also went smoother, unbalancing the classic bassline rough and smooth combination.

Now that the dubiously poisonous rep of Niche has been dispatched, the key bassline acts have returned to their key battleground, and the genre seems in full throttle again. Much of the new material seems a little one-dimensional to me: producers invariably big up Bristol’s My Nu Leng as, I suppose, a bridge from bro-step to 4/4. Everything, as acknowledged by the DJs, is huge drops and nothing much else. It still sounds pretty hot though – not the updated lover’s rock of a decade ago, but worth supporting. Bassline is NOT finished!

#bassline #bassline house #niche #organ house #brostep #speed garage #uk garage

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mobius-prime · 5 years ago

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151. Sonic the Hedgehog #85

The Big Payback

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Frank Gagliardo

So Eggman is quite peeved that Sonic stopped his plans to destroy Station Square via ancient water monster. However, he has a plan to get back at Sonic - and as with many of his previous plans, it involves a robotic duplicate of his archnemesis…

Sonic and the Freedom Fighters are in Station Square, which is in the midst of trying to clean up the mess left by the attack, being thanked and awarded by the mayor for saving their city. Suddenly, the ceremony is interrupted by the appearance of Silver Sonic II, which is significantly smaller in size than its original counterpart.

Sonic leads his robotic nemesis on a wild goose chase across the city to draw fire away from the innocents at the ceremony. Big snags Silver Sonic II's leg with his fishing rod, and Tails tries to attack it while it's stuck, but he gets knocked aside into Big as the mecha breaks free and continues its pursuit of its quarry. Sonic and it finally crash through a window into the ground level of a building that's been structurally compromised by the flood, something Silver Sonic II uses to its advantage.

The building falls on top of them both, and Eggman, watching from his base, cackles, knowing that Silver Sonic II is sturdy enough to survive such an impact. The Freedom Fighters desperately dig into the rubble only to find a hole in the ground beneath it, indicating that Sonic dug his way to safety through the ground. As he pops back out and continues to fight the robot, Nicole, Sally and Nate try to discern its potential weaknesses.

Damn, if Eggman somehow found an infinite power supply, why did he waste it on one measly little robot? You'd think he'd insert that into an Ultimate Annihilator Mk. II or something and get to work erasing existence. Sonic is shaken free from Silver Sonic II midair, and when Tails catches him, Silver Sonic II straight up jettisons his own foot into Tails' head as payback. Sonic becomes enraged at seeing his friend knocked out by the long-range kick, and this gives him enough strength to deal the final blow against his foe.

What indeed? Eggman certainly doesn't seem too fazed by Silver Sonic II's loss, as he installed a homing beacon in it for this very possibility, and intends to simply wait until the Freedom Fighters leave the city unattended and then waltz in to fix up his robot and get to conquerin'. However, the Freedom Fighters certainly don't seem too worried, leaving the city after saying goodbye to Big, who's heading back to the Mysterious Cat Country with Froggy in tow, and they hop in their aircraft only for it to immediately begin to careen out of control.

Sally orders Sonic and Tails to do some reconnaissance for signs of life nearby (why, I have no idea - they crashed like not even a mile from Station Square from the looks of it), and shoots Amy down when she tries to ask to go along. Nate, inspecting the damage, finds it to be the result of sabotage, and while he worries about who may have done it (the idea that it may have been, you know, Eggman, or the robot they were just fighting, doesn't seem to cross his mind), Eggman himself waltzes straight into the city like he didn't just try to murder everyone in it. Somehow he doesn't get immediately arrested on the street, and instead he finds his robot as planned - only Silver Sonic II is already repaired, and has been reprogrammed by Nate to serve as Station Square's loyal protector from now on! That's actually some damn good thinking on his part. Amusingly, Eggman races out with his former creation on his heels while shouting that "Payback is such a glitch!" which is maybe the closest this comic has come to actually swearing so far.

Home & Back

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils/Colors: Diamond Rose Studios

The art in this issue is really bizarre, for some reason - it's credited in its entirety to "Diamond Rose Studios," without elaborating on who actually worked on what, and the art style, particularly the shading, is pretty noticeably different from the style of other artists for the comic. If anything, it comes across much more like amateur work you might find on DeviantArt rather than official art for a licensed video game comic. But hey, it's not bad art, so no real problem here. Oh, and Rotor's finally back! It's been so long since we've seen him… *checks back* twenty-four issues, in fact! We unfortunately find him now in a nasty predicament - his bathysphere is taking on water fast, and he's not having any success radioing for help. He thinks back on how his last few months have been - shortly after he left to find his family, he indeed found them safe and sound with the help of the Arctic Freedom Fighters.

