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snicketsleuth · 5 years ago

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A chronology/reading order of Lemony Snicket’s works

The works of Lemony Snicket are often a conglomeration of documents from various sources and authors, frequently presented out of order. The following article intends to better classify the aforementioned documents by determining when they were written, forwarded, read and later made available to the general public (e.g. “us”, the readers).

This list has two purposes:

it can be used as a reading order suggestion for people who may want to experience the narrative in a more chronological manner

it is an attempt to put various events in relation to one another and create a more coherent picture of Lemony’s life, particularly regarding the various documents scattered across Lemony Snicket’s un-Authorized Autobiography and The Beatrice Letters.

This list is neither official nor to be taken as granted. In order to make sense of the chronology, some arbitrary decisions and interpretations had to be made. If you do not agree with the logic of the chronology, please feel free to express your views in the comments.

A quick reminder on the abbreviations used within this article:

LSUA = Lemony Snicket’s un-Authorized Autobiography

TBL = The Beatrice Letters

FU:13SI = File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents

For futher references, please also refer to the timeline (Link) whose purpose is to classify events within the series which do not match the creation/publication of a particular document.

More after the cut.

Before “All The Wrong Questions”

An unnamed member of V.F.D. writes a letter to secretary J. regarding the potential recruitment of a young volunteer (LSUA, p.52). The youngster in question is implied to be Daniel Handler himself (according to LSUA’s index).

Lemony meets Beatrice for the first time then sends her an apology note (TBL, LS to BB #1).

During “All The Wrong Questions”

NA (although the supplementary material FU:13SI happens between “When Did You See Her Last?” and “Shouldn’t You Be In School?”).

Between “All The Wrong Questions” and “The Bad Beginning”

Lemony writes to Beatrice about an upcoming expedition (TBL, LS to BB #2).

The official V.F.D. disguise kit manual is written (LSUA, pp.99-108). The recruitment guide (LSUA, pp.189-191) could also have been written at the same time. NB: the disguise kit manual and the recruitment could actually be much older than that. However the disguise kit manual mentions sugar bowls, which implies that it would have been written at around the same time period as the earliest mentions of the sugar bowl (first vineyard letter, LSUA, pp.84-86, see below). Note that sugar bowls are never mentioned in “All The Wrong Questions”, which seems VFD’s obsession with the sugar bowl only started after Lemony graduated and became a dramatic critic.

Lemony writes to Beatrice to warn her that he will soon be appointed as dramatic critic for the “Daily Punctillo” (TBL, LS to BB #3).

Beatrice writes a poem hidden inside the booklet of her play (TBL, last pages) but Lemony fails to notice it.

Lemony writes to Beatrice to schedule a date where he plans to ask her hand in marriage (TBL, LS to BB #4).

Lemony writes a letter regarding his childhood memories to Dr. Charley Patton ( LSUA, pp.8-21) before his intended marriage to Beatrice. An unidentified person will later make notes to this letter, remarking on inconsistencies in Lemony’s testimony.

Lemony writes a scathing review of Olaf’s new play (LSUA, p.77-79), also announcing his upcoming marriage to Beatrice.

Jacques (who is currently working inside the Queequeg) learns of Lemony’s review and writes his brother a letter, telling him 1) to go to Damocles Dock in order to plan his exile, 2) not to contact Beatrice ever again. He also mentions that Lemony should expect to get fired from the Daily Punctillo very soon.

The next day, Eleonora publishes a retractation and announces Lemony is fired (LSUA, p.80). She also announces the beginning of a new column by Geraldine Julienne.

The same week, Lemony manages to slip his rebuttal to Eleonora’s retractation into a morning edition of the newspaper (LSUA, p.81). Eleonora submits a second retraction in the evening edition (LSUA, p.82) and confirms that Geraldine’s column is scheduled to begin the next day.

The Vineyard of Flagrant Drapes writes a letter to Lemony, urging him to cancel the wedding as Olaf plans to crash it (LSUA, pp.84-86). This letter is later acquired by the Duchess of Winnipeg somehow.

After the debacle, Lemony is forced to hide in a VFD headquarter. During that time, the (real?) Captain S. writes instructions to Lemony so he can escape from the country on the Prospero (LSUA, pp.109-111), remarking on Lemony’s firing, and includes tickets with the letter (LSUA, pp.112-113). This letter and the tickets are sent to Larry in Damocles Dock so he can give them to Lemony when he gets there.

A crisis meeting is held with different members of VFD. J., the secretary, writes a live transcript of this meeting (LSUA, pp.33-47). It appears that the “J.” and “K.” characters present at the meeting are not Jacques and Kit, although Daniel Handler appears to be there. Several photographs (LSUA, pp.48-51) will later be added to this transcript. Olaf and Esme crash the meeting, threatening to light it on fire unless the volunteers agree with their demands.

After the meeting, the volunteers have no safe place left in the vicinity. Lemony has nowhere to go. He receives a break-up letter from Beatrice, brought to him by carrier pigeons, and answers back with a coded letter regarding her co-star’s possible duplicity (TBL, LS to BB #5).

Lemony then supposedly receives Jacques’ letter around that time and goes to Damocles Dock. Larry gives Lemony the Captain’s letter and the tickets.

A photograph of the ship is taken on the day it leaves port (LSUA, p.91). The Daily Punctillo publishes an article about the ship’s mysterious departure (LSUA, pp.93-95).

Lemony writes to Beatrice to warn her of an upcoming danger (TBL, LS to BB #6). It seems likely that this message was sent some time before Sunny’s birth but there’s also an argument for Violet’s and Klaus’.

During “The Bad Beginning”

As soon as her learns about the Baudelaire fire, Lemony dispatches Brett Helquist to draw the scene of the crime. Helquist draws the smoldering remains of the Baudelaire mansion and writes a letter to Lemony with said drawings enclosed (LSUA, pp.182-183). He plans to discuss both documents at the Valorous Farm Dairy where a meeting with Lemony Snicket and photographer Meredith Heuer has been set.

Lemony writes an early draft of the first chapter of “The Bad Beginning” (LSUA, pp.177-178). Babs later receives this early draft and writes a note to Hal (LSUA, p.176) so he can add it to the Snicket file. Lemony also writes a letter to his sister (LSUA, p.192) announcing his intention to write a book on the Baudelaire case.

Between “The Bad Beginning” and “The Reptile Room”

The new dramatic critic of the Daily Punctillo (not Lemony) writes a scathing review of Al Funcoot’s play. Enraged that Olaf is being criticized, Esme writes to Geraldine Julienne to pressure Eleonora Poe into firing the dramatic critic, as well as to enquire about Jerome Squalor’s habits. The critic is fired by Eleronora Poe. Geraldine answers Esme’s letter (LSUA, p.119-120), confirming the new critic’s firing, with a menu of the restaurant at which Jerome usually eats (LSUA, p.121).

Gustav Sebald writes a movie script to warn Montgomery Montgomery of his new assistant and of the survivor of the Baudelaire fire (LSUA, pp.61-65).

The movie is shot. A photograph of a toddler helping Gustav build the snowman is taken, with Gustav not actually appearing in the picture as he was hidden behind the snowman (LSUA, p.71). A photograph of the actor playing Young Rölf is later taken (LSUA, p.53 and p.57). Other miscellaneous pictures of the production are taken during that time (LSUA, p.68, p.69, p.70).

Lemony realizes that Montgomery Montgomery does not know the Sebald code and that the plan needs to be changed. He schedules a meeting with Gustav Sebald near the Swarthy Swamp. On his way to the meeting, Gustav is spotted by Olaf who drowns him.

Lemony arrives at the appointment and waits nineteen hours for Gustav Sebald in the Swarthy Swamp. To pass the time, he writes a letter to the cheesemakers (LSUA, pp.55-60). Lemony is unaware that Gustav is actually already there, drowned at the bottom of the swamp.

Between “The Reptile Room” and “The Wide Window”

A review of “Zombies in the Snow” by Lena Pukalie (an anagram of real-life film critic Pauline Kael) is published (LSUA, p.165) and finds its way to Lemony’s commonplace book.

During “The Wide Window”

A photograph of the Baudelaire orphans on Damocles Dock is taken by a mysterious person. Two copies of this photograph later end up in possession of K./R. (who later sends it to Olivia Caliban a.k.a Madame Lulu).

Between “The Wide Window” and “The Miserable Mill”

Jacques Snicket visits Olivia Caliban at Caligari Carnival and asks her if his brother is alive. She gives him a copy of the photograph which R. sent to her, indicating that Lemony may be currently tracking down the Baudelaire orphans from his taxi. Jacques leaves to investigate Dr. Montgomery’s house as he knows that a book on the secret Mortmain Mountains is kept there. When he arrives, he is surprised to find Quigley. Jacques gives his copy of the photograph to Quigley.

Olaf’s henchmen kill Firstein in Paltryville, intent on replacing him with the Bald Man under the pseudonym of Flacutono. They use the the lumbermill’s machines to destroy Firstein’s remains. Jacques learns of Firstein’s death and leaves for Paltryville, instructing Quigley to stay behind. In Paltryville, Jacques manages to send his investigation to the Daily Punctillo for an article. But Jacques is discovered by Olaf’s agents and has to flee. Because the body parts are unindentifiable, Detective Smith covers up the murder as the accidental death of an unknown person. Sir does not explain his foreman’s sudden disappearance to the workers. The Daily Punctillo uses Smith’s version for its final version of the article (LSUA, p.118). An earlier edition of Jacques’ article did survive (LSUA, p.117).

Jerome and Esme spend an evening together, at the end of which Esme bullies Jerome into marrying her.

Jerome schedules a wedding at the Vineyard of Flagrant Grapes where Esme hopes to receive the sugar bowl (perhaps because she expects Jacques to attend his friend’s wedding). The vineyard writes back, confirming the wedding but declining Esme’s request (LSUA, pp.84-86). Somehow the Duchess of Winnipeg later manages to get her hand on this letter. Jerome also sends a wedding invitation to Jacques Snicket. Fernald starts working as a doorman at 667 Dark Avenue in order to intercept any letter Jerome may be supposed to receive.

The Duchess fears that keeping the two vineyard letters is no longer safe for her. Unaware that Isaac Anwhistle is dead, she writes a letter to Kit Snicket, asking her to archive the two vineyard letters (LSUA, p.83).

Jacques finds out that Esme plans to marry Jerome in order to access the old V.F.D headquarter at 667 Dark Avenue. Fearing the worst, he writes Jerome a letter (LSUA, pp.122-124), but the wedding happened so quickly that Jerome was probably already married by the time Jacques found out about his engagement. Sometime during Jerome’s and Esme’s honeymoon, Jacques’ letter is intercepted by Fernald who works as a disguised doorman. Fernald and Olaf’s allies analyze Jacques’ letter and find out the village where he is hiding.

Between “The Miserable Mill” and “The Austere Academy”

An unnamed person adds a photograph of the Quagmire triplets (with a note) to the “Zombies in the snow” file in the Sebald archives (LSUA, p.70). This is because the movie was made for Montgomery Montgomery and Quigley Quagmire eventually escaped from his childhood home to Montgomery’s house.

Lemony Snicket writes Sally Sebald to inform her of Georgina Orwell’s death. Sally answers, informing him of the circumstances in which the survivor of the Baudelaire fire was hidden (LSUA, pp.66-71). Sally also finds the photograph of the Quagmire triplets inside the file and does not understand what it’s doing there. Lemony will later replace the photograph of the triplets with a photograph of people “around the same age”.

During “The Austere Academy”

At this point in time, first editions of “The Bad Beginning” and “The Reptile” apparently already exist. We see excerpts of these two books later on in other documents. This edition finds its way to a library which has recently been overtaken by the tweed-coat-wearing librarian. This is a contentious topic as “The Reptile Room” mentions Klaus and Violet reflecting on its events “years later” even though only a few months/weeks have passed at the time of the book’s publication. One can only assume that these passages are either:

the result of Lemony making reasonable assumptions on Klaus’ and Violet’s future,

additions which Lemony made years later as he kept updating the books with new details of his investigations (in which case what we, the readers, are reading is not the first edition of the book read by Al Funcoot’s fan, bur rather a later edition). This is plausible because “The Bad Beginning” got an updated edition called “The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition” with additional notes regarding Lemony’s more recent findings on the events depicted in the book.

Al Funcoot (probably Olaf under a pen name) writes to one of his fans, ordering him to investigate the fate of Montgomery’s collection of reptiles. The henchman goes to his local library and reads excerpts of “The Reptile Room” (LSUA, pp.147-148).

The henchman (now disguised as a cow) roams the surrounding of Lousy Lane, looking for survivors of Montgomery’s collection. The henchman noticeably hears the Dissonant Toad who is repeating something he once heard Olaf say. Supposedly the comment made by Olaf on how incovenient it is to drown someone happened the night of Monty’s murder. The toad was in the Reptile Room that night and heard Olaf kill Montgomery, after which he wondered aloud how he was going to dispose of the body. The henchman disguised as a cow also spots the Mamba du Mal as well as other reptiles. The henchman later reaches the Valorous Farm Dairy but does not dare approach the location.

The henchman disguised a cow sends Al Funcoot his own report of the events (LSUA, pp.145-153). The information from his report will later be used by Olaf’s allies to find and kill the survivors of Montgomery’s collection. Only the Incredibly Deadly Viper is now safe for now at the Valorous Farm Dairy.

Growing frustrated with his unsuccessful hunt for the Incredibly Deadly Viper, the henchman disguised as a cow finally works up the courage to ask the cheesemakers about the reptiles. Suspecting his ill intentions, the cheesemakers immediately write a postcard to Lemony so he can be warned that Olaf’s henchmen are looking for reptiles near the Valorous Farm Dairy (LSUA, pp.155-156).

Lemony writes a letter to the Duchess, announcing his intention to attend her Masked Ball (LSUA, p.144) even though the survivors of Montgomery’s collection are being hunted.

Supposedly the events of the Masked Ball happen soon after (Lemony flashes back to the Masked Ball in the beginning of the eleventh chapter of “The Austere Academy”). After the Masked Ball, Coach Genghis arrives at Prufrock Prep (fourth chapter of “The Austere Academy”).

Between “The Austere Academy” and “The Ersatz Elevator”

Jerome, who never received Jacques’ letter, writes Jacques to announce Esme their plans to adopt some children (LSUA, p.125).

Quigley, growing impatient, reads an article of “The Daily Punctillo” which describes his siblings’ kidnapping. He leaves for Paltryville.

Jerome writes a letter to Jacques Snicket, lamenting the fact his friend wasn’t present at his wedding (LSUA, p.125). Esme is planning to acquire the custody of the Baudelaire orphans during that time.

During that time, the tweed-coat-wearing librarian seems to change jobs as he now works at Prufrock Prep. Carmelita Spats runs into him, which earns him an appareance in her autobiography (LSUA, p.171).

During “The Ersatz Elevator”

The Duchess (or somebody impersonating her) writes a letter to Lemony (LSUA, pp.25-28). This letter was supposedly written during the “first few days” that the Baudelaire orphans spent with Esme and Jerome at 667 Dark Avenue (mentioned in Chapter Three of “The Ersatz Elevator”), before Gunther’s arrival.

At the In auction, the Esme Squalor fan club bids on the corpse of the Mamba du Mal. This is reported by the In Auction catalog (LSUA, p.164) and Lemony includes a page of the catalog in his commonplace book.

Lemony sends the cheesemakers a note (LSUA, p.159) with the contents of his commonplace book (LSUA, pp.161-175). The excerpts contained in the commonplace book are intended to warn the cheesemakers of the reptiles of montgomery’s collection and the secret messages/codes they can communicate. One of the excerpts is a newspaper describing how the Mamba du Mal was killed and auctioned.

At the Valorous Farm Dairy, the meeting planned by Meredith, Brett and Lemony goes haywire as they have been spotted by the villain disguised as a cow. The dairy is burned down by the villain but Meredith manages to take one last photograph of the dairy before the fire (LSUA, p.185). The three volunteers flee. Lemony leaves a copy of his drawing of the burned down Baudelaire mansion behind in the commotion.

Detective Smith covers up the arson when reporters of the Daily Punctillo come to investigate the fire. He provides the reporters with Brett’s drawing, unaware that it actually concerns the Baudelaire mansion. The drawing may have ended up in the archives of the Daily Punctillo. The Daily Punctillo publishes an article on the “accident” (LSUA, p.184).

During “The Vile Village”

Lemony receives the suspicious letter from the Duchess at Veblen Hall while he’s interviewing witnesses about who was driving the car on the day the Quagmire triplets were smuggled out of the city by Olaf. He fears that someone may be impersonating the Duchess and writes a note about it (LSUA, p.30).

