#this is about planning a fictional heist in the script

[gonchmovie]

Who wants to help plan a heist?

[dragonagitator]

I started out just wanting to write a "Modern Girl in Faerun" author self-insert fanfic of BG3 in the tradition of all the "Modern Girl in Thedas" fanfics I've enjoyed over the years in the Dragon Age fandom. You know, someone who has played the game gets transported to the world of the game and uses her foreknowledge of events to steer for the best ending and pursue her favorite romance, yadda yadda yadda.

And then I thought, oh, I should also write a sequel from Gale's perspective that runs parallel to the first story that's about him trying to figure out if she's just crazy or what.

I decided that while my MGIF character will be successful in using her foreknowledge of events to achieve the best or even better outcomes for the main events of the game, it would be hilarious if that same foreknowledge of events also led to her inadvertently flubbing every single scripted romance progression scene with Gale so that it ends up being an even slower burn than canon.

Meanwhile, most of the companions (including Gale) don't believe her story about how they're fictional characters in an interactive story she's played as a game because there are so many other plausible in-world explanations for why someone would have her foreknowledge of events. So Gale thinks she's mentally unwell, and he struggles with the ethics of pursuing a romantic relationship with someone whose interest in him is at least partially predicated on (what he believes to be) delusions.

It works out in the end, but Gale's perspective of what the fuck is going on is so divergent from hers that it would be a fundamentally different narrative.

And then as I was researching Forgotten Realms lore for the first set of stories, I realized it would be hilarious if I wrote a post-canon sequel about Gale and the MCIF trying to plan their wedding in Waterdeep while the events of the D&D modules Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage are unfolding in the background.

And then while I was researching stuff for that, I learned that it's Forgotten Realms canon that Elminster knows about Earth, has a portal to Ed Greenwood's house, and regularly visits Ed and few other D&D authors to give them more lore to write about.

So then I realize that while the Elminster we meet during BG3 is actually a Simulacrum and thus wouldn't be privy to anything Elminster didn't think it needed to know for its mission, presumably the real Elminster would show up for Gale's wedding. So if Gale happened to mention his new wife's unfortunate "delusions" to Elminster, Elminster could rock Gale's world by confirming no she's been right all along. Thank you, Elminster, for the best gift a bride could ever receive: the opportunity to say "I TOLD YOU SO!" to her husband. Lol.

And then I thought if Elminster has a portal to Ed's house in Toronto, what if Gale and the MCIF eventually used that portal to flee to Earth for some reason? Either to escape the reach of Mystra, or maybe because their child has a condition that's treatable on Earth but not with Faerun magic/medicine ala Outlander?

Then we could have another story in the series that's a reversal of the first story's trope -- a "Faerun Character in Modern Earth" story of Gale going through culture shock while also losing his connection to the Weave and thus losing all his wizard powers AGAIN. Mmmm angsty.

This is my first time writing fanfic, I've only written a fraction of the first story so far, and I've already come up with at least three sequels I need to write too.

What.

The.

Fuck.

I now fully understand what fanfic authors mean when they cry about "the plot bunnies are multiplying."

[whimsy-of-the-stars]

small little update!!!

hiiiiii people!!

i always say I wanna talk more about my projects on here but never do :((( maybe I can change that??? and finally make some wip intros??

recently I started college! It’s been an exciting whirlwind, meeting all these new people and living (somewhat) on my own for the first time!!!! The only problem is that I am having problems with time management, especially when I’m home on the weekends… I’ve been swamped a lot of the time with homework and readings (especially readings lol bc of my 2 lit classes!) However, I’ve tried to stay creative, though it is hard to do!

anyway! in creative news:

I’ve been drawing a lot! I’m thinking of doing my own art challenge in October where I level up my art by learning and practicing some of my weak spots!

I’ve written four poems while on the bus recently. If I get inspired, I may create more! Don’t know if I’ll post them here, though.

off-topic, but I recently started Duolingo Spanish again! just got a 7-day streak :))

been tinkering slowly at a “day in the life” thing for my superhero story’s MC, Nebula, as well as other key moments in the story. Still plotting + kinda just writing the parts I’ve got inspiration for! Though, it might be a graphic novel/webcomic and not a book when it is properly made…

heist story has been buffering. I love it dearly, of course, and I keep drawing the characters, but it’s hard now that most of my earlier (aka really old) world building and plotting needs to be reworked! additionally, I’ve gotta flesh out a lot of the characters too…

I’ve been thinking about a lot of other potential project as well! here are some things that you may or may hear about again in the future!!

scripting + thumbnailing a pilot to a comic about a ghost kid who gets summoned by a newbie witch and tries to do their unfinished business… which is to become a necromancer and resurrect themself!

planning another comic, this one focusing on another set of two kids, this time rivals-to-friends heisting and unraveling the mystery behind a near-mythical map of an ancient civilization, set in a backdrop of a magical port city filled with stone temple ruins

overall attempting to eventually make a comic that is a self-contained short story and not a pilot to a bigger story so I can practice drawing comics without taking on a huge project! clearly I have failed twice.

had an idea for a podcast???? like, a fiction one? like, an audio drama? so that’s cool. I’d probably make a separate blog for it if I did, tho!

there’s a couple ttrpg jams I’m looking at soon, if I’ve got the time… of course

perpetually thinking about making big-ass YouTube video essays, mostly about media I liked as a kid, or that I like now. I guess I should use the recording studio at my university, huh?

possibly making a fursona :D

that’s all for now I guess! I’ve gotta go read more of the Sorrows of Young Werther for my World Lit II class now. byeeeeee!!’

[islayhawkin]

The secrets of life

I‘m writing a book and bringing the basics together in this post if you would or want something to be added (a religion, sexuality, ethnicity, disability etc.) please do write me in the comments or in my request box about it. I want to be as inclusive as possible and give everyone the represention they need.

notion script

Set: fantasy Victorian England and the Wild West (US) around the 1870s

Genre: historical coming of age, western, mystery, fantasy (+ romance)

Tropes: found family! , unrequited love ( I love you… It‘ll pass), friends with banter to lovers, slow burn, childhood friends to strangers to lovers, „I hate everyone but you“

Some scenes: ballroom dance, Wild West heist, pirate ship fight (pirates of the Caribbean Elizabeth and will scene yk ;) , fighting back to back, rescuing love interest, tending to the love interests wounds, Billard playing (daredevil Karen and Matt yk ;) , campfire with the group, showering together in a non sexual way, planning heist around a saloon table, love confession but being rejected

Characters

Sexualities: sapphic, pan, asexual, aromantic, hetero

Genders: male, female and non-binary

Main Couples: non-binary x female , male x ace!female

Neurodiverse/disabilities: autism, ADHD, hypermobility

POC characters

Fictional characters that inspired mine:

1: Remus lupin, Sherlock Holmes, newt(tmr), Ominis gaunt

2: Steve Harrington, minho(tmr), Percy Jackson, James potter, Sebastian sallow

3: Marlene McKinnon, my sister, enola Holmes, Emma, jade West, zoya nazyalensky

4: Valkyrie(mcu), astrid hofferson, Holga (DnD), nina Zenik

5: poppy sweetings, Grover underwood, Amy march, regulus black

6: Galadriel, luna lovegood, Anne Shirley, Rikki chadwick, Doric(dnd)

7: my crush who rejected me , Cher horowitz , Cedric Diggory?, nick wilde

Pinterest board

[vinceviralfreak]

Title: The Crow 3: Shadows of Vengeance

Genre: Thriller

Writing Style: Dialogue-Driven

---

INT. ABANDONED WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

The dimly lit warehouse is filled with crates and shadows. A group of men, led by the ruthless gangster, VICTOR, stands in a circle. They are discussing their latest heist.

VICTOR

Alright, listen up. We're hitting the bank tomorrow. No mistakes this time.

JACK, a skilled thief, raises an eyebrow.

JACK

What's the plan, Victor?

VICTOR

We'll enter through the underground tunnel. It leads straight to the vault. We'll have five minutes to grab as much as we can before the alarm goes off.

SARAH, a tech expert, chimes in.

SARAH

I've disabled the security cameras, but we need to be quick. The guards will be on high alert.

JACK

What about the Crow?

VICTOR

Don't worry about him. He's just a myth.

Suddenly, a shadowy figure perches on a nearby crate. It's THE CROW, a vigilante seeking revenge for his murdered fiancée.

CROW

You shouldn't underestimate me, Victor.

Victor's men draw their guns, but the Crow moves with lightning speed, disarming them one by one.

VICTOR

You're dead, Crow!

The Crow smirks and disappears into the darkness.

EXT. CITY STREETS - NIGHT

The Crow stalks the city streets, searching for clues about his fiancée's killers. He overhears a conversation between two thugs, MIKE and TONY.

MIKE

Did you hear about Victor's plan? They're hitting the bank tomorrow.

TONY

Yeah, but I heard the Crow is onto them. He's been taking out Victor's men one by one.

MIKE

I don't believe in that supernatural crap.

The Crow listens intently, his eyes filled with determination.

INT. BANK - DAY

The bank is bustling with customers. Jack, Sarah, and Victor's gang enter through the underground tunnel. They move swiftly towards the vault.

JACK

Remember, we have five minutes. Grab the cash and let's get out of here.

As they approach the vault, the alarm suddenly blares. Panic ensues.

SARAH

I thought I disabled the alarm!

The Crow appears, perched on a chandelier above them.

CROW

You can't escape justice, Victor.

Victor's men open fire, but the Crow dodges their bullets effortlessly. He retaliates, taking them down one by one.

JACK

We need to get out of here!

Jack and Sarah make a run for it, leaving Victor behind.

VICTOR

You traitors!

The Crow confronts Victor, his eyes filled with vengeance.

CROW

You took everything from me. Now it's time to pay.

They engage in a fierce battle, each landing powerful blows. The Crow's determination fuels his strength.

EXT. ROOFTOP - NIGHT

The Crow stands triumphantly over Victor's defeated body. He looks out over the city, his mission finally complete.

CROW

Justice has been served.

As the police sirens wail in the distance, the Crow disappears into the night, leaving behind a city forever changed.

---

Note: This story is a fictional continuation of the "Crow" movie series and does not represent any actual movie or script.

[gottawriteanegoortwo]

Yancy & Reader: Take On Me

Today, November 2nd, is the third anniversary of me writing Yancy for the first time. I've had this idea mulling around in my mind for months and I decided today is the perfect day to share it, and not even a broken hinge on my laptop will stop me! If people are interested, I might look into writing more. 

One song I have on my Yancy inspiration playlist is "Take On Me". This song by itself really works for Yancy, but the video is the inspiration for this story.

-

When watching a video resulted in you being thrown through the fourth wall into a fictional world, you find yourself under the watchful eye of Yancy, the only character in the prison who knew you didn't belong there.

Word Count: 2,460

—

The day was miserable. You had planned to go out and complete some messages, but a strong storm halted your agenda immediately. Today was supposed to be a distraction from all the stresses and sinister thoughts mulling in the back of your mind, and already you could feel that pressure beginning to drag you under. You grabbed your blanket, hopped onto the couch, and propped your phone against the arm of the chair. When you needed an escape, you watched videos. Usually, you would choose the Space adventure as a source of escapism and help the Engineer solve the problems of the universe on a spaceship light years away, but today?

Today you decided to choose a story dear to your heart as you hopped to the video where you helped Mark rob a museum. Your Heist was a mission. Forget about the box for a minute, your focus was on looking for a friendly face in the form of a tough-shelled yet kind-hearted prisoner.

Sure, the video was scripted, and you never would have partaken in a fight, but you pretend you two were having a conversation. With no one around, you would speak your answers to him in the brief windows of silence in the scene.

The alarms rang in the prison, alerting the staff of the fight. At the same time, the lights around you flickered. 

You tapped the screen to pause the video. It continued playing. 

You tried locking your phone. It didn't react.

There was another flash, one so blinding that you couldn't see anything. All you registered was the sound of something landing on the couch before you could feel yourself falling.

Then, everything went black.

–

In another place, another time, another world, one room used for indoor rec time was quiet. There was no chaos with a new inmate, nor any bickering following a brawl. In fact, several members of the Gang were having a chance to catch up when they were all free. Some people were chatting, someone was napping on a table, and Yancy was in the middle of winning a game of Go Fish with Bam-Bam and Jimmy the Pickle. A guard had poked his head in while on patrol to make sure everything was going okay before continuing on, trusting the group enough to have no obvious supervision. It was a nice change from doing laps around the rec yard’s track.

However, staying indoors ended up being just as unpredictable as going outside.

A basketball slammed against one of the windows, startling everyone inside and turning their attention toward the glass. Yancy did likewise, until a flash of blue in his peripheral caught his attention. A ‘window’ appeared, spat a figure out, and closed before anyone else could notice. Without thinking, he was out of his chair and dashing across the space to where the figure was, an action that finally spurred the rest of the room to action. Shithole Hank knelt down and gently tapped the fallen individual’s cheek to gauge a reaction.

-

“Hey. Can you hear me?”

A strange voice was the first thing you noted when you regained a vague sense of awareness. Everything hurt, and you were dizzy, but you tried to sit up. Opening your eyes only greeted you with blinding white that made you wince.

“Whoa, whoa, hold on a sec, you shouldn’t be moving - Hey, can someone turn off the lights for a minute?” Someone did as instructed and the painful light went away. Finally, you could see people. The outfits weren't the exact same, but you could see a theme of white, black, and stripes. Not much else could be registered as the older man leaned forward and had you tell him how many fingers he was holding up.

