#i think the 7th one is the real train? or is it all CGI?

[adultswim2021]

Lowe Country | May 11, 2007 | Webisode/Special

Yes! I’m writing-up Lowe Country! Why?

In addition to the five airing programs that were part of “The Night of 1000 Pilots” there was also this. Lowe Country is a fairly simple idea: A proposed docuseries about various days in the life of Space Ghost voice-actor George Lowe. Just follow George around with cameras and let him be him. We see him have some sort of physical training session, get annoyed in traffic, record some lines as Space Ghost for, I’m guessing, the Volume Two DVD (he states the date is 5/12/04). I genuinely wonder what these recordings are actually used for. Was there a music replacement that required replacement dialogue recordings? Was it actually for a promo or something that I missed? I wonder!

One memorable moment is when George visits a radio station and does his “Wilbur the Love Goat” routine with a couple of receptionists. It’s basically sexual harassment, but they take it in stride and I hope and pray that George doesn’t get #metoo’d. He should maybe make it up to them in some small way if he hasn’t already. Maybe he should give them a nice present? Perhaps a real goat named “Wilbur the Love Goat”? Hahaha, I am making myself laugh so hard right now. You sexually harass women for years and then you make it up to them by bringing them an animal that they have to take care of and somehow share custody of. How can I get this idea to George? The two women call George retarded, which caused me to theorize that if we just let women say the r-slur (the one from before that I didn’t censor; not sure why I did just now) and no one else then that would fix all this stuff.

My friend from 7th grade has “we’re all out for a peanut” as his twitter username, and it’s from this! COOL!

This pilot was unique in that it only ever aired in it’s unedited form as a web-only exclusive. Later it was recreated using a CGI Space Ghost in place of George; I don’t remember if the other people in the video were also CGI’d or not. I don’t think they were? They titled it “Earth Ghost” and it aired later as part of either an April Fools or Daylight Savings stunt. I’m sorry I never go through the trouble of looking up which one it is when I say that. They are basically the same to me.

I do like this, and would hella support an actual series of this. But I don’t feel like I need too many more of these. George Lowe is a treasure and he should just get a salary to be himself weather cameras are rolling or not. You gotta admit I’m right about this.

Okay! Since we’re here, we might as well rank not just the “Night of 1000″ pilots, but also every other pilot Adult Swim ever produced up to this point. I’m going to include Lucy, The Daughter of the Devil, even though it’s eventually going to be a series. Also let’s throw Anime Talk Show in there, why not? Let me know if I forgot something. Please! From worst to best:

The Groovenians

The Finkel Files

The Lewis Lectures

That Crook'd 'Sipp

Captain Sturdy: The Originals

Penguins Behind Bars

Lucy, The Daughter of the Devil

Anime Talk Show

Saddle Rash

The Drinky Crow Show

Spacecataz

Fat Guy Stuck in Internet

Lowe Country

Let's Fish

Welcome to Eltingville

Korgoth of Barbaria

Superjail

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #lowe country

[poirott]

Are you ready for Murder on the Orient Express?

#murder on the orient express #poirot #hercule poirot #agatha christie #perioddramaedit #orientexpressedit #*edit #started this one weeks ago arghh #but i kept changing it because we've been getting new clips :) #love all the gorgeous panorama shots #the 4th one is the replica train they had at the studio #as is the 5th one #i think the 7th one is the real train? or is it all CGI? #in the 8th gif is poirot looking at the bridge? #got a theory about that last shot (its placement in the film)

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

The Goonies: Facets of Filmmaking

From the get go, The Goonies seemed destined for success.

Everything seemed perfectly in place: director Richard Donner (of Superman and The Omen fame) producer Stephen Spielberg (director of Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, and the Indiana Jones films), screenwriter Chris Columbus, (also worked on Gremlins) and Spielberg’s production company Amblin Entertainment.  With all of these talented people, a great script, and a production studio that had a decent record under its belt already, The Goonies was a surefire win.

And a win it was.

But it didn’t come without its challenges.

The film The Goonies was originally conceived by Stephen Spielberg as the basic idea of: “What would bored kids get up to on a rainy day?”  After pitching the idea to screenwriter Chris Columbus (who had wrote the script to the film Gremlins, which Spielberg had also produced), the script was written with the obvious conclusion: search for pirate treasure, of course.  It was a traditionally Spielbergian ‘high concept’ movie, for sure, but oddly enough, The Goon Kids, as it was then called, didn’t end up a Spielberg film after all.  

After a string of successes already beginning throughout the ‘80s, with E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones films, and The Color Purple, on top of being the producer for many other films, Spielberg, originally the director for the project, passed off the reins to established director Richard Donner instead.

None were more surprised than Donner himself.

“My first thoughts were, ‘why me?’  Because it was Steven Spielberg who made the best movies for kids and for dreaming in the world. So, why are you giving this to me?  He said because he was busy doing something else and he thought I was as big a kid as he was and he gave it to me.”

In a way, it made perfect sense: Donner was already used to big-budget films with huge setpieces and soundstages.  On the other hand, he wasn’t terribly experienced with working with children.

Thankfully, instead of leaving him with the project on his own, Spielberg stayed on as producer, even directing a few scenes in the final film.  The pair worked together fairly closely, with their combined talents having a marked influence on the film from their blended styles.  However, despite this seemingly ‘dream team’ combination of directors working on the combination of Spielberg’s idea and Chris Columbus’s script, there were still plenty of challenges throughout production, some of them where the cast was concerned.

