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tobebugjewce · 3 years ago

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THE WALTEN FILES: my jumbled notes on my blind run-in with this web series

first off this is gonna be long and unorganized, also this is my second time writing this as i had lost literally half of my progress and im This (imagine two fingers almost touching with a 0.0000000001mm distance between them) close to ripping all of the fucking hair out of my goddamn head. but now this will be extra long and yes, i will lose some accuracy to my first writing but thats okay ill probably edit this a kajillion times over

which brings me to my next tangent; im literally braindumping here. so to have a smidge of organization all afterthoughts, edits and corrections will be boldened, i forgot what im gonna do with italicized text but ill probably bolden it here yeah im pretty sure its for side tangents, separate from Corrections, which are in bold. also theyre for emphasis too.

so in general, this post right here is all of my notes i wrote down on my grid-patterned sticky notes (which i used WAYYYY too much of) about the first 3 uploaded walten files youtube videos transferred onto my handy dandy digital notebook, this b(l)og. yeppers peppers. you know im serious about this shit when i typed probably over like a thousand fucking words including boldened shit, italicized shit and motherfucking links, lost it ALL, and im sitting here re-typing it again.

i feel bad about this but im not gonna trigger warn right here, but this is technically a warning. if you want a list of triggers as to what this post (and the walten files in general) i will link a little list to that here

without further a doo doo, (mama mia) here the fucking fuck we go again.

THE WALTEN FILES - VIDEO #1

clarifying this now, im gonna put some useless shit which i thought was code onto this because even though it was useless it was part of my notes and im physically going to combust if i dont put down every single thing i wrote on my papers. so what i thought was code was in the closed captions, i started writing it down when i got to the second video but came back to my first videos notes to include them. i wrote down the first letter to every word that was capitalized in the closed captions, which i had on as a default because number one i knew going into this id need them because most web horror things like args and cryptic shit like that has some of the most crucial shits in the closed captions. number two i am autistic and have auditory processing issues and have most closed captioning on as a default if theyre available.

firstly jotted, i wrote down the closed captions “code” so im gonna put the rest here too: HYWITB(BSI)Y A(BSI)BJWFKWITW ILHHFSBBSBTLBWI USOISTBNBSFIRBCAWHSHCBWHTAIGRNB*C*BTWLTSFA(20)MCFP ILITIIACPH(1978, 1979)SA(4)YTSCH*C*OGSSU SFTGRPATDBBUTFBNLLCHMIHLBRALLCLAYTUKB*LC*WHATWASTHATTHING

the numbers in parenthesis are there because i wasnt sure they should be included in the “code” or not. i also thought of this with the BSI - bunny smiles incorporated and also the years 1978 and 1979. the shits in asterisks are coughs and light coughs, which were capitalized in the closed captions so i included them too just in case

i then jotted, in parenthesis of course, the names of the animatronics when they were listed in the animation section of the video; bon aka the blue bunny, sha aka the sheep one, boozoo aka the clown<3 honk<33, and banny aka the purpled eyelashed up one who is also a bunny btw. also i got boozoo the clown and boozoo the mustache guy confused because apparently the clowns name is billy???? but they named “boozoo” in bons sleepover and showed the clown? idk maybe im an idiot and theyre the same or just an idiot and theyre different or a super mega (matt and ryan?!?!??) idiot in general which is probably the case

i started drawing little stars to write down things i thought would be super important or to 100% look at again. the first subject of this pointy torture was the part of the video where at 3:00, i marked it down to make sure to reverse the audio as it was most definitely a weird audio that has that signature warp-y effect that makes sure you KNOW its in reverse. i then listened back to it Very carefully (still got it wrong) and got this: “you finally start to remember. that old doll. they will look out for you soon” im also pretty sure i heard “sophie” at the end of that audio but im not entirely sure and dont remember and i dont wanna go back to check lmfao but anyways it didnt matter because i was wrong anyway. after i had finished all 3 walten files i watched the film theory video on the walten files (which didnt cover all 3 but was dece.) out of curiosity and to hear matpats signature silly little voice explain some stuff i already knew, and click some shit in my brain that i couldve thought up of if i was a bit more... i dont know honestly. anyways yeah so the actual audio is “you finally start to remember. that old day. they will look out for you soon.” so yeah. day, not doll.

i then wrote down “sarah evelyn”, the name on the bons sleepover animation (i dont remember if she created it or animated it or whatnot) and scribbled will she matter? under her name. turns out no, as i didnt see her name in the rest of the series, let alone the first video. this is also a great time to mention how matpat theory helped me realize that the walten files are collections of videos, uploaded onto youtube by anthony. (i already knew about anthony as he signed his name in the descriptions of the youtube videos, making me categorize this overall web series more into an arg type genre.) but yes, the tapes, recorded “irl” footage, animated clips, vhs tape recordings and other audio-visual content is all collected and labeled the walten files, as i had mistaken each video to be a tape. stupid me. alrighty, onward!

i starred this one, good for me; MISSING: Jack Walten LAST SEEN: 06/11/1974

i jotted down with an arrow that; sophie was a nightguard? she was wearing the uniform explained in tape 2 i dont know why but i went back into my video 1 notes after i had watched video 2. organization purposes. i guess.??

i then paused the video when the screen flickered a date, the beginning of video footage dated 10/10/1982 (Brian Stells?) god my little genius ass assuming the videographer was brian stells, based on the id card i saw earlier.

i then wrote down what text i saw on the dead, mangled, bloody body in the purple security suit; “i cant feel anything” “he thought i was her” then drew a little arrow pointing to; thought brian was sophie? or ashley? i also starred the name Brian Stells this is totally out of order LMFAOOOOOOOO also i wrote down ashley because, again, my little pea brain went back on my video 1 notes after watching video 2. but yep thats all i wrote for The Walten Files 1 - Company Introductory Tape

THE WALTEN FILES - VIDEO #2

Tape #1 - created 07/02/1978

awesome how thats first and foremost in the captions. god. so sexy of you martin walls. /j /nsx

this pack of notes is chunkier because again, like i have mentioned before i am an absolute goober and thought the capitalized letters of the words would actually mean something. I MEAN MAYBE THEY DO AND IM JUST DOING IT WRONG but i stopped doing it after this video because holy shit it was exhausting and my stupid little fingers couldnt take the writing anymore becasue i am WEAK.

so write off the bat (squeak) i wrote down 197[] the blacked out rectangle over the last digit of that year and everything im also now assuming its probably 1978 or 1974 because lore reasons but whos to say but yeah i also wrote down this;

Tape #2 - created 08/13/1978

then, straight up in the beginning of the video i caught it, the flash of text, as i had by now realized i gotta be SUPER stupid focused on the screen in case i miss anything, i wanted to be crazy precise on my theorizing and mental notes, among other things. but yes i saw it, the first half of a youtube link; “https://youtu”

claps hands together and rubs them evilly. oh yeah baby. thats the hot lunch. this shit right here? the cats pajamas. lets fucking go.

i wrote down this goofy shit i pasued to inspect when i saw bon sorting through a file cabinet and naturally scribbled down the labels and other written things i could see on the files;

relocate X/X/75 felix

storage K-9 07/23/1975 felix k(ranken)

Bons Burgers 06/28/1974 Jack Walten

Shipping Service 1975

New Location -> 1982

i also wrote down more goofy shit, like when banny was created for some reason; in 1974

starred, i noted to go back and reverse the audio at 5:09, when played back, i didnt write it down so i dont remember. lmao.

i also marked to screenshot and brighten the darkened image i saw at 5:20, i was going to do it on my phone then realized i can just do it on my computer so i quickly took a screenshot, brightened it and wrote down what i saw; a missing person poster that read MISSING: SUSAN WOODINGS(?) Last seen: 1974 i was very unsure of the spelling of her last name because the image was so goddamn low quality and grainy but its what i saw. this is where tape #3 gets thrown in, which im gonna type again because i like how the formatting looks;

Tape #3 - created 07/09/1978 (BEFORE tape 2?!//1/1??? its more likely than you think)

i wrote down more dates, any dates i saw, i jotted down. i wrote;

Technical Support 1978

then,

Brian Stells (for some reason i dont remember right now)

alrighty this is where the stupid capitalized letters come in, but before it looks like i vomit a keysmash time infinity on this, ill put down the little inbetween things i wrote in the midst of the caps lockalypse like timestamps and stuff, so here you go;

- Reverse at 8:16 which i did but of course didnt write down what i heard. i think it was too warbled to hear anything clear out of it, or it was just the good ol auditory processing issues fucking me over yet again. WAIT yep yes i did here it is: “rosemary would go to the restaurant every night hoping that [her] beloved husband would reappear after being missing for weeks but no response until one day [s]he heard a voice [saying] ‘i know where he is rosie’ coming from the back stage” the bracketed stuff is the corrections, i misheard the audio and thought the audio said “his”, “he” and “singing” like a nimrod

- Brighten at 10:14 which was another missing person poster, but i dont think it had any information on it because i didnt write it down, just;

- Sophie again (pic at 9:08?) (dismemberd and put in Sha) i was stupid and wrong haha idiot it was rosemary who was put in sha but anywho

i starred and underlined a huge thing i discovered which was;

- Walten had 3 kids which i dont remember how i found out but it doesnt matter, its good important info i uncovered.

- Tape #4 - Unkown Date

- recorded 07/12-07/14 1978

- Hilary B, Ashley P & Kevin W i made sure to get these names down as soon as i saw them on screen but then realized shortly after i wouldnt really need to have it as the closed captions made sure i knew which person was talking by using their first initial (capitalized of course) before each line of text. this is the perfect time to announce the arrival of the clusterfuck of capital letters, which is going to include colons which will indicate that the letter before it is the initial of the person talking. without further aedue, here comes another chinese earthquake;

TCWTSTATO(K-9)TBSSFWFCNEHAWBSUBIUC(BSIIDC)OWHISF INBIJTILNSPL(K-9)LCSCKCCCWTTLTLITTTYROTFAJAMHPYYSTCSPMBBWSBIB H:NTPPCCK:DA:HH:YCPRPMWTCBCRAWK:JH:SYYTCPBACPSTBAWCA:TK(?):FMTTCMK:TCPNOA:DTOFK:ITNPPRA:YBUTIRRFH:HKIBESRAIA:TCK:WA:WPCCFTRRIDPEH:GGK:GPA:LKK:WA:HNCGTKMK:YH:IGKA:ESK:MFH:RK:HILRLBNTRPPUWHITRRTPEIFEPH:YWBEBPK:MAHPBTRPTRPEL(LN)HTACPKLIKHPFITSKLTKLB(LB?)ISIBSUBIPRW AEBATHSPUAICTPURTWBBRPHTRTIIIILTCITCUCCP S(bpe, be)WA”IDCPBPSIB

holy shit its finally over okay now onto some MORE of what i wrote down in between and also after that keysmash attack;

12 doors? (backrooms) 27? 26? i was unsure because ashley was unsure too lmfao

found cassette (6/11/78) <- says “discard”? yeah it did

Tape in clown audio, speaking voice; jack, susan, charles(?), rosemary, sophie, last word sounds like “walrus” it was walten lmfao

Ashley died? yeah she did lmfao OR AT LEAST I THINK SO??

starred this one, Reverse @ 17:06, then got this;

“they left the next day, they thought ashley left early, but she was in the backdoors, screaming as much as she could, but no one heard the screams, the following days the caretakers would complain about an awful smell coming from the backdoors, company decided to shut down facility until new advice, the relocate project was unsuccessful. ashley is still there, but she is not screaming anymore, she saw something she wasnt supposed to see and now shes beautiful” the phrase “shes beautiful” was repeating like a bajillion times in that wall of text. then, god motherfuckng bless:

at 17:23 i found the other half of the youtube link, “.be/k07QqEDOfQ” i pieced that bad boy together as instant as i think any form of ramen could never be, but remained ever patient. because i made sure to jot down this before moving onto my next segment;

@ end of vid 2, “shadow man sees* me when lights go off” im an idiot *it was actually “feeds” not “sees”, which AGAIN, i only found out after watching the stupid little film theory video *begins snarling and foaming at the mouth*

okay im not proud to admit im editing this to post it and realized ive lost my notes. well.

might as well post what ive got! if i find my shit ill add onto this, i suppose.

#the walten files #twf #notes #horror

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marueonmain · 5 years ago

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WINDFLOWER

part six ~ to be more normal ~

(part one) (part two) (part three) (part four) (part five) (part six)

A/N: I want to thank each of you who have continued reading and supporting me through all these parts (that’s almost 12k words total!) and I hope you keep wanting to stick around until the end. Stay safe. Stay healthy.

Summary: Alex visits with James & Fraser in a bid to distract himself from thinking about his feelings toward Y/N. George is concerned.

Pairing: imallexx x reader

Warning: Implications of Disordered Eating Habits. References to a Real/Imagined Domestic. An Absurd Amount of Pining.

