#not only the military! and its such an important plot point bc how many works of fiction do you know

[musicallisto]

I am begging every single one of you to read this (yes including @netflix)

Shadow & Bone Blunders: The Fjerdan and the Grisha

So Netflix Really Did A Number On That Matthias Arc, Didn’t They?

Spoilers for the Shadow & Bone trilogy, Six of Crows, and Crooked Kingdom.

Shadow & Bone season 2 has it’s new cast members, production has begun, and I am excited, but with my anticipation strongly tempered by the flaws of season one. Because I so love to be critical of the media I enjoy, and Netflix’s S&B often leaves much to be desired, I am going to be talking about a specific gripe of mine, today - the poor handling of the Matthias and Nina arc.

Afficher davantage

[justsomeantifas]

its 11:59 its still technically tonight so

this is gonna be my reference point to questions abt venezuela, at least regarding things pre- May 19 2019. Its a bit scattered and it may get edited down along the road, but yeah.

short version that draws some similar conclusions: https://www.salon.com/2019/05/17/the-plot-to-kill-venezuela_partner/

one difference in scales that’s important to keep in mind: the lifespan of people is 2-7 decades. the lifespan of colonialism lasts centuries. the lifespan of media memory is a couple years, tops.

Most western narratives of venezuela start meaningfully at chavez, which is a mistake. The focus point in history around which the country flowed was the Caracazo. You probably already know about this, but a massive uprising took place in the heart of Caracas, against decades of dictatorship both formal and informal, after severe instability in the global oil market. The people were hungry, the riots were fiery, and the bullets bled. knows the death toll even now, but its estimated well into the thousands.  This happened pre-chavez, and started a cascade of events which brought him into limelight that you can read about here. not gonna go into more venezuelan history, but i talk a bit more here

chavez was democratically elected, multiple times.

   in 2002, after his first democratic election, he was kidnapped by US-backed troops and replaced by someone who threw out the 1999 constitution, which was as legitimate as any other made in venezuela’s colonial and violently capitalist history, seeing as it was the first (aka only, so far) of 26 constitutions actually approved by popular referendum. He was reinstated largely due to massive protests in support of him. Maduro however doesn’t really have as much of the charisma and support of chavez, which is creating problems - as well as exacerbating problems created by the economic crises ramping up just around chavez’s death. In 2015, there were elections to the National Assembly, which ended up with the Opposition winning a majority of the seats (which does show that there’s some degree of fairness in the elections, at least verifiably up til that point, yet that isnt rly accounted for when western media describes it as “undemocratic” - many of whom don’t apply the same scrutiny to their own country: such as this UN Human Rights councilor who also happens to be the crown prince of british-iraq, currently residing in the noted democracy of the Kingdom of Jordan, which has no vested interest or control over any particular export of Venezuela.).        

This turnout showed most of all that maduro had alienated as many as 2 million of his supporters, who didnt end up voting (though many also voted against him - trying to act on their feeling that whatever they want, its “not this”). This decreasing support also accelerates whats known as “Everyday Sabotage” - people not trusting in the government, and look out for their own interests contra everyone else. This is a danger inherent to tying “Socialism” to a primarily state project.       

However 1999 Constitution was never meant as an eternal document & it created mechanisms to call for new popular constitutional referendums to be held. That’s what the “Constituent Assembly” is about, which is what a lot of the western world is describing as him singlehandedly rewriting it (while also being “vague about its contents”), or “created by him”. Elections to the constituent assembly were boycotted by opposition, so that it would be government controlled & look like a sham in the eyes of the broader world. That being said, the assembly was called both as a reaction to losing election but also in response to intensifying crises - it was put forth (i don’t see any reason to believe in bad faith) as a way to come together and figure out how to address the needs that were driving people to protest - to address the desire for “not this”, but bc of the uncertainty, it was easily twistable by reactionaries by putting all emphasis on the former. Also timing corresponds with increasing fears of maduro straying from the path of chavez, the image of scrapping one of his strongest plays for smth unknown is risky - tho if there are other meaningful options given the situation im not sure. And the body’s got at least as much constitutional legitimacy as Guaido  (Chapter III)  

The 1999 constitution also enabled a recall election to be called against maduro in 2016, bc it was written with particular attention to holding public officials accountable - similar noble commitments helped to end the presidency of Rousseff & bring in Bolsonaro (who was also one of the people spurring on the investigations and whipping up a social base).

     (speaking of guaido & bolsonaro)

on Guaido:

part of student group in 2007 protesting against non-renewal of coup-assisting network, who the CFR (one of the major think tanks of the cold war still playing a big role in foreign policy today) considered “most important network”   

close friend of Leopoldo Lopez, the aforementioned coup plotter.

politician since 2010, won a couple small elections

Unknown to majority of general population until 2019, most venezuelans surveyed didnt know him   

Plan Pais       

plans to privatize state owned industry & allow investment from foreign oil companies       

center-right neoliberal draped in platitudes of “stability”, “revitalization”, “security”, and “rescue” - a message seemingly deliberately targeted to become more and more resonant with increased sanctions.

/on Guaido

governing is about the expression of power. I wanna live in a world where that power isn’t expressed, but as long as the exploitation of the global working class continues unabated, id prefer some of that power be put towards helping the poor.     

there is no such thing as a static state of affairs, there’s no “goldilocks zone” out in the political universe where we tweak things finely until we find whats best for everyone, only different rates of change in different dimensions. what we need to do is figure out how we can push that state of affairs in a direction so that everyday people have the power to take control of their lives. re

re: “constitutionality” - if the supreme court calls it constitutional then its constitutional. period. There’s no such thing as a supreme court as an “independent branch” of government, but there are different degrees of integration into the rest of it.       

The Supreme Tribunal of Venezuela has 32 members, (a bit more than a dozen put in by the national assembly, while the PSUV held it), and the opposition holds abt 3 away from a supermajority. Each member of the court holds their spot for 12 years. If that’s “The Most Corrupt In The World” according to Transparency International, i wonder what world the 9-person lifetime-appointed US Supreme Court (2 of which appointed by trump, and save for pulling a Weekend At Ginsbergs, likely 3) is on. In fact, one of the tactics that the more radical circles of democrat voters are putting forward is to pack the Supreme Court. Because thats how shit actually gets done, or at the least how shit is prevented from being committed w the stamp of legality. FDR learned that lesson too, in trying to pass what is today known as “The New Deal”

My comparisons to trump are for specific end: these actions are exerted on levers of liberal democracy, and every single liberal democracy is susceptible to them in some ways.

whats a “dictator”? if hes unelected, the millions of people who participated in the elections dont seem to think so. if maduro is a dictator, then what is donald trump? the majority of ppl didnt vote for him yet hes still governing. macron’s popularity has at several points been less than 1/3, and the yellow vest protestors have been violently attacked - why is he not “a violent dictator with only the support of the military”? These terms are not neutral.

