#loosely inspired by that one howls moving castle scene

[narsh-poptarts]

Chasing Comets

[elizadraws]

Bulgarian Music in Studio Ghibli films

”Myth has it that Orpheus was born in what is now Bulgaria. It seemed to be fact, not myth, that his daughters are still singing there”

These words were written by the New York Times in the remote 1963 — the year in which the largest Bulgarian folk ensemble crossed the Iron Curtain to conquer an entire continent with its cosmic art.

The 1975 release of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, a compilation album of modern arrangements of Bulgarian folk songs, further popularized Bulgarian music, and in 1977, a vinyl record featuring the folk song “Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin” (Eng: Come out rebel Delyo) began its journey aboard the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecrafts.

From this point on popularity from the West spread to the East, and Bulgarian folk music made it to the entertainment industry, including legendary Japanese anime films, like the cult cyberpunk “Ghost in the Shell” or the heartwarming Studio Ghibli features.

In this short article I write about two occasions of Bulgarian music playing in Studio Ghibli’s films.

The record that inspired the creation of “Only Yesterday”

“Only Yesterday” is a 1991 Japanese animated drama film written and directed by Isao Takahata, based on the 1982 manga of the same title by Hotaru Okamoto and Yuko Tone. Set in rural Japan, the film draws parallels with the peasant lifestyle present in Eastern Europe.

The original work is a compilation of short stories about 11-year-old Taeko’s daily life in 1966. Director Takahata had a hard time making it into a movie since the manga, told in the form of a memoir, has no plot to hold a feature. Together with producer Toshio Suzuki, they came up with the solution of bringing the narrator of the story, adult Taeko, into the movie. But there is a curious anecdote about how this idea came to mind.

Taeko picks safflower as the Bulgarian song “Malka moma dvori mete” plays in the background. © Studio Ghibli

In a 2021 interview with students from Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, producer Suzuki recounts how a record of Bulgarian songs performed by the children choir “Bodra Smyana”, introduced to him by director Takahata, inspired the creation of the movie. Moved by the cosmic voices of the children, they decided to make “Only Yesterday” a musical. He also recalls what a tiring process it was to acquire the rights to the music, but if you’ve seen the movie, I am sure you will agree that it was worth it; the haunting, beautiful songs with the pastoral images of farmers picking flowers contribute to one of the greatest scenes created in cinema.

Producer Suzuki showing the record that inspired the creation of ”Only Yesterday”. Source: Studio Ghibli’s Twitter

In “Only Yesterday”, we can hear two songs from the album Bulgarian Polyphony I by Philip Koutev Ensemble. The upbeat “Dilmano Dilbero” [Eng. beautiful Dilmana] sets a happy mood as the protagonist gets changed and ready to go on the field. As the scene shifts and Taeko starts narrating a sad story about the girls in the past picking safflower with their bare hands, the song and mood shift as well.

While the first song has a fast rhythm, with lyrics about pepper planting that can also be interpreted figuratively, the second one, “Malka Moma Dvori Mete” [Eng., a little girl sweeps the yard], is a ballad about a young girl who is forced into marriage but has never known true love.

Both compositions sing about life-cycle events like marriage and the regular coming of the harvests, with lyrics perfectly fitting the setting and plot of the movie, which makes me wonder if the filmmakers chose them by chance or if they had someone translate the words.

Bulgarian Cosmic Voices Enchanting Howl

“Howl’s Moving Castle” is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, loosely based on the 1986 novel of the same name by British author Diana Wynne Jones. Set in a fictional kingdom the movie draws inspiration from various places in Europe. One of them being Bulgaria.

The story focuses on a young girl, named Sophie, magically transformed into an old woman, and a self-confident but emotionally unstable young wizard, Howl, living in a magical moving castle.

A sketch of a Star Child. Source: The Art of Howl’s Moving Castle

If you’ve seen the movie, you surely remember the scene when Madame Suliman ambushes Howl and tries to strip him of his magic powers. Star Children encircle him and his companions; their shadows grow big, dark and intimidating. They start dancing and chanting unintelligible magic words and are almost successful in their devilish act.

This scene, together with the music played in the background, have been a favourite of many fans of the film. Some even recount it giving them nightmares when they were children.

Star Children encircle Howl in an attempt to strip him of his magic powers. © Studio Ghibli

It turns out, however, that these aren’t any incantations, but the lyrics of a folk song. In Bulgarian. And a love song! Contrary to popular belief, the lyrics have nothing to do with magic and are actually about a boy taking his sweetheart, Dona, to the market to buy her new clothes. The excerpt used in the movie is very short and a bit altered from the original, but the words used go like this: Trendafilcheto, kalafercheto, Done mamino, translated as ���the rose, the costmary, my darling Dona”.

I am planing a follow up article where I will post the translated lyrics together with a brief explanation on how they are related to the movies.

If you want to comment on or add something, I would love to hear!

Source

[shionzeroart]

I've seen this template and wanted to share this info about my The Arcana OC too! If someone is interested in more, just let me know 😘

So, let's get started.

1. Haku, Spirited Away.

He was the very first reference, and Salem took from him the vibes of determination, strength, generosity, sense of justice and kindness. Green colour, one of Salem's theme colours, is also from him. I don't even mention his blunt bob and magic forces, except that Salem isn't a dragon.

2. Howl Jenkins Pendragon, Howl's Moving Castle.

The next I thought about while creating Salem's appearance was Howl. I recalled that particular scene where Howl shows Sophie renewed exits from the castle and they stand together at the bright green meadow. Howl wears there a plain loose shirt, tight black trousers, earrings and a pendant made of green gems, and this kind of his appearance I like the most, so I've decided to make Salem look similar. The only thing is Salem's earrings and pendant aren't simple jewelry. They're magical amulets that his closest people, his first teacher of magic and the closest friend from magic academy, gave him. I think the only common things that Salem and Howl have are their appearance and magic powers. Their personalities and backgrounds are really different. But it's always really funny to me when I see fanarts with Asra and Howl :D you know, I can just imagine that it's Salem dressed as Howl haha 😌

3. Toph Beifong, Avatar: The Last Airbender

And here we have an opposite situation. Because in this case their backgrounds, their magic types, even some personality traits like rebelliousness, are really close to each other.

Salem also had strict overprotective noble parents who wanted their only son to have a brilliant noble future, which he didn't want for himself. Just like Toph, Salem should have escaped to have a freedom for doing magic, the only thing he considered as his vocation.

Also Salem can rule some nature forces, such as growing trees and plants, making them grow faster and better and making the soil fertile. But what's more important, he can do the same earthbending as Toph can. So their types of little slender people who can easily throw an entire rock at you are similar too.

Guess when I've noticed all these common traits? Right after I created Salem's type of magic, personality and background, of course 😅

4. Bill Kaulitz, Tokio Hotel.

Bill is a voice headcanon to Salem. I gave my precious OC the voice of my childhood icon and I regret nothing 😌

Maybe they have one more common thing, it's that Salem is as cute and handsome as Bill was in his prime lol

5. Sable, solo hypermetal musician.

It's more about modern rock AU that is by my friend @justmaryo and a bit by me. But one day I saw some Sable's tiktok in my timeline and thought: "Omg is my OC came alive???" Back then Sable had some kind of blunt bob similar to Salem's, that's why it was a little shocking haha

6. Me irl.

Even Salem's green plain blouse that he likes to wear most I've brought from my own wardrobe. I've only changed the colour and this blouse came out really suitable for him.

And the source of Salem's rebelliousness, politeness, empathy and kindness is likely inside my own personality. As well as some interpersonal conflicts in his life. But I wouldn't say that it's some kind of self insert. I've just took something for inspiration, and his personality started to develop on it's own.

This is it. If you want to ask something, I will be glad to answer!

[harrowianthe]

that might save my skin (but it won't save my soul) | A Critical Role fanfiction

I guess I've become the sort of person that cracks out fics in an afternoon.

Part of my loosely designed imodna howl's moving castle au and inspired by the scene where imogen tells laudna to come find them in the future. delilah is a bitch and a fire demon (as if she couldnt get any hotter).

word count: 1500+; rating: mature (brief mention of hanging); (also on ao3)

Imogen decides very quickly that if she really is in Whitestone, she doesn’t care for it at all. For one, the weather is dreary. The sun can barely make it through the thick grey clouds covering the sky: the city is all shadows and wispy fog and that kind of suffused, cold light that makes Imogen’s head hurt. Wringing her hands together – the wayward magic in the place makes her scars itch –, she steals a quick glance back at the door she came from, now pitch-black and inert. Great. The castle did take a lot of damage. No way but forward, she supposes. She can only hope "forward" will eventually bring her back home. The wind rolls eerily in the cobblestoned streets, twisting the mist like smoke rings.

