#epic cool documentary idea

[batclawsss]

Boba Fett’s Weight Loss Journey: From Boba Fatt to Boba Fitt

[aurorawhisperz]

little romance documentary

contains: swearing, fluff, use of y/n and a whole lot of dumb things.

tom!peter parker x stark!reader

a/n: the long-awaited rory comeback! and i’m in my spiderman phase so..the ethan landry stuff will have to wait.

summary: (based off the video diary scene in homecoming) a compilation of all things you’ve done with peter :3

“What are you doing?” You poke at the camera, causing it to shake a little bit. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to show that to the rest of the world.”

Peter shakes his head, “What? No, it’s a little behind-the-scenes thing. Video diary, documentary..” He tries to find the right word.

This is probably why you thought your father hiring someone your age was a bad idea.

“Right, who are you gonna show it to?” And all you can do is stare into the camera while he keeps on recording whatever’s happening in the fancy car.

“Oh, it’s just for me. For memories!” Peter moves the camera away from your view and makes it look like he’s in the spotlight instead.

You’re quite overwhelmed, so you give him a smile in return. “You can do a little introduction.. if you want.” He says with a grin as he makes the camera face you.

“Okay,” You clear your throat, fixing the way you looked. “I’m Y/N Stark, we are going to Germany, currently being driven by my trusty servant, Happy Hogan!”

Happy quickly interrupts the process, “And I’m not too happy with how you have the nerve to call me your trusty servant.” You roll your eyes at his words. “Whatever.”

“And I’m here with uh..Spiderboy!” You continue after a short while, Peter laughs, turning the camera back to himself before correcting the name, “It’s Spiderman, actually..”

The car speeds along the road, and everything felt okay. You were staring into the sun, enjoying and relaxing, Peter was recording you as you were doing so. Admiring how he was able to work with a really cool person..and his daughter.

Reporters and even influencers were calling you a privileged pretty girl, but he didn’t believe those people at all.

You look back at Peter, who’s quick to move the camera in Happy’s direction. You knew what he was doing and all you hoped for was that he didn’t capture a bad angle.

“Okay, okay, let's do this properly,” you say, taking the camera from Peter. “I'm Y/N Stark, the brains and beauty behind this operation. And this,” you turn the camera to Peter, “is Spiderman, our main character and friendly neighborhood hero in Queens.”

Peter gives a mock salute to the camera. “I’m here to save the day or, at the very least, make some pretty cool memories.”

Happy shakes his head, a small smile tugging at his lips as he focuses on the road ahead. “Just don't get yourselves into too much trouble, kids.”

“Trouble? Us? Neverrrr~” you say with a smirk.

This was also the start of a great friendship.

-

The camera flicks on and Peter’s face fills the screen as he grins mischievously. “Alright, we’re going to pull the ultimate prank on Happy. Wish us luck.” He whispers into the lens.

You appear next to him, just as excited, holding a box. “We’ve been planning this for a while. This is going to be EPIC.” You whisper.

The two of you sneak through the hallway of the lavish suite, making sure you aren’t attracting any attention. Happy was inside his room, absorbed by a movie, completely unaware of what’s happening as usual.

“Ready?” you ask Peter, who nods to the camera.

You press a button on a small remote, activating the surprise. Suddenly, the speakers hidden around the room begin to play the song “WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?”

Happy’s movie is long gone when it’s replaced by a compilation of embarrassing moments such as Happy looking into the fridge at three in the morning, him slipping on the floor, Happy trying (and utterly failing) to dance and getting scared by jumpscares.

He looks up, startled at first. “What the hell..?”

And that was your cue.

You and Peter burst into the room, laughing hysterically. “GOTCHA!” You shout, holding up the camera to capture his reaction. Happy was trying to suppress such levels of anger behind his crossed arms. “Really, kid? You’re involving the boss’s daughter OR SHOULD I SAY THE DEVIL’S OFFSPRING in your shenanigans?”

You both grin sheepishly. “Happy, relax..it was all her idea. I was just the accomplice, I was cool.” Happy shakes his head in disgust. “You’re lucky I have a sense of humor.” He says, holding up a finger as he walks to the bathroom. “THIS MEANS WAR!” Happy yells out.

“Bring it on, grandpa.” You tease. “You’ll never top this.” You and Peter high-five. “Think we need to wrap this up before he gets any other ideas..” Peter scratches his head as you turn the camera back to yourself.

Peter put on a cowboy-ish accent, “Until next time, folks. We are now signing off.” He tips his invisible hat, still grinning.

-

You’re on a plush couch next to the famous Tony Stark, sitting across from Peter who has the camera in his hand.

“Hey, nonexistent audience, welcome back to our comedy club! We’re here with Mr. Stark since this is a special episode.” Peter leans over at the camera, making him look like he’s upside down.

He pans the camera to you and Tony. Your father looked slightly bewildered and you were enjoying the spotlight.

“Thank you so much for joining us, Mr. Stark.” Peter settles down in front of the two of you. “First off, Y/N—how does it feel to be the daughter of Iron Man? Is it all..uh, glitz and glamour?”

You laugh, glancing at your dad. “It has its pros and cons. I still wanna sue that reporter for calling me a bitch.” Peter laughs at your words and focuses the camera on you as you go on and on about trying out the latest tech before it even reaches the world.

Tony raises an eyebrow at Peter and then looks back at you while you ramble about being a Stark.

“That’s a bit odd,” He places a hand on his chin, probably showing off his goatee. “My daughter likes to do solo projects, so it’s odd seeing you two of all people working together for this..video diary but if you’re out of trouble and it keeps Y/N happy, who am I to complain, right?”

You smirk, “At least Dad’s on board.”

Peter smiles, moving on to the next question. “Y/N, what’s one thing people would be surprised to know about Mr. Stark as a dad?”

You think for a moment, then grin. “He’s actually a big softie. He pretends to be all tough and serious, but he’s the first to offer a hug when you need one. And he makes the best pancakes.”

Tony chuckles, shaking his head. “You’re ruining my tough guy image, kid.”

Peter chuckles but doesn’t remove the camera’s focus from you. “And Mr. Stark, what’s one piece of advice you’d give to Y/N as she navigates her way through life?”

Tony’s expression turns sincere, his tone softening. “Always be true to yourself, buttercup. It’s easy to get caught up in what people expect of you, but at the end of the day, it’s your own integrity and heart that matter the most. And remember, you’re stronger than you think.”

You smile, touched by your dad’s words. “Thanks, Dad.”

Peter glances at his notepad, then back at the two of you. “Alright, final question. Y/N, what’s next for you? Any exciting projects or plans?”

Tony raises an eyebrow, he definitely caught on Peter’s not-so-secret intentions by now. “Well, I’ve got a few ideas in the works,” you say, smiling at the camera. “But you’ll have to stay tuned to find out. Can’t give away all my secrets now, can I?”

Tony leans back. “You know, Peter, you seem very interested in Buttercup’s plans. Any particular reason for that?”

Peter stammers slightly, his cheeks turning a bit red. “Oh, I just think she has some really cool ideas, Mr. Stark.“

You laugh, leaning towards the camera. “And you can bet we’ll be documenting every step of the way in our video diary.”

Peter grins, wrapping up. “Well, that’s it for today’s episode. Big thanks to Tony Stark for joining us. Until next time, keep watching for more adventures.”

As the recording ends, Tony shakes his head, smiling at the two of you. “You know, this might actually be a good thing. Just don’t let it go to your heads.”

You leave the room and the first thing Tony does is head over to Peter. “I’m not the kind of father to tell boys to stay away from their skanky little daughters but..don’t lay your..spider hands, spider legs, eight legs, whatever spiders have on my daughter.”

-

Peter sits on the edge of his bed in his hotel room, bouncing slightly with excitement despite the cuts and bruises covering his face. The adrenaline from the fight still runs through his veins. He can't help but giggle as he replays the battle in his mind.

There's a knock on the door, and before he can respond, you step inside. “Peter? You in here?”

“Y/N! You won’t believe what just happened, I met Captain America and I took his shield and I was like..” Peter puts on a deep voice as he runs his mouth even faster, “Hey, what’s up, everybody? I’m Spiderman from Queens and—”

“Okay, okay, you’re talking too fast.” You stop him but you can’t help but laugh at how enthusiastic he is about everything. “You probably looked impressive out there, Spider-boy, but are you okay? I mean-”

Peter’s grin widens and he interrupts, “I’m more than okay! IT WAS INSANE! I was out there with Iron Man, Black Widow, Captain America, Hawkeye and a bunch of new guys and I..” He stops when he sees how genuinely worried you are. “But yeah, I’m fine..really. Just a scratch.”

You can’t help but smile. “Alright, let’s see those ‘few bruises’ then,” you say, sitting down on the bed and patting the spot next to you.

This was the moment where you realized you were falling in love with him.

Peter sits beside you, still bubbling with excitement. “Okay, so there was this one moment where I webbed Cap’s shield and—”

“Wait, you webbed Captain America’s shield?”your eyes were wide. “Yeah!” His face lit up. “And then he’s like, ‘You got heart, kid,’ and I’m thinking, ‘Did Captain America just compliment me?’”

You laugh, shaking your head. “That’s incredible, Peter. But seriously, are you sure you’re okay?”

Peter nods, his expression softening a bit. “Sore, but good. It was just... so surreal. I’ve never been in anything like that before.”

You reach out and gently touch one of the bruises on his cheek. “I’m glad you’re okay. You did great today, Peter. Just don’t forget to take care of yourself too.”

“I will, I PROMISE.” He gives you a little pinky promise, both of you linking your small fingers together. His excitement gave way to a more relaxed, contented smile.

As Peter finished talking about everything that happened at the airport in detail, you lean in and press a gentle kiss on his roughed-up cheek. “Goodnight, Pete.”

Peter’s eyes widened in surprise, nearly all of his blood rushing to his face. “Aww, thanks.” A blush creeped up his face.

As you stand to leave, Peter's gaze shifts to the table where the camera is.

His cheeks flush even deeper as he realizes the camera caught your goodnight kiss. He quickly reaches over to turn it off, Peter can't help but smile as he replays the moment over in his mind until he drifts off into sleep.

This was also the moment he realized he was falling in love with you too.

-

The two of you sat side by side on Peter’s bed, watching the footage from his laptop.

Suddenly, the scene transitions to the part where you kissed Peter goodnight. Peter shifts next to you, scratching the back of his head. “Um, so..that was uh, unexpected!”

You nod as well, “Totally unexpected.”

Peter clears his throat, his eyes darting around the room, looking anywhere but straight into your soul. “I mean, not that it wasn't nice! It was... really nice. But, um, I just didn't expect it.”

You chew on your lip, trying to find the right words. “Right, yeah. I mean, it's not like I planned it or anything. It just... happened.”

There's a long pause when the awkwardness decides to stay forever. Finally, Peter breaks the silence. "I... I have to tell you something. Ever since we started this video diary, I kinda..uh, liked you. Not like a ‘you’re cool’ like but yeah! I..like-like you. More than just a general..likeness.”

You were caught off guard. “Oh, wow, that’s um, even more unexpected.”