“their elections are highly flawed” So What? show me a country whose elections arent.   

“opposition jailed” - ok but coup plotters don’t get off easy in any liberal democracy. If someone - say Bernie Sanders - said “enough is enough” and succeeded in overthrowing the current government with the help of a foreign government…. you think they’d let him go free? what if ten years later he was getting his supporters all riled up to do it again? how long you think he’d be in jail for (assuming he can survive well into his 100’s)? You think more than 13 years? Think he’d get house arrest? Some US states lock you up for posessing weed up to 10. If you stay long enough around this blog, youll find plenty of other examples of much more cruel and unusual punishments. Look at Chelsea Manning, look at Oscar Riviera…   look at the US protestors saying Guaido is illegitimate

 what we have to keep in mind most of all, is to show that the contradictions being exploited are inherent to Liberalism. Contradictions are just expressed most freely at the margins - the interstices

poor economic decisions happen everywhere - 2008/2009 still affecting the entire world there’s violence thats “natural”, and violence thats “intolerable”. The dividing line is whether we have anything to gain by changing things.

sanctions:    started under obama, originally targeted specific individuals, used as precedent for more generalized. They’re indirect - they have a “squeezing effect”, takes already-existing problems & just makes them markedly worse. also doesn’t necessarily correlate with emigration, bc it takes a lot of money to start a new life somewhere else, and sanctions disproportionately affect the poor.   

war wouldnt likely look like (many) US boots on the ground - we’ve got plenty of other places to be. It’d look like guns being smuggled to counter-protestors. It’d look like sending resources to neighboring countries like Colombia or Brazil who would then use their troops. Colombias ruling party is right wing populists - much of current president’s campaign was run on fearmongering abt venezuelan socialism - they’re raring to go. It’d look like drones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracas_drone_attack. Also means there likely won’t be a sudden trigger, its a gradually escalating stressful gradually-more-warlike situation.  

If war does break out - where would the refugees go?  In reality the majority would go to Colombia, but if anything significant breaks out there will be a stream of those looking to find shelter in the US, which has advertised itself as a beacon of hope - what would happen to them? some may get taken in as a gesture of showmanship, but nowhere close to the majority.   

speaking of the US - imagine if trump and bolton manage to actually plot a winning coup. Do you think that that wont be his main bullwark against ppl like Bernie? you think the media and rest of the democratic party wont jump on that narrative and “begrudgingly” support a fascist because the alternative might mean supporting single payer and not-having-good-for-ratings-climate-apocalypse?

another term thrown around without regard is “once vibrant” - for whom?

most articles ive seen just take this as an axiom, and dont find any cognitive dissonance when also saying chavez reduced poverty hugely.

 The answer to that rhetorical question: Citgo is venezuelan, before chavez none of the wealth went back to venezuela - thats what “vibrancy” means.  

     many similarities with BP (the-artist-formerly-known-as-the-anglo-iranian-oil-company)

in age of climate change & vocal ppl about phasing out oil, the more one’s livelihood is connected to oil, the more unstable ones country will be - either that, or the more instability ones country will cause.

“Oil exports fell by $2,200 per capita from 2012 to 2016, of which $1,500 was due to the decline in oil prices.”  

The drop in price that affected the venezuelan economy so much in 2014 was largely by US shale fracking

in 1970’s Chile, copper was the main product of Chile - allende nationalized the mines, and in return wall street dropped the

(also worth noting that venezuela’s got non-insignificant untapped shale basins)      

At least venezuela used the oil money to fund social programs instead of like, pad the pockets of Raytheon.

also oil price wars in africa highly correlated w oil (whose annual production doesn’t even combined total venezuelas)

a couple ppl have raised concerns abt my strong stance on equivocal dismissal - if there’s a difference, if there’s some way of reading your statement that says “X country that the State Dept wants to invade is an anomoly in the otherwise free world”, then that’s acting to push the discourse towards normalization & invasion. It’s not “whataboutism”, just basic consistency.   

now more than ever, narratives are affected by people. They may not be ones we had a hand in forging, but the way that we propagate them actually does have measurable effects on the larger-scale political outcomes. Always look for the base assumptions, as well as the direction   

sure denounce Chavez. sure denounce Maduro. denounce Kim, Xi, Castro, anyone. But if there’s no equally or proportionally loud denunciations of the horrors perpetrated by allies - the “assumed”, “natural” violence, then you’re acting to reinforce the narrative of exceptionalism.   

Just make sure after you take a breath, you denounce Saudi Arabia & Yemen, Israel for Palestine, the conditions which brought Argentinian/Brazillian, Brazilian coup, the US for Puerto Rico, the conditions which have murdered dozens of journalists in Mexico per year…  

what people want most of all is stability. “A debate over whether it is mismanagement and corruption by the Maduro government or the sanctions that are the author of the crisis is largely irrelevant. The point is that a combination of the reliance on oil revenues and the sanctions policy has crushed the policy space for any stability in the country.”

government’s errors and tensions   

fixed exchange rate -> black market      

took 5 years to address changing relation between dollar & BsF, all the room between those two curves left a huge room for intensifying crises, though since it also corresponds with the death of chavez, it sorta makes sense.   

antidemocratic actions and remarks by maduro  

scattered responses filled w half-solutions   

diversification needed, but how do you diversify an economy filled with rampant poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy… 

(nominally begrudging) support for mineral extraction 12.4% of territory opened to extraction - “Special Economic Zone” as a method of managing decay       

this is also what much of the reality of “economic diversification” looks like

not enough socialism. (even fox agrees!) Venezuela shows the limits of Social Democracy in countries living outside of the Imperial Core - esp the dangers if you’re in the crosshairs already bc of oil         

started out as populism, gradually grew as confronted more.            shows shaping influence on political organs from actions of foreign actors - if you’ve survived a coup before, you’re gonna become paranoid about any more of them - especially when the coup plotters say “hey lets do more coups”       

also shows the weakness of only having a small number of charasmatic faces representing the movement - if one dies and theres no clear and popular replacement, then you’ll lose ppl who were largely brought in by the charisma, weakening your political project, and creating cracks for reactionary forces to take advantage of - especially in times of transition.       

bourgeoisie still control a majority of the economy.            Capitalist businesses are internally unaccountable, and in this age of intensified global trade, one can punish countries for straying from the pack by moving business & focus away. If you’re looking for dictatorships, look at the thousands of private companies run as dictatorships daily       

capital flight is a real effect, precisely because socialism is fundamentally and irreconcilably against the self-interest of the bourgeoisie. not necessarily against the interest of the humans-who-are-also-bourgeois, but of the impersonal self-sustaining force of capital.           

