#there’re films and then there’re films that live inside your soul because you watched them for the first time when you were 13.on megavideo

[deathshallbenomore]

what do you mean pride and prejudice (2005) is legally of age

[the-woman-in-the-writing]

“Breakdown No. 42″ a short story

Rating: PG TRIGGER WARNING  Word Count: 1,325

Author’s note:

This is my most honest work (yet). I wrote this for a book compilation that revolves around emotions and experiences. The truth is, I didn’t know what to write because the compilation required us to be honest about ourselves, and in my years as a writer I always do my best to refrain from reflecting myself in my work, specifically prose (I’m quite honest with my poetry). I wanted to write about someone or something that isn’t me. There may be pieces of myself scattered in my literature but it’s not fully about or inspired by me. So, writing this gave me a whole new direction in writing; every minute was torture, I have to admit. But after I’ve finished it and had a few of my close friends and relatives read it, they cried and told me, ‘this is your best work so far’. I hope you, reader, see it as that way too and if not, I hope you feel you’re not alone in whatever you’re going through.

“I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.” ― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

 My yellow walls swelled. Those ugly, piss-yellow walls that were supposed to remind me of happiness. I hated them. Sometimes, they would speak to me. In whispers. In mumbling. In chants. The message was all the same: you don’t belong here. But tonight, they were quiet and maybe it was because my thoughts are too loud to interpret something from their silence. I could hear the air-condition hum a lullaby for the sleepless – a nursery rhyme for the lost.

My hands feel warm on my ears as I feel it tremble. Blood rushing – I could hear it rumble, rumble, rumble. My fingers intertwine itself with my hair and my nails dig into my skull, trying to grab the person inside me. The voice that tells me what to do and what I think. The soul that sympathizes and loathes other people. I want her out – you don’t belong here. Out.

My walls just keep on swelling and swelling and swelling, suffocating me. I have never been claustrophobic, but my room is terrifyingly small right now, like those trap rooms where the walls are closing in on you. I know it’s all in my head. When I stand up, my head won’t hit the ceiling and I can still stretch my arms to show how much I want to leave. It’s all in my head.

It’s all in my head.

It’s all in my head.

I sat up, facing the window. It was night and who knows what time it is, but the outside world seems so peaceful and still, like a painting. My breath fogs up the glass and moistens my nose. I don’t know what to do. It’s a bad day today. I feel so trapped. I am a butterfly trapped in a bell jar and I want out. Nothing bad happened, to be honest. Today went by perfectly normal. It’s just… It’s a bad day. There’s a looming sadness inside of myself and I can feel it spilling out of me, dripping through my nose and the corners of my lips, mixing with my tears, and coming out of my ears and my pores. It’s spilling and spilling – it’s all in my head – and I’m trying to keep it inside of me.

I feel so lost, like I’m floating in oblivion, never anchored down to anything. There’s no sense of belongingness in reality and imagination. I’m stuck in the middle. I am a tourist taking a walk in the Museum of Everyone. The place is silent and deserted, boxed with mahogany walls and films of dusts. There’re different rooms to see: The Hall of Deaths, the Human Mind Planetarium, the Lives Gallery. Wax figures and metal description plates. Mother and Father having breakfast with kids. Teacher lectures about parts of the cell. Friends laughing around. Girl kisses Boy for the first time.

I don’t feel like I belong here, or even anywhere.

A shadow of myself steps out of me. She still has that hope in her eyes, but I could see she’s tired. She looks at me with a blank face and says, “You need to leave.” And she walks out of the door and when I look back to the window, she’s outside, looking at me and shaking her head. It felt strange to watch myself. It was like watching a movie or dreaming; I am in a doppelganger film and I’m the double trying to take over the original’s life.

The walls started swelling again. I try to push them back but it’s no use. You don’t belong here.

