#seeing interviews with these combined with the trailers is making me sad that we probably will only get to see their sister relationship

[talking-about-bug-snacks]

SCOOPY BANOOPY

Scoopy Banoopy! Winner of the Bugsnak of all time award! One of the best names of any creature ever! It was August 27th, 2020 when this interview was published, and the world was blessed with the knowledge that there would be a Bugsnak called Scoopy Banoopy.

Some Bugsnax have names that combine the bug and snack names, some have punny names, and some have names twisted from the original snack. Some have some kind of combination of these. And then, there are the ones that, in the devs’ own words, “warp the words into cute nonsense”. Scoopy Banoopy is one of these names! Literally given its name because it would be funny. They were right!

There was a catch, though. With this interview, we learned about a banana split Bugsnak called Scoopy Banoopy, but we did not yet get to SEE it. We did get clarification that whatever it was, it was not a Scoopy, confirming it was no mere variant! What could it be?

On October 8th, 2020, we finally saw it! Scoopy Banoopy, here at last, revealed in the voice cast trailer (where we also learned Michael Schwalbe would be providing its legendary voice)! Scoopy Banoopy is indeed a banana split, with a bowl as its main six-legged body, and ice cream and bananas within. It is topped with whipped cream, has two big banana halves held in front, and its eyes are on two big ol’ cherries on top!

But why are its eyes SAD? We don’t know! It shares these eyes with Tacroaches, which are very nervous and defenseless creatures, but Scoopy Banoopy is one of the most formidable of all, a large, frosty, aggressive Bugsnak that will freeze its victims and toss them away! It could be to fit better with its “sad”-sounding voice, but why is its voice sad? Probably to be funny. It works!

Here is the first in-game image of Scoopy Banoopy I ever did see, which my wonderful friend sent me upon finding it, before I was able to play myself! Here we have a nice side-profile of Scoopy Banoopy, showing its impressive banana forelimbs. That’s right, these are forelimbs, not mandibles! Scoopy Banoopy is based on the giant water bug, which also has large forelimbs it holds outward and uses to grab prey! This makes Scoopy Banoopy, unlike the real giant water bug, have EIGHT legs, which is interesting. An insect with eight legs! Get a load of this! Also, this makes Scoopy Banoopy a rare Bugsnak based on a “true bug”!

Scoopy Banoopy is a composite Snak, and like the inverse of Preying Picantis. Instead of a flaming Snak made of spicy foods in a desert, Scoopy Banoopy is a frosty snak made of dessert on a snowy mountaintop! A broken Scoopy Banoopy will split into a Scoopy, two Banoppers, and for whatever reason, just one Cheery. If its components are used to transform a Grumpus, the player will earn the Sundae Best achievement, which has honestly a fascinating icon! A “real” banana split, but with googly eyes nonetheless. I am inclined to think this is a banana split with fake eyes added to make it Scoopy Banoopy-like, rather than a whole new set of Bugsnax based on the same foods but with slightly different designs.

Remember: “Scoopy Banoopy”!

#scoopy banoopy #bugsnax #talkin bout bugsnax

[stardyng]

Hi Arya stan from before here. I don’t hate Sansa I actually really like her character and started following her tag on tumblr and guess what it’s super annoying most of the time to try and appreciate her when there’s 1000+ blogs who can’t just like her without hating Arya and Dany. Season 7 had shit writing for all of the characters so I get being angry at Arya for the things she did then because some of it was dumb I get it. I just find it really annoying that Sansa stans have spent the 1/2

Have spent the last week or so trashing Arya and Dany because of a 10 second clip that nothing happened in. Why do you guys want her to come for Dany and Arya? Why do you want to watch a show where they make women fight because it’s fucking gross? I see no one comparing the male characters and preparing them to go against each other. I don’t think Sansa is an idiot. Dany is an important ally against the white walkers and I hope they come to appreciate each other and work together. I hope she 2/3

I hope she protects Arya and they actually get along like her parents would’ve wanted them to. The last thing I want to see is a season of Sansa passive aggressively berating everyone in the room just for the sake of her being a “bad ass” it’s stupid and doesn’t make any sense. Go watch the video where the writers discuss season 7 and you’ll see that Sansa was still being manipulated by Petyr and did want to take power from Jon. Arya had a right not to trust her in the beginning. 3/3

________

What’s so wrong about me having an opinion and expressing it? I can’t stand S7 Arya and Daenerys in the show, and I have every right to express why. If you don’t like that I do that, just block me or mute the anti arya stark and anti daenerys targaryen tags so none of that pops up in your efforts in finding someone who appreciates all three characters. I’m sure there are people who love Sansa that think really fondly of Arya and Daenerys. I’ve seen some of these people, and I even follow some of them. There’s two Daenerys stans on twitter that I absolutely love, and their analysis on her character (especially the book version of her) is outstanding. There’s a lot of Sansa stans as well who I see really appreciate the sisterhood between her and Arya, who have both of them as their favorite characters. All props to them. However, that’s not me. I don’t like these two characters (among many others) right now and I’m not going to pretend to like them, or filter my opinions because of some stranger on tumblr. If I like them later on, then that’s good, but we’ll get there when we get there. I’m here because I want to discuss the series in a candid manner, and how am I supposed to do that when whenever I talk about my negative feelings on a character, someone always complains on my blog about it. If you don’t want to see that negativity, block the tag, or me. Yes, I fully agree that Season 7 has been really bad for most characters. Not all though. Cersei stood out to me as being magnificent in the past season. She clearly surpassed her father in any way you could think of. Jaime I still really enjoy and find quite compelling. Even though I wasn’t satisfied with some elements in her story (aka. everything that has to do with Arya), I really enjoyed Sansa and her story-line last season as well. Plus, there was Theon, who’s character arc is turning out quite different from what I originally imagined. So there’s that. I didn’t like what was going on with pretty much everyone else, and I’ll elaborate on that if I wish to. 

