#i love eternal sunshine type plots so i get the appeal

[nativehueofresolution]

for me personally i kind of like the idea that the only time louis and daniel before now was the night of the original interview.

to me the interesting thing about their dynamic (and part of what makes it romantic) is the weird way you can confide in a stranger things you can't tell people who are actually a part of your life - like the contrast between this person not knowing you and all yet somehow you're telling them your darkest secrets, and they're seeing through your bullshit in a way people who know you don't (or maybe do but won't vocalize). and yeah it's a combination of chance and luck, but there's also a genuine connection that makes this stranger the one you choose to talk to out all the other strangers you come across.

and the idea that maybe that moment, that bond, could be so strong it could pick right up many decades later compels me. there's an intimacy to like, a past relationship, obviously, but i think there's also an intimacy that comes from knowing 'i only spoke to this person once but i never stopped thinking about them and maybe they never stopped thinking about me?' but you hooked up once or only had one conversation and you talk yourself down say be realistic because it was so brief and so long ago you, how could you not be blowing this out of proportion, but then you meet again and it hits you all over again like a ton of bricks.

#kaitlin speaks #i love eternal sunshine type plots so i get the appeal #but to me the appeal of that is like a story about how you can't take back intimacy #and no matter how many times you leave it's never going to change the way being there shaped you. #but to me d/l is like... the way your mind returns to someone you never got to be with #and the mixture of longing and like wondering if you're just romanticizing bc it didn't happen and ships in the night of it all #so all that to say i am open to whatever (bc tbh i do think there is some daniel memory plot line and in a lot of ways that's exciting) #but i actually think there's something special about the idea of their one night maybe being it and yet still impacting him so deeply #and if/when that element goes i'll miss it. i'm only this sappy about fiction i swear lol #their dynamic is like inverse of le/a where they have this connection and they hate it but also play it up and define themselves by it #but d/l they're in denial and don't want to admit their experience was as intense as it was #iwtv #danlou #this might only make sense to me lol

[tomorrowsdrama]

2020 Year in Thirst Pt. 2

Sometimes, I will watch a drama for the plot/premise/substance and be rewarded with a surprise hottie, and it’s the best feeling ever!  It’s like finding money in your pocket that you didn’t know about.  The following list of dramas can be described as:

Came for the plot, was rewarded with a surprising side of thirst

1. Flower of Evil

Brief Summary: Lee Jun Ki plays Baek Hee Sung and Moon Chae Won plays Cha Ji Won, his wife who is also a detective.  What Ji Won doesn’t know is that her husband, Hee Sung, is actually Hyun Soo, a man on the run from a murder that he did not commit and also a suspected accomplice to a series of murders committed by his father in the past.  Oh yeah, his dad secretly tried to groom him into being his protege/murder partner.  Because of how he was raised, HS believes that he has no emotions and is simply putting on an act as the perfect husband and father.  His “parents” are in on the ruse and are actually the ones who forced him into assuming their comatose son’s identity.  Anyway, of course things from the past start to catch up with HS and his wife is somehow assigned to investigating his old murder case.  She of course feels betrayed, but also conflicted as she discovers her husband is not who he said he was and a prime murder suspect.  Things get even more complicated as the real murderer re-appears with fabulous long hair and tries to frame HS for the murders.  In between all of this are delicious make outs between the couple and at least one instance where they banged so hard, HS was wiped out the next morning.

Surprise Thirst Factor: I checked out this drama fully expecting to drop it because the promos were so misleading and unappealing. But boy was I in for a pleasant surprise!  Not only was the drama super addicting, it also had some nice eye candy in the form of Lee Jun Ki being a completely unrealistic house husband who satisfies in the housework (The man cooks and does the laundry!), childcare, and bedroom and Kim Ji Hoon’s glorious mane of beauty making viewers have a moral crisis over lusting after a homicidal maniac (who turned out to be a real loser without murder daddy around to clean up his mess.  It’s ok, we’ll always have his hair).

Yes, work that hair honey.  It’s the only good thing you’ve got going on for you (the character, not Kim Ji Hoon)

The chemistry between Lee Jun Ki and Moon Chae Won was fire and the make out scenes were soo believable.  Like yes, these two beautiful people are really into being married to each other and understandably want to make out all the time. 

He’s the primary caretaker for their daughter and it’s just *swoons.*  Not all thirst traps come in the form of sexy abs (although I would not mind if he wanted to flash some).

