#i need to make a demo reel

[ccomilk]

tri 1 over.... but at what cost...

[ajdrawshq]

Is there any non-spoilery way you could talk about how isat isn't just about timeloops? because like I do want to check the game out eventually for sure if only because indie fun times but I'm busy for a while before I get the time and tbh I'm just not as curious because I don't know how it's gonna break that formula (also ngl no colors makes me lose 50% interest because I like. looking at colors. lots.)

UHM OK WELL UM. hm. how DO i do this without spoiling anything. im very not good at describing things especially things i Really enjoy so how do i put this . hold on i might need to look at some reviews so i know how to words. ok

as a disclaimer i havent fully interacted with a lot of (if any??) media that has timeloops so i cant say for certain what it does differently from similar media that makes it stand out from others. at the same time ive never seen something that is so directly About Timeloops in this way even if i consider stuff ive heard about in passing but i could be wrong (madoka n utena come to mind ?). ill try to think abt the things that arent Just timeloop related plus the stuff u mentioned and hope that helps it feel more interesting and less generic?

i think one of the main things i can say is that it Really makes you feel what the protagonist is feeling. more than anything ive ever watched or played or whatever . and thats saying a LOT given how much i empathize with protags in games. and its not even just an empathy thing here. both the story progression and the gameplay work in such a way that you experience pretty much everything the same way they do, while still having their own personal stuff u can learn about of course

on that note tho. that is actually something to be careful of for a few reasons. i know ur generally pretty good with darker content so i doubt thatll be a problem for u here (its not that bad tbh but there is IS a warning when u open the game/look at the steam page and it aint lying) but. due to the nature of timeloops. it CAN get tiring and this is very much intended. and this helps a lot w the story and themes in a way that its. like. think how kh days does repetition on purpose. its a lot like that (although i had way easier of a time getting thru isat than days? i cant remember how u feel abt days' gameplay but i think it was positive ? either way getting thru isat was way more bearable than days imo). it does do a good job at balancing this with a couple mechanics that mean u dont have to repeat everything all the time (i had like. Very few actual full loops by the time i finished) and theres ALWAYS new things happening, even if ur super thorough with everything. its pretty easy to do things at whatever pace u feel like and if u wanna focus on the main story only to make it easier it wouldnt take too much away from the experience (tho i do encourage talking to the npcs at least a few times), and theres always a goal to work towards. also dialogue skipping and the banana peel are ur best friends

sort of adding onto that. it really, really helps that u are sharing the experience with the protagonist. not only does that help u relate to them (even if u dont share as many traits w them as i do akvdjsn) but theyre probably the most beloved character in the game and for good reason!! its really fun to see their interactions with the rest of the main cast and the npcs, and watch them all develop in different ways throughout the game. and my goodness all of the characters are beautifully written - at first ur kinda thinking ok its a ragtag group of sillies in an rpg whats new. but their personalities and relationships and hobbies and problems and everything about them is just so well done.. they feel so natural. human even. every conversation feels real to me. one of the main themes of the game is the concept of change, and each of them represent and approach it differently, both positively and negatively. its hard not to fall in love with them as individuals and as a group because they just have so much going on, even the ones i didnt expect to like at all!!

the worldbuilding is also a fun spin on fantasy rpg worlds. it mostly revolves around the area u play in bc well. of course it does. but its vv interesting to learn about all the different cultures within the world and how they interact with and build on the themes of the game. theres all sorts of queer stuff going on and its all handled like a love letter to people who relate, and i can feel it even with what i dont relate to at all!! the way "magic" works and the ways people use it in battle and everyday life is super cool too, makes the whole thing feel a lot more believable and realistic :3 i dont wanna talk abt any specifics bc its more fun to learn abt this stuff ingame

OH AND THE TEXT.. EFFECTS?.. idk what to call that but the way dialogue (both internal and external) is written and programmed is funky as hell (affectionate). it was weird at first bc oftentimes (mostly for humor) its like. almost the way i type actually?? which feels strange in a legit game but it Works. it works so well and adds tone and vibes and a Voice in a way u usually cant get in a game without any voice acting. deltarune is also good at that but this one does it differently enough for me to consider it unique

HAVE I MENTIONED THE ART STYLE i love the art style . its so charming and expressive especially all the talking sprites n battle portraits. simultaneously silly n adorable while fully capable of being serious. and creepy. anyway look at the sillies i love them n their designs dearly (especially Siffrin (1st on the left) and Mirabelle (2nd on the left))

also on that note, the lack of colors....... i both totally understand being put off by that (i also love looking at colors n this part made me feel weird abt it when i was thinking abt getting it at first) and personally enjoy it? without saying anything spoilery (bc its really not), its just another part of the worldbuilding and themes that i now find really fun :3 should be noted that i usually have an anti blue light filter so it mightve been easier to look at w the yellowish tint going on. maybe it even looks better that way ? kinda reminded me of old films now that i think abt it.. neat!!

as a last thing i couldnt quite insert somewhere else. it is equal parts a comedy and a tragedy, and it is so, so effective at accomplishing this. the humor is fantastic and adds to the games' and characters' personality, every tragic moment is . for lack of a better word or phrase. absolutely fucking delicious. and i adore how well it can shift from one to the other gradually or in an instant, or just be both at once!!!! yippee!!!!!!!

aaand thats all i can say. i have no idea if that cleared anything up BUT i encourage u to give it a try bc i do think youd like it in the end. u probably wouldnt finish it as fast as i did but that might be a good thing jfbskndj but yeah!!!! in stars and time!!!!!! its good and i love it!!!!!!!!

[peeweekey]

everyone adores you (at least i do)

pairing: sam x reader

wc: 1.1k

tags: CHEEEEESY cheesy cheesy puppy love, mutual pining, sam is PATHETICALLY down bad, pre-relationship, abigail and sebastian mentioned, friends to lovers

synopsis: if it were up to sam, he'd spend every second of everyday at your side.

a/n: in all of my other sam fics, its reader embarrassingly in love with him...he gets a taste of his own medicine here lol!

With vanilla ice cream melting and dripping down your fingertips, coarse sand underneath you and the salty ocean waves lapping at your feet; you are a child again, sitting with your grandpa at the docks, watching as he reeled in a ‘big one’. Filling his bucket with loads and loads of fish.

Those days are far gone now, but the memory remains, as clear as the day you remember it. The feeling is nostalgic, sleepy in the way your senses are dulled by syrupy thick contentment. Beaches at sunset have that effect on you, you suppose. 

“This is fun,” Sam says, tone lacking its boisterous loudness, you almost don’t hear it over the sound of crashing waves. “I had a lot of fun today, farmer.”

Your eyes flicker to him, his green gaze dead-set on the peachy golden sky, the taste of sea salt mingling with sweet ice cream heavy in your tongue. The sea breeze is cold, whipping against your face and running through your hair.

“I did too,” you agree. “Y’know, I don’t get a lot of off time with the farm and stuff. This is a nice change of pace.”

He smiles, that sunshine smile you’ve come to associate with Sam. “I caught you at just the right time then, huh?” 

You shrug, your own smile mirroring his. “Auspicious.” He did.

The sun is setting, the day is coming to a close yet Sam wishes it wouldn’t, silently pleading with any higher being to somehow stretch time. He is barely a religious person, but the weight of his want is enough to transcend his own beliefs. Every second with you barely feels like enough; like sand slipping through his fingers.

