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sadviper · 4 years ago

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Woo Do Hwan: Interview with Kankoku TV Drama vol. 97 (Aug 2020)

Once again, much thanks to @staidwaters for graciously reviewing and correcting!!! This was a really hefty interview, hope you enjoy~

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Woo Do Hwan

Sword, bow, and horseback riding for the first time

A “Monstrous Newcomer” in a career-making, historical drama debut

In 2016, in the movie “Master”, Woo Do Hwan played the role of Lee Byung Hyun’s subordinate. Even though he appeared onscreen for just three minutes, he left a strong impression, attracting attention. Since then, he starred in “Save Me” (2017 OCN), taking on the nickname of “Monstrous Newcomer” and setting out on a brilliant career path. The next step he takes will be his first historical drama “My Country” (2019 JTBC).

Tackling a historical drama is an ideal chance for young and promising actors to grow; they have a rare chance to study in depth with multiple superb veteran actors over the long filming period. Woo Do Hwan did not miss this opportunity. His new work “The King: Eternal Monarch” (2020 SBS) leverages 120% of what he learned from “My Country”, and his popularity is surging.

Struck by a midwinter waterfall, the most dreadful and frigid opportunity to showcase yourself

--What kind of work is ”My Country”?

WDH: Each of the characters clash with the others for the sake of their personal convictions. This drama depicts their love and friendships. The country they are each reaching for … in a way, you could say they seek the same goal. Everyone wants a country in which they can live happily, but each person has a different path to that goal. This work skillfully depicts the conflicts that arise in the midst of this.

--Please introduce the role that you play.

WDH: Nam Seon-ho is an illegitimate child born to a family of nobles (yanban), and he has suffered greatly because of his birth. The poor guy is only able to relax his guard and laugh when he is with Seo Hwi (played by Yang Se Jong) and his younger sister Yeon (played by Jo Yi Hyun). However, even under such circumstances, he holds onto his ambitions. He doesn’t want other people to experience the same kind of pain that he has endured, so he strives to become the right-hand man of Yi Seong-gye (played by Kim Young-cheol), the future founder and king of the Joseon Dynasty. However, it doesn’t go as expected and I end up in opposition to Hwi, my dearest friend.

--What things did you pay attention to when creating the role?

WDH: Since it’s a period drama, it was difficult to get used to the way of speaking and tone of voice. It took me a while to get the hang of it. Now I have the opposite problem, I’m doing my best to shake off the historical tone (laughs).

--The gorgeous hairstyles and clothing were a sight to behold.

WDH: Honestly, at first I thought “Long hair probably won’t suit me…” (laugh). So early on, I participated in many concept meetings and tried out different hairstyles. Even with long hair, there are many different hairstyles that can be made, such as wearing with armor or tying it up. I collaborated with the director to choose the most suitable style according to the situation in the drama. I was able to try on as many outfits as hairstyles, but I really enjoyed being able to wear the special costumes such as the armor and the inspector’s garments; things we normally don’t get the chance to wear.

--How did you practice horseback riding, swordsmanship, and archery?

WDH: Before filming started, I studied martial arts for about two months. Filming lasted nine months, so in total I was focused on this work for a whole year. While filming action, it’s important to skillfully capture the scene, but the most essential thing is to not to get hurt. For that reason, the cinematographer, my co-stars, and I always had to be in perfect sync. It took time to match movements for the sword fights.

--You became the topic of much discussion when you revealed your magnificent physique in a waterfall during the opening of the drama. What are your secrets for managing your fitness?

WDH: I train on a regular basis. If I only started working out when I knew there were going to be scenes with skin showing, it’d be stressful trying to build up my body in a short period of time for shooting. After all, I don’t know when or where I will have to strip down for a scene! (laugh) Usually I play a lot of soccer, and I’ll go to the gym to train if I have time. If I take care of myself properly as a habit, then I don’t need to worry if my body looks good or if I should put in more effort during acting; I can just concentrate on my performance.

--Was the director’s reaction a good one?

WDH: He was extremely happy, hahaha. They keep trying to make me take my clothes off, so I was like, “Come on, give me a break!” The road to the filming location for the waterfall scene was rugged and steep and it was incredibly cold; it was the most difficult scene. Se-jong even said “I never want to go into water that cold again”.

--A lot of viewers said that “Nam Seon-ho is the most pitiful man in the world.” How do you personally feel?

WDH: I wanted to present Seon-ho as a tragic figure, so I was glad that the audience saw him the same way; it encouraged me to put in even more effort and I worked hard to build up his character. Seon-ho constantly stands on the boundary between life and death, living a life where he might die at any moment. He never manages to accomplish any of his dreams, and it is only at the very end that he realizes what is most precious to him. However, even though Seon-ho is a tragic character, if we just focused on the sadness the drama would be hard to watch and it wouldn’t be interesting at all. Therefore I wanted to show many things with him, such as him being a powerful figure, and the loneliness his power hides.

He was able to finish the drama because he was with Se-jong, his co-star of the same age.

--At what points did you sympathize with Seon-ho?

WDH: There is always a conflict in Seon-ho’s life in that he always has to sacrifice something in order to get something he wants. Seon-ho’s situation is an extreme case, of course, but I think that in our lives there are many moments like his, even if they are small and trivial. Moments when we desire what we can’t have, or throw away things we shouldn’t throw away. There are also moments when we all have to give something up for the sake of a goal that we are reaching for. In the midst of that, I worried about the things that I should protect, so I deeply sympathized with Seon-ho, whose ideals and emotions were in conflict with each other.

--Your portrayal of the character’s emotions was well-received. When was Seon-ho the most emotional?

WDH: It would be when he heard that Seo Hwi was alive. I had a deep rapport with Se-jong in all my scenes with him. From a certain point onwards, the events in the drama truly felt real, and I fell more and more in love with Se-jong (laugh). I deeply empathized with Seon-ho’s emotions, which made me want to perform even more intensely in this work.

--Concerning expressing emotions, are you the type to do a lot of preparation beforehand? Or are you the type to perform what you feel on the spot?

WDH: I think I am half-and-half. Beforehand, I’ll think, “So we’re filming this kind of scene today”, why is this happening, and what was the situation before this scene? However, it’s difficult to continuously hold onto emotions because there are rehearsals and blocking out our positions with the director. So I will concentrate on creating the emotion in the moment when acting.

--And what about your mutually dependent relationship with Yang Se-jong, who played the role of Seo Hwi?

WDH: I believe it would have been very difficult if Se-jong hadn’t been there. I relied on him a lot. The make-up room was set up in a large van onsite, and while our hair was being done, we would go over our lines. If one person said their lines, then the other person would just naturally respond with their own lines. We are the same age, not just in the drama but also in real life, so in both the Goryeo and modern eras, we were always communicating well, back and forth.

Se-jong always helped me, and even though we were together on location for very long periods of time, not once did we fight or have a conflict of opinion. We spent our time together as good friends, always being considerate of each other.

--There were many scenes of Seon-ho and Hwi’s friendship that brought out tears, but was there a particular scene where you especially felt the friendship between the two?

WDH: All those scenes where we rescued each other. Especially that scene in the latter half, where Hwi took Seon-ho out of Yi Bang-won’s (played by Jang Hyuk) house; that was memorable. Then in the first half, during the massacre of the Liaodong Punitive Expedition advance party, there’s a scene where we cross swords in the midst of combat and I recognize my dear friend Hwi. That scene was very good and had a big impact.

--What is your impression of Seolhyun (AOA) as Han Hee-jae?

WDH: Seolhyun was truly a “celebrity” to me (laugh). She is one of Korea’s top idols; I’ve seen her movies. When I heard that she would be co-starring with me, I was very much looking forward to it. Once we were actually performing together, I was amazed that her acting was even better than I expected. Seolhyun was the youngest on location, but she had a very mature attitude during filming. In front of a large crowd of her seniors, she played a bold and strong woman. I was impressed.

--The antagonism between Seon-ho and his father was one of the highlights of the drama. How was it like to co-star with Ahn Nae-sang, who played the role of your father?

WDH: Ahn Nae-sang sunbae was like a real father, a very interesting person. Although he’d say “Seon-ho is an impertinent son” (laugh), he worked well with me, and did a lot for me. During breaks, he tells jokes and lightens the atmosphere on set, but once filming starts, his gaze radically changes and he becomes a terrifying father. He’s not someone who hands out advice left and right to juniors, rather, he is a person who reacts kindly and looks after us.

Extremely jealous of Se-jong’s Japanese fanmeet

--What are your thoughts on successfully wrapping up your first historical drama?

WDH: I wore hanbok, long wigs, and armor--I got to experience all of these things for the first time. I’ve also never done things like swordsmanship, archery, or horseback riding, so each one of those was a new challenge. Because I have never lived in that time period, I worried about how I should portray it. Despite that, I enjoyed everything. The remote locations that I visited were very beautiful, and during breaks it was a wonderful experience to enjoy the scenery and watch the seasons change instead of sitting in the dressing room. I’ve heard from my seniors that once you’ve done one historical drama, you’ll want to do another, and now I know what that feeling is like for myself.

--What was the most memorable location?

WDH: In the opening scenes, I often went to the countryside, but first I filmed the waterfall scene and the cliff scene. That cliff scene was absolutely terrifying. I scaled the cliff and did the action scene, but I thought...I might actually die if I fall (strained laugh).

--Watching the behind-the-scenes footage, you seem the quiet type but at the Japanese fanmeeting, I feel that you were skilled at speaking onstage. What is your actual personality?

WDH: Do I look like someone who doesn’t say much? I’m definitely not the talkative type, though. Hahaha. I talk a lot when I’m with Se-jong, but the interesting thing is, how much Se-jong and I will say changes depending on the day. On some days Se-jong speaks more than I do, and on other days I won’t shut up (laugh).

--Since filming continued for about a year, was it difficult to break free from the role of Seon-ho?

WDH: Honestly, I wouldn’t have thought about Seon-ho without today’s interview. However, Seon-ho’s sword is in my living room, so whenever I see it, I’m going to remember (laugh). But because I can’t use historical speech in the drama that I’m currently filming, I try to forget as much as possible.

--Currently you’re in the middle of filming the drama “The King”, right?

WDH: In “The King”, one person plays two different roles. The show depicts parallel worlds. In one world, Lee Min-ho sunbae plays the emperor and my character, Jo Yeong, has been by the emperor’s side since childhood and is the captain of the Royal Guard. In the other world, I am Jo Eun-seop, a social service worker whose personality is the complete opposite to Yeong’s. I’m having a lot of fun filming this, so please look forward to it.

--What does “my country” mean to you?

WDH: I believe it’s the people around me. I have family, I have friends, and I also have colleagues. A life where I can live happily with all of them, that is my dream country, I guess. No one goes on without desire, so I want to live together while caring for each other.

--You’ve been called the “Monstrous Newcomer”. With this kind of recognition, do you feel pressured?

WDH: I’m always under pressure. However, I tell myself I can’t lose to it, I have to work harder to overcome it.

--Finally, a message to your Japanese fans.

WDH: 2020 was the year I definitely wanted to meet all my Japanese fans, but filming for “The King” started earlier than expected and hasn’t finished yet. I was incredibly jealous when I heard that Se-jong held a Japanese fan meeting at the end of 2019. When “The King” finishes, I would like to meet you all. Until then, please take care of yourself and be happy. I will do my best to finish my work and greet you in good form. If you haven’t seen “My Country” yet, I definitely invite you to watch it. I also hope you look forward to “The King”.

You can direct fan mail to:

KEYEAST / 30, 11-Gil, Hakdong-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 06042 Korea

#woo do hwan #my country the new age #mctna #japanese translation #interview #韓国TVドラマ #the king eternal monarch #tkem

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roublardise · 3 years ago

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my "Crowley isn't attracted to women" take

for @spnprideweek - day 2 - mlm

cw: dicussion of homophobia & transphobia all in all I wanted to highlight how canon gay Crowley is bc I love him 💕 thank u spn for Crowley even tho he deserved better

in the last weeks I've realized there's a huuge consensus in the fandom for pansexual Crowley. if you're pan or not and wanna hc Crowley as pan, power to you! but what's bothering me is the non-discussion of it all. the way it seems obvious for everyone. whereas, to me, Crowley has been canonically gay all this time.....

disclaimer: I'm aware Mark Sheppard alledgely said he saw Crowley as pansexual, however I can't even take these words for canon without context. Especially not when a year later he'd say Crowley's sexuality didn't matter. The way Mark Sheppard talks about characters' sexuality is more a "why are people making a big deal let them be" than "the character doesn't care." Moreover, actors pov can't be taken as canon imo. Jensen Ackles thought Dean straight for so long when Dean's been bi all this time as well. Sometimes actors are biased by their own experiences & stereotypes!

disclaimer #2: on god I don't wanna start discourse lmao. I just wanna share my silly thoughts about a tv show & question the way Crowley's sexuality is written in this silly homophobic tv show. don't @ me about what's making you think Crowley is indisputably pansexual bc I assure you I already know your points

That being said, here's why I think Crowley is a bear, a gay man, a trans gay man actually, a homosexual, who isn't attracted to women & some food for thoughts about why the unquestioned consensus towards pan Crowley could have roots in both homophobia & panphobia.

I don't think we can think of Crowley as your usual demon. We know too much about Crowley's life as a human, and the numerous ways in which he acts un-demony, almost humanly after. Considering him simply like a demon with no concept of gender preference who would be pan “by default” wouldn’t be right with his character. But we also can't question his sexuality in the exact same way we would a human's.

It also can't be thought in the same way as angels': as once-humans demons do have a concept of gender. Crowley especially cares a lot about his gender presentation and the way he's addressed. Not only does he literally sell his soul for a bigger d*ck as a human ; as a demon he uses the same vessel where other demons are shown to move once they had to leave one ; and for the few hours Crowley's possessing a woman, he clearly states he should still be referred to as king.

This will all be used for homophobic & transphobic jokes in the show, but I'll get back to that later on. Gender does matter to Crowley's identity, and I think it could be extended to his sexuality.

I've seen numerous descriptions of it all saying Crowley's sexuality was "ambiguous" and I guess it is, as he never explicitly used any label. However "ambiguous" doesn't mean bi or pan. It doesn't mean anything besides the fact we can't draw a clear-cut conclusion of his sexuality.

Imo we can actually draw a clear-cut conclusion of Crowley's sexuality but yeh, I'm getting there.

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Let's take a look at canon events around Crowley & sexuality!

His character introduction is him enjoying making a homophobe man kiss him for a deal

It is rumoured that he was a demon's lover (Lilith's)

He heavily flirts with Bobby

He french kisses Bobby for a deal and takes a pic

He never kisses a woman on screen (tell me if I forgot anyone!)

He flirts with every single man he sees, and even more strongly when it's making the other uncomfortable

The other parent of Crowley's son is never mentioned nor even brought up

He has two orgies that we know of

He has sex with a demon who's possessing a woman (Lola) when he was addicted to human blood

He dates, has sex with, and asks Dean to rule Hell with him. He's in love with Dean

On late spn he drinks fruity drinks

He flirts with and implies he had sex with an angel (Naomi)

He flirts with Death (Billie)

He's into BDSM

I'm not gonna go into details with all the sexual stuff he says bc there's a lot.... But it's always about gay sex. (once again, if I'm forgetting smth pls tell me nicely)

Now, with all that I'd like to question specifically the elements people use to say Crowley is canonically attracted to women.

He has two orgies that we know of

There’s the one Crowley has while he’s himself possessing a woman ; iirc it’s a foursome with two other men and one woman. Crowley still counts as a King, as the show makes sure we know, admitedly this dialogue implies we should still think of him as a not-very-manly-man.

Honestly, if one is convinced Crowley is attracted to women based on this scene.. okay. Personally I don’t see it because the orgy is unplanned, it’s an opportunity Crowley takes. Is he even attracted to the two other men?? Who knows. We don’t even know if Crowley even touches the other woman, there’re so many ways to have group sex. Even if he did, having sex with one woman doesn’t make it impossible for him to be homosexual.

The second orgy is with Dean. Crowley describes it then: “We've done extraordinary things to triplets.” It’s interesting how before I went to check, I thought it was clear the triplets were women. But not at all! I’ve been tricked by heteronormativity myself. So this is up to interpretation. Even though the way the show doesn’t make sure we know the triplets were women is pretty telling (as I’ll talk about later).

It is rumoured that he was Lilith's lover

Well, this is a rumour. In this relationship Crowley would know Lilith as a demon possessing a woman, and Lilith would know Crowley as a demon possessing a man as well. Who's even to say they met in their vessels to sleep together. That's the kind of cases in which the ambiguity of Crowley human/demon situation makes it impossible to draw any kind of conclusion towards Crowley's attraction to women. Also if anything Lilith is clearly a lesbian lmao.

He has sex with Lola when he was addicted to human blood

Same thing here, the relationship is one of demon/demon. Though we do now they do meet in their vessels to sleep together. Besides that, the sex happens while Crowley is at a low point. She's the one bringing him human blood, which makes the sex more of a transaction than anything. It does fit a very grey area of consent which would be fair to question.

We can't know for sure whether the demon possessing the woman was a woman as well, but let's say she was: 1/ Crowley having sex once or twice with a woman doesn't prevent him from being homosexual. 2/ What is he seeing if not a demon's true form? 3/ Wasn't he in a self-destructive mental state?

It's a stretch, imo, to assume Crowley was attracted to her.

He flirts with and had sex with Naomi / flirts with Billie

This one is so ridiculous to me bc Naomi is an angel and as a demon, Crowley sees her true form. We don't even know who was her vessel when they had sex.

The flirt thing is interesting however, bc iirc Naomi and Billie are the only "women" we see Crowley actually flirt with. During the orgies or the demon sex there's no flirt involved. It's interesting bc, as Cas would say: "Naomi's vessel is a woman. Naomi is an angel."

Same case for Billie who's a reaper then Death. Spn is pretty unclear about how the whole thing works but we know reapers are kind of angels. In any case, I won't go as far as saying Billie has any connection to gender.

Moreover, the way Crowley flirts with them is pretty light next to everything else Crowley says to men. It's pretty personal, I'm aware, but I do relate a lot with the way Crowley flirts with them VS how I flirt with men just because (and I'm a lesbian).

Anyway! Both Naomi and Billie are supernatural creatures, which brings the count of women Crowley flirts with to... zero.

-> What I take from all that is that Crowley is attracted to men for sure ; to angels and demons ; and doesn't care about the genitalia involved in the sex he has. We have nothing about the kind of relationships he had as a human. His gender presentation matters a lot to him. The only long-term commitment he has is with Dean. I wouldn't even say he had a committed relationship with Gavin's other parent bc we don't know anything about them.

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But what's my deal with homosexual Crowley? One can wonder, if Crowley doesn't care about bodies, doesn't that mean he can still be written as pan?

No! First because sexual attraction isn't about genitalia (even if transphobes would argue the contrary but they're transphobic so...). And second, well....

I would refer to this point as "how do I know Crowley isn't attracted to women? bc Dean is"

I'm convinced that if the show wanted to write Crowley as anything other than a gay man, it would have been way more obvious.

This is a show who wrote Dean catcalling a faceless woman on the street, for no other reason than to remind the viewers Dean was attracted to women & to balance it with the following homoerotic scene.

One could say spn doesn't have lots of women characters to begin with, but that's my point exactly: when spn wants to show attraction towards women, they do find women for people to be attracted to. Hell, they even give Gavin some girlfriend but never ever bring up the topic of Gavin's other parent. Even though an entire episode is dedicated to learning about Crowley's past.

What's important to understand Crowley's sexuality isn't the people he slept with ; it's the people he doesn't show interest in.

The absence of something is the presence of the thing, blablabla. It's a way to look at homosexuality that heteronormativity makes hard to see because, unconciously, we don't tend to question attraction towards the expected gender. One would ask for a 10 pages essay on why a character is gay, but one would need only a 2 sec kiss to assure a character's heterosexuality or attraction towards the expected gender.

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In Crowley's case, his attraction to men is a huge part of his character right from the beginning (thanks god, at least no one's questioning that). Spn as a show that hears what the fans are saying and twists writing accordingly, is perfectly aware of that. Yet rather than pushing women at him along the course of the show to remind everyone how Not Gay Crowley is - the opposite happens.

Yeh, Lola, Naomi, Billie, they all happen in the later seasons. But even then, the show somehow can't write Crowley as attracted to a human woman.

