#about our experiences in the entertainment industry

[jmdbjk]

Wow.

I can't leave to enjoy a few days vacation without the world falling apart?

Hybe vs. Min HeeJin. Not on anyone's bingo card this year. I have not caught up on everything but who tipped off Hybe about her dastardly plans? The timing of it all... and her little extemporaneous skit she did for a press conference was perhaps part of her plan to turn public opinion in her favor? She claims to have invented kpop or at least made it what it is today but out the other side of her mouth says she hates idol culture?

Hybe's not here to play, they will not be nice. I see no benefit to her for showing us the not so pretty side of the idol industry. Maybe that's her problem, she can't see what she's doing because she's too far into it. Thirty years in the business will make you lose your objectivity. She has no idea she is coming across as a greedy, spoiled, entitled, manipulative, narcissistic, emotional female in a male dominated industry. Basically a nut case.

The lady had a tremendous opportunity to perhaps take ownership of her company in due time, become a great example for female leadership in a country where corporate culture is steeped in chaebolism. Instead she squandered that and thinks she will come out on top. Did she miss the Hybe vs. SM Entertainment episode from last year?

Anyway.

RM's new album! RPWP!

The Monochrome pop up store is doing well!

Jin will be back after 6 Fridays!

In other news. I went to Las Vegas. This is what I saw:

The Bellagio Fountains. They're huge. The Bellagio is SWANK. I looked for Jimin in Dior and Tiffany, Hobi in the Louis Vuitton store, Namjoon in the Bottega Veneta store, but none of them were in there. There was no Calvin Klein store.

When Hobi, JK and Tae were there watching the fountains dance to Dynamite, they were standing here:

Passed by Allegiant Stadium a few times. It's huge.

Drove out to Seven Magic Mountains. I am happy to report the lowest boulders had no writing or graffiti. They were amazingly huge as you can see.

Joon's pic of the above rocks:

Went to AREA 15 and it was HUGE and amazing! It's impossible to show everything that its about, there are multiple buildings and installations and activities, gift shops, bars, etc. We went into the Omega Mart (mega art) experience which led to a maze of fantastically created chambers, each different from the last one, all pulsing with animated lights, texture walls, ceilings and floors.

And ate at Hobak Korean BBQ. We couldn't find out which tables the members of BTS sat at but I got a pic of the Butter album they all signed. There were other autographs from other famous Korean celebs but the BTS signatures were displayed in a more prominent place on the wall.

We also scoped out The Sphere. Also HUGE. The concert space is arena sized. I don't know who was playing there that night but the parking lot was filling up.

We also walked the Strip.

The Fremont Street Experience. That's an animated video screen overhead with ziplines running through the length of it. It's two blocks of casinos, restaurants and gift shops. People are also doing busking and shows at street level.

Hoover Dam, view of the dam from the highway bridge and view of the highway bridge from the dam. Spent a few minutes on the Arizona side.

Hiked in the desert. Saw cactus and wildlife. Drank a lot of water.

Drove to the Mojave Desert Preserve in California just to say we did.

We hated leaving. It was a fun trip. But damn, I have so much stuff to catch up on now. Hiatus my ass.

If Vegas is on the BTS comeback tour I promise I will be there this time.

We gambled at the airport on our way out. The slot machines were next to our gate. And in the baggage claim area. But as you can see, its not just about gambling there.

In case you didn't get it, everything in Vegas is HUUUGGE and FARRRR. Walk a lot, spend a lot of money.

Overall, Las Vegas was clean, the people were extremely friendly and welcoming of course, they might be teaching hospitality as a school subject there, I don't know.

#what happens in vegas stays in vegas #until i post all my pics here #so regretful that i didnt go to ptd in vegas #we also unknowingly drove past the millenium dance center #where bts rehearsed while in las vegas

[musical-chick-13]

Once again hating that Long-Distance Best Friend is long-distance and so far away from me, why is the universe so cruel and unsympathetic to me.

#best fren <3 #what do you MEAN I can't talk to her every day like I used to #what do you MEAN I can't drive to where she is in almost zero time to watch tv on her couch and make budget cosplays while complaining #about our experiences in the entertainment industry #WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T GO TO TACO BELL WITH HER AT 2 AM #DESIGN FLAW

[staff]

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

#tumblr #engineering #core product strategy

[sokosmic]

Love, Values & Money:

Venus Thru the Houses

Venus, often known as the planet of love, beauty, and money, holds a profound influence in astrology, symbolizing what and how we value life's treasures. It governs our affection, the way we express love, and our aesthetic preferences, shaping our attractions and the pleasure we derive from art, beauty, and social interactions. Beyond the realms of the heart, Venus also dictates our financial wellbeing, highlighting paths to prosperity through what we cherish and find joy in. It reflects our approach to money, from earning to spending, emphasizing the importance of harmony and satisfaction in our material pursuits. Essentially, Venus serves as a guide that illuminates our desires, and defines our sense of beauty. It also steers our financial ventures towards fulfillment and balance. Understanding Venus's placement and aspects in a birth chart can unlock secrets to navigating relationships, financial success, and uncovering what truly brings us joy.

Venus 1st House -

You love working on your self-image. You value your independence. You make money through your creative pursuits. You love sticking up for the underdog. You value confidence. You make money in leadership positions. You love showcasing individual expression. You value authenticity and charm.

Venus 2nd House -

You make money in the food industry. You value your own self-worth. You love material comfort. You make money in real estate or business related fields. You value sensuality, physical touch, and gifts. You love creating an aesthetically pleasing environment. You make money in joint ventures or by building partnerships. You value being rewarded for hard efforts. You love luxury items. You make money with wise investments or through avenues that appreciate value over time.

Venus 3rd House -

You value your mind. You love to talk. You value good communication. You make money in your local community. You value your siblings. You love a nice vehicle. You make money in sales or commerce. You value facts or the opportunity to learn new things. You love to research. You make money as a researcher or writer. You love taking short trips.

Venus 4th House -

You value family. You love your mother. You make money in real estate or by having a family business. You love your childhood memories. You value security or being secure. You love emotional expression. You make money working from home. You value your intuition. You love being a homebody. You make money researching history.

Venus 5th House -

You value creativity and pleasure. You love expressing yourself through artistic or creative endeavors, finding joy in romance and leisure activities. You make money through the arts, entertainment industry, or any field that allows your creative juices to flow. You value joyful experiences and love affairs. You love investing into creative projects. You make money in businesses related to leisure and entertainment.

Venus 6th House -

You value service, health, and daily routines. You love helping others and are passionate about improving well-being for yourself and those around you. You make money in health care, the wellness industry, or services aimed at enhancing others' lives. You love animals or caring for people or animals that require help. You value efficiency and practical solutions. You make money in administrative roles or businesses focused on efficiency or making improvements.

Venus 7th House -

You value relationships and partnerships deeply. You love when interactions are harmonious and fair. You make money in legal fields, counseling, or through partnerships that require a balanced approach. You love social gatherings and networking. You value collaboration and partnerships. You make money via marriage or from a partner. You value compromise and diplomacy.

Venus 8th House -

You love exploring the depths of relationships. You value transformation, intimacy, and shared resources. You make money in finance, investments, or managing other people's resources. You love researching occult topics and taboo subjects. You value psychoanalysis or digging into fields dealing with crisis or trauma. You make money with an esoteric or occult business.

Venus 9th House -

You value adventure, philosophy, and higher learning. You love traveling and exploring different cultures. You make money through education, publishing, or international business or travel. You value freedom of belief and wisdom. You love engaging in philosophical debates and spiritual quests. You make money from religious or spiritual leadership, or as a cultural ambassador.

Venus 10th House -

You love achieving goals and gaining recognition. You value aspects of career, reputation, and your public image. You make money in high-ranking positions, the arts, or public relations. You love to plan and structure for success. You value ambition and responsibility. You make money in entrepreneurship or industries that value tradition and prestige.

Venus 11th House -

You value friendships, community, and your goals for the future. You love social reform and working within groups. You make money through technology, innovation, or community-driven projects. You value individuality and collective progress. You love unique expression and the freedom to be authentic. You make money in networking and social movements, such as non-profit organizations or social enterprises.

Venus 12th House -

You love spending time alone. You value your spiritual connection to Source. You value your privacy. You make money working remotely or in isolated environments. You love visiting far away lands. You make money from embracing your spiritual path. You love fantasy genres. You value compassion. You make money working in hospitals or prisons.