"Did anyone see what happened to Watches?" One voice overhead asked.

"Nah," answered another, "but I think falling out of the chair might have been the problem."

‘Watches’? Who was that? But you had more pressing questions on your mind: where were you, and how did you get here?

Before you could ask, a hand pressed against your shoulder to ease you back into a lying position as the people discussed what to do. It was a chance to turn your head and try to better gauge your surroundings. 

Only one person close to you wasn't taking part in the conversation. He sat cross-legged with folded arms as he glared at the ground like it would give him inspiration. His black hair was slicked back with a small amount of gel, allowing you to better see his chocolate coloured eyes. But it was the unusual tattoos that adorned his forearms that had you whisper in astonishment:

"Yancy?"

The sound of his name broke his concentration and made him look at you with alarm. No one else around you noticed the oddity of the moment.

"How the fuck do you knows my name?" hissed Yancy. No one had said it since you had stirred, but there was no denying that you were looking at the greaser prisoner that you had been watching on screen minutes earlier.

You couldn't answer, not when you were carefully helped onto your feet.

"Yancy? You bring Watches back to your cell. Might be better to rest up there instead of alerting the guards of a fall."

Yancy looked as confused as you did when the older prisoner draped your arm around Yancy’s neck for extra support. Then, the two of you were sent on your way.

-

As the pain from falling eased, you began to realise that this wasn't a dream. You were somewhere new. How were you even in prison to begin with?

No one commented on your clothes that barely resembled the prisoner uniform. No one noticed you at all. It was like they were sure you were always there.

You turned your attention to Yancy. He hadn't said a word since you two left the initial room, but he looked tense. He had questioned how you knew his name, so maybe he knew more than the others.

Finally, he took a sharp left and stepped into a small cell, one that looked far different from the one you saw in Heist. It was narrow, with brick walls painted an off-white that didn't quite match the grey concrete floor. A tiny window at the back of the cell let in some sunlight. Instead of bars, there was a large metal door that Yancy pushed until it was ajar instead of wide open. Then, he began to pace the small stretch of free floor once you were sitting on the bottom bunk.

"Youse better start explaining yourself, Watches, or whatever the fuck youses' name is. How did you do that?"

Though disappointed that your supposed nickname reminded you of a piece of jewellery, you asked what he meant.

"Youse - how the fuck did you gets in here? And why didn't no one else notice? There was a - ugh, I dunno, a giant blue-window-thing that appeared and spat youse out. Why the fuck did no one else see that but me?"

You frowned, admitting you hadn't seen it either.

"Yeah, but youse got the bumps to prove that it wasn't a fall off a chair like the others think. And they had a name for youse? Is you another one of them strange guys?" When you didn't give any response beyond a confused look, Yancy huffed. "Y'know, them odd men. The ones who are all into voodoo and magic and shit. One of them wears a suit, one is in pink, and another -"

You interrupted to check whether he meant Dark and Wilford.

"Yeah! You one of they’s group?" A shake of your head had him roll his eyes in frustration. "Well then, what happened to get youse here? You don't belong in Happy Trails, and youse is gonna land in biiig trouble if we don't find a way to get you out of here pronto."

You leaned forward to think about what happened and began to muse about how you were at home, watching a video during a thunderstorm; only for there to be a flash of light and a sensation of falling.

Yancy stopped pacing to give you a deadpan look.

"That makes no fucking sense. But… Fine, whatever. It's all we gots right now. Was you watching something that got youse cursed?"

You shook your head. It was a show about stealing a box and someone got arrested. Before you mentioned anything that would reveal how you knew Yancy prior to this, you quickly added that it wasn't very well known and Yancy wouldn't understand it. For a split second, you thought he was going to interrogate you, but he let out a sigh and turned away.

"Riight. Guess that rules out you being a magic person. Still don’t explain why things ain't the same as they was before you gots here. Like, look at the bunk youse is sitting on. Is there anything weird there?"

You turned your attention to the bed. It had been made, though the sheets were creased like someone forgot to smooth it out at the end. Your hand reached out to check under the pillow, only to find nothing there.

"It's a normal bed, yeah?" You hummed in agreement. "Thing is… I don't got a cellie. That bottom bunk was used as my writing nook. The pillow and blanket was bunched up in that corner so I could have some sorta comfort while sitting, instead of using the stiff-ass chair and table. I didn't make that bed. Someone else did. And think about it. I should have been told to bring youse to the med ward, but I was told to take you here. And that's only something you does to youses' cellie. Something has decided that I now has a cellie, and has put youse in here. If that 'something' is one of them weird-ass magicky fuckers, then they's is gonna be looking for youse. You gots to lay low for a while."

You? Being hunted by something? That didn't make any sense. You didn't do anything out of the ordinary in your day-to-day life. No evil spirits were offended, nor were there any ancient curses on your family. Why would someone pull you into a fictional world through your phone?

Did that mean you could die if something was hunting you?

Why would someone want to kill you? You weren't some main character in a story! You were -

A startled cry escaped from you when a bundle of material was dropped on your lap.

"You need to blend in. Staying in that will only make you stands out like a sore thumb, even if no one noticed it earlier for some fucking weird reason. There ain't much privacy in here, but if youse stand just behind the bunk, beside the toilet, it's better than nothing. And I won't look 'till you gives me the all-clear, don't worry." To prove as much, he sat on the bottom bunk with his back to you.

The bundle consisted of one pair of striped trousers and three damaged black shirts, all in different sizes. You poked your head around the bed to ask Yancy about that, and was immediately rewarded with a snort.

"I'd bought those damn shirts because I need a new one and they was being sold cheap 'cause they got torn up a bit, but not a one of them fitted me right. We don't get refunds, so I hung onto 'em in case anyone's uniform got damaged. The pants is my spares, but you can keep 'em. I nearly got enough saved to order a new pair." The trousers, thankfully, had an elastic waist, so they could easily fit you with little difficulty. Likewise, the chosen shirt suited you. It isn't particularly flattering, but it wasn't unbearable to wear. For now, it would do.

You called Yancy's name so you could check where you should put your clothes. He rose to his feet, cautiously glancing to make sure you were presentable, before approaching the far wall and kneeling in front of one of the small chests against the wall.

"These lockers house all our possessions. Thankfully, everyone knows not to touch my shit. Your threads will be safe here, and if you gets anything useful, you can store it here too."

It was the perfect chance to thank Yancy, and you did so, admitting that he was taking all this in his stride. To your surprise, he lowered his head.

"I guess... But I'm freaked out right now. I seen a window appear in the air and spit youse out. No one else seen it and was convinced that you was always there. I-I mean, 'Watches'? No offense, but that's an ominous as fuck moniker to have, especially if you was watching something before you got here. But it ain't the first time I seen something others didn't…" He trailed off, extending his left arm in a way that showed off the elaborate box tattoo design. "I woke up one day with this. I never paid for it, and no one seen me get it, yet it was there. And then… It happened a second time a few months back. It spread to my other arm, and changed the original too. But then, to fucking add to that? These tattoos on my fingers are 'sposed to say 'Dark Mark', but now they say 'Warp Core'? I paid for those! Tattoos ain't meant to change. That's kinda the point of 'em??"

Of course, you knew why. You had watched the videos where Mark explained everything in both projects Yancy appeared in, but you couldn't reveal that.

"Right now, the focus is keeping you safe. If the Gang knows you, then you don't gotta worry 'bout being alone when I ain't around." Both hands pressed against the lockers lid as a momentum to lift him back onto his feet. "We can work together. If we can figure out what everyone thinks is going on with youse, it might give us a clue as to what we can do to get you home. I know who oughta be here, and you knows where you oughta be. We should be able to work well together until I can call that Dark guy. Don't trust him, but he might be a good bet with how spooky he is."

It sounded like a reasonable plan. You could keep a low profile and play up your fall as a whopping headache so you can learn more info. Your side of the plan made Yancy laugh as he extended a hand to you.

"You gonna be okay sticking with me until we figure this out?"

[mutatismutandisx]

Shadow and Bone (Netflix Series Review)

No Spoilers!!!

"Be careful of powerful men" - Genya Safin

Welcome to the Grishaverse!

Shadow and Bone is Netflix's big gamble for young adult fiction mega-success, the kind we haven't seen since Jennifer Lawrence volunteered as tribute almost a decade ago, adapting Leigh Bardugo's popular Grishaverse novels (her debut trilogy Shadow and Bone and serving as a prequel for the Six of Crows duology), anchored by an incredibly diverse cast (mostly newcomers) and a huge production budget, showrunner Eric Heisserer, alongside Bardugo who serves as an executive producer, aim for Hunger Games and Harry Potter level phenomenon with their own fantasy epic.

To Heisserer's credit, he manages a great adaptation of Bardugo's novels, even if he falls prey to the same story tropes that made Bardugo's debut novels seem so derivative, Heisserer brings the Grishaverse to life in a (mostly) successful run of 8 episodes, and even if his grand tour of Ravka isn't the most organized or well planned, most viewers will still fall in love with this world.

Heisserer's boldest creative choice, and biggest deviation from the novels, is the introduction of Kaz Brekker and his Crows, Jesper and Inej, in this opening chapter to the story, characters that did not appear in Bardugo's original Shadow and Bone trilogy. Creatively and business-wise, his decision is an obvious one, Bardugo's Shadow and Bone novels, while a solid debut, are the typical young adult fodder that is bombarded to consumers every year, a largely derivative yet charming "chosen one" story that teens and tweens eat up every year and then mostly forget about when the next one comes around (less Percy Jacson and more Divergent if you will), truth be told Bardugo's Grishaverse only became a phenomenon after the release of her superb Six of Crows duology, featuring Bardugo's very own Suicide Squad, a ragtag group of crimials performing incredible, mind-bending heists in the tough streets of a fictional Amsterdam (and beyond!), all anchored by what is (to this day) Bardugo's best creation: Kaz Brekker, a Batman-meets-The Riddler machiavelic genius with a flair for theatrics, Six of Crows and it's follow-up Crooked Kingdom are surely the main reason Netflix even greenlit this series to begin with. And just like in the books, Brekker and his Crows provide a much needed bolt of manic energy to an otherwise very by-the-numbers storyline. Not to discredit Bardugo's talent as a writer, but her skills had simply not been honed at the time of her 2012 debut, a shortcoming that Bardugo would fix later on, in her follow up novels, through ambition and sheer force of will.

And yet, Heisserer stays extremely faithful to the books, whether it's to Bardugo's best ideas or her least creative ones, he adapts it all, while attempting to add his own flair into the mix (with varying results), take our main protagonist for example, Alina Starkov, to those unfamiliar with the novels, Alina is the Katniss Everdeen of this story, a mostly ordinary young woman who, by a struck of destiny, finds herself thrust into the spotlight in the hero/savior-of-her-people role (a most unflattering one might I add), and thus becomes an unwilling symbol to a cause she hardly understands, saddled with all the responsabilities and power that comes with the job, and with the inevitable political players and adversaries that may take advantage of her power for their own gain ("Be careful of powerful men" one of Alina's confidants warns her in episode 5). And did I mention she happens to find herself in the middle of a love triangle? Indeed Bardugo's original novel isn't the most creative, and yet Heisserer doesn't have much to offer as a way to reinvent the character, the best he can come up with is changing Alina's ethnicity (originally caucasian) to that of the fictional Shu Han people (read: China), and yet, nothing is really done with the change, it just sits there, (similarly to Alina everytime a background character hurls xenophobic abuse at her), it's not explored and hardly touched upon, which begs the question why introduce the change in the first place? While I commend the showrunners for casting a female lead of asian descent on a blockbuster property such as this, I would remind them that true diversity is more than simply ethnic tokenism. Perhaps there will be a bigger payoff for the creative change in future seasons (if we get them, season 2 has not been greenlit), doubtfull but I'll remain optimistic.

Tokenism aside, the diversity of the cast truly is commendable, and as expected with a young adult property, it's a very young and very attractive cast, on the one hand it's understandable, they need to appeal to their core demographic, on the other hand they commit themselves to one of the most glaring faults in Bardugo's Grishaverse series, Ravka doesn't seem to have soldiers, politicians or grisha over the age of 25, it seems like a huge oversight on part of a country (and Leigh Bardugo) to have the entire power of the government and the military reside upon a group of teenagers, but be that as it may, most of the cast, while young, is very talented, even if their characters aren't fully developed, they do their best with what they are given, some of the standouts are Jessie Mei Li as Alina, Mei Li is saddled with a character and plot that's as derivative as they come, and yet she finds nuances in her perfomance that are lovely to watch, she brings a sense of joy and determination to Alina that lesser actors couldn't even imagine much less portray, all that helps her stand out from most, if not all, the crowd of chosen one characters that have come before her, and even tho Mei Li doesn't reach Jennifer Lawrence levels with her performance, she certainly surpasses the Kristen Stewarts and Shailene Woodleys that have come before.