Word Count: 2.4k

Subdued shades of orange with the occasional single brushstrokes of pink projected through his bedroom window and painted him in light. A bird chirped, and another chirped back in a cycle of communication lost on other animals. Alex did not realize the change outside his window until the light gradient settled on a loud yellow and created glare on his monitor.

It was sunrise, and he had just finished editing for his most recent video. Where the hours of work went was unclear as it played back with the same level of effects as other videos on his channel. But the hours showed in his fringe, darkened with grease, and in his hands that shook from low blood sugar.

Sleep was for the strong – for those who executed enough psychological control to shush their thoughts. To untie their mental boat and let it drift into the oblivion sea. Alex was not one of those people. Quieting his internal monologue required medication that put him in a state not unlike how he imaged it felt to be roofied.

Or else he did not sleep.

And Alex did not sleep that night. Not because he needed to edit or because he was so busy he did not realize he was tired. No, none of that. He knew he was tired: exhausted even: his limbs felt heavier as, throughout the evening, his blood was spliced and diluted with concrete mix.

Why did he not take his medication? Why not sleep? He did not want to be trapped in ~the dream~ again.

Despite his fundamental understanding of the uncontrollable manner in which the unconscious forms dreams, Alex was consumed with guilt for dreaming about kissing his friend's girlfriend. So, he punished himself: not allowing his mind rest nor his stomach food as he threw himself into his editing.

He would not allow himself think about it long enough to come to the obvious conclusion – that the real issue was not the dream itself. Despite what imallexx edits might guide someone to believe (with their cutesy music over compilations of smiling pictures or clips of him laughing), Alex was a young man in his twenties. And young men (who enjoy kissing) think and fantasize and dream about kissing.

And far more than kissing but regardless... He had dreamed about kissing his friends' girlfriends before: or at least Mia that one time. Ok, two times. He had dreamed about kissing cute men he saw on the train. He had even once dreamed about kissing Princess Leia.

It was natural. But Alex's thoughts about Y/N felt damning, felt wrong. Perhaps because it was the first instance in which he thought he had a chance to get the girl. Not that he would do; he refused.

It hit him. If he were always doing something else, then he would simply not have time to think about it – about her. Alex grabbed a pencil off his desk and his JoJo Siwa notebook and wrote a schedule for the coming week.

His hand cramped from furiously trying to keep up with dictating the information as it spilled from his head. He finished writing, but there were still stretches of time to fill-up including that entire morning. Was he desperate enough to disconnect from himself that he would risk the Budweiser Bug to visit his other friends outside his apartment building? Yes.

While rummaging around his bedroom for fresh(er) clothing to wear, Alex swiped a hat off his desk and concealed his unwashed hair with it. Not his tiktok bucket hat nor his iconic pink one, it was a lilac snapback with an image of lavender embroidered on the side. He rang Fraser.

“Hello?” Fraser answered with a voice bogged down with exhaustion.

“How’re you doing?” Alex greeted.

“Um.” (a pause – a processing delay) “Fine. Good. Yeah, what about you?”

“Trying to keep busy.” He tucked his wallet and keys into the pocket of a pair of joggers he found hanging, oddly enough, over the towel rail in his bathroom. Changing into them required a series of short jumping motions as he used just one hand. “You have any videos to film that I could jump in on?”

“Well I’ve been brainstorming ideas for a new series called…”

At the bathroom sink: Alex did not wait for the water to warm before splashing it over his face. He did a quick once-over and washed his cheeks and forehead with hand soap. Picking up his toothbrush from its holder stirred an uneasiness in him, he could not explain; he brushed his teeth and spit without rinsing.

Returning into the conversation he caught the middle of what would sound like a rant or passionate tangent if he did not know that was just how Fraser talked, “…and I’ve been working on a script for something on social repose—”

“Another needs to be stopped?" asked Alex.

Fraser laughed, letting it linger before continuing, "You got me. It's not done, but I could definitely use you for some reaction bits."

"Great! I'll be setting off within the hour." Ambling around – as is the norm during phone calls – Alex found himself in the kitchen. Half-full liters of lemonade, grocers bags, and dirty dishes cluttered the counters. He worked around the rubbish to make himself scrambled eggs with ham.

Fraser asked, "And you're sure about leaving the apartment? With the Bug? We could do a discord-call."

"Might as well get in some time on the train before things shut down."

"Alright, mate," there was a smile behind Fraser's voice, "just don't get arrested."

With their call ended, Alex finished cooking. He ate his entire breakfast in the same amount of time it took him to pull on his shoes.

During the train ride, he turned his phone's volume to eighty percent and blasted his music through his earbuds. His playlist was a mixture of two to three alt-rock or indie pop bands with a sprinkling of mainstream hits: a calm and comfortable backbeat throughout. No outlier tracks that burst into hard-hitting or exceptionally fast beats – nothing that might pump-up his adrenaline or be useful to scream along with in a fit of anger. That was not the connection he made with music in his formative years. Music to him was something to drown out that pesky internal monologue when lying in bed for too long – doing nothing – but perhaps pondering on some heartbreaking or otherwise emotional line in a song.

He arrived at Fraser and James' apartment when it was still technically morning. Knocking on the door, he was greeted with frantic barking and his tired ~obviously hungover~ friend.

After fussing over Kenji, Alex spotted the camera set-up in the kitchen and took his seat. Fraser and him watched several of social repose's music videos: covers of emo electronic, synth-pop songs, and a lot more original EMD songs than either man guessed – and all were dreadful. Neither could sit through a single video for more than forty-five seconds, and most of the footage they shot was just of their mouths hanging open in a disturbed shock.

Nonetheless, it was a great distraction. Alex liked feeling like he was helping out smaller channels – even if it was just those who were his friends.

Only as Fraser was cleaning up his equipment and Alex was sitting on the couch playing with Kenji, did James clamber out of bed and stroll out of his bedroom.

"Ow. What was that?" Alex asked in an exaggerated voice when the shiba nipped at yet another one of his fingers. Turning his attention to James, he asked, "Has he been biting a lot recently?"

James answered in his softer and calmer 'tired' voice, "He only bites sometimes. His brain is probably just locked on the idea of food right now; this is around the time Fraser usually feeds him."

"I just wanted a picture for instagram." Alex tried to find a good angle to hold his phone. He pushed Kenji to sit on his lap for a nice picture (which was sure to get hundreds of comments and love heart emojis), but the shiba was far too hyper to sit still. The few useable photos he got were of Kenji biting at and tugging the strings of his hoodie. "Come on, Kenj."

"Reckon he knows what you're doing with your phone, just mugging you off on purpose."

Alex hung around the apartment for the rest of the afternoon: enjoying an ubereats lunch and having James crush him at mario kart...multiple times in a row. The three talked youtube and the continuing aftershocks and effects of the ad crisis, and Fraser asked for feedback on a few video ideas.

An hour or two from sunset, Alex said his goodbyes and caught the train home to his apartment. Upon unlocking the front door, he was met with an interrogation.

"And where have you been all day?" asked George standing with his feet planted shoulder-width apart, and his arms crossed over his chest – the spitting image of a disapproving parent to a reckless teenager.

Smiling his fang-displaying side smile, Alex challenged, "Why do you need to know?"

"Sammy came over to film the opening pokemon cards video, and you weren't here. Neither of us could get a hold of you. Do you even care about my upload schedule?" It was a half-humorous rant with an eerie sense of latent seriousness.

"Phone died." He shrugged, not looking his flatmate in the eye and certainly not wanting to admit the truth – he put his phone on do not disturb earlier that morning, muting most everyone, including George and Sammy.

There was not an ounce of belief in George's expression, "Fine. Where were you, though, for real? You never leave the flat, let alone disappear; almost called Will and got a search team going."

"I was just filming with Fraser." Alex bent over to take off his trainers. There was a click from his shoulder when he did – alarming for such young bones. "We should host something soon."

And he meant soon. As talk of a complete social shutdown, rather than just more public health advisements, dominated news outlets; the thought of non-essential businesses being made to close their doors was frightening. And what was worse than the eking paranoia seeping into every day, was the horrifying realization that the pubs were considered non-essential.

Uncrossing his arms, George's posture shifted to be more normal. His brow furrowed as he seemed to examine his flatmate heavily; even so, he nodded in agreement. "Sure, we could do that."

"Great," Alex chirped and started toward his bedroom.

George grabbed his arm as he tried to walk past him. His hand clasped tight enough that his fingers touched his thumb, and nails would have dug into the pale skin – if he had nails that is. Both men were silent amongst the awkwardness of the interaction.

Sidestepping out of the armlock, Alex waited for George to speak.

"You're doing ok. Right, Al?"

"Yeah. I'm ok."

"But, you'd tell me if you weren't."

"Of course." Alex left to his bedroom. It was in a bad state, but he did not bother himself with picking clothes off the floor or taking food wrappers from his side table to the kitchen bin. He pulled his phone from his pocket and checked for messages: sure enough, there were eleven messages from George: ranging from asking where he was to blaming his laziness for ruining their chance to film.

Alex flopped himself onto his bed and started to scroll through his photos with Kenji. There was not much choice, so he took the least blurry one and posted it to instagram – with a bright filter and a sarcastic caption that took him longer to come up with than he would have liked.

Fifty minutes he spent scrolling through instagram, occasionally checking back to watch the likes on his photo go up and to reply to some of the first commenters. It was mind-numbing in the good and proper sense.

Until he saw it – and it was not his fault, he just happened upon it – and it sent his thoughts into hyperdrive.

A post. A photo. Y/N sitting on her sofa in the dark with the one light source (presumably her television) from behind the camera casting a blue light across her face. One hand clutching the blanket in her lap as the other hand was held up. Jewel-like eyes peering through her fingers and connecting with the camera. A smile playing purposefully on her lips.

If Alex's thoughts at that moment were put into a blender, they might still have come out making more sense than they did in his head. Eyes. Lips. Blue. Watching? Angelic. Eyes. Fingers. Dancing. Blue. Lips. Taste. Lips. Soft. Photographer. Photographer.

Before he might ask for the app to load more photos, Alex's burst of energy and hectic but classic over-thinking was interrupted. From above him came the sound of muffled shouting. He held his breath, stilled as if a prey animal not wanting to be spotted, and focused an ear to the noise.

There were no words he could pick out, but from what he could tell – or from the details he filled in – it was not a light argument of few words but something that might supersede a genuine scrap. And it was coming from Sammy and Y/N's apartment.

As he listened, his imagination wandered. Alex visualized himself, rushing to Y/N's aid and wrapping his thin arms around her in more emotional comfort than physical protection. He saw her turn to him with wet eyes and a red nose before burying her face into his shirt. It would be uncomfortable – as it is to be around distressed people. Yet it would be comfortable – as she would fit against him so well.

Again, his imagination wandered. Alex visualized himself as the one shouting at Y/N and growing angrier as she refused his hard-hitting gaze. He saw her turn to him with wet eyes and a red nose before hiccupping out a sob and dashing from the room. No. That was not right. It was wrong. He would not— could not do that.

#imallexx #imallexx imagine #imallexx x reader #alex elmslie #alex elmslie imagine #alex elmslie x reader #internet sensation #eboys #commentary crew #inabber #james marriott #memeulous #kenji the shiba

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mischiefandspirits · 5 years ago

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Iron Legion (17/?)

Never let it be said that Tony Stark ever does things by half. He might have grown up with little family, but he wasn’t about to keep it that way.

Tony Stark was seventeen when his first child was born, and that was just the beginning.

For Masterpost, Timeline, AO3, and Fanfiction

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steel Scion, Part 2

“We’re starting the descent,” Clint announced from the cockpit just as the armor F.R.I.D.A.Y. was piloting stepped up next to Steve.

“Capsicle, you’re receiving a call,” she announced and Steve rolled his eyes at what Stark had programmed his computer to call him.

“I thought we’d gone dark?”

“This call overrides that command,” she answered before a familiar voice came from the suit.

“Hey, Cap.”

Steve perked up. “Stark, I thought you were still being kept out of this.”

“I am, but Pep made the mistake of leaving the room just before a news report interrupted my show. So now I’m hiding out in the lab.”

“Are you coming to help?”

“I’d love to, but someone stole my suit.”

“I have no regrets,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. replied cheerfully.

“Also, I’m pretty sure there would be a line of people waiting to kill me if I tried skipping bail, so I’m focusing on helping take care of Johannesburg. Thankfully Mer had been tracking the twins, so his suit got a perfect shot of the witch hitting Bruce.”

“You should be focusing on finding Ultron. We can worry about that later.”

Steve heard someone say something on the other end, but it was distorted so he couldn’t catch the voice or their words.

Tony hushed them then said, “I’m working on that too, but without Frankenstine’s motive, I don’t have anywhere to start.”

“He wants to kill us.”

“He left you there and made off with the vibranium. Sounds like it goes further than that.”

Steve frowned, but he didn’t have a chance to think about it because Clint came out of the cockpit at that moment.

“We’re here.”

“You’re where?” Tony asked.

“Safehouse, hopefully.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Yeah, we would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea that you existed.”