Laudna. She’s here to find Laudna, and then they can both go back to the way it was, to her silly moving castle and her creepy living dolls and to bullying Delilah in the fireplace when she refuses to heat their kettle at teatime.

As she takes her first step, the ring on her hand, two golden snakes coiling around a single ruby, starts warming up. She thumbs the stone absent-mindedly, like she’s done a thousand times since she gifted it to Laudna and then Laudna gave it back to her a couple of days later, shiny with magic.

(She had been fidgety that day, polishing the metal with the sleeve of her blouse as she looked at Imogen shyly. “Do you reckon it’s rude, me giving it back to you?” she had inquired, placing the ring on Imogen’s palm. The gold glittered with the flames of the fireplace, but the contact with Laudna’s skin hadn't warmed it up at all.

“I mean, if you didn’t like it you just had to say the word. I would have gotten you something else.”

“Not like?” Laudna’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Oh. I see how… I just, I enchanted it.” Laudna’s hands come to fist Imogen’s hand around the ring, ever so gentle. “If you ever get lost, it will bring you back home. Now it’s our ring.” Laudna smiled at her anxiously, as if her life depended on Imogen’s response. Her teeth a bit too big for her mouth. Her hands still holding Imogen’s fist. Imogen felt in the ghost of warmth in it.

“It’s our ring.“ she repeats.)

The metal warms and the ruby shines and the snakes twist even tighter around each other and Imogen’s ears ring as a thin ray of red light shoots forward from the stone. Imogen could recognise Laudna’s magic everywhere. She takes a second, steadier step, following it.

The ring leads her through the empty town, through crooked streets and mossy walls. The city is utterly void of life, like a stage that’s waiting for the actors. There’s cobwebs everywhere, but no spiders. Childish laughter echoes behind Imogen but when she opens her mind there’s no thoughts to be read. Just in case, she never turns back to look.

It’s sort of ironic: she has spent the better part of her life wishing for a little bit of quiet, please and thank you; now that she faces this vast emptiness of voices, minds and emotions, it feels like a bomb has just exploded and deafened her. She's alone in a way she's never been before.

She’s gotta get Laudna and get the fuck out of here.

Eventually, the red light guides her to a spot where the buildings open up, as if taking a deep breath. In the middle of the large square she steps into a sickly tree towers over her head. It's big and darkened, engulfing a big part of the grey sky. The tallest branches reach the clouds and disappear into them. The city around it seems to become vague in the fog, a memory that’s fading at the edges.

Under the tree, not far from her, there’s two women on the ground. The ring around her finger is even warmer, almost to the point of burning her skin. Imogen inches closer, quietly, as the light from the ring fades away.

One of the women is Laudna. She can tell from her taut features, her strong nose, the sharp chin. She has spent countless hours studying her in the dim light of the castle while Laudna tinkered with alembics and spells books. Occasionally, Laudna would catch her eye between the fumes from her potions, and smile or wink or huff to move away her hair while she was working. There's something different about her, though. She's lying on the pavement, limbs spread out like she’s been knocked down by force. Her head rests on the thighs of the woman kneeling next to her. Her eyes are closed, the expression peaceful. They looks like someone arranged them this way on purpose, directing them into the pose of living statues. Laudna’s face is young, softer. Pale, but not in the unnatural way Imogen has grown fond of. She doesn’t have her shock of white hair and her frame looks fuller. The scar around her neck is vivid and fresh.

The woman is humming and carding her fingers through Laudna’s hair with kind, motherly gestures. She looks familiar, too, but Imogen can’t quite place her, not until the woman gracefully turns her head to look at Imogen; her eyes burn like embers.

“Delilah,” Imogen gasps. The ring has grown scalding hot.

Delilah, the fireplace demon who moves the castle, who had asked, demanded that Imogen break her contract with Laudna. Her face is clearer that it has ever been in the fireplace, and she has the same burning, calculating eyes. Imogen has fed logs to her and bickered with her and threatened to extinguish her on multiple occasions. It's weird to see her in flesh and bone.

Delilah smiles like honey and brings a finger to her lips. She shushes. “She’s sleeping, can’t you see?” Her hands keep playing with Laudna’s hair. Delilah looks at her fondly, a child with her doll. “Do I know you?”

Imogen starts moving before Delilah is done talking. She’s rushing up to them, scars going haywire and crackling with electricity and she doesn’t know what she’s going to do, but she has to grab Laudna, save Laudna, and then they’ll find their way back to the castle, and they'll be safe. Together. Then she’ll turn that bitch Delilah into fucking coal.

She doesn't get much closer before the tree above them suddenly bursts into flames.

Imogen has barely time to halt and stumble before burning branches fall in front of her. There’s too many, and they fall too fast. Magic. She barely manages to catch her balance, avoids falling into one of the fires by a thread. Embers keeps falling down from the tree, blossoming into flames all around Laudna and Delilah. She can’t get through. The smoke makes her cough. Her head is aching.

“I don’t know who you are, but she’s mine,” Delilah says, but she’s not looking at Imogen. Surrounded by smoke and wandering embers tinting the sky red, Delilah is cradling Laudna’s face in her hands in a mockery of affection. Her other hand plunges into Laudna’s chest, meeting no resistance. She rummages around with no kindness. When one more burning branch falls between them, Imogen can clearly see a sort of delighted, twisted satisfaction shining in her face. “Wake up. We had a deal," Delilah says.

Laudna’s eyes shot open but her expression is disoriented and dreamy. Imogen has seen it before, in their shared bed. It hurts like a stab in the chest.

The ring around her finger is properly burning, now. She finally examines it, and it’s crumbling down, like acid is corroding it. She can’t even make out the snakes anymore. Her stomach drops as she feels a shift in gravity, and then the ground is opening up under her.

She looks up through the flames.

Delilah has pulled something from Laudna's chest. It's soft and smooth and pulsing. She weights it pensively in her hand before she brings it to her mouth and swallows it whole. Imogen has seen cats eat their young. Delilah's lips stretch in the same lazy, content smile.

“Laudna!” Imogen screams, falling and falling and falling. Laudna’s gaze turns dazedly from Delilah, in her direction. Her eyes are big and black like they’ll be the day they met.

“I’m Imogen! Come find me! Find me and I’ll take you home!”

She can barely see above the ground now, but Laudna’s eyes are on her as she falls. Confused, scared, but attentive. She's following her descent into the ground.

Imogen falls. And falls.

~

Imogen is cursed, and when you’re cursed, the one thing to do is find a witch. Everyone knows Laudna the Dreaded is the most powerful witch around these parts: when she died, she just kept walking, but now she needs the souls of innocent young maidens to keep herself alive. She lives in a moving castle powered by her mother's soul, imprisoned in the fireplace.

Imogen hopes she can convince Laudna to lift her curse, but if she takes her soul it doesn’t make much difference to her. Not after so many years on the run.

She takes a deep breath before opening the door to the castle. It creaks as her destiny unfolds.

“Ah, there you are, sweetheart," says a voice inside. It sounds like a melody.

[mostlymovieswithmax]

Movies I watched in May

Sadly, I kind of skipped writing a post for April. It was a mad month with so much going on: lots of emails sent and lots of stress. I started a new job so I’m getting to grips with that... and even then, I still watched a bunch of movies. But this is about what I watched in May and, yeah… still a bunch. So if you’re looking to get into some other movies - possibly some you’ve thought about watching but didn’t know what they were like, or maybe like the look of something you’ve never heard of - then this may help! So here’s every film I watched from the 1st to the 31st of May 2021 Tenet (2020) - 8/10 This was my third time watching Christopher Nolan’s most Christopher Nolan movie ever and it makes no sense but I still love it. The spectacle of it all is truly like nothing I’ve ever seen. I had also watched it four days prior to this watch also, only this time I had enabled audio description for the visually impaired, thinking it would make it funny… It didn’t.

Nomadland (2020) - 6/10 Chloé Zhao’s new movie got a lot of awards attention. Everyone was hyped for this and when it got put out on Disney+ I was eager to see what all the fuss was about. Seeing these real nomads certainly gave the film an authenticity, along with McDormand’s ever-praisable acting. But generally I found it quite underwhelming and lacking a lot in its pacing. Nomadland surely has its moments of captivating cinematography and enticing commentary on the culture of these people, but it felt like it went on forever without any kind of forward direction or goal. The Prince of Egypt (1998) - 6/10 I reviewed this on my podcast, The Sunday Movie Marathon. For what it is, it’s pretty fun but nowhere near as good as some of the best DreamWorks movies.

