#documentary analysis

[mordysworld]

Recent Essay work

This was a response to a mock question which I shall detail shortly; I added some corrections from the improvements that I made after the fact which will be written in bold

Explore how the representation of a key character contributes to the meaning of the documentary you have studied.

Amy (2015) is a documentary detailing the life of Amy Winehouse it tells of her successes and failures and her eventual death. Amy is the main subject of the documentary; there are other key people who contribute to the overall story and who were greatly influential in Amy's life such as Blake.

Kapadia allows us to see Amy as a whole person rather than the entitled performer the press had once made her out to be. One example of this is through scenes of people talking about Amy while music is playing with her handwritten lyrics fade by in a montage. These shots would often be accompanied by interviews of her talking about how and why she wrote her lyrics. Kapadia using these clips in conjunction with each other allows the Spectator to feel this sincerity of Amy's character as she writes about her hardship wearing her heart on her sleeve. One possible meaning with the film may be to show Amy's sincere character.

Towards the middle of the documentary, there is a scene where Amy's ex-husband is talking about how he got her hooked on crack cocaine and heroin juxtaposed with clips of Amy saying on camera that if her husband's happy she's happy. The mise en scene in the next clip displays a room in Amy's apartment each decoration in the shot represents a piece of a Amy whether it's just CDs or the other miscellaneous personal items there is also a skull in this shot- a physical representation of the toxic relationship she shared with Blake and unfortunate things to come- this skull could also represent the vulnerability Amy must've felt. Kapadia encapsulates Amy's now broken persona, the skull in the context of the shot and the things in Amy's future acted like a warning label, her love for Blake would be fatal showing how Kapadia uses mise en scene to characterise Amy and create meaning.

Kapadia did not directly add himself into the documentary like Michael Moore would have, had he directed it. However, Kapadia very obviously creates an air of sympathy around Amy while actively vilifying her dad and Blake. An example of this would be the scene where Amy wishes to spend time with her father on holiday day and her father is encouraging her to take photos with fans, it shows that her father is more interested in her career than her as a human and as his daughter. This greatly contrasts with the vulnerabilities of my being displayed creating a great feeling of empathy towards her and her situation. Kapadia does this all while simultaneously displaying her talent and affinity for music. This film was made to both celebrate for life and mourn the loss of Amy Winehouse and I believe Kapadia achieves this through his characterisation of Amy.

[lactoseintolerentswag]

when they've got interpreting spiderman noir under a specific cultural lens at the function [picture of me going insane]

I cant help myself.. what can i say. And since you've mentioned some research going on behind the scenes.. do you have any fun interpretations? Or even anything fun about the 1800s!

OH HI

Hm. I don't have anything as fun as historical dancing, but I suppose this does give me the excuse (thabk u) to blab about Noir's childishness.

(wow putting this under the cut bc it got longer than I thought it would LMAO)

I think what a lot of people (including Noir's contemporary writers and yes even the spiderverse interpretation) fall for when trying to read Noir's character is the imitation of his idea of what an adult is, that he hides behind. Like Noir's persona is incredibly exaggerated. He's playing pretend. Look here, he's practicing.

A lot of his persona as Noir is imitation! Imitation of his uncle, of Urich, of the violence he's been exposed to. He's running around in his uncle's old uniform. Fundamentally misunderstanding WHY his uncle had been ashamed of it and his role in the war.

And then he goes ahead and steals Urich's alias because it sounds Cool (which is such a teenage thing to do jesus christ).

But like that imitation of The Adult isn't something that's limited to that exaggerated persona that Noir encapsulates. Peter himself is trying So Hard to be grown up and tough and responsible that it loops back around to him being a brat who would try the three guys in a trench coat trick. He even gets beat up for it when trying to defend his aunt. And I mean I've posted about him being a brat.

About how he looks at Urich as a Prime Example of what a strong and knowledgeable adult is (which is part of why he reacts so volatile in response to Urich showing he's not exactly as morally righteous as himself, he's wounded and let down). Whiskey? Whiskey sounds like someone Mature and Cool would drink, I'll have it too. And then proceeds to throw his drink at Osborn and laugh about it. The illusion was broken for me then.

