#also to the props department and every crew behind the cameras that make this amazing show possible <3

[cloudberrylane]

Taskmaster NZ (2023): A love bomb.

#taskmaster #taskmaster nz #taskmaster new zealand #tmnz #paul williams #jeremy wells #comedy #tv #s04e01 #just a little appreciation post highlighting the great editing of this show #also to the props department and every crew behind the cameras that make this amazing show possible <3

[mastersoftheair]

"Masters of the Air detail- Part 4-The Lemmons magneto scene E4.

"Apple released one scene with Master Sgt. Lemmons, the Crew Chief, and the rest appeared recently in E4.

"He had an engine problem that they were troubleshooting just before the engine start for the mission. Lemmons actually rode in the gear well of number 3 fixing the engine, as the Fortress taxied out on three engines.

"Cary, the director for the first four episodes, was asking about what Lemmons could be fixing and wanted to know if various things were plausible. One was changing a carburetor, uh, no. It’s not only a massive job but doesn’t fit with Lemmons riding in the gear well. I suggested working on a magneto, as just about the only things that you can get to, through the access panel in the firewall on a B-17, are the magnetos and the starter.

"Okay he said, can we change the magneto? Uh, no, not within the confines of this scene and taxiing out to takeoff. How about setting the magneto points as it would fit the timeline, look good and would be plausible. He said to set it up. Okay, off we go.

"Edit- I did not have access to Lemmons book or John Orloff’s notes at the time this scene was being discussed. Soon after Jessica was kind enough to give me a copy of Lemmons book and it said that he indeed did adjust the magneto points from inside of the gear well.

"I talked to Stewart Heath from BGI. A guy who can, and did, make miracles happen. We talked about the magneto, and I showed him what it and the B-17 accessory section looked like through the firewall opening. He was also going to build a B-17 engine nacelle for this scene!

"I said that almost any radial engine magneto would work and that I could source one if he needed. He said go so I contacted Carl Scholl at Aerotrader in California and asked if he had a mag for a Curtis Wright R1820. Of course he did! And he shipped it off to us in the UK. Thanks Carl.

"Stewart made the nacelle and a box housing the real mag, a dummy mag and starter. It was painted black and looked pretty good on camera.

"Raff Law is the actor who portrayed Sgt. Lemmons. He and I sat down with the ‘accessory box’ and I taught him how to look like he was setting up and adjusting the points on a magneto.

"I pictured the original WWII radial engine feeler gauge tool, with the bent ends, in my toolbox back home and hoped that Props Department may have something close. They supplied some nice period tools and Raff learned what he needed to do on the table at our “office”. Next was time for him to practice in the nacelle that Stewart and BGI built.

"During the building of the nacelle the oil tank was a topic of discussion. I gave them some photos, especially of the stenciling which could be visible and they, as usual, did a wonderful job.

"The nacelle was set up for the scene and the video walls were set up underneath the nacelle. Incidentally the wheels and tires used on MOTA were actual un-airworthy B-17 wheels and tires from the Collings Foundation. Some of you Collings pilots might recognize the flat spots on the tires!! It is cool to see some actual B-17 parts that flew a lot and made it into the series. We will not talk about the tread pattern though will we…

"Several camera angles set up in and around the nacelle and really looked good and helped to convey just how difficult it must have been for Sgt. Lemmons to accomplish what he did. Amazing for sure. I only hope that the Lemmons family is happy with the result.

"So much was put into making this and every scene as rich and authentic as possible that it is a shame that so many of these details didn’t make the final cut. But that’s the way this business is, it’s better to have too much and cut things out than to have too little and the need for more. MOTA was way up on the quality and detail and doing it with all of this specialized aircraft equipment is many times more difficult to do than most other subjects. Well done folks! So many people behind the scenes going above and beyond to make this special [...]"

#better too much than too little. i'm Always saying this btw #masters of the air #hbo war #behind the scenes #history #(given the amount of detail about lemmons in this) #long post #raff law #ken lemmons

[allforhader]

New Perspective

Bill Hader x (F) Reader

Warnings: Langauge

Y/N has been childhood friends with Bill and she has always been supportive of what he wants to pursue in life. She’s watched him evolve into one of the greatest in her opinion and she’s been there for almost every major moment. Perks of being a fellow actor. You see a lot.

But with personal things. She was at his wedding, was in the chain of messages when it came to his girls coming to the world, and when he had his lowest moments...Y/N dropped everything to be by his side.

“You always have my back Y/N, how can I ever repay you”

“You don’t have to Bill. What are friends for?”

Apart of her never wanted to tell him that she had feelings. It felt and from the looks on how life played out, it was one-sided. Partners never came easy when her mind is obviously tied to something else. She knew that holding on was only going to hurt her, and it did. It did on most days but of course he always made them 100% better.

Y/N was there for him when he went through his divorce and not much was said. All he wanted was her to be there and that’s exactly what she did.

Now the two were given a movie opportunity and it’s been some time since they’ve worked together. This’ll be fun.

For the most part.

“Ms. Y/L/N” Bill smiles knocking on her open trailer door.

“Mr. Hader” Y/N smiles setting her highlighter down as Bill sits across from her in the booth. “Thought you were talking to the other star in this film”

“I was, she’s nice. But shouldn’t I be getting to know the main love interest for my character instead?” Bill smiles resting his head in his hands on the table.

“You’ve known me all your life Bill”

“Okay touché but I prefer hanging with my best friend on set any chance I get”

Y/N smiles hearing that as it also chipped at her for a moment.

“Are you staying at the hotel near by?”

“Yeah, ain’t gonna live in a trailer” Bill laughs a bit. “Have you checked in yet?”

“I just got in, so not yet”

“You can stay with me, my room got another bed”

“Y’know the film company got me a room to myself right?”

“Yeah but come on, it’s better being with someone than alone”

“Okay...” Y/N smiles seeing how excited he got hearing her agree.

Filming scenes out of order is very common and the two are used to it. Neither of them had an opinion of which to do first since their schedules were changed in order to film without interruptions. Only time something may happen is something with Bill’s girls. Other than that, they took things slow and did the easiest scenes to begin with.

“Oregon is a beautiful setting to film at”

“It beats the normal New York setting like a lot of films”

“True, do you want to get drinks next night out?”

“If you’re paying” Y/N smiles making Bill laugh as he wraps an arm around her shoulders.

The director a moment after had Y/N sit with him as they go over scenes with just Bill and the other interest. He wanted her to watch so that she can get a feel for her character but her character felt more real.

The main female lead, who’s love of their life is their best friend and he doesn’t know that she loves him until it’s too late.

At least the ending is happy. Sad to a degree but—yknow. Rooting for the main lead is the way to go for the most part.

“Be prepared to cry Y/N”

“That’s very unsettling director”

“Well you know your scenes”

“I do”

“You’ll do great” He smiles as Y/N continued to watch the two before getting up and leaving to go over her lines with herself.

Bill turns his attention to Y/N as the director stands up.

“BILL YOU RUINED THE TAKE”

“Sorry”

“TAKE THREE PEOPLE!”

A few months went by in filming as Y/N lays in the bed beside Bill’s thinking about the fact that they are doing one of her heartbreaking scenes. She didn’t want to do it but has to at the same time.

Y/N now in the makeup department scrolling through her phone as the crew worked on her makeup.

“Have you worked in a rainy state before?”

“Hm?” Y/N looks up from her phone catching a smile from the lovely woman doing her makeup. “Oh, yeah. But most of the time we are filming inside”

“True true...but it’s beautiful when it rains here in Oregon. Knock on wood that it doesn’t rain when we film but reading a few scenes with you in it. It’ll be beautiful if it did” She smiles touching up on her blush as Y/N was flattered but nervous.

After getting dressed in the causal outfit her character demands for, Y/N walks into set seeing the tents over the equipment just in case it does rain. She bumped into Bill adjusting herself once she caught her balance.

“Sorry Y/N”

“No I am, wasn’t looking”

“Well. It’s nice running into you than a stranger” Bill smiles fixing his blazer as Y/N wanted to say something then and there but

“Places please!” The director states as Y/N retracts herself walking over to her marker as Bill locks arms with the other love interest.

Bill stood at his placement seeing Y/N starting to count with her fingers. A habit from when they were younger, she did it when she got anxious. He never forgot the little things. He wanted to check up on her but the moment he heard action, he couldn’t.

Script Characters - Bill is Ethan, Y/N is Amelia, other love interest is Evelyn

“Love, you know how to make a girl’s night” The interest steals a kiss as Y/N’s chest started hurting.

“Evelyn, you are worth every moment. Which...is why I want to make it worth it” Bill smiles glancing around them and back to his interest. “The love of my life stands in front of me and it always feels like I’ve known you for all the years I’ve been on this earth. You...make it worth living every day in this chaotic world and I want to fight every day with you right beside me”

“Ethan...are you saying what I think your saying?”

“Every word”

Every word, stated for the wrong person. But Y/N didn’t know that. The director gestures for Y/N to start approaching and the scene and she drops her phone to her side.