Leaving was easier than I expected; I just had to stand up and open the door. In the corner of my eye, I see my dad’s journal look at me earnestly, so I pick it up before the walls could crush me. The outside looks so still from inside, but it’s just like my room. Swelling and crushing me. But outside, my room looks normal. It was all in my head. It’s just a bad day. I imagine it being sucked by a small blackhole, leaving an empty space in our house.

Then I started walking. And walking. And walking. There’s no destination in mind, but I want to be as far away as possible from my life and I want to find myself. I am an observer in the Hall of Changes. I looked at the houses and I remember what color they had before they chipped away. Those bubbles of paint that were so entertaining to squish. I looked at the streets and I remember how it wasn’t paved that way back then. The way it was so muddy whenever it rained. I looked at the walls and I remember the vandals that have come and gone through the years. The “I love you’s” and “was here’s”.  I looked at my life and I remember how simple it was before. The colors, the design, and the words. Now, everything inside of me is twisted and tangled, so complex and so hard to fix and understand.

I could feel the breath of the surroundings, caressing my arms like someone is pulling me slowly into an embrace. I close my eyes and breathe along. Life is entering and leaving my body. I’ve always been alive, one way or another, but so are the sick, so are the sleeping.

My existence feels so linear. Predictable. Dull. An endless string of ‘and then, and then, and then…’. Is there nothing left for me? Do I just go to college, get a degree that I’m never going to use, get my first job that I’m going to hate eventually, pay my taxes, buy a place, quit my first job, get a second job, get married, have kids, buy a house, have a midlife crisis, deal with my children’s teen angst, send them to college so they’ll get a degree they’ll never use so they could get their first job – Is there nothing left? Is this… everything that’s left for me?

How could anyone call this a life?

I had stopped walking. I’m already someplace else with a stranger’s house in front of me. In there, a family or someone who is alone is sleeping, dreaming away their life as they wait for another tomorrow to waste. What would’ve been my life if I had grown up inside that house? Would I have been sad? Would today have been a bad day?

I sat on the pavement and looked at the starless sky, imagining the world revolving and rotating around the sun as I moved on with life. Heliocentric. Then I imagined it revolving and rotating as I sat there at that pavement, motionless. Anthropocentric.

My dad’s journal beat inside my hand. It was old. The edges were soft. Some pages fell out. My dad had wrapped the cover with masking tape and was now brownish. A quote was written on it. Inside, I found poems, entries, quotes, lyrics, unfinished sketches, and pictures. There were some written for my mom. There were some written for himself. And there were some written for me. Opening and skimming the journal felt like I was the exhibit being observed, rather than being the observer. The Lives Gallery. Girl finds herself. I read everything twice and I cried.

She is our sunshine, and I love her.

I imagined myself as a toddler, big eyes with a stupid smile, carried in my parents’ arms. Everything felt in place and was the size of a snow globe. I am inside. You belong here. Girl grows up. I had the world ahead of me. I just didn’t know it yet.

I looked up once more and the world and the sun revolved and rotated around me again before I closed the journal and started walking home.

[readymade-journal-en]

Grace Wang /  CEO of VVG It Doesn’t Mean a Bliss if Life is Smooth  

Few people have the elegance and self-possession like a queen, and fewer have the ability to stun and move people at the same time. Grace, the CEO of the lifestyle brand VVG, is the rare entity of both.

Walking into the walnut brown hall of VVG Thinking, Grace immediately showed her distinct character that was as sheer as the white dress she put on. She was a generous lady who spoke with a soft, calm voice. She was generous to share what she liked and provide a platform for designers to showcase their works. She was generous to spend on projects which were unique in their own ways. She was also very generous to tell us what she experienced in the hard times without reserve. We often heard stories from successful people about how they built their empires from scratch, how they envisioned the future of mankind, to name but a few. But what we could truly learn to grow was not only from their recipes for boom, but also from the stories on how they survived a major setback and reached new heights. Grace’s story was one of these, and the story about courage, curiosity, honesty and persistence.