Ben Barnes is a surprise as General Kirigan, at first glance you might think him miscast (too young, too pretty to be believed as a stone cold, battle hardened general) and yet he still manages to make the character his own, a possessive, demanding, controlling, master manipulator who always seems to have the upper hand, Barnes is blessed with a tight script and he never misses a beat giving a subtle and nuanced performance. And then there is Kit Young as Jesper Fahey, sharpshooter, playboy, criminal with a heart of gold, Young is a revelation, he is as good in his role as Robert Downey Jr. is as Tony Stark, and that's all you need to know, Young was simply born to play Jesper, anchored by a strong script, he steals every scene he is in and far overshadows his fellow Crows. And as for the other Crows, Freddy Carter acts his heart out as Kaz Brekker, committing to a very physical performance, from scowl to limp, he embodies Brekker visually, but after the first 2 episodes you get the feeling the writers simply don't know what to do with his character, losing the spotlight to other actors blessed with better material, never did I think Kaz Brekker would be overshadowed by one of his fellow Crows, yet here we are. Carter's talent still shines through and his perpetual, omnipresent scowl as Brekker is a beauty to behold, even if his limping is somewhat inconsistent, which makes me hopeful he will improve when given more to do, still it's a shame to have the master strategist/evil genius Bruce Wayne replaced by a lowly con artist and not a very successful one at that. As for Amita Suman, while perfectly cast as Inej Ghafa, her character is severely underwritten, from her past work in The Menagerie, to her faith, to her interactions with Brekker, it's all done in the broadest of strokes, Suman isn't given much to do and therefore doesn't have the opportunity to excel as The Wraith.

You can feel the writers straining for time between developing this world and the large cast of characters they have to work with, inevitably some characters fall of the wayside, through none of the actors' fault. Daisy Head as Genya Safin is all untapped potential, even more underwritten here than she is in the books, which make later revelations about her character (the color of her kefta and shifting allegiances) barely register, hopefully they correct that going forward. Sujaya Dasgupta is another victim of a weak script and little screen time, Dasgupta is simply miscast as the powerful, acerbic, steely-eyed Zoya Nazyalensky, long gone is the regal, no nonsense, silver-tongued Grisha general, in Dasgupta's hands Zoya is just a watered down Grisha version of a Mean Girl, faltering every scene with the exception of one moment, as she makes her way through party goers at the Little Palace and she corrects Inej's ethnicity to a bystander, (her one good line reading in the entire show) "She's Suli", she declares, with all the strenght and defiance that's sorely missing from the rest of her performance, moving forward let's hope a stronger script can lift her performace off the ground, because right now all the wind is gone from this Squaller's wings. And as for Malyen Oretsev played by Archie Renaux, he is the Gale Hawthorne of this story, the undignified love interest, and Renaux is as boring in his role as Liam Hemsworth was in his.

Lastly, Danielle Galligan as Nina Zenik and Calahan Skogman as Matthias Helvar, are equally terrible in their performances, from their accents to their interactions, none of it rings true, and it's particularly jarring when juxtaposed with the talent portrayed by the rest of the cast, we spent way too much time with Nina and Matthias, for absolutely no payoff to their story (yet! Fans will recognize them as 2 future members of Brekker's murder of Crows), but their little side adventure is so disconnected with the events of the main plot that I can't help but feel their story was better reserved for another time, hopefully with some better actors playing the roles. A lovely moment of playfulness between Nina and Matthias while they tread along in a barren, snowy hill, is the only glimpse of hope for Galligan's and Skogman's performances, maybe there is talent to be tapped but it certainly wasn't in display this time around.

The Grishaverse is simply too large and complex, so understandably Heisserer and his writers room have a lot on their plate, but while the character work is largely uneven, his world building is quite solid, based on the impressive foundation Bardugo set out for them, the showrunners are able to bring the world of Ravka to life, the costume design is stunning, from soldiers to Grishas, to royals and diplomats, the costume department does a fabulous job with every piece and every character, one of the high points in the series.

The VFX team also does a lot of the heavy lifting for Heisserer's world building efforts, realizing the different power sets of all the Grisha in a fantastical manner while still maintaining a realistic quality to them, ("you'll believe a man can fly"), but even with a huge production budget, Heisserer strains with this world-spanning adventure, so even though the set and production design is mostly impressive, some sets simply fall out of range for the show's budget, case in point, both Ravka's Royal Palace and the Little Palace are not fully realized, viewers are given a single outside shot of the Royal Palace (and from very far away at that) and the throne room is only visited once, and as for the Little Palace, it's stripped from many of the books most sprawling details, the training grounds, the Grisha school, the fabrikators workshop, the dining room, the palace's towers, all falling victim to obvious budget restrains. Not to mention both palaces are devoid of the classic Russian influences that permeate Ravka's world.

But Heisserer's skills for world building show the most limitations on the lore of the Grishaverse, the three Orders of the Grisha are never properly explained, with Fabrikators getting next to none screen time, Heisserer is never capable to establish a clear view of the world these characters inhabit, most viewers will be very confused about Ravka's shifting borders, the civil war tensions between East and West, and the adversary foreign nations (an inclusion of a map in the opening credits of every episode would have gone a long way), the sociopolitical elements that Bardugo has infused in her books are decidedly complex and the show doesn't do them justice, unfortunately. Perhaps most glaring is the very clear disagreements on what a Ravkan's diction and accent should be, since every actor has their own interpretation of it, an oversight that I hope is fixed in future seasons.

As the few completely negative points of the show, alongside Galligan and Skogman, the sound mixing is terrible (you will need subtitles to watch this show) and the cutaway flahbacks are quite sloppy.

To conclude, Shadow and Bone is a lovingly crafted, beautifully realized, world building adventure, it has a couple of missteps along the way (like all adventures do), but the final product is strong enough to overcome some of its creative faux pas, with a solid script and anchored by a (mostly) talented cast, Shadow and Bone doesn't reach Catching Fire levels of greatness but it far outpaces the rest of the young adult fantasy competition.

[papermoonloveslucy]

GETTING OLD

May 20, 1949

“Getting Old” (aka “Liz Is Feeling Her Age”) is episode #44 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on May 20, 1949 on the CBS radio network.

Synopsis ~ Scanning her old high school yearbook, Liz decides she's old, and everything George does to try to snap her out of it just makes things worse. George tries to convince Liz that she's as glamourous as ever. His tactics misfire so George is forced to hire a psychiatrist.

Note: This episode partly inspired the “I Love Lucy” episode “The Inferiority Complex” (ILL S2;E18) aired on February 2, 1953, which also starred Gerard Mohr as a psychiatrist.  In this case, however, the complex is replaced by fear of aging. There is another “My Favorite Husband” episode titled “Liz’s Inferiority Complex” (aka “Liz Develops an Inferiority Complex”) broadcast on February 3, 1951 which uses the notion of inferiority rather than aging. In that episode, the psychiatrist is played by Alan Reed.  

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benaderet was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his  roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) does not appear in this episode. 

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

GUEST CAST

Gerald Mohr Psychiatrist aka Charley ‘Chuck’ Stewart) also played psychiatrist Henry Molin, who masquerades as Ricky’s old friend Chuck Stewart in “The Inferiority Complex” (ILL S2;E18 ~ February 2, 1953), his only appearance on “I Love Lucy”. In return, Lucy and Desi appeared on his show “Sunday Showcase” that same year. He also made an appearance on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy and Phil Harris” (TLS S6;E20 ~ February 5, 1968).

One of the few times an actor recreates his role in a television version of a radio script using the same name. 

Bea Benadaret (Mrs. Annie Green) was considered the front-runner to be cast as Ethel Mertz but when “I Love Lucy” was ready to start production she was already playing a similar role on TV’s “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show” so Vivian Vance was cast instead. On “I Love Lucy” she was cast as Lucy Ricardo’s spinster neighbor, Miss Lewis, in “Lucy Plays Cupid” (ILL S1;E15) in early 1952. Later, she was a success in her own show, “Petticoat Junction” as Shady Rest Hotel proprietress Kate Bradley. She starred in the series until her death in 1968.

This turn as an old lady may have given Lucille Ball the idea to cast her as elderly Miss Lewis on “I Love Lucy”. 

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers, Liz is over by the bookcase, with books spread out all around her.” 

Liz tells George her club is having an old book sale. George warns her not to sell any of his book, especially ones he hasn’t finished yet.  She finds one with a bookmark and he tells her to put it back on the shelf: some books are too heavy to finish in one sitting.

GEORGE: “What’s the name of it?” LIZ: “’The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore’”

“The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore” was originally published in 1907, the third in a series of children’s books. There were 72 books in all, the first appearing in 1904 and the last in 1979. In 1953’s “The Camping Trip” (ILL S2;E29) Ethel referred to Lucy and Ricky as the Bobbsey Twins. In “No More Double Dates” (TLS S1;E21) they are mentioned again. They were authored by Laura Lee Hope, which was a pseudonym for a series of writers employed by the publisher.  

Liz finds a book about how to play mahjong that George forgot to return to the library. 

GEORGE: “When was it due?” LIZ: “May 13th. 1936!” 

George wants to donate it to the sale, but Liz refuses to handle ‘hot’ merchandise. George sarcastically calls her Pear-Shape. 

George is not referring to Liz’s figure, but to the character in the Dick Tracy comic strip named Pear-Shape Tone, who was part of the storyline from April to July 1949. He was a racketeer who would steal jewelry from his wealthier clients, then fence it to make a profit. One of his famous heists was referred to on “My Favorite Husband”  in “Anniversary Presents” aired on May 13, 1949.

LIZ: “George, look! On the second shelf!  ‘Little Men’ is leaning against ‘Little Women’!  Oh, look, George!  They’ve had a little pamphlet!” 

“Little Women” (1868) and its sequel “Little Men” (1871) are books by Louisa May Alcott.  A sequel was titled “Good Wives” (1869) but in America was combined with “Little Women” for publication. A third book (not a pamphlet) arrived in 1886 titled “Jo’s Boys.”

Liz finds the Arbutus, George’s old high school year book from 1929. George was a senior, Liz was a freshman. He reads some of the inscriptions from his friends.  The book has a photo of Liz as a Freshman Princess - dimples in her knees. 

LIZ: “I used to spend every evening kneeling on two collar buttons!” 

Liz suddenly feels very old.  She has turned from ‘a flower in the bloom of youth’ to ‘an old stink weed’.  She starts to cry and decides to go to bed because old people need their rest. 

In the morning Katie the Maid finds Liz gazing at herself in the mirror.  

LIZ: “I haven’t felt so old since the day Shirley Temple got married.” 

Former child star Shirley Temple married actor (and then Army Air Force Sergeant) John Agar on September 19, 1945, when she was just 17 years-old.  At one time, Temple was one of Hollywood’s biggest box office stars.  The marriage became troubled, and Temple divorced Agar on December 5, 1949. On December 16, 1950, Temple re-married to Charles Alden Black, a Navy intelligence officer and assistant to the President of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company.

George is concerned about Liz, so he visits a psychiatrist (Gerard Mohr). He tells her to flatter her and make her feel young again.  

PSYCHIATRIST: “A few days of attention and you won’t be able to leave her alone without a sitter!” 

George comes home and finds Liz in a rocking chair.  He has brought her roses and candy.  She begins to cry and is immediately suspicious of his motivations for bringing her gifts.  She decides to go to her room - alone.  George immediately starts to dial Dr. Stewart, humming while he does: 

GEORGE: “Little Old Lady young and fair, you’re in everyone’s hair...”

The song “Little Old Lady” was a 1937 hit written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stanley Adams.  It was also heard on stage and screen. 

Dr. Stewart tells George that it is natural for a wife not to believe her husband.  He suggests an outsider flattering her would be more convincing and he has just the person - himself!  George reluctantly agrees and decides to say that Dr. Stewart is an old college friend.  He will drop by at eight o’clock that evening. 

When the doorbell rings, George announces him as Charley Stewart, who immediately takes Liz for George’s daughter.  After some flattery, they decide to listen to the radio.  Liz says her favorite she is “Life Begins at 80″.  

“Life Begins at 80″ was a panel quiz show that aired on radio from 1948 to 1949, before making the shift to television in 1950. In it, octogenarians answered questions sent in by listeners. Jack Barry hosted. 

Chuck insists that they play music and invites Liz to dance the Samba. After three hours, Chuck compliments her dancing, but George is getting impatient.  

LIZ: “Treatment, George. Treatment!”  GEORGE: “It looks more like a treat than a treatment.” 

Chuck starts whispering amorous compliments into Liz’s ear just out of ear shot of George.  He demands to know what’s going on. 

LIZ: “Treatment, George!  Treatment!”  GEORGE: “What do you know about treatment?” LIZ: “Nothing. But whenever he says it you leave us alone.” 

George finally can’t take anymore and tells Liz the truth about Chuck being a psychiatrist, telling him to leave at once.  After Chuck leaves, George finds Liz back in her rocking chair lamenting her old age. 

Next day the phone rings and Katie answers it.  It is George, checking up on Liz, who Katie reports is making out her will. 

KATIE: “She’s leaving you to me!”

George has a plan. He’s going to bring home a real old lady - seventy year-old Mrs. Green - to show Liz how young she really is.  Katie finds Liz happily singing. 

KATIE: “What’s happened to ya? Last night you were Grandma Moses and now you’re Junior Miss!”

Grandma Moses (1860-1961) was an American folk artist who began painting at the age of 78 and is often cited as an example of a person who successfully began a career at an advanced age. In “Nursery School” (ILL S5;E9) Lucy Ricardo is so proud of Little Ricky’s first drawing, she dubs him the next “Grandpa Moses.” The Ricardos had two framed prints by Grandma Moses next to their front door: “So Long” and “The Old Snow Roller.”  

Junior Miss is a collection of semi-autobiographical stories by Sally Benson first published in The New Yorker. Between 1929 and the end of 1941, the prolific Benson published 99 stories. She had a bestseller when Doubleday published her Junior Miss collection in 1941. The stories inspired a Broadway play (1941), film (1945), radio series starring the aforementioned Shirley Temple (1942), and television show (1957). 

