#that in the three months since basically reviving this dead blog and basically making it a f1 blog that i gained 1k followers 🥺❤️

[snoopyracing]

omg i hit 5k followers!!! i love you all! ❤️ thank you for being so kind and supportive about my writing and if i’ve still got any active og 5sos followers i hope i’ve converted you into becoming a f1 fan lol.

[theonceoverthinker]

Signs Clover Might Come Back

So if you’ve been reading this little blog for any amount of time since the end of the last year, you’d know I’ve had RWBY, Fair Game, and Clover Ebi on the brain. And if you’d been reading it for any amount of time since late January, then you’d know that both I and a lot of other people really, really, really hated the ultimate handling of each of those things following the release of 7X12.

But I’m not here to go off about that episode today (Though I still have PLENTY more to say on that front).

No, I’m here to look forward towards the upcoming volume with something a bit more optimistic (Given some of those quotes from the 7X12 commentary that have recently come to light and the possibility of a V8 trailer tomorrow, we could all use that right about now).

Volume 8 is about a month away, and with it, a large amount of the Fair Game/Clover Ebi community as well as myself are hoping Clover will be resurrected as a result of something we call the Staff of Creation Theory. 

Look, I probably don’t have to explain this to anyone reading this post, but just in case, the tldr of the theory is that the Staff of Creation will cease holding Atlas up and since it’s able to create, it just might be able to bring back the deceased as a form of recreation (I.E. Clover). I’ve made a theory or two about how it could work in the context of straight up execution, but again, that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

So -- incredibly long intro aside -- what AM I here to talk about?

Well, as the title states I want to talk about the signs that we can look for in V8 prior to any resurrection that can reasonably suggest that Clover might come back.

My overall thoughts on whether Clover will actually come back or not basically come down to a coin flip at this point. Trace amounts of evidence both in some of the animation from V7 and implications of comments heard here and there give off a real sense that he just might be revived after all, but then again, the writers have done little lately to inspire a lot of faith in me, and a large amount of my distrust with RT is that we had a lot more to go on that 7X12 wasn’t going to be...well, 7X12 before 7X12 was 7X12.

(Jenna, come on, you said you weren’t going to rant about it...)

MOVING ON!

Anyway, I compiled a brief list of realistic ideas that could happen in the context of Volume 8 (And its marketing, merch, etc.) before the theoretical resurrection as a means of foreshadowing it, as well as a brief explanation as to my reasonings for believing them to be meaningful and possible executions they could take in their implementations. Anything is on the table here, so now that this incredibly long intro that somehow got even longer is done, let’s get going!

List under the cut!

1. Clover appearing ANYWHERE in the V8 intro. Simply put, dead people tend to not show up in the RWBY intros following their passing. Maybe their graves will show up, as they have with Summer, but that’s about it. But even outside of that trend, Clover appearing in Volume 8′s intro would put some nice power in the theory’s corner. I don’t even think he necessarily has to be in it himself (though I absolutely want him to). Giving any amount of significant screen time to the pin would (while not as good for us as actually showing off Clover himself) still be a point in our favor of Clover’s importance to the characters. I could see this happening in two ways. First, if it’s not Clover appearing, but the pin, we could have Qrow looking at or wearing the pin and then the camera doing a closeup of it (Hopefully without the blood). Second, if it IS Clover appearing (And if he does appear in the intro, I’d say his chances of returning will be up significantly since they’re bothering to animate not just the pin, but Clover’s face/entire body), Clover could be dragged away from Qrow in sort of an abstract nightmare-ish thing akin to the visual of Qrow drinking in V6 directly. In both cases, they’d be followed by a transition to something relevant to his resurrection would be the real money ticket.

Transitions...

Now, the specifics of this as it pertains to Clover will be explained in the next point, but what you need to know right now is that transitions are incredibly important. Simply put, the sequences of events, especially as they exist in and pertain to large ensemble casts like the one we have in RWBY because so many things are happening simultaneously, are important. They have the ability to convey narrative insights; story beats can be glimpsed off of them and themes can be established or deconstructed by the order of plot and story points. 

What are those things that it would be really good to transition to after mentioning/showing Clover/Clover’s pin?

I am SO glad you asked, because I’m about to get to it!

2. Any mention of the sentiment of “dead is dead” in the context of Clover’s death followed by a transition to something that calls that very idea into question. Here we go. 

I’m of the mindset that we could be witnessing some very nice foreshadowing of a Clover revival if during a mention of Clover, something that’s said by someone (Qrow, Ironwood, Robyn, the Ace Ops) that’s akin to “there’s no way he can come back” or “dead is dead” is IMMEDIATELY followed by one the following things: The Staff of Creation itself or just the door to the staff’s vault, Penny or Ozpin (Formerly dead characters now resurrected, Penny being the current Winter Maiden and the only one able to access the staff) doing pretty much anything, or the base of the floating city and the blue magic under it. ANY of these things (And probably one or two others because I’m only one man here) carry with them a heaping helping of foreshadowing, the universe itself telling us not to count our chickens before they hatch. I can see this happening via a hard cut or a fade between the character mentioning Clover (Or Clover’s pin) and the aforementioned element.

The reason why I place such emphasis on these transitions is because without them, bringing up Clover or Clover’s mortality (or present lack thereof) only has a narrative function of quelling any hopes of him being revived, a proverbial twisting of the knife, if you will.

3. ”No hetero”-ing the Jailbirds ship/separating them as quickly as possible. A worrying point for many of us has been the possibility that with Clover absent and killed off in a way that seemingly showed that Clover and Qrow were too opposite each other to make it work, that Qrow and Robyn (Now off to prison together) could possibly become a thing. I think doing something to ensure audiences right off the bat that that’s not a concern anyone needs to have will do a little something to show that RT at least listened to the clear dislike the ship received from the get go (No offense intended if you do ship it, but it is what it is and both components of Jailbirds are shipped far more with other characters, and for good reason). Moreover, getting rid of the chance of Jailbirds off the bat might show that Qrow’s romantic future is still up in the air, possibly for a revived Clover to come back and be a part of. This can be done in a number of ways -- canonizing Springthyme, getting Robyn and Qrow out of jail and separated ASAP, canonizing Qrow’s romantic love for Clover, etc. The quicker this is done, the more I’d be willing to believe we could see Clover’s return.

4. Not just Marrow being shown contemplating deflecting from Ironwood. This one’s a little hard to explain, so follow me.

Prior to Clover’s death, Neath Oum made a Tweet that pointed out how odd it was that there were five Ace Ops in a world geared towards the number four (Four people on a team, Maidens, relics, kingdoms, etc). If this sentiment is to remain true with a Clover revival, something’s got to give to even out the inherently weird setup of the Ace Ops’ odd number (Pun intended). 

Look, if Clover’s coming back, then they’re not gonna make him a villain because it wouldn't make sense (Even with the garbage logic of 7X12). So that means that they have to make a big change regarding either just Clover or all of the other Ace Ops.

This can happen a number of ways. Clover can come back and take the place of the (possibly) deceased Summer Rose on STRQ (Best case scenario imho because it leaves the Ace Ops open to a redemption), another Ace Op can die (I REALLY don’t want it to be this), or Clover can back and deflects...but not alone, and that last point is the only one with real potential foreshadowing from the Ace Ops. 

