#looking for more mouthwashing experiences where the game itself was 'fun' but i kept coming back with more awe and understanding

[glassrunner]

man the past few weeks sucks in terms of the sheer disappointment that comes from highly-anticipated media revealing itself to be shallow and poorly-written :/

[youmissedone]

A little rant about Doc from Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

First, I’ll say... this post contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for this movie, so if you haven’t seen it yet, don’t read on unless you don’t care if things get ruined for you, heh.

Next, I’ll mention that this is not a platform to shame the movies in general or to say Final Chapter sucked. I know a lot of you can (and would) say most if not all of the movies sucked, whether on their own or in comparison to the games, but I really love them, despite their flaws. So we’re not going to hate on the movies... except in fun ways, heh. There is a lot I have been able to enjoy, piece together, extrapolate on with these movies, maybe because I have a writer’s brain and a pretty good imagination, so I can overlook certain failings of horror/scifi movies and see their potential in other ways. It’s brain candy for me, so I can’t hate them too much.

Except... Final Chapter... Doc. (sigh)

Words cannot express how much I hated this character. I could just stop there. Buuuut, I won’t. XD Read on if you don’t mind spoilers or you hate Doc as much as I do, haha.

Right, so... Doc. This guy right here.

Doc represents to me the epitome of bad writing, bad plot twists, bad plot twist reveals, and bad scripting. I cannot say bad acting, because... with what this actor was given to work with I think he did a good job. Too bad the writing and script made him look like a total ass. 

So, Doc was made exclusively for the trope of good-guy-turns-out-to-be-spy. I mean, it’s overused, but in some cases it’s an effective and even necessary trope. Not here. Aside from the fact that Doc served no discernible function in the entire movie other than to save Alice from a trap he let her ride into in the first place, Doc was written so poorly that anyone with a decent amount of experience in mapping out and writing story arcs could spot his flip a mile away. But then, once his duplicity is revealed, the movie’s banking on the viewer’s acceptance of this “revelation” is so complete and so obvious that he actually changes in personality, demeanor, and body language. Come with me while I rip Doc’s character apart for being such an affront to expertly crafted spy and betrayal arcs everywhere.

We first meet Doc when Alice wakes up from riding into a trap that full-body bitchslaps her off her motorcycle and causes her to fall unconscious. She wakes up to Doc trying to ram a needle in her heart and get her full of adrenaline so she’d wake up. (sigh) Imma already stop here. Because... already we have problems. When she asks him what's in the syringe, the conversation goes as follows:

“I needed you awake.”

“Why?!”

“Somethin’s comin’. Somethin’ big. Same direction you came.” 

I just... *rubs temples* I have so many problems already. First of all, this is supposedly a group survivors that have barely enough to live on in a building crumbling so badly that it’s down to its metal framework. Where... the frick... is he getting pure adrenaline from? Okay, his “name” is Doc. I’m guessing that’s not his real name. Maybe he was supposed to be an actual doctor? I’m not buying it, and they never really went into that at all. Anyhoo... if we ignore that there’s really no way he would have something like that (unless it was given to him... but I’ll get back to that later), the bigger problem of how does he know something big is coming remains.

You might be like uhm... the armies of undead? Headed their way? That the Dr. Isaacs clone is leading to them? Duh. *wags finger* Okay, just wait up. First of all... how does he know what it is? What does he have like a sixth sense? I thought that was Alice’s job. And second of all, this would almost fly if they had said he saw it through the binoculars or something, but then later on when Abigail alerts Alice to the armies headed their way, she acts as if this is new news. Did Doc see it and just... not report it? I mean, if he was a spy, that would make sense, except that NOBODY REACTED AT ALL to him saying that. My first comment if I was one of the survivors would be, who the hell is this chick (Alice)? But my second one would be, wait what? What something big? Holy crap, Doc, why didn’t you say something?! But nobody reacts. Okay. Fine. Maybe it’s just bad script writing. Yeah, it is, and it only gets worse.

So then when Alice begins to succumb to the really bad wounds she sustained from hitting the trap, she’s taken to Doc’s little infirmary, where she’s offered... mouthwash? Hahaha, I mean that’s what it looked like to me, this bluish-green liquid that’s like... okay, wtf is this now, and where did he get it from? He says it’s the “specialty of the house,” and that it’ll have her on her feet in no time. Sure enough, Alice drinks this shit, and she’s all better. No limping, no more gross coughing, she’s fine! Wtf.

I wanna know what that stuff was, because nothing would have instantly fixed the bruising, possible broken rips, maybe a puncture lung, and possible other broken bones that Alice must have had from that trap. Unless... it was from Umbrella. Honestly, after I had written the earlier scene off as just not making sense because of movie crap, heh, this scene really made me think something wasn’t right with Doc. I immediately had the notion of... he’s getting information and supplies from Umbrella. That’s why he has this great stuff that heals people, that’s where he got the adrenaline from, and that’s how he already knows the armies of undead are coming. That combined with the “Alert our operative in Raccoon City” comment from Wesker pretty much confirmed it, but I’m not done with this scene yet.