Peter winces, his cheek turning as red as his suit. “Yeah, I know, it’s kind of out of the blue..sorry. I didn’t wanna make things weird because I work for your dad of all people.”

“No, it’s not weird..uh.” You shake your head, trying to find the right words to say. “I don’t feel the same way but uh-“

Peter’s eyes widen, “Oh, that’s alright, I mean, I wasn’t forcing you to like me back but—”

“NO! NO! NO!” You sit up and look down at Peter, “I do feel the same way, I uh..like-like you too but it feels like I care a lot more than you do..like I like you a lot more than you like me. Shit like that..”

“Really?” He breathes out, “You do?”

You nod, fixing Peter’s messed-up hair. “Yeah, I do.”

Before either of you can say anything else, Peter gets up, places the laptop on the other side and leans in hesitantly, his lips mere inches from yours. He looks at you, and all you can do in the intensity of the moment is nod. Peter closes the gap and captures your lips in a soft kiss.

He grabs you by the waist and has you straddling him as you try to deepen the kiss. Peter, considering your father, probably thought you had some experience but you didn’t. You, on the other hand, were thankful for the playboy genes kicking in so this wouldn’t turn out horrible.

It's awkward, clumsy, and completely perfect in its imperfection, just like how any other first kiss two people have should be.

You both pull away, breathless and wide-eyed.

Suddenly, a loud knock on the door breaks the moment, causing you both to jump apart in surprise. Aunt May's voice calls out from the other side, oblivious to the lovey-dovey moment within.

“Peter, dinner's ready!”

You share a sheepish smile, Peter realizes he’s not alone in his embarrassment. “Guess we'll continue this later,” you say, your cheeks still flushed.

“She makes terrible meatloaf, I just wanted to tell you.” He says as you get off his lap.

You look at the laptop next to Peter and laugh at the sight of Peter blushing and gushing like a fool after you kissed him that night. “I think we turned your video diary into a little romance documentary instead.”

“At least I’ll have something to show people when they ask how we met.” Peter shrugs and closes the laptop.

“You still can’t show that to anyone else, man..” You groan as you stand up, grabbing Peter’s hand to help him up.

[gamerdog1]

Monster Hunter Film Review

We are truly lucky to be living in a time where video games are taken seriously. After years of filmmakers taking on the task of adapting games that they clearly don't care about, we're finally starting to see an era where games as a source material are respected. Just look at the 1993 Super Mario Bros movie, and compare it to the recent Illumination animated film, and you can see just how far we've come.

Though, I wish I could say for sure that EVERY video game adaptation is paying proper respect to its source material. I wish I could say that directors and actors excitedly flock to social media to brag about being part of a new video game movie, and take photos of themselves reading up on the source material (like Marvel does). I wish that every director, screenwriter, and producer that takes up the task of adapting a video game to film has done their research, and sets out to celebrate, instead of make a profit. Not everyone does, and in the case of the live action Monster Hunter movie, its clear that not everyone thinks so highly of what they're adapting.

Monster Hunter (2020) is another team up between director Paul W.S Anderson and lead actress Milla Jovovitch, which leads me to believe that they are either best of friends or have some contract to pump out weird video game movies till the end of time.

The film follows a squad of UN soldiers, who are transported to the world of Monster Hunter by a magical storm, and must fight to survive and get home. Along the way, their captain befriends a bowhunter, and the two work together to get back to our world.

Reading the IMDB synopsis for this film raised quite a few red flags, and unfortunately, the film did nothing to avert my expectations. Making the plot of this film an 'isekai' was a BOLD choice, and what's frustrating is that not much is done with that beyond a half-assed macguffin plot that only comes in at the last 20 minutes of the film. Having the main character come to the game world from our world only complicates the plot, because it steals the focus away from how cool this fantasy world is, and instead forces us to watch the main character figure out every detail of how life is different.

Going into a movie about the Monster Hunter games, you'd normally expect everything the games are about, but with a solid plotline. Long, epic fights against beautiful and dangerous dragons. Magical plants and animals, with lots of exploration. A rich culture full of colorful characters. Instead, we get long, drawn out sequences of Jovovitch wandering around the desert, or being in pain, with hardly anything interesting on screen. By the second 'I-don't-know-who-you-are-but-I-think-you're-evil-so-I'll-kill-you' fight in 20 minutes, I was begging for something different.

It also doesn't help that 80% of the film is set in the most non-descript desert you can imagine. Beyond one big rocky mountain, and small black spider pods, all we see throughout most of the film is an ocean of sand. I'm baffled that anyone on the filmmaking team thought that this was a good idea, in the adaptation of a game featuring dozens of lively and colorful destinations. Hell, even the games' deserts are more interesting, because there's more than just sand! A desert setting is fine, but there's clearly no effort being put in to make it look anything like the games, or anywhere a film should be set (unless your film is a documentary about sand dunes, that is.)

To make matters worse, the monsters (you know, the main focus of the games and film?) are rarely seen, and when they are, they're so unrecognizable that even I had trouble identifying them. Nerscylla, for example, are typically a slate grey with bright orange legs and amethyst colored spikes on their backs. The film, however, thinks they should be black-on-black-on-black horrors that lay eggs in people and are afraid of sunlight. Diablos, the big bad dragon that menaces the main character and her friends in the film, is supposed to be a tan colored herbivore, but I guess the filmmakers wanted it to be jet black and eat humans instead. The monsters show up sparsely, and when they do, they act like generic movie monsters instead of animals (like they should be): attacking and killing for meat, trapping prey in a nightmarish web nest deep underground, and chasing more to scare the audience than to pose a real threat.

If the monsters didn't piss me off first, the film's poor pacing, frustrating editing, and unfocused plot got me for sure. Much of the film is spent either wandering the desert, or standing around and talking, only occasionally interspersed with action sequences, which even if I wanted to care about, are cut up into shots so blindingly fast I couldn't tell what was going on. Quick editing in an action scene is one thing, but snapping from shot to shot so fast that your audience doesn't even have time to register what just happened is something a film should only do if they want a Razzie.

Even when things are still, the color correction in this film is shockingly bad. A nighttime scene slightly tinted blue? Sure. A nighttime scene that looks like they clearly films it during the day, then dipped the frames in navy dye? Yeah, no thanks. Most of the film is drenched in this dry filter that sucks all color from every frame, and just made it a pain to look at. I get that they were trying to convey the dryness and grittiness of the desert, but this is a video game. You can have color, and you really, really should. By the time the characters arrived at an oasis (NEARLY AN HOUR AND 20 MINUTES IN!) I was so shocked to see colors I nearly fell off the couch.

I have no idea what decisions went on behind the scenes while making this movie, but I can safely say that none of them did this movie any good. From the dry plot, to the inaccurate creatures, to the horrible editing, this film was a struggle from beginning to end. Sure, there were moments where I almost had fun (the Rathalos looked decent, and I liked Jovovitch and the bowhunter's dynamic), but beyond that, this is a generic film that masquerades as a big-name video game. If Capcom themselves were more involved with this movie (like how Nintendo was with the recent Mario movie), this could've been a wonderful film, but alas, we can't have everything.

4/10

[nightmaremp]

Weremayhem: Song of Beasts. Ch 26: Filming Beasts.

  Cameras were filming Nora outside the front door of the Shack. She fixed her hair before they started filming. The black haired female clears her throat. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, for years, audiences across the universe have been desperate for a glimpse into the creative process of Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem.” said Nora with a big smile on her face. 

“And today, for the first time ever, I give you what…” she started to add before the camera men moved past her and opened the front door. “Oh! Oh. You’re just going right in. Okay.” said the Label Lady. 

The cameras turn to the band and Moog who were on the couch. Teeth was playing a harmonica as he sat on a dark lime green chair. Floyd and Jancie were on the couch with their instruments. Zoot was behind the two. Lips was sitting in a chair in front of one of the cameras.  Moog look over to see cameras and has a look of confusion on his face. 

Nora runs in, a bit panicked or maybe very happy. “Okay, okay. You may be wondering why a film crew is descending upon your sacred space.” she said. 

“No, I’m not sure. We should start the chorus in G.” said Dr. Teeth. 

“Well, let’s try it in J” replied Floyd Pepper. 

“I figured that you’re finally cranking out songs. We could capture the magic of The Mayhem in an epic rockumentary, huh?” replied the black haired female. 

“Who’s gonna play me?” asked Zoot. 

“You. Yeah, you play you. That’s the best part” replied Nora. 

“All you guys gotta do is bring the love and magic that is the Electric Mayhem” she added. 

“The world needs more love, especially right now” said Label Lady. The mayhem were playing a small beat to a song. 

“And even JJ agrees that this band is pure love.” the black haired female added. Animal stops and him and Moog both look at each other in shock. 

“Wait. I’m sorry, did you say J…” the black haired male started to say. Suddenly JJ comes through the front door. 

“Oh, what’s up, my homies? Whoa, easy” said JJ with a big smile on his face. Animal grunts as he throw something at the guy but JJ ducks. 

“Bad!” yelled the drummer with a growl.

“Whoa!” said the male. 

“Animal, bud, look at me, okay? JJ good, not bad” said Nora. 

“Yeah, yeah, JJ cool, Jj friend” added JJ. 

“Friend?” asked the wild man. 

“Yeah, um, I, too, am confused. Is JJ helping us now?” asked Moog. 

“Actually, after he bought us more time with Penny, we decided to grab a coffee and…” she started to say. 

“Wait, like a date?” asked the black haired male. 

“What?” asked the black haired female. 

“Nothing,” he replied. Why did he say that!

“Back in the day, we’d have these big brainstorming sessions, and seems like we should picked up right where we left off.” replied Nora. 

“And boom! We had a great idea” added JJ with a smirk. 

“Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem get immortalized by having their own rock and roll documentary. Just like The Beatles did with…” The male said before the growls of a angry drummer cut him off. 

Animal try to attack him but Moog stops him. “Get back!” yelled JJ in fear. 

“Okay” said the black haired male as he tried to calm the drummer down.  

“Get back is the name of the Beatles doc, and it’s a smash. And, guess what?” said JJ. 

“We’ve locked in an all-star director to help us get going.” he added. 

Suddenly a guy came running in. “Did someone say one-star director?” he asked. 

“Everyone, meet Kevin Smith. Okay” said Label Lady with a smile on her face. 

“Director of Clerks, Clerks II.” she added. 

“Clerks III” replied JJ. 

“Before you say anything, just know that he’s done so much more than foul-mouthed comedies,” said Nora. 

“I mean he’s made action movies, horror, political satire…” the black haired female started to say. 

“And whatever Yoga Hosers was.” replied the good doctor with a chuckle. 

“Oh, wow, burn” replied Janice. 

“Dr. Teeth, you still got the bite. Man, I have missed all of you so much” replied Kevin Smith with a smile on his face. 

“Brosci!” said Animal with a laugh as he run up to the male. 

“Ahh! Get in here” he replied as they hugged each other. 

“Brosci” said the drummer happily. 

“Of course, you guys know each other” said the black haired female in shock and with some joy in her voice. 

“Yeah, he’s our Bro Pesci, our Broey Ramone, our Broseph Gordon-Levitt. We go way back” replied Floyd as he stood up from the couch. 

