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acioo · 4 years ago

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anybody who knows anything about me will be able to tell you i spend a bunch of my time ice skating & i’ve never seen a guide on how to write a character that figure skates , so i thought i’d compile some tips & explain things , because my whole childhood i was travelling across the country to spin on ice with nothing on but a leotard & some tights , and now i have nothing but a bunch of tacky costumes and this post to show for it . this is pretty in-depth , about 2.5k words , but if you have any questions about specific aspects or want me to clarify anything , feel free to shoot me an ask . oh & a like or reblog if you found this helpful would be sweet ! tw : injury, mental illness, eating disorders

most people that wind up as figure skaters started ridiculously young. i was probably six, but at my rink, we train kids as young as four and five. if your character has competed professionally at a state-wide level or up, they most likely started super young and have been professionally trained. figure skating is not a sport that you can do casually, most of the time. ice skating, casually, however, totally different thing. but competitive figure skating, being on a figure skating team, and the like, it’s a lot of effort, time, and discipline. in a lot of families, it’s a tradition to teach your kids to ice skate. at my rink, there’s a lot of people who come from slavic families whose parents signed them up - or athlete parents in gen. so, if your character is SUPER GOOD, they’ve put hundreds of hours of work into it, and have years of practice. it is not something you can pick up in a day, and i’d even say you have to be at it for at least two years before you get good good, and it takes a while to even become comfortable on the ice before you can start to do any kind of trick - THAT is why they start young, so by the time we’re pre-teens, we’re really, really good. the problem happens, famously, at puberty, because your balance gets knocked off, your bones are growing, and you have to basically relearn everything you know.

there are so many different types of figure skating. i specialize in singles, but i’ve done showcase and solo dance ( but both of those skills are more for me to be a well-rounded skater, not for competing ), and would sometimes be put into pairs to help learn skills and work together. you NEED to be in one of these categories for competition because they are what all comps are based upon. singles is, as you think, one single ice skater individually doing their routine. singles will do various dances, jumps, spins, etc. i won't lie, it’s hard, and really, really competitive. singles is the most competitive of all these categories. it’s usually a short program ( jumping, spinning, steps - the easier portion of competition because it’s really just a routine that you need to get down pat so you can boost your score. you will learn to do it in your sleep. ) and then a free skate ( longer than the other, it’s more complicated and difficult ). pair skating is really, really difficult, tbh, and you need a good relationship with whoever you are doing it with because there’s a lot of trust involved. it’s hard to break into pair skating because you need a partner that you’re equal to in skill and you like as a person. you guys spend a lot of time together and you need to get along. you guys need to be equally proficient at ice skating. most pairs get put together when they’re still very young. it’s very difficult to from singles to becoming a pair skater. it’s two skaters and they skate around each other, they lift each other, and move in synchronized patterns. it’s highly technical, like all figure skating, but it is more difficult because you have to keep in mind both your own feet and someone else’s. you do NOT want to bump skates with someone. at best, that is very uncomfortable. at usual/worse, you’re both about to eat shit on ice. in pair skating the partner that lifts needs SO much strength. like, so much. i’ve tried to lift fellow skaters, who are the same weight as me, and it’s near fucking impossible for me. ice skates are HEAVY and skaters have a lot of lower body muscle. we are not light people. for example, once time my team and i were out of practice and just skating around and we started playing around and i did a cartwheel on ice and i fell very hard. wiped tf out. and that’s me, trying to handle my own weight. like singles, it’s a free skate and a short program. pair skating is typically male + female ( what a sad world, i know ), but i encourage every writer to take some suspending of reality. ice dance is, basically, dancing. it’s a lot more performative than other types of skating. it’s done in pairs, but can be performed alone, in a different category called solo dance. in the nicest way possible, singles/pair skaters usually look down a bit on ice dancers because it’s a bit less technical, and doesn’t have any jumps of lifts. but ! that doesn’t mean it’s easy because it’s not. it’s rooted in ballroom dancing and they have two parts of competition: rhythm dance and free dance. fun fact: pair ice dancers scott moir and tessa virtue, who are famous to be suspected dating, are the reason we had a no dating rule at the rink. showcase ice skating is usually for some kind of platform, or in front of a large crowd. i’ve done showcase for investors for our rink. there’s usually costumes involved ( there are costumes for all competitions, but their costumes are more, like, theatre - y ), and props, and acting. it’s actually very fun to watch, but you need acting skill. theatre on ice, however, is just what it sounds like. theatre on ice is popular with children and good for ways to show off an entire team of skaters, because you can have eight to thirty skaters on the ice. they can also compete and they can go international, but they aren’t in the olympics and there aren’t many competitions for them. it’s usually just a fun way to get together with your teammates, bond, and then show off what you did.

so, competitions. super complicated, and as a writer, i suggest really glossing over them, because it’s difficult to get it down completely right. there are nonqualifying and qualifying comps. the difference is that in qualifying competitions, you’re looking to start moving up, basically, so if you qualify in the first one, you go onto the next one, then state eventually, then national, and so on. you start with regionals ( singles ) / sectionals ( pairs and ice dancers ). then, if you succeed, you go to sectional singles / pairs + ice dance finals. the goal is to get on the national team ( i’ve watched ameatur skaters tell other rinkmates they want to compete in the olympics - it was NOT pretty ), basically. which, let me say this. it is nowhere. near. easy. like, just go into youtube and search “ yuzuru hanyu “ ( gold medal in pyeongchang olympics for mens singles ) and watch ANY of his performances. now he’s the gold medalist, right. he started at four years old. so let’s go smaller. google elsa cheng and watch one of her routines. she’s a member of the us national figure skating team. she’s fifteen. YEAH. not an easy sport. nonqualifying is more laid back and for fun, or trophies. nonqualifying is also a way to practice before you enter into qualifying. competitions are really nerve-racking. it’ll cause stress between you and your rinkmates, because more often than not you’re going against one another. you and your coach will usually spend all the prep season creating your two programs, which you will almost always repeat in every single competition you attend. i have about 20 different routines stored in the back of my head. sometimes my coach would give us exercises of coming up with a routine during a time restraint. my friend junior learned a routine that was on yuri on ice.

for competitions you arrive, you get ready. you’re almost always wearing some kind of elaborate costume/dress leotard thingy. this is a time to start getting mentally ready, talk to your friends, and do each other’s hair and makeup. costumes are bought way ahead of time, and are usually related to the theme of your routine. you do NOT want a wardrobe malfunction. it’ll mess you up & you’ll lose precious points. your hair will most likely always be back and, more often than not, braided or in a bun. the comp will begin and you have a practice session so that you can get warmed up and ready. it’s not long. you will get the music for your program played one by one, and you rehearse - this is usually to check to make sure your music is right & to get acclimated to the ice then you get off the ice and another group will warm up. your coach can’t be on the ice whatsoever, and has to stay outside the rink. usually, competition order is done by a random draw. one by one, you will do your routine. no one but you can be on the ice. then you go off to the “ kiss and cry “ ( because you’re either about to celebrate or get your ear chewed off by an adult in a tracksuit ) where your score gets announced. then, competition continues. your warmup + when you start is not based on how you placed in the last part of the comp ( usually started with lowest ) and you perform the second routine. then, and this is usually determined by like how serious the competition you're going to, but there are trophies handed out, a podium ceremony is held, or medals or flowers are given out. my coach would always make the team pose together after competitions and go out to eat - lots of coaches hold bonding exercises esp after comps. if we did well, we could skip our 9 am practice. if we did poorly, the team meets up at a local park and runs the three-mile trail, and then they do technical corrections at the rink. after your medal/etc ceremony, you’re done. sometimes the top people will perform, but by that time you’re usually exhausted and want to sleep for a billion years ( or, if you did really well, you want to go eat 15 ihop pancakes and conquer the world ). the competition season is from august to april. this is a BASE of what happens. it’s different at different kinds of competitions and for different categories of skating, but it’s almost always something like this. offseason is for practice, rest, and fun, basically, but if you're a serious skater, by the time you’re hitting july, you’re spending more time at the rink than at home. the most well-known and the hardest competitions to qualify for are the grand prix, europeans ( european championships ), worlds ( world championships ), and the, of course, olympics.