#astrology #astrologist #astrologer #venus #venus 1st house #venus 2nd house #venus 3rd house #venus 4th house #venus 5th house #venus 6th house #venus 7th house #venus 8th house #venus 9th house #venus 10th house #venus 11th house #venus 12th house #venus through houses #venus in houses #venus astrology #sokosmic #mykosmiclife

[alwaysbewoke]

our entire political system is flawed, but

you're not going to change it in one election to perfection; what you can absolutely do is make everything worse in one election. also, you can acknowledge that the system needs work and that you want more without lying and pretending as if it has produced nothing positive for you. the problem right now with many people is that you guys want an instant solution. you want an instant fix. however, there is no such thing. there will not be one election or one candidate or one bill that's going to fix this. this is going to take long-term, strategic, methodical work for us to make it right, and i can tell right now that many people are not up for the task. they're too weak, but they won't be weak enough to complain, make videos, tweets, ig posts, reels, tiktoks, blog posts and whatever whining when shit hits the fan. they'll be the first ones howling at the moon and gnashing their teeth without taking responsibility for the part they played in the shitstorm.

here's some simple advice: pack the senate and congress with hardcore progressives. hardcore progressives. and then go to your local election and pack that with hardcore progressives again. but by no means should any of us accept any talk or strategy that gives the republicans power. at some point, you've got to stop playing checkers in a chess game.

however, the problem is this point of view should have been adopted in 2016. i fear that it might actually be too late because people played checkers in the chess game knowing full well that whoever won that election was going to have at least one supreme court pick. that winner actually got three and now has set this country back for the foreseeable future. generations are going to be feeling that pain. we missed out on critical years to address climate change. the voting rights of black people have been completely undermined. the educational opportunities for black people have also been undermined. discrimination against gay people has been affirmed. we saw the death of millions of americans at the hands of a global pandemic that was profoundly mishandled, and yet having seen and experience all of this people are willing to entertain the idea of allowing those in power who did all this to get even more power again. UNBELIEVABLE! people like that deserve ridicule.

if you actually care about black lives, people of color, trans rights, gay rights, healthcare, education, palestine, dr congo, police brutality, child poverty, climate change, restoring democracy, voting rights, equitable access to all levels of education, ending the prison industrial complex, women's rights, and etc do not entertain any talk about taking actions that will give republicans power. not in the short term. not in the long term. don't let your anger and your disappointment force your hand into making things worse for yourself and others. there's already been widespread voter suppression so if you think you're going to give republicans all that power and then vote to take it away from them down the line when everything is more to your liking, you are delusional. if you really want to change things (like for real, you're not just talking shit about "progress"),here are some insightful videos:

#FuckBidenButHellToTheNoOnAnyRepublican

#politics #reality check #fuck biden but hell no to republicans #voting #palestine

[astro-atlas]

✧･ﾟ:*(ꈍ ꒳ ꈍ✿)*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧・

☀️「Astro notes • 03 」☀️

✧ ༻🍊༻ ꕥ ༺🍯༺ ✧

　 ☼*ੈ✩‧₊˚ Our Summer/TXT *ੈ✩‧₊˚ ☼

1:45 ───ㅇ───── 3:41

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

✧ ༻🍊༻ ꕥ ༺🍯༺ ✧

🍁 To see your social standing and relationship with the public; look at Venus, 7th house and 10th house

Venus opposite Uranus: lone wolf, misunderstood genius, not afraid to speak up

Venus conjunct Jupiter: many friends and acquaintances, generally well-liked

Ruler of the 10th house square Pluto: general distrust of public opinion, is wary and critical of everything too popular

Mars in 10th house: seen as the top dog, at the top of the social ladder

Saturn in 7th house: keeps everyone at an arm’s length, seen as cold but trustworthy

7th house ruler in 5th house: charming and entertaining, could end up having romantic relationships with friends

🍑 North node in 11th is destined to speak up against outdated beliefs and to form a community

🧶 Saturn sextile Mars has great leadership abilities

🎃 Saturn square Mars doesn’t like following rules and orders

🦊 Saturn trine Mars is at ease with rules and authority BUT if Mars is making a positive aspect (conjunction included) to Uranus or Mercury they could break the rules secretly or only when they find them unnecessary

🥮 Fire moons are suitable for working in the entertainment industry

🏵️ Virgo values respect and professionalism, Taurus values competency and elegance, Capricorn values transparency and efficiency

👘 Sagittarius placements are funny and easygoing but behind closed doors they prefer to sit with their thoughts and contemplate on issues they care about

🍹 Ruler of the 12th house in the 1st house has the “sleep deprived gamer” look

🦁 Sun square Ascendant feels like no matter what they do they can’t fully be themselves around others. To see how one can ease this feeling, referring to the ruler of the Ascendant would be useful

Ruler of the Ascendant in the 4th house: it’ll be easier for you to be yourself when you’re in places familiar to you and when you feel secure and comfortable

Ruler of the Ascendant in the 5th house: you’ll feel more like yourself when you’re doing creative things and when you’re around children

Ruler of the Ascendant in the 9th house: you can express yourself with ease when you’re overseas or when you’re discussing deep matters. Learning new languages can be useful too as you may find it easier to speak your mind when you’re speaking in another language

✧ ༻🍊༻ ꕥ ༺🍯༺ ✧

Thank you so much for reading, I am not a professional and these are simply observations and my personal thoughts. Use mobile and dark mode for the best viewing experience

✧ ༻🍊༻ ꕥ ༺🍯༺ ✧

#✨madebyatlas✨ #astro observations #astro notes #astrology #astrology notes #astrology observations #astroblr

[maxwellatoms]

Do you think the new division of Cartoon Network Studios will end up exploiting and abusing AI to make new cartoons of their old properties?

I wouldn't put it past any studio to do this.

We're at the end of The Animation Industry As We Know It, so studios are going to do anything and everything they can to stay alive.

The way I see it is:

AI "art" isn't actually art. Art is created by humans to express ideas and emotions. Writing prompts allows a computer to interpret human ideas and emotions by taking other examples of those things and recombining them.

Just because something isn't art doesn't mean that humans can't understand it or find it beautiful. We passed a really fun prompt generation milestone about a year ago where everything looked like it was made by a Dadaist or someone on heavy psychedelics. Now we're at the Uncanny Valley stage. Soon, you won't be able to tell the difference.

It's not just drawings and paintings that are effected, but writing and film. It's every part of the entertainment industry. And the genie is out of the bottle. I've seen people saying that prompt-based image generators have "democratized" art. And I see where they're coming from. In ten years, I can easily see a future where anyone can sit down at their desk, have a short conversation with their computer, and have a ready-to-watch, custom movie with flawless special effects, passable story, and a solid three act structure. You want to replace Harrison Ford in Star Wars with your little brother and have Chewbacca make only fart sounds, and then they fly to Narnia and fistfight Batman? Done.

But, sadly, long before we reach that ten year mark, the bots will get hold of this stuff and absolutely lay waste to existing art industries. Sure, as a prompter I guess you can be proud of the hours or days you put into crafting your prompts, but you know what's better than a human at crafting prompts? Bots. Imagine bots cranking out hundreds of thousands of full-length feature films per minute. The noise level will squash almost any organic artist or AI prompter out of existence.

AI images trivialize real art. The whole point of a studio is to provide the money, labor, and space to create these big, complicated art projects. But if there are no big, complicated art projects, no creatives leading the charge, and no employees to pay... what the fuck do we need studios for? We won't, but their sheer wealth and power will leave them forcing themselves on us for the rest of our lives.

The near future will see studios clamp down on the tech in order to keep it in their own hands. Disney does tons of proprietary tech stuff, so I'm sure they're ahead of the game. Other studios will continue to seek mergers until they can merge with a content distribution platform. I've heard rumors of Comcast wanting to buy out either WB or Nick. That's the sort of thing I'm talking about. The only winners of this game will be the two or three super-huge distribution platforms who can filter out enough of the spam (which they themselves are likely perpetuating) to provide a reasonable entertainment experience.

400,000 channels and nothing's on.

I do think that money will eventually make the "you can't copyright AI stuff" thing go away. There's also the attrition of "Oh, whoops! We accidentally put an AI actor in there and no one noticed for five years, so now it's cool."

One way or another, it's gonna be a wild ride. As the canary in the coal mine, I hope we can all get some UBI before I'm forced to move into the sewers and go full C.H.U.D.