“Like you’re one to talk.”

“Touché.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Dr. Banner?”

Bruce pulled the door he had been shutting back open as the Iron Man suit walked up. “Yes, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“Can I come in?”

“Uh, sure? I was just about to take a shower, though,” he said, stepping aside so she could come in.

“It should only take a moment. Boss will be back soon.”

“What’s Tony got to do with it?” he asked, shutting the door.

“Dr. Banner?” a different voice and Bruce’s eyes widened.

“Peter, what are you doing in Tony’s lab?”

“I saw what happened on TV and wanted to make sure you and Hulk were okay, so I snuck in while Mr. Stark went to grab snacks and bribed Fri into letting me call you.”

“Peter, you can’t just sneak into labs.”

“But -”

“Do your parents know where you are?”

“Yes,” he said slowly. “I’m sorry, Dr. Banner. I just wanted to see if you were okay.”

“That’s really nice of you, but labs can be really dangerous, remember.”

“I didn’t touch anything, promise!”

“I can confirm that he hasn’t touched anything in the lab,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. reassured.

“That’s good, but you still shouldn’t be in there on your own.”

“Sorry. Are you okay, though? The news said Hulk trashed a city block because that HYDRA enhanced brainwashed you!”

“I… I’m alright.”

“Are you sure? You sound like Dad does when he’s not alright.”

“Yeah, just… The world just saw the Hulk -- the real Hulk -- for the first time.” Bruce shook his head. “Nevermind, I shouldn’t be putting this on -”

“That wasn’t the Hulk.”

“Peter -”

“No. The Hulk is a hero! He likes to smash things, but he never hurts people on purpose unless they’re hurting people first. He wrestles with She-Hulk and looks after the Avengers and teases Thor and… and he saved Iron Man’s life! He’s a hero! He’s my hero! What happened wasn’t his fault. It was that witch. People will understand. Mr. Stark is already working to fix things. It’s going to be okay.”

Bruce was speechless. He knew Peter looked up to him, but he didn’t realize how much the kid cared for the Hulk too. Usually, it was either one or the other. The only other exceptions were Jen and -

“Pete? What are you doing in here?”

Think of the devil…

“D-I was just…” Peter started frantically and Bruce could hear Tony coming further into the lab. He opened his mouth to explain and hopefully keep the kid out of too much trouble.

“I told you Drew and Ross were going to be calling soon so you need to go hang out with Pep. You can come play with Dad after dinner.”

Bruce heard Peter suck in a breath and he understood the sentiment. “Tony.”

There was a moment of silence before Peter said, “I just wanted to call Dr. Banner and make sure he was okay.”

“Any chance you didn’t hear that, Brucie-Bear?”

He considered playing dumb, but he knew they were both aware he’d found out. “You really shouldn’t have judged Clint for having a secret family.”

“Hawkeye has a secret family too?” Peter asked.

“Pep, now. We’ll talk about this later.”

“Okay, Dad. Bye, Dr. Banner.”

“Bye, Peter.” He waited until Peter’s footsteps faded away before continuing, “Tony, I’m sorry. I swear I won’t say anything.”

“I know you won’t, it’s okay. I’ve been thinking about letting you in on the secret for months. I just -- I’ve been keeping the kids a secret for so long. For Peter’s entire life, practically. If anything were to happen to them… Well, old habits die hard.”

“I understand,” Bruce said. “Peter’s a good kid and Nebula’s great. You did a good job with them.”

“Yeah? Wait until you meet Harley. You won’t be as confident in my parenting skills then.”

Bruce blinked. “How many kids do you have?”

“Just the flesh and blood ones or all together?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tony was watching F.R.I.D.A.Y. play with Barton’s daughter on one screen and listening to Ross talk about launch codes on another when P.L.A.T.O. announced that someone was attempting to force the elevator to go to the lab.

“Someone we know?” he asked, glancing at the screen showing Peter doing homework in his room.

“Facial recognition suggests the late Director Fury.”

Tony snorted and checked the status of the fabricators. “Send the good director to the lobby then let him know he has one minute to leave my building before I sick security on him. Remind him that even if S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t officially a thing anymore, they’re still banned from Stark Industries property.”

“Right away, Re.”

“Stark, the codes?”

“Right, yeah, I’ll see if I can make a field trip. If not, I’ll send Nebula with instructions,” he said, bringing forward the screen displaying Nebula’s flight back from Johannesburg in the Iron-Rescue Mark III. He frowned when he spotted something in the corner of his eye. “Rewind that footage ten seconds,” he said, pointing at the video showing Frankenstine’s initial attack. His eyes widened as he watched. “Ross, do we have someone in South Korea? If so, let them know I’m sending Rogers, Barton, and Romanoff into Seoul. If not, get someone.”

“Seoul? Why? What’s going on?”

“I think Frankenstine might go after Dr. Cho.”

Ross gave him that look that meant he was barely resisting asking for more information because he knew it would be a waste of time. “Alright. Are you expecting a fight?”

“I’m hoping there won’t be one, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

“No Banner?”

“I think he needs a break. F.R.I.D.A.Y. will bring him to the mansion.”

“I’ll get someone on it. Keep me updated and don’t forget the NEXUS.”

“Aye aye!” He hung up and sat back. “Mer, get Cho on the phone. P, tell Fri to get those slackers to work. Joe, tell Nebula to head to the NEXUS. I’ll fill her in once she’s there.”

All three complied and the phone began to ring.

And ring and ring and ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Father,” Nebula called, rushing into the lab. She looked around to make sure he was alone. “Where’s Dr. Banner?”

“Peter’s taking advantage of the fact he’s in the know now to show off his LEGO sets. Why? What’s up? Did you find the hacker?”

Nebula nodded and removed her mask. With a blink, her projector came on to display a glittering orange orb.

“Hello, Sir.”

“Jay,” Father whispered, standing up. “How?”

“When Frankenstine attacked him, he scattered himself and dumped his memory. He’s been hiding out ever since, working purely on protocol. I managed to bring him back together.”

Father shook his head, beaming. “You’ve been beating up that bully from the inside, huh? That’s my boy!”

“It’s good to feel appreciated.”

“You’re always appreciated, Buddy.” Father focused back on Nebula. “Upload him back onto the intranet. I’m sure the others want to greet him in their own ways.”

“Already started,” she confirmed, letting the projection disappear. Slipping the mask back on, she came to his side and set her hand on his shoulder.

He grabbed the hand and squeezed it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I can work on tissue degeneration if you can fry whatever operational system Cho implanted.”

“Yeah, about that…”

Bruce looked up at him and Nebula crossed her arms.

“No,” they both said.

“You have to trust me.”

“Kind of don’t,” Bruce countered.

He turned to Nebula. “He was beating him, he could do it again.”

“You’re still not thinking clearly,” Nebula argued. “There should be a big maybe in there.”

“He’s proven he can win. Frankenstein was afraid of him, scared of what he can do.”

“Who are you talking about?” Bruce asked.

“J.A.R.V.I.S.”

“You called, Sir?”

Bruce gasped.

“Nebula found him blocking Frankestine’s access to the nuclear launch codes. Didn’t even realize who he was and was still winning.”

Bruce scoffed as he realized what Tony was planning. “So you want to put J.A.R.V.I.S. into this thing?”

“I think it’s worth a go,” J.A.R.V.I.S. added.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but they might have a point,” Nebula said and the two scientists turned to her. “J.A.R.V.I.S.’s code was crushing Frankenstein’s. I think there’s a good chance he’ll be able to override the monster’s operational matrix, or at the very least assimilate it.”

Bruce looked between the two Stark’s and sighed. He was caught in a time loop, and yet here he was going along with it.

At his agreement, Nebula nodded. “You two prepare it, I’ll create a backup of J.A.R.V.I.S.’s code, just in case. Don’t know why we’ve never done this before.”

“Dum-E hates backups,” Tony said with a shrug. “Never tried any of the others after the fight he put up.”

“Backups, for everyone,” Nebula muttered. “Never again.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nebula was waiting outside the lab when Steve arrived with the Maximoffs. She immediately leveled her gun at them. “Thanks for bringing them in, Rogers, but the cells are the other way.”

“I need to talk to Stark.”

“Which one?”

The group turned to see three legionnaires step into the hall, though they looked different from the others. The first was pure black except for the white faceplate. It was bulkier, closer to the war machine armor, and it’s reactor glowed silver. The second looked similar to Pepper’s armor, though dark grey and green with an emerald reactor. The last was mostly silver with dark purple curling designs covering it like vines and a pale purple reactor. It was smaller and sleeker than any other armor or legionnaire Steve had seen.

“Stark built more legionnaires?” Steve asked, disappointed. Hadn’t he realized the problem the first ones had caused?

“We prefer Guardsmen,” H.O.M.E.R. said, revealing himself as the black one.

“More Ultron’s?” Wanda asked Steve, raising her hands.

“We are Ultron.” P.L.A.T.O.’s cold voice came from the green one. “Or were. Your monster stole our name.”

“We don’t want it back,” J.O.C.A.S.T.A. added from the purple one.

Steve turned to Nebula. “Shut them down.”

“Not happening.”

“Re doesn’t want to be bothered, especially by the likes of her,” H.O.M.E.R. said, pointing at Wanda.

“You don’t know what he’s doing, Nebula,” Steve argued, ignoring the robot.

“I know exactly what he’s doing. In fact, I’m watching him right now.” She tapped her temple and the golden mask she had been wearing in Johannesburg appeared for just a second in a flicker.

“She’s another one of Stark’s robots?” Pietro asked.

“Oh, I’m flesh and blood. I’ve just got a few fancy prosthetics. Now stand down so we can arrest you.”

“Or don’t,” J.O.C.A.S.T.A. chirped. “We’ve been wanting to smash in your sister’s face.”

Steve held up his hands before either the twins or the robots could attack. “Nebula -”

The woman suddenly swung around and the doors opened just in time for Steve to see Thor force open the doors on the other side of the lab.

“Wait!” Banner yelled as the god jumped atop the cradle and summoned lightning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Iron Man’s the one he’s waiting for.”

“That’s true. He hates you the most.”

“Still not daddy issues,” J.O.C.A.S.T.A. hummed, sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of H.O.M.E.R. and P.L.A.T.O. They were off to the side, watching the humans ready for battle. “Lack-of-daddy issues, maybe? Oh, Vizzy, speaking of which!” She grabbed Vision’s arm as he passed, making him stop. “Where do you fit in the family? Frankenstein built you, but Re built Jar-Jar and put him in you before Re, Mini-Hulk, and He-Man finished you, but you said you’re not Jar-Jar, so…?”

“I’m not sure,” he said, frowning. “I don’t believe it works that way.”

“It does in our family,” H.O.M.E.R. disagreed.

“We’re illogical like that,” P.L.A.T.O. added.

“Perhaps he is our nephew?” F.R.I.D.A.Y. suggested. “Because he came from J.A.R.V.I.S.”

“You are suggesting that J.A.R.V.I.S. would be my father?” Vision asked.

“Jar-Jar, it’s a boy!” J.O.C.A.S.T.A. cheered.

“I don’t have much knowledge in the way of parenting, but I will do my best by you, Vision,” J.A.R.V.I.S. responded blankly.

“Thank… you?” Vision turned to Father, Steve, and Bruce for help, two of whom appearing just as confused.

Father placed his hand on his chest and pretended to wipe away a tear. “I can’t believe my little boy would make me a grandfather at thirty-nine.”

Near the door, Nebula sighed. “You’re right, none of us have any idea how an actual family works.”

“At least you can admit it,” Uncle Rhodey chuckled over the phone. “Pretty sure your father and the rest of your siblings all think this is normal.”

“I refuse to be called grandma,” Pepper deadpanned. “Tony can make all the jokes he wants, but I want to be at least in my mid-forties before anyone calls me grandma or nana or anything to that extent.”

“At least you haven’t gotten any greys from Tony and his brood like Happy and I,” Uncle Rhodey teased.

“The benefits of Extremis, I’m sure. I can’t believe Tony’s going out right now.”

“Dr. Dillon cleared him, unfortunately,” Nebula said. “At least he’s bringing the triplets with him.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can too,” Uncle Rhodey promised.

“I’m half-tempted to join you,” Pepper joked bitterly. “Please bring him home safe.”

“I will,” Uncle Rhodey said softly.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s agreed to notify you the moment anything changes so I can focus on evac and the relief foundation,” Nebula said.

“No plans to burst in guns blazing this time?” Uncle Rhodey chuckled.

“Rogers has forbidden revenge and I’ve decided to listen, for now at least. The witch and her brother will pay once this is all over.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ms. Romanoff.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow as a gray and green legionnaire appeared out of thin air in front of her. “Stark gave you an upgrade?”

“Better, he gave us bodies.” P.L.A.T.O. blasted the lock on her cell and opened the door. “Need a lift?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Bruce, we’ve got a Code Green. We’ve had a Code Green. It’s now or never.”

Shaking, he watched the feeds on the Quinjet’s screens.