But well it's not broken for everyone. I mean like obviously I poked at the contemporary writers, but I'm more talking about the other characters in the narrative. Mainly Urich and Felicia.

Urich taking Peter under his wing isn't entirely under the motivation to nurture Peter. I think it Becomes that, but he's really envious of that kid. He wants to see him lose that hope that he once had (ruh roh the opposite thing happened, being around the kid made YOU more hopeful Ben. Guess you gotta be good. Hope you don't die now).

Urich really is exposing him to an extremely harsh reality, and taking him places where adults are typically only allowed. He's letting Peter get a glimpse into what it's like, which will eventually enable Noir's tool of violence. All these tests will accumulate into what Peter thinks someone powerful and strong can be and do.

Then his problematic relationship with Felicia (writers I'm malleting you for this). He's clinging to her adulthood and the safety she represents, and he's young but she sees some adult strength in him. I mean she trusts him with the blackmail Urich gave her, which she really. Shouldn't, even if that's what Urich wanted.

Anyway, strength is something she's been consistently drawn to her in her partners. Strength to feel as her own. Even if it's to hers and others' detriment. There's also a part of Peter that's drawn to Felicia because Urich was. He's still honing in the good parts of Urich he wants to be.

I think the one person in the narrative who doesn't fall for it? Is Aunt May. You could argue it's just her being naturally motherly, but for someone who was about to be eaten alive she's pretty frank with Noir. I think she can see that that violence and exaggerated grittiness comes from someone inexperienced and young. Even if she can't consciously recognize the similarities between Noir's persona and Peter's protectiveness of her. I don't think she wants to see that. I actually have a short comic script about that, but it probably will never see the light of day.

Ugh he's like a cat puffing up to scare away a predator. It's fake!!!!! It's all fake!!!!!! He gets intimidated by JJ, he never ties his shoes, gets powers and then immediately guns to beat the shit out of Osborn, sings about the sandman when he's getting his face bashed in, crawls to Felicia all pathetic and sad, and he made a costume to run over roofs at night in.

And it's funny how he's forcing himself to grow up, but also really sad because all the things he's being exposed to is already forcing him to grow up. He's witnessing things no kid should ever see or experience.

Then there's the time period to consider. The aftermath of WWI, being in the midst of the Great Depression, and WWII just around the corner. He's faced incredible hardship and is going to continue to face so much hardship, and he's going to mature faster than he ever should have. It should have made him crash and burn Hard when he became an adult, and to me he still does because I'm ignoring everyone after ewaof LMAO.

As for my research on the 1800s NY that's for my own spider iteration run I'm working on, so not too related to Noir until I reach the 30's :3

Hope that was satisfying!!

[blueeyeddarkknight]

Analysis of the Val documentary 2021 poster

So the poster is basically a collage of multiple Val pics that resembles Val's hobby and a reflection of his complexity.

I decided to see which pics made the poster

I think I found them all except for the eyes part. I tried to match it.

This is the best candidate I can think of. It's not the same pic but I think the one on the cover is a non released variation of the same photoshoot.

The other pics

What do you guys think? And if you found the same exact missing Pic.. feel free to let me know 🥰❤️

Ps : I had help from @crazyaboutvalkilmer on Twitter

[edzephyr]

Presenting, for your viewing pleasure

Star Trek Infinities: Test Footage

WATCH NOW ON YOUTUBE! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

For more info on the hows/whys and character/Trek analysis, click on the 'Making of' video below (some spoilers).

As well as those credited, I'd like to extend a huge thank you to all the fans I've met on my travels and online, whose enthusiastic response to my "real life" Kirk encouraged the production of this small flavor of possibility...

Score composed by musical maestro @pazak, who is also here, so give her a follow!

I hope you enjoy it!

[anulithots]

ahhh this subject, this topic, this 'if you don't get married then you aren't an adult and your whole life should revolve around the whole family thing' and talking as if it is a given, this looming doom over my queer head. 