#maxwell atoms #ai generated #prompters #c.h.u.d.

[kienava]

ok yes the whole situation with studios vs the wga/sag is scary for many reasons. this isn’t about tv shows getting delayed. it’s about basic working rights and the terrifying discussion over whether or not it’s cool to replace artists with AI if it helps the bottom line. 

what’s so reassuring to me in spite of the daily horrors is that these studio execs who think they’re going to starve writers out of striking are completely out of touch. in trying to cut costs and maximize profits, they have created a system where writers and actors and all sorts of other entertainment industry folks are used to struggling. we know how to hustle because it’s the only way for us to survive in their fucked up little game.

unless you’re a nepo baby or have incredible connections, you’re probably going to have some tight years trying to “break in.” and i hate the phrase “break in,” because it implies that once you’re in, you’re in. that’s not the case. you have to keep working your ass off just to have a chance at finding your next gig. i know people with 10+ years of experience who couldn’t find work in the past year just because there were rumors of a strike and shows were getting delayed.

most of the people i’ve worked with in animation already have to have multiple income streams because the gig economy doesn’t consistently pay our rent. so. in short. yes the studios are saying horrifying, cruel things, but they also have absolutely no idea what they’re up against. anyways fuck the amptp and support the strikes

#wga strike #sag strike #source: i have worked in animation for several years #and i helped unionize my last studio #striking works and unionizing works #if studios are pushing back it's because they're scared #and they fucking should be <3

[aysathenotsogreat]

hbomberguy posted a video and i have opinions about it

i never made the active choice to stop watching James Somerton's content but when i stopped having a job that'd let me listen to videos for hours straight, I slowly became interested in other creators. i remember finding a couple of his videos contradictory in their analysis and do remember being annoyed by the "white women/teenager girls" comments a lot. oh yeah and that TELOS PICTURES ALWAYS REEKED OF A SCAM. Hearing James describe himself as a business major first in the pitch video weirded me the hell out. I feel like not enough people are talking about this particular part of the story but the man crowdfunded $60k USD and has produced nothing but stock image posters in return after years.

this man saw his community as nothing but to steal from and profit off of and clearly sees himself above those voices he robs. the point in the video that broke me was right in the beginning in the james half was the Mulan section. the tactic of erasing Jes Tom's words and passing it off as a personal observation of the community instantly reminded me of all the times James has confidently talked on the experiences of trans, nb and all queer people of color throughout his career and the fucking similarity of the language. that moment made me pause and scream. it instantly put into scale that this wasn't just one of the first video essays he'd ever made, it was EVERYTHING.

I want to pretend the queer media I see is made from a place of genuine care of the community, all of us do. but we as a collective need to stop catering to the consumption of content sludge. we need to be more critical and more aware. any time james mispronounced a character or place's name, i would always brush it off as a bad voice take kept in because of the videos' length that wasn't fixed in production. no, that was because james didn't care enough to learn the principle facts of the topics he was covering. (him spelling "shonan" in that AoT script made lose it). he wanted our ad revenue and your patreon money and by stealing the work of actually talented queer people, he basically won.

hbomberguy, lovely chaos bisexual, did a service to our community by making sure millenial and zoomer queers will never let this mf try to grift his way into the entertainment industry again. i have more to say about this video, especially illuminaughii bc she's an especially abusive and toxic person who i also watched a fuck ton at my old job. i certainly need be a bit better about where i get my info from, especially if i'm going to be repeating it to someone else. in the age of tiktok and the speed of misinfo there being insane, i just beg us young queers to think a bit more critically before we post.

#hbomberguy #james somerton #queer discourse time baby

[cool-fancier]

A Passionate Celebration

Synopsis: Your love and passion for music brought the two of you together, and continued to chase your dreams side by side, forever grateful for the serendipitous moment that brought you together.

A/n: sexual content,portrayal of the K-pop industry.Fictional story, emotions and experiences may differ from reality. Bada, a is portrayed as a supportive and loving partner.

Word count: 1.5K

As a successful K-pop idol, your journey to stardom was not without it’s challenges. Growing up in a small town, you had always dreamt of becoming a singer, but the path to achieving that dream seemed like an impossible feat.

You auditioned for various talent shows and agencies, facing rejection after rejection. But you refused to give up. Determined to make your mark in the music industry, you poured your heart and soul into every performance, honing your skills and perfecting your craft.

One fateful day, as you were about to give up hope, fate intervened. You received a call from a prestigious entertainment company, offering you a chance to audition. Filled with excitement and nervous anticipation, you prepared meticulously, pouring all your energy into showcasing your talent.

The day of the audition arrived, and as you stepped into the company's building, your heart pounded with a mixture of anxiety and hope. You sang your heart out, pouring every ounce of passion into your performance. The room fell silent, and you held your breath, waiting for a response.

To your disbelief, the judges smiled and applauded. They saw something special in you, a spark that set you apart from the rest. You were offered a trainee contract, and your journey as a K-pop idol began.

For years, you trained tirelessly, pushing yourself to the limit, honing your vocal abilities, perfecting your dance moves, and immersing yourself in the world of K-pop. You faced countless sleepless nights, grueling rehearsals, and demanding schedules, but you never lost sight of your dream.

During your training years, you crossed paths with Bada, a fellow dancer who exuded talent and charisma. You both instantly connected, sharing the same passion for dance and the same drive to succeed. You both became each other's support system, encouraging one another through the highs and lows of your training journey.

As time went on, your bond grew stronger, and Bada's talent became undeniable. She started as a dancer, captivating everyone with her fluid movements and impeccable technique. Her dedication and passion for her craft were evident in every step she took.

Bada's talent caught the attention of the higher-ups at your agency, SM Entertainment. Recognizing her potential, they offered her the opportunity to train as a choreographer. Ecstatic and eager to expand her horizons, Bada embraced the new role with open arms.

She immersed herself in the art of choreography, studying different styles and techniques, and collaborating with renowned choreographers within the industry. Bada's creativity knew no bounds as she poured her heart and soul into crafting mesmerizing routines that would leave audiences in awe.

As both of your careers continued to flourish, Bada's role as a choreographer became increasingly vital. She not only created captivating dance routines for our performances but also worked with other artists within the agency, helping them bring their music to life through the power of movement.

Bada's dedication and talent were recognized by the industry, earning her a reputation as one of the most sought-after choreographers in K-pop. Her innovative choreography became synonymous with perfection, capturing the essence of each song and elevating it to new heights.

Your paths intertwined professionally and personally, as you both found ourselves collaborating on numerous projects. Bada's choreography complemented your music perfectly, enhancing the emotional impact of your performances. Together, you created moments on stage that left audiences breathless and craving more.

Behind closed doors, your relationship blossomed into something beautiful and passionate. You found solace in each other's arms, supporting and understanding the pressures that came with your careers. Bada's unwavering belief in you fueled your drive to succeed, and you became the artist you had always aspired to be.

Through the years, Bada's talent and love for dance continued to flourish, solidifying her place as a respected choreographer within SM Entertainment. With every routine she created, Bada pushed the boundaries of what was possible, leaving an indelible mark on the world of K-pop.

As your love story intertwined with your professional journeys, you became each other's pillars of strength, celebrating each other's successes and weathering the storms that came our way. Your love and passion for music brought the two of you together, and continued to chase your dreams side by side, forever grateful for the serendipitous moment that brought you together.

— — — — — —

The pressure to maintain a perfect image and deliver exceptional music was immense. But tonight was different. Tonight, you had achieved something extraordinary. Your latest album had reached number one on the charts, solidifying your status as a top artist in the industry.

Bada, your girlfriend, knew exactly how hard you had worked to achieve this milestone. She had been your rock, supporting you through the highs and lows of your career. You couldn't wait to share this incredible moment with her.

As you stepped into your shared apartment, the scent of Bada's favorite candle filled the air. Soft music played in the background, creating an atmosphere of warmth and intimacy. You followed the trail of rose petals scattered across the floor, leading you to the bedroom.

There, you found Bada waiting for you, her eyes sparkling with pride and love. She looked stunning, her hair cascading down her shoulders, her smile radiant. Your heart swelled with joy at the sight of her.

"Congratulations, my love," Bada said, her voice filled with genuine admiration. "You did it. I'm so proud of you."

