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angelholme · 1 year

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V, V, V — Day 22 : Muppet

I’ve never entirely understood why muppet is used as an insult, because ever since I was a kid (which, lets be honest, is almost since the dawn of time — I am surprisingly old and while I know the universe has been around a lot long before I was born it does, sometimes — when people ask things like “what was life like without the internet?” or “what’s an LP?” or “did phones really have those wheels on them?” it does feel like I have been around since before the flood, or at least like I could have attended the crucifixion) the Muppets have been a guiding force in my life.

Not Sesame Street — I think because of the whole being British thing, we had far more Muppet Show than we did Sesame Street.

No — mostly we had The Muppet Show, which was typical Sunday night (or more accurately Sunday afternoon) viewing.

And it lead to the films, which is where I think I depart from typical wisdom, because I didn’t really like “The Muppet Movie” as a film, and as songs go, I don’t like “The Rainbow Connection” or “It’s Not Easy Being Green”.

I mean — don’t get me wrong — they are not truly awful songs, but if there is something you will have learned about me by now (and hopefully after three weeks of entries you have learned more than one thing, otherwise you may have to go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect 200 Galleons) it is that I am not that big a fan of sentimental schmaltz. And if there is one thing you can say about “It’s not easy being green” and “The Rainbow Connection” is they have schmaltz by the bucket load.

But other songs — Mah-na Mah-na, Simon Smith, Upidee, The Rhyming Song, Lady of Spain, Happy Feet (who doesn’t love a frog tap-dancing on a CD?) — these are songs that speak to me, even as a kid.

And then you have the Muppets themselves. We’re told they are family entertainment — and they do pass themselves of as such, given they are in a theatre, putting on a variety show.

However the entire premise is that they are anarchists (which, for reasons I am not certain of, I always tend to read as anti-christs). They rebel against the owner of the theatre, they rebel against each other and their entire purpose is to cause as much mayhem and chaos as possible.

And this is the management — once you get into the acts (who regularly eat the guest stars) it just gets even more entertaining and even more anarchic.

I am not entirely certain if my parents knew what the values they were teaching us when we were watching this — if they believed they were just showing us “good, wholesome family entertainment” or if they knew they were teaching us how to (basically, for all intents and purposes) rebel and blow shit up. And I mean that quite literally because…….. I mean — just look at Gonzo. And Crazy Harry. They live for blowing shit up.

Also the “house band” — I admit I didn’t entirely get this at the time, but Floyd and Janice were most definitely……. well I think their watches were set at 4:20 for most of the time, if you catch my drift.

Then finally you come to Waldorf and Statler. Two old fashioned gentlemen who were the height of respectability and who spent their entire time mocking the performers.

Again — this wasn’t something I was aware of at the time, because it was something that filtered into my brain via osmosis rather than direct learning, but I think that seeing two old men mocking the performers gave me the idea that a) it was fine to be cynical, sarcastic and generally snarky about almost anything in life and b) having respect for one’s elders was not something I needed to do because one’s elders were twats.

So as a result I grew up being cynical, sarcastic and snarky about almost everything in life, and having very little respect for my elders (at least by default) because of what I learned from The Muppets.

I know I have said this a lot this month, but The Muppets had quite an effect (affect?) on my personality growing up. (To be fair the reason I have said it a lot is because I am writing all about me, and so most of what I write about are things that have quite a big affect — effect — on me so really is it any surprise that most of them wrote themselves into my DNA?)

They also had quite an impact on my humour as well — Diana Rigg’s line from “The Great Muppet Caper” is one I’ve used over and over, as is Kermit’s from The Muppets Take Manhattan.

There are other works from the late and truly great Mister Henson that changed the way I look at the world — and changed the way I look at the people in the world.

“Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered…….”

“When single shines the triple sun…….”

When I was a kid, you could generally complete one of these two speeches, but not both. And (weirdly) — more girls could complete the first, and more boys could complete the second. Sounds odd, but it was true. Not sure if that is the case now, but back then I am pretty sure that was the case.

And, of course, one of the greatest and wisest beings of the time was….. a muppet. Even if he couldn’t talk proper. (Talk proper, he couldn’t).

For me, calling someone a Muppet is possibly the highest form of praise — they are the greatest heroes of our time. Better than the Avengers, better than The Justice League. They will live forever and when the world needs them they will be here to save us.

They are all we need. And perhaps — maybe — the vampire from Sesame Street.

Although, on reflection, they probably don’t need his help. So he doesn’t count.

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zuzuslastbraincell · 4 years

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Give me a character and I will answer: Azula

here we go

why I like them

absolute queen and absolute loser at the same time. the intimidating, confident #girlking persona she projects is extremely compelling to watch, the lines she makes e.g. "you were never really a player" are just so cutting, she's clearly having fun trouncing everyone and seeing the gaang struggle against that is a good challenge, she's just good *fun* as a screen presence and just immensely entertaining to watch. she's also just extremely fucking funny. like as much as I felt the writers over-leant into '14 year old girl is the most terrifying creature on the planet' as humour, to the extent that Ursa and Iroh end up saying some very fucked-up lines (which the series compensates for by taking seriously and exploring the consequences for Azula's psyche in S3), I do think the joke *is* genuinely pretty funny. Seeing Azula make grown men, soliders, leading officials, just panic and lose it is *funny* on some level cause she's just a 14 year old kid. Like she's a very good second season villain that ups the stakes.

but like, she's more than who she pretends to be, they give her a lot of depth in s3, you really very much see that at the core of it she's a dsyfunctional 14 year old who has been abused by her father, trapped in a toxic competition with her brother for the crown, and taught that weakness of any kind is utterly unacceptable. The show doesn't ask you to forgive her for who terribly she's treated others but it does present her as worthy of sympathy, as someone complex, made who she was by the conditions of her upbringing.

she's absolutely terrible but she's tremendous fun and you really do feel for her.

why i don't

she was just utterly awful to zuko, ty lee, and mai. she does just manipulate people. she is just unapologetically pro-fire nation and never questions that or has the chance to question it. But arguably these are things, weirdly, that I also like about her because she's just such a compelling example of a deeply flawed character - flaws make characters interesting. (really do wish she'd give zuko a break though.)

favourite episode

I thought about this for a moment but it's the beach. of course it's the beach. the volleyball scene. the petty jealousy. her inability to flirt. 'that's a sharp outfit chan'. the whole campfire scene from 'here we go again' to 'my mother thought i was a monster'. Finally burning chan's house down? Like ugh. Really showed Azula both at her most fun, her funniest, and her most vulnerable at the same time. Really made it clear how she's really lacking social skills from how she's been brought up as a little soldier - like it's made interacting with peers as equals just impossible for her and she really *struggles* outside of the hypercpmpetitive environment that her father brought her up to dominate.

favourite season

don't ask me this. I love s2 hyper-competant azula and s3 disaster azula equally.

favourite line

'Isn't it obvious? I'm about to celebrate becoming an only child!' always fucking cracks me up but it's like HOW dramatic can you be, and the ruthlessness here I think indicates some kind of desperation really. southern raiders azula is a really interesting azula imo (as we have discussed a lot recently)

favourite outfit

oh definitely the earth kingdom outfit in crossroads of destiny. she looks great in green!

OTP

azula/therapy azula/meaningful amends and redemption azula/working through her shit in order to become a better-adjusted adult

but azula/katara is good in an AU where it’s less messy and there’s less intergenerational trauma.

brotp

azula & any kind of genuine parental affection PLEASE can iroh or ursa step up thanks or just ANYONE please adopt this child

but also i am very fond as sokka & azula as pai sho rivals in their early 20s who snipe at each other but eventually over time become almost-friends, and i like toph & azula having chaotic life-changing adventures together

a headcanon

azula is equally as knowledgeable about the theatre as zuko, she just hides her interest. I think artistically she's also quite skilled - though it's downplayed. I can see her being a great singer (in the same way zuko is apparently a good musician) or potentially very good with inks, as it requires a great degree of precision. post-redemption i imagine though she lets her work become more messy, more abstract, less precise. she sings off tune. she joins an amateur players group and lets herself be a hammy actor. she learns to dance and isnt perfect at it first try. I can see the arts as being really fundamental to her recovery quite honestly.

unpopular opinion

honestly don’t think i have any, unless 'an abused 14 year old child soldier is NOT irredeemable' still counts as unpopular. I think opinion has softened towards azula over time though and i think more people nowadays recognise she needs help & can better herself with the right support network.

I suppose what could be counted as unpopular is that, while azula may love zuko 'deep down', the olive branch she offers him in s2/s3 to return home is also a self-interested move that puts the harsh light of scrutiny on him and ensures he'll be blamed if the avatar is rediscovered (see their convo in s3e1), and zuko is well within his rights to reject and want better than azula's 'love' when it is clearly also a self-interested and manipulative ploy. Love isn’t and shouldn't be manipulative and it's tragic that Azula can't open herself enough to build something based on trust and instead has to manipulate the people she cares for in position.