Have you ever pulled something out of an electrical socket, and seen a quick spark? The reason that occurs is bc of what’s called an induction current, which is a fancy physics word for flowing electricity not liking to suddenly change its flow. If you accidentally touch that spark, you might feel it, but youll live to tell the tale. But if you only take the plug out halfway & touch it, that’s a different story.  Capital flows similarly.

   my country (lithuania) has been facing sky-high emigration since the collapse of the USSR (with an added boost after 08-09), we have also consistently had one of the highest suicide rates in the world (#7), a minimum wage of about 3 Euros an hour (after a recent increase), as well as one of the highest prison populations in Europe (discounting Russia & Belarus… which like….)   

when are we gonna be invaded? when will the US media talk about our pain?  

oh wait, they did. We cried all pretty for the TV cameras, then they got a bozo nobody really knew of to denounce the government, who they called dictatorial (though it was far from ideal, massive bureaucracies dont tend to mix well with single-person-decision-making). And to be fair, the fact that the government was unpopular wasnt entirely undeserved. But what was promised to us was the idea of “Freedom”, “Free Enterprise”; to “Get Rid of Corruption” and institute “Real” Democracy". They said we’d be integrated into the glorious capitalist west, and we understood that to mean that we’d be in the position of a Germany, or at least an Austria or smth. But they never meant to integrate us into the imperial Core, we have always been seen as part of the Periphery - the “assumed” violence that “naturally” happens.    

Then we got to where we our today. Some of the stuffs more available, but expensive. Most of the bureaucracy’s still around, it just helps fewer people. We stand as an example of what to expect, in one of the best case scenarios, you would join our emigrees now making up a significant percentage of underpaid house-servants aka maids across the EU.  

if we want the people of Venezuela to be healthy, safe, and fulfilled, then:

speak out and pointing to the effects of US sanctions is incredibly important. They’ve already killed 40,000 people in the last year, and 300,000 more are in extreme danger (and millions more in long-term risk).

what does it mean when you simultaneously sanction trade with a place but also demand they let you give them humanitarian aid?

if there is to be action taken by the international community, then the US has forfeited its right to speak. They threw it away once in 2002, and obama rhetorically picked it up and dusted it off so that trump could throw it in a bigger dumpster, thats also on fire. However we also still live in a world deeply shaped by US Hegemony, so the opinions of its close trade partners & closest-knit media buds should be seen as influenced as such. Doesn’t mean that theyre wrong on everything too, but they still feel the magnetic pull of the US economy and ecosystem (as well as their own potentially imperial interests) and the effect of that force cannot be discounted.

transitioning our economies away from oil & away from globalized neoliberalism which only values peripheral states by their exports - dissolves tensions of how to produce in unproductive terrain   

socialize medicine in the US, so that drug companies run by dictatorships can’t control their lives & ours. healthcare is especially reliant on imports, sanctions affect especially strongly.  

normalize the ideas of Socialism, without taking the easy way out of “oh no dont think of Venezuela, think of sweden or denmark”. None of them are Socialist, but to avoid the complexities of Venezuela is to imagine that US attempts at socialism wouldn’t involve significant capital flight. If we don’t consider that, if we don’t have solid actionable plans to deal with that, while also facing the inherent complexity of changing material conditions, then we’re gonna waste whatever shot we get.   

redirect conversation normally centered around government towards support of the tens of thousands of small business co-operatives, where people live their daily lives in a democratic manner.

on The Communes:

    “delegating responsibility throughout all members, and bringing important decisions to the whole to work through and find the best possible solution… They create “collective criteria” together; agreements stipulating whether individuals have power over certain decisions or whether it is up to the whole group. However, he assures that these “are not rigid, they can change at any moment.” The cooperative I lived with in Venezuela had regular organizational meetings where they informally came to agreement and were even able to come back to re-evaluate decisions that didn´t seem to be satisfactory for the whole group in this same way. Decisions and decision making, in this way, are viewed as a process not contained by meetings and discussions in board rooms, but are always being analyzed and made better by the process of putting them into action, and not only by thinking them out and writing them down.”

- the “Self Government of the Producers” - aka what it looks like for cooks to govern.   

they have communal councils as well - neighborhood councils in the same vein that so many (rightfully) find inspiring in Kurdistan . They preexisted chavez, but they were able to proliferate and be given legal recognition through him. I understand that legal recognition can act to ‘name’ a body & pin it to smth that doesn’t match its requisite variety - how dynamic it is, but imo as its currently legislated it recognizes a good amount of the autonomy that they had already been excersizing. - liable to change                                government recognition of co-ops has drawbacks too, and correlates negatively with that coop’s success           

           "A good example of this intention is the de-emphasis that cooperatives in Venezuela put on advertising or “marketing” products, and instead push to find more people to become part of the cooperative, and choose the services or products they provide based on community decisions about what is needed. A cooperative I worked in […] was originally a family owned and operated theater group that traveled around the country performing theater pieces that highlighted social and environmental issues. When they joined the […] cooperative, the larger co-op did an analysis and decided they wanted a natural fruit juice concentrate producer and gave the group a loan to acquire capital and start producing. They have been doing this for only a couple of years now but have already paid back the loan to the larger cooperative and are bringing extra money in to support themselves, better their services, and supply extra funds to the larger cooperative for community projects such as the recently [2012] built community health center…                  

The cooperative services I experienced and learned about in Venezuela were health, dental, food, and a separate example of trash services. A dental cooperative […] provides quality dental services (I know because I used them) almost every day for affordable prices. You don´t have to be a member of the cooperative, and you don´t have to make an appointment. It takes only a couple of hours, and emergency situations are treated with urgency. The health center, built with funds provided by all the associated cooperatives[…], works the same way. Anyone can go there, the services are subsidized by the cooperative so they are affordable, the clinic and workspaces are clean and well taken care of, and the quality of the service is great. Worker-members of the cooperative receive health care at the facility without charge except for the massage and acupuncture services that they also provide at a really low price.

           […] food services are priced to provide more access to food for the community in which it exists. The original and persistent intention is to make the best situation for people on all ends of the process. The producers are part of the cooperative and are part of the group that decides the prices that growers get, as well as the prices that the food is sold for. This means that both farmers and workers at the market decide what to charge a person, which ultimately affects how much money the growers receive, as well as if the food is affordable for the people who need to eat who live in the city. In a normal capitalist market system these parties are separated and put up against each other, raising prices for consumers and lowering them for small producers, excluding those people from getting enough money to afford all the necessities that are typically only provided at a high price.