YouI couldn't help but blush at her words, feeling a mixture of excitement and vulnerability. Bada had seen you at your best and worst, and her unwavering support meant the world to you. You closed the distance between you two , wrapping your arms around her.

"Thank you, Bada," you whispered, your voice filled with emotion. "I couldn't have done it without you."

Bada's arms encircled you, holding you close as she pressed a tender kiss to your forehead. In that moment, you felt an overwhelming surge of love and gratitude for the woman standing before you. You knew that this celebration would be unlike any other.

As Bada pulled away, a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. She took your hand and led you to the bed, guiding you to sit on the edge. With a playful smile, she knelt before you, her hands gently massaging your thighs.

"You deserve to be celebrated, my love," Bada murmured, her voice laced with desire. "Tonight, I want to show you just how proud I am of you."

Your breath hitched at her words, anticipation coursing through your veins. Bada had always known how to make you feel special, but this time, it felt different. It felt like a celebration of your success, an acknowledgment of your hard work and dedication.

Bada's touch was electrifying as her hands moved higher, inching closer to your core. Your leaned back, supporting yourself on your hands, your back arched in anticipation. She looked up at you, her eyes filled with adoration and desire.

"I want to make you feel as incredible as you make me feel," Bada said, her voice husky with arousal. "Tonight, it's all about you."

A surge of heat rushed through you, your body responding eagerly to her words. You spread your legs, inviting her in, as Bada's fingers traced teasing circles on your inner thighs. The anticipation built, a delicious ache growing between your legs.

Bada's touch became more deliberate, her fingers dancing along your sensitive skin. Every stroke, every caress sent jolts of pleasure through you, heightening your arousal. You moaned softly, your eyes locked with Bada's, as she slowly leaned in, her breath hot against your skin.

Her lips brushed against your inner thighs, teasingly close to where you craved her touch. You trembled with anticipation, your body yearning for the contact you so desperately desired. Bada's hands gripped your hips, holding you in place as her tongue flicked against your sensitive flesh.

A gasp escaped your lips as pleasure rippled through you, your body arching instinctively towards her. She continued to tease, her tongue tracing maddeningly slow circles, her fingers gripping your thighs tightly. You were on the edge, your need for release building with every passing second.

"Please," you moaned, your voice filled with desperation. "I need you."

Bada's eyes flickered with desire as she finally gave in to your plea. Her tongue delved deeper, exploring every inch of your core. You could feel the heat building within you, your body on the brink of ecstasy. She was relentless, her actions driving you closer and closer to the edge.

As her tongue moved with purpose, you couldn't hold back any longer. The dam of pleasure broke, and your body convulsed in waves of ecstasy. You cried out her name, your voice filled with a mix of pleasure and gratitude.

Bada held you close, her fingers still buried deep inside you as your climax subsided. She kissed you softly, her lips tender against yours. You both lay there, intertwined in each other's arms, basking in the afterglow of your passionate celebration.

#bada lee x reader #swf2 #swf2 x reader #bada lee #street woman fighter 2 #bebe #bada lee fanfic #bada lee x oc #bada lee x y/n #bada lee imagine #lee bada #bada lee smut

[bananaofswifts]

Taylor Swift is giving fans more insight into her new album “The Tortured Poets Department,” thanks to a track-by-track experience with Amazon Music.

Fans can now listen to the album — which shattered streaming records after its release on April 19 — along with commentary from Swift breaking down the meaning of each track. To listen to “The Tortured Poets Department” with Swift’s commentary, fans can simply say to Alexa, “I’m a member of ‘The Tortured Poets Department.'”

Through the experience, Swift has revealed the inspiration behind songs including “Fortnight” with Post Malone, “Clara Bow,” “Florida!!!” with Florence + the Machine, “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” and “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys.”

“‘Fortnight’ is a song that exhibits a lot of the common themes that run throughout this album. One of which being fatalism — longing, pining away, lost dreams,” Swift said of the album’s opening song. “I think that it’s a very fatalistic album in that there are lots of very dramatic lines about life or death. ‘I love you, it’s ruining my life.’ These are very hyperbolic, dramatic things to say. It’s that kind of album.”

Of “Clara Bow,” named after the silent film actress, Swift said the track is “a commentary on what I’ve seen in the industry that I’ve been in over time.”

“I used to sit in record labels trying to get a record deal when I was a little kid. And they’d say, ‘you know, you remind us of’ and then they’d name an artist, and then they’d kind of say something disparaging about her, ‘but you’re this, you’re so much better in this way or that way.’ And that’s how we teach women to see themselves, as like you could be the new replacement for this woman who’s done something great before you,” she said. “I picked women who have done great things in the past and have been these architypes of greatness in the entertainment industry. Clara Bow was the first ‘it girl.’ Stevie Nicks is an icon and an incredible example for anyone who wants to write songs and make music.”

“Florida!!!” featuring Florence + the Machine is one of the rare songs on the album that doesn’t see Swift directly speaking of a former lover. Swift said the inspiration for this track actually came from “always watching ‘Dateline.'”

“People have these crimes that they commit; where do they immediately skip town and go to? They go to Florida,” the singer added. “They try to reinvent themselves, have a new identity, blend in. I think when you go through a heartbreak, there’s a part of you that thinks, ‘I want a new name. I want a new life. I don’t want anyone to know where I’ve been or know me at all.’ And so that was the jumping off point. Where would you go to reinvent yourself and blend in? Florida!”

As for “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me,” Swift revealed that she wrote the tune “alone, sitting at the piano in one of those moments when I felt bitter about just all the things we do to our artists as a society and as a culture.”

“There’s a lot about this particular concept on ‘The Tortured Poets Department,'” she added. “What do we do to our writers, and our artists, and our creatives? We put them through hell. We watch what they create, then we judge it. We love to watch artists in pain, often to the point where I think sometimes as a society we provoke that pain and we just watch what happens.”

Lastly, Swift broke down the metaphor within “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys.”

The song is about “being somebody’s favorite toy until they break you and then don’t want to play with you anymore,” she said. “Which is how a lot of us are in relationships where we are so valued by a person in the beginning, and then all of the sudden, they break us or they devalue us in their mind. We’re still clinging on to ‘No no, no. You should’ve seen them the first time they saw me. They’ll come back to that. They’ll get back to that.’”

#taylor swift #ttpd

[paradoxicalrising]

Astrology Observations :)

preface: this is my first time doing this, these are all either my personal placements or I've had multiple experiences with a certain placement. none of this is absolute, pretty pls take it with a grain of salt, these are very general. Every single one of these placements depend on aspects in an individuals chart. WARNING: some 18+ topics. Enjoy :)

Mercury in the 8th house: naturally good at reading people, interested in psychology, religion, spirituality, astrology. chronic over thinkers + intrusive thoughts galore. could either really enjoy giving/ receiving head and/or dirty talk, reading smut.

Pisces Mars: sweethearts on the surface, usually soft-spoken or doesn’t talk much, spends more time observing or making up scenarios. also another overthinking placement. could also be someone who does drugs/ drinks alcohol. excels in the entertainment industries (film, theatre, music, art etc). either have a piss kink, foot fetish, or demisexual. 

Scorpio Venus: intense lovers. my ex had this placement and told me he’d die for me only knowing me 3 months. my sister also has this placement and will not eat dinner without her husband (could be the taurus opposition = not eating (taurus) until lover (Venus) is around), I think it’s a symbol of loyalty. once this placement finds value in someone, they are ride or die type loyal until you betray them. may stay in relationships longer than they should because it’s fixed emotion unless they finally see it themselves.

Cancer Moon (men specifically): I've had 3 cancer moon men take me to the beach on our first date. they’re always gassing themselves up on their cooking skills. their moms can be really restricting, especially those with Saturn in cancer as well. I've also seen their moms be really detached, cold, basically telling them to fend for themselves. highly intuitive but may get too caught up in the potential of a situation/ person and being disappointed when reality is different. hopeless romantics fr just throwing themselves into anyone they have a good feeling about without the physical proof.

Fixed Rising: the RBF (I love y’all). 

Vedic v. Tropical Astrology: honestly I think they’re both valid, and everyone should decide what placements resonate more with who they feel they are. Ex: I  have Venus, Jupiter, and my Sun in the 7th in Virgo (Tropical) but they’re in the 8th in Leo (Vedic). I feel more of the 8th house but in Virgo.