Liz tells Katie that she got a call from the Psychiatrist asking her out on a date.  Katie says that since she’s now in a more upbeat mood, she’d better call George and tell him not to go through with his plan.  But Liz has other ideas.  Since he tricked her by brining home a psychiatrist, Liz will trick him by pretending to be an old lady when she brings Mrs. Green home!  

Liz dons a shawl, eyeglasses, a gray wig, and talks with a creaky voice. Mrs. Annie Green (Bea Benadaret) and ‘Lizzie’ sit down for a chat.  Whatever question Mrs. Green asks, Liz answers “Penicillin”!  Lizzie tells Annie that she can’t dance because she’s got the gout. 

LIZZIE: “I can’t dance any unless I get oiled.  In my joints, I mean.” ANNIE: “I’ve been oiled in few joints myself!”   LIZZIE: “Oh, Annie!  You’re a caution! Just cuz ya got snow on the roof don’t mean there’s no fire in the furnace.” 

Annie tells Lizzie about a hot Bingo game in back of the Blue Bird Tea Shop (which just a front). 

ANNIE: “Get your green eye shade and let’s go!”  LIZZIE: “I’ll get my wheelchair! We can ride down.” ANNIE: “What model you got?”  LIZZIE: “A real hopped-up job; I hooked it to a Mixmaster. I had some speed trials yesterday.” ANNIE: “What did ya make?” LIZZIE: “Fourteen miles an hour and a bunt cake!” 

In 1930, the Sunbeam Company introduced the Mixmaster mixer, the first mechanical mixer with two detachable beaters whose blades interlocked. Several attachments were available for the Mixmaster, including a juice extractor, drink mixer, meat grinder–food chopper, and slicer–shredder. The Mixmaster became the company's flagship product for the next forty years.

George has had enough and tells Liz to stop, so she gives up the old lady act.  She tells him she’s feeling better, but George lets it slip that he told Chuck to call and ask her out on a date.  She’s distraught again and Annie and Lizzie toddle off to Bingo!  

[la-casa-de-papel-season-5]

Money Heist: Things you should know about the Netflix series

When Money Heist premiered on Spanish television in 2017, no one knew that three years later it would be the most-watched English-language non-English series on Netflix worldwide. Money Heist is created by Álex Pina and features actors such as Álvaro Morte, Úrsula Coberó, Itziar Ituño, Pedro Alonso, Miguel Herrán, Jaime Lorente and Esther Acebo, among others. It was recently updated for its fifth and final season by the streaming giant.

1. Money heist - a famous event

After acting on spanish tv with 4.3m views, its audience dropped dramatically in season 2. Netflix offered the sport and introduced it to the countrywide catalog, decreasing the first 15 episodes to 20-five. It has grow to be the most popular netflix  Money Heist show in six international locations: france, italy, chile, portugal, brazil and argentina.

2. La Casa de Papel and Money Theft

The show was originally called Los Desahuciados (The Exile). However, it started on the Spanish Antenna 3 network in 2017 as La Casa de Papel, which means House Paper. It was nicknamed Money Theft when it was acquired by Netflix for its international broadcast.

3. Color design

Denver's laugh led to some light moments in the show. Unfortunately, this was already mentioned in the script as "crazy laughter" and each actor revised the work, paying for their own interpretation. Actress Jaime Lorente then came to the lead over Grease's Danny Zuko. While the authors had written a seminar in Nairobi specifically for Alba Flores, they also planned to keep every member of the team, possibly ill, by giving them the incentive to participate in the theft. It was later changed, except for Berlin.

4. Tokyo and name

Tokyo was the first city mentioned in the record. The man's name was later changed after Alex Pina arrived wearing a Tokyo shirt that was engraved on him for his first contact with the script. Names like Berlin, Moscow, Denver and others followed over the next 15 minutes.

5. Teacher

The show will be narrated by The Professor. Thus, the creators argued that it was “too narcissistic for him to narrate his own plans”. To give her a "feminine perspective", they chose Tokyo.

Álvaro had to audition five times for the key role. His unique style of customizing glasses is also a personal contribution of the actor.

6. Write

Unlike other shows that were first written and then shot, Money Heist was written during filming. As a result, the players and the team had no idea what they would achieve the next day. Short of the rehearsal time, the player occasionally sends a fictional video to his phone to explain his camera’s movements.

7. Personalized position and effective process

The site of the first robbery was the Royal Mint in Spain. There are a lot of obstacles to filming here. Therefore, the team ultimately used the National Research Council building because the exterior is similar to the mint building.

On the other hand, the gang creates a hotel room connected to the second Bank of Spain robbery. To design it, the team talked to army officers and eventually created real equipment. The team also sent a video to a jewelry workshop in Spain to learn about traditional gold mining methods. Real professionals, who oversaw the development process of the shoot, acted as extras in the show. Eventually, the show used copper instead of gold.

[americankestrelprojects]

Hello all! I’m running a Mini-Bang! It’s multi-fandom. Summaries below the cut.

Submission 0:  List the fandom and ships here (if applicable): Original fiction Word count: 216 Short description: An introspective piece about the process of creating, and how it corresponds to living

Submission 1:   List the fandom and ships here (if applicable): The Magnus Archives, JonMartin Word count: 2076 Short description: A season 1 AU in which Jon accidentally overhears Martin discussing his crush on him, and it doesn’t take him two and a half seasons to decide to care about other people. Pretty much pure fluff, and when during season one is entirely ambiguous. There’s a lot of blushing. Also Tim Stoker is a menace.

Submission 2:   List the fandom and ships here (if applicable): Yugioh 5ds, Yugioh GX, Kindredshipping Word count: 3142 Short description: Ghost Hunting AU anyone? Judai and Johan are sensitives and realize that Yusei is partially sensitive when he momentarily spots their familiar spirits Yubel and Ruby. However, Yusei doesn’t believe in them and thinks that the two of them are out of their minds. Can looking for non-existent beings lead to something else? (No Duel Monsters in this AU. Yubel and Ruby are both human spirits that died generations ago.)

Submission 3: List the fandom and ships here (if applicable): Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, mostly gen with established Jotaro/Kakyoin, focus relationship is familial Kakyoin & Giorno Word count: 7300 Short description: Post-Eyes of Heaven, post-Part 6. Speedwagon Operative Kakyoin picks up a confused Giorno from the Florida Airport after the battle against Pucci. The part 6 gang, Giorno, Mista, and Polnareff celebrate defeating Pucci by going to Disney World. Kakyoin learns the truth of the events of Eyes of Heaven from Jotaro and also slowly accepts Giorno into the family.

Submission 4:  List the fandom and ships here (if applicable): Original work/Dungeons and Dragons Word count: 1785 Short description: Fire Genasi researcher Pyre is on the verge of a breakthrough and (almost) everyone else in the lab is cheering for them. They can't shake their nerves, however, and soon find out that not all portals lead somewhere nice.

Submission 5:   List the fandom and ships here (if applicable): The Vampire Diaries/Teen Wolf, Ship: Katherine Pierce/Kira Yukimura Word count: 331 Short description: Kira knows every step of the plan to rescue Derek from the Mexican hunters by heart. Now if only her heart was set on the mission and not on the lips on her neck.

Submission 6:   List the fandom and ships here (if applicable): Foyle’s War, Rex Talbot/Andrew Foyle Word count: 241 Short description: Andrew keeps seeing Rex wherever he goes after the war.  But Rex is dead.

Submission 7:   List the fandom and ships here (if applicable): Original Word count: 15985 Short description: What makes a perfect theft? Everyone carries out their roles as scripted, everything goes according to plan, and not a soul knows you’re coming. But what if you just met your fellow actress, she just tried to kill you, nobody read the script, and the target was expecting you the whole time? Iris and Amber find themselves grappling with all manner of unfortunate questions as they attempt to acquire a rare text from a ruthless noble on behalf of a force far more dangerous than any problem that could arise during this all or nothing heist!

Submission 8:   List the fandom and ships here (if applicable): Metal Fight Beyblade Word count: 2700 Short description: Stranded. Hungry. Kyoya Tategami is notorious for willing to do anything it takes to win a battle, but that was against physical opponents. Now, he must battle against the elements and mother nature herself in order to prove that he's strong enough to bare "the fangs of the heart," not only to the Dark Nebula, but to himself and restore his pride, even if his mind cracks and crumbles away in the process. No matter how many times, no matter how many times he fails, he will come out victorious.

Submission 9:  List the fandom and ships here (if applicable): Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sokka genfic Word count: 919 Short description: "“His father said something else, but Sokka couldn’t hear over the rush of blood in his ears. Him, in an arranged marriage to the princess of the Fire Nation—it must have been a sad excuse for a joke.” In a universe where the Hundred Year War didn’t happen, Sokka struggles to deal with the news that he’s being forced into a political marriage with someone he doesn’t know or love. In which Sokka fights with his family, reconciles with Katara in his super secret igloo fort, and has a heart-to-heart with Hakoda on the way to the Fire Nation."

Submission 10:   List the fandom and ships here (if applicable): original, gen Word count: 3845 Short description: "It's been raining a lot where Kora lives, and she hasn't left her apartment, and every day is about the same. Basically, this is a weird atmospheric horror thing about being isolated in your single apartment, and also a time loop."

Submission 11: List the fandom and ships here (if applicable): Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright/Miles Edgeworth (Narumitsu/Wrightworth), implied/background Klavier/Apollo Word count: 12134 Short description: "This is the first chapter of an Ace Attorney fic I outlined a couple of years ago but never finished! It assumes a lot of background knowledge of AA1-AA5. Taking place three days after the end of AA5, Athena is hanging around in the Prosecutor's Office waiting for Simon when she runs into Miles Edgeworth. He unexpectedly reveals that they have something in common — they were both led to believe that they killed one of their own parents. But as they're talking about it, and as Edgeworth talks about Phoenix Wright, something seems off. Athena senses discord in his voice. And once she realizes that Edgeworth has some misgivings about being ""just friends"" with Wright, she does the only logical thing — enlist all their co-workers in a plot to set them up. (Also Apollo talks to Wright about Edgeworth/DL-6, this is all right before Christmas so Phoenix visits Edgeworth and they analyze his childhood trauma through the lens of tort law and nearly kiss (?), Phoenix and Edgeworth are very much in love but in denial about it, lots of scenes and moments to choose from! Hopefully I'll finish this one day.)"

[reconditarmonia]

Dear Yuletide Writer 2020

Hi! Thank you for writing for me! I’m reconditarmonia here and on AO3. I have anon messaging off, but mods can contact me with any questions.

Fiddler on the Roof (2018 Folksbiene Production) | The Psychology of Time Travel - Kate Mascarenhas | Simoun | Where the Sky is Silver and the Earth is Brass - Sonya Taaffe

General likes:

– Relationships that aren’t built on romance or attraction. They can be romantic or sexual as well, but my favorite ships are all ones where it would still be interesting or compelling if the romantic component never materialized.

– Loyalty kink! Trust, affectionate or loving use of titles, gestures of loyalty, replacing one’s situational or ethical judgment with someone else’s, risking oneself (physically or otherwise) for someone else, not doing so on their orders. Can be commander-subordinate or comrades-in-arms.

– Heists, or other stories where there’s a lot of planning and then we see how the plan goes.

– Femslash, complicated or intense relationships between women, and female-centric gen. Women doing “male” stuff (possibly while crossdressing).

– Stories whose emotional climax or resolution isn’t the sex scene, if there is one.

– Uniforms/costumes/clothing.

– Stories, history, and performance. What gets told and how, what doesn’t get told or written down, behavior in a society where everyone’s consuming media and aware of its tropes, how people create their personas and script their own lines.

General DNW: rape/dubcon, torture, other creative gore; unrequested AUs, including “same setting, different rules” AUs such as soulmates/soulbonds; PWP; food sex; embarrassment; focus on pregnancy; Christmas/Christian themes; focus on unrequested canon or non-canon ships; unrequested trans versions of characters.

—

Fandom: Fiddler on the Roof (2018 Folksbiene Production)

Character(s): Any (The Fiddler, Hodl, Pertshik, Shprintze)

I would love to read about the Fiddler from the recent Yiddish production of Fiddler on the Roof, understanding him/her/them as a real person with a backstory, present and future rather than a symbol. They seem to be female (and their actor describes them as female) but wear men’s clothes and are on the men’s side at the wedding, and everyone seems cool with that? I’m 100% on board with any gender identity you decide you’d like to write them with. How did he/she/they come to be who they are, and what are their interpersonal relationships (platonic, familial, romantic, any gender) like? What might an encounter between them and the supernatural (dybbuks, demons, witches?) be or have been like? Have they always lived in Anatevka or do they wander from village to village? What happens to them after the play ends?

Or, Hodl and Pertshik! I maintain a headcanon (which you don't have to share) that Hodl reads a lot of anarchist books and pamphlets while she's in Siberia and comes around to Emma Goldman-esque views on marriage, and she and Pertshik stay together but never marry. I'd be so interested in something about their future! (Or f/f with genderswapped Pertshik??) But I'd also be happy with fic about either of them individually - Pertshik pre-play or Hodl (post-play) on her own without him on screen.

Or, Shprintze! (Or Bielke.) I love the expansion in this production of Pertshik's lessons to the younger girls, and I'd be super interested to read about one or both of them growing up in America, a very different life, having maybe absorbed some of those political beliefs as children. I also headcanon that - following the play's plot trajectory of increasingly unsuitable matches - she's got to be a lesbian, right? Bring on the Shprintze/OFC! yes, I know what happened in Sholem Aleichem's original stories

For that matter, feel free to do the supernatural plots with the non-fiddler characters too! Someone talking politics with a dybbuk? I'd also be really interested in digging into the language aspect, which I'd never really thought about before seeing this production - when do or don't they speak Yiddish, in their past or future?