OH wait - actual unpopular opinion 'do the tides command the ship?' never landed as a line for me, the whole time i was just thinking about how ignorant she appeared to be of like, how boats work... how the sea works..., and her confidence just came off as arrogant stupidity. azula you cant argue with the dudes they’ll just wreck your boat dude.

a wish

wrote a post about this which I'll link but azula joining the ember island players is really my favourite recovery arc for her:

read here

oh I would also just azula, as part of her recovery-redemption process, to just go full anarchist on us, i’d really love to see a dramatic political shift in a moment of “fine! i’ll be everything my dad doesn’t want to be!” spiralling that ends up with her genuinely adopting that position.

an oh-god-please-don't-ever-happen

become the fire lord. azula needs a life outside of politics. she clearly cares for her country on some level and wants to do it right but there are other ways to fulfil that need. imo she needs to give up the crown, because, as with zuko (who travelled as a refugee in the earth kingdom and grew because of it), the elevated sense of superiority she has due to being royal prevents her from extending her sense of compassion, prevents her from seeing the cost that imperialism and monarchy has caused, she needs a new perspective, and that will require stepping away from the crown. like becoming the fire lord would create more distance rather than reduce it and she very much sees becoming the fire lord as a continuity of old practices - in contrast to zuko who breaks from them.

five words to describe her

precise, deadly, hard-working, theatrical, and dearly in need of a hug from her mother

#azula #long post #wrote this on my phone excuse spelling #there's some personal resonance r.e. azula too about being a golden child and sibling rivalry #but id rather not go too deep into that in public tbh

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obsidianfr3sk · 4 years

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The Origins (Chapter 6)

Summary: Before the Renegades put an end to the Age of Anarchy, they were six kids trying to survive day by day in a city ruled by chaos and desolation. Is there a space for hope and kindness somewhere in Gatlon City? Maybe.

AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25123756/chapters/62695558

Tag list: @nodrianbcyes @blueraspberry-official @healing-winston-pratt @plain-jane-mclain @novas-tunnel-of-anxiety @novas-egg-beater @callumtreadwell

Notes at the end of the capter

The world we’re gonna make

Age of Anarchy

Year 10

After going to the comic shop, they walked a mile to reach Joe's Basket. Hugh opened the door and smiled at the man behind the counter. That apparently innocent move gave him an excuse to leave the door open, so an invisible Simon could enter without raising suspicions.

Follow the routine.

He looked at the few products that remained on the shelves. Probably the owner could not afford more merchandise or the suppliers were robbed. Hugh frequently saw cases of trucks carrying food being attacked by gangs or by Anarchists.

“Not that there is much difference between one and the other,” his aunt once said.

(Hugh repeated the same sentence a few days ago, and Simon found it “dangerously hilarious”.)

The man behind the counter was following him with his gaze as if he suspected Hugh was going to steal something. Most countermen did the same when he came in. They took advantage of that mistrust. Simon went to the other end of the store and put everything he could find (that was among the things allowed to steal) into his backpack, while Hugh distracted them.

He felt an invisible hand touch his shoulder. It was his signal to buy something and get the hell out of there. They never ended a robbery without buying something.

Hugh took a chocolate bar and put it on the counter.

“Two dollars.”

He took out the coins he had in his jacket pocket. Eighty cents.

“I don't have enough.” He smiled at him uncomfortably and turned around. “Sorry for the inconvenience”

“How is your aunt?” he asked him.

Hugh was caught off guard by that question.

“She was your aunt, wasn't she? The lady you came with the other time.”

He could hear Simon thinking, “How could you be such an idiot?”

“Yes. She is fine.”

“I'm glad that she's recovered.”

“She hasn't,” he blurted out.

“What do you mean?”

He didn't know why he had said that.

“We don’t know what she has,” he whispered.

“Why are you smiling?” the counterman asked, disturbed.

“Sorry.” Hugh put on a serious face again. “It's a defense mechanism.”

The counterman nodded.

“I understand. No one can afford medical care these days. Not like there's a lot of hospitals left anyways.”

Hugh laughed. Even if they could afford a hospital, he knew his aunt wouldn’t want to go. “Don't worry, honey, I'll be all right. I'm too stubborn to die.”

“Take the chocolate.”

“No, I couldn't.”

“Don't worry, no one's buying them. You are the first customer I've had today.”

“Really? It seems like everyone does their shopping here.”

“Roaches do,” he replied. “They came last night, took a lot, and paid nothing if you know what I mean.”

Hugh knew what he meant.

“Sorry.”

Simon slapped him on the shoulder.

“Take the chocolate,” insisted the man from the counter. “And tell your aunt I say hello.”

Hugh took it. He would definitely tell his aunt. Surely she would be happy to know the counterman had remembered her.

“Our family has always been characterized by our beauty,” she would say, arranging his blonde curls. It was the same line she said every time someone remembered her name or paid her a vague compliment about her appearance. “When you grow up, you will have all the girls behind you.”

Heather Everhart always was talking about what was going to happen when Hugh grew up. When he was little, she told him “I promise that when you grow up, I’ll tell you everything about your parents.” Fortunately, his aunt Heather wasn’t known as someone who didn’t keep her promises, so during his fourteenth birthday, Hugh walked the streets of Gatlon City, holding his aunt's arm, and wondering if she was taking him to a place where the answers about his past were. All those years, his aunt Heather refused to respond to his questions about them.

And now, he may finally know where he came from.

After a long walk, they arrived at the richest neighborhood in Gatlon City. It wasn’t anything like he had imagined. Yeah, it seemed a lot better than where he lived, but most of the houses were completely abandoned. His aunt walked swiftly without even stopping to admire the pretty houses that remained. Hugh forced himself to follow her example and keep going.

They finally stopped in front of the biggest mansion Hugh had ever seen. Its walls were covered by mold and climbing plants, the windows had been shattered, and the doors were stolen.

“What are we doing here?” he asked.

His aunt Heather pointed at the mailbox. Hugh removed the dust that covered it and revealed the name carved on it.

Everhart.

“Sit down, Hugh."

"Here in the sidewalk?"

"Yes. Don't worry about messing your clothes." He hesitated. The sidewalk looked unclean and dusty, and he was wearing his newest pair of jeans. "Come on, honey, it's not like you do your laundry."

He finally did it. Anything to get the answer he wanted.

Heather and Hugh Everhart were the richest and most popular kids at school. They did everything together, not only because they were twins, but they were also best friends. Their paths divided when they went to college. She majored in theatre and he studied "something to do with politics". Sometimes he made fun of her for choosing to pursue an art-related career, but she didn't care. Heather loved being a costume designer and was having a lot of work offers from Broadway shows.

When Hugh Everhart became mayor of Gatlon City, the power he now had started to change him, and his views about the prodigies did too. He started a campaign against them, even going as far as to start segregating public spaces and reinforcing the rule against prodigies attending to the same school as non-prodigies.

“It was a rule that already existed, but no one took it as seriously, and some school districts turned a blind eye when they discovered a child was a prodigy,” his aunt explained.

Then, Hugh asked about his mother.

“Oh, Anna was a friend of mine. She played the main role and was the most beautiful woman in the room. I introduced her to your father during the first Broadway productions I worked on. I will always regret that night,” she said. “They felt in love pretty quickly, got married the next year, and then you arrived.” Her smile disappeared. “Anna hadn’t been honest with your dad though.”

“Did she cheat on him?”

“No! No, no, no. Something worse. She didn’t tell him she was a prodigy until you were born.”

Hugh was starting to know how the story was going to end. He wanted her to stop, but at the same time, he wanted to know the truth, even if it hurt him.

So he let her finish.

“Your dad was pissed. He didn’t want anything to do with you, so he forced Anna to let you on my porch. The only thing she told me was she wanted you to be named after your father. Two days later, she died.”

“Did he kill her?”

Suddenly, his aunt stood up, took him by the arm, and started to get away from the house as fast as possible.

“Someone’s watching us,” she whispered.

Hugh looked at one of the houses. In its garden, a young woman was watching them go. They made eye contact, and she smiled. Her hair was curly and her skin was dark and soft. Hugh tried to smile back, but his aunt didn’t let him.

“Don’t look at her." She waited until they were out of the neighborhood to keep talking. “Look, I don’t know if he killed her," she mumbled. "They said it was suicide, and Anna had some problems, but your father and I never spoke again after that.”

Hugh didn’t like to think about his parents now. But it didn't matter, his family was perfect just the way it was. He, his aunt... and Simon.

Simon's dad had just left for work when they arrived. His sister was sitting in the living room, mesmerized by the old television they had. Mr. Westwood had managed to fix an old DVD player and Sophie was delighted with the cartoons she was now able to watch. They had kept the TV at low volume though. That way, the neighbors wouldn’t found out that they had a TV and wanted to break in.