another aspect of almost any professional sport is injury. think about any ice skating routine you’ve seen. there is no protection. you’re wearing a thin sheer leotard. you have basically knives on your feet. it’s VERY easy to get yourself beat up by ice. the ice is very hard and not very forgiving. meaning, if you hit, you hit hard. you usually are putting a lot of force into it, too, because you’re falling. don’t even get me started on the BRUISING. you will look like you have gone thru something, all the time. ice skates, which have to sharpened routinely, are, as you imagine, SHARP AS FUCK. knife shoes. i’ve been recreationally skating, because i work at a rink, and just monitoring the skaters and usually messing around with my rinkmates, and i fell, and i sliced open my thigh. i didn’t need stitches, or anything, but there was blood everywhere. very gross. ( ask abt this answered here ! ) and i wasn’t even doing anything particularly hard. and this has happened before. they WILL cut you. ankle injuries are super common. i’ve seen someone break their ankle feet away from me. i’ve twisted my left ankle five times. as for dislocations, they also happen a lot. when i was twelve, i was at the top of my figure skating career. i was qualifying to competition after competition. during a regular, normal practice, i was doing a jump i had usually aced, and i landed the wrong way and i dislocated my knee and blacked out. it’s a very disgusting injury and extremely, extremely painful. like, a good 50k in hospital bills for the surgery to fix it. i was very good and it was my favorite activity on the planet, but it was so awful that i quit. when i was fourteen, i started skating again, joined my team, etc, etc, but it was very difficult to recover from. and that’s a very common story. most people get injured and they have to stop. i know a girl who got a bunch of concussions, and wasn’t able to skate. i’ve been concussed on the ice. people tear their acls or their hip. we have a sports medic at all figure skating practices and comps. and a lot of injuries, once you hurt something, you will hurt it again because you made it weak. we are all very flexible but overuse will make your bones brittle. there’s also stress fractures and different things you can get from just overworking your muscles. shin splints, tendonitis, jumpers knee, etc. you name an overuse injury, and i’ve had it. i was one so exhausted after practice that i laid down on the ice and cried until my coach ( who i love very dearly ) gave me a bag of skittles and told me to suck it up. that’s not saying my coach is a bitch ( john mulaney vc my coach is a bitch and i like her so much ), that’s to say there is no break, no stopping. you get better, and move on, or you quit.

as-is with basically any competitive sport, if you get serious, you will probably go onto some sort of diet along with it. you want to be eating a lot of nutritional stuff ( granola bars are HOARDED in my locker room & to this day i gag at the sight of protein shakes ), anything with a lot of calcium ( because we do be breaking bones ! ), and iron. i used to eat pasta before comps ( like wayyy before not an hr or anything ) because it gives you ~energy~. you need to be eating a lot because you’re exercising a lot. gatorade is banned by my coach because it's so much sugar. you need to drink so. much. water. we all take a bunch of vitamins. usually will eat chicken / meat in general. but keep in mind, like any sport in which you are cutting things from your diet / eating specific things / etc, it can easily lead to an unhealthy relationship with food. there’s a lot of shitty mindsets you will encounter with coaches and fellow competitors about what weight a figure skater should be, and it's even worse in pair skating ( because of lifts ). when i was eleven, one of my old coaches told me that she hoped i never hit puberty because it’d fuck up my balance & when i did i cried. a fellow competitor once told me she wished she had my “ figure skater “ body ( and at this point of my life, i had very unhealthy eating habits ). another time a group of older kids made fun of how gangly i was while i was in earshot. the amt of times my coach has SCREAMED at ice skaters for making fun of / putting down fellow ice skaters is astronomical. it’s rough. a lot of figure skaters have opened up about how figure skating caused / contributed to their mental illness. it’s very easy to fall into because of how “ perfect “ you need to be. you can look up various figure skaters stories on this: adam rippon, gracie gold, and yulia vyacheslavovna - a very famous one as it was part of the reason her career ended & she was the youngest ever skating gold medalist. and i will say, personally, my unhealthy relationship with food ( that would eventually lead to lots o problems & i still feel the impact of today ) began when i was figure skating. there are other risk factors for mental illness as well because there’s so much focus on winning / losing. more than once, competitions would give me panic attacks because of the great stress.

another thing is MONEY. as fucked up as it is, you need money, or a grant, if you want to get good. you need expensive skates, costumes, travel fees, and more. my pro figure skates, not my casual ones, cost upwards of 300, and that’s low balling it. when i was ten, my parents spent upwards of 10k on figure skating. there are rink fees, there are competition fees, there are coaching fees. it adds up extremely quickly. i know a lot of skaters who stopped competing because it was just too expensive. i work for my rink by teaching classes and monitoring open skates and additional things, but if i added up every single dollar i ever made, it would be nowhere near enough to pay for everything. but the thing is, if you get really good, you can make money off of competitions, but getting there is the hard part. at one point in my life, my parents were paying $100 an hour for my private coach who i was seeing multiple days a week. figure skaters also oftentimes will take additional classes to help. my coach made the entire junior team take ballet one year. i took a ton of gymnastic classes as well to help with skating.

so, who are the kind of people that ARE figure skaters ? what do we act like ? there’s a lot of stereotypes that figure skaters are cold people. that’s not necessarily true. i would say that we are extremely competitive people. i’ve seen rinkmates get into full-blown fights during competitions. one of my best friends, who i met at my rink once i returned from my hiatus, HATED me because she knew i was competition. we are on-edge. stakes are high and the pressure is on. a lot of us are very perfectionistic because you sort of got to be to get to our level. we can have control issues and we can become easily frustrated if we flop jumps or keep stuttering coming out of a spin. the other stereotype is that we are super delicate little flowers. probably because of the way we have to move. realistically, we’re a tactile bunch of people who would probably wind up hurting someone if we played hockey. ( another stereotype : figure skaters and hockey kids. the closest i’ve gotten to a hockey player is the one time i threatened to quick him in the nads because they came early and insisted we get off the rink. ) we all love skating and have a lot of fun while doing it. it’s dangerous, and that’s part of the thrill. speeding around the rink at extremely high speeds is, honestly, exhilirating. we love our sport and, though we can get on each other's nerves, love our rinkmates. it’s not easy, but it’s our favorite thing to do.

#writing guide #character guide #sport guide #rph #rpt #i wrote this in a shakespearean fury #can u tell i miss my rink : (#i should be doing finals !#ch: axel mendoza

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cursedbcnes · 4 years ago

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𝐒𝐔𝐒𝐀𝐍 𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐒 𝐒𝐀𝐃 𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐁𝐁𝐋𝐄 :

ft . the bones fam !

click here .

#this is like sad #like i know thats in the desc of the drabble but this made me so sad all jokes aside #not happy #does not end on a happy note #ive written some sad shit for susan n this is some of the straight up #just most painfully upsetting #also idk if this is good writing i wrote it in a shakespearean fury #have yet to reread. its 230 am. i have class at 730 am.#( ˢᴵᴺᴳᴵᴺᴳ ᵂᴴᴵᴸᴱ ᴿᴼᴹᴱ ᴮᵁᴿᴺˢ ) / * isms .