One thing’s for certain, Sam isn’t going to just let it end here.

“We should hang out like this again,” Sam says, a little hurriedly, captured all in one breath. Shy and tentative, like a bashful child with a school crush. “Uh, I mean, do you? Wanna? Hang out with me?”

You can barely suppress a delighted chuckle from slipping past your lips, your chest warming with fond affection. “I’d be more than happy to. Yoba knows I need a break or two or I’ll actually explode,” you huff while Sam hums in agreement. “We can even invite Abigail and Sebastian… so can demo that new song for me, I see you all working very hard when I visit sometimes.”

He should be happy to hear that; that you’d be more than happy to spend your precious off time with him out of all people. You and him, him and you, Sam and the farmer. Your name connected to his with ‘and’, it makes him giddy, causes his cheeks pinken and pinken. 

Just the two of you, though. Sure, he loves his friends, Abby and Seb have been with him since day one. But it feels out of place—

(Sam, Sebastian, Abigail and the farmer doesn’t have that ring to it…)

“Yeah, I—I dunno, it’s just…”

The unfiltered truth is stupid, at least to him. Vincent is far too young for some of the things Sam longs to say. There’s a reason Abby and Seb hang out under his nose, he won’t blame them, they have their own secrets he isn’t privy to—too serious, too dull for him.

(And now with you, he thinks you might just be the one he can share his own secrets with. Because even he has his own serious, dull thoughts. Thoughts that he doesn’t want brushed away with a snarky remark or a sarcastic laugh.)

“I kinda like that it’s just the two of us?” 

His voice sounds unsteady, squeaky. Trailing off at the end, lost in the sound of water crashing at your feet. Phrasing his statement into a question that you could deny, that you could easily brush off—because if you did, he would too. 

(It would be a bummer if you did though, but Sam is cool with that, chill with any decision you make. Really, he totally is.)

You grin, bumping your shoulder against his, your ice cream is dripping down, down, down your knuckles. Once your skin meets his, you don’t pull away, you press closer and closer to his side. Leaning your head against his sunburnt shoulder—but he barely registers the sting—and your arm against his own. It’s a pleasant weight, having you against him—grounding and tethering him to you.

“I do too. Like it, I mean. I think I get to see so many other sides to you, Sam. Without the others and all that.”

Sam feels his breath hitch, his cheeks flush even pinker even with the sunburns. “Woah, phew, I mean—awesome… When, when do you think we can meet next?”

You tilt your head, running calculations through your mind. You’re very busy on that farm, he knows; but Sam can’t help but keep his hopes up, you’re fun company. Maybe the best he’s had yet.

“I know I won’t have enough time until my melons are ready for harvesting—and don’t you dare try making a joke about that,” you smile, wide and cheeky. Right as Sam readies an innuendo at the tip of his tongue; it makes his blood pump faster and his breathing stutters at the thought of you knowing him so well. 

“So how about this?” you propose slowly. “We spend one day every month doing all the stuff we wanna do, together. just you and me—fun right? I’ll even sleep a little earlier the night before.”

Sam bites into his ice cream—chocolate and your treat, at your insistence—though he isn’t quite sure if the immediate smile on his lips is due to its sweetness, or yours.

He leans closer into you, resting his head on top of yours, strands of your hair tickling his lips. Lowering his voice into a whisper so only you can hear.

(The secret is that you make Sam want. Want, want, want like he’ll never get sick of it. He hoards these stolen moments with you so greedily yet wants more.)

“…two days, two days each month.”

He feels your body shake with the strength of your laughter, warmth swirls all throughout his body, tingling wherever your body brushes against his own. Sam finds that he likes the feeling, the buzz of it—it’s addicting.

“Yeah, alright then,” you reply, mirth dripping from each and every word. “two days. We have a deal. Better?”

“Yeah,” he turns back to face the water, the ocean spray misting his face. “Yeah, a lot better. That does sound fun.”

Anything sounds fun when it involves you.

[maplebellsmods]

The Actor Overhaul Mod adds some new features to acting in Get Famous. I was super excited about the fact that there was going to be an acting career in the sims, but the career felt a little shallow after replaying it more than once. There wasn't much depth to it and I wanted to add some features that could make it more fun.

What is this mod?

Here are the new additions I have added with the mod.

Actor Dashboard

I have created a dashboard, for actors and aspiring actors. This dashboard will only be available if you have the acting skill. The first option you can choose is Browse Acting Roles. It didn't make sense to me that you could only be an actor, or have gigs if you chose the career. So with this new menu, you can browse through different roles and sometimes make money. Some jobs can also increase your fame and reputation. Other jobs will decrease them.

So with this new menu, you can browse through different roles and sometimes make money. Some jobs can also increase your fame and reputation. Other jobs will decrease them.

The next option is to sign up for the Ward School of Arts Acting Department. This will be in a separate section. Down below.

You can also take Local Acting Classes. This option was made for sims who may already have jobs and do not have a lot of time to focus on acting, but they still do what to increase their acting skill. The local acting classes are evening classes and you need to pay the $100 fee to attend each time.

Preparing Headshot, Acting Resume, and Demo Reel will increase your reputation and give you a boosting career-wise.

One is more expensive than the other. So naturally the result you get from the more expensive one will be better. Once you gather all of those materials you will be able to submit to auditions and casting calls. This will give you more exposure.

Finally, you can now hire an agent. The agent is useful for a lot of things. (If you want to join the EA acting career you will still have to select an agency. I was unable to separate the two.) When you click on the "Find an Agent" option and submit your info, an agent will contact you maybe 24 hours later or more. If you aren't interested in them, simply do not pickup. But if you are press "Ok" on the call. And you will have the option to "Schedule Meeting With Agent" in the 'MB Menu' category.

The agent will come where your sim is located (doesn't have to be at home). These are the interactions you can have with them.

If you want to hire an agent. You can press hire on agent and they will now represent your sim. Keep in mind if you aren't satisfied with their work you can always fire them. There are a few things your agent can do for your sim.

Now circling back to the Acting Student Career:

Your Sim can now join an Acting Student Career. I'd say it's a semi-active career. They do go to the rabbit hole for class, but there are interactions outside of that which make it more interactive.

First of all the first thing you have to do is to go to the 'Actor Dashboard', press on the 'Sign up Option'.

You can press on get info, this will give your sim more information about how to join the school. Once you are ready you can click on 'Audition'. A Ward Student Recruiter will show up. Once they show you MUST choose the 'Start Auditions' option. Don't press on anything else.

This will start an event and there are goals your sim will have to go through. One of the goals, 'Sword Fight'. will require a this object.

You can find it in BB. If you cannot find it, just look it up in the search bar. Finally, after you complete all of the goals you can cancel the event or wait it out. Once the event is over you will know whether or not your sim is accepted.

If your sim is admitted with a scholarship you can find the job, in the 'Find Job' section. If you are not then try again. But if you have just been admitted you will need to pay the fee first and then you can join.

Once you join the career, each level has a different objective you need to do in order to move on to the next one. In total there are eight levels.