“Hey Et—-“ Y/N steps forward before turning her body toward the camera retracting herself back when she saw Bill get down on one knee.

It’s a movie. Y/N, remember it’s a movie...

“Will you marry me Evelyn?”

“Yes! A thousand times yes!” She laughs as Bill picks the interest up spinning her in his arms before stealing a kiss.

The director looks at the shot on Y/N making them zoom in the moment the tears formed and rolled down her cheeks. He didn’t expect that, but it made it ten times better. He was about to yell cut to take another shot when the rain started.

Knock on wood my ass...

Y/N steps back not having anymore words from the scene as her body shifted quickly going behind the prop building but she slipped on her way. Bill quickly looked over after setting his interest down. A great shot. The director had them follow Y/N for the rest of the shot as the rain poured on them. She held her head down letting everything hit her.

This is fake

It’s a movie

These aren’t real characters

But this story feels too familiar...

Fuck.

Y/N brought her head up wiping away her tears as they came down but the rain made it difficult to differentiate. Perfect.

“Cut! THAT WAS FLAWLESS Y/N, SAME GOES TO YOU TWO! Flawless! Now get the hell out of the rain, we don’t want our stars getting sick” The director states helping his crew get the cameras and personnel out.

Bill took his blazer off as the interest’s assistant ran over with an umbrella for her, helping her off set as he makes his way to Y/N who hasn’t move from her spot. He covered her with the jacket not giving a damn if it was for his character. He didn’t want Y/N to get sick.

“Come on...” He held his hand out as Y/N took it carefully being brought up from the wet ground. “It’ll be hell if you got sick” he wrapped his arm around her hurrying her out of there.

After a while the two were in their hotel room, and as Bill got dressed in the bathroom, Y/N sat on her bed already out of the wet clothes and into something comfy as she dries her hair with a towel while the feelings lingered.

“That was an intense scene, one of the electrical people said the director wanted to get another shot until he saw how you were performing. Kept the scene going” Bill walks in sitting across from her on her bed. “You’re amazing you know that?”

“Haven’t heard it enough honestly” Y/N laughs a bit hugging herself as she rubs her arms to warm her.

“You sat in the rain for a while, why don’t take a hot bath. Maybe that’ll warm you up” Bill suggest watching her shake her head before trapping the pillow she wasn’t leaning against hugging it close.

“I’m okay Bill, I’ll be fine” Y/N smiles watching Bill move himself to be beside her. Keeping close brings warmth in ways.

“Come on. I don’t bite” Bill laughs as Y/N rolls her eyes before leaning against him feeling his arm wrap around her shoulders brining her close.

Warmth huh...

A few more months, a couple hundred shots, and more intense emotions that Y/N thought she could handle for the most part. Filming the wedding was killer when her character was best man and now was the money maker scene.

Confessing.

“Looking beautiful like always Y/N” The director smiles helping Y/N step down from the box after getting her dressed hemmed.

“I know it’s for the scene and the movie, I really hate pink” Y/N fixes her dress sighing.

“Well, it suits you. Don’t have to wear it long. One more scene where Amelia grows fed up over the reality and storms out of the reception catching Ethan’s attention. Then the confession” He smiles going to his crew and talking about the trolly shots as Y/N sighs going to her marker.

“Wow”

Y/N turns around catching Bill’s attention making her smile with a tint of pink growing.

“You look beautiful”

“You saw me in this dress yesterday”

“Well, I’m simply stating facts and I like complimenting you” Bill says with a hint of nervousness in his voice. “I uh. Well! Time to get in position. Right?”

“Right...”

Once the cameras were in place with the wall separating the scene in two shots. The trolly camera being set on the one outside and the other having two cameras set on both main characters. Y/N stood in her spot hearing action as she leans against the wall watching Bill enjoy himself in his own little world. She took a deep breath resting her hand on her chest before stepping out.

“Why did I do this? Why did I sign onto this...I shouldn’t have. Shouldn’t have stayed. I should’ve left a long time ago...”

“Amelia—“

Y/N froze along with the camera as it planned to Bill but he didn’t care for that.

“Where...where are you going? The reception barely even started”

“I know...I just...”

“Just what?” Bill rests a hand on her shoulder getting pushed off but it felt personal. “Amelia...”

“Sorry. I can’t stay”

“What do you mean?!”

“I CANT STAY” Y/N shot back snapping as Bill took a step back. “I can’t stay and watch this go on”

“What does that mean? You’re not...You’re not acting like yourself Amelia”

“Ethan...I-...” Y/N felt her face heat up staring at Bill as she suddenly started crying. “I love you...I have always loved you...a-and I can’t stand there and watch you move onto the next chapter of your life...without me”

“Amelia...why didn’t—-“

“BECAUSE I WAS AFRAID”

The director read the script knowing this isn’t what he written and Bill knew instantly.

“I was afraid to ever say anything because you...you were all I cared about. I cared about every single thing you did and everything that happened to you. Because...it either hurt you or put you in a state of mind that i couldn’t always help you out of” Y/N felt her body shake as she clenched her fists. “Every chance I got...you were always with someone. Always in love with somebody and I knew it was never going to be me. Because I’m not...I’m not the love of your life. I never was...”

“A-Amelia please don’t go—“ Bill grabbed her wrist the moment she stepped away and Y/N ripped her hand away not looking at him.

“I love you...I always will....and the only thing that’ll help me get over you...is never being around you ever again” Y/N states as that last part was scripted but the first two lines were all her in the voice of her character.

Y/N stormed off as Bill stood there feeling his anxiety course through his body watching her go.

“Ethan?” The interest interrupts as the scene was continuing. But he didn’t want to continue filming.

Bill looks at the director hearing him say cut as he instantly ran after Y/N.

Y/N had no more scenes that day and Bill searched for her all over set and even went to her trailer before being called back. The director told him to give her space since he didn’t know what went on there and as stupid as some directors are. He’s going to use that shot but of course he himself was going to check up on her actress when they got Bill back in makeup.

“Y/N” He knocked on her hotel room door, this time in hers and not in the one she shared.

“Please. Give me a minute”

“I’m not asking you back to set. The shot was fine. If you don’t mind me using it of course”

“God I don’t care if you use it or not. I just...I full on confessed how I felt all of these years of being friends with Bill and...it just. Blew up in my face”

“Bill left set looking for you. He’s back because it’s your guys job not to leave unless it was an emergency. But you have no more filming and...he was upset that he didn’t find you before we brought him back to set”

“Sir, you don’t know the personal stuff about this”

“I know you two have been friends for years, and you have chemistry. Chemistry that would work amazingly playing as friends or lovers. I also know this is your first film as a major love interest and what you told me, it would’ve gone differently if the partner wasn’t Hader”

“God...”

“Get dressed out of that dress and come back on set. If I can guess how he’s feeling. He won’t work like this”

“Isn’t that the point of Ethan’s character? To be emotionally bombarded by what Amelia said?”

“I love that you know every minor detail in my story, but Y/N. His character’s reality. Became his. Knowing that you’re not okay...he won’t work properly even for the character” the director left going back to continue hoping Y/N would come onto set.

A few shots went by and they were re-taken two or three times do to Bill not being in the right headspace. He looks over to the crew watching them discuss what they just shot and before the director asked for places again, Bill saw Y/N stand beside him looking at him for a moment then to the screens.

“Bill, are you okay?” His other co star asks as Bill was in his own world.

“I’m going through it...”

When the work day was over, Y/N knocked on Bill’s trailer watching it instantly open as Bill steps out looking at her. The silence was killer and Y/N didn’t really know what to say since she has already said it.

“I’m so—“

“Don’t.”

“Bill—“

“Don’t apologize for something you kept to yourself for years...I wish you didn’t keep it to yourself for years”

“Your life moves faster than mine Bill. I’m...just. Behind”

“You’re not. You just...why did you put me before you always? You would’ve said something sooner if—“

“Bill just shut up” Y/N frowns. “You’re my best friends. That’s why I did it. But the confessing? I didn’t tell you how I felt because...because life got in the way. You fell in love on a few occasions and I watched. I couldn’t butt in every time! You wouldn’t have the life you have if I did!”

“Y/N, I do love the life I have. I can’t lie about that even if I tried. But...you can’t just stand there and assume I never felt the same way” Bill frowns as Y/N felt her face heat up when he said that.

“I-....For fuck sake Hader”

“Y/L/N. You assume a lot. But for my sake. Can you tell me how you feel without having to do it in a scene to do so?”

“Well. Spit it out then”

“I love you too, and I’m sorry it took you this long to say anything. But I’m also sorry...that I didn’t do it first” Bill instantly presses his lips against hers maneuvering his arm around her waist bringing her close to his chest.

Y/N grabbed his shirt keeping him close to her and taking in the moment as she continues to kiss him. The moment air was needed, Bill didn’t wait long to kiss her again.

They both had enough of waiting, for this new perspective.