While the Baudelaire orphans are working at the Village of Fowl Devotees, Arthur Poe meets his sister Eleonora Poe in Damocles Dock. Their conversation is recorded by a mysterious individual (LSUA, pp.134-137). The transcript of the recording is later found by an unnamed individual.

During “The Hostile Hospital”

Olaf (under the alias of Al Funcoot) knows that the Baudelaire orphans are probably somewhere in the Hinterlands and that they’ll soon try to use a telephone or a telegram machine. In order to thwart them, he writes to Eleonora Poe under the alias of Al Funcoot, convincing her to publish articles about the danger of telephone poles and fake telegrams, and later writes to an unnamed person about said article. Esme also manages to phone/write Geraldine Julienne, ordering her to lock up Eleonora Poe once the articles are published.

Eleonora writes to Arthur Poe, warning him of the danger of fake telegrams. The telegram sent by the Baudelaire orphans in the Last Chance General Store (LSUA, p.140) reaches Arthur’s bank some time later and is as such ignored.

During "The Carnivorous Carnival”

While the Baudelaire orphans try to use the phone at Caligari Carnival, the unnamed person chops down the telephone poles. This ends the connection, leaving the Baudelaire orphans confused as to why the person on the other end isn’t responding anymore. Later on, the unnamed person writes back to “Al Funcoot” (LSUA, p.132-133), thanking him for the article.

Kit roams the financial district looking for scraps of newspapers. She writes a note about that to the cheesemakers (LSUA, letter on pp.75-76). The note and the scraps of newspapers are later found by an unknown person (LSUA, note to file on p.75).

During “The Slippery Slope”

Geraldine Julienne locks up Eleonora in the basement of the Daily Punctillo’s building. Eleonora sends a telegram to her brother (LSUA, p.141), but the message is ignored by Arthur Poe on the account of her article.

During “The Grim Grotto”

As he’s following the Baudelaire orphans’ footsteps, Lemony writes a letter to his sister Kit Snicket, instructing her to meet him at the Hotel Denouement, and slips it into the pages of the manuscript (end of Chapter Five) of “The Slippery Slope”. It’s extremely unlikely Kit ever received the manuscript as she seems to believe her brother is dead in “The End”. Indeed the V.F.D. meeting scheduled at Hotel Denouement happens during “The Penultimate Peril”, which would leave barely a day for said manuscript to be forwarded to Kit. One can only assume that the letter was kept within the manuscript and never removed (for sentimental reasons?). Interestingly the letter does not specify a date and “Hotel Denouement” could refer to the underground library beneath the pond rather than the building on the surface, which means that said meeting could have been scheduled much later than the building’s eventual destruction.

Arthur Poe sends a thank-you letter to Eleonora (LSUA, pp.138-139), including the two telegrams he received (LSUA, pp.140-141).

During “The End”

Remora slips on a banana peel and quits his job at Prufrock Prep. Kit Snicket is hired to replace him and teaches at Prufrock Preparatory School for a few days. This supposedly happens during the “days” the Baudelaire orphans live with the Islanders doing pretty much nothing on the Island (this undefined time period is described in Chapter Five of “The End). A photograph (LSUA, p. 127 and p. 142) is taken of Kit “supervizing” the children during gym class. Genghis and Tench no longer teach at Prufrock, so without anyone to teach them the Prufrock students just sit around looking at a camera during their gym class. During that time, Kit also seems to write a note (LSUA, p.154) about receiving the postcard intended for Lemony by the Prufrock librarian.

The Daily Punctillo publishes an article warning parents about their children reading forbidden books. The Spats parents send that article to Nero who subsequently fires Kit Snicket and writes back to the Spats parents in gratitude (LSUA, pp.129-131).

After “Chapter Fourteen”

Lemony eventually publishes an updated edition of “The Bad Beginning” with additional notes (The Bad Beginning: Rare Edition) in which he announces his intention to release the thirteenth and final volume of “A Series Of Unfortunate Events”.

Lemony is officially declared by the authorities. The Daily Punctillo publishes an official declaration of death, announcing a burial even though no body was identified (LSUA, p.3, see also the back cover with Lemony’s note). Lemony attends his own burial where photographs are taken (LSUA, p.4 and p.7). Lemony writes a note to explain the photograph and the Daily punctillo clipping and adds it to the Autobiography file (LSUA, pp.5-7).

Beatrice Baudelaire Jr eventually learns of his uncle and his research on the Baudelaire file. She starts tracking him down and sends him several letters (TBL, BB to LS #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5). Lemony does not answer these letters as he believes the author of these letters to be Esme impersonating Beatrice Baudelaire Sr.

Beatrice Baudelaire Jr eventually meet in person at a party. During the party, Beatrice Baudelaire Jr writes her uncle an apology note (TBL, BB to LS #6). Daniel Handler later writes about this party (LSUA, pp. ix-xvii and p.193) and the autobiography is finally published.

Lemony decides to publish the letters of both Beatrices and writes a letter to his editor (TBL, foreword). The final volume of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” (including “Chapter Fourteen”, which seems to have been written conjointly with Beatrice Baudelaire Jr) and “The Beatrice Letters” are then published.

674 notes · View notes

jewelthomasson · 4 years ago

Text

Art Reading Response:

⭐️Summary of Emerge pages:

🔸Ideas~pages 56-66:

In this section of emerge, Perini discusses the topic of ideas. Ideas are what change the world he states, which is definitely true!(56). Ideas come from everything and anything at anytime (57). But most of our ideas come from us being in a alpha state (57). A state where someone can be in a place of relaxation and peaceful wakefulness (57). Then Perini talked about through what we generate our ideas, he stated that it is from ideation (58). He goes to tell how thinking in the alpha state isn’t the only way to come up with ideas; someone needs to purposefully set time aside to think (58). And through this we learned that coming up with these ideas can only happen when we start our endeavors (58). Meaning procrastination will get us NO WHERE. And through coming up with ideas by actively starting projects we need to let whatever we were working on to sit so that our brain can take a break (59). This will help generate new ideas as the worker has to bring their mind to a refocus to start back up on the project.

🤔My Thoughts:

I think that this was very interesting to see that there is a specific name of where our ideas come from. The hardest part for me in this chapter was when Perini tells that we have to start on our projects in order to get ideas flowing. This is often so very hard sometimes because I put whatever off; and in the back of my mind I’m thinking, “I’ll have some good idea later.” And guess what?! Often I —don’t. This can be so very difficult and stressful at times. But as hard as it is I know I have to start my projects at some point. So, now I’m going to try to go into these projects wholeheartedly with the mindset that I can think of anything because I am not procrastinating and I truly want those good ideas.

🔸Master~pages 81-87:

In the master section of the emerge book Perini helps the reader understand how to master certain goals people have. He first states how nothing can come of anything if you don’t work (78). He then talks about how dreams are good, they help spark something in us, but if they aren’t acted upon then nothing comes from them (78). He states that mastery comes from experience; and as we master different things in life more doors will open (81). Overall, there are 3 stages of talent development (84). “#1 developing and interest in a field or domain” (84). “#2 honing technical skills in your field of domain” (84). And #3 mastery and artistry in your field or domain (84). And then Perini states how we can achieve all those things. He states that if we put in 10,000 hours of work with purpose, in whatever we want to succeed at, then we will become the master of that (84).

🤔My thoughts:

The concept of mastery is hard for me to wrap my brain around. Sure I want to be really good at certain things but, to me I rather be good at a lot of little things. Rather than be a master at maybe one thing. Does that just sound too lazy? I don’t know, but being a master at something sounds like way to much work. Like almost unappealing. I feel like if I committed to something to master it then I could potentially lose the love to do it. Maybe I’m just thinking this way because I haven’t truly tried to master something. But overall, right now it just seems kinda intimidating...😬

🔸Messiness~pages 100-107:

Overall, this chapter about messiness just goes to show that messiness can bring great break throughs for creatives. Perini states how fear paralyzes us (99). We come from a world where if you don’t win you fail or lose. But this isn’t the case for creatives. “Creatives view failure as a win-learn” (99). This can help the creative process because then one can be more open and not scared to fail. He states how if you are not willing to fail then how can you create anything new?(102). This is so true because artists are always revising and making things better by learning from mistakes. So with that—art is messy. Life can be—messy. But that’s not a bad thing.

🤔My thoughts:

I personally love this section. I love learning from my mistakes! That is how I know I am actually growing and learning. With that, I completely related with Perini when he talked about how art is messy. For me, personally, my first draft to anything creative is always super rough. Sometimes it won’t even look like the picture/image I was going for, but it’s a the start that helps me create my final product. Without that first messy step my whole process for the whole piece would be thrown off. So I need my messy failures. It truly helps me create my greatest works.

🔸Habit~pages 108-116:

This section talked about how to form effective habits. Perini states how we need to make habits making habits (109). Habits are good for our life and minds. Through this chapter Perini walks the reader through 7 steps to creating good habits. #1 create triggers. Triggers help us to take the thinking out of performing takes because they are an automatic occurrence (111). # 2 create rewards. By rewarding ourselves habits become more fun and enjoyable to do—which makes us want to use that habit again (112). #3 visualize. With those first two in mind we need to be able to visualize ourselves actually doing the habit so we know that it’s a realistic habit to strive towards (112). #4 add a village member. This simply means that it can be easier to make a habit effective if someone can keep you accountable (112). #5 repetition. By using repetition the habit can truly be formed because your telling your body to not stop and keep moving forward (113). #6 believe. Honestly, if you don’t have this one it all kinda goes out the window because if you don’t believe in yourself then why go to the trouble to make a habit that won’t be effective? And the last one, #7 renew the mind. This one holds everything together because as we renew our mind all of the others fall into place creating a healthy habit.

🤔My thoughts:

For me this was very helpful because often I find myself needing to create better habits just to make my life easier. The step that’s always really hard for me is the repetition one. Sometimes it can be very hard for me to stay motivated to do something I believe is best for me. Sometimes I don’t have to do much to be committed to a healthy habit but other times it seems like the hardest thing ever is to make my bed. Like why? It’s so easy. But that lack of motivation can seem to override it all. I think this is partly because I generally just skip the reward aspect. I think I can just be committed because if I think I can. But in reality I need those rewards to at least get me started. Wow this chapter just made me realize that. Huh 🤔 I guess I really need to read this today. Thanks Tina 😂

⭐️Summary of the video, “The Habits of Effective Artists:”

The video starts with the speaker sharing a personal anecdote of how he made a bet with his younger cousin. This bet completely relied on creativity. The bet was to receive 1,000 likes on his art station. And if he succeeded he would get nothing, but if he did not hold up his end then he would have to give $1,000 to his cousin. He put himself through this to get motivated because he would of had something to lose. He then gives 7 habits that the world class professionals use. #1 is daily work. We need to work on whatever we want to, to achieve a skill in everyday life. This will only be beneficial if the skill can be worked on everyday so that one can make a habit to achieve that skill they want. #2 volume not perfection. Being a perfectionist hinders because you are focused solely on specific things your doing; but if you do volumes of work then you can potentially close that gap of certain struggles. #3 steal. Our human brains are always built upon things before it. If you steal from one person then it’s plagiarism if you steal from many then it’s original because it’s a new complication of work. #4 conscious learning. Not everything is practice. Mindless learning is often bad because most mindless work doesn’t show progression. #5 rest. When removed from the art work you can have new ideas and see that things from new vantage points. #6 get feedback. Artists seek feedback from anyone. And this is often shown as one of the most crucial/important parts that can strengthen the art work. By having people express what ever they are feeling no matter how harsh the advice can be, receiving that feedback can help make the art great. #7 create what you love. By creating what you are personally interested and can make the work thrive in the best way. Overall, you’ll make better work because you have drive to complete what ever you want.

🤔What I thought about the video, “The Habits of Effective Artists:”

I found this video very insightful for how to truly become successful as an artist. I now have better knowledge of how I can strengthen my skills as an artist. For me it’s odd, I feel like I don’t normally follow along with any of these seven things listed. Which tells me that I need to start creating better habits to help my overall creative process. I’m glad he made this video because if I hadn’t of watched this I probably wouldn’t have known I needed to change. This video has really opened my eyes to see how being a good artist is about process. Up until now, sure I knew that, but for the most part I thought that people are just born with it. But now I realize that to achieve anything creative you need to cultivate good habits so that overall you can flourish in the art realm.

📸Image above:

#thecreativechristian #readingresponsepost #week10

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writingdotcoffee · 5 years ago

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#110: Writing Against the Odds

The numbers of writing and publishing books can be pretty disconcerting to see.

Most people admit that they would like, at some point, to write a book. Cool. But most people, who set out to write a book, also never finish one. Out of the few that do finish a draft of their story, most will never see it published. And those who do get their books published will never see them on the bestseller lists. Only a fraction of books will earn out their advance. In fact, most published authors will never be able to write full time without supplementing their income somehow.

Doesn’t the writing life sound fantastic? And yet, we’re still here, stringing one word after the other, early in the morning and late at night, between shifts and on our lunch breaks. We want to share our ideas and stories with the world and writing is the best way to do that.

We’re not here for the money, that would be silly. At the same time, we’re still hoping to make it one day. To see our work recognised, and to be able to do more of it.

Writing is hard. Facing the blank page, the agonising edits, all the rejections from agents and publishers, the mean reviews from readers. Why put yourself through all of that when you could be doing so many other things? Like writing? Shut up and get yerself a law degree, kid.

It’s entirely possible, quite probable even that writing won’t be for you. But unless you really try and go for it, you’ll never know. That’s the hardest part. Stephen King wouldn’t be where he is now if he wrote casually every other weekend for an hour. In the early days, when he was grinding and nailing the stacks of rejections slips on the wall, he had no idea that he would go to become one of the world’s top selling authors. He had a family to take care of and worked as a teacher.

At the end of the day, someone will become the next Stephen King and J. K. Rowling. Someone will be the next Tolkien and Christie and Austen and even Shakespeare in a few hundred years. I wouldn’t necessarily count on it, but it might just as well be you.

For the rest of us, who says that being a mid-list, self-published or even unpublished author writing on the side while earning your living in other ways is a bad life? If you like telling stories and writing good sentences, not having to rely on your words as the primary source of income will give you the ultimate freedom to write what you want and do what you want with it.

Besides, so many skills and habits that you pick up while pursuing your passion for writing are instantly applicable in a range of other career and life situations as well. Writing sharpens your thinking and can be beneficial to your mental health. Learning how stories work is learning about life. In its essence, writing is a form of communication. If you can think clearly and write well, plenty of opportunities will come your way.

A career in writing can seem pretty bleak on paper, but if you have the bug, I encourage you to go for it. Give it all you have and remember that you don’t have control over everything. Whatever happens, you will be a much better person at the end.

Good luck ❤️

What I Am Reading

I’m still a bit behind on reading, trying to catch up. I’ve read a couple of rather dry technical books this week and found out that I have four unused Audible credits on my account. Any audio books that blew your mind recently? What should I get?

Want More?

My email subscribers receive a notification when I publish these posts along with a few things I found interesting or helpful on the literary internet every week. Click the link below to join the club.

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Past Editions

#109: New Things Coming, September 2019

#108: Keeping At It, September 2019

#107: What’s in it for the reader?, September 2019

#106: Ship Your Art, September 2019

#105: Side Gigs for Writers, August 2019

#writing #writers #write #writing tips #writing advice #amwriting #writing life #writeblr #writing update #update #personal #me #writingcoffee #writingdotcoffe

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newsiepedia · 6 years ago

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Character Profile: Race

Real Name: (none) Higgins (Trading card) However, the real Racetrack Higgins was named Ed.

Nickname and Meaning: Racetrack, Racer, or Race, because he likes to gamble on horse races. (He also gambles using other games, but he probably either got into races first or likes them the most)

Age: Unsure, but he was 18 in the first draft of the film script. (Highlights of the 1991 Script)

Gender: Race is always played by a man.

Family: Race is an orphan, (Trading card) but he may have siblings we (and possibly Race himself) don’t know about. He does have three cousins who live in Brooklyn (one named Joey) (Interview with Adrienne Storrs) but again, its not clear if he knows of their existance.