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365days365movies · 4 years ago

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100%. Oh, sorry. January 12, 2021: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Epilogue)

100%, THIS MOVIE IS PERFECT

I can’t even hope to be objective about this one, this movie is GODDAMN AMAZING.

Look, I’ll try to go into it in some detail, but I can’t even pretend that this isn’t my favorite movie so far this month. But did it dethrone Mad Max: Fury Road? We’ll get there. Let’s do the review.

Review

OK, let’s get this over with.

Cast and Acting:

Perfect, both for the action scenes, and for the acting scenes. Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-Fat have a timeless chemistry that betrays and unseen-yet-boundless history, and they both reveal nuances to their characters in every moment they’re on screen. Did you know that Michelle Yeoh LEARNED MANDARIN for this movie? Zhang Ziyi, HOLY FUCK. This is her THIRD MOVIE, and it made her a star in China AND eventually in the USA. Amazing turn. And Cheng Pei-pei! NEVER thought I’d see her in this film, and even at 54, she’s still got it! GODDAMN, this cast rules. And Chang Chen was awesome, too. 10/10, easy.

Plot and Writing:

Complex, and yet surprisingly easy to follow and remember. Sets up backstory masterfully, and executes the story efficiently and succinctly. Literally some of the best plot-work I’ve ever seen in a film, period. The writing, too, gets its point across, while injecting profundity that never feels pandering or desperately cloying. Also, for a story revolving around Chinese culture and a book series from China, this movie’s story is surprisingly Shakespearean. I mean it! The intertwined love stories, the revenge, the action, the pathos, it’s something that Shakespeare easily could’ve written. And yet, Wang Dulu wrote it instead. For the screenplay, though, massive credit to Wang Hui-lung, James Schamus, and Kuo Jung Tsai for this one. 10/10, no question.

Direction and Action:

GORGEOUS CINEMATOGRAPHY, thanks to Peter Pau. Can’t emphasize that one enough, this movie is art. I wanna talk more about Ang Lee on another day (stay tuned for Romance February), but OK, THE ACTION, HOLY GOD. The choreography was TIGHT. AS. HELL, and wins the prize for my favorite fight scenes so far. And the filming of those fight scenes is fantastic, capturing all of the action, yet never feeling detached from the characters and movement. And by the way, THIS is now the quintessential action movie that works within it genre for me. Why? Because it tells a story through the action. When they fight, the characters aren’t just trading punches, their communicating. When Jen is fighting the town thugs, she’s showing off her skills, but also displaying her arrogance, and showing why she isn’t truly worthy of the Green Destiny. When she and Shu Lien fight, the former is displaying her frustration and arrogance, while the latter is putting her in her place, and revealing her own hurt emotions and spurned assistance. When Jade Fox and Mu Bai fight for the first time, both are fighting their past, but from different angles, and in different ways. One fights for anger, the other for justice. GODDAMN, MAN, 10/10!

Production Design:

Already said it, really. The cinematography is amazing, but that’s also because this film looks fantastic. The bamboo forest, the Beijing temples, the bar, the desert, the battle arena, the bridge, the cavern at the end, all of them are amazing looking. That’s not even mentioning the costumes. Not sure what time in history we're in here, but it doesn’t really matter. We’re in an older time, and the sets and costumes whisked me there as I watched it. 10/10, it’s astonishing.

Music and Editing:

Editing is fantastic, and this movie is paced brilliantly. Thank you to Tim Squyres for that. As for the music, I have the soundtrack on my phone now. It’s gorgeous. This movie, remember won the Oscar for Best Original Score, and it shows for sure. I don’t even have more to say about it, other than a thank you to Tan Dun, and a 10/10.

Look, I know I’m just a humble Tumblr critic, but seriously...100%. This movie got SLEPT on by the Oscars, and ABSOLUTELY should’ve defeated Gladiator for Best Picture. And as I’ve already said, if you haven’t seen this movie, WATCH IT. Seriously, WATCH THIS MOVIE. It’s easily the best movie I’ve seen this month. Which raises the question...has it dethroned Mad Max: Fury Road?

...Maybe. But I’m not sure yet. If nothing else, it’s absolutely tied with it. Might be nostalgia speaking there, somehow. But, yeah...this might actually have defeated Fury Road. I’m gonna have to figure it out by the end of the month.

I love this goddamn movie. How the hell am I gonna top this? I mean...more wuxia?

January 13: House of Flying Daggers (2004)

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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How Thor Changed the Marvel Cinematic Universe

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Marvel’s Thor, the first theatrical live-action film to feature the comic book giant’s version of the Norse God of Thunder, opened in theaters a decade ago, on May 6, 2011.

Directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring a then little-known Chris Hemsworth in the title role, Thor was the fourth film in the still-nascent Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was also — as we look back at it now — a pivotal one in the development of the MCU.

“I’m very proud of my part of it,” Branagh told us a couple of years ago about his handling of Thor. “Which was providing a sort of backbone that they could comically riff off, but at least it originally contained some of the high stakes Nine Realms import that that larger mythology has to have as well.”

Thor took the franchise off the Earth for the first time and into the cosmic side of the Marvel mythology, introducing audiences to the Nine Realms, the kingdom of Asgard and other mind-bending concepts that comic fans had adored for years but which were a major risk to put in front of mainstream moviegoers.

Even the character of Thor — with his helmet and his hammer and his arch way of speaking — often seemed to skate perilously close to laughable in the pages of the comics themselves. But he was also a mainstay of the Marvel line and a charter member of the Avengers, the superhero team that Marvel based its entire initial run of films upon.

Marvel

Thor didn’t take the Rainbow Bridge to the screen

A Thor movie based on the Marvel Comics version of the character had, surprisingly, been bandied around for years even before there was a Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The God of Thunder debuted on the page in Journey into Mystery #83 (August 1962), created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby. A founding member of the Avengers, he joined Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man, and the Wasp in the pages of The Avengers #1 (September 1963). In the ensuing decades, he has starred in multiple iterations of the Avengers comics, plus many ongoing and limited series of his own.

An animated version of the character debuted in 1966’s Marvel Super-Friends show, while the first live-action incarnation of Thor (played by Eric Kramer) showed up in the 1988 TV movie The Incredible Hulk Returns, a follow-up to the late 1970s series The Incredible Hulk.

While Thor continued to turn up in various animated Marvel properties, it was in 1991 that the first full-length, live-action Thor movie was proposed — by no less than Sam Raimi.

The director, who later went on to make the first three Spider-Man movies and who is now working in the MCU on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, revealed to the The Hollywood Reporter in the wake of Stan Lee’s passing that he pitched a Thor movie to the Marvel Universe co-creator over lunch.

“We worked together writing treatments and took it to Fox and pitched it,” Raimi recalled. “And they said, ‘Absolutely no. Comic books don’t make good movies.’ This was in 1991.”

The rights to Thor bounced around Hollywood for a few more years (at one point it was set up at Sony with David S. Goyer writing and possibly directing) until landing back at Marvel Studios, which had reinvented itself as an independently financed production company in 2005 with distribution through Paramount Pictures. The studio, run at the time by David Maisel with Kevin Feige as president of production, hired Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend and the unfilmed Batman Unchained) to write a script for Thor, with Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class) coming aboard to direct in August 2007.