Here are the objectives for each level

- Level 2: Perform in School Production

- Level 3: Submit Paper on the History of theater

- Level 4: Plan and Produce a Production

- Level 5: Volunteer to perform for a charity

- Level 6: Book an acting gig

- Level 7: Get your demo reel, headshot and resume.

- Level 8: Find an Agent.

- All Levels: Pass Term Exam: This is a requirement for all levels. I recommend you do this last for each one of the levels. ESPECIALLY the last one.

The first activity your sim will have to do is to perform in a school production. The way this happens is your sim will audition for a role first, and depending on how skilled they are they will be assigned a role. When your sim gets a role assigned to them they should go to practice for a while before performing in the production. If they don't practice or don't practice enough they will most likely not do well in production.

The next step which is "Submit Paper on the History of Theater" will use the computer. In the 'Write' pie menu or your computer will be available. The options that are available for your sim will increase the score they may receive, but it isn't a requirement. You can also interview a celebrity and/or actor for this assignment. It isn't a requirement. Completing this step will give you more points, but it can be hard to complete because if you don't know celebrities it's hard to do this. So doing this will truly impress the professors! Once you are ready submit the paper and then you will be able to view your score once they are released.

Plan and Produce a Production is an objective for Level 4 sims. There are a few things your sim must do to complete this objective. First of all, they have to choose a theme for their production. Then once are ready you can Start the Audition Process.

If you are familiar with my other events mod you may be familiar with the 'Hire this Role'. So for this you will need to invite people or "hire" them to cast roles for the production. Once the event starts your sim will have a few options.

This is an activity and not a timed event so you can take your time to interview sims, and hire them. For the 'Auditioners' you will be able to see them Audition. All you have to do is press on the 'Audition' interaction and then they will start acting. (If you press on the interaction and it doesn't work, click again and it should work)

When you have completed all the required activities you can cancel the event. The game will tell you the event was unsuccessful you can ignore this.

Volunteering to perform for a charity is pretty simple. There is a list of charities your sim will be able to go to. They are each available at different times and days, just select one, go to your performance and the goal will be complete.

The next objectives are objectives we have already gone over. But for Book and Acting there are gigs exclusive to Ward Acting Students.

On the last level, once you Find an Agent, you should then go to your term exam. Passing the exam will make remove your sim from the institution. Being a graduate of this school will increase your rep and fame.

Other Fixes

Aside from the new features I have also made some changes to some already existing features that I found annoying in the game. This file is optional and you will be able to delete it if you do not want it. I have changed the gig payout in the acting career. This way your sim will receive more money when they are higher up in the career. Fame will also decay at a slower rate. This way your sim doesn't constantly have to perform fame activities.

Other Fixes

Aside from the new features I have also made some changes to some already existing features that I found annoying in the game. This file is optional and you will be able to delete it if you do not want it. I have changed the gig payout in the acting career. This way your sim will receive more money when they are higher up in the career. Fame will also decay at a slower rate. This way your sim doesn't constantly have to perform fame activities.

This really took a long time to make but I hope you enjoy it!

What else do I need for the mod?

Lumpinou's Mood Pack: Here

Maplebell Pie Menu: Download Below

Does this mod require any DLC?

Get Famous

Questions and concerns you might have?

Some of this is so inaccurate and doesn't reflect real life.

I tried to do as much research as possible about acting and info about how to get started with it. Some stuff may not mirror real life and that may or may not be intentional.

Will you add more to this?

Yes

I'm experiencing some weird bugs!

Let me know, please.

Report it here: Mod Bug Report

I have different questions about the mod.

If you have questions about something, let me know.

How to install the mod?

Electronic Arts/The Sims 4/Mods <--- Unzip the file and make sure it's placed in this path.

Delete the "maplebell_actingoverhaulfixes(optional).package" if you don't want it.

Public March 26: Download Here

[qsycomplainsalot]

Masters of the Air is great, if you've ever thought "wow Band of Brothers is nice but it's weird that the plot is moving from setpiece engagement to setpiece engagement with the same characters, I wish we'd see more of the boring stuff with characters we don't know" then this is the show for you. And don't get me wrong this isn't about turning WW2 into a glorious ballet of death, but when your eight hours long series about US army bomber pilots has maybe half an hour of aerial combat, already that's a problem. The only time Masters of the Air puts you in the thick of it it's to kill as many recognizable characters as possible so that you can lose interest in the cast faster, you don't get to experience the important turning points of the war as seen from their point of view. Because they're dead or in PoW camps, sure, but also because the series doesn't care to show us. Episode 8 somehow encompasses most of 1944 and exactly five seconds of D Day are shown. I was down to get an in depth look at what bombing missions contributed to the war effort, but they never get in depth about it. We never go through boot camp, we never get a strategic sense of things, every episode is just "go there blow shit up" and we never hear about it again. This is, if anything, yet another exemple of screenwriters inexplicably not understanding that scenes must be related in tone or narrative, have a set up and a pay off, all that crazy smart stuff moviemakers figured out in the 1890's. Like at this point when I watch some movies I feel like seeing the work of someone who knows putting letters in a row makes words but doesn't actually know what writing is. Like shit, okay, so I get that this is based on his memoirs but was there any point in showing us that Crosby's fling was a spy in France ? Did we need to have a grand total of five minutes of Tuskegee Airmen over the last two episodes ? Did we need to see Crosby get told to take a vacation then take it offscreen ? Or maybe, just maybe you could have cut all that shit out and wrought a compelling narrative about those two assholes Buck and Bucky who are in every episode, forge a friendship together, get shot down over enemy territory, get captured by the Germans, put into camp, get involved in the Great Escape, go on a death march and finally escape separately, getting back to their home base in the end, 90% OF THESE PLOT BEATS NOT BEING INCLUDED IN THE FUCKING SHOW. This series is an unfocused mess and the only emotions it got out of me were linked to me knowing what World War 2 was, not any kind of cinematic skills. If I want combat footage with no characters I'll just watch a documentary at least that'd be good in its own way. At this rate making a show out of it is bordering on feeling gross and exploitative. "Well we made a series about the Army and a series about the Marines, now we gotta make a series about the pre-Air Force I guess." like "whatever the fuck we do it will sell cause WW2 is so moving and shit, and it's pretty much our version of brand recognition". In conclusion I can honestly say that Masters of the Air isn't only the worse out of the three big WW2 series, but it's also just a flop in general. No action, no tension, no emotion, no nothing. An expensive slideshow to serve as a demo reel for an amazing prop and costume team.

[amyfarbright]

Sonic 1 Mega CD Port

(download here)

(if you think this is cool, consider helping me find work/money <3)

Welcome to the Next Level!

NOTE: I'm aware of issues regarding audio playback and transitioning between zones, and intend to push an update once the contest judging period is over. In the meantime, you can use level select (Up Down Left Right A + Start at title screen) to explore the game.

At the 1992 Consumer Electronics Show, a teaser for a Mega CD version of Sonic 1 was shown within a sizzle reel. No Mega CD version of Sonic 1 was ever produced, and this footage is almost everything we know about this project, but it's extremely likely that this idea is what morphed into the separate game Sonic CD, the only Sonic game officially released for the console.

In 2006, Stealth released the Sonic for MegaCD tech demo, marking the first time any substantial effort was made to bring another Sonic game to the console. It contained the title screens and first levels of Sonic 1 and 2, with three playable characters. In the following years, he would build on the ideas in that demo further, eventually reaching a point where his setup accommodated a Mega CD version of a rom hack called Sonic Megamix.

