#my biggest goals right now are to make an animated film and to produce an album. but i'm sure that once i accomplish this it will be back t

[qweenofurheart]

do you as an artist ever feel so much pressure to create something great that the fear outweighs any enjoyment you get from finishing anything 💀💀💀

[moonlight-yuyu]

Hello dear, me again XD I know I'm probably annoying by now so I promise this'll be my last request for a bit but I would love a personality ship with Seventeen, Stray Kids, BTS, and Blackpink. Your work is just amazing and inspiring and I love seeing the results for my requests. Hopefully this isn't too long:

Basics: My personality type is INFJ though it may have changed since the last time I checked. My friends describe me as the most playful shy person you'll ever meet. I'm more reserved and soft spoken since I find it hard to trust people and social events tend to scare me, I can also get overwhelmed with too much socialization. However with close friends/family I'm a bit more childish. I love making people smile so you'll always catch me making silly faces, doing cute dances, compliments, anything to make people happy. My love language consists of physical affection, cute pet names, and all the cute gifts to show I care. I will literally cling to someone just to get their attention. I'll also note I am NB so my style usually consists of oversized hoodies and sweaters that hide my figure. I am definitely the type of person that steals my friends/partners clothes if they fit me.

Interests: I'm a very creative and artistic person. I'm currently studying theatre production so I specialize in things like costumes, set design, and occasionally filming/directing. Ive even written my own play that I hope to produce one day. I do occasionally act or sing but I prefer being behind the scenes. I also love listening to music, writing, drawing/watercolor, and baking though I'm not the best at it. I can be a bit of a perfectionist so I could be doing any of these things for hours without realizing. Though I also love sharing my passions with others and learning new skills. I love anything to do with music and theatre no matter what it is. If someone brings it up I could go on for hours without stopping. Other likes include horror movies, sweet things, animals, the fall season, and essentially anything cute or that I can cuddle with. The only real exception to all of that is cats because as much as I love them I am sadly allergic and can't be near them. Things I dislike include sudden loud noises, spicy foods, fireworks, and being forced into uncomfortable social situations. Essentially I startle super easily so anything that's really loud or bright tends to scare me. My biggest goal at the moment is to get a job in the theatre industry. I'm not sure what exactly I want to do yet but something on the production team. Right now I just want to finish school and then focus on building my career. I'm also a helpless romantic so I'm always dreaming of my future wedding/family for when I find the right person.

Ideal Type: Trust and loyalty are the most important to me when it comes to a relationship. I need someone I can trust and open up to and will do the same for me. As I mentioned earlier my love language is physical touch and I can be clingy so probably someone who appreciates that. I'm not really one to get jealous but I am a bit protective and loyal to a fault so communication is a must. I will not hesitate to defend my partner if they need me to. Personality wise I want someone I can joke around and get along with, they don't have to have the same interests as long as they are understanding of mine since I would love to learn and share my passions with them. Overall just someone whos caring and affectionate who can open up to me and be supportive the way I am to them.

Thank you so much and I hope you're doing great 💜🥰

thank you so much for requesting I hope you’ll like it!  and take good care of yourself !☀️✨ of course you can here you go hun <33 I hope you’ll like it and feel free to request again 🦋💙 NOOOO you’re not annoying I’m happy having you back love!!! <333

Seventeen

Minghao

Stray Kids

Hyunjin

BTS

Jungkook

BlackPink

Rose

[bbwoulfc]

ML NY Special Review

Finally finished my review on the ML NY Special and it’s going to be a long review, I won’t lie.  I will be breaking this down in two sections.  First section will be focused through the perspective as a professional (animation industry) and the second section through the perspective as a viewer and ML fan.

I won’t deny, I will be criticizing a few things and really give large opinionated thoughts; I’m sure it will piss people off, but I’m gonna be honest and I don’t give a damn.  I’ve been here since the beginning and I’m gonna go all out.  It wouldn’t be the first time I pissed people off.

Again, keep in mind these are my views/opinions as a professional and as a viewer/fan.  If you can’t handle some of the strong opinions that will come from this review, then keep moving on.  Don’t waste your time if you can’t handle certain characters or subjects being discussed in a different light.

If you wish to continue, then click the “keep reading” option.

As an animator, this is one of my favorite things to do with animated shows or movies.  I absolutely love breaking things down and giving opinions on the whys, whats, and hows.  Never do I aim to prove my opinions right.  My goal is to simply make you think and consider.  And if you don’t agree then that’s completely fine.  That’s how it works.

Now, the NY Special has definitely exceeded the quality than what I expected.  I absolutely love SAMG as a company.  I think this is by far one of the best that SAMG has produced for Miraculous as a whole.  Even better than the origin episodes. The lighting is probably the best I’ve seen in a 3D animated tv series, by far. It was stunning and gorgeous and worked well with the given mood that was set throughout the hour of the special.  I would say there are two scenes in particular that I felt were the best lit scenes. 

The first scene is definitely near the beginning when the class landed in NY and where traveling in the bus.  They stopped either at the hotel or museum and the shot was the buses in front of the large building where you have the other city buildings around it.  That shot was gorgeous; the orange hues falling on top of the buildings and gaining that purple and blue shadows was great.  It’s honestly one of my favorite complementary color schemes to use when lighting most scenes in animation.  It helps achieve a nice balance when setting mood but also to get a nice glance at the shapes of the models in the scene.  Perfection.

As for the second scene, I would have to say it was the moment Adrien left and Marinette was biking to chase after him and she fell.  That moment the scene focused on Marinette on the ground and in the rain spoke many volumes.  The color tone of the scene was perfect and captured the common traits used in many shows and films to further drive the sense of sadness and overall emotional effect; using the traditional trait of rain made the scene work and stand out during the struggles that Marinette was dealing with. 

The rain in general was outstanding on it’s own.  Liquids in animation are tough, not an easy thing to do. The way the rain was animated was probably the best rain I’ve seen in most 3D animated tv series.  I will even say it beats the rain from the origin episodes which is amazing because it shows the growth alone that SAMG has come from since the first season of the series.  

They create stunning quality work and by far are the best of the best from all the companies that ZAG uses or had used for the show.  I won’t lie, I still can’t fathom how Jeremy/ZAG could let such a company go but Jeremy isn’t the greatest with the money, so it’s not a shocker.  It definitely shows that man doesn’t know how to properly run a company and treat a show.  I honestly blame him for pretty much the entire outcome of the series and that’s my god honest opinionated truth as a professional. 

The pacing of the special I felt was good, though I do think it would have been nice to have had an extra 30 minutes to help flow areas a bit better or more, but I can understand the time constraints, especially after hearing about how Thomas stated that the special was going to be two hours originally. And I will be honest, I wouldn’t have minded that.  I think it would have been fantastic to have had a longer span episode special, but I understand a lot of the struggles that no doubt the team had endured.

Overall, some issues, but 10 out of 10 on animation and quality output.

Now the second section; viewing through the eyes as a viewer and fan.

As a fan of ML, I will not beat around the bush, I truly believe this special was disappointing plot wise.  And I don’t blame Thomas and his team for the issue.  As stated previously, my anger and frustration is more on Jeremy/ZAG for everything that has come from ML as a show and especially the result of the NY special.

My biggest issue with the special was the focal point: Adrinette.

How many damn times must I hear, “they’re meant for each other” or “aren’t they perfect together” and so forth.  I get it. You can adore Adrientte but I don’t need it shoved down my throat every five minutes.  I don’t give an ounce of care that Adrien and Marinette are endgame and that they’re “soulmates”.  The romance between those two means absolutely nothing to me.  It was cute and fun in the beginning when the series first started, but I’m tired of it.  I don’t care about the love square.  I don’t care about the “soulmate” trope when in reality anyone can be someone’s soulmate with the right care.  That was no doubt the biggest issue for me in the entire special.  

In my opinion, it would have been perfect if it wasn’t Adrinette centric.  This was the best moment to show Marinette is improving herself but it had to become fan service because god forbid it felt like they needed to please the Adrinette shippers that their ship is still valid. If we’re judging this based off the season 3 finale, I won’t lie, this special fit better as a season 2 finale or mid season 3 than the end of season 3.

I’m seriously more disappointed that the special wasn’t more on Marinette and herself as a character.  They were in New York, another strong hub for fashion.  This was a perfect opportunity to explore more of her interests as a fashion designer and maybe meeting some new people.  Who knows, maybe even Jagged Stone as an international rock star. But overall it was a lost opportunity to expand more on her for the sake of shipping.  

I think it would have also been cool to see her and Chat Noir maybe learn some methods/training from the US heroes and get a glimpse into a world of heroism that is different in cultures and circumstances.  Which honestly made sense to me how US heroes didn’t care about identity because Ladybug and Chat Noir have magical based items that are no doubt more powerful and outside sources that I’m sure would be willing to destroy to obtain it.

Another problem I had was how I felt we were robbed without having Kagami and Luka go to New York. Or if anything, more with Luka than Kagami. I love Kagami with all my being, but I doubt her mother would let her go to New York.  But imagine Luka being there. We could have had a flipping jam session between Luka and Jess.  I felt we were cheated, it would have been amazing to see two incredible guitarists jam it out and two people who have a passion for music find a friend in each other. I would have given anything to have had that moment.

Though in general I would have enjoyed anything else if it just wasn’t Adrinette centric.  I’m positive everyone in the fandom is on the same page that they’re “soulmates” but there’s more that can be done than a damn ship that has followers that attack and annoy anyone who doesn’t ship them.  Because, god forbid, Adrien and Marinette apparently aren’t allowed to be happy with others. I swear, half the fandom (hardcore adrinette shippers) treat Adrien more as an object than the ML characters themselves. 

Nothing against the ship, but it’s just not for me and that’s okay.  I simply can’t relate to Adrien as a romantic choice of a character.  When Luka came into existence, I was in awe. I found a character I could relate too because I was as close to similarity than any other character in a show before.  And that’s something I’ve noticed with this fandom, hating characters because to them they’re nothing but boring.  

Fans need to understand that one will not understand everything in a show, especially characters.  Just because you hate a character and find them boring doesn’t mean they’re terribly written.  You as a viewer simply can’t relate to them and that’s completely fine.  There will always be some who can relate and understand while others don’t, but that shouldn’t be a reason to argue against people who love a certain character.

And I’m being serious, I enjoyed the 30 seconds of Kagami and Luka with their love interests more than the hour of Adrinette.  It’s just overall sad.  There is so much potential that could have been the special focus wise but felt it was there to show why Adrinette is “superior” when it’s really not.  They’re only one of many ships that are equally good.  It comes down to how it’s portrayed and done.

However, since I know we’re stuck with Adrinette no matter what, I’m going to end this review with this as a food for thought but again, this is a simple opinion.

There was one thing that stood out and caught myself and some of my friends in a ML server attention.  In the NY special there were strong moments that revolved around bikes.  So, out of curiosity, I searched for symbolism meanings about bikes during the server’s conversation and it might hint to what might happen or what might come in the future of the show.   

The bike symbolizes the moving circle of life. 

Seeing a bicycle is a hint that you will reach somewhere. This could either be your motivation or your future plan. Cycling refers to the different moods that a person feels. Bicycles are also related to the ups and downs of life. For instance, riding a bicycle gives you both smooth edges and rough pebbles on your journey. The smooth edges are related to the happy times of your life and the rough pebbles denote the challenges of life. 

So, if we want to use this to break down ML, this in a way, represents Lukanette and Adrinette.  Luka are the smooth edges in Marinette’s journey.  He’s the one that calms her, helps her think things through, focuses on what Marinette wants to do rather tell her what she should do.  Never once does he tell her to do this or do that, but simply asks her what it is she wants. Luka, is pretty much her guide. The happy times as Marinette where she appears happiest without the burdens and overwhelming stress of her other life.  Whereas Adrien is the rough pebbles in her journey, the challenges to properly talk with the one she views as a love interest or simply to build that perfect friendship/relationship.  Yes, they’re friends, but they’re not as strong as friends like Marinette and Alya or Adrien and Nino. Adrien is a challenge in her life and always will be until she learns to let go and mature.   

The other moment that stood out with the bike was the moment Marinette was pressured to chase after Adrien to get him to stay.  She chases after him on a bike but falls off in the end. 

Falling off the Bicycle: This indicates that you are losing your self-confidence. 

Spend time with your loved ones and take suggestions from the experienced people. Join a course on building your personality and motivation. Do things that interest you the most and this will surely help to bring back your confidence level. This indicates a frenzied lifestyle and the need to slow down. 

This here makes me believe that Luka is the “experienced people” in Marinette’s life.  Other than Kagami, Luka is the only mature one in Marinette’s life in her friend group.  He’s one of the biggest motivators in Marinette’s life as of recent.  Putting her interests at heart that have helped her build her confidence.  We know Marinette has a frenzied lifestyle with everything that she has on her shoulders as well as her passions.  And Luka is one of the very few, if not, only one in her friend group that can calm Marinette and help her slow down and simply relax.

I know Adrinette is endgame, but I won’t deny when I say if there was anything that ML could do, is that they make Adrigami and Lukanette endgame.  So many shows always pair the two main characters, always.  If there is any message that I would have loved to see come from a show like ML, it would simply be “Your first love/crush will not always be the one and that’s okay. That your first crush/love could be the greatest friendship you ever have. And the second chances in your life are just as valuable as the first and may be even better for you.”  

Fans might hate Kagami and Luka, but as far as I’m concerned from everything I’ve watched since the beginning, the only reason you’re getting your Adrinette in the end is all because of Luka.  If it weren’t for him majority of the time, y’all wouldn’t have half of your love square moments.  So, Luka is the true MVP in my book.  Because unlike many of the others, he doesn’t put pressure on Marinette and that’s what Marinette doesn’t need right now, more pressure.  

Adrien and Marinette might be endgame, but those two need people outside of their classmates because everyone is too tunnel vision.  Luka and Kagami are the only ones that will help Adrien and Marinette mature, cause those two will not be able to do it themselves.  So, if you want your Adrinette, you’re gonna have to suffer through Lukanette and Adrigami.

[ayuuria]

Yashahime Translation: Real Sound Film Department Interview with Tadokoro Azusa

Please do not repost this translation without my consent! This includes screenshots of any type and amount. If you wish to share this translation, simply link to this post.

For more information regarding the use of my translations, click here.

Tadokoro Azusa, Her Thoughts on the “Inuyasha” World That She Admired. Reading the Script for Episode 1 was “A Very Surreal Feeling.”

“Hanyō no Yashahime”, which depicts the next generation of the anime that is Takahashi Rumiko-sensei’s original work, “Inuyasha”, is currently being broadcasted on Yomiuri TV and Nippon TV every Saturday from 17:30 (5:30pm on the 12-hour clock).

The protagonists of this work are three half-demons who carry the blood of a demon and a human, Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha. Towa and Setsuna are Sesshōmaru’s twin daughters. Moroha is the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome but she grew up without knowing the face of her parents. What exactly happened in the feudal world that was supposed to have become peaceful after the permanent destruction of the Shikon Jewel. The mysteries are slowly being revealed and the story is visibly becoming more exciting.

This time, the Real Sound Film Department interviewed the voice actress who plays Moroha, Tadokoro Azusa.