What happens then is: not only does Crowley fall for Dean ; he engages in some BDSM play with Lucifer : and he switches from drinking only the finest Scotch to fruity cocktails.

The BDSM thing as well as the drink thing are choices rooted in stereotypes, that's how spn is! But it does canonize Crowley's homosexuality. They're depriving him of his "masculinity" as the show goes on, because they purposely write him as homosexual. I don't think spn would have ever written a bi or pan character that way.

We learned a few days ago that Crowley died in a gutter. He died in a gutter for a bigger d*ck. I'm just gonna refer to Oscar Wilde & Mika on this : "some of us in the gutter are looking up at the stars."

The "referred to as king" scene isn't about Crowley being a demon and so not caring about gender - it's the opposite. Other demons are the ones poiting out Crowley's vessel. This is a transphobic joke. It's the demon edition of the "gay boy in a dress" transmisogynistic trope.

Viewers aren't supposed to be on Crowley's side ; we're supposed to be giggling with the other demons while Crowley is being emasculated. Crowley gets a woman vessel because he's a not-very-manly-man, because he's a trans man, because he's homosexual.

And I know that bc Dean is written as bi, and all they're doing is reaffirming the way he does like women while being extra subtle with his love for men.

Meanwhile Crowley is losing influence and power, loses his authority as he loses his throne in Hell, gets humiliated by Lucifer, until all his character revolves around is his love for Dean. The way Crowley is then protrayed as some lovesick ex who can't move on is, imo, a straight man fantasy. Crowley's love is both used as predatory and as a tool to validate Dean's Peak Masculinity.

Spn has been burying their gays all along, and Crowley was right there being punished for not only being in love with Dean but for not being attracted to women. For never being able to be a "normal" guy. For never being able to be seen as a "normal" guy. For checking every homophobic stereotypes in the books. Crowley as a human dies because he's a trans man. Crowley as a demon dies because he's homosexual.

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That's what leads me to be uncomfortable with the way the fandom seems to have a consensus towards pansexual Crowley. (Once again: idc about people's personal hc of Crowley as pan, I just want to think critically about the way no one thinks twice about it & accepts it as canon so easily. Hell, just bc I dared to ask what started the pan Crowley confirmation I got accused of erasing his pansexuality. All I did was ask a question.)

To me, it feels like erasing everything his character went through because he was gay. And it seems to be taken from a reasoning which is going to assume Crowley is attracted to women.

I mean: the reasoning would go "oh, Crowley clearly has a non-straight sexuality -> he's attracted to men -> he's pan" His attraction to women being accepted by default, without needing any backup. And when I look at the canon I see nothing implying he'd be attracted to women. Taking Crowley's attraction to women for granted is following an heteronormative thinking.

Being into people isn't all about who one sleeps with. It's about love. And when we look at what spn shows about Crowley's close relationships, the only meaningful one he got is with Dean. When Rowena wants payback for Crowley making her kill Oskar, she goes for his son.

And it's SO interesting to me because if angels can't be in love because they don't have a soul - can demons? as they're beings with a destroyed soul? And if so, how powerful of Crowley to still fall in love with Dean Winchester.... the power of gay love :) (Crowley 🤝 Cas)

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To conclude all this with some more stuff to think about if, like me, you love questioning everything:

While it's not wrong per se to hc Crowley as pan, it can be worth questioning what's making us so sure we collectively just vibe with it? To me there's a few things: - As I was saying: heteronormative bias - Crowley being a non-fully-human character - Crowley being masculine (despite the show's attempts to erase that) - Crowley being into BDSM - Crowley flirting and making sexual remarks in every context

These, unconsciously, gives a vibe of a character who's "outside" of the gender norm, not making big deal of their sexuality, not even questioning it. This creates this idea of "ambiguity" around Crowley's sexuality. The way Crowley particularly seems to be really chill about sex, is a demon (so what does he know about gender?), and heavily flirty, ... is what most people will link to pansexuality. That doesn't mean thinking of Crowley as pan is being problematic™ ; this means in western medias that's what fills the "pansexual character" imagery (like basically: the Jack Harkness type).

However, when we look at it like that, none of these elements are defining of pansexuality. None of them are excluding him from homosexuality. If not stereotypes.

That's where it gets personal ; but it does make me feel like the huge consensus towards a pansexual Crowley (when there is no clear-cut evidence of it) is erasing the complexity of homosexual experiences. As I said at the begining: I'm happy if pansexual people can relate to Crowley ; everone's free to headcanon. But saying Crowley is canonically pansexual is a stretch - and a take rooted in homophobic stereotypes.

Imo Crowley may have been created with all these traits pushing towards a pan reading of his character. However, as the show went, he was clearly written as a homosexual man. The changes in his portrayal took a turn to be specifically homophobic. He gets imagery that only strictly homosexual characters got (such as drinking fruity cocktails like Aaron. Meanwhile Dean, on the same scene, is allowed beer & whiskey.)

We're used to taking spn's homophobic rep and jokes to make it our own. Yet it seems, when it comes to Crowley, the fandom doesn't see it.

Sometimes people aren't attracted to the gender heteronormativity expects them to be attracted to.......... sometimes people are gay and it's not an umbrella term.

#crowley spn #spn crowley #crowley #trans crowley #spn meta #supernatural #spn #so..... i went off once again #homophobia #transphobia #i just kept adding stuff to it lmao and i would STILL have stuff to say but this is enough #long post #spnprideweek

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anotherescsite · 3 years ago

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The Eurovision Song Contest we had to have

The journey from Tel Aviv to Rotterdam was an unexpectedly long one. Who knew that when Duncan Lawrence raised the trophy in May 2019 that another Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final would not take place for another 736 days? Having to wait such a long time between two Eurovision (excluding 2 x Junior contests) was excruciating, soul destroying and plainly depressing. And just like that, Eurovision 2021 has come and has now gone.

As the title says, it is The Eurovision Song Contest we had to have. It is a bold statement and I considered it for a day before putting it there. In reflection the song contest in Rotterdam was a wonderful event for many reasons which I’d like to discuss a bit. So this may take a while, but bear with me and hopefully, I’ll make it worth your while.

THE HOSTS

Four hosts was two too many, but let’s talk about them. Chantal is beautiful and the most professional of the foursome. Jan was the token male and while his performance was contained to a very small potion, it was nevertheless, fine. Edsilia was much more chilled than I expected and provided a warm presence amongst these people. Nikkie was probably the most down to earth of them all, possibly the most personable, but also somehow cold.

In actually effect, while there were four of them, they worked. No one took a lite load but they each had an equal presence in the show. As many other people have mentioned, everyone would have preferred more Edsilia and Nikkie to Jan and Chantal, but I’m not terribly fussed. They were all well practiced and very on point for the event and as a viewer I was pleased by this.

THE STAGE

Like most Eurovision stages, they do not look like anything unless you turn on the lights. That was definitely the case for this one. The lights were on, the stage sparkled, and the stage was alive in every way that it was asked. The screens provided everything that were needed for each of the songs and other performances. The transparent screen in the middle of the venue added so much to some of the performances and was the masterstroke that made some of them visually exciting.

There was one thing about the stage that felt like they were reminiscing stages of the Dutch past. I felt a hint of the Amsterdam 1970 stage on the sides. I don’t think it was a co-incidence, but I liked the fact that the paid homage like that. Everything else was state of the art.

POSTCARDS

The postcard films were well put together to present a place in the Netherlands, a tiny house structure with items that belong or relate to the act coming up and then a green screen appearance of the act in the tiny house.

While the postcard as a whole were well put together and cleverly created, I felt I missed out on seeing more of the Netherlands because they were focused more on what was coming and less with the airport, the canal, the lighthouse, the field, the tulips and whatever else was presented. So it’s only a small thing in a small film, but I wanted more of a Netherlands tourism experience in the films.

THE INTERVAL ACTS

It’s a funny thing about this year’s interval acts, and to be completely honest, I happy about it. If you asked a fan about Eurovision 2014, people will say that they remember ‘Love love peace peace’ and Justin Timberlake. In 1994, people remember ‘Riverdance’. In Tel Aviv, there was Madonna. I like that the intervals this year did not overshadow the entrants to the song contest. They were a time filler, a light refreshment and then it was over. For the most part well performed, entertaining and gone before you know it

I recall there was something about water in the first semi final, there was a dancer and a bike in the second, the former winners sang on Rotterdam buildings and some unifying song and dance. Nikkie did some little films about losing, and behaviour in the green room during voting. All were quality performances that were well constructed, organised and presented. They held the viewers attention while we waited for the votes to commence/announcement of the qualifiers and because they were each engaging, they seemed to go quickly.

THE OUTCOME

In most cases, things went as expected in the semi finals. Fans were disappointed with Croatia not qualifying, but I don’t think the betting had them qualifying. Romania was expected to qualify, but Roxen could not sing the song and move at the same time. Ireland suffered the same fate with an impressive staging. Semi final 2 went as expected as well; maybe Austria was expected to get through in place of Albania; i disagree.

The results/placings in the final were a bit of a surprise to me, but there was one certainty for me and that was that Italy deserved their win. There is a very simple reason for it’s success too. It’s not that it was a loud song or that the song was outlandish, or the way they were dressed. The reason that Italy won was that the performance of the song was a natural performance. I’m sure there was choreography of movement, but they were not outside of what they usually do. There was no gimmick, no dance routine, no green screen to worry about, no spinning diamond or large gimmick hanging from the roof of the stadium. It is also why the French entry was such a success and for a lesser part Iceland and Ukraine. Finland and Portugal also presented an entry that was in essence what was expected for that type of song.

Switzerland was a vast success in my eyes. They rolled the dice and they came up on top with the juries. Switzerland have rolled out a prop in the past to highlight a song, but this year they added lighting and camera work to add to the tension of the entry and it worked. Gjon looked a bit clumsy at times, but it was excellent captivating three minutes.

There were some countries that were dependent on a large prop. Some were there to attract votes as they went with the song while others to distract from it. Russia and Cyprus had several well placed props that worked well and were relevant to the song. Greece had a large invisible prop that made what was a good song appear like a joke entry. Malta had a prop that didn’t make sense to the entry being performed. Bulgaria’s rock was both inspirational and strange to me. Moldova’s revolving diamond worked for her also, but it was just a surface to perform choreography on.

I want to spend a moment of praise on Serbia and Belgium that had very different performances, but appropriately performed. Serbia took their sexy manic, hair choreographed selves all over the stage gyrating and moving like they had drunk 15 cups of coffee. Belgium, on the other hand, was very intense and sedate in their presentation mainly because most of them were playing instruments that were unmovable.

Of the countries that retained their choreography from a national final, other than Iceland, was Lithuania. They had varied it only very little from the national final and in their case, the performance was crazy perfection to match the theme of the song. I was disappointed with Norway, Azerbaijan and Sweden for retaining almost identical choreography to their songs from the film clip/national final, but I wasn’t a big fan of either song in the final. They seemed tired in appearance and in formatting. Azerbaijan needs a further slap for submitting their 2020 song with a new name.

I feel some disappointment for a few of the entrants. I’m going to start with the United Kingdom. Poor James Newman. He had a thumping good song that fans liked. There was enthusiasm from the fans that the UK would do better this year and they did worse. What I find astounding is he does not appear to be a shy person, yet he allowed someone in the United Kingdom delegation to produce that choreography, that outfit and those props for that song. To my ear, James sounded sad and dejected in the final and I was unbelievably disappointed that they didn’t score something from somewhere.

I’m disappointed for San Marino too. Senhit has showed she is a class act and has spent the last year enthusiastically covering Eurovision songs. But at the song contest, she appeared to be a forgotten entrant. Even with the addition of Flo Rida did not give the song some cred. I have a recurring image of Senhit’s shoulders slump and physically shrink on hearing that her efforts accounted for 50 points.

I’m also disappointed for the Netherlands. They most likely did not want to host again and it is a sad curse that countries that host usually end near the bottom of the scoreboard (excluding Super Sweden). But to score so terribly for what was a gloriously performed entry was unconscionable. I praise the Netherlands for choosing such a wonderful cultural performance for the stage.

At the bottom end, Spain and Germany had very different entries, performed with contrasting enthusiasm and it got them both a very low level of support. Spain had the most tired song that was boring as all hell and the presentation of the entry gave the audience nothing in return but a large grey beach ball in the sky. Back to the drawing board? Germany was destined to fail in March. The charisma and fun of their film was completely missing from the staging and it was never going to go well.

Albania had the misfortune of being ignored, given a terribly bad draw for the second year straight and not given anywhere near the appropriate amount of votes required. Anxhela gave a good stylish and appropriate performance. She was on-point vocally and in her performance on stage.

Israel, on the other hand, was a spectacle. The song was kind of meh, performed with a lot of choreography to distract from it. She did a whistle note; so? I’m sure she had to get noticed somehow with her t-shirt dress, her nude illusion reveal and the headdress she stole from reigning RuPaul Drag race winner, Symone. (Did she not no know where she was coming and who would be watching? Picked that up immediately)

IN CONCLUSION

There is one other things that I have not mentioned so far and it only occurred to me after re-reading some of the above comments. The Dutch were very time conscious. They said they were keeping the final under four hours and they pulled it in and got it done. In my opinion, it was a Eurovision that was very breezy, and very light experience because while the experience of Eurovision was 8 hours of your week watching the shows, this year did not seem like an ordeal. I felt that the shows progressed quickly without fuss or propaganda. As a package it came together well across the board.

It was a good Eurovision year and had something to cater for the taste of everyone. Some songs were not suited to everyone, but that happens. Below is how I saw this years song’s after the three shows and believe me I have changed it a few times before settling on this list. Looking at it, I want to move them around again.

So that’s it. Next year it will be somewhere in Italy; maybe Turin, maybe Rome, Milan or Bologna. It won’t matter. Feel free to comment, complain, debate. I’m happy to back myself and for you to convince me otherwise. I haven’t got anything else to do. : )

#esc #eurovision #2021 #Rotterdam #The Netherlands #The Eurovision Song Contest we had to have

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deliciousscaloppine · 5 years ago

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Consistent Patterns of Behavior as a way to create horror and dramatic tension:

The character of Jin Guangyao in The Untamed.

Nothing is more attractive in villain behavior than their capacity to control their destructive powers. In fact it’s not so much how clever or preverse their evil is that creates tension and horror, but rather how it's distributed through the story. And it's most frightening when they lose control, when they themselves are no longer sure if they are going to kill or not.

A villain has to be consistent enough for their behavior to be readable by the viewer. We must be able to discern what rules govern their behavior and who at any time is in danger of them. A villain establishes themselves by demonstrating their killing behavior. We must be sure that they have no respect for the lives of others, if we are to be horrified by them. This is usually established by “harmless” killings. Killings that are descriptive of the villain’s behavior, but not relevant to the plot.

In Jin Guangyao’s journey, there is a wide variety of such killings. He kills several disciples of the Nie Clan, a Clan he belonged for offending him, and then progresses to the murder of members of the Wen Clan, which he also belonged. So from the beginning he establishes himself as a murderous traitor. But the treasons here are “light”. At first he kills as retaliation for offenses.

And then he kills because that is what is expected of him.

However, Jin Guangyao manages not only to be duplicitous- something that can be boring- but dual in nature. His refinement and brutality co-exist perfectly. All his vengeances are slick, characterized by economy, and unpredictable remorse. He is both poison and sword, suicide and execution. What is frightening is not his evil, but his decision to act on it. It’s this ambivalence between empathy and cruelty that chills the most.

Choosing to kill demonstrates a loss of control. A control he will have to assume again only by killing. And this is the horrifying element in his behavior. Guangyao’s character usually is presented in intimate and elegant settings with his most loved ones, seemingly placating them, even as he designs to kill them. Even as he enters civilization and establishes himself at the top of his world, he carries this traitorous nature within him. At any time the most intimate partner can become an enemy. In the world of civilized society it’s frightening to think that its worst antisocial enemy is someone who is fully integrated to it.

Just as the bedroom appears refined and elegant like his public persona, the secret torture chamber behind it, especially where he seats Qin Su, is full of knives and swords, reminding his martial, killing side. The swords in the background bring to mind the ruthless, unemotional Meng Yao in the Sun Scorching Palace where in just a very short amount of time, swords fly in and out of frame, and two people die. It’s the same here, all the swords in the background are pointed in Qin Su’s direction betraying the true killing nature of her husband/brother.

And this portrays the abuses Meng Yao relatiates against. He knows how cruelty, deceit and dirtiness are ingrained to the finest things in his world. The wealth and success of his family would be impossible without murder, and it’s destructive tendencies ran rampant with Guangyao’s father, whose disorderly mating produces incestuous or nonexistent relations between his children.

Good villains do not push people away in order to be villainous. They draw them impossibly in and then destroy them. Watching characters struggle against villains is always a key moment in tension. Should they accept the villain they can remain safe, but then won’t they too become compromised and sucked into the cycle of violence. And if everyone is bad then that’s just depressing. If anything the victim is an indication of hope. Evil is not universal, like the villain thinks, it’s not an instictive reaction that threatens the foundation of the world.

Except in the case of Jin Guangyao. Then the victims themselves become facets of evil. He attributes it to them so that he can seduce them into complaissancy and silence to preserve and prolong the suffering that he deems a natural extension of the world.

“If I am so horrible, then you by association you are the same as me.” he seems to say to Qin Su. And he asks Nie Mingjue to consider the same. “Why does your morality allows you to execute others and mine does not? We are very much the same thing.”

And this betrays his motive for the extermination of the loved ones. He finds them to be similar to him in some degree. He kills them for their perceived likeness to him, something that echoes in the off-camera destruction of his child, his father, and even the prostitutes at Blossom Pavillion.

Jin Guangyao even reminds Lan Xichen of his own evil- ingratitude. The following statements are accusations, highlighting the uncomfortable truth about the villain’s progression. Evil is unavoidable, and anyone can become its agent willingly. Anyone can destroy a loved one no matter the sincerity of their emotions. Lan Xichen becomes the killer of Guangyao precisely because of his fond feelings for him, not despite them.

During these intimate judgements, he moves closer to Lan Xichen driving the sword deeper inside him. He moves closer to him both physically and mentally. Enough to engange him so he can better destroy him. Intimacy is a facet of his destructive nature.

And controlling the lovers, forcing degradation on them and compeling them to death is the greatest intimacy he can share with them. It’s the only time he can present his real self, a vacant self. A self with no thoughts or feelings, but horrible instinctive reactions patterned after his own abuse. His remorse over destroying them is just as real as his impulse to do it. And that’s frightening. Because the villain’s empathy and love is the spider’s net that finally condemns them.

Jin Guangyao needs to victimize his loved ones in order to regain something of his own destroyed humanity. And that’s even scarier. But it is not just a game of giving them pain and taking their lives. Through them and their judgements he replenishes his reserves of evil and prolongs his own non-existence, the emptiness he experiences when he can no longer compete with them. Their grief, their wrath, their anguish motivate his instincts of self-destruction.

And being his own connections to a sense of self they are the first to be endangered. When the victim differentiates themselves, there is a small moment of acceptance. The acceptance of this demolished self that maybe is not worth living.

This scene is very reminiscent of the scene at Unclean Realm when Nie Mingjue also realizes the unpleasant truth about his beloved. Meng Yao defends his sense of worth with death, but it’s not always the death of others he is after.

Jin Guangyao has no objection dying if he is to be loved for it. And this betrays that killing his loved ones, is his own affirmation of love. In Unclean Realm he readily offers himself for execution if he is to preserve the fondness Mingjue felt for him. But Mingjue having lost that fondness says no. Not killing him is also a form of rejection.

Similarly in the final scene where he is stabbed by Lan Xichen, he himself drives the sword as deeply as he can in an effort to approach Lan Xichen and confess his love to him. He offers himself again for execution. Only to be met with the indecisiveness of the beloved. And that’s precisely where his killer instinct kicks in to prolong a reasonable end to new heights of cruelty and torture.

However when Lan Xichen accepts dying and by extension his own feelings of love towards Jin Guangyao, the sacrifice is no longer needed. The loved one has accepted him despite knowing the extent of his disturbance. Lan Xichen even seeks to appease this suffering with his own life and for this reason he manages to escape. Jin Guangyao knows he can live on in Xichen’s tortured consciousness as a far better version of what he was so he gladly accepts his demise.