For a long time, this rom hack was the only way to experience Sonic 1's levels, and was the closest you could get to playing the original game on your Mega CD...

until now.

This is a port of the original Sonic the Hedgehog (revision 1, mostly) to the Sega Mega CD (running in Mode 2/off a CD). Not a mere one-zone demo, not affected by an original hack's mechanics, this is a full playable Sonic game running on the Mega CD, with the source fully available, and with the intent of enhancing the game with the extra hardware.

I started this project about a month and a half ago to enter into the annual Sonic Hacking Contest. This was done as both a learning experience for myself to learn new hardware (I was already familiar with programming for Mega Drive, but wanted to explore its addons), and as an example others can learn from.

This has been tested with BlastEm, Fusion, Gens, and on real hardware using a Mega Everdrive Pro.

Features:

Expanded Sound.

The Mega CD comes with a chip supporting PCM playback for up to 8 channels, complementing the 10 sound channels already in the Mega Drive. This port leverages that by moving playback of drum samples to a custom PCM sound driver running on the Mega CD CPU.

Because drums no longer need to play on the Mega Drive hardware, an extra sound channel was added in the main sound driver to allow for more sound effects to play without cutting out channels of the music.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get CD audio playback fully implemented in time for the initial release. Most of the pieces are there though, and I intend to add it in a future update.

An open-source Mega CD game. The scene for Mega CD has grown significantly over time, and over the years there has been new homebrew and hacks of other games, but not nearly as much done with the blue guy this contest is about. This port aims to change that; this is a full game running on Mega CD, with source code and development history available for browsing right now. Code for the kernel programs to load and run the game from disk is written in mostly C using the megadev toolchain. Rom hackers and developers more familiar with the Mega Drive standalone can use the code repository as an example of how to bring more full-fledged MD projects over to Mega CD with as few changes as possible.

Other features:

Custom loading screen while files are loaded from CD

Modified title screen, to remind you that this is indeed utilizing Mega CD hardware

Various bugfixes applied (for those familiar with Sonic Retro's Sonic 1 disassembly, FixBugs is turned on)

Much smoother special stage. The movement of objects making up the maze was unlocked, and the walls now display with 128 degrees of rotation (up from 16).

Even though I started this project to have something for the contest, I'm incredibly happy with what's been done so far, and I intend to work on it further after the contest to add more features. I consider this the beginning of a goodbright future for Sonic games and hacks on Mega CD.

Note: Debug mode and sound test have not been fixed to accommodate for the code that has been moved around. Try at your own risk!

Credits

Main developer: Amy Farbright

Playtesting and bug reporting: The Let's Talk About Sonic Discord

Special thanks: @fiffle, @milly, @crepe

Code used/referenced:

drojaazu's megadev toolchain

Devon's partial Sonic CD disassembly

SCHG How-to Guide

tversteeg's Rust implementation of rotsprite

Graphics used:

CD graphic on title screen: Sega Multimedia Studio, converted from sprites ripped by Mister Man

[dust-corner]

All info we have (so far) from Secret of the Mimic (PAX West 2024 Demo)

(WILL BE UPDATED / CHANGED AROUND OVER TIME WHEN NEW INFO SURFACES) For abit of a refresher... Secret of the Mimic is a game that Steel Wool Studios have supposedly been teasing in both RUIN and HW 2 under the code name "Carnival"; from dev notes, to various props that reappear, to more subtle things like Daycare Attendant and a spinning (and burning) Carousel seemingly originating back to a 1970s Fallfest.

Various lead directors and writers at Steel Wool Studios have stated they've also wanted to do a "FNaF Origins" style of game set in the 1970s. This seems to corroborate with the following information. (timestamped)

With that out of the way, here is what we know. Teaser Trailer: Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic - Teaser Debut - YouTube Playstation Store: Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic (playstation.com) > Dig deep into the past to discover the horrors of the future. - Playstore > To see the future sometimes you need to understand the past. A brand new original nightmare in the Five Nights at Freddy's universe! - Steel Wool Studios (as an aside, the teaser trailer gives us the date 1979, probably indicating the time period of the game) Technical Specs: From what the Playstation store page says, the game is both PC and PSVR compatable on launch. The PAX Demo is also stated to have both PC and VR movement options, although the demo showcase itself is VR. The Demo's First Section: The Office:

The Demo's Second Section: The Chase:

(gameplay descriptions courtesy of Wheat (@Wheatttttt) / X) (the name Jackie + pronouns confirmed by employee at the booth)

Booth Posters:

lots of interesting stuff to dissect here (official prop of) Jackie: The main atagonist of the Demo:

(+voicelines!)

(video courtesy of EVA 🍉FREE PALESTINE (@Bravvyy_2) / X) (note: Jackie is stated to have a yellow tutu, and under that is a large spring coil instead of legs. When she first comes out of the box, she pulls out and seperates her upper torso when they get stuck in a doorway trying to reach you. Their eye coverings fall off during the paper shredder destruction, revealing the orange Mimic eyes beneath, and finally they have a more broken appearence at the very end after another encounter with a door to the face.)

Camera screens of various Rooms in the Factory:

(keen eyes might notice the Spring Bonnie poster, a carousel under construction, and shadows of a few mascot suits hanging around)

(also image i cant make much sense of besides just the main menu for the VR demo lol)

Other info from various PAX attendees: -The jumpscare sound is a mix of SB's scream and the laughing from the teaser trailer -Instead of death static, the game over transition is a visual of a film reel ending (aesthetic flair) -Ray (the co-founder/creative director of SWS) was at the booth and said "8 DAYS". no idea what that means! 8 days til trailer? new demo? announcement? (note: It's unknown if the "Balloon Circus" released merch designs, while fitting, are for this game specifically, although their merch descriptions state they are indeed for a game)

[not-quite-normal]

I want to study in an online school that is good (Animum) to specialize directly in 3D animation, but you don't know the fear I have after finishing, I really want to be good and get to the industry that is in Canada, Pixar, Sony, DreamWorks, Icon, ETC. I'm afraid to be alone there, I don't know if a good reel will get a position there :(

i've gotten a lot of similar asks so i'm going to use this one to address this general query about how to get get started in animation and make it to your dream studio. it's totally okay to dream big and have a goal to work towards, but it's also okay to start small. i understand the feeling like you need to get good quickly in order to not miss out on cool projects, but cool stuff will always keep happening. getting good takes a lot of practice, so even if you don't land your first job at your dream studio (or even your second, third or fourth choice), it's still good practice wherever you end up. i've been in the industry for 13 years now and i'm still learning, it never stops. come at learning animation with a positive attitude of wanting to create and have fun, not fear of failing before you even start. you'll face a lot of challenges and stuff that makes you feel like you're not doing it right but getting through that is how you get better. and from my personal experience, you'll never feel alone in this industry! the best part of every job i've had (even if the job itself was crummy) has always been the people that i've worked with; anim folks are super friendly, welcoming, and helpful

for further reading, i've answered another question about what sony looks for in a demo reel here, and i have several pages of animation advice in my animation question tag

[fauxfickle]

We now return to your monthly fruitless venture or the search for "The Great All-American Pizza Show!"