“Oh yeah, you wouldn’t wanna meet me back in the old days.” replied Smith. 

“I was a real square from Jersey until I met the Mayhem” he added. 

“Ooh, for sure,” replied the blonde female. 

“Now, after a lifetime of making critically panned R-rated movies, I’m finally ready to embrace family-friendly entertainment,” said Kevin. 

“I wanna make a film about all the joy and love brought into this world by my favorite band,” he added. 

“The Commodores,” replied Zoot. 

“Not the Commodores. I’m talking about The Mayhem!” replied Kevin Smith. 

“You guys!” he said with a smile on his face. 

“All right,” replied Floyd Pepper. 

“Now, listen to me very carefully.” replied Kevin. “You see this camera?” he said as he pointed to a camera. 

“Yeah,” the mayhem replied. 

“Okay. Do not look into this camera” Smith replied. 

“No, no, no, no, no” replied the band. 

“Yeah, I want you to act naturally,” replied Kevin Smith. “That’s the key, okay? We’ll go for one, here we go” he added. 

“Just gonna act natural,” said Floyd. 

“And, action,” said Smith. The band quickly looked dead into the camera. 

[el-warverine]

About the Fastball Special, from a rabid Wolverine fan:

A now iconic combo move consisting of one big tank-type hero throwing a smaller one to either reach airborne targets or cover a great distance with maximum speed. It was so effective and popular that mutants would later acredit it as the first "mutant circuit," basically bio-technology using Mutants' incredible abilities cohesively to achieve AWESOME SHIT.

The original inventors of the move are Colossus and Wolverine, though the true first instance of it was less "epic teamwork" and more "behave, you little shit"

They worked it out though, and frankly im almost completely certain that it was Logan's idea to make this a regular thing, because that fucker is CLEARLY enjoying himself.

Look at him go, goddamn. Imagine thinking being airborne means you dont have to worry about Wolverine and then YEET claws are coming right at your fucking face. I hope they're wearing brown pants.

Cyclops is a weenie and this throwing people around thing isnt very "normal" so of course he has to whine about it. Scott is a nerd.

The Fastball Special left quite the impression, because several team ups have used it since. To varying degrees of success.

Here's Squirrel Girl plagiarizing:

Spidey and The Thing flopping hard:

Idk why Ben is looking at Spidey like that. It's HIS fault it didn't work you cant just pick up a guy and toss him. there's finesse to it. Consent is key folks, dont launch a man like a baseball unless he is ready, willing, and enthusiastically consenting.

There's RULES and IMPORTANT PROCEDURES involved, okay.

WTF DID I JUST SAY ABOUT CONSENT, WOMAN? YOU CAN'T COP A FEEL WHILE YOU DO IT, NO MATTER HOW TEMPTING.

Anyway, no one is better at being a living missile than Wolverine.

X-23 is a natural at it, obviously.

She's not jaded or burdened by a big tough guy act so she outright admits she loves it without an ounce of emotional constipation. Atta girl.

If you wanna get all nature documentary about this, mustelids (the family Wolverines, Ferrets, and Weasels belong to) have famously springy spines, and domesticated ones seem to enjoy being thrown. (Do not throw your pet mustelid unless it has a healing factor or it's just a short distance and with a safe landing in sight like a couch)

Look at this lil shit running back for more, he loves it.

I tricked you into reading this post, starting it out like im some youtube essay-ist out to dispense cool facts haha you fell right into my trap

All this to say, remember that The Wolverine enjoys being thrown at 220mph for enrichment purposes.

[project1939]

200 Films of 1952

Film number 200!!!!: This is Cinerama

Release date: September 30th, 1952 

Studio: Cinerama Productions 

Genre: documentary 

Director: Mike Todd, Michael Todd, Jr, Walter A. Thompson, Fred Rickey 

Producer: Robert L. Bendick, Merian C. Cooper 

Actors: Lowell Thomas 

Plot Summary: This is a documentary that introduces the moviegoing public to the Cinerama film process and the stereo sound that came along with it. We see many famous sites and performances from around the world, followed by an aerial tour of the United States from coast to coast. 

My Rating (out of five stars): ***½  

I wanted to save this film for last, because it was the beginning of the major shift to widescreen films and stereo sound in Hollywood. In 1952, movies still used mono audio and had the almost square aspect ratio of 1.375:1. Cinerama was 2.65:1. Needing to compete with television, movies literally became bigger, longer, more colorful, and more sonically complex. This film was an epic illustration of the future, using sound and spectacle that must have been mind-blowing at the time. 

The Good: 

The curved screen still looked impressive on a flat screen today, due to the “Smilebox” framing. Sitting close to my screen, it felt like it wrapped around me, using my peripheral vision to make it feel almost like real life. 

The immersive stereo sound they used was super cool. I listened with headphones, hoping to hear the difference better, and boy was it noticeable! It was much like modern films, where if a character was speaking on the left side of the screen, the sound was more on the left side. My favorite trick was the way sound moved from back to front as well. When a church choir or a parade of bagpipers was moving past you, the sound imitated the real life feeling of sound coming and going. 

The color looked very nice. It was apparently shot in Eastmancolor (think Kodak Film), and then printed in Technicolor. It didn’t look as nice as a film shot in Technicolor, but it was still vivid and lovely. 

Starting the film with a black and white section with mono sound and a regular width was a smart idea. It amped you up for the change and made the juxtaposition even stronger. 

That black and white beginning was an entertaining journey through film history via 1952 eyes. It felt like a Film 101 class, which I enjoyed. But shockingly (and NOT shockingly), it gave absolutely no mention of the vital contributions of the French in early film history! 

The score was excellent- it was epic sounding without overdoing it.  

The sequence in Venice on the canals was my favorite. I want to go back and watch it again. 

The views of the Grand Canyon were stunning as well. 

The sequence showing off tricks with sound using a church choir was another highlight. I loved hearing the sound travel all around, from being almost whisper quit behind you, to completely filling a room. 

Watching all of the people in the crowds was as exciting for me as anything else. The color made it especially fun to have that time machine feeling as you watch what “normal” people looked like 72 years ago. 

I got a kick out of imaging the experience through 1952 eyes. Having seen 199 standard films from the year, I can definitely get a taste of how overwhelming it must have felt to see and hear such futuristic things! 

The Bad: 

The novelty wore off after about an hour or so, and things sometimes got boring, especially because there was no plot or characters. The novelty would probably last longer in a real theater, though. 

It was very Eurocentric when it “traveled around the world.” The only countries we saw were Scotland, Italy, Austria, and Spain. I was hoping they’d show some East Asian countries, South American countries, African, etc... There were so many great sites all over the world they could have shot. 

My least favorite sequences were the theatrical ones featuring operas. There were only chorus scenes and chorus music- we never got to hear any arias! The scenes also went on waaay too long.  

The section with Dick Pope’s water-skiing show also ran much too long. It tried to introduce a minor character, but that just padded the time and made it go on even longer. It was fun at first, but that died down well before the section ended. 

Because of the filming process, the camera couldn’t do much more than point straight ahead. There was so much spectacle happening, though, so it wasn’t too noticeable. 

[group03interdisciplinaryproject]

Blog 5 : Initial project Idea - 3

 by Shamshan Chandrathodika

The third concept is a multidisciplinary approach using 2D and 3D animation (Arcane style) modes to illustrate Earth's evolutionary story. This animated representation, which runs from the beginning of human existence to the rise of Homo sapiens, captures the dynamic variations in earth's conditions and developmental paths that extend times.

The visual story develops like a movie, providing a compact yet complete picture of geological and artificial processes. Viewers are transported across time, seeing the shifting patterns of landscapes, the rise of historical periods, and the inventive breakthroughs that have shaped humanity's past. Viewers are treated to a visual record of social milestones, technological advances, and cultural changes that shaped human civilisation.

The ability of this projection in a dome environment increases the sensory quality by taking viewers on a panoramic canvas that covers their visual and perceptive skills. Viewers are taken on an immersive trip beyond basic observation, encouraging a deep engagement with Earth's evolutionary tale's temporal and spatial elements.

Thus, merging 2D and 3D animation modes within a domed projection expresses the various fabrics of Earth's growth and humanity's ongoing imprint on its historic landscapes.

Bibliography

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Lucy (2014) - Brain usage 100% - Cool/Epic Scenes [1080p]. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdLTEC6X3pk&t=112s

Scientists Against Myths (2019). Evolution from ape to man. From Proconsul to Homo heidelbergensis. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGxDv7XybSo.

NHK WORLD-JAPAN (2019). 3. Dawn of the Stone Age - OUT OF THE CRADLE [人類誕生CG] / NHK Documentary. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgd5Mt25koI.

Connellan, S. (2021). You don’t have to play ‘League of Legends’ to enjoy the masterful animation of Netflix’s ‘Arcane’. [online] Mashable. Available at: https://mashable.com/article/netflix-arcane-league-of-legends-animation.

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Arcane: Bridging the Rift | Part 1 - I Only Dream in Risky. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz4-38d3-AE&t=898s

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Arcane Tutorial Part 2 : Deep Dive Into the Arcane Look and Camera Projections (Blender 3.0 / EEVEE). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG7ZoP3fd1w&list=PLHTCMLF-iraIQxffTaCBIQIaIT5wybWAb

iStock. (2012). Vector picture of Human Evolution. [online] Available at: https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/vector-of-human-evolution-concept-gm165960104-21104472?phrase=human+evolution&searchscope=image%2Cfilm

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week (Last week of Year 3!)

4 Fascinating documentaries:

🍿 The Love Of Movies- The Story Of American Film Criticism, a light 2009 documentary about the first 100 years of (mostly print) criticism, from the silent era to the Internet. Narrated in somehow outdated intonation, still it provided interesting background and details to a story I know well, but not completely. 8/10.

🍿 “The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen.”

I've never seen the show, so the quality documentary Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was all new to me. How a folksy charming comedy show got too edgy for network television at the end of the 60's. Actual victims of cancel culture.

RIP, Tom Smothers, Musician and Scourge of CBS Censors!

🍿 "We had a blast out in the desert. Everybody was getting loaded, and grass was 30 bucks a kilo...”

Let's get lost, a jazzy, impressionistic 1988 riff about my favorite smoky balladeer, trumpeter Chet Baker, made just before he fell to his death from a second story balcony in an Amsterdam hotel. The tortured "Prince of Cool", speedball-addict, James Dean lookalike player whose feminine singing style was one of a kind.

I'd much rather listen to Chet Baker & Bill Evans's 'Legendary Sessions', or any of his other recordings, than this hero-worshiped, free-wheeling Cinéma vérité footage.

But now I want to see 'All the Fine Young Cannibals' which was inspired by Baker's life.

🍿 Agnès Varda's 1968 piece of agitprop, Black Panthers, shot in Oakland during the 'Free Huey' campaign. Worth watching.

🍿

Werner Herzog's stunning masterpiece, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, an unforgiving descent into folly and madness. The plundering conquistadors lost in the jungle and barely navigating rickety rafts on the wild rapids. Heart of Darkness epic at the end of the world.

(Photo Above).

