#and i totally agree artists should share the process of their art as well because its fun to see all the inner workings and that | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

franki-lew-yo · 4 years ago

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I really hate 2d purists. No, not 2d animation. Not 2d animators.

2d purists.

The sad thing is it’s gotten to the point that I really cringe hearing any pro-2D sentiment at all. I hate the arguments I agree with because how often they're misused and weaponized by idiots.

Let me make my stance here clear - 2d is NOT appreciated and 3d is used for everything! The layman Karen-mom who doesn’t have an artistic bone in her body looks at stupidsmooth 3D Grubhub ads and assumes quality cause it “looks more real” (aka ‘rendered’). I know as much is true because I literally have a member of my family who told my sister and I that she thinks 3d is better (and also that she “tolerated THOSE movies for us kids”. Touching words. My sister was taking an animation course by the way). Combined that with the studios either using 2D for cheap stuff or finding good 2d animation too “costly”, I get it and I’m not even any animator. I'm just a worm an illustrator.

but holy HELL -

There’s a backlash from the artistic community that's it's own kind of insufferable and deserve to be addressed.

“(insert2Danimatedfilm) is better BECAUSE it's 2D!”

followed by: "Animation is a visual medium and the quality of the art affects how much the story means !!!!”

Yes. Totally. Animation is a visual medium and the look and style is important. Sadly, people use this excuse to really obnoxious ends, insisting that design being pretty is '' everything ''. When you treat a movie more as a special effects demo I get why you talk about the artistry at hand; but I’m sorry, visuals are not the only thing important and it’s why I’m also getting sick of the sameElsafacesyndrome rants too! There’s this attitude that's reads as "but it LOOKS better fromaproductionimage/teasertrailerwhichapparentlyisindicativeof all themovieactuallyis so it MUST BE better".

-“3D should only be used to make things look realistic!”

I think I know the logic this criticism is made in response to, and that’s the Sony + Illumination films which look just as good in 2D as they do in three dimensions. I know it feels like people are twisting this medium to try and make it like a classic cartoon when by all means people can and would love a classic cartoon being a classic cartoon. That I get- From the unsung 2D animator’s perspective, that’s more than valid !

But it’s a huuuuuuge slap in the face to 3d in saying it should only be used for "realistic animation" because

1: It’s not like realistic animation could age badly or look uncanny in the next few years. It's almost like technology is constantly improving, which I guess 2d animation never did and it was always the same technique and quality as every film that came after it.

2: The industry does treat 3d as a magic-moneymaker for this reason. Just listen to these people call the 2019 LION KING “live action” as if they’re embarrassed to call it animation. It IS animation! It would be impressive if you acknowledged that what it is, but like the CATS, you basically are treating it as just a neato tool to better your live action and not it's own artform - which it is!

3: By this “three-deeonly gud when real liek in da toystories” non-logic I guess 2d should ONLY be for flowyflowy SPACE JAM cartoons and maybe some Disney*. Just that though. You can’t do anything more with 2d. It’s never supposed to be realistic I guess. Good thing Richard Williams only did 'toons' and just toons that’s why we need 3d in the world I guess.

Wait no - that’s stupid.

"I HAVE to see the “Land Before Time 14″ when it comes out! I mean it’s a 2D animated film!"

Lost in the aether that is Youtube comment chains removed from kid's videos is a stream of this very VERY stupid argument supporting the buying of the 14th LAND BEFORE TIME film because it’s supporting 2D. My sister and I can be found on that chain arguing against this stupidity. All you have is my word, but trust me: it really did happen.

I’m sorry but...no.

Unless you have a friend or a family member who worked on these movies there’s no reason to see this and ESPECIALLY no reason to insist it’s a win for the 2D community if you buy up this crap - and I'm not judging if you do like it, but come on! LAND BEFORE TIME 14 isn't where your money should go if you really like this medium.

What’s so infuriating about this argument is you can tell it’s made by nonanimators. Real animators will tell you to support their movies cause they want some respect for their artform which is why there’s such a push from the PRINCESS AND THE FROGcrowd that you SEE and LOVE every 2d thing out there, regardless of how good it is because any recognition for it is k i n d o f what they're after!

Kiddy sequel schlock isn’t even in the same ballpark as KLAUS or WOLFWALKERS; these films DID have very limited theatrical runs (Klaus so it could be nominated; Wolfwalkers in places where theaters opened up after Covid) and should have been supported because they were labors of love made by people who love animation.

As other people have already pointed out, one of the reasons for the lack of interest in 2000sera2D animation is that the only films released alongside critical+financial 3D hits were cheaper 2D films that either coincided with daytime tv shows or should have been just direct-to-video. It’s not to say art couldn’t come out of these flicks, but dayum if it wasn’t abused as much as the texture software that era's CG used... Point being, should the world ever go back to normal: If you hear about an out-of-town showing an acclaimed 2D animated film, make time to trek out and see THAT!

Don’t give your money to see yet another made-for-tv movie on the big screen because all that tells the studio is: “yeah 2d IS cheap and only good for cheap stuff let’s just keep it cheap. Only 3d is important 8D 8D 8D !!!"

“I don’t understand how it works. So it sucks.”

This text is from an ANIMATOR btw.

“I don’t understand how it works” and “it’s just some computer rendering” is the exact same wave of logic the people who prefer cgi use.

The plebian Karen I mentioned earlier? She understands the basics of 2D animation as much as you did from one of those cruddy flash classes you took in middle-school. She 'understands' the basics cuz she watched how it was made on the DVD features or maybe back on the WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY. To her, the illusion is broken and she’s not impressed by 'just some drawings on paper'. You, an animator, know the process is more complicated and is intrigued by knowing how it’s made - not bored or disinterested -

Neither you nor Aunt Karen have really good cg-animation software at your house and unless you ARE a 3D animator you probably DON’T know all the ins-and-outs of how these movies are modeled, rendered, and animated.

Aunt Karen is bedazzled by them cause she doesn’t know how it works and the technical aspect makes her brain hurt so it might as well be magic and she can feel like a cool kid sharing Minion-memes. Aunt Karen is the nonartistic type who just wants to feel safe. You're not. You want to feel challenged.

I get it: you’re pissed off cause you’re in a field no one, including Aunt Karen, appreciates; told to work in cg which it's an artform you didn’t devote your life to and told to learn it cause THIS style sells! 3D is everywhere and is starting to look like 'garbage' even if you don’t animate 3D models yourself you just KNOW, I guess. Besides, you know all there is to know about 2d!! You know all there is to possibly know about this artform and have to fight this 'war' against "r e a l" animation! And I mean even when 3d software is there to use, it's not like you can actually make anything worth while in it, especially not anything that transcends the medium. Right Worthikids?

TL;DR: This argument is basically just " BWAAAAH I’M NOT GONNA USE IT I HAVE STANDARDS (a chip on my shoulder cuz art should be what I deem it to be) "

“PRINCESS AND THE FROG is-”

There’s a reason I can’t say I truly like PRINCESS AND THE FROG even though it's not even a bad movie! Like, stop reading this and watch PATF if you haven't it's good. It's my 'FROZEN', in that; I see a lot of potential in it I just think it needs some serious rewriting and that bugs me. Always have felt that way, tbh.

I dislike this movie because the response from the animation community seems to be it was perfect and the Academy was just Pixar-crazy with UP ((ftr, the Academy IS Pixar’s bitch and I personally advocate a sequel be made to WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY about Mike Eisner’s sabotage of the 2D department at Disney which is still in place now!- but that’s a story for another day)). I’m sorry but UP was just a better story. So was CORALINE. So was FANTASTIC MR. FOX. Honest to god it feels like poor PATF is brought up as just a talking point and never for it's own worth as a labor of love - which it was! I'd like to honestly know: had PRINCESS AND THE FROG come out now and been cg if it would have even half the defenders for it because now it doesn't "look" like how a Disney movie "should" look...

If you like PatF more than the currant Disney lineup because of it's culture, it's music, it's feminism, it's black representation? Awesome. Great. Those things should be appreciated and I never want that taken away from you. But if you seriously think PatF is better just for how it was animated and looks - I lowkey may hate you.

“ALL OF DISNEY’S LATEST MOVIES SHOULD HAVE BEEN 2D! THEY ALL LOOK AWFUL IN 3D!! ALL OF THEM!”

TANGLED, FROZEN, and MOANA? Yeah. Sure. But um, e x c u s e y o u- WRECK IT RALPH sooooo doesn’t work in 2d! It could have used different between the various worlds but it’s about hopping through different video games. I’m also of the opinion that ZOOTOPIA and BIG HERO 6 are fine the way they are. Their 3d is awesome.

The latest fairy tale Disney films are really big on their place alongside the 2D canon esp in marketing. They keep trying to mimic 2D to varying results though I don't think it works as well as the movie's I'd previously mentioned. Me personally, I would love a mix of 3D and 2D technology, like if the backgrounds in FROZEN still got to be 3D but the characters were handdrawn and shaded ala KLAUS ((sweet sigh)). But even then are they truly unwatchable just based on how they're animated to you?

MOANA would have been incredible in 2D but for the record - I don't think it feels out of place in it's style. It reminds me more of a Pixar movie with the heart of a Disney classic which is it's own just as good.

“2D is the oldest form of animation and it’s being replaced.”

Actually, if we’re talking animation in film, stop motion is the earliest form of animation. The stop motion animated THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED and TALE OF THE FOX predate Disney’s SNOW WHITE. And yes: stop-motion IS still a form of animation even if it’s a serious of pictures taken of real life things and not drawings, so don’t you dare come at me with the "but that's not animated"/"Technically it’s LIVE ACTION" crap or I’ll envoke the spirit of Sandman to get you at night.

“Every animated film would look better in 2D! Even PIXAR would look better in 2D!”

Again, Stop Motion.

No, I mean it.

Lemme ask: Would ISLE OF DOGS or FANTASTIC MR. FOX carry any of the same effect if they were generic 90s toons? I know NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS wouldn’t. Christ, don’t even get me started on Svankmajer!

Sometimes the problem is that a movie is envisioned with a specific artform in mind. Pixar started out with toys and bugs for a reason and that’s cuz they were always gonna be a 3d studio and they needed to first overcome the placisity of the models. Over the years they’ve gotten really good at effects and blending unrealistic proportions with real textures (and also not so much- ONWARD and THE GOOD DINOSAUR really needed some different character designs and yeah, I do think would have looked better with a 2d artstyle, but not the ones they had in their films. THE GOOD DINOSAUR needed more realistic-speculative looking dinos and ONWARD needed a grittier HEAVY METAL/BLACK CAULDRON appeal to its designs.) My point being that the problems with these movies aren’t even inherently the animation as much as it is a problem of style. As someone who runs a group speculating different styles and designs for movies and tv shows I’m all for envisioning a 2D ZOOTOPIA or Bluth-inspired FNAF. That’s amazing!

But that’s also the talk of fan artists and nerds and not the professional artists working on visualizing their stories!!

Since I ate, slept, and breathed NIGHTMARE in my youth I’ll use it as an example: All the concept art ever done for TNBC was on paper and 2D was used in the final film. However, even when Tim Burton was thinking of making it just a tv special it was always going to be stop-motion. NIGHTMARE’s puppet cast do work very well in two dimensions, believe me, but the film was made as a love letter to Rankin/Bass and the art form of stop-motion. Skipping to another Henry Selick-helmed project (haha), JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH was also always envisioned as a multimedia film to give it a truly dream-like atmosphere. If you know anything about Henry Selick you’ll know he’s 1) a perfectionist, and 2) loves mixed media and different types of animation and puppetry at once. That’s why he was the perfect pick to direct TNBC at the time, why JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and CORALINE are so beautiful and why MOONGIRL, his only fully 3d film, doesn’t have the same appeal.

As for what films I couldn’t imagine NOT being 3D? Probably; 9, Padak, Next Gen, Soul, Finding Nemo, the Toy Story films, Wreck-it-Ralph (as previously mentioned), Wall.E, Waltz with Bashir, Robots, Inside Out, Arthur Christmas, The Painting, Happy Feet, Shrek, Enter the Spiderverse, Megamind… just naming a few here.

“I want a traditionally animated film [and by that I mean a 90s-Disney/Don Bluth looking movie] of ‘x'-popular live action/stage thing!”

Okay I’m cheating a bit but it’s my blog and so I’m gonna stick this one in because it’s related.

When I see musings about wanting live-action or CGI shiz to be in 2d again a lot of the time this argument actually boils down to " I want this to look like a 90s Didney movie ". Or, if it’s about animals - " I want it to look like a Don Bluth film! "

Like...there ARE other styles of animation out there...you know that right?

Frack, Disney themselves tried different styles throughout the 90s it’s just that the peak of the Disney renaissance films (LITTLE MERMAID, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ALADDIN, THE LION KING) and the many imitators that followed tended to have the same look to them where only film/animation nerds kept watching into the era that was TARZAN, HERCULES, and ATLANTIS along with the kids. Aunt Karen wasn't singing Part of your World in the carride with you every day.

The Don Bluth argument is especially irritating because...what exact feeling do you WANT from a movie if it looked Bluthish? Each of the four ‘quintessential’ Bluth movies (NIMH, AMERICAN TAIL, LBT, and ALL DOGS) have such a different feel to them that’s complimented by that style; SECRET OF NIMH is a drama about wild animals trying to understand humans; LAND BEFORE TIME is even more squarely about an animal’s perspective as there’s literally no humans around; AMERICAN TAIL uses animals stowing away on the ship to tell a story about refugees; and ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN is ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN.

What the frack are you even asking for with that because I think there’s a certain flavor to the Bluth-styled oeuvre as well as the 90s Disney catalogue that would clash too much stylistically with some films.

Also come on! Like some Bluthian-style 2d would really fix THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS or SCOOB!, bite me.

I think this fixation solely on these two hand drawn styles and nothing else is based on nostalgia goggles, refusing to step outside the norm and discover different films and feelings than Disney and Bluth, and just preference. Goin back to NIGHTMARE there will always be a special place in my heart for Henry Selick’s stop motion, but I couldn’t imagine CHICKEN RUN or ANOMALISA in it's unique style.

Also I’m tired of every time there’s a "lets make an animatic to ‘x’ musical theater song" it’s reliably just Disneyesque or realistic. WHY envision an animated version of the show at all if it doesn’t have A STYLE to it??!?! I’m sorry but 90s-Disney does NOT fit CABARET!

“3D is so CHEAP now! Why can’t they just do 2D again?”

I think - on the cusp of the 2020s and the Grubhub hatedom, there ARE changing times ahead for 3d and 2d. The general public are starting to get tired of the same looking 3d films and wanting some 2d back, but they don’t have the best resources or opinions on animation to know what it is they want. Meanwhile, the animation community + industry is trying to figure out what to do and you have a lot of turmoil between the monopoly that is the industry, the high standards of the artists, and the mixed wants of the animation fanbase deciding what art needs to be.

It’s a tough business. And in the spirit of that tough business - maybe DON’T act like the means of a film’s production is solely your control, that you know best, and know definitively what the artists should have done....cuz you don't. Sorry my fellow criticalfanomanalysist-folks we DON'T and in an age of standom where fans and critics think it's okay to hackle indie animation studios about not getting their pitched cartoon out fast enough - we need to reserve these discussions to our circles and not treat them as gospel.

3d animation and 2d animation have to share this world. Stop acting like they’re either interchangeable in terms of budget, means of production, or artistry or that one has to be superior to the other.

The industry already says one art form is better (spoiler: it’s always live-action), we don’t need anymore of this purist garbage. Just stick to what you like while trying new things on the side. Be critical while also being compassionate. And remember:

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#animation #animation on tumblr #2d animation #3d animation #traditional animation #hand drawn animation #Franki's Features

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cosmiclatte28 · 4 years ago

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Butterflies and Brushes (YuTae)

a/n : this is a promise I made for the wonderful IG account yutae.0126

warning : Slight suggestive content, but nothing explicit (or yeah?) Romance, bxb proceeed to masterlist if you’re not comfortable and pic something else. Romance, fluff, flirty!yuta and cold prince! Taeyong

ARTSCHOOL AU! nude panting (nothing explicit though, safe to read for anyone mature enough)

My first Yuta x Taeyong or Taeyong x Yuta fic and I am excited to see how this goes!!

Here we goo!!!

Oh yeah I attach a picture for the poses below because I am afraid the explanation is not enough and sorry for my failed attempt to draw. (I blotted it okay and failed still )

Every campus has that one hot guy everyone is afraid to approach and another guy with the total opposite appeal.

Well the same thing happens in this top college of visual arts, not only do they have talented artist in process of making visual arts, the students themselves have top visual points.

Meet Lee Taeyong, the campus' Aphrodite with a stoic face and a piercing gaze. Rumor has it, his beauty comes from the way he keeps his face poker whenever he walks around the campus. Though he rarely smiles, everyone believes he has his own reasons for being that. Afterall, no one dares messes up with Taeyong, not after the famous incident where he punched a bully so hard in the face after dissing a freshman's work of art. That freshman is famous here, he's called Ten. A sweet guy from Thai who draws amazing realistic drawings.

Moving on from the coldest guy, we have the warmest guy who always smiles. He wins the “healing smile fairy" nickname thanks to his gummy smile.

If Taeyong is the Aphrodite here, Yuta is Apollo. His smile is enough to defrost a thousand years of snow and with one wink, you're 90% guaranteed to have a good day.

The Japanese guy with long blonde hair -sharing similar traits as to that famous Howl character- is the one who always smiles no matter what!

Every girl has fallen for his smile, every guy envies his attractiveness. He is playful, cheerful, and flirty! No one walks away from Yuta without a smile or a blush, no one but Lee Taeyong.

Yuta has never personally encounter Lee Taeyong. He just knows the famous cold-hearted prince who shares the same painting class with him. Despite sharing the same class this term, Yuta has never seated next to him nor has he the chance to talk with him. Taeyong always comes into the class near the starting time and leaves first.

T'was until one eventful moment that the two opposite individuals are put together for their final Junior year project. The teacher insists for their final project to draw a realistic nude painting of their assigned partner. Nude painting is not something new to the students here, besides the teacher paired the students and asked their conscience about it. Yuta won’t turn the chance down, but when the teacher asked Taeyong if he is okay with his partner, Yuta can’t look into his direction. All the Japanese guy can do is fiddle with his hands while waiting for the teacher to call out his name and pair him with another student.

“Sure, I mean I don’t have any reasons to object.” Taeyong's deep voice resonates through the studio and believe it or not the whole class was holding their breaths. Yuta almost squeals when Taeyong accepts the partnering scheme. When the teacher asks him, Yuta immediately nods and gosh his silly smile over there was caught in Taeyong's peripheral view. Believe it or not, for the first time in forever, Lee Taeyong smirked in public.

Ten who sits close to Yuta secretly gives a sly smile to the Japanese man. Yuta tosses a questioning look and Ten mouths “Everyone is confused if they want to be in your shoes or Taeyong's"

Yuta blushes at his words, Ten sure knows how to tease him. Well, Ten is one of Yuta's best friends and he is the only one who knows about the secret mission Yuta has in his heart. Yes, Yuta aims to be able to make Taeyong falls for him like any other people. It is not an easy task, Yuta is aware of that, but because of that he is more than challenged to succeed.