Race…:

Likes to gamble. Race is shown gambling with other newsies, (Newsies Film script, pages 6, 7, 13, 123, 134) frequently talks about gambling, (Newsies Film script, pages 35, 82, 84) (Newsies Live script, page 9) and even uses gambling- themed metaphors. When the price of the paper goes up, Race says “It's a rigged deck -- why waste time kiddin' ourselves? They set the price, we gotta pay it.” (Newsies Film script, page 40) He also seems to be pretty good at gambling- Race wins 10 games out of 10 with Snoddy (Newsies Film script, page 7) and has enough cash to spare that he can casually give Davey 25 cents. (Newsies Film script, page 17)

Isn’t afraid of anything. When Snyder, the man who could imprison him at any moment, shows up at the lodging house, Race doesn’t even flinch. He just focuses on distracting Snyder so Jack doesn’t get in trouble. (Newsies Film script, pages 73, 74) He also directly antagonizes the Delancey brothers many times, despite knowing that they will attack him, (Newsies Live script, pages 8, 9) (Newsies Film script, page 12) and goes to attack Wiesel as soon as the fight breaks out. (Newsies Live script, page 44)

Constantly thinks about romance. His first line is asking Albert if he was dreaming about “a pretty girl”. (Newsies Live script, page 4) He also attempts to get his papes for free by sweet talking Wiesel (Newsies Live script, page 10) and flirts with Miss Medda. (Newsies Film script, page 84) Race’s romantic intentions may not be purely directed at girls- when Jack says that they can’t beat up anyone who doesn’t join the strike, Race replies “Whatta we s'pose to do, kiss 'em?”. Race could be making a joke, but Jack replies “I personally wouldn't go that far, Race”, making it seem like Race could be seriously considering seducing the working boys of Manhattan into striking. (Newsies Film script, page 80)

Is mean when he’s jealous. As soon as Davey and Les mention having parents, Race snaps at them, (Newsies Live script, page 23) and he mocks Crutchie’s picket sign behind his back when he sees that the other newsies like it. (Newsies Live script, page 40) He also attempts to keep Davey an outsider, by interrupting him when he tries to talk to Katherine. (Newsies Live script, page 49)

Feels a strong sense of community with the newsies. Race is the most upset when Jack scabs, and later when he leaves for Santa Fe. (Newsies Film script, pages 108, 134) He’s also the first one to notice when Crutchie comes back from the Refuge. (Newsies Live script, page 76) This could be because he lived at the lodging house for most of his life- the newsies became like his brothers. (Trading card)

Is actually pretty smart. When Les says that he has a mom and a dad, Race replies “Hey, ain’t we the hoi polloi?” (Newsies Live script, page 23) Hoi polloi is ancient Greek for “the common people”. Not only is Race speaking in an obscure language, his insult has several meanings- hoi polloi sounds like an insult even if you don’t know what it means, and the meaning could be taken as mocking Les for not being a normal newsie (by being a normal person), or as calling Les stuck up. It also takes a lot of smarts to be good at gambling- Race would have to have a firm grasp of probability and body language, and have a very good memory, to consistently win money on games of chance.

May have ADHD. Race constantly has a cigar with him, but never smokes it- he could use it as a way to stim without drawing attention to himself. He is also very touchy, often without seeing if someone wants to be hugged first. Lastly, Race has a very short attention span. In Carrying the Banner, Albert steals his cigar while he’s buttoning his shirt. He doesn’t remember to finish buttoning it, and it stays that way for the rest of the show. In King of New York, he appears just as sad about Jack and Crutchie’s disappearances as the other newsies- until Kath tells him about their front page article. Then, he immediately forgets about them, even when the other newsies are having none of it. (Newsies Live script, page 47)

Headcanon Fuel:

If Race is Italian, why does he have such a non- Italian sounding last name?

What happened to Race’s family?

How did Race get into gambling?

Where did Race learn ancient Greek phrases?

WHY did Race learn ancient Greek phrases?

Why is Race named after horse races instead of any other kind of betting?

Why does Race gamble at Sheepshead (a racetrack in Brooklyn) (Newsies Film script, page 7) if Spot is so territorial and frightening?

Actors and Physical Appearance:

Max Castella

Ryan Breslin

Giuseppe Bausilio

Ben Tyler Cook

Daniel Switzer

Race is described as “an Italian beanpole” in the film script. (Newsies Film script, page 16) He is tall and thin, with messy brown hair and light eyes. He accessorizes with a (hopefully) unlit cigar that he keeps with him at all times. As he is Italian, he might have darker skin than some of the other Caucasian newsies.

#newsiepedia #newsies #92sies #newises live #livesies #racetrack higgins #race higgins #race newsies #racetrack newsies

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themastercylinder · 6 years ago

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SUMMARY

Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) is a psychic who has been using his talents solely for personal gain, which mainly consists of gambling and womanizing. When he was 19 years old, Alex had been the prime subject of a scientific research project documenting his psychic ability, but in the midst of the study, he disappeared. After running afoul of a local gangster/extortionist named Snead (Redmond Gleeson), Alex evades two of Snead’s thugs by allowing himself to be taken by two men: Finch (Peter Jason) and Babcock (Chris Mulkey), who identify themselves as being from an academic institution.

At the institution, Alex is reunited with his former mentor Dr. Paul Novotny (Max von Sydow) who is now involved in government-funded psychic research. Novotny, aided by fellow scientist Dr. Jane DeVries (Kate Capshaw), has developed a technique that allows psychics to voluntarily link with the minds of others by projecting themselves into the subconscious during REM sleep. Novotny equates the original idea for the dreamscape project to the practice of the Senoi natives of Malaysia, who believe the dream world is just as real as reality.

The project was intended for clinical use to diagnose and treat sleep disorders, particularly nightmares, but it has been hijacked by Bob Blair (Christopher Plummer), a powerful government agent. Novotny convinces Alex to join the program in order to investigate Blair’s intentions. Alex gains experience with the technique by helping a man who is worried about his wife’s infidelity and by treating a young boy named Buddy (Cory Yothers), who is plagued with nightmares so terrible that a previous psychic lost his sanity trying to help him. Buddy’s nightmare involves a large sinister “snake-man.”

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A subplot involving Alex and Jane’s growing infatuation culminates with him sneaking into Jane’s dream to have sex with her. He does this without technological aid—something no one else has been able to achieve. With the help of novelist Charlie Prince (George Wendt), who has been covertly investigating the project for a new book, Alex learns that Blair intends to use the dream-linking technique for assassination.

Blair murders Prince and Novotny to silence them. The president of the United States (Eddie Albert) is admitted as a patient due to recurring nightmares. Blair assigns Tommy Ray Glatman (David Patrick Kelly), a psychopath who murdered his own father, to enter the president’s nightmare and assassinate him—people who die in their dreams also die in the real world. Blair considers the president’s nightmares about nuclear holocaust as a sign of political weakness, which he deems a liability in the upcoming negotiations for nuclear disarmament.

Alex projects himself into the president’s dream—a nightmare of a post nuclear war wasteland—to try and protect him. After a fight in which Tommy rips out a police officer’s heart, attempts to incite a mutant-mob against the president, and battles Alex in the form of the snake-man from Buddy’s dream. Alex assumes the appearance of Tommy’s murdered father (Eric Gold) in order to distract him, allowing the president to impale him with a spear. The president is grateful to Alex but reluctant to confront Blair, who wields considerable political power. To protect himself and Jane, Alex enters Blair’s dream and kills him before Blair can retaliate.

The film ends with Jane and Alex boarding a train to Louisville, Kentucky, intent on making their previous dream encounter a reality. They are surprised to meet the ticket collector from Jane’s dream.

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The Dream Master Roger Zelazny

According to Roger Zelazny, the film developed from an initial outline that he wrote in 1981, based in part upon his novella “He Who Shapes” and novel The Dream Master. He was not involved in the project after 20th Century Fox bought his outline. Because he did not write the film treatment or the script, his name does not appear in the credits; assertions that he removed his name from the credits are unfounded.

DEVELOPMENT

DREAMSCAPE’s title encapsulates both the film and the mental landscape that its independent filmmakers occupied for almost three years. Its creators hoped that the production would not only prove to be a success, but that it would also give them the clout to go on to bigger, even more ambitious projects. Featuring elaborate special effects by Peter Kuran’s Visual Concept Engineering Company and makeup effects by Craig Reardon, the film was launched as the first outing of newly-formed Zupnik-Curtis Productions.

Producer Bruce Cohn Curtis is one of the few men left in Hollywood who still has ties to its fabled beginnings, the nephew of the legendary Harry Cohn, one of the founders of Columbia Pictures. Looking the producer, from his immaculately clipped hair down to his tailored, sharply creased suits, a chill falls over any set that Curtis walks onto. With a military air of no-nonsense, Curtis keeps a close eye on his productions and is happy only if filming is on schedule.

“I’m tyrannical on a set,” Curtis says with a smile of relaxed authority. “That’s why I use the people I have as well as I do. Many of the people on DREAMSCAPE have worked with me before and have come back because I am a perfectionist and won’t settle for less. I have a standard of excellence in my films that I’ve always maintained, no matter what the cost, so that even though you might not like the stories I’ve done, the look of the film is always rich.”

Remembering that he had to prove himself publicly in an industry filled with people just waiting for the newest Cohn to fail, for his first effort Curtis made OTLEY, a sharp-edged spy spoof/drama with Tom Courtney as an ersatz spy who finds his make-believe assignment being taken very seriously by the other side. The film died at the box office, but drew good critical notices. The industry sat up and noticed; Harry Cohn’s nephew was off and running.

Curtis partnered with various producers for awhile, including Irwin Yablans on HELL NIGHT, but chafed at being the junior partner without clout. The matter came to a head when he was making THE SEDUCTION with Yablans and grew tired of having his ideas ignored.

Curtis resolved to start his own company and make pictures his way. He found financial backing from businessman Stanley Zupnik, and was looking for scripts to start Zupnik-Curtis Productions when associate producer Chuck Russell brought in director Joe Ruben and the DREAMSCAPE script. Curtis had worked previously with both and gave the green light for Ruben and Russell to begin revising the script, written by David Loughery.

Ruben discovered Lowery’s script in 1981 at the William Morris Agency, which represents both artists. Lowery, a television writer, had come out to Hollywood in 1979 after winning a script writing contest sponsored by Columbia Pictures, while a student at the University of Iowa. Ruben had just finished directing the TV-pilot for BREAKING AWAY, and was looking for a new project.

Once Ruben started reading the DREAMSCAPE script he found he couldn’t put it down. The vision Loughery described was breathtaking, with rivers ablaze and boats filled with the undead. Ruben was excited by the property and showed it to Russell, his assistant director on JOY RIDE and GORP (also starring Dennis Quaid), films made with Bruce Cohn Curtis for producer Samuel Z. Arkoff. Russell suggested they take the script to Curtis and his new company.

It took seven months for Ruben and Russell to rewrite DREAMSCAPE; with Curtis providing detailed criticism and ideas throughout. Loughery was brought back in to help write the final draft.

“We knew some things in Loughery’s script, like the holocaust dream at the end, were so expansive that it was virtually un-filmable,” said Russell about the changes that were made. “The original ending was set in New York. We changed that so we could do the movie out here in Los Angeles. In Loughery’s script you saw all of New York on fire after the bomb had hit. You saw the Statue of Liberty, ferry boats filled with the undead, and flames across the harbor. It was really great, but I knew we couldn’t afford to do it like that.”

Putting a screenplay into production inevitably means rewrites and not always by the original writer. In the final billing, Loughery receives story credit, while sharing screenwriting credit with director Joe Ruben and associate producer Chuck Russell. When I started writing with Joe and Chuck,” he says, “the original screenplay was pretty ferme, about 108 pages. They wanted to work some more on the characters, and their relationships. That was a good thing the development of the characters gave the audience more reason to care for the people and what happened to them.”

One of the things that really worried us about the character of Alex Gardner is that he’s something of a smart ass. So, we were afraid the audience wouldn’t like him. As soon as Dennis went to work, it was obvious we weren’t going to have any problem.

“My favorite character is Tommy Ray, the psychotic psychic, played by David Patrick Kelly. He doesn’t have many scenes, but when he’s on, he does a great job. The ‘have a heart scene is going to be seen by the audience as a rip off of Temple of Doom, but the fact is we shot it months before Temple of Doom even went into production. That is Chuck’s idea; he has a grisly and macabre sense of humor.”

Russell and Ruben beefed-up the character of Buddy (Cory “Bumper” Yothers), the little boy whose nightmares are cured by the film’s dream research project. In Loughery’s script Buddy wasn’t a running character. The idea for Buddy’s character arose from concepts the writers picked up from the study of dream research.

“We found the case of a little boy who was having such terrible nightmares that he couldn’t sleep,” said Russell. “It was affecting him physically; we used that case as our model for Buddy. The first time in the film when Alex (Dennis Quaid) acts unselfishly is when he enters Buddy’s dream to try and help him. He rises to the occasion and fulfills the role of hero.”

THE DREAM CHAMBER

On an adjacent stage the set for the Dream Chamber was built. Outside, the set looked like a plywood igloo circled with florescent lights. Inside however, a small, padded chamber led to a main control room by a door and a large window. The set was a quiet haven, even when the normal racket of production was going on outside.

“The initial sketches of the set design for the Dream Chamber were some wild approaches that we felt were interesting, but not what we wanted,” Russell said. “Some of them made us feel too much like we were on a spaceship, while others were more like a classic, BRAINSTORM-type, wire-strewn lab. We decided we didn’t want a lot of whirling lights and buzzers, but something quiet and womb-like. It was a very difficult set to design because we were trying to make something that looked authentic, but we didn’t have any precedent for it.”

From an aesthetic standpoint, the design worked wonderfully. From a practical standpoint however, problems cropped up immediately that led to several delays in shooting. The set itself had been designed by Alan Jones without consulting with director of photography Brian Tufano. Jones then abruptly left the production for personal reasons so that when the set was built, Tufano had still not been consulted during the shuffle to find a new set designer. Tufano had great difficulty in setting up his lights and camera within the small confines of the set. An outside computer graphics firm had been brought in to supply authentic looking medical displays for the many small monitors built into the set. Unfortunately, the computer wouldn’t work right and left a full crew standing around collecting pay while technicians tried to figure out what had gone wrong with their expensive battery of equipment. Later, one of the technicians would quietly tell Russell that an Apple home computer would have been sufficient to give them the displays they wanted.

BEHIND THE SCENES / SPECIAL EFFECTS

“Some of the rough figures from effects companies were just staggering in the amount of money, research and development time they would need.” – Chuck Russell

Chuck Russell was told to shop around for people who could create the film’s extensive special effects and draw up a budget.

“It was very exciting to shop the script around and find out what could and couldn’t be done,” said Russell. “Some of the rough figures I got from effects companies were staggering in the amount of money, research and development time they would need. We just didn’t have the preparation time or budget of something like ALTERED STATES.

“When we found Peter Kuran’s VCE and Craig Reardon, and they got excited about the project, we knew they were perfect for it. They even helped sell the project because of their reputations, Reardon’s for working on Steven Spielberg’s POLTERGEIST and Kuran from his work with George Lucas.”

Russell assigned the live action makeup effects to Reardon, and the miniature and optical work to Kuran’s VCE company. Richard Taylor’s MAGI company was also asked to contribute computer animated imagery for the film’s “Dream Tunnel” effects. For the Dream Tunnel, Russell and Ruben wanted a semi-abstract look different from the other effects work in the picture, a “hazy.” dreamlike look, with an object or two from the upcoming scene to form and float towards the viewer to act as a visual cue for what was about to happen.

The effects sequences were storyboarded by Len Morganti; the budget was finalized on the basis of those storyboards. Because director Joe Ruben had not worked with special effects before, he carefully went through each scene with the storyboard artist.

“I knew that I had to be totally committed to my boards,” said Ruben. “I spent a lot of time thinking through the sequences and how I wanted to shoot them because I knew if I didn’t, the film would go out of control because the special effects people wouldn’t know what they were responsible for and what had to be done with each shot. I was able to get just what I was looking for. Morganti would sketch out something and if I asked him to move it a little lower and more to the right, he’d be able to do it with just a few strokes of his pencil. It was almost like working with a camera.”

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BUDDY”S NIGHTMARE

To try and save money while providing a sense of heightened realism, Russell and Ruben had wanted to shoot the “Buddy” dream, the little boy’s nightmare, on location.

“We found an old Victorian house and were actually shooting,” said Russell. “We realized that by the time you put in the lightning and thunder, it was going to look like Vincent Price was going to come around the corner. It was too on the nose, too traditional. We asked Jeff Stags, our art director, to do something different. He came up at the last minute with the idea of a forced perspective set, sort of Dr. Caligari style. It was a small set, but much more effective, as well as inexpensive. Buddy’s dream is really my favorite because it has much more impact, even though it’s not as spectacular as the last dream.”