(There is a video comment at the end of the interview)

When I got the role, I felt like “I had ascended to heaven.”

— Tadokoro-san, you play the role of Inuyasha and Kagome’s daughter, Moroha, and “Inuyasha” is what got you interested in voice acting correct.

Tadokoro Azusa (shortened to Tadokoro from here on): That’s right. It was a work that I loved, so my hands were shaking when they told me about the audition. That there was a new development in “Inuyasha” and that Inuyasha and Kagome had a child really surprised me.

— How did you feel (your) audition went?

Tadokoro: I acted with the intention that I put my all into it, but because I absolutely wanted the part, I felt nervous afterwards. That’s why when I got the part, I couldn’t believe it. I felt like had ascended to heaven.

— We heard that you jumped into a well before, thinking you might be able to go to the feudal era.

Tadokoro: The well was already buried so fortunately I wasn’t injured, but I really went for it (laughs)

— Now, you have time traveled to the modern era via the Tree of Ages’ passageway as Moroha, but were there any scenes that moved you deeply as you were acting?

Tadokoro: I don’t have a specific scene, rather it’s the episode 1 script. After watching the completed anime on screen when I was young, I was deeply moved that I was reading a script that had the lines spoken by characters from “Inuyasha”. I watched (the episode) on air in real time at home and hearing the voices of Inuyasha and the others on TV brought me be back to my younger days. Then hearing my voice afterwards. It was a very surreal feeling.

— Among them, we heard that Sesshōmaru was your favorite character. What was his appeal?

Tadokoro: First, Sesshōmaru has an overwhelmingly pretty face (laughs). At first, he seemed level-headed and hated humans, but after meeting Rin, you could see kindness slowly come through. I get wild ideas that for the few words he speaks, maybe this is what he was thinking? However periodically, he’ll say things clearly like “There’s nothing worth obtaining in exchange for Rin’s life” and I think that’s wonderful.

— Also, you decided to become a voice actress after admiring Yajima Akiko-san who did the voice of Kohaku in “Inuyasha”. Please tell us why you were taken by Yajima-san’s acting of Kohaku.

Tadokoro: Because Kohaku had to go through a lot of painful things, he came across as being absurdly prone to sacrificing himself. With Yajima-san acting as that Kohaku, it was as though there was more sorrow mixed in. It was a voice that made me go “I want to help him!” as I watched.

— Do you have any aspects that were influenced by Yajima-san?

Tadokoro: The biggest reason why I was drawn to Yajima-san’s voice and acting was because even in a normal everyday conversation, you could tell what sort of life that child went through. I thought I wanted to become that kind of a voice actress and when I met her once, I asked “How do you take on a role that has a thought process that you don’t understand?”

— What was her answer?

Tadokoro: “You know, I don’t know myself” is what she said. Because you don’t know, you continue to think about the feelings of the character you play and try to act in the same way. Actually, when Yajima-san played the role of a child from a wealthy family, she apparently stayed in a very expensive hotel for a week (laughs). Not only was I moved from seeing her acknowledge what she didn’t know and attempt to get closer to the role, I thought I should also understand the feelings of the person I’m playing without giving up.

Geeking Out During Recording

— The character you play, Moroha, is very expressive which makes her cute. If there is anything you are careful about while playing Moroha, please tell us.

Tadokoro: Thank you! Because she didn’t have an easy upbringing at all, she’s a very uncouth child. I’m conscious of that liveliness that always seems like it’s about to go off. It’s just that we purposely haven’t been told what’s going to unfold in the future actually, so it’s difficult in that sense. Not to mention Moroha’s emotions are constantly changing, so it’s hard for me to keep up (laughs). She gets interested in all sorts of things which seems hectic.

— However, it seems as though Moroha is the bridge that connects Towa and Setsuna.

Tadokoro: Yes. But in the end, those two are love dovey with each other so it’s sometimes lonely being left out (laughs). Moroha may seem like the type that acts recklessly at first glance, but she’s actually smart and surprisingly the most proficient in battle amongst the three of them. That sort of gap is charming. Plus, she has that sort of adorable idiocy like Inuyasha and Kagome’s cleverness, so I think that’s very powerful!

— Please tell us what you think of Towa who is played by Matsumoto Sara-san.

Tadokoro: While being a half-demon, Towa was separated from Setsuna when they were young and grew up in the modern era that she time travelled to. Furthermore, this time, she returns to the feudal era with Setsuna and Moroha, so I think she’s a complex character whose emotions are heavily swayed. From that Towa, I can feel Sara-san’s true sincerity or rather everything Towa says is what she truly feels without any ill-will which I think is cute.

— How about Setsuna who is played by Komatsu Mikako-san?

Tadokoro: Setsuna’s charm that Komatsu-san plays is her sharp appearance. I can slightly feel that cool face of Sesshōmaru’s after all; on the other hand, she exudes the cuteness of a girl. Through Komatsu-san’s acting, I think it’s wonderful that her cuteness of worrying about Towa, despite everything, comes through.

— What is the atmosphere like during recording?

Tadokoro: The three of us love “Inuyasha”, so we geek out! Since we also don’t know what’s to come, we speculate things on our own like “This might actually end up like that” (laughs).

— Every time an episode is broadcasted, there’s a lot of speculation that rouses social media as well. Please tell us what curious viewers should take note of going forward.

Tadokoro: If there are unexpected developments like “It’s come to that!”, then there will be developments that will make "Inuyasha” fans glad and at ease. The mysteries will slowly be revealed, so please don’t miss each episode.

— Within that, what are points to pay attention to for Moroha?

Tadokoro: Moroha’s past and the environment she grew up in will be revealed in a certain episode, and I think it will be an episode that will make her more endearing.

— Including the numerous roles you had outside of “Hanyō no Yashahime” and your singing career, I’m sure 2020 was a very busy year for you but looking back, how was it?

Tadokoro: With circumstances changing daily from the COVID crisis, I’m truly happy and blessed that I was able to expand my world in a new way. That’s why each job felt even more precious to me. I once again feel that I need to be serious about continuing (work) into next year and the year after that, so I feel pressure. It’s a feeling of “I can’t die out from here!”

— The state of the world was heavily shaken.

Tadokoro: You’re right… it would be great if we could all record together like before.

— Tadokoro-san, you turned 27 back on November 10th. What’s your goal for the new year?

Tadokoro: There’s my self-produced album, ‘Waver’ coming out on January 27th and my current goal is to become able to put into words how I think and feel.

— For example?

Tadokoro: For example, in daily life, to casually doubt something on TV or something a person says like “Is that really right?” or (say) what I was thinking. In a way, I put my current thoughts into songs which I compile into an album.

— You have stated that since the time of your debut you’ve always wanted to try playing a “young male” role, and lately you’ve been able to play a lot of young male roles, including Ryouma from “Kamisama ni Hirowareta Otoko” (By the Grace of Gods). Now once again, are there any roles you would like to try?

Tadokoro: I like foreign dramas, so I’d like to take on the challenge of dubbing a person who appears in a Western film.

— I think fans will look forward to the future development of “Hanyō no Yashahime” and your work.

Tadokoro: I would like everyone to wait while being excited. There are lot more things I want to say about “Hanyō no Yashahime” but it will get more exciting from here on, so please look forward to every episode. And I, Tadokoro Azusa, will keep pushing forward without coming complacent. Fans, please watch over me!

[storm-leviosa-fanfics]

14-20 for the ask game, if you want !! <33333

Bea!!!! Hi!!

14. If you were stuck on a desert island with only two characters, which would you pick?

They are all hypercompetent idiots, Bea you can’t make me choose. Also is the goal to escape or to survive because there are different answers

15. A Hollywood producer tells you that they want to film just one of your fics. Which fic would you want it to be?

I want to say ‘leave the ruins where they lie’ because it’s a heist story and Hollywood loves heists, but it’s not finished yet. I can see there being either a really cute animated kids film of ‘a treasure to hold in your hands’ or some kind of dark urban fantasy spin off of the current iteration of ‘just beyond the limits of the mind’ with Steph and Cass being badass from the dragon!au and it’s only a ‘spin off’ because I haven’t written it yet.

16. What is your most underrated fic?

Honestly? probably ‘Sonata in E minor’. It’s not necessarily underrated or disliked, it’s just underrated in comparison to others. Plus I reread it this evening and damn there are some good lines in there.

17. What fic are you most proud of?

This is actually inspired by my recent reread of everything I’ve ever written to answer 18, but I have rediscovered what it is about Sticks and Stones that people like? And rereading it honestly put me in a bit of a weird headspace because I put so much of myself into that fic, used it so many times as a way to put my own experiences into words, that reading it now from a different time was really odd? (I’m fine don’t worry) The fact that it got weirdly popular in comparison to literally anything else I’ve written kind of put me off it a bit, but I get it now. I understand why it resonates with people and I think I definitely wrote it at exactly the right time to have the biggest impact, certainly on me and possibly on everyone too. It’s also by far my longest fic and that’s something to be proud of.

(skipping 18 because I already have to do it once and it’s taking ages)

19. Who is the easiest/hardest character for you to write about? Why?

hardest character to write is probably Bruce (excuse me for not being able to get into the head of a middle-aged billionaire who runs around as a giant bat at night because of trauma rip to him but I’m different) I find the rest of them varyingly easy or hard depending on the day, but I most often default to Tim so I guess he’s easier.

20. What’s your favorite minor character you’ve written?

I really do love Steph’s perspective sometimes. It’s just so refreshing (not sure she counts as ‘minor’ but there we have it). Also not sure if it counts but that one outsider pov fic I wrote for you? Amazing, love it, 10/10 would write that kind of fic again if I had an idea for one.

[monkey-network]

Eizouken v. Ratatouille: Dawn of the Creative Drive

WARNING: This critique will contain spoilers for Eizouken episodes 1-4 and the film Ratatouille. Also this is long. And yes, I had to make this or else I would’ve exploded. Enjoy.

Youtube’s TheRealJims made a video review of pixar’s Ratatouille not long ago, check it out by the way, and one thing about it caught me deep. He described Ratatouille as “a progressive kind of film, not in the political sense, but a very forward looking movie.” This line stuck with me as I begun to watch Keep Your Hands Off the Eizouken, an anime about a high schooler, inspired as a child, working her way to create anime with her friends. It wasn’t until episode 4 where mind threads started to knot, where that line about the pixar flic started to click with this anime in a way I’ve never thought of before. As such, I found that these two have a great thematic link, a connected warp between the creative minds of adults and children. Eizouken and Ratatouille do the remarkable in giving us the bouts and beauties to having a creative, “progressive” drive, and I wanted to explore how they stack up differently and similarly. And with that,,,,

The Ignition

The beginning scene of Eizouken where Midori see her inspiring anime for the first time is personally my favorite moment of the anime so far, borderline perfect. Like Remy, we already see her have this extrinsic passion for drawing once she arrives at her jungle gym of a newfound home; crude as they look, we see her seedling talent in jotting the details of her world onto paper. It’s then when she watches Future Boy Conan where her passion becomes etched in stone intrinsically. Miyazaki was her Gusteau, the bonafide inspiration that, taking it all in, made a simple hobby into a driven pursuit. Ratatouille more or less streamlines this whole moment with narration (makes sense cuz it’s a film) but they nonetheless bring home how a talent can be solidified if given the right push. Even if you didn’t have a desire to have a fulfilling career from it, you can’t deny that there was a moment in your life where something (be it a show, game, book, etc.) was the foundation to your biggest hobby, which then allowed you to explore it more as you grew up.

One thing to note is how Ratatouille handles Remy’s character with his interest. In spite of his palette gift, he doesn’t become a snob or too good towards his rat family; there’s not a moment where he claims he knows better than his skeptic father, they just idealistically disagree and their connection remains intact throughout the film. He has taste and knowledge, but isn’t smug about it. Midori is rounded the same way, she doesn’t push Kanamori or anyone to accept that anime is the best thing ever, and there’s that layer of anxiety to her love of anime that humanizes her aspirations a little more than Remy. It was a lot easier for Remy to be a cook than it was for Midori to make anything beyond concept art, or be sociable about it for that matter. At the same time, both remain humble in their ignited desires and understandably had to deal with an initial drawback to pursuing their dreams which is where...

The Helping Hands

Now, I’m not saying Midori is puppeting Tsubame or that Tsubame is a subversion of the whole rags to riches trope. I say like Linguini, Tsubame is one of the bridges for Midori to live out her desire, with the added bonus of being just as on board in scaffolding Asakusa’s passion to its most palpable form with her own dream of being an animator. Midori and Remy, be it their figurative or literal limitations, needed the likes of Linguini and Mizusaki to make things come to fruition. Even when Linguini doesn’t desirably wanna be a top chef himself, he witnesses Remy’s skill and is willing to put himself out there to work together and make the best cooking at the restaurant. Likewise, Tsubame is more than willing to work with Midori if it means not being forced into doing what her parents want and sharing that pathos of anime with a similar mind. And unlike Ratatouille, it helps that Tsubame is already adept in animating; I’ll talk to more on this later, but I’m glad Ōwara didn’t force us a character that wants to be somebody but has done nothing for herself. That’s what I noticed with both of these features, there’s a great semblance of support when passion is there but can’t progress singularly. There can/will be people out here to help you and they will come when you least expect it. Linguini and Tsubame both work well as the muscle of the cast, the character that does the heavy lifting in bringing the meal or anime to life. As such, we essentially have our director and the more hands on conductor of the project, but this all can’t be done without the producer.

Colette and Kanamori serve well as the anchor for our respective characters; we can’t just have the four characters go nuts with whatever, there needs to be some stability, a reality to the ambitious madness that can come with creating. Kanamori isn’t teaching the two any ground rules of anime, but she understands the analytics and guidelines to keeping things on track. Colette helps Linguini, by extension Remy, on the known etiquette to being productive in the kitchen, the same can be said for Kanamori in helping Tsubame and Midori in getting the film done clean and timely. While making a meal isn’t the same as making a whole cartoon, the ins and outs of getting things done have a parallel organized track. There’s especially more to making animation, especially on a deadline, and I’m glad Eizouken doesn’t shy away from giving you the thought process in what might go on behind the scenes; it practically gives you the ropes on what could happen if you were in each of the trio’s shoes. 

Additionally, these two are the most resolute of the three characters; they stick to the mission understanding where Remy and Midori are philosophically, and Tsubame and Linguini are fundamentally, coming from. She and Kanamori exhibit the practical outsider, the one to truly stick their neck out, don’t put up with bullshitting, to push the creative drive further. Both see the weight that comes to production and while Colette has her fallback in the 3rd act, they make sure everything goes as planned. They truly practice what they preach and are the glue that holds things together. The only disadvantage Colette has is that she lacks a relationship with Remy, it’s mostly indirect at the end while Asakusa and Kanamori are initially on better terms since they were already close friends. But with our characters on the move, there’s hardly such thing as a perfect run,,,,

The Fallback

This part is where Eizouken and Ratatouille truly divide because the problems that arises for our characters come in differently. Ratatouille has more outside factors coming in with the fact that Remy is a rat and is pulled between his connection with humans vs his own kind. Eizouken is more in-fighting between the three where Tsubame and Midori’s ambitions have to face off against Kanamori’s more realistic shut downs and options. Eizouken also presents the compromises that can come with being a creator where Ratatouille reasonably montages through the hardships that can come with human puppetry and becoming an instant hit in the kitchen. Success is portrayed more consistently in Ratatouille than in Eizouken, which focuses more on the progress. It’s obvious given that, again, making food is not as time and energy consuming as making a feature; we see that animation is a lot more than just drawing all your ideas onto the equivalent to a flip book.