This issue seems to take place just shortly after Eggman's return, because Rotor recounts how just recently his family all fell under the mind control spell again, once more trying to kill him and forcing him to run for his life in his bathysphere, which was then damaged, leaving him stranded in his current predicament. Honestly, I have to point out right now that the timeline of these early eras is aaaall over the place. Issues are constantly throwing out random amounts of time, claiming that X amount of months have passed between this event and that event, only to claim a different amount of time between similar events over here and there. I mean, I got the initial impression that Robotnik had only died a maximum of maybe five months before Eggman's arrival, and yet here Rotor is claiming it had been nearly a year? Then on top of that he apparently spent months hanging out with his family in the North Sea, easily making it over a year since Robotnik's death - and yet the timeline of StH#72 and beyond clearly indicates that mere days passed in between his leaving and Eggman's return, yet here he is, claiming to have spent months with his family unmarred by any negative circumstances. Even if you argue that maybe the mind control was a delayed effect and only started back up right around now during the Chaos fiasco, the early issues of this era seem to indicate that not more than a few weeks have passed between Eggman's arrival and the Sonic Adventure adaption - this is his first evil world domination plot since his return, after all. What I'm saying is that the amounts of time that various issues claim have passed between most of these key events just don't line up with each other at all, so you really have to take any character's claim of months or years between events with a gigantic grain of salt. I don't know why they didn't put more effort into maintaining a consistent "schedule" if you will of events, if only for consistency's sake, but then again this bothers me probably more than most, just because I have a strong need for narrative consistency in my own stories. It's just another one of those odd plot holes that we kind of have to ignore to get anywhere.

Rotor, having finished with his chronologically-impossible recounting of previous events, realizes that the water leaking into his bathysphere is coming entirely too close to a mass of live wires, and makes the decision to abandon ship, preferring to risk a long swim back to the surface.

Well, at least these friendly fellas have got his back. Hopefully we'll see more of him back with the main Freedom Fighter chapter soon, because having him head off to find his family honestly felt like an excuse to just get rid of him as a character for a while, and I resent that, because Rotor is a big chubby bro and we deserve to see more of him being a badass sweetheart.

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 85 #writer: karl bollers #pencils: ron lim #pencils: diamond rose studios #colors: frank gagliardo #colors: diamond rose studios

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sportsleague365 · 5 years ago

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This article forms part of our Profit Players feature series, which is where Football Transfer Tavern takes a look at how well a player has fared since being signed or sold, using statistical figures and statements from pundits to prove how good of a deal the club managed to achieve. Tanguy Ndombele’s future at Tottenham Hotspur hangs in the balance, while several of his teammates are set to leave the club in the summer. Jose Mourinho is acutely aware that he will be hampered by a tight budget in the transfer market, which means he will have to offload players to fund new signings, focusing on free agents and swap deals to revamp his squad. However, fans should be reassured that Dele Alli is one player who won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Ever since he arrived at White Hart Lane from MK Dons in February 2015, Alli has established himself as a firm favourite with the Tottenham fan base. Alli moved to north London from Milton Keynes for £5m and was loaned back to the Dons for the rest of the 2014/15 season as part of the deal. The midfielder, who was also wanted by Newcastle United at the time, scored 16 goals in 39 games in the Championship for Karl Robinson’s side. He picked up the Young Player of the Year award at the Football League Awards which arguably set the tone for the rest of his career. A year later, he beat his teammate Harry Kane to the PFA Young Player of the Year trophy for the 2015-16 season. Despite the fact he wasn’t expected to immediately break into the first team, Alli netted 10 goals in 33 appearances in his first full season in the Premier League. He scored his first league goal for Spurs in only his second game, coming off the bench to head home the equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Leicester City. His heroics on the pitch didn’t go unnoticed as he was soon called up for international duty. He started for England for the first time in November 2015, scoring against his clubmate Hugo Lloris in the 2-0 victory over France. Perhaps aware of lingering interest from some of the club’s closest rivals, Daniel Levy convinced Alli to sign a new deal, keeping him at the club until at least 2021. Signing the extension spurred him on to even greater heights as he subsequently agreed to sign another contract, which extended his stay at Spurs for another year. He bettered his tally of the previous season by scoring 18 goals in 37 league games in 2016/17, although the Lilywhites missed out on the Premier League title. During Mauricio Pochettino’s final full season in charge, Alli only scored five times in the Premier League. However, he saved his best performances for the Champions League and supplied three assists as Spurs mounted a surprising charge towards the final in Madrid. The Englishman picked up two assists and Lucas Moura bagged a last-minute winner to round off a resounding comeback against Ajax in the second leg of the semi-final. Although Alli and his team-mates ultimately fell short in their attempts to lift the coveted trophy, that Spurs came so close bodes well for the future. It is fair to say that the England international has achieved so much in such a short amount of time, as it is worth remembering that he is still only 24 years old. He struggled with a hamstring injury at the start of the season and he missed two games as a result. Nevertheless, Alli is the club’s third-highest goalscorer this term, just behind Kane and Son Heung-min, as he has scored nine goals in all competitions so far. Evidently, all of his hard work has certainly paid off, as his valuation has risen sharply ever since he arrived at White Hart Lane. Starting at a mere £4.5m in July 2015, his market value has skyrocketed to £72m by March 2020. He is currently valued at £57m via Transfermarkt, but this slightly reduced figure is likely a consequence of the coronavirus crisis. As Alli is still only young, his valuation will no doubt increase if Spurs can reach the lofty heights of some of their fiercest rivals. Nevertheless, signing him for just £5m was a stroke of genius by Daniel Levy, as he has been rewarded with three consecutive top three finishes and a historic Champions League final appearance. The midfielder has had a stellar career at Tottenham so far and there could be plenty more to come from him. Tottenham fans, do you think Dele Alli has been an absolute bargain? Let us know in the comments below! Click here to comment on this articleorGive us feedback on your Football Transfer Tavern experience #DanielLevy #TottenhamHotspur #HarryKane