Obviously, Marrow’s the one Ace Op everyone thinks will turn against Ironwood, especially with the reveal of Clover’s death to the Ace Ops now an inevitability. He’s going to have a reaction to that, and probably the biggest of his team’s. However, here’s the thing: If just Marrow deflects, that makes one member by himself (Or two if Clover comes back and joins with him) and a team of three. That absolutely doesn’t work with that sentiment of four being the central number of the show, either (Unless even more characters are thrown into the mix and...no...just no…). So if Marrow leaves the Ace Ops, I don’t think it will be alone.

Once again, there’s a couple of ways this could go. One of the remaining could be actually villainized to make space for Clover back on the main team (Harriet would be my most likely prediction because of that exchange she and Marrow had about killing team RWBY), or (ideally) all of them could deflect and create a hybrid of my first and third idea: Clover goes off to join Qrow, Raven, and Tai while Marrow, Elm, Harriet, and Vine stay as the Ace Ops (Maybe under a new team name).

The signs to look out for of this happening are bigger reactions from the non-Marrow Ace Ops than they’ve shown in the series up to this point (With the exception of 7X12), the Ace Ops mourning together and even growing closer during that mourning, or statements of doubt from the rest of the team regarding Ironwood’s plan or just Ironwood’s leadership as well.

5. Any marketing regarding Qrow mourning Clover. Why market a setup to something that doesn’t have a payoff? If Clover’s as unimportant as he was claimed to be, then showing Qrow mourn wouldn’t have a point, after all, right? So why do it? Perhaps because there’s something on its way. I’m just saying, if you see the official RWBY Twitter make a post of Qrow forlornly looking at Clover’s pin or putting on the pin, or a tweet that quotes the kind of “dead is dead” line I mentioned back in point 2, there might be more to it than the surface might have us believe. I’m not telling you to expect anything because as I said, my hope is not especially high right now either, but I will say that that could be a real sign.

6. Ace Ops merchandise with all five of them. A few months ago, a shirt of all five of the Ace Ops popped up on the RT shop. This set off an alarm bell or two in my head because why sell a shirt of a team that ended the previous volume with one member dead and the other four of them cast off to the side as basically secondary villains? I know people like the Ace Ops, but it was still a really weird merch choice. It was especially jarring because in that same wave of merch, the team ORNJ shirt was revealed, and that was effectively a spoiler since that team hadn’t officially formed yet (Just implied, but other teams like RNJR were given their team name on screen). However, I acknowledge that that could all just be a fluke. BUT, if we see more of this kind of thing during V8...you never know, right? 

7. Tyrian bringing up Clover a LOT. I can’t fully explain this one, but while Tyrian seemed to realize Clover’s importance to Qrow, him bragging about it a lot prior to or during his and Qrow’s inevitable next showdown would be a really solid potential mark in the Clover comes back column (If he’s not already back by the time this happens, of course).

So there you go -- a few signs that might be present if we really are going to get Clover back. Maybe getting all of these ideas together is just a means of working out my senses of hope and doubt as V8 grows closer -- it absolutely is (Especially after reading some of those commentary quotes -- YIKES). Maybe this will help someone who feels the same way I do cope as well. Whatever this was, I hope it makes things easier. 

[deans-mind-palace]

Nähkästchenplauderei

For those who didn’t know, that’s German. Normally it would be “aus dem Nähkästchen plaudern” which literally translates to “to talk out of the sewing box”. It’s a common phrase in Germany. Means something like “to spill some beans” or “to catch up on all the gossip”or “to share private information”.

Reason why I’m telling you this?

It’s me, Elena. This is a new part of my blog now. I want to involve all of you more in my daily writing and and the related funny stories, problems or ideas and inspirations. Maybe that’s interesting for you. Maybe it’s just a therapeutic exercise for me, when I’m (not) in the mood to write. Not sure yet. xD

I’ll call it “Nähkästchenplauderei” because I talk about me and writing fanfic but not really about their content. I’ll give you some insider stories about the fanfics I wrote/will write. Funny things. What happened to me during writing it, what gave me inspiration and how I do my research or what is important to me about a certain story and why I’m writing it. The daily life (cough *and struggle* cough) of a writer. If you’re not interested in these pieces of information, then you’ll see just the heading and you’ll know ‘Aaaah, that’s not a story I can read so that’s not interesting for me’. So it’s easier for you to skip. But I thought this could be interesting for you. I want to get to know you more and you can always laugh with me or smack your forehead because of my craziness. This could be fun and I am encouraging you to discuss themes or to tell me your opinion or own experiences. Of course, I hope that many of you take part. ❤️

I’ll tag you all only in this part, afterwards you can tell me, if you want to be notified. If you don’t drop a comment, I’ll automatically take you off my taglist for “Nähkästchenplauderei”. I don’t know how many parts this will have. I’ll write one every time I’m in the mood for it.

*oOo*

Nähkästchenplauderei - A blog about my blog. 

A new passion - Or the story of me buying a guitar on Amazon at 1am

I always do a lot of research for my stories. I know some authors hate it, but I love doing research. It’s like playing detective and investigating while educating myself further. I always do Pinterest boards (I can share them with you, if you want) for my series because looking at the pictures and the links inspires me during writing. The ‘Simple Man Series’ is Set in an alternative universe where Jensen is a Country singer. I had no idea about country music, to be honest. I got all my knowledge about it from watching ‘Walk the line’ but that’s it. Obviously, I needed to do research! I created a Spotify playlist for the series (which I will link as soon as it’s uploaded).

When I wrote Suspirium or collected pictures for my Pinterest boards I always listened to it. Somehow I fell in love with this kind of music. I never played an instrument because I didn’t have the patience. I played to flute in fifth grade, because it was part of the Music class. We even got grades for playing it. Let me tell you, it was a disaster! Always got Ds. Although I got an A one time. Every time I practiced the flute, my dog started to howl. You see, it really was  awful. I believe that’s why I lost the interest in playing an instrument. I still went to the choir, though, because I loved singing (still do). I always said, if I had the patience I’d love to learn the piano or the guitar, because these are basic instruments and you can play everything on them.

Guess what? I sat there and was writing Suspirium when an idea started to from in my head. There are dozens of Corona online lessons for the guitar, beginner models of guitars aren’t that expensive and you can still sell them or use them as decoration. Normally, I overthink everything. I need ages to make an decision, normally weeks or months till I lost the interest. So I did my research. Which model? Acoustic, western or concert? Which size? Guitar scale? How do I identify a quality product? Best YouTube channels? Best apps?

Found a black one and I immediately fell in love with it. And guess what? It’ll arrive by tomorrow afternoon! :D I really did it and I’m a bit proud of myself for not overthinking it! I’m looking forward to learning every song of artists I love. Adele, Pink, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linkin Park, Train, Oasis, James Arthur, Tom Walker, Lewis Capaldi, James Blunt, Bruno Mars, Coldplay, Shawn Mendes, John Legend, Common Linnets, Lumineers and thousands more. Of course, some of my new Country faves, too. 

My first song will either be ‘Simple Man’ because the story was inspired by it and it was the first song that I’ve heard Jensen sing or ‘Hey there Delilah’ because I love that one right now. It’s my current catchy tune.

These will be followed by ‘The One that got away’ by Pink and ‘Bonfire heart’ by James Blunt. If these four aren’t too difficult, of course... I’ll keep you updated. :D

*oOo*

The story behind Suspirium - Or as I like to call it, the story of reviving a more than dead language.