           One communal council, a parallel governing organization of community members linked to investment funds from the national government, in the city of Merida, Venezuela organized themselves to get funds to buy a trash collection truck. The truck at the time was used for a specific waste removal project that removed waste from their community regularly but was not a traditional collection service. However, they did have plans to expand the project to start their own collection service, and this would be provided by the commal council, an anti-capitalist organization which does not require people to pay for the service. Although this is not a “co-operative” as some hardliner co-operative enthusiasts might point out, it is a horizontal anti-capitalist organization widening access of necessary services to the larger community run by community members; following cooperative values of equity, inclusion, and solidarity I believe this to be an example of cooperative economics and action. It appears to me that economic inclusion is much more likely to widen only when those who are being excluded are included in the process of organizing the services and are in control of the economy.“

until the communes, workers cooperatives, and the like are strong enough to rule themselves, having Maduro in power is the only option given to us which doesn’t trigger the control of reactionaries. People make their own history, but not in situations of their choosing - the exact outcome isn’t predetermined, but there’s only a limited number of poles - gravitational attractors - towards which that trajectory is heading at any particular time.   

if maduro acts to squash the power of the communes, then thats a different situation. but until that point, we outside of the country must work to center any discussion on these bodies - they are the heart of the country and of whatever social revolution has occurred/is further possible. They are filled with lessons for us to learn from, and show how rich and dynamic the organized populace can be if they are allowed to control their communities. (ex of dealing with gang violence from @ 22:50)       

This is all said with recognition that many chavistas have acted against communes, the bureaucratic machine acts to co-opt much of their energy, its linguistically obscured the concept of "ownership” with that of “control”, and that the state has changed its messages over time. But the heart of the communes is what’s a priority, and they have acted against the government overstepping its bounds & mis-identifying them. But whats important is that there’s a feedback process in the gvt to actually allow them to assert their autonomy. Liberals will do their utmost to close those channels.

   If Guaido and the Popular Will take control of power, be assured that whatever gains made in organizing the everyday people of Venezuela will be at the top of the chopping block. How effective that suppression turns out to be is undetermined - it might turn out to strengthen the communes, but that outcome would be damage control, not something to try and bullseye.

Effective Propaganda knows that its more effective to control what’s left out than control what’s put in. Keep that in mind, and study trajectories and forces.

other links:

https://next.podbay.fm/podcast/1363342644/e/1551711604

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voc08vh9cJY

https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/21/a-cowboy-in-caracas/

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/the-tragedy-of-venezuela/

https://www.multpl.com/venezuela-gdp

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/04/fivethirtyeights-venezuela-problem

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-venezeulas-middle-class-is-taking-to-the-streets/

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/bjkmq8/fiery-protest-leader-leopoldo-lopez-faces-13-year-sentence-in-venezuela

https://potent.media/minimum-sentencing-for-marijuana-possession

https://www.thoughtco.com/core-and-periphery-1435410

https://popularresistance.org/building-the-commune-radical-democracy-in-venezuela/

http://www.antiwar.com/regions/regions.php?c=Venezuela

[ericank3r]

that’s ERIC ANKER walking down the street, the twenty-four year old, who looks like bex taylor-klaus. here in apple peak, they are a fisherperson & videographer. some say they act like prince eric from the little mermaid, since they can be easygoing, but also a little bit directionless. 

its ya favourite sailor <33333333 i already love them so much and its 70% bc its bex taylor klaus jvhbskjfhr

pls remember eric is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns!

exteriors

the anker family are danish and old, they moved from europe to america in like the 18th century so they’re super old

they’re an important part of the fishing industry in apple peak

they also have a military history -- eric’s father was a lieutenant commander in the navy before retiring to be a fisherman

they were never really rich, they were more just ?? known by a lot of people ??

their commercial fishing business is small and largely family-owned, with a only a few employees and boats left

largely doing salmon tendering because it’s the simplest 

their house is like a big old lighthouse that used to be navy barracks, and it’s like SO OLD but none of them (including eric) really want to update it because it’s like the aesthetic.

so eric ends up doing most of the renovations

the entire family hoards stuff honestly

then about four years ago, eric’s father dies in a boat accident while out near the fisheries. 

eric’s mother begins to rely on eric, but eric sort of runs away for three years

eric took their father’s ship and just crossed oceans and went as many places as they could

didn’t really get to go around the world, just around the americas and canada. 

stayed in a few cities, did odd jobs

comes back to find their mother is thinking of selling the business and all the boats entirely. all that’s left of their family is the mother, eric, their old family-friend (griggs) and some loyal employees. 

eric doesn’t want to sell the business because it was their father’s whole life, but also doesn’t want to take on the business themselves. 

NEVERTHELESS, eric starts to work a few days a week, while their mother manages everything

eric doesn’t actually know what they want to do lmfao

they know they love exploring, they love experiencing as many things as possible, AND they love the sea.

but what is a career?? what’s a life??

ERIC’S BOAT! they practically live on it

mainly because the lighthouse is so far away from town, and they cbf going all the way with a car and then going on a boat, so they live on their boat most of the time

when the weather’s tough, or when eric gets sick of microwaveable food, it’s so easy to just ride the boat to their family’s personal dock and then just go up to the lighthouse

model of boat: beneteau oceanis 423

the name of the boat is “the vernian” -- named after jules verne

ERIC HAS MAX

over the three years that they were exploring, eric discovered that they really liked filming and making videos and also taking pictures. so right now while they’re working a few days on the boats, they also have a side-job as a videographer for functions (mainly it’s been birthdays and small celebrations)

doesn’t have an official business name or anything yet, they’ve been hired via word-of-mouth

but yeah filmmaking is their real passion, because it’s the best way to try and capture how they feel when they see the world <33

interiors

a SUPREME romantic, but will never outright admit it

very sarcastic, sort of light humour with people

for the people who would have known them since they were kids: their birth name was ‘eirin anker’, but for as long as they could remember, they’ve been telling people to just call them “eric” instead

ACTUALLY, they liked the name ‘eric’ after watching ‘the little mermaid’ as a kid. they just loved the idea of being that hero -- the one with a dog they loved, and the one who loved the sea and being on a boat

lowkey ended up fashioning their own life after prince eric

this is all very subtle tho, and not something they point out or like to talk about usually

max has been their dog for only a year, the family dog back then was named “geraldine”

hasn’t ALWAYS been happy with themselves tho

eric always had a tendency to just kind of run away from problems and disappearing

doesn’t really like schedules and being told what to do and having to adhere to a whole life’s plan. also doesn’t like confrontation and doesn’t know how to process all that

when they were younger and had difficulty figuring out their identity, they took their boat out and just stayed out on the sea

that’s their main way of dealing with things honestly

but three years at sea helped them gain some of that confidence

their solo sailing trip did a lot tbh, and a lot happened so i’ll probs elaborate on that during rping but aLSO PLOT BC OUR CHARACTERS COULD HAVE MET !!

the only thing they’ve ever been sure about is their identity. other than that ?? what is the future ??

very sensitive to people’s emotions and comfort levels

SOFT (TM) but also SASSY (TM)

just wants the world to be a more calm place

yet even with all this uncertainty and nervousness, eric can be a real stickler for being punctual lmfao. can’t control their future but believes they could at least be on time for things. 