🍿

My masterpiece, a smart Argentinian drama about a lifelong friendship between two older gentlemen, a grumpy painter who doesn't give a shit and his worldly art dealer/manager, who carries him through. 7/10.

🍿

"you're gonna do great"

My 4th of Nicole Holofcener's works, You hurt my feelings. A small, intelligent story about always trying to make people feel better. A writer overhears her husband confessing to her brother-in-law that he hates her new book, even though he always assures her how much he loves it. Pleasant enough, NYC based drama, but eventually only a mild take. With David Gross. 6/10

🍿

The Philadelphia Story, a famous screwball 'Comedy of remarriage', a genre popular in the 1930s and 1940s. It circumvented The Production Code of the day which found stories about divorce too "scandalous". Katharine Hepburn was a socialite named Tracy Lord (No connection...), and she had to choose between three suitors the day before her second wedding. She also has a smart-ass little sister who sings "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady".

More Jimmy Stewart in a new Nerdwriter essay, comparing a scene from 'A shop around the corner' with the same scene at 'You've got mail'.

🍿

Re-watch: Children of Men, a chilling, retro-futuristic dystopian thriller set in totalitarian 2027, which is frighteningly similar to our own late-capitalist, repressive nightmare. Bleak saga of the youngest baby in the world, a world full of hatred, hopelessness, and Abu Ghraib. Only 4 years away... 10/10.

[I was going to follow this up with Shoot ’Em Up, another gritty action movie from same year 2007 and which also starred Clive Owen as a drifter who rescues a newborn from being killed by assassins. But it was so shoddily-made, I lasted exactly 2 minutes...]

🍿

The very first avant-garde film from 1921, Lichtspiel Opus I, made by German experimental filmmaker Walther Ruttmann.

🍿

"Find the seed... Shape the soil... Speed the harvest..."

I'm always looking for an excuse to watch Michael Clayton again. Too bad that this time is because Arthur Edens died (in real life).

The laconic "janitor", after an all night poker game, stops his Benz to look at horses.

One of my all-time favorite thrillers, with a perfect script and tight dialogue. His use of euphemisms, so understated, so deep in the weeds.

If anybody knows a more compact thriller, please let me know.

RIP, Tom Wilkinson, Shiva, the God of Death!

🍿

I didn't get the Chilean magical realist fable The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future, by first time director Francisca Alegría. It opens like a dreamy 'Man who fell to earth' symbolism, with a drowned woman emerging from the depths of the river, where she may or may not had committed suicide decades ago. Dead fish float, flock of birds form murmurations, and an estranged family behave strangely in the milk farm of their childhood. There's also a transgender grandchild who bonds with his maybe-dead grandmother, environmental disaster looming, family secrets that remain unexplained, and cows, who may sing into the future. But I didn't understand their song at all.

🍿

Slalom is another debut feature by a new French female director. A young downhill skier adores her trainer who comes to takes advantage of her innocence. It holds 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I hated it. I've been developing a low tolerance for stories of mistreatment, exploitation and abuse, or to watch another determined coach being tough with his young trainees. 3/10.

🍿

Alexander Skarsgård [Stellan's son] X 2:

🍿 Skarsgård wrote and directed a short film in 2003, To kill a child, a simple drama about an ordinary man who accidentally kills a child, while driving to the beach.

🍿 2 re-watch: On the Rolling Stone Magazine's list of '10 Best TV Episodes of 2023', the No. 1 was “Connor’s Wedding”, Succession Season 4, Episode 3. And indeed, Roy Logan's off-camera all-too-soon death, and his children's grief and devastation, was incredibly mesmerizing.

Also, “With Open eyes”, the tragic series finale, which encapsulated all the threads from 4 seasons of intrigues and disappointments. From the dinner scene where Skarsgård reeled Tom by “letting him sing for his supper”, to Tom's final coronation in the the SUV, together with Shiv his defeated wife.

🍿

The Newly Remastered Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special from 1988. A kitschy piece of subversive 'Camp' aimed at 4 year olds as well as closeted gay teenagers. With dozens of celebrity cameos, including Grace Jone, Magic Johnson, Cher & Larry Fishburne, and running gags about fruitcakes. Absurd and mildly fetishistic.

🍿

The Bear is a universally-acclaimed new series about a working class sandwich restaurant in Chicago. As an ex-chef who worked in similarly chaotic environments for nearly a decade, this story was unrealistic in the extreme. There was too much manufactured drama and way too many cooks to accommodate a simple hot dog stand. And the attempts to turn it into an experimental, hi-end Nathan Myhrvold spot were laughable. Lots of name droppings: Noma, Alinea, CIA, and lots of food-porn shots and plate-sets. They even brought Oliver Platt from the 10 times better film 'Chef'. It was written by somebody who obviously never worked as a cook. I somehow watched all of  Season 1, but didn't stay for seconds. 3/10.

🍿

Platonic, a new sitcom (without the laugh tracks), taking the 'When Harry met sally' concept, and replacing it with Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne. I could only stay for the Pilot episode. 2/10.

🍿  

Throw-back to the "Art project”:  

Adora loves to cook.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here)

[entertainment]

Entertainment Spotlight: Lyon Daniels, We Can Be Heroes

Actor Lyon Daniels, who you may know as Noodles from We Can Be Heroes, chatted with us about making the film, memories from the set, and his passion for dinosaurs. Check it out.

Can you take us through an average day on the set of We Can Be Heroes?

Once we arrive at the studio, we get dressed into our wardrobe that is hanging up in our trailers. Next, we head over to the hair and makeup trailer. After we are done there, we wait a bit in the hangout trailer and play Mario Kart until we are called on set. Shortly after we are called on set, we get mic’d up, and then we start rehearsing and filming with our director Robert Rodriguez. We get a break for lunch, which is always exciting since it is catered daily with fresh, gourmet food options and treats! After lunch, we go back to filming on-set and end when it is our “pumpkin time”—since we are minors, we have limited hours that we are legally able to work. Some of us had to do school as well, and in the back of the hangout trailer, we had a space for school work.

What do you geek out about?

I geek out about paleontology, anything with dinosaurs, marvel superheroes, and Harry Potter, as I’m just so intrigued about the idea of it all. I was also interviewed for a fun documentary for Dinosaur enthusiasts called Why Dinosaurs?. A father and son went on an adventure around the world, interviewing top dinosaur paleontologist experts and dinosaur enthusiasts like myself to find the answer to why people are so fascinated by dinosaurs. Some of the people interviewed were involved with the Jurassic Park franchise, which is my favorite movie of all time! The documentary project does not have a home yet, but you can follow along on Instagram @WhyDinosaurs.

If you woke up tomorrow as Noodles in We Can Be Heroes, what would you do?

I would probably never get out of bed because I could just stretch and get whatever I need. Then again, it would be pretty cool to run around the city swinging and stretching my arms from building to building like Spider-Man!

What’s the funniest or most memorable thing that happened on the set of We Can Be Heroes?

Before filming, we had a surprise birthday party for our director, Robert. It was like one big fiesta, he played guitar, and we ate cake. We all waited in silence in the green screen room for someone to trick him into walking over there, and the expression on his face once we all screamed surprise was so epic!!

If Noodles got his own spin-off movie, what would it be called and what would it be about?

My spin-off could be called, Noodles: The Race For Energy. I always had this idea of a cool villain, a man who mutated into an eel with electricity powers. The eel-man is planning to cut off electricity from the world so he can get all of the powers for himself. Noodles has to race against time to stop this eel-man villain from completing his evil mission. There are so many cool things that Noodles could do with his powers, but it would have to be based on the actual storyline.

Thanks for taking the time, Lyon! We Can Be Heroes is streaming on Netflix.

[oh-phineas]

Easy As Pie | Phinian

Phineas had no idea if he was actually going to make this documentary thing. But it seemed like a cool idea, the magical text mixup thing, and Phineas liked to follow cool ideas until they fizzled out or turned into something truly epic. He still got this vibe that Ian didn’t really like him, but Phineas hoped that was just actually Phineas projecting, or maybe it was just that Ian seemed like a quiet dude. It was fine. Pizza was a great bringer-together of people.

So he told Ian to meet him at Pizza Planet and ordered a large, plain pie, and he tried not to think about what had happened this time last year, meeting someone he had a kind of weird relationship with at Pizza Planet. “Hey, dude!” Phineas said, once he spotted his potential-documentary-subject. “How’s it going? You ready to do this thing? Don’t worry, we’re not filming anything today, but I’m just gonna take a couple notes. See if we can sketch out an outline for the documentary.” He held up the notepad he had brought. “No pressure.”

@ianthedisastrous​

[lokiondisneyplus]

Although Loki has been a fixture of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2011’s Thor, the character has never had his own musical identity. That all changed with Loki - the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s latest Disney+ series - and the music of Natalie Holt. The innovative, versatile score is a perfect match for the God of Mischief’s sensibilities and is easily among the best sonic works we’ve heard in the genre.

As such, we were excited to sit down with Holt to discuss the inspiration behind the score’s instrumentation, sticking up for her music in late-night dub sessions, and being part of the MCU.

I want to start right at the beginning. What was your reaction when you booked the Loki meeting?

I just knew that it was the biggest opportunity I'd ever had, and I really prepped hard. I went into the meeting with my ideas really fleshed out, and quite a lot of my responses to the script seemed to by some lucky coincidence fit with the directors. That was cool. I then got to do the pitch after the meeting, so I had to score the time theater scene in episode one, and I totally went to town on that as well. I really wanted this job so much because I felt that Loki was a great character and I was a big fan.

You and director Kate Herron were immediately on the same page in regards to using a Theremin for Loki. What was it about that instrument that appealed to you for this project?

A friend of mine had sent me ‘The Swan’ by Clara Rockmore ages ago, and I just loved the sound of it. I had also been listening to lots of BBC Radiophonic workshops, and I'd seen this documentary about Delia Derbyshire as well so I had all these 1950’s, analogue-y synth sounds buzzing around in my head. Tom Hiddleston has a Shakespeare-like quality to his performance, so I thought this needs to have some kind of classical, weighty grandness. So it was a fusion of those two things.

You weren’t on set for Loki, and I know that is something you like to do. In the absence of that, what sparked your creativity the most?

It was engaging with the character in a really deep way. The storyline really got under my skin and inspired me. I had the Loki theme in the pitch, so that’s been there from day one. And as for the riffs in the theme, I feel like Loki is the Salieri to Thor’s Mozart, so I was listening to lots of that. There's a bit of ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ by Wagner in Loki’s theme as well. That was all in the pitch. Then I had a month to write the suite. That was the Mobius theme, the Sylvie theme, and the Variant theme.

For all the hi-tech stuff we see in Loki, the TVA is also very analogue in some respects and you’ve clearly taken that into account with the score. How quickly did you catch onto that and are there any other ways that are reflected in your score?

I sampled lots of clock-ticking sounds. I worked with Daniel Sonnabend - he’s got lots of old analog tape machines - and we were messing around with that. The tape machine player almost became its own instrument. We had this big church bell for the timekeepers at the beginning of episode four. That was sampled and then downgraded, so it gets glitchy as it goes on to signify what’s happening in the story. I was just messing around with a lot of that in the background, and it's all over everything. There's always an urgency and a time-ticking feeling in the background of lots of tracks.