Marvel

Enter Tom Hiddleston as Loki…

No sooner did Matthew Vaughn sign up to direct Thor than he seemingly left just as quickly, although it was officially announced in May 2008 that he was departing. Creative and budget issues seemed to have sealed his exit. “Marvel loves the script,” he wrote in The Guardian in late 2007. “The only problem is that it has been costed at $300m and they ask how I am going to reduce it by $150m.”

Even though Thor had already been scheduled for a June 4, 2010 release date, Marvel still had to find a director. Talks were held with Guillermo del Toro, but he decided to direct The Hobbit instead (which he ended up leaving as well). At the end of its search, Marvel finally chose Kenneth Branagh, the Irish actor and director best known for his epic adaptations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Henry V — which kind of provided an idea of the tone Marvel was looking for.

Branagh was finally signed in December 2008, telling MTV News, “It’s a chance to tell a big story on a big scale…It’s a human story right in the center of a big epic scenario.”

Once Branagh was signed, the movie’s release date was pushed back from June/July 2010 to May 6, 2011, providing plenty of time for the film’s extensive visual effects to be designed and created and for Branagh to find his cast — starting with the God of Thunder himself.

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The first person allegedly approached was Daniel Craig, who had just starred in his second James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. It was because of his commitments to the already massive 007 franchise that Craig turned down the hammer-wielding Asgardian, although it’s somehow hard to imagine the tough-as-nails Craig as the egotistical (at least at first), young Odinson.

A long list of young, relatively unknown actors tested for the part, including Chris Hemsworth (who was just making his brief but scene-stealing appearance as James Kirk’s father in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek), his brother Liam, the equally obscure Tom Hiddleston, Kevin McKidd from Grey’s Anatomy, Alexander Skarsgard (Godzilla vs. Kong), Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Joel Kinnaman (The Suicide Squad), and others. But Chris Hemsworth ultimately won the day, with Hiddleston landing the consolation gift that would keep on giving, the role of Thor’s villainous adopted brother Loki.

“That was my starting point, was that you have a character with a predisposition toward mischief,” Hiddleston said about playing the trickster god, during a 2010 set visit attended by this reporter in Manhattan Beach, California. “An inclination toward chaos and a delight in imbalance, and you couple that with the fierce intelligence that he has, and a chess master’s ability to manipulate events three or four steps ahead of the game.”

Adding even more gravitas to the production was the signing of the legendary Anthony Hopkins to play Thor’s father, Odin, along with Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, Rene Russo as Thor’s mom Frigga, Colm Feore as Laufey, the king of the Frost Giants, Idris Elba as Heimdall, and others. Also signed: Samuel L. Jackson for his third appearance as Nick Fury (in an end credits bonus scene) and Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye, marking the live-action debut of the bow-and-arrow-wielding Avenger.

Filming on Thor began in mid-January 2010 and wound down in early May, with shooting taking place at Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach, California (Marvel’s studio home in the MCU’s early years), Santa Fe, and other parts of New Mexico, and locations in northern California.

Colm Feore told The Deadbolt that the Shakespearean training which he, Branagh, and Hopkins all shared enabled them to quickly communicate with each other while shaping the characters and finding the right tone: “One of the things that was enormously helpful on Thor was that during the breaks, Tony, myself, and Ken would be talking in Shakespearean shorthand about what the characters were doing, what we thought they may be like, and how we could focus our attention more intelligently.”

During that same set visit to the Manhattan Beach set of Thor, Marvel president of production Kevin Feige told this reporter and others that the movie was going to feature more extensive post-production work than other Marvel films. “When you walk around Captain America or Iron Man, you can get it,” he explained. “With Thor, what you’re seeing is only 30% of what the movie will be. This is the big question mark and to me that makes it the most exciting. I like it when people don’t exactly know what we’re going to do.”

Reshoots were completed in late 2010, while The Avengers director Joss Whedon shot the end credits scene in which Nick Fury reveals the Infinity Stone known as the Tesseract to Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard).

Marvel

Marvel takes a big swing with Thor’s hammer

Introducing Thor and the Asgardians — who were essentially aliens, with technology so far ahead of our own that they seemed like gods to the ancient, more primitive people of Norway more than a millennium ago — was a major gamble for the MCU and its then-president of production (and now Chief Creative Officer) Kevin Feige.

Out of Marvel’s first three films, Iron Man and Iron Man 2 were massive, out-of-the-box hits, while The Incredible Hulk was a middling success at best. Yet all three films were Earthbound and dealt with plausible (as far as it went) science and technology. The science of Thor was — to borrow a phrase from the late science fiction titan Arthur C. Clarke — indistinguishable from magic.

“Asgardians are kind of ‘been there, done that’ when it comes to that kind of stuff,” said co-producer Craig Kyle to this reporter and others on the set visit. “For them to send you across the universe, it’s as easy as turning a key … Their technology is only as sophisticated as it needs to be to do extraordinary things.”

Making Thor, Odin and the other inhabitants of Asgard, Jotunheim and the rest of the Nine Realms into extra-terrestrial beings mistaken for gods by ancient humans took Thor away from sword-and-sorcery and fantasy and more overtly into the science fiction genre. But it also provided the film with a back story and mythology that was perhaps easier for modern movie fans to swallow — more Star Wars than the Völuspá.

“We just kept trying to humanize it all, and keep it very real,” Chris Hemsworth told Superhero Hype at the time about his approach to the title character. “Look into all the research about the comic books that we could, but also bring it back to ‘Who is this guy as a person, and what’s his relationship with people in the individual scenes?’ And working with someone like Kenneth Branagh, who has all those bases covered and has so many ideas, it was a hell of a time!”

In addition to taking the big creative risk of bringing Asgard and Thor to the screen, the movie took several other chances as well. Starting a tradition that Marvel would return to with films like Captain Marvel and Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor did not function as a traditional origin story. We meet Thor, Loki, Odin, and enter Asgard with only a brief introduction detailing the history of ill will and war between the Asgardians and the Frost Giants.

Thor’s journey in the film is not that of an ordinary character being bestowed with great powers and learning how to use them, the typical arc of a superhero film. He is fully formed here, if flawed, and as the film progresses he learns to be a better version of the immensely powerful being that he already is — with the help of the human beings that he meets during his fall to Earth.

When Thor — the likely successor to his father’s throne — reignites hostilities with the Frost Giants partially due to his own immaturity, Odin decrees him unworthy of wielding Mjolnir and banishes him, powerless, to Earth. That leaves the door open for the crafty Loki — who has discovered that he is not Asgardian after all, but the child of Frost Giants — to manipulate and scheme his way into power himself.

Marvel’s other big gamble was making Loki a much more fully developed antagonist than had been previously seen in many comic book movies. Skillfully portrayed by Hiddleston in a performance that made him an instant star, Loki is an empathetic, nuanced character whose longing for the love and attention of his adopted father — who lavishes more of both on Thor — leads him down a dark path and into a character arc that would take several years and movies to play out.

“I think Loki intuitively feels that he doesn’t belong there, he doesn’t belong with the family in Asgard and doesn’t belong in the pantheon of gods,” said Hiddleston at the time. “He’s confused about his place in the universe … We all reach a point in our lives where we think, ‘What the hell are we supposed to do with our life?’ Thor reaches that point in this film and Loki does as well, so yes, maybe if Odin had made him feel valued and respected and essential to Asgard, then it would have been okay.”

Marvel

Thor smashes all preconceptions

Thor had its world premiere in Sydney, Australia on April 17, 2011 and opened in that country — Hemsworth’s native land — four days later. It premiered in 56 more markets before finally opening in North America on May 6, 2011.

The film earned a 77% fresh rating and mixed reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising the performances by Hemsworth and Hiddleston, as well as the grandiose family drama on Asgard, but less impressed by Thor’s journey to Earth and the climactic battle there against the massive golem-like Destroyer sent by Loki to kill Thor.