On one hand the documentary is nice because sometimes parents are understanding. Mine aren't, and for some reason they hardly show the not-so-accepting ones when it comes to minorities but alas, there are the surprisingly accepting ones. It's a hit or miss and quite the Russian roulette. 

On the other hand the sentiment of 'you must get married' is there regardless. I don't think I'd be able to explain the way I feel about the whole thing without too many sappy words and metaphors that I'd never be able to say before interjections and overall disdain. AND the threat looms ever nearer. I don't like getting older in a society with expectations. It's not for me. I’m not sure what I will do. At all. I do not see a solution because of two completely warring ideologies. And I’m not sure who to ask because no one I know is both desi and on the aroace spectrum sooo…. I guess I’ll have to figure something out or run away to the woods when I’m older. Not that I can handle isolation. So there’s that too. And I don’t think I’m being over dramatic…sometimes I am but last time I even touched this subject briefly with my parents, it was a whole thing, spirals and not fun for months and months and drastic stuff. So Adult life things? If it’s anything like last year's brush with this then I’ll need to build up some ‘happiness inducing and comfort mechanisms’ ahead of time. 

I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like I’m in the tentative, last ‘safe period’ of my life. From here it’s…. Choices I don’t want to make. Ha. Fun. 

Apologies for the unsolicited rant! 

[mayimkjs]

FOOL's MATE Master Post

What is "FOOL's MATE"?

FOOL's MATE will be a documentary about Kayano Mikoto from MILGRAM. The goal of FOOL's MATE is to discus all of the theories and dive into all of the aspects of his character.

MILGRAM (ミルグラム) is an ongoing interactive music project by DECO*27 and Takuya Yamanaka that was first established in April 2020. MILGRAM is a mysterious, magical prison that houses 10 prisoners who have all committed a murder and it’s the job the guard to determine if their crimes are forgivable. Mikoto, the 9th prisoner, has Dissociative Identity Disorder. This means that he has multiple personalities/identities called “Alters”. Because of this, he has the most complex and confusing story out of all the prisoners. No one knows who truly committed "his" murder.

Why am I doing this?

I'm currently getting my Bachelor's in Digital Media Production and in a few terms, I'll be having a documentary class. I thought I'd get a head start on pre-production. I'm also making this as something for my portfolio.

Notes

The research document is sorta like a jumping off point for multiple other things like the script and a shot list. Because I'm basing my script off of this, it's sorta wordy and there are some jokes (one's an inside joke).

So far in terms of filming, I'm planning on having a scene where I go to an actual psychic to get their opinion on Mikoto's tarot reading in MeMe. There will also be a continuous scene that's going to be sorta inspired by Mystery Files, so me presenting this shit to my friends like an insane person. 

Disclaimers

I do not claim to be a mental health professional by any means. This documentary is being made for entertainment purposes only. If I get anything wrong, please correct me.

I do not condone the harassment of any involved party due to the contents of this project.

The content in this documentary are suppose to have a neutral view point and based on fact and common theories unless stated otherwise.

School Dates

These are so people know sorta where I am and how close I am to my docu class. Don't worry, these are vague enough that I won't get doxed.

Current: Fall, Term 9

Docu Pre-Pro: Fall, Term 9

Docu: Winter, Term 10

Tags

Research - #fools mate research

Behind the Scenes - #fools mate bts

Update Posts - #fools mate update

Polls - #fools mate poll

Asks - #fools mate asks

Storyboards - #fools mate boards

Promo Videos - #fools mate pv

Misc - #fools mate extras

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This post will be updated as time goes on

[eucanthos]

Werner Herzog (DE, Munich, September 5, 1942)

Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World, 2016 Documentary: Herzog's exploration of the Internet and the connected world.

LO the human side of the digital revolution

Professor Leonard Kleinrock: [Recalling the first internet message, Oct 29, 1969] All we wanted to do was log in from our computer to a computer 400 miles to the north up at Stanford Research Institute. To log in, you have to type "L O G" and that machine was smart enough to type the "I N". To make sure this was happening properly, we had our programmer and the programmer up north connected by a telephone handset, just to make sure it was going correctly... Typed in the 'G' and crash! The SRI computer crashed. So the first message ever on the internet was "LO", as in "lo and behold". We couldn't have asked for a more succinct, more powerful, more prophetic message than "LO".