#DanielLevy #TottenhamHotspur #HarryKane

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strange-destinations · 6 years ago

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Dear Yuletide Author Letter

(Please ignore this if you don’t know what this is about!)

Hello and thank you so much for writing something for me!! I adore seeing what people come up with for Yuletide and I am super excited for what you end up producing. I want this to be a good and enjoyable experience for you as a writer, so don't try to second-guess yourself too much - just have fun making whatever it is!

Squicks/DNWS - no sex, please! (And it also follows that I'd rather like to avoid any noncon, kinky stuff even if it's nonsexual, any other sort of sexual content, etc - that's just not my sort of thing, really.) Romance is all right, if that's the way that you want to take things, but I much prefer close friendships and family dynamics. However!! I am pretty much completely fine with body horror/violence, hurt/comfort, etc.

I love good dialogue, character interaction, twist endings, and imaginative plots - and worldbuilding! Happy endings are preferred but not necessary if it just isn’t working for you.

AUs are... fine and good, as far as I can think of! (Obv no A/B/O or sex-related stuff please, but) canon divergence, fantasy, high school, etc seem all good to me! Especially if there’s a whole lot of clever nods to original canon in there.

And I've just looked at all the fandoms that I've requested, and realized this: if you happen to know more than one of any of these fandoms and feel like writing a crossover between them, I would be delighted to see it and you should absolutely go for it.

Onto the fandoms!

Fandom: Ruby Redfort series - Lauren Child

Available: I managed to acquire a copy of the full series online via my local library - and the physical copies were at my local library too. I don't have a link to them, I'm afraid!

My sideblog: agentredfort.tumblr.com

Tvtropes page: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/RubyRedfort

Characters: *** Any from *** Ruby Redfort, Hitch, Blacker, LB

About the fandom: This series is very dear to my heart - I dragged its fandom out of the depths of Tumblr singlehandedly a year or two ago and have been creating content for it ever since

Prompts/suggestions:

I'd love to see some casefic! Blacker and Ruby working together to solve a puzzle or problem - either serious or mundane - or Hitch and Ruby on a stakeout of some sort. Or both!

Spectrum office shenanigans - stuff that happens between books, when Ruby and everybody else aren't in mortal danger and that LB will most likely glare disapprovingly at.

On the angstier side of things, if you want to stick Ruby in even more mortal danger than usual I am ALL RIGHT WITH THAT. Rescue missions hell yeah.

I feel like I'll be delighted with whatever you create, tbh. I can’t think of many ways you could go wrong with it.

Fandom: Bernice Summerfield (Big Finish Audio)

Available: Via the Big Finish website, and all of the boxsets from Epoch to New Frontiers are available for free on Spotify! Just look up Bernice Summerfield there.

My sideblog: it's actually just my normal blog, believe it or not! therogueofblood.tumblr.com/tagged/bernice-summerfield

Tvtropes page: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/BerniceSummerfield

Characters: *** Any from *** Bernice Summerfield, Irving Braxiatel, Jack, Ruth

About the fandom: It's like if Indiana Jones was shorter, actually did his job, and was a kickass woman who was also the Doctor's companion at one point! And also she has a considerably larger family than Indiana Jones. Her spinoff kind of transcends a lot of forms of media - she's in comics, print, animations, audio dramas, and one really hilariously terrible sort-of-fanfilm made by Lisa Bowerman and Sylvester McCoy when they were on some kind of cruise together. And it more or less transcends genre too. There's been musical episodes right alongside the episode where someone very dear to her manipulates someone else very dear to her into killing (you guessed it) someone who is also very dear to her. It's a wild ride. Anyway.

Prompts/suggestions:

What I would most LOVE to see is some interaction between Benny and Braxiatel. Whenever you would like to set it - be it on Dellah, the Collection, Legion, or elsewhen/where - just them working together/snarking together/robbing a bank or art museum together. Or even just sitting down and having dinner together!

Some family/friendship content based on the Legion-era - adventures around/based in the White Rabbit; Brax cheating at Monopoly during family games night, everybody conspiring to throw Benny a surprise birthday party, etc.

Failing that, just… a good Benny story would be fantastic! Archaeology, adventure, any other combinations. Any era, any time.