2. Six Flying Dragons

Brief Summary: The story of young Yi Bang Won (who later becomes King Taejong) and the founding of the Joseon Dynasty.  As short as it sounds, that really is an accurate summary of the drama haha.

Surprise Thirst Factor: I started watching this drama because I heard it was a great sageuk and I’m a big fan of Yoo Ah In.  Even though I’m a fan of his acting, Yoo Ah In doesn’t necessarily get my hormones raging so I wasn’t expecting to be so thirsty while watching Six Flying Dragons.  But then.  BUT THEN.  Byun Yo Han showed up in all his scruffy tortured deadly killer glory and my hormones woke up and said hi, hello, who are you, what’s your name, what’s your sign, can I get your number?  The deadlier and more tortured his character got, the sexier he became to me.  Sorry Yoo Ah In, you’ll always be my acting boo, but Byun Yo Han’s got my thirst.  Byun Yo Han looks so good when he's sad and/or covered in blood, it makes me feel like a sadist for thinking that I wouldn’t mind if the drama made his character cry some more.

3. Ever Night S1

Brief Summary: As a child, Ning Que witnessed his entire household get massacred because of a prophecy that the child of Hades will be born from the house and bring about the Eternal Night.  Somehow, he managed to escape and was the lone survivor.  He finds a baby buried in a pile of dead bodies as he’s fleeing and names her Sang Sang.  The two orphans grow up inseparable from each other and do whatever it takes to survive in the harsh, cruel world.  Ning Que earns money by becoming a deadly mercenary and Sang Sang takes care of the household affairs.  At one point, Ning Que becomes a disciple of the powerful Fu Zi and somehow gets entangled in the struggles between the Holy Sect and Demon Sect.  A bunch of beautiful women fall for Ning Que, and the drama tries its hardest to convince us that he has chemistry with and reciprocates the feelings of one of them (i.e. Mo Shan Shan), but anybody who was even half paying attention knows that the only one for Ning Que is Sang Sang.  They are the OTP of all OTPs and take “ride or die” to a whole other level. Oh also, their height difference is the stuff manga dreams are made of. Ning Que is a “good guy” but also not a “good guy” in the sense that he is not above doing whatever it takes to seek revenge and is only out for himself and Sang Sang (and later, his older brothers and sisters from the academy).

Surprise Thirst Factor: Chen Feiyu is an attractive person but I could not in good conscience thirst after him because he was literally born in the year 2000.  It did not help that he was only 18 when he filmed Ever Night and looked every bit his age.  My thirst may have no shame, but it does have its own set of principles and one of those principles is thou shalt not lust after those born in the new millennium!  Luckily for me, Second Brother is played by Dylan Kuo who is a beautiful, elegant, tall man

and Brother Chao is exactly the type of rugged and manly that I am into.  

(you don’t have to be)

who looks better when wet

AHEM. Yeah.

Sixth Brother is also not so bad with his scanty pounding work attire,

4. Novoland: Eagle Flag

Brief Summary:  Asule is the prince of a tribe in the grasslands who is held as a royal guest (i.e. hostage) in the Eastland Empire.  There he meets his two future best friends, Yu Ran, a free spirited princess who is descended from a race of bird people, and Ji Ye, an emo neglected/shunned son of a concubine who is probably the best fighter in the empire.  Ji Ye loves Yu Ran who is a ball of sunshine to his Johnny Raincloud dark emo self.  Yu Ran loves Ji Ye back.  Asule loves both his friends and will do anything to protect them.  The world decides to fuck over best friends Asule, Ji Ye, and Yu Ran for no reason as they try their best to just live a peaceful life away from all the political scheming and fighting.

Surprise Thirst-worthiness: I was completely content with enjoying Eagle Flag purely for its story and substance.  It’s seriously a wonderful, yet heartbreaking drama and the scale of the production is amazing.  No cheap $10 costumes here.  Also, the direction is beautiful/artistic and not the run of mill “let’s shoot it and complete it as fast as we can.”  The two main actors were cute, but not really my type.  Then the drama decided to give Ji Ye the “Sexy Bloody Tormented Killer Makeover” and all of a sudden your girl was rushing to MDL to check Chen Ruo Xuan’s birthday and calculating his age.  I am simple, predictable, and consistent when it comes to my thirst and give a character some scruff, long hair, angst, and some bloodlust and I’m all yours.  I am literally:

Is it wrong that when Ji Ye showed up looking like this ready to kill his mother’s torturer

I thought, yes, can we have him kill another? 