And even calls for it with great vigour. Again antagonizing Mingjue in death is an affirmation of life through him. The torture he visited upon him was again his method of living in him. He really seeks to shape the victims into fearsome memories of who he was.

#the untamed #jin guangyao #meng yao #lan xichen #nie mingjue #qin su #zhu zanjin #wang yizhou #liu haikuan #jin luying #jin lu ying #zhu zan ji #wang yi zhou #zhu zan jin #liu hai kuan #cql #here's a long ass post i was working on

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bopinion · 4 years ago

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Book of the month / 2021 / 02 February

I love books. Even though I hardly read any. Because my library is more like a collection of tomes, coffee-table books, limited editions... in short: books in which not "only" the content counts, but also the editorial performance, the presentation, the curating of the topic - the book as a total work of art itself.

Phaidon Design Classics (001-999)

Alan Fletcher (and Phaidon Editorial Staff)

Encyclopedia / 2006 / Phaidon Press

I love design. On paper and in three-dimensional space. After winning the lottery, our home would look like a mix of a high-end furniture store and a modern gallery - Bauhaus meets Apple, Philippe Starck meets Eva Solo, Ligne Roset meets Alessi, Alvar Aalto meets Le Corbusier. And I would finally meet BoConcept ;-)

I tease my wife by crowing loudly "The chair!" or "The lamp!" every time I spot an Eames Alu chair by Vitra or a Tolomeo lamp by Artemide in a movie or series - because that's exactly how her desk is equipped. And I crow often, because after all, the set designers have at least as much style in their blood as I do. But significantly more budget.

To this day, I still weep for the Wagenfeld Lamp on the Eileen Gray Adjustable Table, which didn't end up with me after the divorce. Now they have found their destiny as ambassadors of good taste. There's so much "Gelsenkirchen Baroque" - as we call the Germans' favorite taste aberration - out there, most furniture stores are a scarier experience for me than the ghost train. There is a difference between cheap and inexpensive. So for the time being, I continue to dream of a Hardoy Butterfly chair and ottoman in black calf leather and stainless steel.

Phaidon, the British eminence for reference books, obviously understands me. And has documented the 999 most important designs of the last hundred years in a compendium: Three volumes with 3,300 pages of beauty. Already on the title, the claims are made clear:

Industrially manufactured objects of aesthetic value and timeless quality:

1) Definite Models of lasting influence and enduring quality

2) Objects that are innovative in their use of new materials and unite technological advances with beautiful design

3) Objects characterized by simplicity, balance and purity of form

4) Objects that are perfect in their design and have remained unchanged since their creation.

Wow - I'm in love!

Of course, the selection of design objects is subjective, but the compilation presented here can certainly be considered recognized and comprehensive. The product areas range from furniture and lamps to household goods, toys, tools, packaging and transportation. Among the icons considered are the Moleskine notebook, the Thonet Chair No. 14, the Peugeot Pepper Mill, the Swiss Army Knife, the Steiff Teddy Bear, the VW Beetle, the Tabasco bottle, the Mont Blanc fountain pen, the Rolleiflex camera, the Bialetti Mika Express coffee pot, the Model 300 telephone, the Savoy vase and the Slinky. A wealth of design highlights - and I only took the first volume "001-333" off the shelf for these examples.

The illustrations are of good quality as well as neutral and documentary in their simple pictorial language. Construction sketches and design studies are not missing and one or the other gag appears: for example, a picture from Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" is shown for the famous New York Checker Cab. The depth of information in the accompanying texts is perfectly measured - one learns everything essential about the object, its design and its creator, all well in context.

We learn: Design accompanies all of our daily lives. Design transports functionality. Design positions the individual in the omnipresent. Design creates value. Design attracts and creates expectations. Design communicates with the viewer. Design builds the bridge from sober "form follows function" to animating marketing. Design has an effect. By the way, this also applies in reverse: the absence of design - whereby one should actually speak of "accidental physical manifestation" instead, because an actual absence would be invisible and intangible - also has an effect. But just negatively.

The lasting value of good design is demonstrated, for example, by Coca-Cola, whose lettering and typical bottle shape have remained basically unchanged since 1937. Anyone who looks at Pepsi in comparison will understand what this says about the quality of the design. And even such everyday self-evident things as crown caps, zippers or pencils were once created by designers.

Of course, a reference work on design must itself be appropriately designed. Thus, none other than Alan Fletcher is responsible for the layout of the three books. Fletcher was described by The Daily Telegraph as "the most highly regarded graphic designer of his generation, and probably one of the most prolific". Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Fletcher moved to England at age five, and studied at four art schools: Hammersmith School of Art, Central School of Art, Royal College of Art and Yale School of Art and Architecture. The Phaidon Design Classics was his last major work before his death in 2006.

By the way, the three volumes were delivered in a specially designed transport case. Created by Konstantin Grčić, a renowned Munich-based industrial designer of Serbian descent. And that, in order to get to the contents, actually has to be broken. I remember that I didn't want to believe it and even wrote to Grčić's studio - unfortunately without feedback. After a few days of patience, I then proceeded to the destructive work and have since wondered if this was meant to be a deliberate statement. According to the motto "Nature is the best designer - I'm only human". Who knows...

Here is the website of Phaidon Press - the section "Magazine" is worth more than one look:

https://www.phaidon.com

#book #book review #phaidon #coffeetable book #design #classics #alan fletcher #coca cola #konstantin grcic #artemide #tolomeo #Alu chair #charles & ray eames #checker cab #aesthetic #encyclopedia #timeless

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immaculate-benediction-batch · 6 years ago

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Sorry this is so long......How TV Creators Are Handling Subtext And Shipping

TV series creators have a hard time not tailoring content towards a strictly heteronormative audience, refusing to lean in to queer context, no matter howlarge an LGBTQ following a show may have.

Once a fictional character is put out for public consumption, it ceases to be the one thing it’s described as on paper. This is especially the case with TV and film, where said character goes through so many hands before hitting the screen and becoming public property.

There are three kinds of creators when it comes to queer content on TV. The first (and sadly, most typical) is the creator who will deny any intention of creating queer content, and who will also refuse to acknowledge a queer audience’s interpretation., This often results in an instant backlash, as the Supergirlcast and creators experienced after an embarrassing interview with MTV last summer. When prompted to recap the latest season, the cast broke into a cringeworthy song that mocked fans’ interest in the Supergirl/Lena Luthor pairing, with Jeremy Jordan repeatedly exclaiming that the two will never get together. It continued despite Katie McGrath’s attempt to save the interview saying, “The great thing about what we do is, like any art, anyone can read into it what they want.” Chris Wood then chimed in with “Sexuality is all about others’ perception of yours, right?”

Supergirl is a show with a large female following that from the beginning has gravitated toward the female relationships it portrays, with emphasis on those relationships with strong queer energy. At first, there was a group of internet fans that were drawn to the chemistry between Melissa Benoist and Calista Flockhart, which was maximized due to the characters’ intense mentor/mentee relationship, and that was fine, and for the most part went unacknowledged by the show.

However, upon Flockhart’s exit, Lena Luthor was introduced, played by Katie McGrath. Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor became fast friends, and fans’ fascination with Supergirl’s queer vibes grew strong enough for the the cast to take notice. One would think that by having Alex Danvers and Maggie Sawyer, two queer characters already in their orbit, fan speculation about others wouldn’t be such an inconvenience that it would have to be addressed by aggressively singing “They’re only friends!” over and over, as if the pairing were unfathomable.

But Supergirl hasn’t been the only show to outright reject queer interpretations. In fact, a few years back, the long-running series Supernatural was called out by its fans for purposefully inserting homoerotic subtext within storylines pertaining to male characters Dean and Castiel, and for rather indirectly addressing said subtext in interviews. In one of them, Misha Collins (Castiel) stated that in certain scenes with Jensen Ackles (Dean) he was directed to portray his character as a “jilted lover.”

During a Toronto Con panel in 2013, it was revealed that a line was changed by Ackles — who last year specifically requested no questions about the popular pairing be allowed during the Q portion of a panel for the show at New Jersey Con–from “I love you” to “We’re family. I need you” because the Actor didn’t think it suited his character. Despite fandom’s interest in the pairing, it hasn’t been enough for Supernaturalto follow through with an actual queer storyline, aside from the one recurring lesbian character, Charlie, who was ultimately killed off. It turns out our tolerance for queerbaiting does have its limits.

Another show that failed to address the sapphic energy between its leads, in effect rejecting a great opportunity to add a bonus layer to an already complex relationship between two women, was Damages. The thriller starred Glenn Close as powerhouse prosecutor Patty Hewes, and Rose Byrne as her protégée, Ellen Parsons. The series went on for five seasons and throughout, though it benefitted from incredible writing, its highlight was clearly the tension and undecipherable relationship between Patty and Ellen.

While there was never any doubt that their connection was what kept the the show’s palpable tension dial at a 10, anytime the subject was brought up to either cast or creators it was denied or waved off as “wishful thinking,” as Glenn Close put it. When pressed further, she added, “I think there’s something seductive about Patty and she just seduces people and she’ll lead people on. I think that can come across as pure seduction.”

With Person of Interest, Sameen Shaw (Sarah Shahi) and Root (Amy Acker) first connected under very unique, very dark circumstances in which one was holding the other against their will in a life threatening situation. But there was a sizzle there that the audience immediately responded to, and while both cast and writers admitted that was not their intention, something amazing happenedthey took that audience reaction and ran with it. In the end, Shaw and Root’s romance became one of the show’s more compelling storylines.

Jane the Virgin did the same. When a character, Petra, who wasn’t intentionally written as queer read queer to LGBTQ viewers, the writers saw no problem taking the interpretation and adopting it as canon. After years of keeping Petra as a sort of peripheral player within Jane/Rafael storylines, the character of Jane Ramos was introduced as Petra’s defense attorney and eventual love interest.

The third type of creator is everyone’s favorite. This is the one that takes whatever gay subtext or context there is, embraces it, and expands upon it, recognizing that it’s there from the beginning. In the Flesh and Killing Eve are true representatives of queer entertainment that isn’t trying to steer its characters toward a path they weren’t organically wanting to go.

In the Flesh, a BAFTA-award winning series from BBC 3, was easily one of the best shows that no one watched; a zombie show with depth, which isn’t easy to accomplish. The story takes place years after a virus epidemic that turned the infected into flesh-eating monsters is cured, and the rehabilitated are returning home. Its main character is Luke, one of the former infected, suffering from memories of the terrible things he did while sick, and tortured by his own suicide, which was prompted by the loss of love interest, Rick.

The series ran for only two seasons, with a total of nine episodes. It was inventive and creative and stands as one of the greats right next to shows like Hannibal and The Exorcist, which was unfortunately canceled by Fox this year after only two seasons of sacrilege, beautiful cinematography, Alfonso Herrera (Sense8) and a bisexual Father Marcus, played by Ben Daniels.

Killing Eve is a female-led thriller that proves that the secret to making great TV is treating characters like human beings with the capacity to change. Eve, who, when we meet her, is living a life that doesn’t seem particularly terrible, whose marriage appears to be solid, her job secure, is lured into potentially life threatening situations for the sake of following her inexplicable attraction to a female assassin. As if beneath the surface there is a dormant unrest that is awakened with the arrival of Villanelle in her life, and though she does not stop to examine exactly what she expects to get from it, she craves and wants more of these moments that have stirred her awake. She’s both excited and frightened by Villanelle’s audaciousness, by the intrusion into her life,

both figuratively and literally.

The season’s got a few episodes left, yet the most compelling, and most attentively queer moment is part of the fifth episode, in which the two women finally come face to face in Eve’s home. Eve is sopping wet in a gorgeous dress Villanelle’s purchased for her, she’s cold and visibly uncomfortable, therefore Villanelle suggests Eve should change, before proceeding to peel the dress off her herself. It is a scene that doesn’t downplay the very real danger Eve is in by having Villanelle in her home. However there is also an erotic aspect to it that is very purposeful, and as series creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge points out, the attraction is definitely mutual, “I knew that the first moment they see each other. I labeled that moment as ‘love at first sight.’ But I didn’t want it to be constrained to romance, or to lust, or anything like that. There’s something waking in Eve every day that she spends imagining what this woman is doing.”

This type of storytelling allows characters to evolve the way that they want to evolve as opposed to forcing them into a first page description. There is loyalty to the authenticity of the story, which comes from meticulous attention paid to the writing, which Waller-Green explains is all about going against cliché: “The moment something feels predictable, there’s a roar in me to just go to the most surprising place. I don’t want to bore myself.”

Often times, when female queer characters are introduced, it is done in order to titillate, and their storylines are the product of a male gaze fantasy. Killing Eve manages to avoid all of that with Villanelle, a character who seems to have no specific preference when it comes to sexual partners, and yet doesn’t feel the need to use her sexuality to get what she wants. In addition to that and the meaty tension between the two leads (Villanelle and the titular Eve, played by Sandra Oh), the attention paid to the very queer theme of the show is evident in backstories of characters that would normally go without one, like that of Eve’s former boss and best friend Bill, an older man in a heterosexual relationship who casually reveals he’s loved “hundreds” of men, much to Eve’s surprise, and further reveals he is in an open relationship, and happily so.

The series proves not only that queer characters are marketablethe BBC series was renewed for a second season before the first even airedbut that straight creators are capable of writing queer content that isn’t offensive or over-sexualized. Phoebe Waller-Bridge credits the authenticity of the series to a collaborative effort, stating, “Because it’s all about the characters, the little details that link the two worlds, everyone’s really made it a psychological piece rather than just an artistic painting of two different people’s worlds,” but it really just goes to show that that negative aspects of queer representation that include the dreaded male gaze perspective can be avoided as long as the bar is set high enough by the showrunner.

It only takes a little bit of creativity and imagination, and a willingness to challenge the idea that heterosexual-based television makes for the best and most successful stories.

Alex Velazquez is a writer, photographer, and queer Mexican living in Los Angeles, CA.

#sherlock #killing eve #supernatural #supergirl #queerbaiting #shipping #lgbt #in the flesh #jane the virgin #person of interest

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mexcine · 4 years ago

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Trials of an Okinawan Village (1971) review: This film is known under several English titles: perhaps most prevalent is Trials of an Okinawan Village, but this doesn't seem to be a literal translation of Nippon Jokyȏ-den: Gekitȏ Himeyuri-misaki (note: the Nippon Jokyȏ-den part of the title refers to the series "Tales of Chivalrous Women"), so perhaps Battle at Cape Himeyuri is more accurate. There's not much information available in English (the most complete I’ve found is http://www.weirdwildrealm.com/f-trials-okinawa-village.html) and my Japanese language skills are nonexistent, so I guess we'll never know.

One odd and mildly annoying aspect of the film is its indefinite chronological setting. Although the United States ended its occupation of the main islands of Japan early in the 1950s, it didn't turn over control of Okinawa until 1971 (possibly an inspiration for this film's production). However, the film's script strongly indicates the story is taking place within no more than a decade after the end of World War Two: Junko Fuji and Bunta Sugawara are shown in wartime flashbacks and do not look that much different in the contemporary scenes. Other characters refer to their wartime service, and a teenage girl says she was injured during the war when she was "very young," so a reasonably good guess would be that the film's main action takes place no more than about a decade after the war's end. And yet the clothing, hairstyles, and--most noticeably--the motor vehicles are definitely much newer than that. This was probably a Catch-22 for the filmmakers: the script had Fuji and Sugawara meet in 1945, and it wasn't feasible for them to be 25 years' older for the bulk of the movie, and yet recreating 1955 Okinawa was either too expensive or simply not considered important enough to attempt.

Trials of an Okinawan Village begins with World War Two footage and printed titles which read (in translation): "April 1937; U.S. troops advance on to Okinawan soil." This is clearly erroneous: the battle of Okinawa did begin in April, but it was 1945, not 1937. I don't know if this is a translation error or if the original titles also contained this misinformation. The footage changes to colour, with images of the U.S. flag, airplanes, and military bases; the titles read "Okinawa in state of recovery under U.S. Occupation."

Yuri Yonamine (Junko Fuji) runs a trucking company in post-war Okinawa, taking over from her late parents; she has vowed not to consider herself a "woman" (i.e., not get married or assume a traditional female role) until the company is rebuilt. Yuri and her employees visit a restaurant to celebrate the purchase of a new truck, and clash with yakuza from the "mainland" (according to the titles--this means the main Japanese islands) who are hassling Sachiko, a teenage girl selling flowers. Boss Iwamatsu calls off his thugs. Yuri drives Sachiko--who uses a crutch due to a war injury--to her village the next day; coincidentally, it's the home village of Yuri's late mother. Asada, the mayor, tells Yuri the village is very poor; they've planted sugar cane but had to borrow a large sum of money against the crop.

When Yuri learns a lot of wartime scrap has been unearthed near the village, she sees this as a chance to earn money to retire the debt. However, Iwamatsu's gang has the sole right to sell such scrap to the U.S. government, and is also shipping scrap illegally to Hong Kong. Asada threatens to report the yakuza to the U.S. authorities, but is killed by a hit-and-run driver. The villagers are put to work loading the scrap for Iwamatsu, but a bomb explodes and kills 3 women. Iwamatsu refuses to accept responsibility or pay an indemnity.

Tetsu Nakagami (Bunta Sugawara), a yakuza fleeing from Tokyo police, arrives on Okinawa and discovers his wartime friend Asada is dead. Yuri asks him to delay his revenge on Iwamatsu--whose men clearly murdered Asada--until they earn enough money to pay the dead women's families. Nakagami, stationed on Okinawa during the war, knows where a large cache of artillery shells is stored. As it develops (shown earlier in flashback), Nakagami met the young Yuri (who was serving as a nurse) in a cave during the final battle for Okinawa: he gave her a wristwatch and urged her not to sacrifice herself.

Iwamatsu orders his men, including Okinawa native Iba, to stop Yuri and the villagers at all costs. They blow up a truck loaded with scrap, killing two of Yuri's employees. Iba and Nakagami fight; Yuri convinces Nakagami to spare the other man's life. Iwamatsu's men force the villagers to retrieve the scrap from the hidden cave. However, when they bring Sachiko to the site--intending to rape her--Iba intervenes. He's mortally wounded, but takes the girl to Yuri's office before he dies. Nakagami sets off for the cave site, and Yuri follows.

Nakagami and Yuri wipe out Iwamatsu's entire gang, including the boss (who is savagely hacked to death by a sword-wielding Yuri), but they are then both arrested by U.S military police. Yuri is acquitted but Nakagami is convicted of murder and shot to death by a firing squad.

Junko Fuji, daughter of a film producer, began acting in the early 1960s, and appeared in a number of yakuza films in this era. She had her own yakuza series, "Red Peony Gambler," but retired when she got married in 1972. She came back a decade later and has continued to work to the present day, sometimes under the name "Sumiko Fuji." As Yuri, Fuji repeatedly declares her desire to postpone being a "woman" until her business goals have been reached; nonetheless, she is depicted as caring and responsible, in contrast with the violent Nakagami. At the conclusion, of course, Yuri and Nakagami are pushed too far, and Yuri more than holds up her part of the final battle, firing a rifle, tossing a grenade, and wielding a sword with deadly effectiveness, her face distorted by rage.

The "romance" between Yuri and Nakagami that standard film conventions would seem to demand never progresses, even to the point of a kiss, despite the obvious attraction between the two. [This could be (a) a Japanese cultural convention, (b) a yakuza film convention (this is what Wild Realm Reviews suggests), or (c) something deliberately done by the filmmakers in this particular instance. Western viewers will likely have their expectations confounded, in any case.] As Nakagami is being led away to his execution, a weeping Yuri repeatedly shouts "Don't die!" (the same thing he'd told her in 1945 during the battle for Okinawa), and the film concludes with Yuri honouring Nakagami's memory with a ceremony next to (presumably) his grave marker on an Okinawan cliff.

Nakagami is a "noble yakuza" (a Sixties trend that was largely replaced by more negative, realistic depictions of gangsters in the Seventies, represented by Iwamatsu and his gang here): in one scene he even says his gang "never harmed commoners!" [Presumably meaning non-yakuza; “civilians” might be a better word.] He arrives in Okinawa illegally (fleeing, as we later learn, an unjust accusation from a rival crime family), but has the ulterior motive of visiting the island where he fought during World War II (he later tells Yuri that he came back to find her, although this seems like an afterthought). Iwamatsu asks him to collaborate, but Nakagami demurs (he doesn't refuse outright, and even borrows a car from the gang boss!). When Iwamatsu won't pay an indemnity for the woman killed in his employ, Nakagami prepares to go into action, but Yuri asks him to wait, hoping she can get money for the women's families without violence. She later convinces Nakagami not to kill Iba, an Okinawan native working as a yakuza for Iwamatsu, apparently feeling the man has a good side (possibly just because he's Okinawan--the film makes a point several times of highlighting the differences between Okinawans and Japanese from the "mainland," even including a comedy scene in which one of Nakagami's aides arrives on the island and is perplexed by the Okinawan dialect).