Another problem that cropped up involved Reardon’s Snake man suit. Although an impressive work up close, Ruben felt that at even minor distances, it would seem as just a man in a rubber suit. Ruben and Russell still hoped that flickering low-level lighting would help. but Ruben began to realize that even with the extensive work he had put into planning the storyboard angles, the lighting was not going to be enough to sell the suit to an audience. Reardon firmly disagreed, “Contrary to negative thinking about rubber suits, you’ve got to see them as something delightful, and full of potential for doing something wonderful,” said Reardon. “You have to think of them almost as toys. Right when we were about to shoot the basement struggle scene, I went aside with Ruben and said there are two ways of looking at this; you can think of this as a rubber suit which will look bad, or as something which, with the proper angles and lighting, will convince people that they’re looking at a living, breathing, snarling Snake man. Now when Ruben first saw it, he said ‘Oh boy, Reardon, I don’t know…it’s a rubber suit. I thought that had a dangerous ring to it if he really believed it, which was hard to tell because he, Russell, and Loughery had this camaraderie among the three of them based on this constant derogatory kidding. That’s well and good and worth a few chuckles, but where it begins to become pernicious is when it begins to condition thinking to be truly negative.”

Reardon also objected to the low-level lighting strategy that Ruben and cinematographer Brian Tufano used to film the suit. “Tufano seemed to have a fine contempt for any kind of supplementary light which would be, in logical terms arbitrary, but in dramatic terms exciting and interesting … something that would catch the eye, something that would fill in a face or create a little cross light to show textures,” said Reardon. “The naturalistic photography Tufano used can be very detrimental, I think, to SF and fantasy stories. You contrast this with the work of John Hora, who shot THE HOWLING and GREMLINS, and you see that special effects profit enormously from using special tiny spots and direct lighting. But I didn’t feel it was my place to raise the issue.”

Reardon did try to get his viewpoint across to the filmmakers by preparing a lighting test on video. The test was crude but illustrated the alternative Reardon was suggesting. “They ignored it,” said Reardon of the test. “Yet, when they got on the set, they were completely vapor locked on the suit. They didn’t know what to do with it, and they didn’t have any ideas. All the storyboards that had been prepared in advance were completely ignored. Not once did I see anybody bring up a storyboard and crack it open and say that for this frame here we need to set up this angle. All the audacious plans evaporated. Ruben was at a loss to shoot special effects or rubber suits.”

Aupperle s first job was to coordinate the sculpture of the stop-motion Snake man, which was being done by Steve Czerkas, with the suit being built by Craig Reardon.

“They told me that they wanted to feature Craig’s suit prominently, so I was going to try and make the miniature as close as possible to Craig’s suit,” said Aupperle. “We started with a man’s armature and sculpted Craig’s design over it. I knew we were going to have to make some changes, like making the tail longer so it could whip around, but I wanted to avoid one of those instances where the suit never matches the miniature. I’d run back and forth to Craig and measure his design with calipers just to make sure we were dead on.

“Since Craig’s suit was being done in pieces our model was the first time the producers saw the way the design was going to come together. They wanted more changes than I ever expected. They actually had Steve Czerkas re-sculpt the model. It got away from the manlike design and no longer really matched the suit. I was a little concerned that the two would intercut, but that’s what they insisted upon.”

Causing Aupperle the most concern was the production’s seeming lack of respect for the story boards. *They wanted to be able to use Craig’s suit any way they wanted,” said Aupperle. “They didn’t want to be tied down by storyboards. At one time they asked me to revise the storyboards. They said they’d just have to wing it on the set. That attitude left me little to do until they were done with the live action. I found the situation very distressing.”

Perhaps the greatest disappointment for Reardon was the scant use made of a full snake-man costume. The suit appears in the film for just a few frames, as the man-snake breaks through a door; most of the action originally planned for Cedar was replaced by Jim Aupperle’s animation using models built, following Reardon’s design, by Steve Czerkas.

THE SNAKE MAN

Most changes made in the script did not alter Loughery’s story significantly. In Loughery’s original draft, the creature that menaces Buddy in the boy’s dream and later reappears as the creature stalking the President and Alex was to be a rat-man. “We changed that because so much had been done with werewolves,” said Russell. “This was right after THE HOWLING and AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and we felt the difference between a man with a rat’s face and a man with a wolf’s face would be minimal.

“We wanted to take a different approach,” Russell continued. “Not the direction of John Carpenter’s Thing but something identifiable, so that when Tommy Ray changed into something to scare Alex, you would be able to see that it was Tommy Ray’s version of the same creature. Joe Ruben wanted to go with something that scared him, and since he’s scared of snakes, we went in that direction. I did some sketches of a snake creature and came up with something that really excited us because it was a departure from anything either of us had seen before. I think part of it came to me from my memories of seeing THE SEVEN FACES OF DR. LAO. When we showed it later to our effects people, Peter Kuran and Craig Reardon, they were really sparked by it too.

A stop-motion animator was the last member of the effects team to be hired, done through VCE. Both Russell and Ruben had agreed early on that the best and cheapest way to get what they wanted from the Snake man sequences would be with a mixture of live-action and stop-motion effects, but they were unsure just how they would mix the combination.

“I knew we would need a good animator,” said Russell. “I knew a live-action Snake man with its long neck and swishing tail would never work in a master shot. We didn’t have umpteen million dollars for physical effects.” Russell and Ruben planned to use low-key, flickering lighting for the sequences in order to seamlessly blend the two effects techniques.

Said Russell, “ Joe and I sat down with the special effects people on the Buddy sequence storyboards, which is the first appearance of the Snake man, and asked which way it made more sense to do it? It made sense to do the wide shots in stop motion and the close-ups in live action, and in the cases where we weren’t sure, we would have both of them overlap and whichever worked better, then that’s what we would go with.”

Although this arrangement was made in good faith and with the best intentions, the decision to let the two techniques overlap and not make a clear distinction between which shots would be assigned to each ultimately proved to be a decision that led to tensions and feelings of betrayal between makeup expert Craig Reardon and the production company.

Opticals were also used to create the clouds and background sky for the first dream that Quaid enters, the vertigo dream where he goes into the mind of a steelworker and falls. “There’s one shot where Dennis Quaid is supposed to be falling. said Kuran. “I spent some time trying to figure out how a person should fall so it will look right on film. We had a good plate of a falling background, and they rigged an elaborate harness at Raleigh to hold Dennis. When we were on the set. Ruben asked me how a person should fall, and I went through the motions of what Dennis should do, but Joe didn’t do that. He told Dennis to do something else that looks really corny. He ruined the shot. There was no way that I could think of to fix it and I think it looks really cheesy right now.

THE PRESIDENTS NIGHTMARES

At a budget of over $300,000 for some 90-odd cuts, DREAMSCAPE was one of the largest jobs VCE had taken on, as well as one of the most difficult. As the producers were continually asking VCE to create more or make changes with what they had done, Kuran wasn’t under pressure to have all the special effects done by the original deadline. Kuran pretty much improvises his effects as he goes along. The more they wanted him to do, the less certain he was about how much longer it would actually take to finish the effects. One thing was certain. There was no way they’d be able to get the movie out in the fall as Russell had originally hoped.

In a way though, the delays had been a good thing; something everyone was almost afraid to acknowledge because of all the tribulations the film had gone through. Kuran was creating the effects layer by layer, and even with only early tests to show, the effects still looked very good. It helped convince Curtis that even though the schedule and budget had gone to hell, it was still within limits he could work with—he was getting a better product for his money than he ever dreamed possible. The more Kuran tinkered with the visuals, the better they got. The live action footage of the actors had come out better than expected, too. Quaid and Von Sydow were marvelous in their roles, and if they could just get the effects to come out anywhere near what had been described in the script, they all began to feel they might have a movie yet, even if they did have to grimace a bit when they realized that the work on the film was still far from over.

Working with Zupnik-Curtis productions was not without its problems for Kuran in the beginning. Because Curtis had never worked with special effects before, he wasn’t sure what to expect.

“We started getting pressure from them early on,” said Kuran. “They had a rough cut of some of the sequences for us to work from, and they wanted to see something. But they kept changing the cutting without realizing that it meant we’d have to go back and redo the whole scene. There was a trolley shot that they wanted to make longer by one foot of film. At that point, all the backgrounds had been shot to length. All the miniatures had been broken down. I managed to talk them out of that one.”

Another problem is the very nature of post-production work. “When somebody does a movie, they make a little mistake here and a little mistake there, and if it doesn’t work, they just kind of throw the shit over their shoulders and it lands on them in post-production,” said Kuran. “Unfortunately, this is where we do most of our work. People are at their worst to deal with in post-production. They’re under deadlines, and if the movie doesn’t work they’re in even worse shit. The people who shot the movie are gone and they usually refuse to accept the fact that the movie is crummy because of them. Lots of people can go onto a production and create a lot of shit and come off smelling like a rose because the movie’s not finished when they leave it.”

Although VCE was contributing some 90 cuts to the film, the majority of the effects were going to be clustered around the holocaust dream near the end, and at the start, including the terrific A-Bomb teaser which opens the film. “I thought the bombs in THE DAY AFTER just didn’t look right,” said Kuran. “They looked so dark and cold. You look at a nuclear test and you can see it’s a very bright fireball, so we wanted a very hot look to our bomb.”

The Trolly/Subway Cart

Reardon’s and Kuran’s most elaborate work is seen in the climactic sequence, a surreal view of the day after Nuclear Armageddon. Dennis Quaid enters a dream which represents the President’s worst fears of nuclear war, the setting is an old trolley car that travels among the bombed-out ruins of Washington, D.C., past several surrealistic tableaux-travelling mattes and miniatures courtesy of Peter Kuran’s V.C.E. David Kelley, Plummer’s henchman, enters the dream as well, for a climactic confrontation with Quaid.

For the holocaust dream at the end, Kuran’s basic effects strategy was to have a live-action foreground element, an intermediate miniature behind that, and then have a matte or tinted water tank shot as the background. The scenes were difficult because Kuran needed something that would convey a sense of extremely large scale while still having realistic detail, a tall order on the show’s tight budget.

Russell had originally wanted to do the holocaust effects scenes first and rear-project them as they were shooting the live action. Kuran pointed out that it would take thousands and thousands of feet of film to try and generate the footage they would need, and that they would have a better chance of making sure the background footage matched with the live-action trolley car if they shot the trolley first and then had it to play the backgrounds against.

“Jim Belohovek and Sue Turner built the miniatures for the scenes, and we photographed them in different layers,” said Kuran. “To get good depth of field, we shot them at one frame per second. Then we started adding the fires. Because those had to be slowed down, we shot them at 72 frames a second. We don’t have any motion control equipment. I set up a dolly for the camera, filled the room with smoke, then lit the fires. It takes a couple of seconds to get the camera up to speed. Then we pushed the dolly down the tracks until eventually timed the push right and got it to look the same speed that we thought the trolley would be moving at. The background is a water tank shot that we used to make it look moody by adding some glows and fires. Counting everything I’d say there’s about 20 elements in that shot.”

While Kuran labored in the bowels of VCE, director Ruben and Academy Award winning editor Richard Halsey were slowly cutting the film together using unfinished optical tests that were the right length and Jim Aupperle’s Snake man animation. Kuran had been able to find them an east coast underground filmmaker named Dennis Pies (pronounced “pees”) to do the Dream Tunnel effects and the stuff looked wonderful. It was exactly what they wanted. But now it was time to decide how they were going to mix the live action Snake man and the animation, and to a great degree, they were coming down against the live action footage.

With the will to manipulate the dream to his own ends, Kelly at one point extends his fingernails into stilletos, which he uses to rip the heart from the car’s conductor, with the logic of dreams, the trolley then becomes a subway car, populated with a dozen grisly war victims, looking more dead than alive, Shortly after, Kelley transforms into a snake monster.

Reardon details the other effects he did for Dreamscape. “Tommy Ray Kelly transforms with knives springing from his fingers. He uses these to tear out someone’s heart which sits beating in his fingers,” the effects Technician says. “We made a prosthetic hand and an artificial heart for this scene.

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“We made 12 mutants up for them, Reardon says of the subway denizens, “all extremely exaggerated in their ugliness, so that, in the heavy shadows and flickering light that was planned for the shot, they would still prove effective. The design is heavy-handed, but suitably macabre for the scene.

“I hogged all the major sculpture on the picture for myself, but there were a number of other people working with me on this that also deserve mention. My greatest praise must go to Bruce Kasson, who took the weight off my shoulders where mechanical work is concerned. He worked out the mechanical effect used for the death of one of the characters at the end, as well as the stilleto fingernails. David Miller was our acrylic man, doing all the hard plastic pieces, and certainly one of my right hand men in doing the sculpture, along with David Cellitti.

Snake Man Transformation Effect

Following the completion of principal photography, there was a brief hiatus, during which Reardon re-stirred his somewhat-dampened enthusiasm, before tackling the transformation sequence.

Replacement animation is a variety of stop motion that uses separate, slightly differing sculptures, rather than the movable models most frequently associated with the form. Pioneered by George Pal, replacement animation is nowadays seen mostly in David Allen’s television commercials featuring such animated characters as Mrs. Butterworth and the Pillsbury Doughboy. Reardon’s suggestion to try this technique for an unusual transformation. Because of the frame-by-frame nature of the animation process, the sequence would be a short one-less than two seconds in sculpting work than Reardon (or, most likely, anyone else) had ever expended on a transformation effect of such short duration; 32 heads, each altered slightly from the previous head in sequence, each making a barely more than subliminal appearance in the film. It was this rapidity, and the violence of the change, that Reardon felt would make it entirely unique.

“The major problem was one of time,” Reardon says. “How was I to produce 32 different heads for this sequence within a reasonable schedule? The first thing you want to consider in a situation like this is, can you do it full-size? It took me about 15 seconds of heavy thought to realize that would be a killer, because of the molds that would be involved, and the sheer awkwardness of doing such an extensive sequence in full scale. From the beginning, they wanted David Kelley’s features discernible in the snake head’s face, so l also briefly considered taking a cast of Kelley’s face and using reduction techniques, like special shrinking molds, to bring it down to scale-but there is enough distortion in the reduction process that it wouldn’t likely be worth the effort. So I finally decided on doing a miniature portrait sculpture based on his features.

“One way to have gone would have been to produce molds of each and every stage cast one head, alter it a little further, make a mold from that and cast another stage. I ruled that out; it takes about a day to make one mold, so it would have taken a full month to prepare for the sequence.

“Instead, I took a master mold of the first stage turned out a dozen or so duplicates of that, and altered each of them to cover the first third of the total transformation. I then made another mold from the last of these, and changed those progressively. That way, I had to make no more than three molds. As the work progressed, I did some rough tests on video, which helped to show up a number of small glitches. Some of these proved very difficult to correct-seen side by side, two heads might appear to match perfectly, but tiny variances would show immediately on video.”

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A chief problem with all stop motion effects is that of temporal aliasing,” a term used to describe the unnatural look of objects seen to be in motion, but not blurred as they would be if actually filmed in real-time. All along, Chuck kept saying, ‘I hope this won’t look like animation,” says Reardon, “and of course all I could say was, I hope so, too.’

“Jim Aupperle, who did the stop motion animation on the snake monster, and my friend Randy Cook, made some suggestions to counter that problem. Both suggested that if each stage would be slightly dissolved into the next stage, that would soften the edges, and disguise whatever anomalies there were from one head to the next. So Peter took the negative and a dupe negative, printing them to a single positive with overlapping frames, so that no single frame gives a really razor sharp image of one sculpture.

The Caves

Another kind of problem arose in shooting the climax of the President’s holocaust dream, set in a cave-like underground grotto decorated with fires, twisted girders and a glowing pool of green water. Originally it was planned to shoot the scene on a section of the ruins” set at Raleigh Studios. But Russell found out that he could get a few days shooting time at Bronson Canyon. The site, long a favorite locale for low-budget productions, is actually a short “Y” shaped tunnel through a jutting canyon wall in the nearby Hollywood hills. Open at all three ends and with a high ceiling, Ruben and Russell felt they could put up a more effective set inside the cave at relatively little cost to the production.

The art department scrambled on something like 48 hours notice to come up with a revised set for the cave. They did well, but lighting the set so that the lights themselves wouldn’t show was a difficult task made harder by the fact that creating the pool of water just past the junction of the “Y” in the cave had turned the rest of its sandy floor into gritty muck that forced the crew to support the lights and camera on wooden planks and sandbags the best they could. Working in the enclosed confines quickly turned miserable too. Brian Tufano, who had been hired because of his work on QUADROPHENIA and THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE, is yet another British cinematographer who likes to use smoke to diffuse his lighting to give the set greater visual depth. Every time Ruben went for a take, Tufano’s assistants would pump the small, sealed cave full of hot, oily smoke and wait to see if the density was right. While the crew and stars quietly gasped behind their respirators, either more smoke would be pumped in if it wasn’t enough.