How long does one spend listening to samples of clocks before you find the right one?

I've got a lot! I'm sure they'll come in handy at some point.

I’ve read that you wanted a score that “reflected Loki’s personality.” What were some of the characteristics you were looking to emphasise and accentuate with your score?

Something that I touched on with Kate, from reading the scripts for the very first time was Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. In that film, Alex commits these horrendous acts and he's extremely violent, and yet somehow you connect with him. I feel like Loki is the same. He's a likable villain. In the series, he comes to terms with his fallibility and it is quite painful for him. So I suppose my job is to help him reach those emotional depths. When he sees his mother in episode one, his past is calling to him and that's when we hear those haunting Norwegian instruments that suddenly seem to shine. Yearning for your mother is something we can all relate to.

We’ve spoken a bit about the use of the Theremin. What drove your selection of the other instruments?

I did this amazing lockdown project for an ad agency. They kind of got all of their artists to play Pass the Parcel with a theme, and we just did this lockdown piece. I'm not sure how successful it was, but the person that I got sent the material from was Charlie Draper who's a theremin player and a theremin enthusiast. So he was in the back of my mind, and I knew I really wanted to collaborate with him at some point. He played on my demo. And then the Norwegians... I saw them at a concert in Stoke Newington about three years ago. They're in this group called the Lodestar Trio. They're amazing, and they play with Max Bailey. I've known him for years, and I just went to this concert. He did all these interpretations of Bach, but with a kind of Norwegian folky twist. I just loved the instrument combination of the Nyckelharpa, the Hardanger fiddle, and the violin. It sounds mystical and magical and amazing. It felt like the perfect pairing with Loki’s past.

I read that you started with the finale and worked backward. Is that an unusual way of working for you or do you do that often?

This whole show has been a departure from anything I've ever done before, in terms of the scale of it, and, you know, the resources. It's all just been different. I think Kate and Kevin [Feige], the producer, saw it as a six-hour film. They didn't want it to be a TV show. The thing about scoring a film is that you do have that time to really craft themes and to have more of an overarching narrative than you sometimes get to do in TV because there's usually a quicker turnaround. And I guess because of the pandemic as well, I had more time.

I didn’t want to just work my way through the score in a linear order. I wanted to know where I was going and then seed it. I think writing a suite before starting on a picture, and having those themes in my mind before seeing the footage was super useful as well. I think I'm always going to do that from now on.

Are we ever gonna hear the full suites somewhere down the line?

I had never done one before. And I was like, “have you got any examples from anybody else?” So they sent me suites from a couple of other composers, like Ludwig Göransson’s one for Black Panther. I was totally geeking out on that. I heard Mark Mothersbaugh’s suite for Thor: Ragnarok as well, and that was kinda intimidating. But it was really good to hear that they've all gone through this process.

You get to see these epic moments in Loki before there’s any music to it. Was there any particular moment you watched that you were excited to work on?

I read the scripts, and I had Mobius in my head as something very different. I saw him being a bigger person who was quite slow, like a kind of cheeseburger-eating cop. The way Owen Wilson brought that character to life was so brilliant, as was the chemistry between him and Tom. I loved watching their bromance. It was really fun to score them as their relationship blossomed. When Mobius is pruned, that was so awesome. I loved episode four. I had seeded everything and built their friendship up. That moment where Tom walks down the corridor in slow motion with tears in his eyes… I loved scoring that.

Loki is a man of many multitudes, and the show goes down a lot of strange avenues. I love the tracks where you really get to do something different from the main body of the score, like ‘DB Cooper’ or ‘Miss Minutes’.

I had a bit more time for episodes one and two. Like, I had a month to score episode one. By the time I got to episode six, it was really frantic. So, with the tracks you mentioned, I just had the time to do it. Kate was like, “we've got a source track that sort of works, but wouldn't it be really fun if we could do a version of it with the Loki theme?” And I was like, “yep, cool, let's try it.” It was one of the upsides to the pandemic, that we had more time to work on it and do stuff like that. I did a film before with where I got Chris Lawrence - he's like a bass player in London, and he plays in orchestra’s but he also plays at Ronnie Scott’s - and he did the baseline on ‘D.B. Cooper’. He’s so good. And I sang on that track too!

‘Miss Minutes’ felt like a moment to tip your hat to those sci-fi shows and do a pastiche. So I got the theremin and the choir and had some fun with that piece. And again, that's got the TVA theme in it. I think that’s really nice, and it's something they did with WandaVision as well. There's cohesion in the score. Even when you're hearing this jazzy track, you're still getting the Loki theme and you're hearing a different side of his character.

You mentioned how you had more time to score the earlier episodes. Was there anything positive about having less time on the later episodes? How do you prefer to work?

I remember reading something about people who can see colours with music. I feel that I have the same thing with a scene. I can watch a scene and I can start hearing it in my head, and as I get more into a project... I remember watching episode six, and because I was so into the project and into the characters by that point, I was like, that's what needs to happen. I could hear it as I was watching it. I feel like sometimes if you’re spending ages working on something, that instinct can get a bit boiled down. Episode six felt like my most instinctive version of the music because I didn't have time to fiddle around with it. It just felt like that was my very undiluted response.

I like it. Natalie Holt uncut.

I just kind of sketched it all out on the piano as I heard it. It was very quick.

How long did you have to work on that particular episode?

I think it was a week. It was a very quick turnaround with the orchestral recording, and I thought we were going to need more time.

How involved were you with the track Tom Hiddleston sings in Asgardian?

They had found a Norwegian song, and he'd already recorded it. I was like, I think we need a musician in the background. There should be someone on that train who’s a little bit drunk and has an instrument, and it's a kind of space-age fiddle, and they're going to accompany Tom in the scene and I think that's going to really help. Kate and Kevin were like, yeah, that could really work. So I did a few versions where I just took what Tom had done, added some violins,  and then improvised a bit in the middle where Loki sings to Sylvie. And they're like, yes, we've got to do this. So they went back in and shot a pickup of an alien musician in that sequence because I insisted. I really wish it was me!

We know that season two of Loki is in the works now. They better have you on camera.

Oh my god, I'm so up for it!

How did you find it working remotely? Were you involved in the mixing stage at all?

It was kind of frustrating. Getting picture to work in the orchestral recording sessions was a problem. Marvel is very strict about how a picture goes out because they don't want any leaks, so that was quite challenging. I could never send people the picture to play with. It's kind of nice for the musicians to come in and see what they're playing against, but there was none of that. That was a bit of a downside. With that said, it was easier to get hold of people because everyone was at home and really happy to be working. I don't know if I'd have got the job had it not been for the fact that everyone was suddenly happy to accept more remote working than they would have done in the past. So I feel like it's opened some doors. The frustrations and the benefits seemed to be in balance.

Speaking of opening doors, you’re only the second woman to compose an MCU score (Pinar Toprak scored Captain Marvel in 2019). That feels significant.

We're in a time, certainly, where I think people are very consciously opening up opportunities to all sorts of people that wouldn't have had those opportunities before, which I'm really grateful for. A few years ago, I wouldn't have gotten this opportunity until a bit further on in my career. So it accelerated things. We are moving forward. But the thing that I really struggle with… I went to a state school and I got scholarships to study music. It wasn't prohibitively expensive to go to university. I did a master's and I didn't come out with 30 grand of debt. The opportunities are here for me now, but I think if I was young and I wanted to go to film school I wouldn't be able to afford it.

So what bothers me is social mobility. I still think we're opening up our industry, but we're not supporting people being able to study music and being able to get into film, and being able to spend those years doing low-paid jobs from the ground up. I still think we've got a long way to go with that. But I think at my age and my level, I'm just privileged that I did have those bursaries and those opportunities to study music, and I hope they're still there for my daughter's generation.

You have a lot of synths in this score. How tricky was it to find that balance between the classical and modern instruments?It's a blend. There’s some in-the-box stuff. Some of the synths are recorded, and then I ran them through the analog tape machine to dirty them up. I've got a Juno 60, so I've got some analog synths going on. It's such a weird process, isn't it? Creating something and being like, no, that's right! Jake Jackson - who mixed the score - must feel like I’m a complete control freak. I was like, “yeah I really like your mix but can you just go back and basically listen to my demo?” I was quite specific with him. He did an amazing job. The D.B. Cooper track... I cannot believe that he made it sound like that. I've never worked with him before, and handing your work over to an engineer does feel a bit like, oh, how's this gonna be? But it was a really, really great experience, and I think Jake is a genius. He really gets it, and he was really collaborative and respectful of my intentions with everything. I never felt like he was trying to put his mark on anything. It was a really smooth part of the process.

What conversations do you have about how prevalent your music is in the mix when it comes to the TV side of things?

I was so obsessed with Loki that I couldn’t let it go. I went to the dub even when it was two o'clock in the morning. I just wanted to check in and I was calling Kate and asking her, “please can you turn the music up here?” I was like a dog with a bone until it was ripped out of my mouth and they were like that’s it now, this episode is locked. I definitely fought for things to be turned up.

You had a 32-piece choir for the last 2 episodes. What was it like to get that recording in? Are you watching as they’re recording it from a remote location?

They were a Hungarian choir. The male singers could really go down. I was adding notes in at the bottom for those guys to sing. I didn’t know anyone could sing that low. That was cool. I had never recorded a choir before, so it was a new one for me. I was really lucky to have Andy Brown from the London Metropolitan orchestra. He assisted me with the Brass and singing sessions.

I imagine that one of the cooler things about scoring something like Loki is that you are now part of the wider MCU universe. I think I heard hints of Alan Silvestri’s Avengers cue a couple of times…

I put in a Loki version of the Avengers theme at the end of episode 4. Also, at the very start of the season before the title card, it goes from an Alan Silvestri cue and then segues and then I take it over. It was really cool to get to play around with the multitrack from that. I was always a big fan of the Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther scores, so those were kind of my inspirations. I was just kind of honoured to be in the same league as those people and those scores because I thought they were great and quirky and had all these interesting flavours and textures.

I love that you’ve been given the freedom to be as bold as you’ve been with your score.

I wanted to do something a bit different, and Marvel's TV ventures... they're wanting to do something a bit different and challenging as well with this new direction that they're taking. It felt like there was a lot of creative freedom being dished out with this series, in every department. Kate was like, “let's try this DB Cooper scene with the theme, if it doesn't work then it's fine.” It was just trying things out and seeing what stuck.

I remember handing over my score for episode one, just before Christmas 2020. I'd scored the whole thing and was very nervous because I think it was the first time Kevin Feige and the execs were going to hear my stuff. I’d really worked hard on it, and it had a lot of live stuff. There was just one note back from Kevin Feige - push it further. I think that's so cool. As we went on the execs were really happy with it, I got calls from Victoria Alonso and Louis D’Esposito [Marvel producers]. They both rang me and just thanked me and they were like, 'we're just so happy that you've taken the ball and run with it'. I couldn't have asked for a nicer bunch of people to work with. I wasn't sure how it was going to be, I was a bit intimidated. I thought it might be a bit more terrifying. But actually, it turned out to be a really amazing, fulfilling experience.