Chinatown (1974) - 8/10 What a fantastic and wonderfully unpredictable mystery crime film! I regret to say I’ve not seen many Jack Nicholson performances but he steals the show. Despite Polanski’s infamy, it’d be a lie to claim this wasn’t truly masterful. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) - 8/10 Admittedly I was half asleep as I curled up on the sofa to watch this again on a whim. I watched this with someone who demanded the dubbed version over the subtitled version and while I objected heavily, I knew I’d seen the movie before so it didn’t matter too much. That person also fell asleep about 20 minutes in, so how pointless an argument it was. Howl’s Moving Castle boasts superb animation, the likes of which I’ve only come to expect of Miyazaki. The story is so unique and the colours are absolutely gorgeous. This may not be my favourite from the legendary director but there’s no denying its splendour.

Bāhubali: The Beginning (2015) - 3/10 The next morning I watched some absolute trash. This crazy, over the top Indian movie is hilarious and I could perhaps recommend it if it weren’t so long. That being said, Bāhubali was not a dumpster fire; it has a lot of good-looking visual effects and it’s easy to see the ambition for this epic story, it just doesn’t come together. There’s fun to be had with how the main character is basically the strongest man in the world and yet still comes across as just a lucky dumbass, along with all the dancing that makes no sense but is still entertaining to watch. Seven Samurai (1954) - 10/10 If it wasn’t obvious already, Seven Samurai is a masterpiece. I reviewed this on The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast, so more thoughts can be found there. Red Road (2006) - 6/10 Another recommendation on episode 30 of the podcast. Red Road really captures the authentic British working class experience. Before Sunrise (1995) - 10/10 One of the best romances put to film. The first in Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy is undoubtedly my favourite, despite its counterparts being almost equally as good. It tells the story of a young couple travelling through Europe, who happen to meet on a train and spend the day together. It is gloriously shot on location in Vienna and features some of the most interesting dialogue I’ve ever seen put to film. Heartbreakingly beautiful.

Tokyo Story (1953) - 9/10 This Japanese classic - along with being visually and sonically masterful - is a lot about appreciating the people in your life and taking the time to show them that you love them. It’s about knowing it’s never too late to rekindle old relationships if you truly want to, which is something I’ve been able to relate to in recent years. It broke my heart in two. Tokyo Story will make you want to call your mother. Before Sunset (2004) - 10/10 Almost a decade after Sunrise, Sunset carries a sombre yet relieving feeling. Again, the performances from Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke take me away, evoking nostalgic feelings as they stroll through the contemporary Parisian streets. There is no regret in me for buying the Criterion blu-ray boxset for this trilogy. Before Midnight (2013) - 10/10 Here, Linklater cements this trilogy as one of the best in film history. It’s certainly not the ending I expected, yet it’s an ending I appreciate endlessly. Because it doesn’t really end. Midnight shows the troubling times of a strained relationship; one that has endured so long and despite initially feeling almost dreamlike in how idealistically that first encounter was portrayed, the cracks appear as the film forces you to come to terms with the fact that fairy-tale romances just don’t exist. Relationships require effort and sacrifice and sometimes the ones that truly work are those that endure through all the rough patches to emerge stronger. The Holy Mountain (1973) - 10/10 Jodorowsky’s masterpiece is absolute insanity. I talked more about it on The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) - 10/10 Another watch for Grand Budapest because I bought the Criterion blu-ray. As unalterably perfect as ever. Blue Jay (2016) - 6/10 Rather good up to a point. My co-hosts and I did not agree on how good this movie was, which is a discussion you can listen to on my podcast. Shadow and Bone: The Afterparty (2021) - 3/10 For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed the first season of Shadow and Bone, which is why I wanted to see what ‘The Afterparty’ was about. This could have been a lot better and much less annoying if all those terrible comedians weren’t hosting and telling bad jokes. I don’t want to see Fortune Feimster attempt to tell a joke about oiling her body as the cast of the show sit awkwardly in their homes over Zoom. If it had simply been a half hour, 45 minute chat with the cast and crew about how they made the show and their thoughts on it, a lot of embarrassment and time-wasting could have been spared. Wadjda (2012) - 6/10 Another recommendation discussed at length on The Sunday Movie Marathon. Wadjda was pretty interesting from a cultural perspective but largely familiar in terms of story structure.

Freddy Got Fingered (2001) - 2/10 A truly terrible movie with maybe one or two scenes that stop it from being a complete catastrophe. Tom Green tried to create something that almost holds a middle finger to everyone who watches it and to some that could be a fun experience, but to me it just came across as utterly irritating. It’s simply a bunch of scenes threaded together with an incredibly loose plot. He wears the skin of a dead deer, smacks a disabled woman over and over again on the legs to turn her on, and he swings a newborn baby around a hospital room by its umbilical cord (that part was actually pretty funny). I cannot believe I watched this again, although I think I repressed a lot of it since having seen it for the first time around five years ago. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 - (2011) I have to say, these movies seem to get better with each instalment. They’re still not very good though. That being said, I’m amazed at how many times I’ve watched each of the Twilight movies at this point. This time around, I watched Breaking Dawn - Part 1 with a YMS commentary track on YouTube and that made the experience a lot more entertaining. Otherwise, this film is super dumb but pretty entertaining. I would recommend watching these movies with friends. Solaris (1972) - 8/10 Andrei Tarkovsky’s grand sci-fi epic about the emotional crises of a crew on the space station orbiting the fictional planet Solaris is much as strange and creepy as you might expect from the master Russian auter. I had wanted to watch this for a while so I bought the Criterion blu-ray and it’s just stunning. It’s clear to see the 2001: A Space Odyssey inspiration but Solaris is quite a different beast entirely. Jaws (1975) - 4/10 I really tried to get into this classic movie, but Jaws exhibits basically everything I don’t like about Steven Spielberg’s directing. For sure, the effects are crazily good but the story itself is poorly handled and largely uninteresting. It was just a massive slog to get through.

Darkman (1990) - 6/10 Sam Raimi’s superhero movie is so much fun, albeit massively stupid. Further discussion on Darkman can be found on episode 32 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast. Darkman II: The Return of Durant (1995) - 1/10 Abysmal. I forgot the movie as I watched it. This was part of a marathon my friends and I did for episode 32 of our podcast. Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996) - 1/10 Perhaps this trilogy is not so great after all. Only marginally better than Darkman II but still pretty terrible. More thoughts on episode 32 of my podcast. F For Fake (1973) - 8/10 Rewatching this proved to be a worthwhile decision. Albeit slightly boring, there’s no denying how crazy the story of this documentary about art forgers is. The standout however, is the director himself. Orson Welles makes a lot of this film about himself and how hot his girlfriend is and it is hilarious.

The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021) - 4/10 More style over substance, Sony’s new animated adventure wants so much to be in trend with the current internet culture but it simply doesn’t understand what it’s emulating. There’s a nyan cat reference, for crying out loud. For every joke that works, there are about ten more that do not and were it not for the wonderful animation, it simply wouldn’t be getting so much praise. Taxi Driver (1976) - 10/10 The first movie I’ve seen in a cinema since 2020 and damn it was good to be back! I’ve already reviewed Taxi Driver in my March wrap-up but seeing it in the cinema was a real treat. Irreversible (2002) - 8/10 One of the most viscerally horrendous experiences I’ve ever had while watching a movie. I cannot believe a friend of mine gave me the DVD to watch. More thoughts on episode 32 of The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast. Don’t watch it with the family. The Golden Compass (2007) - 1/10 I had no recollection of this being as bad as it is. The Golden Compass is the definition of a factory mandated movie. Nothing it does on its own is worth any kind of merit. I would say, if you wanted an experience like what this tries to communicate, a better option by far is the BBC series, His Dark Materials. More of my thoughts can be found in the review I wrote on Letterboxd.

Antichrist (2009) - 8/10 Lars von Trier is nothing if not provocative and I can understand why someone would not like Antichrist, but I enjoyed it quite a lot. After watching it, I wrote a slightly disjointed summary of my interpretations of this highly metaphorical movie in the group chat, so fair warning for a bit of spoilers and graphic descriptions: It's like, the patriarchy, man! Oppression! Men are the rational thinkers with big brains and the women just cry and be emotional. So she's seen as crazy when she's smashing his cock and driving a drill through his leg to keep him weighted down. Like, how does he like it, ya know? So then she mutilates herself like she did with him and now they're both wounded, but the animals crowd around her (and the crow that he couldn't kill because it's Mother nature, not Father nature, duh). Then he kills her, even though she could've killed him loads of times but didn't. So it's like "haha big win for the man who was subjected to such horrific torture. Victory!" And then all the women with no faces come out of the woods because it's like a constant cycle. Manchester By The Sea (2016) - 6/10 Great performances in this super sad movie. I can’t say I got too much out of it though. Roar (1981) - 9/10 Watching Roar again was still as terrifying an experience as the first time. If you want to watch something that’s loose on plot with poor acting but with real big cats getting in the way of production and physically attacking people, look no further. This is the scariest movie I’ve ever seen because it’s all basically real. Cannot recommend it enough. Eyes Without A Face (1960) - 8/10 I’m glad I checked this old French movie out again. There’s a lot to marvel at in so many aspects, what with the premise itself - a mad surgeon taking the faces from unsuspecting women and transplanting them onto another - being incredibly unique for the time. Short, sweet and entertaining!