#bill hader #bill hader gifs #bill hader x reader #250 characters wont stop me from fitting everything

[hazandholland]

Maybe

Written by Christina

Category: Fluff

Word count: 1,614

Requested by @annakins422:  Could you do a Tom Holland where she works with the script department for one of his movies and they meet at a table reading? Either a sketch or oneshot is fine, whichever fits your mood/flow! Also, I you could include a kiss where she is looking down and he swoops underneath for a peck, that would be amazing! :)

A/N: Happy birthday!! I hope you enjoy your day and this fic! 

You ran your fingers through your hair, gathering it into a ball at the back of your head and seized the hair tie on your wrist. You looped the hair tie over your hair, making a messy bun and leaned back in your chair when you were done. You glanced around the room and met eyes with one of the actors. Your breathing hitched when his rich brown eyes locked onto your gaze. He was sitting on the other side of the table, across from you and one spot over to the right. He was leaning forward in his chair, fingers woven together with his elbows resting on the table top. He smiled and pointed to your hair. 

“I like your hair,” He said brightly, his British accent somehow made your heart skip furiously and melt into a puddle simultaneously. You felt heat rise into your cheeks and glanced at the table. 

“Thanks,” You said quietly. You risked another glance at the boy. He was still staring at you, smile fixed on his thin lips. 

“How did you do it that fast?” He asked politely, his voice laced with admiration. 

“Do what?” You asked, feeling your brow crinkle. 

“Your hair.” Tom raised his hands to his hair and shuffled them around, making his coif-like style come undone. His now frizzy wavy curls stuck out every which way, contrasting against his most likely very expensive designer jeans, shirt and leather jacket. You giggled, making Tom’s face light up like a kid eyeing his birthday presents. 

“Practice, I guess,” You answered, smiling widely. You hear a faint click and saw a cameraman a few feet away, behind Tom at an angle. The man’s camera was angled at you two, surely catching a candid photo of Tom with his messy hair and you mid-giggle, a wide smile stretching over your face. You felt your cheeks heat up again and straightened your posture, fixing your gaze on the script in front of you. It was a big day; the script reading for the untitled fourth Avengers movie. Of course there was going to be cameras. You glanced around the room again and saw a small film crew of three people in the corner of the large room. A small blinking red light on the camera indicated that they were already capturing the action. You suddenly felt a little nervous; your every move was going to be observed and recorded, then shown internationally in either the bonus features on the DVD copy of the movie or a random interview with the cast and crew of the movie during the press tour. You should pay close attention to what you did. 

“That’s insane how fast you did that,” Tom continued, seemingly unaware of the photographer behind him and the film crew in the corner. You smiled again. He was so amazed at such a minute feat it was adorable. 

“It’s not really that amazing, but thank you,” You said, smiling again. Tom stretched his hand out, resting on your script. 

“I’m Tom by the way. Tom Holland. Not to be confused with the other Tom. Who’s last name also starts with an H. Who’s also from London.” Tom’s rambling introduction made you giggle slightly and you gripped your hand in his, shaking it politely. As soon as your fingers touched his skin, it felt like electricity raced through your body. It was like something you didn’t know was missing fell into place. You liked it. 

“The name’s Y/L/N. Y/N Y/L/N,” You answered coyly, smirking at your James Bond reference. Tom laughed. 

“OK, everyone, let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” A voice announced. You turned to the head of the table, eyeing the director, screenwriters and producer of the film. You swallowed the lump in your throat and began to listen to the director as they introduced themselves, then began to make their way around the table, introducing everyone. The director motioned in your direction, announcing your name and your title as assistant script writer. At the mention of your position, Tom glanced at you, eyes wide. You met his gaze and he exaggeratedly mouthed the word “wow”. You rolled your eyes a little and let a small smile tug on the corner of your lips. 

The reading began. Whenever you and Tom met eyes, he made an entertaining face, trying to get you to let out a giggle. You barely held them in, trying to stay quiet and professional. You saw the photographer capture a few of Tom’s faces which included but were not limited to an impersonation of the Hulk’s face, crossing his eyes, attempting to cross one eye, flaring his nostrils and attempting, and failing horribly, to wiggle his eyebrows like worms. The script reading went smoothly. As with any movie, numerous changes were made to the script, leaving your copy of the manuscript littered with pen and pencil markings, notes in the margins and sometimes entire pages scribbled over in Sharpie. The director decided to take a break a few hours into the meeting. Most of the cast and crew left the room to get snacks, drinks or use the restroom. Everyone began to socialize with each other, making a comfortable din. You stayed seated, thinking over the changes being made and reading ahead to see if there could be any other improvements. You heard the chair next to you squeak across the floor and looked up. 

Tom lowered himself into the chair, facing you. Your breathing hitched and your heart began to race. It was nerve-wracking to have someone so famous and so attractive sitting next to you. 

“So, assistant script writer, huh?” Tom asked, propping his elbows on his knees and linking his hands together. You glanced at him, admiring his physique up close. 

“Yeah,” You said, focusing on writing down questions for when the meeting resumed and your conversation with the gorgeous British actor. You pulled the script off the table and placed it on your lap, twisting in your seat to face Tom. “It’s a really fun job. I like it a lot!”

“How long have you had this job?” Tom inquired. Something about his voice when he asked that question made your heart melt. 

“Not very long,” You responded, glancing at him. Gosh darn it he was so attractive. “Why do you ask? Are you doubting my abilities as a writer?” You teased, smirking. 

“What? No!” Tom looked shocked then confused, his face wrinkling in the cutest way possible. His voice raised an octave when he said ‘no’ and he furiously shook his head, making his already messy curls flop around his head. “I was just trying to make conversation. You seem incredibly talented, considering all the questions and ideas you had.”

“Thanks,” You laughed. You were in the middle of writing down an idea when a shadow came between you and the script. You gasped when Tom’s lips met yours. You were kissing THE Tom Holland, the actor who played Spider-Man. You were kissing him! You felt giddiness erupt in your heart and you raised a hand, gently tracing your hand over his sharp jawline. Tom leaned back, letting out a little sigh. He kept your heads close together, your finger still resting on his jawline. 

“Sorry, I just had to do that,” Tom said quietly. His voice was a mixture of the British twenty one year old man he was and the fifteen year old American boy he portrayed. The combination of huskiness and youthfulness made your heart and stomach dance. You smiled, breathing a little hard. 

“I don’t mind at all,” You responded, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. 

“You missed,” Tom said, smirking. You raised your eyebrows, catching on to what he was doing. 

“Oh really? Where was I supposed to kiss you, then?” You asked coyly. Tom smiled wider. 

“Here, darling” Tom answered, planting another kiss on your lips. Your heart raced again and you smiled so wide your cheeks hurt. You giggled at Tom’s cuteness and looked at your script. A subtle click brought you back to reality. You glanced at the photographer, who was just lowering his camera and standing a few feet from you. 

“Sorry,” He said, smiling sheepishly, “you guys have just been really cute together. I couldn’t help snap a few shots.” 

“Oh, don’t worry about it, man,” Tom said, rising from the seat and walking to the photographer. He extended a hand and shook it. “Do you mind sending the photos you have of us?”

“Well...” The photographer said, shuffling his feet against the floor. “I would love to but I can’t. The studio is concerned about...” The man glanced at Tom, “people spoiling things.” You couldn’t hold back your giggle. Tom shot a glare at you then to the photographer. 

“That only happened like, five times. And one of them was set up by the studio!” Tom defended. You laughed louder and the photographer joined in. Tom sighed and trudged back to his seat next to you, then sat down with a huff, crossing his arms and sticking his lips out like a pouting three year old. “I just met you and I hate you.” 

You scoffed. “Whatever, Tom,” You laughed, shaking your head and turning back to the script. People were starting to migrate back to the table, a sign that the reading was going to start up soon.

“And this is crazy,” Tom said, fighting back a massive laugh. He scribbled on the corner of empty scratch paper, ripped the piece off and gave it to you. “So here’s my number.” You rolled your eyes. “So call me maybe.” 

“Maybe,” You said, smiling. 

Tag List

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#tom holland #peter parker #spiderman #written by christina #thollande #thollandeoriginal #fan fiction #tom holland x reader #peter parker x reader #spiderman x reader #tom holland imagine #peter parker imagine #spiderman imagine #tom holland one shot #peter parker one shot #spiderman one shot #spiderman fluff #tom holland fluff #peter parker fluff #enjoy #to the person reading this far #you're amazing #in case you didnt hear that today :)

[thedeaditeslayer]

Ash vs Evil Dead: the Meza Brothers talk Apparently Dead – Exclusive Interview

The 12th of March was a normal Monday like many others and I had just finished watching the 3rd episode of Ash vs Evil Dead. While I was amazed at the thrilling fast-action paced episode, I was a little bit pissed about the Nielsen ratings from the previous week and about rumors of cancellation of my favourite TV show. I was going to sleep when suddenly I received a message from my friend Andrea Turel Caccese.

“Hey Ema! The Meza Brothers, directors of the 3rd episode, are on Reddit talking with fans. If I were you, I would ask them for an interview!

Exactly. The Meza brothers, directors of the 3rd episode and also great fans of the franchise, were on REDDIT asking fans for feedback about their episode.