“I'm here, Sophie,” Simon announced.

Sophie turned to see them. Hugh greeted her and she greeted him back. Then, he followed Simon into the basement.

“You shouldn't have stayed that long,” Simon said, dropping his backpack on the floor.

“It would have been more suspicious if it seemed like I was in a hurry to leave, don't you think?” he answered.

“We won’t go back there,” said Simon. “You’ll be recognized again.”

“You're right. I'm too handsome to be forgotten.”

“Nice. I think I'll keep your share of the loot just for that comment.”

“What do we have today?”

Five cans of beans, two of vegetables, one loaf of old bread, and three small boxes of pear juice.

When he first met Simon, Hugh was shocked to hear him say, “Now that I'm a prodigy, I'll be able to steal better.” First, he laughed, thinking it was a joke, but Simon remained serious.

Shortly afterward, his aunt's hand-made carpet business started to lose clients. All the money they could get was used to pay the bills. Hugh had never been so hungry in his life, so he asked Simon if he could help him get food.

“I could,” he replied with a shrug, "but you wouldn't like the way I get food, and I don't have any other idea."

“I will love any idea you have.”

Even if it means stealing.

“You will call the police if I tell you.”

“What police?” Hugh asked.

That the first time he heard Simon’s laugh. It was as wonderful as the first time he saw him smile.

“It's Sophie's birthday tomorrow, so I want the juice boxes,” Simon said. “It’ll be my gift”

Hugh did not answer. He still had his mind on Joe's Basket.

The store was empty because the Roaches were there. He imagined the terror the man behind the counter must have felt. Had a gun been pointed at his head? Did they hit him? Did they hurt him in any way? Did they threaten his family?

How long would it take to realize that things were missing from the shelves? Some never did, but once a lady noticed a bag of flour was missing as soon as they left her store. She grabbed Hugh's arm and demanded that he return what he had stolen from her. Luckily, Simon was carrying everything, and no one could see him. After several screams and threats, Hugh managed to convince the lady that he had taken nothing and let him go.

The man at the counter had no idea what he was doing when he gave him that free chocolate bar. He was giving his merchandise to a thief. Surely he would feel betrayed. He had had an act of kindness with someone, and that was how they paid him?

“Well, you can keep one box of pear juice,” said Simon, holding it out to him, “and a half loaf of bread. I would prefer that you keep all the vegetables. Sophie makes a big fuss when it's the only thing to eat.”

Hugh got out of his thoughts and took the chocolate out of his pocket.

“Here. It's for you."

Simon did not hesitate to accept it. He broke it in half and gave him the largest piece. It was a great sacrifice on his part because Simon loved everything that had chocolate. It was difficult to get, but every time Hugh saw it in a store, he bought a bar for Simon, and every time, Simon share it with him.

He wiped away the remnants of candy on his pants before taking the new Wonder Man number out of the paper bag. He sat down on one of the old cushions in the corner of the basement and began to read it.

Simon gazed at him with curiosity. Hugh noticed it but said nothing. He knew that Simon had no interest in the plot of The Fantastic Adventures of Wonder Man. He preferred The Scarlet Enchantress and the Phantom Feline, and read nothing but that, although they no longer produced any more numbers. Its creator had been killed after drawing the Scarlet Enchantress attacking Ace Anarchy with an energy hit.

Simon sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“Why are you so quiet?” he asked.

“I'm not.”

“Does it have something to do with the Roaches?”

He adjusted his glasses. They were already starting to cause excruciating headaches. Hugh really needed new ones.

“I do not like it either.”

“I know,” said Hugh. “I've never thought otherwise.”

“Well, you have a very curious way of showing it.”

Hugh opened one of the pear juices and raised his eyebrows.

“There is something you don't know about me, Westwood.”

“What thing, Everhart?” he asked with a frown.

He left the juice on one side and the comic book on the other. Then, he went to the shelf where they kept a box full of the comics they bought. Hugh took out the blue mask of Wonder Man his aunt made for him and put it on with a mysterious air, cautious so that Simon did not see him doing it.

“Hugh—”

“I'm not Hugh... I'm Wonder Man!” he exclaimed turning around. “And your kingdom of chaos is over!”

Simon was startled, but he immediately started to laugh and took his black Phantom Feline mask from the box. He put it on awkwardly as he climbed onto the table and picked up a red cloth to use as a cape.

“I would like to see you try it, Wonder Man,” Simon purred mysteriously covering his face with the cape. “But you will have to catch me first.”

Hugh created handcuffs with his powers and Simon vanished.

Silence invaded the room. He had to be very aware of each sound. Even the slightest movement could give away Simon's position and make Hugh the winner of the fight for Gatlon City that was unfolding inside their heads.

Hugh was the one who came up with the game. It all started because they argued over who would win in a fight: Wonder Man or the Phantom Feline. Simon was convinced that the Phantom Feline would end Wonder Man in a matter of seconds, because “Wonder Man was too stupid to find Phantom Feline when he turned invisible.” Hugh replied that the Wonder Man was extremely intelligent and that the Phantom Cat was no match for him.

“And I will prove it to you.”

Since then, they put on their masks and pretended to be Wonder Man and Phantom Feline whenever one of them was sad or upset. Like when Hugh's aunt was in bed for three days and her fever did not go down, or when Simon's father lost one of his many jobs and refused to speak to his children.

“Don't you think you're a little old to play like that?” Mr. Westwood asked them.

“Not at all,” they replied at the same time.

Hugh heard a rustle to his left. He turned, and before he could react, the handcuffs were snatched from his hand and he was thrown onto the cushions in the corner.

Simon put him the handcuffs and place his foot on Hugh’s chest.

“And the Phantom Feline takes control of Gatlon City in record time!” he exclaimed with an evil laugh.

“I will end with you, villain!” Hugh growled.

Simon took his razor out of his pocket and placed it just above the heart.

“Any last words?”

Hugh looked at him with determination. “Long live to justice.”

Simon nodded and stabbed him. The razor blade fell at the same time that Hugh played dead.

“Evil has triumphed. It always does,” Simon whispered, staring into the distance dramatically.

Hugh turned to look at the back cover of the comic book he'd left on the floor.

He was nothing like him. Wonder Man was stronger, taller, and did not wear glasses that were not from his graduation. He had dark skin and brown eyes, hiding his identity behind a blue mask and a tight uniform. On the back cover, he stood on a pile of villains defeated by him, his chin up and a silver spear nailed to Ace Anarchy's iconic gold helmet.

His blood went to his feet.

“Simon—“

“I saw it too,” he replied. He knelt and removed the handcuffs. “Now you will no longer find out what happened to Wonder Man at the end of the story.”

Hugh kept staring at that image. The spear. The helmet.

And he smiled.

“In the end, he beats Ace Anarchy.”

“Hugh, accept it. There will be no end,” said Simon, shaking his head. “He will never beat Ace Anarchy.”

“Maybe he doesn't,” Hugh muttered. “But what if we did?”

The End.

Now, you may be all like “wut obsi tf is this the end???” I mean, the end of this fic?? yeah. but the end of this the obsiverse??? i don’t think so bitch. this month i’ll be posting the first chapter of a new fic, Rise of the Renegades, which is going to be a continuation of The Origins. It’ll be all about the first year of the guys as the Renegades, how they formed, their fisrt missions, and maybe their first encounter with Ace:))) don’t wanna give spoiler tho.

I hope you support the continution as much as you supported this fic. Seriously all the comments and tags mean a lot to me. I’m not use to sharing my writing, at least not outside school work, so it's great to know that people all over the world like what I do. Los adoro <3 Keep it weird.

Also all the chapter titles were from the song A Million Dreams it was one of the main inspirations for this work

#renegades #archenemies #supernova #renegades trilogy #hugh everhart #simon westwood #fanfic #the origins #ao3

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johnnymundano · 5 years

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Class of 1984 (1982)

Directed by Mark L. Lester

Screenplay by Tom Holland, Mark Lester and John Saxton

Story by Tom Holland

Music by Lalo Schifrin

Country: United States

Running Time: 94 minutes

CAST

Perry King as Andrew Norris

Merrie Lynn Ross as Diane Norris

Timothy Van Patten as Peter Stegman

Stefan Arngrim as Drugstore

Michael J. Fox as Arthur

Roddy McDowall as Terry Corrigan

Keith Knight as Barnyard

Lisa Langlois as Patsy

Neil Clifford as Fallon

Al Waxman as Detective Stewiski

Erin Flannery as Deneen

David Gardner as Principal Morganthau

Linda Sorensen as Mrs. Stegman

Teenage Head as themselves

Note: If you enjoyed Class of 1984 you may also be interested in the thematic sequel Class of 1999 by the same prime movers, which is much more overtly comedic, and Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971) a very British spin on the same themes starring David Hemmings.

Also: I took the images from the Internet like the anarchist hell child that I am. No rules! no future! Rip the system!