By necessity, production had to begin by breaking the well known rule: “Never work with animals or children.”  Already a successful director, Donner found himself challenged by the unique experience of trying to wrangle the young cast to focus on the movie that had to be made.

The main cast was almost entirely newcomers: Kerri Green and Josh Brolin were making their onscreen debuts with The Goonies, and the others weren’t much more experienced.  Sean Astin, although coming from a Hollywood background, was relatively new to acting at the time, as were Jeff Cohen and Martha Plimpton.  Ke Huy Quan, having just previously starred in Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, had relatively little experience as well, with Corey Feldman having the biggest portfolio of the young cast, having previously appeared in Gremlins, as well as multiple commercials and television episodes.

The inexperience, as well as the youth, showed throughout production, with Donner worn thin by the antics of a high-energy cast of children.

“The annoying thing was the lack of discipline, and that was also what was great because it meant that they weren’t professionals. What came out of them was instinct and that was beautiful. But because it was instinct they didn’t have the discipline of a professional actor, a trained actor who knew that on that line or that move they were going to scratch themselves or drink a Coke or eat a slice of pizza, so every time you would make cuts to match, they were all over the place. Never on the same marks. But the reason they weren’t is because they were functioning on their instincts, and their instincts at that moment told them to go there and not there. I just had to figure my way around it, but it drove me nuts.”

The other members of the cast included Anne Ramsey as Mama Fratelli, and Joe Pantoliano and Robert Davi as Francis and Jake Fratelli, and, most memorably, NFL defensive end John Matuszak as Sloth, underneath several hours worth of makeup and prosthetics.

There was more to the assembly of The Goonies than just the cast, however.

The Goonies came at a time before CGI was widely implemented in special effects films: meaning that the effects on screen were shot with real sets and props.  While most of the shots hold up (once they deleted the octopus sequence), there is one prop, one set, that far outshines every other (admittedly impressive) effect in the film:

One-Eyed Willy’s pirate ship.

The famous pirate ship that is the main set piece for the climax of the film was constructed on the Warner Brothers lot, on soundstage 16, the only stage big enough for not only the ship, but the cave and 2.3 million gallons of water that the ship was sitting in.  The ship took approximately six months to build, and the surrounding cave waas no less a chore to create, with plaster rocks reaching up to the top of the soundstage.  

All the hard work paid off, evidenced by both the reactions of fans everywhere and the reactions of the kids themselves when they first laid eyes on the ship (Donner wanted to capture the expressions on the first take, and the kids were not permitted to see the ship beforehand.  The take used in the film is the second take.).  Unfortunately, once shooting wrapped, the pirate ship was destroyed when no one would take it, and one of Hollywood’s most iconic sets and props was lost forever.

For the most part, besides the usual hiccups present in filmmaking, the production of The Goonies went off fairly smoothly, and after five months of shooting (followed by more months of dubbing), The Goonies wrapped.  On June 7th, it was released in theaters, becoming one of the top ten highest grossing films of the year.

As time went by, The Goonies truly proved to never say die, with more generations of fans being added to it’s already impressive roster.  There have been documentaries, reunions, script readings, and, above all, requests for a sequel in the thirty-five years since it’s original release, with no signs of it’s popularity dropping off.  Currently, The Goonies is fondly remembered as one of the best known and best loved films of the 1980s, full of iconic moments and quotable lines that have continued to live in the public consciousness in the years following its debut.

In short:

The Goonies seemed destined for greatness from the start, and it certainly followed through.  Whether a sequel is ever made or not, no matter what, the original will continue to be loved and treasured for generations to come: as long as audiences remember how, for just a short while, to think like a kid.

It’s almost time to close on our analysis of The Goonies.  Join me next time as we take one last look at this classic film: combining the facts with the feelings for a sum-up.  Stay tuned, and thanks so much for reading!  I hope to see you in the next article.

#The Goonies #The Goonies 1985 #1985 #80s #Film #Movies #Adventure #Comedy #Family #PG #Sean Astin #Josh Brolin #Jeff Cohen #Corey Feldman #Kerri Green #Martha Plimpton #Ke Huy Quan #Richard Donner

[maerveil]

50 Questions You Have Never Been Asked

i was tagged by @loverofelves​ :3c thank u <3

1. What is the color of your hairbrush?

black, nothing special, my mom got it from a dollar store for me bc my old one was literally falling apart but i refused to replace it

2. A food you never eat?

the only thing i can think of that i would probably not eat even if that meant it gets thrown away is steak, or any cut of red meat. i have a lot of trouble swallowing it for some reason. most other foods i hate i would still rather eat than waste them

3. Are you typically too warm or too cold?

theres no really comfortable temperature for me i think. im always either too warm or too cold. but since i spend most time in my bedroom which only gets sunlight for about 4 hours a day, im usually too cold

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago?

painting with watercolours and listening to music

5. What is your favorite candy bar?

i avoid sweets so i dont really know the different breeds of candy bar

6. Have you ever been to a professional sporting event?

ive participated in a few swimming tournaments when i was younger and a friend dragged me to see an ice hockey match a few years ago

7. What was the last thing you said out loud?

'hey’ at my cats because they were climbing my shelf....

8. What is your favorite ice cream?

not really a flavour, but strawberry sundae, with real strawberries and white chocolate... theres nothing quite like it

9. What was the last thing you had to drink?

tap water

10. Do you like your wallet?

its a huge black leather wallet. i wanted one like this really bad when i was like 14 yrs old, now i kinda think its too big. but i like that it has space for all kinds of clutter like cards and pictures... i want to say i feel neutral about it but considering how long ive had it im probably at least a little attached

11. What was the last thing you ate?

a small bowl of plain oats with milk for breakfast

12. Did you buy any new clothes last weekend?

no... im saving my money for useless things rn!