Pisces moons: I never feel like they’re listening to me if they aren’t looking at me because when they’re looking at me I can literally see them digesting the info w/ their dreamy eyes, but when they look away I just know they’re imagining some kind of fantasy that has nothing to do with the convo. 

Libra Moons: try to be soft and sweet but they have that fiery underside. I've noticed they’ll get all excited and sometimes aggressive and then apologize for it, like no girl look at you having a good time. they usually look aesthetically pleasing, you will never catch them not matching/ lookin raggedy in public, but they won’t judge others for it, Virgo and Taurus will haha.

Virgo + Libra: specifically rising + degrees, moon, or Venus combo usually have clear, healthy looking skin, especially after high school w/o all the teen acne hormones. 

Moon Conjunct Pluto: anyone else noticed the effect these placements have on their peers? it’s so weird but people are like magnetized to whatever house this placement is in. I guess cos it’s generational and yk it’s Pluto, but people around this placement can’t help but be enticed by these individuals. could be amazing actors if they can harness those dark emotions into a piece of work. these are the type of people to succeed out of spite of their trauma; very determined people. they can put such dark emotions into easy actions and words that others find hard to say out loud but they don’t shy away from dark stuff, they’ve dealt with darker topics since they were young.

Neptune in the 1st house: people constantly projecting onto these placements ! it’s important these people form a ground sense of self they can remind themselves of when they feel like someone is protecting on them. I have this placement and someone told me I was intoxicating to be around/ they felt intoxicated around me though they are sober. I fr think people get drunk off the illusion of this placement. These people are never what people say they are, if you want to get to know them I beg of you to please talk to them yourself instead of listening to others opinion of them. the women are cursed with the manic pixie dream girl trope. hella sex appeal bc of the blurred perceptions. make amazing actors/ musicians. very intuitive placement, but can doubt themselves.

#astrology observations #astrology observations #vedic astrology #moon conjunct pluto #mercury in 8th house #pisces mars #scorpio venus #virgo #libra #pisces moon #neptune in the first house

[fanbynature]

A post from Dani Howe, who recently left smosh after working in the marketing team

"From Pet to Threat" - This just happened to me AGAIN and after 10+ years in this biz, I’m sick of having to get over it in silence for fear of being blacklisted, or labeled as “difficult to work with” because I chose to be open about my working experience. I won’t go into details, as this isn’t meant to be that kind of post, but I want to share this research because the “Pet to Threat" phenomena keeps happening to me and so many of my peers, particularly over the last few years here in LA. It’s truly an abusive cycle that repeats for far too many people in the workplace, but especially and aggressively for Black women in the entertainment/media industry. So many of us work extremely hard from a place of love, peace and genuine passion for our crafts. We choose to put our prowess out there, hoping that it’ll be reciprocated with that same authenticity by our leadership/mentors/peers, only to be undermined and vehemently devalued in favor of this insistence for power and control at every turn. I’ll never understand the need to prioritize pettiness & ego over doing the right thing for another team member or putting the best, most collaborative work out there for your company. What’s the point of hiring an expert or someone with big potential, just to diminish them? I'm tired of entering spaces I was promised were full of golden potential and stability, only to have to abruptly leave that space a short while later, lest endure unsafe + toxic working dynamics if I choose to brave it. The feelings of shame, guilt and confusion that come after are all too familiar, and yet they never get any easier to deal with. Constantly being in an anxious place of trying to figure out what went wrong and changing my approach, while the world you left couldn’t even be bothered to think twice about you, feels like a losing game. Why even play anymore? I'm only left jobless with no prospects, broke, and burdened with heavy feelings of sadness that I feel really dumb for having. Because it’s just a job, right? And the house always wins.

Some of you might question why even share all of this. Well, I fully believe transparency is one of the best ways to educate and inspire those around you. By sharing this article and a bit about my experience, I hope others feel encouraged to choose themselves and stop letting lazy business practices suppress their potential. I have no idea what’s next for me - this post has probably tanked any chance of me continuing a career in entertainment marketing. But what I do know is that I’m not accepting being overlooked anymore. Not having my true potential nurtured or recognized because the mentors I believed in would rather act out of insecurity than help me thrive is total BS. I deserve better than that, and so do you. I hope today is the day you know your worth."

Im interested in who are they going to blame now. It was once Defy - but now that it's in the hands of the original creators and owners - the same mistakes seem to be popping up. Hmmm

Also if fans start villanizing her the way they did with Boze and Saige - 👊👊👊 i will find you and i will punch u in the fucking face

#also the fact that it's mainly women of colour that are leaving that place #recently #smosh #smoshblr #youtube #behind the scenes

[b1ackoutartist]

Finding Shelter in a Storm

Scarlett Johansson x fem!reader (platonic)

The movie set was buzzing with excitement. "Cut! Perfect take, Y/N!" the director shouted. Y/N Y/L/N, a relatively new actress in Hollywood, had landed a significant role alongside the legendary Scarlett Johansson.

Though the set was always alive with activity, there was one thing that always remained a constant: the sight of Scarlett by Y/N's side.Y/N had faced numerous hardships in her life. From a troubled childhood filled with bullying and familial disconnects to battling severe mental health issues in her teenage years, her life was anything but a fairy tale. Despite her talents, her insecurities often overshadowed her achievements.

However, joining this movie set was about to change her life in ways she never imagined.From the very beginning, Scarlett seemed to have taken an unspoken oath to be Y/N's protector. It started with small gestures: lending her a jacket when the set was cold, offering words of encouragement after a challenging scene, or simply inviting her to lunch so she didn't eat alone.

One evening, after an especially grueling day of filming, Y/N found herself breaking down. The pressures of the industry, combined with her personal battles, made it feel like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. As tears streamed down her face, Scarlett found her, sitting quietly in a corner.Without a word, Scarlett wrapped an arm around Y/N, drawing her close. The warmth and genuine concern in her embrace provided Y/N with a comfort she hadn't felt in years."Hey," Scarlett whispered, wiping away Y/N's tears, "you're not alone anymore. Remember that."

As days turned into weeks, the bond between the two grew stronger. Scarlett became the guardian angel Y/N had never had, guiding her, supporting her, and most importantly, making her feel seen and valued.

Their camaraderie wasn't lost on the rest of the crew, either. It was evident to everyone just how much Scarlett cared for Y/N.During a press tour for their movie, the duo was asked about their off-screen relationship. Scarlett, with a cheeky grin, pulled Y/N close. "I've got to keep an eye on this one," she laughed, "or she'll find her way into some kind of trouble."

Y/N chuckled and shook her head with a smile, her eyes darting to Scarlett. "Honestly, she's not wrong," Y/N playfully admitted. "But honestly, she's the best guardian angel anyone could ask for."

The interviewer, clearly amused by their banter, delved deeper. "We've seen all the posts on social media. Fans adore the 'mother-daughter' dynamic you both share. How does that make you feel?"Scarlett's eyes twinkled with pride. "It's heartwarming to know that our relationship resonates with so many. I think it's a testament to the fact that family isn't just blood. Sometimes, you find it in the most unexpected places."Y/N nodded in agreement.

"Seeing all the support online is surreal. It's like we've become this beacon of hope, showing people that no matter where you come from or what you've been through, there's always a chance to find someone who truly understands and cares."The interviewer nodded, clearly touched. "It's inspiring. Your story, Y/N, and the bond you share with Scarlett, has touched so many hearts. It's beautiful to see."

The rest of the interview was filled with lighthearted banter and shared memories between the two actresses. As they left the stage, arm in arm, it was evident to all that the connection between Scarlett Johansson and Y/N Y/L/N was profound and unbreakable.

Behind the scenes, the two continued to uplift and support one another. Scarlett, with her years of experience, offered guidance to Y/N, helping her navigate the challenges of the entertainment industry. And Y/N, with her fresh perspective, often reminded Scarlett of the joys and spontaneity of life.Social media was ablaze with fan edits, heartfelt messages, and stories from individuals who were inspired by their bond.

As the years went by, their relationship remained rock-solid. Scarlett often mentioned in interviews how proud she was of Y/N's growth, both personally and professionally.

And Y/N never missed an opportunity to express her gratitude for having Scarlett in her life.Their bond became a testament to the fact that sometimes, amidst the chaos of life, you find your anchor in the most unexpected person. And for Y/N, that anchor was Scarlett Johansson.