Welcome to the world of Loki YouTube covers! How far down that rabbit hole have you fallen, and how much are you enjoying that side of the MCU experience?

It's really flattering. I’ve posted some of them on my Twitter. It’s just amazing how quickly people will post music from the show after episodes. They sound almost the same as my demo, and they’ve knocked it out in about two hours the minute after they’ve watched the episode.

Once your work on Loki was complete, how did you detox? Do you delete all your voice memos?

I've still got them. The TVA theme actually came to me as I was walking down the high street. I've got some in the bank for the future as well. I'm always noodling and sketching things down on manuscript paper. How do I detox? I just bought a new piano. It’s 100 years old. I haven't had a piano for a bit, so I've just been playing a lot of Bach.

[fakeloveaskblog]

Patty have you ever asked Janus to join for dinner when you meet him? Maybe that can somehow help Logan with his flirting? Or at least get Janus more relaxed?

(btw you're adorable ily!!)

(*cracks knuckles* Oh yeah baby we’ve gotten to the angst. Words: 2364 )

Patty: ": D Oh hello lil magical bird who just talked to me! I love you too!! I didn't want to barge in too much into their relationship but now when my honeypie has asked him out once already I guess I can help just a bit!"

Patty had sunglasses on to look like a secret agent. This was an important step in her plan, she swore on it. She sneaked into the open library while chuckling to herself.

She glanced around and almost immediately caught her eye on Janus standing in the reception. She did a few sneaky walks between the bookshelves before sliding up to him.

"Hello Janister!" She greeted with a bright smile while putting her elbows on the reception to lean closer.

"Hiya PatPat. Logan is off helping a customer but he'll be back soon"

"Oh silly I'm not looking for him right now. I am actually here to ask if you could come over to our place tonight. You see I'm planning on making Jambalaya but I always make too much! I'm talking leftovers up to the roof!! But if a third person was there maybe I would be able to make a perfect amount" She lied. She was making jambalaya for Janus purposes alone!

Janus' heartrate shot through the atmosphere "To- me?- your place?- tonight?- I uh- I don't know if I have time-"

She pouted and did her puppy eyes "You sure? You don't have to if you don't want to!! But it would be nice!"

He let out a happy sigh "Sure"

She took his hand and let out a sqeaul "aaah Great! It'll be so fun!!"

---

Logan was leaning down so Patty could help him with his bowtie. "Are you completely sure I look adequate?" He asked.

"Oh honeybee, You look super duper ultra adequate. You're literally wearing a sweater with a math pun on it!!"

"Hmm sound argument. I can not deny the sexiness of math puns"

A knock came on the door. The couple stared at each other. Logan stimmed out of nervousness. Patty gave him a quick kiss before pointing between him and the door. They did a good luck high five.

Logan combed his hair back and leaned on the wall to look cool as he opened the door. Janus stood on the other side looking like a sardine that had just been pressed into a can.

He had on a purple vest with embroidered flowers details and with a long sleeved black button up under. Also a very funky pair of stripped pants with even funkier yellow snake socks under.

"Greetings Jan. You are looking" Like a dream. Like someone he wanted to kiss right this moment. "Very good"

"Aww are you trying to be a snake charmer Log-boy" Janus replied with a smirk.

"I am not a log or a boy. I'm an adult man made out of meat"

"You better be because I'm starving" He had downed 2 shots of vodka before coming to try to and cool his extreme anxiety. He was a lightweight.

Logan lead him into the living room "Are....Are you implying cannibalism?"

Janus shrugged while smiling.

The apartement truly did look like a mismatch of the couple's personalities. The walls were filled with maps of constellations and uplifting cat posters. On the bookshelfs cook books and travel books were stacked next to thick philosophy books and essays. The decorations were either cute porcelain animals, magical anime girl figurines or figurines of characters from Lo's different hyperfixations. The sofa was filled with fluffy blankets and pillows and stuffies were scattered around the light blue carpet filling the living room.

“Do you want to watch star trek while eating?” Logan asked with a hopeful glint in his eyes.

“As long as I get to watch your beautiful face as well” Janus flirted back while doing an unsteady fingergun.

“Oh- Of course” His crush’s sudden forwardness was making his heart flutter.

Janus curled up in the corner of the couch, making himself as small as possible. Logan sat down pretty far away from him.

He started the first episode. Janus had a constant smile on his face as he listened to Logan go between telling him facts and gushing over his favorite moments. All while he could hear Patty in the kitchen half singing along to dad rock.

“Does she want help with that?” Janus, known gentleman and also nervous wreck, asked.

“She’ll tell us if she need it. She likes cooking. I like baking. It usually works out”

Janus got an amused look on his face “You’re into baking? So all those times at work when you brought desserts, that was your making?”

“Yes. And they were delicious. Anything wrong with that?”

“No. No. I simply didn’t take you for the type”

“Well cooking involves creativity and there’s room for your own ideas. Baking doesn’t. It is only about following a structure and doing kitchen chemistry. Of course I love it” He lowered his voice “It is also tremendously good for when you need to flirt without words”

“Oh really? I better start looking up recipes then” He pulled in Logan's bowtie “You have any favorites?” 

In his head he had the guts to say ‘Your lips against mine would be my favorite’ in reality he said “HehuHFKdjf jam drops in the shape of heart. The heart part is important. It adds to the taste”

“It usually does”

Janus slowly looked him up and down. And then he realized what the fuck he was doing. He shot back into his corner of the sofa like a naked rat. Logan sat still with blushing cheeks, staring at the tv but not taking in anything that was happening except his racing heart.

“Done!” Patty exclaimed, coming in with a big ass fucking pot of jambalaya and a just as big bottle of wine.

She saw the nervous state both of the guys were in and quickly made up a plan. She slammed the pot down onto the coffee table and moved the blankets so they took up about half of the couch. Then she sat down using up as much space as possible leaving the guys no choice but to move closer to each other, If both of them sat their hands down they would touch.

Patty cuddled up to her husband with a proud smile on her face. Logan moved his arm around her. 

“It looks great sweetheart” He pressed a kiss to her cheek making her giggle.

“So do you!! And so does mr. star trek captain man!”

 She enjoyed the hell out of her jambalaya while the two idiots sent each other awkward smiles. Janus downed his glass of wine in record speed. (He took it slower with the food, he didn’t want to seem disgusting). 

The whole star trek episode went by. Logan asked Janus a thousand excited questions about how much he liked it. All of his answers made the nerd happy stim. They put on a documentary none of them were really interested in the background while continuing to chat. Patty went on a long epic story about how a kid at her daycare had tried to bite her finger off last week.

“Soooo” Patty sudenly changed the topic. She said it with an innocent tone “My nerdy lil honeypie over here had the biggest crush on Data for a while. It was adorable. ANd while we’re on the topic” The look she gave Janus was happy but it still sent shivers down his spine “You having any crushes lately? Just curious!”

Both of the men internally gasped at the audacity. The gall! The sheer power!! Janus was sweating like a naked rat who had just been clad for the first time.

“...Well.......I have actually been meaning to....Ask about the polyamourous thing?” 

The couple exhanged knowing glances before looking back at him “Mhm yeah Mhm” “I am poly and also a thing so I am an expert in this”

“So...I totally haven’t fallen in love with 3 people. 2 of which I met in the span of around a week”

Patton did a double thumbs up. Logan took a long sip from his wine. “We’re all gossipy bitches here. Tell all about it”

“Well. The first one is Remy-”

“The one with the sunglasses?”

“...Yes...Are....Don’t tell me they’re a serial killer”

Patty broke up into a chuckle “Logie-bogie tried to kiss them while he was drunk once”

“I threw up on their shoes”

“He threw up on their shoes!”

Logan saw the terror in Janus’ face as he worried that maybe 2 of his crushes were exes and quickly added “We are only acquaintance and I was momentarily struck by the impressive lenght of their legs” 

Janus went on to gush about Remy and Remus. Why he loved them. All the dates he had daydreamed about. And then finally his voice was shaking when he mentioned just having a third crush.

Patty let out a long yawn before he could say anything more. She stood up “Well looks like it’s time to snooze! I assume 2 big burly ultra masculine men like you two can handle the dishes”

“It will be a challenge but we shall do our best. Goodnight honey” Logan kissed her.

She leaned in and whispered “Good luck Logie-bear! You got this”

She giggled mischievously while going off into the bedroom. She closed the door behind her. Only the two lovebirds were left now.

“So the third crush? Who’s the lucky gentleman?” Logan asked.

Janus held onto his newly refilled wine glass so hard it nearly cracked. He forced a smile “Wouldn’t you want to hear about the fake couples counseling I go to together with Remus instead?”

“Fake what now?”

“Well me and Remus, who I am hopelessly in love with even though he clearly doesn’t feel the same way, started going to a therapist pretending we were a couple to see how long it would take before he realized we didn’t know each other. He hasn’t realized anything yet. It’s great!”

It looked like Logan’s eyes was about to bulge out of his skull “That sounds illegal. It should be. You are dragging shame onto the face of psychology you double dumbass!”

“I have done nothing wrong ever in my entire life and frankly I deserve to waste even more therapist’s time” Janus replied.

He let out a deep sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose “Which therapist is it that you’re harassing exactly?”

“Dr. Picani”

Logan’s eyes widened and he shut his lips tightly “Emile Picani?”

“Yes.....Please don’t tell me he’s a serial killer”

He slowly looked away while taking a sip from his wine “I have had intercourse with that man”

Janus choked on his drink. He coughed while staring at his friend with wild eyes “YOU FUCKED MY THERAPIST????”

“No.......He fucked me” Logan replied in a quiet tone. “Besides he’s not even your real therapist”

“He is still a sort of therapist man to me! I told him I enjoy Lana Del Rey. That was a very intimate moment for me!”

“Well I had a very intimate moment with him too”

Janus looked at him with flushed cheeks and wide eyes. He let out a chuckle which turned into a laugh which turned into Logan not being able to not laugh along which turned into the room filling with nothing but flustered happiness and laughter.

Logan grabbed onto his crush’ arm just to have some contact with him while his eyes teared up from laughter. Janus leaned his head against his shoulder and curled up close to him while giggling so much his stomach hurt.

“Oh we’re idiots” Janus sighed.

“We are. We truly are”

They stayed sitting like that. So so close. Logan’s arm around him. Janus breathing being felt against the other man’s skin. Their hands touching. Only comfortable silence surrounded them.

A few minutes went by. Janus looked at him shuly. His thoughts worrying about everything and anything “Should we- ehm- the dishes?”

The moment broke. Logan moved away before standing up “I uh yeah- we should”

It was strange. Just dishing together with his crush made Logan happy. All he could think about was getting to be this close, this domestic, with him every day. Getting to wake up next to him. Kiss his knuckles. Share a morning with him.

“Who was the third crush by the way?” Logan asked, glancing over at his crush.

Janus stared down into the water “I- I can’t say it”

“Understandable”

He stopped and turned fully to look at Janus. He had never been more unsure of where to put his hands before.