I remember reading about Class of 1984 when it came out and thinking the review in Starburst made it sound like an incredibly exploitative and deeply unpleasant movie. Being 12 I immediately made a mental note to see it as soon as possible. Unfortunately the movie wasn’t passed uncut in the UK until 2005, by which time I was no longer 12 and thus somewhat preoccupied by the labyrinth of idiocy which is adult life. But that mental note still niggled, and so in 2019 that 12 year old’s simple ambition was belatedly fulfilled thanks to the UK blu-ray release of the movie. Turns out that not only is Class of 1984 incredibly exploitative and deeply unpleasant, but also (spoiler) my taste hasn’t evolved much since I was 12, because, me? I thought it was a hoot. A hoot and a half in fact.

Class of 1984 asks the old, old question Hollywood loves to ask - how far do you have to push a liberal milquetoast until he starts biting folk’s throats out? Because, as any decent hard working common sense fella with dirt under his fingernails will tell ya, it’s okay to have high-falutin’ ideas about equality and decency and edjumacation but, let’s face facts, when their wife’s blood soaks their corduroy jacket these liberal schmucks won’t hesitate to dip their fists in the basin of other people’s faces. It’s a small-minded, nasty genre that takes unseemly delight in demonstrating that the self-appointed avatars of civilisation have feet of clay. But it isn’t a stupid genre; it also recognises the fact that being a pigeon chested liberal weakling takes some doing against very stiff resistance. Basically, the genre exploits the fact that small-mindedness and mean-spiritedness are universal levellers. To err may very well be human, but to wish for violent revenge is, well, very human. Class of 1984 is one of the smartest of this, uh, cathartic genre; it is simultaneously a Push The Liberal Until He Snaps Movie and an Impotent White Male Liberal Revenge Fantasy movie. Everyone wins. Except women; it was made in 1982 so women get short shrift; being (mainly) either whores or wives to be sacrificed on the altar of manliness. If you are a regular reader of comics I should probably point out that this is not representative of women’s roles in the real world.

But then Class of 1984 is not set in the real world. For a start it was made in 1982 so it is set in the (then) near-future. “We are the future!” is the regular mocking refrain of the violent urchins, and also of the typically ridiculous Alice Cooper title song, which exists only to remind you just how seriously you should take any of this. (Not very.) This is the near future of every frothing right wingers most secretive wet dreams. The inner city schools are crumbling concrete nests of perversion and lawlessness. Kids carry knives and deal drugs while the feeble faculty fall apart, turn to drink, or turn a blind eye. Feral monsters in torn clothes roam the halls; rulers of the fallen kingdom of academia. This is where weak-kneed liberalism, left-wing learning and the kind word in place of the hard fist get you: a violent hellish maelstrom only the force of a quiet white man pushed too damn far can tame. Yes, Class of 1984 is the kind of movie that makes rightwingers spaff so hard and so often that by the time the credits roll only dust is puffing out. But by the time the put upon teacher is putting the buzzsaw to bloody good use in the woodwork room, effete liberal cheesecakes will also be readjusting their tortoiseshell glasses and getting sweaty under their white collars. Something for everyone, like I said.

There’s little point unfolding the plot of Class of 1984 since it’s familiar stuff, but it is very well done stuff. It certainly delivers the expected multiple frissons as Andrew Norris (Perry King) finds every humane alternative barred to him as he is remorselessly forced down the rat run built from liberal society’s failure to face his inner beast. And there is a lovely build to the finale; in which the hopes and dreams of the normal students, in the form of a concert, is contrasted with the ultra-violent theatre of vengeance unfolding in the corridors beyond. For a movie aimed squarely at the amygdala Class of 1984 is surprisingly wittily and smartly written. it is also surprisingly wittily and smartly acted. Perry King is ridiculously chiselled of chin, but elicits much sympathy as his flailing increases, and you feel a sense of both triumph and loss as he finally grasps the nettle of his inner ferocity. Merrie Lynn Ross has little do as the sacrificial wife, Diane, but she effectively provides the foil of the sheltered person who doesn’t understand how bad things are in the real world. Unfortunately, in a very, very, (very) tough to watch scene, the bad things finally become impossible for her to ignore. The actual class are pretty great too. Really horrible, each and every one of the scrofulous, disrespectful little shits. Special mention, though, for Timothy Van Patten as the sociopathic ringleader, Peter Stegman. A truly nasty piece of work who plays the system and his single mother with even more finesse than the piano he unexpectedly excels at.

(The kids’ convincingly unhinged viciousness is vital since you are supposed to cheer as they fall before the force they have unleashed, a force more dangerous than nuclear fire; the angry white man pushed too far. And you will holler as they drop, because the young cast have done their awful work well. Mind you, you are only able to applaud their painful demises since they all look to be in their mid-20s. Had they actually looked like the teenagers they represent the whole thing would have been too unpleasant for anybody, well, anybody not in the NRA. Movies like this can’t get too near the knuckle; it’s part of the unspoken arrangement with the audience.)

But, unpopular news as it may be, not all the kids are shits. Future star Michael J. Fox plays the thankless role of Arthur, The Good Student, complete with puppy fat. Together with Erin Flannery’s Deneen he represents the kids who get left behind but just might make it. Bit of optimism there, snuck in amongst the eruptions of violence. But… Roddy McDowall! Dear, sweet, Roddy McDowall is a revelation. His slightly theatrical aspect is just spot on for Terry Corrigan, the teacher ground down to a desperate, alcoholic wreck, who cracks in a different way to Norris. His heart-breaking descent, together with Fox and Flannery’s kids are the secret heart of the movie. Class of 1984 flirts hot and heavy with nihilism, but is brave enough to finally put out for humanity. All the sturm und drang pandering to the basest emotions is camouflage for a small sliver of optimism. Which isn’t half bad for what’s basically Straw Dogs (1971) set in a 1980s American inner city high school. But, Christ, that Roddy McDowall. Respect is due, sir. As if kids today even know what respect is. The little shits.

#Class of 1984 #Movies #Exploitation #Science Fiction #Revenge #Mark L Lester #Tom Holland #Perry King #Merrie Lynn Ross #Timothy Van Patten #Michael J Fox #Erin Flannery #Roddy McDowall #1982 #The 1980s

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postpunkpontypandyphantomthief · 5 years

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My letter

(Note: I’m aware I can’t personally directly send this to him, but I still felt like sharing this with you, my dear comrades, I was feeling really rubbish yesterday but after typing out all of this I felt a lot better, a lot of the thoughts in this letter are what has been buried under the subtext of some of my poems and that one writing piece I did, some of the topics discussed reference mental health, personal aspects of my life and spirituality so TRIGGER WARNING!..you may keep reading)

Dear Doctor Rik Mayall

Hello!,

I’m Kelsey, I’m a huge fan of your work, old and new, a 17 soon to be 18 year old from Northern Ireland I, unfortunately, wasn’t around to see your Bottom stage shows when they came to Belfast, I was too little at the time.

I did know some of your work though, that short-lived King Arthur cartoon was a show I’d frequently watch, and I remember when you’d voice the Andrex puppy and narrate who let the dogs out!

In later years I’d eventually watch that Young ones show you did, I fell in love with that show, your character too, that show helped me at a time after I finished secondary school when I was feeling really depressed because of drama going on with someone who used to be my so-called friend who I had learned later was manipulating me.

Your show made me realise a lot about myself and the world around me, as someone raised tory you helped me express the true socialist and anarchist views that I wanted to show, I’m now the me I always wanted to be,I’ve met a lot of my new mates the ones in my college and the ones off the internet because of you, because of either them and I mutually liking one of your shows or me introducing them to your shows and them enjoying it.

I used to study drama as you did, but then I had to study media instead, my dance instructor really tainted my confidence, however, I did get a good grade in LAMDA, the drama school that Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson went to, I just did the exam though,I still love drama and I write poetry (like your character did) and my own comedy monologues while it took time to realise I lowkey wanted to be a comedian as well as an actor and artist,but I used to think I wasn’t capable enough, but I’ve written 7 monologues since last summer up to now and I’m quite proud of my progress.

My media course is going well too, I’ve often referenced you in some of my sources for projects like my Moving Image class and one time we had to pitch a film idea and poster, so I chose that Drop Dead Fred film, because it’s one of my favourite films of all time and I felt like the only reason it didn’t get the proper praise it deserved at the time was due to bad marketing.

Outside of that, times have been less than stellar, a bloke last October manipulated me, I just wanted to be friends with him, but he ended up being very mentally abusive,I have Autism so sometimes I hyper fixate *gush* about my interests too intensely,and sometimes I overshare and make weird pop culture references only a few people get,it’s ok at times but other times it can weird people out and it makes me seem annoying to others when I don’t intend to be.