#marvel #black widow x reader #natasha romanoff #black widow #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanov #natasha romanoff imagine #scarlett johansson x reader #Scarlett johansson #scarlett johansson x you #scarlett johansson imagine #scarlett johansson fanfiction

[emotionallychargedtowel]

Since you're familiar with tokusatsu actors and their journeys into BL, what kinds of careers historically have tokusatsu actors had as they start to get more credits and mature?

Thank you for the ask! This is a great question. It’s something I’ve been curious about for a while, as you know.

I never get tired of this gif of Seto Toshiki (a Kamen Rider alum with two BLs under his belt) eating cake. (It's from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, which he starred in with Iijima Hiroki of Our Dining Table fame.)

Oh, I should probably say at the outset that I'm talking about the suit transformation type of tokusatsu shows here. Technically the category is broader and also includes kaiju movies, but I'm focusing here on the kind of tokusatsu series in which human characters (or human-like ones) transform into masked heroes. I think that's what you had in mind, Ben, and it's the type of tokusatsu that tends to overlap with the BL world.

Another thing you'll notice is that I'm mostly going to talk about men here. Tokusatsu has been making some progress as a genre when it comes to gender equity, but it still has a long way to go. And since most of the progress that has happened, like the increase in female Riders, has been in the last few years, the actors who played those characters haven't had much of a subsequent career yet.

Now, to your question.

Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out a way to really look at this systematically. So, definitely take my conclusions with a grain of salt. (If anyone reading this knows more about this or has thoughts about how to get more/better info, I'd love to hear them.) The main source of information I have--aside from just soaking stuff up from watching tokusatsu shows and reading toku fans' tumblrs, of course--is looking at toku actors’ entries on MDL and seeing how many roles they’ve gotten, if they’re “guest,” “support,” or “main” roles, and trying to find out about the type of shows and movies they’re in.

One of the biggest weaknesses to this approach as an American viewer is that it's usually hard for me to tell what constitutes a popular or prestigious series or film even if I go to the listings for specific shows/films. I should also note that one thing that biases my “data” (to use the term loosely) is the fact that I’m more likely to look up this information about actors I like. Well, occasionally I’ll also look at info on some sample of actors out of curiosity, like a bunch of lead Ultraman actors’ subsequent careers or something like that. But it's usually more random.

A little background. As you're aware, tokusatsu roles often go to younger actors who don't have much previous experience. They tend to function both as a way of getting a foothold in the industry (building a resume, starting a fanbase, etc.) and as a way of learning on the job. Part of the reason they work so well in this regard is that they have long seasons. Ultraman seasons are typically around 25 episodes long, which is pretty long compared to many shows in Japan, but Kamen Rider and Super Sentai seasons are usually around 50 episodes long. This means two things: a toku part gets you a lot more of the aforementioned work experience than you'd get in other genres, and it provides a solid year of consistent work with additional work to follow (particularly hard to come by in Japan's entertainment industry, from what I understand). The additional work is substantial, too. There are typically post-series TV movies and touring live shows and there are often guest spots on other series in your franchise.

When it comes to landing other roles, as in other types of media, it makes a big difference what type of role you had. This is stating the obvious, I know, but there are some specific ways this works with tokusatsu series, and it relates to who ends up in BLs and in what capacity. So, all of the big three tokusatsu franchises are pretty ensemble-based but they still have distinct leads and some degree of a hierarchy of roles. Ultraman has the strongest leads, Kamen Rider has lead/title Riders and secondary (and often tertiary) Riders, and Super Sentai shows are especially ensemble-y (the word sentai basically means "squad," after all) but they always have some kind of group leader.

When I look up subsequent work by tokusatsu actors who had sizable roles in their toku series--lead roles, or other parts that are what MDL would call "main" roles--what I see most often is a lot of supporting and guest roles in a variety of TV shows and some films. You can usually find a smattering of lead roles as well, but if you look closely they may turn out to be smaller productions (but not always). When it comes to the number/frequency of credits, there's a lot of variation but an average case would be 2-3 such credits per year. Like I mentioned above, it's hard for me to tell how desirable/prestigious/well-paying those guest and supporting roles are. But they don't usually seem to be scraping the bottom of the barrel or anything. So, yeah. Lots of these actors have different paths, but this is what I see most frequently.

Given how challenging it is to make a career out of acting in Japan, this is nothing to sneeze at. Despite its relative influence, the Japanese entertainment industry is still comparatively small, and there are only so many opportunities. In that context, regularly getting guest and supporting gigs constitutes a pretty uncommon level of success.

Could these folks support themselves on this amount of work? I often see just a few credits per year, so maybe not. But when I like a one of these actors enough to follow them on socials, it usually seems like they are supplementing those parts with other stuff like stage plays, toku fan appearances, modeling gigs, or other types of performance including music. Even with these different sources of income, some probably still can't live on their entertainment industry pay alone. But it appears that some can.

So that's the most common thing. One less common outcome is leaning really hard into being a tokusatsu actor for life. It's not typical to get significant roles in multiple toku shows, but it does happen. And some actors manage to play the same character in a lot of post-series movies, miniseries, etc. stretching out for years after their actual series. For example, Tsuruno Takeshi, who played Ultraman Dyna's human host Shin Asuka, has been in ten different Ultraman things including his main series, a short series, a lot of TV movies, and a special. Dyna aired in 1997, and his last appearance as Asuka was fairly recent, in 2016. That's almost a 20-year span. Yet Tsuruno has never had a non-Ultraman main character part. (Though this is partly because he seems to have focused more on his music career and related variety show type things post-Dyna.) There are even some actors who are tokusatsu superfans whose whole career plan is centered on the genre from the get-go.

For those who are looking to branch out, there are a lot of trajectories. So I'll try to talk about some of them through a few examples.

Takeda Kouhei

You probably knew I was going to bring him up. On Kamen Rider Kiva, Takeda's character was important but not the lead (he played the main character's father in the 1980s, in a timeline that ran parallel to the present day one). That was in 2008, when he was 22. Nine years later, in 2017, he was in Kamen Rider Build, in which he was the "tertiary" Rider. This character was a potato farmer-turned-antihero. As tertiary Riders go, he was pretty popular. But Takeda seemed to be mostly hovering at a certain level at that point. Then Old Fashion Cupcake happened. It's significant that he went from playing supporting characters (albeit important ones) to a lead character in OFC. It's also helpful that OFC came out at a point when the prestige of BLs was on the rise. It seems like Takeda has had more consistent and larger parts since then. The difference isn't night and day or anything, but it's observable.

If you look at Takeda's Build costars, Inukai Atsuhiro and Akaso Eiji, here’s what you'll find. Akaso has a similar trajectory to Takeda's only somewhat steeper. His role on Build (the secondary Rider) was a bit bigger, he seemed to get slightly bigger roles overall after Build, and Cherry Magic gave him a significant boost from there. Inukai had a bigger upswing early on followed by slower growth that still had him outstripping both Akaso and Takeda. From what I can tell, his “data” more closely resembles that of Yamada Yuki, who I’ll talk about in a second, though they have different niches.

Suda Masaki

Suda Masaki was only 16 when he played the main rider in Kamen Rider W in 2009, which is unusually young. (W has a unique premise where two different people inhabit the same Rider, so Suda played a lead rider but so did his costar Kiriyama Renn.) From what I can tell, he seems to have had a pretty organic path to larger and larger roles while varying genres and styles quite a bit. At this point he's definitely a very respected actor. (One interesting bit of trivia: Hagiwara Riku has said Suda is his biggest acting role model.) He's won two Japan Academy Film Prizes and been nominated three more times. I don't know of a more successful ex-tokusatsu lead. Actually, I looked him up for this post to fill in some details and found out for the first time that he also has a pretty successful career as a jpop musician. It's almost annoying that he's that talented in yet another area.

I don't see any indication that Suda has ever played a queer character, though he has definitely done some pretty bromantic stuff. He did kiss a man once in a drama series, but it was for plot reasons and was 100% played for laughs in a gross way. He also played a gender nonconforming character in the 2014 live action version of Princess Jellyfish. (Another bit of trivia: when another live action adaptation of Princess Jellyfish was released in 2018, the same character was played by another former lead Rider, Seto Koji from Kiva.) I wouldn't put it past Suda to play a queer character, if it was for a highbrow movie or something analogous to what Nishijima Hidetoshi has done in What Did You Eat Yesterday?, but I'm also not holding my breath.