So once he fixes Alice up, Claire and him have a little moment. And I mean little. Literally all we get of their relationship is this scene and a bit of hand holding later on. But yeah, they stand close together and that’s supposed to mean something, and then Claire says to Alice, “You know, he and I...” and Alice says, “I noticed.” That’s it. It’s almost like the movie was coming out of itself and telling the view, “Oh, by the way, these two are involved. That’ll be important later, so pay attention.” I mean, seriously, it was so blatantly, extraneous, and unnecessary, and therefore it felt out of place and odd. Also rushed. For all those reason, I already had Doc pegged as the traitor.

And how typical would that be? It’s always the guy you least suspect, right? The movie tries to set him up as a hero, an honorable badass. He’s involved with Claire, and we all like Claire. (Okay, not everybody likes Claire, or Ali Larter’s portrayal, but the movies assume you like her.) You’d never suspect the guy who helped Alice and who was involved with Claire would be a bad guy. They go out of their way to make Doc seem like a great guy - maybe too great - complete with the stoic, calm, suave persona the actor portrayed. He never lost his head, kept other erratic members of his group in line, was a natural leader, and seemed to have a lot of honor. All of these were red flags of a character that is being set up to be too glowing in a world of ambiguous and downright evil people.

Then... we have Doc’s participation through the standoff with the aforementioned zombie armies, the descent into the Hive, and eventually delving into the Hive. He was always asking Alice about things. Where are you going, what are you doing, have you seen (insert name of underdeveloped minor character here)? He really seemed to want to keep tabs on people, always know what was going on, always know what was happening next. To me, that’s exactly what a spy would do... except they would be MUCH LESS FREAKING OBVIOUS ABOUT IT. Double agents who are constantly asking WHATCHA DOIN’ THERE? don’t make it very far, heh. He couldn’t have been more obvious if he had an “I’m a spy” sign on his damn forehead.

And at this point, I feel like the movie might have feared that you were catching on, and it tried to point you in the wrong direction like a kid who says HE LOOK OVER THERE to get you to turn around and then runs in the other direction. I see what you did there, movie. When the Red Queen warns Alice about the “informant” Umbrella had in Raccoon City, the camera skips around to everybody present, Murder on the Orient Express-style, as if to ask the viewer oooooh, who could it be? And in doing so, the camera stops on everybody for a fairly decent moment, until it gets to Doc. Then it kindof flits away like WHOOPS you didn’t see him, don’t suspect him, it’s not him. (sigh) Yes it is, movie. I totally called it.

So yeah, that’s half the reason I hate Doc. They way he was set up was so contrived, and the path leading up to the reveal is so obvious, that I didn’t feel like it was a twist at all. By the time Doc is revealed as the informant, I was surprised at the movie’s insistence that this was big news. I honestly was shocked to realize that they hadn’t blatantly already told me that. That’s how obvious it was.

The other half of why I hate Doc is the change in him after he’s revealed as a traitor. Up until then, he was brave, unafraid, cool/calm/collected, stoic, tough, you name it. Golden badass boy. And a leader. Then we’re told that he’s an informant for Umbrella, and all of a sudden, he’s acting like a totally gullible, unintelligent, dumbass. This irritated me two-fold.

Firstly, the trope that good guys are sexy, calm, and collected, and bad guys must be irrational, erratic, and insane idiots in order to be bad is PLAYED and UNREALISTIC. Why does Doc’s personality need to change after he’s revealed to be a duplicitous asshole? Why can’t he still be a suave sexy bastard, but just be evil? The second he’s revealed as an asshole, he becomes a spineless follower instead of an honorable leader, sucking up to Isaacs by telling him he’ll disable the charges Alice placed in the Umbrella High Command cryo-tubes (even Isaacs patronizes him by saying, “You’ve done well, Doc.” It’s the way he says it. It’s clear he thinks Doc is nothing but a dog to order around...) and then begging for his life, first to Alice and then to Claire. By the time Claire is getting ready to shoot him, he’s yelling out loud in fear of being shot. Was this at all consistent with Doc’s bravery from before? I would have actually liked the character a whole lot more, even despite the crappy buildup, if he had remained the fearless leader-type character he was before he was revealed as a traitor. That would have been so much more interesting and frankly dangerous than the groveling, sniveling, erratic mess he became.