MORNING PERSON

never gets motion sickness

possible plots!!

someone they met during the sailing trip! it was for 3 years, so from like late 2016 to early 2019? eric just got back january-ish

lovers, friends, enemies, pls

someone who works at the docks/near the beach, they would probably meet everyday

a barista they always get coffee from at the asscrack of dawn pls

restaurants, diners -- a waiter who always sees eric bc eric likes to eat a heavy meal once theyre back on land

someone wHO FISHES WITH THEM

need me that beachlife/boatlife 

[jonroxton]

the romances in the dceu are so good

asklddfgjksjksadf this is legit my dream ask. I’VE WANTED TO TALK ABOUT THIS FOREVER BUT HOW TO START???? OK HERE with romanticism. STRAP IN!

The movement emphasized intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror and terror, and awe—especially that experienced in confronting the new aesthetic categories of the sublimity and beauty of nature. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, but also spontaneity as a desirable characteristic (as in the musical impromptu). In contrast to the Rationalism and Classicism of the Enlightenment, Romanticism revived medievalism[7] and elements of art and narrative perceived as authentically medieval in an attempt to escape population growth, early urban sprawl, and industrialism.

I know i know.

Znyder has a clear love and appreciation for baroque art, having studied it in school. Same for Patty. And though far removed from a classical art history education, Ayer’s work is heavily influenced by growing up in East L.A surrounded by Mexican and Latino culture that is deeply rooted in very expressive Catholism. Three auteurs who, in their formative years, learned about expression of the self specifically through art and imagery, raised smack in the tail end of a post-modern world. I think people tend to forget that Znyder, Patty and Ayer are all over 45 and have been in the film game a looooong time. By the time they came to their CBMs they had perfected their palette, and that is one that embraced the expressive emotive over the rational and realistic. Look at all their work and it’s solid ideas filtered through an expressive lens, not a rejection of post modernism entirely (esp irt to media and military), but a transference of sorts, an equalizing. The DCEU is fantasical but it never feels like fantasy. The DCEU is hella romantic, but it never feels melodramatic or preachy, even when Clark is sitting directly in front of a crystal glass depicting Jesus in Gethsemane. Detractors say: UGH CLARK IS JESUS. A romantic says: why is Clark being compared to Jesus in this text/movie? Znyder, Patty and Ayer take seriously the language of romance, it’s art, it’s preoccupation with the medieval and mythic (that is in itself extremely religious), and transfers that into film technique.

Apprehension: at accepting the heroes call. Horror: at experiencing your own power. Terror: at being accepted/rejected. Awe: of discovering your full potential. CONFRONTING THE NEW: with film language that deliberately disregards what has been done and focuses instead on what CAN be done with what came before.

My fave criticism of Man of Steel is that it’s shaky and muted. That it’s different. That it is confronting. That it’s not the same as all the other Supermen. Even thought it’s literally just STM1+2 and the first three eps of STAS and the First/Last seasons of SV. I’ve said this before. MOS actually did NOTHING new story wise, but it feels entirely different. I remember being extremely confused by the handheld, by the colors, and I initially thought it was too much and distracting, but then it hit me. THAT IS THE POINT. I personally don’t care for hand held but i ADORE man of steel.

By embracing this method of full on romanticism, they also embrace the romantic love that can exist in a character. Lois and Clark is iconic and their stories have always been a slow burn journey that takes a while to become overtly romantic. In Man of Steel the romance is PART of the language of the movie. It’s woven into the plot, into Clark’s character, into Lois’s character, into the climax and it held BvS together and is catapulting Justice League, and that is explicitly because the movies are unapologetically sincere in its commitment to being expressive. CLARK HOLDS ON TO LOIS AFTER CRYING HIS HEART OUT IN MAN OF STEEL, and it’s strategically framed so that she is higher than him, taller than him, that she is the only thing keeping him up. It’s such a raw and confronting moment, and there are zero words. No declarations. No I love yous. But you don’t NEED them because the entire movie they have shown that love over and over, by being there for each other, by asking for each other, by protecting each other.

And each DCEU movie has SO MANY OF THESE. Diana/Steve. Quinnshot. Martha/Jonathan and Martha/Thomas and Jor/Lara who are not even mains but get to be strong and supporting and IN LOVE and these relationships MATTER to every aspect of these movies. Jor/Lara get Clark to Earth. Martha/Jonathan raise Clark as a good person. Martha/Thomas shape Bruce’s entire existence. And it’s these couples who help Clark and Bruce come together. THEY ARE IMPORTANT TO THE FABRIC OF THIS UNIVERSE. I MEAN. so much of suicide squad is exactly about the lengths people will go to for love, to atone for love, to die for love. TATSU AND HER HUSBAND GET THE RESOLUTION SPEECH EVERYONE WISHES THEY HAD. chato promises to get them there because he loved and lost his wife and children. RICK CRUSHES ENCHANTRESS’S HEART BC HIS LOVE BEGGED HIM TO, TO END HER SUFFERING, EVEN THOUGH IT MEANT HE’D SUFFER FOREVER FOR IT. and ayer didn’t condemn them! ayer didn’t say: in order to save the world, you have to sacrifice it all, you get to keep your love and it’s okay and you can forgive and be free and LIVE.

And that’s just the romantic love. There’s so much emphasis on familial love and platonic love all throughout these movies. The strength that comes from people working together instead of apart. THE POTENTIAL OF EVERY PERSON TO BE A FORCE FOR GOOD is such a romantic view of the world and DCEU is built it on it!