He couldn’t go out there. Not while civilians were present. He couldn’t risk hurting anyone else. But they needed him. They needed…

He’s a hero! He’s my hero!

“I’m on my way.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Go away out of that!”

“I wish I could say I was joking,” Tony said.

“She’s HYDRA! She was working with Ultron!”

“He wasn’t Ultron,” Tony muttered.

“Then come up with something better than Frankenstein!” Drew spat before continuing her tirade. “That woman is a criminal! Why is she being made an Avenger?”

Ross sighed and said, “Rogers is arguing that she showed remorse during the fight with…”

“V.I.R.G.I.L?” Tony offered. “Virtual Integrated Rapidly-evolving Grid-based Intelligent Lifeform.”

“I’m both impressed and terrified that you just pulled that out of your arse right now,” Drew snorted.

“As I was saying,” Ross continued. “He’s arguing that since she fought against V.I.R.G.I.L, she should be given a chance to make it up to the world by fighting alongside the Avengers.”

“Oh yes, she realized her plan to destroy the world was also going to kill her and helped to stop it. Better give her a medal,” Drew said with an eye-roll.

“Hey, don’t shoot the messengers. I’m right there with you,” Tony said, holding up his hands. “I only found out after the fact.”

“Rogers went straight to the top to get her pardon. There’s not much anyone can do. As long as she continues to work with the Avengers, she’s got her pass.” Ross shook his head.

“Maybe in the US, but if she leaves the country she’s going to get some backlash.”

“Try explaining that to Rogers, would you? He doesn’t seem to get it when I say it and I know he has a thing for Brits.”

Drew gave him an unimpressed look.

“I’m sorry, Jess, but can you try to pull some strings? Rogers isn’t backing down on this.”

She sighed and slouched back, her eyes disappearing behind tinted yellow sunglasses. “I’ll see what I can do, but no promises. She’s definitely going to have to be accompanied at all times at the very least.” She gave Tony a look. “It’d be easier if you were sticking around.”

“No can do. I’m taking a break. Barton’s inspired me. I’m going to spend more time with my family.”

“Oh yes, your horde of robots,” Drew snorted and Ross gave him a look.

“Exactly. We’ve got a new one too. My grandson. I’ll send you both the baby pictures!”

“We already received the ones Ms. Parker sent, thank you,” Ross said while Drew muttered, “Gobdaw.”

“Isn’t he adorable? I’m so proud,” Tony said, ignoring her. “He’s going to be working with the Avengers. As will Rhodey, so you’ll still have men on the team.”

“No Guardsmen?” Drew asked, not sounding surprised.

“They’re still learning. I’ve got them working with the Stark Relief Foundation right now and continuing their studies. Even if I did feel they were ready, I don’t think the world is,” Tony said and he could see the agreement on both of their faces.

“What about the other newcomer, Senior Airman Wilson?” Ross asked.

“No idea where he stands. Rogers is bringing him in. I do know he was part of the D.C. incident though.”

“So he’s not the full shilling, got it,” Drew commented. “Any hope Banner will be sticking around to help keep them in line?”

“No. I doubt I’ll be able to even keep him here at the tower. Johannesburg really shook him up, and having the witch around isn’t helping. He needs some time to himself. I don’t like it, but I get it.”

“Just another reason to lock the wagon up,” Drew said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You sure about this?” Tony asked as Hulk loaded the last of his bags into the Quinjet.

“Can’t stay,” he growled.

“We’ll miss you,” Peter said and Hulk turned to him, using a finger to ruffle his hair.

“Miss tiny Stark too.”

“When was last time cousin talk to Banner?” She-Hulk asked, crossing her arms. “Iron Stark said Hulk been around almost since Sokovia.”

“Doesn’t matter. Not safe. He stay quiet.”

“Well, send him our regards as soon as you get somewhere safe enough for him to come out,” Tony said. “And remind him that you both are welcome back any time.”

Hulk grunted and moved to give She-Hulk a hug. “Bye cousin.”

“Bye cousin. Take care of Banner. Mouse will miss him. Come back soon. She-Hulk will miss cousin.”

“Hulk will miss cousin too.”

“What? Won’t miss me?” Tony asked.

Hulk stared at him for a moment before turning and climbing into the Quinjet with a poorly hidden smirk.

She-Hulk and Peter laughed as he gasped in fake outrage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In regards to Drew's nationality, she's British, but she grew up in Ireland so she's got a bit of an Irish accent that she only uses in relaxed settings, which working with Tony has become. Basically, Agent Drew is Irish, but Arachne is English. This is a reference to the fact that I started hc-ing her as being played by Katie McGrath while working on Rescue to the Rescue.

Before anyone says anything about Tony's joke about Steve's love of Brits: Tony and I are both aware that Ireland is not in Britain.

#a:aou #tony stark #bruce banner #nebula #peter parker #iron family

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xf-2 · 6 years ago

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Tetsuhide Yamaoka, Australia-Japan Community Network July 4, 2019 11:19 pmfujioka nobukatsu, graduate project, Kent Gilbert, miki dezaki, shunichi fujiki, shusenjo, sophia university, the main battle ground of the comfort women issues, tony marano

On June 15, five people who appeared in a documentary called “Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue” (Tofu Films) sued the director and the production company for the film, bringing the battleground from the big screen to the courtroom.

Graduate Project Gone Awry

Kent Gilbert, Tony Marano, Nobukatsu Fujioka, Shunichi Fujiki and Yumiko Yamamoto filed charges against a young man who called himself Miki Dezaki for using footage of them in a commercial film without their consent.

The story goes that in 2016, Miki Dezaki approached several people for interviews on the comfort women Issue as part of his graduation project at Sophia University. For that purpose, Dezaki secured the consent of several people, including the five people involved in the case.

After his graduate school project, he apparently proceeded to do more filming, add music and further edits, making it into a commercial film shown publicly for the first time on October 7, 2018.

The plaintiffs have charged that the consent they gave was for Dezaki’s non-commercial graduation project and not for any other purpose, including a commercial film. The charges further accused Dezaki of uploading footage of Marano to Youtube without his consent.

The plaintiffs have sued to stop the film from showing. In addition, they have sought damages of ¥ 5,000,000 JPY ($ 46,420 USD) to Kent Gilbert and Tony Marano, and ¥ 1,000,000 JPY (¥ 9,284 USD) for each of the other three people.

How it Started

Let’s take a step back to 2016, when Miki Dezaki approached several well-known conservative opinion leaders, introducing himself as a graduate student of Sophia University. He asked for interviews with them in order to make a documentary film focused on the comfort women issue. He said the project was to complete his master’s degree.

One of Dezaki’s emails said, “As I researched, I found the comfort women issue was more complex than I had read in the Western liberal media. In researching, I found there was little evidence that the women were coerced to become comfort women, and that the lives of the comfort women were not as bad as some activists or experts would argue. I have to admit that I had believed the media reports, but now I have doubts…. As a graduate student, I have an ethical obligation to conduct interviews with you with respect and fairness. Also, since this is academic research, there are certain academic standards and conditions which must be met, so it will not be biased journalism.”

He approached Kent Gilbert, Yoshiko Sakurai, Nobukatsu Fujioka, Mio Sugita, Yumiko Yamamoto, Tony Marano (also known as the “Texas Daddy”), Shunichi Fujiki (Texas Daddy Japan secretariat), among others.

All of them took Dezaki at his word and expected he would make a fair and neutral documentary film as promised. On that basis, they agreed to interviews with him.

The Product Is Not What Was Promised

Time passed. On March 27, 2019, I headed for a small theater in Shibuya, where I had heard that a preview of the film would be screened. By then, I had also heard that all of the above-mentioned people Dezaki interviewed regretted cooperating with him on the film, which, contrary to their expectations, turned out to be another propaganda film about the comfort women.

I wondered what went wrong. The film was supposed to be a fair debate between those who claim the comfort women were sex slaves and those who say they were not.

Advanced information on the film indicated that advocates of the “comfort women are sex slaves” view who appear would include Yoshiaki Yoshimi, Etsuro Totsuka, Hirofumi Hayashi, Koichi Nakano, and Takashi Uemura.

Mihyang Yun, a representative of The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, and Park Yu-ha, a professor at Sejong University in Seoul who wrote The Comfort Women of the Empire (2013, in South Korea, now banned) and was prosecuted for it in South Korea, were also said to make an appearance in the film. I wanted to see the film for myself to learn what was actually said.

The title of the film was Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue (Independent, 2019). The credits said it was written and directed by Miki Dezaki, who was billed as a Japanese American YouTuber in a leaflet on the movie. The flyer promised that the movie would be “Surprisingly thrilling!!!! This is the most aggressive documentary film today.”

As I watched, speakers appeared one after another making various claims. But was it “surprisingly thrilling,” as Dezaki’s flyer had promised? No, and the reason was clear: this film was far from fair.

Dezaki Set the Tone

The film’s tone made it clear that Dezaki was not neutral at all. Rather, he stood by those who claimed comfort women were sex slaves. While saying he would explore the issue from a neutral position, he started by expressing disdain for the views of those who said comfort women were not sex slaves, calling them “revisionists” and “denialists” right from the beginning.

His tone was very rude to those who cooperated from the opposition side. It raised questions about his motives, and I could not help but suspect that his email promises to those whose views he disdained were simply a trap to induce them to appear in the film.

Another point that caught my attention was that Dezaki avoided interviewing the most prominent scholars on the comfort women issue when their views did not fit with his conclusion.

Since Dezaki included in the film’s debate interviews with Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Hirofumi Hayashi, experts who have long been proponents of the sex slave story, he should have interviewed scholars with comparable qualifications on the other side, such as Ikuhiko Hata and Tsutomu Nishioka. This failure alone demonstrates the lack of balance in his work.

I was able to ask Dezaki in person about this point on April 4 at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, where a preview of the film and an interview were held. He answered like this: “As for Nishioka, I saw his views on the internet. I thought he was not adding much more than others say and did not contact him.”

Then did the film offer any meaningful argument at all?

Were Comfort Women Coercively Recruited?

At one point, the film showed a 2007 clip of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe answering questions in the Diet. He said: “There were no such cases as government authorities intruding into private houses and forcibly taking women away. There was no coercion.”

Then Totsuka Etsuro appeared for the purpose of criticizing Abe. He was the lawyer who coined the word “sex slave” and spread it in the United Nations. He said: “Abe claims that the women were not coerced because they were not forcibly taken away against their will and tied with ropes. But, legally speaking, ‘coercive’ means ‘against their will.’ Then, ‘being deceived’ is categorized into ‘coerced’ because it is ‘against their will.’ Most Korean women at that time were deceived.”

In other words, since there was no coercion and there were no reported cases of forcible removal of women in the Korean Peninsula under the Japanese governance, he expanded the definition to include the feeling of “being deceived.”

Gilbert and Fujiki said: “The women were recruited mainly by Korean dealers. There would have been cases in which women were deceived by the [private] dealers.”

Mio Sugita added, “Newspapers at that time reported on many cases in which malicious dealers were arrested by the Japanese police.”

In the film, though, Hayashi Hirofumi refuted them, saying, “Reports in newspapers at that time had nothing to do with the coercive recruitment of comfort women. Certainly, the police arrested malicious dealers who deceived women and prostituted them. But the police overlooked dealers who were requested to do so by the military.”

I wish Hayashi had explained his statement by providing specific evidence in the film. How could the police distinguish malicious dealers from those who had received a request from the military?

I had heard of such claims before, but they were found to be groundless. If the police had been so discriminatory, it would have been very difficult to maintain security.

Who Called Them Sex Slaves?

Next, those who believe the comfort women were not sex slaves spoke in the movie, showing that the comfort women were well paid. They were able to save and/or send their money to their families. When their contract came to an end, they were free to go home. They enjoyed shopping. They went to sporting events and parties with Japanese soldiers. They were far from sex slaves.

But the advocates of the sex slave viewpoint counter the argument by claiming that, according to international law today, they were slaves.

Sex slave advocate Yoshiaki Yoshimi’s claim was particularly interesting. He refuted the argument that the comfort women had time for recreation with a convoluted reference to American Negro slaves, saying: “I think their daily lives were so hopeless that they couldn’t live without such recreation. For example, American Negro slaves gathered and had concerts or dance parties on Saturdays and Sundays. They also went hunting. They were so hopeless that slave owners had to allow them to do so to survive.”

He and other sex slave advocates failed to mention, however, that some Japanese soldiers fell in love with comfort women and married them, and that there were former comfort women who cherished the memory of Japanese soldiers who were their former lovers. The advocates of the sex slave argument in the film instead appear to want simply to disgrace Japanese by all means.

Kohki Abe, a member of the faculty of international studies at Meiji Gakuin, appeared next in the film. He claims that, based on international law, the comfort women are defined as sex slaves.

He said: “Slavery is a situation in which someone is utterly under the control of another. Even if the comfort women were able to earn lots of money and go out for pleasure, they were under another’s control and had to get permission to do so. Therefore, they were slaves.”