In a somewhat contrived scene, one of Yuri’s men is trapped when a stack of old artillery shells shifts suddenly. One of the shells starts to tick--it’s a delayed action bomb! Fortunately, Nakagami (who was an artillery officer during the war) has the know-how to defuse it. The scene is tense even though the audience knows that Nakagami (and Yuri, who runs back into the building to be with Nakagami and her employee) aren’t going to get blown up with half the film left to go!

Nakagami learns he's free to return to Tokyo (the rival gang admitted their falsehood and cleared him with the police), but he decides to stay on Okinawa, turning over his criminal gang to his assistant. It's implied that he is thinking about marrying Yuri and settling down, but his death puts an end to those plans.

The U.S. presence in Okinawa is overt in several scenes, although the occupation of Okinawa (and thus, its status as an island governed by the Americans rather than Japan) is referenced frequently. Early in the film, Yuri and her assistant Isamu fleece a Military Policeman out of several barrels of much-needed gasoline: the man wagers the fuel against a date (later raising the ante to "and a kiss") with the attractive young woman, but loses a game of cards (Yuri cheats by viewing the reflection of the man's cards in Isamu's belt buckle). Later, Iwamatsu betrays Nakagami's presence to the U.S authorities, and a large group of Military Policemen (with one Japanese-American who acts as translator), arrive at Yuri's house to arrest him. Nakagami hides in Yuri's bedroom, and she distracts the Americans by allowing them to "catch" her with her blouse off. "Wow!" one MP says, but then has the decency to say "Excuse me," and leave.

Nakagami's aide Hide arrives from Tokyo and starts to run when he sees a jeep full of MPs--they hold him at gunpoint (he says "Why am I running? I didn't do anything!") and he babbles about his birthplace, etc., before he's spotted by one of Yuri's men, who takes him to Nakagami. This scene suggests that the residents of Okinawa view the Americans with some trepidation: without recourse to their own system of laws, they're at the mercy of the occupying troops.

At the conclusion, Yuri and Nakagami are arrested by a horde of Military Policemen (who arrive after the one-sided battle is over). A military judge pronounces judgement (curiously he begins speaking in English then switches to Japanese): "Okinawa belongs to America!" Nakagami will be executed. When Yuri protests, the judge says "Take her out!" and has the protesting Yuri dragged away by several MPs.

Trials of an Okinawan Village does not go out of its way to attack the American presence on Okinawa--in none of the previously-noted scenes do the MPs actually do anything illegal or brutal (well, Nakagami is executed but it appears to have been done legally)-- but the film makes it clear that the Okinawans are under military occupation and have few legal rights of their own. The American military is the largest "business" on the island and has a number of exclusive rights, and the native inhabitants have to accommodate these, to their own economic detriment.

Iwamatsu and his yakuza are the overt villains: they have a license from the U.S. to collect scrap, and exploit the Okinawans because of this. However, they're not satisfied with this, illustrating their dishonourable nature by illegally exporting scrap to Hong Kong.

Trials of an Okinawan Village makes good use of location shooting and is generally quite slick and professional. The script does get bogged down a bit in the middle section, as Yuri and Nakagami (and the villagers) keep finding different sources of scrap metal, Iwamatsu and his men keep taking it away, and so on. The performances are all good, although the comic relief provided by Nakagami's aide Hide (who only appears briefly) is somewhat out of place.

Generally entertaining overall, and of additional historical-political interest because of its setting and the depiction of the U.S. occupation of Okinawa.

#japanese cinema #yakuza film #okinawa #american occupation of japan

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michelles-garden-of-evil · 5 years ago

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Essay: The Broadcast History of Strange Paradise on WKBF-TV (Cleveland, OH)

WARNING: This essay contains spoilers for several episodes of Strange Paradise, the latest being Episode 94. If you do not wish to be spoiled, disable images and reload.

When Krantz Films’ now-obscure Gothic soap Strange Paradise premiered in the United States in September 1969, the company’s president Steve Krantz expected it to be a hit much like the similar, wildly popular serial Dark Shadows. “You thought every possible idea for a daytime drama had already been used?” one copywriter wrote in a trade magazine. “How about Colin Fox playing the dual role of a millionaire industrialist and his 300-years-dead ancestor, in a show set in the Caribbean, involving voodoo? Don’t laugh. Wait until you see the ratings.” Despite this initial optimism, Strange Paradise’s ratings failed to live up to anyone’s expectations, leading to an early cancellation in most American markets. The Cleveland, Ohio station WKBF-TV (Channel 61), an ultra-high frequency (UHF) channel owned by Kaiser Broadcasting, was no exception. The broadcast history of Strange Paradise in Cleveland provides a typical example of the quick decline and premature cancellation that the show saw on most networks that carried it in the United States.

In this essay, we will use the Cleveland newspaper The Plain Dealer to trace the short broadcast history of Strange Paradise on WKBF-TV from its beginnings in the 7 p.m. prime-time slot to its cancellation. After that, we will examine an anecdotal account of a second run of the show’s first arc in 1971 and determine whether the series aired again in Cleveland during that year.

Strange Paradise in The Plain Dealer

Banner advertisements for Strange Paradise from the Friday, September 12, 1969 issue of The Plain Dealer (pp. 107, 110, and 118, respectively).[1]

In the lead-up to its premiere on Monday, September 15, 1969, Kaiser Broadcasting promoted Strange Paradise heavily in the Friday, September 12 issue of The Plain Dealer. Banners appeared at the bottom of the television schedule’s pages, referencing the show’s voodoo theme and encouraging the newspaper’s readers to “meet Quito and Raxl,” two of the show’s major characters. The Selections section of The Plain Dealer’s Friday TV guides ran episode summaries to entice viewers to tune in. The show aired in the 7 pm timeslot, pitting it against Gilligan’s Island, Truth or Consequences, and other popular programs.

Excerpt from the TV schedule for Monday, September 15, 1969, from The Plain Dealer (September 12, 1969), p. 110. In this listing and all subsequent others, the listings for WKBF/Kaiser/Channel 61 appear in the far right column.

Summary of the pilot episode from the same issue, p. 117. The timeslot is listed inaccurately as 7:30 pm.

In theory, Strange Paradise’s original timeslot put it in a position to get good ratings. Bryan Gruszka writes that “initially, the series enjoyed strong ratings,“ but this seems unlikely to be the case in Cleveland. As a UHF channel, many televisions (particularly older sets) did not pick up reception from Kaiser, leaving the viewership low for all of its programs compared to the very-high frequency (VHF) “Big Three” networks of NBC (Channel 3/WKYC), ABC (Channel 5/WEWS), and CBS (Channel 8/WJW).[2] Every one of the Top 30 highest-rated programs of the 1969-1970 season aired on the Big Three television networks, further suggesting a low viewership for WKBF and other UHF channels. Disappointed by the show’s ratings, Kaiser moved it to daytime and scheduled Star Trek reruns in its place, which attracted far more prime-time viewers.[3]

3 pm listings from the TV schedule for September 29, 1969, from The Plain Dealer (September 29, 1969), p. 39.

Episode 11 summary from the same page.

Strange Paradise made the move to daytime television by Monday, September 29, when WKBF rescheduled it at 3 pm. In this new timeslot, it competed against two other soap operas, Another World (NBC) and General Hospital (ABC), which attracted 9.6 million and 8.5 million viewers, respectively, during the 1969-1970 season. Ratings for Strange Paradise do not appear on the list of soap opera ratings for this season, although it aired on the Big Three networks in some other markets. Because of this, it is impossible to know exactly how it fared against its competitors, but it most likely attracted few viewers.

During this period, episode summaries continued to run on the Selections pages of the weekly TV guides released on Fridays. Many of these are identical or nearly identical to the “Lost Episode” summaries from the Newport Daily News and The Fitchburg Sentinel documented on Curt Ladnier’s blog Maljardin: Tales from the Desmond Family Crypt. These summaries described early drafts of the episodes before the show’s producers mandated major rewrites, meaning that the events described in the listings did not correspond to the plots of the broadcasted episodes. Notable changes included the death of one character whom the summaries indicated originally remained alive, the omission of a flashback nightmare sequence about another character’s previous incarnation, and the focus of the main plotline shifting to the discovery of a mysterious black rabbit with a bloodied locket around its neck (which the summaries do not mention). The “Lost Episode” summaries continued through Episode 50, after which the published descriptions once again accurately reflected the episodes’ contents.

Summary of the original Episode 36, from “Monday Selections,” The Plain Dealer (October 31, 1969), p. 121. The description nearly matches this “Lost Episode” summary on Ladnier’s blog.

The original Episode 37 ("Tuesday Selections,” p. 125). The description is similar to the one discussed in this post, save that this version indicates that Holly is unaware of the Temple’s purpose.

Episode 46 (”Monday Selections,” The Plain Dealer (November 14, 1969), p. 84).

Episode 50 (”Friday Selections,” The Plain Dealer (November 21,1969), p. 76).

In early December, the series disappeared from Channel 61′s schedule, most likely because it struggled to compete against General Hospital and Another World for viewers. The show is absent from the "Television Today" guides as early as Tuesday, December 2, although summaries for that week's episodes appeared in the weekly guide from the previous Friday's issue and the other schedules from the same week still listed it in its 3 p.m. timeslot. The paper for Tuesday, December 9 included a summary corresponding to the plot of Episode 62, despite Strange Paradise’s replacement with The Huckleberry Hound Show. By the release of the Friday, December 12 paper, the show no longer appeared in neither the TV schedules nor the selections, indicating its cancellation.

Episode 62 summary from “Tuesday’s Selections,” The Plain Dealer (December 9, 1969), p. 30.

The revised schedule for 3 pm, according to the schedule on the same page. Note “Huck Hound” in the far right column.

After a month of absence, Strange Paradise returned to the channel on Monday, December 29 in the new timeslot of 11 pm. Airing resumed with Episode 56, which may indicate that Episode 55 was the last to air the previous year. Over the course of the next two months, WKBF broadcast the conclusion of Maljardin, the series’ first 65-episode arc, and began showing the second arc, the overtly Dark Shadows-inspired Desmond Hall.

However, the show’s viewers would not get to watch Desmond Hall through to its conclusion. On February 10, 1970, television columnist William Hickey wrote, “’Strange Paradise,’ the strangely bubbling soaper, will disappear from Channel 61 tomorrow night at 11 and will be replaced by reruns of ‘Alfred Hitchcock Presents.’”[4] This cancellation coincided with the introduction of the character Agatha Pruitt and the beginning of a new subplot centered around her blackmail and attempted seduction of protagonist Jean Paul Desmond, leaving that plot unresolved, not to mention the second arc’s overarching plot about the mysterious disappearance of Jean Paul’s brother Philip.

Summary of Episode 87, the last episode confirmed to have aired on WKBF, from “Tuesday’s Selections,” The Plain Dealer (February 6, 1970), p. 95.

Nevertheless, episode summaries of Strange Paradise continued to run in the highlights sections of the paper’s TV guides over the next week. The last episode summary to appear in The Plain Dealer describes the plot of Episode 94 and is noticeably more detailed than most previous summaries:

Summary of Episode 94, originally scheduled to air on Thursday, February 19, 1970. From “Thursday’s Selections,” The Plain Dealer (February 13, 1970), p. 103.

Strange Paradise’s run on WKBF ended abruptly in the middle of the second arc, leaving all of its plots unresolved and many viewers uncertain of the fates of Jean Paul, Agatha, Raxl, and others. WKBF-TV would disappear from the airwaves in 1975, leaving Cleveland-area fans unable to watch the series again until its release on VHS in the 1990s. That is unless an anecdote about its first arc re-airing in the Cleveland area is true.

A Second Run?

After Strange Paradise finished its original run in May 1970, a handful of stations available in the United States, including Canadian and Mexican stations based near the borders, rebroadcast it in syndication. It is possible that WKBF may have also rebroadcast it, but we have only anecdotal evidence. In a 2007 post on the Strangeparadise2 Yahoo! Group, user Larry M. (larmic1) claimed to have watched syndicated re-runs of the series’ first arc in 1971. He wrote,

I was living in Cleveland, Ohio [in 1971], and the "new" show came on about 7 or 7:30pm weeknights, so that leads me to believe it was syndicated. I believe that time is also when I used to watch Strange Paradise, so the station was obviously after that audience. It was just such a surprise when I finally came across the show after coming home from winter break from college, and totally pissed that I pretty much had missed the whole series! It was probably on for all of 3-4 months total. Seems like nobody else watched it either!

If the show did indeed air again in Cleveland in 1971, no evidence exists of its rebroadcast in The Plain Dealer’s listings. Here is an excerpt from the evening schedule for Wednesday, January 6, 1971:

And here is another from Tuesday, December 28 of the same year:

Although the schedule writers abbreviated the names of most shows, one can still tell in most cases what shows they refer to: “Jeannie” must be I Dream of Jeannie, “Hogan” Hogan’s Heroes, etc. (It helps that many of these shows are still well-known today, largely because of re-runs on various networks.) Given that neither Strange Paradise, any abbreviations of its title, nor anything to the effect of “Island of Evil” appear in these listings, one can safely conclude that no Cleveland-based stations re-ran the show during that period.

Even so, evidence exists that residents of northeast Ohio could tune into broadcasts from the Windsor, Ontario-based Canadian station CKLW-TV in the early 1970s. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) records from the 1970s indicate that CKLW-TV, based near the Ontario-Michigan border, was available in the Cleveland-Lorain-Akron market on Channel 9 in 1972 and possibly earlier as well. Larry M. most likely would have viewed Strange Paradise on this Canadian channel in 1971. However, even this is doubtful, because, thus far, we have been unable to uncover any evidence of its re-airing in 1971 on CKLW or any other Ontario channels.

Conclusion

For five months from September 1969 to February 1970, the Gothic serial Strange Paradise aired on WKBF-TV (Channel 61) in the Cleveland area. Premiering at 7 p.m. on September 15 after heavy promotion, it changed time slots twice--first in the same daytime slot as two more popular soaps and then in the late night--before its cancellation on February 11. Part of the show was allegedly re-broadcast the following year, but thusfar no evidence exists of listings of Strange Paradise on any channels based in the Great Lakes region in 1971. Although it quickly fell into obscurity in northeast Ohio, Larry M.’s post is evidence that it had local fans and that, even long after its cancellation, it was not forgotten.

Notes

[1] All clippings from The Plain Dealer come from the NewsBank InfoWeb database Historical Cleveland Plain Dealer (1845-1991). They are all reproduced under fair use for the purpose of education.

[2] Many people alive in this era, the author’s parents (born 1964) included, insist that “there were only three channels” in Cleveland in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This attests to the obscurity of Channel 61.

[3] According to Wikipedia, “the most popular and most profitable program on WKBF were syndicated reruns of the original Star Trek. It was well known that WKBF had rebroadcast the entire 79-episode original series in the exact order of play that had been originally shown on NBC when it aired on that network, and had also paid out of its own pocket for the special high-contrast black-and-white prints of the show in order to do so. In another bold move for the times, the show also ran in its original length, without additional editing for commercials.”

[4] William Hickey, "Tony Winners Promise a CBS Drama Delight," The Plain Dealer (February 10, 1970), p. 20 (6-B).

#strange paradise #soap operas #tv history #wkbf #cleveland #1960s #1970s #essay #broadcast history #cleveland local history #lost episode summaries #this essay took forever to write and research #but it is now finished #at least until the cleveland press collection at csu opens back up and i get to do some research there #this is how i'm using my history degree right now and i'm not ashamed

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paperclipninja · 5 years ago

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Younger post-ep ramble 6x11

I may be on holiday but if you think that’s going to stop me offloading some thoughts and feelings about this week’s episode of Younger, ‘Holding Out for a SHero’, then you’d be sorely mistaken (any chance to over-think and over-analyse my fave fake reality). In saying that, this will be a briefer version of my usual post-ep ramble, what I shall refer to as Ramble Lite™. There were parts of this episode I really liked and parts I felt disappointed with, but it largely played out in a way that I expected, with the exception of that twist at the end! Hats off to Joe Murphy for that fab misdirection, I may have gasped.

This episode opened with Maggie in her tomato garden looking radiant and Liza filling her in on the decision not to see Josh anymore because it’s complicated and feelings and that undeniable thing called chemistry (or something like that). I applaud Maggie’s consistent use of Chaz (I really hope we get to hear her say it to his face at some point) and Liza stating out loud that she chooses Charles, but this scene also delivered one of the two big moments of disappointment I had in this ep. If anything was ever going to be out of character on this show it would be Liza, a writer and editor, being unable to come up with decent adjectives to describe the man she is supposedly in love with. Yet here she is describing Charles as ‘a peer’ and ‘appropriate’ as reasons for choosing to be with him. For real? I understand the effort to paint him as the sensible choice vs. the less sensible, the head vs. heart, in this triangle that’s been resurrected. This particular way of describing men has always served a clear purpose in the Youngerverse and ngl, my alarm bells went off in episode 7 when Michelle referred to Charles as ‘appropriate’. Liza uses this exact term to describe Richard, the horrendous man Michelle sets her up with in S1E2 who starts reading emails at the dinner table on their date, he’s ‘age appropriate’. She also described Jay as nice, viable, legitimate prospect, sure, but she also sobbed on his shoulder because she was so in love with Charles that her heart was aching at the thought of missing the chance to be with him.

It feels so painfully deliberate, Charles has gone from intellectually invigorating and romantic and been relegated to safe and ‘appropriate’. My disappointment comes from the fact that if this triangle must remain in play, there can be two men who are vibrant and compelling and really different, without painting one as ‘boring’ and one as ‘fun’. Knowing the way Liza talks about the important people in her life, with such admiration and affection, I feel she would at least say Charles is intelligent and romantic or kind or thoughtful or SOMETHING better than being ‘a peer’ and ‘appropriate’. I do believe that as viewers we often form our own interpretations of characters and when they don’t behave the way we imagine we are disappointed, but in this case it’s the disappointment that Liza’s entire reason for being attracted to Charles is being reduced to the idea that it’s sensible when we have been shown this is simply not the case. Phew, glad I got that off my chest (and so much for Ramble Lite™ lol).

Once in the office Liza is running Diana through the wedding planning, which frankly I cannot wait to see all come together. I love that Liza’s already secretly planned a bachelorette party and really does know Diana well enough to know she’ll want one (so many lols @ Diana’s, ‘yes that’s why I was bringing it up, because I don’t want one’ and could Liza look any more pleased with herself that she’s managed to pull the wool over her eyes? Adorbs). Charles arrives looking for Kelsey and is wanting to see how she would like to break the news that he is once again publisher, because that’s how they work now that they’re the dynamic duo and have I mentioned this week how much I LOVED seeing their dynamic last week? Kelsey proves that she has indeed kept her head and announces that Millennial secured a new investor and that Charles is once again in the boss seat and I am once again extremely impressed with Kelsey this season, as is Diana (and honestly if you have the D.Trout stamp of approval, what more do you need?). I will also never tire of seeing Diana, Kelsey and Liza as true peers and now friends, it’s undoubtedly a highlight of season 6.

The book pitch of the week is extremely timely (as always), a manners for millennials piece that aims to counteract the generation’s greatest shortcomings, such as ghosting exes and not RSVPing to weddings. This episode really did have some stellar lines and the fact that Liza can now drop jokes in meetings, such as her ‘neither was I’ response to the author’s ‘I am not proud to be a millennial’, is the kind of goodness I am here for since the lie is no longer a thing. Naturally Liza and Diana are both very interested in finding out more about these topics and it turns out the best way to get some finality with the ex is to write a good ol’ fashioned Dear John letter (best way to get those RSVP’s -unknown). This is reinforced nicely in Charles’ office, when Liza leaps off Charles’ desk as though she and Charles were caught christening the damn thing (which would’ve been very ok by me and at this point you should know I’m not at all sorry) by Diana bearing flowers and note from Alice the author letting them know she will not be publishing her book with Millennial (so no Charles, the flowers are not for you). All this talk of how good letters are leads to Liza penning her Dear Josh letter that night, which we only catch a tantalizing glimpse of initially, before the narration and accompanying montage when Josh actually receives it.