The thing is that Sansa stans have said nothing about Arya in relation to the new content that has been put out. Arya stans just want to insert themselves in an argument that they play absolutely no part in. This has nothing to do with Arya. Yes, I did make a post elaborating on my frustration of how much of an absolute monster she was (don’t kill the messager, maisie williams said that first) last season and how the show is literally going to ignore it, but when it comes to the actual trailer and any of my post about it, Arya wasn’t even really on my mind. Nor was she on any of my mutuals mind either. That being said, let’s talk about Daenerys for a moment. I criticize Daenerys because she’s a tyrant, because she’s an imperialist, because she has committed literal atrocities, because she has been neglectful of the former slaves in Essos, because she is pretty much slated to commit atrocities in Westoros as well. She is a threat that needs to be dealt with, in the same way that Cersei and the White Walkers are, and I don’t even know how Daenerys stans manage to still ignore it when all of Emilia Clarke’s interviews about this new season alludes to the fact that Daenerys is going to snap soon. Plus, for starters, when has Daenerys been a good ally to the North? She has been more of an inconvenience in the fight against the white walkers than everyone else combined. She gave them a literal dragon that destroyed the wall. Because of her actions and general incompetence, thousands of people are going to die. That’s not forgetting that without Daenerys in the equation, all the seven kingdoms could have worked together to deal with the threat, but now Cersei is going to stab everyone in the back. So like…Daenerys really needs to clean up her mess. Also, the idea that having two female characters be against each other is ‘‘fucking gross’‘ is just weird. Y’all didn’t say the same thing when Daenerys and Cersei were fighting for the throne. Y’all didn’t say the same thing with Lysa was trying to murder Sansa. Y’all didn’t say the same thing when any of the male characters have expressed distaste with each other. There was a literal war of FIVE kings, but it’s so terrible to suggest that two women who would have very valid reasons to not like each other, don’t like each other. The trailer hints at that, all the casual fans are talking about it and articles that were written months beforehand even suggested this being an actual thing. This is not something that Sansa stans have created out of thin air. It’s a legitimate plot point in the story, that you will just have to learn to accept one moment or the other because it’s going to be an actual thing. And did you just say that you don’t see people pining the male characters against each other? Cleganebowl? Did you forget about that? People have been hyping it up for years now. Daenerys has been a liability thus far, and has done absolutely nothing to earn the trust of anybody in the seven kingdoms, so I really don’t see what Sansa has to like or respect about her, especially considering that she risked her life in order to take her ancestral home back and have it be independent again.

Honestly, Sansa and Arya are probably going to get along just fine next season. I don’t mind that, because that’s what I wanted in the first place last season, but that didn’t happen. Now, the writers made me intensely dislike a character that I really enjoyed, and that makes me extremely sad when looking at how much they could have done with their relationship and Arya as a character. I don’t really care that much about Arya in the books, but there’s a lot more to her character, and I understand why people love her that much. I don’t share the feeling, but I understand. Arya in the show is an empty vacuum of murder and sexism, and I’m not going to pretend that I like it. I also don’t want Sansa to be passive aggressive towards everyone. I hope Jaime pledges his allegiance to her, I hope we get more moments between her and Brienne, I hope they have more conversations between Jon and Sansa, hope we get more of her with Bran as well. I hope that we get to see her dynamic with all kinds of characters. Just because I pointed out that she clearly doesn’t like Daenerys doesn’t mean I want her to dislike everyone. Also, just because I want the show to recognize that Arya has lost herself, doesn’t mean that I want Sansa to hate her. I want the problem to be addressed in the narrative, and fixed later on. Also, Sansa wasn’t really manipulated by Littlefinger. He was incapable of making her do one thing. He told her to keep Brienne close yet Sansa sent her away. He tried to increase the divide between her and Arya, and she spotted his slipup and went to Bran to verify all the information with him. On the other hand, Arya was running around spying everyone at Winterfell like a little rat, and tormenting Sansa for being feminine every step of the way. The only one he did manage to manipulate was Arya. Plus, Sansa was literally offered to take Jon’s spot (and if she did it, I would have cheered)  but she refused the damn thing. Like, we seen the scene. Also, the fact that Sansa wanted power, but still pushed herself to the side to let Jon have and keep it just goes to show how much of a great and caring person she is. Sansa was an absolute queen this season and had not committed one wrong act and that’s the facts. So nope, Arya did not have any right to torment her, or to make her fear for her life seeing as Sansa did nothing wrong. I even made a post a while back elaborating on that, so if you want to read it, you can. 

#anti arya stans #anti dany stans #game of thrones #got #sansa stark #sansa #anti daenerys targaryen #anti dany #dark dany #anti arya stark #game of thrones season 8 #got s8 #asks

[japanessie]

MFS MMA Final Special Concert for Yutaka Matsubara

MFS suddenly announced an additional Tour Final show in Kobe slated for 27 Dec 2017. I just want to share with my readers that there is a sad reason behind this sudden decision :-/

 This show is for their close friend and long-time supporter Mr. Yutaka Matsubara, Chairman for Coming Kobe event, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2016. I found out at the time through the SWANKY DANK brothers, YUCHI and KOJI. But he seemed to have relapsed earlier this year and is now in treatment again. I have this feeling that this is a charity show and most probably the proceeds will go to him.

 Who is Matsubara-san?

Twitter: matsubara_kobe

Here's a background story (in English) of who Matsubara-san is in the Kobe music scene and I hope it will give you a glimpse of why MFS has such high respect for him.

Passion for Reconstruction included in music festival COMIN' KOBE - Yutaka Matsubara.