So, challenge accepted, and I asked them to do an interview. Incredible – but true – they accepted and here were are, ready to reveal all the secrets of the “Apparently Dead” episode.

But first of all, a short introduction. I invite you to visit the Meza Brothers official website as it contains many interesting information about their careers. Andres and Diego Meza-Valdes are two brothers that created a bunch of horror shorts and have participated in film festivals winning awards for their efforts. Their movie “Boniato” was a nominee at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016 in the Short Film Grand Jury category. At the Viques International Film Festivalthey won in the Best Horror Short Film category.

So, here we go with the interview.

NAQB: You stated on REDDIT that you are Evil Dead huge fans. How did you fall in love with the franchise?

The Meza Brothers: We started out falling in love with Army of Darkness first. When the movie came out in 1992, we convinced our mother to let us see it at a very young age because the original poster looked like a comedy more than anything else, but we knew that it was much more than that. We were immediately struck by the mixture of slapstick comedy and dark action and how dynamic the movie was visually. As soon as Ash waved his boomstick around to unsuspecting villagers after an epic fight in a monster pit we knew it was an all-timer for us. From there we transitioned our love over to Evil Dead 2 as teenagers, and it surprised us how much more horror played a bigger role in that movie, with less of a focus in the comedy. Plus, as budding filmmakers, all the behind-the-scenes stories of the making of the movie (shooting in a school gym, blowing cigarette smoke around to simulate a foggy interior) inspired us to think we too can make something that cool. We would film our version of Evil Dead 2 in our backyard using some of those methods (not the cigarettes) – and obviously to a lesser result. Then came Evil Dead in college, where we were surprised to find some of our fellow students hadn’t even heard of the Evil Dead franchise. Shocked, we forced our film school to allow us access to the campus cinema to do midnight screenings, and the first one we did was Evil Dead. We wanted to prove to our filmmaker friends anything can be done – even with a shoestring budget. Something all aspiring students in film school should look up to – of course no one showed up – but at least we had the chance to see the original Evil Dead on the big screen.

NAQB: Have you a favourite moment or movie of the trilogy?

The Meza Brothers: There are too many moments in each of these movies to pick out a specific one.

NAQB: What was it like directing Bruce & the other cast members?

The Meza Brothers: Bruce was always a hero to us. Even aside from Evil Dead, we were gigantic fans of his mid-90’s show Brisco County Jr. We would watch that religiously, even arguing with friends at the time that Bruce would make the perfect replacement for Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. We even named our dog after his horse on the show, Comet. Flash forward to now and we are directing one of our heroes. In one particular moment, we had completely rearranged the coffin fight scene from what it was in the script. Originally, it was written for most of the action to happen in the viewing room. Both Ash and Candy would get flung around the room in the scuffle, and eventually the fight would end in the coffin, where Bruce would yank Candy’s head off with a fireplace poker he found. We felt that the fight needed something else, something fans (us) haven’t seen. So we rewrote it to take place inside the coffin the whole time, playing on the claustrophobia of having a deadite attack you in close quarters. Additionally, we added the funeral photo frame gag as a way of Ash disposing of Candy. We had always looked at Ash as the “Jackie Chan of horror” using anything around him to get rid of the threat – even if its not always the most practical tool. Whatever gets the job done. We were nervous, but anxious to show Bruce our storyboards. Who knows how he’d react. He looks through the pages of boards, looks back up at us, laughs and says “that shit is funny right there!”. From then on we knew if we brought creative and original ideas to the table we had Bruce on our side.

The rest of the cast members were also great to work with. Being that we were similar in age with all of the other actors, we set out to have more informal hang outs with them to get to know them a little better. We met with Ray Santiago at a great little bar he recommended, and drank the night away with him and his co-star Hemky Madera, who plays Brujo on the show. Similar with Dana Delorenzo and Lindsay Farris – we had an unforgettable night with those folks sharing war stories over drinks and pizza. It was great to chat with these guys as people outside of set, to really understand who they are and what makes them tick, and see if they have any insider information on their characters or the trajectory of the show that we could use to inform our decisions as directors. We found out Dana was a phenomenal writer, she always had amazing suggestions for scenes or little line tweaks that make the scene way better (she added the “snuff film” line in the chapel when the Ghostbeaters reuinite with Ash). Arielle [Carver-O’Neill] was also great – and shared in our proud nerdiness of Marvel movies and video games. We ended up hanging out with her at our AirBNB, watching fair slingshot videos to bet who was the one on the ride who was going to pass out first. it became a game we played regularly. She is so much fun and a great friend.

NAQB: In this episode Ghostbeaters visit the cabin site… without the cabin. As fans how did you feel about directing an episode in this “sacred” location in this particular “setting”? And as directors?

The Meza Brothers: As a fan, the way that scene was prepped was a dream come true. In it, we knew there was going to be an opportunity to tip our hat to the fans since we’d be revisiting the cabin site we’re all familiar with and love. Walking into the prop department, the awesome team had all the iconic props layed out on a blanket on the floor. We literally just walked around and picked what we wanted. We saw the grandfather clock and we yelled “That one!”. Saw the curvy lamp and said “Definitely this”. It was a fanboys dream.

NAQB: I loved the scene in which the demonic force hit and swept away Dalton. It is a cool homage to the Evil Dead 2 scene in which the kandarian demon throws Ash through the woods. How did you realized this scene/effect?

The Meza Brothers: As the night was getting long and the sun was coming up (all the wood scenes were shot late into the night in the bitter cold of New Zealand, and we even got rained out a couple times) we knew we had to get our shots of the evil force POV. With 15 minutes left in our shooting schedule and obviously very little time left, one of the amazing crew members quickly grabbed the camera and ran into the dark woods by himself. It was a crazy visual to see a tired crew member run into the dark abyss of seriously creepy woods. Without him we would have never gotten the shot needed to serve as the background for the effect. Later on in production, we hoisted Lindsay on wires in the air in one of the studios and had him react to the evil force. From there, post-production magic took care of the rest. it was very simple at the time, and even easier now with the advancements in technology, but we wanted to homage the original evil force scene that you are mentioning. We even had it on set, showing the crew members what we wanted. We are happy fans have picked up on the reference.

NAQB: What was your favorite scene to direct?

The Meza Brothers: The cop out, easy answer would be to say that all of them were our favorite, but they really were. We are huge fans of the horror genre and fans of the franchise – so we were soaking in every moment. On set, every time there was a gore effect in play, there we would be, literally jumping up and down by the monitors with excitement. Even in the moments that were insanely stressful (and they always are) we would turn to each other and say “Can you believe we are here?”

If we have to pick out specific moments there were two. One was the funeral scene where Ash exits the coffin in front of all the unsuspecting guests. That day we had 50 very patient extras and Bruce was firing on all cylinders. There was so much to that scene that had to be cut, a lot of great comedic moments. We had hit our stride as directors with Bruce, and we were bouncing ideas off of each other back and forth, creating new dynamics to the scene that didn’t show up on the page. Bruce is a consummate professional and always hit his marks, lines and his timing – every time. But that day, he was a little loose and having some fun improving with us. That scene also featured the Ghostbeaters with Ash for the first time in the episode, so as fans of the show from the very beginning, it was awesome to see all of them together on screen, and to be able to work with the Ghostbeaters was definitely a pinch-me moment.

And then the scene with Arielle inside Cheryl’s bedroom. We are particularly proud of that Crimson and Clover scene because we developed that from scratch. We knew Brandy as a character needed to have a real moment where she connects with Ash, not so much as the deadite slaying madman the town knows him to be, but as a person – and her father. We had talked to Arielle about that specific scene from the moment we landed on set. She did a fantastic job.

NAQB: How much time does it take you to direct an episode? Did you have a tight schedule?

The Meza Brothers: This was our first go round doing television but from what I am told it is always tight and hectic. There is a lot to shoot and vey little time. Especially for a show like this that requires so much more than a television show typically requires. There are plenty of visual effects, gore gags, fight sequences. A lot to do but truly all the credit goes to the amazing crew they have out there. They are the true gatekeepers of Ash vs Evil Dead. They are the (bloody) heartbeat of the show. Without their talent and hard work the show wouldnt be what it is. Being as inexperienced as we were was completely concealed by the amazing crew guiding us and protecting us.

Thanks to the amazing Meza Brothers and I hope you have enjoyed the interview.

#Ash vs Evil Dead #Ash vs. Evil Dead #Meza Brothers #Starz #Lionsgate

[mst3kproject]

Panther Girl of the Kongo

Panther Girl of the Kongo comes to us from Republic Serials, whose logo was mocked over and over every time it appeared in front of Radar Men from the Moon.  It stars Phyllis Coates from Invasion USA and Myron Healey from The Unearthly and The Incredible Melting Man.  It's also got giant lobsters for its monsters, and oh, yes, this is every bit as unbelievably silly as it was in Teenagers from Outer Space.