That and my childhood was quite lonely, and often I get traumatic flashbacks from old and modern incidents, and some of the flashbacks are made up and create “intrusive thoughts in my mind, I hate that, I haven’t had my other issues diagnosed, because I’m too busy to find therapy, my country has a backwards mental health system, and some people in my life don’t completely understand the issues I go through.

You and other icons in my life, help encourage me to keep going through the tough times and I’ve been able to help others going through similar problems too, I am so thankful for my friends and I’m so thankful for your presence in my life.

Barbara is a very lucky woman and so was Lise when you were with her and your work has heavily inspired my own.

I feel like whenever I’m acting or when I watch you acting, I see a spiritual philosophical wall beside us, I’ve read and watched all your interviews, most of your tv and filmography and your book is fantastic.

I feel like our personalities are similar, we are both kind, but cynical, we have our cold moments and times when we just want to be cuddly teddy bears, we love audiences but we’re also shy and sometimes timid,I can’t list all the traits here basically I can go from entranced and hyper-fixated to Pessimistic and Quiet and Timid to Mellow and Loud to dazed, relaxed and happy. Quite a mix of traits, in the past I was an ignorant coward, now though I’ve learned from that and I’ve grown a lot as a person literally and figuratively.

I have taken your mantras to heart, after I got kicked out of my old performing arts course I reenacted your Theatre monologue and posted it on the internet, It got lots of positive feedback not too long after that I continued the poetry,eventually the monologues and in between I got my first job as an assistant stage manager on a local theatre production of West Side Story.

I have a lot in common with both you and your characters,well mainly the positive traits, the negative traits I try to work on, even through our appearances, people have said I look like you, that has helped me accept myself, my identity and my own appearance, I’m far from a portrait but if I’m compared to you then I’m also very gorgeous,I also sort of scrapped through my GCSE’s, technically some of them were BTEC’s, they’re like extension course things, but then some of them I was average at anyway and the performing arts course didn’t let me show my full potential while there I mainly did villain and minor character roles. I shouldn’t be defined by a piece of paper, I should be defined by who I am, a wonderful, creative, smart, kind and beautiful person...like you.

Some of the “poems” I’ve made were tributes to you, and how while yes you had your flaws too, you to me are the perfect person, never before have I been so inspired or so connected to someone who wasn’t a Japanese cartoon (apologies, if that sounds odd, while I liked celebrities not many of them were relatable to me)

I even sometimes dream about you, I dream about being apart of the comic strip, I dream about performing alongside you, I dream about simply hanging out with you, going to pubs, Bowie concerts and that Groucho club you were banned from.

While there were some moments in my life, that I can’t remove or were learning curves for me, to have been around at the time, would’ve been interesting, yeah there’s the political rubbish but that hasn’t changed in the 2010s either, we still have Thatcher but her name is Teresa now, and a talking orange called Donald Trump is ruling America but he’s also literally just a white blonde Hitler.

I understand there are time rifts and time zone differences in the universes around us, but I do really wish I could’ve met you in person, sometimes the lucid dreams give a similar experience except you in those is like an animated hologram,I often try to “spiritually communicate” with you,sometimes it works other times I just end up talking to an imaginary clone of you,I can tell because they look like how you did in the 90s, and not the chill grey-haired grandpa you are now, sometimes I see your real self in those dreams, other times I only hear your voice.

I want to carry on the legacy, I don’t just want to spread my own ideas while teaching the world about your masterpieces, I want to spread the love, I want to remind the world to laugh at misery,I want to bring more light into where you left off,you aren’t dead,your just not physically with the world anymore, your mind, spirit and memory are still alive, in most people,your memory lives on

People still talk about you, I think about you, while the tories are still twats, the young revolution of the new generation is getting more attention.

I’m going to be one of the youths leading it, I’ll never lose my wisdom and you’ll always have a presence in my life and the world.

as long as I, your kids and all your fans try to retain your memory, you’ll never “die”.

After all, you're the Rik Mayall, are you going to let God prevent you from occasionally visiting earth, visiting your family and friends? Of course not, I’m sure they miss you very much, and I’m sure Ade is sorry about that drama he caused about the Bottom spin-off.

Making the universe more bright and colourful

Lots of love as a fellow fan, performer and admirer but also as someone who sees you as a philosophical figure

xoxo

Kelsey

a.ka

That twit on earth from Northern Ireland who will never stop thinking about you

You utter pan-global phenomenon

I could only be talking about the one, the only, the Doctor Rik Mayall~

#british comedy #mysticism #lucid dreaming #vent #personal #spiritual #philosophy

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differentkindapiratemovies-blog · 5 years

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Narrative Theory Essay

Discussing the perceived oversaturation of narrative archetypes in modern media with reference to Joseph Campbell’s monomyth theory.

“As the old saying goes, there’s nothing new under the sun. For fans of movies and TV, that means that every story that can be told already has been. But sometimes, the movies that seem to be retelling a well-known story TOO closely are singled out, accused of being a ripoff, copycat, or unoriginal. There's no more famous (or successful) example than James Cameron’s Avatar: a story of a human being welcomed into a native tribe, who betrays their trust, but eventually saves the day by fighting on the good side in the end. As soon as the movie hit theaters, people dismissed the billion-dollar blockbuster as a ripoff of Fern Gully, or even Pocahontas before it. The truth is... it’s telling the same story told by dozens, even hundreds of famous films. But that’s not a reason to attack it, or any other re-skinned movie myth.”

It’s common to have the notion after coming out of a movie theatre that the experience was strikingly similar to the previous time you went. There is a common thread line throughout all of movie and storytelling history. Since the dawn of man, the human race has used narratives and stories to communicate ideas and emotions with each other - usually either trying to capture a part of history or with the purpose of fictional entertainment value. However, primarily I believe narratives are there for communication, being carefully crafted by storytellers of all different generations. Cave men used to draw on the walls of their caves and their fire would illuminate the images, causing them to flicker back and forth to create the earliest animation and stories recorded. Some of the most prominent fictional stories ever created, including religious texts such as the Bible, are stories we haven’t stopped recreating in two thousand years. I refuse to believe that it is the only formula that works despite being undoubtedly effective. Some might think of it as a stale structure.

Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey, first theorised in Hero Of A Thousand Faces, and Tzvetan Todorov’s structure of narrative are commonly combined to create a story that seems to resonate with the majority of an audience and seemingly never ceases to fail. Movies such as The Matrix and Star Wars use both these theories in order to make up a successful story. (Although debatably the whole original trilogy acts as the entire journey seeing as Luke Skywalker, the main character, is at his lowest in the finale of the second movie resulting in a pitfall ending). George Lucas, the creator and director of the first Star Wars film, considered Joseph Campbell to be his friend and mentor.

“My last mentor was Joe... who asked a lot of the interesting questions and exposed me to a lot of things that made me very interested, a lot more in the cosmic questions and the mystery… and I've been interested in those all my life but I hadn’t focused it the way I have until I had got to be good friends with Joe.”

George goes on to say he took the mythological and religious ideas behind narratives and simplified them for a modern audience. Perhaps it would be beneficial to drop religion altogether when writing stories for the modern and less religious generation.

The Dragon Quest video game series also follows these rules with the main character literally referred to as “The Hero”. The journey of a character rising up, facing hardships, being at their lowest then being born again for their worlds to be restored to equilibrium is something I think people either feel like they can relate to or, probably closer to the truth, is fantasised about and idealised. Everyone would like to be hero in the story, overcoming their problems and saving the world. Joseph Campbell says this in his book Hero With A Thousand Faces.

“The agony of breaking through personal limitations is the agony of spiritual growth. Art, literature, myth and cult, philosophy, and ascetic disciplines are instruments to help the individual past his limiting horizons into spheres of ever-expanding realisation. As he crosses threshold after threshold, conquering dragon after dragon, the stature of the divinity that he summons to his highest wish increases, until it subsumes the cosmos. Finally, the mind breaks the bounding sphere of the cosmos to a realisation transcending all experiences of form - all symbolisations, all divinities: a realisation of the ineluctable void.”

There’s something gripping about watching this structure play out, and it is engaging for an audience - but they’ve seen it thousands and thousands of times before. As much as I appreciate movies that put a creative spin on the traditional structure of narrative, I really respect and love movies that go against the curve. Obviously this happens quite frequently but probably not at your local Odeon cinema - mainstream media is often streamlined for the purpose of easy consumption. For example, I enjoy films from the Marvel universe, but all too often they all play out in the same format. You could argue that companies have monopolised certain narrative structures and have a tendency to recycle them.