Se7en (1995) - 10/10 The first in a David Fincher marathon we did for The Sunday Movie Marathon, episode 33. Zodiac (2007) - 10/10 Second in the marathon, as it was getting late, we decided to watch half that evening and the last half on the following evening. Zodiac is a brilliant movie and you can hear more of my thoughts on the podcast (though I apologise; my audio is not the best in this episode). Gone Girl (2014) - 10/10 My favourite Fincher movie. More insights into this masterpiece in episode 33 of the podcast. Friends: The Reunion (2021) - 6/10 It was heartwarming to see the old actors for this great show together again. I talked about the Friends reunion film at length in episode 33 of my podcast.

Wolfwalkers (2020) - 10/10 I reviewed this in an earlier post but would like to reiterate just how wonderful Wolfwalkers is. If you get the chance, please see it in the cinema. I couldn’t stop crying from how beautiful it was. Raya and The Last Dragon (2021) - 6/10 After watching Wolfwalkers, I decided I didn’t want to go home. So I had lunch in town and booked a ticket for Disney’s Raya and The Last Dragon. A child was coughing directly behind me the entire time. Again, I reviewed this in an earlier post but generally it was decent but I have so many problems with the execution. The Princess Bride (1987) - 9/10 Clearly I underrated this the last time I watched it. The Princess Bride is warm and hilarious with some delightfully memorable characters. A real classic!

The Invisible Kid (1988) - 1/10 About as good as you’d expect a movie with that name to be, The Invisible Kid was a pick for The Sunday Movie Marathon podcast, the discussion for which you can listen to in episode 34. Babel (2006) - 9/10 The same night that I watched The Invisible Kid, I watched a masterful and dour drama from the director of Birdman and The Revenant. Babel calls back to an earlier movie of Iñárritu’s, called Amores Perros and as I was informed while we watched this for the podcast, it turns out Babel is part of a trilogy alongside the aforementioned film. More thoughts in episode 34 of the podcast. Snake Eyes (1998) - 1/10 After feeling thoroughly emotionally wiped out after Babel, we immediately watched another recommendation for the podcast: Snake Eyes, starring Nicolas Cage. This was a truly underwhelming experience and for more of a breakdown into what makes this movie so bad, you can listen to us talk about it on the podcast.

[robbiedaymonds]

2020 content creator tag

Rules: answer the questions and then tag 10+ other creators to answer the questions! thank you so much @taylorjoy-anya for tagging me!

i’m digging into my old blogs ( @wmhalliwell & @brandon-routh ) for this one since i've only had this blog since november just fyi!

first creation and most recent creation of 2020: this finn/poe scene was my first 2020 gifset!; my most recent creation is also the one i’m most proud of from 2020, it’s seriously a work of art imo and i’m proud of myself for not giving up on it

one of your favorite creations from 2020: this julie molina set; i tried really hard with making each gif a special color and i think the text is good! it’s also got lyrics from my favorite indie band, parsonsfield, on it ;)

a creation you’re really proud of: this 12 monkeys gifset took me 2 days to make after a few days of research and searching for tutorials and inspiration through many blogs and i think it’s the prettiest thing i’ve ever made

a new style you tried this year and a gifset that uses it: blending gifs! i tried it with this willex set

your favorite coloring: definitely this green rey set; i still love it so much

a creation that took you forever: this willie set took me a few days to make!

your creation from 2020 that received the most notes: i think it’s this howl’s moving castle gifset with around 5500~ and this anna from frozen 2 one with 5600~

a creation you think deserved more notes: look y’all this caos gifset was a struggle asdfghjk

a creation with a favorite scene/quote: this jack black jumanji one is still one of my favorite and makes me laugh every time i see it

a new fandom you joined and a creation you made for it: the only new fandom i joined in 2020 (and by new meaning i wasn’t a fan previously since many fandoms i started creating content for this year i’ve been fans of for years and then rewatched this year and started making content) is julie and the phantoms so here’s a set from there that i like the colors of

a creation you made that breaks your heart: this s3 gert/chase gifset never fails to make me cry (i’m also sad it didn’t get many notes :( )

a ‘simple’ creation that you really love: this murven gifset that gives me all the fucking feelings

a creation that was inspired by another one (add both your creation and the one that inspired it!): this julie/flynn set was loosely inspired by @seance‘s willex set for the round-cutout set up :)

a favorite creation created by someone else: there’s SO MANY so i’m gonna choose a couple here: gabi @lettersdeeplyworn spent days on this unsaid emily set and it still blows my mind!; @yenvengerberg’s allison set is so gorgeous i literally can’t even form words about it!;  cece @nora-reid‘s rainbow set is so pretty i can’t even; @merlinemryspendragon‘s gorgeous tros rainbow set like damn the colors!! ; this breathtaking chidi/eleanor set from @will-lyra; this amazing pacific rim mako mori set from @redbelles; you can’t even compete with this rogue one set from @bbbbbbbbbbbbbbb-8 and honestly the list goes on and on

some of your favorite content creators from the year: everyone listed above obvi plus so many more than i could ever list so if i follow you or reblog from you ever...you’re my favorite creator!!! these are just the blogs i could think of as i was sitting here @anakin-skywalker @kyloren @kylos @patel-dev @padawanlost @tennant @winterswake @obi--wans @dreadwolff @samwinchesster @saraheliza @70sgifs @perfectopposite @anya-chalotra @the-maidofmischief @midnightisquiet @michaelguerrin @jackmans @labyrinth @dianaxprince @beltik @lukehan @julie-molinas @rosetico @beaucannon @dindjvrins @montygreen @gracechoi

and for good measure, another a couple more creations of yours that you love: this laura moon one bc i love her sm; this bb luke skywalker set bc he’s adorable; this chewie hugging rose set makes me smile; the spellman cousins i adore sm and i love this tiny moment between them; and we love a new 2020 ship aka daniel sousa and daisy johnson and this knee-melting moment of fake engagement undercover in the 70s 

thank you so much for running through these gifsets with me! it’s been fun to see how much i’ve created this year (it was A Lot); i’m tagging anyone mentioned here or anyone who makes creations and wants to take part! share the love and support and be proud of yourselves!

[onebighumanheart]

11/11/11 Tag!

Well, looky here. My first tag game of my Tumblr career(?). Huge thanks to @hyba for considering me for this after us just having met! I deeply appreciate it.

Without further ado.

#1: If you could choose one character (one of your OCs, but you can choose another character as well) to hang out with for a night, which would it be?

Any character... Temperance Brennan, Bones. We wouldn’t be doing much in the way of having fun, perhaps, but she could teach me all her anthropological ways. Maybe then I could finally decide whether that’s the career I want to pursue or not!

#2: When did you get the idea for your WIP(s)?

This is assuming I have a WIP—I don’t, really. That said, though, for each of my stories’ prompts? My best friend whipped up a list of them for me, one word a day for a month. If you check out my blog, you’ll see that they’re real inspirational! I’ve come up with the best stuff I’ve ever written from the words they gave me. 

#3: What’s the one thing you want to accomplish in your life?

I want to change a life. One way or another, I want to have been influential enough on this planet to have improved somebody’s life, however small or however long-lasting. Make somebody’s day better, keep them smiling through the week, give them the strength to make it through the month. Maybe even to live another day, with my work. 

#4: Where do you go when you need to take some space away from whatever is frustrating you (your writing, or anything else)?

I don’t have a place I go, no. When I’m frustrated, I usually just stick it through. Is that healthy? No, probably not, but I’m not the kind to stand my ground by stepping away. When I do, though, it’s usually to my room, where I’ll just lay there, contemplating. 

#5: What’s the funniest book you’ve ever read?

Funniest book... Probably Counting by Sevens by Holly Goldberg Sloan, my second favorite book of all time. It tells the story of an orphaned and adopted gifted child entering middle school who ends up losing her pair of adoptive parents, too. It’s poignant, touching, but also hilarious. If you haven’t heard of it or haven’t had a chance to pick it up, do that. Give it a read, it deserves it.

#6: Of all the characters in books that you have read, which one is your favourite?

Look. I’ve never actually read the book, but Howl’s Moving Castle means the world to me. It’s my favorite movie of all time since my older cousins first showed it to me when I was younger along with My Neighbor Totoro (I just love Ghibli, man). Sophie Hatter is one of my favorite characters of all time, a well-written woman who regains and maintains her strength despite (and, perhaps, because of) her affliction. If movie Sophie’s anything like book Sophie, I’m swooning. 

#7: Have you ever abandoned a story/book for over a year and why?