Last month wasn't really all too interesting, and neither was this one. It's not like nothing has happened, it just feels like I'm just hitting a bunch of dead ends.

Alright, let's start with the animated commercial. I'm not sure about other lost media searchers, but I like to see how other people have solved cases and try and apply that to my search. I think I was watching blameitonejorge and he was talking about a demo reel made by the people who made Barnyard that was discovered completely by chance on Ebay. So I figured that something made by Colossal Pictures must of made it's way somewhere. I went through a bunch of ebay listings and auction sites, but couldn't find so much as a cel being sold.

As for the Bob Wilkins ad, I looked through videos shot at the Psychotronix Film Festival, but couldn't find anything. I've considered contacting the person that's in charge of the festival, but I'm worried that they might get scared off or something. I guess it wouldn't hurt, I just need to word the email in a way to make it seem like I'm not just there for that commercial.

I'm still a little unsure if the "Westland ad theory" from a while back is true. On one hand, I contacted Retrontario to see if they had it. They never got back to me, soooo maybe it's not real? On the other hand, the pieces line up and it doesn't feel like a coincidence. I'll still keep most my searching around CA

Sorry if this post was a little boring, life y'know? Going to start working at a paper mill next week (which I learned on the tour are freaking HOT, like 90F), but I think I'll be able to squeeze in some research time :). Hopefully there's some more interesting things to go through next time. Until then, cya nitwits later!

[sky-chau]

Connecting Voice Actors With Animation Students

With the death of BTVAs casting call section my classmates in animation have been struggling to find voice actors for their student films. So I'm using my pool of influence and a specially made discord server to connect:

Amateur Voice Actors

Voice Actors Looking To Make Demo Reels For The Purpose Of Getting An Agent

Hobbyist Actors

Volunteer Voices

People Who Like Doing Silly Voices

With

Animation Students

If any of these describes you, join the server!

Special equipment and experience is NOT a requirement for actors.

NO PROOF OF ENROLLMENT is needed for animation students.

Actors get their name and socials in the credits of student films which, on rare occasions go viral. (Welcome To Hell was a student film made at my school. The director of the animation department actually voiced one of the protagonists.) This isn't a guarantee but even if the films don't make it big, it's something to put on a resume and shows agents you can work with a director and have the sort of voice people are looking for. While payment isn't a guarantee I am encouraging tips and at least one of my classmates mentioned wanting to pay actors for a different project. In general, the animators are students, not studios. Adjust your project budget expectations accordingly.

Animators get voices. Lots and lots of fresh voices to choose from and the opportunity to make all sorts of connections with other animators and of course actors! I can't stress enough how great it is to have a voice in your head and know exactly which friend to call to make it a reality.

So join the server!

Also it would mean the world to me if the people of tumblr would give this post a boost! The more connections the better!

[greatcheshire]

I'm trying to manifest your Berserk and/or Gorillaz video to beat your Demo Reel video in terms of views. How can I make that happen faster?

Okay so first thing’s first, I need you to watch each video 600,000 times

[melliotwrites]

another ghost story demo! lyrics under cut :)

(ANTHONY and JOEY, in a bar that is really just their apartment. Younger and hungrier. ANTHONY perches by the edge of the stage, looking into the dance floor like he is going to fall off in a second. JOEY leans on the bar with affected casualness, but after he shifts a little to sip his drink, he carefully repositions himself exactly back to where he was. Neither of them are dancing.)

ANTHONY: TRY NOT TO WISH THAT I’D JUST STAYED HOME IN BED TRY TO IGNORE GUYS TALKING OVER MY HEAD CHOKE DOWN A CHASER, PRETENDING TO TEXT MAKE SURE MY LOCK SCREEN CROPS OUT MY EX

JOEY: TRY NOT TO FREEZE AGAINST A FOREST OF EYES PULL DOWN MY JEANS TO TRY AND BREAK UP MY THIGHS TRY NOT TO SPEAK SO MY VOICE DOESN’T CRACK IGNORE HOW THEY TITTER WHEN I TURN MY BACK

ANTHONY/JOEY: BUT THIS WILL BE GOOD

JOEY: DESIRE LIGHTS ME UP LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE

ANTHONY/JOEY: THIS WILL BE GOOD

ANTHONY: BUT EVERY HEATED GLANCE I CATCH AT MISSES ME

ANTHONY/JOEY: THIS WILL BE GOOD, AS GOOD AS I CAN DO 'CAUSE BOTTOM-FEEDERS ARE STILL FISH IN THE SEA JUST LOOK, I'LL BE GOOD GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU

ANTHONY: I SEE THIS ALL-AMERICAN BOY BY THE BAR HIS SHIRT'S STILL ON, DOES HE KNOW WHERE WE ARE? LEANING LIKE HE'S LOOKING FOR HIS PICKET FENCE HE'S NODDING TO THE MUSIC BUT HIS SHOULDERS ARE TENSE I'M ALWAYS SOMEONE'S PORCELAIN DOLL OR HIS BRITTLE DREAM OF BAMBOO I CAN BE THE BOY YOU NEED IF YOU SNAP ME RIGHT IN TWO

AND WHO ARE YOU, ALL CORN-SILK HAIR AND MAPLE TREE, DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK I KNOW YOU WANT FROM ME?

I SWEAR I'M STILL GOOD THE LAST BRUISED PEACH AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BIN I’M STILL GOOD SINCE WHEN IS NOT BEING CHOSEN A SIN? I'M GOOD, AS GOOD AS ANY OF YOU ‘CAUSE THE RUNT OF THE LITTER TRIES HARDEST TO WIN I SWEAR I'LL BE GOOD GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU

JOEY: DON'T SNIFF THE BAIT IF YOU'RE NOT GONNA BITE IT'S GETTING LATE, IT'S BEEN A LONG NIGHT I DON’T WANT TO BE YOUR “ONLY EXCEPTION” OR TREATED LIKE A BACHELORETTE I CAN REEL YOU IN WITH A PRIMED PERCEPTION BUT I HAVEN'T MASTERED HOOK-AND-SINKER YET

AND WHO ARE YOU, WITH PRETTY EYES, SOFT INGENUE, DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I THINK YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING TO?

I SWEAR I'M STILL GOOD THE CRUSHED UP CHIPS IN THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG I'M STILL GOOD I COULD HAVE A DATE, BUT I'M JUST GOING STAG I'M GOOD, AS GOOD AS ANY OF YOU THE KID WHO'S IT ALWAYS WANTS TO PLAY TAG I SWEAR I’LL BE GOOD GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU

JOEY: GOD, YOU'RE FLAWLESS

ANTHONY: GOD, YOU'RE STUNNING

JOEY/ANTHONY: YOUR LOVE COULD MAKE ME PERFECT, TOO

ANTHONY: MY HAIR WOULD BE BLONDER-

JOEY: MY VOICE WOULD BE LOWER-

JOEY/ANTHONY: I’LL WAKE UP JUST AS HOT AS YOU

AND I WON’T HAVE ANY REASON NOT TO DANCE IN THE LIGHT

JOEY: I KNOW YOU'LL REGRET THIS-

ANTHONY: YOU'LL REGRET THIS

JOEY/ANTHONY: BUT I'LL GET YOU FOR TONIGHT

BUT I SWEAR YOU'RE STILL GOOD SO NO NEED TO LOOK FOR BRUISES THAT I COULDN'T SEE YEAH, YOU'RE STILL GOOD BECAUSE I MIGHT DISCOVER YOU'RE BETTER THAN ME YOU'RE GOOD, BUT MAYBE IF YOU ARE THEN YOU CAN TEACH ME TO BE STILL GOOD GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU

[imdoingaokay]

hello :) i was wondering if you knew anything about elder scrolls?

cause i wanted to ask how the inquisition would handle an inquisator that was a dark elf?

look like a demon. is an elf. different world. hard times for the poor inquisitor!