However, films like Richard Linklater’s 1991 day-in-the-life-of debut Slacker go against traditional “hero journeys” and plot point one/plot point two narratives, instead working like a series of loosely connected vignettes; in each scene we spend time with a different character and closely follow events occurring in their lives in real time. There’s no arcs, no beginning, middle or end. No rebirth, just a movie about strange characters hanging out in Austin, Texas, on a sunny day. It’s not an art film or particularly experimental. It’s just that, well, nothing happens. It’s an accurate depiction of reality. It's what real life actually is. I don’t wake up every day and go through a hero’s journey. We may develop as people and these situations can occur, but nine out of ten times life just isn’t like that. We wake up and things stay the same and in life, at moments when the credits are supposed to roll after we’ve achieved something, after we’ve overcome something, it just kind of keeps going. Life moves on and our “arcs” and problems to overcome reset, or new ones appear like a constantly stream of wildly uneventful sequels. New problems come up and sometimes they’re never solved and sometimes people don’t change. In my short film “Campussies!” I was really interested in trying to capture a kind of nothing day and interactions with strange people - not really making anything particularly interesting or high tension. The short was also influenced by Linklaters’ other seminal film Dazed and Confused, however that follows a slightly more traditional take on story telling, depicting a character develop throughout the movie. Jim Jarmusch is another director who often uses abrupt endings and whole scenes that literally stop moving forward. A lot of people say there’s almost an amateurish fine line however I believe this to be completely intentional.

In my narrative-based website I recreated the story of Homer’s Odyssey, a very classic tale that has been recreated and re-skinned many times over many years. Through the website, I make you, the person, interact with the story and go on the hero’s journey by yourself. There is only one correct path however the “reincarnation” implies you are constantly reborn until you get it right. Little is told about the situation in my narrative purposely, so that you can project what you would like onto it. It’s about a person, you, traveling from somewhere dangerous, perhaps enemy territory of some kind, and getting back home safely, set in a nonspecific period of time. However the roads are dangerous - filled with sword wielding enemies and no consistent place to be safe from the elements.

There’s other forms of narratives we’re told in between the lines in media such as what we’re told about certain people; these are pervasive narratives. On television we are exposed to poverty porn, depicting that all low income people are a certain way - intended to give the viewer a sense of superiority. In eighties movies we’re told that punks are ruffians and troublemakers. There’s an endless list of mainstream movies from that period showcasing punks as “bad guys”, such as The Terminator (a movie chock full of visual cues) and The Road Warrior (Mad Max 2). Of course there were movies made with more of a punk rock sensibility, such as Return Of The Living Dead, and exploitation movies of the time in which punks were portrayed as the “good guys”. This was most likely due to the media’s take on punks during the movement in the late seventies. The papers themselves named these angry kids “punks” and they wore it as a badge of honour in response to the criticism - that they were a bunch of violent thugs who held switchblades, beat you up and stole your lunch money. Their anti-establishment ways often had them the basis for dystopian movies. In actuality, it wasn’t really like that at all and personally I would feel safer if I saw a gang of whatever the modern day equivalent of punks are. Although I would agree with the anti-establishment sensibilities, most aren’t true anarchists. They’re not gonna mug you.

Again, another example of pervasive narrative we are consistently exposed to is the connotation between women and make up. Media tells us that it is the norm and it’s heavily tied to what is considered the standard of beauty for women. However, anyone of any gender can choose whether or not to wear make up. In my photography piece “Three Studies of a Woman in the Sun” I photographed my subject both wearing make up and without, one subverting the expectations of a photographed woman in modern media and one showing how she often feels comfortable. I often wonder why women choose to wear make up and why it improves their confidence. Do they truly believe that it makes them feel more in touch with their identity, or perhaps we live in a misinformed society in which it is more acceptable for one gender to present themselves a certain way, when in reality it doesn’t really matter and there’s not much of a difference. John Berger had this to say about the representation of women and their identity in the media.

“A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself. Whilst she is walking across a room or whilst she is weeping at the death of her father, she can scarcely avoid envisaging herself walking or weeping. From earliest childhood she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually. And so she comes to consider the surveyor and the surveyed within her as the two constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a woman. She has to survey everything she is and everything she does because how she appears to men, is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the success of her life. Her own sense of being in herself is supplanted by a sense of being appreciated as herself by another....

One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object -- and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.”

My three portraits as part of my DCMP Photography brief are of my friend and artist Katie. Shot on a Canon, I wanted to capture her identity through three images. The middle image you see in the three panels on my blog is her in a natural environment and utterly neutral. That one is relatively light in tone due to the summers day behind her, however she's looking off and something implies it’s more melancholy than the photo lets on. Perhaps the uplifting summer isn’t enough to hold her inner more negative emotions, or that maybe the summer is no longer a good thing in light of the summer getting hotter and hotter each year. Maybe this isn’t a summer of celebration, but one of the end of the world. The bottom one is a real captured moment of her closing her eyes perhaps to imply her shyness in an industrial area, somewhere I often find comfort due to high containers and is generally aesthetically pleasing to me almost because of how not pleasing it is. The top one is how Katie would usually be and dress in her own environment, the lighting highlighting how she expresses herself through her own image. I like how the darkness is almost bleeding in around the edges of the photograph. I experimented with lighting a lot with this one and took several different photos that were the contender for the third portrait. Here, now she is herself, she seems to project more confidence looking directly into the camera like this time the camera is invading HER space as opposed to the other ones where she’s almost a part of the scenery. Now she’s out of the sun, she is the one who is shining. Notice how she also seems to fill up the frame the more comfortable she gets.

Unseen stories hide in advertising and movie posters. In these places you will find signs that speak to us sub-consciously. The movie posters for most horror movies will always use the colour red. Why? Our brain tells us when we see red that there’s danger and that the film will most likely contain plenty of blood. We understand what genre the movie is without even being told so due to semiotics. This can be seen on the movie poster for Shaun of the Dead where the doors our main character is standing behind are red, with white text to pop and in other iterations red text. You see he is surrounded by zombies, hoarded by them, most likely foreshadowing to what the movie is going entail. This is the same in food advertisements. If you watch a television ad about food the colours and aesthetics used often will tell you about the product. Most of the time, fruits and vegetables will be wet, to make them seem fresh and often whoever is starring in the ad or the dialect of the voiceover is who that product is for. If there is a voiceover speaking in a cockney accent then it’s marketed toward the working class, but it’s all just an illusion using stereotypes to manipulate the sub-conscious and the masses into relating to it. It does this all without ever actually telling us.

I wrote a short science fiction script called “The Great Hydration War” and shot a scene from it. In this scene, I did my best to make every shot tell us something. I played around a lot with power dynamic and it’s constantly changing using nothing but visual clues. When our main character thinks they are in control, the camera angle is low, making them seem large and powerful, but when the villain gets the upper hand you’ll see that they have the power. When they are both pointing guns at each other you’ll see that they’re both at the same level and share the power of the scene because it could go either way. Jazoor, the main character from the script who is from outer space, sees a figure after returning to Earth for the first time in years. Unsure of who it is, we see them in a wide shot, impersonal and unidentified. But when they stand up and Jazoor realises that it’s her twin from back when she grew up on the now ancient Earth. “It’s you!” Jazoor exclaims. With what she knows she gains the power to deal with the situation. She’s got this. However she’s flooded with doubt; “You sure?” Says the Dryborg, an evil futurist cyborg whose one weakness is water. The camera swoops up, leaving the character feeling vulnerable with no idea what kind of situation this is now. Then she brings up her gun, bringing the power back to her. I did this throughout the entire scene and tried my best to make sure I was expressing the characters feelings and positions in the scene through the camera angles even though obviously it’s quite a non-sensical script and a mildly ridiculous scene. I thought about the lighting, as the scene was based on an alternate reality Earth in the past where the sun is blue so I made sure all of the scenery were glowing in this blue light which I managed to do in post-production. The costumes were designed by myself and my friend who played the characters. I wanted something science fiction-esque, but obviously I had no budget and not a lot of time, so I decided to try to take the comedic route and rely on it having more charm than actually trying to make the audience believe what was going on. The scene is a pivotal part of the larger structure and story that I had written, however the storyboards for the scene were in fact drawn before I wrote it.

Even when I wrote the script I realised I sub-consciously loosely followed the hero’s journey, most likely because I take so much inspiration from movies. Even when writing, I instinctually had thoughts like “yes, now this kind of scene has to happen”. It was very condensed but it’s still there. We begin the story introducing our hero Jazoor, she continues to go on a journey across the universe before falling and being at her lowest in the third act before facing off her demon she’s been fearing the whole film. She overcomes the Dryborg but not in the way she probably thought. However, I did forget to film the character limping throughout the scene.

Everything is a journey, our lives are one. They’re not always structured how we want them to be but they’re a journey. Every day when we wake up we begin a new micro journey, a new chapter in a much bigger story that is how we view our lives. Stories are almost telling us how to live and that what we’re doing is okay. In my opinion modern mainstream cinema is stale, and I find it hard to believe that in just over a hundred years of film (and a few thousand for storytelling as a visual medium), storytelling has already dried up of all its originality and that we just keep repeating ourselves. Perhaps it's time we took a look at how we structure and create our characters and stories and try to make something more relevant and authentic. Stories reinforce our sub conscious beliefs behind our morals, between good and bad. People don’t want to be seen and thought of as the bad guy within society, hence why most stories are in fact about what we perceive as the “good guy”, the hero. I always find something to latch on to when enjoying a film, something to reassure me that I have my humanity or reassure me when I feel like I don’t have it - and that it’s okay if I don’t.