13. The last sporting event you watched?

im really not into sports so whenever i watch sports it i dont do so deliberately. uhm. i think biathlon was on tv one time a few months ago when i visited my dad

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn?

i like it when its sweet but not so much that your fingers get terribly sticky from it

15. Who was the last person you sent a text message to?

my dad probably

16. Ever go camping?

yea i went camping w my dad a lot when i was younger, almost every summer for 8 years. im mentioning my dad a lot here. we are not as close as one might think

17. Do you take vitamins?

no

18. Do you go to church every Sunday?

no im too pretty

19. Do you have a tan?

no, but my right arm is a bit red from sitting on my balcony too long yesterday

20. Do you prefer Chinese food or pizza?

depends entirely on my mood, i dont have a general preference

21. Do you drink your soda with a straw?

only when i want to act like a slut which is never

22. What color socks do you usually wear?

i usually wear black tights

23. Ever drive above the speed limit?

I CANT DRIVE AND I NEVER WILL and if you drive above the speed limit thats +5 on your sin counter. i will know

24. What terrifies you?

those scary creepypasta images, communication, and anything unpredictable. also the possibility that jjba part 7 will be animated entirely in cgi

25. Look to your left what do you see?

a manga panel of dio i traced and taped to my wall, a bunch of jjba prints, and a tiny sticker of diego

26. What core do you hate?

if this is about music... i actually dont even want to spell out the name of that genre, thats how disgusting it is. its got to do with anime

27. What do you think of when you hear an Australian accent?

that time in like, 7th grade, where english class was mostly about learning australian vocabulary

28. What is your favorite soda?

i dont drink soda im so scared of the liquid sugar but like cherry or vanilla coke probably

29. Do you go into a fast food place or just hit the drive through?

i dont ever go to fast food places, but if i did id hit the drive thru. inside its too loud and i hate when people can watch me eat

30. Who was the last person you talked to?

in person... my dad i think

31. Favorite cut of beef?

its all bad

32. Last song you listened to?

all the fools sailed away by dio (the band with real life people in it)

33. Last book you read?

der unsichtbare apfel by robert gwisdek. im still reading it actually im just too busy to finish anything rn

34. Favorite day of the week?

saturday of course!! although last night there was someone in front of my window at 3am who screamed for two seconds for seemingly no reason. this stuff doesnt happen on weekdays

35. Can you say the alphabet backwards?

no and im self conscious about it

36. How do you like your coffee?

black!!

37. Favorite pair of shoes?

my dr martens mary janes... easy to get in and out of... simple... cute... whats not to love. theyre starting to fall apart tho bc i wear them all the time

38. At what time do you usually go to bed?

between 9 and 11 pm

39. At what time do you normally get up?

between 5 and 9 am

40. What do you prefer - sunrises or sunsets?

emotionally, sunrises bc sunsets remind me that the day is over and my time has run out... but aesthetically, sunsets

41. How many blankets are on your bed?

two, one weighted and one normal

42. Describe your kitchen plates?

plain white... super boring and i hate them but i used to live with a minimalist and tried to be considerate to avoid conflict

43. Do you have a favorite alcoholic beverage?

rum w cola or pina coladas, but i usually avoid alcohol. makes me feel like a soggy sponge and so sleepy. hate it

44. Do you play cards?

no all card games are bad!!

45. What color is your car?

i cant drive

46. Can you change a tire?

i cant even consider learning how to do it

47. What is your favorite province?

*nods*

48. Favorite job you ever had?

i hate jobs and careers and i would sooner let myself get exploded into a thousand pieces by impact with a speeding train than take up a job again

49. How did you get your biggest scar?

i was 15, in a really bad place mentally, and tried to make a point to someone... uh oh!

50. What did you do today that made someone happy?

this question is guilt tripping me

#abt me

[spytap]

Italy 2017 - Part 3 of 4: FLORENCE

This took a lot longer than I expected, but I had a lot of thoughts (and even a twist ending.)

So here’s a theory: Florence is Italy’s Greatest Hits album. 

It has all the big names: The House of Medici, Machiavelli, The Renaissance. You’ve experienced them a thousand times over, to the point where they’ve become part of the background radiation of modern culture. If there was a classic rock station for art and architecture, they’d be playing Florence 24/7 like it was Bohemian Rhapsody or Don’t Stop Believin.

But there’s a flip side (#OldMediaReference) to that analogy: the thing about Greatest Hits albums that makes them equally interesting and frustrating is that because they’re composed entirely of snippets in time, they’re not really complete albums in and of themselves.

Oh sure, obviously you can enjoy everything on a Greatest Hits album when you take them as singular experiences, but they’ll never really come together with the cohesion you’d expect from an entire album. They’ll always be slightly fragmented, with stylistic changes that reveal themselves as products of their specific moment of creative inception; never quite gelling into a singular whole.

Put more simply, no Greatest Hits album will ever feel as complete as Dark Side of the Moon, or My Kind of Blue, or To Pimp A Butterfly. They may be chock full of beautiful, meaningful, or culturally relevant snippets, but absent the context of time, place, and stylistic symmetry, they’ll always ultimately feel a little…shallow.

------

We came into Florence knowing it was almost everyone’s favorite city in Italy. When I asked for recommendations on things to do/see/eat in Italy, 95% of them (not an exaggeration, I just counted) were in or around Florence. A dozen times or so, I heard people say “Florence is my absolute favorite” or “it’s magical,” or “no city in Italy can match Florence” or something similar. So we had high expectations as the train pulled into the station and we clamored out onto the track alongside several hundred of our closest friends.