So, I'm assuming you mean The Inquisitor was from the Elder Scrolls Universe and transported from Nirn to Thedas, I lowkey love that idea, so I’m rolling with it. You’ve inspired me to write something completely different, I’ll be getting it out soon.

So, this is how the DAI companions would react to a dark elf Inquisitor.

Blackwall/Thom Rainer: Blackwall can’t help but assume The Inquisitor is a demon at first. When has someone looked like a skinny, short Qunari with blood-red eyes?

They have to be a demon? Right?

However, it doesn’t take long for him to realize that The Inquisitor isn’t a demon and a rather polite person. He does reel back a little when The Inquisitor explains how long Dunmer lives. If anything, he becomes more curious about Dunmer and makes an effort to refer to The Inquisitor’s race as Dunmer rather than Dark Elf. 

Romanced, he’s mostly the same, he just puts in more and more effort to learn about Dunmer culture. But don’t expect him to start praying to any Daedra.

He doesn’t have much of an issue with the whole age thing until he realizes how old he is. All of a sudden, he’s worried about how The Inquisitor will handle his eventual death, as he’s most likely going to die before them. It takes some reassurance from The Inquisitor before he feels truly feels comfortable, but he’ll always feel bad that he’ll leave them so soon.

Cassandra: Cassandra is convinced that the future Inquisitor is a fade demon who murdered the divine. But she decides to keep them alive for the sake of The Breach, which can only be solved by their damn hand. So she relents.

If the Dunmer Inquisitor is very religious, they have a hard time initially. After all, it’s rather strange for Cassandra to accept that some people worship different gods than the Maker. She’ll get more comfortable eventually, it just takes some time.

Romanced, it’s mostly the same again. Only that she enjoys listening to her lover speaks in their native tongue and hearing the stories of The Dunmer. The Tale of The Nerevarine is her favorite. The age discussion doesn't happen until it slips from The Inquisitor, and the pair have to talk fairly long about the plan for both of them. Cassandra eventually lets it go but is still worried for her lover's sake.

Cole: “You’re not from here.” He says plainly when the pair are alone and away from immediate danger.

“You’re not used to this place. Not used to Thedas. Do you want to go home?” He asks, curiously watching The Inquisitor furrow their brow.

“They thought I was a demon too.” He eventually offers, “But you stopped them from kicking me out. Thank you.”

Cole doesn’t see The Inquisitor as a demon, he can’t, after all. There is nothing of the fade, nothing evil about them. They’re rather nice.

Reading their mind can get hard, there are many faces, many creatures, Cole has never seen and can’t put a name to. The hurt, fear, and loneliness that The Inquisitor may feel are unique. And Cole will do his best to understand.

Cullen Rutherford: He struggles the most. He almost draws his sword when they first meet, if it is on the battlefield. He immediately assumes that the future Inquisitor is a fade demon. It is only Cassandra, who immediately introduces Cullen, and dissuades him from cutting down The Inquisitor.

He grows respect for them over time, and once the Battle of Haven is over, he finds himself curious about Dunmer and their history. He struggles to separate The Inquisitor from the Fade, as he can’t tell the difference sometimes.

Romanced, it takes a minute, he needs to feel comfortable first. Once he feels comfortable with The Inquisitor, he ends up falling for them, fairly quickly too. He’s embarrassed and ashamed of himself at first. Because he thought they were a literal demon. Getting married to him is also a little difficult if his spouse expects a Dunmer wedding, not because he’s unwilling, but because having one will be hard. That man will put on all the traditional Dunmer attire and do the whole ritual if asked, he knows it's difficult to find everything.

 

Dorian Pavus: Fascinated, absolutely fascinated. He asks questions, so many questions. They range from the history of the Dunmer, to how someone like The Inquisitor came to be at the Conclave.

This man defends The Inquisitor with his life. He knows life is tough to be an elf… but to be an elf that could easily be mistaken for a demon? He can imagine it’s tough. He’s always there to support his friend, whether it be an occasional spell that gets thrown in the face of some snobby noble, or a glass of wine, maybe even a shoulder to cry on. 

Romanced, he behaves more or less the same. He flirts and is interested in Dunmer history, and all that jazz. But he finds himself growing more attached, more… infatuated. The romance continues as normal, but it’s more… curious. Once again, the age issue comes up, but Dorian isn’t too worried about it. He’s so caught up in just being alive with his lover that he doesn’t have time to think about the far-off future. One day, it’ll hit him, but he’ll be with his lover for that.

Iron Bull: For a second, he actually thought The Inquisitor was a Qunari at first. He thought that their parents were Tal-Vashoth, and they just had a short, skinny kid. Now it disturbed him that Ben-Hassrath, had no information on The Inquisitor, but they’re Tal-Vashoth, maybe their parents were good at hiding. But once the rumor gets around that they’re from another world? Maybe he starts questioning it. But the second he sees The Inquisitor? He knows they aren’t Qunari. He also recognizes that they aren’t a demon either. But the red eyes? Yeah, those freak him out.

Also, don’t call him a grey orc. He finds it funny one time, and after that, he gets annoyed.

Romanced, he’s basically the same. He’s one of the most accepting LIs out there. The age thing isn’t an issue. He loves his kadan, and when he dies, he can only hope that they move on. They deserve that.

Josephine Montilyet: Poor Josephine. Now she has to work overtime to really quiet the rumors of a demon invading The Chantry. She never really thought they were a demon, though she was still nervous around them at first. The red eyes can be off-putting when one first sees them.

Aside from that, the woman is fighting for her life against the rumors and the comments of nobles. She constantly tries to defend her friend, but it can be hard, especially when someone is from a different world.

Romanced, it’s basically the same. Maybe there are a few comments here and there about The Inquisitor being a Dark Elf, but that’s about it. The age issue is probably an issue as well, Josephine just gets worried about her lover and how they’ll handle her death. But with some reassurance, the thought slips away. And she becomes preoccupied with just living.

Leliana: She’s frustrated at first, she’s never heard of this creature and has no idea what they are. As far as she knows, they killed the Most Holy. But she relents when Solas explains that they aren’t a Fade Demon or a normal type of elf. But after they awaken, Leliana gets a chance to ask a few questions. Dunmer is not the name she would choose, but if that’s what they are, that’s what they are.

She has a slight fondness for them over time, having a growing respect for them as they continuously prove themselves worthy of the title “Inquisitor.” Also one of the only people who end up asking “How did you get here?”

If The Inquisitor doesn’t know, she leaves it. But if The Inquisitor knows, she wants an explanation. And The Inquisitor better not lie, Leliana will know. But Leliana would probably drop it in that case too. Something tells her that it wasn't The Inquisitor's choice, and even if it was, it couldn't have been easy.