Motion Picture Rating: PG-13, brief strong language and some thematic elements

[timeless Hi and Lo]

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/27/lo-and-behold-reveries-of-the-connected-world-review-herzogs-sombre-look-at-the-digital-revolution

[magentagalaxies]

Kids in the Archive: Episode 7

currently procrastinating on writing my own comedy sketch for my college class that's due tomorrow which means it's time for another episode of kids in the archive! the show where i highlight iconic kids in the hall sketches that i have procured the original scripts for and break down a behind-the-scenes comparison of script and screen

Previous Episodes: Episode 1 - armada finale ("do we make it?") Episode 2 - fran & gordon: the vacation Episode 3 - comfortable Episode 4 - cathy & kathi: is he? Episode 5 - danny husk: kidnapped! Episode 6 - Trappers

on today's escapade, i take you to the s2e5 sketch Sizzlers and the Bank!

imo sizzler and sizzler embody the best things about kids in the hall's recurring characters that you don't get in any other show. despite only appearing in 3 main sketches, none of their appearances were formulaic and they were given genuine depth and character arcs while still hitting all the beats of great sketch comedy. i truly hope i get a copy of "treatment" someday so i can go even deeper into what makes them some of my favorites

Bruce's Character

The first notable change in this draft version of the sketch is that Bruce's character is present from the very beginning. Now, in the first Sizzler and Sizzler sketch, Bruce's character of the nightclub owner provides some of my favorite lines (I still quote "the pre-show part of the show", "the show part of the show", and "the describing the show to the police part of the show" all the times, or some variation like when i tell a rambly anecdote and refer to "the story part of the story"). however, there aren't really any notable bruce lines in the first half of this sketch, so it's unsurprising his character was cut until the second half.

The Love Triangle

as the sizzlers are playing with their hostages, in the sketch that aired their antics are limited to making people put their hands up, mixing up the shoes, and choosing two people to fall in love. in the original draft, their antics are more drawn out, including setting up a love triangle

The Ending

the ending of the script is largely similar to the version that aired, albeit with some extra dialogue upon leaving the bank. the most major addition is that both jerry sizzlers shoot each other prior to proclaiming the city a "madhouse" (which happens on the following page, it's the only line on that last page so i didn't include it)

out of the three sizzler and sizzler sketches, i'd probably give sizzlers and the bank the bronze medal. this isn't because the sketch is bad, it just doesn't hook me as much as the first and last of their trilogy. i always found the turn of jerry shooting jerry a bit abrupt (that is slightly lessened in the script with the stage direction but not by much) - and while i know the justification for every sizzler and sizzler action is "he's crazy," it just typically doesn't manifest in explicitly violent ways so the turn feels jarring. still, i appreciate its place in the sizzler trilogy and the fact that it managed to build continuity (you can still see the bloodstain on the robe in "treatment," and it could be argued that jerry got put back in custody after the shooting leading to the final sketch)

the sizzler sisters are a bit similar to tammy in how, despite being common character archetypes, they are dealt with so differently in the course of their 3 sketch runs that they would never fit on a more formulaic show like snl. both the sizzlers and tammy go through full arcs in their trilogies (god i hope i find an excuse to do one of these about tammy), cross between live sketches and prerecorded media, and are given satisfactory endings. snl will occasionally do a sendoff for their characters when the actor leaves the show, but those tend to be the only break in their pattern. vs kith, where the pattern is fully realized characters who can still make you laugh in under 5 minutes.

[goofalicousgooberface]

scott tibbs in silly crazy rockstar sunglasses

Look at this lil faggot

[sisterdivinium]

Consider: A) as "brides of Christ", Catholic nuns commonly wear rings to symbolise their attachment to Jesus;

B) the OCS nuns don't wear rings;

(notice, however, that the nuns Camila teaches "how to TikTok" do — if on the left — as does Yasmine and as do the others during the museum heist, wearing the colours of Yasmine's order)

C) the halo is basically ring-shaped;

Possible conclusion: their real attachment is to the halo bearer, who carries within her body the "ring" they might all potentially have to bear; this very ring embodies their vows in a single instance so none of them need individual bands. This one ring merges in itself all of the ones they might have worn, tying the sisters together, bonding them to one another, structuring their order to begin with.