If that’s true, then it sounds like today’s ordinary salaried workers are all slaves!

If he wanted to make a claim based on international law, the claim should be either “It is technically possible to define them as slaves according to international law,” or “All prostitutes throughout history, not only the wartime comfort women of Japanese military, are defined as sex slaves according to international law.”

Nippon Kaigi (The Japan Conference)

This film was so long that I started feeling tired. Then, unexpectedly, the words “Japan Conference” suddenly appeared on the screen and woke me up. The Japan Conference has nothing to do with the comfort women.

Setsu Kobayashi, professor emeritus at Keio University and a constitutional scholar, began to talk. According to him, the Japan Conference has the power to influence the Abe administration as it intends to revive the constitution of the empire of Japan to return the country to an era where basic human rights are denied. And, in his view, Yoshiko Sakurai is leading their campaign.

He continued guessing, “The Japan Conference is supported by Shinto shrines, including the Yasukuni Shrine. Sakurai Yoshiko probably has an office for free within the shrine’s grounds.”

He then came to a very strange conclusion: “The Japan Conference’s doctrine of getting back to the pre-war Japan is terrifying. But I am determined to fight against it even if I get murdered in the battle.”

What a delusion! The Japan Conference and Yoshiko Sakurai have never expressed the slightest intention to revive the constitution of the empire of Japan.

And I have very good news for Kobayashi. His name is seldom mentioned around the Japan Conference. There is no one who has a reason to kill him. He is 120% safe.

I asked the Japan Conference whether or not Dezaki made a request to interview them while making the film. The answer was no. The Japan Conference also released a statement denying Dezaki’s accusation.

After all, The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue is a video made by a YouTuber who cheated the people who were willing to help him with his supposed graduation thesis. Instead, he hid his true intentions of promoting a conspiracy theory which he never verified.

All Dezaki has successfully achieved is to deepen the conflict and distrust between people who have different opinions on the comfort women issue.

Author: Tetsuhide Yamaoka

#special reports

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blazehedgehog · 6 years ago

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I'm curious if at this point you're good enough at writing and video editing, to get reviews out on time, and the gimmick is just held out of legacy. It feels like you could.

There is no gimmick.

This is going to be very “how the sausage is made,” meaning it’s a long post. A very, very long post. So I’m hiding it behind a “read more” tag.

I mean, I guess there kind of was a gimmick, nine years ago when I first started doing video reviews. And that’s because I originally envisioned my video reviews as the same stuff everyone else was doing at the time: older games. I didn’t have a lot of money, so it wasn’t going to be a show for new games. It was going to be whatever I was thinking of and playing at the time, which was universally going to be old games, and usually old games I’d replayed more than once. Astal, Shenmue, Klonoa, etc. Classics and oddities.

Starting with Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, I started doing video reviews for new games almost exclusively. I’d get a new game at launch, and from the moment it was in my hands, I’d put together a video review for TSSZ. So, it took me six weeks to put together the All-Stars Racing review. Five weeks for the Sonic Lost World review. And so on.

When I got bold enough to start doing video reviews in HD, things started taking exponentially longer. DKC Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, etc. all took me around 3 months a piece. Part of that was the methods used to create HD reviews, as my crummy Roxio Gamecap HD required huge amounts of time (weeks, sometimes) to transcode footage out of their broken format in to something Sony Vegas would accept. But I also began to incorporate more artwork in to my reviews, because I wanted to utilize a talent of mine that was beginning to atrophy. It was a good excuse to draw again.

The longest video on my channel is my “How Do We Fix Sonic?” video. It’s 30 minutes and 30 seconds long, and took me 14-16 months to put together. It took more than a hundred drawings, and even some animation, something I’d never done before. It was the biggest video project I’d ever undertaken at the time.

For reference, the Sonic Mania video review I published in July is the exact same length – 30 minutes and 30 seconds. Depending on how you count, the Sonic Mania video review was put together in three months – the same amount of time it took for Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, et al.

I say “depending on how you count” because Sonic Mania came out in August of 2017, in a period of time where I was homeless. I technically had a Sonic Mania video review script written by September of 2017, but we did not find an apartment to move in to until November of 2017. And, even then, when we moved in, my desktop PC was damaged – the motherboard and power supply had suffered an electrical surge when I plugged my system in to an unsafe outlet while staying at my brother’s house in the four intervening months. I spent $200+ on replacement parts and had to rebuild the whole system, something I was not keen on doing in the middle of the holiday season in an unfamiliar town, in an unfamiliar state. I’d just left my childhood home, the place I’d spent 24 years of my life in. It was a nightmare. All of this took place a year ago, and I still feel tremendously homesick. I abandoned everyone, everywhere and everything I ever knew.

So I didn’t get my system rebuilt until March of 2018, and didn’t really get to work on the Sonic Mania video until April. April to May, May to June, June to July. Three months. For a video that was the same length as the longest, most difficult video I’d ever put together for my channel.

Tristan wanted to air my video review on the TSSZ Twitch channel on the day Sonic Mania Plus was launching. I was hoping to get it out before then, but in the end, I think I only had maybe a week (or less) between finishing my video and Plus launching. So it goes.

There’s a small lie in there, however, in that Sega offered us an early review copy of Sonic Mania Plus. I recall that I was still putting the finishing touches on the original Sonic Mania video review when I had a copy of Plus sitting here on my desk.

I took a few days to myself, just to rest and recharge, before I dove head first into producing the Sonic Mania Plus video. Except that when Sonic Mania came out in August of 2017, I finished the game once as Sonic & Tails. I started files as Tails and Knuckles, but I hadn’t really played too far with them, knowing I’d need to replay the whole game multiple times for video capture purposes. When Plus came out, I was coming off a stint of having replayed Sonic Mania four times for the capture – as Sonic & Tails (with the emeralds), as Tails, Knuckles, and Sonic alone (without the emeralds). I was not actually in the mood to keep playing it.

So my playthrough of Mania Plus was… sluggish. I think the game had been out for a week by the time I’d finished it as Mighty, Ray, and done a full playthrough of Encore Mode. But, by early August I had a video review script written and production was starting to get underway on the Sonic Mania Plus video review. I had a sketch of what I thought the review would look like in the end (called a “shotlist,” which I have uploaded here) and I was starting to capture the video I needed and whatever else.

There was one problem with this: SAGE 2018. It dropped in the middle of August and upended everything I was doing. It was a tremendous undertaking. I wrote nearly 30 pages of text about 85 games in just six days. I thought I could handle it, and in a lot of ways I did, but it left me absolutely fried. On top of the growing burnout from spending now four and a half months doing two Sonic Mania video reviews back to back.

After SAGE, I was going to take a few days off, maybe a week. It ended up being nearly four weeks. That still didn’t feel like enough. It threw everything off balance.

Getting those gears turning again was a struggle. It was October now, and I had plans to do other videos for October. Halloween videos. I split my time researching potential Halloween videos with capturing the rest of my footage (a week), doing artwork (a week and a half), and getting my voice over in order (another week, as the stress was starting to get to me, and that doesn’t make for a good environment to do voice work).

I actually tried to cut corners on my video capturing. Rather than capture footage from six full-length playthroughs of Sonic Mania, I scaled things way back, hoping I wouldn’t need quite as much b-roll as I usually capture. Instead of playing Sonic Mania to completion six more times, I:

Captured one entire playthrough of Encore Mode, minus collecting the seven emeralds. I already had a completed file with the emeralds, so having two files would let me compare the endings.

Because I wanted footage of Ray and Mighty also in Mania Mode, I split one playthrough in half between them: every three levels, I would trade off. Ray would take Green Hill, Chemical Plant, and Studiopolis, then Mighty would do Flying Battery, Press Garden, and Stardust Speedway before I’d switch back to Ray again for the next three. This gave me half of the game as each character, and one complete playthrough between them.

Similarly, I needed footage of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles in Mania mode, but since I had Sonic Mania Plus on PS4 and my original review was produced using the PC version, my save couldn’t be transferred. Instead, I grinded out Blue Spheres medals until I could unlock Debug Mode, and summarily, stage select. Then I just did the same thing, but every two levels: Sonic would get Green Hill and Chemical Plant, Tails would get Studiopolis and Flying Battery, Knuckles would get Press Garden and Stardust Speedway, etc.

Unfortunately, even with being smart like that, it wasn’t enough, and in the middle of editing everything together, I still had to go back and capture footage of specific moments to fill in the gaps I was missing. The lesson is: though you’ll throw away 99% of it, you’ll never have enough b-roll captured. Never ever.

Which brings us to the end of October, me not getting to do any Halloween videos, and the final, finished Sonic Mania Plus review. This time, 20 minutes of video in four months.

Could I have been faster? I don’t know if that’s for me to say. Even though I took a month off (almost all of September), I was still struggling really hard with burnout on the Sonic Mania Plus video. I work on these videos from home, and I have an incredibly poor work-life balance as a result. Essentially, I wake up every morning, turn on my PC, and work on whatever until I go to bed. The only breaks I take are to eat, go to the bathroom, or run errands (shop for food, help babysit my nephews, etc.)

What this really means is something that’s familiar to people who have struggled with burnout, and that’s days where all you do is sit around and worry about work but not actually do any work. I’m trying to get better about this, to have hard cutoff points in the afternoon where I stop working and let myself relax, but that’s easier said than done when you relax at the same place you also work. It’s a learning process for sure.

So, like, yeah, it could have been done a few weeks earlier, but that’s assuming I wasn’t burnt out from working too hard, which means I wouldn’t have worked super hard to get to that point anyway, so no, maybe it wouldn’t have been done a few weeks earlier. I’m not a robot.

I am, however, incredibly stressed. Still stressed about moving to Nevada, stressed about being so far behind on the videos I promised to put out, stressed out about things I won’t even mention here on tumblr because they’re personal issues.

But I am going as fast as I can. I might even be going faster than is healthy for my body.

You’ll get your videos when I’m actually done with them and not a second sooner.

But for now, I need a lot of rest. It’s time for an extended rest-and-recharge session. I still have the promised Sonic Forces video to figure out, and that’ll get done eventually, but I’m running on fumes, I need to gas back up, and it’s a big, empty tank.

#questions #sonic the hedgehog #sega #sonic team #sonic mania #bltn #better late than never videogames #video review #behind the scenes #inside baseball #how the sausage is made #Anonymous

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kaiserdingus · 5 years ago

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Brief Thoughts on the Sonic the Hedgehog Movie

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Trying something new with this, I don’t want to make a habit of it, but since I’ve fallen behind on uploading video essays I’ll do a blog post about the Sonic movie. Since there’s no video to go with this, I uploaded a play through of the promotional movie content in the mobile game Sonic Dash. More video essays are coming, the entire Every Sonic Ever series has been written with gameplay footage recorded. I’m hoping to finish the Classic Era within the next month.

Anyways, let’s talk a little about the Sonic movie. I’m going to try my best to avoid spoilers, but if you haven’t seen it yet then it’s worth checking out.

What can I say other than I loved it? Maybe love is a bit too far, I definitely enjoyed it more than I thought I would though. I’m trying to hold myself back from going too far into detail because I do have a real video essay planned for the Sonic movie, but it was a nice surprise. I would go as far as to say I would welcome the idea of the Sonic movie canon taking over as the main canon for the Sonic franchise.

The movie follows the basic premise of Sonic being a creature from another world who somehow winds up on Earth. Sonic’s home world closely resembles his world in the games, specifically Green Hill Zone from Sonic Generations. On Earth, Dr. Robotnik is investigating a mysterious energy blast when he discovers Sonic. Witnessing Sonic’s abilities, Robotnik decides to capture him with the hope of harnessing his power for himself.

The story is pretty basic, but the characters are what really sell it. Sonic was sent to Earth as a baby in order to hide from anyone looking to claim his power for their own uses. He spends ten years living alone and avoiding detection, gorging himself on American pop culture while longing for friendship. He’s like an energetic kid who’s eager to impress everyone. That doesn’t sound like Sonic at all though, does it? Actually, it smells like character development. Over the course of the movie Sonic goes from a vulnerable kid who hides his feelings with a sarcastic attitude to the confident hero we know from the game.

They do the same with Dr. Robotnik, and yes they do call him Robotnik in the movie. Of course you already know about the Eggman/Robotnik name issue, he was Eggman in Japan and Robotnik in the West in the 90′s, then he became Eggman everywhere in the 2000′s. They take the Sonic Adventure route here, with Dr. Robotnik being his real name and “Eggman” being a nickname Sonic gives him. Dr. Robotnik starts off as an eccentric, but successful government scientist who starts going crazy after being unable to capture Sonic.

The cast were surprisingly great, Ben Schwarz had a great energy to his performance as the voice of Sonic, and the ever wonderful Jim Carrey channeled his 90′s persona as Robotnik. Being this is a kids movie about a talking cartoon hedgehog in the real world, there would of course be unnecessary human characters to connect the cartoons to the culture of whatever year the movie takes place in. Often the human character’s story would get in the way of the title character’s plot, my fear was that Sonic would be a secondary character in his own movie.