To sidetrack a bit, I came to agree with Jim that Monsters University is the antithesis to Ratatouille where the hard work that one puts into their dreams doesn’t mean imminent or easily delivered success. It’s a bizarro film in that, while not breaking new ground plotwise, MU is grimly realistic in that your passionate drive won’t always lead to getting the spoils you exactly want. Eizouken cleverly sits the middle of the two, where success is achievable if you put the effort in, but that effort realistically won’t go exactly how you want. Mizusaki wants everything hand-drawn and Asakusa wants a story, but come to understand that shortcuts need to happen if they want to get it done by the  council meet. Kanamori isn’t crushing their aspirations for the hell of it, she makes it clear that time and the student body are not on their side. As opposed to Ratatouille, the final boss that are the critic(s) are notably secondary to getting the project done somehow. As mentioned before, I’m glad Ōwara made Tsubame already apt in animating because we can focus less on her being able to do it, more on the limitations that come with doing it. She has the skill, but has to bargain on her capabilities with what’s necessary as we see the tolls that come with the job.

Where I say these two collide somehow is the facet of the outsider putting the effort in for their goals. Remy and Midori are gifted and near encyclopedic in their trades, but are reasonably setback by both internal conflicting question of how far are they willing to go in exercising their drives. Remy more external than Midori since he could literally be killed if the truth was out too soon, but there is that self doubt in both of them where it can be hard to imagine that anyone can cook or that creating the great world is possible. It’s near the end of the arcs where they truly stand up for their beliefs and I appreciate that both handle the determined directing of our MCs in a respectable, pretty relatable way. They finally get to call the shots. They never sacrifice what could’ve been for what could be dauntingly realistic either; both offer an organic sense of optimism. But, with this optimism, comes the endgame that truly puts it all to the test in...

The Moment of Truth

Mr. Anton Ego, Skinner, and the Student Council are undoubtedly the final piece to these puzzles. It’s smart that they’re only present by the end of the arcs, only mentioned initially as the antagonistic force Remy and the Eizouken need to convince; they didn’t need to shoehorn their looming gavels any further. Naturally Skinner parallels the council president, a disingenuous hothead that antagonizes our MCs in a more unfair light while secretary Sakaki represents Ego, an intellectually honest person with actual standards and can see the forest for the trees. Eizouken’s episode 4 perfectly conceives why Kanamori is the boss, as she effortlessly confronts the allegations against them; not so much bluffing as she is spotlighting the council’s rash judgement. Unfortunately Kanamori can only debunk them so far, which leads to Midori overcoming her anxiety to demand that they’re given a chance. It’s great that Asakusa can suffer in silence for only so long before pushing herself to say something. This falls in line with Remy’s dad showing his son the grim realistic front of humans and rats before coming back to help him when he realizes Remy’s determinism. It’s like the rat says, the only way to go, “With luck, forward.”

Like the scene where Ego eats the titular dish, the moment we finally see the anime in full is almost disgustingly perfect. It’s fitting that a riot was going on before the presentation only for the action packed film to essentially come to life and throw chaos right back at everybody with powerful air waves, tank shells, and the tank itself jumping off the screen, literally blowing the audience away. Eizouken has literally more louder of a scene than Ratatouille’s, but both offer that climatic impart equally hard in their respective moments. They don’t shy away from grasping that immersive feeling of what you loved the most about food and/or animation, those invested in the film/series are basically with Ego and the student audience as those moments happen. It kinda hurts the brain how perfect these two moments are. Eizouken and Ratatouille, in a meta sense, weren’t successful only because they poke at our nostalgia or love, but of how they go the mile to convey it significantly. Ratatouille by the end, thanks to Ego, provides the apt idea of open-mindedness; that greatness can come from anywhere. Eizouken does this but adds the step that being open-minded can come with seeing what the efforts of that determined greatness can lead to. And with this, we see how it ends, or how it begins...

The Step Forward

I mentioned this before, but I loved that immediately after their demo reel finished, they weren’t worrying about any approval from the council or audience but discussing about what to improve on next. We see the soon boundless enthusiasm of the trio when, regardless of , they want to improve and do more as a team, all while the secretary approves the club in the hopes to see the fruitful potential. Compare this to Ratatouille for while Remy succeeds in convincing his family and Ego of his talent, they don’t sacrifice realism too much. Gusteau’s is naturally shut down, rats and humans aren’t suddenly living together by the end. At the same time, the movie wasn’t really about that, but about achieving small victories, optimistically grasping that palpable progress. Like Eizouken, Ratatouille leaves us with the progressive prospect that there’s the potential for more, for better.

To quote Jim once more, I say what makes both Eizouken and Ratatouille work fundamentally is that they keep the finger on the pulse of their respective message(s) while still creating enjoyable moments; they don’t sacrifice the fun of getting things right for pushing why it matters. They don’t sellout the bonds between our characters for irreverent romps in the kitchen or studio. Both offer a meaningfulness to their respective crafts, blending its many flavors into a well made dish that explores what it means to create and the steps that come with it. What it means to have passion and utilize that to its capable extent. What it means to enjoy a meal while watching an impressively finished production. They’re also very well animated; thanks Yuasa and Bird. 

[joekabox]

I just watched Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna

I’m writing this while my thoughts are fresh, so I just want to say these may not be my final thoughts on the film. Sometimes a film takes a little while to fully hit me, and this is just my thoughts immediately after watching said film.

Spoilers below, and a lot of text. I had a lot to say, sorry. I also apologize if its a little rambley, that’s kind of just how my brain works. Anyway...

Going into the film, I heard mixed reviews from various sources. From some, I heard the film was bad, from others, that it was good, but from most, that it was just okay. Nothing horrible, nothing great, but an okay film. 

I’m not sure where I sit, presently, but perhaps I’ll come to an idea by the end of this review.

The film is very well put together. Unlike Tri, and arguably the last bit of Adventure and a good portion of Adventure 02, Last Evolution felt like a cohesive plot, beginning to end. It knew what it wanted to be, and it did it. There wasn’t a point where I felt confused about what was happening, and unlike Tri, it didn’t throw in random elements that went unexplained from 02 and proceed to leave them unexplained. I think the closest we get is a shot of Sora, alone, with her Digivice turned to stone with little explanation as to what happened, but honestly, I think we can all agree we know what was happening, just putting together the scenes the film showed us earlier of her and Piyomon together. She was hit first, and while the film didn’t hold our hand on her journey, her journey acted as a vehicle to drive us towards the ending of this film, and I appreciate it.

Every emotional scene hits, every action scene is well executed. The animation is fresh and new, but evokes the original style in a way that isn’t exact but certainly close enough. I think that was maybe a good choice, given the theme of the film itself. 

In tone, it isn’t just a sad waterworks of a story the entire way through like Tri tried to be, but instead one loaded with emotional weight but enough pep and action to keep it feeling upbeat most of the time.

Overall, I liked watching this movie. I felt compelled to keep watching, and the opening scene of the film is just a love letter to Adventure as a whole. I honestly forgot it was only an hour and a half long as I got engaged with the story, as it never feels slow but every scene has weight and depth to it.

This film seems to care far more about the characters and drive of the story than Tri did, and by that I mean it didn’t try fixing all the flaws of the original, but simply let them rest. I think that might have been intentional, as this movie really felt like a ‘good bye’ to the series. The entire plot was about putting Adventure to rest, after all.

Now for the bad stuff.

This film really missed the chance to introduce Biomerging to the Adventure mythos via Taichi and Yamato, and while it gave that honor to the antagonist of the film, it didn’t seem to bother with the protagonists, probably because people seem to cringe when some fans even mention the concept of humans turning into Digimon.

Tamers gave us the concept of Biomerging to drive home the idea that a tamer and their Digimon partner had a bond beyond just friendship, and while perhaps ham-fisted, was a great visual metaphor. Last Evolution seemed to have a subtle buildup to this same core idea, but when push came to shove, we have Agumon and Gabumon becoming very humanoid versions of their Greymon and Garurumon forms respectively, meanwhile Taichi and Yamato just sit on their shoulders and pantomime their actions. I’m deeply curious if the initial idea was to biomerge them, but they bailed last second, but I digress.

This film also seems to continue the trend of just not caring about 02, but less so. While I will 100% give this film credit for not only including the 02 cast but also giving them a plot within the film, they didn’t really feel connected to the rest of the characters, not even towards Hikari or Takeru, who they spent the entire length of a show with. They just sort of feel like sidekicks to the Adventure cast, and not their own characters. We never even get Imperialdramon, despite Imperialdramon being shown to be at least on par with Omegamon in abilities, if not slightly surpassing them.

And, my biggest complaint, and one that probably isn’t a surprise: the time limit on having a Digimon partner makes little sense when looking at the rest of the mythos. In 02, we are shown the character of Oikawa, who’s entire narrative is a lifelong goal to go to the Digital World like him and his late best friend always dreamed of, and relies on children to aide him because he’s a grown man (if I recall correctly). From that alone, it seems like the ‘adults can’t have Digimon partners’ angle makes sense...except it doesn’t, because in the last bit of the show, Oikawa finally does make it to the Digital World, and what awaits him on the other side? His chosen Digimon partner, who waited this entire time to meet them, having dreamed of the day Oikawa would one day visit the Digital World.

While I suppose the ‘grown ups don’t have Digimon’ bit isn’t necessarily unsupported, it feels like an unnecessary plot device. The only saving grace I think it has, beyond making for an engaging and emotionally impactful film, is that several points of the film suggest this may not be the final say. Gennai makes an off handed comment about the possibility of delaying it, and there’s a constant message of “well see each other again.” While that may be just a hopeful thing to say in the face of sadness, much as one often says such things to a dying loved one, a producer of Last Evolution has stated that the film does, in fact, line up with the established Adventure canon, including the ending of 02, which specifically states that not only do Taichi and Yamato have their Digimon partners, but that everyone gets a Digimon partner. 

If this film really is intended to be canon with the finale of 02, and that Agumon and Gabumon will one day return, then I feel this film simply cared more about its narrative of growing up and moving on than anything, and honestly...I don’t think that’s horrible, in retrospect. This film, as mentioned, had a very cohesive plot, and a very strong story it was trying to tell, and it did it well. At no point did I feel anything was done to punish the audience or throw a kink in the hose, if you will.

The worst aspects of Tri (which I keep comparing this film to, sorry), were its insistence to cut away from 02, correct things done wrong in the lore of Adventures past, and tell an ultimately disheartening and sad message of “sometimes bad things happen and it sucks and there’s no good side about it, but we must move on.” Last Evolution has a similar message of “sometimes bad things happen and it sucks,” but it goes on to say “but that doesn’t really matter, given all the good times we had, does it?” It doesn’t make you feel bad for having invested time into people and things you care about.

While Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna was not perfect, and not the sendoff I wanted, it was okay. It was a love letter to the series, and it had a great deal of depth to it I’ve not seen in an Adventure story since my childhood, and at no point did it make me wish it hadn’t happened...and honestly I think that’s exactly perfect. That is exactly the message it was trying to convey.

At the end of the day, perhaps Agumon and Gabumon are gone, for now, but just because they left, it doesn’t mean they took their memory with them.

To quote the translated lyrics of Butterfly, by the late Koji Wada, which began each episode of the original Adventure:

“After an endless dream, in this miserable world That's right, maybe not using common sense isn't so bad after all Even with these awkward wings, dyed with images that seem to stay I'm sure we can fly, on my love”

[mrnerdteacher]

5 Spoiler-Filled Ways “Rise of Skywalker” is the Last Jedi Remake Neck-beards Demanded

“The goal is to not make one half of the fandom happy over the other, it is to make a film that the fandom in general as a whole enjoys. “

These words were taken from the manifesto posted on Remakethelastjedi.com (which somehow never managed to produce a film despite getting over $417 MILLION dollars “pledged” towards the effort (lol).

It is very telling that nowhere on the site does it mention anything about artistic integrity. Or communicating a theme. Or even quality movie making (cinematography, acting, dialogue, etc). Because the Last Jedi meets all those criteria, actually.  The entire crux of the argument against the previous film is “Star Wars belongs to the fans, and you didn’t give all the fans what they wanted, so we’re upset.”

It is therefore pretty deflating to watch “Rise of Skywalker” make so many efforts to undo the brave and controversial changes Rion Johnson made to the “Star Wars formula.” If ever there was a movie to prove Martin Scorcese right, this is it. Not only does this movie refuse to “Let the past die” (as Kylo Ren so eloquently put it), it figuratively and literally resurrects every tired old trope that has made Star Wars such a predictable franchise over the last dozens or so films. Here, submitted for your disapproval, are the “fixes” JJ Abrams made to “The Last Jedi”, despite never actually being broken in the first place.

1) This movie needs a Vader, dammit I love the moment in The Last Jedi when Kylo Ren smashes his stupid dollar-store-knockoff Vader cosplay helmet in a fit of rage. That was the precise moment in which I could tell this film was going to do something different. The villain in this story was going to have a face. And a personality. And be an actual character. But no, said JJ. Make the bad guys literally glue it back together. We need to sell some Halloween costumes, dammit.

2) The Universe Shouldn’t Feel Too Large

Perhaps my favorite plot twist of TLJ was in regards to Rey’s parents: they weren’t anyone special. They were not a Skywalker. Or a Sith lord. Or Jar-Jar Binks’ babysitters. They were just selfish jerks who abandoned their child. But in that pain lies a powerful message: you are more than your heredity. And you determine your own destiny. But no, said JJ. Make her a long lost child of Palpatine. And literally call the previous script a lie. Because a story that takes place across an entire galaxy should really only focus on the same five people. 3) Mysticism is Really, Really Important. Like, SO Important. I loved the moment in TLJ when Yoda burns the “sacred texts” that Luke had been protecting for decades. It was such a fun reminder that belief and spirituality matter very little if they are not followed up by action; particularly, brave and altruistic action. But in case you were one of the few who were actually upset by Yoda disrespecting a relic you never knew existed 20 minutes prior, Rise of Skywalker gives you plenty fancy magic items and abilities to read about on Wookieepedia. Treasure maps in the shape of conveniently found cutlery. Weird diamonds that point the way toward evil, like Captain Jack’s compass. Strange underground rituals that have apparently been destined for a millennia but that can ALSO be changed on the fly to fit the needs of the movie’s laborious run-time. It all comes across like an Indiana Jones movie, and not one of the good ones.