Fandom-Specific DNW/Opt-In: I'm explicitly okaying antisemitism appearing in the story as part of the world the characters live in, although I do not want a character's personally facing antisemitism to be the focus of the plot. I don't really want to hear much about Khave/Fyedke.

—

Fandom: The Psychology of Time Travel - Kate Mascarenhas

Character(s): Any (none nominated)

This novel is so carefully worldbuilt, yet with such amazing potential for unusual character interactions, life stories, and relationships as shaped by time travel as well. I nominated this without characters because I would be delighted to receive fic that focused on worldbuilding, whether through the stories of OCs, or through any of the canon characters. I’m most interested in:

the Conclave and more broadly in social interactions and (romantic or friendly) relationships between multiple characters who are time travelers (rather than a time traveler and their non-time-traveling partner or family)

art that might be created with time travel (like Grace’s exhibitions or Angharad’s dance; what about novels or other fiction somehow created using time travel?)

the rules and customs of time travel (in-world documents? habits or observances that develop on a mass level beyond people’s individual compulsions or visits to significant dates within their own timeline? what fictional stories do time travelers write about time travel?)

more about the Conclave as a workplace, its social dynamics and logistics

interactive fiction?!

but really I’d love to read anything in this fandom. I'd be happy with fiction and/or in-world documents!

—

Fandom: Simoun

Character(s): Neviril

I've just completed a rewatch of this show, and it has reaffirmed for me that I love Neviril. She's a leader in both a military and a religious sense, respected by her squad and by the populace, but figuring out what that means to her is such a personal journey. I still love her scene in the hearing where she speaks aloud what no one has wanted to admit or talk about - that they're soldiers now, this is war, can they still call themselves priestessses? - but I was also struck on this rewatch by how Chor Tempest increasingly becomes a player in itself in the politicking (the bit in Episode 21 where the whole lot of them fly out against orders, because it's what they, with Neviril leading and giving voice to the group, think is what their role is about), and by the scenes of her blessing the people (when iirc she is needed elsewhere by the military governor for flight purposes) and Paraietta (after what Paraietta did to her).

I love the military aspects of this canon in general (and the associated tropes of loyalty and trust and bravery and positive/negative relationship to authority) and that definitely ties in to Neviril figuring out what her role is as the squad leader, but I'm also just here for that very process of figuring it out and defining it for herself.

So...what happens to her post-canon? What is the "new world" and her travel in it like? If she makes it back to the main world when war is brewing again, but her old cohort can't fly anymore, what does she see her role as being - a leader for peace, for war, something else? How do she and Aer interact with Paraietta, Rodoreamon, Floef, and/or Vyuraf?

Ship-wise, Aer/Neviril grew on me a lot! I appreciated Aer more as the determined bit-of-a-loose-cannon type than as the manic pixie this time, and noted Neviril's comments about how she was drawn to Aer's determination. But I'd also be up for a poly situation where she's involved with both Aer and Paraietta, who are friends, or, I guess, one where it's a three-way relationship, although I don't personally know what the Aer/Paraietta side would be like! (I do like how they work together in battle even when they're shown as having personal issues.)

I think this is the only fandom I could be interested in explict fic for this time around, as an option - the series is, on some level, about the contrast between the reality and physicality of their bodies and the general perception of what they do (which even in its non-spiritual military capacity is removed from a connection to their bodies via the Simoun aircraft), about becoming an adult, and of course about gender.

Fandom-Specific DNW: I'm not really interested in Kaim and Alty and would prefer for them not to appear or for their backstory to come up. I would also not like to see pre-timeskip Dominuura/Limone.

—

Fandom: Where the Sky is Silver and the Earth is Brass - Sonya Taaffe

Character(s): Any (Chaye Roznatovsky, Demon)

Anything expanding on this story would make me really happy. Chaye's years with the partisans, the comrades-in-arms she had and loved then and who else's memory she holds or makes into a weapon, her journey to America, going by the surname of "no one." The demon's mirror world, its loss of that world (what exactly happened on the other side?) and its need to be where Jews are, demon Judaism? Or the future of both of them now that they've found each other!

Fandom-Specific DNW/Opt-In: DNW Chaye/demon. The premise of the story being what it is, I'm explicitly okay with antisemitism being a prominent feature of the story if you write something that covers either or both characters' backstory, but would prefer post-war antisemitism not to be a focus.

[thedeaditeslayer]

Running Time Restored Interview: 1997 Josh Becker and Bruce Campbell Indie Gets a New Life in 2K.

You can read the full interview on the upcoming release With Josh Becker, Bruce Campbell, and Don May Jr. from Diabolik Magazine below. 

In 1995 on New Year’s Eve, Josh Becker had an idea. Born out of a session pondering Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary, true crime classic, Rope, he decided that he was going to improve upon the master of suspense’s legendary concept of shooting a film in real time. A daunting task but Becker was up to the challenge.

What resulted was perhaps one of the most ambitious efforts to ever grace the silver screen, Running Time. This neo-noir thriller about a heist gone wrong and a small-time criminal who rekindles his love affair with his high-school sweetheart was a hidden gem that didn’t get the recognition that it deserved. Written expressly for Becker’s childhood friend and Super 8 cohort, Bruce Campbell, the pair were once again, doing gonzo-style filmmaking just like when they were growing up in Michigan with the likes of Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert.

Josh Becker was and is an adventurous soul who does things his way, just like the director gods of old. When I think of his work, the names of John Ford, William Wyler and John Huston readily spring to mind. There is something admirable about his driven determination that was the heart and soul of this black and white throwback to another era which is ultimately endearing. Yes, I have a special place in my heart for Running Time because it is honest and not filled with “tentpole” tendencies. At the core of it is the written word. The end result is one of the most overlooked masterpieces of both Becker’s and Campbell’s careers.

What is truly amazing is that this flick was shot in two weeks and that everyone went home early. It was like having a 9 to 5 job. No 18-hour-days, just fast, efficient, run and gun style filmmaking that resulted in a production that could stand toe to toe with noir classics from a bygone era like The Petrified Forest and Desperate Hours.

Prior to Running Time, Bruce was known predominantly for his work in the horror and science fiction genres which can sometimes be limiting for an actor. Becker gave him an incredible script to work with that really showcased his range as a thespian. Behind the smart-ass quips and bravado lies a talented individual who takes his craft seriously. He is capable of creating complex characters and he is most assuredly fit to be a romantic lead.

I had the chance to sit down with the major players in the restoration of Running Time (Josh Becker, Bruce Campbell, Don May, Jr. and Gerry Kissell) to reminisce about the journey of this film from its humble beginnings to preserving this indie classic for future generations.

The Director and His Muse

Diabolique: Bruce, I have to start off by telling you that Running Time is my favorite out of all of your films.  

Bruce Campbell: It’s a cool, little flick. Too bad it sort of escaped, it wasn’t released as the old joke goes.

Diabolique: What I like so much about it is the neo-noir aspect. It’s a throwback to the 40’s and 50’s. In Josh’s book, Rushes, he talks about how he convinced you to be in the film. You weren’t getting paid and you invested in it. What was his pitch, how did he sell the concept to you?

BC: The pitch was that it was NOT McHale’s Navy. I just spent 11 weeks in Mexico just sort of bullshitting our way through that film where we would make up our lines of dialogue because there was nothing written for us. In the script it would say things like, “McHale and his guys get off the boat,” “McHale and his men go to Cuba.” Which means they hadn’t thought anything up for you. I did it because I liked the show as a kid. It was a very popular thing; it was from Universal. It made sense at the time. It was just a case of when something is underwritten, the problem that it causes actors. I had just come off of that, and Running Time was very ambitious, low budget it was meant to be this conceit of being done in one shot so it was cinematic. So, I was like, okay, yeah. It was like the anti-studio movie, small crew, fast moving and yet no money. Basically, I invested the money that I was paid back into the movie in order for them to make it. It was definitely for a love of the movie type deal.

Josh Becker: I’ve known Bruce since we were twelve and I’d seen him in a number of plays. I knew that he had a much bigger range as an actor than he’d had a chance to show at that point. Plus, he’s a pleasure to work with. Once I pitched him the idea, he was all for it, partially because the long takes are a way for an actor to really show their ability.

Diabolique: Thinking about your filmography, Bruce, you haven’t played a traditional romantic lead. Do you see Running Time as a love story of sorts?

BC: What’s funny is Josh had Carl come back. In a proper film noir, he would have gone, you would have heard the tires squeal and she would be sitting there crying and the credits would roll and that would be it. It would be bleak, but Josh deep down is a sentimentalist and I think I am too. We had no issue with the happy ending. We wanted to make the audiences think for quite a long period of time that it’s going to be a sad ending. She packs her bag and then she unpacks it. The whole thing is quite an extended piece but I thought it was well worth playing just to kind of throw a little wrinkle in it. Maybe even in a criminal story you can have a happy ending.

Diabolique: In terms of the storyline, Josh, we all know that Rope was the blueprint for Running Time. You hadn’t made a film in 7 years. What was it about that production that captured your imagination besides the challenge of the “long take”?

JB: Part of my inspiration was simply getting another feature film made after seven years of working in television, which was never my goal.  But as I thought about Rope, I wondered why the continuous, real-time concept didn’t really have any impact on the story. Then it occurred to me that there was no time element involved.  Two young men—ostensibly Leopold and Loeb—have killed another young man for the fun of it, put the body in a chest, then invited people over for a party, including a cop. Well, if the chest was spring loaded and had a timer on it so that at some point it would pop open and reveal the corpse, that would be a time element. So, I thought, how do you use the real time technique and add a ticking clock? The first story that came to mind was a heist which generally has a time element—we’ve got to get the money and get out of here before we’re caught.

Diabolique: Running Time was shot in sequence like a play. Did it pose any challenges for you as an actor?

BC: I liked what Josh was trying to do. These long uninterrupted takes from an actor’s point of view, you know stuff can get really choppy these days. My complaint from Burn Notice is they wouldn’t let a full sentence stay on camera; they would have to cut away to somebody else. It felt like they had to keep cutting, cutting and cutting. This movie was no cutting for like ten minutes at a time. It’s great from an actor’s perspective because you can feel the juices flowing. It’s like a play. You can work on the pacing; you can have something build over a period of time and minutes to play out in literally real time. It’s a real time crime drama. I liked it conceptually and it was challenging. There was a fair amount of dialogue because my guy, Carl is calling the shots. I thought it was a good premise. Guy gets out of prison turns right around and robs the prison because he knows how the prison laundry system works. I thought that was pretty sound. I am always sympathetic for the low budget independent movie. I always will be.

Diabolique: Were there any other films that influenced you and your writing partner, Peter Choi? The entire concept is very noir and the desperate situation that Carl finds himself in is reminiscent of any number of films from the 1940s.

JB: My main inspiration was Straight Time with Dustin Hoffman, an overlooked movie from 1978. And though I didn’t think of it at the time, several folks brought up Joseph Lewis’s Gun Crazy after it came out, and I do see that. The film has one long take in it during a bank robbery, and even though the camera stays in the backseat of a car, it has that same feeling of a real time event.

Diabolique: I know you are a fan of classic movies, Bruce and in a sense Running Time reminds me of Desperate Hours or The Petrified Forest especially when the robbery is botched and the situation is escalating in the enclosed office. Did you find any inspiration from the noir genre for your portrayal of Carl?

BC: No, but the classic tough guys were always awesome. We loved them all, Bogart and Robert Mitchum…the fact that Josh shot the film in black and white was perfect. Because it really helped lend itself to a look of that time period when Jack Palance was a leading man.

Diabolique: In your book Rushes, you talked about your decision to shoot in 16 mm Kodak ASA 64 black and white stock. You get sharper images due to the finer grain of the film, but did that pose any problems in terms of showcasing your work at that time since most people weren’t shooting in black and white?

JB:  I didn’t think of it regarding showcasing my work. I thought it was appropriate for the subject matter and that it would be visually striking.  Also, moving the camera from inside to outside in color posed the problem of adding or removing filters which would not be an issue with black and white.

Diabolique: You shot over a period of 10 days which was unheard of even back in the 90’s. How were you able to keep things moving along?

JB: It was based on pre-planning. I knew exactly what I wanted. We rehearsed the film and the actors were all very comfortable with the dialogue. Then it was just an issue of getting the complicated camera moves in regard to the actor’s blocking to work right, and that didn’t turn out to be all that difficult.

Diabolique: As an actor, did you enjoy working on an accelerated timetable?

BC: It was exciting to do and so different. The toughest thing was the technical demands. It wasn’t like there were explosions and stuff like that. But in order to do blocking inside of an apartment, the camera is moving in circles, well, the crew had to move every object behind the camera before it got there and then had to put it back before the camera saw it again. So, there was a lot of voodoo, a lot of magic. We would rehearse and rehearse and rehearse and we could never get it right. Finally, we were like fuck it. Let’s just start shooting because everyone gets a little more alert when you shoot. That did it. That allowed us to conquer the impossible. After 3 or 4 takes if we got it, we were done even if it was 10:30 in the morning. I don’t think we spent more than two thirds of a day getting that particular shot. The end result is cool. I’ve seen the cleaned-up version without all the scratches and the dust marks. You can’t even tell what year it is. It almost seems like its videotape transferred like those teledramas of the 60’s that were done on TV. There were moments in the film that weren’t perfect, and that’s okay.