5. Run On

Brief Summary: Im Siwan plays Ki Seon Geom, a national track runner from a rich family who is a bit of an oddball and marches to his own beat.  Although his words can sometimes be construed as rude since he has no filter, they are also completely honest and have no hidden meaning.  He also has his own personal code that he lives by and he will stick to it no matter how negatively it may impact himself.  He meets Oh Mi Joo, a translator with her own strange quirks and sparks fly as Mi Joo is assigned to be his interpreter.  

Surprise Thirst-worthiness: I kind of watched this drama by accident.  I had read about Im Siwan starring in a new drama but nothing I saw from the description or promos for Run On appealed to me.  Nor did it give me any information about what the drama would be about.  Then one day, I just happened to be browsing Netflix for something to play in the  background and decided on Run on since I thought I wouldn’t be that invested.  What a happy accident that turned out to be because I’m so in love with this drama right now.  This is a case where the thirst does not stem from the character’s physical appearance, but from the intensity/charisma the actor brings to the character and the character himself.  Ki Seon Geom is so odd, but so appealing at the same time and Im Siwan is so magnetic in the role.  Prior to Run On, Im Siwan wasn’t really my type physically.  In fact, I always scratched my head whenever people called him handsome in dramas (I know, I know, forgive me).  So color me shocked when I found myself swooning all over Im Siwan in the second episode of Run On.  Now, it’s like I have “Im Siwan is attractive” glasses on and he looks attractive in everything to me.  I want to gobble up all the dramas he’s been in.

#flower of evil #lee jun ki #six flying dragons #byun yo han #ever night #novoland eagle flag #run on #jtbc run on #im siwan #kdrama #cdrama

[rachelswirsky]

Silly Interview with Anaea Lay (who wants to read your hate mail)

Rachel Swirsky: You were in Women Destroy Science Fiction--a project I greatly admire. What appeals to you about the project? What was your story like?

Anaea Lay: The Destroy series has been so phenomenally successful and huge that it's hard to remember that it started as an announcement that basically went, "You know what?  Screw this.  We're going to do a thing. Details forthcoming, let us know if you're in."  I'm both irritable and prone to scheming wild projects, so an announcement like that is a perfect recipe to pique my interest.  I sent them my info: i actually volunteered to read their hate mail for them since I get a bit of a kick out of getting hate mail.  I have a weekly quota of cackling I have to meet and reading hate mail makes it really easy for me to hit it.

They did not take me up on that offer, but did ask me to write a personal essay for a series they were putting up on their Kickstarter page.  There's less cackling involved in that sort of support, but I was game.  It's pretty short and you can still read it online if you want.  It's mostly about how I found SF at just the right moment for it to assure me that I wasn't as alone or strange as I thought I was.

What I like most about the Destroy project as it's grown and developed is how conversations around it have grown and developed.  A lot of voices that were always there, but usually at the edges or hard to go find have been amplified and brought closer to the main stream of the conversation.  That's the kind of effect that stretches beyond a single anthology or project.  Twenty or thirty years from now, I'll get to be the pedant droning on in convention hallways about how this and that other thing taken for granted ties back to this project and here see all the ways I can tie them together.  People will humor me and act like I'm being terribly interesting, and when they finally escape, I'll cackle.  (I'll probably still have a quota to meet.)

RS: You have an unpublished novel. You quote what John O'Neill had to say about it: "…an unpublished novel set in a gorgeously baroque far future where a woman who is not what she seems visits a sleepy space port… and quickly runs afoul of a subtle trap for careless spies.” Can you tell us more? How did you come up with the idea, and did it surprise you where it went?

AL: That novel was a bit of an experiment.  I had a big, sprawling space opera universe that I'd been building in the back of my head for years while working on other things.  It was time to start actually working on things there, but while I knew a lot about it, things in the back of my head tend to be squishy and hard to work with.  So I decided to do a safety novel first, something that would let me touch on the major set pieces  without any risk of pinning myself in later or breaking something I'd need.

Which meant I had no idea what I was going to do with it when I sat  down.  I knew I wanted a pair of sisters as the protagonists, and I wanted the younger sister to do some protecting of the older sister, then just kept throwing things out there to see what happened.

I'm in the process of re-working on of the plotlines from that novel into a game for Choice of Games.  It's serving as a learning workhorse for me again because I'm using it to experiment with all the things I learned while doing my first game with them.  Clearly pirates, spies, and snarky computers are the learning tools every modern writer needs in their workshop.

RS: You used to podcast poetry--how do you go about figuring how to give a poem voice?