4) Characters Should be Simple and Easy to Predict

Luke tossing his own lightsaber into the ocean. A polarizing moment, but one I adored. It showed me that in this version of Star Wars, people change. They’re flawed. And they don’t take EVERYTHING seriously ALL THE TIME. They are, to put it simply, people. But in Rise of Skywalker, the galaxy far, far away is returned to simpler times. The villain is an evil wizard who wants to do evil because he’s evil. The hero is a symbol of unwavering good who never, ever makes the wrong or selfish choice. The mentor characters are wise and chaste, and the lovable scoundrels have ex-girlfriends on distant planets who are so salty he broke their hearts. It’s classic Star Wars, alright. (aka, kinda boring)

5) Cram in as Many References as Possible

Perhaps the biggest misstep of the Star Wars franchise is the oft-repeated mistake of thinking that establishing connections to beloved narratives is more important than being memorable or original. So we got characters like Jango Fett (totally devoid of personality) and ridiculous explanations for how Han Solo got his name. The Last Jedi was a deeply weird but wholly fresh story, with a strange animal-rights sub-plot and a final battle that didn’t actually take place. But if that was too unfamiliar for you, JJ Abrams is here to throw so many winks and knowing nods at the fandom that they couldn’t POSSIBLY find something to complain about. The number of inside jokes clouding the script are almost too many to count.

6) Be Woke, but not Too Woke

Just to make sure JJ Abrams didn’t lose the new Star Wars fans who were actually excited to see the series defy gender norms, RoS makes a lot of strange attempts at being progressive, but never in the forefront. Half the Stormtroopers have female voices. A new planet of peaceful allies has decidedly Muslim influences. And then there’s that lesbian kiss.But none of these elements are ever important, and are kept just enough on the sidelines that the far right audience can choose to ignore it. Like “Beauty and the Beast” and “Avengers: Endgame,” this movie wants you to think it’s forward-thinking, but its not brave enough to prove it.

And in case you are now feeling the need to “strike me down,” let me end by saying this: I actually enjoyed Rise of Skywalker. Once I realized it was going to be a pretty dumb movie (about five minutes in), I was able to sit back and enjoy the big, loud, occasionally funny, often emotional spectacle. I just wish the good movie that could have been hadn’t been force choked to death by the collective clammy fist of the Star Wars subreddit. 

Oh well. At least there’s one more episode of The Mandalorian...

[bonesloveeverandemilyanddavid]

Emily Deschanel on Biggest 'Bones' Lessons, Working With David Boreanaz and Returning to TV

  June 04, 2019 9:45am PT by Jean Bentley

  The actress formerly known as Temperance Brennan is returning to television in TNT's 'Animal Kingdom,' and discusses the evolution of her career with The Hollywood Reporter.

When Emily Deschanel graduated from theater school, she planned to spend her career doing off-Broadway shows and the occasional indie film. The actress, who is best known for the 12 years she spent starring on Fox procedural Bones, chuckled on the phone while remembering those early career goals.

"I remember somebody laughing at me, like, 'OK, if you never want to make any money, then great,'" she told The Hollywood Reporter.

While her earliest credited parts include small roles in not-so-indie films including Cold Mountain, Glory Road and The Alamo, Deschanel's big break came after being cast in Stephen King's ABC miniseries Rose Red. A couple of pilot seasons later and she was the No. 2 on the call sheet for Bones, behind former Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel star David Boreanaz, where she'd spend the next decade-plus of her life.

                          Two years after her Fox drama ended, Deschanel now finds herself headed back to television in a recurring role on TNT's crime family drama Animal Kingdom. While she spent 12 years playing forensic anthropologist and straight-laced FBI collaborator Temperance Brennan on Bones, she's on the other side of the law as recovering addict Angela on Animal Kingdom.

Deschanel spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about her nearly two decades in Hollywood — including following in the footsteps of her younger sister, Zoey Deschanel (their parents are both in the industry; their father is the Oscar-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and their mother is Twin Peaks actor Mary Jo Deschanel), working with occasionally difficult co-workers, the Bones lawsuit that has made her wary of signing contracts, and deciding to return to the small screen after a hiatus.

When did you start acting?

When I was growing up I always wanted to be an architect, for whatever reason. I guess it's the perfect blend of art and math and science, which, to me, was really appealing. But then I went to Crossroads for high school and I discovered theater and discovered acting, and I really loved doing it. I think I wouldn't have become an actor if I hadn't gone to the conservatory at Boston University for theater. You get to do four plays a year there, and I think I wouldn't have had the experience to give me the confidence to pursue being an actor after college if I hadn't done something like that. Of course, I look back and wish I'd gone to a liberal arts school and got a more well-rounded education, but there's always time to educate yourself, I guess. I think it was probably the right path for me because it gave me the experience, it gave me the confidence to try and pursue acting. My sister was already [acting]. She was always a natural performer, so she didn't need an external source to tell her she could pursue something.

I just loved theater, I loved to study, I loved Shakespeare. I'm the kid that went to Shakespeare camp three years in a row. Of course when I left school I was like, "I'm going to do Off-Broadway theater only and maybe independent film. And that's all." I remember somebody laughing at me, like, "Okay, if you never want to make any money, then great." It was such a specific thing. I can't say that I had a grand plan of what my career would be. Clearly I had one idea that changed completely, and I've done television for many years.

I moved back to L.A. after a period of time in New York and I finally got representation that sent me out. I had representation in New York but I think I got zero auditions for a whole year, so I was just working in a restaurant there, but it was still fun. A few months in, I think it was six months after moving back, I got this miniseries: Stephen King's Rose Red. Such a big job to get, where I was in Seattle for many months and it was so exciting to me. It was not a main character but it was a character that was in the show a lot. It was so much fun and I quickly loved being a complete sellout. [Laughs] I met one of my best friends, Melanie Lynskey, on that. We're still so close. I love the camaraderie with the actors — I love working on set and being on location too, you get to know people even more because you're kind of stuck in a place far away. I loved it.

Then I did a pilot after that and I did a Law & Order: SVU, so my first several jobs were all in television, and then I did some independent films and small parts in other films.

   What was it like when Bones came along? It was probably exciting to book a pilot, but obviously at the time you have no idea that it's going to last more than a decade.

I had zero idea, and that was not my plans for things, either. I had done a couple pilots before and this was towards the end of the pilot season, or the end of their casting of the show, and I got a call to come in and audition for it. I met with Hart Hanson, who created the show; Barry Josephson, the producer; Greg Yaitaines, who was directing it. They laughed at my jokes, so I thought they were really nice people. Especially Hart Hanson loved my stupid jokes, so I'll always remember that.

I remember loving the dialogue between the two characters, really quick witty repartee, and I liked that relationship. I liked that it was a strong female character. When you sign on to do a TV show you have to think about the long term, especially in the beginning when you're doing the pilot, what kind of message you're putting out there for people. Of course this is like the opposite of now what I'm doing — Animal Kingdom is like the worst thing that could ever happen to a person for what you put out there. On Bones it was a different show. Younger people watched it, so you have to think about young girls watching the show and seeing female role models and scientists who are really smart and accomplished in their careers, and are successful.

I thought about all of that and I really responded to the script, and then I met David Boreanaz. He already had the part when I auditioned for it. I remember thinking, Oh, this could last us three years. That would be the longest I could ever in a million years imagine that it could ever last. And then it kept going and going and it was a lot of fun, with some great people. I look back with such fondness.

I [spoke with] a friend recently who was an actor on the show as well, and he was saying, "You seem so might lighter than when you were on the show!" And I'm looking back on it thinking I was so easy-breezy but apparently I was like "I will stress out about every single thing that I could possibly stress out about." It's a lot to be the lead of a television show. It's a lot of responsibility and it's an honor, but you do have to set a tone for a set, and there's pressure to keep the show going and be good. There's all kinds of things that I was probably holding on to that I wasn't realizing, and I look back just remembering all the fun times we had on set with the other actors — like the times in between when they say "cut" and before they say "action" — and of all the conversations we had. I look back thinking I was so easy-breezy but was usually very stressed about everything.

 She's also a character who is not very emotional, so you probably also had to tamp down your own feelings more when you were playing her.

Yeah, that's true. I remember the first season doing takes where there was some things that were super upsetting. I remember there was an episode about a girl in foster care and my character was supposed to be in foster care and I was just bawling crying. We couldn't use any of it. I was so upset but my character was so cut off emotionally. I loved, like I was saying, that we had these strong female characters. Hart Hanson, who created it, was a feminist himself and we talked about how my character would never be saved by the male lead until I saved him first. We had things like that, and my favorite thing ever was when I met young girls who said they wanted to become scientists or they were in the process of studying science because of watching the show. That just makes me so happy that we had that kind of impact on people in such a positive way.

What was it like working with David Boreanaz, who had come off of a decade of successful shows with Buffy and Angel? What was it like for you as a relative newcomer to be paired up with someone who can be notoriously prickly sometimes?

No comment. [Laughs.] No, he was very respectful of me. He respected me from the very beginning, and I will always appreciate that. We had a great relationship. I had worked for several years but I'd never been a regular on a TV show before, so it was very new to me. He never tried to tell me what to do, never tried to school me in any way or make me feel like I didn't belong or like I was learning and new. We went to an acting coach, so we basically had therapy every week together which is kind of hilarious, in certain ways, 'cause we would talk about our lives as well in the sessions.

We also had an agreement: We spent more time with each other than we did with our own spouses — with anybody else, really — and we fully acknowledged that we would drive each other crazy. We gave each other permission to walk away at different times, or just say "you're really bothering me right now," or "you're annoying me, I have to get away from you." And we rarely used that because we gave each other permission and we talked about it. It really helped us to get along better in that way, and he always respected me and I love that about him. We would laugh about a million things and he became like a brother and played jokes on me and stuff. For some reason it became a joke that if someone was acting badly, you give them a Diet Coke. I don't drink soda, so if somebody brought me a Diet Coke, I knew it was because he would tell a PA to bring me a Diet Coke as a joke. I didn't do that to him every often. He was more of the mischievous one of the two of us for sure, but we had a lot of good times together.

That sounds like a healthy way to approach that type of relationship.

People have work husbands and work wives at their jobs. I think that's not uncommon, but it takes it to another level playing opposite each other and being married to each other, for sure.

You and David still have a lawsuit pending against Fox for withholding profits from the show. Is there anything you can say about what you learned from that whole experience, and how it has impacted your deals going forward, or even advice to other actors dealing with that issue?

I can't really talk about it because it's still going on. It's not over. I would love to talk about it at some point, but I can't talk about it now. I can talk about it with my friends, but I can't talk to the [press] about it. We can talk in a couple of years. It makes me nervous to sign a contract.

                   What's your biggest takeaway from your experience on Bones?

Oh, there's so much. I loved playing that character for 12 years. I loved the people I worked with, not just the cast but the crew. I loved telling the stories. I loved all of it. For me, going forward, I just don't want to do the same thing twice. At this point, I have no interest in doing 22 episodes of a television show. I want to play different characters, I'm open to anything — I'm not going to say that I'm not doing television because I'm currently filming television, but I'm not a series regular. That was a plus to me going in. I have flexibility. When you're a guest star you can come and go, and there's no contract, which is great going into my first job after doing Bones. And I don't want to take too much time away from my kids. So that's basically how I see things now, but I'm not anti-television by any means. It really is the golden age of television right now; there's so many amazing things going on, so many stories that are being told, and people doing it so well. I would never write off doing television.

You produced and directed on Bones, is that something you want to do more?

Yeah, all of it. I loved being a producer on Bones. It gives you a say in things, and I really appreciated that. Directing I really loved, and I'm very much interested in doing more of that in my life, but it takes up time. It depends on the time and finding the right project, because you don't want to spend all that time producing or directing something that isn't something you are completely passionate about. It's about finding the right project, and the right timing, with family and everything, I could do that again.

Your character on Animal Kingdom is very different than we've seen you play in the past.

I was really interested in having the conversation about addiction. The character is a recovering heroin addict, and this is a big issue in our country right now. This is a character you're seeing enter the show at rock bottom: She's just come out of prison, she's got nowhere to live, and she's trying to establish herself. This is a character who is sensitive to things, has seen everything in life, has done all kinds of things in her life, like a lot of people who have dealt with addiction have. This is a character who is a survivor. She's trying to find her way in the world and she's doing to do whatever it takes to establish herself to get what she needs, basically.

So she might come across as manipulative. She always has the reasons for doing what she does, but that's like all the characters on the show. They're like criminals, addicts, sociopaths,and she fits in with all that. My character is the best friend of Ellen Barkin's character's daughter so I've known the family for years and years and years, and I see it as an opportunity for myself to get in with the family and see what I can get out of it.

It sounds like there might be a throwdown between Angela and Smurf, Ellen Barkin's character.

Yeah, my character and her character did not like each other. I blame her for her daughter's death, and she blames me, essentially. There's no hiding how we feel about each other. It gets very intense between the two characters for sure. I'm the woman coming in for her territory and I move in to her house. She is not happy about that. I can't say that there's a throw-down fight between us, but it gets intense. Which is always uncomfortable because I love Ellen Barkin so much as a person and as an actor, so I hate the fact that our characters don't get along. But at least we get along off camera!

Animal Kingdom airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on TNT.

x

[dichenlachmandaily]

Unique in both talent and charisma, Dichen Lachman is one of those women who can seemingly do it all. The mother, wife, actress, and self-appointed house keeper plays Reileen Kawahara a tough-as-nails woman in the hit series “Altered Carbon”. Imagista was lucky enough to catch up with Lachman and get to know this amazing woman a little better.

Imagista: Can you tell me more about your childhood and moving to a different country? Dichen: I think it had a big impact on who I grew up to be. When I lived in Katmandu we lived in an extended family situation, with my aunts and uncles and cousins with my grandfather, in a very small apartment. There was a really strong sense of community, I find in third world countries, the communities are stronger because they have so many more challenges. I always had this desire to be surrounded by people, even in my work.

Moving to Australia was a bit of an isolating experience for me because we left all my family behind. We did not have skype or FaceTime and overseas calling in the 90’s was so expensive. It was a very lonely experience moving in with just my mother and father. Being an only child, I was very lonely and I think it triggered my imagination. That desire to have people around me never went away and there is something about being an actor that creates a strong sense of community around you. If you think about making a T.V show or a movie you spend all day with a ton of people and there is always a strong sense of community and there is the idea that all of you are sharing the same goal creating camaraderie.

Imagista: How did you get involved in the world of acting in the first place, was it kind of a search for a community? Dichen: I feel like I was always searching for something, but I didn’t know what it was. I tried a lot of things that I liked but that didn’t seem to fill the hole inside me. When I discovered acting when I was about 18 or 19, I realized that the community around it, even just in acting class and the intimate way you get to know people was something I loved. The notion of experiencing a creative process with creative people and the idea of transporting yourself to another place or time was all really attractive to me.

In a sense, I feel like I was a late-comer in the process but I do feel like I was always an actor, deep down, I just didn’t realize it until I found the way to apply it in a way that got me excited.

Imagista: You mentioned that you were close to your family, is your acting career something they supported? Dichen: I feel like if I would have initially told them that I wanted to try it, they would not have received it well. Not because they do not have an incredible amount of respect for the profession, they watch more movies than anyone else I know. The reason I think it wouldn’t have been well received was because of the unknown. When you are from a third world country, or one of your parents is, it is a fear, simply of the unknown. If someone wants to become a lawyer or a doctor its simple, you go to school and get good grades, you will graduate and get a good job. Saying I want to be an actor without having any relationship to anyone who has ever done it, it’s impossible to even think about how someone does that.