Our heroine is Jean Evans, wildlife photographer and vine-swinging Panther Girl!  She and her crew are looking for a lion, but instead they find a giant crawdad that wrecks their camera!  Understandably concerned (giant arthropods in the 50's were normally a sign of radiation), Jean calls up her friend Larry Sanders, a safari guide. Together they discover a truly diabolical plot: mad Scientist Dr. Morgan has discovered how to mutate arthropods into giants!  What's he doing with them?  Well, it just so happens that he's also found a hitherto unknown diamond mine, and is determined to scare the natives away[crustacean needed] so he can claim the land and have the gems all to himself.

There are thirteen episodes of this and almost all of them contain a furniture-smashing fistfight scene.  I'm amazed they didn't run out of Jungle Hut props.

Let's get the technicalities out of the way first.  Like Radar Men from the Moon, Panther Girl of the Kongo is designed around a series of cliffhangers – every episode must end with the hero and/or heroine in mortal peril so that the audience will come back next week to find out how they escaped.  The answers are usually not exciting: at the end of Episode One (The Claw Monster!) Larry is knocked out by members of the evil Returi tribe while Jean is menaced by a crawdad.  At the beginning of Episode Two (Jungle Ambush!) it turns out Larry was only momentarily stunned, fights off his attackers, and saves Jean in the nick of time.  At the end of Episode Six (High Peril!), he appears to be about to fall onto spikes, but in Episode Seven (Double Trap!) we see that he actually lands well away from them.  And so on.

The monster effects are... well, they're awful, but they're entertainingly awful.  The crawdad attacking the miniature camera is pretty great, as is the one that's shown 'growing' by putting successively larger crawdads in a miniature cage!  The giant puppet claws that reach out from behind rocks and trees to menace people are utterly hilarious – and of course we never see any blood on the 'injuries' these cause.  And man, if you think the crawdads are stupid, wait until you see the movie's truly abominable gorilla suit.  We saw better-looking shit in Season 11 Bigfoot movies!

There is a lot of stock footage here.  Critic William Cline described the plot as functioning ‘to move the heroine from one piece of stock footage to another’.  There's a sequence in which Jean promises some guests film of the strange creatures she's discovered, but adds that it's on the same reel as some of her other footage, which they'll have to wind through first.  This is an excuse so that we can look at a bunch of documentary animal footage showing creatures like giraffes and cranes that definitely do not live in the jungle.  There's a totally unnecessary recap episode.  Jean's elephant friend Beela exists almost entirely in stock footage, and the same stock footage every time she appears (to be fair, this would have been way less noticeable in a weekly serial than it is watching the whole thing in a day).  All the vine-swinging is from the earlier serial Jungle Girl, and is clearly a man in a dress and a wig!  At least they matched the costume.

But we all know by now that what I love talking about in these pieces of antique media is their politics, so let's take a look at the political situation presented to us by Panther Girl of the Kongo.

We are shown two tribes, the Utanga who are Jean and Larry's hosts, and the Returi who work for Dr. Morgan.  Do I need to specify that both are totally invented?  No?  Good.  The prop and costume department gave these two peoples distinctly different looks, but these are designed less to suggest different cultures than to establish who are the 'good' and 'bad' Africans.  The 'good' Utanga are a little Westernized.  They wear textile clothing without much embellishment beyond Chief Danka's beads and feathered headdress, and live in houses with domestic animals such as chickens.  The Returi, on the other hand, wear 'leopard skins' with body and face paint and jewelry made of bones and teeth, carry weapons everywhere, and seem to be a more nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe.  The treatment is intended to dehumanize them, making them the obvious 'bad' guys.

The two tribes seem to coexist peacefully.  As in Voodoo Woman it's the white people who have brought trouble with them as they seek resources.  Voodoo Woman hinged on Dr. Gerard's quest for power and Marylin's for gold, while Panther Girl of the Kongo concerns Dr. Morgan's interest in diamonds.  The gems are quite useless to the local people who own the land, but very valuable to Morgan.  He can't ask permission to mine the area because he doesn't want to have to pay taxes or fees on his finds, so instead he sets out to steal the land.  In order for him to get the resources he needs, the natives must be either driven away or enslaved.

The monsters are intended to frighten off the Utanga.  With the Returi, Dr. Morgan employs a different approach – he keeps them compliant by providing them with a 'tonic'.  Exactly what this is, we're never told, but it's addictive and mind-altering, making those who take it more obedient and less concerned with their personal safety.  I expected this to be a plot point somehow, but it's never returned to.  It is reminiscent of a number of situations in real-life history: the fur traders would give the Native Americans alcohol in exchange for beaver pelts, and the British would sell the Chinese opium for tea.  Now that they're under his thumb, Dr. Morgan can have the Returi do a great deal of his dirty work, while blaming the violence on the 'primitive tribe' who don't know any better. When one of the Returi men is shot and hurt, he is simply abandoned despite his friend insisting that he needs help.  In Dr. Morgan's mind the natives are either tools or inconveniences.

There's a thread of the White Saviour trope in the story, too. While Dr. Morgan considers himself the master of the Returi, Jean and Larry seem to think of themselves as the protectors of the Utanga. Jean says that with the monsters running loose in the jungle, the men of the village would rather stay home to protect their families than go out and hunt the creatures down, so the latter job is left to the white people.  Indeed, Morgan's men are counting on this – they believe the Utanga will depart at once if Jean and Larry are killed and therefore no longer able to protect them.  Later the Utanga actually do flee en masse, and the white people have to promise protection to make them come back.  The government and police force who will solve the problem if Jean can only find proof against Dr. Morgan are also white – history would suggest that they're Belgians, but they speak with British accents.  I guess the writers didn't research anything else, why would they bother to get that right?

In this case, I really don't think any of this is social commentary.  It's much more superficial than it was in Voodoo Woman, and I get the idea that it was written this way because somebody just figured that was how things worked in Africa.

Another thing I find kind of interesting about the series is how, despite the jungle and savannah setting, Panther Girl of the Kongo often feels like a western.  This may be mainly on account of the 'mining' plot – trade diamonds for gold or silver, give the two tribes faux-Native-American names instead of faux-African ones, and shift us from the jungle to the desert, and the whole 'chase the locals away from the undiscovered mining site' plot would work equally well.  When we see a larger settlement than the Utanga village, many of the sets have a very 'wild west' feel to them, possibly even being hastily-redressed leftovers from a western movie. There are certainly plenty of shootouts and barfights that would be right at home in a cowboy movie, and probably contribute to the 'western' atmosphere.  Such a story could even keep up Jean's friend-to-animals persona, having her hang out with bears and feral horses instead of lions and elephants.  'Coyote Girl of Nevada'?  Why not?

The ease with which this could be done speaks to something else: the formulaic nature of the story.  It's made of tropes, pieced together into a plot that would use (as Cline noted) as much of their stock footage as they could.  The only reason it's a jungle story rather than a cowboy story was because they happened to have the jungle footage on hand.  If they'd had stuff left over from Radar Men from the Moon instead of Jungle Girl, it might well have been a space story instead ('Rocket Girl from Venus'?).  Panther Girl of the Kongo was the sixty-fifth serial Republic had produced, and like Disney with its princesses, they pretty much had their formula down.

But that's not necessarily a bad thing.  If you just sit and watch it, Panther Girl of the Kongo keeps the animal footage and jungle peril coming steadily enough to keep you from getting bored, and the story is reasonably engaging.  The monsters and gorilla suits aren't believable for a minute, but they're amusing, and the bite-sized serial format means you can watch a couple, get tired of it, and come back to it later, when the title cards will kindly remind you which heart-stopping cliffhanger you left off on.  Each episode has a mini-plot that contributes to the overall narrative while also feeling acceptably self-contained, and Jean is a fairly capable heroine, saving Larry's life almost as often as he saves hers.

It’s not art.  Indeed, it’s clearly a sort of assembly-line product, but I can see how this stuff made money.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #panther girl of the kongo #guys in gorilla suits #boy are we in africa! #50s #giant arthropod hours

[tampavideoproductioninfo-blog]

Isn’t interesting knowing the kind of crew a production company is hiring for your event? It is a cool thing, and you get to know everything about these people in order to be carried along in the whole process. First things first, you need a production company in Tampa before all these can happen; that is why you need to check for the best Tampa video production companies with great quality of service and high customer ratings. Have it at the back of your mind that the better they are, the better the event that will be covered.

Once, you have hired a good production company, the next thing for them to do is introduce you to an amazing camera crew. However, it is important that you know the roles of these Tampa camera crew for a better experience. The crew members and their respective roles include;

1. Film Director

He or she has the highest position when it comes to film production. He directs, supervises and controls every other crew member to make sure the most vital parts of a film are included to ensure a customer’s desire is met. As he or she works with other crew members, he or she makes sure that every aspect of the film is exactly what will trigger the audience. This person is given the sole power on who to work with.

2. Camera and Lighting

There are crew members that have different roles in this part of film production, and this is mainly because it involves the tools and equipment used to make the production a success. Think about it: without a camera, will there ever be a video or camera crew, talk less of an event coverage? These people are divided into; the Director of Photography, Dual Camera Operator, Digital Imaging Technician, Gaffer, and many others.