AL: I hosted the Strange Horizons poetry podcast, but I did as little reading of the poetry as possible; that's our venue for getting in a variety of voices and it seems to me that if people are particularly invested in my voice, they can get plenty of it in the fiction podcast.

That said, I would step in when we were short on readers or there was a poem that particularly caught my eye.  (Editor's privilege is a marvelous thing!)  Reading poetry is both easier and harder than reading prose; poems are frequently crafted with a very deliberate ear toward how they sound, which means you're not likely to find the text dull to interpret vocally.  At the same time, you then have to do justice to the choices made in how the poem was put together, and justify it being you doing the reading rather than any given reader's interior head voice.  So I look for the tools the poet gave me, then look for the ways I'm best suited to using those tools and build my performance around that.  I'm a complete sucker for consonant clusters and sibilants.

RS: What was wonderful about running the Strange Horizons podcast?

Running the Strange Horizons podcast is fantastic.  I've given the poetry podcast over to Ciro Faienza, who was one of our staff readers for the poetry podcast and the single most common provocation of fanmail the podcast has gotten.  That podcast takes a lot of work, and I'd gotten to the point where I was very aware of a lot of ways it could be better, but realistically wasn't ever going to have the time to implement any of those improvements.  Ciro immediately made some great changes and I'm really looking forward to what he does as he gets into his groove.

The politic, and mostly true, answer to what's fantastic about doing the fiction podcast is getting to read the stories early and then pull them apart and put them back together in order to give a good reading.  The slightly more true answer, which has been growing over the course of the podcast, is the responses I get to the podcasts from the writers and the audience.  I pretty much only consume short fiction in audio form these days, which leaves me very grateful to all the places that are making it available.  Every time somebody reminds me that I'm one of those people is really great, especially when they're reminding me because they liked what I did.

But also, I really like getting to pull the stories apart and put them back together.

RS: So, on your website, you claim that the rumors I am a figment of your imagination are compelling. What are those rumors and why are you compelled by them?

AL: I actually exist as a multi-bodied individual quietly working to bring the world under the rule of a mischievous alien intelligence through widespread distribution of coffee and sunlight.  We've already conquered most of California and are making great headway in Washington.  Every sip of coffee you take, and every day with bright, clear skies, our agenda advances that much further.

Once, upon being informed of this (it's no fun to subvert an entire civilization if they don't know it's happening - you have to advertise) the person I was warning expressed skepticism about the veracity of my claims.  Apparently, according to them, the very concept of a multi-bodied individual is imaginative speculation and the idea of being one even more so.

There's not a lot I can do in the face of such claims.  There are people who don't believe in the moon landing.  There's not a lot I can do about people who insist on remaining skeptical about coffee and sunshine powered conspiracies.  But I do find such relentless denial of obvious reality to provide a fascinating insight into human psychology, especially when the stakes are this high.

The projects question: got anything you'd like to mention to readers?

The biggest thing I'm in the middle of right now is the Dream Foundry, which is a very cool new organization that's connecting different types of creative professionals all across science fiction, fantasy, and the rest of the speculative world.  We're running useful articles on our website and starting up some very fun programming on our forums.  We've got really big plans for the future (Contests! Workshops! Assimilation of the entire industry into our standards for compensation and professional conduct!) but we're already doing some very neat things, which is great for an organization that's less than a year old. In the short fiction realm, I just had "For the Last Time, It's not a Raygun," come out from Diabolical Plots. It's a tiny bit a love letter from me to Seattle, though I'd understand if it looks more like hate mail to some people. Much larger, my first game with Choice of Games, "Gilded Rails," came out late last year.  It's a huge (340k) interactive novel where you're trying to secure permanent control of a railroad in 1874, during the very early days of the labor movement and age of Robber Barons.  You get to choose between fixing markets or helping out small scale farmers, you've got a possibly-demonic pet cat, and a supreme court ruling over inheritance law for a big tent revivalist operation accidentally turned society into a more egalitarian alternate history where just about the entire cast might, depending on what you choose, be female.  Also, I snuck in hot takes about the contemporary theater and poetry scenes, which is exactly the sort of timely, incisive commentary everybody needs in their business sim.  I spent roughly forever, and also an eternity, working on this, so I'm really thrilled to have it out in the world.  It could be said that I'm cackling over it.