“So, I guess I'll miss you,” Ten suddenly says this when they're packing up their books.

Yuta glances to the room and sees Taeyong is still there, unlike usual!

“What do you mean?” Yuta asks back

Ten winks, “He is coming here, maybe asking your number. I won’t bother, see you!” he taps Yuta's shoulder and flies all the way down the room leaving Yuta alone with Taeyong on his side.

“So… you are my partner for our final project, right?” Taeyong's secret voice greets Yuta's ear. He almost falls on the ground for realizing how good his voice sounds.

Yuta quickly nods his head and waits for the other to continue.

“I don’t want to flunk this class, so when should we start?” Taeyong goes straight into business.

Yuta feels a bit sad that the man in front of him is strictly stuck to business, but he is the best in masking emotions, Taeyong wouldn’t be able to guess.

“Yes sure, I also want to start early. Umm when do you have free time?”

Taeyong picks his phone out and goes to his planner, he scrolls and sees how busy he is. He sighs, not wanting to disturb the warm guy in front of him longer…

“Put in your number and I'll text you my free time. Also, sorry for bothering you.” He sheepishly gives a tiny smile! Microscopic but not to Yuta!

Yuta wants to jump right now, Taeyong is asking his number! How silly was he, thinking about so many ways to ask the latter's number without sounding too flirty or rude. He didn’t have to worry, Taeyong did it well.

Yuta quickly types in his number and saves the contact. He presses the call button and when his phone rings, he shuts it off.

“Cool. I got your number.” Yuta, who is usually verbose, only slips in efficient reply but his warm smile is always there.

Taeyong seems a bit taken aback by the smile; Yuta didn’t notice this. If he noticed, Yuta won’t let that go.

“Okay, see you then.” Taeyong shuffles in his place and finally leaves Yuta alone. The class is empty already and Yuta sits back on his chair.

He controls his heartbeat that is beating faster than a runner, and he hides his face in his hands as he feels his cheeks getting hotter.

“I MUST BE DRUNK HAPPY!” he muffles his scream to himself and Yuta elicits the brightest smile ever that day.

He walks through the corridors, tossing smiles and greetings to everyone he sees and that radiant look really energized everyone else.

“I wonder what's wrong with Yuta hyung, he looks really bright!” Renjun, a freshman from China, asks Ten.

Ten just smirks, “He won the lottery maybe. Come on! I want to learn how to do water color with you!” he pulls the younger away.

That afternoon, Yuta is seated on the edge of his bed with Ten sleeping on the soft mattress.

“Ten why isn’t he texting me? Should I send him my schedule first?” Yuta sounds like a nervous teenager who is confessing to their crus.

Ten laughs out loud at his worries, “Yow! Yuta! You're the flirtiest guy here and you're nervous and confused about talking to Taeyong?! You know your rules.. because this is Taeyong you wait! You don’t want to look easy on him right?”

Yuta frowns “Well yes, but Ten I am so excited! Like I am afraid I cannot draw him nicely and I’ll hurt his feelings! Gosh Why does it have to be nude realistic painting?! If it's comic I'm sure he will fall for my drawings!”

Ten scoffs, “Silly because the class we're taking is realistic painting??? Come on you're good with your hands. He will like it.”

Yuta feels nervous, he is not the best in realistic drawing but he is not that bad.

Yuta suddenly turns his head to face Ten, “Hey!” he grips Ten's wrist.

“TEACH ME HOW TO DO BETTER REALISTIC DRAWING!!” he sounds so excited and nervous at the same time.

Ten grins “What will I get in return?”

Yuta rolls his eyes, there is always a catch with Ten.

“I don’t know?? I'll treat you pizza?”

“Nah, not interested. What about that model friend of yours,’ number??”

Yuta frowns for a while, trying to remember who is Ten talking about

“Johnny?” Yuta raises his brow

Ten bites his lips and nods, Yuta reaches out his hand and the other one seals the deal.

“Okay, you follow me to the studio tomorrow after 2? Bring a sketch book I'll help with the sketching first and then we'll go to the painting part which I know you do okay.” Ten jumps in surprise when he catches the light of notification in Yuta's phone.

They both crowd the screen as Taeyong's name appear in Yuta's message box.

“Best day ever…” Yuta shyly opens the message and replies back with his own schedule.

They talk for awhile and come to an agreement that they'll start doing it next week.

“TEN! WE NEED TO DO THE CRASH COURSE ASAP. I am not going to disappoint him.” Yuta looks so ambitious and Ten is just happy he's getting Johnny's number.

Crash course was not that easy. Ten is a strict teacher and he keeps on nagging Yuta to fix his way of sketching. Well Yuta's inattentive to small details, but Ten insists it is the most important thing.

“You're doing nude painting, every stroke matters! What if he ends up not having edges? You'll hate yourself.” Ten reminds Yuta his goal.

“Don’t you want to impress him? Plus I’m sure you'll get good finals if you follow my tips.”

Yuta ends up doing three more drawings, all from seeing Ten posing in front of him.

“Ten, you're just playing around with me right? You just want me to draw you?” Yuta slams his pencil down after the third time of renewing Ten's picture

Ten throws an apple he found at the table to Yuta “You think I'd ask you to draw me?! I'd rather ask Taeyong!”

Yuta shoots his eyes while rubbing his head “Hey! We agreed he is mine. Don’t you dare!”

Ten analyzes the sketch Yuta did and smiles “Now this, will make Taeyong interested in you.” He examines his friend’s work and compares the first two.

He just stays quiet and tosses three of the papers side by side to Yuta “See that? If I'm not your friend… I'd charge you a thousand dollars already for this class.”

Ten is not lying when he said that, within three sketches (and two hours of painful comments) Yuta's drawing significantly improves. He barely knows he can draw like that third drawing he made.

“Yoksi… Ten you're so talented! My best friend!” he hugs Ten and Ten just slightly coughs “Don’t forget the deal.”

Yuta just smiles and fishes his phone, he quickly sends a contact name to Ten and when Ten receives the number, Yuta takes his chance to leave the room.

He's now more confident in seeing Taeyong. He didn’t know what will happen on the day they'll meet but he sure wants to make a good impression.

“Hey so, you'll directly follow me home? Or do you have to do something first?” Taeyong starts the conversation that afternoon after their painting class.

Yuta has not talked with Taeyong after they exchange schedules. They haven’t talked and discussed about their themes, but Yuta guesses they'll figure it out on their way home.

Yuta shifts his head from cleaning up his mess and looks at Taeyong, the stoic man has a tint of blush in his cheek upon seeing Yuta's radiant smile but he quickly hides it away.

“Pull yourself together Taeyong, why are you like this?” Taeyong speaks to himself in his heart.

“Yes Taeyong, I have nothing to do and i'm ready to go." The blonde man smiles to the red haired man and both of them are trying their best to keep their emotions low.

Taeyong slings his bag and nods his head “Hope you don’t mind walking, my apartment is only a 15 minutes walk.” He leads them out of the class and Yuta copies his long steps.

No Yuta doesn’t mind walking an hour if that is with Taeyong. Under the sun, the two angelic man of the school walk side by side… inviting by passer to stop and sneak a picture of them or just stand there frozen upon what they see.

Taeyong keeps his stoic face until they reach the outer gate, meanwhile Yuta is busy waving his hand to anyone he knows and just smiling to random students.

Taeyong snickers when they reach the outer gate “You really are kind to anyone eh? The rumor is true.”

Yuta widens his eyes “Rumor?”

Taeyong smirks and looks into the younger's hazel eyes “Well yes the rumor that you are the school's Apollo? Because they say your smile heals everything?”

Yuta doesn’t know how to react, well he knows that but what should he do? Saying “oh yes and you're the aphrodite that everyone fears….”no that is not good.

Taeyong suddenly shakes his shoulder and loosen down his tie. Well their school gives them uniform with ties, and Taeyong loosening it doesn’t help Yuta's red face. Gosh he looks so hot.

“Hufth glad we're far enough from school and cameras.” He gives a small smile. Yuta is confused, okay so Taeyong did realize the students love to take pictures of him… he also knows how to smile?

Yuta’s confusion makes him ask the red haired man “So you do know?”

Taeyong raises his brow, “Know what? Knows that my picture is secretly famous in the dark web? Being used for sketching references? Comics?”

Yuta gulps well yeah he did see some comic works having illustrations very similar to taeyong and him,… “You know how to smile.” Was the thing Yuta's unfiltered mouth let go.

The blonde Japanese man covers his mouth in fluster, he quickly bows while muttering “Sorry, I really didn’t mean to say that.”

Taeyong freezes in place when he heard that remark, he turns his heels around and faces Yuta who is now looking on the grounds.

Taeyong smirks, interesting, no one dares talk to Taeyong that way and Yuta just did.

“Say that again?” he smirks looking ten times hotter and dominant.

Yuta grins and scratches his head, “I didn’t say anything. Pretend you hear nothing.” He tries to hide his face away but Taeyong bravely brings his chin to face him.

“Well as a matter of fact, yes Yuta, I can smile.” He puts back his cold face and his eyes pierces through Yuta's weak soul. He turns his body away and continues walking… he smiles when he realizes how cute a flustered Yuta is. What he doesn’t know is that behind his back, Yuta has already level up his game.

If that is how Taeyong is going to play the game, he chooses the king of flirt. Yuta will not lose to Taeyong.

The younger shakes his thoughts away and pick up his steps. Once he is next to Taeyong again, Taeyong quickly puts back his stoic face.

“So, what is your theme Taeyong?” Yuta opens the conversation.

Taeyong has been sleepless for the week, trying to find a pose where he can capture Yuta's ethereal beauty in his oil painting. He went through a lot of illustrations references and even imagined Yuta posing for him. He cannot lie, that man really has his own attractiveness and Taeyong cannot pinpoint where.

“Well, as a matter of fact I've prepared several poses for you. Wait before that who is going to draw first today?” Taeyong asks the most important question. He is not spoiling the theme to Yuta right now, at least not in front of a kindergarten school they just passed by.

Yuta shrugs his shoulder “If you're ready to pose, I'll draw firs… You're a better painter. I'd rather paint you first rather than seeing how great your work is and lose confidence doing mine.” He laughs and Taeyong giggles.

“No way, your drawing is good Yuta! I love your anime illustrations.” Taeyong slides a sincere praise here.

Yuta feels happy that Taeyong knows about his works, “But your abstract painting is wonderful! You're going to be a great artist one day!”

Taeyong feels flowers bloom in his heart, but his face isn’t showing anything.

“Okay then, if you want that… I can pose for you today.” Taeyong hates to admit he actually feels like losing a bet but there is no bet.

Yuta secretly smiles, so Taeyong is the first one giving up for Yuta eh?

Yuta claps his hands “Great! I have some ideas you can choose okay! Pick the one you're most comfortable with.”

“Okay… oh do you mind we walk a bit further and then go back?” taeyong pauses in his track.

Yuta doesn’t understand “Huh?”

Taeyong sighs and shakes his head, not believing himself for saying this outloud to anyone, “I need to feed some kittens there…”

Yuta softens his face “Sure! I love cats and dogs! Didn’t know a cold guy like you cares so much about animals.”

Taeyong can relax now, he feels better knowing that Yuta didn’t laugh at him “Thanks, they're too young to survive.” Taeyong walks into a corner and purrs. Slowly three cats emerge from the dark and meows softly while taking defensive stances when they sense a new presence of Yuta.

Taeyong giggles as he extends his arm to pour the cat foods he had prepared to the ground “Don't be afraid, he is my friend… he won’t hurt you guys.” Taeyong uses a nasal voice to baby talk the kittens and calls Yuta friend?! Oh gosh Yuta is ready to die, Taeyong is a totally different person out here! And he is more than eager to portray that emotion into his painting.

Yuta ends up squatting down beside Taeyong and plays with the kittens for a while. Both men giggling at the smallest action the clumsy cats made.

“Okay, we have to go, or we will end up not working.” Taeyong stands up and brushes his dust off, waiting for Yuta to follow him back to his house.

Yuta bids the kitten farewell as he catches back Taeyong’s long strides and they finally make it into their place for the afternoon.

“Make yourself at home, or at least like this is your studio.” He is glad he cleaned up his room last night.

Yuta nods his head, he sets his canvas up, prepares his pencils, and anything else he needs for the project.

Taeyong has to admit he is nervous, now that he realizes he should be the first one stripping.

The older excuses himself to bath first, earning a small giggle from Yuta, but since Yuta wants Taeyong to be comfortable he lets him go.

As the older finishes his shower, Yuta has pulled out his phone and opens up his choices of poses. Unlike Taeyong who cannot choose a pose, Yuta already has one in mind since the first day Taeyong came to him.

He wants the older to sit on one of the armchair he surprisingly has in his apartment. He’ll have Taeyong sit cross legged, posing as elegant as he can while staying in that position for hours. Yuta esitimates he’ll need six hours to draw, yes draw.

Then maybe they’ll continue the next day for the layers and coloring. He wishes they can finish before time runs out.

“Okay, so how do you want me to pose?” Taeyong comes out of the shower fresh with only a towel covering his lower privacy. Yuta almost chokes upon seeing his appearance, but he is professional enough to hold it back.

Yuta chooses to just show him what he wants and Taeyong easily agrees, “You want me to sit? That’s kind of you. Someone else asked me to stand and damn I got tired, but t’was okay since they paint me nicely.” Taeyong says as he takes his seat and sets his body to look like how Yuta wants.

In front of Yuta, sits Taeyong in his heavenly state. His armchair despite being super simple, looks like it is a throne thanks to Taeyong’s indescribable aura. The man in red hair is sitting cross legged on the armchair, leaning his head to the side supported by his left arm. His face shows the same expression that of a model. His eyes? They were soft minutes ago, but now they’re piercing through the air. Yuta can fall to his knees right now and follow every command this king beholds.

“Please tell me if you need any breaks,” Yuta says breathily.

Taeyong nods, ��Oh before that, I haven’t asked you… Do you want any drink or special condition for drawing?”

Yuta thinks for a while, “Well, I can’t work in too much silence, so please talk with me while I start sketching you.”

Taeyong takes a good note on that and as the younger man ties his hair to a man bun and pulls his sleeves up, Taeyong is more than excited to be paired with him. He wants to know how great Yuta can draw him.

They talk about random things like where they studied before entering this school, hobbies, favorite foods, even ended up talking about cats and dogs.

“I’m considering buying myself some fish and put them in the aquarium. What do you think?” Taeyong asks while leaning his head more to his resting hand. Yuta lets one of his hand rests on the arm rest and his head is leaning to that hand. (Super ugly sketch I tried blotting is attached below)

Yuta still focuses on his drawing, “Fish? Their water maintenance can be expensive.”

Taeyong rolls his eyes, “That’s the least I can own in this apartment, they do not allow dogs or cats.”

Yuta just hums, “Okay then go with fish. I don’t see why you’re hesitating.”

“Because if they die, I’ll be super sad.” Taeyong answers in a heartbeat.

Yuta almost drops his pencil upon seeing this side of Taeyong, the soft hearted cute guy is hiding behind a cold mask.

“Sorry if I sound rude, but you’re totally different in and out of school! What makes you act like that in school?” Yuta is glad about his sketch right now, at least his crash course with Ten is saving his face.

Taeyong smirks, “You want to know, or you want to know?” he teases the blonde man a bit, starting to feel super comfortable. Hey nothing beats being comfortable faster than being naked in front of them right?

“Just tell me. Everyone’s talking about you being a heartless cold man, but in real life you’re totally soft and I hate that people are talking about the wrong you.” Yuta blurts his heart out and gasps when he realized what he just said.

Taeyong seizes the opportunity, “Oh, you care about me that much? Well I did that because I’m tired of being the center of attention.”

Yuta clicks his tongue, “And you being like a cold bitch is just making you more into the spotlight.”

Taeyong giggles, now he is using bitch in his sentence? “Well thank me, I give you the spotlight of the good guy!”

Yuta wants to slap him hard if he is his long best friend, but not yet.

“You’re interesting Yuta, you really look astonishing when you’re focused. I wonder if you got a female partner, how distracted will both of you be.”

Yuta hums, “Well that didn’t happen, now I am here drawing you like one of my French guy.” His humorous side comes out.

Taeyong laughs heartily at that, “Okay sorry, I have to keep my expression.”

Yuta nods, “Thanks for realizing, I almost ruin the drawing with your big smile.”

Taeyong grins, “You better draw my cold face there, no one should see this side of me yet.”

“As you please, Your Majesty. Now you may rest, I’ve finished roughly and let me order us something to eat.”

Taeyong is thankful when Yuta tosses him back his towel and the red hair quickly runs to his room to fetch some clothes. Once Taeyong is inside his room, he runs to the mirror and checks how red his ears are actually. Gosh, did Yuta realize?

While Taeyong is changing clothes, Yuta orders them a meal and he keeps his canvas in a safe place.

They have a good time talking again through dinner and like a long best friend who met, the two click like puzzles made for each other.

“Thank you for the meal,” Taeyong says before Yuta leaves his house.

“Thank you for being a nice model. Don’t see my canvas yet okay. I’m not confident with what I have right now.” Yuta wears his jacket as he steps outside the door.

Taeyong nods, he knows that same feeling and he will respect Yuta for it.

“Great, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Yuta smiles, “Yes! Let me know if I need to prepare anything.”

He leaves, walking down the road another five minutes to arrive in his small apartment.

They decided that they will take turn, tomorrow Yuta will be in Taeyong’s shoes.

“I hope you don’t mind lying in my bed,” Taeyong says as he explains the concept pose he has been thinking again last night.

Yuta shakes his head, “I’m down for anything! You’re one of the best painter in the class, It’s an honour to be your muse. I’ll do anything for a good result.”

Taeyong slyly smirks, “Anything?”

Yuta winks (hell he is not losing okay), “You heard me loud and clear.”

“Okay then, you… wow, that’s a nice tattoo! We should get that in the frame.” Taeyong runs his eyes over the toned abs and the pretty butterfly tattoo on his lower abdomen.

Yuta smiles, “Yeah I got a story behind it, I’ll tell you later.” Yuta makes himself comfortable between the white sheets Taeyong has prepared and covers his lower abs below with the thin linen. His butterfly tattoo is half peeking but that is exactly what Taeyong needs.

“I hope you’re not allergic to flowers,” Taeyong suddenly appears with a bag of flower petals. Yuta blushes, this man really prepares a lot.

“Absolutely not, just do what you need to do.” Yuta stutters a bit. Where is his confident flirty personality at time like this?! Taeyong calmly places the petals in different places, once he is satisfied with what he has the Aphrodite walks to his fridge and takes out one cold can of beer.

“I need some cans to draw,” Taeyong explains himself, though Yuta didn’t ask anything.

The drawing session begins, and they casually talk again, Yuta is facing the opposite side of Taeyong and from a lower view, he can clearly see how Taeyong frowns and how he bites his lips while concentrating on his canvas. Yuta can see each detail in Taeyong’s face from a new angle!