EDIT: I’d also be really delighted if you did something related to one of the newest audios, Braxiatel In Love. Some missing scenes (esp. post Benny figuring what was up with Veronica the first time) or some aftermath, etc.

Fandom: Tanis (Podcast)

Available: all episodes at http://tanispodcast.com/

My sideblog: meer-katnip.tumblr.com

Tvtropes page: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Podcast/Tanis

Characters: *** Any from *** Nic Silver, Geoff Van Sant, Meerkatnip, Veronika Pilman

About the fandom: Ahhh, Tanis. What a goddamn weird podcast. I love the characters and the mystery of the show and the atmosphere (!! The atmosphere) but the pacing is not the best, I'll be the first to admit. I love Nic and Geoff (Karl?? Whatever his name is this week. I refer to him as 'Geoff' generally just for consistency's sake.) a lot, but my heart (as you may have guessed from my blog title) is reserved for Meerkatnip.

Prompts/suggestions:

If you feel like writing Geoff/Nic, go for it! Same goes for poly Meerkatnip/Geoff/Nic because that's very good (but I'd prefer not to see MK/Nic or MK/Geoff).

Worldbuilding!!!! This series really benefits from people adding to it in their own ways

Continuation of where Season 4 left off, or some earlier encounter with Tanis, or an exploration of any of the related myths and mysteries

Crossovers (stealth or otherwise) with The Black Tapes are also DEFINITELY on the table

Meerkatnip is a really good character. This is not a suggestion, it is a fact.

Fandom: Gallifrey (Big Finish Audios)

Available: Via the Big Finish website, again.

My sideblog: none, just my regular blog again - http://therogueofblood.tumblr.com/tagged/gallifandom

Tvtropes page: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Audioplay/Gallifrey

Characters: Irving Braxiatel, Ace McShane

About the fandom: Hmmm… it's like, uh - like the Office and House of Cards got married and had a baby, but on an alien planet. Except it's absolutely nothing like that. Basically, Gallifrey is a mess as far as politics goes, and the current President is trying her best not to let everything go to hell (with the help of her - friends? Colleagues? People who are trying to undermine her at every turn? It's hard to tell) and a bunch of terrible things happen, and then the Time War starts. It is, much like everything else in the Doctor Who universe, a wild, wild ride.

Prompts/suggestions:

……..sorry for being restrictive with this one as far as the characters go, but I just want to see some interactions between Ace and Brax. I have absolutely no idea why but I just have this strange craving for it. He’s basically her uncle right

They seemed to be getting on quite well pre-Soldier Obscura. Some good, non-angsty interactions between them would be, well, ace! Somebody made a post about them teaming up to pull pranks on Narvin and other Time Lords and that’s a frankly adorable idea. Alternately:

go full angst/horror/etc. Missing scenes from Soldier Obscura, stuff after Soldier Obscura (them meeting during late-game Time War/afterwards).

If you would like to write this for me I would be eternally grateful. If you don’t know what Dr. Nyar is, don’t worry about it

Or whatever other direction you can think of!

Again, thank you for writing for me, and I hope you get something awesome in return from your own writer!

EDIT: I’m also open to receiving IF fics! Additional information over here if that’s something you feel like doing!

#yuletide #kitty rambles #2018

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fenghuileng · 8 years ago

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揭秘明星街拍背後經濟鏈：拍一次至少花費上萬

大陸直連看禁聞:https://j.mp/jproxy

設計圖片

1966年，紐約時尚攝影師比爾·坎寧漢（Bill Cunningham）厭倦��T台上模特們千篇一律的High Fashion冷漠臉和XS號超瘦身材，轉而扛起相機走上曼哈頓街頭，抓拍起行色匆匆的時髦路人，為了等到一個令人目眩的驚喜，他常常“花上幾天、幾周、甚至幾年的時間”。1978年，《紐約時報》為他的這些照片開設了專欄《在街上》。從此，時尚不再是超模、好萊塢明星的專屬，“街拍”作為獨立標籤延續至今，為素人們提供了秀場和實用穿衣指南——這正是其意義所在。

但去年6月去世的“街拍鼻祖”比爾可能怎麼也沒想到，在地球另一端的中國，繞了一圈，“街拍”的意義又倒退回了50年前，再度成為明星們事業版圖的重要組成部分。而在這些數量龐大的照片背後，一條橫跨娛樂圈和時尚圈的經濟鏈條已經悄然形成。

Part1.被“玩壞了”的機場街拍

當紅毯變成網紅的戰場後，明星們的戰場又轉移到了哪兒？答案是：機場。連范冰冰都無心在戛納電影節與“五星紅旗姐”爭艷了，反正她早已憑落地法國時一套潮帥潮帥的機場look佔據了媒體版面。

僅上周四一天，就有“高筒襪少女”吳昕、“補丁亮了”霍建華、“大眼賣萌獨行俠”劉愷威、“愛讀書”的海清等一眾明星在全國各地的機場被拍到，人還沒上飛機，倩影卻早已上了頭條。各大娛樂網站最醒目的焦點圖位置，儼然成了常年連載的“機場圖集”。