Sera: So they’re elfy, but not the “normal type” of elfy. She’s super confused and gets extra confused when they ever explain anything about themselves or their history. She ends up asking The Inquisitor to stop talking about it, as it gets to be too much for her to handle. She is also super on guard when it comes to their appearance. The red eyes seriously freak her out.

Romanced, it takes longer for her to feel comfortable enough for a romance. Aside from that, it moves pretty normally. Maybe more arrows get shot once Sera feels the need to defend her lover, of course. The age issue isn’t brought up too much, as Sera is like Dorian in the sense that she feels she has no time to worry about that sort of stuff.

Solas: Confused, The Inquisitor is an elf, but not his version of an “elf.” Probably one of the first people to explain that The Inquisitor (then, Herald) isn’t a demon or from The Fade. He respects The Inquisitor, and will most likely ask questions about them and their people. Another thing that he finds interesting is how elves enslaved humans, not the other way around.

He also thinks the stories of The Tribunal are… interesting too. He seems to get a little uncomfortable with the whole story of their rise and fall as if he can slightly relate. Other than that, he likes hearing stories of their people and respects them for their culture.

Now… I don’t think he would romance a Dunmer. I genuinely think it wouldn’t happen. I mean, maybe it would, had there been more time for him to get to know The Inquisitor (sort of like how he could’ve romanced a human or a dwarf had they gotten to know each other more over more time.) At most, he develops a little crush on them, but he’ll NEVER say anything, even if The Inquisitor returns their feelings.

Varric Tethras: Now this is a twist! An elf leading The Inquisition is something he didn’t expect, but someone from a completely different world? The Maker himself couldn’t write something better. He’s very welcoming and happy to make The Inquisitor feel less like a monster and more like a person. If The Inquisitor is like some other Dunmer and a little racist, it throws him off big time. He’s surprised when he learns about Dwemer and how they weren’t really short. And the whole thing with the Falmer? Varric is happy to distance himself from the idea of being a Dwemer and may ask The Inquisitor to refrain from referring to him as that.

Romanced, he behaves mostly the same as he would if they were friends. He’ll go above and beyond to make The Inquisitor feel comfortable. Even using Carta connections to find items that may remind his lover at home. He's always nervous about the age issue, but, like Bull, he hopes his lover just moves on from him. Varric doesn’t think a guy like him is worth never loving again for.

Vivienne: She treats them like a demon at first, she’s cordial but wary. She never lets The Inquisitor know her thoughts. Not until she realizes she needs their help with the snowy wyvern. 

If The Inquisitor decides to bring her the actual heart, she uses it, and can’t help but feel ashamed. She does an excellent job of hiding it, of course, but she can stop the overwhelming weight of guilt that washes over her when The Inquisitor arrives with the heart and without another word, goes to help someone else. From then on, Vivienne is much warmer to The Inquisitor, maybe even considering The Inquisitor a friend.

[inyourbenevolence]

I Need A Miracle is produced and edited by Sarah Golding

Sarah is an award winning versatile voice actor, director, writer, producer, podfest organiser. Also pod host of the writing how-to pod ADWIT, (with Lindsay Harris Friel) and sole host of Audio Fiction interview pod INDIE AF.

@merelymatt says, you've probably heard Sarah's voice in The Silt Verses among other productions, but did you know she makes audio drama happen as well as being in it?? Sarah's a huge fan of monologues, which I did kind of know when I pitched I Need A Miracle to Wireless, but I definitely didn't know to what extent. She's produced the mum-themed Mummylogues and now the dad-themed Daddylogues to get more monologues out there for your ears, and that made her the number 1 correct person to make I Need A Miracle everything it can possibly be!

[cubixfails]

do you happen to have a guide or at least some tips for people who want to become voice actors?

Heck, where to start...

I don't have a solid guide of sorts, but my biggest tips would be these:

-Be Dedicated If you seriously want to get into doing voice work, you need to treat it like it's a job. Scour sites like Casting Call Club or twitter for casting calls, make connections with other voice actors, audition for projects any day that you can, build up a portfolio and get a demo reel or two if you can.

-Be Available You need to do your best to say yes to any project you may land, and deliver to deadlines. You don't want to build a reputation for being flakey or unreliable.

-It won't be Cheap Voice acting isn't a cheap hobby if you want to make it professionally. There's costs of equipment like a good microphone and audio interface, costs of classes and workshops for building connections and improving your skills, sometimes even costs of being able to find auditions to apply for. Not to mention you may even need to do renovations in your home if you need a high quality space for recording.

Oh and be good at acting I guess, that's also pretty important.

[canmom]

L’Aventure de Canmom à Annecy - Dimanche/Lundi

Bonsoir mes amis!

I am in Annecy, the unreasonably picturesque home of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival! I have discovered that the Annecy International Animated Film Festival involves a lot more standing in long queues in the hot sun than I expected! Nevertheless, I’m here and making the best of it.

So.

dimanche - le voyage à annecy

First of all, Sunday! I set off at 3am on Sunday morning, taking a bus, followed by two tubes, followed by another bus to the airport. The last bus was late. I met a couple of nice PhD students on their way to the same airport, and they were gonna get all of us an uber, but then the bus showed up after all.

At the airport, security threw away my 200ml bottle of sunblock. Can never be too careful I guess >< Inevitably, Richard Dawkins and his little pot of honey leapt unbidden into my brain. I promise I did not call anyone a “dundridge”.

The flight itself was uneventful! I was behind three other Annecy-goers, a very sweet gay couple and their friend... we hit it off pretty well but they were on a later bus and I haven’t seen them since I got here ^^’ Once I landed in Geneva I was racing across the city to try to get to the Annecy bus in time (I left myself an hour, which turned out to be way too little time to get through customs, out the airport, onto the train etc.) Trains in Switzerland are nuts, some of them are split across multiple levels and even the ones that aren’t have like, steep steps to get aboard.

Like “fuck you if you’re in a wheelchair” I guess.

Luckily the bus to Annecy was late! So by midday on Sunday I was in Annecy!

I ran into a group of Swiss animation students who were happy to let me tag along for a while. They just finished their graduation films and they were terribly excited about Spider-Verse. They ended up arranging to meet a couple of animators at Cartoon Saloon so I ended up witnessing some honest to god Networking. The imposter syndrome kicked in about when they were showing the cartoon saloon animators clips from their demo reels. I didn’t even have business cards. Apparently that’s a thing people bring???

pictured: swiss animation students approaching Lake Annecy.

Anyway my legs got really tired from standing up and no sleep. I bought myself an expensive crêpe and sat down on the floor to eat it. No films were due to start for hours.

I went down to a comic book shop in Bonlieu. French comic book shops are fucking insane. All the books are enormous glossy hardbacks that cost like 50+ euros. I could totally walk away with the complete works of Moebius or Enki Bilal if things like ‘money’ and ‘getting through the airport’ and ‘not reading French’ weren’t factors. But equally there’s so much stuff that I’ve just plain never heard of. I could spend a month in this one shop easy.

At 3am my hotel checkin opened! Though in French you don’t say ‘check in’, you say j’ai un reservation. By this point I had been awake for more than 24 hours so I decided to go have a nap and eat the falafels I brought with me (very good idea, would recommend having a snack) and wake up for the opening ceremony.