Diabolique: When I revisited Running Time recently, I was impressed with how well it holds up because some efforts don’t. With the 2K restoration, Bruce, this will give your fans a chance to see it. For some, it might be their first time. Do you have a scene that you are particularly fond of?

BC: There’s some scenes that are fun to do. After I get shot, I am in Janie’s apartment and she’s trying to put me together, that fainting on the toilet while she’s trying to patch me together it felt kind of real, playing shot and being delirious. Stuff like that. Just fun to be able to take the moment to do it.

Diabolique: Josh, do you feel shooting in black and white made the 2K restoration more challenging?

JB:  Slow speed black and white film stock has a lot of silver in it which creates an inordinate amount of static electricity. When I did the initial film transfer back in 1997, the negative kept getting covered with dust, causing us to have to stop and clean the film every 30-60 minutes. Since the transfer was $375 an hour—in 1997 dollars—I could only stop so many times before it became financially prohibitive.  Dust on a black and white negative shows up as white dots. Using the newest technology, Don May was able to remove all of the dust digitally. Therefore, the film has never looked as good as it does now.

Diabolique: What excites you the most about Running Time getting restored, Bruce?

BC: I am always happy when something gets re-released which means in this case, it gets preserved. It will look fantastic in 2K. That’s why with all these reissues fans are like, “Why should we care?” Like well, if you care about preservation, this means it will be the latest version of a movie that is fairly obscure. Sometimes a movie can die on the vine because no one will pay the money to keep it current. Now, we can show the sucker, hopefully, anywhere.

Diabolique: Josh, do you have any plans to showcase Running Time once the restoration is completed? This is a great film that fans should definitely see.

JB: We have no plans at the moment, but then the film isn’t out yet. When it’s done, we’ll see what happens.

Breathing New Life into Running Time: The Art of Restoration

Don May, Jr. along with Jerry Chandler and Charles Fiedler created Synapse Films in 1997. Known for their work in preserving unique genre classics, May had previously collaborated with Josh Becker when his company restored the director’s 1985 production, Thou Shalt Not Kill…Except.

Gerry Kissell was the official artist on Running Time and will be reprising his role for the 2K restoration. He has been friends with Josh since the Freaky Film Festival where he and Bruce premiered the film on the University of Illinois campus.

Both gentlemen were kind enough to take time out of their busy schedules to talk to us.

Diabolique: Were you able to obtain the original negative for Running Time?

Don May, Jr: Yes, thankfully. Josh Becker is a true movie fan and loves the filmmaking process, so we were fortunate to work with him. He kept everything stored properly in a climate-controlled vault, as a man who cares about his movies should.

Diabolique: Can you talk about the scanning process for 2K?

DMJ: The 16mm negative was separated into A/B rolls, so we had to scan a lot of reels separately at Prasad in Burbank, CA. Luckily, because of the actual nature of the “one-take” aesthetic Josh utilized, there were only a total of about 30 cuts in the entire film… hidden in editing, of course. So, we basically scanned the 30 separate shots, and then assembled them digitally using DaVinci Resolve. We had to be VERY careful the way we put the 30 cuts back together, making sure the shots were frame accurate and of the proper length. Unlike a film that has a conformed negative separated into 10- or 20-minute reels, Running Time was all in separate pieces, with each shot edited on separate reels. It was a challenge, but we were able to use a previous master as a reference and most of it went together without a hitch. Being shot in B&W also helped in color correction to hide the edits properly to make the real-time aspect as seamless as possible. Once the film was properly assembled, we were able to ship everything off to India for restoration. Because Josh had everything stored properly for decades, the negative itself was fairly free of a lot of dirt and scratches, but we did carefully sonically clean all the pieces before scanning commenced.

Diabolique: How long does it take the digital artists to fix debris or scratches on the original negatives?

DMJ: There’s a lot of data wrangling involved. Copying data for safety. Making backups, etc. But we have a great working relationship with Prasad. They have worked on such classics as Lawrence of Arabia, How the West Was Won, A Fistful of Dollars, Gandhi, The Red Shoes, etc. They do the lion’s share of my output, and I put a lot of trust in them. They’ve never failed me. We do ship the film scans to India and that takes time. I think Running Time took about 4-5 months. I let them take their time, though, because I don’t want to have to keep sending things back for fixes. With Running Time, they did an excellent job, right from my first restoration test reels. But, again, Josh had taken very good care of his materials, so it wasn’t much of a challenge.

Diabolique: Gerry, what artwork did you originally provide for Running Time and what can we expect from you for the 2K restoration?

Gerry Kissell: I did promotional art that ended up on tee-shirts. It included the shot of the three main characters, which I called Tres Hombres, on one, Jeremy Roberts aiming the pistol at the camera on another, and the last, which you’ve seen of Bruce’s mug all heroic and chinny. All of the art was done on Bristol cold press illustration board. The new painting for the Synapse release is me, 20+ years later, a tad bit better at drawing and painting, lol.

Diabolique: Besides the idea of preserving Running Time, Don, what attracted you to the project?

DMJ: We had worked previously with Josh on Thou Shalt Not Kill…Except, and we had a lot of fun with that one. I like working with Josh. He’s a great guy, and I love that he’s so passionate about film. He loves movies, and he loves MAKING movies. It’s so great to see people like Josh doing things like Running Time, back when using computers to do a “one take” approach was non-existent. You see things today like the film 1917, which is a fine film in its own right, but they cheated a lot of its “one take” aspect using computers. Josh did Running Time, but used his brain, and actual organic film splicing and editing to achieve the same result. He’s smart, funny, talented and I love working with people like him. It also doesn’t hurt that Running Time stars Bruce Campbell, so… yeah… of course, we jumped at the chance to do it.

Diabolique: When can fans expect to see the Running Time 2K restoration?

DMJ: I would imagine late summer/early fall 2020. We’re wrapping up extras and artwork now.

[letterboxd]

Sundance 2020.

“Dude, I hope this gets over 3.5!” Letterboxd rates this year’s Sundance.

Our West Coast editor Dominic Corry returns to Sundance to engage in such essential festival experiences as: judging other people’s cellphone etiquette, pretending not to notice A-listers, coming to rely upon coffee to a dangerous extent, and hastily downing a hot sandwich while standing over the garbage can outside the Park City Fresh Market.

He also watched a whole load of cool films, and spoke with the writing and directing talent behind some of the 2020 festival’s most talked-about premieres: Janicza Bravo (Zola), Eugene Kotlyarenko (Spree), Miranda July (Kajillionaire), Brandon Cronenberg (Possessor) and Jim Cummings (actor and executive producer of Danny Madden's debut Beast Beast).

Zola

“There are more ways to access great storytelling than the ones we’ve been used to.”

Generating much of the buzz ahead of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival was Janicza Bravo’s Zola, a film based on the Twitter thread by A'Ziah King that went famously viral in 2015. It concerns two exotic dancers: King herself—who goes by Zola—(played by Taylour Paige) and her new friend Stefani (Riley Keough), who head down to Tampa one weekend accompanied by Stefani’s boyfriend Derrek (played by Cousin Greg himself, Nicholas Braun) and Stefani’s “roommate” (read: pimp, played by Colman Domingo). To say shit gets cray doesn’t quite cover it.

It’s been simplistically, if understandably, described ahead of time as “Pulp Fiction meets Spring Breakers”, but Bravo herself cited a much more eclectic selection of cinematic inspirations when we spoke to her ahead of the film’s world premiere.

“My inspirations were The Wiz, Coffy, Paris Is Burning, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Special Victims Unit. And Natural Born Killers!”

Bravo (pictured above) took to King’s Twitter thread immediately when it went viral. “I think I found it within a day, or days, of it coming out,” says Bravo. “It was sent to me by a group of girlfriends and before finishing it I knew that I wanted it, and I worked at getting [the rights] for about two years.”

Bravo wasn’t the only one who wanted to tell this story on the big screen—James Franco was initially linked to an adaptation.

“It’s not that it was difficult to get the rights, it’s that there were many other people who wanted it and the people who got it before me were just fancier. But here we are.”

Bravo is credited with Zola's script alongside playwright Jeremy O. Harris, who recently blew up Broadway with his incendiary show Slave Play. She concedes there were unique challenges in translating something so specific to the big screen.

“The thing that everyone was attracted to about this story was the voice, and I would say the hardest thing was to make sure the voice was still present in the film. What you’re reading, that it would translate into the visual.”

Bravo says she’s not sure if this is going to lead to a rash of social network-based films (Letterboxd: The Movie excepted of course), “but I would say that what the story tells you is that there are more ways to access great storytelling than the ones we’ve been used to.”

Spree

“Put it on lists and do those Letterboxd battles!”

It can be all too easy to over-perceive mini-trends at film festivals, but it was hard to overlook the large role that social media played in multiple films at Sundance this year.

In Eugene Kotlyarenko’s Spree, floppy-haired Stranger Things star Joe Keery (pictured above) plays wannabe influencer Kurt Kunkle, a driver for a Los Angeles-based ride-sharing service (called… Spree) who plots to up his subscriber numbers by murdering his more obnoxious passengers on a live stream. Or he might just be staging it all for the LOLs. The entire film plays out as a series of live-streaming videos, mostly from the dashboard cameras in Kurt’s car.

Kotlyarenko’s film questions the overly prominent role of social media in modern life. “We've all kind of signed on to this thing, to use the literal expression,” he told us. “It’s part of the way we understand ourselves and our relationship with the rest of the world. It’s basically: a like or repost or a good rating on something, gives us part of our validation or sense of self and that is a kind of twisted place to be. [Spree] is a provocation, it’s a challenge, it’s a way of saying: look, we have a problem.”

Kotlyarenko had a number of inspirations in mind while he was writing and directing Spree. “A lot! A lot of movies! I actually put ten movies in a Dropbox for the cast and crew. One movie that I thought was really inspiring was Jafar Panafi’s Taxi, also known as Taxi Tehran. You want Man Bites Dog in there, because the whole thing is that the movie’s a live stream, right? So how do you do that pseudo-doc thing but now? So you’re following a psychotic character and you’re getting very close to them. Uncomfortably close. What else? Network and To Die For, just hardcore media satires. There’s a bunch of other films, like Coming Apart, do you know this film? It’s a late ’60s movie starring Rip Torn, where he’s a psychiatrist and he sets up these hidden cameras and exploits all his patients and stuff but they don’t know that they’re on camera.”

It turns out Kotlyarenko is a keen Letterboxd member, and he’s looking forward to other members generating an average rating for his film. “Dude, I hope this gets over 3.5!”

We can safely assume Kotlyarenko won’t employ measures as drastic as those adopted by the main character in his movie in order to get his desired rating.

“I want people on Letterboxd to watch the film and rate it whatever the fuck you think it is [worth]. And, you know, put it on lists and do those Letterboxd battles. Put it up against, you know, some Gasper Noé movie. And let it win!”

Kajillionaire

“Instead of sort of half-arseing two jobs, you’re doing one job really well.”

Filmmaker, actor and performance artist Miranda July is a central figure in the American independent cinema scene, even though she’s only directed two films: Me and You and Everyone We Know and The Future. Her third full-length feature Kajillionaire had its world premiere at Sundance this year, just as her previous works did, but the big difference this time around is that she stuck to writing and directing, having also played the lead role in her two previous films.

“It’s just better,” she told Letterboxd of staying behind the camera for Kajillionaire. “Instead of sort of half-arseing two jobs, you’re doing one job really well, you know? You get a lot of energy when you’re performing—that’s nice. Especially initially to kind of set the tone, that was super helpful, starting out. But now it’s like: these people all knew my work. So I didn’t have to actually be in it for them to like, get it. Which is, you know, what a dream right?”

Kajillionaire is a typically (for July) offbeat tale of a Los Angeles family who attempt low-level scams to raise money to pay the rent on the disused office space with oozing walls in which they live. The family (comprised of mom Debra Winger, dad Richard Jenkins and daughter Evan Rachel Wood) find their equilibrium challenged when an optimistic young woman (Gina Rodriguez) eagerly joins them for their latest “heist”.

Miranda July. / Photo courtesy of the Sundance Institute

Letterboxd asked July if she thinks there’s a common narrative thread running through all three of her films.

“I mean, I see the thread, but it’s really just me living my life. Not that it’s autobiographical at all. But now I was ready to face issues and tell a story that only could be told by someone who had been a child, grown into an adult, and then been a parent of a child and had this 360-degree perspective. And also I think there’s a joyfulness that only comes in once you’re like: I know a little bit how to do this, you know? Like, maybe there’s some fun that I had, as well as breaking my heart 100 times.”

Although Kajillionaire would seem to speak to general economic anxiety, July said that wasn’t necessarily the point of the film.

“All I’ll say about that right now is: I wrote it in this time and the whole thing comes from my unconscious. But I am the child of boomers and, you know, living in the same world you’re living in. The sense that something criminal might have happened is in the air, but I wasn’t consciously [thinking]: ‘I’m going to hit them hard with this political satire’. It’s not that movie. But I don’t think anyone would be wrong to find that in it.”

Beast Beast

“It allows you to circumvent all of the bullshit that is Hollywood.”

We met up with one of our favorite filmmakers (and Letterboxd member), Jim Cummings, who wrote, directed and starred in the 2018 low-key masterpiece Thunder Road, an expansion of a 13-minute short that won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2016.

Cummings was at the 2020 festival as both an executive producer and supporting cast member in a film in the NEXT program (which highlights emerging filmmakers) called Beast Beast. It’s the first feature from writer/director Danny Madden.