More importantly for Marvel, the film connected with audiences despite the perception that Thor was largely unfamiliar or dated. Thor earned $181 million at the North American box office and a further $268 million abroad for a worldwide total of $449 million.

While that ranks it near the bottom of the 23 MCU movies released to date (along with Ant-Man and Captain America: The First Avenger), it was a far from shabby showing for the early MCU and proved Marvel’s calculation that it could expand Marvel’s footprint on film beyond already established characters like Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Hulk.

“I liked it when people said, ‘Iron Man’s the B-Team. You’re calling out the B-Team!’ We knew it wasn’t,” said Feige on set about using what were perceived as lower-tier Marvel heroes. “We knew it was going to be great. And that holds true for Thor … here’s another one that will redefine us and at least raise the bar of what a comic book movie is, for both people who’ve read comics and those who haven’t.”

Thor expanded the boundaries of the MCU into the realms of space, alternate dimensions and cosmic conflicts, while putting another key part in place for the impending arrival of the Avengers. And while 2013’s follow-up, Thor: The Dark World, was a misstep and considered one of Marvel’s few outright failures, the studio brilliantly reinvented the character in 2017 with Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, moving him away from the initial Shakespearean grandiosity and into a more humorous space.

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That in turn allowed Thor and Hemsworth to have one of the most profound character arcs across the entire span of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. His story in those films, the box office clout of Ragnarok, and Hemsworth’s enthusiasm for the role led Marvel to commission 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder — marking the first time an MCU hero is venturing into a fourth solo movie.

Ten years later, while not a perfect film by any means, Thor is still an enjoyable, consciously weird Marvel epic that proved the God of Thunder could bring the lightning even to modern audiences. And while Thor has seemingly abandoned the throne of Asgard for now, his first film’s place in the MCU pantheon is secure.

The post How Thor Changed the Marvel Cinematic Universe appeared first on Den of Geek.

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decomarc · 3 years ago

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When Director Raoul Walsh wrote in his autobiography titled "Each Man in His Time" in 1974, in the book he described that Ida Lupino walked off with the best notices for her perforance in They Drive By Night (1940, Warner Brothers). Her mad scene in the courtroom . . . made her a star overnight. They Drive By Night combined the Paul Muni film Bordertown (1935, Warner Brothers) in which he co-starred with Bette Davis in the Ida Lupino role and was based on the A. I. Bezzerides’ novel about truckers titled The Long Haul (1938). Bezzerides’ first novel was based on his own experience as a truck driver in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley, where he grew up. Warner Brothers offered him $2,000 for the screen rights plus he was offered a seven- year contract as a screenwriter. He took the job for $300 a week which got him working alongside author William Faulker for his first film, Juke Girl (1942, Warner Brothers) the film was about migrant farm workers which was filmed on location in Salinas, California which starred Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan. He wrote action films which included: Desert Fury (1947, Paramount) which was uncredited, Thieves Highway (1949, 20th Century Fox) which was based on his novel Thieves' Market, On Dangerous Ground (1951, RKO) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955, United Artists). Later in life, he wrote regularly for television, for such western series like Gunsmoke and Bonanza, was one of the co-creators of Barbara Stanwyck's, The Big Valley starting in 1965. A. I. Bezzerides died on January 1, 2007 in Los Angeles. Ida Lupino was a strong, convincing actress who for a brief period looked like a challenger for the Bette Davis crown at Warner Brothers. Indeed, she was diligently built up by the studio as a successor to to queen of the Warner lot. Ida Lupino was sometimes known as “the poor man’s Bette Davis” which meant, essentially, that she was offered first choice of roles if Davis refused them. During the 1940's Lupino had spectacular parts especially in The Hard Way (1943, Warner Brothers) for her performance as Helen Chernen she was awarded the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. Ida Lupino was born on February 4, 1918 in Herne Hill, London and from the start she was destined for a theaterical career as her parents were actress Connie O'Shea (also known as Connie Emerald) and music hall comedian Stanley Lupino, her father, a top name in musical comedy in the United Kingdom and was a member of a centuries-old theatrical dynasty dating back to Renaissance Italy, he encouraged her to perform at an early age. While her paternal great- grandfather Alfredo Lupino was an acrobatic ballet dancer and singer, and her great-uncles were Mark and Harry who were stage headliners. Thus, it was assumed by her father that Ida's would follow in the family tradition in the theater. During the frequent absences of her parents when they were touring Ida was acquainted with the arts by her grandfather George, a semi-invalid who would go on to teach Ida how to sing, compose music, paint and to recite Shakespearean passages. When Ida was seven years old her beloved grandfather died and she was sent to school at Clarence at Hove, where she was abled to showoff her emerging talent by writing, producing and starring in her first play titled Mademoiselle. While back home she acted with her younger sister Rita (1920-2016) in improvished scenes which made her parents very happy. At the age of thirteen Ida enrolled at the Royal Academy Of Dramatic Arts where she acted in a series of student plays which included Pygmalion and Juluis Caesar. Ida's famous cousin Lupino Lane became her agent and helped gain her work as a screen extra at British International Studios. Ida Lupino's first big break came when she was cast as the ingenue in Her First Affair (1933, Sterling Films) directed by American Allan Dwan. Dwan later recalled that Lupino's mother Connie had originally tested for the part, and was accompained by her 14-year daughter where Connie and her agent went on how she would be good in the role but I noticed her daughter and I asked, "What about her - can she act?... That's whom I want - I want her." Well everybody was shocked since I was insisting on this girl who's mother came in for the role and finally they agreed and I got her. She was Ida Lupino and she was great. At the time Ida was a platinum blonde who was billed as "the English Jean Harlow" who received good notices for her performance. In July 1933, Ida signed a six month contract with Paramount Studios, which soon announced that Ida would star in these films: Money For Speed (1934, United Artists), I Lived With You (1933, Gaumont-British Picture Corporation Limited), Prince Of Arcadia (1933, Reginald Fogwell Productions), and The Ghost Camera (1933, RKO). Paramount thought of a plan to cast the young actress in the title role in Alice In Wonderland, but when Ida reported to Paramount for hair and make-up tests it was determined that Ida's sultry voice and sophisticated manner were totally wrong for the role of the innocent Alice. Ida Lupino was less of a tramp in Money For Speed (1934, United Artists) which starred John Loder after this she started making many films and out of all these films Search For Beauty was one of the better ones. Ida did have a good chance in One Rainy Afternoon (1936, United Artists) a satirical comedy starring Robert Young and Francis Lederer, then Paramount put her Yours For The Asking (1936, Paramount) starring George Raft. But it was Ida's fourth film for 1939, titled The Light That Failed (Paramount) which provided the strong-willed actress a role that she'd been waiting for since arriving in Hollywood. Her compelling screen test for director William Wellman convinced the studio to cast Ida as Bessie, a hot-tempered Cockney streetwalker. Ida received rave reviews, with Frank S. Nugent writing in the New York Times that Ida's performance as Bessie was, "another of the surprises we get when a diminutive ingenue bursts forth as a great actress." Lupino was so anxious to play the role, that she stole a copy of the script and stormed into director William Wellman's office demanding a chance to audition. Cast as a tart which gave the first indications that she might have talent. Warner Brothers thought so and signed her to a long-term contract and gave her the role of Alan Hale's floozy wife named Lana Carlsen in They Drive By Night (1940, Warner Brothers). Costarring were George Raft, Humphrey Bogart and Ann Sheridan, Ida was cast as the harpy wife whose love for truck driver Joe Fabrini (George Raft) which leads to murder and eventual madness. Ida was acclaimed for her performance and she was hailed for her "arresting performance." Next up Ida was assigned another fine part, opposite Humphrey Bogart and top-billed in High Sierra (1941, Warner Brothers), Ida's first film noir where critic William Whitebait said, "Ida Lupino gives us the best moll I have ever seen." Lupino had strong roles in The Sea Wolf and Out Of The Fog (both 1941 and both Warner Brothers), her last role for 1941 was on loan out to Columbia Pictures for the film Ladies In Retirement, she was the rigid housekeeper who murders her employer, a trashy ex-actress well played by Isobel Elsom, rather then seeing her two mental defective sisters put away in an lunatic asylum. Costarring with Ida was British actor Louis Hayward they had married on November 16, 1938 and divorced on May 11, 1945, The two had meet earlier in 1933, on the set of Ida's film Money For Speed (United Artists). When Ida married her second husband, Collier Young, a Columbia Studios executive who was a close personal friend of Ida's first husband Louis Hayward. They married on August 5, 1948 and they formed an independent company Emerald Productions, and would eventually work together on the production titled Not Wanted (1949). When director Elmer Clifton suffered a severe heart attack just a production began and was not able to complete the film Ida Lupino step in to direct the film almost in its entirety surprising all of Hollywood. As a producer Ida generously gave the sole directing screen credit to Elmer Clifton who died shortly after the release of Not Wanted. Not too long after the production company changed its name from Emerald to Filmaker but when Young signed a deal with RKO Studios, which had been recently sold to Howard Hughes and as a result Filmakers received much needed financial backing from RKO, but Ida and Young had to relinquish complete control to Hughes. This pretty much ended Ida Lupino's marriage to Collier Young and her affair with Howard Duff, they later married after Ida divorced Young on October 20, 1951 and just the next day married Duff. In June 1995, after several years of declining health, she was diagnosed with cancer and following a stroke a month later she died on August 3, 1977 at her Burbank home she was 77 years old.