I have that idea since I’ve started this blog some time ago. I wasn’t sure if I should make it a Dean, Sam or Cas story, so I brought my arguments up and you could decide which professor you want, remember? As soon as you chose Sam, I knew that he would be a Latin Prof. That’s based on the canon in the series and my preferences. Sam is the best in Latin in the entire series. And I am able to read, translate AND EVEN SPEAK Latin, so it’s something I can relate to. A great subject, although I know that the opinions on Latin are different. 

I can speak five languages (German - my mother tongue, English, Spanish, Dutch and Latin, I’d like to learn French soon) and I personally think Latin’s a beautiful language. Of course, it doesn’t sound as beautiful and elegant as French (although French has its origin in Latin). But a language is a lot more than the emphasis. In one of the first chaps of Suspirium Sam and Reader discuss the beauty of Latin.

“Latin is the language of law, architecture and engineering, the military, science, philosophy, religion and - of particular interest here - the language of a flourishing literature which for centuries served as a model for all Western literature. The Latin of literature speaks of love and war in hundreds of masterpieces, reflects on the body and soul, develops theories about the meaning of life and the tasks of man, about the fate of the soul and the nature of matter, sings of the beauty of nature, the meaning of friendship, the pain of losing all that is dear to one; and it criticizes depravity, ponders death, the arbitrariness of power, violence and cruelty. It creates inner images, puts emotions into words, formulates ideas about the world and social life. Latin is the language of the relationship between the one and everything.” Suspirium, Chapter 3

Roman poets are more than two millennia dead, BUT the themes they wrote about (Love, pain, friendship and braveness, also sex...) are still actual in our society. They stood the test of time. A language where no ‘thank you’ exists, just a ‘to be thankful’. This language is mysterious, its culture unbelievable nowadays. It’s like an enigma that wants to be solved - or not, depends on you and if you learn your vocabulary. Trust me, I had to learn that the hard way in seventh grade. ;) 

Sam is basically my old Latin teacher. He uses the same methods and tells the same things. He makes jokes, adds additional information and makes his students question the meaning behind the poems and stories.  Sometimes I even used words my teacher said to us. I looked up some of my Latin notes and use that for the lectures. It’s a lot of fun and that’s where I get my inspiration from. A big thank you to my teacher. This story would not work out without him always encouraging me and explaining everything to me, even if he had to do it three times. Gratiam habeo, magister. :D

Questions for you, only if you want to:

 Do you play an instrument? Which or would you like to play one?

What’ your favourite genre and who’s your favourite artist and which song?

How many languages do you speak? Which? Which would you like to speak (in addition)? 

Wanna tell me your name and origin? 

-> Next post will probably be about how I make my covers, choose GIFs, find inspiration on Pinterest and Spotify and my first friendship ever on Tumblr some years ago. And how I got in touch with SPN.

Tags beneath cut:

@ashthefirefox @rintheemolion @fortheentries @vexhye @traceyaudette @vicariouslythruspn @crazybutconfidentaf @zizzlekwum @outofnowhere82 @myopiamystical @vicmc624 @imaginationisgrowth @seven-seas-of-fuck-you @shypickleghostsuitcase @intoomuchfandoms @angeltardisbow @ayamenimthiriel @still-a-demon-very-ineffable-de @mimzy1994 @everyobsession9023 @tokiohearts483 @butterscotchseventeen @aberrant-annie @autumn-blessings @aberrant-annie @lust-for-pan @screechingartisancashbailiff @readsreblogsfics @akshi8278 @hobby27 @thewintersoldierswife @squirrelnotsam @transparentfestivaltiger

[letterboxd]

Life in Film: Ben Wheatley.

As Netflix goes gothic with a new Rebecca adaptation, director Ben Wheatley tells Jack Moulton about his favorite Hitchcock film, the teenagers who will save cinema, and a memorable experience with The Thing.

“The actual process of filmmaking is guiding actors and capturing emotion on set. That’s enough of a job without putting another layer of postmodern film criticism over the top of it.” —Ben Wheatley

Winter’s coming, still no vaccine, the four walls of home are getting pretty samey… and what Netflix has decided we need right now is a lavish, gaslight-y psychological thriller about a clifftop manor filled with the personality of its dead mistress—and a revival of one of the best menaces in screen history. Bring on the ‘Mrs Danvers’ Hallowe’en costumes, because Rebecca is back.

In Ben Wheatley’s new film adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s best-selling 1938 novel, scripted by Jane Goldman, Lily James plays an orphaned lady’s maid—a complete nobody, with no known first name—who catches the eye of the dashing, cashed-up Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer).

Very quickly, the young second Mrs de Winter is flung into the intimidating role of lady of Manderley, and into the shadow of de Winter’s late first wife, Rebecca. The whirlwind romance is over; the obsession has begun, and it’s hotly fuelled by Manderley’s housekeeper, Mrs Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas, perfectly cast).

Each adaptation of du Maurier’s story has its own quirks, and early Letterboxd reactions suggest viewers will experience varying levels of satisfaction with Wheatley’s, depending on how familiar they are with both the novel and earlier screen versions—most notably, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 Best Picture winner, starring Laurence Olivier Joan Fontaine, and Judith Anderson.

Why would you follow Hitchcock? It’s been 80 years; Netflix is likely banking on an audience of Rebecca virgins (the same kind of studio calculation that worked for Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born). Plus, the new Rebecca is a Working Title affair; it has glamor, camp, Armie Hammer in a three-piece suit, the sunny South of France, sports cars, horses, the wild Cornish coast, Lily James in full dramatic heat, and—controversial!—a fresh twist on the denouement.

A big-budget thriller made for a streamer is Wheatley coming full circle, in a way: he made his name early on with viral internet capers and a blog (“Mr and Mrs Wheatley”) of shorts co-created with his wife and longtime collaborator, Amy Jump. Between then and now, they have gained fans for their well-received low-to-no budget thrillers, including High-Rise, Kill List and Free Fire (which also starred Hammer).

Over Zoom, Wheatley spoke to Letterboxd about the process of scaling up, the challenge of casting already-iconic characters, and being a year-round horror lover. [The Rebecca plot discussion may be spoilery to some. Wheatley is specifically talking about the du Maurier version, not his film.]

Armie Hammer and Ben Wheatley on the set of ‘Rebecca’.

Can you tell us how you overcame any concerns in adapting a famous novel that already has a very famous adaptation? How did you want to make a 1930s story relevant to modern audiences? Ben Wheatley: When you go back to the novel and look at how it works, you see it’s a very modern book. [Author Daphne du Maurier is] doing stuff that people are still picking up the pieces of now. It’s almost like the Rosetta Stone of thrillers—it tells you everything on how to put a thriller together. The genre jumping and Russian-doll nature of the structure is so delicious. When you look at the characters in the book, they’re still popping up in other stuff—there’s Mrs Danvers in all sorts of movies.

It remains fresh because of its boldness. Du Maurier is writing in a way that’s almost like a dare. She’s going, “right, okay, you like romantic fiction do you? I’ll write you romantic fiction; here’s Maxim de Winter, he’s a widower, he’s a good-looking guy, and owns a big house. Here’s a rags-to-riches, Cinderella-style girl. They’re going to fall in love. Then I’m going to ruin romantic fiction for you forever by making him into a murdering swine and implicating you in the murder because you’re so excited about a couple getting away with it!”