He loves the shade of red his lips have and his hair! His hair is envious. Yuta sees Taeyong pauses to sip his drink some time and when he feels like closing his eyes on the sheet, he doesn’t hear any warning from Taeyong and so the blonde angel falls asleep after watching the man he secretly likes.

Taeyong finishes not long after it and when he realizes the younger is no longer talking, he peeks over his canvas and smiles upon seeing Yuta’s calm sleeping face. Even in his sleep, he looks super kind and angelic!

“You really are son of Apollo or maybe Apollo himself,” Taeyong brings a strand of hair away from Yuta’s eyes. Gently, he pulls a thicker blanket over the younger’s bare skin and lets him rest for some more.

Taeyong leaves the room and controls his quickening heartbeat. When pulling the blanket over Yuta, he is close to his face and inches away from those plush lips. Taeyong feels his heartbeat increasing and he has to quickly walk away before doing things that he didn’t want.

Yuta wakes up feeling sorry for falling asleep, but Taeyong just shakes it off. Saying he totally understands, and he doesn’t mind. With that being said, they eat dinner together again before finally parting goodbye. To make things faster, Yuta brings home his canvas so he can start layering and do the basic stuff he can do without the model. Same thing for Taeyong.

That night, both men busy themselves in their own studios. Accompanied by one light, cups of coffees, soft music, and each other’s sketches on their canvas witnessing just how love struck both parties are. Yet both souls are too stubborn to fall on one knee and confess this big crush they have to the other.

Another week comes and this time they need to meet again. Yuta and Taeyong have already been comfortable with one another, to the point where Yuta can talk in the hallway with Taeyong. Something super rare to be seen! Not Yuta’s part but seeing Taeyong walks and talks with someone at school is the hottest news of the week.

Through hours and hours of staying together in the same place, stroking paint brushes, learning each and every flaws and beauty their muse have, it’s not surprising how comfortable and close they are right now.

Yuta knows just every detail of Taeyong’s face. He notices the rose print scar next to his right eye, the small mole on his lips, the way Taeyong’s eyes twinkle with stars, how his hair stays in place despite the hours of posing.

Taeyong is able to draw Yuta base on memory too now. He finds the perfect hue of his skin, the right yellow shade for his smooth hair, the way his eyes relax and the story about how Yuta’s butterfly ended up being printed in his torso.

Taeyong cannot deny the bubbly feeling in his chest. Is he feeling that dangerous chemical reactions in his body? Is he in love?

It’s already the last week from the deadline and the two choose to finish everything tonight. So, that afternoon Yuta comes into Taeyong’s house with a sleepover supply and they start their last journey of painting.

There’s a tugging feeling in Yuta’s heart as he finalizes his painting. A satisfied smile comes to his face when he sees his final painting of Taeyong. His eyes run from the breathing perfection sitting like a throne king waiting for his interesting part in life to start, and to the canvas he’s been working on for hours! A satisfied smile comes to his face when he feels his hours of blood, sweat, and tears of working being paid off with the portray lying before him. He is proud with how he manages to capture the soft side of Taeyong hidden under his cold guy shell.

Yuta waits for the paint to dry, and while doing that he is now again, lying on the bedsheets of Taeyong’s room. The fresh linen once smelled like fresh laundry, the day when Yuta fell asleep. Today, it smells different. A slight hint of musk and mint, is this how Taeyong smells like? Did the painter across him sleeps on the same bed he is lying bare right now? If that’s true, this is hot.

Unlike Taeyong who shows his soft side to Yuta, through this painting course Taeyong realizes just how charismatic Yuta is behind his warm healing smile. The same guy who tosses hearty smile in public can hold an intense fiery gaze on sheets. Taeyong bites his lips as he runs his eyes one more time over his perfectly pliant muse. Yuta feels relaxed on that bed, and that makes Taeyong feels less guilty for asking Yuta to stay a bit more since he needs to finalize the tattoo and the details.

“Mind if I see that butterfly a bit closer again?” Taeyong excuses himself and bends to scrutinize over the complex lines.

Yuta holds his breath and hides his read ears, he can feel his face burning from embarrassment but Taeyong doesn’t seem to care. He even traces the lines to get the shape and returns behind his canvas.

What feels like eternity finally comes to an end and both heart secretly wish they have more time to enjoy the presence of the other, looking each other without being judged creepy, but everything has an end.

“And I’m done!” Taeyong sets aside his canvas to dry next to Yuta’s. They plan to add their names and signature later on tomorrow maybe to not ruin the colors.

“Do you want some drink?” Taeyong asks as he tosses Yuta a big teeshirt and his pants.

Yuta nods, “Let’s order some good food and have a bit fun tonight. This project is tiring, but I’m glad with my result.”

Taeyong scrolls his phone to order some foods and beers, he agrees with Yuta. This ending needs a celebration! As the two men sit on the dining table, chopsticks reaching over for foods and glasses being refiled with golden liquids, their heads slowly turn drowsy.

“I hate that this thing end actually…” Taeyong, who is a lighter head than Yuta has fallen to his drunk state, comments.

Yuta swears if he is sober right now, he will blush, but no. Now he is similarly under alcoholic control and he can’t seem to control his flirty side.

“Oh yeah? You like seeing me that much? My presence is enough to make you happy?” Yuta leans in closer and rests his chin elegantly on his right palm.

Taeyong furiously runs his hands over his face, “Gosh yes Yuta! You make me crazy! Being super hot on my bed with just one linen over you, not to mention I really want to bite that tattoo mark!”

Yuta giggles, drunk Taeyong is fun to play with. He bravely stands up and walks over to sit beside Taeyong. Daringly runs a hand over the tensed shoulder, “Guess you’re super tired already. You’re starting to speak nonsense.”

Although Yuta wants to hear more about Taeyong’s true feelings to him, he knows it is not polite of him to listen to Taeyong’s drunk rambles. What if Taeyong didn’t remember anything and it will make things awkward.

Taeyong pulls Yuta who is trying to walk away, and makes the blonde man falls into his lap.

“We’re both stubborn and our egos are too high. Fuck it, I’m gonna say this now.” Taeyong’s grip on Yuta’s slender waist tightens.

“I love you, I love you so much Yuta! It pains me every night to finish this painting without you in my room. I can finish it because I memorize your features, but it doesn’t feel the same when you’re here posing and breathing the same air with me.” Taeyong’s lower voice growls inside Yuta’s ear.

Yuta cannot think of anything else, rather than focusing on the glistening lips Taeyong has and it takes every ounce and angel in Yuta’s body to hold himself back from attacking that lips.

But the devil won tonight, and the blonde man sticks his lips into the red hair’s. Taeyong presses his neck deeper and lets Yuta takes control of the intense lips battle. No one is backing down, the two gods of the school have met and the opposite attractions have connected.

Just like North going South, butterflies looking for their flowers, and soulmates finding one another…

Taeyong finds Yuta and Yuta finds Taeyong.

Both separate souls finally become one, after years and years of waiting. Seasons of love months, and hours of portrait painting.

“I love you too, Lee Taeyong. And you drive me crazy.” Yuta breaks the kiss to whisper this right next to his lips and seals their bond back with a deeper meaningful kiss.

On the edge of the room, their painted portraits of each other glow under the moonlight.

Epilogue

“This is very nice! I mean Taeyong!!! I’ll definitely buy this at any price!” Yuta gasps and shakes his head when he sees the result Taeyong shows.

Taeyong shyly looks into his feet, after what they did last night somehow, he feels like he cannot see Yuta’s eyes this morning.

Yes both young men have woken up under the same blanket, bodies sticking to each other as the cold morning air tries to creep up their soft skins. Taeyong wakes up being under Yuta’s possessive strong arms and he knows he wants more of this in the future!

“I am not selling it.” Taeyong smirks.

Yuta’s face fell, “Not even to me?

He shakes his head, “No. I like that masterpiece I made.”

Yuta frowns and pouts, “Okay then… I am also not selling mine to you.”

Taeyong runs his eyes over the painting. He needs to admit, he didn’t expect Yuta to paint him that nice… but everything in that picture speaks a thousand words about Taeyong. Taeyong is dying to have that paint in his room too! But if this is how they’re going to do it…. Okay then no one will have their own portrait.

“Fine.”

“Okay, then when are you free?” Yuta suddenly asks

Taeyong sounds flustered, “Eh? Are you asking me out on a date?”

Yuta rolls his eyes and clicks his tongue, “I am booking you for a painting session. I need you to make my portrait but this time I will keep it in my room.”

Taeyong steals a kiss on his lips, “Wow, okay then the price is a portrait from you too.”

“Seriously guys? Infront of my salad?” a voice suddenly interrupts the two madly in love couple.

“Oh, sorry Ten, we forgot you’re there…” Yuta picks his tablet up and shows his face and Taeyong’s back on his screen.

This morning Ten video calls them wanting to see how their painting look like.

“Those are perfect. Why don’t you two live together and put them up in the same place. That way both of you can see it every day without actually selling it.” Ten rolls his eyes and grins.

The couple look into each other’s eyes and grin “That’s not a bad idea…”

“Okay I regret saying that, now go… Ew stop displaying affection in front of me.” Ten shakes his head and closes the call when the screen once again shows both of them sucking their faces off.

end

How is it?? cringe enough???

please give comments and inputs :”)) I really am looking forward for your opinion about the story

Thank you for reading, sorry for the long post

Have a nice day/ sweet dreams :*

xoxo

Cosmic

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mariocki · 4 years ago

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RIP Daria Nicolodi (19.6.1950 – 26.11.2020)

"I grew up in a house that was like a library or a museum. I feel I refined Dario's taste very much. I went with him to many art exhibitions. [...] I feel I guided Dario to something outside the scope of just cinema, towards art, music, theatre, and other things."

"For me, I did not want to be a star; I just wanted to act well."

A true icon of the silver screen, and one of the most significant figures in Italian genre cinema of the 20th Century. Daria was born in Florence, in 1950, into a talented family of intellectuals and artists: her father was a lawyer, her mother an academic; her maternal grandfather was Alfredo Casella, a composer and conductor who counted Stravinsky, Mahler and Strauss among his friends.

Daria moved to Rome while still a teen, and by 1970 she was beginning to find work on stage and screen. Elio Petri was quick to spot her talent, guiding her through her first theatrical roles, and ultimately casting her as the female lead in La proprietà non è più un furto (Property Is No Longer a Theft, 1973), a highly political satire about wealth and class in modern Italy. The following year, she attended auditions for Profondo Rosso (Deep Red), where she met director Dario Argento. Until this point, she had mostly played attractive blondes and love interests; Argento could see that she was capable of more nuance, and had her cut her long hair and dye it red, adopt a more masculine style of dress, and bring her wry sense of humour to the character of Gianna. In return, Daria adopted some of the director's mannerisms and habits for her character, particularly in her physical movements and hand gestures. The two worked well together, on screen and off; they soon became romantically involved, and in 1975 Daria gave birth to a daughter, Asia Argento (her second, having previously had a child with sculptor Mario Ceroli).

Daria and Dario would remain together for the next ten years. In the process she became not only his partner, but his closest collaborator, and in many ways his muse. Before Asia was born, the two took a holiday in northern Europe, travelling around France, Germany and Switzerland. The trip reminded Daria of her grandmother - another artist, the French pianist Yvonne Müller Loeb Casella - who had a keen interest in the supernatural, and thrilled the young Nicolodi with tales of her time at an academy on the Swiss/German border, where the faculty had all practised black magic. Those stories would form the basic outline of Argento's next film, Suspiria (1977). The couple developed the idea between them, and worked together on the script, incorporating everything from fairy tales to Nicolodi's dreams. In later years, Argento would downplay the contribution made by Daria to the finished script, but her influence - and in turn, the way Suspiria would influence the entire horror genre, and develop Argento's work - is undeniable. Her fight for official recognition - and a screen credit as co-writer - left the actor exhausted.

Daria had also intended to act in the film, but was prevented by injury. She returned for Inferno (1980), the spiritual sequel to Suspiria, and once again contributed behind the cameras: the original concept was Nicolodi's, and she worked on the script with Dario. Unwilling to fight him again, her writing work went uncredited this time. With their professional relationship strained, Nicolodi would only agree to a small supporting role in Argento's next film, Tenebre (Tenebrae, 1982). However, when the American actor who had been cast as the female lead dropped out just before the start of shooting, Daria once again found herself starring in an Argento horror film. The shoot was not a happy one; as Daria bonded with her onscreen love interest, Anthony Franciosa, over a shared passion for theatre, Argento became jealous and difficult. The atmosphere on set deteriorated to such a point that, when directed to give a short, sharp scream for the final shot of the film (her final day of shooting), Daria instead unleashed a long, deafening howl of terror. What she described as her "cathartic release from the whole nightmare" would become one of the most iconic moments in the film.

By the time they were making Phenomena (Creepers, 1985), the relationship between Nicolodi and Argento was beginning to fail. They would separate that year, and although she initially did not express any interest in working for the director again, she was tempted back for Opera (1987) by an elaborate death scene. Outside of her work with Dario, Nicolodi had built up a modest but significant filmography with other big names in Italian genre cinema. For the great Mario Bava, she starred in his final film, Shock (1977); for his son, Lamberto, she took a supporting role in Le foto di Gioia (Delirium, 1987). Michele Soavi, a protégé of her former partner, cast her in La Setta (The Sect, 1991), but mainly she would concentrate on the stage from this point on, describing theatre as her first love. The tragic death of her elder daughter, Anna, in 1994, only kept her further away from the limelight. It was the burgeoning career of younger daughter Asia, both as actor and director, that would tempt her back in front of the cameras.

Although she made comparatively few films, Daria's impact on Italian horror cinema has been huge. What's most fascinating is how deeply individual and unique each of her performances were. It's tempting, in looking at her work with Dario Argento, to perhaps project a potential pattern in her different roles, that aligns with how he may have viewed their relationship. In Profondo Rosso, shot whilst they were still getting to know one another, she is self-contained, confident, attractive and capable. By Inferno, when their relationship was well established and they had a child together, her character is much more vulnerable, an innocent caught up in something terrible and in need of protection. In Tenebre, one of Argento's most accomplished films, she has her weakest part - she was unhappy with the role, which is notably underwritten compared to the characters around her, and in which her main purpose seems to be to react to the events unfolding. As their relationship faltered on the set of Phenomena, she took her ugliest role of all - a dark distortion of obsessive motherhood. Perhaps it might seem like a disservice to her, to make these comparisons, but it is also true that Daria was an incredibly obliging actor - always at pains to give her director (Argento or otherwise) exactly what she thought they needed, whether requested or not. Petri had told her she reminded him of a figure from his past, so she consciously exaggerated those mannerisms to please him; Argento originally struck her as egocentric, so she mirrored his stance and his gestures. A consummate professional, I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibilities that by Phenomena she was channeling their dysfunctional relationship and distorted self images into one of the most intense and disturbing performances of her career.

I would have first seen Daria in Profondo Rosso, more than a decade ago now. It remains one of my favourite films, and her performance in it quite simply one of my favourite performances ever given by an actor. Gianna is such a complete and unique creation, unlike not only any female character in Italian cinema at that point, but quite unlike any character in a horror film. Profondo Rosso is a giallo film, perhaps the finest giallo film - it is a bloody, terrifying slasher film in which horrific violence is visited on the undeserving. And as Gianna, Daria spends the entire film incredibly, almost deliriously happy. She grins, she poses, she spins her cigarellos between her fingers. She teases David Hemmings, pricks at his ego, challenges him to arm wrestling contests. She drives a broken down car, tricks her way into crime scenes, and takes photographs of witnesses even when strictly forbidden to. She is among the most likeable, endearing, and thoroughly real protagonists to ever appear in what is essentially a fantasy film. She is so very human that she grounds what should be a totally absurd concept, and in the process provides exactly what it is that makes that film work so well - and it did work, the film was a huge critical and commercial success, and revitalised Argento's career after an early 70s slump.

There are two cuts of Profondo Rosso, and I know there is a school of thought that the shorter, international cut (which removes much of Nicolodi's work, trimming all the more jovial and character-building scenes) is the superior one - that it makes for a sharper, more suspenseful thriller. I absolutely disagree. To cut the relationship scenes is to take out the heart and soul of the film: Hemmings is the purported lead, but his character is detached, emotionally stunted. The heart of the film is in Nicolodi - in her sharp suits and twinkling eye, in her laughter and her fear - and the only reason the suspense works at all is because the audience has a reason to care, someone to care about. Profondo Rosso was the first time I saw an Italian film not as a garish thrill, but as something much deeper, more profound. It was perhaps the first time I realised that a horror film could also be art. I fell in love with Italian cinema, with gialli, and with Daria Nicolodi.

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misterbitches · 4 years ago

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hi! this is long as shit i’m sorry. i hope it makes sense. i ahve adhd and like 5 million learning disorders so this is just word vomit cos there’s so many words in my brain. my b.

i’ve had such a tough day so thank you for replying and sharing! @yeedak

i was thinking about what i wrote and i meant to clarify that as well. some cases are fine for both parties and it’s not like you weren’t consenting and it seems like you were happy! same with my friend who was dating a 20 yr old. if they’re happy you know i’ll clown on ‘em but yea. so for anyone that sees these posts your relationship with your partner who is older or whatever. i’m some dumb girl on the internet okay. ill side eye older ppl tho

i think a lot of people feel the same way you do now (me included.) it feels really good at the time but alter we can see the dynamics playing out. i’m 29 now and i think aging is just such a huge process. it’s wild how you at 31 are a totally different person, right?

and the US racism is probably some of the worst ever in its iteration because of slavery which started from europe etc but USA is so fucking unique bc of columbus bringing slaves here and displacing indigenous peoples or hispanola and because america is so influential the way it views race, particularly with black people as objects, has so deeply permeated into the current historical psyche globally. it’s fascinating to track how necessary anti blackness is to the flourishing of america but also the world at this point. also want to point out how fuckign scary sinophobia is here especially for covid. one is a straight historical line (black ppl + the US) and the other had to be manufactured and to continue to exploit the non-white americans and keep antiblackness in tact.i could go on about this all day. the pain of this place is immense.yet as bad as it is here, this is still the only place i truly feel safe as a black person. because of the unique experience we have in america and through the diaspora especially because we are veyr much ocncentrated here. it would be nice to like move to norway and have some alleviation financially or get free healthcare it’s just not feasible if no one looks like me. it’s fucking tough.

i hope you don’t hate it here though and people treat you with respect. but as you know being a woman and jewish and an immigrant....shit is tough. the USA is a hellhole. :( america is so deeply tainted and desperately bad because it was founded on strife and blood and there’s no way to reverse that and what this country did in turn when it gained enough power and could capitalize off of the colonial forefathers. this is why we hsould all luv revolution!!!