I abandoned writing in general for many months before these two weeks of immersing myself in it again, for personal reasons. In the general sense, putting words on a paper (or, more accurately, on a screen) felt... wrong. I’m trying to break through that the best I can lately, and I feel it’s working.

#8: If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where you would be?

Canada, no second thoughts. Why? Beats me. I haven’t ever been, I hardly know anything about it, and it’s cold enough to freeze my nose off up there. Do I still love it as if it were my home country? You bet. 

#9: Name one writer whose writing and style have influenced you.

Is this basic? You tell me. Stephen King. My favorite book of all time is It, after sifting through a PDF version because What Teenager Has Money To Pay For Books. (I’d like to, but a guy has to economize. King probably wouldn’t mind too much.) I’ve tried to take his level of description and tone it down a bit for my own writing, for I’ve had many run-ins with the ill-fated Purple Prose!!!. That aside, though, his pace and tone set up for the onl  book that

#10: Do you have an end in mind for your WIP(s)?

N/A, for the time being. But again, in terms of my short stories, I usually begin with a loose idea and flesh it out as I start writing, letting things come to a stop wherever they do. Then I prune a bit before showing them to the world. 

#11: Which WIP have you enjoyed writing the most so far?

My favorite story of mine so far is the deity prompt with Renata and Ludo. I feel it’s one of my stronger pieces thus far. A friend even said it sounds like something out of a fanfiction.

I’m going to tag a few people I’ve seen around the writeblr community. If you’re uncomfortable with being tagged, by all means, send me a message and let me know that’s not something you’re up to! I won’t mind one bit. @akingsleywriter @francestroublr @writer-jessicac @iannicellis @kidsarentallwrite @push-the-draft 

Have some questions of my own!

1. What’s the scene in a book or movie that’s most memorable for you?

2. If you have a WIP, who’s your favorite character in it? Why?

3. What inspired you to start writing? What continues to inspire you to keep writing?

4. List five of your favorite things.

5. What genre of content do you most enjoy? (Books to read/write, film, video games, etc.)

6. Setting goals is the biggest way to make your ideas a reality. What are some of yours?

7. Describe your closest friend.

8. What time period do you most write in? Why?

9. Do you have any other hobbies? Let’s hear them.

10. Is there anyone in your life who inspires or influences your writing? How so?

11. What makes you happy?

[seriously-really-soft]

A personal narrative essay I wrote for one of my classes that I felt pretty comfortable sharing here even if it’s not fan fiction related

word count: 646

     It was around 5 a.m when it came to an end, when I saw stars where there was only an endless ceiling and felt magic where the air was stale.

     Up until that point, life felt like a continuous regression; it had come to be a seemingly endless collection of shame and regret, of growing mistakes, the burden of which I carried painstakingly over bent shoulders and knees. I was 17 with no dreams and loosely strung up fantasies for futures. Half lived days — ones I would often urge myself to start all over again at midnight — marked both passing and incoming months like some brilliant, flaming clementine peeled by the love callused hands of friends that adore you; the color so full of life and warmth beneath the sun, left both untouched and left to lose its splendor beneath cruel air.

     In retrospect, it all happened in a tiny, cramped room. Though, for the way love found home in me again that morning I felt I could embrace the very atmosphere, that I could kiss it and share saccharine secrets as though we were Sapphos and her sweet Aphrodite. Howl’s Moving Castle was at first only a name I heard in passing. My awareness for it was limited to quotes and gifs on Tumblr, critics raving about its beauty and the delicate impression the movie left on its viewers. It was something special, both cherished and revered by what I understood to be exclusive groups of intellectuals, artists at heart who sought more from life. I longed to be a part of the group more than anything. 

     And so it had been decided, against every other misery that year, I would set to watch the movie with stars to keep me company in that lone 3 a.m room. That night showed me more love in the world than I ever knew what to do with — love for the sky that turned with me, for myself, for simultaneously everything I knew, and everything I couldn’t possibly know in one lifetime.

     It really was everything — from the opening scene to the ending. At once it was easy to understand what had so often been said before - the delicacy, the elegance, the immense love for the world it cradled into one’s heart with unmatched gentleness. Something so inexplicably beautiful was stored in, “A Walk in the Skies”, “Unspoken Love”, “In the Rain”, and in “The Flower Garden”. It was a movie so great in its presentation, and you could revel in its beauty over and over again through Howl’s mannerisms, in Sophie’s love for him, in the art style’s appreciation for everyday beauty. My heart came to understand what it meant to be so deeply enamored with the world - not with its riches, no, nor with its despair - but rather, what it meant to be a part of its vastness and its sometimes nonsensical cycles. I understood, then, that my life had been a walk so long in search of the good in it.

     “I love you back,” the world seemed to say that night, “you are not alone or unnoticed, nor will you live unloved.”

     After the movie came to an end, I laid there in bed both reborn and bleary. Life had once again become so full of hope; still I wonder if there were ever showers, meals, or days of spring as precious to me as they were after that experience. Those feelings stayed with me forever after, and from that time came an ever growing need to make spaces of beauty in the world - to be vulnerable and open, to follow what made life so worth living. It inspired a sense of purpose, the idea that it would feel so right to spend the rest of my time creating small, intimate spaces around the world for people to fall in love with.

[rachelnanshan]

Artist of Influence - Hayao Miyazaki

One artist I’ve found myself inspired by is the filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese figure who is known for his numerous animated films which have been praised by viewers around the world. Miyazaki has co-founded Studio Ghibli and worked as director, producer, screenwriter, and animator in his films, overseeing the process and even fixing up specific animations to fit into his vision. Having first watched his film Spirited Away as a younger child, I think that a part of his influence has stayed with me as I grew up exploring life and learning more about art. A couple of his films that are the most meaningful to me are Spirited Away, which was the first Studio Ghibli film I watched, along with Howl’s Moving Castle, a film loosely based on the novel of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones. 

Concerning how my art relates and is influenced by his work, I think that it has to do with some themes which are frequent in Miyazaki’s films -- empathy, realism, nature, and the concept of ma. In Miyazaki’s works, he focuses greatly on details relating to not just the external environments but also to the human aspects, such as the interactions/relationships between characters and little gestures that reflect what a character is feeling or thinking about. Moreover, the concept of ma (which is hard to directly translate into English) is reflected in scenes where there is a sense of stillness and tranquil with certain characters in the external world but the viewer still gets an idea of what is going on in that character’s mind. In my artwork, I’ve noticed that these themes play a role in my process, since when I’m making art I pay attention to the intricacies and often work towards creating a piece evoking a sense of quietness and contemplation. While my work revolves more around nature and less on people, I think that my art still evokes emotion and a sense of the human condition and delicate nature of our world today.  

https://nofilmschool.com/2015/10/video-what-makes-miyazaki-film-a-miyazaki-film

In the link listed above, the writer goes into depth of what distinguishes Miyazaki from other filmmakers and specific elements that make up a Miyazaki film. The writer draws light on a video essay which analyzes the unique personality of Miyazaki’s films, particularly on elements such as emotion, empathy, humanity, concept of ma, little details in character gestures, and less focus on filling the entire movie with explosive scenes (this is more characteristic in Western films). Furthermore, various clips from his films are shown to add to the video’s critique along with interviews/clips of Miyazaki to exhibit his role in the filmmaking process. 

[adventuesofanescort]

Adventures of an Escort: Vol. II

Opening Scene: 

[animated] *inspired by Sleeping Beauty* Song: Rendition of Disney SB - The Gifts of Beauty & Song / Maleficent Appears / True Love Conquers All 

Madeline dances across the screen, each time reappearing with someone different (alternating between Gabriel & Travis)

Transition:

Screencap of the date, time, & cosmic location in the universe

Loma Linda, California, United States of America, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy, 3rd Plane of Existence

Transition:

Set up the scene with stills from botanical miniature/doll versions *inspired by Hereditary & Dinner with Schmucks taxidermy mouse scenes* 

Main Character: Madeline Ophelia Rusalochka, Age 16-17

Incarnates: Magdalena, Mary Magdalene, Maddie from Hush, Aurora, Venus, Aphrodite, Vesta, Pandora, Athena, Artemis, Lilith, Kali Ma, Eliza from Daughter of Smoke & Bone Series, Rose Quartz from Steven Universe, Snow White, Princess Tiabeanie from Disenchanted, Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle

Appearance: Lightskint, warm brown loosely curly hair, skinny, innocent school girl appearance 

Seemingly sweet and docile young ballerina and violinist, private catholic student. Trilingual (Hindi, English, and Arabic), works at the library, frequently master-bates in public or with inappropriate items. 

Lives in small renovated shed with her strict, religious parents living in the main house, possibly with a young sister whom she adores. 