MFS fans would have seen him in this Documentary trailer. He's the guy with glasses touching the melons on the table.

He was the guy who talked to Hiro in this post here and also the one who asked Hiro about the cover song Rassungorerai in this post. If it wasn't for this interview, I wouldn't know why MFS did that cover.

He was prominently featured and interviewed in Zenshin MFS Documentary for being one of the first supporters of MFS when they were newly formed and still unknown. As we can see here, he is an important person to them.

(c) Zenshin Documentary

Translation:

“Mr. Yutaka Matsubara who knows the time of the band formation"

The Special Parka Design 

If you look at the design of the official Parka, it is of “Matsubara-san fighting off the Grim Reaper with Maifasu-kun cheering him on". The title is MY MATSUBARA STORY. The meaning is hard to ignore. They're cheering him on as he's battling his illness.

As soon as I saw the design, I immediately felt sad. At the same time, I'm thinking, “Is his condition worsening?".

Matsubara-san had been a supporter of MFS from the start when they were unknown. The band (or was it Hiro?) posted (can't remember whether it was on Twitter, Instagram or Storyteller blog) that even after they have played the Tokyo Dome, they will always come back to play the small Kobe Livehouse Taiyo To Tora 『太陽と虎』 which is run by him. That venue is where this Live is going to be held.

The ticket is combined with the Parka at ¥10,800. A lot more than their actual ticket price for Makuhari Messe. It does look like a charity show to me. They're taking it very seriously and entry is only per name basis.

(c) Zenshin screenshot. MFS performing at Taiyo To Tora Livehouse. Hiro was making a speech dedicated to Matsubara-san in this scene but I couldn't hear what he said.

The heart matters 

The band is hoping that Matsubara-san can make an appearance at the show but put a note that it depends on his physical condition. I'm thinking that MFS probably wants to help and honour their friend while he's still here, the way they couldn't for their late mentor Kei Goto.

(c) Zenshin Documentary

Life is fragile but I'm hoping for the best. Matsubara-san, hang in there.

(c) Zenshin Documentary

This is heart-breaking (T_T)

#my first story

[odanurr87]

My thoughts on... Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is not an easy game to describe and even less so to review but I’ll give it my best shot. Developed by Ninja Theory (Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, DmC: Devil May Cry), it follows the story of Senua, a (late) 8th century Pict warrior (for reference, the Picts were also depicted in the 2004 version of King Arthur) who ventures into Viking territory on a quest to find the underworld (Hel) and resurrect her beloved, Dillion. However, Senua’s journey is anything but straightforward as she suffers from severe psychotic mental illness. Consequently, she’s plagued by visions and voices in equal measure while, at the same time, fighting a darkness that threatens to consume her.

Where to begin?

While I cannot attest to the accuracy of the game’s representation of psychosis, from what I’ve seen and read it would seem Ninja Theory has done a commendable and thorough job. The developers used binaural audio to simulate a three-dimensional space with a result nothing short of astounding. I played the game wearing a headset and I could hear the voices all around me, some near, others far, always insistent. Sometimes they would mock Senua’s stubborn determination to spot patterns and solve puzzles, but they could also be helpful and warn me when an enemy was sneaking up behind me. The voices are truly maddening and you’ll be glad to be rid of them, if only for a little while. But that’s not all Hellblade does to mess with your mind, far from it.

As I explained above, because of her illness, Senua is prone to having visions and seeing things that aren’t objectively there for most of us. She has a tendency to look for patterns that the game cleverly introduces and reinforces by having you find them in order to unlock doors and progress further into the underworld. It is difficult to say how effectively this represents psychotic mental illness as it’s basically left up to the player’s interpretation. Mechanically, you cannot progress until you find the patterns as the door will not budge. Psychologically, it could be argued that the door can be moved but it is Senua who refuses to advance until she has obliged that part of her brain that is constantly hunting for patterns. And this is barely scratching the surface of what the guys at Ninja Theory have done with this subject matter throughout the game.

The pattern... Can you see it? No. That’s okay, few people can.

Accompanying you in your descent through Hel are a few narrators that will alternate in different segments of the game. The most prominent of these however, is Druth, a former prisoner of the Vikings who managed to escape and come across Senua. It was he who told Senua about the Northmen’s customs and beliefs (in particular, the existence of Hel) and it is also he who provides the narration for the many lorestones you’ll find scattered throughout the game, describing episodes of Norse mythology. Druth and his tales are a welcome companion in our journey, providing a few much-needed moments of levity from time to time. 

I guess this is as good a time as any to commend Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice for its superb, and I don’t use the word lightly, voiceover work. Every one of the narrators came across as emotionally-invested in the story of Senua and they served their roles admirably. Druth, voiced by Nicholas Boulton, was probably my favourite, but the Narrator (the main one), voiced by Chipo Chung, is a very close second. She reminded me of Cate Blanchett’s monologue during the prologue of The Lord of the Rings. Ah, who am I kidding, Oliver Walker as Dillion was pretty good too, not to mention Senua herself, played and voiced by Melina Juergens.

Speaking of Melina Juergens and Senua, Ninja Theory made the right call going with a full digital double as so much of Senua’s story is told, not just throught her inflection, but through her facial expressions as well. We’re treated to numerous close-ups of Senua where we witness her fear, desperation, anxiety, sadness, anger, joy, and relentless determination. In many ways, Hellblade feels very much like we’re being treated to a one-man (well, woman in this case, naturally) play (a Shakespearean one most likely) as Melina/Senua has to carry the brunt of the narrative on her shoulders and, for my part, she passed with flying colours, delivering a powerful and sincere performance. 