[choosingfreedom-a]

okay time for me to sit my ass down and talk about levi’s temperament after acwnr and his growth in the years following.

bc like.....i think it’s important to note that the levi we see in canon is not the levi we see in no regrets, nor is it the levi who grapples with his grief and the experience of becoming a soldier after the deaths of his best and only friends.

captain levi is independent and takes his own initiative, but ultimately recognizes the importance of acting as part of a team. captain levi trusts his squad implicitly both to follow his orders and to make their own decisions when necessary. captain levi openly disdains most authority figures, but does obey and put his trust in the select few he respects, such as erwin. captain levi takes responsibility for all the lives under his command and around him. captain levi generally has control over his emotions and can adapt when necessary to win over people who require a different level of interaction than his usual intimidation, like reeves.

new soldier levi was not like that. it takes a long time for him to get to that point of control and understanding. he’s angry, solitary, insubordinate, stubborn, and abrasive.

firstly, he doesn’t at first feel loyal to the survey corps in any capacity. he was blackmailed into joining by erwin, and in the beginning only saw it as a role he was pretending to fill, until he assassinated erwin and gained his citizenship from lobov. he fully intended on leaving the corps after that. so why did he stay? well, partly because erwin used levi’s grief and anger to direct his hatred towards the titans. partly because levi had tasted freedom in the open space beyond the walls and in his own capabilities, and couldn’t bring himself to let that go. partly because, in that moment in the rain, lost and angry and grieving, obeying was the only thing he could let himself do; it was that or get himself killed trying to run.

after that moment, after that day, he thought of leaving many times. he wished to leave, maybe even if it meant abandoning the sky. because levi had never had to exist in such a controlled environment before. he’d never been bound by rules, forced into the rat’s maze of military operations, treated as a subordinate. the underground might have been a stinking cesspool, but he knew its every puddle and crag. he’d clawed his way to the top through violence and fear and skill, and at least there he would be the lord of his own familiar territory. he’d give up the sky, but he’d be in control again.

but it didn’t matter that he’d been blackmailed and press-ganged into service; he was a soldier now, and to leave was to desert, and to desertion was punishable by death. could he live out the rest of his life underground, hiding from the survey corps at every turn? erwin had already proved that he could catch levi even when he didn’t want to be caught. he could kill erwin before he deserted, but eventually they would find him and they would kill him. he wouldn’t really be in control at all. he’d be hunted.

so levi never ran. he clung to the sight of the stars in the sky and the feeling of fresh air on his face and he stayed, even when he felt like suffocating. he plotted out murders and escape plans in his head every day - not because he really meant to follow through, but because he’d been doing it since he was a child; having a contingency plan in case you needed to cut and run was a constant defense mechanism. and in those early days, levi always felt like he needed to run.

because he felt trapped. people had tried to beat him before, tried to hurt him, tried to imprison him. but levi had always handled that - by being strong, by being quick, by being clever. but he’d never been so neatly pigeonholed as he found himself in the corps. he couldn’t use violence to fight his way out, not unless he wanted dozens of trained killers on his tail with the might of the military behind them. he was expected to obey, to follow procedure, to defer.

levi had never deferred in his life. not to anyone he didn’t trust completely.

it threatened to drive him mad.

he lashed out. he was scathingly antisocial. he listened to almost no one, except perhaps erwin, whose capability he could respect even if he despised him. (erwin had tricked him. erwin had neatly manipulated him into his trap. levi hated it, but he recognized the skill behind it.) his skill was undeniable - on expeditions, he killed more titans than the rest of the corps put together, but he did it completely on his own with no regard for the orders of his squad leaders. he didn’t trust them to use his skill properly; he didn’t trust the other soldiers to get involved without hurting themselves or getting in his way; the only way he saw to take down the titans and avoid any deaths was to handle it entirely on his own. he didn’t work in a team. he clung only to his own skill and pride. everyone might have been in awe of his raw skill, but nobody could claim he made a good soldier.

he had no friends, and he wanted none. on expeditions at least he felt free and powerful. inside the walls he was trapped and isolated, and the feeling of being confined in enemy territory made his skin crawl for months. he had never slept particularly well, but now his insomnia worsened; sleep was rife with nightmares about isabel and farlan and storms and titans and suffocating under the weight of all the dirt of the underground, and he often spent his nights on the roof instead, staring at the stars, desperately trying to get the constant unspent adrenaline in his system to calm down. when he did sleep, it was with a knife under his pillow and a mind always on alert. he trained himself to exhaustion just so his heart would stop pounding and his head would stop spinning with plans and escape routes and paranoid suspicions. the lack of sleep made him even more volatile than he already was, and he was constantly butting heads with other soldiers and constantly punished for it.

in short, in those months after isabel and farlan’s death, levi was perpetually on the dangerously sharp, fine edge of a knife, a wrong step away from breaking down. and in trying to hide and prevent this he was downright vicious in his attempts to spurn others from trying to either befriend or control him.

it got better, gradually. it took a lot of work - and a lot of effort on erwin’s part, to hone this dangerous weapon he had forged - but levi couldn’t keep resisting forever. he had assumed that no other group of soldiers could be as competent as he was, because none of them matched his skill, but he couldn’t avoid seeing the way the best squads performed smoothly when they all knew what they were doing, when they worked together. they could take down titans without a single casualty when they were in sync - and if a wildcard like levi had tried to take down the titan first, distracting them without telling them what he was doing, it could all fall apart.

in fact, that was exactly what happened. eventually levi had no choice but to accept that sometimes his choices cost lives instead of saving them - and as much as he claimed not to care about the rest of the corps, he didn’t want to waste human lives. in realizing this, he also had to realize that he felt a responsibility, however vague or misled, for the lives of his comrades. these two things - an understanding of the value of teamwork and the realization that he cared enough about saving lives to utilize that value - marked the beginning of levi’s growth.

the real change, however, came when wall maria was breached, a little less than a year after he joined the corps.

it wasn’t that he hadn’t taken the titans seriously before. of course he had; you couldn’t go up against one and not recognize its threat. and besides, erwin’s nudging had worked - levi hated the titans for killing his friends. but the breach of wall maria was different. it showed how deep the danger of the titans truly was, for all of humanity. on that day, saving lives was more important than levi, than his pride, than his petty squabbles with authority. on that day, and in the days and months following, levi gave everything he had to killing the titans and protecting both civilian and comrade.

and people noticed. civilians remembered the man who had saved him by cutting down three titans in succession. soldiers noticed that he fought far longer than he should have been able to, not stopping, not resting, until he could hardly keep his feet. superiors noticed when he began taking orders - modifying them, maybe, to adapt to the situation, but listening. for the first time, levi had not only people’s respect for his talent. he had their compassion and gratitude for his cooperation and his care.

that changed him. until this point he’d never gotten along with the other soldiers. he’d given them reason to fear him, to walk in awe of him, but never to care for him. working with people who knew that he cared for his safety was very different from working with people whom he saw as enemies. and, too, soldiers and squad leaders alike were much more likely to listen to his suggestions and trust his judgment when he showed he was willing to do the same for them.

and the newly overwhelming threat of the titans focused him. before, he’d been fighting because he had to, and because going on expeditions was the only time he felt free. he fought, too, to save the lives of his fellow soldiers, but this was different. this was humanity on the line. it was bigger than him, and it changed him. it was at this point that he began truly identifying with the survey corps and their goal.