HOWMEVERRRR

boy oh boy oh BOY OH BOYYYYYYYY. well wlecome to the world of BL lmao especially as an adult with some obviously deep perspective just given your background. it is a fucking mess and it’s a hard mess to like but it pulls you in. i approach it like i do with soap operas since these are essentially telenovelas, you know? just like the drama at a billion. but the tricky part of that is like....what parts of it do we understand for critiquing? because so many of the shows are so bad at being like good pieces of things to look at just production wise and story wise. but i feel like these shows ask us to take them seriously, so why shouldn’t we take the content seriously? and this is being primarily peddled to young girls.

i bring this up often but i read this thing about yaoi and the interest younger women/girls have in BL and its fascination with pederasty essentially. this component i think is key when we talk about who gets affected by these things the most. society in general is bad 4 girls bla bla we know lmao but in “more sexually conservative” societies it may be harder for these girls to feel safe even expressing normal emotions romantically and sexually and particularly with guys. some people hypothesized, and i think i agree with this hypothesis, that they can live through the casualness of BL. they don’t feel threatened because they can put themselves into the shoes of the other character. oftentimes, the more feminine or the younger. this was in conjunction with the age gap aspect (they say pederasty as well because there’s unethical age gaps that r gross and that is indeed what we would at least call a touch of sexual abuse if people dont feel like calling it an obsession with youth and power and uhhh young ppl and perhaps kids) where maybe girls could see themselves in these situations as the person being saved, loved, taken care of, and sadly also sexually active and penetrated.

i think that’s just one aspect of it but i do think there’s validity in who gravitates towards it. i cannot imagine seeing this stuff and not getting enough information as a young kid, i sure as fuck know i didn’t!, and seeing these things and you look at it with 0 critique because you’re young and you may have no interest in it or you simply cannot understand what is wrong. no one is teaching you these things and these shows confirm it. and it is wild how intrinsic patriarchy is to BL although in its existence it also can’t be in line with patriarchy given the nature of two [cis] men!

it begs the question about the replacement aspect. is it just so girls can put themselves in these characters shoes? if so then that means we believe that gender is so interchangeable within our relationships and interactions and that doesn’t seem right. there’s more to lgbtq+ than just existing; it’s finding ways to communicate, finding a family, safety, your people, being a free person. there’s a lot to gain and a lot a lot to lose. and a gay man is also not a woman because those are also two distinct experiences. especially in societies that have a more hidden aspect to sexuality (idk how to word this bc the BL industry would NEVER survive in america but in a way there’s a more “progressive” look at homosexuality but it’s still fucked up because we live in a Society, you know? at the same time look at what we are doing to trans kids. literally waging war so it’s bonkers how we all collectively have some real progress happening but at the same time not at all. the concept of ‘ladyboys’ and the frequency we see trans people in thai shows is wild and something that we absolutely do not see here in the US. still, none of these groups feel safe or are getting better material conditions in either place. we just show the ways we can try and tolerate oppression witout eliminating it imo)

to me it is clear: it’s money. which most things exist to make money so. but also who is the audience for these shows? and they have to market towards them. all that said all hope is not lost there are some decent shows. it’s just like regular media on TV though where it’s so fucking saturated as an industry that it’s literally sifting through garbage. and there are some days when you can handle the trash and others where it really fucking hurts to watch the violence, the rape, the manipulation, the violations, the stupid messaging. i have never seen more people trying to do mental gymnastics and seeing if things were “technically rape” than in teh BL fandom and that is so fucking sad.

i came into these shows at 28 with almost 0 clue of what as media BL was like esp as media that countries can use as soft power with the revenue. but i realize like...i’m 29 now and so many people don’t have a sizeable, though not huge, amount of life experience. and i wonder for people on the internet who are usually searching for something if they spend so much time on it like what a 15 year old girl thinks. what a 20 year old girl thinks.

it is incredibly problematic and so awful but there’s also some rewards. if you haven’t i would definitely watch i told sunsset about you which i don’t think i’m going to finish and i doubt i’ll watch the second installment (watch this be a lie) but when i say some fucking impeccable storytelling and art? phew. now that is a fucking piece of media that works. it takes from moonlight heavily and you can see like...the artistic dedication is there and the story makes its world and sets up its stakes extremely well.

i think because this is marketed towards much younger people too they know they dont have to try as hard. but they SHOULD because then you can have a fucking masterpiece like that. i think even this prolific gay thai filmmaker (who is like solidly against the government) who is so respected (and who i like a lot! if u wanna know i can tell u lmao but the films are very uhhhhhhhh “artsy”) would like i told sunset about you. i wish more people had budget like that and also just cared about the stories. it’s the fucking magic of art to figure out what you can do but there is very little incentive honestly. idk i am very pessimistic. there are days when it’s really a great pick me up and distraction but it is never a place i would love for to feel seen or heard but i’m more of the mind of i never trust the mainstream until they prove me wrong ;)

or i never trust the mainstream and i still buy into it anyway and then cry when i don’t like what i see adn i yell “BOO GET OFF THE STAGE!” when an old man won’t leave a teenager alone

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indiaalphawhiskey · 4 years ago

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To answer your first question, “Why leaving a comment if it’s not entirely positive?” Personally I’ve never left a negative comment (I don’t leave a lot of comments in general) but I’ve seen some well-written criticism, not only on AO3 but also on other platforms. It’s in the human nature to have an opinion on things you experience (and reading is an experience) and so is expressing that opinion to others. For the same reason you express your opinion on songs/private life/public speeches/personal style of celebrities/writers/movie directors you follow. They put their work out there for the public and we feel free to express our opinion on that work (either positive or negative...it doesn’t mean we are right or wrong, we just have an opinion and we express it publicly for everyone on Tumblr/Twitter/Instagram to see). Someone could say the same thing about you or your mutuals when you talk about fandom-related stuff (like Haylor, Holivia, Jeff): why do you feel the need to express your negative opinion on someone (their work, behavior, things they say, the way they act or exist)? They didn’t ask you for it. You don’t know them personally. But you do have an opinion (often negative) and you express it because that’s perfectly normal, people do that. I’m not talking only about constructive criticism but also negative comments: as you said constructive criticism is something that wants to be helpful (I disagree, it’s also pointing out our personal perplexities in a respectful and logical way) but some comments that we make in this fandom are just plainly mean. I personally have no opinion on the things I just mentioned but I see the majority of our fandom does and and expresses it not so kindly, and I do too on many other things so I’m not accusing anybody but isn’t it a little bit hypocritical to have this opinion when it comes to your work but then not doing the same with other people’s work/activity (even if they are famous)?

I’m not sure what you mean when you say “unsolicited comments”. Who decides which comments are unsolicited and which are not? Is there any mention in the author’s notes or your work’s guidelines about the type of comments you accept or don’t want to see? Because as long as the comment section is open and the comments remain respectful and hate-free then it’s difficult to tell. As I said: AO3 offers the option to filter or disable the comments so you can have full control of that part. If you explicitly say in your notes that you don’t want comments from anyone that is not your friend/mutual/beta, ecc then sure, people should respect it but otherwise you shouldn’t make people feel bad for expressing their opinion even if negative.

I understand the thought process you wanted to express with the dress metaphor but it totally misses the point here even though it had some potential. You are talking about physical appearance that is NOT a piece of creative work you wrote and published for everyone to read and feel a certain spectrum of emotions about. If I publish a book I expect people to express their opinion on the plot and my writing and my characters, NOT on my thighs or my sweater. You can’t decide or control the fact that your body and you as a whole are on display (we can’t become invisible) so no one should be commenting publicly on it but you DO control the work you publish and WHERE you publish it and WHO can read it.

At some point you say you want to be treated as a professional artist. I agree. Every independent author/songwriter/artist should be treated this way if they want to. But then why are you against public comments that criticize an artist’s work? That’s just part of being treated like a professional artist. If you publish a book, you have to be ready to read negative comments (yeah, some will be “constructive” to the person that writes them and some will be plainly negative): Amazon, Goodreads, blogs are full of negative reviews and it’s normal. You put something out there for people with different tastes to read, some will express their strong emotions about it because YOU decided to give them the opportunity to feel strongly about your work. If an artist is expecting only positive opinions, that’s just unrealistic. And at the end of the day that’s all it is: just an opinion and no one is expecting you to listen to it. But expressing that opinion doesn’t mean that person is being mean or wants to hurt you, it’s just part of experiencing a piece of art.

That being said I’m not saying I personally feel the need to criticize someone’s work. And if an author explicitly says they don’t want negative opinions under their work I won’t leave it. But I don’t think that a person should feel the need to write personally a private message to the author in order to discuss their perplexities. Maybe they want to discuss it with other people that enjoyed/didn’t enjoy the story in the comment section? If the author gives them this opportunity, then why not as long as the comments aren’t mean and just reflect on some specific topics related to the fanfiction itself? If the author doesn’t want to see this type of comments then there are many ways to let people know how they feel about it and it should be respected. But otherwise, it can’t be said IN GENERAL about independent writers’ activity and boundaries.

Also, just because someone says they didn’t like something about your story it doesn’t mean they didn’t enjoy the story as a whole. They just feel strongly about that particular thing and want to write about it. If I have to be honest I’m in the process of reading your fanfiction and I personally love it. I wouldn’t change a thing so far, it’s wonderful and I will leave a positive comment when I’m finished reading it. You explained you don’t want negative comments on your work: I respect it and wouldn’t write anything negative even if there was something I didn’t like. But unless we know it in advance, then people generally feel free to express their opinion just like they would do on any book they purchased on Amazon or in the bookshop.

Okay, Anon.

You’ve shared your opinion, and I’ve shared mine, and personally, this doesn’t feel like a fruitful discussion because I can tell (by both the tone and the length of your anon) that you’ve come with your mind made up.

I don’t think you really wanted to hear what I thought. I think you came to my ask box with a fully formed opinion, that you wanted to have a platform to air out, so I’m publishing this to give you that chance, and to allow the people that read this to make up their own minds about the issue.

I respect your opinion, fully and wholeheartedly, even though I don’t agree with it, for reasons that I’ve already stated.

You do you, and I’ll do me, and I do hope that you continue to take criticism of your own work with that same, brazen, formidable fire. It’s very admirable.

#concrit #writing #iaw ask #iaw anoymous #writing thoughts

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calamity-bean · 5 years ago

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Also, re: Little Women (2019)... I remember seeing posts (or mentions of posts?) being very upset with Bhaer for criticizing Jo’s writing. And I have feelings about that! I totally understand that we writers are sensitive about our work, about the heart and the effort we’ve put into it, and that we empathize with being defensive about criticism and dismissive of people who critique when they themselves are not writers. I feel that. But honestly, some of Bhaer’s lines during that conversation — “Has no one ever talked to you like this before? Do you have anyone to take you seriously, to talk about your work?” — struck me more than almost any other lines in the film, because they reflect so well what I feel is a good approach to the author–editor dynamic.

I haven’t read the book since I was a kid, so I’m really limited to the newest film for my perspective on him and Jo and how his critique of her writing is handled, and honestly, my thoughts are more on the general concept of editing/critiquing than on their relationship specifically, but... There is a bad critic/editor in this film. It’s not Bhaer. It’s the publisher who clearly does not take Jo seriously as a person/writer and pressures her to heavily alter her style in order to produce work that she knows is not what or how she wants to write, because that’s what he considers marketable. Marketability is not a bad thing in and of itself; popular work, trope-heavy work, mass-market genre novels like romance or cozy mysteries that tend to follow certain plot formulas, these are not bad or unskilled things. Many readers love reading books/genres that get disparaged as “trashy” or “light” or not “serious,” and many writers love writing those things, and that’s great! But in this case, the publisher’s view of what was marketable (which was ultimately proven to be very flawed anyway) pushed Jo to produce work that I think we are to understand she, herself, was not proud of. Proud of being published, yes, but not really proud of the work itself, and clearly not what she wanted to be doing or the best she was capable of. And that, unless I’m missing something, is the work that Bhaer critiqued.

I think editors (and beta readers, critics, etc.) are important. I am an editor, so yeah, I could be biased in that; but I’ve been on the other side of the equation many, many times, too, having my own writing and art critiqued in workshops and competitions and the workplace and etc. The relationship between a creator and the people who help them review, reconsider, and refine their work is important. It can bring valuable insight, experience, and technical skills that can truly transform a manuscript into something so much stronger than it started out as. But the relationship is also complicated. Giving critique that is constructive rather than destructive is a skill that requires empathy and humility as well as intelligence and discernment. Listening to critique and deciding what (if anything) to do with it takes resilience, discernment, and humility as well. And editors are not infallible or one size fits all.

I think a vital skill for any writer (any creator, really) is to learn who/what is worth listening to — and who/what is not. We should not take every negative remark from every random reader to heart. Even when it comes to pros, an editor might be very good at working with certain writers and within certain genres but absolutely useless or even harmful when it comes to other writers or genres. Even when we try to be objective, we are human and inevitably bring at least traces of our own biases, interests, and abilities. But from a writer’s perspective, the ideal editor, I think, is not one who tries to force a manuscript into fitting their own idea of what the writing “should be.” The ideal editor is one who makes an effort to understand what the author is trying to do, how they’re trying to do it, and what the manuscript itself is trying to be — and then works to strengthen the manuscript in alignment with those goals, not against them.

And that is why I loved when Bhaer asked Jo, “But do you have anyone to take you seriously, to talk about your work?” Because that’s... what a writer should want. That’s the lead-in to a constructive approach: not blind praise, not flat rejection, not shoehorning the work out of shape to fit a preconceived mold, but someone who wants to talk with and listen to the writer so they can understand them and their work. That quote struck me both as a writer and as an editor. I try to avoid being as subjective as Bhaer is when he leads by simply saying it’s not good and he doesn’t like it; flat, nonspecific statements like that aren’t really helpful. But then again, he’s talking to a friend, someone he feels he can be honest with, and editing does sometimes involve difficult conversations about aspects of the manuscript that are, well... not good. If you’re aiming to be a professional writer, as Jo is, you’re probably going to have to learn to have these difficult conversations, even though they can feel very personal and emotionally charged. Trust me, I get that; I’ve had my own share of raw feelings after having my work critiqued. In some cases, I ultimately decided the criticism was not really relevant and/or merited, and I set it aside unheeded. But in other cases, it proved invaluable in helping me grow.

God, I’ve rambled longer than I meant to, but like, bottom line here: The critique is not unsolicited. He offers to read and review her work, promising upfront to be honest. Jo accepts. And the work he’s so unimpressed with is work that she herself knows is not the sort of thing she wants to write! He recognizes her talent but he also recognizes that this particular work does not truly reflect that talent, and perhaps part of the reason she’s so upset by it is that she herself is not very proud of that work either. Did he start out pretty blunt? Yeah. But I think his overall approach was in service of trying to get to the heart of Jo’s abilities and artistic goals. Support, reassurance, and positive reinforcement are invaluable to any writer, but at certain points of the process, so is critique that forces the creator to really review their own work. At any rate, I don’t think it’s harmful for a critic to treat a professional (or aspiring professional) writer seriously and to encourage honest conversations about what the writer is going for, uncomfortable though those conversations can sometimes be. And just because a lot of us sympathize with being a writer/creator does not mean that giving agreed-upon, solicited criticism makes a character bad.

#oh my god i didn't mean to write this much #and i'm months and months late to whatever discourse there ever was about this anyway lol #this is really less about the film/characters than it is about my general philosophy on writing and editing? lmao #but i mean i GUESS it's also lw meta #though i don't really feel qualified to claim any expertise on the book or the film(s) or the characters or etc #i just have like... thoughts about writer-editor dynamics i guess #and about the fact that there's a diff btw the kind of convos about your work you should be prepared to have when you're an amateur #versus when you are (or are trying to be) a pro #long post #op

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plays-the-thing · 4 years ago

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Netflix’s Witcher: What Makes a Good Adaptation? – A companion piece

If you’ve somehow found this without seeing the video first, here’s a link:

In this video I analyze the screen adaptations of Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, and the Witcher series. I use the comparisons of the three to discuss what makes adaptations in general work and to explain why I feel the Witcher is heading down the road to mediocrity.

However, this is a hugely complicated subject, and the works themselves are also complex, especially Martin’s work. I make plenty of claims in the video that a reasonable person could disagree with without any explanation for why I think they are true. Unfortunately, if I were to go down every rabbit hole that I touch on the video would be hours long, so I have to gloss over some potentially confusing or controversial statements.

Enter this post. Here I will be attempting to pre-empt any questions that I think people may have, and go through my thought process on certain claims. I don’t recommend that you read the whole thing. Each explanation will be followed by a timestamp and relevant quote from the video that I am expanding upon so that you can quickly search the page and find what you are looking for.

I’m sure there will be things I don’t think to cover, or things that are poorly reasoned both here and in the video, so feel free to ask additional questions. Just please check to make sure you aren’t asking something that I already covered here.

I will also be attempting to give as much credit as possible to all the wonderful writers and creators who have influenced my thinking with regards to these works. I’ll be linking as much as possible to my sources, as well as to additional content that expands on ideas I mention. Also I’ve included some personal tidbits and commentary, just for fun.

Under a cut for length.

INTRODUCTION:

Huge props to the people who put together the behind-the-scenes footage of LOTR. I’ve watched all the bonus footage numerous times in my life. If you have any interest in the nitty-gritty of how movies get made, I can’t recommend it enough. It really shows all the work and complexity that goes into making movies. That they even get made at all is honestly incredible, especially massive undertakings like LOTR.

[3:30] And if you've ever wondered what the hell happened to The Hobbit, to me it seemed like they were indulging all of these worst impulses instead of catching themselves and editing them out like they did in LOTR.

As soon as I saw that they were making three Hobbit movies my hopes plummeted. It just reeked of executive meddling, and of trying to make the story into something it just isn’t. Lo and behold, that’s what we got: sticking in loads of unnecessary and thematically incoherent material to stretch out the runtime and make it more “epic.” I couldn’t bring myself to watch past the first one, but Lindsay Ellis has an excellent video series exploring in detail what went wrong with the trilogy.

PART ONE: LORD OF THE RINGS

[8:40] If you followed the events and the chronology of the book they would just hang out with Faramir for a little bit and then the movie would end

Technically it’s more complicated than this because that’s already following the revised movie timeline. In reality, Frodo would have just left the Black Gate. They *are* moving the events around to some extent, usually by a few of days here and there, but they can’t move stuff together that takes place weeks apart or the whole timeline would crumble.

[9:55] You can call it the theme, the soul, the spirit, the point, or whatever else you want, but the great works of fiction have something at their core that pulls everything together and elevates it into art. It’s a difficult thing to describe, but I think this scene perfectly tapped into the soul of Tolkien’s work.

Huge shout out to Bob Case and his video “Blame of Thrones” for first introducing me to this concept and the language of the “spirit” of a work to describe this phenomenon. In many ways the first two parts of this video are merely building on the LOTR-GOT comparison that he makes in that video, digging a little deeper and looking at more specific and concrete (and spoileriffic) examples of what he’s talking about so that we can apply these ideas to the Witcher…and beyond. Like all his work, it’s excellent. His YouTube is pretty much inactive these days, but he also occasionally writes content for Shamus Young’s blog if you want more of his work.

PART TWO: GAME OF THRONES

Alright, here it is: the section that really caused me to want to make this companion piece. Earlier I mentioned that I have sympathy for the GoT showrunners, and I really do. Martin’s work is incredibly complex, and so this section dominates the blogpost because there is so much to explain and no way that I could explain it all in the video without incredible bloat.