僅7月6日一天，吳昕、霍建華、劉愷威、海清等明星的機場街拍就登上了各大網站

“機場圖已經被玩壞了。”曾一手將范冰冰打造成“范爺”、現任鹿晗經紀人的楊思維如是說。她曾在接受媒體採訪時分析：最初，大部分明星在私下外出時並不太講究穿著，但隨著大陸狗仔偷拍勢頭的迅猛發展，他們的鏡頭往往埋伏於明星頻繁出沒的機場附近。於是一撥真正有好品味的明星在無意間“冒”了出來，大家才意識到，原來機場是一個“私服曝光的合理應用場景”。

那現在呢？“現在就很誇張了，我有時去機場碰見別的明星，有攝影師打燈的。”

豈止打燈，妝容、髮型、服裝、pose，乃至機場這個地點，都可能經過明星團隊的精心設計。那看似漫不經心的一個趕飛機瞬間，很有可能花費上萬，並且需要提前至少一周開始準備。這種被稱為“機場街拍”的行為，實際上早已偏離了“街拍”（street snap）的真正本質。

看似最不刻意的舞台

在成為眾人公認的“機場女王”之前，楊冪在機場也遭遇過極其尷尬的場面：2015年，她和陳偉霆錄完《十二道鋒味》(在線觀看)坐同一班飛機回北京，在機場的行李區，突然一群粉絲衝上來將陳偉霆團團圍住，每個人都掏出手機、相機對著他“咔咔”猛拍。而此時楊冪的粉絲由於進不來，還乖乖地守在出口。

這不過是兩年前發生的一幕，但目睹了全程的楊冪工作人員小科（化名）提起來時卻覺得恍如隔世：“現在走到哪裡都有粉絲跟著，可當時誰能想到粉絲追星能追到行李區啊！”

如今的楊冪，已然是眾人公認的機場街拍女王，回頭率超高

小科認為，在某種意義上，是韓國粉絲文化開啟了大陸明星的機場街拍時代：在“老粉”們還謹守“規矩”，不接機、不偷拍、不po照的時候，受韓粉文化影響的“新粉”們已經知道從哪裡獲取“愛豆”的航班信息，並帶著“長槍短炮”，光明正大地記錄、發布著偶像私下的一切蹤跡。“他們覺得這是粉絲的權利，也是為你做點什麼的表現——你不知道，他們真的很專業，專業的器材、專業的修片，專業的技術。不比職業攝影師差，更別說��們工作人員這些手機黨了。”

不過，無論是狗仔的機場偷拍還是粉絲的“精修大片”，都還只是娛樂新聞的佐料，並沒有被賦予“街拍”以時尚意義。但它們的存在，的確在日後成功扭轉了明星們的街拍態度：與其邋遢著被別人偷拍，不如自己打扮精緻的“自拍”。

而在此之前，“街拍”仍然是時尚圈的事：南方有時尚社區P1.cn，北方有潮流匯聚地三里屯。堆砌起其盛名的，都是將時尚融入日常生活的素人和願意“為一個驚喜等幾天”的時尚捕手——多麼血統純正！

明星們當然也會來時尚界串個門。比如時尚雜誌《紅秀》就有自己的街拍專欄，每期邀請一位明星，在街頭、咖啡館或城市地標建筑前拍主題大片；時尚達人韓火火、《時尚芭莎》前時裝創意總監李暉等人，更是充分發揮著自己的人脈之利，在微博上創建了專屬的明星街拍賬號。

雜誌街拍，不過是將攝影棚移到了室外，其本質依舊是擺拍

但誰都知道，這些所謂的“街拍”，不過是將雜誌大片的攝影棚搬到了室外而已。妝容清淡一些，髮型隨意一些，服裝日常一些，這並不能掩蓋其“擺拍”的本質。而對這個時代的大眾來說，有什麼比明星的真實面目更具吸引力呢？於是，機場，這個所有人都行色匆匆、無暇也無需考慮形象的地方，成了“展示自我”的最佳舞台。

而跟很多明星合作過的造型師李顏俊（化名）還有另一種猜測：“機場是一個功能性很強的地方，它能傳遞一種信息：如果你總是出現在這兒，大家會說這個人好忙啊，整天飛來飛去。而在娛樂圈，忙就說明你紅嘛。”

part2.“機場女王”楊冪的日常

身為楊冪團隊的一員，小科坦陳，對於“機場女王”這個頭銜，她們有時候也頗為煩惱：“一到年底各大媒體要衝KPI，但凡微博上有狗仔或網友曝出的楊冪機場圖，就都能登上焦點圖，有時還是很久以前的老照片。這就給大家營造出一種我們總在街拍的錯覺。事實上，楊冪這一年大部分時間都在劇組，我們也希望大家能更多關注她的作品，但是沒辦法啊。”