“Danny was my co-producer and creative director on many of my short films, the Thunder Road feature, and my new upcoming werewolf movie. So it’s great to be here for his first Sundance feature.”

Cummings, who also runs The Short to Feature Lab in Malibu, understands more than most how shorts can be a pathway to feature filmmaking.

“It’s just so much more fulfilling to make something as a proven concept. You kind of become your own studio in a way that’s incredibly fulfilling. I think it’s the future. You can afford to make something over a weekend with your friends in the backyard that’s a short film and then you can use that and use Kickstarter or a crowd-equity plan campaign to raise the rest of the money for a feature. It’s absolutely the future and it allows you to circumvent all of the bullshit that is Hollywood.”

Jim Cummings and Danny Madden. / Photo by Jovelle Tamayo, courtesy of the Sundance Institute

Hang on, did you say new upcoming werewolf film? Thunder Road fans can look forward to beholding Cumming’ follow-up feature soon.

“I shot a werewolf movie in Coalville, Utah last March. I spent four months out here. I wrote it, I directed in and I star in it, and it’s a proper monster movie. It’s like a proper werewolf comedy. It’s like Thunder Road with a werewolf. Or Zodiac as a comedy. That’s coming out in theaters in September.”

And because this is Jim Cummings we’re talking to, there’s more: “I ran a crowd-equity campaign for a movie that we made about talent agents that I can’t really talk too much about, but it’s very good and it’s a horror movie that we shot in November. That should be coming out around the same time.”

Possessor

“It has a lot to do with character psychology, without giving too much away.”

Following the world premiere of his new film Possessor, Letterboxd sat down with second-generation filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg, the son of legendary director David. The younger Cronenberg’s second feature (following 2012’s Antiviral) had Sundance audiences audibly wincing at the extreme body horror on display in the sci-fi thriller, which stars Andrea Riseborough as an assassin who forcibly inhabits the minds of others to perform her incredibly violent executions.

We asked Cronenberg how he feels about the term “body horror” (a sub-genre often associated with his father’s work) being applied to his film.

“I guess it depends how you define body horror,” says Cronenberg. “There are violent scenes in the film and I guess that fits into a certain aspect of body horror, but it isn’t really what I would necessarily describe as body horror. There’s a small amount of story stuff that I feel is legitimately a part of that genre, but it’s not [the] prime aspect of the story.”

Cronenberg confirmed that on-screen viscerality appeals to him in general as a filmmaker: “I think especially in genre, although it can be incredibly conceptual. It’s partly defined by deep visceral emotions, not always because of graphic violence or gore. Sometimes it can be a film primarily about dread or anxiety that I would still consider to be a horror film, and a lot of classic ghost films for instance are not graphic but are visceral and in that emotional sense.”

Actors Christopher Abbott and Andrea Riseborough with director Brandon Cronenberg. / Photo courtesy of the Sundance Institute

The violence in Possessor may have had audience members covering their eyes in Park City, but Cronenberg told us there was a point to all the grue.

“It wasn’t just there to be intense or to provoke people. It has a lot to do with character psychology, without giving too much away. The way it’s depicted and the various approaches that are taken in different scenes, very much relate to the main character, her relationship with violence, her own internal space and also where the audience is situated from a kind of more objective or more subjective position.”

[carmenlire]

Stolen Hearts

Happy Valentine’s Day Part II!

read on ao3

Walking through the Gallery, Alec feels anticipation trickle down his spine. This job was one of his bigger hauls and just the thought of getting his hands on the sixteenth century sculpture has has pulse spiking.

He’s a professional, though, and even if excitement is lighting him up on the inside, he’s outwardly calm and cool.

His black combat boots make no sound on the marble floor as he makes his unerring way towards the location of his target. Thankfully, the owners of this villa were away for the week-- off on a weekend getaway to Napa Wine Country-- and Alec had the place to himself.

Studying the blueprints and security system had been no mean feat and these twenty minutes are the culmination of dozens of man hours and months of careful planning.

Alec’s in the zone-- the plan seared onto his memory-- but he can’t keep his thoughts from straying.

To him.

Shaking his head impatiently at himself, he freezes at Isabelle’s hissed warning that sounds in his ear just as a random red laser appears across his path. He's still for sixty full seconds before it disappears and Alec breathes a minute sigh of relief as he resumes his route.

Making the final turn to where the stature is, Alec allows himself a grin. Truth be told, he was getting to old for this shit and he’d been thinking long and hard about getting out of the game. Everything seemed too tame, too stale. There was no fun in it any longer and Alec had amassed a fortune that he could live on for several lifetimes.

He had two more heists to carry out and then Alexander Lightwood, known in certain circles as the shadowhunter, was disappearing into myth and legend as a notorious thief and member of the White Collar’s Top Ten Most Wanted List.

Alec takes one step into the statue room of Aldertree’s mansion and freezes in his tracks.

“Son of a bitch.”

Isabelle is demanding answers through his ear piece but all Alec can focus on is the fucking cupcake sitting right where his prized Hercules and Antaeus statuette should be.

Putting his hands to his hips, Alec lets his head fall back to stare at the ceiling as he closes his eyes and counts to ten.

He gets to four before shaking his head and moving closer to where Magnus Bane had just ruined everything-- again.

“Goddamnit, Magnus,” Alec swears and he doesn’t even startle as a voice sounds behind him.

“You rang?”

Turning around, Alec glares at the man in front of him. He and Magnus had been dancing around each other for years. It had started out with the two of them bumping into each other while casing the same museum and five years later, Alec was more surprised than not when he didn’t run into Magnus during a job.

Alec’s gaze drops down to Magnus’s hands and he swears again, turning the air blue with his exasperation. “That’s my statue, Bane, and you know it.”

“Do I?” Magnus’s eyes narrow as he studies the piece in his hands. His smile is slow and makes Alec’s mouth dry when he continues insouciant, “Finders keepers, darling.”

“I’ve been researching Aldertree for six damn months, Magnus, and I’m not going to let you come in here at the eleventh hour and swipe Hercules and Antaeus right out from under me.”

Magnus doesn’t say anything for a few minutes, clearly thinking before he starts to nod slowly. “You know what, Alexander? You’re right. It is right dastardly of me to take what’s yours with impunity. Maybe-- just this once-- I’ll let you keep your little treasure.”

Immediately suspicious, Alec studies Magnus from where they stand several yards apart. The Gallery is eerily quiet and Alec can’t figure out what’s going on. Magnus has never let him have anything and it doesn’t make sense that he would start now.

“Why,” he asks warily. “Why would you hand a sculpture reputedly worth thirty two million dollars to me without arguing?”

Setting the statue down on the marble floor, the delicate ping of metal against marble is loud in the silence.

Magnus walks closer towards him and Alec can’t quite seem to get his wits about him. Magnus always looks good-- lethal yet elegant-- and tonight is no different. He wears black to distraction and his fitted pants look painted on.

Alec’s mouth waters no matter how many times he calls himself a fucking idiot for being attracted to the only man who’s just as sought after by the feds.

Magnus doesn’t stop until he’s standing right in front of Alec. They’re rarely so close and it’s been a few months since they’ve seen each other-- not since Alec had joined Magnus for a drink at his hideaway bar, The Hunter’s Moon, and warned him that word on the street was that Camille was about to go turncoat against Magnus in exchange for a lighter sentence.

The sharp intake of breath is achingly audible in the empty room and Magnus’s eyes fall down to Alec’s mouth for an earth shattering three seconds before he lifts them back up to meet Alec’s gaze.

“A little birdie told me that you’re going straight, darling.”

Chuckling, Alec’s eyes warm as he grins. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that if I was you, Magnus.”

Magnus immediately understands the hidden innuendo and he laughs too. Alec knows that it’s not his imagination when Magnus leans closer into his space.

“A poor choice of words on my part,” Magnus acknowledges wryly. “In any case, it looks like I won’t be running into you anymore in these dark, secluded spaces. More’s the pity,” Magnus says with an arched brow, “But I’m happy for you, Alexander. I hope that the next chapter of your life-- while frightfully dull and legal-- is just what you want.”

“So-- what? You’re just giving me Hercules and Antaeus because you want to throw me a bone?”

Magnus’s eyes light up and Alec glares at him, watches in amusement as his arch nemesis and greatest thorn in his side, makes a dramatic display of keeping his mouth closed.

Sighing, Magnus reaches for Alec’s chin. His grasp is firm and it’s astonishing how Alec doesn’t feel trapped. Quite the contrary, in fact. It’s absurd, but he feels safe.

“Want to know a secret?” Magnus doesn’t wait for Alec to agree before he’s continuing, “I’m leaving this life behind, too. Really, I’m already done and ready to set up a legitimate business. A night club in Brooklyn,” he confides to Alec who takes the news with a small pang.

“What are you doing here then,” Alec asks, tongue darting out to lick his lips.

“I heard you’d be here tonight and thought I’d give you a send-off. I couldn’t resist having a little fun with you, Alexander. You always make it so easy to ruffle your feathers.”

“So, what’s this? A goodbye?”

Tilting his head, Magnus regards Alec with a warm look, fondness overlaid with something that Alec can’t quite decipher.

“This is whatever you want it to be, darling.” His lips graze the shell of Alec’s ear as he whispers, “Happy Valentine’s Day, darling.”

Letting go of Alec, Magnus takes a step back. Adjusting his ear cuff, he jerks his chin towards the pedestal where the statue had sat and where currently resides a goddamn cupcake.

“I bought that especially for you, you know. Don’t forget it on your way out.”

Magnus is a few feet away when he finally pauses. He doesn’t say anything right away, instead taking the time to study Alec and give him a thorough once over.

His mouth tips up in a grin that barely moves his mouth, even if his eyes are dancing. “I hope I see you around, Alexander. Whatever the case, good luck and best wishes.”

Nodding somberly, Alec replies, “You too, Magnus. Thank you.”

His voice is quiet, trailing off at the end and with a last searing look, Alec turns around and leaves as quietly as he’d appeared.

Alec counts to thirty before he moves and then he goes directly to the pedestal. Once he sees the cupcake in full he laughs-- much louder than he should but he just can’t swallow the sound.

It’s a pink cupcake with swirling frosting. There’s a single candy heart in the middle that reads Cutie Pie.

It’s delightfully cheesy and Alec smiles. In the next minute, however, he sees the small white card underneath and is reaching for it before he even knows what’s happening.

The only thing on the front is his first name and when Alec opens it, there’s nothing but a phone number written in elegant script.

Alec feels butterflies kick at the potential this card represents, at the knowledge that Magnus wanted to continue their acquaintance even if they were both retired and logically, didn’t ever need to talk to each other again.

Sliding the card carefully into his pocket, Alec picks up the cupcake and holds it in a gentle hand while he takes the statue on his way out.

His last job is flawless as always and as promised, the shadowhunter is never heard from again, much to the FBI’s lasting exasperation.

For his part, Alec starts writing a book. It’s several months later when he has the draft to the first in a supposed adventure series about the fictional life of a world-renowned art thief finished. Sitting back in his chair, Alec looks away from the blinking cursor on his laptop screen and his gaze snags on the top drawer of his desk.

Reaching out, Alec slides the drawer open and takes out a pristine white card. He turns it in his hands and debates for a moment before reaching for his phone.

It might be a little late but Alec wonders what Magnus would think about an early-- very early-- Valentine’s Day dinner.

He wonders where one gets candy hearts this time of year.

[watusichris]

“Border Radio”: Where Punk Lived

Some years back, I wrote notes for the Criterion Collection’s edition of Allison Anders’ first feature Border Radio for the Criterion Collection. Tomorrow (June 3), Allison will gab about punk rock with John Doe, Tom DeSavia, and my illegitimate son Keith Morris at the Grammy Museum in L.A. in observance of the publication of the book we’re all in, More Fun in the New World (Da Capo).