and, of course, erwin’s appointment as commander of the survey corps aided the change. levi’s hatred for erwin had faded somewhat over the past year - he still thought him a conniving bastard, but he was a conniving bastard that levi trusted, and, more, a conniving bastard who actually stood a chance of scraping together a defense for humanity. levi trusted erwin’s leadership far more than he’d ever trusted shadis’s - and erwin, who had always been invested in levi’s success as the best hope the survey corps had, gave levi a title.

captain. a squad leader, but outside the regular chain of command, with control over a squad that had never existed before. special operations. a squad that was highly skilled, highly adaptable, and loyal to erwin’s schemes - with a captain who exemplified all three. it was the first time levi had been given a level of authority, of control, over both himself and others - and he took to it with a vigor that surprised everyone, transforming faster than anyone would have thought into a leader who was, yes, independent, yes, caustic - but also insightful, efficient, and incredibly dedicated to keeping his people alive.

the next few years continued the learning curve, of course. he remained contrary to most symbols of authority, remained highly solitary, remained violent and intimidating when provoked. he had to learn how to deal with the deaths of his subordinates, how to put his trust in them, how to surrender control in the proper amounts without ever losing command of situations. but it was now, with his position as erwin’s knife and a fast-growing reputation for losing the fewest soldiers out of any squad, that he began to become famous as humanity’s strongest soldier, a hope for mankind.

[blschaos3000-blog]

Its 6:38 pm warm/sunny/fake doctors,real friends

Welcome to “8 Questions with……”

   Okay,I am going to admit something here…..for the first time,I have hidden something from a guest. So now I can see you shaking your head and saying “What???”    So I’m trying to broaden the blog and my friend Rebecca encouraged me to start using LinkedIn more. I told her I thought that was just a job seeker network site and she explained it is but its so much more now. You are encouraged to not only network but also promote yourself and since you are a writer,you should promote your blog.    So I have been slowly doing this and that is how I met our guest Jason Bourque.  I was posting on LinkedIn when I saw a post about Jason’s new film “My Wife’s Secret Life” being promoted by Lifetime. So not only did I not follow Jason but I asked him for a interview. He very generously agreed and I was pretty stoked.    Of course since I had pretty much cold asked Jason,I knew I had to do my research so I could ask some good questions. As I scanned over the movies he directed,I suddenly stopped cold. It seems like Jason and I had a “history” between us.    When I first started film reviewing with Paladin,I really knew zero about what I was doing,I would watch the movie and then express my opinion. I didn’t know anything about the process about filmmaking,I just knew if I liked it or not.    The second film I ever reviewed was a made for SyFy disaster film called “Seattle Superstorm” and I thought it was pretty cheesy and bad. I’m not defending nor changing my POV about it but I have learned a lot about films since then….how they made,budgets,casting,special effects,indie vs. major studios,IFC vs. A24,etc……   I know that today I would write my review differently,I wouldn’t change my opinion but I could understand the constraints that Jason was under and that he was trying his best with what he was given.    He won’t know any of this until I post this interview,I didn’t tell him that I had reviewed “Superstorm” in only my 2nd review. I like to think just as he has grown as a director,I have grown as a writer and I hope he will understand that.    With that said,Jason Bourque is director that can slide behind the camera and create magic – be it feature films,hard hitting documentaries or helming Hallmark and Lifetime Channel movies. He was won awards for both his documentaries and his feature film work. I am very happy to introduce you to Jason as he answers his 8 Questions…

  Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your current project. 

   Thanks Patrick. As a working indie director, writer, producer, I usually have about a dozen projects on the go in various stages of development. I love collaborating on feature work in between television movie gigs. So in a quick snap shot I have two features I produced in post-production – rom com “Godfrey” starring Nick Thune, Cleopatra Coleman and Iliza Shlesinger and the family drama “When Time Got Louder” starring Willow Shields, Lochlyn Munro and Elizabeth Mitchell. A Lifetime movie I exec-produced “My Husband’s Deadly Past” aired last week. As a director, my lifetime movie “My Wife’s Secret Life” just got a Leo nomination (Excellence in BC Film and Television) for Best Director and Best Lead actor. It’s my second year in a row for a nomination. This year I also had my movie “Hotwired in Suburbia” released (on most VOD platforms) and the Hallmark flick “Amazing Winter Romance”.  I know it sounds like a lot but I’m admittedly a workaholic when it comes to filmmaking – It’s my passion.

How have you been handling the pandemic? What have you done to keep busy?

   It’s such a horrible global curveball we’re living through and it’s been heartbreaking. Personally I’ve found solace focusing on family and health. I’m also a writer so I’m used to long stretches cooped up balancing my laptop on my pug’s head (she’s a lap dog) as I write 🙂 I’ve been very prolific over the last three months – series development, contracted script polishes and applications for my company www.goldstarprod.com I’m also overseeing a couple writers as well. I love to mentor new writers and directors and I give back when I can.

When did you know you wanted to become involved in the film industry and was directing always your goal going in?What makes directing so appealing to you?

  For as long as I can remember I’ve always been a natural storyteller and artist. I knew I wanted to make movies since I was fifteen, after watching “Evil Dead” and “Alien” back-to-back and since then it was always my goal.  I dived pretty quick into movie-making, starting out with zombie shorts with the local kids in the neighbourhood.   Directing is my first love and I totally prefer it to writing (that can be a lonely existence sometimes) and producing (lots more stress, personality management and sometimes factors out of my control). For me, directing is all about teamwork and it’s such a massive collaboration with creatives which I love. I’ll never take a “Film by Jason Bourque” credit – I simply don’t believe in it.  

You are the rare director who walks both in drama and sci-fi and yet have also done several award winning documentaries,can you share your mindset  when you work on a documentary versus a fictional film? What was working on “Shadow Company” like? Were you shocked at what you discovered? How much of “Shadow Company” influenced the making of your film “Drone”?

   Hey thanks for doing your homework and asking about my docs! As a storyteller, I’m totally at ease jumping from dramatic features to docs to scripts for other directors. I find the process of making documentaries more fulfilling /important than the final product. They allow me to travel with a small crew, meet incredible people and create a dramatic story sometimes on the fly. It’s very liberating. “Shadow Company” was co-written and co-directed with my friend Nick Bicanic. I had a huge learning curve on that one and it came at a time when little was actually known about private military companies. It’s heavy material, sometimes disturbing, sometimes heartbreaking yet we also infused it with lots of entertainment value to make it palatable for the general public.         Ultimately it was used as a teaching tool for the US Senate which I’m very proud of. Making “Shadow Company” was a huge journey and time commitment (a couple years) but well worth it. It influenced “Drone” a little when it came to writing the script with creative writing partner Paul Birkett. Having a character as a private CIA drone contractor was born out of “Shadow Company”. It also allowed us to stay away from the glut of military drone movies that had recently come out like “Eye in the Sky” and “Good Kill”.