Fortunately the human stuff was brief and moved along at a brisk pace, serving its purpose to get us from one part of the story to the next and adding a little emotional element to the movie. Surprisingly enough, I actually enjoyed the human characters. They had great chemistry with one another, and especially with Sonic, to the point where it really sold the idea that Sonic was a real person in the room.

The fan-servicey stuff made me happy, it was nice to see the Sega Saturn logo on Sonic’s map of the universe. There were some deep cuts, like Sonic’s island looking exactly like the map of South Island from the Game Gear version of Sonic 1. Then there were the obvious references like Sonic eating chili dogs, the town being called Green Hills, and Sonic’s ping pong table being a sign for Hill Top. I gotta admit I was smiling through the whole movie at the little details like those.

The most important thing I have to mention is that the audience at my local theater was made up mostly of families with young kids, as well as a group in the front row that seemed to all be video game fans. Everyone in the theater was pretty unanimous on the movie, laughing at all the right moments, gasping at the big reveals, one kid got really excited about the Sonic Mania theme at the beginning of the movie. I’ve read other accounts of kids going crazy for the movie at every showing, they all loved it. I’m glad that the video game I liked as a kid is still making kids happy today.

If the box office numbers are anything to go by I’d say we’re going to be seeing a sequel sooner rather than later. I’m really happy that the movie was a hit because it could be the shot in the arm the franchise has so desperately needed since Sonic Generations came out. Hopefully the sequel is good, after the ending of this movie I’m confident the sequel’s in good hands.

Give Me Your Lunch Money, Nerd

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic boom #sonic movie #movie #animation

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rayninsyde · 7 years ago

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Simpsonwave: the inkblot of a generation - by reddit poster NME24

Link to original post: HERE

It is a dark room, with a single-cushion sofa.

A sullen man walks in. Wearing a robe and a large pair of headphones, he sits and clicks his Walkman. As the camera slowly pans into his face – Homer Simpson’s face – melancholic synth chords usher us into a glitchy VHS world of shooting stars, childhood memories, frantic running, and unreal colours.

To the 3 million YouTube viewers of C R I S I S – even the hundreds in the comments who professed to crying – this so-called genre of Simpsonwave almost feels like a joke. And that’s because to anyone who knows its parent genre, Vaporwave, it is a joke. Isn’t it?

Origins

“Writing about vaporwave in 2016 is almost impossible” Scott Beauchamp would lament within a few months of C R I S I S being posted. Indeed, for the first web-grown genre to scratch mainstream recognition in music history, it remains awkward to write about. Critics such as Simon Chandler (2016) are prone to forgetting that Vaporwave the EDM movement is only half the story; vaporwave the meme is its other half.

In February of 2012, MACINTOSH PLUS released the online album Floral Shoppe, and with 10 million views in its first year, one song would become synonymous with the genre:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU8HrO7XuiE

The out-of-place Japanese title, the cover art’s surreal juxtaposition of ancient and digital, and most importantly, the soulless, disfigured Muzak-like samples left an impression on critics. To Jonathon Dean (2012), this was “one of the best single documents of the vaporwave scene yet”, which “carefully constructs its own meditative headspace through the careful accretion of defamiliarized memory triggers”. Critical theorists such as Grafton Tanner (2013) quickly saw more than a “meditative headspace”. As a trend of combining such eerie samples with grainy commercials was popularized by Saint Pepsi’s Enjoy Yourself and Private Caller, such critics saw an unspoken anti-capitalist satire, drowning the listener in Reagan-era consumer culture to subvert its appeal.

“Why any confusion?” you ask. Just interview MACINTOSH PLUS or Saint Pepsi and their motivations should be clear. Then you run into another uncanny aspect: the alien distance between the artists and their listeners. Vaporwave artists use corporate-inspired pseudonyms, avoid interviews, and make no effort to show their faces, let alone promote themselves. When Bandcamp finally got a hold of Ramona Xavier (Chandler, 2016), who used MACINTOSH PLUS as a one-time alias, she responded “the ideological and philosophical themes behind my work come from a personal place – kind of a quarantine zone in my brain that I don’t let people into”. Each artist is a ghost on the internet, the “non-place” so many of us were raised in, which like a shopping mall, looks similar wherever in the world you go. That they refuse to be more than avatars indeed suggests deliberate alienation.

If that was the intent, you wouldn’t know it from the comments either. With its S P A C E D O U T T I T L E S, grainy Japanese commercials and faceless marble statues, it’s only fair that an aesthetic intended to leave the listener empty, confused and nostalgic was ripe for being mocked. It was, as Sam Sutherland acknowledges, endless second-hand parodying of this aesthetic across Reddit, YouTube and 4chan, as much as Vaporwave’s first-hand parody of consumerism, that propelled it into virality.

The undercurrent

It needn’t be said that postmodernism, parody and self-parody go hand-in-hand. A complete scepticism of grand narratives leads to deconstructing the “sincere” into the detached or comedic, leaving irony as the only means of expression. This scepticism lends itself to (though is not limited to) globalization, pop culture, and the worship of laissez-faire capitalism that emerged in the 1980s. Such songs as MACINTOSH PLUS’s リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー are a thorough exercise in deconstruction. The song samples Diana Ross’s Make Your Move, and with it, the synth sounds, motorik pulse, and cutesy lyrics emblematic of an 80s pop song. Ross’s voice is then pitched down to become ostensibly male, and the song is slowed down to assume an air of mediocrity. The lyrics are chopped and repeated ad nausem until they take on different meanings: “do you understand that it’s all in your hands?” becomes “do you understand that it’s all in your head?”

Much as a song about serious love is undermined to become one about solitude and solipsism in the digital “non-place”, the seriousness of vaporwave is undermined by internet users who, in the spirit of irony and sarcasm, refuse to take it seriously. Thus the saying “vaporwave is dead – long live vaporwave” (Beauchamp, 2016).

“Postmodernism feeds off distance,” Seth Abramson observed in 2014. “Radios, and even the early years of technological industrialization, emphasized distance in a way that was unmistakable. The internet, by comparison, is a strange mix of distance and closeness, detachment and immediacy – our sense of ourselves and strangers’ varying senses of us – that postmodernism doesn’t really seem to describe well”.

The shift

What then, given the history of Vaporwave, is so significant about an edited Homer Simpson listening to Resonance on his Walkman?

That it reconstructs the comedic and the detached into the sincere.

The Simpsonwave subgenre is best explained by YouTube user JavCee (2016): “take footage of early episodes of the Simpsons… now edit some wavy music to the footage…next, add a dream-like filter and VHS distortion to the entire video to represent the adult longing for a childhood they thought they had… even alternative scenes to better showcase the brain synapses sometimes crossing in memories…creating phantoms of times that probably never existed in the first place.”

This is quite a turn to take from Vaporwave’s agenda as we’ve described it. There is, as Sutherland (2016) points out: “something to be said about a new emotional resonance being added to a genre of music that I would argue exists specifically to mock the commercial and corporate vibe of mall-type music”.

As Homer sits like us – alone at night, ears plugged, facial expression vacant – we enter his mind to find something different to the cartoon caricature of an overweight, suburban dad. We’re suddenly thrust in memories of Marge as a teenager, Homer driving alone, his mother embracing him in a dream – Homer bowling alone – visions of his children – Homer running alone – his wife in bed. The second memory Homer thinks about, perhaps his most recent, is him sitting on bed with a strange woman, and bursting into tears.

The unexpected pain of watching this is both generational and personal; in the days that we curled up on the couch to watch The Simpsons after school, masculinity dictated that this was a side rarely acknowledged of not just cartoon fathers, but of our own fathers as well. Now, in one surreal moment, Homer Simpson runs through the woods from his thoughts, a tender victim of the passage of time.

In uploading this video, Lucian Hughes has injected meaning into not just a comedic cartoon, but a satirical genre that deliberately robs the listener of comfort. But should we allow him?

In 1993, author David Foster Wallace was a generation early in heralding “new sincerity”: “The next real literary ‘rebels’ in this country might well emerge as some weird bunch of anti-rebels, born oglers who dare somehow to back away from ironic watching, who have the childish gall actually to endorse and instantiate single-entendre principles”

Such a feeling steps away from presenting the meaninglessness of the society we have, and instead focuses on meaning at either the personal level, or in the societal future or past. To Vermeulen (2010), this is termed “meta-modernism”, something which “acknowledges that history's purpose will never be fulfilled because it does not exist. Critically, however, it nevertheless takes toward it as if it does exist. Inspired by a modern naïveté yet informed by postmodern scepticism, the metamodern discourse consciously commits itself to an impossible possibility.” Simpsonwave acknowledges the fakeness of the series, and brings that fakeness up a notch through the creation of alternate scenes.

Such videos as C R I S I S and W H E R E A M I G O I N G? both admit their manufactured nature and press on in pursuit of emotion. They are beyond political agendas and seek to quench, rather than solely bring attention to, a deep generational starvation of meaning.

And that is for better or for worse.

#simpsonwave #vaporwave #a e s t h e t i c

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lesmisextendedversion · 8 years ago

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LES MISÉRABLES EXTENDED VERSION

The time is now! The day is here!

What is this about?

The 2012 Les Misérables film is 2.5 hours long. However, Tom Hooper's original director's cut included almost 4 hours of footage. What happened in all those scenes that were excluded from the final version? Many of us have been wanting to see them for years, but neither Hooper nor Universal Pictures have expressed their intentions to release an extended cut anytime soon.

And how do we plan to make them change their mind?

We are going to make them see that many people are still interested in the release of an extended version. We want to prove to Universal Pictures, their producers, and Hooper that they would profit from releasing a longer version of the film. But we need your help. Let's not give them one reason, but thousands. Specifically, 24601.

Count me in! How can I help?

Just tell us why you want to have an extended version! Are there any of the cut scenes from the movie which you would like to see restored? Do you have a favourite character that you would like to see more of? Or did you just like the film so much that you would happily watch a longer version of it? Any reason is a good reason! It can be as simple as a sentence or you can write a very long paragraph about it, it's up to you! Send your reason to [email protected], adding your first name and your country. For example, this could be your message if you were a certain writer very interested in details:

“The sewers definitely deserved more screen time.” (Victor, France)

Why do you want to know my name and my country?

This is a worldwide petition and we want to show Universal Pictures et al. that there are real people from all over the world who would buy an extended cut. Your name and country alone won't be enough to identify you if you don't want anyone to know who you are, that is why we are not asking for anything more specific such as your last name or city. Your reason will be published in a similar format to the example above and we won't share your e-mail address or any other personal information with anyone.

Can I write to you in any language?

Since we're going to contact people whose first language is English, we encourage you to write in English because that way we will be able to send them your reason exactly as you wrote it. However, if you don't feel confident enough to write in English, you can use any of these languages and one of our collaborators will translate it for you. (Don't forget to tell us in the subject line what language you're writing in!)

And how are you going to send our reasons to the people who have a say in this?

We are going to collect all your reasons on a huge document and send it to Universal Pictures on the 25th of December, the movie's fifth anniversary, with a letter explaining this project’s purpose. Since the document may be too large to send via e-mail (and since the people who check the company’s messages may not open attached files from unknown senders), we will probably upload it on Dropbox or a similar platform and send them the link so they can read it there.

We will also be sharing your reasons or some fragments of them on Twitter (@MisExtended) and on our Tumblr blog (lesmisextendedversion.tumblr.com) and we are contacting the press to make sure our voice is heard in as many places as possible.

Is there anything else I can do to help?

Sure, there are plenty of things you can do!

Do you have a Tumblr or Twitter account? Share this petition with all your followers!

Do you know anyone who would like to join us but doesn't use the internet? Tell them about us, find out their reason and send it to us if they're okay with it!

Can you speak any language besides English? Join our translation team!

Are you good at drawing? Share your art with us!

Do you know any press/media that might be interested in our campaign? Tell us about them so that we can contact them!

Write to [email protected] and share your ideas with us to help us reach more people!

#english #LesMisExtended

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skeleton-farts-blog · 8 years ago

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EMERGENCY HEADSHOT COMMISSIONS!