That’s the happy ending—Maxim doesn’t go to prison. How does that work? He’s pretty evil by the end. It’s so subtly done that you only see the trap of it after you finish reading the book. That’s clearly represented in Jane Goldman’s adaptation that couldn’t be done in 1940 because of the Hays Code. That whole element of the book is missing [in Hitchcock’s Rebecca]. But I do really like this style of storytelling in the 1930s and ’40s that is not winky, sarcastic, and cynical. It’s going, “here’s Entertainment with a big ‘E’. We’re going to take you on holiday, then we’re gonna scare you, then we’re gonna take you around these beautiful houses that you would never get a chance to go around, and we’re gonna show you these big emotions.”

After High-Rise, you ended up circling back to more contained types of films, whereas Rebecca is your lushest and largest production. How was scaling up for you? Free Fire does feel like a more contained film, but in many ways it was just as complicated and had the same budget as High-Rise, since it’s just in one space. Happy New Year, Colin Burstead is literally a contained film, that’s right. What [the bigger budget] gave me was the chance to have a conversation where I say I want a hotel that’s full of people and no-one says you can’t have any people in it. You don’t have to shoot in a corner, so that scale is suddenly allowed.

Elisabeth Moss and Tom Hiddlestone in Wheatley’s ‘High-Rise’ (2015).

The other movies I did are seen as no-budget or, I don’t even know the word for how little money they are, and even though High-Rise and Free Fire were eight million dollars each, they’re still seen as ultra-low budget. This is the first film that I’ve done that’s just a standard Hollywood-style movie budget and it makes a massive difference. It gives you extra time to work. All the schemes you might have had to work out in order to cheat and get around faster, but now it’s fine, let’s only shoot two pages today. We can go out on the road and close down all of the south of France—don’t worry about all the holidaymakers screaming at you and getting cross! That side of it is great.

You had the challenge to cast iconic actors for iconic roles. What were you looking for in the casting? What points of reference did you give the actors? I don’t think we really talked about it, but [Armie Hammer] definitely didn’t watch the Hitchcock version. I can understand why he wouldn’t. There was no way he was going to accidentally mimic [Laurence] Olivier’s performance without seeing it and he just didn’t want to have the pressure of that. I think that’s quite right. It’s an 80-year-old film, it’s a beloved classic, and we’d be mad if we were trying to remake it. We’re not.

The thing about the shadow that the film cast is that it’s hard enough making stuff without thinking about other filmmakers. I’ve had this in the past where journalists ask me “what were your influences on the day?” and I wish I could say “it was a really complicated set of movies that the whole thing was based around”, but it’s not like that. When you watch documentaries about filmmakers screening loads of movies for their actors before they make something—it’s lovely, but it’s not something I’ve ever done.

The actual process of filmmaking is guiding actors and capturing emotion on set. That’s enough of a job without putting another layer of postmodern film criticism over the top of it—“we’ll use this shot from 1952, that will really make this scene sing!”—then you’re in a world of pain. Basically, it’s my interpretation of the adaptation. The book is its own place, and for something like High-Rise, [screenwriter Amy Jump] has the nightmare of sitting down with 112 pages of blank paper and taking a novel and smashing it into a script. That’s the hard bit.

Armie Hammer and Lily James in ‘Rebecca’.

Current industry news is not so great—cinemas are facing bankruptcy, film festivals in the USA are mostly virtual, Disney is focusing on Disney+ only. How do you feel about a future where streaming dominates the market and the theatrical experience becomes, as we fear, an exclusive niche? Independent cinema was born out of very few movies. If you look at the history of Eraserhead—that film on its own almost created all of cult cinema programming. One movie can do that. It can create an audience that is replicated and becomes a whole industry. And that can happen again, but it needs those films to do that. They will come as things ebb and flow. The streamers will control the whole market and then one day someone will go “I don’t want to watch this stuff, I want to watch something else” and they’ll go make it.

It’s like The Matrix, it’s a repeating cycle. There’ll always be ‘the One’. There’s Barbara Loden in 1970 making Wanda, basically inventing American independent cinema. So I don’t worry massively about it. I know it’s awkward and awful for people to go bankrupt and the cinemas to close down, but in time they’ll re-open because people will wanna see stuff. The figures for cinemagoers were massive before Covid. Are you saying that people with money are not going to exploit that? Life will find a way. Remember that the cinema industry from the beginning is one that’s in a tailspin. Every year is a disaster and they’re going bust. But they survived the Spanish Flu, which is basically the same thing.

Two months ago, you quickly made a horror movie. We’re going to get a lot of these from filmmakers who just need to create something this year. What can you identify now about this inevitable next wave of micro-budget, micro-schedule pandemic-era cinema? I’ve always made micro-budget films so that side of it is not so crazy. There will be a lot of Zoom and people-locked-in-houses films but they won’t be so interesting. They’re more to-keep-you-sane kind of filmmaking which is absolutely fine. Where you should look for [the ‘pandemic-era’ films] is from the kids and young adults through 14 to 25 who’ve been the most affected by it. They will be the ones making the true movies about the pandemic which will be in like five years’ time.

People going through GCSEs and A-Levels [final high-school exams in England] will have had their social contracts thoroughly smashed by the government after society tells them that this is the most important thing you’re ever gonna do in your life. Then the next day the government tells them “actually, you’ve all passed”, then the next day they go “no, you’ve all failed”, and then “oh no, you’ve all passed”. It’s totally bizarre. Anyone who’s in university at the moment [is] thinking about how they’ve worked really hard to get to that position and now they’ve had it taken away from them. That type of schism in that group will make for a unique set of storytelling impetus. Much more interesting than from my perspective of being a middle-age bloke and having to stay in my house for a bit, which was alright. Their experience is extreme and that will change cinema.

Kristin Scott Thomas as Mrs Danvers in ‘Rebecca’.

It’s time to probe into your taste in film. Firstly, three questions about Alfred Hitchcock: his best film, most underrated film, and most overrated film? It’s tricky, there’s a lot to choose from. I think Psycho is his best film because, much like Wanda, it was the invention of indie cinema. He took a TV crew to go and do a personal project and then completely redefined horror, and he did it in the same year as Peeping Tom.

There’s stuff I really like in Torn Curtain. Certainly the murder scene where they’re trying to stick the guy in the oven. It’s a gut-wrenching sequence. Overrated, I don’t know. It’s just a bit mean, isn’t it? Overrated by who? They’re all massively rated, aren’t they?

Which film made you want to become a filmmaker? The slightly uncool version of my answer is the first fifteen minutes of Dr. No before I got sent to bed. We used to watch movies on the telly when I was a kid, so movies would start at 7pm and I had to go to bed at 7:30pm. You would get to see the first half-hour and that would be it. The opening was really intriguing. I never actually saw a lot of these movies until I was much older.

The more grown-up answer is a film like Taxi Driver. It was the first time where I felt like I’d been transported in a way where there was an authorship to a film that I didn’t understand. It had done something to me that television and straightforward movies hadn’t done and made me feel very strange. It was something to do with the very, very intense mixture of sound, music and image and I started to understand that that was cinema.

What horror movie do you watch every Hallowe’en? I watch The Thing every year but I don’t tend to celebrate Hallowe’en, to be honest. I’m of an age where it wasn’t a big deal and was never particularly celebrated. I find it a bit like “what’s all this Hallowe’en about?”—horror films for me are for all year-round.