Navigating any city on foot and with luggage is difficult. Navigating any city on foot, with luggage, and in the rain is outright hard. Navigating Florence on foot, with luggage, in the rain, where your apartment is smack dab between the biggest outdoor market in the city (open rain or shine) and one of the biggest tourist destinations in the country - well that’s an exercise in personal murder restraint.

So we began our journey into Florence splashing through the puddles, trying to avoid sinking a wheel into a missing or uneven cobble, explaining - for the fifth time this block - that no I don’t need new luggage; as you can plainly see I have luggage. It’s right here. In my hand. Please get out of my way.

Fifteen minutes of rather terse urban navigation later, we reached our apartment, nearly tossing our suitcases as we crossed the threshold of the doorway just to be rid of them. After a quick overview of a very-not-to-scale paper map, we figured out that we were actually very ideally placed for the city. So doing our best to discard the negative energy we’d accumulated between the train station and the apartment, we ventured out into the great unknown to go get lost just as - as if by way of an apology - the city immediately pulled out sapphire blue skies and fluffy white clouds.

Let me be upfront: I … never really gelled with Florence. It was beautiful, and I’m genuinely glad we spent so much time there, but in many ways it felt so polished and so familiar that it just never really felt like a real city. The feeling I got walking around the city was that I could have very easily just been in a well-made theme park land. I also don’t think that feeling was helped by the fact that out of all the cities we visited in Italy, Florence was where I felt most surrounded (and at times, overwhelmed by) tourists, and the one where we heard near constant English somewhere around us.

And again, Florence is unquestionably gorgeous. I have easily 100 photos of, around, up, and on top of the Duomo. It’s a stunning piece of architecture and design, and we devoted three quarters of an entire day to just exploring its wonders. But after seeing Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo, and touring a half dozen choice tracks from its greatest hits catalogue, I still didn’t get any sense of the city itself. I knew what it *was* - that was made absolutely crystal clear all around you - but what I was searching for was some sense of what it *is*. Today. Right now. 

And the part that bothered me most about Florence is that I don’t think I ever found it.

Let me sequence break a bit here, and take a step back. My personal travel philosophy is that I tend to prefer semi-blind exploration over planning, and getting to know a city by its food and layout. I like to wander, and let a city and culture open themselves up to me - as opposed to seeking out elements that I’d bookmarked in advance. That sense of not knowing and then finding is more thrilling to me than checking off a previously-considered to-do list. Does this mean I sometimes miss the “can’t-miss” elements of a city? Absolutely. But it also means that I get a better sense of what the people who live there experience and find important, and have a thousand large and small adventures that are uniquely mine and almost irreplicable.

To be clear, I often have one or two things that I’m interested in experiencing, but I try to keep it to one planned or expected thing per day - such as a specific attraction or area of the city - with the rest of the day devoted to getting as thoroughly and properly lost as possible.

So when we were setting up the trip, I only had a couple specific things I wanted to do beyond “eat and drink my way through Italy.” Generally my unstated goal for each city was to find the most authentically “here” food experiences, to see the streets as its citizens do, and to do my best to discover what really and truly matters to that city.

So the irony (or personal hypocrisy?) of all of this is that for the four days we were in Florence, the food and wine were, without exception or equivocation, absolutely superb:

We had the best pasta I’ve ever had in my life in Florence - made by dumping freshly made, just cooked noodles into a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano, and then mixing the cheese and pasta up with an absurd amount of cream and freshly-shaved black truffle. 

I had the single largest steak I’ve ever eaten, at somewhere between two-and-a-quarter and two-and-a-half pounds, served perfectly crusted on the outside and just this side of raw in the middle - Florentine style.

We took a day trip out to Chianti and drank the best Italian wine I’ve ever had, and then went to the Tuscan Wine School the next day to surpass it again by discovering a dozen different ways to turn Sangiovese grapes into joy.

If you go beyond simple culinary hedonism, everything you’ve ever read about the architecture of Florence is, somehow - impossibly - actually understating it. For all my comments above, there’s a very good reason the Cathedral di Santa Maria del Fiore is one of the most visited cathedrals in Europe. Even today, standing in front of it, it seems absurd - like something CGI-ed into the background without thought or consideration to real world physics or historical technology. How does it…why does it…just…exist? Right there? Still? And we can go inside?

Turns out that goes doubly so for the inside, which defies all attempts to properly convey or communicate scale of size or effort. Suffice to say that whole lives were lived singularly devoted to the construction of this one building. Whole families. For generations. This singular structure was their entire purpose in life.

Pick a museum and start wandering through, and you’ll stumble on names that probably ring a bell such as Michelangelo, Botticelli, Caravaggio, or Da Vinci. They’re all there, because like First Avenue & 7th St Entry, they all got their start there. And then you find yourself standing in front of The Birth Of Venus, or Adoration Of The Magi, or Annunciation, or David. 

It’s surreal. And overwhelming. And humbling. 

But…

Beth and I have talked about this a lot, but I came away feeling like Florence as a whole was so focused on highlighting portions of its past that I never got a sense of what it meant today, hundreds of years removed from its former glories. To continue the classic rock analogies, Florence felt like seeing The Rolling Stones live: no one’s shelling out to hear the new album, so everything is tailored toward making the experience about the familiar.