Ida Lupino photographed by Scotty Welbourne, 1940

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smokeybrand · 3 years ago

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Something Wicked This Way Comes

I thought the theater was done with me for the rest of the year. I finally got the opportunity to see The Green Knight which, unsurprisingly, turned out to be my top film of the year and Zola was so much more than i could every dreamed it could be. Outside of my favorite studio, there was a lot of great released this year, even if those releases were caught up in this prolonged COVID f*ckery. We saw the rise of the China box office and Hollywood falling completely out of love with the Middle Kingdom. Netflix made a hard push to capture cinematic market share and it looks like they’ve done just that. There were some great releases to the OG streaming service this year like The Harder They Fall. HBO max really kept the heat up starting with Judas and the Black Messiah, following with the adorkable Godzilla vs. Kong, and finally blessing everyone with the glory of Dune part one. Black Widow underwhelmed, Shang-Chi surprised, and Eternals laid an egg. With just Spider-Man next week and The fourth Matrix after that, i, for sure, thought that would be the death knell for this wonky ass year in awkward film releases. Nope.

Out of nowhere, i wake up to, not only a dope ass trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 starring Idris Elba as the most hardbody Knuckles, ever, but A24 gifts me another film right at the end of the year. I’m on record as being a fan f Shakespeare. I’ve written an essay on my love for the extremely camp, extremely Nineties, Romeo + Juliet, as well as a Select lost of my favorite Shakespearean adaptions. A24 has very likely just added to that list. The Tragedy of MacBeth will be released the day after Christmas in a limited theatrical release and steaming on Apple TV midway through January. MacBeth is arguably my favorite of Shakespeare works so work of another adaption piqued my interest. When i found out it wasn’t an A2 release, it my attention and boy was i attentive! That trailer hit me like a f*cking truck! So much atmosphere, such beautiful shots, all of which captured in black and white. I’m going to sound like a straight up cinema snob but i love a black and white flick. It adds an air of mystique to film and i tend to pay closer attention. I know it’s a cheap trick but, when pulled of properly, like with Mad Max: Fury Road or even that Sekiro game, it really adds something special to the content. And, let me tell you, this MacBeth adaption is shaping up to be something really special.

This thing kills. Just, the massive creativity on display is overwhelming. There is seriously an embarrassment of riches on hand for this film. First and foremost, Joel Cohen is the driving fore behind this picture. He wrote the screenplay and is helming this thing, plus has a producer credit. This is his baby and, along with his brother, have given us films like Fargo, the True Grit remake, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona, and The Big Lebowski. The list is much, much richer than those few, but those are the few which stood out to me. Now, one half of that genius duo i adapting my favorite Shakespeare joint and doing so with headlining talent of purely impeccable caliber. F*cking Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand are Lord and Lady MacBeth, respectively. I cannot stress enough how geeked i am for this film. With Coen behind the camera, i know its going to be a feast for the eyes. I know the writing ins going to be outstanding. I know that Washington and McDormand are going to deliver fantastic performances. I know i am going to love this f*cking movie because i love everything about the pieces. The only film i planned to see in theaters was No Way Home because of course but this MacBeth adaption? Man, i might just have to chance it for a second time.

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laiqualaurelote · 2 years ago

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2022 had nothing on 2021, my magical year of fandom, but I did write some things! including one heist AU, two workplace comedies and three post-apocalyptic AUs, each very different from the next. I started the year trundling along in my Ted Lasso groove, was hijacked by pirates, fell briefly into the Upside Down and went on a five-month hiatus from fandom before being suddenly side-swiped by The English earlier this month (I have yet to recover). It has been My Year Of Reluctant Fascination With The American Midwest, and also (semi-relatedly) My Year Of Quoting Bruce Springsteen. In total: wrote eight fics and about 80,000 words. AO3 Wrapped, here goes:

they will see us waving from such great heists (Ted Lasso | Ted/Trent, Roy/Keeley | T | 21,110 words)

The heist!AU where Trent Crimm, Interpol, meets Ted Lasso of the FBI over the case of Rupert Mannion’s stolen Hockney. I published the last chapter of this on Jan 1, 2022, so it counts!

Trick Plays (Ted Lasso, some Leverage | T | 6,454 words)

The DVD extras from Such Great Heists, which snowballed into their own thing.

you don't have to be crazy to work here (but it helps) (The Magnus Archives | Jon/Martin | T | 1,515 words)

Journalism!AU in which Martin becomes The Magnus Inquirer’s newest reporter under freshly promoted news editor Jonathan Sims, whose story he once introduced an error into. I regret that this AU will probably never be finished, though I had such plans!

all the men and women merely players (Ted Lasso | Ted/Trent | T | 10,486 words)

The Station Eleven!AU where the Richmond Players are a travelling Shakespearean company performing in the ruins of a post-pandemic England. WIP - will resume when S3 returns.

A Gentleman's Guide To Love And Piracy (Our Flag Means Death | Ed/Stede, Oluwande/Jim | T | 13,260 words)

Stede Bonnet's agenda for attending the International Piracy Convention: rebrand, make some industry contacts, steal back his ship without being murdered by the keynote speaker, a.k.a. the vengeful love of his life. Post-S1 workplace comedy fix-it, now with union action.

can't start a fire without a spark (Stranger Things | Steddie | T | 9,341 words)

Canon-divergent AU where instead of getting murdered by the Upside Down, Eddie and Chrissy run off to start a rock band. In 1987, they return to a Hawkins that is slowly collapsing into another dimension. Post-apocalyptic vibes, but like really low-key.

a song that will keep sky open in my mind (The English | Eli/Cornelia | T | 4,707 words)

Fix-it-of-sorts AU in which Cornelia returns to America to speed-run found family with Eli because tell me those two wouldn’t be collecting kids left, right and centre once they got their revenge quest out of the way.

maybe everything that dies someday comes back (The English | Eli/Cornelia | M | 9,891 words and counting)

The post-apocalyptic Mad Max Fury Road zombie AU where Cornelia escapes David Melmont, who hires bounty hunter Eli to bring her back. WIP, finishing really soon!