According to Craig Reardon, the first scenes that were supposed to be shot in the caves were thought to be relatively straightforward. Quaid, followed by Albert, is moving through the cave when they are attacked by a mutant dog. For the dog’s costume, Reardon’s assistant, Michiko Tagawa, had made some wonderfully revolting costumes.

“They were beautiful.” Reardon said. “They had entrails bulging out of the body and exposed rib cages and boils and french fried skin. Now we were told that a Doberman would wear the costume, and in fact, the trainer had auditioned the dogs in a costume they worked in on the BUCK ROGERS television show. So Michiko went to a great deal of trouble to measure the Dobermans and I contributed sculptures for the heads while she built the body parts up from reject castings for the subway zombies.” Once we got them suited up at the Bronson location however, the Dobermans refused to perform.

“The dogs trouped around in the mud and the zippers and their fur got packed with it,” said Reardon. “It was a disaster. They took one of the suits and tried to put it on a German Shepherd, a dog which is considerably different in body build.”

In his big scene the dog was supposed to run a short distance and jump at Quaid. In take after take however, the dog merely trotted up to Quaid and stopped at his feet to try and shake the costume off. Eyes turned on the dog’s embarrassed handlers who quickly explained that the dog usually didn’t act like that; it was probably because he felt uncomfortable with the costume.

Reardon snipped parts of the costume’s legs away, hoping to make it more comfortable, but this produced no better reaction. Next, the dog’s owners took to furiously waving a little furry target at the dog. then quickly sticking it just inside Quaid’s shirt while everyone enthusiastically urged the dog to attack. This made the dog think everyone just wanted to play. It would run up to Quaid, half-hop once, then bark excitedly while waiting for his trainers to get the toy again.

Quipped Reardon, Bruce Cohn Curtis said the mutant dog looked like someone’s dirty laundry running across the floor.” Finally the dog made one decent leap past Quaid and Ruben called it a take. The shot is still in the film, although the rest of the mutant dogs were replaced with German Shepherd with their fur shaved in patches and dabbled with red goo.

“The script also called for these two raggedy dogs to chase after Quaid and Albert in the dream. It seemed that the easiest way to achieve a really striking appearance for the dogs would be to suit them in a costume covered with foam latex. I consulted with the trainers on the feasibility of it, and they said

‘Yeah, sure.’ So l sculpted two mutated dog heads, and Michiko Tagawa, a very good craftsperson who’s done work with Winston and Burman, did a beautiful job on the body suits-really hideous and nasty. She took some reject castings from the subway mutants, and reworked them into twisted body shapes, warped, burned and decked with growths. But the dogs wouldn’t wear them, and the trainers sort of shrugged, and said ‘What do you expect?’

“Those trainers were let go, and replaced by Karl Miller, who allowed them to shave his dogs in erratic patches, and we gobbed all kinds of blood, goo and crap on them. Good enough, but it’s unfortunate that Michiko’s suits will never be seen.”

VCE generated the bits and pieces that would help add life and highlights to the live action effects. A red glow was added to the mutant dog’s eyes, as well as crawling purple electrical effects when the dogs vanish. Opticals materialized David Patrick Kelly’s nunchaku weapons smoothly into his hands as well as allowed Dennis Quaid to heal his wounds and transform himself into Kelly’s father.

Snake Man Showdown

The next scene planned for the cave involved Quaid and Albert, discovering it is a dead end and that the Snakeman is right behind them. It comes out of a side tunnel, snarls, and attacks Quaid. Ruben decided he wanted to use the full-sized Snakeman suit for the shot, and Reardon was given short notice to get it ready. At the time, Reardon was working full tilt to prepare the suit needed for the basement struggle in the boy’s nightmare. A different head would be needed for the cave sequence.

“Russell got a hold of Bronson Canyon and said we’ve got to do the Kelly head to look like David Patrick Kelly, playing the President’s assassin) right away. You can’t change things around like that. I said I’d try when I should have told him no.”

Ruben shot Reardon’s live Snakeman suit in the cave, although eventually discarded most of it and replaced the scene with a stop-motion cut. Also discarded was a small but important effect Reardon had worked very hard on getting right, a brief shot where Dennis Quaid “heals” a wound in his shoulder.

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“We created a sort of bite effect, then put a plastic membrane over it and melted it with a plastic solvent so that when they ran the film backwards, the wound would heal,” explained Reardon. “It didn’t work as well as it did on the bench, which is frequently the case, but you did get a feeling of the actual fleshy material knitting itself. They opted to have Peter Kuran redo it with animation.”

More successful was a Reardon designed effect where Kelly, now distracted by an ingenious ploy of Quaid’s, reverts to a half-human, half-snake form. While diverted, Albert sneaks up behind him and drives a length of pipe through Kelly’s chest. For this shot, Reardon made a false chest with a mechanical rubber pole section inside that was connected to a spring and operated by cable. Albert would sneak up holding the pipe, then drop it out of camera sight as he lunged for Kelly, and the rubber pipe would burst through a section of painted tissue paper. Although the complex mechanical effect took some time to rig, it was accomplished in only three takes and is gruesomely realistic. It made for a happy interlude before the crew was to run into yet more problems once they left Bronson Canyon and returned to Raleigh Studios.

Dave Millers Unused Snake Man

“I also worked on a snake man head, the one that was originally going to be in the elevator sequence, emerging from the head of Dennis Quaid. But then, they had some kind of quibble over Craig’s head of Quaid–they said it didn’t look like him, or some such garbage-and they hired Greg Cannom to do that sequence over. Greg did another head of Quaid, which they wound up not even showing, though it looked perfect, and another snakeman, which-sorry, Greg I didn’t care for too much. It didn’t seem to have much definition; it was hard to tell what it was. Plus, it was pretty badly edited.” – David Miller

BOB BLAIR’S DREAM DEMISE

The “Buddy” dream completed the bulk of the main shooting. DREAMSCAPE moved from the largest soundstage at Raleigh into one small stage for what was hoped would be the final shot of the would grasp what was happening. Because Quaid’s strike against Plummer was to be a surprise, Ruben and Russell felt it was absolutely necessary to make sure that the lighting look realistic right up to the moment of the attack. This meant shooting the effect not with lighting that would highlight the makeup, but with ordinary florescent lighting. Reardon hated the lighting, but went along with Ruben’s insistence that changing the lighting would tip-off people that something was about to happen.

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About a month earlier, in late June, Reardon had supplied a transformation head, known as a “change-0” head in the business, for a scene late in the film in which Dennis Quaid confronts political schemer Christopher Plummer in the one place where Plummer is vulnerable, inside Plummer’s own dream. Quaid borrows a trick from dream assassin David Patrick Kelly and changes into his own version of the Snakeman before killing Plummer. The effect was planned to first show Quaid’s head beginning to change, cut back to Plummer as the Snakeman’s hands shoot out for his throat (a very brief scene which was shot earlier) then a quick cut back to Dennis Quaid’s Snakeman head coming for the camera.

“We prepared a head, which I felt was better than a lot of THE HOWLING heads,” said Reardon. “We didn’t content ourselves with just having the face bulge out. We had the eyes blink, and when they opened they were snake eyes. At the same time the neck elongated and the cheeks distended, and the eyes began to pop out of their sockets. The mouth opens unnaturally wide and the teeth elongate. But nobody liked it. Ruben said to me, ‘Geez Reardon, I expected something like AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.’ That’s great. You give me six months and six hundred thousand dollars and maybe you could get that. Besides, that effect was five different heads. I told them all along that I was only going to come up with one head and do as much with it as I could.”

Neither Russell nor Ruben had been happy with the head when Reardon had brought it in. Under the flat lighting of the elevator mockup, the hair looked too bushy and still, the face too lifeless, and the neck far thicker than Quaid’s. The head didn’t work well either. with eyes that frequently jammed as they started to roll up. It took several takes to get the mechanism to work right. But beyond that, when Ruben and Russell saw footage of the effect, they realized that what they thought would be a good visual just wasn’t that exciting.

“Forget that it wasn’t convincing on film,” Ruben said. “When I saw it, I just realized that we needed a more shocking effect.”

“It wasn’t exciting enough,” added Russell. “We didn’t realize that until we saw it. It was a subtle effect that just wasn’t explosive enough. Craig’s head didn’t show anything either that would connect it with the Snakeman, and we decided we needed that, so we racked our brains and decided on something simple, like a guy’s head ripping apart with the Snakeman’s head coming out of the pieces.”

Russell contacted Reardon, but by this time, Reardon was both fed up with the production and busy trying to finish the replacement animation for David Patrick Kelly’s Snakeman transformation so he could be done with the film. Since Reardon was busy, Russell had to find someone who could do the effect and do it quickly. He decided on Greg Cannom, a former assistant to Rick Baker and Rob Bottin. Cannom’s first solo assignment was THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER, and more recently he assisted Baker with the apes for GREYSTOKE.

Cannom had talked with Russell about a year before DREAMSCAPE about another film project that never went through. Cannom was interested in the assignment, but checked with Craig Reardon first, before committing himself. Reardon gave his blessing. Cannom went into his workshop and tried an effect which would combine the two concepts that Russell discussed, creating a skull that would not only split apart, but split apart and turn into a monster at the same time. “I could see the use of the Snakeman with the kid’s nightmare, but going into an adult’s nightmare, I thought it should be a lot more horrendous and scary,” said Cannom.

Cannom’s first prototype makeup was deemed unacceptable by producer Bruce Cohn Curtis. It was a bitter decision because of the amount of effort Cannom had put into it. Cannom took a fiberglass skull which he cut and hinged so it could be pulled apart. Inside the skull, Cannom used a soft foam and sculpted a hideous face so that when the skull was pulled apart, the jaw would drop down and the foam face would come out to form the monster.

“I loved Cannom’s first approach,” said associate producer Chuck Russell. “I think it was terrific. The dangerous thing about the makeup was that in a very quick cut, with a man splitting his head open and something gooey, dark, and spongy coming out, it might look like brains. It was hard to argue for it because of that.”

Curtis told Cannom that they wanted something closer to Reardon’s Snakeman concept. Cannom tried to figure out how to fit Reardon’s Snakeman design into a reworked version of the splitting skull but finally gave up and settled for a two-piece approach. Cannom first built a small, embryonic Snakeman head which would be moved like a hand puppet inside the skull after it split apart. Cannom wanted to stop the camera and replace the small head with a fullsized but slimmer Snakeman head that would rise out of the neck and lunge for the camera dripping goo and skin. As with Reardon before him, Cannom was less than happy with the treatment he felt his makeup got from Ruben and Curtis. Assisted by Jill Rocklow, Kevin Yagher and Brian Wade, Cannom did the effect, but felt little enthusiasm for the final product.

“Bruce Cohn Curtis and the other producer, Jerry Tokofsky, were so insulting and rude to me it was incredible,” said Cannom. “It was like they already had something against me and wanted to find fault. I never want to see Bruce Cohn Curtis again.

“I don’t really think my effect works either,” added Cannom. “It’s not done the way we wanted to set it up. We were very careful about it. First, the skull would split apart, then we would cut away, put the snake creature back into the neck and put skin all around it, and then have it come at the camera. I spent hours getting the chicken skins for the makeup and preparing them, then setting-up the effect. Ruben looked at it and said, ‘That’s not what I want. No neck and no skin. I just want the head coming at the camera.’ I told him that didn’t make any sense! But that’s what he wanted, so we did it his way.”

POST PRODUCTION

Because Ruben and Halsey had been able to do much of the editing work while the final opticals were being generated, the final scoring and assembly of the footage was completed quickly. Curtis had a finished film only a month later and premiered it to his friends in mid-January at a small mixing theater in Hollywood. Although there were some clunky spots that hadn’t been fixed because of time and budgetary problems, the final cut was deftly edited around most of them and they were visible only if you knew what to look for. The audience gave the film a big hand and Curtis was very happy, as well as Kuran. Russell, Ruben and Loughery, who now looked forward to having a potential hit associated with their names. Although Craig Reardon liked the film, he was still unhappy with director Ruben.

Ruben defended his decision to replace Reardon’s work. “Craig was under tremendous pressure to deliver an awful lot of complicated physical effects,” said Ruben. “I wouldn’t be able to see a finished physical effect practically until the day we were ready to shoot it. That was a rough way for both of us to work. I was disappointed some times, and I’m sure he was disappointed in the way I was shooting things, although at no time can I remember him making specific suggestions. I think that the main thing I would change if I were to do it again, and I wouldn’t mind working with Craig again.

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Dreamscape (1984) Music by Maurice Jarre 01.DREAMSCAPE 2:58 02.THE JOURNEY 4:22 03.FIRST EXPERIMENT 1:55 04.SUSPENSE 2:09 05.JEALOUSY MERRY-GO ROUND 2:56 06.THE SNAKEMAN 1:08 07.ENTERING THE NIGHTMARE 4:17 08.LOVE DREAMS 4:10

REFERENCES and SOURCES

Twilight Zone v04 n01_ Fangoria 44 Fangoria 27 Fangoria 34 Fangoria 39 Cinefantastique v15 n02

Dreamscape (1984) Retrospective SUMMARY Alex Gardner (Dennis Quaid) is a psychic who has been using his talents solely for personal gain, which mainly consists of gambling and womanizing.

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pixieshenanigans · 7 years ago

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We only have 2 days to fight the FCC & the repeal of #NetNeutrality! There’s a SUPER easy way to do this. Do you enjoy Netflix? Do you find yourself spending too much time on FB? If net neutrality goes away, our Internet bills go up and we give power to companies like Comcast and Spectrum to control what information we can access. Here’s what you can do - takes less than a minute. 1. Go to gofccyourself.com (the shortcut John Oliver made to the hard-to-find FCC comment page) 2. Click on the 17-108 link (Restoring Internet Freedom) 3. Click on “+Express” 4. Be sure to hit “ENTER” (or return) on your keyboard after you put in your name, so it registers. (They make it a tad tricky there.) 5. In the comment section write, “I strongly support net neutrality backed by Title 2 oversight of ISPs. Net neutrality is the essence of how the internet was founded, not for the big corporations, but for the people, and how they interconnect. Without which we will find ourselves more limited in capacity with fewer freedoms which is what this country was based on. Corporatization was not what the founding fathers had in mind when they drafted the constitution of the United States.” 6. Click on Review, then Submit, done.

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longsightmyth · 7 years ago

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Myth (re)reads A Court of Thorns and Roses while she counts fragments, em-dashes, and ellipses

• page 0 0.0% "Y'all can we talk about that tagline for a second though. "She stole a life. Now she must pay with her heart."

Really."

• page 6 1.34% "Aside from contradictions, re: gods being forgotten but still prayed to, it still really seems like Feyre thinks it's a wolf. She considers that he might be a faerie, but she kills him because he's going for the deer and she can't risk him eating the deer that she needs. Feyre doesn't fulfill the prophecy at all."

• page 8 1.79% ""His remaining yellow eye now stared at the snow-heavy sky, and for a moment, I wished I had it in me to feel remorse for the dead thing. But this was the forest, and it was winter."

I actually liked this. It's a good example of when fragments can be effective."

• page 64 14.29% ""Fool-I really should have been killed ten times over already." Look, I've read the book so I know the asspull reason why you haven't been, but given that reason you'd think Tamlin would be exerting himself a little more to be likeable even from the beginning."

• page 68 15.18% ""Another useless answer." No, it's really not. She just told you that literally the entire court is dangerous to you. You didn't know that before, as evidenced by the fact you asked which ones were. It's not useless information that they hate you."

• page 74 16.52% "Somehow I'd forgotten in all of this that not only is Tamlin's beast curse just to wear a mask, but that the mask doesn't even cover his entire face. WHO COULD EVER BE ATTRACTED TO A MAN IN A DOMINO MASK WITH A MODEL-SCULPTED BODY?! WHO?!"

• page 75 16.74% "If ash is the only way to kill fae (which we're told it is, but then it isn't later...?) then the warring fae probably WOULD have ash groves around. They'd just guard them super heavily."

• page 82 18.3% "Feyre sometimes seems genuinely confused about why people are angry with her for killing their friend? Like, I am staunchly in the 'she didn't know he was a fae when she killed him' camp and can prove it, but just because she didn't mean to kill their friend doesn't mean she didn't do it."