Every project of VVG has been added new elements, styles or a fresh response to life. How can you keep pursuing original experience, and sharing what you like?  

Curiosity. I think I have to remain a pure mind, and be without too many complex feelings. To enjoy our life is what makes us curious. I make friends as well, and after that to connect more people and get the chance to experience many, many great things. I am open-minded. I always say yes to people who come to me for help, and join them if I feel that the projects are awesome. From 1999, VVG expanded from a restaurant to different sorts of shops, and there’re plenty of opportunities working with designers. I want to create a platform for these designers, so that they can make presentations, talks, and sometimes markets. Getting a lot of people involved is a wonderful way for them to explore their favourites in a form of living. People who do designs, arts, handicrafts, music or even films are gathered and create a fascinating vibe. There are rising demands for life aesthetic in mainland China. I went to Nanjing in early 2017 and just wrapped up the project of a lifestyle space in Zhengzhou. I will go wherever I am needed.

Can you tell us something more about your hobbies? We’ve heard you are very much into movies. Which one of them influences you most deeply? And in what ways movies enrich your creations and connect your life?

Watching movies is my greatest interest, and every day I see one or two films. They are so much fun, there might not be a film which really sweeps me off my feet, but there always are some films that tell us so much about our life. A movie is like a reflection of how we live. People see movies from their own perspectives, which reflect their inner self and ways of thinking. The Bridges of Madison County is the movie that stays deep inside my heart, it is a romantic love story that blows my mind. Seeing a movie can help inspire imagination. Of course I focus on the movie’s plot and visuals, but I also pay attention to the film score, costumes, props and settings. I will even consider playing that soundtrack in VVG if it fits.

VVG is like a window between Taiwan and the world, facilitating the exchange about life aesthetic on both sides. How do you manage to create an atmosphere of living a quality life for others?

In fact, I do not create this atmosphere intentionally, as all things in life happen very naturally. If you’ve ever felt its beauty, you will pay attention to it. I don’t do commercials, but sometimes I tell people my genuine feelings about life through giving talks. In the past eighteen years, I opened new shops by pure chance. I have new shops only if they are suitable for VVG, and I don’t want chain stores or duplications, because every space and building have their own and unique character, and I dress these buildings in ways that are true to their souls. For example, I had my largest project in 2016 in National Taichung Theater. The structure is designed by Toyo Ito. The idea of bringing the concepts of caves, lakes and rivers in the theater is just amazing. As early as 2014, I was invited to take part in this plan. I fell for it immediately, but at that time I was incapable of making this happen. Between 2014 and 2015, I was going through my tough times. We had financial problems, and were very close to collapse. In the latter half of 2015 we found a new investor, so we tried it again. I’ve spent half a year to adjust the project, changing it from more and more to less and less, so that Mr. Ito’s parts became the highlights of the interior. All I had to do was perfecting the lighting, props and so on, turning everything into a state of curves. Still, there’s so much work to do, as it requires a change from linear to nonlinear thinking, We made it at last, and Mr. Ito loves it.

You are very generous and honest. Many people want to be like you and develop their career based on things they have a passion for. What would you say to those who are still finding their directions?

A lot of people have dreams. I think for most of the things, we need to learn the basics, for instance, the concepts of costs, financial management, legal issues and purchasing. Start your learning in corporates, and after acquiring the basic skills and knowledge, you can go ahead and realise your dreams. Many people follow dreams but they lack the ability to execute, and they’ll come up short. After the execution you still need to sustain it. So, doing business is hard, sometimes you’ll need some luck, some opportunities or an unconventional mind to create your own life. And one more thing, courage and persistence. You will face numerous setbacks, and you need to be brave enough to accept and deal with them during your journey of growing up. Snags are not uncommon, but it doesn’t mean a bliss if life is smooth. I don’t have much luck to start with, and every day I’ve mountains of problem to deal with. Yet, they make me an experienced fighter who stays self-possessed.