What’s a brilliant mindfuck movie that perhaps even cinephiles haven’t seen? What grade of cinephile are we talking? All of the work by Jan Švankmajer, maybe. Hard to Be a God is pretty mindfucky if you want a bit of that, but cinephiles should know about it. It’s pretty intense. Marketa Lazarová too.

‘Marketa Lazarová’ (1967) directed by František Vláčil.

What is the greatest screen romance that you totally fell head over heels for? I guess it’s Casablanca for me. That would be it.

Which coming-of-age film did you connect to the most as a teenager? [Pauses for effect] Scum.

Who is an exciting newcomer director we should keep our eyes on? God, I don’t know. I would say Jim Hosking but he’s older than me and he’s not a newcomer because he’s done two movies. So, that’s rubbish. He doesn’t count.

[Editor’s note: Hosking contributed to ABCs of Death 2 with the segment “G is for Grandad” while Wheatley contributed to The ABCs of Death with the segment “U is for Unearthed” and also executive produced the follow-up film.]

What was your best cinema experience? [Spoiler warning for The Thing.]

Oh, one that speaks in my mind is seeing The Thing at an all-nighter in the Scala at King’s Cross, and I was sitting right next to this drunk guy who was talking along to the screen. It was a packed cinema with about 300 people, and someone at the front told him “will you just shut up?” The guy says “I won’t shut up. You tell me to shut up again and I’ll spoil the whole film!” The whole audience goes “no, no, no!” and he went “it’s the black guy and the guy with the beard—everyone else dies!” That made me laugh so much.

Do you have a favorite film you’ve watched so far this year? Yeah, Zombie Flesh Eaters.

Related content

Classic Gothic Literature to Film—Jennifer Boddaert’s list

Ava’s Dark Romance list

Ben Wheatley’s Life in Film list

Follow Jack on Letterboxd

‘Rebecca’ is in select US theaters on October 17, and streaming on Netflix everywhere on October 21.

[phantomdarksgirl]

[dusts off blog]

what up

I just finished reading BOTH The Hollow Earth trilogy and its sequel, The Orion Chronicles and my brain won’t shut up, so I’m gonna make this post.

Without going into spoilers, Hollow Earth was FANTASTIC. It’s been a while since I’ve had a book captivate me as much as the premise and plot of that trilogy have, which is why I was spurred to read The Orion Chronicles. I just wanted more adventures with Matt and Em and wasn’t quite ready to pick up another universe just yet.

The Orion Chronicles books were good, and I do still recommend them, but...man I just have THOUGHTS so spoilers ahead this is gonna be a long one.

The tone shift from Hollow Earth to Orion Chronicles makes sense to me. Matt and Em are 17 now. They’re more mature, growing up. Fine.  But I felt like the writing itself suffered from the change of publishers.  The style itself felt the same, but the pacing was all over the place, especially, I felt, in the third book.  There were places in the third book that were inconsistent from an editing standpoint, and passages I had to read twice because I was confused at omitted details that needed to be inferred.  I never had to do that with the first trilogy. Omitted details were easily inferred and not confusing to the narrative when done so.

I felt some crucial scenes and arguments we should have seen play out were just...glossed over. Like Em and Zach’s breakup and Em’s decision to stay with Matt instead of be bound to Zach. The overall premise of these books I felt was a wonderful expansion of the universe created in Hollow Earth, but I found its execution lacking, unfortunately.

And ESPECIALLY when it came to poor Zach.  There were times I was more interested in seeing the story from his perspective, to be honest, and we barely got anything until the third book. And even then I just have so many QUESTIONS that went unanswered.

Like....okay here’s a list

- How long has Zach been working for Orion? Did he join to find his mother? DId he know his mother was working for Orion before or AFTER joining? Was his decision to infiltrate the Carmarilla BECAUSE his mom was there?

- Was Zach always working for Cecilia during his infiltration? What was his in for this job? How did he climb the ranks so fast in a matter of months? Wasn’t Cecilia running the Carmarilla??

- When did Zach’s Animare powers start manifesting? You want me to believe in the 4 years between these series that he didn’t AT LEAST tell the twins about these powers? The ONLY OTHER PEOPLE in the world who are exactly like him? He wouldn’t be comfortable telling them or exploring those abilites with them? The entire first series they kept big secrets from the adults. Wouldn’t this just be another one?

- IS Zach even a hybrid? Sebina isn’t a guardian by definition. Tbh it’s not even clear what she really is since we never see her grow wings like Luca. If he’s not the product of a Guardian and an Animare, what IS he?

- If Vaughn is actually Zach’s dad, what the FUCK is Simon in relation to him? How did he come into the picture? Did Vaughn not raise him because of his Orion work? Did Simon KNOW Zach wasn’t his? I could swear Zach was described as looking like Simon in the first trilogy but I can’t remember clearly.

- Was his internship at the MOMA just his cover for his Orion work? I’m guessing so, but that wasn’t really cleared up.

- Did he ACTUALLY send Em’s portrait back or was it just a return to sender type deal? idk man that’s a nitpicky one but whatever.

- Where did Luca even TAKE them at the end of the book? Is he acting like Zach is his son too? Is Zach staying with Sebina now?

- Zach and Em were together for FOUR YEARS and you want me to believe now that they were just in lust that whole time? When Em mentioned she would break the Animare/Guardian child rules for him? I get she’s young and maybe blinded a little...but you REALLY want me to believe she was just in lust with Zach after everything they’ve been through? And she’s gonna be with Remy now instead?

This is ON TOP OF the fact that they spent three books building up Em’s longing for Zach and mentioning Zach’s hurt in the few chapters we get with him, ONLY for him to just...basically not acknowledge Em, WHO IS BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE IN FRONT OF HIM I MIGHT ADD, or even talk to her.  There was no reunion or resolution of their conflict despite 3 books of build-up and I’m MAD ABOUT IT. The one time these two characters are in the same room and you’re telling me they don’t even have an awkward “hey glad you’re okay” moment? It felt so out of character for Zach, and it was difficult to understand his motives beyond getting close to his mother again.

And his whole hybrid-ness felt...not exactly shoe-horned in, but not quite thought out either.  I’m hoping more books are coming (hopefully written from Zach’s perspective!) that might shed light on this, but for now I’m just confused as to what his mother is as well as what he is.  And I’m bothered he was attached to his mother in the final scene we see him in when the only woman he ever loved (as mentioned in the book) was literally dead and brought back before his eyes.

I’m just confused and disappointed by Zach’s character arc. He’s the only main character from the first trilogy that feels like he got pushed to the wayside. The adults like Simon, Sandie, Jeannie, and Renard I can understand...but Zach deserved so much better imo. I was waiting for an awkward and heartfelt conversation between him and Em that never happened.

Again, I attribute some of this to the change in publishers.  While Hollow Earth had 2 years between the release of books, Orion Chronicles had 2 years between book 1 and book 3. That’s TIGHT deadlines imo, which would explain why things felt rushed or unpolished.

And it just makes me wonder what this series could have been if they had been given the time to edit and polish more thoroughly.  There were even places where lore they established in the first trilogy got ret-conned or ignored in the second, and while those details may be minor and forgotten over the period of writing (I get it that authors forget details sometimes), it still took away my enjoyment of the story on top of everything else.