Spends her time writing, drawing faeries and mythological characters, and gardening. She keeps an epi-pen by her when doing it because she is deathly allergic to bees. She grows aloe vera to rub on her self harm scars. She does a lot of laundry, hanging clothes on clotheslines.

She has an extremely aggressive side to her, and is diagnosed with mild terrets, OCD (strict daily routine down to the minute, intrusive thoughts, counting steps, & self harm) & paranoid schizophrenia (voices constantly whispering that They are watching, safety advice and exit strategies, inappropriately sexual and blasphemous thoughts, nonsensical secrets of the universe, telling her that she is a prophet and a descendant of gods, etc). 

Madeline hallucinates messages from Heaven coming from the lips of those around her, in random moments, so she has a hard time following conversations or knowing what is and is not reality - often seems standoffish because she’ll choose to just not respond to people if she doesn’t trust herself to know exactly what they said. 

She has a constantly feeling of being watched and actually is by fae, creepers, & paranormal phenonemon. She thinks she has 10 different stalkers in any given moment, and does experience strange attacks from random men/zombie hallucinations. Scary paranormal things are always happening to her, with dark figures in the corners of her room when she steps in, and faces popping out at her when she turns the lights on, plus people in the rearview mirror of her car smiling, etc. She makes wards to hang around her house and garden, and frequently smudges, prays, and casts spells for protection. 

She has two best friends - they spend time smoking weed at the lake and exploring the orange, pomegranate, and avocado groves. 

She drives distractedly throughout the entire film, and the audience feels extreme tension in the anticipation for her to crash, but she never does.

She’s in a lame boring relationship with her goody-two-shoes neighbor Gabriel whom she has known forever. He’s always trying to initiate awkward car sex but she doesn’t want to take his virginity, so she always stops him.  

Gabriel, Age: 16

Incarnates: Angel Gabriel, Dionysus, Jesus, Krishna

She cheats on him for money during “after school tutoring sessions” with her Latin teacher who's into BDSM. He kills himself on her 17th birthday. 

*Smiley Library where Madeline works* 

Notes: there is scary engraved faces and lions heads in the pillars and a beautiful garden courtyard* Best location ever. 

When her teacher dies, she takes up private violin lessons during that time lost instead. She begins weekly violin lessons from Travis, and instantly develops a crush on him - to which he pays little to no mind. 

Travis, Age: 23 

Alias: Lucifer, The Morning Star, The Angel Michael, Ares, Mercury

Personality: Aggressive, mysterious, abusive, extremely acceptive, protective & loving. 

One day, Madeline sleeps outside in the tent. She falls asleep stargazing, and wakes up in sleep paralysis with lots of yellow eyes staring in from above the tent. There is a creak in the gate and all of their heads turn abruptly towards the noise, and they scatter. She is still unable to move when someone or something sneaks in to the tent and rapes her. She passes out, and is unsure in the morning if it really happened. Walking back to her home from the backyard, she is startled by her neighbor Gabriel who grabs her by the wrist. They ride to school together. 

In her music lesson later on, Travis notices a bruise on her wrist. He asks about it, and she says her neighbor did grab her there earlier, but she doesn’t know and begins to cry. He sits beside her and consoles her. She’s wearing a tea length dress, and he begins starts touching her thighs, slowly hiking it up and rubbing on her. As her sobs subside, he notices more bruises between her legs, and pauses. He tells her “That’s enough [crying]. We only have 5 minutes left of class. Play.” She sniffles, straightens her, regains composure back. He fingers her while she cries silent tears. 

They begin an extremely physical relationship, violent and sexual. He trains her to reach full blown orgasms while playing the violin impeccably. At times he’ll slap and taunt her when he’s angry or if he’s annoyed at her, and she’ll fly at him punching and slapping until he restrains her. He sometimes makes weird and ominous comments like “You’ve always been mine” or “You’ve always been such a fighter” as if he's known her for a long time. 

She likes him because he keeps her grounded, and she never has to pretend anything around him. He also seems to see and hear both her schizophrenic thoughts and the paranormal phenomena around her. He even suspiciously seems to be influencing, if not causing them, as it is all significantly less active when he’s around. But above all, he is her protector and one of the only people she views as an equal, as she has a habit of expressing subtle narcissism and vanity (despite glaringly uncouth thoughts of superiority). 

He seems to love her more than anyone else, akin to an extremely protective brother’s love. He operates as if him loving her is a fact of the universe and possibly an obligation, rather than a feeling or conscious choice, which she finds comfort and security (permanence) in. 

Her parents can never know she and Travis are together. The audience feels the constant anxiety/dread of not knowing when they are going to get caught. 

Her parents eventually do find out and are disillusioned and disgusted by her nature. They put her in sex addiction counseling and intensive therapy. 

During her first solo therapy session, her psychologist claims to be a psychic and inserts other misplaced spiritual things into the conversation. At the end of the session, the therapist gives her a tarot reading on her past, present, and future. She says Madeline is of the highest of royalty. She is in grave and targeted danger. And in her future lies death & self destruction, from which creation will surely be borne. 

She tells her things about all directions of time existing stacked on top of each other, and some of her words echo the thoughts the voices tell her. She lives creeped out. 

One night, Madeline experiences extreme stomach pains and cramps. After hours of pacing, pain, and debating if she should go and get help - the pain finally breaks. She’s sitting on the toilet, trying to push out poop it seems, when her eyes suddenly widen and she abruptly scoots herself from the seat. 

Madeline gives birth on the floor, and there is a graphic splat/thump of the bloody tiny stillborn baby that comes out of her. The baby moves a little, but she doesn’t care/pretends not to notice.

She buries the child in a decorated shoebox in the garden backyard. In the morning, she finds the plot dug up in an unnaturally neat circle with a ring around it, and a perfect mound of dirt next to it. The shovel is shown in the middle of the garden, thrown unceremoniously. She plants Lilly of the Valley (Mary’s Tears) there.

Note: Lily of the valley is a symbol of humility in religious painting. It is considered the sign of Christ's second coming. The power of people to envision a better world was also attributed to the lily of the valley.

It is night. Madeline is holding a small white bear, looking off into the distance expressionless, eyes glossy with unshed tears. Travis appears at her door. He immediately knows that she isn’t pregnant anymore, and demands answers. She doesn’t reply, ignoring him and steeling herself. He pushes her off the bed, asking what did she do over and over. He gets on top of her, screaming at her with his lips inches from her ear, spit flying. She kicks and struggles, trying to move her face back and forth and using her hands to protect and make space between them. He finally gets off of her, and she scrambles up, wiping hair and sweat and spit from her face. She’s out of breath, disheveled, and her bottom lip is torn and bloody. He looks at her and steps forward. She steps back and he punches a hole in the door, making her jump. She grabs her shovel, brandishing it, and tells him to get the fuck out.

Madeline takes up boxing, 

Transition: 3 months later caption, 11am. Pretty embellished wreath or wood panel covers the hole Travis made. Madeline opens the door and the text falls away. 

She goes into her backyard, wrapping up her fists, and using a punching bag and stand in her backyard. She puts on music and goes ham, quieting out the rest of the world. Creatures lurk at the edges of the garden, approaching slowly, getting closer as the song crescendos. There is a looming figure about to reach out and touch her, with two smaller dark figures crouching in its wake. Madeline spins around, punching the hair, but catching nothing. She yanks out her headphones. She is alone, all is still. She looks around, angry and uneasy. The beautiful noises of nature pick up around her. The wind begins to roar, making the chimes sing chaotically. She looks to find a nebulous sky with two moons. She blinks and the chaos ends abruptly. The sky is normal, and all is calm once again. But it is now night. The caption says 6pm. 

Scene ends abruptly.

She is trying to unlock her door, and pauses - listening to her sister laugh from inside the house. Her eyes soften at the noises, and then widen again just as a gloved hand claps around her mouth and nose, covering it with white cloth. She falls limp and someone picks her up her slack, throwing her into the passenger seat of a security vehicle. She catches a glimpse of the man right before she passes out. It’s her weed dealer, who’s business is actually a front for a human trafficking ring. 

Setting: 12123 South Figueroa.

She comes to, alone in a room, wearing a lacey nightgown. There are vicious ghosts in the room that scare her, and she goes running out of the room to the outside. She takes in her surroundings for a moment until she sees and hears terrifying zombie sounds approaching her. She’s chased up the stairs and runs into an apartment unit, walking in on Travis violently fucking a prostitute. The weed man bursts in, apologizes respectfully to him by name, and yanks her out of the room. He tells her they don’t have much time and he tries to make her look presentable. Women and girls are all standing uniformly down the apartment stairs, like mannequin displays. Weed man positions Madeline on a step, and slaps her, telling her to stay still and look pretty or else. He yanks her hair from her ponytail. 