VVG Thinking

VVG Food Play

Video Interview by Sabrina Li

Text by Sabrina Li

VVG Thinking 

HuanShan 1914 Creative Park, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan

VVG Food Play

5/F, 101, Section 2, Huilai Road, Xitun District, Taichung City, Taiwan

[lorrainecparker]

We don’t often think about exhibition … until it goes wrong

One item of filmmaking and media production that people don’t often talk about a lot is the exhibition of the projects many of us work so hard to produce. I experienced a case really bad exhibition recently when I went to attend a Fathom Event at local Regal Cinema. Theatrical presentation is that one place we all strive for yet we have the least control when it comes to the presentation.

It’s an exciting opportunity to get to see ones work on the movie screen (especially when you don’t work in theatrical).

If you’re not familiar with Fathom Events they are “live event” type movie productions that are shown in theaters all around the country in a partnership amongst a number of theater chains. They show things like sporting events; operas are a common one you often see a preview for; there are special event movies and documentaries and a lot of concerts. I had the pleasure of editing a recent documentary on comedian Chonda Pierce which was shown as a Fathom event. There was a premier screening on April 25 as well as an encore presentation two weeks later. I was at NAB when the premiere happened so I was excited to get an encore on Tuesday May 9.

Spend a night with @chondapierce in her new film Enough for a special encore presentation on May 9th only. Tickets: https://t.co/JIhd8sXfBH pic.twitter.com/dEBPoRSq1u

— Fathom Events (@fathomevents) May 6, 2017

When talking about the exhibition one wants perfect screening conditions for the film that they have directed, edited, DPed etc. Hopefully that includes comfy seats, pleasant temperatures, optimal sound and good picture. It’s funny to talk about exhibition in this modern world because so much media is consumed on cell phones and touchscreen devices but I don’t think people think about the perfect viewing experience be it in a well-equipped home theater or an actual movie house. This particular screening began with no picture as in the screen was black and we could hear a rather muffled audio playing in the theater speaker. I knew when the promos were over and the movie began because I could hear the opening score but still no picture. I left the theater and asked first employee I saw to check the problem and restart the picture. She said that they would do just that. After a couple minutes the picture turned on but the sound was still terrible. After a several more minutes of not restarting the picture I went back out on the same poor soul that had to experienced my wrath to tell them that things were still screwed up.

Hey @RegalMovies your Hollywood 27 theater in Nashville has screwed up their Fathom event tonight. No picture then bad sound.

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) May 10, 2017

After another 10 or 15 minutes of the movie playing I could see someone up in the projection booth attempting to do something and something did happen. The production stopped. There were several attempts to restart as the Fathom Events promo began playing over and over but it still sounded terrible. After about 20 minutes of this the theatre management came in and announced that they would be unable to show the production because one of the amplifiers in the theater had been blown. Apparently they had shown a Bollywood movie in this smaller theater at some point prior and “those loud Bollywood movies” were never meant to be shown in a theater that size. The Bollywood movie was so loud it “blew the amp.” Why no one monitored that is beyond me but I guess with 27 screens you just program everything in and let it go.

Back behind that glass I could see someone actually trying to fix the screening.

I immediately wondered how many other movies they had shown in the theater with the blown amplifier since it sounded like this other screening was at least the day before. A Fathom Event plays off a file so I had assumed it would be easy enough to move the showing to another screen since the Theater has 27 of them. But according to management, complications around the business side of Fathom Events means they’re unable to ever move a Fathom Event from one screening room to another. I made several attempts to reach out to both Fathom Events and Regal Cinemas by their Twitter accounts letting them know what had happened but I got no response at all. To the credit of the theater they did offer full refunds (which of course they should’ve done since the Fathom Event tickets are nearly $20) as well as offering vouchers for any other movie any other time including special events and RPX screenings. The people running the theater, and it has to be very thankless job, were very sorry about what had happened but their hands really seem to be tied as far as having another screening. They were unsure if they would be able to make up this particular screening at a later time.