A curious fact I picked up from the video feature that comes with the game is that Melina Juergens is actually the studio’s video editor. That’s right, she’s not a professional actress! (mind=blown) In fact, she was pretty terrified about acting at all. She was supposed to serve as a stand-in for Senua while Ninja Theory perfected their motion capture techniques and found a professional actress to play the part. Seeing as she had done most of the work already, they offered her the role, one that demanded a great deal of training, both mental and physical, from her. I encourage you to watch this dev diary about how Melina became Senua while I take a moment to applaud her even more impressive performance.

Time to dive a bit more into the gameplay. 

As you might have guessed from the trailer and gameplay videos, Hellblade is a linear experience, and progression is blocked either through the puzzle-solving bits I mentioned earlier or instances of combat against a variety of enemies. The latter can be a bit of a mixed bag depending on how you look at things. Firstly, Senua is strictly a melee warrior so you can only choose between light or heavy attacks, while also being able to block or dodge enemies. Furthermore, if you time it right, your block can stagger your enemies and leave them wide open for a devastating counter-attack that also powers your Focus. Focus in combat is an extension of Senua’s ability to spot patterns and signs and, mechanically, it allows her to slow down time to the point you can easily dispatch enemies to your heart’s content. Having recently watched Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur I would be remiss if I didn’t draw a parallel between Arthur’s wielding of Excalibur in the movie and Senua’s wielding of Gramr in the game. Not only are they both magical swords, powerful in their own right, but the combination of Gramr’s power and Senua’s focus mirrors the devastating effects of Excalibur in the 2017 movie rather remarkably. Rest assured you will feel powerful in battle... so long as you can see your enemies.

One does not simply walk into Hel with a regular sword.

See, the problem with Hellblade’s combat is that it’s all too reliant on the often poor camera angles. Throughout the game, the camera sticks very close to Senua and follows her every move, something that is mirrored in combat. Thus, more often that not you will have enemies at your back that can easily sneak up on you (moreso when they can appear out of thin air) and you’ll have a moment’s notice at best to interrupt whatever it was you were doing and dodge the hell out of the way in a direction that, hopefully, will place all of your enemies in your line of sight. Perhaps this is an intended design choice and I’m leaning towards that option. You’re not supposed to feel like a badass in combat but rather oppressed, constricted, and overwhelmed. Besides, if we had an eagle’s eye view of the map layout during combat, it would defeat the purpose of having the voices warn you of incoming attacks.

Something similar happens with movement in the game, it feels sluggish and cumbersome, even when you’re running, as if the game were reluctant to let you proceed. Again, this could also be intended and it would fit the narrative, but where does one draw the line between a conscious design choice and an unpolished mechanic that accidentally feeds into the narrative? I have not yet watched all of the dev diaries (there are 29 of them) so this could have been something that Ninja Theory intended from the get go. Still, I feel I should bring up these issues and let you, the reader, make up your mind.

Going back to the story, Senua’s descent into Hel is also a journey into her tragic past. Being the daughter of a druid (Zymbel), her father took her symptoms to be a sign of darkness and thought that only through the gods’ interevention, and by extension his own, would Senua be rid of her darkness. It can’t have been fun growing up and being told you were the cause of every bad thing that happened around you. Contrast this to Dillion’s compassionate and understanding attitude; he didn’t fear Senua’s view of the world but embraced it and supported her at every turn (in fact, it could be argued Dillion has a very modern and open-minded attitude for the time). One can easily see why Senua would be willing to go to the ends of the world to get him back. In so doing we relive memories of Senua’s past and come to understand not only what drives her but also what shaped her into becoming the tormented, but determined, young woman she is now.

Even heroes can sometimes lose hope.

Curiously, if you manage to find all of Druth’s stories, you’re treated to a small cutscene towards the end that seems to hint at Senua’s next quest and the character at the heart of it. It doesn’t seem like the type of game that would benefit from a sequel (and god knows I’d love to see one), but maybe Ninja Theory has something up their sleeve.

I’ve mentioned already that Hellblade is a game where much of it is left to the player’s interpretation. Indeed, given how vivid Senua’s visions are, it’s difficult to tell what is real and what isn’t. Is Senua really journeying into Hel or is it all playing out in her mind? And if the latter, would it be any less real for her? After all, our perception of reality is filtered by our mind and Senua is no different in that respect. Is Hel a real place or a construct of her mind? I’ll leave it to you to play the game and find the answer.

Dom Matthews, the studio’s “product development ninja,” in an interview with Engadget back in 2015, called Hellblade “an experiment,” and a very risky one at that given the subject matter. Yes, they did their due dilligence, partnering with the Wellcome Trust, a medical research charity, and having a professor of health neuroscience at Cambridge University advise on the game, but there was no way to predict how the gaming community at large would receive the game. I am pleased to report gamers seem to have taken a liking to the game. As of last week, the game had reportedly sold over 100,000 copies on Steam and it was the best-selling digital-only game on the US and UK Playstation Stores. It currently has a Metascore of 85 on PC (81 on PS4) and is also being reviewed favourably by users. It doesn’t hurt that the game costs half the price of your average AAA title and delivers a compelling, if sometimes harrowing, experience unlike anything in the market right now.

Clocking at around 8 hours for a completionist run, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is an experience fully deserving of my time and money, so much so I played it twice already. Even if the subject of mental psychosis doesn’t particularly appeal to you, Hellblade still plays very much like a psychological horror game, with a thoroughly-immersive atmosphere enhanced by the outstanding soundtrack by Andy LaPlegua and David García (with additional music by Passarella Death Squad and VNV Nation). I hope it continues to garners the attention and praise it deserves, we could use more games that aren’t afraid to take chances. Personally, I think it’s well-positioned to compete for the GOTY title alongside titles like Horizon Zero Dawn and NieR:Automata. Time will tell.