Here are more questions not related to Zach:

- Renard and Jeannie BOTH left the islands at one point in the plot. Why were the islands still fine before Em, a descendent of Albion, showed up?

- Remy was able to save Em but not the Moor? Could he only conjure enough music to save one of them? Was the Moor’s head wound too severe to be saved? Why did he suffer NO repercussions from literally bringing someone back from the dead when he was nosebleeding over easier conjurations earlier?

- How does the reviving process work? Can Em not be out of range of Remy anymore or she’ll die again? The zombies he animated dropped dead when the music stopped. Where does the process bring a soul back vs an empty husk/zombie? Can it only be fresh corpses, I assume? (WHICH BRINGS ME BACK TO THE MOOR TBH)

- How did Orion know Luca was going to attack the abbey and the headquarters? Did Zach warn them ahead of time, or did they just use the tracking device? Is the damage he did reversible? (For a series talking about hiding the supernatural this certainly seemed out in the open and blatant. Actually...most everything Luca did was :T)

- IS Caravaggio bound in the cage Zach created for him? Is Zach powerful enough to do that? As a Guardian/Animare hybrid (we assume), that might be possible, but again...it’s unclear if he just put Caravaggio in a painting or if he’s actually bound this time.

- Is Matt gay or bi? That’s a nitpicky one but man I gotta know. I was so excited when he was into dudes. ONE OF US. ONE OF US.

- Speaking of Matt, where the FUCK did Lizzy come from? How did they meet? How did she come to the Abbey? Was she found by the Council? How are Animare and Guardians paired prior to their binding ritual? We never hear Matt telepath with her. She felt like a very one-note character that was shoved in for plot and never expanded on again. How long had she been with Matt and Em?

- Could the twins not join Orion if they were bound to guardians? Why did Matt feel it was a trap to be bound when he’s seen Guardians and Animare be apart before? (Like Sandie and Renard or Simon and Mara)

- What happened to Henrietta de Court? I assume she was arrested, but [shrugs]. We can infer Tanan died from the valerian root poisoning, but I wonder about her.

- How were the Watchers not bound to Hollow Earth by the monks of Era Mina? Is the Second Kingdom just like...another Hollow Earth or something?

- Matt’s eyes were a result of ‘time travel gone awry’...but why did it affect him and not Em? Both of them did about the same amount of time traveling in the first series. I would have been less skeptical about it if it was a result of unbinding Malcolm after the time travel, or like...even an incident after the first trilogy of Matt being reckless, but having it just be a time travel incident was vague and unsatisfying to me.

Overall, would I still recommend these books? Sure. I just wish the second trilogy was more polished like the first one felt, is all.

Zach Butler deserved better I will die on this hill. WHERE’S MY ZACH TRILOGY (or at least a book tbh)

(I definitely DO recommend the Hollow Earth trilogy though. I thought it was wonderful.)

[myyenlee]

Welcome Atavist! A Groundbreaking Publishing Platform Joins the WordPress.com Family

Today we’re announcing that Atavist, a multimedia publishing platform and award-winning magazine, will be joining WordPress.com parent company Automattic.

This news is exciting to me on a few levels — eight years ago I had my first introduction to Atavist when I met a journalist named Evan Ratliff for coffee at Housing Works in New York. He showed me the first pieces of what became a bold new platform for long-form storytelling, which he created with co-founders Jefferson Rabb and Nicholas Thompson. At the time I had just started Longreads, so we shared an interest in seeing a revival for long-form journalism on the open web.

Fast-forward to today and we’re thrilled to have the Atavist and Longreads teams now together under the WordPress.com banner. Atavist’s publishing platform will be moving over to WordPress, and its award-winning magazine The Atavist will continue to serve up outstanding in-depth storytelling with a new feature each month, under the editorship of Seyward Darby. Also joining the team is Atavist CEO Rabb and head of product communications Kathleen Ross.

I chatted with Rabb, Darby, and Ross about what’s next.

Jeff, Seyward, Kathleen, we’re excited you’re here! You’ve had a terrific run over the past eight years — leading innovation around the design and process of multimedia storytelling, winning many awards along the way — what are your hopes and priorities for Atavist moving forward?

RABB: Thank you, I’m thrilled to be here! My number one hope in joining [WordPress.com parent company] Automattic is to bring everything we have built and learned to an audience that is orders of magnitude larger. I’ve spent the past eight years honing a toolset and sensibility for digital journalism, and now I’m excited to put this to use for a mass audience. When these are integrated into WordPress, I am hoping we will have an unbeatable product for storytelling and journalism. There are many fascinating challenges and problems in journalism today, and now more than ever I want to be part of the solution.

DARBY: I’m also excited to be here! I’ve been at The Atavist Magazine for the last 15 months, and it’s the best job I’ve ever had. The list of things I love about our publication is too long to include in full, but some highlights are the intimate collaborations with creators, the anchoring belief in the timeless power of cinematic storytelling, and the commitment to nurturing the next generation of long-form writers. Certainly, we work with big-name journalists, but we’re also a magazine that supports up-and-coming narrative writers who want to take a swing at a really, really big story. I love nothing more than helping someone crack the code on a 15,000-word feature’s complex structure. (I’m a big fan of Post-It notes and story trees, and of fist-pumping to no one in particular when an article section falls into place.)

Moving forward, the magazine’s foundational priorities will remain the same: We’ll tell great stories, design them beautifully, treat our collaborators well, and have a lot of fun in the process. My hope is that, by combining forces with WordPress.com, we’ll get to push the boundaries of our projects: dive into more multi-part narrative investigations, produce more original video or audio where it makes good sense, improve the diversity of our roster of writers and artists, and provide journalists with the resources and time they need to report the hell out of topics they’re passionate about.

Winning awards and getting our stories optioned for film/TV, which we also have a strong track record of doing, will be goals, absolutely, but never at the expense of providing a quality experience to every person who contributes to or reads The Atavist.

Tell us about some of your favorite stories you’ve hosted.

DARBY: I’m proud of every story I’ve shepherded as the executive editor, so it’s hard for me to pick favorites. The most successful Atavist stories share the same key ingredients: a propulsive, satisfying narrative, rich characters, and scenes that make readers feel immersed in the world the writer is describing. At first blush, Kenneth R. Rosen’s story “The Devil’s Henchmen,” about what is being done with the bodies of the ISIS dead in Mosul, doesn’t seem to have much in common with Amitha Kalaichandran’s “Losing Conner’s Mind,” about a family’s quest to save a child from a rare, fatal disease; Allyn Gaestel’s “Things Fall Apart,” about an over-hyped art installation in Nigeria; Mike Mariani’s “Promethea Unbound,” about the tortured life of a child genius; or David Mark Simpson’s “Not Fuzz,” about a millionaire hotelier who moonlights as a serial police impersonator. Yet these stories all have compelling plots about everyday people whose lives are shaped by sheer will and unpredictable circumstance. You can’t put them down because you want to know what’s going to happen.

As for Atavist stories that predate my time at the magazine, I’ll award a few superlatives. Quirkiest goes to Jon Mooallem’s “American Hippopotamus,” about a bizarre plan to alter the national diet. Most Lyrical goes to Leslie Jamison’s “52 Blue,” about the world’s loneliest whale. Most Ambitious goes to Evan Ratliff’s epic “The Mastermind,” about a crime lord whose empire spanned pretty much the whole world. (It’s soon to be a book and TV show.) And Couldn’t Get It Out of My Head goes to Will Hunt and Matt Wolfe’s “The Ghosts of Pickering Trail,” about a family living in a haunted house. I’ll stop there, but I really could go on and on.