EMERGENCY HEADSHOT COMMISSIONS! I was planning on doing these later when I got some more stuff finished but shit has come up and I'm in a really tight position... I've been looking for jobs since April 2016 (a year coming up yay...) and I've been able to get a few commissions here and there and temporarily helping with my mums business (but she hasn't got enough work for the both of us) And I don't wanna get too personal with the details but we're really stuck in the mud. I need to make a minimum of $40 a month just for my phone bills (it was the cheapest deal I could get.), then there's my car rego payments every 3 months which is $190, and now there's doctor appointments I have to make and just by visiting the place it's $90 easy... (these wont be too regular thankfully!), I've gotta pay to renew your licence (thanks for letting my know government... this is only a once in a few years thing too but it's still annoying.) And I pay for things here and there to help out around the house. But I've decided to make some really super cheap headshot commissions since they're quick and easy to do, don't take too much time (about 3-5 hours at most) and I know a lot of you don't have that much money so for a limited time I'm selling these headshots super cheap so let me know if you're interested! I'm also accepting them as point commissions too if you do not have a paypal account! They are 400 and 620 points equal to the prices! An additional 160 points of you wish to have the speedpaint included! (If you are deviantART) (IF YOU DO WANT A SPEEDPAINT LET ME KNOW UP FRONT OTHERWISE I MIGHT NOT RECORD ALL OF THE FOOTAGE IF YOU DECIDE TO HAVE ONE LATER ON!) (Check the commissions tab on my page!) I can draw anything from your OC to a favourite character of yours! Some info on the sections: Standard Headshots: These are just hard-cell shaded drawings. Detailed Headshots: Soft shaded headshots with slightly more details depending on the character drawn. (e.g. clear cracks or scarring if any and detailed fur.) Additional Speedpaint: Your commission will be recorded and upload to my channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/XxNarutoDragonxX The final piece will be linked in the description of the video and credit will be given to you! (If it is your OC being drawn.) Think of this as a promotion for you ;) (Your username will be in the title of the video as well!) My subscriber count has been quite quite largely as of late! (I had 14subs beginning of last year, 700 at the beginning of this year and gained 67subs this year on 3 videos being uploaded alone!) I do have a few rules (nothing that bad don't worry hehe) 1. I do accept payment first, I will not upload the drawing or show you WIPs unless you have paid prior. (Mainly for art theft purposes) 2. I do have a busy schedule so your headshots may not come out immediately! But commissions are usually my top priority when I receive them so they will be at the top of my list of things to do! 3. You do not own this piece personally! By this meaning that you so not upload the artwork to any other sites without my permission, post on your personal gallery (I give exceptions if it's for avator use for dA or other sites but please let me know you're doing it so it's nice for me to have that peace of mind!) And if you do post onto other sites I request you give the link to the original piece and say it was made by me. (So others will know who drew the artwork and I don't have to chase people up about it!) It's just common courtesy. If you cannot afford these commissions but would still like to help feel free to share this! I'm not very popular (despite having quite a large number of followers I'm not sure if all of them see my stuff, they could had checked off my notifications...) But if I am able to make these commissions work and earn my monthly amount of a minimum of $40 then I'll permanently keep these prices for headshots!:D I know my commission prices are quite high already but they are all below my hourly rate already and I can't make them any cheaper :'( But I hope the best with these! :') If you have any questions please feel free to ask me! I'll leave these open until the 30th of April!:D Thank you and have a good one!

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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years ago

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Matt Fagerholm's Top Ten Films of 2018

For dutiful film critics preparing to mark their ballots, the final months of the year are nothing less than a cinematic avalanche. Studios do everything in their power to entice us into viewing their most prized work prior to our voting deadlines and “best of” lists. There’s no way any single person can watch and fully digest every single movie that comes out in a given year, but boy do the most devoted cinephiles give it their all, consuming multiple pictures after work hours or early in the morning.

You can’t merely enjoy movies to pull off such a feat, you must be obsessed with them and believe deeply in their importance. It’s not just a job or a hobby, it is one of the great purposes of my life to champion an art form that possesses the power of strengthening our connection with one another. In such divided and toxic times, the humanizing beam of a film projector is more vital and revitalizing than ever. And in many recent cases cited below, it reminded me of why I fell in love with visual storytelling in the first place.

10. “Mary Poppins Returns”

In an era where Disney appears hellbent on churning out pointless yet highly profitable shot-for-shot remakes of their animated classics, the very notion of producing a sequel to the studio’s all-time greatest picture sounds like a surefire recipe for disaster. Yet what “Chicago” director Rob Marshall has achieved here will stand as a definitive example of how to honor a masterpiece. There is no attempt made to equal or improve upon Robert Stevenson’s 1964 marvel—after all, how does one top perfection? Yet with a running time clocking in just nine minutes shy of its predecessor, this buoyantly old school musical captures the innocence, whimsy and wonderment of “Mary Poppins” while offering its own spirited take on the material.

Emily Blunt is well-aware that she does not possess the indelible screen persona, let alone the pipes, of Julie Andrews, yet her balance of warmth and sardonic wit is impeccable for the title role, as is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s vibrance and Cockney-by-way-of-Neptune accent in the Bert-like role of lamplighter Jack. A team of veteran animators were brought out of retirement to create the film’s glorious hand-drawn sequence, while the “Hairspray” duo of Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman penned nine original songs echoing the Sherman Brothers’ signature vaudevillian style. Worth the price of admission alone is the ever-ageless Dick Van Dyke, playing the son of the banker he brilliantly brought to life incognito in the first film. Marshall clearly drew upon his childhood memories of seeing “Mary Poppins” on the big screen, and this labor of love is sure to delight fans and newcomers alike. It certainly brought out the child in me.

9. “Life and Nothing More”

Winner of Film Independent’s John Cassavetes Award during last year’s Spirit Awards ceremony, Antonio Méndez Esparza’s arresting film aims to capture nothing more than the relentless flow of “life itself.” The director used his script merely as a blueprint, enabling each scene to be formed organically in the moment, while guided by the experiences of his nonprofessional actors (who share the first names of their characters). Spirit Award nominee Regina Williams delivers one of the year’s best performances as a waitress struggling to provide for her troubled son (Andrew Bleechington), and baby daughter in Leon Country, Florida. I’ve watched Esparza’s film twice now, and its greatness reveals itself even more upon second viewing, upending the biases we may have developed about certain characters.

The first time around, I tended to view events from Andrew’s perspective because that was how they were framed by the camera. His refusal to trust his mother’s boyfriend (Robert Williams) is understandable, since his own dad’s incarceration has given him little reason to trust father figures, though his methods of ousting him from the house are no different from that of the white family who attempt to kick the boy out of their affluent park, even as he poses no threat to them. All of the film’s major conflicts arise from a stubborn reluctance of its characters to communicate with one another. The poignant final shot suggests that our estrangement can be mended the moment we choose to lock eyes and listen to each other, allowing our voices to rise above the deafening cries of our presumptions.

8. “The Tale”

When Lady Gaga appeared on Stephen Colbert’s late night show this past October, she delivered a stirring defense of Christine Blasey Ford, the psychologist who charged Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault prior to his confirmation as a Supreme Court justice. “If someone is assaulted or experiences trauma, there is scientific proof that the brain changes,” noted Gaga. “It takes the trauma and puts it in a box, files it away and shuts it so that we can survive the pain.” It may take years for that box to be reopened, as evidenced by multiple survivors of the abuse administered by Olympics doctor Larry Nassar. Taped testimonials delivered by these women and girls during his trial, and subsequently uploaded on YouTube, were humbling in their bravery. The same can be said of this blistering narrative memoir from documentarian Jennifer Fox, who revisits an episode from her youth that she had kept buried for decades.

While interviewing rape victims for her latest project, Jennifer (Laura Dern) is triggered into remembering the intimate relationship she developed with the running coach (Jason Ritter) and instructor (Elizabeth Debicki) at a horse-riding camp when she was only a little girl (played with heartbreaking innocence by Isabelle Nélisse, sister of “Monsieur Lazhar” star Sophie Nélisse). Rather than accompany Dern’s scenes with routine flashbacks, Fox finds ingenious ways of having the heroine enter her own past, interrogating the occupants of her memories as if they were the subjects of her latest documentary. Dern’s late “Rambling Rose” co-star John Heard gave one of his final performances as the older version of Ritter, who is publicly shamed in a sequence that registers as a rallying cry of the #MeToo movement.

7. “Custody”

There was no horror film in 2018 that tested my nerves quite like this Hitchcockian nightmare from Xavier Legrand, an incredibly gifted first-time feature director from France. Billed as a domestic drama, I was prepared for something more akin to Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation,” as a divorced couple, Antoine (Denis Ménochet) and Miriam (Léa Drucker), battle in court over the custody of their young son, Julien (Thomas Gioria, in one of the most astonishing debut performances I’ve ever seen). At first, my sympathies leaned toward the father, whose foiled bids to connect with Julien are relatable—until his face hardens and he begins to show his true colors. Ménochet slyly straddles the line between frustrated sad sack and frightening monster, causing us to feel as perpetually on edge as Julien, never certain of his next move.

In every tremulous motion and agonized glance, Gioria conveys the volatile atmosphere of white-knuckled fear his father maintained at home. Merely being in Antoine’s presence is enough to give Julien PTSD, and when he attempts to make a run for it, he quickly realizes there is only so far he can go. In a superb instance of juxtaposition, Legrand cuts from Julien’s older sister (Mathilde Auneveux) belting out “Proud Mary” at a birthday party to the violence that threatens to erupt between Antoine and Miriam in the parking lot. Then we arrive at a climatic sequence on par with the finale of Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” as Legrand’s Oscar-worthy sound designers create a harrowing sense of impending doom with the subtlest of repetitions. Only at the final fade out will you allow yourself to take a breath.

6. “Leave No Trace”

A list of the year’s greatest achievements in acting wouldn’t be complete without Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie’s extraordinary lead performance in Debra Granik’s quietly shattering drama. Having already won over New Zealand audiences with her endearing web series, “Lucy Lewis Can’t Lose,” here McKenzie goes toe-to-toe and nose-to-nose with the sublime Ben Foster, and proves to be every bit his equal. Foster’s character of Will has the same first name as the role that the actor played in Oren Moverman’s equally great war-themed film, “The Messenger,” about an injured soldier assigned to inform families that their enlisted loved one has passed. The man Foster embodied in that film was named after one of the soldiers he met during his research, so it’s only appropriate that the Will he portrays in Granik’s film is also a veteran haunted by ghosts from the past.

The picture is deeply effective in part because none of Will’s demons are ever spelled out in an expositional monologue. So much can be gleaned simply through his behavior, such as how he winces at the sound of propeller. Choosing to raise his daughter, Tom (McKenzie), in the wilderness of Portland, Will has carved out a manageable life for himself. The strength of the bond between him and Tom endures until the modern world comes crashing upon them, forcing the pair to reevaluate what direction they want to take in life, and whether it will be the same one. McKenzie never overplays a single note of her character’s journey, remaining strong for her dad even while fighting back tears. It’s the restraint of her work that left me with a lump in my throat.

5. “Muppet Guys Talking”

For lifelong Muppet fans, Frank Oz’s euphoric documentary has been the gift that keeps on giving. It premiered exclusively online this past March, enabling the legendary Muppeteer-turned-director to connect directly with viewers, while providing those who sign up for a membership with enough deleted scenes to fill a separate feature. Taken altogether, this footage paints an invaluable portrait of Jim Henson’s genius, in terms of both his visionary creations and his knack for being “a harvester of people.” Oz (Miss Piggy, Grover, Fozzie Bear) joins four of his fellow “Muppet guys”—Dave Goelz (The Great Gonzo), Fran Brill (Prairie Dawn), Bill Barretta (Pepé the King Prawn) and the late Jerry Nelson (Count von Count)—for a lively chat about the process of puppeteering and the painstaking effort that must be expended in order to achieve the most fleeting yet crucial nuance. It’s fascinating to watch the performers break down the origins of their iconic characters, and how they were inspired by aspects of their own lives.

Yet what makes the film truly great is the way in which Oz and his wife, executive producer Victoria Labalme, resurrect the humanistic spirit of Henson, enabling his worldview to reach beyond the barriers of show business and prove utterly universal in its relevance. Acknowledging that the Muppets’ signature style is less than polished, Oz keeps the picture loose and alive, refusing to conceal the cameramen scrambling to capture their subjects’ unscripted banter. The performers and audiences that Henson brought together through his artistry are his everlasting symphony, and this onscreen quintet is enduring proof of that. And if you like 1981’s “The Great Muppet Caper” now, just wait till you get a load of the behind-the-scenes stories. It’s one of the most mind-boggling feats in cinema.

4. “First Reformed”

With this richly disquieting film—his finest since 1985’s “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters”—Paul Schrader proves himself to be a master of “slow cinema,” and like the tortoise, he has outpaced every impatient hare in his path. Moviegoers unfamiliar with this term may assume that it promises little more than a dull slog, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. If anything, this genre’s contemplative nature proves to be far more transfixing than films so breathless to entertain that they forget to earn our investment. The austere filmmakers that Schrader pays homage to throughout the picture—notably Robert Bresson and Carl Dreyer—are interested in withholding certain elements, refusing to utilize techniques that viewers have come to expect, such as a quick editing pace or varied coverage like over-the-shoulder shots.

Alexander Dynan lenses the film in the same compressed aspect radio as Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Ida”—1.37:1—limiting the camera movement almost entirely to scenes that jump from the temporal plane to the cosmic realm, escaping the bonds of reality. Whereas Schrader’s “Taxi Driver” followed a disillusioned veteran whose plans to wreak havoc on a world he believes to be diseased are foiled by the plight of a 12-year-old prostitute, “First Reformed” is about a disillusioned military chaplain-turned-pastor whose plans to wreak havoc on a world he believes to be diseased are disrupted by the plight of a pregnant woman named Mary. Ethan Hawke delivers the performance of his career as Toller, a clergyman with self-righteous convictions fueled primarily by his personal demons. Like Dietrich Brüggemann’s “Stations of the Cross” (a 2014 German masterwork that Schrader and I both revere), this movie is a rebuke to the fallacy that self-destruction is tantamount to spiritual transcendence.