不過在她看來，楊冪本人倒是很享受這種曝光機會——以一種大眾無法感同身受的角度。

女明星有時也很無奈。作為愛漂亮的年��女孩，平面模特出身的楊冪本就比一般人更願意花時間在時尚穿搭上：她去上海出席個活動，利用僅有的兩個小時空閑時間，也要溜去商場買買買；工作人員去劇組探班，發現她酒店房間里堆著一摞未拆包裹，全是網購的各種衣服。但職業性質��無情地給她上了道枷鎖，儘管買了那麼多，但她卻很少有機會穿——要麼在劇組，穿角色的衣服；要麼出席各種活動，穿造型師指派的禮服。

“很多衣服吊牌都沒有摘，冪就送給身邊的工作人員了。”對此，小科也流露出一種惋惜，那是女孩子間講述同伴遭遇時那種“我能懂”的心疼。“幾乎唯一能展示她自己衣品的場合就是機場。”只有這時候，她才可以脫下小高跟、緊身裙，穿上自己鍾愛的T恤、衛衣和破洞牛仔褲。“這些‘破褲子’差點在一次大掃除中，被她媽全部扔掉。”小科打趣到。而這，也無意間也開啟了楊冪“自黑”後的另一種打開方式。

但凡被楊冪“加持”過的服飾，定然會成為某寶爆款

於是，你便看到了楊冪“機場女王”的養成軌跡：在某個冬日嚴寒的清晨，她一襲短裙，露出白嫩大長腿；在某個夏日酷熱的午後，她又衛衣套頭，捂得嚴嚴實實。小科也曾向她提出過這樣反季節的穿搭是不是“不太對”，但楊冪堅持：“再不穿就過期了，我就是想穿！”

當然，如果你是擔心偶像因此感冒或中暑，那可真是有點操心過度。實際上，明星們從酒店上車出發到機場、登機飛行、落地後再上車回酒店的整個環節中，全程處於空調的溫控之下，跟普通人對季節的感受完全不一樣。

墨鏡紅唇，幾乎是所有人氣女星的機場標配

不過，對於楊冪這種人氣明星來說，機場街拍中出鏡率相當高的鴨舌帽、墨鏡和口罩，倒不全是為了拗造型。一般來說，戴帽子是因為髮型亂，戴墨鏡是因為沒化眼妝——秉持著“不化妝不見人”的原則，也幾乎只有在飛機上，明星們才能讓皮膚自由呼吸一會兒。帽子、墨鏡和口紅是楊冪的“出行三寶”，素顏戴個墨鏡，抹個口紅，就能塑造“氣色很好”的假象。而當口紅都懶得抹的時候，口罩就可以出場了。

Part3.當街拍成為上升階梯

沒人能說清機場街拍是什麼時候開始“變質”的。也許是楊冪憑“機場女王”的頭銜又圈了一大堆粉之後？又或者是高圓圓婚後影視作品產量驟減，卻仍靠一個個機場look佔據焦點圖、穩坐“直男女神”的位置之時？更有可能是周冬雨的大眾好感度隨私服品味一路飆漲之際？無論如何，一夜之間，幾乎所有人氣明星都開始營造私服icon的人設，尤其是處在上升期的藝人更是變本加厲的以機場為戰場。

“在打造新人的過程中，不能說它（街拍）是最重要的，但肯定是要有的。現在是讀圖時代，總得讓人先認識你吧。”旗下籤了很多“小鮮肉”“小鮮花”的經紀人君亮（化名）直言不諱。

除了出演熱門影視劇外，機場街拍早已成為90後小花的必修課

但並不是所有人都有靠街拍圈粉的實力——或者說，“要麼有盛世美顏，要麼是時尚達人”。幸好，這兩者都可以“打造”。

一場典型的機場街拍是這樣打造的：

首先，聯繫造型師設計街拍當天的穿搭，並給其留出時間向品牌借衣服，這個過程至少需要一星期；

然後約好化妝師、髮型師，拍攝當天提前做好妝發——照片中看起來像是剛起床揉了揉的“睡不醒頭”和清透的“素顏”，工作量基本是兩小時起；

妝發完畢，就可以出發去機場跟攝影師會合了，算上安檢和登機的時間，至少得提前3小時到達機場，如果一次要拍三四個造型，那就5小時起了。

君亮給我們算了一筆賬：服裝造型1500至3000一套，妝發費用2000到5000不等，攝影師拍一場也有2000到5000。這樣算下來，一套4個造型的機場街拍至少上萬元的花費，對小藝人來說絕不是一筆小數目。

但這已經是新媒體時代的福利了。過去藝人想要曝光，只有上雜誌這一種方法。而時尚雜誌別說封面，連內頁都一頁難求。只有大明星才是寵兒，新人只能勤勤懇懇唱歌、演戲、走紅、拿獎，才能獲得這張入場券。而如今，只要你去機場拍幾個小時，照片傳到網上，便完成了一輪宣傳。更何況，這一次拍的照片可以分4次發，按照一個月一次的頻率，小半年的KPI就輕鬆完成了，回報是很明顯的。