A black cars rolls up the driveway and an old fat man climbs out of the backseat. Wheelman schmoozes, talking up the girls, and taking him through the list of girls - they are all named after a particular goddess. Weedman introduces Madeline as Aphrodite.  Inspecting his options, the man scans the girl’s bodies and settles on Madeline. 

Weedman grabs her and pushes her inside a unit with him, telling her to play nice. 

The old man immediately starts kissing on her. He sits her on the bed and begins to have his way with her. She has seemed catatonic since seeing Travis. As things escalate, and he begins to be rough with her. She wakes up a little and starts to protest, but sensual choking turns to strangling as the song rages on. 

Madeline struggles with all her power. The strangling lasts for two minutes in an extremely uncomfortable and gruesome fight for her life. 

She dies as the song comes to an end. 

The Funeral 

Song: Dream Sweet in Sea Major by Miracle Musical 

Madeline’s body is in glass coffin placed in the middle of a greenhouse cathedral. The audience has only a view of her and the backs of funeral goer’s heads, who are sitting in single chairs arranged in ominously straight lines. The presence of flailing charred bodies struggling beneath the chairs flickers in and out.

Credits (Funeral Contin’d):

[animated] same song plays as credits roll

Madeline’s glass coffin is in the middle of a meadow. Nymphs, fae, animals, dwarves, the trees, and other mythological figures slowly start appearing at the edges of the clearing. More creatures show up, tentatively entering the foray and paying respects to her. A teen girl with dark hair stands looking aloof. A small blonde haired boy in a white cloth shirt and too-small pants hops from foot to foot near her. 

A dark figure, who was before almost imperceptible, is watching from the sidelines head bent, eyes intent on Madeline’s face. He steps into the clearing and every head turns her way. He spreads his black wings and holds the stance, as the song reaches a crescendo: “above a blinding star” (5:37)

The screen goes dark and all is silent for a moment. 

Easter Egg

Screencap of the date, time, & planetary & universal location in the universe: Soddom & Gamora, Gaia, Olympia, 5th Plane of Existence

[not animated] The screen opens from the middle, revealing a close up of freckles. The picture zooms out to reveal Magdalena in her pink haired glory sitting on a ledge like a gargoyle, with her huge wings folded behind her. She is scanning the scene below her, eyes narrowed. She hones in on something and gets ready to leap off her platform.

The screen goes dark. The end. 

[indivisually]

REVIEW://Dancing on two sides of the cutting edge - 13/10/2017

Nederlands Dans Theater - Side A: Split into One / Side B: Adrift - Zuiderstrandtheater - 24/09/2017 and 7/10/2017

Dancing on two sides of the cutting edge

At the dawn of a new theater season NDT1 presents a duality of evenings each focussing on different facets of the company’s identity. With this double program Nederlands Dans Theater aims to distill and emphasize the two main components of their deep-rooted DNA - and their name -, more specifically a combination of ‘Dans’ and ‘Theater’ as the two key pillars on which the company has been resting for over fifty years. Side A: Split into One promises to focus on that first quality, with no less than three world premieres by Edward Clug, Medhi Walerski, Sol Léon and Paul Lightfoot inspired by a concept of pure dance. The second evening Side B: Adrift is provoked by a more theatrical approach and presents two existing works by Peeping Tom duo Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier, along with a brand new piece by Chartier to complete the Peeping Tom trilogy.

Edward Clug opens the twofold of triple bills with Proof, a piece for seven dancers set completely to the music of the English rock band Radiohead. The stage feels mysteriously remote, with only one large elliptical balloon hanging high above the floor and reflecting miniature versions of the dancers on its plastic surface. From the first second the music offers a steady drive for the choreography to unfold. The repetitive and atmospheric soundscapes of Radiohead go surprisingly well with the sharpness and detail of the dancers’ presence on stage. All seven are dressed in similar strained outfits, which allow to see the bodies underneath and make their skin look artificial and polished. In a continuous chain of extremely precise movements, drawn from a varied dance vocabulary, the seven dancers dehumanize into supernatural cyborgs that are simply designed to dance. Their purpose is not to tell stories or to entertain - or at least they do not succeed - they are merely travelling through cold vacuous space. In this respect Proof is a short but strong aesthetical manifest, but hardly goes beyond that. It pleases the eye but has difficulties touching the soul. Anyhow my appreciation especially goes to the clinical precision and stamina of the dancers. It may be said, not just anyone can stage a concept like this and stay true to it throughout the whole piece. Another true NDT hallmark.

The evening continues with SOON by Medhi Walerski, a piece that connects nicely to Clug’s Proof because of the great similarity in style. Just like Clug, Walerski chooses to work with the emptiness of outer space and celestial bodies, this time a sun - a constantly shifting bundle of light - and a moon - a large metal disk -, together an ever-present reminder of the passing of time. The sun and the moon are waltzing amidst the four dancers in a Calder-like construction, and are creating sublime eclipses for the public every now and then. The dancers become subject to the mathematical laws of this desolate world, imposing strict lines, forms and directions upon them. The moving construction causes a great sense of positional awareness, both among the dancers and towards the sun and moon. As the dancers follow this spatial order, they interact but never collide. Walerski’s choreographic style alternates sharp and fluid movements. At no time it is gestural or metaphorical, staying true to the realm of the abstract and to the concept of the evening. Clug’s Proof and Walerski’s SOON might seem ultimately senseless in my description, but both are enlivened with a same kind of poetry. The two pieces enact a futuristic romanticism, transcending the body beyond the realities of the human being and the machine as we know these concepts today, to create utopian new beings. These are the beings we see wandering around in desolate, infinite worlds long after the human race is extinct.

Unfortunately the last piece - Sisters by Sol Léon and Paul Lightfoot - misses what could have been an effective common thread throughout the program. Sisters is the only narrative piece of the evening, and tells about relationships within a family. Apart from the clearly recognizable trinity of sisters, the other characters are less specific. They could even be shadows or traumatic memories haunting the protagonists. The set consists of different random objects making the story even more cryptic. This doesn’t necessarily affect the quality of the piece, but it does result in a very odd contrast with the efficiency and straightforwardness of the other pieces in the program. In its own respect Sisters is a lyrical journey through different emotional states, a universal tale with loose ends to allow personal reading. Absolutely intriguing and memorable was Juliette Brunner’s interpretation of a one-armed girl - effortless, as if her body had never been without this mutilation.

A consistent curation for the second evening of this double program is no challenge for Peeping Tom duo Gabriela Carrizo and Franck Chartier. In Side B: Adrift they continue the psychedelic saga that they left with the award winning The Lost Room (Franck Chartier, 2015), preceded by The Missing Door(Gabriela Carrizo, 2013), both originally created with the dancers of NDT. With the world premiere of The Hidden Floor they add yet another layer to their theatrical labyrinth of thoughts.

It would turn out after the show had ended that Carrizo and Chartier chose to follow some strict rules throughout the three pieces. First of all, eight dancers portray each their own character in all of the three pieces. Secondly, the amount of space where the three stories unfold is equal. It is always defined by the corner of two walls and a square floor suggesting the non-existent opposite walls. Finally, there is no sense of physics or logic whatsoever. Doors become black holes absorbing the characters, polish cloth comes to life and makes choices for its own and a woman chatters like a parrot after her head is separated from her body. Besides, this absurd universe is full of glitches, messing with time and space. These computer-like errors can put the story in fast forward or make it stutter like a malfunctioning CD. In short, nothing is solid, everything is unreliable.

The first piece The Missing Door is set in a greyish green room illuminated by a fluorescent tube, strongly reminiscent of a dirty restroom in the dungeons of an old subway network. The cold corpse of a woman is lying on the equally cold floor. A man drags her through one of the five doors in the room, which will turn out to be the first of an uninterrupted series of peculiar events. The images that Carrizo creates are horrifying and yet impressive. Definitely the image of Marne van Opstal dragging around Meng-Ke Wu like a marionette, making her twist and tumble without her feet touching the ground, is impossible to unsee. As the story becomes more and more complex, it eventually evolves towards the opening scene of the piece, where the corpse is dragged through one of the doors. The circle is complete. The riddle is solved. However, the feeling of perplexity remains.

In The Lost Room Chartier plays with this desire to unravel the mysteries of The Missing Door. For example, we see how the same man drags the corpse from the previous room into a totally new one, this time a warm and stylish suite of a cruise ship. The door is a gateway to this parallel reality, like the magic door in Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle. As the cruise ship drifts on the rough waves, the dancers roll from one side of the room to the other. The Lost Room is a seamless continuation of the horror story in which the eight characters are trapped. Choreographic parts - as a means of storytelling - are notably more present and better balanced with simple actions and play-acting. The piece peaks multiple times, making it another generous dance-thriller that you could almost watch in one breath.