First I should mention that I, and all the writers I am going to credit here, share a very specific interpretation of Martin’s work. This isn’t the only interpretation. I doubt it’s the interpretation of the majority of readers. Obviously, I fully believe it is the correct interpretation, but the showrunners clearly had a wildly different one.

People who have this interpretation express it in different ways. Joannalannister collects hers in her tag #the-meaning-of-asoiaf. PoorQuentyn expresses it here, and in his analysis of Davos, Quentyn, and Tyrion. Other writers express it in their own ways.

With my lit degree hanging over my head, I can’t help but see it as a problem of competing artistic movements. To me, HBO’s Game of Thrones is part of the art movement of the past few decades, namely postmodernism. Art movements are complex, but basically postmodernism is the cynical reaction to the sincerity of modernism which came before it. Cynicism is, I think, the defining trait of Game of Thrones.

But it is NOT the defining trait of the books. In my view, Martin’s ASOIAF is part of the art movement that we are moving towards, which is starting to become known as metamodernism. Metamodernism is a reaction to the nihilistic pessimism and cynicism of postmodernism, and replaces it not with the unbridled sincerity of modernism, but rather oscillation between the two modes. It can be both ironic and sincere, deconstructionist and constructionist, apathetic and affectual. Once you have peeled back all the layers however, it is ultimately hopeful and optimistic. It embraces a sense of radical optimism. In metamodernist works optimism is often radical because the world the characters live in can be so dark. But that darkness serves only to highlight those characters that can hold fast to virtue amidst such darkness.

So, be warned. If you believe that Martin’s work is all about controlling the Iron Throne, and believe that cynicism is for the wise and honor is for fools, we just aren’t going to see eye to eye.

[12:45] Ned is a competent northern politician who has some trouble adapting to southern culture. Through a combination of bad luck, some understandable mistakes, and a misconception about his position, he fails in his goals.

The show didn’t invent the idea of Stupid Honorable Ned. Plenty of people believed this, even before the show. Obviously I believe they are wrong. If you would like to read more about it I would suggest Steven Attewell’s analysis of Ned’s chapters that he does on his blog, particularly Eddard XI and Eddard XIII. Steven does a much better job of analyzing Ned as a political actor than I ever could.

[13:00] Most of these changes are subtle…the best example is the council debate about whether or not to assassinate Daenerys.

Many of the ideas in this section are pulled from two essays by turtle-paced: Poor Doomed Ned and The Argument to Assassinate Daenerys. Turtle goes deep into the details of the differences between the Ned Stark of the books and the show, and I skimmed some of their comparisons for my argument. Steven Attewell’s analysis of this chapter is also worth reading.

[14:09] It’s a good argument, and I think in the books we are expected to mostly agree with Ned, both morally and politically.

When I say “expected” I mean from the authors point of view, which of course relies on me being correct about my interpretation of Martin’s work. Obviously I think I’m right, but if you don’t agree with my interpretation you may not agree with this statement.

[14:16] Notice also that the supporters of the assassination: Littlefinger, Varys, Renly, and Pycelle are all villains (all except Pycelle are trying to destabilize the kingdom), and the people who oppose it, Ned and Barristan, are heroes.

Each of them represents a different sort of evil. Littlefinger is a scheming sociopathic villain. Varys is a well-intentioned extremist whose willingness to commit utterly heinous acts in the pursuit of his goals makes him a villain. This is because, as Huxley puts it, “The end cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced.” Renly is narcissistic ambitious evil, willing to throw a realm into war to satisfy his own ego, and is totally uncaring about the lives of other people. It isn’t precisely correct to say that Pycelle is a villain because he represents the banality of evil. He thinks he’s just doing his job, but he’s morally bankrupt and politically corrupt.

[16:40] It would take too long to list all the ways that Tywin is awful, and everyone knows it.

To clarify, I mean that everyone in-universe knows it. For some god-forsaken reason, some readers seem to think that Tywin was just being effective after he unleashed the Mountain on the Riverlands and violated every military and political norm in Westeros.

If you are going to say that he is “Machiavellian” I would encourage you to actually read The Prince, where Machiavelli says “Nevertheless a prince ought to inspire fear in such a way that, if he does not win love, he avoids hatred” and goes into the reasons why.

[17:17] Tywin on the other hand accomplished a lot of short-term gains by being as treacherous and dishonorable as possible. But this has a cost: by proving themselves fair-weather allies they surround themselves with the same. Nobody trusts them, and so their allies scheme and betray them.

Oberyn and Doran are both scheming in their own way to revenge themselves on the Lannisters for the deaths of Elia and her children. The Tyrells poison Joffrey and scheme to spirit Sansa away to Highgarden.

[17:36] Ned failed due to a couple of minor mistakes, some bad luck, and treachery.

I mention a few times that Ned, and more broadly the Starks, get “unlucky.” Again, Steven Attewell does an excellent job of documenting this with his keen eye for how GRRM cheats political realities, but I’ll note a few of the many ways George has to bend over backward to screw the Starks.

In AGoT Catelyn leaves King’s Landing roughly around the same time that Tyrion leaves the wall, and both are on horseback. In order for them to meet at the Inn at the Crossroads Tyrion has to travel roughly 2,000 miles in the same time that Catelyn travels 400 miles. This is basically impossible, but necessary for the plot so that Catelyn can lose Tyrion at the Eyrie. If she had caught him somewhere further north she could have simply chucked him into her own dungeons and managed his trial herself.

Cersei has been trying to kill Robert for goodness knows how long with just as unreliable methods as “get him drunk on a hunt.” In order for Ned to get screwed she has to succeed in killing Robert at precisely that moment. If it had failed like every one of her other attempts she is most likely dead, because Ned would tell Robert the truth about her children as soon as he got back.

In order for Theon to take Winterfell, veteran military man and castellan Ser Rodrik Cassell has to stupidly empty the Winterfell garrison while he knows that Ironborn raiders are running loose in the North, not even leaving behind a mere twenty-five to fifty men that would have completely thrashed Theon’s assault. If Theon can’t take Winterfell, the Red Wedding doesn’t happen (as Martin has told us that the real inciting incident of the Red Wedding was the fall of Winterfell).

[17:41] However, killing him was a terrible idea, and backfired on the Lannisters instantly.

Continuing this theme, the Lannisters were in an absolutely horrible position at the beginning of the War of the Five Kings. They pretty much just have their bannerman in the Westerlands. Stannis seems to have the support of most of the Crownlands, and he and Renly are splitting the lords of the Reach and the Stormlands (with Renly having the larger chunk). The Starks have all the support of the North and the Riverlands combined. The Lannisters are surrounded by enemies who outnumber them on all sides. Killing Ned immediately jumpstarts a war that will almost certainly crush the Lannisters. That it didn’t took some very thin plotting and improbable developments at times, but overall George made it work. For more analysis of this, again check out Steven Attewell Blog: Race for the Iron Throne.

[17:48] Tywin was killed by both a guest whom he considered his ally, and his son.

I firmly believe Oberyn poisoned Tywin. Here’s a good rundown of the evidence. Beyond simple means, motive, and opportunity it also provides neat answers to lingering odd questions like why Tywin rotted so oddly and aggressively, why Tyrion knew he would find him in the privy, why Oberyn was willing to chuck his life away for a confession before seeming to have secured revenge against Tywin.

It’s also thematically juicy. I love the idea that Tywin, who so egregiously violated Westerosi norms culminating in the total breach of the social contract at the Red Wedding, was a victim of contrapasso. He can’t be protected by social norms, so he gets poisoned by his guest and ally. Did Tyrion know he was dying? Had he put it all together? Was that bolt really an act of mercy? Perhaps it was one final service to the Lannisters, to keep the dream of their alliance with the Martells alive. Who knows, but boy is it interesting to consider.

[18:13] his alliances fall to pieces, and his children are abandoned by even their own family.

I’m referring here to the infighting between the Tyrells and Lannisters (and Martells, though they never had any intent of staying true to the alliance) after Tywin’s death (though there was some before as well, just intensified after Cersei takes over from Tywin). Kevan forces Cersei to take the walk of shame, and Jaime and the rest of the Lannisters abandon her to that fate.

[19:41] Just like Lord of the Rings, and the Witcher, ASOIAF is clearly dedicated to anti-violence. Not pacifism: all three works have heroes dealing out retributive violence in order to try and restore justice.

I understand it might be odd to suggest that three works which feature so much violence can be dedicated to anti-violence, but depicting something is not the same as endorsing it. I would argue in the case of Martin’s work in particular that his depiction of violence, so un-romantically brutal and direct, is intentionally revolting, and therefore is designed to be anti-violence. Martin purposefully makes you want revenge on certain characters, gives it to you, and then forces you to stare at the inhumanity of this thing you thought you wanted. Yeah I wanted Theon to pay, but not like that. Yeah, I wanted Cersei to pay, but not like that. Yeah, I want the Freys to pay, but I don’t think I’m going to like what Stoneheart is going to do to them.

There is a certain amount of this in the Witcher as well. I can specifically think of one scene in The Blood of Elves, but I promised no Witcher spoilers.

The violence in LOTR is much more romanticized, but as Faramir says: “I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” The hero is still Frodo, who doesn’t fight anyone or anything in the whole story. Frodo is a pacifist, but his pacifism is enabled by others who are willing to fight.

[20:07] In a Dance with Dragons Daenerys allows the old slave-holding class to maintain too much power and so they immediately attempt to continue the old violence of slavery. Daenerys did not commit enough violence against the slave-owners, so they were allowed to continue existing, and as long as they existed they were always going to abuse and oppress the ex-slaves.

A couple years after the release of ADWD, an obnoxiously wrong and poisonous idea began to creep into the ASOIAF fandom: Daenerys’ violence against the slaveowners in Slaver’s Bay is dangerous and immoral, and peace is the better option. This idea was most persuasively argued in the Meereenese Blot’s series of essays.

I’ll quote some of the conclusion here:

“They are supposed to feel this generic distrust for everyone, and to fail to grasp that their peaces were actually quite successful. Dany is supposed to conclude — wrongly — that her behavior through most of the book was silly and foolish. And if you came away with those impressions too, it’s perfectly understandable…The whole plotline is designed to maneuver Dany into a mental place where she’ll decide to sideline her concerns for innocent life, and take what she wants with fire and blood.”

This idea, much like the idea that Daenerys is some sort of unhinged fascist just waiting for the right trigger, makes me unbelievably angry. This idea that I am supposed to value the life of the slaveowner and the slave equally, and that maintaining a “peaceful” slave-owning society is an acceptable alternative to violent revolution is so fundamentally revolting to me, that it turns my stomach even to write that sentence.

Some fans went even as far as to suggest that Daenerys’ occupation of Meereen was a parallel to the US occupation of Iraq, and that she was engaged in erasing an authentic slave-owning culture that she despised. If you read the above series of essays, you can see that they are, at the least, enabling that kind of thinking.

To be clear, I do not consider any slave society to be worth a damn thing. Anything that continues it is evil and all that attempts to destroy it is good. That being said, once again Steven Attewell does a better job than I ever could of rebutting the ideas of the Meereneese Blot, and explaining how the correct parallel of Daenerys’ actions in Meereen is the American mistake of abandoning radical reconstruction. He describes her actions in Meereen as abandoning a revolution half complete. I highly recommend reading it, especially if you are American.

Martin is not a pacifist. He has said he would have fought in WWII. He demonstrated against Vietnam. As far as I know, the first time George ever used the words “Fire and Blood” was in a book released in 1982 called Fevre Dream:

“I never held much with slavery […]. You can’t just go… usin’ another kind of people, like they wasn’t people at all. Know what I mean? Got to end, sooner or later. Better if it ends peaceful, but it’s got to end even if it has to be with fire and blood, you see? Maybe that’s what them abolitionists been sayin’ all along. You try to be reasonable, that’s only right, but if it don’t work, you got to be ready. Some things is just wrong. They got to be ended.”

Daenerys is a slave-freeing, slave-owner-killing Hero with a capital H. She has made mistakes. I weep for the lives of the slaves that she has thrown away by abandoning her revolution, by failing to give the people of Astapor the strength to defend themselves, by maintaining a false peace that allows the Meereneese KKK to kill ex-slaves in the night. I shed no tears for the slaveowners that she has killed. When you treat other human beings as property you forfeit your right to Prosperity, Freedom, and Life. Preferably in that order—I would prefer that a slave society could peacefully transition, that those who attempted to continue it could be locked up, and that bloodshed could be avoided. But sometimes violence is necessary.

Daenerys will make more mistakes, I am sure. I believe that she will swing too far in the other direction, temporarily. But that’s a topic for another time.

[20:57] She comforts the hound even as he threatens her and helps him on his path from violence to peace.

Sandor did not die, despite what the Elder Brother told Brienne. He uses his words very carefully, to suggest that the Hound is dead, but that Sandor Clegane the man is simply “at rest.” He has become a brother of the isle.

“On the upper slopes they saw three boys driving sheep, and higher still they passed a lichyard where a brother bigger than Brienne was struggling to dig a grave. From the way he moved, it was plain to see that he was lame.” - Brienne VI, AFFC

[21:40] If they don’t understand why Tywin is a villain then of course they won’t understand why the Others are the main villains of the series, and will probably replace them with some blonde queen. And if you don’t understand that the cold of the human heart is the real enemy than of course you’ll think you can stop winter by just stabbing it. Like Tywin would.

In the books the Others are the villains. They are what the whole story is building towards, much like in LOTR the story builds towards Frodo casting the ring into the Fire. Martin has said that he thinks that the finishing chapters of LOTR, like the Scouring of the Shire, were important, so we may see something like that, but the clear emphasis will be on the existential evil, and cleaning up Cersei or Aegon “Targaryen’s” mess will be a clear step down in importance. It’s something that the heroes have grown beyond, but still need to handle, just like Saruman in the Shire.

[22:04] There’s nothing wrong with liking Game of Thrones, or disliking Lord of the Rings, or anything else.

I really do mean this. I am going to be critical of things you like, and am going to praise things you love. People are different, that’s to be expected. I am not here to pretend that people should only like the things I like. I’m interested in what makes these stories work. I said much the same thing in my last video about some of the new Star Wars properties. People tend to get really attached to the media they like (I’m no exception) and that can color our perception of criticism. Do try to keep in mind that if you like something I criticize it isn’t an attack on you. You have a sacred and personal relationship to the things you enjoy that no one can take from you. I like all kinds of stuff that other people might consider bad, and that’s okay. Actually it’s great, because it gives us something to talk about.

I may genuinely hate Game of Thrones because it butchers something I came to love, but that doesn’t mean I have anything against the people who do like it for their own reasons. We’re all just out here enjoying what we like.

PART THREE: THE WITCHER

There is less in this section for two reasons. First, I promised not to spoil anything past the material covered in the show and I’ll stick to that here. Second—full disclosure here—I haven’t read all of the books because after Blood of Elves I got pretty bored and from what I had heard they did not improve in quality, and if anything got worse. Having already felt that going from the anthologies to Blood I was happy to end my reading there.

If something I say is contradicted by a later book that I didn’t read feel free to let me know.

[23:31] First I should mention that Sapkowski’s works are not on the same level as Tolkien’s and Martin’s, who are the best and second-best fantasy authors of all time. I have enjoyed the Witcher books that I have read, but they are not anywhere near as complex or beautifully written.

This is just my opinion, see above paragraph. I really do think that it’s a pretty common opinion though. I’ve read it before, and you often see people recommend the first two Witcher anthologies in a “if you like it maybe see if you like the rest of them?” sort of way. Book sales numbers also support this, though by all accounts they are exploding in the wake of the show.

But, one potential issue is that I’m reading a translation so I have no idea how good Sapkowski’s prose actually is. You get a lot of sentences in the US edition like: “it must be both bothersome and irritating.” Translation is art, not science, and passages like these make me worry that the translator is just translating each phrase without worrying about all the subtlety that makes language beautiful. These are minor examples of course, but they worry me about what else might be changed. So take my criticism of his writing with a giant, translated, grain of salt, in that I don’t read Polish.

[23:58] Despite this, Geralt the Witcher has been worming his way into popular culture for years, interestingly on the back of a series of video games

Google trends clearly show that the video games are what primarily generated interest in the character before the show. There were no English editions until around the time the games started coming out, and the US editions all feature concept art from the games on the covers. The release of the subsequently translated books after the games received very little attention in comparison to the games.

[24:15] In my opinion, that decline of focus on Geralt was the greatest weakness in the books, and the focus on Geralt is the greatest strength of the games. Because Geralt is at the core of what made Sapkowski’s story and world engaging in the first place. He is a fascinating character in a way that Ciri, who is a fairly standard fantasy “chosen child,” could never be.

This is just my opinion, and I explain why I think Geralt is so great in the subsequent paragraphs. Reasonable people can disagree on this, but I’ve come across more than a couple fantasy characters who could be generically described as “royal orphans with special powers.” It’s not exactly novel. Geralt is pretty novel, at least in terms of what I have read.

[24:49] He suffers many of the same psychological problems that characters like Tyrion and Brienne suffer from in Martin’s work

The technical name for these kinds of issues is “internalized bigotry.” This happens when you get treated consistently horribly by the society you live in due to some fundamental fact about yourself that you didn’t choose, and eventually you begin to believe and “internalize” their opinion of you. For example, people expect Tyrion to be unlovable, conniving, lecherous, and debauched. Eventually he simply leans into these characteristics, because in a way it’s almost easier to be what people expect you to be.

[25:48] To top it off, he hides all this inside a cynical and nihilistic exterior, he pretends he doesn’t care when in fact, he cares more than anyone.

The shot that accompanies this, of Geralt looking intently at what’s happening in the room while others tend to be watching with a sort of mild curiosity like you might at an unexpected circus performance, did an awesome job of conveying this idea.

[26:36] This was kind of a cool idea, but predictably their scenes ended up being generally less interesting and engaging then Geralt’s. Yennefer’s were sometimes fantastic but Ciri’s rarely were.

This was the opinion of fans that I most commonly observed. I don’t have any empirical evidence of this. If you have any that either supports or contradicts this please let me know, I would be fascinated to see it. I could see someone really loving Yennefer’s scenes, and I personally enjoyed a lot of them, but I don’t understand how someone could walk away from the first season with Ciri as their favorite character of the three. I’ll come back to this in a later section.

[27:40] In many ways the first two books, and the games, have more in common with Sherlock Holmes than they do most other fantasy stories.

Really a more accurate comparison would be Philip Marlowe since Geralt is definitely more of an American Pulp detective than a British one. I do love the similarity between Geralt’s Witcher Senses in The Witcher 3 and Sherlock’s detective vision in Crimes and Punishment. I can’t make the same comparison to a Philip Marlowe game, because no one’s made one yet.

Actually that’s not strictly true. There was one game that came out in 1996.

[28:12] But Netflix’s Witcher has barely a whiff of detective fiction anywhere. I think this has caused a lot of fans to feel alienated by the show, even if they can’t explain exactly why.