“甚至有些十��線小藝人根本沒有出行計劃，特意去機場拍了照又原路回府。”採訪過程中，君亮忍不住向記者吐了個槽。

更精明的玩家會找准機會，最大限度降低成本。比如去異地給活動站台，主辦方往往會提供一筆妝發費，那就化好妝去機場，“蹭”一組街拍再飛。到了酒店，大堂、走廊、房間，也全都搖身變成拍照的場所，索性一次拍個夠本。

帶妝坐飛機當然辛苦，但沒有成為“大咖”就沒有資格任性，這是娛樂圈的基本法則。去狹小的廁所隔間換衣服，在眾目睽睽之下擺pose、補妝、弄頭髮，會不會很尷尬？我們還沒問完，便立刻感受到對面君亮飛過來一個大白眼：“這有什麼好尷尬的，演員的基本素養，好嘛。”

Part4.“被造型”下的icon誕生

不管小明星們博眼球的努力有沒有成功，毫無疑問的是，化妝、髮型、攝影、造型這些本已隨著時尚產業的低迷而在走下坡路的行當，又重新煥發了生機。

雖然街拍一次的酬勞並不如拍正式活動那麼高，但需求量大，總收入只增不減，還能跟著明星們蹭“環球旅行”。而從業者們需要做的只是稍稍改變一下風格：一切去繁從簡，達到一種“老娘根本沒有捯飭本來就很美”的效果。

名偵探趙五兒曾爆料，每一套機場街拍圖的背後，都有一個專業的攝影團隊操刀

君亮告訴我們，很多“攝影大師的徒弟”如今的職業志向已不再是進時尚雜誌或擁有自己的工作室，而是成為專職的活動跟拍攝影師。這樣既比為雜誌工作自由，又比成立工作室成本低。“成立一個工作室得雇兩個助手吧？得有辦公室吧？得時不時租個棚吧？可街拍一個人、一台相機就可以搞定所有。”

以小科所見，這兩年機場街拍的設備也越來越輕便。小巧的閃光燈、濾光片往單反機器上一插，路人不留心根本不會注意到這邊在拍大片，成片效果卻不亞於過去一人拍照、一人打燈、一人舉反光板的龐大架勢。而新近最流行的設備是一種跟人臉差不多大的球形燈，能發出很柔和的光，顯得皮膚特別好，但要注意拍攝時避免直視鏡頭，“那樣瞳孔里會有一個亮點，就穿幫了”。

“球形燈”已經成為時下街拍的必殺武器

然而，整個街拍產業鏈里最核心的環節還是服裝造型。

穿搭是街拍的靈魂。關之琳美了一輩子，不曾對哪個美人服過氣，卻在年逾50的時候悠悠地回答媒體：同輩香港女演員裡面，最欣賞的是劉嘉玲，因為“她會穿”。大美女尚且如此，就更能理解普通女生對“會穿”的羨慕，以及對“會穿”女明星的追捧了。這也可以解釋，為什麼小宋佳、江疏影等原本不算大熱的女星，近兩年能憑機場街拍迅速圈粉，成為“氣質女神”。

不過，看照片學穿搭可以，把照片中的明星當做品味本身來膜拜，那就大錯特錯了。讓我們來盤點一下街拍爆款造型的代表人物：

“下衣失蹤”：楊冪、宋茜、小宋佳、江疏影、王子文……好的，幾乎所有對時尚有追求的女星都熟練掌握了這個技巧；

“下衣失蹤”儼然成為了近年機場街拍的最熱搭配

運動潮牌：這就更不用說了，前幾年supreme火到幾乎人手一件，而傳說中“一件難求”的Vetements x Champion聯名款連帽衛衣，給它當過活體廣告牌的明星簡直數都數不過來，楊冪、宋茜、李宇春、黃子韜、黃曉明、關曉彤、郭碧婷、林允、李小璐、賈乃亮……男女老幼，統統不放過；

該系列聯名款衛衣，成為國內眾多明星的最愛單品，左起：林允、李宇春、宋茜

這還不夠“亂穿”？看看Oversize外套的擁簇者：霸氣的范爺、“我潮我潮我最潮”的宋茜、馬甲線少女袁姍姍、大長腿穿什麼都好看的唐嫣、這些都可以理解。但，當一向穿連衣裙走小公舉風的大甜甜都套上了Oversize，你還覺得這是她們的共同品味嗎？

近照里，連一向甜美的景甜也套上了最當紅的oversize衛衣

而真實原因是，大甜甜最近換了造型師，與吳亦凡、宋佳、宋茜一起，成為了這位昵稱“Fil小白”的90後新銳造型師的“作品”。而高圓圓、舒淇、迪麗熱巴、江疏影背後，有一個“共同的男人”韓火火。楊冪、周筆暢、周迅、陳坤則都是造型師姜成皓的客戶。

“機場look和真正的私服差別是很大的，”李顏俊毫不諱言，“大部分明星穿衣品味都很差——你以為你追的是‘明星同款’，實際上都是‘造型師同款’。”