How did you get asked to direct Lifetime and Hallmark Channel movies? What was the process like? We know actors have auditions but do directors have to audition as well? 

   As directors we do sometimes audition through creative calls. Our agents submit us and we’re on that magical list that gets cut down to whomever finally gets the job.  Luckily I have a track record with some producers who offer me the gigs. The majority of the television movies I work on feel like indie filmmaking. Sometimes they’re sold to Hallmark or Lifetime afterwards. If they don’t sell to those broadcasters, they can also be sold to Netflix or other platforms. So many ways to sell product out there! With the “The Chronicle Mysteries: Recovered” I was hired by the creator and star Alison Sweeney because she wanted the pilot more stylish / cinematic than the usual MOWs and she was a fan of “Drone”. I was then approved by Hallmark.

What is it like as a feature film director with a lot freedom to suddenly being asked to direct TV films with a much stricter format?   What do you do to leave your footprint on the movie?

  I don’t mind the MOW (Movie Of the Week) sandbox at all. I’m constantly looking at ways to raise the bar and I’m always learning, even after 18 years of directing. I also direct for a company that gives me lots of freedom on set. They’re shot fast though – usually 13-15 days so it’s all about the planning / prep.

If you could remake 2 of your films with a 100 million budget,which three would you choose and why?

“Termination Point”!  It’s a very cool time travel disaster movie I directed for SyFy starring Lou Diamond Phillips and Jason Priestley. The script by Peter Sullivan is truly excellent – the hook is a jaw-dropper and it has a huge scope to it. The plot is too twisty to explain briefly but it’s well worth checking out.  I love this movie but the VFX company went bankrupt half way through post and I had to shoot it in 15 days.

“Doomsday Prophecy” is another SyFy movie I would love to re-make. I co-wrote the script and again, had to shoot it in 14 days but it’s a fantastic premise with excellent characters. The Moai heads of Easter Island are an alien defence mechanism against a dark star about to eat our planet.

You subscribe to the Jack Webb idea of using a lot of the same actors for your films,what are the advantages and disadvantages of using the same actors? How do you approach a film that is cast with a lot of rookie performers?  Do you like to be involved with the casting process?

   I’m hands on with all casting. Honestly, as an indie filmmaker having to shoot quickly, I sometimes can’t afford to take chances. I need actors I can trust, are incredibly prepared and can sometimes handle eight pages of dialogue a day with only a couple takes. It’s why I’ve used actors like Matthew MacCaull in 5 movies. We have our own shorthand. With rookie performances it’s all about helping them connect to what makes their performance honest. Sometimes it might be a simple one line of direction – “Play it like you’re talking to your mother” for example. After years of directing I’ve found it’s best to avoid mapping out the emotional landscape of a character for an actor. Rookie actors can sometimes be overwhelmed and that relationship always needs to stem from a foundation of trust. 

I’m going to put you on the spot here……but what three actors and three actresses have you enjoyed working with the most and why?       Pick one relatively unknown actor do you think will break out within a year.

I gravitate towards really good people I genuinely like. No ego. Hard workers. Big hearts. 

Sarah Butler. She always goes the extra mile and is a perfectionist. Sarah is extremely well prepared, the crew loves her and she doesn’t shy away from physically demanding work. And she’s a dog person like me so we bonded instantly 🙂

Josh Byer. He’s an incredible character actor and he always makes unique choices, whether its as a supporting lead or as a day player. There’s no one else I can compare him to in the Vancouver acting pool so he’s my secret weapon for elevating a scene. I’ve had him in a dozen movies. Josh is also a close friend and a triple threat.  Besides acting, he’s an accomplished artist and musician. 

Matthew MacCaull. Excellent on all levels and very versatile. I’ve directed him in thrillers as both the villain and also the romantic lead. Matt smashed the lead role in my “Black Fly” movie out of the ballpark and he’s been my favourite lead ever since.

Which three genres  are the most challenging for you as a director? What is more important- a good story or a big budget?

   I’m comfortable with all genres but thrillers come very naturally – I love exploring the dark corners of the human condition and I have a knack for creating tension. Comedy can be challenging sometimes – Hallmark walks a fine line with their comedy and they shy away from belly laughs or big physical comedy. it’s the art of the “soft chuckle” 🙂 I love sci-fi but there’s an extra level of prep involved due to storyboards, animatics etc… due to big CGI action sequences. The challenges are the usual ones since the dawn of filmmaking. There never seems to be enough time or money. Luckily the general audience never knows the majority of compromises made by the indie director.  A good story worth telling is always the most important to me. “Black Fly” cost very little to make.  I’ve seen so many big budget movies fail to engage an audience due to a poor script or it’s an an overblown sequel no one asked for. It’s usually because the big budgets also mean “filmmaking by committee” due to the stakes being so high. Too many producers with their hands in the creative decision making can create chaos. A camera operator I work with has a great saying – “Tweak it till it sucks” which I suspect happens a lot with big budgets.

What is your current dream/passion project and can you share a little bit about it?

   I have three I gotta make – “Iris”, a contained horror that takes place in an ER during a hurricane. “Fourteen” – an action movie about a murdered hitman who gets reincarnated as a fourteen-year old boy and tries to take down the crime syndicate responsible for his death and finally “Claw” – a contained sci-fi / home invasion about a robotics engineering student who builds a medical robot that kidnaps her and her boyfriend.

The cheetah and I are flying over to watch to you shoot your latest film but we are a day early and now you are stuck playing tour guide,what are we doing?

Vancouver is beautiful. We have the world’s best sushi, tons of coffee shops, Stanley Park for great hiking and bike trails. I always recommend Granville Island for a visit – an awesome artistic hub with a vibrant market. Our restaurant scene is world-class along with micro-breweries.  Hopefully everything settles soon and you can drop by for a visit. If all goes well I’ll be directing again this fall. Thanks Patrick!

  I like to thank Jason for agreeing to do this interview with me. The cheetah and I have a copy of “Drone” and we’ll be taking a peek at it very soon.  And you already know we’re going to get his Hallmark Channel films as well because that is how the cheetah and I roll.

There are various ways to keep up with Jason and his career:

You can follow his film company Gold Star Productions Check out Jason’s newest projects by following his IMDb page. You can follow Jason on his Twitter page. Visit Jason’s personal website. Follow Jason on his InstaGram page.

Feel free to drop a comment below.

  8 Questions with………..film director/writer Jason Bourque Its 6:38 pm warm/sunny/fake doctors,real friends Welcome to "8 Questions with......"    Okay,I am going to admit something here.....for the first time,I have hidden something from a guest.