It’s not reasonable to expect people to know why they like or don’t like something. It’s a feeling, and unless they have experience with writing, narratology, literature, film studies, or just read a lot of tvtropes.org, they are not likely to be able to put their finger on what it is. This causes people to disproportionally blame the things that are most obviously wrong. The premiere example of this is Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace. Jar Jar was obviously bad, but he doesn’t even come close to the top ten biggest problems with the movie. It was much worse that there was no main character or understandable plot and drama. Check out Red Letter Media’s legendary review for more on that.

I think a similar thing happened with Ciri, in that her story was sort of obviously underwhelming and so received a lot of flak, but there are deeper problems with the show.

[32:04] The third change is more subtle, but I’m worried that this Geralt genuinely believes in neutrality.

Just like Ned, the showrunners would not be the first to espouse this view. This quote in particular about “evil is evil” is obnoxiously peddled about as a justification for fence-sitting despite the fact that Geralt’s actual behavior doesn’t support it at all.

I don’t know for sure if the showrunners genuinely think Geralt tries to be neutral. There’s some evidence for yes in the first episode, the Borch episode, the Striga episode, and a couple of others. There’s strong evidence for no in the Duny/Pavetta episode. We’ll just have to see.

To be clear, when I mean “neutral” I mean in the face of immediate violence or injustice. Geralt often doesn’t care who is king, as he explains to Ostrit. But he won’t let a Striga continue to kill people just for coin.

[37:20] When the writers took away Ned’s best arguments for his actions, when they took his story of existential triumph, of not compromising his morals, and turned it into a simple tragedy, they showed they clearly did not understand his heroism.

See PoorQuentyn’s explanation of existential heroism, and how it applies to ASOIAF.

[37:58] In the books, Ciri and Yennefer are included in the story through their connection to Geralt, because he is our hero and the foundation of our connection to the world. In the show they are included before ever having met Geralt, and they take up time that could have been spent focusing on those devilish detective details that make Geralt’s stories and character work.

Originally this video had a lot of discussion about how well these two other characters worked, but it ended up being kind of useless because it comes down to personal opinion, and the writers failure to properly use Geralt massively overshadows whether or not someone liked or didn’t like either of the other two leads. Again, I get why someone could like Yennefer’s scenes. I get why someone could maybe even like her scenes more than Geralt’s. Anya Chalotra did great. I thought the writing was a little weak at times, but on balance pretty decent. Geralt gets the benefit of all his stories being straight adaptations, and she didn’t, so it was a pretty decent job.

On the other hand, I thought Ciri’s storyline was a giant waste of space. When I think of all the best moments in the show, Ciri doesn’t show up in any of them. She spends the entire season running away from and interacting with fairly minor and forgettable characters that did not need to be introduced in this season. Calanthe, Eist, and Mousesack were great characters and the actors gave great performances, but that did not make up for the fact that her storyline went nowhere and did nothing to justify its inclusion. If someone loved Ciri’s storyline I would genuinely be interested to know why.

[39:10] I do have some sympathy for the writers of the Witcher.

Many times in this video I mention sympathy for various writers. Moviemaking is a massively complex undertaking. If you know anything about the difficulty of getting these things together you’ll know that it’s an absolute miracle any movie gets made and takes herculean effort from everyone involved. Television series are arguably even worse because they are longer, more complex, and often have a lower budget despite that. The people involved are honestly doing their best, and I recognize that, even if I criticize the product.

[39:47] They are in this unfortunate position where they can’t really pull the majority of their writing straight from the books because the material isn’t really strong enough by itself.

The books are very dialogue heavy. As I allude to, the one scene that was very close to the book is that scene with Filavandrel and it’s just obnoxious because the two characters just dialogue at each other. It goes on even longer in the book. How well that works in a book is up for debate but it wasn’t going to work on the screen, and it didn’t.

These problems are not insurmountable though. You can put other footage over these monologues. You could have included some footage of Elves fighting in their war. You could have footage of the “cursed” daughters of Lilit being locked in towers or autopsied while Stregobor explains it. I get this is more budget, but that budget went other places.

On the other hand some great scenes that I think would have translated excellently shot-for-shot from the book with little additional budget, like Renfri and Geralt in the Alderman’s attic, are entirely cut. Ah well.

[40:25] Well, I have my theories, but it in the end it doesn’t really matter.

I have a sneaking suspicion that somebody thought it needed to be more “epic” than the first two books are, so we got all this princess and political stuff in early. If there’s any merit to the idea that this series “copied” GoT, it’s somewhere in here, just like how the Hobbit got poisoned with all of the “epicness” of LOTR.

[44:54] Lastly, I’m gonna do my best to put out more regular content going forward. I’m aiming for at least one video a month.

I place no limitation on topics. It’ll probably be mostly media analysis, but if I’m honest I’m just going to write about whatever interests me. That’s the best way to keep myself interested.

That being said, if you have something you think I should analyze let me know. If I’m interested, I might do it.

#witcher #netflix witcher #lotr #asoiaf #game of thrones #anti-got #lord of the rings #adaptation #video companions

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annaspoolstra · 4 years ago

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Reading Response #2.5

🔍Thoughts on Imagine (p. 17-30)

I’m really excited to read more out of this book. I’m very curious to understand more about how Christians should incorporate their faith in their work in a way that accurately represents their worldview and still engages with the culture. Steve Turner’s observations about how “Christian art” is viewed by the world really resonated with me. I’ve definitely noticed how “Christian art” seems to be limited to the narrow Christian subculture, and doesn’t have much effect on the overall culture (18, 20-21). (That needs to change!) I’ve also noticed the general lack of role models when it comes to well-known Christian artists––thus leading to the implication that Christians can’t create good, relevant art, and/or that it is wrong of them to try (22). (Though I must say, I know of dozens of good Christian songwriters and singers. I think today’s Christian artists are getting better about crafting music in a way that non-Christians can engage with.) As far as the rest of the Christian artist population goes, I want to see us joining in the discussion that our pop culture is initiating.

I agree with Turner when he says that he doesn’t think art should be made to convert people (29). I feel like I can respect Christian songs, literature, movies, etc. more when they aren’t trying to force-feed people Christianity, if that makes sense. I love artwork produced by Christians that start discussions and challenge ideas by subtly planting seeds of ideas and thoughts in people’s minds. That’s the kind of art I want to produce, something that makes people pause and see the world in a different light. I want to see Christian artists sharing their views through their art, but still being respected by the culture for their integrity, character, and excellent work. I don’t like this hiding in the Christian corner thing, having no impact on the world. I think God made artists to create, and that our identity as Christians should permeate our lives and alter our work, setting us apart. But I also think that can be more challenging to do through fine art and image-related art than it is through writing and music.

🔍Thoughts on Emerge (p. 9-18)

First of all, the fourth introduction made me laugh. I love Don Perini’s sense of humor.

I’m eager to read more to discover how to live a creative life. Pereni claims that creativity “takes discipline and hard work,” and that it’s not a “genie in a bottle.” He also says that it takes “determination, process, and good habits to come up with great results.” I think both of these are accurate. I could totally relate with his description of his awkward board meetings where his colleagues expected him to produce creative solutions instantly. I’ve never been to a board meeting, but school has offered me enough experience to know that creative solutions aren’t always instantaneous. I can also understand how good, creative results––ultimately a creative life––requires determination, discipline, and hard work. It’s not always easy to summon inspiration or practice creative skills. It takes hard work! I’m eager to see how Perini incorporates Christianity in the process of leading a creative life. I’m really hoping both Imagine and Emerge change me as an artist and broaden my understanding of what it means to be a Christian artist.

🔍Thoughts on Liu Xiaodong’s interview

The explicit subject matter in some of Lui’s work leads me to believe that he is not a Christian, so it’s interesting to hear his view of Jesus. He finds Jesus to be the ultimate role model for artists, because Jesus “transcends himself.” Liu believes that one of the roles of an artist is to help others transcend themselves through art. To be honest, I’m not sure what he means exactly, and I’d love to discuss his views further.

Liu also believes that artists have the unique ability to break national boundaries. Artists maintain a kind of innocence, because all they can do is imagine and show others their unique views through their work. I kind of like this view of artists, because it centers on the fact that art, like music, is universal, despite language barriers and political differences.

📷Image Above:

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fst.depositphotos.com%2F1000152%2F4981%2Fi%2F450%2Fdepositphotos_49813215-stock-photo-school-books.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fdepositphotos.com%2Fstock-photos%2Fbooks.html&tbnid=mlaLQ9hKv-d3uM&vet=12ahUKEwjnkIfhq9frAhVfGjQIHfq2CC8QMygZegUIARCAAg..i&docid=E1dDNde2jRwLyM&w=600&h=400&q=stock%20photo%20of%20books&hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwjnkIfhq9frAhVfGjQIHfq2CC8QMygZegUIARCAAg

#ReadingResponsePost #thecreativechristian

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funkymbtifiction · 6 years ago

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This isn’t necessarily MBTI related, so pardon the tangential nature of this ask… but I’m looking more for opinions from you guys as writers…

I’m thinking of entering a literary competition held by my college— some of the prizes involve a handy amount of cash, and to quote one of my friends “what can you lose by trying?”

I’ve also had a lot of praise / encouragement directed towards bits and pieces of my writing (mostly poetry, and a few essays) from those I’ve shown, namely my Rabbi, a mentor, some friends, and a couple Professors and teachers..

My problem is mainly that I write primarily for myself, and while I’m not really ashamed, this process would be intensely vulnerable. I write because sometimes, the ideas and images and thoughts scratch the inside of my head so intensely, I have to externalize them, let them prickle paper instead, and so much of my experience bleeds through that (I realize this sounds melodramatic, but that’s how it feels lol)

This sense was kinda compounded when I was discussing with a friend taking a poetry class, and she (dismissively?) told me that as someone who had been writing poetry since grade 8, she found it tedious to be stuck listening to people who had yet to get their emo phase out of their system. I agreed, although I said I felt it is possible to write evocatively on emotional subjects , including mental illness, without romanticizing it, being honest to one’s own experience, without sounding like a 14 year old. She then answered “yeah, well, not all art needs to reflect the poet, it’s not necessary to hear all that.” Every time I think about it, my insides curdle, and I question everything I have written…

Am I psyching myself out unnecessarily? Or is she right? I really appreciate any advice you guys have on the subject.

My immediate thoughts:

Your friend’s opinion is just hers. It does not represent anyone else’s. Just because she does not like “emo poetry” doesn’t mean “emo” poetry has no place in the world. I dunno if she’s noticed, but all the great Victorian authors and even Shakespeare wrote “emo poetry.” Also, she’s wrong if she thinks great art doesn’t reflect the artist. Great art DOES reflect the artist. Why do you think people say, “Write what you know?” Because you can be GOOD at it. People take this too literally. “Well, I’m a dentist so if I write what I know, I have to write about dentists.” Nope. If you know pain, write about that. If you know love, write about that. If you know heartache, write about that. There’s room in the world for everyone’s art. The world would be boring as hell without it.

If you are not ready to have total strangers read and judge your work, do not enter a writing competition

. If you win, even MORE people will read and judge your work. If it feels too personal to share what you write, honor your instincts and do not share until you feel ready. Pick something YOU have confidence in.

Write what you want, and don’t let any of your friends make you feel bad about it. You shouldn’t question your writing based on one person’s opinion. Pick someone you trust who you KNOW is a good writer, and ask them to critique your work. (An actual critique is not a blanket statement of “this sucks” but “This sentence, I had to read over four times. I wasn’t sure what it meant. Also, this word means something other than you think it does. And this sentence is grammatically incorrect.” An actual critique tells you what works, what doesn’t, and where you can improve the overall structure, often with suggestions.)

It’s hard not to listen to other people about what you write, if you have functions and/or an Enneagram type that cares about what they think, but ultimately what you write about is going to show the world who YOU are. Not them. Nobody but yourself. There is only one you. Put what you want out into the universe, when you are ready to let it go, and honor your own journey as a person and as a writer in the process.

Nobody should tell you WHAT or HOW to write.

- ENFP Mod

#writing #submission

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mittensmorgul · 6 years ago

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Today on the tnt loop: How To Sell Your Soul To Hell 101. 2.08 Crossroad Blues.

Dean’s been worried since 2.01 that John may have traded his soul for Dean’s life... and this is the episode where he gets the proof. He’s spent the season to this point on his “What’s dead should stay dead” streak, like with the Nice Guy™ in 2.04. Even the first few people they run into in 2.08, Dean feels justified in looking down his nose at them-- people who sold their souls for material gain, fame, and fortune.

First the architect who designed beautiful buildings, sure, but they end up talking to a colleague because he didn’t even have any family. Just his career. Then the surgeon, who yeah gained fame and fortune, but at least she saved a heck of a lot of lives, right? She was already a surgeon, she just wanted to be chief surgeon. She wanted to be in charge... and the only person who she shared her life with was apparently her housekeeper. Ambition that meant very little when the hounds came to drag them away.

It’s easy to feel like those folks were greedy, and therefore deserve what they got:

DEAN: Great. So we've gotta clean up these peoples' mess for 'em? I mean, they're not exactly squeaky clean. Nobody put a gun to their head and forced 'em to play Let's Make A Deal. SAM: So what, we should just leave them to die? DEAN: Somebody goes over Niagara in a barrel, you gonna jump in and try to save 'em?

But Sam persists, so Dean goes along with him. They find the guy who summoned the demon in the first place, who’s spent the last 10 years regretting not only his deal (he traded his soul for artistic talent, and he’s about to die penniless and alone with nothing to show for his life but a bunch of art nobody wants), but the fact that the demon stayed and made deals with a bunch of innocent people who didn’t even really believe or understand they were literally going to hell in ten years’ time for it. That guilt weighs on him, too...

GEORGE: Listen. I get that you boys want to help. But sometimes a person makes their bed, they've just got to lie down in it. I'm the one called that demon in the first place. DEAN: What'd you do it for? GEORGE: I was weak. I mean, who don't want to be great? Who don't want their life to mean something? I just... I just never thought about the price. DEAN: Was it worth it? GEORGE: Hell no.

And Dean gets just a bit more validation (or reverse validation? what do you call it when someone gets proof they’re unworthy?) that he wasn’t worth it, that John should never have made that deal.

And now we’ve arrived at the next Winchester Family Sacrifice Go Round, and the narrative wheel spins again. Feeling supremely justified and morally righteous, they find the final man who sold his soul. Dean coldly mocks the guy for selling his soul to get a girl, but...

EVAN: No. He's right, I made the deal. Nobody twisted my arm, that... woman, or whatever she was, at the bar? She said I could have anything I wanted. I thought she was nuts at first, but... I don't know how to— I was desperate. SAM: Desperate? EVAN: Julie was dying. DEAN: You did it to save her? EVAN: She had cancer, they'd stopped treatment, they were moving her into hospice, they kept saying... a matter of days. So yeah, I made the deal. And I'd do it again. I'd have died for her on the spot. DEAN: Did you ever think about her in all this? EVAN: I did this for her. DEAN: (advancing on him) You sure about that? I think you did it for yourself. So you wouldn't have to live without her. But guess what? She's going to have to live without you now. But what if she knew how much it cost? What if she knew it cost your soul? How do you think she'd feel? SAM: (putting a hand on DEAN'S chest, pulling him back) Okay, that's enough. You just sit tight, all right? We're going to figure this out.

Just like John did for him, and would’ve likely done again... so would Evan.

(brief aside to lol that the demon Dean summons knows who he is, and tells him “I get the newsletter.” The demons have had a weekly Winchester column in their paper forever, haven’t they?)

Dean has a plan though... and he’s got a plan B as well. Plan A is almost clumsy for him, like he wanted the demon to think the obvious devil’s trap under his car was the best he could do, wanted her to underestimate him and let her guard down, so she’d follow him into the real trap-- which she does while she’s rolling along delivering the taunts about how John sold his soul for Dean’s life.

DEMON: No. I don't think so. I'm not going to put you out of your misery. DEAN: Yeah? Why not? DEMON: Because your misery's the whole point. It's too much fun to watch. Knowing how your daddy died for you, how he sold his soul. I mean, that's gotta hurt. (DEAN is backed up against a wooden railing) It's all you ever think about. You wake up and your first thought is, "I can't do this anymore." You're all lit up with pain. I mean, you loved him so much. And it's all your fault. (DEAN recoils as she gets more in his face.) You blew it, Dean! I could have given you what you need. DEAN: What do I need? DEMON: Your father. I could have brought him back. Your loss. Seeya, Dean. I wish you a nice long life. DEAN: Hold on. She stops, smiling.

His misery is the whole point. well, she’s right about that. This is all part of the longer game of breaking Dean enough to sell his own soul, giving him all the tools and knowledge to do it, but also destroying his self-worth in the process.

(and another aside to lol at a woman associated with darkness and death has told Dean that what he “needs” is one of his dead parents... this time John, but in 11.23 Amara actually does give him back Mary)

DEMON: I could give you ten years. Ten long good years with him. That's a lifetime. The family can be together again. John, Dean, Sammy. The Winchester boys all reunited. (she advances towards him) Look. Your dad's supposed to be alive. You're supposed to be dead. So we'll just set things straight, put things back in their natural order. And you get ten extra years on top. That's a bonus.

“Proof” that Dean is “supposed to be dead.” Kinda hits hard.

But Dean had no real intention (at least not right then) to accept that deal. It did maneuver the demon into the actual trap, where Dean bargained to trade HER life/freedom for Evan’s. Rather than be exorcised and banished back to Hell, she agrees, and seals the deal with a kiss. But Dean has proof about John’s deal now (and that demons are creatures of their word... no doubting she was telling him the truth, or at least the most painful possible version of it)

SAM: He did it for you. DEAN: Exactly. How am I supposed to live with that? You know, the thought of him... wherever he is right now. I mean, he spent his whole life chasing that... yellow-eyed son of a bitch. He should have gone out fighting. That was supposed to be his legacy. You know? Not bargaining with the damn thing. Not this. SAM: How many people do you think Dad saved? Total? DEAN: That's not the point, Sam. SAM: Evan Hudson is safe because of what Dad taught us. That's his legacy, Dean. But we're still here, man. So we gotta keep going, for him.

And here we have talk again of “legacies” and what that means to them, which becomes a big theme again in s12 (I mean it’s the whole point of 12.18, yes? selling out everything for the good of the family legacy?)

And we don’t yet know the Big Terrible Secret John told Dean before he died... that’s gonna linger out there all through 2.09 into cliffhanger territory before finally being revealed for the horror it is in 2.10...

Lies, manipulation, Dean’s crumbling self-worth, stripping away his cavalier facade that everything is fine and he’s coping fine (which we got a glimpse of when Andy forced him to tell the truth in 2.05, but has been getting consistently shakier as he’s forced to face the truth of what John did and his scrambling to adjust to life without John out there to tell him what to do as things so much further above their pay grade begin organizing a targeted campaign against the Winchesters for purposes as yet unknown). This is something John in no way prepared him for, and it’s all now suddenly on his shoulders as the world goes to literal hell around him.

Like Chuck doing the same thing in abandoning his angels... but more about that in the 2.10 report. This one’s getting long enough already. But just bear in mind that ALL of this was Chuck’s design anyway... his manipulation, these sorts of deals, familial sacrifices, and a bigger and bigger cosmic picture as the narrative spiral spins again.