After a while, it felt a little like a video game: no matter where we went, we were pulled back into one very specific period of Florence’s past - like the developers were using an invisible hand to bring us back onto the gameplay path. We found ourselves in a cycle of tourism which, while perfectly comfortable, remarkably easy, and occasionally awe-inspiring, lacked the sense of adventure, or intrigue, or curiosity that Milan and Genoa provided. To steal from game design terminology a bit, in Milan and Genoa we discovered things, but in Florence I never felt like we had much agency.

Perhaps this feeling was why my favorite moments in Florence were the quiet ones: a post-dinner gelato and walking through a square at midnight. Hiking up to Michelangelo Park at sunset and gazing down at the city while the sky lit up purple and red. Pizza and people-watching on the upper level of the market. Everything about our day in Chianti. The quiet moments were the ones where I could feel like I was starting to appreciate the city and not just being moved through the “attraction -> shopping -> attraction” pathway.

So that leads to the big questions: 

Did I enjoy my four days in Tuscany? Yes (mostly.) It (obviously) wasn’t my favorite city of the trip, but it was still four days in a beautiful, historic city with incredible architecture, excellent food, and an almost endless supply of inexpensive but superlative wine.

Will I go back? I may; one day. I feel in many ways that I’m being unfair to the city. Perhaps I was too taken by Genoa, and judged Florence by an unfair set of expectations upon which it was never designed to compete. Perhaps that I owe it to the city to give it another chance. Perhaps, having done all the big attractions already, I can wander around with no destination in mind and finally find the connective tissue that makes the city more than just Renaissance Disneyland.

But as I write this out, now comfortably back in California, it strikes me that maybe I’m just …well, maybe I’m just wrong. Maybe, like standing in front of a Caravaggio and thinking “wow it’s…really dark” I’d focused on the wrong elements and missed the point entirely. Maybe the most important element of Florence’s identity today *actually is* that it forever reminds us of a very specific time.

The grand irony of Florence is that by celebrating its past so overtly, Florence stands as a demonstration to the modern world of what a place and its people can do when they deliberately choose to cast aside a slavish veneration of the past. That we can choose to reshape ourselves around comprehensive cultural progression. That even in the darkest of ages we can choose to pull whole civilizations forward towards renaissance and discovery. And there’s something beautiful to that sentiment.

Perhaps that’s what Florence is today: a timeless reminder that the moments in human history when we allow ourselves to dream and be driven by a sincere desire to explore and support artistic and intellectual creativity are the moments in human history when we build the great works that will forever define us.

And even if we’ve heard that refrain a thousand times before, maybe there are moments in human history where we need to be reminded of that, and hear it again as if for the first time.

------

Leaving Florence, we head off to the last stop on our journey: Rome. We’ll only have a few days here, so we won’t have much of a chance to really get to know it with any real amount of intimacy, but amongst the literal ruins of Western Civilization I’m hoping that we can at least get a glimpse of the city’s heart and soul. 

And maybe eat a cannoli.

#travel #italy #florence #vacation #longreads #long reads

[cjvazmovielife]

the Uncommon Knowledge of a Filmmaker.

Throughout my career, I've obtained some unusual skills. I know how to sail an old Square Rigger ship, a common vessel from the Golden Age of Piracy. I know how to fight with different types of old age weapons; from a Cutlass (common Pirate sword) to a Roman Gladius, and even a Revolutionary War muskets. I've learned the art of the Samurai and have trained as Ninja. I can fire two guns while flying through the air and actually hit a zombie target. These are merely some of the uncommon skills I have acquired through my years in filmmaking that truly have no relevance today.

Being well versed in different things helps you become a better writer and a better filmmaker. Learning different cultures will only add to the depth of your character. Languages can add a certain level of sophistication to your story. While woodworking can easily add production value to your movie. I learned very early on from listening to the great directors of the past that to be a great filmmaker you need to continue learning.

A prime example of this is James Cameron. Not everyone's cup of tea but his movies do tend to be great. I've yet to hear anyone say that Aliens sucked, or Terminator 2 was lame. People still love Titanic to this day, and Avatar was an eye-opening endeavor that has shaped filmmaking since. James Cameron is an eager learner, and he researches extensively for his films. For Aliens, he worked with gunsmiths, sci-fi experts, and even NASA to get everything in the movie as close to what we expect it to be as possible. For Titanic, he expanded on his knowledge of deep sea diving and submersibles, that he acquired for the Abyss. He also learned everything there was to know about the shit, and how it went down. Same with Avatar, adding that he wanted to develop new technology to let him shoot it how he wanted. The guy spends more time in the library researching than the majority of college students.

The problem being is when the knowledge doesn't really serve you anywhere else. Writing, Film, TV, I'm good, but in the real world, most of my knowledge doesn't apply. I can't think of one offer where people have asked me to sail an old pirate ship into the open ocean and look for bounty. I don't spend my day training with my katana, preparing for the enemy to come to invade my village. I'm not a soldier in the Roman Legion or the Continental Army. Finally, while on a closed off and controlled outdoor range with plenty of safeties in place we were able to actually fire two guns while flying through the air and hit a zombie target, it's not very practical. Also, the landing hurts like hell, because you want to keep the guns pointing in a safe direction at all times so you really can't brace yourself. But again, not exactly a skill set I can parlay into the business world.

My parents have always been happy that I chased my dreams and continue to do so. They also wanted me to have a backup plan, and it's never a bad idea to have one. I sometimes do wonder if I cut myself off from learning other marketable skills that I can go into. Lenses, Editing, and movie fighting techniques tend to leave you in a bit of a niche. I also haven't gotten a chance to work on Mr. Robot yet, so my computer hacking skills are lacking at best. Hook me up Sam Esmail, I'm ready to go.