#hellblade #hellblade senua's sacrifice #senua #ninja theory #gaming

[hypnoticcastiel]

VALERIAN: skyjet conceptart & interview with Ben Mauro.

Hi Ben. Tell us a little about your background in design – was film always the field you wanted to get into, or did you start in another discipline? I got my training in industrial design and entertainment design from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA where I got a good set of skills to begin my career as a concept designer many years ago. I think initially I really just wanted to work in videogames, I was a huge fan of games like Halo growing up so I thought it would be fun to design levels and architecture for worlds and experiences like that. This led me to Seattle initially to explore that path out of high school, but in the middle of it I found I was more interested in the design side of things and ultimately shifted my education from more of a 3D direction into more of a design focused one down at Art Center, where it was a pretty easy transition to working in games and films afterwards with the skills I learned there.

As you began designing for films, which artists and illustrators have provided the most inspiration to your personal style? I don’t look at much art anymore while I design, but starting out I definitely tried to learn and study everything in school, I wanted to know what had come before to get a holistic understanding of all film/automotive/product/aerospace/architecture/nature and any other form of design throughout history. Through that study, the more entertainment based artwork that resonated most to me was mainly a combination of French and Japanese artists such as Katsuhiro Otomo, Shirow Masamune, Katsuya Terada, Kow Yokoyama, Yasushi Nirasawa, Yoji Shinkawa and Makoto Kobayashi on the Japanese side of things and artists like Moebius, Meziere, Sylvain Despretz (who I was lucky enough to get to work with on Valerian!) and Juan Gimenez on the French/European side of things. These two main groups of artists were sort of a melting pot of influences for me starting out, and of course American artists like Syd Mead, Doug Chiang, Ian Mccaig and Ralph McQuarrie are hard to not be influenced by growing up here.

When I started working professionally I sort of turned off a lot of my personal preferences for the sake of learning new skills, the first 7-8 years I just wanted to learn as many different things from everyone I was working with to grow as much as possible. On the one hand this approach was good to create a very diverse range of skills to offer clients/projects, but it also means a lot of your individuality gets lost quite a bit. Luckily the projects with Luc tend to overlap with a lot of my early influences that I enjoy the most, so Valerian came at a very good moment, I was able to sort of go back in time to all the work I loved at the beginning of my career but armed with a lot of new skills to help build this universe in much more detail than I could have when I was younger. In a way, Valerian sort of felt like the project I had been training most of my career for, which was a really cool thing to be a part of.

As a 21st century artist, what type of design do you feel is more challenging: Something that evokes the past through fantasy, like The Hobbit, or something that projects futuristic realism like Elysium? I definitely think sci-fi work is more challenging than fantasy as far as being a designer on the project, with (live action) fantasy design it usually means taking real world elements and slightly tweaking/exaggerating them to be more fantastic or mixing ancient designs cleverly with natural or geometric forms and patterns. Something like Elysium which is a more realistic near future design direction, I guess kind of falls into a similar logic as a lot of the design was referencing real world technologies to make everything more believable while obviously exaggerating/tweaking it to create something new. I think even under those circumstances the world/scenarios created in a sci-fi setting like that are more new/interesting (to me at least) than what can be found in fantasy based projects. The most challenging projects (to me) would be sci-fi universes like what we created for Valerian, where it’s not necessarily always based on anything found on earth/reality so we are going pretty far into uncharted territory creating something new/original, those types of projects definitely push you to your limits as a designer.

Valerian is your second project with Luc Besson (Lucy was the first); how did you come to work with him and what about his world-building do you find most creative? I actually worked on an early version of Valerian before Lucy around 7 or so years ago now. Luc found some of my early work created when I was still a student and got in touch with me, I had just started working on film/videogame projects at the time and helped him out on an earlier version of the film for a few months before things went on hold for a couple years. At the time I remember being a little sad that things went on hold for so long, but in hindsight I’m kind of glad as I feel like I needed those extra years in-between to get better and be ready artistically to do the job I ended up doing on the final film.

After the success of Lucy, Valerian came back and we began on that project full-time for the last few years. I think the thing I enjoyed the most working with Luc on a world building creative level was how much he wanted to see something that was cool/original above all else, style over reality. Most of the other projects I worked on in my career followed a pretty strict ‘reality’ based logic, it’s almost more of an engineer like approach to design where everything has to be ‘grounded’, you need to be able to find something in real life and extrapolate functionality/form language from it to create something that would/could possibly exist. This logic works fine for many projects and is easy to grasp as a designer, but I find it can be restrictive creatively and sometimes hard to break out of if you go too far down that line of thinking. I remember early on for Valerian having to break out of this mindset and sort of ‘unlearn’ a lot of things I had experienced over the last few years because it was getting in the way of me solving problems successfully for Luc. That moment came when I was designing this big spaceship that splits into 1000 smaller ships, I was trying to design something that could logically fold up and connect together in a way that allowed all the pilots to get into each of the individual smaller ships and I remember struggling with this assignment for a little bit until Luc said something along the lines of “Ben, this is a movie, not real life! Don’t worry too much about that, this is what I want the ships to look like and here’s what I want to happen in the sequence, it will be a cool moment”. After that I learned to start turning off the more ‘reality’ based logic and just having fun with the designs on the film, coming up with the funkiest/coolest things I could imagine.