Acting is like an apprenticeship in a way, you need to just start and slowly gain more knowledge and relationships. Hopefully, if you are lucky and talented and work hard you may be successful but there is no formula for it.

I didn’t tell my parents when I first started taking acting classes because I was scared of their reaction. I told them I was doing public speaking courses, to improve my confidence. Eventually, I sent out photos to try and get an agent, I got an audition and once that happened I told them that I had started acting. I removed a big bubble of unknown of how it happens, I was able to say “ I want to be an actor and I already got an audition.” At least I was able to explain to them how it all worked at that point and it made everything easier for them.

Imagista: Let’s fast-forward to right now, the show Altered Carbon is awesome and you are great in it. Can you tell me a little bit about what this experience has been like? Dichen: It was a long process in terms of actually getting on set. I did a tape in July of 2016 and to be honest I just forgot about it and just sent it off. Three months later I got a call saying they wanted to offer me the job. I didn’t know anything about it, I didn’t read the script because it wasn’t provided, very top secret. I didn’t know about the book or anything I had just done the audition and moved on.

When I got the call I obviously said yes, I went to start reading the book and then they told me to stop reading the book because it was going to be very different.

This was the biggest thing I had ever done in terms of the amount of investment being put into it in terms of the budget. It was very exciting and then getting the script and discovering that the entire story takes place because of my character was a lot of pressure but also very exciting. I had never been the center of the story and although her involvement in the show is a little bit ambiguous you but once you get into the second half you realize how important her character is to the entire plot.

Then the training started and I had never trained in sword fight before. It was very grueling and physical, it’s a great workout by the way for anyone interested. Everything felt like a dream come true. The idea of learning something new in order to play a role always excited me and that was exactly what needed to be done for this part.

Then there was the character who is really complex, probably one of the most complex people in the show, in terms of where she is emotionally in her life, her very long life.  There was a really delicate balance and notes that had to be hit and not too hard all the time. That was a collaboration with myself and the directors and producers. One of the best things that has happened since is when I speak to people who love the show, they tell me that they were rooting for me, which is so rewarding to hear as an actor. When you are looking at it black and white, you can see that my character is the antagonist. I learnt that even in that case, you can make the audience root for you. Even though that character has done horrible things, there is a humanity there, which for me, if I achieve that, I have really done my job.

Imagista: You spoke about your character a lot, do you have any similarities to her? Dichen: I think that everybody, even some of the most horrible people in the world can find common ground with moral ethical people. I never approach a character as the good guy or the bad guy, you just have to approach it as an individual.

There may be one or two things I share with my character. One is her fierce loyalty. Would I ever do what she would do to protect her family, I mean she does some pretty horrible things. However, where it is coming from, I can relate to in terms of the great lengths she would go to in order to protect her family. She is also living in a different world so it is a tricky balance.

To be honest, I don’t have that much in common with her because she is kind of off the charts.

Imagista: It must be fun to play her! Dichen: It was a lot of fun.  A lot of people, when they play someone dark, they have a hard time getting out of it or leaving it behind them. I could understand that but I am grateful I was able to separate myself from the character. I approached the role with the notion of analyzing her relationship with her brother. That is what I held onto the entire time.

Imagista: I know you have been working really hard lately, do you want to share with our readers what you have been up to? Dichen: I just finished a role on a movie called Judy Small with Alicia Silverstone and Rob Corddry. That was exciting because it was a totally different role than anything I had ever done before. I don’t want to give too much away but the work was very different. IT was such a light and eccentric character that is a bit shifty but is not in the Sci-Fi world.

I don’t get to do stuff like that very often, so that was really exciting. It is a comedy also, I love comedy and I want to do more but it is sometimes not the right fit. People do not expect to see me in a comedy but I really do enjoy doing comedy.

Also, Animal Kingdom was an amazing experience. The chance to work with Denis Leary and obviously the entire cast who is incredible was a dream come true!

Imagista: The first time you caught my eye as an actress was actually on Shameless! Dichen: Yes, I was so excited to work on that show because I love it.

When they called me to offer me that small part, they told me I couldn’t tell anyone. I couldn’t tell my agents what I was doing- it was this giant secret. The core cast had no idea that Justin would be back on the show.

They sent everyone home except for a few crew members to film that scene with Justin and I in the car. It was such a great experience to be part of such a phenomenal show.

Imagista: This industry is so crazy and there is so much going on constantly, is there something that helps keep you centered? Dichen: I think previous to my daughter, I would find myself nurturing other people a lot. Actors who needed help with auditions; people who were moving to LA I would help them get started.

I always feel like I make sense when I am helping someone. Now I have a daughter and I am pretty much nurturing her. She is three years old and my focus is her and nurturing her into a human being who is “knock on wood” a good one!

Funny fact, I actually found out I was pregnant on my way to shoot Shameless. I was so nervous because it was a surprise and I just wanted to stay focus on my work.

Being a mom really does keep me grounded but I love it and it’s been great!

Imagista: What advice would you give your daughter that you wish someone would have given you? Dichen: I don’t know if she needs it because right now she seems pretty good in terms of not being self-conscious. I wish someone would have told me not to be self-conscious. Now I am not, after being in this industry and becoming a mom, I am less self-conscious now then I was when I was a teenager. I wish I had been less self-confident then and just enjoyed being me more.

I think women and men can be so hard on themselves about things that don’t matter. I am going to try and teach Matilda that.

My parents taught me everything I know, I am who I am because of them and I don’t think they ever taught me that because they grew up in a different era, one that was less superficial as well as a different community. I feel like our generation is very superficial and we are constantly worried about things that don’t matter.

I hope I could do that for my daughter.

Imagista: Can you share something about yourself that we can’t find about you on google? Dichen: I love cleaning! I don’t have a housekeeper, I clean the entire house on my own…sometimes my husband helps me and other times he doesn’t and his excuse is “you love cleaning.” I find cleaning very relaxing, for me it is clean house, clean mind.

[coyoteann]

Coyote Ann Profile 1, Ann.

This "Character Sheet" Was edited from Fyuvix's awesome one on DA, here's a link and disclaimer.

https://www.deviantart.com/thirdpotato/art/Character-Profile-Form-36823983

Adaptations from The Writer's Guide to Character Traits © Fyuvix. To fill out your own form, please see fyuvix.deviantart.com

Basic Statistics

Name: Annette Walker Nickname: Coyote Ann Age: 17 Sex: Female Blood type: O+ Nationality: American, Kansas Ethnicity: American, 'Southern' Race: White (Caucasian) Sexual Orientation: Unknown Birth date: 10-4-1997 Birth place: Iberia Medical Center, New Iberia, Louisiana Current residence: Transient. Occupation: Drifter. Title/Rank: None Hobbies/Pastimes: Sight-Seeing, Hunting, Motorbike Maintainance. Talents/Skills/Powers: Skilled at Tracking, Basic Auto Repair of Motorcycles, Fluent in ASL

History

Hometown: Andover, Kansas First Memory: Her Mother reading a book to her. Most important childhood event that still affects him/her: Mother and Father teaching her States and Capitols. Why/How? The Memory has given her a wanderlust. She's now subconsciously seeking out things to jog more memories. Other memories/events that still affects him/her and why/how: She remembers the old family dog, how she'd loved it and missed it after it died. She uses this memory to quell her emotions after losing her family. Past failures s/he would be embarrassed to have people know about and why: Teaching herself to drive a large truck. It was a slow process and she had many wrecks. She ultimately failed and hates that she never got a handle on it. Biggest role model: Her Father. Why? He was a major outdoorsman. Due to the various ailments of his eldest son he was unable to share his interests with him, instead, he took to showing everything he loved to Ann.

Physical Characteristics

Height: 5"2' (157.4 cm) Weight: 108.7lbs (49.3Kg) Posture: Defensive, Bold, Direct Build: She's thin, but her body has become toned from constant use. Athletic. Skin: Tanned, reddish splotches on her shoulders, cheeks, neck, and back. Darker freckles scattered across the face and lightly on arms. Hair: Reddish-Chestnut, slightly darker if she's outside more. The style is long, shaggy, sweaty (usually) and left loose. She wants to cut it shorter. Widow's peak? Yes, not very prominent, usually covered by her unruly bangs. Ears: Mild point, no lobe Eyes: Greenish-Grey Nose: Nose is flat, pointed upward slightly Mouth: She holds a smirk when resting her face, because of this her mouth looks like it pulls to the right slightly. Her lips are plain, thin. Face shape: Soft Round Diamond shape. Expressions: Her face is usually smirked. She relaxes into a smile even now. She picked it up from her dad. Describe their smile: Usually pulling to the right. A grin just exposes her teeth. Hands: Her hands are noted by long semithin fingers, and scars on her wrists and knuckles. Feet: Her shoe size is 6 (US) (4 UK) Tattoos/Scars? She has notable scars on her wrists, knuckles, right abdomen, and a thin one on her neck just above her collarbone. The Scar on her neck is definitely older and more faded than the others. Glasses/Contacts? No. She's slightly nearsighted but does not compensate. Left/Right handed? Right. Distinguishing features: She has a very noticeable glare. Who does s/he take after; mother or father? Mother/Paternal Grandmother. (She only has her father's smile) Style (Elegant, shabby, etc): Shabby-Travel Worn How does s/he dress or what do they typically wear? Jeans, depressed. Long sleeve cotton shirt with CAKE band logo, dirty and worn. Jacket, Leather. Other outfits one might find in their wardrobe: She carries a spare pair of Jeans and a long leather coat(duster style). Jewelry: none. Other accessories: none. Weapons: Pistol (temporary), Knife (in her bag), and Rifle (unacquired as of this draft) Health: Good considering. Frequently enters phases of malnourishment. Hygiene: She showers when able, usually goes several days without.

Are they generally balanced or clumsy? Usually balanced, but easily knocked off kilter. Mannerisms/Poses/Movement: Hums when working, Tends to lean on things, Walks in a direct manner. Describe their walk: She walks with purpose. Strong direct strides. Describe their fighting style: She prefers to shoot her prey but is capable in a fight. She knows some basic self-defense and is capable with a knife. Habits/OCDs/Obsessions: Pending at this time. Speech Patterns: She usually has a curt and direct voice. Unique phrases/words: None, Really. Do they curse, and if so, to what extent? Mildly Write a piece of dialogue that this character might say (can be between someone else): "I don't rightly care about what they're doing." "No I'm not gonna shoot them." "Okay, fine, I MIGHT shoot them. Now stop signing I can't think when you're talking." Voice: raspy (from dehidration) Mellow-High (Slightly Nasal, Husky but still light.) ((I imagine her sounding like Audrey Hepbern with a cold or allergy lol)) Describe their laugh: Deep and "Chuckly" usually, when she is caught off guard a light higher laugh will escape. Describe their sleep patterns (light/heavy sleeper, no sleep, sleeps too often, etc): Light sleeper, will put off sleep as long as possible. She has nightmares often. Describe their dwelling/house: none Describe their bedroom: none Describe their daily rituals: Moving.

Psychological/Personality Attributes and Attitudes

Intelligence Level: 9th Grade Public School Known Languages: English/Bad English Character's long-term goals/desires in life: Current Goal, Make it to New Iberia, Louisiana. Character's short-term goals/desires in life: Survival. Secret desires: She holds out hope that her family isn't actually dead. How self-confident is the character? Very, in a "fake it til you make it" way. She's confident out of necessity. How do they see him/herself? Alone, pitiful, and desperate. How do they believe s/he is perceived by others? She doesn't think of it often, when she does it's usually in a negative light. What is the character most proud of? Escaping Missouri. What does the character like least about themselves? her overall weakness to the situation she's in. How do they express themselves? Direct, watchful, no-nonsense. Is this character generally dominant or submissive? Dominant. Patience level: on a scale of 1-10 she's around an 8. Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof? She's usually very logical, but she has limits where her emotions escape through. Most at ease when: Near water, Alone but not lonely. Ill at ease when: She knows there are people near, but doesn't know who or where they are. She doesn't handle suspense well. Describe their sense of humor: Dry, Scornful. If granted one wish, what would it be? "Bring back my family." Why? She ties all her misery to their disappearance/deaths. Character/Personality/Mental/Social Strengths: Great under pressure overall. Character/Personality/Mental/Social Flaws: Awful with negotiations. If they could be described with one of the seven virtues, which would it be? Diligence If they could be described with one of the seven sins, which would it be? Anger Biggest Vulnerability (non-physical): She's pretty weak attacks on children and animals when she's not directly targeted. Optimist or Pessimist: Pessimist due to circumstances, Optimist despite themselves. Introvert or extrovert: Introvert. Greatest Fear: Causing the death of others or dying alone without ever knowing what happened to her family. Other Fears/Insecurities/Phobias:  She's terrified of Goats. Biggest regret: Not telling her family how much she loved them. Other regrets: Joining with certain groups, shooting a kid when escaping capture. Biggest accomplishment: Surviving the first winter. Minor accomplishments: Traveling from Missouri to southern Arkansas (at this point) alone despite the dangers. Musical talents/instruments: none at all. Character's darkest/deepest secret: She shot a kid who was trying to kidnap her. She was defending herself but it still haunts her.

Likes/Dislikes

Likes: Chocolate, Classic Rock, and Dogs Dislikes: Goats, Snakes, 'moist' cookies.

Favorite

Color: Rose-Gold Clothing: Leather, she loves the 80's punk style. Place: Still Looking. Room in the house and why: Used to be the Front Sitting room, she'd watch movies with her mother there. Food/drinks: Soda (Pepsi) Music genre: Classic Rock, Alt Rock, Classic Country, Rockabilly, CAKE (band) Songs and Singers/Bands: Short Skirt Long Jacket- Cake Movies/TV Shows/Performances: Sabrina(Film) Actors/Performers: None Book(s): Where the Red Fern Grows Historical figure: Elizabeth Garret Anderson Subject in school: P.E. Animal: Dog

Least Favorite

Clothing: Shoes. Place: Missouri (Branson) Food: Cabbage Music genre: EDM, Hip-Hop Subject in school: English

Simple Pleasures: Putting feet in water after a long walk. Greater Pleasures: Finding an orchard that has continued to produce fruit. Where does this character like to hang out?  N/A Where is this character's dream place to live? Anywhere that's actually safe. What sorts of books are most likely to be found on their shelves? Manuals. Motto/Personal quote: "One Day at a Time." Mode of transportation: Feet, Motorcycle, Abbot's Van Most prized possession: Her Jacket. Why? It was her Brother's.