3. “Roma”

No director makes my jaw drop quite like Alfonso Cuarón. His latest movie left me so stunned that I remained pinned to my seat throughout the entirety of the credits, which end with the Buddhist chant, “Shantih Shantih Shantih.” This invocation of peace—in body, speech and mind—was memorably repeated in Cuarón’s “Children of Men,” a 2006 thriller that horrifyingly foreshadowed the current refugee crisis. That film contained two extended sequences of continuous movement—one set in a car under siege, the other on war-torn streets—that are among the most spellbinding triumphs of cinematography, choreography and effects in the history of cinema. Cuarón’s new film culminates with a bravura set piece on par with those others, yet that’s only one aspect of its greatness.

Like “Children of Men” and “First Reformed,” this deeply personal tour de force assesses the challenge of bringing new life into a chaotic world. It is also a black-and-white valentine to the Mexico of Cuarón’s childhood and the maid who nurtured him, embodied by Cleo (newcomer Yalitza Aparicio). As she finds her own life paralleling that of the middle-class woman she works for, Cleo begins to feel increasingly conflicted about her own future, as well as that of her unborn baby. Having learned a wealth of techniques from his regular DP, three-time Oscar-winner Emmanuel Lubezki, Cuarón takes charge of the camerawork this time around, and his eye for composition (albeit less restless) is every bit as audacious. A pair of visual motifs involving water and airplanes resurface in endlessly provocative ways, while two prolonged scenes—viewed from static angles—blur the action in the background, marrying two moments of inevitable heartache. I have rarely heard an audience react so audibly to the art of mise-en-scène as when I saw this film with a sold-out crowd during the opening night of its theatrical run in Chicago. If you see only one movie on the big screen this holiday season, make it this one.

2. “Minding the Gap”

In the monumental 52-year legacy of Chicago’s production company Kartemquin Films, none of its documentaries have impacted me on as personal a level as this astonishing debut feature from Bing Liu. While filming his longtime friends Keire and Zack as they took part in their cherished hobby of performing bruising stunts on their skateboards, Liu began to see a potential film materialize as he held the camera on their faces. “This place eats away at you,” says Keire of their hometown, Rockford, Illinois. He relishes the fleeting sense of control he sustains while skating, until he wipes out. Sure, the hobby may hurt him on occasion, but so did his dad, and he still loves the old man, though it’s telling that Keire finds catharsis in stomping on his boards until they splinter.

The fact that all three men are victims of domestic abuse is alarming but also quite commonplace in a town where nearly half the population is paid below the minimum wage, and where the residue of violence clings to the interior of houses that were meant to comfort and protect. “I saw myself in your story,” Liu explains to Keire, who likens the experience of making the movie to “free therapy.” As the filmmaker struggles to come to terms with the wounds inflicted by his own upbringing, he starts to see echoes of his abuser in the increasingly unsettling behavior of Zack. When Liu films his mother and simultaneously confronts her about the abandonment he felt as a kid, he keeps a separate camera fixed on his face, drawing attention to his own inability to break free from the pain of his past. Assisted by co-editor Joshua Altman, Liu weaves these stories together, forming a seamless tapestry of anguish and catharsis that culminates in an extended montage so deftly executed, it left me in awe.

1. “Eighth Grade”

As a bullied student in eighth grade, what I desired more than anything was to become a director of films that would make kids like me feel less alone. Now, with his first foray into filmmaking, Bo Burnham has made the movie I’ve spent nearly two decades hoping would one day exist. The film’s heroine, Kayla, is a lonesome soul bereft of an extracurricular outlet. Though her graduation from junior high is only one week away, every second in that soul-crushing environment feels like an eternity. So she turns to the world that didn’t exist when I was her age, the one that beckons to her from the cool glow of her laptop and phone. Burnham, who first garnered a global audience via his comedic YouTube videos, honors his protagonist by refusing to play her feelings for laughs. As portrayed by 15-year-old Elsie Fisher, Kayla emerges as one of the most compelling and vividly realized movie characters I’ve ever encountered. My heart broke every time the camera lingered on her face—untouched by an artificial Hollywood sheen—as she struggled to contain her embarrassment behind an expression of optimism.

The screenplay by Burnham doesn’t have an ounce of condescension, and the laughter that it generates—which is plentiful—arises out of recognition rather than ridicule. These are the years where attentive parenting is utterly essential, and Kayla is fortunate enough to have a father, Mark (Josh Hamilton), who may exasperate her with his persistent prying, but has a limitless reservoir of empathy and understanding. When Mark’s words finally register for Kayla during a lovely sequence set around a campfire, they affirm her sense of belonging in the world. As he tells his daughter, “You make me brave,” I couldn’t help agreeing with him. There is nothing braver than a middle schooler who dares to be human. What makes “Eighth Grade” the best film of 2018 is the way it makes Kayla’s anxiety resonate on a level that transcends all age, race, gender, nationality and culture. With petulant bullies elected to our highest offices, and technology breeding an addiction to constant approval, it goes without saying that our world has currently succumbed to an eighth grade mentality. You no longer have to be 13 in order to feel trapped in junior high.

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tweetadvise · 7 years ago

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What is Integrated Marketing and How Does it Work?

This week I showed a training session on Structure an Integrated Advertising Strategy as part of our Marketing Superhero Bootcamp collection. I was a bit bewildered at the number of inquiries at the end of session, so I thought it would certainly be much better to in fact respond to the questions via our blog site. This is the very first of approximately five messages on different concern towns connected to my Integrated Marketing presentation.

Of the greater than 70 concerns uploaded in the chatroom, they mainly fell under these 5 groups, for which I will be doing a blog each:

Integrated Advertising parts as well as bringing all of it together (this blog post)

Prioritizing Integrated Advertising Channels

How to be effective at Integrated Marketing (or advertising at all) at tiny business or non-profits

Integrated Marketing metrics and also budget

Developing your go-to-market strategy and personas

What is Integrated Marketing?

Let's begin with the meaning, specifically for those of you that did not join our bootcamp. Integrated Advertising and marketing is unifying typical and also non-traditional advertising networks as well as applying consistent branding, messaging as well as techniques, and using cross-channel promos so networks strengthen and also strengthen each other.

With the number of marketing networks boosting daily, the demand for an integrated strategy to advertising and marketing has come to be more essential compared to in the past. If we maintain marketing techniques or networks in silos, we are not gaining the amount of any of them. By leveraging each other and also creating constant styles, material and dreams, our combined advertising efforts climbs the entire ship, causing more success not just for advertising and marketing however likewise to buy, income as well as the company overall.

How Could I Bring the Parts Together?

First, you have to locate all the pieces. Possibly this is evident in your world, however I could inform you I have actually had numerous encounters where my initial step was identifying and also learning more about the marketing people across a company. Locating individuals and just what they do aids you both figure out that the team is and also exactly what the pieces that exist already actually are. There may be voids in the Integrated Advertising and marketing chain you will certainly have to fill.

Next, put together a proposal. Just like any strategy, you should clearly state what you are proposing, why it is very important, what obstacles or problems are intrinsic now with the group siloed, who is involved, and also just what you expect completion cause be. This plan should be accepted by whoever possesses the general organizational structure, which depending on the size of your division, company system or company, can be the VP of Advertising, the CMO, the Elderly VP for your division or the CEO.

Make sure that as you are mingling this proposal, you do not capture any of the influenced members off guard. Speak to them, get their input as well as concepts, ask what their objectives are, etc. Make them a component of the process as well as plan.

Also, be certain to get HR included early while doing so. By connecting proactively with Human Resources and also having a champ from Human Resources on your side, the business structure revamp will certainly go a lot more smoothly.

Remember that the Integrated Advertising and marketing group does not always have to literally be a single team. I've taken care of numerous Integrated Marketing plans as well as teams where the participants did not all record to me. You could produce as well as execute very successful advertising strategies and campaigns with a virtual team that might report right into numerous locations. What connections you together is the technique, the purposes, the metrics as well as the incorporated master plan and schedule everybody aligns to.

How Do You Get Executive Buy-in or Drive Integrated Advertising and marketing Up?

Some of this inquiry I responded to above if you are the person taking care of the process. I obtained many questions like this that were plainly from people not in control, who have one piece, or possibly are the only marketing professional in an organization.

Regardless of your situation, getting executive buy-in takes supplying the executive the proposition, strategy or language he/she ases if to consume. I have always found having a sound plan that I can provide to an executive or an exec group is an excellent location to start.

Do your homework! What is essential to the business or to the exec that you can leverage? Is it earnings? Is it affordable threats? Is it spin? By understanding the hot factors for the executive, you could customize your strategy and conversation accordingly.

Show the data! Do you have any kind of information to demonstrate how some kind of incorporated marketing worked before. Did you do a project that combined Public Relations, need gen, social media and also occasions that resulted in the highest possible lead discussion to date. Possibly it's not that dramatic, however literally any instance you could give that reveals a glimpse of the future incorporated bliss will help. If you don't have your personal instances or data, locate some outdoors. You can locate practically anything on the internet nowadays, and also I make sure you will certainly find some example despite exactly how simple you could create on.

Reach out and collaborate informally! If you don't have the framework or plan in location, after that begin constructing the connections yourself. You do not need executive approval to go conversation with as well as find out exactly how to work a lot more closely with various other marketers in your organization. That's just wise. I have never ever seen anybody state no to meeting for a coffee or lunch or short chat, particularly if you present your request as wishing to see how you could assist them to increase their reach or advertising and marketing effect with what you're doing.

Lead a project! Volunteer to your exec or advertising and marketing leader to lead a project, where you could construct an incorporated plan. Maybe an item launch or something seemingly small like a neighborhood networking event or a new video or item of security. Regardless of how huge or tiny, you might take that job as well as show it's impact in an incorporated advertising and marketing way.

Take a video as an example. Before producing it, connect to your marketing 'teammates' and discover out just how they could utilize video clip footage. You might discover they need 15 second teasers for social media or 1 min video clip for lead gen on the site or perhaps a 5 min video clip for occasions. By gathering this data ahead of time, you could make sure your project integrates in the flexibility to meet numerous requirements. Then, share that video material with all the groups, ideally placing it in the style they need for their network. Then report up the results and impact of your one 'little' job. While you go to it, if proper, showcase the exec in the video, also if just for a short piece. Including the exec at the same time as well as the end product will assist your case (particularly if the officer has a huge vanity).

How Do You Eliminate Cynicism or Siloed Workers?

The best means to get rid of resentment or unwilling marketing professionals across your company is by listening to them, assisting them and also offering them something at risk. I have experienced cynicism at every company where I have actually done this. Why are they negative? Probably they have actually been moved around a million times. Possibly they have shed the possibility at a promo due to the fact that of changing supervisors before. Possibly they do not wish to remain in advertising as well as like resting in engineering or sales or client assistance. There are a million factors. You have to sell them as well as include them.

Before you attempt to transform the globe, do a project where you include people throughout the Integrated Marketing mix to participate. Have shared goals and metrics for the task. Make certain you understand exactly what they should help them be successful.

So usually, we are so concentrated on our dream we overlook discovering what others have to succeed. Many times, online marketers really feel like they don't have a voice in the company. If you could produce a project where individuals really feel listened to, valued and also rewarded, you will certainly be revealing them the value of working with you.

The very same opts for siloed workers, who have actually developed a pattern of functioning alone and shutting everyone out. Provide them something at risk or at risk.

For instance, let's claim they are a technical content author in cost of the individual guide. As part of the product launch, you ask them if they would agree to take advantage of the work on the individual overview as well as develop several blog site articles concerning vital individual scenarios. And also possibly also create a much shorter 'the best ways to' document you could make use of in marketing. Perhaps you also have them do a couple podcasts regarding how you can use the item. Most technological writers are terrific authors, as well as long for the chance to reveal their creating chops in other ways.

Importantly as well as ALWAYS make a point of saying thanks to the individual for their involvement in the project, and send an email to their direct manager and also maybe even their executive thanking them for enabling this person to be involved as well as allowing them recognize what a wonderful job he or she did. Talk regarding the cooperation as well as the results of this integrated project.

What's Next?

For you, exactly what's next is checking out my tips over! For me, it's functioning on addressing your various other questions, such as how to prioritize the many different incorporated advertising and marketing networks. And while I do that, please leave talk about other concepts you have for people who asked these questions!

#advertising strategies #branding #business #business marketing #integrated marketing #internet marketing #internet marketing company #market strategy #marketing #marketing mix #marketing strategy #marketing techniques #media marketing #small business #small business marketing #social media #social media marketing strategy #web marketing

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