You’ve spoken before about the iterative process of concept art for film, and how complex that can be. How close would you say the designs for Valerian ended up on-screen versus the initial concepts? On Valerian I felt like Luc was very good about making sure the approved design he likes ends up pretty much identical in the final film which has been amazing to see! It’s a very rare occurrence to work with someone that knows what they want on such a massive project and able to make decisions years in advance and stick to them. Because of this he has also been the most efficient director I have ever worked with, it was really inspiring to see and made for a very pleasant working experience all the years I was on the film. After working on other projects where we are sometimes asked to do 500+ designs/revisions on small insignificant objects in a movie, I kind of didn’t believe it when Luc approved the first design I did for one of the big creatures we see early on in the film, the Megaptor. I remember really liking the design after creating it and thinking “Well, at least this first idea is cool, it will probably change 100 times”, but he ended up liking it as much as I did and approved it! Even after that I still kind of didn’t believe it until I saw it running around in the trailers 2 years later, ha!

What was Luc’s vision for the SKYJET originally? Luc was after something simple and iconic, something the audience would be able to easily understand and remember long after they left the theater.

What is the main inspiration for the design of the ship? The exterior design inspiration mainly came from nature, looking at things like dolphins, orca and sharks to create a very fast and aerodynamic looking design. I also looked at more man made objects such as fighter jets, luxury single seater submersibles and other aquatic/flying vehicles to make sure the scale and level of detail was suitable for the SKYJET in the world we were trying to create in the film.

What is the primary function of the SKYJET? Is it a personal commuting vehicle for future motorists or is it a more specialized mode of transportation? The way I understood it was that the SKYJET was more of a specialized military type vehicle built specifically for Valerian and Laureline (or whichever agency they work for) to be used by highly trained agents on their missions and adventures all over the galaxy.

Do you design a vehicle like this thinking of material components? For example, is the outer shell composed of something like carbon-fiber or a completely new material from the future? I imagined it would be some sort of advanced future military grade metal material capable of withstanding any blasts and attacks from various alien technologies/weapons they might encounter on their missions.

How fast does the SKYJET travel? Can you give us details on its proposed performance? Does it have an altitude limit, or can it fly in outer space? I imagined the top speed and altitude limit to be comparable or exceed modern day fighter jets (An F-22 Raptors top speed is 2,410 km/h) while flying on planets with atmosphere. While flying in space I imagine it would go faster without any atmosphere/friction to slow it down.

What role do you think AI might play in cars of the future? I think AI and autonomous driving will become a big part of cars in the near future, especially in larger city based locations congested with traffic. Those technologies will definitely help streamline commutes and keep things moving more smoothly while cutting down on accidents. A car will most likely start to become more of a moving extension of a person’s office or leisure/entertainment space with all control given up to AI. That being said, I hope manually driven car technology will still exist in some form so that cars can be used for fun.

Lastly, for our fans and followers who might want to get into concept design for films one day, what advice would you offer them that you feel is invaluable? If you really want to do this job for a living then go for it! When I was starting out a lot of this information was really hard to find and isolated to a few schools in California which not everyone could afford, but I feel like now all information needed to be a competent designer/illustrator in games and films is easily available/affordable in books and the dozens of online schools or artists Gumroads/Patreons offering very high level training for not a lot of money. It’s almost the opposite of what I experienced starting out, the difficulty now is from there being too much information available to you which I think is a good problem to have. So if you know what you want to learn and are self motivated enough to put in the time to learn it, the sky’s the limit.

[Nicole Campos,lootcrate]

#valerian movie #valerian and the city of a thousand planets #skyjet #spaceship #concept art #artwork #scifi #ben mauro #design

[nofomoartworld]

MOMENTUM9 – “Alienation is our contemporary condition”

MIT Media Lab’s Mediated Matter Group, Honeybee hives monitoring in the Synthetic Apiary Environment. Image: Markus Kayser, Sunanda Sharma and Jorge Duro

Jenna Sutela, Let’s Play: Life, 2015-2017. Opening of Momentum 9. Photo: Ingeborg Øien Thorsland

Momentum 9, The Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art, opened a few days ago in Moss, Norway. Its focus is Alienation, a pertinent theme for a time characterized by deep social and economic inequalities, new forms of rabid colonialism, atmospheric turmoil, transhumanism, closing borders and relentless questioning of democracy.

Trailer for Momentum 9

As Momentum 9 demonstrates, alienation is a daunting condition but it also provides us with an opportunity to reevaluate our long-established values and dogmas. If our world is being changed beyond recognition, then maybe we should engage directly with the alien, embrace its many challenges and start envisioning a ‘differently humane’ future.

All of the above means that there is a lot to unpack, discover and mull over in Moss. I’ve got notes, photos, research materials and ongoing interviews all over my laptop but here’s a first group of artworks that explore ongoing ecological and human alienation:

Jussi Kivi, Moon Woods, 2017. Photo by Istvan Virag

Jussi Kivi’s Moon Woods is very familiar but also strangely alien. It is both a piece of sublime Northern landscape and a formidable scene that suggest night creatures, secrets and danger.

The work is shown inside a completely dark room. You need to tentatively make your way across the space and allow your eyes to adjust before you can see the work. The forest is shown behind a glass window, suggesting perhaps a fragile fragment of nature, one that mankind might not have spoilt yet. A relic enshrined in a museum display that clinically abstracts it from a context probably made of highways, mining industry, toxic liquids seeping into the ground and polluted rivers.

With this work, Kivi explores the concept of solastalgia (a portmanteau of the words ‘solace’ and ‘nostalgia’), a new form of distress caused by environmental change close to your home.

The Moss Meteorite (Impact 10;20 A. M., 14 July 2006)

The Moss Meteorite (Impact 10;20 A. M., 14 July 2006)

The Moss Meteorite (Impact 10;20 A. M., 14 July 2006). Opening of Momentum 9. Photo: Ingeborg Øien Thorsland

Right in the middle of the list of participating artists is ‘Meteorite.’ And Meteorite, it turns out, is not a pop band or a performance group as i had expected but a real piece of meteorite fallen on the area in 2006. This particular fragment of the Moss Meteorite, a loan from the Natural History Museum in Oslo, is a rare specimen of Carbonaceous chondrites, a class of outer space debris which makes for less than 5% of all meteorite falls. This rubble from the cosmos deserves a place in the biennial because it comes with a chunk of a rooftop isolation material that had melted when the fireball fragment hit a house in Moss. Unassuming and as black as a Malevich black square, the object perfectly encapsulates a concrete encounter between the man-made world and the extra-terrestrial one.