Emotional Characteristics

Describe character's sense of morals: Take what you can, but don't hurt anyone if able. Survival before Ethics. If they could sum up the meaning of life, what would they say?: To live. Describe character's etiquette: Poor. Undisciplined. Describe character's sense of self-control: Fairly good, she's able to keep her emotions in check most of the time. She's not impulsive. Spontaneous or structured? Structured but with very mild Flexibility. Instinctual or logical? Logic first. How does this character act in public? Quiet but Direct. How does this character act in privacy? Shy, kind, inviting. How does this character act around strangers vs. how they act around friends? She'll literally take out a stranger if she feels threatened. How does(did) this character act around family? She acted open, happy, energetic. How has this character most changed from youth? She's become cynical and less empathetic. How have they remained the same? She still has a deep core of hopefulness that she cannot shake. Has this character dealt with the loss of someone they knew? Yes If so, who? Mother, Father, Brother. How has it affected them? well, she...attempted suicide before joining a gang and defecting and running away to Arkansas...she's really not FELT it yet.

How does this character deal with or react to: Conflict/Danger: Head on, fight or fight. Rejection: "YEAH WELL I DIDN'T EVEN WANT TO" -sniff- Fear: FIGHT OR FIGHT. Change: Adapt or Die. Loss: Adapt to Die. Sex/Flirting: FIGHT or FIGHT!! Pain: Tries to ignore it. Stress: Tries to ignore that too. Peer pressure: Probably wouldn't trust strangers...but a friend could lead her on fairly well. Guilt: Repress it. Being wrong: Admit it, if she can. Being criticized: Starts off hot, but she'll reflect after a while. Being insulted (superficially: name calling, etc): "YOU WANNA FIGHT OVER IT?" Offending others: "I didn't offend you, you offended yourself...also I'm sorry..." Praise: Skepticism Being loved: N/A Being hated: N/A Humiliation: Swallows and tries to focus on something else.

How does this character express?

Anger: With her fists. Sadness: Repression. Fear: Running. (with or without fists.) Happiness/Excitement: Giggling. Love (Consider the "Five Languages of Love"): From most to least, Acts, Touch, Time, Gifts, Words. Lust: She actively avoids it. Stress/anxiety: She will panic...sometimes. Dislike (of a person, thing, or idea): Avoid/reject it. Approval (of a person, thing, or idea): Tries to help them, discuss it, or fix it.

Other

What song best fits this character? American Girl - Tom Petty If you could compare this character to an existing character, who would s/he be and why?  I'd compare her to...All those Jodi foster Tom Boy Roles...like seriously..just give Iris (Taxi Driver) a gun and an Inidana Jones complex. If you could choose an actor for this character, who would it be? Uh...I dunno? If you could choose a voice actor for this character, who would it be? See Above. Who/what was your character inspired by? Story; Me and a friend Driving to see a movie, get behind a girl on a motercycle. "Wouldn't it be funnly if she had a cat in those saddle bags?" "Cat's done to hell make it a dog." "Wolf?" "too big, Coyote."  and ta daaaa.

[monkeyoflife1]

One Piece Film Strong World Oda Art Book 4

type

path of life

called

ground

life and death

Please give a message to the people in the world! Oda: I think that this movie will be released to the world at the most wonderful time ever. I think this movie is one of the best products to come out at a time like never before. I'm sure that SP fans are dying to see all nine of them together, and in that sense, I'm convinced that this is the long-awaited release. In this sense, I am convinced that this is the long-awaited release. I'm sure that people will be able to jump into the movie just as they read the manga. In addition, as is common in manga and anime, this story is the last adventure of seven-year-old Luffy. So, I hope you'll be able to capture it in your mind's eye. |I'm really curious. I'm really curious...! Please tell me more about it! Omagari: No, I can't say much more than that right now. I hope you enjoy the movie as much as I do, and look forward to future developments!

→On the boat, depicting the three of them playing during the end of the film. I'm so glad you enjoyed it! The teacher says that Luffy is wearing a towel around his neck, not a scarf.

I'm not sure what to make of it.

two groups of people

insects

this week

This year's winner

middle

Oro: I actually had a snake, not an octopus, appear in Kuujima. There are a lot of animals that didn't make it into the manga, and ideas that I couldn't include. Also, it was difficult to draw mantises and other insects. Although they are insects, I wanted to give them an animal-like fleshiness, so I had to be very creative in how I expressed or arranged them. Also, there are people who don't accept insects physiologically, so I had to deform them in a way that wouldn't make those people feel uncomfortable.

Animal meat

"How!

ari

What?

study

now and then

annotation Toei Shimizu-san...Toei Animation Pro. Ban gumi a producer. Since the launch of the program, he has been keeping an eye on the anime Ban One Piece Mimamo version "OP". China Eigasaki Jakuhon, Gen'an*2 Plot...When making a movie, the draft of the script and The outline of the story that will be used for the movie. Chinese poetry The theme song is sung by Miss Chill.... realized as per the actual request. Japanese film This is the first time I've seen it. In the 1960's, the chivalry movies were at their peak. A film that depicts the life of an outlaw. Yumeinr. The most famous is "Abashiri Bangaichi" starring Ken Takakura.

Momo

day

Mum

A name that is easy to evoke.

I gave it a name that would easily evoke the "Momo. Do you think that drawing so many animals this time will bring any changes to your manga in the future? Omagari: Thanks to you, I'm having more fun drawing animals than ever before! This time, I picked up animals as needed, so I ended up drawing a lot of animals that I normally wouldn't like to draw. That was a great learning experience for me. It was a great opportunity to relearn how to draw all kinds of creatures, including fish and insects, from the skeleton up. Now that I can draw most creatures naturally, I am no longer afraid to show them, so I may have more opportunities to show animals in my manga in the future. -I'm very much looking forward to that! Omagari: When I was working on the Impel Down chapter for Root magazine, I had already drawn a lot of animals, but when I saw that there were a lot of prison beasts appearing, the staff of the movie version said to me, "Didn't the number of animals increase because of the movie? That's not necessarily the case, but I think one of the biggest gains for Shiro was that he was able to acquire the technology to make the work more fun. -That's all for now, for those of you who are reading this book, and for those of you who are waiting for the movie to come out.

Tojo.

The first

regularity

I can't wait!

the world

country, the land of the dead

An

You named all the animals yourself. What was your goal in doing so? Oda: I told the production staff that all the animals, even the ones that only appear on the screen, are characters that live on this island, and I gave them names to make that image clearer. There are many gag-like names, such as "mammoth dens". Oro: The reason for this is that it was more important to me that the animals in Kanabe had names than that the names in Fukurobu were well thought out and cool. In order to give each of them some kind of character, the image

Ika-nacha

Maetanou

In order to give each of them some kind of characterization, the image

Eiichiro Oda] EICHIROODA

This is the first time I've done this.

I am

tachikumamomoto kenkumamomoto shou

Gakusyu

head

"I designed it while picturing the scene during the voyage. I designed it while picturing the scene during the voyage."

Born in Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture on January 1, 1975. High School In 1992, while still in high school, he entered Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump's 4th Tesakashou Oubo Wanted Junkou Senju Shouzuka Award. "He received a second prize for "Wanted. In 1993, he won the 104th Hop Tastee Award for his work "Iki Yakou". In 1993, he won the 104th Hop Tastee He was selected for the 104th Hop Award. In 1993, he was selected for the 104th Hopstaste. After that, he published a number of read-through comics in Jambu magazine, and in 1997, he started a series of "ONEPIECE". In 1997, he started a war. Up to the present.

Infectious disease

market development disease

121

[geneticandunattainable]

There’s a clear bend toward electronic music late in this cluster, but the group overall spans multiple genres, including rock, R&B, and even a cinematic pop behemoth.  Now that we’re in the top twenty songs of the entire year, we’re discussing tracks that I may have listened to more than two hundreds times apiece.

20. Middle Kids – “Your Love” These three musicians from Sydney are still getting their careers off the ground, as they’ve only released an EP at this point; given the strength of the song “Your Love,” we should get used to hearing from them for years to come. The song is practically filled with hooks, and makes for an entirely delightful listen. Singer Hannah Joy, backed by her husband/bassist Tim Fitz and drummer Harry Day, effortlessly blends genres with her captivating vocals.  Many critics deemed them as the intersection between independent rock and alternative country, but I hear more rock here than anything else.  “Your Love” certainly has some pop structure, though with more genuine bite than you’d typically hear on the radio, and the production is inventive, building and crashing over and over throughout the track.  Ultimately, there’s something timeless about the song’s sound, and could easily be a lost gem from the ‘80s even though it was released last spring.

19. Sammy Brue – “I’m Not Your Man” Sure, the vocal sounds young - even strained.  Sammy Brue is clearly still coming into his voice, but not as an artist...as an actual adult.  Brue was only 15 when he wrote and recorded his debut album, and this track specifically is a total jam.  His sound may not be for everyone, but one of the producers on this debut album was John Paul White - better known as half of the brilliant alt-country duo The Civil Wars.  There’s no question that he has the pedigree behind him, and his razor-sharp songwriting skills are unquestionable.  His lyrics feel contemporary, but the sound is ripped from decades past.  Clearly Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan served as inspirations, but comparisons to Nirvana would be appropriate, too.  Brue is only going to get stronger from here, and continues to hone his folk/rock sound as he works with more musicians, including Justin Townes Earle and Lucinda Williams, just like a true prodigy.

18. Alice Merton – “No Roots” Alice Merton moved 24 times in only twelve years, leading to a feeling of complete isolation after bouncing around between Canada, the UK, Germany, and the States.  The longest that I’ve ever held one address is about five years, and my tally stands at just over two dozen moves in 33 years, so it should come as no surprise that I deeply relate to this song.  Merton swears that she had no idea it would become as popular as it did, landing her at the top of the charts for alternative rock; she’s the first solo female artist to top said chart since Lorde in 2014.  There’s an outstanding blend of genres here, with some funk percolating underneath the snarling bassline and the electronic-tinged breakdown in the latter third of the track.  One of the best aspects of the song, though, is the message; most people have a distinct place to imagine when thinking of the concept of ‘home.’  What’s clear to listeners here is that Merton lacks that experience, and that her perception of home is abstract at best when most can easily conjure that image.  For someone who shares that experience, I couldn’t be happier to sing along every time.

17. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Cut to the Feeling” There’s really no other way around it: Carly Rae Jepsen has quickly skyrocketed to the top of the list for pop stars who can consistently churn out high quality singles.  Part of the reason for her success, besides her obsession with 80’s-style synths, is that she refuses to lean into the darker side of pop that we’ve witnessed in recent years.  Jepsen isn’t concerned with mocking ex-boyfriends, frenemies, or rivals; her music centers around effervescent joie de vivre more than most of her contemporaries.  Essentially, her main goal is the distill the concept of euphoria into three or four minutes of blissful melodies.  The first thirty seconds of the track are unlike most on the radio right now, starting with synth that sounds bizarrely similar to the opening notes of Madonna’s “Lucky Star.” Any comparisons stop there, though, as the tightly measured handclap beat works perfectly with Jepsen’s syncopated vocals.  Nearly every review comments on how it was cut from her last full album, E•MO•TION, because it felt too ‘cinematic;’ my only regret is that it was wasted on a film as forgettable as Ballerina/Leap!, an animated dance movie for children that had various names based on the country where it was released.  This is a song that bottles sunshine, and should have been a juggernaut for Jepsen.  Luckily for fans, her next studio album is due in early 2018.

16. George Taylor – “I Hear Your Song, Sweetness” UK-based singer/songwriter George Taylor came out of nowhere in 2017 with this ode for other undiscovered artists.  For a guy who just released his debut album last year, he shows remarkably strong instincts on this track.  He knows when to dial back the production and when to complicate things.  Perhaps my favorite part of the song, though, is the lyrics; Taylor pierces through the aggressive initial production with his supportive, damn near inspirational theme for the up-and-coming musicians out there who feel like they aren’t even being heard.  The 24 year old grew up in Leicester before relocating to London, and claims he’s been writing songs since he was 13.   Clearly he has a natural talent, as the vacillation between isolated vocals on the verses and thundering, riotous choruses serves to make the song that much more dramatic.  It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing this song crop up in films and television, as it seems almost tailor-made for soundtracks.

15. Calvin Harris feat. Frank Ocean and Migos – “Slide” If I’m being completely honest, I first discovered this song on an HBO commercial for season two of Insecure (a personal favorite).  Regardless of one’s opinion on Calvin Harris, the main appeal for me was hearing Frank Ocean on such a radio-friendly single.  Ocean and Harris deftly make an entry to the recent genre of nu-disco, slyly combining hip-hop and dance music with a piano-driven song that may surprise the audience purely off of the talent roster.  Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean, and rappers Quavo and Offset from hip-hop trio Migos all come together despite their own distinctive discographies.  It’s expertly crafted, but let’s be honest here - the second that Ocean starts singing, he steals the track from everyone else involved.  If you’re looking for breezy, SoCal hip hop, this is for you, but that description seems almost limiting considering what was achieved here.  For those of us who are consistently looking for new Frank Ocean tracks, “Slide” is a pleasant surprise.

14. Electric Guest – “Oh Devil” LA-based duo Electric Guest - which becomes a full band on tour - had a relatively forgettable sophomore album last year.  The major standout for me, though, was this playful track that utilizes its electronic production to toy with the arrangement constantly throughout its three and a half minute running time.  Perhaps the most interesting fact about Electric Guest is that it’s forwarded by Asa Taccone, the younger brother of Jorma Taccone - famous for being a member of The Lonely Island, along with appearances on shows like Girls and Parks and Rec.  Asa helped compose a lot of the music for The Lonely Island, which led to Jorma putting him in touch with Brian Burton (otherwise known to the world as Danger Mouse).  Long story short, Taccone now works with Matthew Compton, who supplies drums for their work and met Taccone through Burton, to create songs under the name Electric Guest.  “Oh Devil” merges pop, electronic dance, and R&B with some clear Caribbean influences, as well.   There’s a lot to like here, and if all you’re looking for is an earworm that comes out of left field, then this song is the one for you.

13. SZA – “20 Something” Solána Rowe had an incredible 2017, and released one of the biggest debut albums of the entire year under her stage name SZA.  Given the success of “All the Stars,” her collaboration with Kendrick Lamar on the Black Panther soundtrack, it seems like 2018 is going to be a huge year, too. This success didn’t come overnight, though.  Rowe has been working her way up for years, slowly gaining influences as diverse as Rihanna, Björk, Miles Davis, and Animal Collective.  Her R&B has a stripped down quality, especially on album standout “20 Something;” there is a poignant simplicity on display that translates the anguish and anxiety of your 20s perfectly.  It becomes clear quickly that Rowe expects a certain level of self-reflection and commitment to growth from her audience.  As she notes in the lyrics, “Honesty hurts when you’re getting older.”  Perhaps my favorite touch doesn’t even come from SZA herself, but her mother, who is heard at the end of the track giving advice to her daughter.  Essentially, she says that one must commit to whatever feels true in life, because the alternative is a complete abyss.  I couldn’t agree more.

12. Litany – “Bedroom” I may have noted the Caribbean influences on “Oh Devil,” but you can practically smell the jerk spices on this gorgeous electronic track from English duo Litany.  Made up of Beth Cornell on vocals and Jake Nicolaides producing, the 23-year-olds from North Yorkshire have nailed the atmosphere on “Bedroom,” employing steel drums, synths, and a steady, consistent beat that buries itself inside your head for days to come.  As the track progresses, Nicolaides plays with the beat and the production more and more, adding percussive texture and - dare I even say it? - crunch to the arrangement.  Cornell’s vocals are ethereal, giving the song a hazy vibe, which add to the symbolic lyrics that seem to tie the titular bedroom to the paradise implied from the production. All of it combines to create an experience of escapism, fleeing the monotony of everyday life and conversations about the weather for the idyllic bedroom.  For such young artists with only a handful of releases under their belts, the production on “Bedroom” is stunning in its professionalism.