• page 82 18.3% "And the fact that the book itself can't decide whether she did it on purpose or not is really off putting and makes Feyre's confusion over Andras' friends' anger even more confusing to me."

• page 88 19.64% ""With that arrogance, no wonder Lucien found my presence as a replacement for his friend to be abhorrent." There is so much to unpack in this sentence"

• page 88 19.64% "First, we are back to Feyre apparently being confused that people are upset she killed a friend of theirs. I realize she didn't do it on purpose, but like, really?"

• page 88 19.64% "Second, it isn't arrogant to resent someone who takes your friend's place? And talking about it like you took Andras' job/seat at the table instead of being taken for killing him is weird?"

• page 88 19.64% "Third, that sentence structure. Jesus. If I accept the sentiment here, it really should have been something like 'with that arrogance, no wonder he abhorred me replacing his friend.' Look, I even kept your SAT word in there"

• page 96 21.43% "Can we discuss the writing though? "He was hardly wearing enough clothing for the winter that would await us once we crossed the wall."

Seriously? Look at this:

"He wasn't wearing enough for the winter that waited on the other side of the wall."

Better, no? This whole thing reads like an early draft."

• page 98 21.88% "Can this book just decide whether it wants Feyre to have killed Andras because he was a fairy or not because it really can't pick and it's driving me NUTS."

• page 100 22.32% "If this theme was continued (or, like, ever mentioned again) I'd like the line about the consequences of firing a single arrow"

• page 106 23.66% ""You can't write, yet you learned hot to hunt, to survive. How?"

I'm sorry is Tamlin/this book under the impression that reading/writing is necessary for hunting and surviving?"

• page 108 24.11% "STOP MAKING EVERY DAY FIGHTING KNIVES/DAGGERS SUPER FANCY 2K18"

• page 127 28.35% "The description of the Suriel is actually good and manages to be creepy. It's a good start, but given that we never then see (or even hear of) the Suriel DOING ANYTHING, I remain unconvinced of its scariness."

• page 134 29.91% "I still don't object to this sequence aside from the weirdness of the show Naga thing. Feyre isn't supposed to be the best fighter in all the land, she's a young hunter. It makes sense that she can't win a fight against fae, given what we know about fae."

• page 134 29.91% "I just question later events in regards to fighting/not fighting, Feyre's Gargantuan Power Up, and the peril (or lack thereof) when she's in fights."

• page 137 30.58% "NOW is when you decide to follow advice? Now, when looking around could give you some agency and answers? This is bullshit."

• page 139 31.03% "Let us assume for the sake of argument that fae DO follow current-day mortal marriage customs, no matter how silly that seems to me."

• page 139 31.03% "Let us FURTHER assume that being married is the only way to have a family, since that's what Feyre seems to think. There are still all sorts of ways for Alis to have been married even if she isn't wearing a wedding ring. She could choose not to wear the ring at work. She could be widowed."

• page 139 31.03% "But FIRST let us address the fact that apparently the only way to have a family is to be married. It's incredibly hypocritical of Feyre, first of all, to talk about her family and then be surprised that someone has a family because they aren't married."

• page 139 31.03% "Alis could have siblings like Feyre. She has parents SOMEWHERE. She could have non-biological children. She could have biological children! MARRIAGE IS NOT A PREREQUISITE FOR CHILDREN OR EVEN BEING IN A LOVING ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP."

• page 150 33.48% "Strange as it is to say, I actually DO like this part. It's one of the few moments where our characters show compassion and uncomplicated kindness. That's always nice to see, especially when our main character has been told multiple times that she's too good a person to be wherever she is."

• page 154 34.38% "You had to go and ruin it, book. How many times do I have to point out that Feyre didn't shoot Andras 'with hate in her heart'? She shot him because he looked like a wolf and she was hungry enough to try wolf meat. Just because she considered the possibility of him being fae doesn't mean she meant to shoot a fae."

• page 154 34.38% "I'd also like to point out that the narration here makes it seem like she's only sorry for killing somebody because it hurt the hot guy's feelings."

• page 157 35.04% "Is this the meadow scene from Twilight because the world doesn't need more of those"

• page 160 35.71% "How long have you been seventeen, Tamlin?"

• page 162 36.16% "Ew ew ew ew"

• page 163 36.38% ""Tamlin's glorious body was honed by centuries of fighting and brutality"

...sexy? I guess? Realtalk, what's the appeal of the brutality here?"

• page 163 36.38% ""I don't think born peasants have your kind of diction." Some part of me wanted to come up with a comment about snobbery, but... well, he was right, and I couldn't blame him for being a skilled observer."

• page 163 36.38% "First of all, I thought Nesta was supposed to be the snob. Second, those born peasants can write, Feyre, so I'd back off if I were you. (Seriously, earlier she says she didn't learn to write because Nesta and Elain were too snobby to let her go to the village school)"

• page 164 36.61% "How is 'prince of merchants' an inherited title?"

• page 165 36.83% ""I smiled and told him about those years in the woods" We never hear about it, though. God forbid."

#myth rags on throne of glass #sorta #fuck it #myth rags on A Court of Thorns and Roses #myth reads

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annaspoolstra · 4 years ago

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Reading Response #9

🔍 My Thoughts on Emerge (Ideas) pages 56-66

This chapter of Emerge covers ideas and how to get them. Don Perini explains that there are idea-friendly times during the day during which ideation (the creation of ideas) is most likely to happen. Some of these times are while one is listening to a sermon, falling asleep, reading or driving a car. These activities will put you in a relaxed state of peaceful wakefulness, a state of mind open to new thoughts and ideas. I can relate with this, as I’ve often had ideas pop into my head when I was in the middle of one of these activities. Our brains work subconsciously to generate ideas, so when our consciousness quiets down, we’re better able to listen for new ideas. Another topic Perini discussed in this chapter was how to capture our ideas. He notes that they’re worth their weight in gold, so it’s incredibly important to record them before we forget. He recommends keeping index cards around for this purpose. Personally, I’m more of a fan of post-it notes and my Notes app on my phone for quickly jotting down ideas.

🔍 My Thoughts on Emerge (Master) pages 81-87

In this chapter, Don Perini explained the process of becoming a master in a craft. First, you have to put in 10,000 hours of practice, and second, you must practice with a purpose. You need to take initiative to develop your skills and talents so you’re able to realize your dreams. Perini recommends pursuing other areas of knowledge and integrating them into your craft so you can grow. Mastery comes through hours of intentional practice. For me personally, I know that I need to work on this––more doing and less dreaming. If I’m honest, I feel like I have a lot of potential, but it’s just going to stay potential if I don’t start striving for mastery. I need to start implementing intentional practice daily if I’m going to get better at painting watercolors or drawing on my iPad.

🔍 My Thoughts on Emerge (Messiness) pages 100-107

In this chapter, Don Perini discusses the “creative habit of messiness.” I really appreciated learning about this. I’ve often been afraid of failure, and gotten discouraged in my art-making because I’ve felt that it had to be perfect the first time. But Perini explains that “Creatives overcome their fear of failure…by developing a willingness to start out messy. Creatives recognize that all creative endeavors must start out messy if they are going to eventually become useful.” This is kind of a revolutionary idea for me. If I give myself permission to be messy in the beginning stages of my work, whether that’s a sketch or a first-draft of a paragraph, I can see myself succeeding in what I make. Giving myself permission to be messy at the beginning gives me more freedom to work and takes away the discouragement that accompanies failure. I need to recognize that it’s okay to failure, too, as long as I’m learning from my mistakes.

🔍 My Thoughts on Emerge (Habit) pages 108-116

Perini discusses the process of forming a daily habit in this chapter of Emerge. Habits are cycles which begin with triggers, followed by routine behavior, followed by a reward, and then back to the trigger again. Triggers alert you that an action needs to be performed. I loved Perini’s example for writers: keep a lit candle on the middle of your desk to remind you that you need to focus on writing. The candle is a trigger. For habits to be effective, they also require rewards as a way to celebrate your success at completing your daily habit. Perini advises visualization techniques to keep our momentum going, and adding a “village member” for accountability. Repetition, of course, plays a key role in forming habits, too. Lastly, Perini addresses our mindsets as we form our habits. You need to believe that the new habit is good, right, and in your best interest in order to successfully change your old habits. And you need to renew your mind by replacing negative thoughts about ourselves with positive ones. I think these tips are all very useful for habit formation. I’ve seen their effects before in my life when I’ve established habits in the past. I don’t think I’ve ever used all of these tips at once before, and I’d be interested in trying out the visualization technique, effective triggers, and accountability partners.

🔍 My Thoughts on “The Habits of Effective Artists” video

I really enjoyed this presentation by Andrew Price. It was both engaging and informational. In his talk, he shares about the bet he made with his cousin, and the seven habits he then learned about how to be an effective artist. These seven habits are:

Daily work. Price recommended that artists work on their craft everyday, rather than waiting for large chucks of time. This reminded me of the fable about the tortoise and the hare: slow and steady wins the race. In the same way, practicing something everyday will result in a good habit and (in the artist’s case) more muscle memory. Price shared his goal for himself: one line a day. Often, he ended up spending hours drawing after he made his one line. The hardest part of maintaining a daily habit is getting started on the days you have no motivation, which is why he recommended setting the bar low.

Volume, not perfection. Price explained that the more work a person makes, the better they’ll get. The majority of the learning process happens in the beginning stages of an artwork, not the tweaking stages at the end. Artists should focus on quantity over quality, because they’re get more learning time in when they spend less time with the ending perfectionism stages.

Steal. Price makes the point that great, original art is built upon art copied from hundreds of other artists. We learn by imitating others, so “stealing” work is how we grow as artists. I’m not sure how I feel about his word choice, but I think I understand what Price is saying. In order to learn, we need to imitate others’ work. Price recommends creating a file of artwork you love, which works as both inspiration and reference. Personally I do this with Pinterest boards and photo albums on my phone, and it definitely helps me when I’m not sure what to make or how to make it.

Conscious learning. Price explained that practice doesn’t make perfect without learning from your mistakes. In other words, you have to to focus on what you’re doing so you can actually improve. I definitely need to work on this one, because it’s easy for me to just listen to music and “doodle around” mindlessly, but that’s not actually going to help me in the long run. Improving requires concentration and self-discipline.

Rest. This is a big one. Rather than working endlessly on a project, Price suggests following the examples of other great artists and taking breaks from your work. When you pause for a couple days and come back, you see your work with fresh eyes, and it’s easier to find solutions to the problems you faced before. I implement this habit a lot when I’m creating artwork, and also when I write papers for school. Sometimes I just need to come back to it the next morning in order to see what needs to be changed.

Get feedback. This is also important for improving your craft. According to Price’s presentation, the best artists are those who “seek criticism and actually listen to it.” By listening to constructive criticism, you’re better able to improve your mistakes and grow as an artist. I know this tip has definitely been helpful to me in my artistic journey.

Create what you love. Don’t waste your time on something you’re not interested in. When you create what you enjoy, Price explains, “you’ll make better work and you’ll stay motivated.” I would definitely agree with this. In my experience, I’ve found that it’s really difficult to force yourself to make something you have no interest in. It’s good to try new things and expand your horizons at times, but discovering your personal niche is best in the long run. That way you have something of a comfort zone for your art-making, and it’s easier to engage in the daily habit of artistic practice.

I really appreciated learning about these seven tips, and I definitely want to start implementing them as I practice making art. I think establishing these habits will help me grow as an artist.

📷 Image above:

https://www.google.com/search?q=artist+aesthetic+blue&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjAzp3CstPsAhXPgZ4KHbZbAzIQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=artist+aesthetic+blue&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzICCAAyCAgAEAgQBxAeMggIABAIEAcQHjIGCAAQCBAeMgYIABAIEB4yBggAEAgQHjIGCAAQCBAeOgYIABAHEB5QjN4EWIDnBGCC7gRoAHAAeACAAXGIAcIDkgEDNS4xmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=bFmXX8DoPM-D-gS2t42QAw&bih=789&biw=1440#imgrc=D9bX_xU_7OAg9M

#readingresponsepost #thecreativechristian #week10

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allenmendezsr · 4 years ago

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Starting A Freelance Copywriting Guide

New Post has been published on https://autotraffixpro.app/allenmendezsr/starting-a-freelance-copywriting-guide/

Starting A Freelance Copywriting Guide

Buy Now

Get a Roadmap to Finding High Paying Clients, Working on Projects You Love, and Gaining the Freedom to Live Life On Your Terms

Dream of working from the beach on your laptop?

Becoming a freelance copywriter sounds like a dream job.

You get to work from home or from coffee shops…

You can set your own hours…

Pick your own clients…

And you can earn a doctor’s salary tapping at a keyboard all day.

No doubt about it…

Compared to the normal working world of office politics, hours stuck in traffic, and being chained to a desk…

Becoming a freelance copywriter can be a dream come true.

BUT…

You’ve got a minefield of challenges to navigate to make that dream come true.

If you’ve no agency experience, no samples, and no previous clients, some of the challenges you’ll face include:

Developing copy skills clients will happily pay you for (and develop them FAST, rather than the years it takes many newbies).

Knowing where to find clients who’ll pay a FAIR rate for your services (you may be SHOCKED how fast your bank account will shrink when you no longer have a paycheck to feed into it).

Working out how to create proposals that will get you selected ahead of the pack of other hungry copywriters they’ve contacted

Ensuring your invoices get paid and the client doesn’t go AWOL the moment you’ve sent them the final draft (there’s no shortage of sharks eager to feast on newbie copywriters who don’t know how to chase unpaid invoices)

Fail to overcome any of these challenges and your freelance copywriting dream can go up in smoke.

You may then face the terrible day when you have to swallow your pride and start hunting for a J.O.B.

Sadly, few of the books on copywriting or $5,000 courses guide you on how to successfully launch a copywriting career (I should know, as I’ve done a bunch of them).

Sure, they can teach you the mechanics.

But they don’t explain how to solve the challenges that decide if a copywriting business lives or dies in the critical first six months.

Even then, many newbie copywriters STRUGGLE for years to earn the bumper paychecks they were promised.

As many as two thirds of new businesses FAIL within six years.

Nearly HALF fail to make enough money to continue operating in the first year.

Because…

Having great copy skills is useless when you don’t understand the business side of becoming a freelance copywriter.

The reason I know all this is because I learned how to become a freelance copywriter the HARD way.

Shooting the breeze with Mr Drayton Bird – one of the world’s foremost direct marketers

My name’s Matt Ambrose.

I first got started in copywriting in 2006.

But only after years of working in a soul sucking corporate job just to pay the bills.

Every week felt like rolling a boulder up a hill, only to see it crashing to the bottom by Monday morning.

And navigating the world of office politics was driving me nuts.

Bottom line – I was miserable and desperate to escape.

The good news is that I made a remarkable discovery.

On one of my trawls through job sites, I discovered this strange sounding profession called ‘copywriter’.

A few Google searches later and I couldn’t believe what I was reading…

Businesses PAY people to write their emails, websites, and blog posts?

My simmering excitement then exploded when I saw HOW MUCH.

Recruitment agencies were offering $500 per day…

Salaries of $60,000 per year and up…

for people willing to sit at a desk and WRITE ALL DAY!

It was like discovering a new world of possibilities.

A world I knew I had to enter as fast as possible.

But I had a problem…

While I had a degree in English and History and positive feedback on my ‘lucid’ writing style, I didn’t have a jot of copywriting experience.

But I knew…

I HAD to find a way of making my dream of becoming a copywriter come true.

So I leapt into building my copy chops with gusto.

I dedicated six months to studying everything I could find on copywriting…

I bought all the books on Amazon (which wasn’t half as many as there now)…

Created a portfolio of press releases, articles, and self made brochures…

And cobbled together a basic website on Dreamweaver (back then WordPress was purely for blogs about cats).

But having the (admittedly, basic) skills to write for businesses was one thing.

Finding businesses willing and able to pay for my services was another thing entirely.

Had I known then what I know now, I would have thought twice about quitting my corporate job so eagerly.

Because…

I struggled for YEARS until I was profitable.

Many times I’d wake at 3am and start to panic about where the next project and paycheck would come from…

And whether my friends had been right all along that “nobody is going to pay you to write for them.”

Would I have to swallow my pride, admit defeat, and go back to a dreary office job and monthly paycheck?

I desperately wished someone would guide me on what to do…

how to find quality clients…

how to get paid what I deserved…

and how to ensure projects kept coming in without endless cold emailing and getting shutdown by marketing agency secretaries.

But I managed to find enough work to keep going.

Sure, I continued to make a boatload of mistakes.

Mistakes that often cost me a lot of money from undercharging, missing out on projects, and not properly working out what the client wanted.