And for a bonus, have these snippets I wrote for an AU ask game while in employment limbo:

- the one where Phryne Fisher and River Song hang out (for @justplainsalty) - the one where Ted Lasso is a pirate (for @leupagus) - the one where Phryne is a cryptozoologist (for @glamorouspixels) - the one where the Stranger Things crew are spies (for @drwatsonsjournal)

I wish you all a glorious 2023! May your WIPs be finished, your ships prolific and your fandoms full of joy.

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marymosley · 4 years ago

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“Fair Is Foul, And Foul Is Fair”: The Trump Trial Turns Into Shakespearean Tragedy

It seems that Shakespeare is the rage in the second impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. When House managers were forced to take down the words of House manager Rep. David Cicilline (D., R.I.) after Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah) denounced them as false, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md) declared “this is much ado about nothing.” Then Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) characterized the entire trial as “reminiscent of Shakespeare [in] that it is full of sound and fury, and yet signifying nothing.” MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell, however, missed the Bard memo and triumphantly declared that Cruz was wrong and mocked him with a tweet “@SenTedCruz says #ImpeachmentTrial is like Shakespeare full of sound and fury signifying nothing. No, that’s Faulkner.” She was joined in the effort by the Washington Post’s columnist Jennifer Rubin. In our age of rage, it appears that Shakespeare was right that “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.”

Mitchell’s mocking tweet met with scathing responses that including from Cruz who declared “Methinks she doth protest too muchOne would think NBC would know the Bard. Andrea, take a look at Macbeth act 5, scene 5: ‘[Life] struts & frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound & fury, Signifying nothing.'”

Yet, the telling of this tale was supported by Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, who wrote, “and it says volumes about his lack of soul. That’s Any Thinking Person.”

Rubin has not confined her view of the “soulless” to Cruz. She has previously called for the expulsion of anyone who challenged the electoral votes of Joe Biden and to “burn down” the Republican party. (For full disclosure, I clashed with Rubin over her personally attacking me for a theory that I did not agree with in a column that I did not write. I also challenged her on an equally bizarre column where she wrote about my impeachment testimony and later column that misrepresenting the holding in an appellate case involving Trump. That false account was never corrected the Washington Post.) Given Rubin’s controversial history of misrepresenting both testimony and actual court opinions, the Barb could hardly expect any exception. She is an example of the concern stated in MacBeth of whether we can ever return to reasonable commentary “Or have we eaten on the insane root, That takes the reason prisoner?”

For the record, Faulkner’s book “The Sound and the Fury” was a reference to Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

I am actually sympathetic to Mitchell. We are all working in the hair-trigger environment of social media and 24-hour news. We all make mistakes, particularly with Twitter. It happens. Moreover, despite the words of Lady MacBeth, it is not true that “What’s done cannot be undone.” Mitchell apologized and tweeted “I clearly studied too much American literature and not enough Macbeth.”

“Fair Is Foul, And Foul Is Fair”: The Trump Trial Turns Into Shakespearean Tragedy published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

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westerhos · 8 years ago

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Liv, I think I have a real problem. I think I've read "Our story" hundreds of times and I know some of the paragraphs by heart by now. There's something so Shakespearean about the way you've been telling this story, it reminds me so much of how the Chorus and the Prince open and close Romeo&Juliet. Am I totally insane? Is it blasphemy? Is that where your inspiration for the style and tone of this story comes from? I'm completely obsessed with your work! (1)

(2) I cannot wait for your next chapter, but at the same time I don’t want to read it because we’re approaching the end of this journey and I can’t bear it. That’s how much I love it. I can actually feel their pain, and I cried actual tears reading some of the chapters (like I said when I wrote my note to you on “Imagine”). Their sorrow is so deep and heartbreaking! I think it’s your masterpiece and I can’t get enough of it.

(3) I’m sorry if this is just a bunch of incoherent sentences, but English is not my first language, and I just needed to let you know just how much I love every single word you wrote for this version of the story of Jamie&Claire. Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your talent with all of us. ❤

Oh my god! Anon! This is the sweetest message anyone has ever sent me. Thank you so much. I’m so stoked that you’re enjoying Our Story because I’ve really enjoyed writing it (and no worries about it coming to an end; I think we’re barely halfway through at this point)! Inspiration-wise: no, that totally isn’t blasphemy! I wouldn’t say I was directly inspired by Shakespeare, but I’ve always been a huge fan of parenthethicals and can’t seem to find a way not to include them. Our Story is most heavily influenced by Lauren Groff (she uses a Greek chorus in Fates and Furies) + One Day by David Nicholls + the film Blue Jay.

Again, thank you a million times over for your words (and for reading too)!!! Working on the next bit now, so there’s more to come

P.S. Your English is legit perfect. Would’ve never noticed!

#reply #outlander #outlanderfic

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whispersandwhiskerburn · 8 years ago

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Much Ado About SPN

Friends, writers, tumblr people, lend me your ears...

For those of you who do not know, I (Angel, @whispersandwhiskerburn) am a teacher. I love to teach writing and reading to students—and I love reading and writing fanfiction. So, when I reached the AMAZING milestone of 1.5K FOLLOWERS, I decided to celebrate with my fellow writers with a challenge that marries the two—my love of teaching literature and writing and my love of spn fanfiction.

Every writer goes on a journey. They start with the ABCs and it's amazing how many wonders just 26 letters can create—it's all about how you use them. Of course, reading helps; good readers become good writers, and good writers are always looking for a way to challenge themselves, in reading and writing. One of the most challenging, most famous, and best writers that ever lived made wonderful stories that are read and taught to this day—all with the same 26 letters that we use.

So, that's the inspiration for this challenge. The letters of the alphabet—and one of the greatest writers of all time: William Shakespeare.

The idea is to use at least two (all three if you can) of the alphabet prompts AND the Shakespeare line—you do NOT have to use Shakespeare's wording, just be inspired by the theme of the quote.

Rules and Accepting the Challenge:

1. Must be following me....it's a follower celebration, so yeah. New followers are welcome though, so feel free to follow, then ask. :)

2. Send an ASK with your requested prompt by letter and quote number. First come, first choice—and there are only 25 prompts (I deleted x) so you'd better hurry! I want to give everyone a chance to sign up, so don't ask for a second prompt until after March 10th, please! NOTE: If you ask anonymously...you're silly. I can't sign you up if I don't know who you are?

3. Any character from the show is welcome, but not cast members for this challenge (Dean/Sam/Castiel etc., not Jensen/Jared/Misha). Ships are fine, (exceptions: no non-con and no Samifer, since Lucifer totally raped him) but reader-inserts are preferred.

4. Any genre: SFW, NSFW, AU, angst, fluff, smut, or any combination thereof, just please tag appropriately.

5. No maximum length limit, but if it is more than 800 words, include a read-more link, or I won't reblog it. Should be at least 500 words. One shots, drabbles, series pieces, combinations with other challenges/requests—all are totally cool.

6. Tag me (@whispersandwhiskerburn) in the header somewhere. I will reblog these with feedback and add them all to a masterlist. I want to post the masterlist on Shakespeare's birthday which is celebrated on April 23rd, so the deadline for fics is April 20th. Also, please tag the fic with #MuchAdoAboutSPN and #Angel's1.5k within the first 5 tags.