#spn 2.08 #spn 12.18 #s14 hellatus rewatch #spn 14.20 #it's spirals all the way down #the ghost of john winchester #if you say 'mysterious ways' so help me i will kick your ass #spn 11.23 #spn 2.04 #performing dean #spiders georg of the tnt loop

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my-grindelwald · 6 years ago

Link

I translated Johnny’s Movie View Magazine Interview!

It’s a really really long interview (5.2k words) so I put it on google docs, but I also copied it over below the “keep reading” line if you prefer reading it on tumblr. He talks about his beginnings in acting, working with Tim Burton and other directors, the process of film-making, Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts, the Hainan film festival, and his upcoming movie Waiting for the Barbarians.

DISCLAIMER: I translated this myself so there definitely will be places with a some errors, although I have tried to translate as accurately as possible.

How did you start off your acting career?

The word “acting” is pretty strange. I started acting accidentally. Or perhaps it was fate. When I first moved to LA, I was a guitarist for my band. After the band broke up, I lost my job. I tried many different things: working at record shops, bookstores, you name it. I had a friend who was an actor, and he thought I’d make a good actor, so he suggested I meet his agent. I shot my first movie not really knowing what I was doing. And then after a while, I realised that I was slowly moving towards another path in my career, and I knew I had to put aside my dream of becoming a musician in order to fully commit to acting. I started researching and taking classes in performing, and after going deep into the acting career, I realised the most important thing was just practice.

How did you feel when you first acted in front of a camera?

I remember feeling really stupid (laughs). That was my first time finding out how a movie was shot - how all the bits we shot were pieced together to form an entire movie. To be honest, at first, I thought acting was pretty boring, because there was always a very detailed flow we had to go with, and stuff like specific camera angles and close-ups would all be laid out in detail for us. At the time, I was really ignorant to how a film was shot, so standing in front of a camera for the first time felt totally absurd. But in becoming an actor, I’ve changed a lot - I’ve become more confident in front of a camera. Sometimes, I even feel more at ease in front of a camera.

It’s really been a learning experience for me. Learning is one of the most important things for an actor. You need to observe the people around you with a keen eye - their body language, the way they talk, that kind of stuff. You absorb all of that unconsciously, like a sponge, and in a couple years, when playing a character, you might find yourself using this knowledge you’ve picked up and adding it to your performance. And when you act more freely, the real you is also able to live more freely. Actors are observers, so I try to observe and copy the body language and speech of people around me.

When you first get a script, how long does it take for you to understand the character and find his inner motives?

I feel like it’s pretty natural. After receiving a script, my brain tells me how to make sense of it. I first pick out the more meaningful parts in the script, and see if the story has depth to it. I always see if the script itself is good before deciding if there are any good roles in it. If I’m not satisfied with it myself, it’s, of course, going to be impossible to convince me to bring the character to life. If I do want to take the part, but I’m not able to add something more to the character, I start to consider my limits, and from there, I find new ways of approaching the character. Sometimes, I’ll be offered roles that have not been acted by anyone else on screen before, and my heart would tell me to give it a shot. In these cases, I normally know whether the script is suitable for me by the tenth page, sometimes even the fifth page, of the script.

When preparing for a role, do you put yourself in the character’s shoes?

Yeah, I actually do. I’ll see these images of scenes, or maybe childhood memories, or just bits and pieces of the character’s life in my mind, and it helps me empathise with the character. When reading a script for the first time, I make some notes or remarks on it to record down these instincts I get. After that, reading it for the second time, I try to challenge the boundaries of my initial thoughts on the character, and find any errors in my concepts. If my thoughts on the character are the same on both readings, I’ll read it again, find the character’s defining characteristics, and then try and fuse myself with the character. Once I’ve finished reading the entire thing, I more or less have a rough understanding of the character. But I have a habit of not reading the screen direction too much. I rather let the character’s mannerisms and actions come to me naturally in the moment, instead of following these specific actions in the script, because it lets me fully immerse myself in the character.

When you first worked with Tim Burton, he was still a very young director. How was it like working with him then, and have you worked with any other young directors since then?

I met Tim in 1989. We agreed to meet at St. John Street in London. At the time, I thought he didn’t seem like he had the material in him to be a director. I had been wanting to shoot a film that was away from the normal, and I had continuously been looking for an opportunity like that. So agreeing to meet Tim was kind of like laying out the path for myself. At the time, I was shooting Cry Baby, and the director, John Waters, was the kind of person who created taste through film, but Tim wasn’t. I had been very sure that I wouldn’t be chosen for Edward Scissorhands, but I really loved the screenplay, to the point I won’t ever forget the emotions I felt getting that screenplay for the first time. I cried like a child, reading that script. Edward’s suffering really hit me in the soul - I knew that kind of feeling: the feeling of a constant lack of safety, being afraid to interact with all these unfamiliar people and things, and the fear of being hurt. I had thought Tim wouldn’t cast me for this film, so I had wanted to cancel our meeting, but my agent wouldn’t let me.

Little did I know, we got on like old friends from the first time we met. Tim’s pretty shy, and I’m not exactly the talkative kind either, and three hours and eight cups of coffee later, Tim’s hands were already shaking. A month later, I didn’t hear from him at all, so I assumed I hadn’t been cast. But then, I got this phone call from Tim, and he said, “Johnny, you’re Edward Scissorhands.” My mind just went blank; the only thing I remember was crying. I had found the strange, off road path that I had wanted. Crybaby had been my first step, and Edward Scissorhands my second.

What about later on? Were your films with Tim successful?

In those first three weeks of filming, Tim was a little hesitant; he was trying to decide if my acting was too weird, and in those three weeks, we didn’t get along as easily. But in the end, he let go, and said, “Just do it your way,” and somehow, we managed to get the stuff he wanted. After Scissorhands, Tim and I became closer, and we then shot Ed Wood. From there we just made movie after movie, and now it’s like we practically have a common language.

You’ve worked with many famous directors as well. How is working with them different from working with Tim?

I’ve got pretty good relationships with the many directors I’ve worked with before. Tim’s like a brother to me, and we’re both friends with many other directors. When working with other directors than Tim, I try even harder to get what they want in the character to present the story to the audience. Some of the younger directors are sort scared that they didn’t do enough preparation, or that something they didn’t expect will happen. I think they’re thinking too much into it - they’ve already got the entire film in their mind. Sometimes, they end up relying too much on the planning, and they’re overcautious, so they lose a lot of the freedom that comes with making a film. He’ll think, what if the stuff I shoot doesn’t look exactly like what I’ve got in my head? The more they limit their imagination, the fewer chances they have to think of something on the spot, and come up with something amazing that they didn’t initially plan for.

So when I work with them, I want to give them a chance to experience something fresh, or something challenging, something new and exciting. Sometimes, we could do 10 takes of the same scene, and still not get what we are trying to go for. I think it’s not good if the actors are all thinking too much about how they should act, while the director is thinking too much about how he should be shooting it. On set, I’m even more willing to improvise, by, for example, changing the way I say my lines, or adding some actions that aren’t in the script, and in that moment, we’re able to capture the natural, genuine reactions of the actors I’m working alongside in the scene. You need to step out of your comfort zone in order to find the most truthful interactions between humans. There’s some directors that are very strict, and at every step of making the film, they’ve got a very specific idea of what they want. But the problem with that is that they don’t understand that film is an art of human interactions, and it’s not something you can do with just one person telling everyone else what to do.

Do you have any Hollywood films and directors that you pay attention to?

In recent years, I haven’t watched many films outside of Hollywood. I remember when I was really young, I watched the film Time of the Gypsies by the director Emir Kusturica. The colours in that film were particularly gorgeous, and it was a very artistic film. I ended up working with Kusturica in Arizona Dream, but you could say that film was a nightmare for both of us. Normally, a movie takes about three to five months to be shot, but we took an entire year for Arizona Dream. Of course, that film became an important film in my career, and Kusturica is an amazing director,so he has always been able to do this without fear. I’ve always believed that fear is our greatest enemy - whether it’s in our lives or when making a film, fear is always there to drag us down.

Working with Kusturica was an extraordinarily meaningful experience for me. It gave me the opportunity to experience, first-hand, that as an actor, you really can try anything, so as long as the role is reasonable, I can go ahead and try it. There was once I worked with Faye Dunaway, and at the time, I was still pretty young, and she was already middle-aged. We were shooting a scene where my character, the young man, has to seduce Faye’s character, and he’s growing from a young boy to an adult. Our initial plan was for my character to run around like a rooster and follow Faye around, so when we were shooting the scene, we just ran around in circles in the house. You see, film can just be shot like that. When we discuss certain scenes, we don’t consider how to minimise the risks - the most important thing is that we embrace our curiosity; just give ourselves the freedom to explore, say, what kind of results would I get if I did this scene this way. When you make a film, you can’t follow the screenplay exactly. Sometimes, there’s beautiful dialogue in the script, but it may not fit with the vibe of the rest of the film, so you’ve got to reluctantly cut it out. In making a film, you need to push the boundaries. If you don’t try, you won’t know what kind of sparks you’re really able to create.

So making a film involves a lot of teamwork and putting aside your ego?

Yeah. For example, on set, another actor may ask to do another take, or want to try another way of doing the same scene. You could hate that they’re doing that - you could even hate the actor himself - but you should give him a chance to try, because it could help open another door for yourself, and in the end, you’ll definitely get something surprising out of it.

When shooting From Hell, the director Allen Hughes gave me many suggestions. Like when we finished shooting the scene where my character turns hostile, he walked over and he told me, “No sunlight.” I immediately understood: don’t give them a ‘good’ expression, just remain committed to being the bad guy. Even though the lines are already written out nicely, actors still need to figure out the emotions within those lines, and use stuff like their body language to bring across these emotions, and these are all actually hidden between the lines in the script. Simply reading out the lines is a very easy thing to do, like saying, “I love you” is easy, but the audience isn’t stupid. They can sense that the feelings behind the words “I love you” aren’t real. Of course, the script itself is very important as well - the information in the lines helps us to understand the plot. But these hidden, unspoken lines are what make up the atmosphere of the film, and it lets the audience feel the change in emotions in the characters, and the waves of emotions in the character. The actors’ performances and the script combined together creates the tension in films.

Are there any young directors who have moved you with a script?

If a young director works on a screenplay, he needs to leave the actors some space to explore on top of giving them his vision. A good script would be one that even if the actors go with whatever idea they have, the film will still work out - it means the script is flexible. Being an actor, I’ve got a responsibility to both the director and the audience. I’m the medium between the director and the audience - I bring the director’s vision to the audience, but through that, I also have my own interpretation of the stuff I’m doing. I always have a lot of ideas, so when shooting a film, I have to find a balance between my own interpretations, and the director’s vision, while still being loyal to myself. A good screenwriter always leaves enough space and chances for the actors to explore. Putting together a film is like making a montage of clips, really. If the director’s too harsh, too many clips will end up on the cutting room floor. But as an actor, if you’re not giving the directors a choice on what to leave in or cut out, then you’re not doing your job well either.

Other than acting, have you tried any other jobs in the film industry?

I’ve directed a film once, and I’ve written a screenplay. It a story about the native Americans and how they lived, but it was only a rough framework, not anything refined yet. I didn’t want to act in it myself, but people told me that if I didn’t act in it, it would only get maybe 2 million dollars, but if I did, it’ll probably get 5 million. I was convinced by that. Being a director isn’t easy. You need money to be able to shoot whatever you want to shoot. But actors and directors are two vastly different roles. A director has to manage everything on set, but as an actor, you only have to care about your own performance, and nothing else. A director has so many different things they need to take care of, while an actor just goes with their feelings and does the scenes they need to do. Actors don’t need to bother with logistics on set. If you made an actor take care of all this stuff, I’d bet you, within 5 minutes, the set would have to be shut down. They wouldn’t be able to concentrate on their performance. If I had to do that, I’d go crazy.

As a director, after work, you still need to sit down and read through your script, see if there’s anything that should be changed. To me, that kind of lifestyle might as well be from a scene from a horror film. And after a day of shooting, the director still needs to review all of the footage. If I’m both acting in and directing the same film, I’d be looking at my own performance the entire day, which feels really weird. So really, both acting and directing have their own challenges, and trying to do both is just extremely difficult.

As a casting director, I really wasn’t good at judging auditions. I never felt like screen tests had any relevance to the actual shooting process. Just reading a few lines won’t show a person’s real acting ability. When I was a casting director, I watched these people walk through the door every day, read their lines, and all of them couldn’t get the kind of feel I wanted for the film, and I was going slightly mad. To begin with, I wasn’t great at the auditioning process as an actor, so as a casting director, I wasn’t good either. So, a suggestion to people looking to audition for things, don’t just go in and read your lines. Act out a portion of the script. I want to see what you and your fellow actors sharing the scene with you can do. I want to see your interpretations, your style, the path you want to go down. Through a process like that, I can see the big picture of the film, and how much space you’re leaving me, as director, to make choices. Like I said before, a good actor should leave space for the director to make creative decisions as well.

So do you still want to continue being a director?

Yeah, I actually want to direct 2 more films. One of them is a screenplay that I stole 30 years ago. At the time, my agent told me the rough storyline of the script, and after I heard it, I just completely took it away. Also, I won’t necessarily act in films I’m directing, because I really enjoy the process of working with different actors and creating a film with them. I especially like it when they develop their characters and breathe life into them, because in that moment, as a director, there’s this sense of accomplishment. Basically, if I direct a movie, I want to put my entire heart and soul into directing, and not have to worry about my performance.

What kind of script catches your attention?

Those that resonate in me. As long as the character in the script is moulded so that it feels vivid, and the plot is interesting, it’ll catch my attention. About the script, I think about how much space the actor playing the role has to explore on their own - whether the actor is able to make the character even more well-developed, more thought-provoking, more interesting. The most fundamental part is seeing if I’m able to get a feel of the character. If I am, then the screenwriters did a good job of creating a vivid, believable character. I see if the script can still remain faithful when put under pressure from outside forces, to make sure that it’s not just another script with a storyline everyone’s heard a thousand times.

After Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was released in China, Grindelwald became very popular amongst Chinese fans. J.K. Rowling did not include much about Grindelwald in the Harry Potter series, so how did you create this character?

First, I had to get the foundation right. Jo gave me many suggestions, and other than that, the most important part was just the screenplay. I made many notes on the script, and through reading the script multiple times, I slowly added flavour to the character. I didn’t want him to be a character that people could just take one look at him and understand him. He’s a master of manipulation who wants to convince people to join his side, and on the other hand, he does have softer, kinder parts to his personality. My take on him was that any internal conflict you had in yourself becomes very dangerous when dealing with Grindelwald. I think he has a double personality: one side of him is his original self, and the other is the side that tries to oppress - one clear, one mysterious. That’s also the reason why I chose to have different coloured eyes, to show the two sides to his personality.

The relationship between Grindelwald and Dumbledore is something that many of the fans pay particular attention to. Did the events that happened in their past have any influence on the way you created Grindelwald’s character? And did you film the “Mirror of Erised” scene together with Jude Law?

No, when I got to set, Jude Law’s parts had already been shot. Jo has really written an amazing story, and she really showed how Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s love and at the same time, hate, for each other was built up. I think the two of them are a sort of surprising pairing. To each other, they are the best person in the world. I believe that there once was a passionate love between them, and this love was born because they both saw a reflection of themself in the other person. But for Grindelwald, his love came with an envy. He had always thought of himself as the greatest dark wizard, but in his heart, he clearly knows that Dumbledore has the same level of power that he does, and that Dumbledore will become even stronger. His conceitedness is eventually the reason why they went on different paths.

From then on, Grindelwald harboured a grudge in his heart. But do you know what this grudge represents? There’s a side to his grudge that no one gets to know of - it’s wounds, it’s pain, and it’s this hatred that he has, having this, in a way, forbidden, love, yet having nowhere to vent his frustration. I understood Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s relationship from this point of view, and from some lines in the film, you can feel this paradoxical opposition between them, where they oppose each other like fire and water do, but yet are bound to each other. Grindelwald’s decision in the end was to continue on his path that led him to become the Grindelwald we know now. These are things that you can’t see on the surface of the story, because they’re all hidden within the tiny details. I think Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s past is filled with pain, so I also really want to know what exactly happened between them.

As we see in the movie, Dumbledore says that he cannot move against Grindelwald because they made a blood pact. If the blood pact did not exist, would Dumbledore be able to move against him?

I believe even without the blood pact, Dumbledore would still be extremely hesitant whether he is able to move against Grindelwald. This is also Grindelwald’s internal conflict, because he isn’t sure if Dumbledore will one day return to his side. But I’m guessing he’s also somewhat anticipating the day when the two of them finally meet to fight, because Grindelwald needs this battle to happen in order to achieve his final goal. His hatred, envy and bitterness will all be let loose in that one battle. Grindelwald is very confident no one in the wizarding world can be a worthy opponent to him, because his name is his faith. But in the end, it will be this exact arrogance that will lead to his downfall.

How do you feel coming to Hainan and having the masterclass session with young directors?

I’m very inspired by them. To have this sort of opportunity to chat with people that are willing to devote themselves to filmmaking is really special. When I attend press conferences, the questions the reporters ask are mostly similar. Once these reporters have been in the business for a while, they aren’t really that interested in your answer - they’re just trying to get their job done.

But here, this large group of young audience really is interested in the film business, and this makes me really happy. Like if someone asked me a question about acting, then I’d gladly share about my own experiences as an actor. You could even ask me, “How did you become famous?” And I’d say, “If you want to become famous, first of all, don’t think about becoming famous.” Don’t be too focused on reaching your goal, and focus more on the process instead. If you’re able to persevere doing the thing you love, then you will become the person you want to be. We often say that when someone has an ambition, it’s a curse, but really, the truth is that being able to do something you love while working towards a goal is also not a bad thing.

Having this opportunity to chat with young people that want to commit themselves to the film industry makes me really happy. They’re not trying to repeat what others have done before them - they’re like the future of film. If sharing my experiences are able to help them understand what a career in the industry is like, then I’d be very honoured. Nothing makes me happier than being able help others improve.

Another thing about the activity that made me very pleased was that everyone was very sincere. It wasn’t just about me sharing my stories - the more important thing was that I took something away from it as well. The questions that the audience asked also let me reflect about myself. They’ve given me even more hope for the future - the fact that more and more people want to go down the film industry path and face whatever challenges they meet without fear, it’s a really amazing thing.

Do you have any plans for the future?

To me, I’m not sure how the future will be like, and I don’t want to just follow in someone else’s footsteps. I think the most important thing is what kind of attitude I’m meeting the future with. I’m just going to think about how I can make my characters more real, more natural, because as an actor, you’re responsible for the role, and for the film. And I think that’s enough.