3. Sound

Also, some crew members work on sound because it is an important aspect of film production. The targeted audience is not deaf nor mute; hence, the content needs to be seen and heard at the same time. However, to make sure there is great audibility, there is the production sound mixer which is headed by the Department of Sound. According to these people, each shot needs to have its own clear but unique sound for better quality.

4. Art department

The role of the art department is to make sure the needs of every member of the crew is well taken care of. They are saddled with the responsibility of costume, artworks, design, decoration, props, construction, etc. They also play a huge role but unlike the others.

5. Special Effects

They are only useful during live-action shooting to make sure they create something out of the ordinary for viewers to see. For instance, making optical illusions is one of their greatest responsibility.

6. Production

Finally, the production team plays the last but most important role. They have been divided into three categories; pre-production, production, and post-production. However, the post-production team has the only role, and that is to make sure the film comes out nice and perfect for viewers.

In conclusion, above are the roles of each Tampa camera crew, and whatever you see out there is a film, these are the brains behind it.

#tampa video production #video production tampa #tampa camera crew

[aion-rsa]

Sherlock Designer Arwel W Jones: ‘There’s a Magic to Set Design’

https://ift.tt/3eYLfrL

It’s summer 2011 and Arwel W Jones is causing a commotion in the Brecon Beacons. Cars overtake his forklift along the narrow country road, puzzling at the sight of a living room wall travelling solo past hedgerows and moorland. The wall belongs to Irene Adler, sometime adversary/paramour of Sherlock Holmes. It’s on its way to stand behind Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Lara Pulver in the series two opener of Sherlock, to help to tell their story and to make them look good. 

Storytelling and making things look good are Jones’s job. As Sherlock’s production designer, his art department conceived, created and dressed the spaces where it all happened. Take design out of the mix and the actors would have been delivering their lines in an empty studio, like the one Jones posted a picture of in early 2011. That picture took him from 200 to 5K followers in under a week. It was the moment Jones realised that Sherlock was on the brink of something big. 

‘It was a surprise, shall we say! We were amazed by the series one viewing figures but I wasn’t really aware of the attention to detail people took to it until we were in prep on series two.’

I’m speaking to Jones in July 2020 at the end of a three month industry shutdown due to the global coronavirus pandemic. The Doctor Who and Dracula designer has just re-started work on one of the first UK TV projects to return to production. During the enforced hiatus, he built himself a garden room and inside are a few items fans will recognise from his TV work. ‘I have a couple of Baker Street signs, one of the little dragons from either side of the fireplace in Dracula outside the door, a sign we didn’t use for the TARDIS, a little bit of wallpaper…’

The cut of wallpaper he’s framed is the gloriously named Devil Damask Flock by Timorous Beasties. Sherlock fans will recognise it from the walls of dominatrix Irene Adler’s bedroom. It’s Sherlock’s second most famous paper, the first being the Zoffany’s Navarre fleur-de-lys used in the living room of 221B Baker Street. 

A decade ago, the now-famous print was neither an obvious nor universally popular choice, Jones tells me. ‘A Study in Pink‘ director Paul McGuigan and former Doctor Who production designer Edward Thomas both walked past the decorator while it was going up and were heard to express doubt. ‘I hope he knows what he’s doing’ was the consensus opinion, the fear being that the dark pattern would look too busy on screen. ‘Then on that first day on camera it worked, and that was a sense of relief. For that to become an iconic part of the show, it’s a bit of vindication,’ he laughs.  In the years since, the pattern has appeared on fan walls, been tailored into clothing and recently – a mark of our times – printed onto Covid-19 face masks. 

Jones is reluctant to claim responsibility for the explosion in print wallpaper sometimes called ‘the Sherlock effect’ in real-world interior design. ‘These things go in circles. It could have just been the time for that eclectic pattern thing to come back after so many years of paint effects.’ That said, he did notice there was a lot more patterned wallpaper on television after Sherlock. If he did kick start a trend, he didn’t see any benefits, he laughs. ‘I didn’t even get a reduction on the price of the Navarre paper. We got a trade discount, but nothing more than that. It’s been discontinued now.’

The frisson created by that first empty studio photo developed into an ongoing dialogue between the designer and Sherlock fans. Throughout the show’s four series, Jones gave the fandom behind-the-scenes glimpses, teasing props and pointing out design details that may otherwise have gone unnoticed. Considering the level of devotion Sherlock inspired, the latter is unlikely. Very little was missed, says Jones. In fact, quite the opposite. Fans were so dedicated to spotting Easter Eggs and symbolism in the set designs, sometimes they saw messages where none existed.

Credit: Arwel W Jones

One Tumblr blog, says Jones, had painstakingly searched through the cluster of pictures on the wall of Kitty Riley’s flat in series two finale ‘The Reichenbach Fall‘, ‘and found a link to something in the backstories of the canon of Sherlock Holmes stories for every single image.’ The truth was, the pictures had come with the location. ‘We’d papered the wall, but we put all the pictures back where they were because I quite liked what the owner of the flat had done. I really wish I had the time to get into that much depth and detail with every element of sets and dressing, but you just don’t.’

A few set design details did escape fan attention when the series first aired. Scantily clad women painted into the wall behind Adler’s staircase were only noticed by a few, says Jones, but that’s all part of the plan. ‘You do something like that for a subliminal thing. People might not have gone ‘ooh, look at that!’ but it was registering somewhere that you were in a naughty space.’ 

The same goes for the set of drawings in the restaurant in ‘The Empty Hearse‘ in which Sherlock first meets John Watson after faking his death at the end of series two. ‘That whole sequence had resurrection to do with it. There were the pictures of a phoenix rising from the ashes in the first restaurant, and I can’t remember what was in the café now, but the name of the kebab house was also a resurrected god.’ 

Read more

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More personal nods to cast and crew found their way onto the sets. Since the birth of Jones’ son, his initials have popped up in some form on every show Jones has designed, in Sherlock as graffiti on the wall of a drug den in ‘His Last Vow’. In Dracula, the Tsar in the painting on the Demeter ship shared a face with his art director. In Sherlock Victorian special ‘The Abominable Bride‘, a pub sign bore the head of director Douglas Mackinnon. 

Fan attention to detail was always appreciated. ‘It’s gratifying to know that the work you put in is worth it, but equally that adds a level of nervousness because you know that it will be picked apart and looked at.’

Jones’ one regret in his dialogue with Sherlock fans, he says, was a misunderstanding about hidden messages in the set design. ‘That was a little bit unfortunate. I put certain elephants in set dressing and then people started referencing #arwelephant. I’d kind of missed the link to the ‘elephant in the room’ [the term some fans had given to the homoeroticism of Sherlock and John’s relationship].’

‘I’ve always had elephants on numerous sets, to be honest with you. It was kind of an engaging thing with the fans, if I came across elephants in a prop store or something like that, I’d send a picture out and then I’d get a lot of replies, so I’d carry on, just as a little nod to them. I referenced the bullet-proof glass in Eurus’ cell as ‘Elephant Glass’, that was just a little nod to all the fans that I’d had that kind of relationship with, which I thought was quite funny.

‘I knew the link to ‘the elephant in the room’ in the script, but I hadn’t quite realised how certain people had taken it to heart. That was my one regret really, is that people thought I’d been queerbaiting, which I hadn’t at all, that would be the last thing on my mind.’

It’s the only short note of sadness in a conversation filled with laughter, pride and appreciation for Sherlock’s fans. ‘The greatest thing about the Sherlock fandom is their grace and how much reverence they have for everyone that’s worked on the show as well as the show itself.’ 

‘Even when we were shooting, when we had thousands of people turn up to watch the shoot and they were brilliant, they would go quiet when asked, they would move out of shot when asked, they would clean up when asked! That was always a fantastic side of it.’ The creativity of fans inspired by the show has been humbling, says Jones. ‘I’ve seen clothing, miniatures, people do their own houses, coursework for college courses, cakes! I saw a cake of John’s chair once, it’s incredibly flattering.’ 

Credit: Arwel W Jones

The question he’s most often asked about Sherlock is when it’s coming back for series five. ‘And I have to let everyone down every time!’ Were the call to come to dust off the original sets for a return, does he have the materials to do it? 

‘Technically speaking, no.’ The 221B wallpaper around the fireplace was a period piece Jones found in historical salvage. He bought the lot, ‘about 20 rolls, which I thought was more than enough. But then you don’t really expect to be still going four seasons on.’ He doesn’t have a full roll left. ‘We did dismantle that wall very very carefully to keep it, but it does still have to be cut in certain places. It depends how that comes out of storage.’ 

221B Baker Street is the only set currently in storage, packed away safely at production company Hartswood Films. Everything else was either recycled or binned. ‘Some of it is irretrievable, so that all goes in a skip, but anything you can gets recycled.’ Surely not everything ended up in a skip, I ask. What about the paintings of Mark Gatiss and Benedict Cumberbatch as their ancestors on display in Mycroft Holmes’ house in ‘The Final Problem’? Mark’s got the one with the bleeding eyes, says Jones. 

Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, series creators, weren’t necessarily hard to please when it came to the Sherlock sets, remembers Jones, who also worked with Moffat on Doctor Who and the pair on BBC One’s sumptuous Dracula. ‘They’re massive, massive Sherlock Holmes fans, so you’ve got to be careful really, because they’ll be happy with most things you do for them because they love the show so much. It’s still got to do the right thing on camera, and it’s still got to tell a story.’

‘If they’re not happy with something, you’d know instantly, so it’s always a nervous moment when they walk on.’

Does he remember the first time Gatiss and Moffat walked onto the newly designed set of 221B after the unaired pilot? ‘Like it was yesterday!’

‘It was the same for that original TARDIS set, Christopher Eccleston going into David [Tennant]’s era. When you took someone onto that set – and when I was art directing that, I would quite often be the tour guide – you’d be talking about it and you’d see people stop listening to you and they’d wander off and pick things up and touch things, and that tells you a lot. When I took those two onto the 221B set for the first time, the same thing happened. They started ignoring me and were going around, sitting in the chairs, picking up props, touching things. There was definitely the same kind of vibe. They were just happy. A set that works,’ he explains, ‘that has an aesthetic to it, you get some satisfaction from being in the space. There’s a magic to it.’

Go behind the scenes on 10 Sherlock sets with Arwel W Jones.

The post Sherlock Designer Arwel W Jones: ‘There’s a Magic to Set Design’ appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3jCH8Ft

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[laylabrentonuniblog-blog]

Screencraft 1

Today was my first day back after the summer holidays, We were briefed strait away on a new assignment we were doing, It is split into two parts;

1) a film made by the whole class, independently blog and in our allocated groups make a 6 minuet behind the scenes video during filming. this part is linked to the second part giving us an idea of Locations, Audio, Vision for my individual film.

2) make an individual film after learning the techniques from the class project (Locations, Audio, Vision.)

Things to do:  One minuet crew role pitch; 30 seconds on what role i would like to do during the class project and 30 seconds on what i would like to improve doing. Both of my answers need to be backed up with inspirations that i have from other films/ text/ making of and voice overs.

The roles to choose from are:

Cinematographer -In charge of camera. Must be thinking about shots, lighting, filters, exposure etc.

Sound department- In charge of sound. Must be thinking about room tone testing and timing (being early to set up)

Art department- In charge of the art department. putting sets together, being in charge of costume and make- up and props.

Director producer - Helping to direct the group in all areas. sets up locations.

Music video : Jonathan Glazer -  Jamiroquai's - Virtual Insanity

In 1996 Jonathan Glazer was given a song to make a music video for the pop artist Jamiroquai. He thought of an amazing idea for the video which was very similar to what he ended up with in the final video but it was that the whole set would move independently for example the furniture . After the budget was reviewed it added up to an astronomical amount which was undoable. He ended up coming up with an idea which got everybody thinking about how he did it. Simply by making a set on wheels within a set that could move by being pushed by a team of people which made the sofas move when they were pushed by the walls. This also made the floor look like it was moving like a conveyer belt. The final outcome of this music video was better than the original even though it was on a small budget compared to his first idea. Sometimes the simpler ideas are more effective.

Brief - Screen Craft - Rad002

Unbroken

Things to do;

1) Make the behind the scenes video (6 minuets long)

2) Screening

3) Individual films (4 minuets long) must be shot in a studio and out on location.

4) Sketchbook film explaining why i chose to film what i filmed and what I've used and learnt from the group project.

Planning my one minuet pitch.

I begun planning my pitch by thinking of my favourite films or programs that i have particularly noticed nice camera angles or movements that have caught my eye before while watching them.

One of my favourite series ever made was 'Breaking Bad', i always remember watching it thinking it was just such an amazing series it was so clear and i really liked some of the editing they used such as hip hop montage when they were cooking in the caravan. I liked some of the shots they got in a short clip i found on youtube which is while they were cooking. The second one was also a series i love which is 'The Walking Dead", every time the new seasons come out i cannot get enough of it. Again the camera shots are what captures my eye especially the lighting. It is always so crisp and the way the lighting is set up is really nice from internal shots to external. The third one i chose is a film (which i haven't actually watched before) but i briefly touched on it during a previous project suing my first year on camera angles. The film is Tom-Yum-Goong - 'The protector'. In this film there is a four minuet long take shot on a steady cam which i really like the way the camera moves around following the fight. I have also got a fourth film which is 'Legend' I like how in most of the film the way the lighting is it is really clear and clean which makes the men look important in their expensive outfits and jewellery. These are just a few films and television series that i particularly like and stand out to me when i watch them.

For sound i have found an older video from youtube which is a video on Foley using split screen to show the movie on one side and the foley artist on the other recording the noises separately. i also downloaded a short clip to break the foley clip up of the waves of sound.

My film pitch

It took me a really long time to record myself for the pitch, i find it really difficult to film myself. I managed to jot my main points down and record a few sentences at a time. After i recorded the sound i then put it into premier and placed the clips i chose over the top to show what i was talking about.

this is my pitch

#screencraft1

[tmiquotepage]

Film Crew Appreciation PSA

Respect & love the actors.

But also the directors.

But don’t forget the producers (all of ‘em!)

Don’t forget the Cinematographers & Directors of Photography, and their camera ops who make those dope shots happen!

Don’t forget the 1st AC, who makes those dramatic focus pulls happen.

Don’t forget the 2nd AC, who makes sure those slates are right and shots are logged so they know they don’t lose footage or reeeeeeeally fuck up sync sound!

Don’t forget the sound mixer, who lets the director know whether they got the right sound for that scene before they leave location.

Don’t forget the boom op, who is killing himself offscreen to hold that mic as close as possible without being in your shot so that you get good on-set audio and don’t have to watch potentially disasterous ADR/”dubbing” which draws you out of the movie.

Don’t forget the costumers, who arrive early at set every day to steam out those suits, and who always have back ups, and who make your actors look exactly how they need to for that shot. On that note, don’t forget the make up and hair artists, who work with the director from the beginning and actually put HUGE amounts of thoughts into every look for every shot, every scene. GUYS. NEVER FORGET HAIR AND MAKEUP. This goes for the ridiculously talented people in SFX makeup and practical effects as well!

Don’t forget the script supervisor, who is basically set mom. 

Don’t forget your 1st AD, who is the director’s right hand man. Who makes sure everything gets shot (and works with the script supervisor to make sure you don’t run over time!). Oh, and they’re probably (almost definitely) the one who has placed every single extra in the background to look natural and to walk on screen at the right moment so that you never notice the 100s of people walking down the street behind the lead actors are all people who have been paid to be there and walk behind the lead actors without staring at the big set of film equipment in front of them. 

(Along those lines, thank the extras who come out on set and normally sit around all day doing nothing until they are called for, and then being ready to go when it’s time. Real troopers, and it’s also a fantastic way for people interested in film to check out how things work on sets before they even get to PA level.)

Don’t forget your 2nd AD, or the 2nd 2nd AD, both of whom make sure that set paperwork is in order, everyone is where they need to be, lunch is taken on time, PAs are doing their jobs, and just generally makes sure problems disappear before the 1st even has to hear about them. 

Don’t forget the dolly grip, making sure that tracking shot is smooth and perfect. Likewise, steadicams are heavy and difficult to navigate and learn to use. Give a HUGE shoutout to the steadicam operators in the films you watch (hint: if it’s a major studio production, odds are there are at least one of each!)

Don’t forget the grips, who move alllllllll that shit that needs to be moved on set. Don’t forget the gaffers, who are in charge of lighting and pretty much anything electrical on set.

Don’t forget the DIT who is checking that footage as it comes in. The one who lets you know you’ve got a dead pixel or a corrupt card or a boom in the shot before you spend the rest of the day thinking you got a shot that you simply don’t have. Digital Imaging Techs save movies every day.

DO NOT FORGET THE PAs WHO ARE GETTING YELLED AT AND STANDING FOR 12 HOURS STRAIGHT AND WHO ARE RUNNING FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIMIT AND DO THANKLESS WORK FOR NOT A WHOLE BUNCH OF MONEY (IF THEY ARE ON THE GOOD SETS WHERE THEY ARE GETTING PAID AND NOT THE DOZENS OF OTHERS THEY HAVE TO START OFF ON JUST TO GET EXPERIENCE) AND WHO NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT ANY OF IT AND WILL GLADLY LET YOU USE THEM AS A FOOTREST OR BE YOUR PSYCHOLOGIST/RANT-LISTENER BECAUSE THEY KNOW EVERYONE STARTED SOMEWHERE AND THEY GOTTA EARN BEING IN THIS FUCKING INDUSTRY THE HARD WAY LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

Don’t forget locations, who troubleshoot with location owners and make sure they’re happy and takes care of more on set than you can imagine.

Don’t forget the casting director, who spent hours combing through hundreds of headshots for every little part, even that one waitress with one line in scene 57. 