ROSS: Before I worked for Atavist, I actually worked right down the hall, so I have been reading the magazine for a long time. To me, the best Atavist Magazine stories are transporting: in “Welcome to Dog World,” Blair Braverman shows us Alaska; socialites head to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for an early feminist victory in “The Divorce Colony” by April White; and James Verini’s “Love and Ruin” (the title story of our 2016 collection) is a romance and historical epic all in one, and I think about Nancy Hatch Dupree’s library in Afghanistan often. “A Family Matter” may be one of the most important stories we’ve done. Finally, I love stories about spectacular failures, so I have to mention Mitch Moxley’s article “Sunk,” which is about a disastrous attempt to make an epic movie about mermaids; plus, the piece has some excellent moments of maximalist design, including pixelated fish that bob across the page.

RABB: I have a soft spot for the very first stories such as “Lifted,” “Piano Demon,” and “My Mother’s Lover.” In addition to being great pieces of writing, they were the petri dishes in which our experimental approach to storytelling was born. They included ideas such as pop-up annotations, maps, and immersive sound elements. Even though the way we distribute our articles has changed dramatically since those stories were published—back then, they were exclusively on the Atavist mobile app and Kindle—many of the concepts and approaches in them formed the DNA of our company’s product. Developing those first few stories was an exciting and vital time for me.

Finally, I’m wondering what you think about the state of storytelling on the open web today. Where do you think things are headed?

DARBY: There are so many stories being told in the digital space right now, in so many ways, and to so many different audiences. Take SKAM Austin, which D.T. Max recently wrote about for The New Yorker. It’s a teen drama told entirely through Facebook posts, Instagram stories, texts, and other digital scraps and marginalia—a story crafted for its young target audience, based on the way they consume information and communicate with one another. That project is fictional, but there’s similar experimentation happening in the non-fiction space. Certainly, publications are pushing the envelope on transmedia (multi-platform storytelling) and rethinking story structure based on how events now unfold in real time in the palm of your hand. I’m thinking of projects like WIRED‘s story on police brutality, “How Social Media Shaped the Three Days That Shook America,” and National Geographic‘s partnership with ProPublica, “How the U.S. Triggered a Massacre in Mexico.” Recently, I was a fellow at the Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Lab, an incubator for storytellers who work with emerging technologies like VR, AR, and AI. It was incredible to hear the ways that this diverse group is reimagining how to create and deliver narratives. I can’t wait for all of the projects they were workshopping to be out in the world, and I hope to bring what I learned there to bear on my work at Automattic.

That said, I’m a journalist first, and when it comes to technology, I always have this nagging fear that form might compromise substance. No one should tell a story entirely via social media or VR or video just because they can; they should do so because there’s actual benefit—to the story itself, to the audience reached, and so on. I’m reminded of my very first job out of college, back in the aughts. I was a journalist in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and I also conducted research on media training needs in the region. I met lots of aspiring journalists who said, “This international NGO helped me set up a blog, but I don’t even really know how to conduct an interview or fact-check. Can someone help me with that?” The experience has always stuck with me as a reminder that the basics of great journalism should apply no matter the platform. At The Atavist, we like to say that story comes first, and by that we mean plot and accuracy, then form and reach.

from Blogging Tips https://en.blog.wordpress.com/2018/06/21/atavist-joins-wordpress-dot-com/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[symbianosgames]

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

Original blog post

This post is part of My Career Series.

Now that Uncharted 4 is released, I am able to talk about what I worked on for the project. I mostly worked on AI for single-player buddies and multiplayer sidekicks, as well as some gameplay logic. I’m leaving out things that never went in to the final game and some minor things that are too verbose to elaborate on. So here it goes:

The Post System

Before I start, I'd like to mention the post system we used for NPCs. I did not work on the core logic of the system; I helped writing some client code that makes use of this system. Posts are discrete positions within navigable space, mostly generated from tools and some hand-placed by designers. Based on our needs, we created various post selectors that rate posts differently (e.g. stealth post selector, combat post selector), and we pick the highest-rated post to tell an NPC to go to.

  Buddy Follow

The buddy follow system was derived from The Last of Us. The basic idea is that buddies pick positions around the player to follow. These potential positions are fanned out from the player, and must satisfy the following linear path clearance tests: player to position, position to a forward-projected position, forward-projected position to the player.

Climbing is something present in Uncharted 4 that is not in The Last of Us. To incorporate climbing into the follow system, we added the climb follow post selector that picks climb posts for buddies to move to when the player is climbing.

It turned out to be trickier than we thought. Simply telling buddies to use regular follow logic when the player is not climbing, and telling them to use climb posts when the player is climbing, is not enough. If the player quickly switch between climbing and non-climbing states, buddies would oscillate pretty badly between the two states. So we added some hysteresis, where the buddies only switch states when the player has switched states and moved far enough while maintaining in that state. In general, hysteresis is a good idea to avoid behavioral flickering.

  Buddy Lead

In some scenarios in the game, we wanted buddies to lead the way for the player. The lead system is ported over from The Last of Us and updated, where designers used splines to mark down the general paths we wanted buddies to follow while leading the player.

In case of multiple lead paths through a level, designers would place multiple splines and turned them on and off via script.

The player's position is projected onto the spline, and a lead reference point is placed ahead by a distance adjustable by designers. When this lead reference point passes a spline control point marked as a wait point, the buddy would go to the next wait point. If the player backtracks, the buddy would only backtrack when the lead reference point gets too far away from the furthest wait point passed during last advancement. This, again, is hysteresis added to avoid behavioral flickering.

We also incorporated dynamic movement speed into the lead system. "Speed planes" are placed along the spline, based on the distance between the buddy and the player along the spline. There are three motion types NPCs can move in: walk, run, and sprint. Depending on which speed plane the player hits, the buddy picks an appropriate motion type to maintain distance away from the player. Designers can turn on and off speed planes as they see fit. Also, the buddy's locomotion animation speed is slightly scaled up or down based on the player's distance to minimize abrupt movement speed change when switching motion types.

  Buddy Cover Share

In The Last of Us, the player is able to move past a buddy while both remain in cover. This is called cover share.

In The Last of Us, it makes sense for Joel to reach out to the cover wall over Ellie and Tess, who have smaller profile than Joel. But we thought that it wouldn't look as good for Nate, Sam, Sully, and Elena, as they all have similar profiles. Plus, Uncharted 4 is much faster-paced, and having Nate reach out his arms while moving in cover would break the fluidity of the movement. So instead, we decided to simply make buddies hunker against the cover wall and have Nate steer slightly around them.

The logic we used is very simple. If the projected player position based on velocity lands within a rectangular boundary around the buddy's cover post, the buddy aborts current in-cover behavior and quickly hunkers against the cover wall.

  Medic Sidekicks

Medic sidekicks in multiplayer require a whole new behavior that is not present in single-player: reviving downed allies and mirroring the player's cover behaviors.