[wandering-alien]

Adam Curtis talks about how our age of individualism with ideas about needing completely free and independent identities means that nobody falls head over heels in love and gives themselves up to the emotion and the person they love but when Hozier sung 'No grave can hold my body down/I'll crawl home to her' that hit. That was beautiful.

And this is coming from the person who still doesn't really understand romantic relationships.

[yolowritter]

In Defense of Chloe Bourgeois Part 3: Why Thomas, WHY?

Hello everyone! In case it wasn't obvious by the title, this is a part 3 to this post right there! I'd sincerely recommend reading it since you'll need the context. Anyhow, moving right onto where I left off! Yes I copied the message too, it's 2am leave me alone.

[...]

Mind you, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be one at all, but that Miracle Queen was absolutely not the right time to go for it. Assuming that Chloe's fall was planned from the start, then I'll admit that it was the right call from Astruc and Co. Why? Because Seasons 2 and 3 give us an excellent analysis of Chloe as a character, and a lot of time for her to try and acclimate herself to the new circumstances of actually belonging somewhere. But...they also don't provide Chloe with the oppurtunity to figure herself out that much. She's preoccupied with Akuma fights whenever she's Queen Bee, and doesn't get much time to actually talk to her would-be friends as herself, at least outside the context of beating up this week's fashion atrocity, courtesy of the local Butterfly Man. And to be honest? The only reason I don't love Miracle Queen as an episode is because Chloe's fall didn't get proper buildup. If Astruc had devoted time to show us what was happening, then I'd be head over heels for the sheer amount of potential doors this storyline was opening!

Unfortunately...Thomas decided to double down on a terrible writing mistake...with Queen Banana. Dear Nooroo, the sheer amount of hate I have for this episode is almost as bad as my seething rage for Ephemeral! I'll talk about that disasterous stew of rotten eggs and horrendous writing some other time, but Queen Banana nearly takes the cake for my least favorite episode in Season 4! Would you like to know why? Because I was inhaling one thousand cubic meters of copium when I predicted that Astruc would actually bother doing something worthwhile with Chloe! And I'll admit, I do see what they were going for here. Make Chloe as bad as possible to replace her with Zoe. But that just ended up undermining both of them so badly that it actually hurts me to watch Queen Banana and Sole Crusher! I honestly don't think it was 100% intentional to make it look like Zoe was her half-sister's replacement, but the fact that it even looks that way from what I believe to be a decently unbiased point of view...is a problem. Don't get me wrong, I love Zoe! She's amazing, and Season 5 made her even better! But her introduction was so poorly written that it feels that way.

And Thomas certainly didn't help matters with the way Chloe was portrayed in those episodes. People have said that "she was being nice to Zoe at the start" and that "Chloe was trying to help with the movie, she had a really cool idea!" and both of those are true, yes, but look at the way that she goes about it. Chloe cranks up her "Audrey-ness" from the 8.5 we see on a good day, to the 10 of Style Queen...to a good ol' 27. Mind you, this could have been very well done! It could have been made obvious that Chloe is intentionally falling back into old habits as a defense machanism or a way to cope by deluding herself into thinking she doesn't need anyone because she's a Bourgeois! Would have made for a wonderful plotline, especially since she broke off her and Adrien's friendship. If I recall correctly, he told her she's being unreasonable, which Chloe absolutely was the entire episode, at least in the way she went about interacting with people. Naturally, Chloe insists otherwise, and decides that she doesn't need him either! This would be a wonderful moment to have her cry in the limousine, or maybe we could have gotten a scene where she's regretting cutting him off in Sole Crusher! Even at some later point in the Season! It would have been great! It would have given Chloe proper depth and made the approach of her fall in Miracle Queen have actual consequence in regards to her character! It would have severely complicated Chloe's relationship with the now only positive influence in her life, Zoe!