One movie I worked on involved skydiving. I've already jumped using the static line before, so it didn't phase me too much to do it solo. Though with that one we spent more time filming the actors on the ground using camera tricks to make it look like they were in the air, no wires. For another, I learned how to rock climb, and we translated that to the fake mountain built by the Art Department. I learned how to jump out of a flying helicopter with a rope, and basically hang there as it flew through the air. We ended up doing the shot in pieces, with different rings and a CGI helicopter.

Experiencing it does help you translate it to the screen. We don't do real for real anymore unless you are working on a Quentin Tarantino film. Real for real usually takes too long, too much money, too many safety issues and the lawyers usually come in to ruin the run by telling you it's not worth it. Quentin can get away with it because he's freaking Quentin, and he does take safety seriously. He will gradually increase to the semi unsafe levels, and even then they are still taking more precautions than anyone else. Quentin really cares about his cast and crew.

So what do you do with all this acquired knowledge? I'm genuinely asking because I really don't know. Historical videos are a possibility. Maybe something on youtube or potentially writing. I really don't even want to consider a time I'm not working in this field. Every day I walk on set it's something new and incredible. I never really get bored or feel it's mundane. I've been genuinely lucky, and I thank my lucky stars for it every day.

They'll come a time when something doesn't seem like it's worth learning, but you really never know how it's going to apply in the future. I still remember an Edgar Allan Poe poem I was tasked with memorizing in 7th grade as part of an assignment. I remember it to this day, and it came in handy a few years back on a set. I can't even begin to tell you how many movies actually deal with Archery so learn it, because it will be useful in the future. Surprisingly, so did cooking though not so much for a film but more for your cast and crew.  

On every project, I plan at least one day that I cook for the cast and crew. It's usually a light day, and something unique that they aren't getting on a daily basis. For example, if you have pizza all day every day, don't make them pizza. I look or something diverse, uncommon, maybe even from a foreign country that tastes great. Though between you and I, most recently I've been phoning it in with Tasty videos, thank goodness for Buzzfeed. But, this is my attempt at a family meal.

It's really nice because the Crafty people are included versus always serving. The crew likes it because it's a personal touch. The cast likes it because to them it means you care since you went above and beyond. Normally a comment about it needing more salt, from a younger cast member, comes up and everyone laughs. It's just a nice moment to share with everyone. I never thought researching how to make exotic foods would benefit me in any way, or it'd be something I'd use in the future. I'm not a foodie in anyway, but I've been able to expand myself by diving into it. So like I said, you never know how something you learn now may benefit you in the future. So come on Zombie Apocalypse.

Late Call Time.

#filmmaker #setlife #movies #tv #crew #cast #skills #uncommonskills #director #swordfight #pirate #black sails #cooking #life #fun

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Erased 6 – 13 (not including the digest) | Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu 1 - 4 | Eldlive 1 | Prince of Stride: Alternative 1

The idea from now on for SGRS: Expect first time watches for this show (for the second season) and don’t expect ratings after each ep. Once all 2016 shows are done (rewatches or not), expect the 2016 ranking.

The idea from now on for POSA: Once all 2016 shows are done (rewatches or not), expect the 2016 ranking.

(ep 6)

Even with only subs, you can hear the seriousness in the manager’s voice.

Asagi beer, LOL.

This speech bubble style really works in the camera angles’ favour.

Airi’s mother reminds me of Midoriya’s mum from Boku no Hero Academia.

Shinji-go. “Go”… I didn’t really know how to explain it so I let Wiktionary do it for me.

I really love Airi’s motivational quotes around this point. So much, that I used it as motivation all through 2016…although I didn’t get any great results from it…

(ep 7)

Okay, that scrolling scene with the kids…that’s just cheap. They aren’t even animated.

It says something like “Preserve water” or “Water is important” on the wall behind the tap.

That “stand out in the hallways with those buckets” is pretty typical for an anime. I wonder whether any real Japanese person has done that, though?

Oh yeah. I think I was initially attracted to this due to the fact it looks a lot like Detective Conan when you see Satoru negotiating the future by changing his past.

I think I had to learn what a “patsy” meant for this scene, but a patsy is just a substitute, specifically in this case for collateral damage.

Does that mean Kenya lived (or lives) in a big house?

(ep 8)

Wait – wait? How did Gaku know how Kayo was safe…unless he was the murderer? I didn’t question that the first time, but this just makes the ending even worse. This dude’s already proved he doesn’t act on compulsion like Satoru does, so that adds to it.

That joke about Satoru being 29 does get a bit worn out when it gets used here…

Mt. Hakodate…I’d heard of it from Touken Ranbu. It’s a good place for low level swords, IIRC.

POP Noodle, LOL.

Crying in media is much more emotional if you can hear the crying, unfortunately. That’s why I passed on “Kayo’s first homecooked meal” for the Crunchyroll Awards.

(ep 9)

Akemi’s (Kayo’s mother’s) eyes were so off model before the shovel scene, it made it hard to take Akemi seriously.

It’s weird how much Gaku looks like he should be Satoru’s dad.

Akemi was “Takashima” before she was “Hinazuki”, and her partner’s name at the time of her divorce was Kazuo.

CGI car…again. Geez.

I think the kanji for “closure” mean the ending curtain, like that of a play, but I can’t quite remember their literal meaning…

“I have to stop somewhere.”

Gaku’s talking about his experiences somehow reminds me of a chat I had with Elucida on the Boueibu chat. Probably because the instigator of the chat had to apologise…

I wonder if the man (Gaku) was lying about the lollies?