7. Try and post your fic on or before the day it’s due, April 20th 2017, but it’s okay if it’s late. Life happens!

8. Have fun!!

Sign Ups! Once a prompt combo has been chosen, I will write the blog's name beside the letter and move the Shakespearean quote to this list. Any Shakespearean quotes still under the prompts lower in this post are still up for grabs. If the letter in this section has a blog tag beside it, it's taken, so ask for a different one! Happy writing everyone (and if you want to discuss your quote, please message or ask me—I'm an English teacher who loves Shakespeare, so bring it)!

STATUS: Prompts are closed everyone! Deadline is April 20th, and I look forward to your fics!

A @buffylovesfoxmulder, 8. “This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man” (Hamlet I.3).

B @arlaina28, 31. “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother” (Henry V IV.3).

C @bringmesomepie56, 15. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them” (Twelfth Night II.5).

D @deansdirtylittlesecretsblog, 1. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” (Hamlet II.2).

E @littlegreenplasticsoldier, 20 “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once” (Julius Caesar II.2).

F @whatareyousearchingfordean, 39. “What's gone and what's past help should be past grief” (Winter's TaleIII.2)

G @therealdeanwinchester13, 10. “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (A Midsummer Night's Dream III.2)

H @rachelladytietjens, 33. “We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” (Hamlet IV.5)

I @ive-been-told-that-im-fangirling, 7. “If music be the food of love, play on” (Twelfth Night I.1).

J @avasmommy224, 36. “Tempt not a desperate man” (Romeo and Juliet IV.3).

K @kalliravenne, 11. “I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?” (Much Ado About Nothing IV.2).

L @hellssarcasticqueen, 19. “The miserable have no other medicine, but only hope” (Measure for Measure III.1).

M @wi-deangirl77, 22. “I am one who loved not wisely but too well” (Othello V.2).

N @destiel-addict-forever, 40. “You pay a great deal too dear for something that's given freely” (Winter's Tale I.1).

O @little-red-83, 18. “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt” (Measure for Measure I.4).

P @mrsbatesmotel53, 25. “We have seen better days” (As You Like It II.7) and (Timon of Athens IV.2).

Q @roxy-davenport, 5. “Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. Some run from breaks of ice, and answer none, and some condemned for one fault alone” (Measure for Measure II.1).

R @deansarms, 6. “I burn, I pine, I perish” (Taming of the Shrew I.1).

S @atc74, 35. “Friendship is constant in all other things” (Much Ado About Nothing, II.1).

T @chaos-and-the-calm67, 3. “The wheel is come full circle: I am here” (King Lear V.3).

U @besslincoln-bruh, 30. “Strong reasons make strong actions” (King John III.4).

V @plaidstiel-wormstache, 21. “If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?” (Merchant of Venice III.1).

W: @waywardjoy, 2. “Is this a dagger which I see before me...or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation” (Macbeth II.1).

Y @thegreatficmaster, 24. “Hell is empty and all the devils are here” (Tempest I.2).

Z @thegreatficmaster, 38. “Pray you now, forget and forgive.” (King Lear IV.7).

Alphabet Prompts (A-Z): Choose a letter and (if I give you the okay!) include at least 2 (3 if you can) of the associated SPN topics in your fic.

**You'll notice that none of the major characters of the show are listed—anyone can write about Dean, even if they don't have the letter D. These characters/objects/themes need to appear in your fic, and should have some importance to plot, but just because you choose Meg Masters, it doesn’t mean you have to write a Meg x Reader fic (though, if you want to, that’s cool too), savvy?

Shakespeare Quotes/Phrases (1-40): Choose a Shakespearean line and (if I give you the okay!) let it inspire your fic. You certainly can, but you do not have to include Shakespeare's actual words in your writing. Like I tell my students, “The Bard (Shakespeare) wrote in a different time and the language has changed. That doesn't mean that what he has to say isn't still relevant—you've just got to look harder.”

The LEFTOVERS....

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts” (As You Like It II.7).

“I would give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety” (Henry V III.2).

“Action is eloquence” (Coriolanus III.2).

“(Life) it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (Macbeth IV, 5).

“Live a little; comfort a little; cheer thyself a little” (As You Like It II.6).

“Come what come may, time and the hour runs through the roughest day” (Macbeth I.3).

“Self-love... is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting” (Henry V II.4).

“The course of true love never did run smooth” (A Midsummer Night's Dream I.1).

“I am a man more sinn'd against than sinning” (King Lear III.2).

“We would not die in that man's company that fears his fellowship to die with us” (Henry V IV.3).

“excessive grief the enemy to the living” (All's Well That Ends Well I.1).

“There are more things in heaven and earth...than are dreamt of in our philosophy” (Hamlet I.5).

“I will wear my heart upon my sleeve” (Othello I.1).

“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain, but Lust's effect is tempest after sun” (Venus and Adonis).

“If it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive” (Henry V IV.3).

Go sign up quick!

A giant THANK YOU to my bestie, @waywardjoy, who helped me plan this whole challenge. You rock, chicka, and you make tumblr home. :D

Forever Tags:

@2wonderinsighlents, @adaliamalfoy, @alcpegasus22, @andrastesflamingtitties, @angelofwinchester17, @alexastacio, @anokhi07, @ariethegreat98, @arryn-nyx, @autopistaaningunaparte, @avasmommy224, @bennyyh, @blackcatstiel, @bringmesomepie56, @bucky-thorin-winchester, @but-deans-back-tho, @casownsmyass, @cfordwrites, @chaos-and-the-calm67, @dancingalone21, @d-s-winchester, @deafgirlsarecooler, @deandoesthingstome, @deanscherrypie, @deansdirtylittlesecretsblog, @deanwinchesterforpromqueen, @deliciouslyshadowymilkshake, @demonangelimpala, @demondeansdomme, @faith-in-dean, @fandommaniacx, @feelmyroarrrr, @fiveleaf, @i-is-for-inspiring, @ilostmyshoe-79, @impala-dreamer, @jalove-wecallhimdean, @jencharlan, @jensen-gal, @jotink78, @just-a-touch-of-sass-and-fandoms, @katnharper, @kittenofdoomage, @kristaparadowski, @lipstickandwhiskey, @littlegreenplasticsoldier, @leatherwhiskeycoffeeplaid, @lunarsaturn88, @marilynnlew, @millaraysuyai, @moonstonemystyk, @mrsbatesmotel53, @mrsjohnsmith, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mzpearlz, @notnatural-supernatural, @paintrider13-blog, @pinknerdpanda, @plaidstiel-wormstache, @rizlowwritessortof, @roxy-davenport, @rushernparadise, @salvachester, @scorpiongirl1, @skathan-omaha, @spnrvt, @supernatural-jackles, @supernaturalyobsessed, @theafinnerup, @thegreatficmaster, @torn-and-frayed, @vote-for-pedro, @waywardjoy, @wevegotworktodo, @wi-deangirl77, @withoutaplease, @writingbeautifulmen, @xtina2191, @yoursmilemakesmeloveyou

Those who requested a shout out, but who aren’t on the forevers list (but who are welcome to sign up for that if they want to!):

@eyes-of-a-disney-princess, @wayward-mirage, @megansescape, @arlaina28

Thanks for following me everyone!

#remember when you were in high school reading Shakespeare and thinking you'd never see it again?#hahaha #evil teacher laugh #spnfanfic #writing challenge #angel's1.5k #muchadoaboutspn #shakespeare #spn #spnfamily #abc

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