While it was only brief, Charles asking Liza how she feels about him being back as publisher and her answering honestly, she just wishes Kelsey hadn’t been unceremoniously stripped of the title, is yet another lovely insight into their relationship. Charles continuing with, ‘what about you, always thinking of others, how do you feel?’, excuse me while I clutch my heart at the sweetness of it all and seriously, does ANYONE ever ask Liza this? The family picture on Charles’ desk is noted and it’s great but I also can’t help but feel it’s somewhat ominous so I’m putting my gush on pause (v. open to being proven wrong on this).

Kelsey and Zane continue to be all over the place, I have so little investment in them as a pairing and I really think it’s because I have simply not seen enough of them together to know whether I care, though I have enjoyed a number of their interactions recently. It also doesn’t help that Zane has been many shades of douche this season. Since professing their love for one another, he is being caring at the start of this week’s ep, apologising and saying he feels partly responsible for Kelsey’s demotion and trying to allay Kelsey’s self-doubt. It is Kelsey who says that she doesn’t know how to do this with Zane and that one of them always loses (the old editors-who-were-peers-and-then-one-became-the-boss-but-now-they’re-peers-again curse), which returns Zane to Douchetown in time for the staff meeting.

I felt for Kelsey, it would be so hard sitting in that first meeting with Charles at the helm again, though him going through all the acquisitions and saying these are a credit to Kelsey’s impeccable instincts was great and necessary. But then Charles brings up the Arabian Seas book and the ‘we’ enters the conversation, along with a list of books that sound like they belong on the bargain shelf because yawn and yes it’s fine that Charles has his own instincts, but Zane in this meeting is awful. Kelsey calls him out, she is clearly and rightfully angry about the unfairness of her entire situation and she warns Charles to, ‘pay attention…and you too Liza. I didn’t have any boundaries at work and look what happened’. I have no idea if this is foreshadowing but I feel like it could be juicy if it was so let’s keep abreast of any future developments (yes that is a boob pun and you’re welcome).

Highlight of this whole scene of course is Liza ripping into the guy and the whole office when Kelsey walks out of the meeting and can hear that her meme has been made into a banger of a tune. We get fearsome Liza schooling the entire room on the fact that Kelsey did get the money, ‘that’s why we all have a job, she’s a goddamn hero’. YESSSSSS Liza *praise hands*. Kelsey in turn agrees to speak at the girls school event that Lauren put to her earlier (yes it IS ok to be angry and Kelsey no longer distancing herself from her social media mistake but using it as a platform to empower others and be a role model…where do I sign?).

Lauren was in ultimate PR and friend mode for Kelsey this week, trying to figure out how to spin Boobgate and trying to see the positive side of all the invitation cancellations. I always say it, I know, but Lauren’s unrelenting advocacy for her friends is absolutely one of her best qualities and her line, ‘you are an example of a woman who made a very simple mistake and the patriarchy seizing that opportunity to tear you down’, was fantastic. She also very much latched onto the SHero theme and I appreciated her use of the word at any given opportunity.

It is as Lauren and Josh are leaving to catch an Uber to Inkburg Midtown that we discover this means he is very relieved Claire doesn’t have to move to LA now. I really don’t get this. I said last week that Josh is far too woke to expect the mother of his child to bail on her career aspiration just so he doesn’t have to move to LA, especially considering he knows the struggle Liza faced in her own career journey after having Caitlin (who you may remember is her daughter…or was. Current status unknown). If we’d seen in their conversation Claire saying that she really doesn’t want to move but she can’t see another way to give Gemma the life she hopes, then ok, Josh finding a way to up his income is ace. So I do hope we find out at some point this was the case, because Josh deciding he’ll get more money so Claire and Gemma can stay for his convenience, it’s just nope.

Though I do have to say that the biggest benefit of Josh securing the Infinitely 21 partnership is getting to see more Shelly because omfg I cannot with her. The way she talks about paint colours, giving her personal number, the line I could not believe I heard, ‘but seriously, Josh, unload on me’ ( I love that this season has seemed censored af compared to previous ones – I don’t love this but you know what I mean- yet lines like this get dropped in. Too good), I am in awe of her complete and unabashed lust for him.

It is between picking paint colours that Josh finds the letter from Liza and it is heart wrenching. And beautiful. The emotion really is palpable as Josh leaves the store to find somewhere to read it once he realises what it is. The flashback montage is certainly something that hasn’t been utilized in the show and it really leaves such an impression. Coupled with the narration of the letter, it really captures the impact of Josh on Liza’s life and Liza’s genuine commitment to make her relationship with Charles work. If this show was wanting to move these characters past this old relationship it would have been a poignant and perfect way to do it. However it plays out in the long run, I thought it was really well done.

The hands down highlight of this entire episode for me was Diana’s bachelorette party. Lauren running at an unsuspecting Diana screaming, ‘get in the Hummer bitch’ is one of the funniest moments of the series, I will be laughing for eternity. Liza reminding Diana that, ‘I get you’, yes she does and I just love everything about seeing these women, all the Younger women, out together. I feel like the focus of this episode really got pulled to the other drama but this is the first time we’ve ever seen every female character of this show together in a room and I feel like THIS IS A BIG DEAL. Maggie schooling Diana on how strip clubs work and SO many brilliant lines, as Diana waves her money in the air only to tell the first stripper, ‘You’re a lot, no thank you’, then ‘Hi, little one’ as she flags another. The hilarity does not stop with Diana, Lauren’s, ‘here’s a fiver, you should smile more’ is every kind of YES (I sense a whiff of Liz Lemon in that line and I approve). As Liza and Kelsey talk about men and work and blah, Diana tries to bring them back to the purpose of the evening, ‘ladies, there are bulging crotches in your faces, can you focus?’. Listen to the Queen people. Yet another Diana wedding related event in which she ends up asking, ‘how did tonight become all about you?’ and I was thinking the same Diva. *Eyeroll*

The Hummer ends up at Inkburg because Lauren wants to help Diana fulfil her wish of doing something she’ll regret for the rest of her life (and obviously the reason they all need to be there is so Liza and Josh can have their post-letter confrontation). They are all so drunk, it’s hilarious and I would watch an entire feature film about the antics of this group while inebriated. Seriously, take my money. From Lauren’s, ‘Get out of the hummer Doana’ to Maggie’s, ‘I forgot we were in a car’, they cover the entire drunk person spectrum. On top of that we have Diana’s penis balloon hat position which just cracks me up because I am 10 but my fave is Diana saying to Josh, ‘John, just something small, tasteful and literary’ and then as she’s leaving, ‘it was nice to meet you Jake’. Obvs a wise choice not to go through with the tat but I’d love to know what Diana would have ended up with.

Josh calling Liza out on writing the letter and trying to walk away never talking to him was completely fair enough. Him reminding her that she said she would always be there for him, be Gemma’s aunt Liza, he’s not wrong and his hurt and confusion are understandable. But it is so nice to finally hear Liza making a choice and sticking to it (whether she does or not in the future). Josh saying that he gets it, she’s scared of what they were, they still are, it’s powerful and her defensiveness of Charles when he says that she’s making the safe choice is exactly the right response if she really means she has chosen him. And not because I love Charles and Liza together, but because Liza is standing up for her choice and her ‘don’t you tell me what I feel’ retort is so charged and fierce and I love it. ‘I know this is hard to accept Josh, but we were a moment in time. But the time has passed’ - this whole scene is wonderfully acted, the chemistry between these characters has always been strong and this is no exception. And obviously I agree that they need to move on. However my second big disappointment for this episode is the, ‘you forget Liza, I know you. I know when you’re lying (a couple of seasons of thinking she was 26 might contradict that but ok), especially to yourself.’

I absolutely understand the sentiment and I completely appreciate the setup for the zinger, ‘you wrote a letter to the wrong guy’ (though I do take issue with that line in general considering Liza has just said she’s made her choice. Even a simple, ‘I think’ in front of it would’ve made it less arrogant), but if this setup is leading to a Josh and Liza reunion down the track, then I would have preferred the execution be different because to me, this is not insightful or romantic, it’s Josh once again questioning Liza’s understanding of herself and her needs (I know it’s meant to be him trying to get her to ‘be real’ but it just doesn’t land like that for me). I have no doubt lots of fans are jubilant but it feels manipulative and is not a tactic that compels me to think they might have something worth revisiting. If after Liza said, ‘I love him more’ Josh had looked at her with that heartbreak in his eyes he can convey so well and said, ‘well then I hope he loves you the way you deserve’ or something and walked away, then THAT would show growth and make the possibility of him being an option again (which is clearly where this is all heading) far more compelling IMO.

So in one of the best bait and switch moments this show has delivered, Liza returns to the loft and has a good hard look at the gala photo with Charles and Michelle and Tom (and in my head she’s thinking about how good it is she and Charles promised each other they won’t go to things like that anymore) before we see another letter starting, Dear Charles. And just when all the Team Charles Stans were going to have a collective meltdown, it turns out it’s Kelsey writing her resignation letter and we all exhaled but then didn’t because Kelsey, what are you doing??? So. Much. DRAH-MAH, so little time.

Ramble Lite™, that was a good joke wasn’t it? Can’t believe we’ve reached the finale but I am also very ready because WE GET TO GO TO A WEDDING!!!! Better get my neckwear sorted…

#youngertv #younger tv #ramble #6x11 #younger season 6 #liza miller #charles brooks #diana trout #kelsey peters #maggie amato #liza x charles #team charles #review

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jasminwalsh-blog1 · 6 years ago

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Little Girls, Big Boobs

A self evaluation of my Graphic Design project on female representation. 2017.

My project was an investigation into the way that the media portrays women and girls of every denomination, specifically focusing on film, television, and magazines as sources for criticism. I wanted to draw particular attention to the ways in which these representations affect young teenage girls as I believe that it is at this stage in a girl’s life that they are most impressionable, most vulnerable, and most susceptible to the unrealistic expectations that major media forms encourage them to place on themselves. As a feminist, I take issue with a lot of the representations of women that are fed to young girls on a daily basis. When models who work tirelessly to be skinny and conventionally attractive are covered in make up for photo shoots in carefully lit studios, for the photos to then be altered and manipulated, the versions of these women that are released to the public often show an image of perfection that is unattainable. Girls quickly compare themselves to these images, judging themselves as too fat or too flawed, and in extreme cases these girls can resort to unhealthy measures in an attempt to achieve excellence. My project was an attempt to address these issues in an engaging way, and to redress the distorted way in which femininity is presented in the media.

Whilst I wanted my final piece to be accessible to anyone as it regards a serious issue that I feel everyone should be aware of, I decided to create three double page spreads for a magazine with a female audience. By catering to an adult demographic, rather than directly addressing the group of people that I was specifically concerned with, I hoped to raise awareness of the issue of misrepresentation. Appealing to a more mature audience was an attempt to get the topic taking more seriously, highlighting the importance of acknowledging these issues, meaning readers can help the next generation of women realise their own beauty, rather than obsessing over the heavily edited images that fill our surroundings.

I found the work of David Shrigley and Michel Canetti particularly inspirational during my project as although they have very different styles, they both were very effective and I wanted to translate their impact into my work.

The untitled drawing by Shrigley clearly shows his hand-made, plop almost messy style. Shrigley uses a plain white background for his simple black line drawing, contrasting the unsteady lines of the figure with the straight lines showing the corner of the room and underlining the lettering. This technique particularly inspired my article entitled ‘Distorted’ with the hand drawn figure presenting a rudimentary example of what is supposedly the perfect body image. However, by over exaggerating some features and applying the line drawing style, I hoped that the image would be interpreted as satirical as whilst supposedly perfect in the figure’s weight and proportions, they are flawed and overly simplistic in their drawn style.

The work of Michel Canetti was also influential in my final piece as I had already noted that a lot of fashion illustrators use watercolours in their work, and because I think the fashion industry has a big role to play in the way that young girls view themselves and form their ideas of ‘perfection’, I wanted to apply this same technique in order to strengthen the link between the industry and the issues I was trying to bring to light. Canetti primarily uses black watercolour pain in his work, with the use of one other colour. I really like this technique as I think it can be used to draw the eye to a particular piece of anatomy, such as the lips as seen in the portrait of Marie-Therese. I used watercolours in my ‘Skinny?’ article spread and included a small portrait for which I used black water colours and attempted a style similar to Michel Canetti and Louis Jover. Rather than including a small amount of colour in the portrait, however, I decided to do a gradient wash for the background to add the colour element.

I was quite happy with my final piece as I think each article spread has a nice design and are appropriately simple, meaning the viewer would not get overwhelmed by the amount on the page, which may discourage them from reading the actual article and therefore not really take in the message that I was trying to convey. I looked at the way in which magazines aimed at younger girls were constructed and believe that my designs would be much more attractive to an adult audience, as initially intended. I think by keeping the text minimal on the ‘Bare Faced’ and ‘Skinny?’ double page spreads I would be able to hold the audience’s attention and encourage them to focus on the message, with soft, simple imagery enhancing, rather than distracting, from the reading. I would still make a few alterations to the ‘Distortion’ as I felt the design was slightly too empty.

I liked the use of colour throughout as the warm tone given to the ‘Bare Faced’ piece contrasts with the image of the face, which is slightly inhuman and designed to make the viewer slightly uncomfortable. The use of reverse out with the text also makes it stand out as it is the brightest object on the page, meaning it will draw the eye and make the viewer more likely to read it and pay attention to its message. I also thought that by keeping the ‘Distorted’ article in monochrome, with the exception for a small paint mark obscuring part of the line drawing if the figure, was particularly effective. The paint mark was a red which I enhanced in Photoshop to make it stand out even more against the white background. The colour has obvious powerful and violent connotations, symbolising the danger of the impact of false representations of femininity within the media and add a sense of urgency to my message. The ‘Skinny?’ article uses a lot more pastel type colours, primarily the cyan and pink which also have the associations of gender. This softer look would avoid the idea of feminism as a movement full of angry women who hate men, which is far from the reality as it is just a group of people looking for equality, and one of the issues that needs to be addressed is the way that models are compared presented, and how this can give girls unrealistic expectations for the type of body they feel they should grow up to have.

The main issues I found were in ensuring the pieces of work were of the top quality. The image that I used as the background on the ‘Bare Faced’ article was not a high enough quality and so came out slightly pixelated. In order to resolve this, I put a filter on the photo which blurred the sharper edges and made the pixilation a lot less noticeable, it almost added to the almost oneiric effect of the photograph. I also feel as though my final spreads did not have the level of cohesion that I wanted; they could just as easily have come from three separate magazines as opposed to a singular one. In order to rectify this, I could have a more consistent colour pallet, but I do like the colours that I used and I think I did allow for a certain amount of unity within my piece as I used the same font and same sized type for the article text and headline. I think I could have done more development and experimentation before the production of my final piece in order to enhance my final designs, but I am still quite happy with the work I produced.

In this project I had a little opportunity to experiment with using a needle and thread, I quite liked the effect it made and so if I can find an opportunity to use this technique again in my next project I will. I also really enjoyed line drawing and so will try to do more illustrative work in the future. This project also allowed me to advance my skills in programmes such as Photoshop and InDesign as I used Photoshop for a lot of editing my imagery, and my final piece was produced in InDesign. I am sure that these skills will benefit me in the future and I look forward to gaining more experience with them, as well as using all the development I made in all areas to feed into the next project.

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7thdimentionsimulation · 3 years ago

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Presentation script

I've had an obsession with camouflage my whole life, growing up in the bush made it seem so normal, and those thoughts were boosted by going to a beautiful rural school. That pushed the ideas of being one with your environment, and how important we are to it and vice versa. When I was at school I used to have problems with keeping my attention on the teacher, always daydreaming into my own world. There was always something to disrupt or distract me, keeping my attention away from what was in front of me, which leads me into my topic. Disruption camouflage, and how to provoke the public to see you standing out and drawing attention, rather than looking away or making you invisible.

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I wanted to show some examples of disruption camouflage to give you an idea into my thinking. Firstly I'd like to start by adopting a phrase ‘nega camouflage’ (nega meaning negative or in this case opposite), which is another way of saying camouflage that shows. A great example of this was Norman Wilkinson’s Dazzle camouflage (also known as Razzle Dazzle) first trialed in 1919. It’s counterintuitive camouflage technique, focused on confusing the vision of German u-boats. Creating a visual disruption giving British naval boats a momentary advantage, in a war fort in millimeters, if a German u-boats torpedo was even a few millimeters off course, it could result in the ship being completely missed. Professor Roy R. Behrens quotes, “for Wilkinson to come up with the ideas of redefining camouflage as high visibility as opposed to low visibility, was pretty astonishing”. This concept was so astonishing because up until the start of the 19th century camouflage was only seen as a form of concealment, Wilkinson however showed that camouflage was much more than a cloaking device. It was a tool that in the right hands could distract and disrupt the vision of the opposing ships, confusing the size, speed, and direction of the vestle.

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Another technique of disruptive camouflage is the example of Disney’s ‘Go away green’. The purpose of ‘Go away green’, is to obscure security equipment, construction sights, and blend large objects into the surroundings. This technique of disruption focuses on making the viewer's peripheral vision believe the area continuous, giving them a false sense of awareness, which falls into the optical illusion side of my thinking.

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Being a graphic designer, even a presentation needs a table of contents, so I thought early on I would outline the key components of my presentation, firstly my methodologies, both digital and textile

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My key themes, distortion, reconstruction, and layering.

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And finally my practitioners I will talk more in depth about, Akiyoshi Kitaoka, Adam Harvey, Sir David Attenbourgh, and...

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Jonathan Castro

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This year I really wanted to look deeper into halftones and an artist that I've always admired is Jonathan Castro, and his halftone system. The major elements I was interested in were his use of opacity, layering, image distortion, and vibrancy. Which I want to develop into my own practice.

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Which brings us to my digital system development

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And the systems I have developed from Jonathan Castro’s work. This year I developed two different digital systems that i've used to throughout my practice

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My first system works on taking photos or finding photos, and building different versions of them. Starting with creating each image into a halftone rendering, I then began playing around with line art, inversin, and grayscales of the image. Creating 2-5 different versions of each image gives me more options when it comes to the layering process.

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Next I thought I'd break down the layering process of a work from mid years, titled ‘master piece’. These aren't all the images used as it didn't fit nicely, but it's enough to convey the system. Which relies on individual placement and sizing of each image. With each layer having its own opacity to give the desired effect, predominantly layering difference, multiply, hue, and saturation opacities, but testing every form of opacity before setting on what I was happy with.

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Until we get to the final outcome, where the original images are being so distorted that you start to build your own imagery. As you come in closer..

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You become even more entranced in the image, finding more are more, diving deeper until it becomes too overwhelming and a mental rest. This system mostly focuses on distraction, building eye-catching imagery that draws the viewer in through its excessive detail, building on my concept of ‘nega camouflage’.

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Which brings me to my second digital system

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Starting the same as my first system, but focusing on adding things on top of a singular image, distorting the original.

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Building on the concept of distortion, I focused on layering and in this case using ‘master piece’ zoomed up very close to layer over the image. The system is quite similar to my first at this point playing around with different opacities, till I find the one I'm happy with.

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Next step, More versions. Lots more, and where this system starts to separate is focusing on a singular image as reiterated earlier, in this case creating 72 variants of the image, using different parts of ‘master piece’. On the left you can see the opacity system that I used to create each image, black darken the image, light blue difference, aqua lighten the image, and green was a free for all, giving a bit more playfulness to the process, and randomness.

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Moving forward, more layering, now layering the opacity pattern over top with a hue opacity.

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And now beginning the selection process, breaking down the image into segments. As the original image becomes more and more distorted, and start to reconstruct the meaning. I refer to this stage as ‘finding the tasty bits’, and ideology from our lectures when researching for our literature reviews. I've outlined the segment that we will zoom in on in red.

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Now that we have our segment, it's even more breaking down. Scaling it back more and more, down to the size of the original image, which has again been highlighted in red. I call this part ‘finding the taste bit within the tastiest segment’.