“I am a man.” – Translation choices make Hiromi seem a little too macho for his girly looks, haha. *cringes, because I hear emphasis on “am”, with a lesser emphasis on “man” in my head*

I just realised – Kayo won’t go to Mt Hakodate as she’s supposed to anymore…It makes me sad on the inside.

(ep 10)

Holy plays, Batman! Romeo and Juliet for an 11 year old is pretty far fetched considering I only read it when I was…um…16 or 17. I haven’t even read King Lear yet so consider me out of this. (Shucks...even though I used to be an avid reader, I’m only ordinary now, huh?)

LOL. In the end, Kenya really is a little kid, getting all offended about hideouts, haha.

I thought the “getting rid of someone’s alone time is a good thing” sentence was a bit weird until I realised what context Hiromi used it in.

“On the outs”? I didn’t know what that meant until I checked it up. Well, considering I make my own phrases up a lot and I tend to omit small words in the vein of “wut dis?”, maybe I’m just too slang for the subbers.

CGI bus? Man, you ruined the solemn mood a bit, Mr Bus.

See? These CGI cars (and truck) are why I have gripes with CGI transport. It sticks out too much. However, for something like Ajin (which can only be found in CGI form), I don’t mind it so long as everything else about it is good. Speaking of which, I still have yet to see Ajin (as of the point of typing).

“…spirit and drive.” – Because the camera focussed on Gaku’s hands just then, I had to LOL in my head a little.

Manabu = Gaku by virtue of alternate character reading. Isn’t kanji great? (sarcastic)

This sublimation, I presume? I checked it up once, but it was never of any use.

(ep 11)

The Spider’s Thread, as told by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. Bungou taught me about it, but I’m not sure the Bungou instance is the one I first met it in.

This fourth wall breaking…it’s somewhat disturbing, but that’s the mood the staff were going for. Very effective.

I’ve always wondered why the “Boku” in the titlecard had a different font. Maybe the staff just didn’t have a “boku” in the font they’d written the title in…

I guess it must be my warped perception of beauty due to bishonen, but when Satoru is lying on the bed with slightly sallow cheeks, he almost looks…beautiful. (That’s a scary thought, isn’t it?)

“Future”…such a powerful name, since it happens to be the name of the baby, too.

Imagine if Kayo and Yuri Katsuki’s (Yuri!!! on Ice) backstories were stitched together.

A gingko leaf. They have a very distinctive shape…(Reminds me of Fusae Campbell from Detective Conan.)

Gaku is just represented by a black silhouette in some frames. Basically, you could call it another Detective Conan reference of sorts.

(ep 12)

The problem with the ending that I have, if you don’t know already, is that it suddenly makes you realise that Satoru would either die or have planned/have some caveat to get out of/around a potential death. Unfortunately, they don’t show you when he’s made those plans, thus being deceptive by omission if they were even made.

CGI hamster wheel…?

By the laws of ordinary protagonist writing…I give you the ending. The ending that dissatisfied me so much, it definitely left SGRS first for 2016.

They never explained how the rail was pulled open either, come to think of it.

Hey, it’s Boys’ Flight. The magazine he was reading earlier in the show. Don’t remember what ep, though.

Hey, did I ever mention to you that I tried to open up an Erased wiki, only to find one already open? There’s still two wikis existing right now for some reason, though.

Well, it’s been a wild ride. Thanks all, if you’ve been coming along with me and hope to see you again soon.

(SGRS ep 1)

Zony, LOL. Did Sony exist in that era?

If you observe the left flag when Yotaro stops at the front of the theatre, you can see the characters for “Amakentei” (rain-bamboo-stand, or something like it). That’s Kappei Yamaguchi’s character…Update: Must’ve been a mistake on my part. Amaken is a critic, but not a rakugoka himself.

Yotaro’s still got all the mannerisms of a gangster, LOL. (Including interrogation technique.)

There’s a sign in the back of Yotaro when he talks to Yakumo for the first time. It says “Sumi” (top – bottom) “Sushi” (L – R).

Yotaro uses the word “tanomu”, which is a respectful way of saying “I beg of you”. Very respectful. The most polite kind of respectful.

Mukojima? Huh? I guess that’s a deliberate bungling of Konnichiwa? (Update: Nope.) However, I’m still a noob to rakugo myself, despite having created the wiki to spread some Yakumo love.

Note for later: Shinigami has a distinctive “Ajaraka mokuren kyuraisu tegeretsuno pa!” in it.

What’s the old man writing?

It’s a transformation of sorts, from Yota being nervous to showing off what he’s got. That’s what makes SGRS so powerful.

I was pondering this since the start of the performance, but Yota’s shark-like teeth make him a very distinctive character. Then again, there’s always that one cue or other to tell you that a certain character is in the house.

Should a woman only have her beauty? I never believed it and that’s what I set out to prove in my stories, but…social mores were different back then, so I can’t speak for Konatsu.

Oh! I completely forgot about this guy (Mangetsu) until he came back in ep 14.

Notes for later: “Namu myoho renge kyo…”/a pilgrim climbing Mt Minobu

There is a slight irony in a woman telling a man to “man up”. Subbers, you put that there.

(ep 2)

Oh? Were you wondering what those “notes for later” were for? The wiki, naturally. SGRS’s only presence is me most days, so I’d better keep it up to date.

This show never fails to make me laugh, even if the laughter gets more subdued the second time.

Apparently people get sento and onsen confused a lot. Sento are normally cheaper smaller establishments compared to onsen, as far as I know.