I don’t like to talk about the internet or politics in context of any work because I feel like those are things that have tainted some elements of different art forms. The only issue with making movies people can relate to is that also means you don’t want to offend anyone, which almost seems like an impossibility in recent years. Too much is focused on these subjects but perhaps that’s why people like movies. Social and political commentary have made many movies hits throughout all of time, but I believe a lot of the time story and characters are being sacrificed out of fear of offending or not being politically correct. It doesn’t seem to matter which stance you take within media, there will always be people that disagree. The internet has given everyone a loud voice and usually it's used for criticism. In terms of relating to a movie, I don’t think it should be a case of representation of sexual orientation or race, it should be about values and character - although I suppose it is human nature to want to relate to something or something who appears like us. Whatever the case, we need to relate to character as a person, and become engaged in the narrative. I think that is is why Campbells and Tzvetan’s theories and myths are continued to be used to this day, because they work.

I would personally love to see more change and experimentation in mainstream and modern cinema, and not to have to constantly and actively seek it out. Even recent movie posters are directly copying each other with the use of colour and framing, which directly relates to the signs we use to communicate information with an image. It would be refreshing to really open up the limitations and possibly of narratives - or in some cases close them off completely.

Bibliography

The Matrix. (1999). [video] Directed by L. Wachowski and L. Wachowski. United States: Warner Bros.

Star Wars. (1977). [video] Directed by G. Lucas. United States: 20th Century Fox.

Shaun of the Dead. (2004). [DVD] Directed by E. Wright. United Kingdom: Universal Pictures.

Slacker. (1991). [DVD] Directed by R. Linklater. United States: Orion Classics.

Dazed and Confused. (1993). [DVD] Directed by R. Linklater. United States: Gramercy Pictures.

The Terminator. (1984). [DVD] Directed by J. Cameron. United States: Orion Pictures.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. (2019). [DVD] Directed by G. Miller. Australia: Warner Bros.

The Return of the Living Dead. (1985). [DVD] Directed by D. O'Bannon. United States: Orion Pictures.

Campbell, J., 1949. The Hero With A Thousand Faces. 1st ed. United States: Pantheon Books.

Square Enix. 1986. Dragon Quest. Video Game. Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft.

Berger, J., 1972. Ways Of Seeing. 1st ed. United Kingdom. Penguin.

George Lucas. (1999). “George Lucas in Conversation With Bill Moyers”. Bill Moyers. George Lucas Tells Bill Moyers About the Mentors in His Career.

Dyce, A.D. 2016. How Every Blockbuster Movie Tells The Same Story. [Online]. [8 July 2019]. Available from: https://screenrant.com/how-all-movies-same-secret-truth/

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dramawithinme · 7 years

Text

Drama Journal

What we explore in year 12 Drama 2017 - Year 13 Drama 2019

8/29/2017 - 8/31/2017

We explored the introduction of the character: Bertozzo and thinking about how he is intending to show himself as a character to the audience, understanding that he has different goals such as trying to become friends with them, manipulate them, intimidate them, show them that he’s angry or trying to make them pity him…

I was the first one who performed, I used large and big movements. It was embarrassing for me since I was first... It was actually hard to perform since I have to focus on speaking/changing tone while acting out my body movements.

Here, we tried different body languages, pace, the tone of voice to change the intention of Bertozzi.

We also explored the spacing effect of the performance and we noticed how it affects the performance, the audience’s view and character relationship. It was an interesting process since we got to learn how to engage the audience.

But as we continued, we’d learnt how the use of space, levels and breaking the fourth wall works… It is all about staying in character as we interact with the audiences.

9/5/2017 -9/7/2017

Cailyn’s research is about Paris in 1968 and Vicky’s Anarchist research:

From research, the year 1968 was a difficult time for Dario Fo that I understand. There was a riot happening in Paris, France, spreading to Italy. Because of the political activism (an effort to promote political, economic and/or environmental ideas for improvement with the desire to make improvements with the society), the theatre was also affected and his dislike for the hypocrite governments increases. Not only was that in December 1969 there was a bomb in the centre of Milan. 16 people were killed and another 90 were injured. There was also a bomb nearby where the police blew it up rather than disarming it, causing the clue to also be blown away. This is where the Anarchist comes in and Giuseppe (Pino) Pinelli fell out of the 4th-floor window. But sadly, I only understand this through research. For improvement of the audience's understanding, I think that the there should be some introduction and explanation of the history so that the audiences would get the grasp of what had happened.

Ong did a presentation about the stage acting style of Dario Fo which linked with my topic and that is the Commedia Dell’Arte.

We talked about how we should add background information for the audiences that do not have any knowledge about the Anarchist so that they would understand what the story is about a lot better... We also talked about how we should put in little reference from the audience’s local area so that they can also relate to this play’s topic.

Continuing, we explored the style of Commedia Dell’Arte and we’d realized that each of the Accidental Death’s character can relate to some of the Commedia characters. We did a small workshop for Il Detore, Arlechino, El Capitano and Columbina so we merged the characters together, for example when Vicky and Ong tried to test out the movement of Columbina’s posture as Feletti. We understood that the play was supposed to be performed in a loud and large posture, movements, tone and actions that is extremely eye-catching.

The question of that day... As a director, how would you use Commedia Dell’Arte in the Accidental Death?

9/12/2017 - 9/14/2017

A monologue in chapter 10 to 14.

I would like the audiences to see him (the Maniac) as a mad, friendly, imaginative and an amazing person. If I was the director, I would use a lot of miming on the props; the telephone and the files, showing his imaginative side. I would make him break the fourth wall often; throwing the files out of the window but at the audiences as the maniac tell them sorry (breaking the fourth wall) as they were hit by the paper. It would be nice if the audiences feel the bond with the Maniac, either in a friendly or bittersweet way when he apologizes to them.

9/19/2017 - 9/21/2017

I’d learn this analytical technique of using TEAM:

Tension

Emotions

Atmosphere

Moment/Message

We’d explored the idea of what it is like to be a Theater director... And to do that we’ll have to pick out two scenes to explore its TEAM, we will have to direct and find a way for our cast to perform. I must say that this is a very difficult task for me since I dislike forcing people to do stuff and I am also scared that I will be judged for my idea... But I guess I just have to face my fear and work as hard as I can.

The first things I’ve learnt to do as a Director is that I will need to get my cast to understand the play, the scene and each character’s role, goals and personality so that they would know what to do and feel.

Me: Ending scene and the Interview scene

I’ve chosen the ending scene.

The 2nd scene that I’d chosen is the Interview scene.

10/03/2017 - 10/05/2017

We were exploring the idea of stage design. This will involve the use of stage props, decoration and lighting to give the right atmosphere for the audiences to understand. I also noticed how staging can impact the time and the atmosphere; having it play a big part in the play.

We were also exploring the Theatre Context, Presenting Theatre and the Theatre Process within the three days. I’ve learnt about the word vignette in a playscript; about the different chunk of parts in a play... For example, Love and Information contain a large amount of vignette instead of just one plot. But the vignette links!

10/10/2017 - 10/12/2017

Right now we’re looking at the Theme of the play text: Love and Information. On the 10th of October, we were discussing on how to plan and explore the play text. We were looking back at how we were exploring the stage design; how we use the sense of what’s going on within the stage while using questions like: What does the play smell like? What do you think it’ll taste like? What is around you? Just something out of this line...

The theme of Love: How have our attitude to love and changed/our behaviour in love and relationship changed in the last 2012.

Choose 2 vignettes and explore the scene - I’m doing scene 7.

I’ve found out about a French word: Vignette and how it means a chunk of stuff.

We learn about how titles can greatly impact what the scene is about. To let the audiences know about the title, we can use placards, use the narrator and maybe add powerpoints... Though, the title doesn’t always need to be told if the scenes are clearly performed. We were also talking about stage design and imagine the stage/place by using the 5-6 senses and question yourself why. We found out about how vague, unclear and versatile the play is; you can perform the scenes by using improvisation and perform in it many different kinds of ways.

To perform you’ll have to open to interpretation and think about...

The different performance styles: Comical, realism, unnaturalistic...

The theme of the play...

The relationship of the characters...

And to do this, we can do a workshop e.g. a character workshop, a scene workshop... As for a character workshop, we can work on devising and stay in character as we do so...We were also looking at a style called the Movement Sequence. We were exploring the style by having each character move in pattern as if it’s a Dance move. As we do so, we were doing it with music (it’s easier to do since there’s a beat to it), letting other say the part for you (easier to focus on the performance but it doesn’t fit the situation) and you saying the part for yourself (best option, it’s easier to reveal emotions, but harder to perform since you cannot focus on one thing. Though to speak, the attention will be taken off from the body language but to the expression and voice). The Movement Sequence let us explore body language and how movements and gesture can show feelings, emotions and tension. Movement Sequence is “fun to watch, but hard to understand.”Here’s the question of the day: When you’re exploring Love and Information in an unnaturalistic style, does it fit? Is it effective? Does it reveal new things? If yes, then what?