Don’t forget craft services and catering teams, who keep us fed, but also bring cakes on the last day of filming, who also make sure the first aid kit is well stocked, who remember the sunscreen and the bug spray when you’re in the woods, who make runs to the store when the ice melts, who will always take care of you.

Don’t forget the stunt team, who take the punches and hits and bruises and keep going.

Don’t forget, of all things, the snake wranglers in the woods making sure you don’t get killed by a poisonous snake.

DON’T FORGET ART DEPARTMENT, WHO ARE MACGYVERS AND CAN MAKE ANYTHING OUT OF NOTHING WITHOUT BREAKING A SWEAT. 

Don’t forget set design and dressers, who are responsible for every single thing that is not a person or a prop on that screen. Along those lines, thank the greens team (actual department. Check those credits, dawg.) for working with all the plants you see on screen. And along those lines, thank the animal wranglers and trainers who keep those 40 sheep in the background from getting frisky in your shot.

Don’t forget those teamsters, who make sure those actors & above-the-lines get to and from set safely after a long day filming. 

Don’t forget production coordinators AND UNIT PRODUCTION MANAGERS and all the people in the production office AND ALL THE DEPARTMENTS’ PAs and the crane operators and production designers and please, for the love of GOD, never forget to check out the screenwriter(s) WHO ACTUALLY CREATED THE SCRIPT THIS STORY IS BEING CREATED FROM. 

AND THAT’S ALL JUST PRODUCTION AND PREPRODUCTION. DON’T FORGET POST!

Don’t forget the editing team, even though they are perhaps the most forgotten department people ignore, despite the fact that they are the ones that hold the director’s hand and assure him that his movie is in the footage, and then put it all together and make the story happen from raw sound and footage.

Don’t forget the scores of men and women in the VFX department making sure you question where their graphics end and reality begins.

Post-sound & foley artists, who create the audio world to go with the visual images. The people who make the sound sound effortless are the best. If you don’t notice their work, it usually means they’ve done it right, but go ahead and give them a high-five as well. 

Guys, never forget the MUSIC aspect of films. How much work goes into scoring and creating the soundtrack.

Don’t forget the marketing departments, y’all. The ones who deliver the films, who make those dope ass trailers, who create those posters and viral campagins and taglines. Don’t forget how much work goes into marketing and distribution, because we make make the movie from development through post, but THEY ARE THE ONES THAT MAKE SURE YOU GET TO SEE IT.

I’d say tl:dr;, but the the thing is, you guys should read all of this. There are so many more positions than these, and they all have even more jobs than I was able to list here. And every single one of them does their job because they love it, and every single one of them give 110% to make each individual film a success. Each one of them plays an intergral part in the production of your favorite movies. So please, idolize the actors and directors because yeah, they’re talented and amazing and the most visible. But stay for the credits, too. Check out the IMDb page for the film. See every single person that went into making this film. Google any of the positions you don’t know and learn a bit about what they do on set. You’d be surprised just how much goes into filmmaking. And then, once you’ve done a little research, give those crew members some of the love you have for their creation as well. This has been a friendly PSA from your friendly neighborhood screenwriter/set PA. <3

#filmmaking #psa #signal boost #movies #about me

[ulyssessklein]

The power of planning: how an indie music video that got 30+ million views in its first week took 1.5 years to make

An interview with Jensen Reed about his music video “Back to the 90s.”

Planning. It might not be necessary to make great music, but it certainly comes in handy when you’re trying to produce an entertaining music video.

And the video for Ben Giroux & Jensen Reed’s “Back to the 90s” is entertaining from start to finish, with crazy attention to detail, lots of extras, lookalikes, props, and locations to keep you looking and listening and laughing the whole time. The video took a loooooooooong time to plan and execute, but it was worth the wait. In its first week, “Back to the 90s” has been viewed more than 30 million times across YouTube and Facebook.

I’m really interested in the video production process — whether it’s no-budget, shot by a pro in an afternoon, or something more elaborate — so I asked Jensen Reed about what went into the video for “Back to the 90s.”

CR: Can you tell me about the timeline for the production? How long did each phase take?

JR: It took almost a year and a half from concept to finished video. Ben Giroux came to me with the idea of doing a music video that’s a celebration of all things 90s. We both were 90s kids and sensed a movement for 90s nostalgia, so we knew we were on to a solid idea.

A big part of the challenge was incorporating multiple genres into one song effectively. My production partner Christian Hand had the genius idea and I knew we had to figure out a way to execute it. I enlisted my buddy Jared Lee who is an amazing songwriter and artist to help us with the chorus and my man Dirty Hollywood who is pure rock n roll to work out the grunge bridge with us.

Our Cinematographer Zach Salsman absolutely crushed this shoot. Zach and I have worked together on a bunch of my music videos and his eye and talent behind the camera is unmatched.

We shot the video in two long production days. (Show in the video below):

The key to knocking it out so efficiently was the pre-production process that lasted for months…locations, crew, cast, times, logistics etc. It was truly a massive production with over 100 people on set.

One thing that allowed for the shoot to go smoothly was the lyrics. Because we had so many specific 90s references, we knew exactly what shots we needed. Unlike most of my other music videos where we roll the entire song and do a bunch of performance takes, we only shot the snippets of the song in each setup we needed. This also made the original skeleton for the edit come together quickly because we knew which shot went where in the timeline.

Did you call in a lot of favors to get this video done?

There was an immense amount of talent involved in the project that donated their time and expertise or worked for us at a major discount. This was a team effort in every way imaginable.

I found the attention to detail super impressive. Can you talk about scouting locations, gathering props and costumes, finding lookalikes, and so forth?

Locking down an airplane hangar to re-create the vibe of the iconic Backstreet Boys video “I Want It That Way” was the biggest challenge. We found Whiteman airport outside of Los Angeles and the owner was open to cutting us a deal because he was a former film school student and understood the idea of a passion project. All of the locations and minutia involved in a shoot this big were handled masterfully by our Producers Jon Rosenbloom, Scott Thomas Reynolds, and Marc Barnes. They are masters of getting sh*t done!

We secured Bullock and Snow Casting to cast all of the roles and they knocked it out of the park! Every person they cast was incredible. They also got us the amazingly talent Alexander Arzu (who plays the kid we educated about how great the 90s were).

Our Art Department Melissa Lyon and Marissa Bergman took the production to another level with the ridiculous attention to detail in creating spaces covered with 90s paraphernalia. There are so many ‘Easter Eggs’ littered throughout the video for viewers to discover, which has led to many people watching the video over and over. And our Wardrobe Designer Chelsea Kutun found all of the iconic and memorable looks for everyone involved in the shoot.

What happened between the final edit and the launch? How did you prepare to promote the video?

Ben and I edited the video and got it to an almost final point before we enlisted Animators Doug Bresler, Ilana Schwartz, Tony Celano, and Zoran Gvojic to add their magic touch including NBA Jam, Ren & Stimpy, Doug, Celebrity Deathmatch etc. VFX by Jake Akuna was the final piece of post production that added more detail and interesting effects, upping the ante yet again.

We had a live release party in Los Angeles the day before we released the video. It turned out to be one of the most fun parties that any of our 300 guests had been to in a while. We encouraged everyone to dress in their best 90s gear. Jared and I performed a couple of our original songs and we then screened the video and performed “Back to the 90s” live.

We encouraged everyone in attendance to share the video at 10am on Monday, May 1st when it was released to get the ball rolling. It helped tremendously that many people in attendance have a lot of social influence because of their own creative pursuits. We didn’t hire a publicist. We just put it out to the world with the hopes of it being so good that people would instantly want to share and that’s what happened.

What are you most proud of about this video?

I’m most proud of the incredible team that Ben and I assembled to make this project a reality. It’s very rewarding to have so many working parts feel attached to your creative vision and hustle on your behalf. It’s a testament to working hard, respecting others and ultimately fostering a positive environment where everyone can thrive.

What would you do differently next time?

I have to say there isn’t anything we could’ve done better on this one. It’s as near perfect as it gets and 36 Million views speaks to that.

Any advice for an independent musician that’s just starting to think about shooting a music video on a limited budget?

My advice is to collaborate with others and when you find good creative relationships, go back to them again and again. Ben and I have a philosophy of less-is-more, meaning we aim to create a smaller number of projects with high production value versus a bunch of smaller ideas. This is the typical 15 year overnight success story. I have 16 other music videos and Ben has been a working actor for well over a decade, so there is a lot of hustle-equity built up behind the success of “Back to the 90s.”

One technical skill that I believe every musician should have is Video Editing. I’ve edited almost all of my videos. It’s a skill that came very easy to me because I know the story I want to tell and it’s similar to editing audio in Pro Tools. Cinematographers will be much more likely to work with you as an artist when you can handle the 50 hours of post production work it takes to pull select footage and assemble an edit. It also gives the artist creative control over the video and saves a bunch of money.

Check out more of Jensen Reed’s music videos at http://www.jensenreed.com/videos. More from Ben Giroux can be found at http://www.bengiroux.com.

The post The power of planning: how an indie music video that got 30+ million views in its first week took 1.5 years to make appeared first on DIY Musician Blog.