The last piece, The Hidden Floor, shows a flooded cocktail bar with two tables next to a panoramic window and overgrowing tropical plants spread across the room. The dancers continue their mental and physical torture in this final destination. As in the other two pieces, doors, windows and mirrors are important elements to indicate concepts of passage, isolation and self-awakening. The most clear and striking connection to the previous piece is a vision of the suite, as seen through the panoramic window. The warm and welcoming light of the suite is creating a sharp contrast with the coldness of the flooded bar. It reminds me of the final scene of Cameron’s Titanic, where we see the grand staircase of the ship being undone from its decay and turning to its original glory again. Here also, this pleasant image is no more than a dream.

NDT perfectly knows how to make the cutting edge of contemporary dance present for a very wide audience, and offers something for everyone. At the same time, it remains to me unclear what exactly is the artistic added value of combining all of this work in a double program, other than showcasing the versatility of the dancers in the company. Side B: Adrift is standing too strong on its own to be considered part of something else, and Side A: Split into One is not consistent enough in itself to form a good counterpart to the B-side. Maybe the construction of the program is just deceiving too much to fixate on the panels of the diptych, rather than on its hinge. For it are not the sides that are most interesting, but the edge on which they come together.

Jonas Schildermans

Rahi Rezvani, Proof, 2017

Rahi Rezvani, SOON, 2017

Rahi Rezvani, Sisters, 2017

Rahi Rezvani, The Missing Door, 2013

Rahi Rezvani, The Lost Room, 2015

Rahi Rezvani, The Hidden Floor, 2017

[joshua-gray-b2b2-jekyll-and-hyde]

First Draft on Analysis

Introduction

               This essay will explore how a fictional short-story inspired by an original text would be animated to represent the key themes explored within the text. For the purpose of the essay the short story was based on the novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde”(1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson with focus on the themes and symbolism of repression, the pathetic fallacy, and dreams.

             Repression is defined as  “the restraint, prevention, or inhibition of a feeling, quality, or thought.” In the original text repression plays an important role in the progression of the story; Jekyll’s desire to repress and then later his inability to completely repress his true nature is what allows Hyde to take control initially, the short story building on this with the POV character actively seeking out a means to fully repress the man that haunts him.

                Pathetic Fallacy is  “a literary device wherein the author attributes human emotions and traits to nature or inanimate objects.”   throughout the novella Stevenson confers human characteristics to the weather; most notably through the use of the fog/mist to help set tone for a scene. The short story uses the fog to convey the persistence and oppressive nature of the pursuer he wishes to repress.

                Dreams are defined as “a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.” Dreams play a key role in the original novella and the short-story; the novella was influenced largely by a dream that the author had, and the extensive use and symbolism of dreams within the source text provided inspiration for the short-story.

           The essay will explore animation techniques and styles that could be used to best explore these three core themes and propose ideas of how particular scenes in the short-story could be animated.

Contextualisation

           The novella was released in 1886, a time of misinformation in which practical science was commonly mixed with the occult, “What is relevant in history is not whether they happened, but whether they could happen in Victorian eyes.” (Winter, 2000, pg 11)

     Victorian social ideals set the precedent that the most trusted source of information would come from the most upstanding members of Victorian society, regardless of their credibility. These elements of Victorian society are represented in the novella by how Jekyll's techniques blur the lines between science and occultism and yet the novel treats Jekyll’s letters as a believable turn of events; expecting the reader to believe Jekyll’s claims in part because of his social standing as a respectable gentleman.

Mesmerism was one of the most prevalent  of these occult-driven pseudo-sciences to come out of the Victorian era. “Mesmerism [can be treated] as a prior incarnation of psychoanalysis, [bridging the gap in history between] Mesmer and Freud.” (Winter, 2000, pg 10)  This idea of mesmerism being used as a form of psychoanalysis formed the key inspiration for my response to the novella. Further research into mesmerism found that it  can be defined as “a fragile set of practises whose meaning was very much up for grabs. As for the phenomena these practices produced… [they are best described as] …an “altered state” of mind to that of a state of lucid “unconsciousness.” (Winter, 2000, pg 10) The ambiguity of mesmerism and its utilisation of hypnotic and manipulative techniques played into the themes of Jekyll and Hyde; the idea that a particular potion or substance could bring about a drastic change in a person was in keeping with the pseudo-scientific beliefs of the day. This state of lucid unconsciousness is what I further went on to expand upon in my short story, having the entirety of the narrative take place in such a state.

Mesmerism is regarded as a stepping-stone for modern hypnotism; an application of scientific method to what was at the time occultist pseudo-science. Some modern hypnotic therapy techniques (Brann, 2015) require you to initially envision yourself within a “white” space before filling said space with a familiar location that is relevant to the therapy, for this reason quotes from the text referring to Jekyll’s laboratory were used as reference points for the writing of the short story. This helped to convey the sense of mesmerism that is in keeping with the general style of the original work whilst allowing for a more believable induction process in the short story.

A dominant aspect of Victorian society was the belief that sexual desires of any sort were if not unhealthy at least sinful; “Though men, too, were pushed to control their natural instincts, they were considered too weak to control them, this led to a flourishing prostitution business.” (Victorian Era, 2017). This theme of sexual repression due to the Victorian social construct is alluded to in the novella. Jekyll created the potions with the intention to indulge in pleasures that he “regarded and hid them with almost a morbid sense of shame” (Stevenson,1886, pg 67).  It is never directly made clear what these pleasure are, but it can be inferred that they are of a sexual nature. It is the repression of Jekyll’s desires that leads him to create the potions in the first place as an outlet for his own fantasies that starts the events of the novella and his inability to repress his desires is what leads to Hyde eventually taking full control of his body; the short-story provides a possible means which Jekyll pursued in order to further repress his desires and by extension Hyde.

Animation

The short story was written with the intention of it being an extract from an “extra” chapter of the narrative of the novella that is from the POV of Jekyll, with this in mind when thinking of animating said sequence it should be assumed that this story is just a “scene” in a larger animation. When writing this story I imagined that the over-arching animation that this story is present in would be animated in the format of 2D digital, taking inspiration from the style and colour pallet of the representation of Victorian London from 1997’s “A Christmas Carol”, whilst taking a darker direction focusing on a more dark and grimey industrial era aesthetic.

The first paragraph of the short story begins with the hypnotic suggestion to imagine a white room, again as this story is written with the intention of being part of a larger narrative the animation of this scene would start shortly before this suggestion, inducing Jekyll into a lucid state before asking him to “Imagine a white room”. When animating this hypnosis scene I would want to cut between the faces hypnotist and Jekyll whilst the suggestion was taking place, similar to the hypnosis sequence found in the movie “Mr. Nobody” (2009), although in this sequence the cuts back and forth are merged with intermittent flashbacks, whereas in my animation I would want the cuts to build up to a point in which Jekyll slumps back into his seat, as he does the camera cutting to a POV shot of his eyelids closing over a blurry scene.

The last sentence of the first paragraph, “feel as light as a feather floating away from my body, then suddenly I am drawn towards a dazzling light.” , is the point at which in my animation I would choose to shift style to a much more free and loose “hand-drawn” aesthetic similar to the time travel sequences found in the “Your Name” (2016), having an ethereal form exit Jekyll’s body and float away, leaving the rest of the scene behind before fading to a white space, similarly to the sequence in “Howl’s Moving Castle” (2004) in which one of the characters runs through a magic portal and is transported to a space full of black before coming to a new room.

I envisioned the the white room to be in homage to the “construct” scenes found in 1999’s “The Matrix”, Jekyll finding himself in a “sea of white, not a single thing to be seen.”, similar to how Neo finds himself in an expansive white space. I would also take reference from how the Matrix uses camera pans to reveal things that were previously not there for the scene in which Jekyll turns around and finds himself in his “laboratory as it once was”.

The aesthetic of the animation would become more vibrant and exuberant at this point emphasising the “happy” tone of this segment of the short story, and giving the animation an “other-worldly” sense similar to the “dream” sequences from “Sucker Punch”. (2011) This visual style would last up until the point at which Jekyll is looking into the cheval glass and it distorts, rippling in a fluid motion, and Hyde looks back at him. From this point the scene would undergo an almost nightmarish change, taking inspiration from the janitor scene in the movie “Silent Hill” (2006) in which the walls start to rot and decay away, the scene around Jekyll would start to slowly degrade around him, getting darker as fog creeps  “in through windows now barred, the only light coming from the crackling embers of the hearth, shadows dancing in the darkness.”.

 The awakening scene at the end of the short story would be followed by a cut to black in my animation, then the next scene would revert back to the initial style described at the start, and events would carry on from Jekyll's next day, skipping over any further events happening after the therapy.

I did not write my conclusion because at this point I am again over the word count for this section of the Essay.

As I move into my next draft I will have to cut some information to bring me back under, I am looking towards cutting information on the contextualisation of repression as it is something that I do not discuss later in the animation section.