But I kept dusting myself down… learning from them… and struggling on the path I’d chosen.

Well, I’m pleased to say that all the pain and struggle was worth it.

Because for me…

The freelance copywriting dream is NOW a reality.

I’m now able to charge:

$200 per email

$1,000 for advertorials

$10,000+ for a video sales letter funnels

(Earnings disclaimer – You shouldn’t expect to earn this amount for a LONG time in your career. It takes years of training, practice, and getting results to earn the big bucks)

Not only that, but I’ve been able to:

-Grow a client list of 100+ companies including major B2B brands, like Siemens, Technicolor, Deutsche Post and Sage

-Generated $1m+ for clients in B2C markets, notably natural health

– Passed an audition to write for Clayton Makepeace (one of the world’s most successful copywriters alive today)

-Invited to appear on Copy Chief Radio, the Just Add Hustle podcast and interviewed for a series on Greatest Living Copywriters.

So I’m glad to say all the stress, night terrors, and struggle was worth it.

Even better, I now get to travel the world and work wherever I go…

enjoying what us senior laptop nomads call the ‘International Lifestyle’.

Hiking trip in Laos, one of many this year

So far I’ve lived in Malta, Chiang Mai, Berlin, Budapest, Prague, Krakow, Ho Chi Minh, Bangkok, Lisbon, The Canary Islands, and Kuala Lumpur… just to name a few.

But the only reason this became possible was because I was able to overcome all the challenges of the first few critical years of launching a new freelance copywriting business.

The good news is, you don’t have to go through all the same struggles I went through.

You don’t have to deal with the expensive trial and error…

The fear of not knowing where you’ll find your next client…

Or frustration when you find out you’ve been charging much less than you deserve.

Because I’ve written down everything I discovered on my journey and compiled it into a actionable guide.

Funnily enough, it’s called…

How to Start a Freelance Copywriting Business without Any Experience

Over 108 pages it reveals all the tactics, strategies and knowledge I developed when launching my own freelance copywriting career from scratch.

This includes:

Where to find clients who’ll pay you a fair rate for your skills (rather than fighting over sweatshop wages in freelance bidding sites)

How to RAPIDLY develop copy skills clients will eagerly pay you for (when you haven’t written a marketing press release, email, or article in your life, let alone a high converting sales letter)

How to create a portfolio of red hot samples that get clients queuing up to hire you (while earning enough money to support yourself in the first critical 6 months)

The easy way to create a professional looking website that reflects the quality of your writing (without spending a fortune to a web developer or having to learn how to code)

How to turn small projects into long-term clients who continue hiring you for months, or even years (while saving you the time suck of endless prospecting)

How to submit proposals that get you selected ahead of the pack of other hungry copywriters your client has approached (and ensure you get hired based on VALUE and not the lowest rate)

What to do so you don’t get ripped off by the sharks who love to hire newbies and then vanish without paying

Quickstart guides to writing emails, landing pages, sales letters, and more (so you can be open for business as fast as possible).

What to charge so you get paid what you’re worth and aren’t scrambling for change from low ball clients who don’t value or respect your work

How to maximise your chances of being profitable in the first couple of months before your ‘take off strip’ funds run out

The tactical way to raise your prices (so your existing clients aren’t just happy to pay it but are wondering why it took you so long)

Project management tips so you’re the ‘adult in the room’ clients are looking for and so you become more valuable to them than a simple wordsmith

This is just a sample of what How to Start Freelance Copywriting Without Any Experience covers.

It’s the same advice I’ve given to university graduates, former journalists, and even fellow copywriters to jumpstart their copywriting careers.

Yet, more than that, it’s designed to…

Give you a roadmap for avoiding all the traps I fell into…

while gaining advice that can ACCELERATE the growth of your skills… EXPLODE your client base… and open up the money hose so fast you can be profitable in weeks, not months or years.

Heck, it reveals so many trade secrets I may just be creating competition for myself.

But there are millions of businesses in need of our services, and plenty of work for everyone.

Gain All This Insider Knowledge for a Fraction of What I’d Charge in Person

When you consider the years it took me to acquire all the knowledge my guide contains…

the weeks I spent working on How to Start a Freelance Copywriting Business without Any Experience…

and the fact it has the potential to fast track your progress at securing the big bucks…

I think $100 for this guide would be a fair investment.

It’s what I’d charge for a thirty minute consultation.

Yet you’re getting TONS more info than I could ever cover in that time.

When you consider how its advice on pricing… getting paid… and finding high paying clients could generate thousands for you in the first year…

$100 is a drop in the ocean.

Yet, I’m going to make this investment in your skills and knowledge even MORE valuable to you.

Because if you order How to Start a Freelance Copywriting Business without Any Experience from this page, you also get…

4 FREE Bonuses

Copywriter Consulting Pack – $37 Value

Get the 3 VITAL documents every copywriter needs: A project contract with terms that give you legal protection, my onboarding process for new clients, and a client questionnaire for scoping out new projects.

Copywriter’s Crucible Big 33 – $37

Get 33 of my post popular posts from my award nominated blog on more advanced topics like positioning, pro level mindset hacks, and insider tactics for generating higher returns for clients.

47 Elite Email Marketing Tips – $17 value

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Email may be old, yet it’s still the workhorse of internet marketing. Smart marketers also know that getting customers on an email list is essential to avoid their social media accounts getting shut down. In this report, you get 47 of my best email marketing tips and strategies, so you can instantly start offering email marketing services to clients.

Marketing can be like dating. Some prospects will be eager to buy the moment you make an offer. Others need to be coaxed with content that develops the relationship over time. In this report, you get my 7 step strategy for creating content that’s unique, compelling, and converts more prospects into buyers.

When you add the bonuses up (quick tip – this is called ‘value stacking’) they come to $108.

This raises the total value of How to Start a Freelance Copywriting Business Without Any Experience to:

$208

But I know that when starting out you don’t have tons of cash to throw around.

And I want How to Start a Freelance Copywriting Business Without Any Experience to be affordable, so as many new starters as possible can avoid the struggles I went through.

So from this page only, you can get How to Become a Freelance Copywriter Without Experience and all 4 bonuses for the small one time investment of…

$208 > $27

That’s right.

Just $27.

A mere fraction of the package’s total value and an amount you can recoup within the first month of putting its advice into action.

Here’s what one reader had to say about it…

“Being in the market for good copywriting knowledge, I checked this out. If the highly nauseating, cheesy, tiresome, cliched, paint-by-numbers copywriting style of the Warrior Forum, with the same templates with slightly different wording, such as ”Who Else Wants Their Own Cash Machine That Runs On Autopilot While You Drink Beer Watching The Game…”, or ”Here’s How To Get Your Own Slice Of The Facebook Money Pie Before Your Competition Does” doesn’t turn your stomach like it does mine, and you wish to replicate the same moronic pattern in your marketing, then this book is for you. If you want to write sophisticated, non-gimmicky, non-slimy persuasive copy that does everything it needs to to sell, but keeps your credibility and integrity intact, you probably can’t do much better than this guide I’ve been fortunate to stumble upon. I’ve checked out a lot of the best copywriting courses lately and this outshines all of them. On the Warrior Forum, the maxim is surely that bullshit hype sells. And to the idiots there (and some here) who consume that stuff relentlessly, it does. But in B2B, you’ll only turn off your readers. This book covers the fundamentals perfectly but gives in a brief, logical format to provide a great solid structure.” – underground906

And another buyer kindly had this to say in a LinkedIn chat:

Double Your Investment In 60 Days or Get Your Money Back

Does $27 sound fair for a guide that can pay for itself many times over with its advice on pricing and getting paid alone?

Or are you still on the fence?

If so, how about you download the guide and all it’s bonuses and and see what you think.

Then if you aren’t 100% satisfied I’ll give you a FULL refund.

Because How to Become a Freelance Copywriter Without Experience is supplied with a 100% risk free 60 day guarantee.

What this means is that if you’re not impressed with the quality of the content… it doesn’t answer your questions… or doesn’t help to fast track your success you can get a full refund.

All you need to do is contact Clickbank’s customer support team via the link in your receipt. They’ll then refund your purchase in full. No awkward questions or hoops to jump through.

What matters to me is that you’re able to give How to Become a Freelance Copywriter Without Experience a try.

And if it doesn’t help advance your career, I’d rather you get your money back to invest in other resources and we can part as friends.

Give Yourself a Better Launchpad to Freelance Copywriting Success

Let’s do a quick rundown of what we’ve covered…

If you’re just getting started in your freelance career you’ve got a minefield of challenges to get through.

You’re going to need to know how to create portfolio that convinces clients to hire you…

You need to know how to find high paying clients, so you can avoid the sweatshop rates on freelance bidding sites…

And you’ve got to ensure you’re charging what you deserve, so you don’t become a victim of the sharks who love to feed on newbie copywriters.

If you can’t solve these challenges, the freelance dream can soon turn into a nightmare.

But there’s no need to go through the painful process of learning from your mistakes that I went through.

Because…

How to Become a Freelance Copywriter Without Experience gives you all the answers at your fingertips

It eliminates the confusion on creating proposals… knowing where to find clients and how to convince them to hire you… and rubberstamps you’re getting paid what you’re worth.

In fact, its advice on pricing, how to turn one off projects into five figure retainers, and advice on writing emails, web pages and sales letters is worth hundreds of dollars alone.

Yet you’re getting the entire motherload for just $27.

Just $27 for a complete system that can take you from struggling amateur to highly paid professional in no time.

And without the stress, sleepless nights, and costly mistakes I went through.

Also remember, your investment is protected with a 60 day money back guarantee.

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mdzs-kinkmeme · 4 years ago

Note

Question! I am not about deleting prompts, but why does it force you to edit so many spreadsheet pages? The links to the individual prompts still work, right? Figuring out which one was deleted is a pain, but it sounds like you’re giving yourself extra work.

Figuring out which prompt was deleted is the easy part! Even fixing the spreadsheet pages isn’t especially hard, it’s just annoying. It doesn’t generally take longer than an hour to fix, assuming I’m halfway awake. (In fact I went and did it myself after I drafted this post, and without any help from the tag team it took just a few minutes under an hour, moving slowly because I have a smoke inhalation headache.) It’s just much nicer to have everything on pause while stuff’s getting moved around.

And also I live in hope that turning off prompts for a day will alert people to the whole “please don’t delete prompts” thing. That’s why it’s a consistent 24-hour shutdown instead of “we’ll shut down until I fix it.”

But since you’re wondering why this is even a problem for us in the first place, I’ll try to explain!

We could theoretically put all the prompts on one massive spreadsheet so that pages didn’t matter, but that would mean asking the tag team to scroll up and down through 2000+ prompts. Consequently, prompts are divided up by which AO3 page they’re on, 20 prompts a page. Green means the whole 20-prompt page has been double-checked for errors, yellow means it’s all up on Pinboard, orange means it’s prepped for upload, and pink means the tag team is still working on adding tags:

We have to review all 100+ pages every so often to update Claimed/Unclaimed Filled/Unfilled status and to do any backtagging that occurs to us. This often takes the form of assigning volunteers a range of 10 pages (200 prompts) each. While you’re quite right that all links to individual prompts are static, clicking to individually open each one when you’re trying to quickly review 200 of them would be a pain, so taggers usually work by opening a 20-prompt page on AO3 in one window and then scrolling down as they look over the corresponding 20-prompt spreadsheet in another.

A spreadsheet of tagged, uploaded-to-Pinboard prompts looks like this:

Every time somebody deletes an old prompt, these 20-prompts-at-a-time pages no longer reflect the reality of the AO3 pages, and if we were to let those discontinuities pile up, it would get progressively harder and harder to move smoothly back and forth between AO3, Pinboard, and the master spreadsheet.

So as you can likely imagine, when we lose a prompt off page 37 on AO3, I remove the deleted prompt from its place in the spreadsheet, and then move the top prompt on page 38 to the bottom of page 37, and then the top prompt on 39 to the bottom of page 38, and then the top prompt on 40 to the bottom of page 39, and so on and so on until I’ve caught up to page 108 and everything lines up again. And then I go and reload all 71 moved prompts on Pinboard so their numbers are correct there as well -- since the Pinboard doesn’t link back to the spreadsheet, it’s helpful to have a number-tag there telling me what page the prompt comes from if I find an error (such as a misspelled tag) via Pinboard.

I’m sure we could probably be sloppier -- I made this system up as it occurred to me, and I change things as I go and people make suggestions -- but having the numbers line up on all three platforms has been suuuuuper helpful in making me not want to tear my hair out when I need to do edits scattered through 2000+ prompts. If somebody has a clever Google Sheets idea that would maintain the 1-to-1 spreadsheet-AO3 setup while also not needing such a silly correction effort every time AO3 changes, I’m open to hearing about it!

#mdzs kink meme #mod speaks #behind the scenes

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lizardi94 · 7 years ago

Text

CONGRATULATIONS everybody! We only have 2 days to fight the FCC & the repeal of #NetNeutrality! Thanks to John Oliver there's a SUPER easy way to do this. Do you enjoy Netflix? Do you find yourself spending too much time on FB? If net neutrality goes away, our Internet bills go up and we give power to companies like Comcast and Spectrum to control what information we can access.

Here's what you can do - takes less than a minute.

1. Go to gofccyourself.com

(the shortcut John Oliver made to the hard-to-find FCC comment page)

2. Click on the 17-108 link (Restoring Internet Freedom)

2. Click on "+Express"

3. Be sure to hit "ENTER" (or return) on your keyboard after you put in your name, so it registers. (They make it a tad tricky there.)

4. In the comment section write, "I strongly support net neutrality backed by Title 2 oversight of ISPs. Net neutrality is the essence of how the internet was founded, not for the big corporations, but for the people, and how they interconnect. Without which we will find ourselves more limited in capacity with less freedoms which is what this country was based on. Corporatization was not what the founding fathers had in mind when they drafted the constitution of the United States."

5. Click to Review, then Submit, done. - Make sure you hit submit at the end!

Copy & paste to repost this, pls., rather than ‘Share’-ing, as it will be seen by more people. (And if the "CONGRATULATIONS everybody" at the beginning confused you as it did me, it's utilizing a Facebook algorithm to make sure this post appears on more of your friends' feeds).

This is one of those post that its better to copy and paste than to share.

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savan27 · 7 years ago

Note

I dare you to answer all 170 questions minus the ones you already answered

Jesus Christ Al

1- how tall do you wish you were: I could stand to be a bit taller

2- dream pet: dragon

3- favorite clothing style: don’t have one

4- favorite video game growing up: didn’t have one

5- 3 things/people I think about most: various characters, friends and what is available to eat

6- warning label: WARNING: PRONE TO STRANGE FLIGHTS OF FANCY

7- opinion on {insert thing}: {insert thing} is not to be spoken of

8- greek personality type: melancholic

9- Ticklish: Yes

10- allergies: none

11- sexuality: Demiromantic Asexual

15- favorite YouTuber: either Dan and Phil, Thomas Sanders or Rhett and Link

16- height: 5′4

17- what would I change my name to: Either Sage or Amaris

18- weight: 122 lbs

21- religious: no

22- pet peeves; being condescended to, people who break the spines or books or fold pages

24- Orion because I like the myth behind it

25- Favorite star: how could pick a favorite?

26- ball-jointed dolls: yes

27- fears: failure, spiders, social interaction

28- global warming: real and dangerous

29- reincarnation: possible

30- favorite movie: Can’t choose

31- scare easy: no but I startle easy

32- pets: 31 in my life and counting

33- rate blog of questioner: 10/10

34- calm color: blue

35- place to go: Colorado

36- born: Florida

37- eye color: blue

38- introvert/extrovert: introvert

39- horoscopes and zodiac: I believe to some extent

40- hugs/kisses: hugs

41- want to visit: @my-best-is-messy @eldritch-aberration @ace-psychopath-in-a-tardis @book-nerd1127 @crypticinfrastructure @themanwiththesuitcaseofflies @anne-heist @aph--rome @tombstonescreak

42- love deeply: My close friends

43- piercings: aside from my ears(which I already have) don’t have an interest

44- opinion on tattoos and piercings: cool

45- smoke: NO

46- crush: no

47: sound I hate: silverware sliding against a glass plate

48- sound I love: violin

49- backflip; no

50- split: used to be able to, not anymore

51- fav actor; Misha collins

52- fav movie; can’t choose

53- felling right now: so many questions

54- color id like my hair to be: blue

55- happiest; listening to music and daydreaming by the pool

56- calms me: my cat

57- disorders: maladaptive daydreaming(only official one anyhow)

58- URL meaning: favorite oc and favorite number

59-three word description: nerd, weird, quiet

60- evolution: real

61- unfollow for: discrimination and of course porn bots

62- follow for: quality memes, kindness

63- fav kind of person: honest

64- fav animals: cat, owl, frilled shark

65- three of my favorite blogs: @my-best-is-messy @eldritch-aberration @tombstonescreak

66- fav emoticon: on laptop so I’ll just say the knife

67- fav meme: can't choose

68- MBTI: INTP-A

69- star sign: Taurus

70- dog roll over on command: no

71- clothes I wear most often: t-shirt and jeans

72- in a moment

73- platform shoes: no

74: fact: I have memorized every song of all my favorite groups

75- front flip: no

76- birds: yes

77- swimming: YES!