Búi Adalsteinsson, Insect bar

Anyone eager to travel long distance and experience first-hand this extra-terrestrial world might end up snacking their way to Planet Mars with a pile of Búi Adalsteinsson‘s insect bars.

Búi Adalsteinsson, Fly Factory, 2014. Photo by Istvan Virag

Búi Adalsteinsson, Fly Factory, 2014. Photo by Istvan Virag

Búi Adalsteinsson, Fly Factory, 2014. Photo by Istvan Virag

A few years ago, the designer started looking into the possibility of creating self-sustainable food systems that would use insects as their main component and feed our overpopulated world. He believes that insects can provide us with a nutritious and -crucially- very sustainable source of food if only we would let go of prejudices and knee-jerk reactions to the idea of consuming larvae and creepy-crawlies.

Insects might indeed look terribly unappetizing but no one has ever accused them of producing too much greenhouse gas.

We were offered some very crunchy and very delicious insect bars during the press view and we also got to see Adalsteinsson’s Fly Factory, a piece of furniture that might grace our kitchen in the future. This breeding tank was designed so that it uses leftovers and produces no waste.

Check out this very entertaining and informative talk Adalsteinsson gave in 2015 to try and convince the audience that eating insects makes perfect sense.

The Mediated Matter Group, Synthetic Apiary, 2016. Photo: Istvan Virag. Courtesy The Mediated Matter Group

The Mediated Matter Group, Synthetic Apiary, 2016

The Mediated Matter’s Synthetic Apiary provides an artificial perpetual spring environment in which seasonal honeybees can live and work year-round. The designers hope that by controlling precisely the bee environment, we will have a better understanding of their fabrication capabilities and health.

The long-term goal is to integrate biology into a new kind of architectural environment, and thereby the city, for the benefit of humans and eusocial organisms.

This is certainly a praiseworthy aspiration. Beekeepers and scientists are registering massive decline in bees worldwide. The suggested causes for the crisis include climate change, pollution, loss of habitat, pesticides, stress due to transportation to multiple locations for providing pollination services, malnutrition, etc. Or a toxic combination of several factors. The situation is alarming because a third of the food we eat depends on pollinators -especially bees- for a successful harvest. Which means that the decline of bees and other pollinating insects might compromise biodiversity and agricultural yields.

“Minute 2:33 in the video documents the first birth in a synthetic environment: the only life this bee knows is of an existence in the Synthetic Apiary,” says the project page.

This Synthetic Apiary made me feel deeply uncomfortable. I can’t help but feel sad at the idea that these bees are living in an entirely manufactured environment, feeding on artificial nectar and artificial pollen, experiencing only a bright white world with a few humans who come to monitor their health at regular intervals. Besides, i’m always suspicious of solutions that consist in throwing artificial habitats, unyielding control and even more technology at environmental problems.

On the other hand, the project makes for lovely photos:

Honeybee hive installation and monitoring in the Synthetic Apiary environment. Image: The Mediated Matter Group

Stathis Tsemberlidis, Transmutations of Human Bodies and Flora, 2017. Photo by Istvan Virag

Stathis Tsemberlidis, Transmutations of Human Bodies, Drawing, 2015. Courtesy the artist

With his Transmutations of Human Bodies and Flora drawings, Stathis Tsemberlidis explores transmutations of the human body and how it can be modified by floral and fungal growths to the point of becoming a grotesque, yet highly seducing, new hybrid entity.

A performance by Trollkrem at Alby Beach

Trollkrem treated us to a performance in relation to Deep Down Below, the work they are showing in the Momentum Kunsthall. They kindly offered to paint our faces in unnatural shades and served whale steak as part of the ‘refreshments.’

I’m going to mention briefly Patricia Piccinini’s Atlas sculpture. Everyone i talked to during the press trip loved it. As for me, I’d rather eat one of Aðalsteinsson’s larvae pâtés than spend 2 minutes in the company of her creepy creatures. But i know i’m in a minority here. Hence the photo:

Patricia Piccinini, Atlas, 2012. Photo by Istvan Virag. Courtesy the artist

I need to add that i really REALLY liked Moss. Not so much the city center. It is basically one street with a few shops that make a pathetic attempt at distracting you from the spectacularly beautiful surroundings: the wooden houses, the landscape, the sea, etc. Bonus! It’s a mere one hour drive from Oslo.

Here’s some random photos i took while i was there:

Momentum 9, The Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art, is curated by Ulrika Flink, Ilari Laamanen, Jacob Lillemose, Gunhild Moe and Jón B.K Ransu. The exhibitions remain open in various location in Moss, Norway, until 11 October 2017

from We Make Money Not Art http://ift.tt/2tcZQMg via IFTTT

#IFTTT #We Make Money Not Art

[jittlovist]

“The Jittlov Legacy” (1989 interview)

Originally published in Starburst Summer Special ‘89 (UK).

THE JITTLOV LEGACY A Starburst interview by Janette Hyem

"From this moment, Time grows bright There is magic in the Air tonight!"

One very pleasant October afternoon, I had the pleasure of going to Jittlov's home to watch the movie he had created with such care and dedication. He collected me from my hotel in his car. Even the car was a symbol of a genius. It told us the seatbelts should be fastened, and on the dashboard were controls marked 'ejector seat' and 'turbo power'! Mike had even attached a water spray to the side of the car; to clean the street was his excuse! The number plate is `Jittlov'. We arrived at the setting of the film, Mike's house, in a quiet part of Los Angeles. The house portrays the man. A magic kingdom in the making.