**********

“You can’t expect other people to create drama for your life—they’re too busy creating it for themselves,” a punk groupie says at the conclusion of Border Radio. And the four reckless characters at the center of the film certainly manage to create plenty of drama for themselves. In the process, they paint a compelling picture of the Los Angeles punk-rock scene of the 1980s: what it was like on the inside—and what it was like inside the musicians’ heads. Border Radio (1987) was the first feature by three UCLA film students: Allison Anders, Kurt Voss, and Dean Lent. The subsequent work of both Anders and Voss would resonate with echoes from Border Radio and its musical milieu. Anders’s Gas Food Lodging (1992), Mi vida loca (1993), Grace of My Heart (1996), Sugar Town (1999), and Things Behind the Sun (2001) all draw to some degree from music and pop culture. (She quotes her mentor Wim Wenders’s remark about making The Scarlet Letter: “There were no jukeboxes. I lost interest.”) Voss, who co-wrote and codirected Sugar Town, also wrote and directed Down & Out with the Dolls (2001), a fictional feature about an all-girl band; and in 2006, he was completing Ghost on the Highway, a documentary about Jeffrey Lee Pierce, the late vocalist for the key L.A. punk group the Gun Club. The three filmmakers met at UCLA in the early eighties, after Anders and Voss had worked as production assistants on Wenders’s Paris, Texas. By that time, Anders and Voss, then a couple, were habitués of the L.A. club milieu; they favored the hard sound of such punk acts as X, the Blasters, the Flesh Eaters, the Gun Club, and Tex & the Horseheads. The neophyte writer-directors, who by 1983 had made a couple of short student films, formulated the idea of building an original script around a group of figures in the L.A. punk demimonde. Border Radio—which takes its title, and no little script inspiration, from a Blasters song (sung on the soundtrack by Rank & File’s Tony Kinman)—was conceived as a straight film noir. Vestiges of that origin can be seen in the finished film. Its lead character bears the name Jeff Bailey, also the name of Robert Mitchum’s doomed character in Jacques Tourneur’s 1947 noir Out of the Past; its Mexican locations also reflect a key setting in that bleak picture. One sequence features a pedal-boat ride around the same Echo Park lagoon where Jack Nicholson’s J. J. Gittes does some surveillance in Roman Polanski’s 1974 neonoir Chinatown; Chinatown itself—a hotbed of L.A. punk action in the late seventies and early eighties—features prominently in another scene. Certainly, Border Radio’s heist-based plot and the multiple betrayals its central foursome inflict upon each other are the stuff of purest noir. But the film diverges from its source in its largely sunlit cinematography and its explosions of punk humor; Anders, Voss, and Lent also abandoned plans to kill off the film’s lead female character. In casting their feature, the filmmakers turned to some able performers who were close at hand. The female lead was taken by Anders’s sister Luanna; her daughter was portrayed by Anders’s daughter Devon. Chris, Jeff’s spoiled, untrustworthy friend and roadie, was played by UCLA theater student Chris Shearer. The directors considered another student for the lead role of the tormented musician, Jeff, but Anders, in an inspired stroke, suggested Chris D. (né Desjardins), whose brooding, feral presence animated the Flesh Eaters. After being approached at a West L.A. club gig and initially expressing surprise at the filmmakers’ desire to cast him, the singer and songwriter signed on, and he helped recruit the other musicians in Border Radio. (A cineaste whose criticism often appeared in the local punk rag Slash, Desjardins would later write an authoritative book on Japanese yakuza films and write and direct the independent vampire film I Pass for Human. He is currently a programmer at the Los Angeles Cinematheque.) John Doe, bassist-vocalist for the celebrated L.A. punk unit X, and Dave Alvin, guitarist and songwriter for the top local roots act the Blasters, had both played with Chris D. in an edition of the Flesh Eaters. Doe—taking the first in a long list of film and TV roles—was cast as the duplicitous, drunken rocker Dean; Alvin makes an entertaining cameo appearance, essentially as himself, and wrote and performed the film’s score.Texacala Jones, frontwoman for the chaotic Tex & the Horseheads, does a hilarious turn as Devon’s addled babysitter. Iris Berry, later a member of the raucous all-female group the Ringling Sisters, portrays the self-absorbed groupie whose observations frame the film. Julie Christensen, Desjardins’ vocal partner in his latter-day group Divine Horsemen (and, for a time, his wife), essays a bit part as a club doorwoman. Seen in walk-ons are such local rockers as Tony Kinman, Flesh Eaters bassist Robyn Jameson, and punk hellion Texas Terri. The Arizona “paisley underground” transplants Green on Red and the local glam-punk outfit Billy Wisdom & the Hee Shees were captured in live performance. Those seeking punk verisimilitude could ask for nothing more. Border Radio had a torturous, piecemeal production history worthy of John Cassavetes. Shooting took place over a four-year period, from 1983 to 1987. Begun with two thousand dollars in seed money, supplied by actor Vic Tayback, the film scraped by on money given to Voss upon his 1984 graduation from UCLA, a loan from Lent’s parents, and cash and film stock cadged here and there. Violating UCLA policy, the filmmakers cut the film at night in the school’s editing bays, where Anders’s two young daughters would sleep on the floor. The film’s lack of a budget forced Anders, Voss, and Lent to shoot entirely on location; this enhanced the work, as far as the filmmakers were concerned, since they sought a naturalistic style and look for the feature. Lent’s Echo Park apartment doubled as Jeff’s home, while Anders and Voss’s trailer in Ensenada served as his Mexican hideout. The storied punk hangout the Hong Kong Café (whose neon sign can be seen fleetingly in Chinatown) was utilized, as were the East Side rehearsal studio Hully Gully, where virtually every local band of note honed their chops, and the music shop Rockaway Records (one of the few punk stores of the day still around). Befitting the work of film students on their maiden directorial voyage, Border Radio evinces the heavy influence of both the French new wave of the sixties and the New German Cinema of the seventies. The confident use of improvisation—the cast is credited with “additional dialogue and scenario”—recalls such early nouvelle vague works as Breathless. The ongoing “interview” device immediately recalls Jean-Pierre Léaud’s face-to-face with “Miss 19” in Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin féminin, while Shearer’s shambling comedic outbursts are reminiscent of the sudden madcap eruptions in François Truffaut’s early films. The work of the Germans is felt most in the great pictorial beauty of Lent’s black-and-white compositions; certain striking moments—a languid, 360-degree pan around Ensenada’s bay; an overhead shot of Chris’s foreign roadster wheeling in circles in a cul-de-sac—summon memories of Wenders’s and Werner Herzog’s most indelible images. (Lent would go on to work as a cinematographer on nearly thirty pictures.) Though the styles and effects of these predecessors are on constant display, Border Radio moves beyond simple imitation, thanks to a sensibility that is uniquely of its time, spawned directly from the scene it depicts so faithfully. Though putatively a “music film,” very little music is actually on view in the picture; mere snatches of two songs are actually performed on-screen. The truest reflection of the period’s punk ethos can be found in the restlessness, anger, self-deception, and anomie of its Reagan-era protagonists. In Border Radio, one can see what punk rock looked like, all the way to the margins of the frame: in the flyers for L.A. bands like the Alley Cats, the Gears, and the Weirdos taped in a club hallway, in the poster for Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein and the calendars of L.A. repertory movie houses tacked on apartment walls, in the thrift-store togs and rock-band T-shirts (street clothes, really) worn by the players. But, more importantly, the shifting tragicomic tone of the film, the energy and attitude of its musician performers, and the uneasy rhythms of its characters’ lives present a real sense of the reality of L.A. punkdom in the day. Put into limited theatrical release in 1987, by the company that distributed the popular surf movie Endless Summer—a film that offers a picture of a very different L.A.—Border Radio was not widely seen and later received only an elusive videocassette release through Pacific Arts (the home-video firm founded, ironically enough, by Michael Nesmith of the prefab sixties rock group the Monkees). With this Criterion Collection edition, the film can finally be seen as the overlooked landmark that it is: possibly the only dramatic film to capture the pulse of L.A. punk—not as it played, but as it felt. (Thanks to Allison Anders for her invaluable contributions.)

[uomo-accattivante]

(Photo by BACKGRID)

SCREENPLAY REVIEW - TRIPLE FRONTIER

Below is a review I recently came across. (I’m not sure if this version is the updated one which includes input by JC Chandor.) 

Pope - Oscar Isaac

Redfly - Ben Affleck

Ben - Garrett Hedlund

Ironhead - Charlie Hunnam

Catfish - Pedro Pascal

Be forewarned - the following review contains SPOILERS:

***

Screenplay Review - Triple Frontier

Genre: Crime/Action

Premise: A group of ex-special forces come together to steal 90 million dollars from a drug lord in the most criminally potent area of the world, the Triple Frontier.

About: Triple Frontier is one of those projects that’s been impossible to get made. It’s had more starts and stops than my neighbor’s 1999 Volkswagon Jetta. But no matter how much talent has come and gone, the project has always been able to replace them with either equal or better talent. That’s typically the sign of great material. That’s because when you have bad material and A-listers drop out, you never get any A-listers back. Your project is doomed to second-tier status. Well, all that waiting has paid off as the film is now in post-production. It stars Charlie Hunman, Oscar Isaac, and Ben Affleck. J.C. Chandor (Margin Call, A Most Violent Year) directed. Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) wrote the script.

Writer: Mark Boal

Details: 136 pages

The heist is one of the most bankable structures in storytelling. Get a group of contrasting characters together (Act 1), give them something they want to steal (Act 3), then slowly build a plan for achieving their goal (Act 2). It’s almost full-proof. And yet, we don’t get a lot of good heist films. In fact, I can’t remember the last one I saw.

That’s because the heist film is one of the most difficult genres to come up with something fresh for. Most of the heist scripts I read involve stealing money from a bank. There just aren’t that many ways to make that premise original. So I was thrilled when I picked up Triple Frontier, which promised to be a new take on the heist genre. Let’s see if it succeeded.

Ex-Special Forces operator Pope has gotten tired of missions to remote parts of the world where he guides local police to take down giant drug dealers. It’s more death, more destruction, and he thought he left all that behind with the special forces. The problem is, a man needs to make a living. And these missions are the only thing Pope knows how to do that pay good money.

Then one day, a Brazilian drug runner discloses to Pope the location of one of the biggest drug runners in the world, Lorea. Lorea has a home in Paraguay right off the criminally infamous Triple Frontier (the nexus of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina), where he’s holding 90 million dollars. With Pope’s unique skillset, he believes he can break in the house and get that money. But he’s going to need some help.

Enter his ex special forces buddies: the all-American Redfly, the bipolar Ben, the wily old vet, Ironhead, and the cool-as-a-cucumber Catfish. Some of the men are reluctant and others reared up and ready to go. But in the end, because there wouldn’t be a movie unless they all signed up, they all sign up.

Once in the Triple Frontier, the group begins doing surveillance and planning. And when I say planning, I mean planning. Pope gets his hands on the blueprints for Lorea’s house and builds an EXACT REPLICA in the jungle so that they can practice the heist. But that’s only the beginning of this mission impossible, as they have to figure out shit like how five men can carry away 4500 pounds of money on foot, and how they can escape through a backyard that rings an alarm if anything over 20 pounds steps on it.

After extensively perfecting their plan, they wait out an unexpected rainstorm and sneak in. Everything goes according to plan until they arrive in the money room and… it’s gone. Not a single bill. Just as everyone starts freaking out, Pope notices that the ceiling is leaking. They moved the money during the storm so it wouldn’t get wet! But that means going through every room one by one to find it.

As you’d expect, this leads to them being spotted, and within seconds there are three dozen guards converging on them. The soldiers go into fuck-all mode and start shooting everyone. They know the gig is up. They know they should leave. But they’ve put so much effort into this that they must have that money. So after the money they go. Will they get it? I’m thinking they’ll find a way. But the real test may be what happens AFTER they get the money.

Uhhhh…

This. Was. Good.

Wow.

I’m talking really really good.

Where do I begin? Let’s start with the heist itself. What’s the number rule for writing a good heist film? It’s not what goes right, it’s what goes wrong. Your job, as a writer of a heist flick, is to have your criminals cover all the bases, make sure they’ve found contingencies for every situation, and then when they show up, something goes wrong. And that thing that goes wrong leads to several other things that go wrong. And quickly, the whole damn heist falls apart.

I LOVED when they arrived in the money room and the money wasn’t there. Even when my cynical screenwriting analyst brain kicked in and said, “Of course they were duped. That’s what always happens!” But then Pope looked up and saw the leaking and realized the money had been moved and I said, “oooooooh, that’s good.”

I loved how the script evolved from there. Because what I was expecting to happen is what always happened in these mid-point heist films (a script where the heist happens at the mid point instead of the third act): They get the money home but then the bad guys come and hunt them down.

Triple Frontier instead focuses on the complexity of getting this money out of the country. The special forces guys rent a helicopter, only to find out that the money (which has increased from 90 million to 600 million at this point) will be too heavy. But they decide to risk it anyway, and fly their copter through the endless South American mountain forest. When the mountains start getting too high, they have to make the unthinkable choice of dropping the money and living or keeping the money and likely spiraling into the most hostile terrain in the world.

That was one of the best scenes I’ve read this year, besting even the Mission Impossible Fallout helicopter chase. And I’ll tell you why. It wasn’t just a simple helicopter chase. Difficult choices needed to be made. They MIGHT have been able to make it through the mountains if they kept the money. But they likely wouldn’t have. How do you make that decision? The decision to throw away 600 million dollars?

But the script isn’t just the heist. Boal made the bold choice of using the entire first act to get the band back together. This is a controversial screenwriting choice because modern screenwriting outlets will tell you to move this section along as quickly as possible. A short burst of scenes that has the band back together and ready to go by page 10, page 15 at the latest. They’re afraid that if you include an entire opening act of characters reuniting and talking and establishing their jobs and lives, that the average audience member will get bored.

But the great thing that happens when you extend your character intros out that far is that we get to know the characters better. I mean, it’s simple math. The more time you spend with someone, fictional or real, the more you’re going to care about them. Therefore, when these guys flew off to the Triple Frontier, I felt like I knew each of them. The extra time really paid off.

Now there’s a caveat to this. You have to be good with character to pull it off. You have to know how to set up a flaw. You have to know how to make your characters unique. You have to give each character a defining personality that’s easy for the audience to understand so they can label him properly (Chris Kyle was the introspective sniper). Each character’s dialogue has to be unique and interesting. If character isn’t your strong suit, don’t spend an entire act getting the band back together.

The fact that this script has been sitting on the shelf for so long is insane. I’m guessing it’s because Ben Affleck has a million projects to do and he’s in rehab half the year and they had to wait for him. I’m just glad the wait is over. Cause this movie is going to be damn good.

[ ] What the hell did I just read? [ ] wasn’t for me [ ] worth the read [x] impressive [ ] genius

What I learned: Find a unique place in the world that isn’t well known and build a story around it. What makes Triple Frontier so good is that we’d never heard of the Triple Frontier before. It hasn’t been in any movie. It creates the all important “strange attractor” we can exploit for one hell of a heist film.

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