Secondly, I was really pissed off at how little he cared about Claire. And frankly how little she cared about him. Like... granted, their relationship really had no fleshing out whatsoever, but I have a writer’s brain and I tend to fill in blanks on my own. You tell me they’re in a relationship? I’m gonna assume a certain level of bonding has occurred. Now, this kindof goes along with the whole "good guys are badass and villains must be insane dumbasses" peeve, but why can Doc not be a spy for Umbrella AND be genuinely in love with Claire? It would have been far more interesting and compelling of an end to his arc if he had continued to love her and defend her until the end.

I mean, I can tell you why he didn’t. Because if the Resident Evil movies suffer from any catastrophic failures at all, it’s that they insist upon character fitting molds and tropes. It’s too difficult, tedious, and time-consuming to have characters that don’t fit the mold because then we have to address those feels. First of all, these movies don’t have time for that, they’re incredibly rushed. Second of all, they assume for us all as viewers that we don’t want emotions and uncomfortable psychological issues (outside the bare minimum norm for this genre) in a horror/action film. This is evident in them cutting many other scenes in the franchise that would have brought up difficult talking points and emotions, such as the White Queen questioning the morality of Dr. Isaacs butchering so many Alice clones in his obstacle course of death in RE: Extinction.

How uncomfortable and outside the box would it be if Doc still maintained the same affect he had before the reveal (strong, stoic, brave) AND defended Claire against Wesker. Not that he had a change of heart or anything like that. He can still be a villain, but can also genuinely love Claire. The two things are not disqualifying against each other. How cool would it have been if Isaacs ordered him to kill Claire and he said that’s the one thing I won’t do, and then he’s shot for it or dies protecting her from Wesker? That would have been...... awkward at best for the viewer, because you hate this guy. He betrayed Alice and Claire, but then oh... he does really love her and is a brave guy despite his morals not being in the right place. Uncomfortable.... but good.

But horror/sci-fi/action movies tend to not go to places like this with their viewers because they feel it ruins the action or the feel of the movie. To me, Doc would have been more compelling and seemed more realistic and human if things had gone this way instead of the way they did. Villains are real and they’re among us. They’re human just like us. They’re not robots, they’re not all insane, they’re not all grovelling spineless idiots. Sometimes they’re brave dudes who love people. Yes, villains can be capable of great love, and showing that in Doc would have been a very powerful moment. I also would have appreciate a tear or SOMETHING from Claire. I understand he’s betrayed you, but you’re in love with him, or at least involved somehow. Show us that you care, even despite knowing what you have to do.

Phew! *sits back and fans self* Okay. I feel better. I finally got out this long rant about this character that I’ve had in my for a while, haha. This was actually a lot of fun to write. If anyone has anything to add, feel free. if you agree or disagree with what I’ve said, let me know. I love talking about my rants, so feedback is welcomed!

[hercreativeprocess]

Her Creative Process: Kristina Bartosova

Kristina Bartosova is a Slovakian graphic designer and art director based in Graz, Austria. Coming from a background of classic graphic design, her work spans from branding and editorial design to art direction and styling. Through taking the inherent personality and condition of a project into consideration, she creates powerful aesthetics that form a world of their own.

How did you end up in your chosen career?

Coming from a very artistic family, I have always drawn and painted a lot. I grew up during the aftermath of socialism in a ghetto-like part of the city, a time with no brands whatsoever. Only when someone had family in Western Germany or so, they would have fancy stuff, but otherwise, everything else was very standardized and basic. Think lots of dark blue and brown corduroy - if something was pink, it was usually not from here.

So I was always drawn to brands because it was out of reach. Coming across an actual brand that was known in the rest of the world was super-rare. This whole other world we weren’t supposed to see. It was like collector’s items. After the Velvet Revolution it slowly began that you could buy more Western things and I collected them. I kept everything  – wrappers from the classic blue and white Milky Way bars, labels from the transparent pink Reach Junior mouthwash or L’Oreal crèmes - you name it, I had it.

I started illustrating on a computer really early, when I was 9 or so. My parents wouldn’t let me have any computer games and so I spent a lot of time playing the Lion King on Nintendo at my friend’s house, trying to memorize all the frames I liked. At home I would open Paintbrush and recreate what I saw pixel by pixel 'till it looked like the real deal. I was really good at it because the Lion King was important of course.

Later, when I started skateboarding and snowboarding I would work on my own designs for the boards. I had to be prepared in case I ever became a pro hahaha. I had this huge notebook where I would draw alternative logos with colored pencil and ruler. I had no idea that there were more fonts than those that came pre-installed on my parents’ Windows 95 computer, so I came up with my own and some of the designs were actually pretty good!

From that point it wasn’t a long way 'till I figured that I could turn it into a profession. I went to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, which shaped me a lot, as they put a lot of emphasis on conceptual strength and I learned a lot about graphic design in the context of visual arts.

When do you feel most creative? Be it a time of day, particular season, or after a really great taco.

There’s a lot of individual situations, thankfully. Usually the ideas come when I’m laying on the couch or shortly before falling asleep. It’s that feeling of not needing to think about anything that opens up my brain to possibility and then I gotta get up and write it all down.