Speaking of Zoe, there's a huge theme hanging between her and Andre about breaking cycles of abuse. I won't talk about it here since it fits into a future post, but there's already a lot of analysis posts out there, especially about their relationship, which I personally find fundementally flawed. Andre is in general a really shitty person who I don't think ever should gotten a redemption arc, especially one that amounts to "Oh well, the problem child (that I am responsible for failing to raise) is gone now, time to receive zero consequences and enjoy my life after being a corrupt politician for almost a decade!" Can you tell I do not like that by the way? Can you tell? I swear I am giving this man a downfall arc to end all downfalls in a fic one of these days...

Anyway, point is that Chloe and Zoe are both screwed over by their incredibly horrible parents! And to anyone who says "but Zoe isn't a bad person, she's just different", kindly think about why that is. Chloe spent her entire childhood begging for her mother's attention and then being taught how to bribe, extort, blackmail and bully people into submission by Andre. Which is canon by the way! Meanwhile Zoe spent a significant amount of time with Audrey, and therefore doesn't idolize the mom she never knew.

Now, I'm not going to speculate on Zoe's childhood, but it seems pretty logical that Zoe was at the very least witness to a frankly ludicrous amount of Audrey's "you're ridiculous, utterly ridiculous" moments, to the point where she's sick of it. Like c'mon, if you had anybody in your house firing their unpaid intern 27 consecutive times in the span of maybe an hour, you'd quickly get used to it, get annoyed by it, and then promptly decide the behavior isn't worth emulating. Especially if you're sick of their shit by that point, which we can logically Zoe is. Therefore, she doesn't act like Audrey. Considering Andre didn't know she existed, he never poisoned her with his slimy politician ways, Zoe's behavior is different from Chloe's. As an aside, she still does try to emulate her actions when she first arrives at Dupont, if only for a couple minutes. Zoe wants to fit in, and even if she doesn't like what Chloe does, she's willing to play the part at least for a moment to get close to her sister. Fits really well with her wanting to be an actress, so I wanted to highlight it!

Anyway, the point is that there is some great foundational material here! Regardless of whether or not Chloe "fell" in Miracle Queen, there's amazing potential for a proper conflict between these two! Because as a reminder, we deduced earlier that Chloe was jealous of Marinette because of the latter having what she didn't! Zoe presumably had Audrey's love (in Chloe's mind at least), hence she would treat her differently. Be it either with seething hatred or jealousy is up to whomever writes the story. Alternatively, Chloe could (in the scenario where Miracle Queen didn't happen) believe that Zoe is a similarly abusive situation as she, and we go from there for a plotline between the two. Irrespectively of which route they wanted or could have taken this, any potential for character development between these two is utterly ruined from the very moment they first interact on screen.

This because Chloe is now reduced to a one-dimensional "school bully" character, which would have made logical sense if the writers explained it as a self-defense mechanism, but without any context or exploration of her mental state post Season 3, it can only be seen as character regression, which is never a good idea! Not to mention that Lila Rossi exists specifically to fulfil the role of antagonist for Marinette's personal life now! I know as well as everyne else how much Lila gets ignored and underused in this show, but the fact that Thomas and Co. took time to forcefully shove Chloe back in a role that no longer fits her instead of using the villain they spent three Season Finales hanging in front of us like a carrot on a stick is ridiculous to me! Therefore, Chloe's entire character development, which I would have been completely fine with if anybody bothered to treat her downfall with even the minimum amount of respect it deserves, if solely from the perspective of not leaving a gaping plothole bigger than the cavern in Gabriel's basement in the middle of their storyline! I know I already brought up me having an aneurysm once because of these crappy writing decisions, but we are well past the point of a mental breakdown and headed directly to a freakin' heart attack!