Medics try to mimic the player's cover behavior, and stay as close to the player as possible, so when the player is downed, they are close by to revive the player. If a nearby ally is downed, they would also revive the ally, given that the player is not already downed. If the player is equipped with the RevivePak mod for medics, they would try to throw RevivePaks at revive targets before running to the targets for revival; throwing RevivePaks reuses the grenade logic for trajectory clearance test and animation playback, except that grenades were swapped out with RevivePaks.

  Stealth Grass

Crouch-moving in stealth grass is also something new in Uncharted 4. For it to work, we need to somehow mark the environment, so that the player gameplay logic knows whether the player is in stealth grass. Originally, we thought about making the background artists responsible of marking collision surfaces as stealth grass in Maya, but found out that necessary communication between artists and designers made iteration time too long. So we arrived at a different approach to mark down stealth grass regions. An extra stealth grass tag is added for designers in the editor, so they could mark the nav polys that they'd like the player to treat as stealth grass, with high precision. With this extra information, we can also rate stealth posts based on whether they are in stealth grass or not. This is useful for buddies moving with the player in stealth.

  Perception

Since we don't have listen mode in Uncharted 4 like The Last of Us, we needed to do something to make the player aware of imminent threats, so the player doesn't feel overwhelmed by unknown enemy locations. Using the enemy perception data, we added the colored threat indicators that inform the player when an enemy is about to notice him/her as a distraction (white), to perceive a distraction (yellow), and to acquire full awareness (orange). We also made the threat indicator raise a buzzing background noise to build up tension and set off a loud stinger when an enemy becomes fully aware of the player, similar to The Last of Us.

  Investigation

This is the last major gameplay feature I took part in on before going gold. I don't usually go to formal meetings at Naughty Dog, but for the last few months before gold, we had a at least one meeting per week driven by Bruce Straley or Neil Druckmann, focusing on the AI aspect of the game. Almost after every one of these meetings, there was something to be changed and iterated for the investigation system. I went through many iterations before arriving at what we shipped with the final game.

There are two things that create distractions and would cause enemies to investigate: player presence and dead bodies. When an enemy registers a distraction (distraction spotter), he would try to get a nearby ally to investigate with him as a pair. The closer one to the distraction becomes the investigator, and the other becomes the watcher. The distraction spotter can become an investigator or a watcher, and we set up different dialog sets for both scenarios ("There's something over there. I'll check it out." versus "There's something over there. You go check it out.").

In order to make the start and end of investigation look more natural, we staggered the timing of enemy movement and the fading of threat indicators, so the investigation pair don't perform the exact same action at the same time in a mechanical fashion.

If the distraction is a dead body, the investigator would be alerted of player presence and tell everyone else to start searching for the player, irreversibly leaving ambient/unaware state. The dead body discovered would also be highlighted, so the player gets a chance to know what gave him/her away.

Under certain difficulties, consecutive investigations would make enemies investigate more aggressively, having a better chance of spotting the player hidden in stealth grass. In crushing difficulty, enemies always investigate aggressively.

Dialog Looks

This is also among the last few things I helped out with for this project.

Dialog looks refers to the logic that makes characters react to conversations, such as looking at the other people and hand gestures. Previously in The Last of Us, people spent months annotating all in-game scripted dialogs with looks and gestures by hand. This was something we didn't want to do again. We had some scripted dialogs that are already annotated by hand, but we needed a default system that handles dialogs that are not annotated. The animators are given parameters to adjust the head turn speed, max head turn angle, look duration, cool down time, etc.

  Jeep Momentum Maintenance

One of the problems we had early on regarding the jeep driving section in the Madagascar city level, is that the player's jeep can easily spin out and lose momentum after hitting a wall or an enemy vehicle, throwing the player far behind the convoy and failing the level.

My solution was to temporarily cap the angular velocity and change of linear velocity direction upon impact against walls and enemy vehicles. This easy solution turns out pretty effective, making it much harder for players to fail the level due to spin-outs.

  Vehicle Deaths

Driveable vehicles are first introduced in Uncharted 4. Previously, only NPCs can drive vehicles, and those vehicles are constrained to spline rails. I helped handling vehicle deaths.

There are multiple ways to kill enemy vehicles: kill the driver, shoot the vehicle enough times, bump into an enemy bike with your jeep, and ram your jeep into an enemy jeep to cause a spin-out. Based on various causes of death, a death animation is picked to play for the dead vehicle and all its passengers. The animation blends into physics-controlled ragdolls, so the death animation smoothly transitions into physically simulated wreckage.

For bumped deaths of enemy bikes, we used the bike's bounding box on the XZ plane and the contact position to determine which one of the four directional bump death animations to play.

As for jeep spin-outs, the jeep's rotational deviation from desired driving direction is tested against a spin-out threshold.

When playing death animations, there's a chance that the dead vehicle can penetrate walls. A sphere cast is used, from the vehicle's ideal position along the rail if it weren't dead, to where the vehicle's body actually is. If a contact is generated from the sphere cast, the vehicle is shifted in the direction of the contact normal by a fraction of penetration amount, so the de-penetration happens gradually across multiple frames, avoiding positional pops.

We made a special type of vehicle death, called vehicle death hint. They are context-sensitive death animations that interact with environments. Animators and designers place these hints along the spline rail, and specify entry windows on the splines. If a vehicle is killed within an entry window, it starts playing the corresponding special death animation. This feature started off as a tool to implement the specific epic jeep kill in the 2015 E3 demo.

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  Bayer Matrix for Dithering

We wanted to eliminate geometry clipping the camera when the camera gets too close to environmental objects, mostly foliage. So we decided to fade out pixels in pixel shaders based on how close the pixels are to the camera. Using transparency was not an option, because transparency is not cheap, and there's just too much foliage. Instead, we went with dithering, combining a pixel's distance from the camera and a patterned Bayer matrix, some portion of the pixels are fully discarded, creating an illusion of transparency.

Our original Bayer matrix was an 8x8 matrix shown on this Wikipedia page. I thought it was too small and resulted in banding artifacts. I wanted to use a 16x16 Bayer matrix, but it was no where to be found on the internet. So I tried to reverse engineer the pattern of the 8x8 Bayer matrix and noticed a recursive pattern. I would have been able to just use pure inspection to write out a 16x16 matrix by hand, but I wanted to have more fun and wrote a tool that can generate Bayer matrices sized any powers of 2.

After switching to the 16x16 Bayer matrix, there was a noticeable improvement on banding artifacts.

  Explosion Sound Delay

This is a really minor contribution, but I'd still like to mention it. A couple weeks before the 2015 E3 demo, I pointed out that the tower explosion was seen and heard simultaneously and that didn't make sense. Nate and Sully are very far away from the tower, they should have seen and explosion first and then heard it shortly after. The art team added a slight delay to the explosion sound into the final demo.

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  Traditional Chinese Localization

I didn't switch to Traditional Chinese text and subtitles until two weeks before we were locking down for gold, and I found some translation errors. Most of the errors were literal translations from English to Traditional Chinese and just did't work in the contexts. I did not think I would have time to play through the entire game myself and look out for translation errors simultaneously. So I asked multiple people from QA to play through different chapters of the game in Traditional Chinese, and I went over the recorded gameplay videos as they became available. This proved pretty efficient; I managed to log all the translation errors I found, and the localization team was able to correct them before the deadline.

That's It

These are pretty much the things I worked on for Uncharted 4 that are worth mentioning. I hope you enjoyed reading it. :)