Part5.互惠互利的時尚關係

事實上，在時尚界，小白、韓火火們才是真正的明星。

川妹子小白21歲就獲得了旅遊衛視的街拍大賽冠軍，並成為“街拍鼻祖”比爾·坎寧漢鏡頭下最年輕的中國IT Girl，從2016年起擔任時尚雜誌《YOHO！GIRL》的造型總監。

韓火火則是國內最早的時尚紅人。2009年，他以時尚雜誌編輯的身份出席米蘭時裝周，在Giorgio Armani大秀散場後，被當時最有名的街拍攝影師Scott抓拍到。第二天，他揚手招計程車的照片出現在Scott的街拍博客上，一夜成名。2013年，他登上“老佛爺”Karl Lagerfeld掌鏡的《THE LITTLE BLACK JACKET》，是該展覽中唯一被力薦的中國新生代時尚icon。他的微博，從2009年8月——也就是“一照成名”的半年後開通至今，已經擁有755萬粉絲，而明星街拍是其發布的主要內容之一。

在韓火火的微博里，可以看到他為各路明星拍攝的照片

他們受雇於明星，但又絕不僅僅是僱傭關係。2012年起，韓火火開始打造其街拍品牌“Fire Bible”，明星們不僅無償為其拍攝，還往往以“上榜”為榮。

而一個優秀造型師的價值也絕不僅僅是卓越的時尚品味，還有其背後的時尚資源——否則怎麼買得到“一件難求”的全球爆款，怎麼穿得上只看面子不看錢的一線品牌新款樣衣？

科普一下，很多一線品牌每一季會推出“樣衣”，只借不賣，且一款只此一件。能否借到，就看借的人夠不夠大牌了。這裡有兩層意思：一，你看到的那些明星“私服”，很有可能是借來的，拍完照片還得還回去；二，明星本人夠大牌，品牌當然會借，本人不夠大牌的話，只能靠大牌的造型師出馬了。

有時候，這種權力關係也會顛倒過來。品牌也有“咖位”，一線品牌高高在上，借你衣服穿就已經很給面子；二線品牌常常會給大明星們寄當季新款，希望在你的街拍照中曝個光——想想這些年被楊冪帶火的MK和一批小眾潮牌們吧；三線或以下，除了送衣服，還要直接付酬勞。

最養眼的還是品牌與明星“門當戶對”的合作。比如正在進行的巴黎高定時裝周，身為迪奧中國品牌區形象大使的黃軒就穿著一身迪奧在機場來了組街拍。

黃軒身著迪奧亮相機場

小科回憶，大概從三四年前開始，機場街拍成了明星們出征時裝周、電影節的標配。不過，她認為這與時下所見的日常街拍的性質完全不同：日常街拍偏重於展示私服，是出於自我宣傳的需要；而受品牌邀請出席時裝周、電影節，街拍的目的就成了展示品牌，是一項任務。

君亮給我們解釋其中的邏輯：“品牌當然不會在合約里寫說，你必須在機場背我們家的包街拍，那太low了。但是呢，這是作為藝人你要回饋給品牌的東西。”

Part6.人生、街拍皆如戲

一個是“街拍女王”，一個是低調的文藝男演員，楊冪和黃軒有一點相同：他們只有在“回饋品牌”時才會特意去機場街拍——前者反正每次出現在機場都會有粉絲和媒體幫她拍，而後者完全無意去展示自己的私人品味。

明星們po出的日常微博中，街拍仍然佔據著重要的位置

“不是所有藝人都適合街拍的，”小科吐槽，“我們公司簽的那些小朋友，尤其是男生，他們就覺得說‘穿褲衩去機場怎麼了？很舒服很好啊，有什麼問題嗎？’我們天天跟他鬥爭，把參加時裝周的很帥的照片和路人拍到的大褲衩照片放在一起，你看，這就露餡了啊！這個時代，藝人還是應該有藝人的樣子。可下次在機場，你看見他遠遠的走過來，還是一個大褲衩。”

李顏俊也遭遇過這樣的“噩夢”。他的一個小花客戶，幾乎就是以一個月一次的頻率發機場街拍，妝容精緻、大牌加身、甜美可人，卻不小心被路人拍到了真正的“街拍照”——毫無輪廓的大T恤和運動褲，素顏，膚色暗沉，讓網友大跌眼鏡。

不過，這也沒有太大關係。大眾已經越來越習慣明星們“人生如戲”的套路了，下次再po出美美的街拍，也許會被他們視作“化腐朽為神奇的化妝術”的範本吧。

何況，一次“露餡”並沒有影響她的事業版圖——素顏照曝光後不久，小花過生日，那個總是出現在她街拍照醒目位置的國際大牌寄來了一束花和一件外套，“還蠻貴的，起碼好幾萬”。

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原文鏈接：揭秘明星街拍背後經濟鏈：拍一次至少花費上萬 - 娛樂新聞

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