Sometimes, in order to do what you love, you need to persevere, and not just come to terms with what you have in order to make someone else happy. In making a film, every aspect is closely linked together, and if a director tries too hard to please everyone, his vision will end up becoming very restricted. I’ve told this to Michael Mann once, while we were filming Public Enemies. I talked to him about some of the choices I had made for my role as Dillinger, mainly about the way he talked. I had some ideas that conflicted with his. Dillinger was from northern Indiana. We hadn’t found any recordings of his voice, but we did have one of his father’s voice. His father had a very typical southern accent, which was very different from how people from Chicago and New York spoke. The place I was born is only 70 miles away from Dillinger’s hometown. I’m from Kentucky, so I’m familiar with southern accents because I grew up speaking it. I felt that Dillinger should speak with a southern accent, but Michael Mann thought he should speak with a Chicago accent. So I told him, “Look, in this gang from Chicago, you’ve got two Australians, the guy playing Baby Face Nelson, Stephen Graham, is British, and Marion Cotillard is French. I grew up 70 miles away from Dillinger’s hometown! You got a bunch of foreign actors, and you’re saying my American accent isn’t real enough?”

Out of all the movies you’ve watched in 2018, which one is your favourite?

I really like documentaries, so I’ll recommend this one: Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story. I can’t remember if it’s a 2017 or 2018 film. It’s about an actress in the 1930s. She’s a legend. She invented the radio. The ship that one of her friends and their family was on, headed from Europe to America, was destroyed by the Germans. Her friend’s death made her start to think about how to deal a blow back, so she started her research into the radio. Her invention is the foundation of our bluetooth and wifi systems today. But the American government took away her patent without notice, and she tried to appeal, but didn’t get anything out of it. So she ended up spending the rest of her life just slowly aging away. This movie was particularly touching, because it was written like a lament for Hedy Lamarr, and it completely moved me. There was another film, not a 2018 one, it’s Embrace of the Serpent by Ciro Guerra, I really recommend this one.

Last question, you’re working with Ciro Guerra on a film, right? Can you tell us a little bit about it?

I think it’s definitely going to be a great film. It’s called Waiting for the Barbarians, and I think it’s really relevant to our reality today. The story is very intense. It’s about the history of a fictional empire, and the battle of good versus evil. We always say that the good will triumph over the evil, but sometimes in reality, it isn’t the case, and this story is told from this point of view. My character is an “intruder”. He says that the barbarians will do things to threaten everyone else, and threaten the entire empire, but it’s really not the case. But the story takes everything he’s come up with and turns it into reality. I’ll be working with Mark Rylance in this film. He’s a veteran in the industry that I particularly admire. I’m not sure when this film will be released, like how when I did Sweeney Todd, I could only imagine how Tim Burton would piece all the clips together to form the complete film. Sometimes I really, really want to see the complete movie early, but it’s not actually that easy. To an actor, this also pretty disastrous. Ciro Guerra has his own, very unique views and visions, and at the same time, he’s open to listening to our ideas about our characters. He’s a great director.

#johnny depp #wearewithyoujohnnydepp #johnnydeppismygrindelwald #johnnydeppisinnocent #tim burton #ed wood #edward scissorhands #public enemies #fbcog #fbtcog #fantastic beasts #gellert grindelwald #sweeny todd #arizona dream #waiting for the barbarians #from hell

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rkxsungwoon-blog · 6 years ago

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☆ mga5 auditions ; june 14 ; hanlim multi art school ! — part three; interview

the interview portion of the auditions is something sungwoon is actually looking forward to. talking, especially in front of a camera or a big audience, has never been much of a challenge for him. for the most part, he feels comfortable speaking to a crowd and rarely ever trips over his words (practiced or otherwise) when he feels like he's in his element. getting the opportunity to elaborate on himself and his musical goals definitely qualifies as 'his element' this time around. sungwoon thinks he's in a better place to articulate what he wants out of this whole process than he was previously. if he'd been uncertain about what path to take in the future, he isn't anymore.

the interview is also his one chance to plug empty enigma's new album. it's part of the reason why the rest of the band decided to do the mgas, after all, so sungwoon definitely cannot afford to forget about it. but on a more personal note, this will also be his first time acknowledging his alternate identity and his band as part of him. sure, he listed it on his entry form the same as everyone else, but saying it out loud makes it real and concrete. and to do so in this room makes it a truth he can't run away from. there's no going back after this, and part of him questions if it's the right thing to do. will it do more harm than good? but it's too late for doubts—the information is already in mnet's hands.

when he arrives at the interview area, the staff members quickly touch up the make kenta applied earlier in the day (one of the stylists looks impressed, and sungwoon happily tells her his friend was responsible for his look) and offer him a bottle of water before leading him to a chair. sungwoon polishes off half the bottle and sets it down next to the chair before turning to the interviewer and giving her a thumbs up, indicating he's ready to begin. his posture is relaxed, open, his body language inviting as he looks at the interviewer in anticipation of the questions.

“please go ahead and introduce yourself to the viewers.”

sungwoon blinks, the corners of his mouth curving into a smile. this really feels like deja vu. "yeah, of course." he clears his throat before launching into a standard introduction. "my name is ha sungwoon. i'm a twenty two year old student in my final year at seoul national university." he pauses, momentarily startled by his own words. final year. he's really almost at the end of his academic career here. it's strange to think about, but the interviewer is waiting for him to continue, so he pulls himself out of his thoughts and grins.

"my major is in crop science and biotechnology—i grew up on a farm, so it makes sense for me, even if music is my first love." science is a third love, maybe, but a love nonetheless. "i work as a research assistant in my department, and also part time time at a cute little french bakery in itaewon called eclaire de lune." and finally, the big one. he sucks in a breath and adds, "aside from that, i'm the frontman and keyboardist of a band called empty enigma."

“you were a contestant on the last season of the mgas. what brings you back to the show this year?”

his mouth forms a small 'o' of surprise. sungwoon didn't think people would remember him from his ill-fated stunt in the mgas last year. his tenure on the show loomed large over most of 2018 for sungwoon, but he always thought he failed to make much of an impression on anyone else. "i got eliminated?" he tries, holding back a laugh, then falls silent as he ponders the question. it's not like sungwoon can admit the mgas made him question whether he should be a musician or not, and this is his opportunity to show that he's found his answer—he should be here. he deserves to.

"no, but i really do mean that," sungwoon continues finally. "i got eliminated in episode seven last season. it was a really humbling experience for me.” he doesn’t fight to keep vulnerability out of his voice. doesn’t know if he can, to be honest, when the memory is still a little raw. “i think what i regret the most is that i didn’t get the opportunity to show the full extent of my talents, and i’m hoping to fix that this year.”

"what do you aim to accomplish during season five of the mgas, then?"

“i want to show much i’ve grown as an artist,” sungwoon says honestly. not only vocally, but in other areas of his artistry as well. working on the empty enigma album, writing songs and working with producers pushed his creative skills to their limit. unbeknownst to most of his friends, sungwoon has also been taking dance lessons for the past year, and the thought of performing choreography no longer fills him with dread. the push to develop those skills came from the mgas last year, when he’d been mortified to be the weak link performance wise in every single team he was on. sungwoon didn’t want to care, but he hated not being able to keep up with his teammates. so he learned and he pushed himself to a point where he feels comfortable with choreography now. he doesn’t think he’ll ever be an amazing dancer, but he’s no longer awful. and part of him is excited to show that he can dance.

“and i suppose i want to see how far i can go in this show. i mean, i don’t have any aspirations of winning, but in many ways, this is my last chance to pursue a legitimate career in this industry.” he runs his tongue over his teeth, unsure of whether he should admit to this or not. no one else knows his future goals, not even the people closest to him. “if i don’t get anywhere, i intend to enlist next year after graduation.” the words fall easily from his lips, and he sends a silent sorry to the band for not telling them in advance. “when i say this is my final and only shot—it really is.” and he’s alright with that. sungwoon wishes he could be one of those people who can say they’ll keep pursuing music till the end, but he’s too much of a realist to cling onto a pipe dream past its prime.

"you said you're part of a band called empty enigma. where does the group fit into your goals? what makes you want to pursue the path of an idol instead of continuing onwards with your band?”

sungwoon sits up a little straighter, his hands folded on his lap. “i’ve been part of empty enigma since 2016 and it means the world to me,” he says carefully. “being up on stage as a part of the band… taught me to really love performing, and introduced me to some of the best friends i’ve made in my life.” he counts them out on his fingers. “daniel—he was on the mgas last year with me—woojin, kenta, and minhyun. they’re all auditioning for the show this year since this is something we want to do together.” well, he thinks privately, he’s not totally sure if that’s true. daniel spearheaded the campaign to get them all here, but sungwoon assumes the others agreed because they wanted to give it a try too. “we’ve been through a lot—we just released an album called between fear and faith—and this seems like a natural challenge for us to attempt, especially since daniel and i already participated last year.” he’s proud of himself for the not-so-subtle album plug there.

he hums a little under his breath before continuing. “i don’t think any of us want to be an idol instead of being in a band, you know? but all of my bandmates are talented in their own ways and deserve their own moment to shine. you can’t always share the spotlight equally in a band.” it’s his fault, in large part. sungwoon’s role and alter ego tend to want to dominate their stages. “in an ideal world, we could do both the idol thing and the band thing—or the ‘band as idols’ thing, like n.flying or day6.” sungwoon selfishly hopes they’ll get signed together, if that’s what they want. debut together, because he can’t imagine being separated from empty enigma. “i just know i personally don’t want to be boxed into one catagory, because i and the rest of my bandmates have a lot more to show.”

“have your musical influences changed in any way, or are they still primarily bands? what kind of music would like to make in the future?”

finally, a less weighted question. sungwoon shifts in his seat and rubs his chin in thought. “yeah, of course. i definitely still lean towards nell, royal pirates, jaurim, the koxx, so on as musical inspirations and influences. overseas bands too, like muse and aerosmith.” a chunk of his heart will always belong to the kinds of artists he would listen to late at night during his middle and high school years, tucked under the covers with his discman. “but i’ve diversified in the past year too; i like listening to artists like crush, dean, sik-k, paul kim, bolbbalgan4. some foreign pop artists like lauv, troye sivan, and bazzi as well.” the truth is, his taste has become a lot more eclectic, which makes it more difficult to answer a question like this one. “there are also a few idol groups i like. convex, for one, and also luxe. i dunno.” he lets his hand fall to his sides. “i’d like to make rock music, really, but i’m not opposed to branching out and trying new things.”

“last year you listed nova and sphere as dream companies, but this year you have nova and royal. what changed for you and what didn’t?”

“nova’s the dream company for the rest of my bandmates too,” he admits. “we just feel like our best chances of getting signed would be to a company that isn’t afraid to invest in non-typical artists—and they have nell.” the fanboy in him is still alive and well. “our second choices are all different, though. i put down royal because i do enjoy their releases, and i’m a fan of luxe. i’d love to meet them someday.” sungwoon throws the interviewer a cheeky grin before breaking off and shaking his head. “i couldn’t really tell you what appealed to me about royal this time around. i think i just respect so jisub and wouldn’t mind being a part of his company.”

“thank you for your time.”

“thank you.” sungwoon grabs the half-empty water bottle as he stands and bows to the interviewer and the rest of the staff. “you’ve worked hard!” so has he—though his inability to shut up should probably not be called hard work. massaging his throat with his free hand, sungwoon finishes off the rest of the water and tosses the empty bottle into the recycling bin before moving on to the next part of the audition. he’s almost to the end. well, to the break, but it could for something.

#rkmga5 #rkmga5audition3 #( c: solo )#danielxrk #rkpwj #rkkenta #rkminhyun #( because mentioned )#( jesus i hate tagging empty enigma individually )#( wc: 1893 )#( i'm SICK )#( this is really rambly i'm so sorry )

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michael-radi-the-glamorous-life · 6 years ago

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It's Critical!

Lately, I’ve noticed that a lot of people - friends and strangers alike - have been saying something very similar to me as a I talk about productions, performances, or people that I’ve recently seen onstage.

As I’m giving my solicited opinion and actively formulating my thoughts, people keep stopping me to say things like:

You’re choosing your words very carefully.

You can just say what you mean to me.

You’re trying to be so [nice/PC/positive].

This got me thinking about how we, as artists and audience alike, deal with the art of criticism/critique/opinion. I’ll also admit that I recently listened to two interviews with high-profile theatre critics - both of which bothered me in very different and specific ways that I won’t go into here - so this topic hasn’t been far from my mind.

And after last week’s blog post, which was a semi-review of Hadestown, I got a lot of comments from people online and in person that basically said “Thank you for focusing on the good.”

But isn’t this how we should be talking about art?

All of those things above that people have said to me made me react the same way:

“No no no, I am saying what I mean, which is why I’m choosing my words so carefully.” And as for positivity, I think that is important to bear in mind as we critique - why focus on only the negative?

So, what is the best way to give theatrical criticism?

Everyone’s A Critic

And that’s totally okay.

People, by the nature of being people, have opinions. Sometimes they share those opinions and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they’re mostly positive, sometimes mostly negative, but generally they’re pretty well mixed.

But it’s how people share their opinions that separates them. And yes, I realize this can go far beyond the arts and into daily life as well.

*Reminder: I am not an expert in critique, this is all just…well, my opinion!

Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am filled with opinions - for better or for worse (depends on who you ask!). And I’m always puzzled when people say things like “You have so many opinions!” because in my mind I feel like “Yeah, don’t you?” Because we do. Let’s just call it as it is and go from there.

I also know that I have a very specific way of processing my opinions. For me, this is how it tends to go:

Initial (often knee-jerk) reaction. This happens in the first moment of whatever performance I’m watching.

Pre-opinion. I have a feeling about where this show is going to go and whether or not I’m going to enjoy that.

Gather more information. I stop thinking as I watch so I can see more of what is and isn’t going to occur. Sometimes this means just sitting back and enjoying the live theatre.

Moment of change. Often this is mid-Act 1 where something either very positive or very off-putting will happen, which I know will color the rest of my opinions. Even if I try to not let it do so.

Intermission analysis. Partially this is just me thinking over what I’ve seen as I stand in line for the restroom. And partially this is informed by listening to what the people around me are saying to see if I agree with their thoughts as well.

A new set of glasses. This is the reactionary moment to the top of Act 2. Sometimes it’s an absolutely delightful moment that tints my non-existent spectacles to a rosy color, and sometimes the show takes a different direction that changes my mindset in other ways.

Finish out the story. I do my best to not pre-judge the end of a show before I' have seen it. I find that I tend to do this, so I try to fight back and just experience the remains of the performance, no matter how I’m feeling about the show thus far.

Post-show analysis. Now sometimes, by the time the show ends I have formulated enough of a solid opinion about what I just saw that I can talk about it immediately. Other times I feel the need to go have a conversation with someone who has seen the piece (or who was with me) to hash out my thoughts and get to a conclusion. And - albeit rarely - I occasionally have to not talk about the show and sleep on it first in order to gather my thoughts.

But this is my way of creating opinions, and I know it’s extremely specific.

When I was younger I had a difficult time not letting my initial reaction color my entire experience of a show or a production. Luckily, I had the opportunity in college to learn how to better analyze performance and formulate my opinions in a less biased way. The result is the above process, which keeps me about as even-keeled as I can be when watching a show and making judgements.

Why am I telling you this?

I think it is extremely important to be aware of how you process information and how that effects the way you formulate your opinions. I’m not saying that you have to have a process that is anything like mine, but before good critique can be given it must be clear how that opinion was formed.

It’s All In The Formulation

Where I feel most people have trouble is not in the formulation of opinion, it’s in the delivery.

Let’s look back to the sentences from above as a bit of a guide:

“You’re choosing your words very carefully.”

Okay, yes, I am and I do. I’m also someone who was an English and Theatre major, so I’ve been trained specifically to do this.

But more importantly, when I was taught about how to give critique - and yes, we do give theatre professionals training in this - I was told that the most crucial aspect is your word choice.

Why?

Here’s what words can do:

Specify precisely what you mean to say. 3 people can all tell you that a show was “great,” but you’ve gained no new information. All you know is that they all felt positively. But if the answers had instead been “Beautiful,” “Solid,” and “Phenomenal,” then you gain a much clearer understanding of how each of these people felt and what type of show they saw.

Descriptive language is always better. I could tell you that a performer was “terrible” in that one show and you’d get my specified opinion, but I haven’t told you why. And without the why, you can’t be certain from what context my opinion is coming. If I say that performer “didn’t seem connected to the role and appeared to be phoning it in,” well now you can judge for yourself. Is that just my perception? Was it just that one performance? Or is this not the best role for this performer, who might be excellent in other shows? But now you can think this through for yourself based on my description.

Hyperbole is an ever-present danger. It’s easy to get wrapped up in one’s emotions while speaking about something on which you have an opinion - and that’s totally cool - but you can more easily say something that you don’t necessarily mean. Perhaps you adored that actress in the leading role, but someone else didn’t like her, and therefore you go over-the-top in your praise of her. Or maybe you feel so strongly about a show that you didn’t like that you tear it to shreds with highly negative wording.

Word choice can be the difference between “like” and “love.” Words can uplift or tear down. But nothing is ever truly either black or white, good or bad.

It would be folly to think that your opinion is the only opinion, or that there was nothing good about that show you hated. So when making you word selection, it is important to focus on what you can concretely back up with examples. Otherwise, you may be talking just to hear yourself talk.

“You can just say what you mean to me.”

Oh, please do. Say exactly what you mean, always.

Honesty is the best and leads to the most fruitful conversations about art. If everyone had the same opinion life and art would be very boring. Instead, tell people what you think and why. And if you make good word choices, there’s no harm in stating your opinions.

“You’re trying to be so [nice/PC/positive].”

Yes. Definitely.

Why would I want to be mean, insulting, or negative?

Nothing can be gained from this.

As I’ve already stated, even if you have a negative opinion about something, that doesn’t mean that everyone shares in that opinion. You can be critical of a show or a performance and still leave room for positivity that you may have overlooked.

But that’s exactly where we run into the biggest problem of all: People don’t want to be wrong.

Oof. There it is. I’ve said it.

It is so much easier to lean into something overly mean and negative as a defense mechanism than it is to concede that: 1) Your opinion is not the be-all end-all, and 2) There is room for error in your opinion.

And I get it.

No one enjoys being wrong or contradicted or have the flaws in their logic pointed out, but all of these things are okay. This is what sparks good conversation and what can lay groundwork for more open-mindedness in the future - both of which are excellent goals.

But this isn’t the only reason I choose to keep things positive when giving my opinion. The other major reason is that everyone who works on a show is a living person with real feelings who poured a little bit of their soul out of them to create the art you just experienced.

This is what we do. And whether or not you enjoyed it, you should always be aware of the fact that art is both personal and difficult. It never hurts to be kind.

Let’s Give ‘Em A Hand

What do we do at the end of a performance?

We clap.

Why? Because a large number of people did a tremendous amount of work creating something in the hopes of providing (hopefully meaningful) entertainment. They did that - live - just for you.

So no matter what your opinion may be and what sort of words will make up your critique, let’s keep the people in mind. And remember that art is subjective. Opinions will differ, and that’s a wonderful thing.

The next time you experience art, think about the way you formulate your opinion. Or don’t, and completely disregard everything I’ve said here today.

This post is a piece of my art that I give to you, and now I trust you to go forth and be a good critic. Happy critiquing!

#glamorous life blog #glamorous life #theatre #theater #musical theatre #critique #criticism #critic #opinion #word choice #art #artist #specify #language #positive

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