#silly interview

[media-research-blog]

Evaluation (1139 words)

Creative Intention 

I chose to address Brief 1, task A (broadcasting) and task C (e-media). I worked completely independently for the production of my film extract and the web content, and the only other people involved were actors. I created two tumbler accounts, one for research into my film and one for promotion which I used to keep the audience updated with interviews, posters, social media and more. The research blog included audience research (a questionnaire and analysis of the results), industry research (film production/distribution companies), age rating research, a film analysis and research into advertising my film. My research helped me to gain better knowledge of how a film is produced and distributed and how much work had to be put into it.   I started my research by looking for inspiration for a narrative in other independent films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Perks of being a Wallflower. My original idea was to make the 4 minute ending scene of a film (Apparition) about a girl (Lily) who had lost her brother, but I was unsure of what could happen next to make it more interesting. Independent films typically focus on more unconventional ideas and not abide by any 'Hollywood rules', so I created a film with no boundaries and didn’t have to worry about risk factors. Both Eternal Sunshine and Perks had dark, unconventional themes such as the use of memory wiping to get rid of unwanted heartbreak and the struggles of being a teenager with personal problems. Eventually I decided on the plot – Lily goes for  a walk, spots a tennis ball which reminds her of her dead brother and runs while replaying the memories of him in her head. When she falls she remembers how her brother helped her up before and this helps her to get up. In the end Lily is staring out to sea and a figure comes up behind her and touches her shoulder, so she spins around but no one is there. The audience are left wondering if it was really her brother, if she was imagining or if it was a ghost.   The brief stated that the film had to follow the guidelines of a 15+ age rating which meant I had to do significant research into what can and can't be in a 15+ rated film. I gathered the information from the BBFC website and made sure my film abided by the rules. The brief also stated that my film had to fit into a category and I chose 'the secret' - Lily's brother is watching her but she doesn’t know and the audience is also left unsure of what is real.  

Target Audience 

The target audience for 'Apparition' was 15+ (as stated in the brief). I made a questionnaire based on the drama genre as that is the genre my plot fitted into the most, along with the mystery sub-genre. I made sure I gave the questionnaire to a variety of different aged people and an equal amount of females and males as I felt it was necessary to be as consistent as possible. The results helped me to decide on the correct target audience and what they would find the most interesting, which ended up being a mystery drama aimed at 16-20 year old's. I was then able to start working on a storyboard and production. 'Apparition' focuses on a teenager which I thought would be most interesting to other teenagers. The dark, unconventional theme of death of a loved one and almost sci-fi features are also more raw than a typical Hollywood film. I felt that this would appeal more to older teenagers/young adults because it is easy to get bored of big blockbuster movies and as a young person I know independent films are often more interesting and thought provoking.  

Fitness For Purpose 

I intended to create a film that people could relate to if they have ever lost a loved one. The ending scene shows Lily's grief as she runs while thinking about her brother and the constant back and forth shots between reality and memories portray the difficulty in letting go of someone who has died. I planned which types of shots and angles I would use before filming to capture the best possible footage I could get. I thought that the variety of low and high angle shots, close ups, point of view shots, over the shoulder shots and moving shots would make the film more interesting and emotional because the audience would be more engaged. I think the final product uses this idea well and I am happy with the use of different shots. I wanted the real life scenes and memories to be easily distinguished so I applied a sepia type filter to the memories. It made the memories look very bright and a bit blurry which worked well to connote the imperfection of memories and how they are never completely the same as the real event. The tennis ball was used to represent Lily's brother. Lily holds the ball throughout the ending scene and only at the very end does she let go, symbolising her acceptance of her brothers death.  

Other Platforms 

If I had chosen task B and created a booklet my film, I would have made sure that it included any research I did because the audience usually enjoys learning about how films were made and behind the scenes content is often popular for many films.I would have included interviews with actors and directors because viewers often follow them and become fans, so having interviews gives the audience more insight into the film and make it more interesting. As well as this, I would have included film posters and fan art because it allows the audience to be involved and feature in the booklet. Finally I would include links to social media as our 2.0 culture makes films easy to advertise through social media and the internet, therefor fans will do a lot of the sharing for the filmmaker which is helpful for an independent production as the budget is limited.  

Conclusion 

In conclusion, I have learned that filmmaking is a lot more time consuming that I originally though it would be. Making an independent film meant I had to do everything on my own including research, writing, filming, directing, editing, distributing, advertising and more. Having a tiny budget meant that equipment and time were both limited which meant I had to plan carefully and be as efficient as possible. I believe that my knowledge of camera angles and shot types helped make the film look appealing to the target audience and I am happy with the end result.

#Evaluation