11. Bayonne – “Fallss” I know, I know... another electronic song. Another track that effortlessly builds with synths, drum loops, and vocals, and captures your attention almost immediately.  But with a song this strong, can you even blame me for including it?  Austin-based artist Bayonne (legal name Roger Sellers) insists he’s not a DJ.  He grew up obsessed with Eric Clapton and his guitar from the age of three on, and his first concert was Phil Collins at the ripe old age of nine.  Clearly he learned guitar and drums from two of the best musicians of the last half century, but I doubt you’ll hear their influences on “Fallss.”  Sellers isn’t a DJ, but he uses a lot of the same tools, including mixers, pedals, and keyboards, to create his massive pop tracks.  The sounds he’s working with here rise and evolve and build throughout the song, as the layers of synth and other sonic strands slowly weave together, worming their way into your head. Sellers spoke to the lyrical meaning of the song, noting that it came from the huge life transition of being in his late-20s and starting to transition to music as a full time career.  To quote him directly, “It's the bittersweet ride that comes with big changes in life.”  We’ve all been through it the past few years, and the last six months alone have included, personally, a new job and moving across the country.  Trust me, this song was keeping me company the entire time.

[collage-portfolio-time]

Interview Preparation

Career Choice : Illustrator

Company Choice : FolioArt

1. Tell me about yourself. I am a 16 year old artist who has been working with portraiture, both realistic and cartoonish, since I was very small. I have won 2 consecutive awards for the international government-run ‘Manga Jiman’ competition, both in 2019 and 2020, winning the youths prize in 2019 and both the youths prize and 7th place in 2020, ‘making history’ as I won the youths prize two years running. The music I listen to inspires me a lot as what I draw can sometimes entirely depend on what I am listening to at the time. I have had a major interest in manga and anime since I was young and that has also influenced my style of work and the fandoms I go around to spread my collection of work to different places of the internet.

2. Why do you want to work for us? I love the fact your company will represent a range of illustrators, both well-known and up and coming. That makes you seem much more open to different styles of work and experimentation to me which I find myself drawn to.

3. What can you bring to our company? Why should we hire you? I can bring a range of styles. Like Ive said before, I work in both realism and cartoonish styles of work, which I feel could bring more people in from completely different sides of the art world. I can also work with a wide range of mediums, from digital work to watercolors, although I find myself preferring digital for the clarity you can get in an image.

4. What do you know about our company? You were established in central London in the 1970’s and are now working worldwide. You cover all sides of the art world from traditional works to GIF’s. You say you have a personal relationship with your illustrators. You have also represented artists that have worked with well-known bands for album art which include Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones, and have also had artists under your wing work with film studios like when Joe Petagna created the concept for the Facehugger in Alien.

5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What are your career goals? I hope to see myself with enough of a following to simply be able to create for myself and be able to make a living, as selfish as that sounds. I don’t enjoy working for others unless I like their concepts and ideas as I will just simply be uninterested in what I create and end up producing something boring as a result. I want to work to the best of my ability, and as much as the art world is ran on what others want to see, I want to dictate what I do in the process while also getting approval from the people who will consume it.

6. Why did you choose this field/career path? I chose this career path as it’s the only thing I know. As I child I would never let myself do anything but draw, I was obsessed with the gratification I got when I saw that I was improving. That was probably a detriment in the long run as now I feel obligated to work in the art industry because if I don’t what have I been doing this whole time. I feel like I owe it to myself and to the people who have funded my interests and hobby.

7. Can you tell me about your role in your current place of work? Right now I am a college student, so my role is to learn. I will create, be criticized and create again. My job is to learn from the criticism and improve upon myself to represent the collage in a good light as well as myself, and hopefully gain recognition so the collage can say that they taught me for better reputation.

8. What are your strengths/weaknesses? My biggest weakness is my pride. I will become quite offended by the slightest bit of criticism that I think isn't warranted, and yet I am so self-critical that I will rip a piece to shreds if I go a touch out of my lines while painting. It hurts to have my fears confirmed that I won't be the gifted child forever and that I will blur into the crowd of other talented artists in my classroom. It's not only that but also the thought that I spent so long on a piece to be told that it didn’t match up to an idea someone else wanted or there wasn’t enough color, and I find myself unconsciously lashing out, but I am trying to work past that and take the criticism thankfully. Despite that, what could be considered one of my greatest strengths from time to time will be my stubbornness, as I will stick to a plan I like no matter what others tell me might go wrong, which sometimes works in my favor. Technically, I am more skilled with watercolors and digital mediums than I thought I was, as the amount of people I hear struggle with them is astonishing to me as I find I work with them with relative ease, but to counter that I now struggle with mediums such as acrylics and colored pencils as Ive laid off them for so long. I hope to get better with those mediums in the future as I practice more with them again.

9. Tell me about a time when you worked in a team? Were you a leader/coordinator/etc.? I studied performing arts when I was at The Academy Grimsby secondary school. We were tasked to create a script or scenario based on a prompt that I can't quite place now, and we were a group of 4 actors as most people there were dancers. I ended up writing up the entire script that I put together, although the others did prompt some ideas, and almost directing practices. I felt I was forced into a leading position as the others weren't engaging as much as they probably should have, apart from one other person who seemed to take it as seriously as I did. I feel despite the fact I was practically shoved into the lead, and even though the script was probably shoddy as I had never really written besides from creative writing in English, I lead them well considering I was known to be quite antisocial and introverted. That situation made me realize that I was better at controlling situations and being assertive to others than I ever thought I would be, although I wasn’t too strict or bossy from what I remember.

10. Tell me about a time when you faced a challenge. What was your reaction? How did you solve it? I faced quite a big challenge when I created the first page of my 2020 Manga Jiman entry. In the first page you get quite a copious amount of building shots, and while it looked good how I imagined it, I realized when I had finished the sketch that I had never really drawn a building before. It took me two days of constant redoing, experimentation and almost scrapping the first page entirely before I finally felt happy with what I had produced. Nowadays I find it much easier to step out of my comfort zone and delve into architecture when drawing backgrounds, and I feel this experience helped me progress as an artist.

11. Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of. Ive mentioned this before a copious amount of times, but my Manga Jiman awards. As they are government run and judges by professional mangaka (manga creators) I think it gives my awards that extra flair of pride that makes me cling to them. The thing I will probably particularly cling to is the fact they said I was ‘making history’ with my consecutive youths prize wins, which I think is quite a good thing to be able to say on a resume. Not only that, but my winning submission for the 2020 competition was given a talk about on the award ceremony by a legendary mangaka Kiriko Kubo, who said my ‘line was neat, the layout was good and the main character was charming.’,’the work can be read smoothly’, and that ‘creating atmosphere is important, and being able to do it like this is an exellent talent’. It gives me pride that someone so prestigious in a world I had barely entered would praise my work so highly.

12. What motivates you? What can motivate me most are two things: approval from others and money. I am materialistic at heart but also sensitive to others comments on my work, so the both end up being great pushes in my art career. I feel if I am being paid for my work that it is worth something, because objectively it is, and being praised for what I do makes me feel validated beyond what I thought was possible, so the two can push me to keep going.

13. What was your biggest failure? What did you learn from it? My biggest failure is the many times Ive tried to work with soft pastels. I don’t know what it is with that medium that renders me unable to function with them but I cannot create a good piece with those sticks of chalk in my hands. I learnt that I am not the best with dry mediums and should probably keep to my paints and digital mediums for now, although I'm always open to trying them out again and again until I get used to them.

14. What was your biggest mistake? How did you fix it? My biggest mistake was thinking I was going to get placed in my first Manga Jiman entry in 2019. I was 15 at the time, so there wasn’t much of a chance I was going to be placed within the top 10 because of my age alone but I didn’t realize that at the time. I had gotten so apprehensive about results that should've been obvious from the moment I was shortlisted, but I was aiming for the top 5 in the placings. I still think that my work might've placed in top 5 had I been older, but the embarrassment and sadness about ‘only’ getting youths prize at the time was almost overwhelming. That experience taught me not to get my hopes up on stuff like that and set myself up for the worst when it comes to things like this in the future, which I did in the 2020 entry. I was simply aiming for 10th place as I wasn’t even aware the youths prize was being awarded that year because there was only 11 of us, and one of the prizes was the yonkoma award for people who were between 11 and 13 containing a single 4 panel page which one of the shortlisted entries mirrored. I ended up getting more that I thought I would've in the terms of awards and recognition which I was happy about.

15. Are you willing to relocate/travel? I am willing to relocate and travel, although i would prefer to do so with someone else I trust as I tend to get nervous in new situations should that be possible.

16. Do you have any hobbies? What are they? I don’t really do much other than draw for my social media’s and complete collage work. I do small things such as singing and watching twitch streamers, but those are few and far between or happening while I work so I don’t think they can be considered big hobbies of mine. I used to bake when I had to take a lot of time out of secondary school due to sickness but I had a lot of spare time back then so it was more possible for me to have hobbies other than art.

17. What are your computer skills/technical skills? I know how to work almost all Microsoft programs, office 365/outlook, and various digital art programmes such as medibang paint pro and the basics of photoshop/illustrator. I also know general video editing such as keyframing and audio manipulation in Wondershare Filmora.

18. How did you hear about this position? I chose to contact you for this position as I had found you take submissions for new artists to represent and thought I'd shoot my shot.

19. What are your salary requirements? Minimum wage and whatever you/the client feel I deserve on top of that, even if that’s nothing at all. As long as I get minimum wage for my work and supplies, I am fine with that.

20. Do you have any questions for me? How would you represent me? Would it be a situation where you would recommend me to people looking to commission and leave us to our devices or would you be there the whole process?

[stella-monstrum]

“Cult King of Haunts & Certified Cool Dad”; Bobby Roe (Interview)

Admittedly, I’m quite behind the times.

        Though, it’s never too late to sink your teeth into a new-to-you horror film, past or present. Specifically for this article, I’d recommend taking a look at The Houses October Built, directed, produced, written, and acted in by Bobby Roe.

This 2014 film started a franchise continued (and topped by) the 2017 sequel, aptly named The Houses October Built 2. Over the past seven years the franchise has become a cult hit, especially with films like The Blue Skeleton, which has been kept very much alive through word of mouth and the internet. (Listen, it’s freaky levels of fourth wall breakage.)

For the October film fraternal twins, Roe not only blurred the line between the frights, scares, and shit-yourself experiences that millions seek every Halloween season in haunted attractions across the US—he also flipped the norm on its head through the first person experience of found-footage films. Both films not only make you feel like you’ll be grabbed right through the screen, but also make you feel like you’re a part of the thrill seeking gang. 

The found-film genre has been around for quite some time, popularized in 1999 with films like The Blair Witch Project. Every film under that genre has to constantly find new and innovative ways (sometimes actually getting police involved) to convince filmgoers to give it a shot. Roe not only sought out real haunted attractions within the deep south of Texas and Louisiana but also marketed the first film by creating a very real list of the attractions and making it available to the potential viewing public. By the second, the haunts literally came to them, with park reps and others reaching out to Bobby in hopes of showing the range that the holiday haunts had to offer.

(Bobby Roe; source - IMDB)

(Article & Interview cont. below)

As of this writing in 2021, Roe is working along with eleven others to form a new anthology horror series called Isolation. As producer Nathan Crooker describes it to Variety:

“Isolation explores the human condition through a genre lens, weaved together in an anthology experience. The films live under a banner of survival and deal with relatable themes such as human connection, paranoia, hope, love, escapism, fear of the unknown, abandonment and opportunism. Like any good horror film, the themes transcend the genre.” (Source)

The filmmakers were only allowed to use whatever resources that they had within their own homes. As for Roe? He got his two children involved in the project.

(The “Isolation” film poster [Created by Christopher Shy, source bloody-disgusting.com])

───────────────

On top of that, he also wrote a children’s book titled Narah the Whale and has multiple projects in the works currently put on hold due to the pandemic.

As an aspiring indie horror screenplay writer, I was so incredibly impressed by the methodical mind of Bobby Roe. I had the opportunity to write up this interview that I held with the Cult King of Haunts and certified Cool Dad.

━━━━━━━━━

1.)  You’re a very involved filmmaker, producer, writer, and father. What was becoming a dad like for you? Also, what was the “a-ha” moment that led your kids, to them becoming involved in the Isolation project?

[Roe: Becoming a father inevitably makes you question some content for better or worse in the horror film business.  My children love Halloween, not sure if that is a hereditary trait or not, but there are enough masks in the house to be infectious. The A-Ha moment was making a film with them.  Initially I was turning the opportunity down.  They are young, and as hard as the lockdown was it gave me an opportunity to spend more time with them in formative years.  I knew how time consuming ISOLATION would be, so I worked backwards and Zack Andrews and I came up with a more Lord of the Flies approach that could involve the whole family.  I'm so proud of my kids on what they pulled off, my daughter in particular was only 5 and she improved a monologue for 7 minutes that I obviously couldn't fully use, but I was blown away.]

Bobby Roe’s twitter photo of his two children [Source])

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2.) When you were in the process of writing your children’s book, Narah The Whale (alongside friend and fellow RV tourist, Zach Andrews), what wonder from your own childhood did you use as inspiration?

[Roe:  It always bothered me since I was a kid that most people thought Narwhals were mythical creatures.  Just because they weren't in aquariums, people were unaware. I know there is a craze now, but I started this book for my unborn daughter in 2014 to hopefully talk to many children and give them an origin story for their favorite animal.]

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3.) Let’s go back to 2014, during the early success of the Houses franchise. Blurring the lines of what people seek yet also fear came across as a breath of reimagined fresh air.

Question; How long was the actual process of finding the six or so haunts, and did you realize how incredibly accurate the escalating fear was where people actually want to scuffle with the haunt actors? 

[Roe:  If people don't feel terrified in a haunt, they think they were ripped off.  We wanted to make the most real found footage movie you could at the time.  I just wanted you to argue what was real and what was fake after leaving the theater.]

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4.) During quarantine, obviously everyone’s plans are put on hold. 

Question; What is your current most anticipated project that you’ve got in the chamber, and has quarantine at all changed your view on the horror genre?

[Roe: I'm very proud of what was pulled off with ISOLATION in the height of quarantine with zero crew. It was a kick in the teeth to not be able to film A WICKED TALE in June.  It was postponed with lockdown so I am really looking forward to 2021 to get that in the can. Zack and I have worked almost 3 years on it.]   

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5.) In slow burn storytelling, what is the biggest obstacle you face as far as keeping a viewer like myself glued to the screen while producing gut churning visuals without blood?

[Roe: It gets harder everyday. Especially with streaming.  I need you to hang around for HOB 1 & 2 for both endings. But if you don't take the slow burn it won’t work.  We knew people would be rude, go to their phones, so I made sure every place and interview you could look up that it was 100% real.  I think that adds to the terror.]