Why? Why??? How do you even manage to disrespect your own character to the point where you ruin two villains simultaniously, and the new heroine you're introducing??? Thomas Astruc! Have you ever taken a Writing 101 class before? Do I need to borrow Nathalie's crossbow and force you into one? Yeah okay, we get you don't like Chloe, but I honestly cannot accept that her botched downfall would spiral into the utter butchering of two more characters with unlimited potential, one of whom is supposed to be the villainess for your protagonist's personal life and the new Hawkmoth! I am well aware that Thomas doesn't even know I exist, but the sheer amount of beef I have with this man solely for being incompetent it honestly starting to become too much! I'm sitting over here desperately trying to retcon and re-write his characters in my head to at least make logical sense! And he just adds even more steaming-hot garbage to the pile of inconsistency, insanity and bad writing decisions! Meanwhile, we're missing 100% of logical sense, character respect, or at the very least some kind of way for the audience to understand what you're trying to communicate! Just tell us in a twitter post at this point! Please, be clear with your writing!

Okay...I'm sorry, this post has gotten way too long. Ridiculously long. Including this paragraph, it's actually almost 7.5k words in total. Hence why I've split it into so many parts. I sincerely hope you got the point. To summarize, regardless of if Chloe was redeemed or not, there were incredible oppurtunities for storytelling, and Thomas missed the wide side of a barn with this one. If you ask me I can go into way more detail, and yes that's despite the 7.4 thousand words in this series of posts. Anyway, I am now going to cool off, and quite possibly (maybe) sleep. I'll see you all next time (when I wake up from my coma), but until then, Stay Miraculous everyone!

< previous post >

[peculiarcharlotte]

the boy in striped pajamas: my sentiments

rating: 9.8/10

warnings: spoilers ahead + emotional damage (be prepared)

this was in my bucket list for quite some time, and i’ve only gone around to watching it a few days ago. to be frank, i’m still recovering, and i’ll probably never truly recover from this drastically touching cinematic masterpiece.

bruno was the son of an auschwitz’s commandant who moved his family to the countryside for work duties. in my eyes, bruno’s character was so beautifully human. unbothered by the atrocities currently happening, he remains curious and compassionate within his little bubble of innocence. he questions unashamedly, about the strange horrid smell coming from the “farm's” chimneys, (from the burning of jews), about the numbers on shmuel’s so-called pajamas (a jewish boy whom he had befriended).

unfortunately, purity never sustains in our blood-wrenched world. in the end, bruno’s death was a karmic result of the nazi regime, and his father’s ignorance and failure to protect him. it saddens me deeply knowing he died believing his father was a rightful man. he died thinking he’d find shmuel’s father in the concentration camps. he died so unknowingly. what breaks me the most, was he died gripping the hands of his beloved friend, shmuel, inside that gas chamber. i’m not lying when if i tell you i cried for three hours straight after this movie. it’s infuriating, knowing this wasn’t just made-up, stuff like this has happened, and honestly, they’re still happening! how could anyone let these children be stripped away of their humanity and futures like this? how does ethnic identity completely decide your social mobility? how is it justifiable in any way for genocide to even be worshipped?

therefore it’s such a provoking thought knowing if we could just entirely eradicate everything we’ve known about something and approach it through our intrinsic nature, perhaps we would've been so much more connected to our roots: to merge into a mere species, the human race. sometimes i wonder if current and past societies removed all the societal structures, the ingrained bigotries and biases within themselves, would racism and exclusion of marginalized groups ever exist in the first place? would i be able to kiss a person without the fear of being discriminated against? would the gender wars between man and woman become an incomprehensible notion? would we be able to finally collectively strive for the common greater good? would the generation of our offspring still have to worry about whether they’re going to be competent enough for the work market? so many questions and none can be answered. so many voices and none were heard. so many potentials, but none fulfilled.

overall, the film articulately depicts the true horrors of war and the tragic consequences it enforces. every scene was so raw, so full of emotions and authenticity. i would watch this again, probably just to feel something, even if i might be more emotionally damaged from being reminded of the devasting aftermath of bruno and shmuel’s forbidden comradeship.

[veryspecialfungus]

Secretly spending my work day in my own brain, secretly trying to square Raz's treatment of animals from Psychonauts 1 and Psychonauts 2.