“Well I can...Say it I mean....I....I...Janus.....You make me happy just by being near me...You are so wonderful...I....I love you”

Logan couldn’t hold himself back anymore. He took a step forward and cupped Janus’ cheeks. He leaned forward, so close, so close that their noses and foreheads were pressed against each other. It felt like had been starving for this.

Janus froze. His wide eyes stared in shock at the other man. His hand moved up to his chest on instinct, to try and push him away.

Logan noticed his reaction. Of course he did. It was blindingly obvious. He forced himself to move away. He forced the desire to kiss him to simmer out.

“I-I’m sorry-” He mumbled out.

“No....Lo..” Janus took his hand. Holding it so so lightly in his own “I know” He looked up at him “I know. I’m sorry. I should go”

A horrible feeling of guilt filled Logan’s throat “You don’t have to” 

“I should go” He repeated, letting go of his hand.

Logan walked after him as he went to get his jacket “A date. Do you want to go on a date? Not just a hangout. Janus I- I want so badly to be close to you. We could go to the zoo, look at the snakes?”

Janus held his hand on the handle of the door. He didn’t look at Logan “Thanks for having me over”

He left. Logan stood alone in the hallway. His arms hanging helplessly at his sides.

[savrenim]

thoughts on dumbledore? Or the fantastic beasts premise in general

I'll be honest I saw the first Fantastic Beasts movie bc it seemed exciting and friends were there to see it with me, decided not to see the second I don't even know if JKR was out as a dangerous transphobe at the time I think it was because of Johnny Depp that I decided not to and promptly felt incredibly vindicated when everyone said it was terrible and character assassination from the first movie and not even worth torrent, and has there even been a third I genuinely have no idea bc these days I try to stay as far away from JKR properties again just bc, like. not interested in giving her money or contributing to conversations that will lead others to give her money. So "premise" is probably the best I can do for you.

Going on a tangent that I promise will make sense a paragraph down: I worked for nearly a decade during summers at gay theater camp AKA larp camp (the Wayfinder Experience) that is the best way to larp because games were one-time things with new entire world backgrounds and characters and game mechanics invented for each week of camp sets and costumes made anew each week by production that would culminate in said single 4-5 hour game that really and truly was like being in a novel where you were the main character, we were all living our best lives. One of these games was called The Golden Blade, written by my friend Jay Dragon who has gone on to become a genius indie ttrpg designer, bUT ANYWAYS. the concept of The Golden Blade was there was this tournament for adventuring parties of five-ish typical adventuring party members every year with a huge reward and said tournament had a lot of rules but mostly consisted of going around this big arena and fighting monsters and claiming flags, this also was Fantasy Sports like football but 1000x more popular for the fantasy continent we were on but decidedly a Sports Team Mood, campers were cast as members of these adventuring teams, the referees, and a bunch of rich spectators who had bought tickets to the tournament and also all had their own plotlines going. The game was set up as such: there were three rounds of the tournament where I guess flags and monsters were reset in between?, the first round went completely normal, the second round shit started to go down, and the third round was discarded because it had been revealed that there were a whole bunch of supernatural creatures/ gods who were all trying to control this sword that could cause the end of the universe and do a lot of other things, it was super dramatic, I played said universe's equivalent of the Archangel Michael and one of the kids was a Joan-of-Arc type prophet and I think I might have convinced them to end the world this was a long time ago. BUT ANYWAYS.

The Golden Blade was arguably the most popular game of that summer, it was a huge hit. And that's saying a lot, there were a bunch of really good games that summer.

The single criticism that was leveled against The Golden Blade by anyone ever, was that the tournament was really freaking cool and they really didn't need any other epic plotline and while what happened was great and everyone loved game, they would have been equally happy to have just...played the full tournament, no dramatic world-ending twists, just take what was a really cool setup for something really interesting in and of itself and play it straight.

Now you see where I'm going re Fantastic Beasts?

From what I remember of the first movie it was pretty good because it was mostly about running around after some crazy fantastic magical beasts, and the single criticism was "it really didn't have to be anything fancier than that, no need for a bigger plotline, honestly we would have been completely chill with almost a nature documentary about these beasts." From what I've heard about the second movie, they, like... go into the Wizarding War? and the plot is all about said Big Dramatic War? and, like.... where is the fun cute lighthearted we kind of were all just here for found family and adorable magical animals and zany adventures chasing them down and helping save them, we didn't sign up for Plot to happen, we didn't need Plot to happen at all, now that you're making Plot happen this isn't something that I want to be watching at all.

I feel like "thoughts on Dumbledore" is therefore going to be, like. Not something that I can answer at least in the context of Fantastic Beasts. given that I saw the first movie, once, when it first came out, and wasn't he in there and played by Jude Law or something for all of literally five minutes? in which case my thoughts on that Dumbledore is "Jude Law seems like a pretty cool actor." thoughts on Dumbledore generally as a character concept is that I do very much love the concept of "utterly and horrifyingly ice cold master manipulator leading the team of good guys that everyone thinks is a total sweetheart but in reality has been worn down so much by the horrors that they've seen that at this point they're completely and utterly down with sacrificing children for the greater good" and the philosophical concept of "okay you're one of the good guys, do you let this happen because you need this person to win the war, or is this unacceptable and how do you deal with/potentially react to the collateral damage of morals causing more horrific destruction than if you'd let the master manipulator stay leading." I have a variation on that trope in one of the many original works that I'm writing of considering time loops and a character group that is in theory trying to save the world from complete world-ending apocalypse but in practice after being through 300+ time loops have gotten incredibly cavalier about certain things because they're all just so fucking tired and have seen every single possible way for this to go wrong so by the time it comes to "yeah sure murder these 1000 children because they unfortunately stumbled upon information that if it makes its way back to this country in particular will lead to a weapon of mass destruction being deployed that cracks the entire planet like an egg, and we don't have enough resources to actually make sure all 1000 of these children never speak to anyone ever of what they saw because there are like five different apocalypses that we're trying to stop at once, so oops if we missed our window to stop them guess it's on the checklist to murder them all" and have done it so many times at that point that it doesn't even strike them as something to be upset about, it's just another box on the checklist. like. I call that group and especially their leaders a Dumbledore-type character and that is fascinating to me but at this point we're more into fandom and cultural impact of Dumbledore than Dumbledore himself, I don't know if I care enough about HP and its extended universe to have any further opinions about Dumbledore himself.

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

how would you do a percy jackson adaptaion?

okay, so I know this is a controversial opinion right off the bat: I really don’t think it should be an animated series.

A large part of the appeal of the series is that it’s a fantasy series set very very firmly in reality. Literally, apart from the camps, you could go to every location hit in the books. Riordan mentions specific streets, buildings and landmarks, and that was cool when I first read them. I remember being a kid and waiting for him to set a scene in a place near where I lived! I remember trips to New York and being able to envision an epic war happening in the streets. So I think any adaption needs to be live action just to keep that same feeling alive, while I’m not knocking on animation, I just feel like taking the story out of real life would make it loose a little of the charm. Like, the scene where Manhattan is completely frozen in time? It would be haunting to see that in real life, but I feel like it would be less impactful if it didn’t…you know…look real? The series should be done in a way that makes you truly feel like you could just turn a corner and walk straight into a snake woman going about her day. 

Now: another large part of the appeal of the series is how funny it is, but a lot of that…is Percy’s inner monologue. He doesn’t actually voice most of it, there was even a book where Annabeth described him as being quiet. So, I think the best way to work around this: make it Interview With A Demigod. 

Imagine it’s got an interview with a vampire-esque setup- and this even works because within the riordanverse, the books canonically exist because Percy sat down with a ‘camp scribe’ and had his quests recorded. So, like, this isn’t even entirely out of left field. But just imagine, a college-aged, maybe a little older Percy, I can see it so clearly in my head, he’s wearing a sweatshirt that at first glance looks like it says NYU but a trained eye will see it actually says NRU for a camp jupiter easter egg, he’s sitting in some dinky little diner (maybe it can even be a monster donut or something with a clever greek myth related name) with a guy who’s recording the conversation on some old-ass tape recorder that keeps acting up but they can’t record on a phone because of the whole technology thing. Every now and then it’ll cut back to them to get some great Percy thoughts out there. They open with older Percy saying the ‘look, I didn’t wanna be a halfblood’ and then explaining where he was when the whole mess started. Once he get’s to “was I a troubled kid?” the screen fades from older Percy to 12 year old Percy getting in a fight with Nancy and her gang, and the voice over says the ‘Yeah, you could say that’ part as we see him get threatened by the principal to behave on the field trip. Boom, we’ve got an opening. Lowkey….I’m seeing Jordan Fisher as older Percy, but I’m not 100% married to the idea. 

And before anyone tries to argue that showing an older Percy would spoil he’s not gonna die in last olympian- like, reading the books, we all knew he wasn’t going to die. It was a first person narrative and he was consistently speaking in past tense lmao like we Knew he was gonna make it. We still enjoyed the series. It won’t ruin anything.

I want part of the score of the adaptation to be instrumental versions of songs from the musical, I think that could be a sweet nod to that team. 

They really need to nail camp halfblood. I know that goes without saying, but in order to keep the pacing of the story decent we can’t spend as much time falling in love with it like we got to with the book. The book is like, 24 chapters and the quest starts at chapter 12- for a movie or tv show, that’s just gonna feel like it’s dragging. So, the insanity of the camp needs to smack you in the face right away, and then it needs to endear itself to the viewers quickly after that. Don’t try to ease the viewers (or Percy) into the mythology is real thing, rip it off like a bandaid. He’s on his way to meet Chiron and Mr. D for the first time and even if he’s not comprehending what he’s seeing, there’s nature spirits and harpies all around going about their day. Hestia waves at him and then disappears into the flames. Hecate kids can be seen casting a spell on the porch of the Hermes cabin. The Stolls are seen pranking some Aphrodite kids. He sees someone surely die on the climbing wall but then you hear a faint ‘I’m okay!’. The Apollo kids put a rhyming curse on another cabin. Pure chaos all before he gets the ‘so, gods are real’ speech. And then after that…show how warm Luke is to him at the cabin and at dinner. Show the kids all goofing off at the campfire and really make it clear that they’re children. Show the strawberry fields rolling in the wind and Percy sitting on the beach. The whole couple weeks where he’s searching for powers and learning greek and latin with Annabeth can be a montage. Make it clear how hurt and scared he is when he finds out he needs to leave.

It needs to really get you feeling how Percy’s feeling, every laugh, every tear, every moment of fear or confusion needs to shine clear through. Like…think of Spider-Man Homecoming, the Washington monument scene. All things considered, it’s not the most high-stakes scene we’ve ever seen in that franchise, and when it cuts to the kids in the elevator, they’re worried but not quite freaking out, but that scene feels very high stress to watch because the movie is good at getting the viewers to feel what Peter feels. A Percy Jackson adaptation needs a touch like that, because Percy’s a very emotional kid and that’s what a lot of the scenes hinge on.