Why is there a cat in the room?!

The “Hatsu” in Hatsutaro means “beginning”, while the “Kiku” in Kikuhiko is a chrysanthemum, so…yeah. Take it as you will.

“…your first time?” (laughs behind back) No wonder Haruko Kumota was a BL mangaka before she did SGRS.

Even without the volume, the visual language can tell you Kiku’s doing something wrong. That’s the power of this show.

“Akanbou” is a Japanese word for baby, as you may have guessed. However, people seem to use the word “aka-chan” more these days. Thus, another guess tells you that “shiro” is white and “ao” is blue. Right again.

You can almost hear the voices even with only subs! Amazing!

Fish cake. Technically called kamaboko, but “fish cake” is the translation for it so I guess I shouldn’t be such a weeb.

(ep 3)

“…it’ll become standard in the rakugo world.”

Oh, the cat is Yakumo 7th’s.

Mosquito coils? When were they invented?

CGI train? I barely noticed it there. Plus…poor Kiku. He never gets the girls.

Kagurazaka.

Were sento really cheap enough to be five coins?

(ep 4)

Do those girls count as off model?

The texture on the bricks of the restaurant are hyperrealistic…I like it. Better than that messed up CGI you get on most cars in anime these days.

Kuma -> Kumako. I wonder why.

As I’ve noted on the wiki, the pun about the samurai involves the word samui (cold). Therefore the original pun would’ve been “now you die out here in the cold, samurai”, but if you’re going for lame jokes that work seamlessly into the rakugo, then…the samu-die joke pretty much does its job.

There was the word “open” twice in one sentence…subbers, you need to proofread sometimes.

The “treasure sacks” pun is on kintama…welp, I won’t explain it, but “family jewels” apparently works just as well.

If Mukojima is a place, then why were people saying it in ep 1?

LOL, Matsuda. Going “I won’t have anything to do with this” is bound to get you in trouble nonetheless.

Yakumo’s heart is so clearly not into it. You can tell from the body language.

(Eldlive 1)

I’m here because I fell out of love with Hibari a while back and I need to give Akira Amano another chance. Also, Lane Brick…maybe.

Wait. It’s a Mukuro! With glasses! That foreshadows the pain I’m gonna be in for.

Welp, considering I read the manga this was adapted from not too long ago (as of the time of watching this), it’s pretty faithful. Even if it does look visually pretty, I did come up with a story like this once but it never took off when it came to writing the story. Considering it also bears some similarity to One Wish They Never Wanted, it’ll never take off now.

Finally(!) Something to laugh at. Reborn injoke.

…Unfortunately, with the faithfulness of the manga comes the pervasive problem – I thought Eldlive was a bit subpar. I could see all the right tropes were there to make a hit, but I couldn’t see any real talent showing through, as if Amano’s resigned herself to doing only shonen because Reborn succeeded. It was Hibari that taught me you can have a cute bird sidekick instead of a monster designed from scratch, so why can’t Eldlive do that too?

Drew (the voice) is getting annoying already. Shaddap!

…another “unfortunately” is that Lane Brick isn’t too pretty compared to how I like my bishonen, but YMMV on that.

I didn’t check it when I read the manga…but Jean Renoir.

Great. (sarcastic) Bungou humour, to boot! That wasn’t in the original…and it’s just grim, too.

These mammary jokes aren’t doing it for me either, although they were in the original.

Verdict: Not taking it.

(POSA ep 1)

Prince of Stride was a new experience for me, as I thought I needed to add “sport anime” to my repetoire at the time. Unfortunately, I still haven’t gotten past my biases against sport anime even after finishing this…

Welp, I take back what I’ve said about OPs in the first episode. If it’s a good OP, it helps to set the norm.

CGI basketball. One of the weirdest things on the list of “things given CGI form in anime” to date, because it’s mostly cars.

Sad life. When people in a rejected club see that twist coming, it’s like a 4th wall break…kinda sorta.

Did I ever mention that this show is motivational? It’s really good for that, and colourful so it’s good for desktop wallpapers. (Also, it has a summer theme to it, so while I swelter, lemme just watch a show about running…and sweating…bad idea? I guess so. (sarcastic) However, there isn’t any better season to watch it in. Sweat – or imagined sweat – isn’t good any season of the year, so might as well watch it while I still have time.)

Tsurugiya…if Google-sensei serves me correctly…it’s in Osaka…? Update: I knew he came from somewhere in the country, but Hyogo is a different place to Osaka…

“Blue Sonic”. Well, it’s not like there would be a magazine called Sanic. Or Knuckles, for the matter.

What’s with the panda, though? Although, as some very obvious foreshadowing tells you, (Kyosuke) Kuga used to have his locker here.

How in Dante’s Inferno did Kohinata get the measurements of Takeru already?!

I checked up kabaddi last time, but eh, I’ll do it again.

I still think Fujiwara’s leg thing is creepy.

I dunno anything about Sun Tzu…but…lessee here. This quote is it, I think.

Who was the Relationer in the previous Stride Club?

What’s with the cat on the poster?!

“…is really hot…” – Is that what sets the shippers off? Or is that just a subbers’ choice of words?

They always blab aout weird things on the next ep preview. At least it’s not boring.

For some reason, my ad blocker isn’t working on AnimeLab any more…*sighs*

#simulcast commentary #erased #Boku Dake ga Inai Machi #showa genroku rakugo shinjuu #showa genroku rakugo shinju #eldlive #prince of stride alternative #Chesarka watches Erased #Chesarka watches SGRS #Chesarka watches POSA