[lecoindecachou]

Right, so originally I didn't even start re-watching this video bc of James Somerton but bc I wanted to watch the iilluminaughtii part of it again (she's still making videos btw. the comments are turned off). I actually remember seeing the thumbnail for them *a lot* on my recommended but I clicked on one once and didn't even make it to the end because well. It did feel like she was reading me the newspaper lol. I really hate that kind of monotone voice so many Youtubers use now, like they're reciting you the information at the back of a cereal box. It's the auditory equivalent of watching paint dry to me.

[foodfightnovelization]

Things I'm Not Allowed To Talk About Yet; or How I Learned More About Foodfight! Than I Ever Thought I Would

Okay, so I'm just going to come right out and say it; I know a lot more about Foodfight! than I've let on in this blog. Like, a LOT more. Shortly after I wrote my original series of posts cataloguing the novelization and various other Foodfight! trivia, I was contacted online by someone named Ziggy Cashmere. He'd been working on a book called Drawing For Nothing, exploring the history of unfinished and underappreciated animated films (with a chapter on Foodfight! among its many pages), as well as a full-on documentary about the movie called "ROTTEN: Behind The Foodfight".

Obviously me being the fan of Foodfight! that I am, I wanted to be a part of it in any way that I could. We talked for a while along with another Foodfight! fan in an internet chatroom appropriately titled "Foodfight Obsessives" and fast became friends. Since then I've been shown an early script I never thought I'd see, videos containing behind-the-scenes footage I never dreamed ANYONE would see, and interviews with people who worked on the movie I never imagined anyone would be able to track down. I've seen so much stuff over the past few months and it's been SO EXCITING... but I'm not allowed to talk about it, share any of it, or show anyone just yet! Gah!

It's been SO HARD keeping quiet about this for as long as I have, but since a trailer for the documentary has been up on YouTube for a while, I just wanted to let the cat out of the bag and preemptively say before it comes out: yes I knew about this, I've seen everything that's going to be in the documentary and it's fascinating, yes I was involved in it (in a very minor sense- I have a small cameo and helped with some of the research, Ziggy did 95% of the work) and it's going to be AMAZING. Ziggy's work on this is streets ahead of anything I've managed to do with this blog- the production materials he's dug up and the crewmembers he's managed to get in touch with are nothing short of incredible, and the amount of work that's gone into this is insane. It's like those true crime podcasts where a journalist talks to the victims of some decade-old crime, but instead of a murder case it's a below-average animated children's movie.

Everything Ziggy has on the movie (documents, video footage, pictures, interviews, the whole shebang) will be released alongside the documentary, so don't feel like you're missing out- you'll get to see everything soon enough, and I promise it'll be worth the wait. "ROTTEN: Behind The Foodfight" answers the decade-long mystery about Foodfight! as best, if not better than any one person possibly could, and closes the book on what happened behind the scenes on this enigma of a movie once and for all. I'm seriously SO excited for it to be out so I can talk about all the crazy things I've seen, you have NO idea what's in store for you guys. Check out the trailer here:

And if you can't wait for the documentary to come out, you'll see a preview of the kind of thing you can expect in his book, Drawing For Nothing. It's a fascinating free ebook with behind the scenes trivia and concept art from all kinds of lost and forgotten animated movies from over the years (for example, there's a chapter dedicated to Joe Jump, a Disney movie that eventually ended up becoming Wreck It Ralph) It's genuinely a work of art, and speaks strongly to my passion of films that feel like they deserve a second chance.

There's a fantastic chapter on Foodfight! showing off concept art, storyboards, unreleased merchandise and excerpts from an early draft of the script- it's truly fantastic. For example, check out this concept art for the Asian food aisle! I think pieces like this really show more than anything the strength of Foodfight!'s core concept, and how genuinely phenomenal of a movie it could've been were it managed better.

So I highly recommend you check out the book, and stay tuned for ROTTEN: Behind The Foodfight, because it's gonna be one hell of a ride. I'll make a much more in-depth post about it once it's out and I can actually talk about the contents of the documentary, but for now it's Tiffany Amber, strawberry jamming out of here!