Yamada Yuki

A less extreme case. Yamada was on Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. He was the blue member of the team, a soldier-turned-pirate. It may have helped Yamada along later on that Gokaiger is an especially popular Sentai series. Post-Gokaiger, Yamada didn't have any sort of big breakout role that I can find. It just seems like fairly soon after Gokaiger, he started having significant roles in TV dramas and has pretty much continued from there, with some upward momentum but no huge changes. When he was in a drama with Akaso Eiji recently, his part was first billed and a smidge bigger. Yamada's trend line seemed to have a biggish upward swing early and then just a slight slope from there. But I just saw him in something different: he plays the younger member of the minesweeper crew in Godzilla Minus One. I wonder if that will mark any sort of shift for him.

Yamada hasn't played any queer characters as far as I can tell. His Sentai role was shippy as hell, though. It's a tradition among Sentai shows that subtext-level queer ships happen between the red and blue team members, and that's exactly what happened in Gokaiger. Sometimes the subtext pretty much became text. If magazine images from that time are any indication, their relationship seems to have been a promotional angle for the show. There's even one where they seem to be in some kind of high school AU that looks like it's straight out of a BL.

what about women?

I tried looking up a few women I know from tokusatsu roles while I was looking up these and other dudes. Some of them were still in the business, at least. Some were getting the same trickle of guest and supporting parts a lot of men do after a tokusatsu show. A few had a slightly bigger trickle. But many of them seemed to have disappeared from the public eye entirely. Not only are women underrepresented in tokusatsu, and not only are their roles often relatively small and two-dimensional, but it doesn't seem like they get even a slight career boost after these roles.

It's possible this will change for some of the actors who got bigger, more interesting toku roles in recent years. Here's hoping!

The changing relationship between tokusatsu and BL

The relationship between tokusatsu and BL has been changing as BL gains more prestige, like I alluded to when I talked about Takeda Kouhei. There was a time when they seemed to be pretty analogous in terms of how hard it was to get a role and how effective they were as rungs on a career ladder. If you went from being a tokusatsu side character to a BL lead (like Takeda), that was a step up, but only because you were shifting from a supporting spot to a lead one. Tokusatsu leads usually didn't usually do BL or, when they did, only played straight supporting roles. I think it was seen as a lateral move. But now, BL is becoming a very established next step after tokusatsu. It's like BL has moved up in status so that the consensus is that it's above tokusatsu on the ladder, but just by a little bit. It's also kind of an organic transition since we're seeing more queer ships in tokusatsu that, while they mostly happen on a subtext level, are close to being canon (and in some cases, arguably already are). It occurred to me while I was writing this that there's also another type of role that is in a similar zone of accessibility and prestige to both tokusatsu and BL. It's a franchise, not a genre, but with so many movies and such huge casts it almost functions like a genre for the purpose of this discussion. I'm talking about the High&Low movies. If you're a fan of tokusatsu or BL, you'll see actors you know in every High&Low movie and if you're a fan of both, you'll see tons.

Case in point: Here's our ol’ pal Yamada Yuki. He's in quite a few High&Low installments. If only he’d do a BL and complete the trifecta! The only person I know of offhand who’s done a tokusatsu show, a BL, and a High&Low role is Takeda. I bet there are others, though.

the new (?) prestige tokusatsu

There's another piece to this I should probably point out as well. In recent years there have been some more high-budget, prestigious takes on existing tokusatsu properties. First, Anno Hideaki, who's best known for the Evangelion anime series/films, put out three live action features that are new, well-financed takes on three big tokusatsu properties: Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman, and Shin Kamen Rider.

Last year there was also a Kamen Rider series geared toward adults that had higher-than-usual production values called Kamen Rider Black Sun. It did that “you can tell our show is for adults because it's all gritty and grimdark" thing, which I'm not a fan of. But it definitely had its points.

Really distinguished actors starred in both the Shin movies and Black Sun, including Nishijima Hidetoshi, who's about as distinguished as it gets. Nishijima was in both Shin Ultraman (in an important supporting role) and Black Sun (as a co-protagonist--and he's the biggest highlight of the series). So these are examples of toku media that are too prestigious to be a springboard into the industry for most actors.

This seems to be a new phenomenon, though I could be wrong about that. I don’t expect the trend will continue at this pace (after all, so much of it is attributable to Anno alone and I don't think he'll continue down this path indefinitely), but I bet some other shows/movies in this vein will come out sooner or later.

Here’s Nishijima doing a henshin sequence. He does these moves with such commitment. Is there anything he can't do?

before tokusatsu

As I was writing this, it got me thinking about what actors do before their tokusatsu roles as well as after. It's not uncommon for toku roles to be someone's debut, but that's not really the norm. Even when it is, most of those actors were doing something in the realm of performing or modeling beforehand. I don't usually look at this sort of information as much as I do later roles when I'm investigating toku actors I like. So I looked up some people to try to get a sense of where the actors tend to have done before their toku parts.

There's one starting point that a whole bunch of tokusatsu leads share: winning the Junon Super Boy Contest. When I first saw references to it, I thought, OK, this is some kind of national talent contest. I guess there are probably lots of them. But when I looked for others, I didn't see anything come up. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places or using the right search terms. But I think maybe this contest might be pretty unique in Japan.

It's run by a magazine called Junon and, well, if I describe how it works it's going to sound really familiar to you and anyone else who's seen Utsukushii Kare, because it's pretty much exactly the contest Kiyoi participates in. Like, if it's not what Nagira Yuu was thinking of when she wrote that part of the UK novel, I'll eat my shoe.

A ton of tokusatsu leads won, placed in, or made it to the finals of that contest. The Tokupedia fan wiki even has its own page dedicated to the contest with links to various winners' toku characters. The majority of Junon Super Boy contestants who ended up in a toku series went to Kamen Rider, but there are some Sentai dudes as well and at least one Ultraman lead.

So I guess if Kiyoi had won that contest, he probably would have ended up on Kamen Rider or something. Weird.

Inukai Atsuhiro and Iijima Hiroki both won that contest. Those are the only two Junon Boys (that's what people call the contest winners) who became tokusatsu actors and were on a BL that I know of right off the top of my head. But it seems likely that there are other toku-and-BL or just BL actors who won, placed, or made it to the finals of this contest.

Other dudes who ended up on tokusatsu shows started out in other ways. Some were simply signed to agencies as actors. There's a fair number of them who were in idol groups. (Though when an idol/ex-idol is looking for a gig as a transition into acting, BLs seem to be a more popular choice.) Some mostly did modeling prior to their toku series. Some already had quite a few acting credits, though usually not very big ones. Although he's a Junon Super Boy winner, Inukai had eight other acting credits before Kamen Rider. Takeda had the same number, and he started young--his first credit is for a TV show that came out when he was 10 (though it took another six years to get a second).

I also looked up some women who've had prominent roles in tokusatsu shows, including more recent ones. The most frequent things I found when I looked for information on their pre-toku careers were that they had been models or idols (or both). It's also not uncommon for women in toku roles to be former or present gravure models--basically models who pose in bikinis or comparably revealing outfits.

The coolest thing I found was that Imoto Ayaka, who played Igarashi Sakura/Kamen Rider Jeanne, was an award-winning ballet dancer. Which is not only incredibly cool but makes a lot of sense in terms of preparation for a tokusatsu hero role.

I mean, just check out this henshin.

Well, this has gotten ridiculously long. Sorry about that. I may have gotten a little carried away. But thanks again for the question.

And now, I have something to write for @wen-kexing-apologist...

#tokusatsu to BL pipeline #tokusatsu #takeda kouhei #yamada yuki #suda masaki #junon super boy contest #kamen rider #super sentai #kamen rider kiva #kaizoku sentai gokaiger #kamen rider w #nishijima hidetoshi

[flanaganfilm]

Hey Mike! Can you talk about your experience going from Absentia to Oculus? That process after Absentia went on its festival run to pitching Oculus? Would love to learn about that time in your life & career!

I moved to Los Angeles in 2003, right after I graduated college. I went to Towson University in Maryland, was an EMF major (Electronic Media & Film) and had wanted nothing more than to make movies my whole life. We were a comfortable middle class military family (my dad was in the Coast Guard) and for most of my life, making movies for a living felt like an impossible dream.

When I moved to LA I took whatever work I could find. I shot and edited those local car commercials you see on TV at 2am, I was a logger and an AE for reality TV shows, and I eventually worked my way to editing.

I said I'd give myself 5 years to make it in Hollwood. By the time we shot Absentia, I'd been here for 7 years, and in that time I hadn't gotten any closer to my dream.