At least we weren’t the only ones having problems with this Fathom Event.

The problem with the audio was a very muffled sound with the music bed actually being listenable but the dialogue was very muted. If you listened really close you could kind of understand the dialog and I was amazed by the number of people in the theatre that seemed to want to watch the production even with the bad sound. I think that speaks a lot to the subject matter and fans of the artist as opposed to people just willing to watch bad exhibition.

Hey @fathomevents the @RegalMovies Hollywood 27 in Nashville screwed up the Fathom screening tonight. Thought you might like to know

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) May 10, 2017

As the editor I wanted the best screening conditions possible. I often think about poor directors and cinematographers in the modern era who do their best to attempt to bring beautiful, cinematic images to the screen only to have them viewed in suboptimal conditions. I once chatted with a friend who hated the movie There Will Be Blood and I couldn’t understand why he hated it so much. Come to find out he watched the entire 2 hour and 38 minute movie on his phone on an airplane. There’re a lot of movies I can think about that is not properly viewed on your phone on an airplane and There Will Be Blood is right at the top of the list.

But back to the screening in the theater; box office numbers seem to be up over the last few years even if tickets sales are trending down but theaters owners and exhibitors are becoming increasingly frustrated with Hollywood. There continues to be a push to lower the theatrical window or to even have movies released in the home at the same time they’re released in the theaters … but for a higher price. The consumer wants this but the theater owner does not. You can do this today if you’re will to pay up.

To continue to have success at the box office theater owners and exhibitors need to continue to offer up a premium experience to those of us willing to pay + or – $20 per person to go to the theater. A number of “innovations” have come along in recent years that helps with that: a premium viewing experience, dinner and booze, reserved seating and kicking out cell phone users are a good start. I think that most of us that go to the theater would be fine with phones being allowed as long as the movies are identified as such and we can avoid them at all costs. But beyond the viewing experience among those kinds of movie distractions it’s the filmmaker who cringes most at the idea of a jungle gym inside the theatre or talking when everyone else is trying to watch the movie.

There were a lot of $20 refunds and Regal passes given out after the screening. The theatre also let anyone at the Fathom event go see another movie that night and get free refills on their concessions. At least the inconvenienced crowd didn’t seem too upset at the inconvenience.

Back to the actual projection of the image to the screen. That is something the viewer can’t do anything about. We sit at the mercy of the theater management and some kind of almost-projectionist sitting in the booth manning a hard drive. Best we can do as theatrical consumers is complain loudly to the theatre when the exhibition goes wrong. Ask for refunds, call the theatre chain, hit them up on social media. And what the theatre chains can do is respond and reply and let the consumer know they are doing what they can do keep the customer returning to the movie house.

Also @fathomevents your survey monkey site won’t let me use the “other” option to express my frustration with this @RegalMovies screening

— Scott Simmons (@editblog) May 10, 2017

I tried to complain to Fathom via their Customer Experience Survey Monkey form that was advertised on-screen before the event began, but that was a bust both on mobile at the screening and on the desktop afterwards.

You know Fathom if you’re going to provide an Other category you should probably at least provide a button for Other so we could continue the survey after choosing Other … I mean … Other was my answer!

Regal doesn’t even have a category on their Send Us an Email contact form for projection and screening issues.

I never heard a reply back from either Regal Cinemas or Fathom Events after tweeting to them about the bad screening experience. Others have had similar experiences and from the several Fathom Events I’ve been to over the years it’s the ones with problems that stick out in my mind. Both Regal Cinemas and Fathom Events could take a page from some of these companies about how to handle customer service on Twitter. I guess I should have tweeted to Regal Problems instead but somehow I don’t think that’s an actual Regal Twitter account. I guess I’ll send this little rant over to them via their contact forms.

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