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Until we reach our final outcome, the tastiest bit within the tastiest segment. So distorted that it now has its own meaning, but if you held it next to the original image you would still be able to see the reminisce, or resemblance. I think in a nutshell this for me is closer to Castro’s system, but I think adapting parts from each system will be my overall outcome.

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Which brings me to my second practitioner..

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Akiyoshi Kitaoka

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You can't truly distract someone without an illusion, and there is no more iconic illusion designer than Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka, based in Japan, Kitaoka is seen as the modern godfather of peripheral drift illusions. I thought I'd take this moment to break down how they work as it's an integral part of my disruption camouflage. This illusion is called ‘Rotating Snake’, and I don't know about you, but when I was little this and camouflage were the shit. I covered all my books for years in this exact pattern, which probably was one of the reasons I was so distracted in class. Anyway, into the science behind the illusion. ‘Rotation snake’ is a four colour system relying on a delayed release of motion detection neurons, which I refer to as ‘lag time’ in the visual cortex. It starts with an instant burst as the black and white colours are perceived, and then a second longer and slower release of neurons as the contrasting blue and yellow are perceived.

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The result is a moving static image, which is an oxymoron, and I think this is what inspired me to want to work with this specific illusion. The concept of a static image creating movement is just so mind blending, and I wanted to see where we could push it.

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I started with applying the peripheral drift illusion to one of the images from system two, and was surprised how much it added to the work. I began thinking about how I could layer the illusion? And how I could push this illusion into a textile world.

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Which brings me to my own development of Akiyoshi’s ‘rotating snake’. I figured out how to build his illusion by messing around with building pattern brushes and symbols, and through trial and error, rotating and reshaping I came up with an almost perfect version. I then began testing different colour schemes to find the strongest peripheral effect. As you can see on the right of the slide, this is the optical illusion contrast wheel, pairing up contrasting colours that have the best visual cortex reaction.

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Through a bit of mixing and matching I found there were 2 major standouts on the left, a green and pink colour scheme I call ‘Watermelon’, for obvious colour reasons, and on the right Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s colour scheme, which I fittingly called Akiyoshi’s.

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The goal with these ‘rotating snake’ illusions is to apply them to clothing through sublimation, a form of inkjet printing, much like a printer does with paper, only onto fabric. The idea is to start building the concept of disruption camouflage in a more urban tangible setting. The concept of disruption camouflage is more than illusions though, it's about attracting the attention of your surroundings, I guess in a nutshell it's standing out from the crowd.

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The Idea of being able to stand out in a crowd leaves you somewhat vulnerable to options, which is expected, but there is a more obvious threat wherever you go, that threat is servanice.

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Which leading into talking about Adam Harvey

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Adam Harvey is the founder of ‘Hyperface’ servanice camouflage, a digital made textile system, which uses facial recognition patterns to disrupt and distract servanice cameras. In the aim of reducing the correct detection of facial recognition by providing false faces, that distract computer vision algorithms. Why this concept works is due to computer vision algorithms' non definite depiction of a face, there is never one perfect face, only face like or non face like.

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I started thinking about some works I'd done earlier in the year, where I had been researching Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s ‘Distorted figure’, an optical illusion meant to trick the mind into believing that the segmented squares are not evenly laid out, and how the process wasn't that different to Adam Harveys ‘Hyperface’, in terms of pattern development.

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Continuing on with Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s ‘Distorted figure’, I developed a series of camouflage scarfs based on my favorite camo ‘choco’ as my template, and overlaid the colours with important places from my childhood. Creating swatch colour pallets and adapting them to the form of the illusion, I called this Collection ‘Childhood Camouflage’. In hindsight I wish I had known about Adam Harvey before making this collection, because it would have pushed me to think more about the shapes, and forms I was creating, and the effect it could have in an urban environment. But nevertheless I think the outcome was a step in the right direction.

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I decided to do a run of seven sublimated scarfs of my ‘Childhood’ print, because realistically I wanted to see something physical, and the confidence that I could make sublimation tangible.

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I thought now would be a good time to look at a couple textile practitioners that I've been looking at for inspiration. Firstly Daoyuan Ding, the ITS fashion show winner from 2019, and his textile work. With my practice I don't hope to mimic any artist style, but I do like to draw elements from their work, as stepping stones for my practice. Daoyuan Ding is a great example of not overdoing the work, and that's something that I personally struggle with as I tend to just want to add more and more layers until it's an explosion of colour, and detail. So with the sublimation I'm going to do moving forward, I'm going to think about giving the garments or accessories breathing room. Or atleast make the important parts stand out and the rest blend together.

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The second practitioner and fashion designer is Chez Ichiro, going by the alias ICHI, and his amazing distorted prints. ICHI in a similar way knows how to use negative space with his garments, creating eye-catching moments and allowing the garments to still be formal.

(Slide)

I think the important thing for me with ICHI’s work, in terms of my practice, was the creativity. It showed me that I wasn't even thinking out of the box yet, which gave me hope that my practice will flesh out over time, and to be a bit more crazy with my ideas.

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Which brings me to my final inspiration..

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Sir David Attenbourgh

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I was on netflix at night early in the year, and I was saying to myself, “man I really need something to inspire me for these lit reviews coming up”, and bam there it was. Sir David Attenbourgh’s ‘life in colour’, a three part series looking at all the weird and wonderful colours and patterns found in nature, made by nature. One interesting element that stuck out to me was when he talked about seasonal arctic animals, and how they change their coats to match their environments.

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After watching the Sir David Attenbourgh series I wanted to see if I could adapt the seasonal arctic animals camouflage into a digital system. I did this by creating a 360 frame hue camouflage, capturing a segment of as many abnormal and normal environments as I could.

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Here are some examples of how camouflage can adapt to different environments, and I want to keep pushing this idea of adaptable clothing and camouflage into my textile practice.

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When thinking about how not to approach adaptable camouflage, a great example is the tiger. The tiger is orange because it predominantly hunts deer, and deer can't see orange. In the example picture we see what a deer see’s on the left vs a human on the right, and I think this is an important trait to get right when thinking about an adaptable camouflage.

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I continued on my thinking by looking at the Monster moths of Britain, thinking about how their wings disrupt predators, giving the moths a few seconds of hesitation or a second thought before they are attacked, and how that was similar to the way dazzle camouflage is effective. I then began to think about what that might look like in an urban environment, is it eye-catching like a detailed digital work, or does it attract the viewer in by being really different, vibrant, and standing out.

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Which brings me to some more examples of adaptations of insects in their environments, to give them an advantage in survival. The two examples I have here, the Sphinx Hawk Caterpillar and the Metalmark spider, both use an adaptation I call ‘Shapeshifting’. The idea of shapeshifting is to be able to adapt to multiple environments, and is a concept that has been tackled by the last couple practitioners..

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Firstly Ding Yun Zhang, and his orange metallic helmet bag. Which is able to change from a bag to a helmet, to a backpack. Although it's not exactly what I have in mind as it doesn't really adapt to the environment, it does adapt to the users needs, which I think is a step in the right direction with my process.

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Secondly, Virgil Abloh’s 2054 adaptable vest. Turning from a vest, to a long sleeve windbreaker, to an under hooded windbreaker and a puffer vest. This is a great example of shapeshifting clothing, and a real inspiration for my conceptual ideas. Again similar to Ding Yun Zhang, this is more of an example of adapting to users needs. But I thought in terms of weather this is a great concept for environmental adaptability. (If video hasn’t finished banter, if it has slide)

(Slide)

To end I thought I'd show you where my current practice is at. Because I've been unable to sublimate anything because of Covid, it's made me think outside of the box a bit more. So I was playing with the idea of something that made you look one way in the day another at night, and what better example than Bioluminescent mushrooms, in this case Ghost mushrooms.

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So I tried to adapt that into a series of hats, using resin and glow in the dark powder. Creating an object that can change how you are perceived in different amounts of light, or environments.

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Digitally, I've been working on Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s ‘rotating snake’ illusion, and different ways I can make it environmentally adaptable. An interesting idea I had moving forward was to cut out different components of the illusions. Whether it's, the black allowing the surroundings to build the negative colour.

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Or using the contrasting landscapes of our urban jungle, and the real jungle, under laid beneath the cut out of the illusion. Which due to the variety of colours, makes the optical illusion work.

(slide)

And thats where im at, thank you for listening

0 notes

spryfilm · 6 years ago

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“Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man” (1994 – 1997)

Television

70 Episodes

Created by: Everett Peck

Featuring: Jason Alexander, Gregg Berger, Nancy Travis, Dana Hill, Pat Musick, E.G. Daily, Dweezil Zappa

Duckman: “Did I ever tell you my Dad’s last words to me”

Cornfed: “Careful, son, I don’t think the safety is on.”

Duckman: “Before that.”

Never one to look back on ‘the good old days’ as there is little to be gained, especially when viewing older television shows, which on the most part have not aged very well I was extra pleased to see that one of the great adult animated shows “Duckman” (1994-1997) was being released on DVD, to, hopefully, a new audience which this hilarious as well as truly groundbreaking show deserves. Before the proliferation of more grown up animation there were only a handful of similarly veined shows viewers could turn to in the 1990s, of course those shows like this one broke rules, commented on the day as well as being truly funny. You may recognize the names, “Beavis and Butt-head” (1993-2011), “The Maxx” (1995), “Aeon Flux” (1991-1995), “Ren and Stimpy” (1991-1996) and “The Critic” (1994-1995), these were all in different ways genre defying as well as genre breaking something that happens all to rarely in the homogenized present we find ourselves in. Of course, some of these shows were more successful than others with the nadir being “Beavis and Butt-head” and “Ren and Stimpy”, but my personal favorite was always “Duckman”.

“Duckman”, the series centers on Eric T. Duckman (voiced by Jason Alexander), a lascivious, widowed, self-hating, grouchy anthropomorphic duck who lives with his family in Los Angeles (as mentioned in the episode “Bev Takes a Holiday”) and works as a private detective. The tagline of the show, seen in the opening credits, is “Private Dick/Family Man” (“dick” is a triple entendre).

Main characters include Cornfed (voiced by Gregg Berger), a pig who is Duckman’s Joe Friday-esque business partner and best friend, Ajax (voiced by Dweezil Zappa), Duckman’s eldest, mentally-slow teenage son; Charles (voiced by Dana Hill and later Pat Musick) and Mambo (voiced by E. G. Daily), Duckman’s Conjoined twin child genius sons whose heads share a body; Bernice (voiced by Nancy Travis), Duckman’s sister-in-law and the identical twin of Beatrice who is a fanatic fitness buff and hates Duckman with a passion; Grandma-ma (voiced by Travis), Duckman’s comatose, immensely flatulent mother-in-law; Agnes Delrooney (voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray), Grandma-ma’s doppelgänger who kidnaps her and poses as her for several episodes; Fluffy and Uranus (voiced by Pat Musick), Duckman’s two Care Bear-esque teddy-bear office assistants.

Everett Peck is the sole creator of the television show, his drawings have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy and Time, as well as numerous books, comics and movie posters. He has participated in gallery shows in Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C., and has written animated cartoons for Rugrats and The Critic. “Duckman” was originally created as a comic book that was first published by Dark Horse in 1990, in 1994 Duckman was turned into an animated series.

The show was animated by Clasky-Csupo, and like their better-remembered, kid-focused shows “Rugrats” (1990-2006) it has an expressive, super-deformed art style that’s somewhat reminiscent of independent syndicated comics like those of Lynda Barry and early Matt Groening. The opening credits are super 90s with colorful collages and very stilted drop-frame animation, in this case with a backup theme by Frank Zappa, whose son Dweezil voices Duckman’s charmingly vacant surf-speaking son Ajax.

Like “The Critic”, “Duckman” encounters random celebrities at times. Like “Ren and Stimpy”, he’s insanely, cartoonishly violent, mostly to his two assistants, Fluffy and Uranus; Care Bear parodies who are sweetly naive and always bounce back from whatever lethal end they meet at their boss’ hands in any given scene. Like “Aeon Flux”, the show was not shy about showing as much animated female flesh as could be gotten away with. But all that was just sizzle on the steak: Duckman balanced the humor with pathos, rubbing in the fact that the lead character’s life is miserable, but also that he loves his three sons and deeply mourns his wife.

And then, at its best, “Duckman” contained utterly scathing satire that would raise eyebrows even today. Satire is extremely important to animation espepcially those series from the 1990s, it is a technique employed by writers to expose and criticize foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society, by using humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule. It intends to improve humanity by criticizing its follies and foibles.

In the intervening years, either by way of generational change, or just increasing conformity, we’ve lost that desire to mock. Cartoons today are safe. They may proffer to highlight social justice issues, or even raise awareness of important causes, but they do so in a neutral inoffensive manner.

Televison shows like “Duckman” are important beucase its seems like we have lost the tendancy to create proper satires espceiclly in animation. Shows (even web series) are focusing more on entertainment. Animation and cartoons in general are the perfect vehicle with which to mock the deservedly mockable. Politicians, silicon valley wonks, terrorists; all are so very ripe for plunder yet remain untouched. Has western society embraced a degree of political correctness that emasculates satire? It seems that way doesn’t it? Of course provoking unwanted responses isn’t helping. Not everyone enjoys having their faults and weaknesses exposed and many are wont to seek revenge on those who do. Yet animation’s unique place in the entertainment and art spheres means that it can tackle such complex issues without losing its humurous appeal. Satire is the most accessible way of doing so, and it’s a shame it seems to have vanished form contemporary shows and films. Here’s hoping it comes back.

Interestingly there are reasons why animal based animations are popular as well as extremely popular and they are:

– The so-called ‘Bambi effect’ suggests that humans find animals easier to empathise with, rather than other humans, on account of their ‘cuteness’. Indeed, this phenomenon could also possibly be explained by Sigmund Freud’s theory that as children we consider ourselves equal to animals and so find it easy to empathise with them. Although this perception often does not last into adulthood, it still positively impacts upon adults’ attitudes towards animals.

– Animated animals, even more so than animated humans, are able to transcend these arbitrary distinctions to become universally appealing.

– They are universal without being bland. However, their universality does not make them bland. Because they are not human, they can be attributed other interesting and defining characteristics that do not have cultural significance.

– Animals are similar enough to us to allow us to empathise with them, but not so similar that we feel their pain as if it were our own. This means animated animal characters provide an excellent way to explore difficult topics whilst maintaining a slight emotional distance.

– Unlike human stereotypes, animal species stereotypes are unlikely to offend audiences. By using animated, anthropomorphized characters, animators are able to use stereotypes to humorous effect. Animal stereotypes can simultaneously provide satirical humour to adults and appear humorous to children simply on account of their ‘silliness’ or ‘cuteness’.

– As much as the use of species stereotype can be important in helping to provide humour and further the plot, subverting tropes is also an effective way to create humour.

– As human beings we like to consider ourselves as being at the centre of the universe. This leads us to assume in our narcissism that all species have the same characteristics as us and so we project our characteristics onto animals almost unthinkingly.

– Humans expect less detail in the depiction of animals than they do in the portrayal of humans. This means that animated animals can function as allegories in a way that human characters could not.

– A lot of the comedy of animation tends to derive from exaggeration. It is much easier to achieve this without causing offence when the characters aren’t human.

All in all “Duckman” was not only an entertaining show but one that spoke to people in terms of society, celebrity, economics and politics of the time. What is unique is that with the intervening years as well as the changes in technology this show still stands up as well as having something to say about the world we live in today.

“Duckman” is available now on DVD and is worth checking out.

Episodes:

Season 1:

“I, Duckman”– Feeling underappreciated by his family, Duckman hunts down the man mailing him bombs thinking he’s the only one who cares.

“T.V. or Not to Be”– Duckman is hired by a televangelist to find a missing painting and has a near-death experience after being captured and suffocated with cellophane.

“Gripes of Wrath”– Duckman takes his children to the unveiling of a supercomputer named Loretta. However, during the unveiling, Loretta overhears a comment Duckman makes and alters reality to make everything go Duckman’s way… for a while.

“Psyche”– Feeling insecure about himself, Duckman gets plastic surgery for his bill. Not long after, two buxom blondes hire him and Cornfed to investigate why they only attract men who only want them for their bodies causing Duckman to have a crisis of conscience.

“Gland of Opportunity”– After an accident at an amusement park, the cowardly Duckman has the adrenal gland of a daredevil transplanted into his body giving him a new outlook on life.

“Ride the High School”– Ajax is offered a scholarship to an exclusive boarding school, which Duckman sends him to, unaware that the scholarship is part of a plan by his arch-nemesis King Chicken.

“A Civil War”– Duckman gets jealous when his family showers Cornfed with attention, so he fires him during their next case: a death investigation for an insurance company.

“Not So Easy Riders”– To escape paying years of Duckman’s back taxes he and Cornfed flee on motorcycles.

“It’s the Thing of the Principal”– Ajax and his vice-principal fall in love and elope, leaving Bernice and Duckman to track them down, posing as a married couple themselves.

“Cellar Beware”– A home security expert gets Duckman to buy an elaborate security system—the “Interlopen Fuhrer 2000″—which first fails to prevent a burglary, then locks the whole family in the basement.

“American Dicks”– An episode of the reality show American Dicks films a day in the life of Duckman (chosen as the only agency not affected by a nationwide detective union’s strike) as he and Cornfed try to find the mayor after he’s been kidnapped.

“About Face”– Duckman dates an ugly woman whose voice he fell in love with when calling 911. People’s reactions, however, prompt her to seek a full makeover, making her gorgeous to everyone.

“Joking the Chicken”– A group of rude stand-up comics hire Duckman to stop Iggy Catalpa; a clean, mild-mannered, politically correct comedian whose bland, inoffensive brand of comedy becomes a sensation, thanks to his agent — King Chicken.

Season 2:

“Papa Oom M.O.W. M.O.W.”– Duckman becomes a national hero after saving the President from an assassination attempt, until it’s revealed that his “heroics” were an accident and he was merely trying to grope two women. Nonetheless he capitalizes on his newfound fame, penning a film for USA and planning a run for the Senate.

“Married Alive”– Bernice returns home from a European vacation and announces that she is marrying a self-made billionaire who plans to take her, Grandma-ma, and the kids away with him to Switzerland, leaving Duckman alone.

“Days of Whining and Neurosis”– Duckman and Cornfed go undercover at an exclusive celebrity-filled health and rehab spa to investigate the murder of a doctor. While there, Duckman detoxes from his various addictions.

“Inherit the Judgement: The Dope’s Trial”– In search of a free clock radio, Duckman takes the family across five states through the desert. On their trek they wind up in the small town of Coopville, where everyone is related, King Chicken is the sheriff, and Duckman is put on trial for heresy.

“America the Beautiful”– In an episode “not recommended for small children or certain Congressmen from the South” that’s “full of heavy-handed and over-obvious allegory” (according to the beginning disclaimer), a multi-ethnic group of children hire Duckman and Cornfed to find their idol, a gorgeous model named America. The investigation involves speaking to four of her ex-boyfriends, men who represent American life in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, while Duckman falls deeper in love with the idea of her.

“The Germ Turns”– At a new age fair, Duckman gets a visits from his dead mother (voiced by Katey Sagal)–reincarnated as a highly infectious germ because of how terrible of a mother she was. Hoping to escape the same fate, Duckman begins smothering his sons with affection, much to their chagrin.

“In the Nam of the Father”– The son Cornfed never knew he had arrives at the office and Cornfed travels back to Vietnam to find the mother and the truth. Duckman takes his family along on the trip for a much needed vacation and must also deal with the flashbacks he is experiencing.

“Research and Destroy”– When Ajax shows a natural talent for poetry, Duckman gets him to sign a contract for a greeting card company in search of a new writer.

“Clip Job”– Henry Melfly (voiced by Ben Stiller) kidnaps Duckman; blaming him for the decline in moral, family-friendly shows, resulting in a clip show as he argues his point.

Season 3:

“Noir Gang”– In a black-and-white, film noir-style episode, Cornfed and Duckman fall for the same woman — femme fatale client Tamara LaBoinque (voiced by Bebe Neuwirth) — raising conflicting feelings in Cornfed.

“Forbidden Fruit”– The family hires a French live-in tutor (King Chicken in disguise) to help the children with their study skills and social development, who sues Duckman for sexual harassment after he gives her an apple, which, according to Judeo-Christian ideology, is considered sexual as the apple is the forbidden fruit Eve ate and tempted Adam with. Ostracized by the public, Duckman is forced to hide out with Fluffy and Uranus while a feminist group begins forcing pro-female political correctness on the town.