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6.)  In the first Houses film, there are so many hilarious breather moments—from making clown dick jokes, rapping around a campfire, and you even scaring the hell out of Mikey in a mask. 

Question: Were there any other hilarious (maybe improvised) moments that we didn’t get to see? And is there any prank competitiveness between you and your brother Mikey?

[Roe: You try to have waves. Goal #1 before scaring you, was to make sure you wanted to be in this RV and on the road trip with us.  I hope that was pulled off. Tried to buck the formula a tad. There is almost no blood and everyone is platonic (despite what people think with Zack and Brandy in bed scene).  That was designed to show lack of bed options and she is like our sister that we protect. Brandy is so good in these movies to me, she is my secret weapon. As far as Mike and I, we compete more with the creative than we do on jokes. Most pranks we are in on it together.]

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7.) What non-horror genre literature character would you personally take from any era and turn into a one-sentence pitch for a horror film?

[Roe: Edmond Dantes. The Count of Monte Cristo (wouldn't have to change the title).  But Edmond is murdered but saved as a vampire.  The Count comes back and tears the fucking town apart. Only he and Mercedes are left in the entire town after he stacks the bodies.  They live happily ever after...forever.]

(”The Count of Monte Cristo, 1888 illustrated edition) (Source; Amazon)

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8.) If you could create anything into a “horror film trope” that isn’t already existent, what would it be?

[Roe: Honestly, I want a new kill I've never dreamed of in every horror movie.  So sick of the same shit over and over.  Prerequisite is every slasher needs a new kill or be gone.]

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9.) What is the one subject/hobby outside of filmmaking would people be surprised that you’re fascinated by?

[Roe: Scuba Diving. It's very much like horror. You have no fucking idea what's over that reef or abyss.  I love that feeling.  They also say there is 8 billion in undiscovered treasure out there.  That doesn't hurt the adventure.]

It was such a cool experience to bring a fresh perspective from the mind of Bobby Roe. Stay tuned for what he’s got planned for 2021!

[ricardotomasz]

Such is life! Behold, a new Post published on Greater And Grander about The Dancing Rabbit: Kim Delgado

See into my soul, as a new Post has been published on http://greaterandgrander.com/2020/11/the-dancing-rabbit-kim-delgado/

The Dancing Rabbit: Kim Delgado

Kim Delgado has worn many hats in the entertainment industry which include: Writer, Director, Actor, Marketing Consultant, and Branding Creative Director. He has also taught screenwriting and acting as well as coaching actors for over twenty years.

Why did you get into the entertainment industry?    

I enjoyed the theater and felt great joy in my early elementary and high school performances. After playing the role of Peter Pan in the 5th grade I knew I wanted to be an actor. At 12 1/2  I got a scholarship at PAF PLAYHOUSE in Huntington Long Island. I soon became an Equity Apprentice at the theater. I then got cast in the play "The Miracle Worker". My mom was an ardent lover of the arts and sent me to take some classes at the Performing Arts Foundation (PAF). Which was the only Equity theater on Long Island at the time.

What were your goals when you started? 

I wanted to work as an actor and in the back of my mind, I thought maybe I would write plays and films one day. In the future, I am interested in expressing myself through the medium of media with topics that include social issues, current events, Bi-Op's, historical, and documentary style entertainment venues.

Did you go to film school?

No. I went to a performing arts BFA program. And went on to get practical experience working in the industry. I would recommend people who want to get into the entertainment industry to go to a film school or industry-related program that gives them the technical knowledge they will need to procure paying work. Learning things along the way takes longer and sometimes miss critical pieces of the puzzle.

Do you feel that you got the education you wanted from your time in school? Do you think you would have been better off going someplace else or simply just diving right into the industry?

I graduated from high school a year early at 16.  I was working as an apprentice at (PAF) and was spotted by a talent scout for Trinity Square Repertory Company and went on tour before I even graduated from high school.  I was rehearsing "Brother To Dragons' in Philadelphia and shuttling back and forth to Long Island to take my finals and graduate high school.  I auditioned for Julliard, North Western, and Purchase.  They auditioned me and all said to come back in a year. They did not want a 16-year-old to start their programs. Their policy was for a freshman to be at least 18 in their freshman year.  I decided to go to the Davis Center in NYC. The Lenord Davis Center was a part of The City College Of New York.  Since it was in New York City, I had access to all of New York Theater. I had a part time job working for the Golub Brothers and they controlled all the concessions on Broadway and Lincoln Center. I got to see every Show in NYC many times. It was heaven. If I had not been in NYC, I would not have access to industry or had the meteoric start to my career.

What advice would you give to a prospective student who is applying to film school?

Do your research.  Try and figure out what you like in course materials and find the best fit for your mindset. Go on the internet and look up the teachers at various schools and find the review students give them.  Read the "Hollywood Reporter", "Variety", and industry periodicals, looking at what kind of projects and jobs are available so you can gauge what skill sets you will need when you start looking for an industry job.

What did you do after school?  Did you have trouble finding work when you first got out?

I was blessed. In my Senior year, I knew that school would be ending and my parents would no longer be footing the college bills. I took a course at Ben Collier's commercial and industry seminar. I then went on to freelance with multiple agents and got a national commercial, and booked "To Kill A Cop" which was a two-part four-hour NBC special. I took the first semester off and then doubled up my last semester. I graduated Cum Lude and got cast in a starring role in the feature film "Boardwalk" with Lee Strasberg, Ruth Gordon, Janet Lee, Eli Wallach, and Joe Silver. I literally graduated from college and got booked starring opposite the greatest acting teacher on the planet. Talk about a dream scenario this was an amazing start to my professional career.

What difficulties (if any) did you encounter in Hollywood?

When I first started out there were very few black roles outside of muggers, robbers and bad guys.  I did a fair share of roles where I was being killed, getting arrested, or playing other unsavory roles.  I studied Shakespeare and I was playing street thugs. You also run into scams. Bad photographers, for-pay casting calls, agents who held your money for months, and unscrupulous managers trying to take triple commissions. The industry showed me the good, the bad, and the ugly.

What did you do for a day job while looking for showbiz work?

My day Job in NY was background work. I specialized in commercial background work. The pay was great and in those days upgrades to principal happened a lot. While I was studying karate and auditioning for acting work I did work as a bouncer for the super hot club Paradise Garage. I also worked as a casting director for Group Seven Productions. After I moved to California I didn't do background or have a regular job for over 30 years.

Do you ever work for free or on spec now?  And if so, how do you choose when to work on those terms?

I am so busy trying to get my own films and tv projects set up that there is no time to work on a spec.  I recently took on a position as North American Development Director for Globalflix.  My mandate is to find cross-pollination projects for Europe/Africa/South America and American storylines.  Add that to the script doctoring jobs and mentoring of new writers and actors there is no time for freebies. I  am juggling so many film and tv projects that I have written and developed that I can't write, act, or produce for free.  If the right opportunity came up for materials that gob-smacked me I "might" consider working on it.

What are you currently working on, and how did you arrive here?

I have four features an animation series and a live-action series among 20 or so written projects that I am going out with through my agent and other contacts. You start at the beginning.  I wrote my first project back in 1989. I have had over 12 options on the project and made over 100k in options but it has not been made. I am still shopping this feature project. It took me ten years to sell my first screenplay which was a co-written project. "Taken In Broad Day Light" went on to be the 3rd highest rated movie in Lifetime history and was sold to over 100 countries.

My latest project SK8HARD started as an animation idea. I was persuaded by a friend to write it into a live-action feature film. After several years of not getting any action on selling the script, I met a woman who wrote and produced comic books. So I decided to make my SK8HARD screenplay into comic books. Because I created my own Intellectual property, I now had enough new artwork to make an animation pitch bible and am shopping the project once again as an animated series.  My agent just got interest from Netflix. So the circle is complete. I started with animation, went to live-action feature, then to comic book form and now back to animation.

What are the biggest mistakes a person can make when they first start working in the industry?

Writing is re-writing.

Acting is a technique, producing is knowing how to collaborate and delegate.

These are skills that take time to develop. The biggest mistake an artist can do is to not be ready when they get their shot. Lynn Manuel Miranda took seven years to get Hamilton on Broadway.  He did not want to waste "his shot".

Prepare, study, and read about your craft. Network and meet other professionals.

Go to the theater, movies, and concerts.

Speak with working professionals and read periodicals and trades. It's your career so treat it like a profession and put the time and work into it.

What’s the biggest thing you depend on, on set?

As I said before making projects are a collaborative effort and you need everything to work like a smoothly oiled machine.

As a producer, my key crew members. The director for vision, my line producer to keep the project on time and on budget, and of course the actors and crew to deliver the best they have every day.

Did someone ever try to take advantage of your inexperience in Hollywood?

Hollywood is a backstabbing snake. all manner of liars, hooligans, gangsters, and perverts are attracted to the entertainment industry. The entertainment industry will chew you up and spit you out.  Taking advantage of inexperience in Hollywood is part of the industry landscape. 

People have tried to put their name on my scripts as co-writers, given me faulty contracts, tried to get me to sign away my script or life rights for peanuts. I have been routinely told that I'm really an actor so I wouldn't know about certain technical aspects of the industry. As a person of color, there is also a lot of racism.  

I come from a cultured background. My father was a hematologist and my mother was a nurse practitioner/psychotherapist. We are an educated family. Besides writing stories about people of color, I write white and Jewish stories as I grew up in Huntington Long Island.  There were no black kids in my school until 7th grade and then very few.  I've been to at least 15 bat mitzvahs and 10 seders. 

But industry people are surprised when they read my Alan Bell Environmental script or my Barry Levin TV series with Jewish protagonists.  People have stared me directly in my face holding the script with my name on it and ask me "DID YOU REALLY WRITE THIS"? They just can't believe a black man wrote with such clarity about the Jewish experience.

Of course, it's okay for Stephen Spielberg to direct "The Color Purple". Or Johnny Depp to play a Native American in the "Lone Ranger", but whoa be it for a black man to write about another race other than his own. Hollywood is two-faced.

Did you ever pay for a program that promised big results to help further your career, but it never delivered?

Hollywood preys on desperate people. If it sounds too good to be true then you know it's too good to be true!  There are plenty of producer workshops, networking parties, and parasitic online podcasts and blogs that people pay for in hopes of finding the holy grail of entrance into the entertainment industry. There is no holy grail just hard work and luck. 

Yes, I have paid my hard-earned money to scammers that could really do nothing to move my projects forward.

I would advise producers, writers and other industry-related professionals to not spend a red-blooded cent if there is no clear cut definite outcome that can be defined and put in a contract. Someone trying to get your project set up, or trying to get you to finance or trying to get you an agent or meeting is BS.

Mortgage brokers get paid when they close a loan, agents get paid after they get you a gig. Paying upfront 99% of the time will net you no guaranteed results. 

Did you ever come across a project or a person that looked promising, and then the whole thing blew up in your face?

Sigh...  There a lot of Users in Hollywood.

I met a woman on LinkedIn and we met for lunch, (I admit she was beautiful).

We talked about some of my projects and she told me an idea/logline she had for a film.  I was intrigued by the idea. Now an idea is just that. It's not a treatment, or a script. There are no character arcs, hooks, payoffs, witty dialogue, or plot intertwining with theme. It's just a general idea.

Over a few weeks I came up with a beginning, middle, and ending. Protagonists and Antagonists. Hooks and pay-offs. I shaped the idea into as story.   There was no way I was going to teach her how to write, pay her half of a sale, get her into the WGA union and have her tell me what to write for free!  I balked.

I came up with the whole story and a new title. Why would I write this for her and not own the material?  She was unrealistic and I moved on as fast as i could. she was the type that would sue if I wrote and sold the script claiming it was "her idea" even know she only had a logline of an idea. 

Were there any telling signs?

When I told her I would write it she said that she would need to write it with me and that she needed control to shop the project. Of course she had no money to pay me and had never written a script before.

Were you ever put in a position where you were asked to compromise your moral integrity? 

I've been asked to keep quite on some issues but so far my moral integrity is in tact.  Women in the industry have a much tougher time navigating the predatory sharks that are seeking their pound of flesh.  Desperation breeds contempt and those who do the preying like Harvey Weinstein know that that they can destroy a career with a few unflattering words. People are afraid of these moguls and their power.

Did you ever embarrass yourself in front of a celebrity?

No. but I've embarrassed by celebrities.  Paul Reiser worked out in a gym I frequented. We were all working out and he told a few jokes. I made a joke and he said to me "I make the jokes". The group went silent.

Another time I was working at the Mark Taper Forum and I had been asked to understudy the role of another character because one of the actors would be gone for a week shooting a movie. I jumped at the chance to work with one of my childhood heroes. I worked on the role as if I were actually going to do it. When we rehearsed, the star had not prepared and did not take rehearsing with me seriously. But I was using all my method acting training with facial twitches, sense memories, as if techniques and all my bag of tricks. He got so mad that I was showing him up he stopped the scene and started clapping and saying "Kim Delgado is giving us an acting lesson BRAVO!"  He clapped for like 20 seconds but it felt like an eternity. It was 10am. The director called lunch and we never rehearsed that scene again. Talk about being embarrassed. My balls were sucked up into my throat and my gut felt like it was going to explode.  I hadn't done anything but try and do good work with my idol. He didn't want to be bothered and eviscerated me in front of the entire cast. I did not say anything. He was a star. The show was a hit and extended. I got paid. Next!

Did you ever meet someone casually at a club that wound up leading to a great job or a major step in your career? 

I met a line producer at a party in LA. He was going to be working on a project in NY and thought I would be perfect to play a role in a TV MOVIE.  I gave him a picture and resume (I always carried P&R's in my car) and 4-5 months later he called me to have my agent submit to Judith Weiner the casting director.  I didn't even have to audition. I looked like the character I was to play in the movie. I booked "Badge of the Assasin" playing Waverly Jones with stars James Woods and Yaphet Koto. As a bonus I was in the same production as my dear friend David Harris who starred in the  movie "The Warriors".

What motto do you try to live your life by?

I have two. At Seido Karate our grand master Kaicho Tadashi Nakumura would give weekly meditation lectures. One of my favorites was "Yanna Karobi Yaoki". Which means to fall down 7 times and rise again on the 8th.  As an artist failure is a recurring theme. Fredrick Douglas said "Without Struggle there is no progress". Learning from your failures can be very valuable lessons.  So get up off the canvas and live to fight for your art again.

Part of getting my Black Belt in Seido Karate included writing a 20 page thesis. In that thesis I create my own motto "Direction Determination Discipline"

Direction: You must have a plan or a map for your success. It can be changed or modified but you need the structure so you don't find your self going in circles.

Determination: Nothing is easy, nothing is free. You must sacrifice something in order to move forward with your goals. Pehaps you skip the partys to cresate a new script, or eshrew romance to concentrate on editing, or give up coffe and sugar to keep your iritation levels or weight down. There will be sacrifice.

Discipline: It takes a thousand punches to get one perfect. Work your craft. A dancer must practice a thousand pleaes, a writer rewrites a scene 50 tines, a director shoots test shoots and shorts, try out new equipment, become an expert at what you do. It will take time and energy but the rewards can be great.

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