Where is your favorite place to create, and why?

As normal as it may sound: my office or my apartment. I have everything I need there – all the books, magazines, pens, markers and paper. Which one it ends up being depends on the thing I’m doing. If it’s something analog or if I’m just starting to work on a branding, I prefer to stay at home alone because I can move around and do what I feel like without distracting anyone. In that phase I might turn the apartment into a mess of thousands of papers and the inside of a toolbox.

Anything apart from the initial stages of design work, there’s no place like my office desk. I don’t put on a suit and tie or punch a timecard (but I do have power shoes!) but it really helps to have a place where you’re there to handle the business.

Typically, what does your creative process look like?

Like going with my gut as much as possible. As I said earlier, the beginning of a project is often messy. I almost never make ‘just the logo’ so when doing a branding I like to plan as much as possible beforehand.  That means I always think about how it works in different applications, how it feels, what the photography could look like, what kind of interior would best represent the brand, etc. To get to all this, moodboarding is a major key.

Then I always sketch, at least a little. If I just jump right into Illustrator, nothing good comes out and the result will be far too stiff. That’s why I like to figure out a direction early on and then experiment and build a design. To bring it all together, I move to my computer and either scan the sketches or start looking for a typeface that fits the image in my head. Once a logo or the core element is finished, the process is much easier to control and straight-forward by just realizing the vision I created on the various applications. It just has to fit with the idea the client and I have set for the brand.

Who and what are you inspired by?

So, so many things! I am very easily amused and have pretty low standards for ‘fun’ and ‘exciting’ so it’s sometimes the most random things that inspire me. It’s not like I never get bored, I probably do, but it’s not so easy haha. I can listen to the same album a hundred times and still enjoy it. Travelling in general and talking to other people and just listening to how they talk about different subjects passionately is always great for a change of perspective.

I also love to go back to Bratislava, my hometown to see all the small changes in time. Regarding design itself, I consciously try not to look at design blogs very often, (of course I check them from time to time) but I love Pinterest and go through other fields like art, interior, fashion, books, design or photography and look for connections. Nothing exists in a bubble and it’s fun to observe how trends that start in fashion influence graphic or industrial design and vice versa. I love to watch how different artists work with new tendencies and what references they use.

Right now, I am crazy about Amelie Pichard, a French fashion designer who makes these fun, almost trashy shoes and bags. I love the references she incorporates and everything about the concept and styling of her campaigns. You have to check her out!

How do you get past creative block?

I have no magical recipe for this, as someone who reads this might hope. I just get through it. I sit down, put in the hours until it’s there. Otherwise I’d have a block in every project, it’s just about sitting down and getting to it. To me the mythical creative block is just that, a myth. Of course I also get stuck initially but when I try and play around, it comes to the point eventually where it is fun, and then I continue from there.

How do you deal with perfectionism, self-doubt, and comparison?

This is not a humblebrag: I am a perfectionist, through and through. It is a double-edge sword and a trait that often gets in the way when you actually want to get shit done. I deal with that on an everyday basis. On one hand it’s good because you can rely on yourself with obsessing over smallest details, and that type of attention will positively show in the end product. On the other hand if things don’t go as I imagine, I get furious. That’s often the case with print production or set design.

Sometimes things turn out a bit differently, even when you’re as hands-on as possible. There is no way one can control EVERY aspect. If the time or resources are limited, you just have to roll with it and accept things the way they are. Then I try to focus on the fact that the work is finished, instead of on the flaws – that helps. You can always learn something for the next time and it is good to move forward.

I used to struggle a lot with comparison and self-doubt before, because I was brought up in a very competitive environment. But I made peace with that because that’s what shaped me into who I am today. I still try to be the best, I don’t think you can really unlearn it if it’s rooted that deeply, but now I get equally as happy from the success of other people who I like and whose work I admire.

Do you have any tips for someone who wants to do what you do (and be really good at it)?

If it’s what your gut tells you to do, go for it! It is a lot of work and the results will not show overnight but if it’s fun to you, it’ll work for others as well. The same is true for every other profession actually. It took me years to get to this point and it’s still not like I sit with my legs on the table and eat cake like ‘Congration, you done it’. I still think I have long way to go but I love what I do and that’s crucial.

What are you working on now, and what’s coming up next?

I’m working on several projects with my boyfriend right now, Thomas Pokorn, who takes care of the concept and copywriting part when we develop a brand identity. We art directed and designed two lookbooks for their upcoming two collections of a fashion brand, alongside their branding. Being on the set was a lot of fun, especially with Lipp Zahnschirm, with whom I also photographed my portfolio. We are currently working together for a local bakery too, and next month I am beginning work on a book about industrial architecture and a second edition of a museum magazine.

Thank you for having me!

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