“Grandma-ma’s Flatulent Adventure”– When the family fears they can no longer care for Grandma-ma, they decide to place her in a retirement home. Unfortunately, Duckman loses her while dropping her off, sending her on a wild adventure, which ultimately kills her.

“Color of Naught”– Tony Sterling (self-made millionaire and entrepreneur) and his assistant/supermodel Angela (the 911 operator from “About Face”) begins advertising “Beautex”, a beautifying cream to the city and its denizens. In truth, however, Sterling is King Chicken and Beautex (which doesn’t work on Duckman) is a virus which eventually devolves everything it touches.

“Sperms of Endearment”– After caring for a small girl (that calls her “mom”) in the park, Bernice decides it’s time to have children of her own. Her hunt for a father doesn’t go well, however, so she settles on artificial insemination— with sperm that turns out to be from Duckman.

“A Room with a Bellevue”– After an incredibly bad day, Duckman simply wants to make it to Charles and Mambo’s birthday dinner, but gets pushed too far by a dry cleaner. His ranting in the street (without wearing a starched collar) gets him arrested and committed to a state mental hospital for thirty days, where he settles into the routine and decides to stay, forcing Cornfed to break him out.

“Apocalypse Not”– While everyone in the city goes underground for a disaster preparedness drill, an oblivious Duckman thinks he’s the last man alive and wreaks havoc — until he finds a beautiful, deaf gymnast and falls for her. The trapped city folk, meanwhile, begin to turn on each other during their attempted escape back to the surface.

“Clear and Presidente Danger”– Duckman scams a vacation to a South American country, where a passionate Duckman rant about pay toilets leads to a people’s revolution and has him installed as dictator. After his first hundred days he’s just as corrupt a leader as the government he replaced, and it’s up to Cornfed to lead another revolution to bring him down.

“The Girls of Route Canal”– Charles and Mambo ask Duckman to tell them how he won over their mother to help build their confidence in approaching their dreamgirls. The story he tells turns out to be a spoof of The Bridges of Madison County.

“The Mallardian Candidate”– Iggy Catalpa hires Duckman to investigate a conspiracy: every time he does his laundry he loses one sock. However, the case is actually a ruse to kidnap Duckman and turn him on Cornfed by Catalpa’s World Domination League.

“Pig Amok”– Because of a previously unknown genetic problem, Cornfed has 24 hours to lose his virginity or he will die. After he fails to connect with multiple women (thanks to Duckman’s sleazy pick-up lines), Bernice has sex with him to save his life, but Cornfed thinks Bernice is in love with him.

“The Once and Future Duck”– Ajax accidentally opens a rift in the time/space continuum with his clock radio, bringing various future versions of Duckman to the past to see him, all different depending on different decisions he can make, causing him to fall into a paranoid spiral.

“The One with Lisa Kudrow in a Small Role” “Planet of the Dopes”– Feeling unappreciated by his family, Ajax leaves the house for a walk and is abducted by two redneck aliens from the planet Betamax. On Betamax, Ajax is treated like a genius and worshiped as a deity, while on Earth, Duckman realizes he knows nothing about his son — or any of his family.

“Aged Heat”– After his family mocks his detective skills, they refuse to take him seriously when he accuses Grandma-ma of acting suspiciously, though she has, in fact, been replaced by Agnes DelRooney (voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray), a robber who looks just like her.

“They Craved Duckman’s Brain!”– Duckman is cast in a hospital educational film. After being left in an active MRI chamber for hours, a mutant part of his brain grows an isotope that can cure cancer, which everyone wants.

“The Road to Dendron”– In a parody of the Bing Crosby/Bob Hope “Road to…”films, Duckman and Cornfed chaperon Ajax’s class trip to the Dendron in Sudan, where Ajax is kidnapped and held hostage by a Sultan, his Fakir, and a beautiful princess.

“Exile in Guyville”– In a distant future, a mother’s (voiced by former Fridays cast member Maryedith Burrell) bed-time story for her son involves Duckman and Bernice leading a nationwide division of the sexes after Bernice lambastes Duckman for developing raunchy lingerie with no thought to what a real woman would want to wear.

“The Longest Weekend”– Fed up with the shabby treatment of local government, Duckman and his North Phlegm neighbors form a block association to take on the nearby Dutch Elm Street block association–which has been lobbying the Mayor’s office–eventually leading to all out war.

“The Amazing Colossal Duckman”– Duckman contracts a very rare blood condition through a unique combination of chemicals which causes his blood to literally boil and his body to grow several inches every time he gets angry. After exploiting his new stature for a while, he realizes he is unable to control himself and exiles himself to a secluded island.

“Cock Tales for Four”– Duckman and Bernice attend a dinner party to meet Ajax’s new girlfriend Tammy’s parents, King Chicken and drunken wife Honey. Over the course of the evening their relationships change in unexpected ways.

Season 4:

“Dammit, Hollywood”– After seeing a bad movie Duckman sneaks into the studio head’s office to get his $7 back. The studio head, however, makes him an executive to sabotage the studio.

“Coolio Runnings”– Duckman adopts rap star Coolio (voicing himself) as his son to compete in the local father/son games over Ajax, hurting Ajax’s feelings.

“Aged Heat 2: Women in Heat”– Duckman is arrested for killing Fluffy and Uranus again and accidentally sent to a woman’s prison. There he becomes the star attraction of an illegal dance ring, until another girl arrives and bumps him from his slot.

“All About Elliott”– Duckman and Cornfed hire the college-aged Elliott (voiced by Chris Elliott) to be their office intern. Immediately he warms himself to Duckman by feeding his destructive side and pushing Cornfed away by sabotaging his personal life and commitments.

“From Brad to Worse”– Duckman is reunited with a man he made homeless 20 years ago and decides to try to help him get back on his feet.

“Bonfire of the Panties”– Cornfed, Charles and Mambo create an aphrodisiac to revive Duckman’s waning love life. When he forgets to wear it, Courtney Thorne-Smith(voicing herself) falls for him, but the family isn’t sure what to believe.

“Role With It”– Duckman, his family and staff, vacation together at an Indian casino, during which they’re approached by a psychiatrist who offers them treatment involving roleplaying to prevent them from what she sees as inevitable violent self-destruction and uncovers real issues among them.

“Ajax and Ajaxer”– While investigating a laboratory, Cornfed accidentally ingests a “Get Dumb” potion, which lowers his IQ to the point that he becomes best friends with Ajax, who is feeling left out of his family again.

“With Friends Like These”– After convincing himself again that he’s having a surprise party only to come home to just Cornfed, Duckman realizes he has no friends. Vowing to use his clean slate and try again to be the “best friend possible” he stumbles upon a group of culturally diverse, laugh tracked, 20-somethings at a coffee shop who immediately take a shine to him.

“A Trophied Duck”– Duckman drags the family to Dickcon ’97 in San Francisco to see him get an award. Unbeknownst to him, he’s actually being set up by Lauren Simone, a rival from his days at “Don Galloway’s Famous Detective School”.

“A Star is Abhorred”– During a night out, Bernice becomes an angry female music starafter yelling at Duckman for insulting her singing at a karaoke. Her life begins to go downhill, however, when she and the family go on tour and she gets sucked into the rock & roll life style.

“Bev Takes a Holiday”– Continuing from the previous episode, Bernice travels to Washington, D.C.to assume her new role as Congresswoman. Meanwhile, Beverly—long lost triplet of Beatrice and Bernice—hires a detective to find her family and seeks them out. Duckman spots her spying on him and, mistaking her for Beatrice, runs to her, only to be struck by a bus. In the hospital, Bev must pretend to be Beatrice for Duckman’s sake when he wakes and mistakes her for same.

“Love! Anger! Kvetching!” “Ain’t Gonna Be No Mo No Mo”– On the night of a big poker game Duckman has planned with Joe Walsh, Bob Guccionne and others, his Uncle Mo arrives and claims to be dying from heart cancer.

“Duckman and Cornfed in ‘Haunted Society Plumbers'”– In an episode with hints of Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, and Martin and Lewis classics, Duckman and Cornfed—temporarily plumbers—are hired as at a high-society party celebrating the unveiling of a “cursed” jewel: “The Sharon Stone”. Before the ceremony, though, the stone goes missing.

“Ebony, Baby”– Cornfed goes on vacation—his first in 11 years—Duckman works as the sidekick to a black female private investigator Ebony Sable (voiced by Tisha Campbell) who gets him involved in a world of murder, power, lust and blaxploitation clichés.

“Vuuck, as in Duck”– Duckman inherits a AAA baseball team as the last minute action of owner Gene Vuuck—who overhears him bemoaning the current status of the game and decides he’s a “real fan”—who is trying to keep the team out of the hands of a banker. Unfortunately, the team has no following and is losing money rapidly so he replaces the whole team with supermodels.

“Crime, Punishment, War, Peace, and the Idiot”– Beverly asks Bernice if she knows anything about Grandma-ma’s life, prompting Grandma-ma to begin a series of flashbacks of her life, with the main cast filling in for past friends, acquaintances and lovers.

“Kidney, Popsicle, and Nuts”– Duckman is in need of a kidney transplant from a blood relative, but the children are out for various reasons (Ajax doesn’t have any, Charles and Mambo share one) so he turns to his cryogenically frozen father whom, it turns out, wasn’t his father at all. He tracks down his real father (voiced by Brian Keith), a paranoiac in the sticks with his “own country,” and while he’s staying with him a standoff with the government develops.

“The Tami Show”– Duckman backs his car into Tami, a cute girl who claims her family died in a sleighing accident leaving her on her own. The family invites her to stay with them and she quickly begins incapacitating Bev and taking over the family.

“My Feral Lady”– A depressed Duckman purchases a mail-order bride, but upon delivery finds her to be a feral jungle savage. With Cornfed’s help, Duckman attempts to turn her (Kathy Lee) into a proper lady he can marry.

“Westward, No!”– While the boys are visiting Beatrice in D.C., Cornfed invites Beverly to a catfish ranch in Louisiana owned by his Aunt Jane (voiced by Estelle Getty), and a jealous Duckman tags along. After getting the ranch hands fired, Duckman and the gang must help the foreman, Big Jack McBastard (voiced by Jim Cummings), drive the 2,000 head of catfish to Texas.

“Short, Plush and Deadly”– During a taxpayer financed dream vacation Duckman, Cornfed, Fluffy and Uranus are kicked out of camp, stung by bees, and lost. The bee stings paralyze Cornfed and cause his head to swell, but turn turning Fluffy and Uranus into large, homicidal monsters. It’s up to Beatrice and Beverly to find and save them.

“How to Suck in Business Without Really Trying”– Duckman sells his last name to the VarieCom corporation for $1,000, which he immediately wastes, leaving him penniless and jobless.

“You’ve Come a Wrong Way, Baby”– After catching Mambo with a cigarette in his mouth, Bernice challenges the tobacco industry on the floor of Congress. During testimony she’s invited to a tobacco plantation by Walt Evergreen (voiced by Jim Varney)—president of an unnamed tobacco company—which doesn’t go well for the family.

“Hamlet 2: This Time It’s Personal”– Duckman sees the ghost of his Uncle Mo, who says that Duckman’s father was murdered by King Chicken and Duckman should take revenge. To do so he decides to act crazy to get King Chicken—with whom he has formed a truce to allow King Chicken time around Bernice—to admit his guilt so he can kill him with impunity. Cornfed realizes that Duckman is living out the plot of Hamlet, which will eventually lead to his death.

“Das Sub” “Class Warfare”– Convicted of fraud, Duckman is sentenced to 5,000 hours of community service, but accidentally finds himself substituting for a teacher he injures and teaching a group of intellectual high schoolers how to be “street smart”.

“Where No Duckman Has Gone Before”– A Star Trek parody where Captain Duckman (as Captain Kirk) does battle against King Khan Chicken in an episode similar to “Arena” among others.

“Four Weddings Inconceivable”– At the wedding of Dr. Stein, a series of emotional epiphanies lead to an amazing set of marriage proposals: King Chicken proposes to Bernice; Cornfed proposes to Beverly; Duckman proposes to Honey, King Chicken’s ex. After arguments between the principles, Duckman volunteers to make the arrangements for the triple wedding, purposely putting any blame on himself. Despite his arrangements, the ceremony goes off without a hitch — until Duckman’s supposedly deceased wife, Beatrice, returns.

DVD review: “Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man” (1994 – 1997) “Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man” (1994 - 1997) Television 70 Episodes Created by: Everett Peck Featuring: Jason Alexander, Gregg Berger, Nancy Travis, Dana Hill, Pat Musick, E.G.

#Dana Hill #duckman #duckman review #duckman television #duckman television review #duckman tv #duckman tv review #dvd #dvd review #DVD reviews #DVDReviews #Dweezil Zappa #E.G. Daily #Everett Peck #Gregg Berger #Jason Alexander #Nancy Travis #Pat Musick

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sociallyinsmmagency · 4 years ago

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PODCAST MARKETING ON SOCIAL MEDIA: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE IN 2021

The hardest part is over after you order the equipment, right? From there it’s all downhill?

Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Buying the equipment and choosing a subject are actually the easiest part of the process and the most difficult parts…SURPRISE! Happen to be the marketing end of the project.

However, the good news is that podcast marketing doesn’t have to be difficult, complicated or messy. In fact, podcast marketing can actually be a lot of fun if you have the right tools, knowledge, connections and platforms.

We’re going to dive a little deeper into what podcast marketing on social media really IS and what it requires, as well as how you can get from zero viewers to a constantly growing network in a matter of months.

Let’s get the party started.

What is Podcast Marketing on Social Media?

Podcast marketing on social media makes that possible by driving brand awareness, connecting you with potential listeners and giving you a platform to deliver the right message at the right time to the right people. In essence, podcast marketing on social media is your ticket to fame if executed properly.

GLOBAL SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CAMPAIGNS: EXPLAINED

Podcast Marketing on Social Media: Choosing a Platform

If you’re of the mind that joining as many social media platforms as possible is the right avenue, we’re here to tell you that it’s not worth it.

Instead, narrowing down the 2-3 platforms that your audience uses THE MOST and then using that as your main platforms will allow you to:

Spend more focused energy on making your presence on fewer platforms better,

Will allow you to learn more about each platform and use that knowledge to your advantage

It’ll give you an opportunity to speak more directly with your audience and make authentic connections without feeling stretched between too many possibilities.

Choosing the perfect platform goes back to what demographics your listeners will most closely relate to, as well as how niche your audience really is. Most podcasts will do well to spend the majority of their time on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but if you will have a very specific, niche audience, it may be worth a brainstorm and branching out into more unknown territory.

Podcast Marketing on Social Media: Strategically Building Your Profile

Long before your podcast hits the stage and before the promotion efforts are going full-steam ahead, it’s important to make some quality time with your brand’s social profiles.

Most networks will feature platform-specific fields that you’ll want to fill out, but the majority of them will be the same.

We created a little cheat-sheet below so you can be sure you don’t miss anything.

Upload a brand or personal profile photo

Upload a cover photo

Add your website, (if applicable)

Create a tagline

Fill in the “about” section.

Include any certifications and awards (where applicable)

Filling out this information is crucial because it helps social networks bring you the right kind of listeners and helps interested listeners find you.

Podcast Marketing on Social Media: Content Creation and Direction

Yes, your podcast is creative material, but you can’t expect people to listen without knowing what they’re getting into. Not to mention that if you’re looking to experience growth, you’ll have to build out specific content around your podcast to keep people engaged, sharing and listening!

#1 Use Quote Graphics to Your Advantage

This one is powerful because it’s so shareable and relatable.

Did you have a special guest on your podcast that you can highlight with a particular quote? Was there something particularly enlightening or exciting about the information you shared in a recent podcast? This is the time to highlight it and get people interested in listening through colorful, relevant, informative content.

#2 Strive to be a Problem-Solver

If in any way you can provide information that saves people a headache, this is the time to do it. Making your listeners lives easier through shared information, tactics and tools is a great way to build loyalty with your audience and attract more listeners. AND it makes great content!!

#3 Leverage Popular and Trending Content

If you can find relevant, trending and popular content that’s easy to work into your podcast social content, you’ve hit a gold mine. Re-tweeting, sharing, re-purposing...it’s all game as long as you give credit where credit is due and DO NOT try to force something that doesn’t naturally relate.

#4 Giveaways Go A Long Way

Everyone loves an opportunity to win something. Get your name out there and host a contest or giveaway. You’d be surprised at just how effective it can be for building engagement, (which helps your other content!) and the only rule is to be careful how often you perform them.

You don’t want followers who are only there for the free stuff. 😏😉

#5 Get Creative on Each Platform

If you made the decision to execute your podcast marketing on multiple channels, it’s important not to get sucked into the “same content, same copy, different platforms” bandwagon.

You want to make sure your content sizing, wording and targeting are specific to the audience and platform, not specific only to your brand.

Get creative! There are ways to re-purpose the same images with different copy or vice versa.

#6 Create a Social Media Content Calendar for Your Podcast Marketing

If you’re making an editorial/content calendar for your podcast, then you already know how important and helpful they can be when it comes to content planning, organization and analysis.

A podcast social media content calendar will allow you to stay consistent by giving you a structure to work from so quality content can flow naturally and the content that IS published can be complimentary.

One of the best ways to quickly create a social media content calendar is to plan things out according to days of the week. We’ve created a sample podcast marketing social media content calendar below so you don’t have to waste time creating one yourself!

Even if you don’t want to choose a “theme” for each day of the week, creating social content in advance is the key to future success. It saves you time, saves you stress and helps you stay accountable to keeping things fresh, consistent and aesthetically pleasing throughout your feed.

Sample Podcast Social Media Content Calendar

Because sometimes brainstorming themed content is just too much, right? We’ve got you covered.

1. Monday: Post a quote graphic/sound byte/video from your podcast

It builds hype. It’s fun. It’s fast and it’s easily consumed content, which sounds like a green light to me.

2. Tuesday: Ask a question- get people involved

Asking questions and responding to questions is one of the best ways to build brand engagement and foster loyalty with your audience. Take advantage!

3. Wednesday: Share some relevant industry news

Who doesn’t love a little inspiration? Just make sure you keep it industry relevant.

4. Thursday: Inspirational quote

If your audience will find it interesting or informational, it’s worth sharing. Plus, it’s content you don’t have to worry about making!

5. Friday: Something about YOU, a guest/speaker/employee spotlight

Sharing something about yourself and your life puts a human dimension into your brand and cultivates loyalty. Even if it’s just a selfie, your audience wants to see the real YOU so make it happen!

6. Saturday: A behind-the-scenes glimpse

Who doesn’t love getting a glimpse of what’s happening behind the scenes of their favorite TV shows?? The same is true of a podcast. Giving your audience a glimpse of your studio or taking a picture of your brainstorming snacks are a great way to connect with your audience and let them feel like they’re a part of the action.

Of course, you don’t have to stick to this as a rule, but this should give you some wildly effective and engaging ideas to use for your own podcast marketing social media content calendar.

P.S Our team loves Sprout Social for content planning and scheduling.

Podcast Marketing on Social Media: Engaging With Your Audience

Magnet podcast social media communities exist because the social media manager created an inclusive, insightful, value-filled community where anyone could chime in, all questions mattered and the audience felt HEARD.

But how do you go about creating a magnetic community like that?

The answer is simple: engaging with your audience.

This can mean re-tweeting content and reviews, commenting, answering questions, asking questions, doing shout-outs, that type of activity. Your audience will EAT IT UP.

Live Q&As are particularly insightful and helpful for boosting brand awareness, driving engagement and traffic, and even helping bolster support for your podcast.

It’ll take time, but when you begin building a value-filled community, the rewards are endless. Your audience will see your brand for what it is and not just self-promotion which will often turn an audience cold faster than you can think.

A good rule of thumb is to make sure your audience:

✅Can do more than just see or read your content- they WANT to engage! And they want YOU to engage right back!

✅Can chat and talk freely with you, whether that means asking questions or voicing concerns.

✅Knows you care about them. Even just liking comments can go a LONG way, so be thoughtful and caring about the way you approach your audience!

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING BLUEPRINT FOR BUSINESS: GET RESULTS!

Podcast Marketing On Social Media: Staying On Topic

There is nothing more revolting than a podcast channel using their platform as a personal soapbox. Don’t do it. However much you want to, it’s NEVER a good idea and it costs much more than it’s worth for five seconds of emotional fame.