Hotel comments: It’s pretty comfy! Nothing super fancy but I don’t need super fancy. The breakfast is kind of crazy expensive. I had a bit of a scare when it turned out that they hadn’t charged me when I booked the room, and wanted payment now, but thankfully I have a job now so I could take that in stride ^^’

At this point I discovered my plug adapter supports the US, Australia, New Zealand and Japan... but not Europe. Fortunately I had a power bank with me so I could keep my phone alive (its battery is pretty shot) so I resolved to buy a new adapter on Monday.

I woke up shortly before the opening ceremony and quickly concluded that there was no way I was going to be making it down to the opening ceremony and went back to sleep. I slept a really long time. But I think I needed it. Shame to miss the ceremony but odds are I probably wouldn’t have even been able to get in, someone else said she’d queued for two hours.

lundi - les files d'attente 

(lmao is that really the french for ‘queues’? ‘files d’attente’?)

A beautiful morning in Annecy! I walked over to the supermarché and got myself some pasta ingredients and a ‘veggie dog’ (falafels in a baguette) from a French bakery. I learned just how limited my French vocab is. But it’s a little reassuring to find French people who speak about as much English as I speak French. (Have not yet tried to speak Japanese to any French person but it will probably happen.)

Anyway. Films time, at last!

So the way Annecy works is, you get a certain number of reservations per day depending on your ticket type. If you don’t have a reservation you can optimistically show up at the theatre anyway, and whatever seats they have left go to the line. From the website it sounded like you’d have a pretty good chance to get in.

My friends. That is a lie.

To get in to a popular non-reserved screening you have to turn up basically hours in advance. Otherwise you arrive at the back of a queue like this, stand in line for a while, and then someone in a red shirt comes out and tells you you’re too late and you go find something else to do.

I have already become very familiar with this particular stretch of ground outside Cinema Pathé. That said, the queues are a good chance to meet people! So I ended up making a couple of connections, mostly with animation students from various places. It turns out a ‘Grand Public’ ticket is a bit of an odd duck.

As you can see in that picture, a lot of people had umbrellas. This is something I neglected, and had to use my bag instead, like so:

Guess where I got sunburned.

One of those something elses I did was walk into the VR films room. This runs on its own reservation system, with each film having somewhere between 2 and 6 headsets, which get sanitised between viewings. The whole room looks kinda scifi with its cables dangling from the ceiling...

The only VR film available when I arrived was called Black Hole Museum + Body Browser by Su Wen-Chi from Taiwan. This was very demoscene, with a lot of particles flying around under force fields in a black and white space; the second part involved a dancer who’d been photoscanned somehow and was displayed using waves of particles. It was neat, but I can’t say I was hugely moved? The display device was a Quest 2, but I’m not sure if it was running the particle sim on Quest 2 hardware. If it was, I’m impressed.

The other VR films were all but fully booked so I resolved to come back another day.

I tried to get into the anime film The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes. Predictably, I was too late. However, the next queue over was for a Spanish film called Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow, and, wanting to see at least one film I hopped onto that queue and found myself inside the cinema in short order.

The auditorium was packed and I got to witness firsthand such Annecy traditions as throwing paper aeroplanes at the screen, shouting ‘Lapin!’ whenever a rabbit appears onscreen, and making a weird popping sound with your mouth while waiting for the film to start (??? it sounded like frogs ig???). The movie itself was greeted with excitement but honestly? It was pretty eh, which is a shame since the idea of a world of bugs is a fun one! The story concerns a bumbling spider detective, his aspiring sidekick spider, and his feud with the leader of a locust underworld, playing out on a seaplane en route to San Francisco. The characters are all very one-note archetypes, and the dialogue felt like it was trying way too hard to be funny quippy movie dialogue... only to land on the painfully obvious. A big shame.

But what’s worse is that I had spent my one daily reservation on Mars Express by Jérémie Périn at 4:30 and I’d completely lost track of time. By the time I walked out of Inspector Sun my phone was almost dead (see above about the adapter) so I popped into a French electronics store and bought a couple of EU adapters and set off to charge my phone. But then on the bus I thought, hold on a minute, when is Mars Express, I have like an hour right---oh fuck. Well fine it’s at Bonlieu right? I can just walk there? ...it’s at Le Mikado Novel? Where the fuck is that? Half an hour away?

...so to make a long story short I got off the bus, walked down the street, my phone died, there was no way I could find my way to Le Mikado in time to get in even with my reservation, so I had to go back to my hotel and waste my precious reservation. And I hear the film was great. Sob.

There are a bunch of other screenings this week but they’re all packed so who knows if I’ll get to see this movie.

Despite this big oof I charged up my phone and headed back to meet up with my friend (hi to my friend!) who was in the queue for Production I.G.’s new film The Concierge. My friend was more than an hour early, so we thought we had a pretty good chance... lol nope. After standing in line for 45 minutes we were informed the cinema is full and had to leave.

It wasn’t a complete waste though. We met up with another friend and had a little picnic of bagels. Unfortunately the bagel I got was not the bagel I thought I was getting (idk what happened) but even so, it was nice to meet two online friends who by bizarre coincidence both turned out to be from Singapore.

To close the night I decided to take one more shot at getting in to see a movie, and went for a late showing of The Sacred Cave, a movie from Cameroon. Which is pretty neat, it’s not every day you see a movie from Cameroon. This one was... well, technically it’s definitely rough, but I don’t wanna be hard on it. The story is a fairy tale: a traditional healer is called in to attempt to save a dying king, and he dispatches his son on a mission to retrieve special medicine alongside the Prince.

On the way the son encounters a weird forest wizard, then a princess of a neighbouring clan who’s been turned into an anthro frog by an evil wizard; as he tries to head back with the medicine, he’s captured by said clan and almost executed, but because of his pure nature he alone can draw the special magic sword, and using this power he helps his captors overcome the evil wizard’s raiding party. But on the way home he gets betrayed by the Prince! A whole lot of betraying unfolds, killing off the old seer, and it turns out that our boy is actually the true son of the King. Despite the whole ‘executing his adoptive father on spurious charges’ thing, it all shakes out; the baddies are driven off, the princess unfrogged, and our very special good boy is rewarded.

It’s animated largely in Flash, and it has the feel of an online Flash video. All the same, I believe this is the first feature-length animated film from Cameroon. Bootstrapping an animation industry capable of putting together a coherent film is a hell of a feat, and must take an enormous degree of passion and dedication to make that happen. (Also not to put too fine a point on it but there are certain historical reasons why France has a much more developed animation industry than the country it had colonised until 1971.) Anyway, although principally made in Cameroon, the credits name a whole bunch of different countries, mostly in West Africa. Probably it would make sense to compare it to Princess Iron Fan or something like that, and I’m excited to see what comes down the line. And it was a very sincere movie, the setting presented with a great deal of love, especially when it came to costumes. I’m glad to have seen it.

Tomorrow morning Im gonna get up very early and take another shot at The Concierge, and try and plan better around the queuing system to try to make the best of it and catch more of the short films. It’s definitely not been the day of back to back films I was expecting, but honestly despite all that I’m having a good time just being in Annecy and the week is yet young...

good god is it expensive here though