I've already written at length about how Absentia came along and what it was like to make that little movie, and I've recently blogged about how the Oculus premiere changed my life and birthed my career, so I won't rehash those - but I don't often talk about what went on in between.

I finished editing Absentia just before my oldest son was born in 2010, and went back to working full-time as a reality TV editor. In fact, in the months leading up to his birth, I was working double-time - I spent my days at a company called Film Garden working on a series for DIY Network, and my nights editing packages at Nash Entertainment for those true crime clip shows. Whatever it took to keep the lights on and provide as much support as I could for my son.

While this was happening, I'd submitted Absentia to a pile of film festivals. We didn't get into any of the majors - Sundance, SXSW, and Toronto all passed on the film. Our world premiere was at the Fargo Film Festival, where Tom Brandau, one of my former professors from Towson - and one of my mentors - was teaching.

(Our original festival poster, WAY better than the weird clip art that would come later)

The movie got into a fair amount of film festivals, and we traveled with it as much as we could. I have fond memories of the Phoenix Film Festival, San Luis Obispo (where I met Greg Kinnear at a party and very awkwardly asked for a picture - you can see how thrilled he is about it) and my personal favorite: the Fantastia Film Festival in Montreal.

(At one of the screenings, I believe the San Luis Obispo Film Festival)

While this was happening, the film was picked up for a tiny VOD and DVD release through Phase 4 Films.

They were a Canadian distribution company whose claim to fame was putting out Kevin Smith's Red State under a very unusual distribution model. They acquired the movie, which led to a company holiday part in Hollywood.

There, I briefly met Kevin Smith for the first time. We've met again since, and I've now had a chance to thank him for the kindness he showed me back then - I was just some starstruck kid at a party, but he was gracious and available and inspiring. I really admire the way Kevin deals with his fans, and I've tried to emulate it over the years.

So that was kind of it for Absentia. We went to a few festivals, went to a few parties, and posed for a few pictures with some people we admired. Phase 4 designed some truly godawful cover art, dropped the movie into video stores, and that was that.

($2.99 is a pretty good deal)

So Absentia had pretty much run its course. It had a passionate following of fans, but between the crappy art design and glut of low budget horror films on the market, its moment had already come and gone. I was back at work, editing a series for DIY Network called Extra Yardage, and yearning for another chance to make a movie.

Absentia might not have broken open the industry doors like I'd wanted it to, but one thing it did yield was a meeting with an entertainment attorney named Joel VanderKloot.

I had been represented a few times over the years by various managers (to be honest, they were actually Jeff Howard's managers, and they took me on because we had a co-written project together.) But those relationships hadn't gone anywhere, I'd never sold a script or booked a job, and when I suggested making Absentia they were not supportive ("You've already tried the indie thing, haven't you?") so by the time Absentia was made, I was completely unrepped.

Joel was a family friend of Jason Poh, who was one of our Absentia Kickstarter backers. He was a guy who'd just found the project online and donated a thousand bucks. He kept up with us, and loved the final movie. He told me he knew an entertainment lawyer and offered to arrange a lunch.

I left my editing job at Film Garden for a long lunch and met Joel in Santa Monica (this was a day-killing drive for me). Joel had seen the movie and really liked it. We had a good lunch, but wasn't immediately sure about taking me on - it's a lot of work to take on a new client, and there wasn't much heat on my movie. But there was something there that he liked, and he called later that day to say he would take me on as a client.

I was elated. I felt like I'd made my movie to the best of my ability, and that it had flashed in the pan and then died... no one had noticed outside of a few festival audiences and critics. But here was someone who worked in the industry and he saw something in the film that he believed in.

Joel started looking for managers while I clung to my day job. He passed the movie around and we had a few nibbles, which led to the first manager in my career who wanted to simply represent ME: Nicholas Bogner.

Bogner went about setting general meetings at production companies who specialized in horror films. There weren't a lot of takers, and not everyone was willing to watch an entire feature film in consideration of a general meeting. So it was hit or miss - I was a nobody, after all, and they get these kinds of incoming inquiries all the time.

But there were a few takers. And the very first meeting I had was with Anil Kurian at Intrepid Pictures.

Again, I took an extended lunch from my editing job and drove across town to Intrepid's offices in Santa Monica. I was beyond nervous when I sat in the waiting room. The young man working the front desk signed me in and offered me a water. And then, just before the meeting started, he leaned over and he said "I loved Absentia, by the way."

Anil was a really cool executive and we had a good general meeting. At the end of it, he introduced me to the heads of Intrepid: Marc Evans, and Trevor Macy.

We all ended up in the conference room, where posters for Intrepid's other movies - at that time, The Strangers and The Raven - were hanging. I vividly remember staring at them while I pitched all five of the ideas I had for movies.

One of them was a story about a little boy whose dreams manifested in real life, and another was a take on Stephen King's novel Gerald's Game. But at the time, none of these ideas worked. The meeting was over, and everyone was politely going about their day.

I felt a panic in me. It was my first real meeting, the door had been cracked open just an inch by Absentia, and I was about to walk away with nothing. Would my new manager want to keep me? Would my new lawyer think he was wasting his time?

I stopped in the doorway and turned back. "I've got one other thing," I said. "I made a short years ago about a haunted mirror, and I have a take for a feature."

They kind of laughed at the idea of a haunted mirror. "How do you make that scary?" Trevor asked. I said "Think of it like a portable Overlook Hotel," and the room got a little quieter.

"I'd like to see that short," Trevor said. I agreed to send it immediately.

I ran back to work, stayed a few hours late to make up the time I'd burned on my lunch hour, and went home to find a DVD copy of Oculus: The Man with the Plan.

I'd made that short in 2005. It was 20 mins long, and a lot of fun. Over the years whenever I'd get into meetings (all courtesy of Jeff Howard, who had sold scripts long before we started writing together), people would see it and ask about a feature. Every time, though, the conversation stalled because they wanted the film to be a found footage movie, or they'd balk at the idea of me directing a feature.

I sent the DVD to Intrepid and waited. About a week later, they called and asked me to come back in.

I took another long lunch (this would become quite a habit as the project advanced) and drove back down. We met again in the conference room, but this time the mood was a little different.

Trevor said "We're interested in this. How would you expand it? I know there are cameras in the room with the man and the mirror, which begs the question of found footage..."

My heart sank.

"... but we're thinking that's a mistake. It looks like all the fun is in playing with reality, and you can't do that with found footage. So how would you do it?"

And we were off.

I won't rehash the long journey between this meeting and the Oculus premiere at Toronto (scroll down to find another blog about that), but that was really the moment when things changed.

I drove back to work a little giddy. Intrepid optioned the short film, I called Jeff Howard to see if he'd still want to work on a feature with me, and we were commissioned to write the script.

It was my first Hollywood job. I was paid the bare minimum, but I was also able to join the WGA because of the deal. I still didn't quit my day job (and wouldn't for a long time, not until the movie was really shooting in Alabama the following year) but I was off to the races.

Once the script was done, Oculus would lead to my first agents (at APA, and they treated me very well) and my first "real" movie.

What's particularly neat about this time, looking back, is that I owe it all to Absentia. We'd made this tiny little movie to try to kick open the door of Hollywood and start a career. And despite the enormous pride I had in the finished film, it felt for a long time like it hadn't quite succeeded in that.

But quietly, subtly, the movie did exactly what I hoped it would. The festival screenings built up a small but confident word of mouth. The movie led directly to my attorney Joel (who still represents me to this day), which led directly to my first real representation, which led directly to Intrepid Pictures.

Trevor Macy is now my business partner and has produced every single thing I've ever made since. We run Intrepid Pictures together, and I see that same eagerness in the faces of young filmmakers who find their way to us for general meetings. I try to be as supportive and accessible to them as I possibly can, because I remember very well what it feels like to stand in their shoes.

And Trevor even ended up making those other pitches he'd rejected all those years ago - Before I Wake and Gerald's Game followed soon after Oculus was done.

Absentia did everything I could have wanted it to do, and much more. I'll always remember that period of time with great affection... but man, it was stressful. The uncertainty of those years still exists in me, I don't think it'll ever leave.

Someone told me, along the way, that there wouldn't be a moment when I realized I "made it." It would happen while I wasn't looking. That ended up being absolutely true.

#absentia #oculus #intrepid pictures #hollywood dreams