78- swimming/ice skating: swimming

79- wish didn't exist: prejudice

80- wish existed: dragons

81- piercings I have: ears

82- enjoy: reading

83- fav person to talk to: can’t choose

84- first impression of Tumblr: overwhelming

85- followers: just blocked all the porn bots, down to 38

86- mile within ten minutes: yes

87- matching socks: no

88- touch toes with straight legs: yes

89- birthstone: emerald

90- be an animal: cat

91- flower to represent me: Carolina Jasmine

92- store I hate: JC Penny

93- coffee per day: dont drink coffee

94- fly/read minds: telepathy all the way

95- camo: no

96- winter/summer: summer

97- hold breath: 1 minute

98- least fav person: Donald Trump

99- look up to: fictional characters

100- store I love: Barnes and Noble

101- fav type of shoe: flip flop

102- live: Florida

103-vegetarian/vegan: no

104- fav gem: serpentine

105- milk: so much

106- bugs: from a distance

107- spiders: NO

108- paranoid about: everything

109- draw: not even a straight line

110- noisiest question asked: ever had sex

111- question I hate: Do you have a boyfriend yet?

112- bitten by a spider: yes

113- waves at beach: yessss

114- cloudy/sunny: clouds

115- person to cuddle: Volunteers?

116- cloud type: ???

117- color of sky: don’t want to change it

118- freckles: yes

119- fav thing about a person: mind

120- fruit/veggie: fruit

121- do right now: stop answering questions

122- ocean/sky: ocean

123- sweet/sour: sour

124- bright/dim lights: depends on mood

125- believe in magical creature: many yes

126- hate about Tumblr: unreasonable hate and anger

127- love about Tumblr: the cool people

128- think about least: ???

129- written on tombstone: I benefited the world

130- punching the face: Trump

131- love and hate about myself: independent to a fault

132- smile with teeth in pictures: yes

133- computer/TV: computer

134- roller coasters: yesssss

135- motion sickness: no

136- ear lobes: detached

137- karma: possible

138- attractive 1-10: 4

139- nicknames: cat, catfish, Yoda Breath, Katie Quinn, YO YO, doo floppy

140- imaginary friends- many

141- therapist: no but I probably should

142- good or bad influence: depends on the day

143-giving/receiving gifts/help: giving

144- angry: ignorance

145- languages fluent in: 1

146- prefer boys, girls or non-bianarys: all are cool with me

147- androgynous: no

148- fav physical feature: eyes

149- fav personality trait: intelligence

150- 3 people to talk to in person @my-best-is-messy @eldritch-aberration @tombstonescreak

151- live in past: Classical Greece

152- BuzzFeed: no

153- meet partner: N/A

154- platonic kisses: sure

155- play with others hair: yes

156- embarrasses me: everything

157- make me nervous: lots

158- biggest lie- just tell a lot of small lies really

159- following: 160

160- # of posts: 6, 280

161- drafts on blogs: none

162- # of likes: 10, 878

163- last time cried: two days ago, library of congress was too pretty

164- long or short hair: LONG

165- Longest hair has been: long enough to sit on

166- reason for felling on religion: I just don’t care

167- care how world was created: yes

168- wear makeup: no

169- handstand: no

170- Truthful answers: yes

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screwbait71-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Which young Cubs player would you most like to see signed to an extension?

When Theo Epstein got to Chicago he committed to a multiple-year rebuild of the Chicago Cubs that went exactly according to plan. The Cubs sold off aging talent, lost a lot of games, accumulated draft picks, and, implausibly, hit on almost all of them. That set up the Cubs with an outstanding young core of players that has had a lot of early success. However, fans have known that the day was coming when the Cubs would have to decide which players to try to lock up at or before free agency and which players would finish their careers somewhere else.

Simultaneously for the last two years the free agent market has moved at a glacial pace. As I’ve written before, the vast majority of free agents haven’t come close to deals that market watchers predicted they would get heading into free agency. It seemed inevitable that something would have to give, and on Tuesday something did.

No, there hasn’t been a flood of free agent signings. Despite Manny Machado signing a record contract with the Padres of this writing, Bryce Harper, Dallas Keuchel, Craig Kimbrel and 40 other MLB free agents remain unsigned. But there has been a flurry of contract news in baseball this week, with Aaron Hicks, Nolan Arenado and Miles Mikolas all signing early contract extensions at or below market value with their current teams. It would appear that staring down the barrel of a very uncertain future in free agency is unappealing to many of baseball’s biggest stars.

I’ll have a piece later this week on what the wave of extensions means from a player relations standpoint, but as I saw the deals come across my Twitter feed I couldn’t help but wonder, which Cubs players would I most want to see signed to an extension?

The Cubs core at a glance

For the purposes of this piece I focused on the 11 Cubs who are under 30 for the 2019 season who will hit free agency between 2021 and 2024. Eight of those players are position players and three are pitchers. I wanted to get a look at more than a single season so I compiled key stats from 2016-2018 for each player. You can take a look at the hitters’ key stats in the chart below:

Hitters key stats 2016-2018

Name Age G PA HR BB% K% BABIP AVG OBP SLG wOBA wRC+ WAR Signed Through

Kris Bryant 27 408 1821 81 12.0% 21.4% .335 .288 .391 .524 .388 142 16.9 2021 Anthony Rizzo 29 465 2032 89 11.6% 13.7% .290 .282 .384 .507 .377 135 11.8 2021 Javier Baez 26 447 1603 71 4.6% 26.1% .343 .280 .320 .494 .339 110 9.9 2022 Willson Contreras 27 331 1255 43 9.9% 22.8% .321 .266 .349 .450 .344 113 8.1 2023 Addison Russell 25 391 1448 38 8.6% 22.4% .293 .242 .315 .392 .305 87 6.3 2022 Kyle Schwarber 26 268 1001 56 13.8% 29.2% .266 .224 .335 .465 .337 108 4.7 2022 Ian Happ 24 257 875 39 12.5% 33.8% .339 .242 .341 .459 .338 109 3.3 2024 Albert Almora Jr. 25 331 919 16 5.2% 17.0% .334 .289 .326 .412 .317 96 2.8 2023

Selected stats for Cubs players from 2016-2018 Fangraphs

The three Cubs pitchers who met the above criteria are Kyle Hendricks, Mike Montgomery and Carl Edwards Jr. Admittedly stat comparisons between starters and relievers are imperfect, but you can get a look at their stats below as well:

Pitchers key stats 2016-2018

Player Age GS IP K% BB% HR/9 BABIP LOB% GB% HR/FB ERA FIP xFIP WAR Signed through

Kyle Hendricks 28 87 528.2 7.73 2.18 0.92 0.27 79.3% 48.3% 11.7% 2.86 3.60 3.74 10.1 2021 Mike Montgomery 28 38 293.0 6.88 3.50 0.77 0.279 75.1% 54.9% 11.7% 3.56 4.10 4.24 2.7 2022 Carl Edwards Jr. 26 0 154.1 12.42 4.90 0.70 0.22 75.4% 39.7% 10.1% 3.03 3.12 3.42 2.6 2023

Select stats for Cubs pitchers from 2016-2018 Fangraphs

Despite their age some of these players don’t really seem to have contract extensions in their future unless circumstances changed substantially (I’m looking at you, Addison Russell). But there are more than a few players here where an extension could make sense, so let’s take a closer look at some possible contract extension candidates below.

Kris Bryant

When I originally wrote this I was sure this was a long shot. After all, there have already been rumors about the Cubs trying to extend Kris Bryant, although those rumors have been officially denied by both sides. Despite the current pace of free agency all signs pointed to Bryant wanting to test the market: His agent is Scott Boras and he’s already won an MVP award. Oh, and then there is the little matter of service time manipulation.

The Cubs deliberately held Bryant in the minors exactly the right amount of time to ensure another year of team control and no, the Cubs star third baseman hasn’t forgotten about any of that as Sahadev Sharma reported on Monday:

“It’s awful,” Bryant said. “So awful. It’s going to happen this year and it happens every year. I could understand it if you go out and have a rough spring training where you don’t look ready. But there’s certain people who put the time and the effort into the offseason so that they do show up to spring training and they prove that they’re ready to go. I feel like you should be rewarded for that.”

It’s not that Bryant doesn’t understand why it’s happening. He gets the dynamics of it all. By waiting until that certain date later in April, an organization can gain an extra full year of control for a top prospect.

“They’re finding a loophole in the system,” Bryant said. “It doesn’t make it right. It kind of seems like the easy way out rather than showing someone that we’re going to reward what you’ve done in spring and what you’ve done in the offseason. ‘Here you go, you get Opening Day.’ That’d be pretty cool.”

And then late last night Cubs Insider reported that Bryant would “absolutely be interested in a Nolan Arenado type deal:

“He said, ‘Absolutely,’” Rogers said of Bryant’s response to a question about accepting an offer like Arenado’s. “Now, he said it like, ‘That’s a great deal, how could anybody turn it down?’ Yet we know that if this was Theo and Scott, ‘Absolutely’ may not be the answer.

Don’t worry about the Boras piece too much, there was more:

“Kris made a point of saying to me, and he said it exactly like this: ‘I want to reiterate that I’m the client, I’m the guy in charge,’” Rogers explained. “Now I’m paraphrasing: ‘I’m the guy that Scott has to listen to.’”

Is it possible that Bryant would agree to an extension with the Cubs? I am a lot more optimistic about that deal now than I was yesterday morning. However, any extension Bryant would take will probably look a lot like the 8-year $260 million deal the Rockies just signed with Arenado. A deal like that would make almost every other deal on this page a moot point.

Anthony Rizzo

Anthony Rizzo signed a team-friendly deal with the Cubs that will leave the face of the Cubs a free agent for the 2022 season (the Cubs have team options for 2020 and 2021 that they will almost certainly exercise). When his deal expires he will be 32 years old, and while that might make some analytically minded folks worry a bit about aging curves and the like I worry a bit less about him falling off a cliff at first base than I would at some other positions. In 2017 Al outlined a possible deal the Cubs could offer to extend Rizzo and I would love to seem them try to work this out and keep him in Cubbie blue for the rest of his career:

I think Rizzo should have the chance to retire as a Cub. How could the Cubs do this with the current contract?

They could exercise the 2020 and 2021 options now and then offer him a five-year extension at $125 million. That would “make up” for some of the money he’s currently “losing” because he signed an undermarket extension in May 2013. That was a real commitment on the part of Theo & Co., as Rizzo was then only in his first full major-league season. They had to be pretty sure he’d do great things, and he has rewarded everyone with All-Star seasons and consistent production, not to mention being an all-around good guy and leader.

Alternatively, they could tear up the 2020 and 2021 options and offer him a seven-year extension beginning in 2020 at, say, $175 million.

Javier Báez

Javy Báez had a career year in 2018 and came in second in MVP voting. He’s always had a special glove and bat but everything came together for the Cubs’ middle infielder last season. He hasn’t shown nearly the consistency that Rizzo has demonstrated, but if his 2019 comes close to what he demonstrated in 2018 it would certainly be worthwhile to see if that Cubs can lock up his supernatural tagging and sliding ability long-term. Interestingly Báez is represented by Wasserman, that’s the same agency that represents Nolan Arenado.

I would have to imagine a long-term deal for Javy would look something like the deal that Aaron Hicks just signed with the Yankees for 7 years/$70 million, though likely for more money, maybe seven years and $100 million.

Willson Contreras

Contreras was the starting catcher in the 2018 All Star Game but struggled down the stretch. He has approximately two and a half major league seasons under his belt and has put together an above average wRC+ of 113 during that time despite the slump. In fact, by fWAR he’s been the fifth most valuable catcher in baseball since 2016 behind J.T. Realmuto, Yasmani Grandal, Buster Posey and Gary Sanchez.

The Cubs have been interested in extending Contreras before and in November Sharma reported that Contreras turned down a contract extension prior to the 2018 season:

Sources indicated Willson Contreras is one player who could have been affected by not signing an extension. Unlike Bryant, Javier Báez, Kyle Schwarber, Albert Almora Jr. and Ian Happ, Contreras didn’t have the benefit of getting a sizable draft bonus. Contreras was signed as an international free agent in 2009 and never even received the type of bonus the top-tier IFAs usually get.

That’s not to say Contreras is struggling to make ends meet, but while he was able to put up a first half that was good enough to start in the All-Star Game, Contreras’ defensive lapses, framing issues and lack of power were evident in the second half. Some believe he allowed doubt to creep into his head that he’d missed an opportunity by passing on an extension that the Cubs offered last offseason and it contributed to his struggles.

Good-hitting catchers are hard to find and while Willson has struggled with framing at times, I would think the Cubs might take another run at locking up their backstop long-term, especially if he gets off to a hot start in 2019. Given the changing free agent market I’d imagine Willson would be open to such a deal.

The details of that deal are a bit harder to work out. Buster Posey signed an eight-year, $159 million deal in 2013, but he put up numbers that were both more consistent and more productive than Willson’s first two and a half seasons with the Cubs. I would imagine that a deal to sign Contreras long-term would look more like the team friendly deal Rizzo signed for 7 years/$41 million, again perhaps for more money, maybe seven years/$65 million.

Kyle Schwarber

Since he arrived in 2015 there have been rumors that Schwarber is destined for the American League where he can be a designated hitter and not have to worry about playing left field. But times change. The former Cubs catcher went out and made great improvements in his fielding and now there are rumors that the DH could be coming to the National League.

After struggling at the start of 2017 Schwarber has put together solid offensive numbers bolstered by a strong on base percentage and a wRC+ of 115. If 2019 is a breakout year for his bat it may make sense to try and lock up Schwarber long term.

Kyle Hendricks

All he does is get guys out. Quietly, unassumingly, game after game of getting guys out. Kyle Hendricks will never throw 95 miles per hour, but he doesn’t have to because he relies on a plus change up and a mastery of location. This is part of why I think Kyle Hendricks may deserve an extension, that pitch is not going to lose effectiveness the same way some of these 98 mph fastballs will, and Kyle has just quietly kept getting guys out. As Fansided noted in 2017:

Mechanics can get off, and then you see a lack of command. Or the stuff starts to dissipate, and they don’t have what they had before to get hitters out. But what if you didn’t really have to worry about your stuff? And your command was just about as good as it can get? With Hendricks, he doesn’t throw hard which is one of the big keys, but not the biggest.

Hendricks relies on essentially two changeups. He throws a “fastball” and a curve, but these are used sparingly. But it’s the two different changeups that he not only survives on–but thrives. The time that Chris Bosio has put into Hendricks could pay huge dividends for the Cubs. So why shouldn’t the Cubs return the favor?

Look, I’m just going to go ahead and compare these two because, well, why not? Both have been nicknamed “the Professor”, and that’s not just a coincidence. When you watch how Hendricks works a hitter and the time he puts into studying them? It’s very similar to that of former Cubs’ pitcher Greg Maddux. Hendricks got the nickname from being an Ivy-league kid from Dartmouth, but there’s more to it than that.

I don’t think Kyle Hendricks is Greg Maddux, but he’s exactly the type of pitcher who will continue to make the right adjustments as he ages and I imagine he’s already getting suggestions from teammates Jon Lester and Cole Hamels regularly. He’ll be 30 years old when he’s eligible for free agency and if I were the Cubs I wouldn’t hesitate to extend him four or five years beyond that.

Poll

Which Cubs player would you most like to see signed to a contract extension?

41%

Kris Bryant

(218 votes)

25%

Javier Baez

(136 votes)

Willson Contreras

(13 votes)

14%

Kyle Hendricks

(75 votes)

13%

Anthony Rizzo

(71 votes)

Kyle Schwarber

(14 votes)

Someone Else (Leave in comments)

(2 votes)

529 votes total Vote Now

Source: https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2019/2/27/18241715/cubs-player-extension-javier-baez-kris-bryant-willson-contreras-kyle-hendricks

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