A treasure trove of goodies and ideals bursting at the seams, a turmoil of genius attempting to escape.

Mike Jittlov, film-maker extraordinary is nervous, pacing up and down, unsure if the work he is about to show me is a masterpiece or not. He's not proud of the brain-child he's created. "Why?" I asked immediately.

"I've never been allowed to finish the movie. Right now, it's a rough cut. There's so many analogies. It's like painting a painting, a very pretty portrait. People have said I should be happy with it, that I've done more than most people could in a movie. I have good paints and canvas, but that doesn't make a good picture. It's like someone says, 'you can't paint with your hands you have to paint with your toes.' Then someone comes along and throws mud all over it. Or imagine you have this wonderful banquet and you have the chance to work with the finest chefs in Europe, with this wonderful ten course meal you have designed and prepared. Unfortunately, there was a grocer's strike and you had to grow all the vegetables in your back yard. The Maitre D' is going, 'Hurry, hurry, hurry' and you have to prepare every part of the meal, even build the ovens and tables. It took hours to cook and hundreds of guests have been invited too early. He tells you to get the food out ready, even if it's half cooked. It doesn't matter if it's not right! All these hundreds of people aren't going to notice. But unfortunately only a few guests arrive and you're told to put it back in the oven now and 'Get it right!'. That's how I feel about the film.

"Making a movie is probably one of the most difficult art forms around. In the past, I have controlled the budget etc, and this time I haven't. So I'm not happy with it at all. The only real good part is the trailer, which I wasn't forced to compromise financially."

He frowns, fiddles with the video, getting it ready for my personal viewing. Then he continues.

"We intended to do the film in about a year, but it didn't work that way. We took a handful of friends and started the film but we ran out of money and we had to go hunting for finance in the next couple of years. I'd use friends' editing machines, and laboratories, making my own special effects. Our effects budget bordered on the verge of thirty to forty thousand dollars. The music budget was twenty-five thousand dollars, so compared to something like Star Wars, we had a very small allowance. But the budget went up to a million dollars."

I glanced around the room again. Mobiles hung from the ceiling, large posters adorned the doors and the walls, Wizard objects graced the mantels. I later discovered these were all props from the film.

The trailer began. Jittlov murmurs intensely:

"In a fantasy world not too far away lives a genius who had a dream. There were evil forces working against this dream, but someday, he would meet the girl of his dreams and fall in love. Meanwhile, this struggling writer-director (me playing myself) is thwarted in his attempts to put on a show by the producer, Richard Kaye (also playing himself). But the writer-director will not be defeated and will go to all costs to get his production made. Well, I did say it wasn't too far away from reality."

Cue music - "Before Superman, before Rambo, before Pee-Wee Herman, there was the Wizard of Speed and Time, an eccentric genius who created a motion picture legend in his own garage. These are the true adventures of the world's most unknown film-maker... and blown up out of all proportion. It's the classic story of the little guy up against the system, fighting corrupt and evil movie producers, overcoming unbelievable and ridiculous odds all to win the heart of the girl he loves - and maybe the rest of her as well!"

More music... "Made on the same film stock as Roger Rabbit and Star Wars, filmed around the world in a special process that is technically unexplainable, you'll see electrifying special effects, laugh at dry, stupid jokes and gasp in awe that we actually got big named stars to appear in this. You'll see dancing, romancing, financing, fencing, crowd scenes, chase scenes - This is the motion picture with everything! It's even got the kitchen sink, it's the kind of movie you would make if you didn't have anything better to do! Five years in the making, five days in the theatres, go see it while you can and tell your friends, you've got to be off to see The Wizard of Speed and Time, at a theatre near you!" Cue music reminiscent of Disney - end of trailer to film.

"That's the fun, that's what I wanted to create. Now for the movie."

The film has its own theme tune, a catchy little number combined with some wonderful animation. Hundreds of moving tripods marching to music, cans moving on their own, rain by courtesy of hose-pipes. You name it, the film has it - glitter, stars and magical people.

Considering Mike was so ill years ago and was told he wouldn't be running about much longer, his speed in the film is amazing. He even rides a mechanical suitcase up and down the hills of LA. The suitcase, I was informed, was lying somewhere around the house, lost possibly to the fan-tasies of yesteryear. Clothes dance, a jet plane flaps its wings and mechanical toys run amok. It's all done so well, it's believable. Maybe the acting isn't the greatest ever seen, but that isn't the point of the film. It's a wide action film with a real story.

Jittlov's dedication is admirable. He cast the union system aside, taking on 69 jobs to get the movie made.

"It's not a totally awful film," he says. "Pathetic yes, but, not totally awful. There's no offensive language and my two best friends appeared in the film because they'd learn an important lesson; that allowing a group, or person or government control your dreams is like buying a seven course meal and letting the waiters eat it for you. I'd love to make a good feature, but first I have to finish the work I've begun. The movies business is built in collaboration with compromise, Wizard is all compromise and still isn't done. Even though it looks finished, it isn't. There are more important things in life than making movies, but it is sad the film is being released before its completion. But I'm only the film- maker and have no control over the distribution. If you can only imagine the frustration of these last five years.

"I honestly did do more to make the film a feature film than anyone has. The media regards it as an extraordinary move that a seasoned actor could act in a script he's written. I did everything I could to make this a good film, working for free for four and a half years, seven days a week and long hours. I had no time or mind for an on-going social life."

The man is sad for a moment, the film only too true to his own experiences. But, the hero did get the girl and the movie does have a happy ending!

#mike jittlov #wizard of speed and time #wosat88 #articles #interviews