YES you do want your podcast to be your podium, but only for things that are RELATED to your podcast. If your podcast is about politics, then go full steam ahead chatting about who you’re voting for and why, but absolutely don’t bring religion, politics or any other particularly sticky situations into the podcast unless it is 100% relevant to your brand.

That being said, when it comes to important topics like Human Rights, supporting the people who need us the most is far more important than anything else, so stand up and stand strong! I can guarantee that in the end, your audience and conscience will thank you.

Podcast Marketing on Social Media: Promoting Your Podcast

When it comes to promoting your own podcast on your page, ANYTHING goes, so long as you’re not TOO promotional. The key is finding a balance between announcing new episodes, recapping old episodes and hyping future episodes WITHOUT taking away from the community feeling built on the overall value that you are striving to provide as a podcast creator.

Social Media Podcast Promotion Tips for Success

If you’re ready to knock your podcast promotion out of the park, we’ve got you covered with all the best tricks. 🎬

Tip #1: Building Hype

You know that feeling you get when your favorite TV show announces a brand new season? What about your favorite band? Maybe even YOUR favorite podcast has gotten YOU hyped up in the past with a perfectly timed creative all about the upcoming episode and who they’ll be featuring.

You can do the same thing for your upcoming episodes!

Posting quick sound byte teasers and announcements about future guests can be really exciting for your audience, especially as you continue growing and value-packing every podcast episode.

Sharing quotes from upcoming guests as well as snippets of the recordings are always great ideas, but use your imagination! Creative sneak-peeks are always exciting. 😍

Tip #2: Utilize Hashtags

When it comes to bringing in new listeners and introducing your brand and podcast to the world, hashtags are an incredibly powerful tool for podcast promotion.

But don’t overdo it. Stick to industry relevant hashtags as well as a few specific, branded hashtags so you don’t come across as spammy or irrelevant. Or, you know. Both.

Tip #3: Don’t be Afraid to Share More Than Once

After all, most people don’t pay enough attention to their feeds and end up missing a lot even after scrolling for a significant amount of time.

Posting a teaser a few days before, then a release post and then a follow-up post for those that missed it is generally the best plan.

Tip #4: Partnerships are Key

If you have the opportunity to do so, leveraging someone else’s audience for your podcast can be an extremely powerful podcast marketing and promotional tool.

If you’re a brand new podcast without a very large following, it can be even more powerful. All you have to do is work with another content creator whose audience overlaps with your own. PSA they DO NOT HAVE TO BE FELLOW PODCASTERS. Any kind of content creator will do.

And then all you have to do is give a little to get a little.

Ask for promotional content in exchange for promotional content. It’s easy. It’s effective. And did I mention it was easy?

Podcast Marketing on Social Media: Measuring Your Results

So you’ve created a podcast, found your target audience, created a podcast website, started promoting your podcast on social media and promoting your show in the most epic way possible.

Now what?

Analyzing your podcast marketing and promotional podcast efforts are ALMOST more important than the promotion itself.

Why?

Because not analyzing your efforts could be potentially extremely fatal for your brand. How will you know what’s working and what isn’t if you’re not regularly making an analysis of the situation and making “show notes” about what to change, what to keep the same and what to delete altogether?

Your podcast marketing strategy is the lifeblood of your business and it goes beyond uploading a great podcast and sharing it on social media. A big part of it is just simply analyzing your efforts across social channels and your paid ads where applicable.

As soon as you begin tracking your efforts, you can begin to adjust with the wisdom of KNOWING what truly needs to be adjusted and what just needs to go.

You can do this by measuring podcast to podcast, month over month, or even week over week, whatever works best for you.

Every social media platform has a built in analytics tool, so in the beginning you don’t have to worry about purchasing any special tools or software. Just make sure to keep track of what’s happening!

If there’s any one rule for analyzing your podcast promotion, it’s just sitting down and taking the time to do it.

RELATED: 5 SUPERB VIDEO MARKETING TRICKS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA

Frequently Asked Questions

Phew, you’re almost an expert.

Okay, but seriously. This section is just for you. It’s every question you really want to ask, but don’t know who to talk to.

How to Downloads Compare to Audience Ratings?

Audience ratings are subject to error quite frequently because they’re based on samplings from the general populace, hence why downloads, as a first-party data that reflects real user behavior is a much better way to measure success.

Are Podcast Ad Campaigns Effective?

Your ad platform will tell you what listeners are generated via ads and which are generated via organic posting and podcast marketing. As this is a case-by-case question, we would say YES they can be effective, but it depends heavily on your audience, the quality of your ads and the platforms in question.

What Are the Best Practices for Winning Podcast Ad Campaigns?

As a general rule, long campaigns usually have better results than shorter social media campaigns.

Test the waters with a short segment and see how your audience responds.

Use engaging ad copy and images! Probably the most important part.

Let Us Help You Take Your Podcast Marketing Game to the Stars

We’ve helped several brands take their podcast over the top with incredible results and we want to give YOU the same opportunity for success.

Our creative team will analyze and create the ideal social media strategy for YOUR podcast and help you promote, grow and take the entirety of your brand to a whole new level of success.

Are you ready to take the jump? We’re ready when you are. Click down below for details!

This post originally appeared at https://blog.sociallyin.com/podcast-marketing

#podcast marketing #build your brand #Sociallyin #market your podcast #marketing a podcast #market my podcast #podcast marketing services #podcast marketing strategy #best way to advertise podcast

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valiantchopshopharmony · 4 years ago

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Discover Photography: The Art of the Image

Since the timing of Stone Age Man, when pictures of these animals and men searching were first utilized to decorate the walls of cave, then we've been fascinated with the captured picture. Even though it wasn't till the invention of photography which actually made this fascination into an art form which everybody could appreciate regardless of artistic talent. People around the world take photos of these, relatives and pets, pets and landscapes whether there is a specific circumstance or motive for doing this. But how much can we really understand when it has to do with photography? Following are a few of the various types of photography which can help us know more about different methods of shooting photos.

Amateur Photography has increased in the past few years with the dawn of cheep digital cameras and also this electronic photography which has come to be readily accessible to the amateur as a result of minimal price of both gear and reproduction of these pictures, which we will have a short look at in this report.

White and black or Monochrome Photography

The first would be to think about would be black and white or black photography. This isn't simply presenting a picture in black and white. Black and white photography investigates the shape and personality, texture and tone, the aesthetic beauty and art of this topic. The 2 elements of black and white photos which offer depth and feeling to the picture are the shadows and shadows, if we learn to utilize them then we could produce fantastic images.

Colour sometimes obscures the feel and kind of topics, it attracts our attention how flowers attract birds and insects, and mature fruit grabs your attention onto a tree. Sometimes that is what we desire, but white and black may emphasise the feel of this topic.

The wide range of ways that different colors convert to various greys means you could have very good control over precisely what parts of the image will be dark and light, along with light levels. The lack of light is frequently as essential as the highlights. Great deep shadows can provide a thickness and solidity to a picture.

This blur effect may create the feeling of movement and drama. If the issue is moving round the framework attempt to monitor the topic, this is known as panning, the consequence once perfected is that the topic is sharp but the background gets the motion blur providing the impression of pace.

Shooting Action Shots of Athletes, animals and people in movement, along with other moving objects produce wonderful photo opportunities.

Particular settings on a lot of digital cameras make it possible for photographers to photograph activity within an point-and-shoot mode specifically created for moving topics. Other times it's up to the photographer to control the electronic camera to reach the very best possible photographs.

Irrespective of your camera specifications, it is possible to further decrease camera lag from pre-focusing until you snap the image. To do so hold down the shutter button halfway and once the camera has concentrated; press down it all of the way to choose the shot.

Quick shutter speed enables photographers to capture fantastic shots of moving subjects. If your digital camera supports a camera speed, it's still possible that you shoot some superb action shots.

Take in continuous manner if it's accessible to you. You may feel as the paparazzi once you first begin, however you'll love this fast mode will not allow you to miss a shot! Digital cameras which support continuous shooting function well for action shots as they can write all of the photographs to memory at exactly the exact same time rather than one .

Expect the activity and position yourself so. If you're shooting sports, then camp out from the target line or find a great place where you are able to get clear pictures of those athletes.join best Photography

Invest in a fantastic lens. Many actions shots can benefit a lot from a digital camera using a 200 mm lens, even though you may interchange lenses for various consequences. Zoom lenses perform wonders for sport action shots.

Aerial Photography is greatest if you would like to picture a landscape or cityscape.

Travel Photography isn't only about your vacation snaps. It's all about catching something of the sense, the emotion, the basis of a location. However, you don't require expensive foreign vacations; traveling photography may be your list of the following city or town or even place. As a is an exciting community town for me to research, but with the additional benefit it isn't far to travel to.

When photographing people in their own regional context there are a range of methods that I attempt to use but bear in mind that the principle of treating people with respect.

I have already discussed creating shots contextual but one fantastic way to do so is to think of what's at the backdrop behind the folks that you're photographing. Ideally you need something which's not overly distracting but that increases the circumstance of this location you are shooting . Another method for shooting shots of people who dismisses the'contextual' principle is to come across a brightly lit place with a dark backdrop. This will truly help the face you are shooting to pop out and catch the viewer's interest.

A few of the best shots I have taken of individuals while traveling happen to be where I have closely frames people's faces. This implies getting in near the individual or using and having a fantastic zoom lens.

Go for organic (un-posed shots) - Even though occasionally the posed shots may do the job very well they are also able to lack a certain credibility. Photograph your topic doing something out of their everyday life, on the job, the market, house, or simply crossing the road etc..

The majority of the shots I have taken of individuals over the years while travel happen to be of single subjects independently in the shooter. This is partially just my personality but is something I have come to be quite conscious of in the past couple of months. Including another individual into a picture requires a photograph to another location. No more is that the shooter pretty much a individual and their surroundings but it somehow becomes relational. The viewer of this photograph starts to wonder about the connection and a new layer is added into a picture.

Quite often it is the shots of individuals dressed in national costume that ordinarily pull photographers when traveling. When these shots can be quite successful I wonder if they're always actually representative of a civilization. Quite often these people have dressed up specially for a series or tourist attraction and also the vast majority of people in that nation look very different. Mix up these types, sex and ages of those people that you take photographs of and you may get a quite effective collage of faces of a nation.

It goes contrary to the character of the majority of travel photography that's normally extremely fast and impulsive, but in the event that it's possible to spend some time with individuals, in case you've got the chance to sit with someone for a longer period of time and picture them in a more extended fashion this allows you to tell the narrative of the person and may result in some terrific sequences of shots with different photographic methods, lenses and scenarios, while the individual becomes more relaxed across the camera.

Keep your camera into the eye for shooting those spontaneous shots involving the ones that are more introduced. It is amazing what pictures which you could find when the individual is not'prepared' for one to take. These shots frequently include individuals interacting with other people or expressing emotion that is true. I find putting my camera into continuous shooting style frequently leads to a superb candid shots. If circumstances permit do not replace your lens cap till you package your camera off.

If it comes to deciding on lens, I discover a focal point between 24mm and 135mm is a fantastic range to use. Moving for wide angle lenses may also create interesting shots but you'll frequently discover they do distort your area's face a bit. Deciding on a more focal length could be helpful for placing your subjects a bit more at ease.learn more at {sop}

Whether you would like to shoot photograph in a swimming pool, river, lake, or even the sea underwater photography may be among the very exciting and fulfilling things to do.

The issues that you experience when in shooting submerged could be summed up into 1 word,"limitation" Communication and travel under the surface are restricted. Natural lighting and visibility are restricted. The best way to handle these constraints is dependent upon your ability submerged and your photographic gear.

A watery environment may be a dangerous person, even if it's a swimming pool. No photo is worth your own life. Based on the sort of underwater photography you would like to work out, you must first get the proper specialised knowledge and instruction, and acquire certification from a qualified teacher. This applies to every element of underwater action, from fundamental swimming skills to innovative sub aqua diving methods.

This listing is by no means comprehensive; they're merely some of the several kinds of photography you're able to find. Photographic work can be broken into dozens of classes, many with a great deal of sub-categories.

A number of our couples pick us because they're at ease with us and they adore our photography catches the smiles and feelings daily for more information contact us

#wildlife photography courses in Delhi #fashion photography courses in delhi #food photography school

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thepurpleblossom · 7 years ago

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I went to watch the HF movie earlier! So I’ll be posting my thoughts. I’ve already read many reviews prior so I sort of already found out how some things are different, so the changes didn’t quite surprise / disappoint me, and overall, I really really enjoyed it. If possible, I’ll probably go and watch it at least two more times!

I actually wrote a brief summary of the movie on the way back, but I just remembered there’s a post that pretty much talked about what I wanted to, but!! I’ll do it again in any case!

I really enjoy the first few scenes because they were anime original. Since I read the post linked above, I did know that they were animating those pre!story scenes. But what I didn’t expect was how long it was. There was perhaps a good 10 minutes devoted to these scenes.

Starting off with a beautiful scene in the archery club depicting Shirou’s mastery of archery, Ayako and Shinji looking from behind, and a stranger praising his skills to Taiga. And then immediately juxtaposed with a short scene of Shinji reprimanding Shirou’s carelessness in getting injured during work. And then Sakura’s visits. We get his original insistence that he can’t make his friend’s sister help him like this...! and snapshots of Sakura’s stubbornness, visiting everyday until Taiga warms up to her, and Shirou gives up, giving her a key. And then he wakes up in the shed, with Sakura’s prompting.

I love these scenes so much, but I also love the bits where they slowly depict the changes happening in Sakura. When she first arrives, her eyes are completely dead, and she hardly talks. And then she talks, her eyes remaining dull. And by the end of the flashback (where Sakura gets accepted to Homurahara Academy), her eyes are brightened and as seen in this pv, she smiles so brightly.

These are so important in establishing the effect Sakura has on Shirou, as well as Shirou’s on Sakura that now, I’m almost surprised that they aren’t in the original material.

Incidentally, there was two separate instances where Sakura touches her ribbon, (oh my god, i can’t believe my hc of her touching her ribbon is actually canon now). The most important one being when they were discussing Kiritsugu being Shirou’s hero, and when faced with the same question, Sakura simply repeats the words while touching the ribbon.

Originally I was worried how they are going to deal with the repeats from UBW. But they really did just compress them into a few images, serving as a reminder to jolt our memory rather than a full scene. Which is actually a direction that I really liked that they took, because it would be taking time away from content that we have already seen -- there is no point in animating the same scenes again as well.

There are other scenes in which they were longer but the movie cut them short. Such as Sakura noticing the mark on Shirou’s hand, but it skips the following breakfast scene, and changes scene to Sakura leaving and asking Shirou to come home quick. I also really like these cuts, whilst the scenes are lost, its usually done without much consequences and the viewers can fill in the gaps. To borrow @fishofthelake’s words, it really fits the movie’s format.

Also, Saber in Shirou’s yukata. 👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀

About the dream that Shirou had. I think the movie is my favourite rendition. Whilst the original is just Rin H scene. And Realta Nua a scene between Rin and Ayako, this was Rin putting the moves on Shirou at first and then turning to Sakura. The first was awkward given how Rin is not the heroine of the series. And RN’s verison makes me imagine that Shirou... ships Rin and Ayako. And HF’s felt the most natural? Shirou’s crush on Rin can’t be separated from the narrative, and they also showed it during a scene where Shirou chances upon Rin helping Sakura pick up the papers fallen on the floor ( “Oh... The person who helped me is--” “Tohsaka Rin, right?” “... You know her?” “Oh aaah, *flustered* she’s beautiful and everyone knows her.” ). But the change to Sakura felt more natural given that it is her route, and also highlights that Shirou is gradually gaining an romantic interest in Sakura. ( Important as they cut out the bit where Shirou walks Sakura to the Matou’s mansion, as well as the morning scenes including the monologue where Shirou is like “ah this is problematic. Sakura is becoming more beautiful by the day” )

Actually, there are actually a number of scenes that effectively portrayed Shirou’s attraction to Sakura, and vice versa. Whilst the added scenes at the beginning of the movie showed how important they are to each other, the scenes scattered throughout the rest of the movie showed how their feelings for each other are decidedly romantic. With Sakura’s silent jealousy when Sakura finds out that Shirou knows Rin, Taiga’s joking comments that Shirou asked Sakura to stay over so that she won’t be jealous of Saber... And of course, the scene where Sakura first collapses, and Shirou is there, looking after her, and their hands are held together almost tenderly. I teared up.

Speaking of a tender scene, Sakura visited the shed with Shirou. And one of the topics was that Shirou is an adopted child, and Sakura mentions briefly that he had good people around him, and that made my heart break a little. Because Sakura is also adopted and she didn’t have good people around her. While the scene broke my heart a little, the overall atmosphere was really soft and tender, and Sakura seems so glad that his experience is different from hers ( of course, it might be just me assuming that she’s drawing a parallel between his experience and hers since she didn’t talk about herself being adopted, but it’s highly likely that she is. )

The fight scenes were super cool. I was holding my breath the entire time during the Cu and Hassan fight, on the expressway before they moved to the lake. I’m so glad Cu got some scenes before he was gone. Though, I felt like the scene where Medu showed up in the temple could be done better? The scene in the VN felt more creepy in comparison, and I could sense the danger and how she’s so much more powerful compared to her earlier appearance (the scene where Saber absolutely destroyed Medusa was beautiful by the way). I can’t quite recall if the dangerous aspect in the VN was due to Shirou’s monologue, but I feel that they could have done better, perhaps through a new, creepier OST? I don’t think they changed the OST from Shirou’s fight with Zouken. But that’s probably just me nitpicking. My friend thought she seems powerful anyway.

AND, let’s talk about the music. I’m too much of Kajiura’s fan to not devote a section to talk about her to be honest. In summary, I... really like it??? I’m not sure how else I could say it. Other than that scene mentioned above, I really like the music direction. Sometimes the scenes are without music, but it doesn’t take it away. In UBW, the lack of music in some scenes made it rather boring for me to watch, and hard to grip my attention, but in the movie, I felt like it was used brilliantly. The first scene of Shirou’s archery had no music, but served to show Shirou’s hyperfocus and tranquility of archery. Some of the flashback scenes generally had soft, calming music, but other scenes are quiet, without music. It felt like it added to the peacefulness and the fondness in the memories.

The first heavy, dark music is used when Shirou notices the Lancer and Archer fight and he starts running for a safe space before the scene fades to a scene with Sakura somehow noticing this happening and then we get the compressed, repeated scenes from UBW. I really like how the first piece of dark music is used as a lead-in to the rest of the movie because the flashbacks are done now, and this is where the plot starts. It felt like a summary / warning as to what the rest of the movie has to offer, which is dark, dark, and dark. They also used one or two F/Z tracks btw. If I’m right, Back to Zero, during the scene in which Kirei reveals to Shirou Kiritsugu’s involvement in the 4th Holy Grail War. Most of the tracks in the rest of the movie were dark, and very, very different from UBW’s, which is understandable, given that they are done by different composers after all. But it really is a huge indication of how dark HF is compared to UBW’s and I love it.

Things that I’m not too happy about are nitpicks. The loss of the classroom scene, but the inclusion of the scene may have led the movie to feel draggy (since it takes place before the Lancer & Archer fight -- ie where the movie truly begins), so I will accept that choice begrudgingly. The other bit is the dream sequence involving Saber Alter talking to Saber. I liked the horror that Saber is truly gone, and then the resulting shock when Saber Alter showed up later in the story, and such a scene felt like it took away both of such elements. Still, at this point in time, Saber Alter is hardly a secret anymore, so perhaps these factors are gone ever since the popularity of FGO and the Fate franchise in general. So why not capitalise on their knowledge, instead of pretending that everyone watching are Fate noobs right.

Perhaps that’s why the Prize A for the Ichiban Kuji lottery for Heaven’s Feel is not Sakura, but actually a figure of Saber Alter. They’re just like, Saber Alter??? Keep her a secret??? I think /not/.

In summary though, I’m really happy with this movie. The director really seems to love the route and Sakura a lot. The movie was beautiful, and the scenes with Sakura felt so beautiful and wonderfully portrayed and her expressions. And the last scene where Shirou comes back to a worried Sakura waiting for him with her nose and cheeks red from standing too long in the snow... It’s beautiful.

Now, if you excuse me, I’ll just be looping Hana no Uta.

#and also plan the next time im visiting the cinema to rewatch this #stfu miko #hf r

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