Lowkey- I’d love it if the casts of both the previous movies and the musical had cameos or bit parts (the movie cast did Nothing Wrong, it was the rest of that team). It’d be hilarious to see, like, Jake Abel as the owner of the poodle, or Logan Lerman as Older Percy and the reporter’s waiter that keeps trying to get in on the conversation, or Brandon T. Jackson as a satyr who’s still stuck grooving out in the Lotus Hotel and Casino. Kristen Stokes as a nature spirit, Chris as one of the ghosts stuck in the waiting room of DOA Records, just like any of those casts having small parts would be fun and sweet. 

There should be a lot of easter eggs for the bigger riordanverse. Promotions in the background for the new Tristan McLean movie. Gabe’s got a true crime documentary about the missing Grace children playing during his poker game. Mr. D is reading a paper about Rachel Dare’s father’s newest project. At some point while they’re still in New York they pass the Kane family’s mansion or whatever it was called. Annabeth keeps a picture of little her and Magnus on her nightstand. The barest of hints about the Triumvirate. Seeing kids in camp jupiter gear in some background shots, just out of notice of our main characters but implying the camps are going through similar problems (BITCH….if we got a titan’s curse adaptation…and we had a shot of Thalia in the foreground….but in the background we saw a blond boy in purple with a golden sword….well I would simply loose my Goddamn mind).

And show us how easily the mist lets things blend in, too- like, everyone thinks ‘Monster Donuts’ is just a normal chain, it’s just on an average street block, but if Percy looks through the window he can see who’s behind the counter. Show someone swindling some guys in a park and you have to look twice to realize he’s a gegeines. Like…how people are still trying to find all the background ghosts in haunting of hill house. I would LOVE to see a bunch of background monsters and mythical beings just going about their day as much as the mortals are while the gang’s questing. 

The effects need to be fun. The whole story needs to be fun, but one weird thing about the past movies are that like…in their attempt to make it gritty, none of the fantastical things happening on screen actually felt that exciting. We need bright colors and interesting choices, consistently cool action shots, a liveliness that makes you feel like you’re in the center of the action. I have absolutely no doubt Disney easily has enough funds to pull off great effects.

The characters need to be….in character lmao. Annabeth needs to be cocky and bratty with the skill set to justify it. Percy needs to be a sweetheart who pretends to be hardened because that’s what people assume he’s like. Grover needs to have dry humor and a Too Old For This Shit attitude whenever percabeth start bickering. Luke needs to be nice and friendly but in a specific way that you can look back after the betrayal and see he was trying to groom everyone. Sally needs to be loving, protective and strong. Chiron needs to feel defeated and determined at the same time. Mr. D needs to….be Stanley Tucci lmao

Also, I’d love if the adaptation could expand more on things that got brushed along in the books- Percy and Beckendorf’s friendship, Silena and Clarisse’s dynamic, make Nico’s crush on Percy a little more obvious, give Rachel some more development. One thing that haunts me about the books is Sally never found out that Gabe hit Percy. Absolutely they don’t need to make the abuse explicit, but I also personally feel like a lot of Percy’s mindsets throughout the series are somewhat a result of Gabe, and I’d like if that got, you know, acknowledged. Maybe in the scene where he figures out Gabe abuses Sally he could say ‘does he hit you too?’ or something to that effect. They could also go more into detail about Annabeth’s family, give Zoe some more depth….like the possibilities I’m screaming.

Okay this is already long and I’m getting tired but I can so clearly see a great adaptation in my mind….Disney please come through….It’s what we deserve…. 

[the-not-so-dark-age]

That opening is EVERYTHING I love it too so much

It's not that brave-boosting "patriotic" hymn like the good old epic Linked Horizon openings

But that's why it fits perfectly the new season

Linked Horizon openings made you feel hyped and ready to fight those cruel ugly titans with the Survey Corpse, ready to explore the outside world and defend humans in the Walls. The only humans we thought were still alive for much of the story.

But now it's not humans vs titans anymore. No more need to feel brave and cool and proud

Because it's humans vs humans. It's pure tragedy.

And this new opening, sounding like a war marching song, covers this message perfectly.

It's like a song you can sing while you're preparing the assault on the enemy line, when you're gonna die while killing other humans who will die as cruelly and uselessly as you

It's hopeless and there's "fake" boost of bravery and patriotism because there's no bravery and patriotism in killing humans.

And the video is like a documentary on World Wars, with bombs exploding similar to atomic bombs, toxic gas, cities wiped in few minutes, soldiers marching in line obedient to a power and an idea of supremacy. Not an idea of freedom like the soldiers of the Walls were once.

And the lyrics also talk about children: the children Marley uses as warriors, that think war is great because they know nothing that isn't war (yes Gabi I'm talking about you).

I really love this opening. Perfect. Really.

Welcome to the last, and maybe truest, part of snk

[the-working-class-guide-to-films]

Tenet-No Spoilers

I am a massive Christopher Nolan fan. I’m a fanboy, I’ll admit. Nolan, for me, is the goat. I don’t think there’s a director out there today that can create movies like he does, the way he does it. The mix of pure spectacle, blockbuster action using real effects, combined with interesting characters and personal, real stories is something that is rarely achieved in the film industry today. 

John David Washington is The Protagonist, who after a mission goes wrong is recruited by a secret organisation, Tenet, to prevent the end of the world. He learns that there is a technology in the future that allows objects to be reversed through time and that people are buying these and selling them on the black market. Objects such as inverted bullets that cause much more damage than regular ones.

There has been criticism of Tenet that it is too complicated and confusing. And yes, this is definitely the most complex Nolan film to date. The inverted/reverse time business is quite bizarre and takes a while to get your head round but towards the end it certainly becomes a little easier to understand. The plot itself however is more complicated. All Nolan films are complex and there are always clues throughout that you won’t notice on the first watch that you will on the second. But the plots aren’t as difficult to understand than Tenet. With Tenet, I think the second watch will be to understand what you didn’t from the first one, and then on the third viewing it will click. Maybe, maybe some people got it straightaway, maybe some people won’t get it on the third. I think the film, and this isn’t just a criticism of Tenet, but of most films, is that the dialogue at times was difficult to understand. It’s hard to get your head round this in the first place, never mind when you can’t make out what they are saying. During the more exposition scenes it was hard to make out what was going on, and Tenet needed these scenes to be clear in order for the viewers to maybe get a better understanding of the plot. My biggest criticism of Tenet however is that it lacks the human side of his films, especially in comparison to his other films. Not that I went in over-hyped because I never think that is a good idea. And maybe the film was his homage to the spy genre where it wasn’t intending us to care as much about the characters. But in all his films, and however epic the scenes we always care about the character, that I feel is the main part of the film, it is what we are drawn to. Whether that be magicians in the Victorian era, a caped crusader, three layers deep in a dream or floating through space; it is the human element that always keeps the film grounded. I felt that Tenet didn’t strike that balance. And that’s not to say that John David Washington wasn’t good, because he was fantastic, but I didn’t necessarily care about his character because he didn’t have anything personal for us to relate to. In Inception and Interstellar, the two main characters are fighting to see their children again. It’s personal, it shows the human side. Washington’s character didn’t have that, it was him saving the world, and yes that’s brave and courageous, but why, why did he care? What was HE fighting for? And that was what disappointed me the most about Tenet because that side of Nolan is I think the most under appreciated. I LOVE the set pieces, the action, the mind-boggling plot, but the human side is what brings it all home. I was blown away during Interstellar with the visual side of it, the black hole, the waves, all of that. But it is when Matthew McConaughey’s character breaks down seeing his grown up daughter via a TV or reuniting with her at the end of the movie that overshadows everything else. Tenet didn’t have these personal moments and that was a real shame.

No doubt about it, Tenet is the biggest Nolan film to date. It is honestly huge. No matter how confused you may, or may not get, you won’t be bored. It’s a lot of fun. In most action films you’d expect to see maybe 2 or 3 small action sequences followed by the big kick ass action sequence at the end. Tenet has 4 or 5 big kick ass action sequences. The opening of previous Nolan films, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises really set the standard for opening sequences in action movies, Tenet follows suit and kicks off from there without skipping a beat. A lot of the scenes involve the inverted time structure, where the object is going backwards in time (I think that’s how it works), it’s incredible to watch.

It’s absolute madness. I don’t think I’ve seen something like it before. If I have, not to this extent. It’s barmy, but it is fantastic. Technically it’s a delight. The whole plane scene has been talked about, how Nolan bought a real plane to crash instead of just using visual effects. That’s the standard that action films should be aiming for. Yes, visual effects are a work of art, there is no denying it and I certainly won’t be shitting on it that some people do. I am incredibly envious of the skill. But there is something magical about watching real effects, and it’s become part of Nolan’s signature. 

Away from the jaw-dropping action scenes and the incredible technical ability on show the acting is fantastic. John David Washington is superb in this and should hopefully cement his name as an A-list. His character has it all, cool, scary, witty, he captures all of this. And it isn’t just his acting that is top notch but it is a very physically demanding role which as you might expect from a former American Football player, you might expect. I don’t think there are many actors who could have struck the balance quite like JDW did. Sure, an actor like Daniel Day-Lewis could do the acting, but he couldn’t do the physical side. Dwayne Johnson could do the physical side, but he can’t act. Washington achieves both terrifically. There is a huge, and brilliant supporting cast in Tenet, most notably Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki and Kenneth Branagh who each bring something different and exciting. Nolan comes under criticism for portrayals of women in his films which is something I don’t necessarily agree with but in this Debicki’s character is the one who we probably care about the most and it is her character that brings the humanity to the story. 

4/5 Now I’ve had a day to digest it, and now I have written this review, I’m really excited to watch it again. If it wasn’t for COVID I would probably watch it about 4 times. Maybe on subsequent showings I could give it slightly lower (although I’ve tried to be impartial) maybe I’ll think it is better once I understand it more. Yes it is a shame that the human side of the film is lacking slightly, but the technical ability on showing will blow you away. No matter how confused you are, you won’t be bored.

p.s There has been criticisms from some corners of the film industry saying that Nolan, and the studios, are irresponsible for releasing Tenet as the film to bring cinema-goers back, especially when the film is complex. Why would the audience want to watch a film they can’t understand? Now I have an issue with this. Critics slam the Fast and Furious franchise because it is over the top, silly, action fuelled, spectacle garbage. Critics will also jizz over films such as Midsommar, The Shining, The Lighthouse for their complex and interesting storylines. Now I love these films, but what exactly are those films about, and would you know directly coming out of the cinema. Would the link between Greek Mythology, Prometheus and giving knowledge to civilisation be known to you when you came out of The Lighthouse? Probably not. Isn’t there like a whole documentary on The Shining because there are so many fan theories? That film is weird af. I’ve always found an issue of classism within the film industry, especially when reviewing certain films. Action films are seen as dumb, lowest common denominator garbage, and yet odd artsy stuff is seen as the pinnacle of film. Nolan somehow manages to get these both together and yet now they criticism him when this complex stuff is the shit they love. Now critics want a film like Fast and Furious to bring people back, but you know they’d shit on it at any other point. Maybe Nolan can do no right, people have called his films obnoxious because they are too smart. Well maybe these people mistake the intelligence of the general viewer? Who knows, I’m just mad the Nolan hasn’t won a Best Director award, or hasn’t even got a knighthood when people like Ed Sheeran or Phillip Green have?