11/07/2017 - 11/09/2017

Within this week, we experiment on different scenes in the playtext of Love and Information.

What I’ve learnt from Ong’s directing:

The actors/actress should also know and understand the scene. We do this by reading and summarise everything. We explored Flashback; using this way of letting 2 people speak as the other 2 act and try to deliver the meaning through action (plus moving montage), acting to what the 2 speakers are saying. We want to make it seems like a dance.

Letting the audiences see the actors moving props makes the scene seems too clunky and distracting, leading to the atmosphere being destroyed.

We were also talking about how we want to use lighting to represent different places. E.g. Green light to show river...

The colour of light will change in different scenes.

Music was added in the play.

In Vicky’s directing:

Act as if something had happened before.

Rely on tone/voice and facial expressions.

Adding sub characters to build up the scene.

Trying out different situation...

In Caitlin’s directing:

Staging plays a big part as we perform.

We can use the projector which is similar to lighting; it changing the scene and giving out atmosphere.

Light focus on character to show state or focus. In the play, light shining on a character shows that she is fully awake. And another character’s light will be dim to show that his/her mind is asleep.

In my own directing:

Trying out immersive approach/theatre.I want to show a bond but the characters are too far apart from each other which destroyed my goal. Change staging to In-the-round. Walking around the audiences in the dark; feel what the autistic kid feels. Trying out: having the character to not move which doesn’t change anything.

Everything changed when we gather the bully up and it finally shows the bonds and increases the aggression.

The autistic kid will just sit on the ground which shows the level of who is in control and that is the bullies.

11/14/2017 - 11/16/2017

This week we explore the Director Journal's questions and how to write it.

11/21/2017 - 11/23/2017

In the future for IB research presentation, the goal of writing a good presentation, we will need to explore the different assessment criteria... Keep in note that the quality of the presentation does not matter. It only matters when you...

A = The theatre in context: The tradition and culture.

Show your good research and understanding of the theatre tradition. You will need to explain and describe the theatre tradition by adding appropriate sources and put the information into good context.

B = Theatre process: Practical research and approach to application.

This is the part where so many other IB students lost points on and it’s one of the easiest bit to do. So what we have to do here is to just describe “HOW AND WHY” you are doing or chose this.

C = Presenting theatre: This does not involve what I told you (future me) that the quality of the presentation doesn’t matter. This meant that you need to use your tone and body to demonstrate what is going on/

D = Theatre in context: The Learner

This, you will need to compare the chosen theatre tradition with a different one. You would also need to talk about the impact of this theatre tradition to yourself and what it made you think.

WORK HARD AND GO TO YOUR DREAM UNIVERSITY, PANCHIWA :) !!

Now, after looking at the research presentation, we were looking at how plays were performed, designed and presented back 400 years ago in old England.

I found out that when an actor receives a role, they will just be given a role of paper.

Back then there is no director in the old days and that they have very little time to do the stage and memorise everything.

Talking about staging and how you’re able to engage the audiences.

Endon stage = You can only engage the audience by looking at one direction.

Thrust stage = There are three directions that the actor can face. It’s easier to engage. More of a storytelling way.

Elizebethan theatre - looking at the camera does break the fourth wall but it does not break the emotion that is displayed.

11/29/2017 & 11/30/2017

Secondary sources about costumes:

To know the cultural background.

To show the social context; the status, ranking and etc...

Costumes is a conventional design not performance design.

Reconstruction of what they used to have.

To look at what they have then.

“Martin White” research on the reconstruction of an indoor theatre + lighting.

Costume define a class.

It affects the acting.

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movietvtechgeeks · 7 years

Photo

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/cate-blanchetts-manifesto-new-radical-burning-sands-intensify-day-6-sundance/

Cate Blanchett's 'Manifesto,' 'New Radical,' 'Burning Sands' intensify day 6 Sundance

The word ‘truth’ has suddenly taken on a new meaning in today’s America, and this has made many of the films shown at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival feel very timely. Of course, they were filmed before President Donald Trump brought in ‘fake news’ and ‘alternate facts,’ but the choices made for screening feel so on track with today, nonetheless.

Al Gore couldn’t have timed his sequel to An Inconvenient Truth better now that we have a president who feels that climate change is a hoax created by China and Adama Bhala Lough’s The New Radical hits the mark with the internet becoming such a political minefield. Day 6 at Sundance continues to bring out some great and conversation worthy films.

MANIFESTO

In her latest film, Cate Blanchett plays a choreographer. And also a puppeteer. And also a schoolteacher, a scientist, a newscaster, a punk rocker, a day trader — and shall we go on? Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto demands 13 different parts from virtuoso Blanchett, who takes on different accents, costumes, and makeup for each. It’s a remarkable feat of acting, but equally remarkable is the text that she’s serving. Each of the 13 characters represents and recites a distinct and canny collage of 20th-century art manifestos, from pop art to Fluxus, Dadaism to film, and each episode is set against a unique and provocative Berlin environment. After appearing as an art installation, most recently at the Armory in New York City, Rosefeldt refashioned the project as a feature film, which debuted at the Festival on Monday afternoon at the Library Theatre.

“I didn’t cast Cate Blanchett for this project,” Rosefeldt said during the post-screening Q&A. “We ran into each other six years ago at an art opening of my work, and we started to talk. She said, ‘Why don’t we do something together?’ You can imagine my reaction. It took me another two and a half years until we finally started to talk about Manifesto. The only thing I told Cate is that she would do many characters. We bargained — she said, ‘Can we do six or seven?’ And I said, ‘Can you do twenty?’ We ended up with thirteen. We had two weeks to shoot this — it was a fantastic trip. And now I believe she could do Mike Tyson.”

Rosefeldt spoke of the verve and passion of the manifestos chosen for the script and offered up an interesting context for texts from artists and thinkers such as John Reed, Dziga Vertov, Paul Eluard, André Breton, and Lars von Trier. “I’m an artist myself, and I know that what we say, we don’t always mean it that seriously,” he said. “Keep in mind that these texts were written when the artists had hardly left their parents’ house — they were 21, 22. And at that time of your life, you’re very insecure. You’re trying to tell yourself who you are and what you stand for. And because you’re insecure you shout very loudly, and with all this anger. You pretend to have a lot of security, but you actually don’t.”

The director talked about the various ways in which he matched text with character and location. Sometimes it was about finding a contemporary analogue — the hyperspeed of online trading with futurism, for example. And sometimes it was pairing opposites, with a traditional nuclear family reciting Claes Oldenburg’s funny and profane “I Am for an Art …” at dinnertime prayer. “You put two elements together that aren’t necessarily friends and then you see what the chemistry does,” he said. Rosefeldt admitted that of all of the texts, he felt most closely aligned with Jim Jarmusch’s ironically titled “Golden Rules of Filmmaking.” Jarmusch’s slogan “Nothing Is Original,” as well as the notion that all art borrows from other art, is a useful guide to “the basic spirit of the entire thing,” he said of Manifesto, “and of life itself.”

THE NEW RADICAL: EXPLORING THE WORLD OF INTERNET ANARCHISTS

As could be expected, one of the most incendiary films of the Festival made for a fascinating piece of post-screening theater. U.S. Documentary Competition candidate The New Radical surveys a new generation of internet vanguards, particularly the savvy, now-28 year-old provocateur Cody Wilson, notorious for making plans for “The Liberator” 3D printable gun available for download, as well as for co-founding Dark Wallet, a bank-skirting Bitcoin app that allows users to make transactions out of sight.

After the screening, director Adam Bhala Lough was joined by co-editor Alex Lee Moyer and Cody Wilson himself, who effortlessly seized the spotlight and expounded upon views of the internet that alternated between idealistic and apocalyptic. After bizarrely fielding questions about his favorite books and recommended places to visit in the Washington, D.C., area, he was finally outright asked what he’s trying to accomplish with his government-goading libertarian initiatives.

“With 3D-printed guns, we really believe that the internet means that one day you’re going to be able to download a gun,” he said. “It was like a proof of concept. So the materials are inadequate — so what? Give us a little time. I never wanted to be just the guy that put the gun online; I just believe in this alternative method of politics.

I believe that in order to create right now we must destroy.”

Lough said it’s a question he posed many, many times throughout the making of the film. “What’s the end goal? They were never able to succinctly illustrate it for me,” he said, which he attributed to the youth of Wilson and his associates. “When we started, Cody was like 24. He’s still figuring his shit out. So to a certain degree, he created this monster, The Liberator specifically, and had to figure out along the way, what is the goal?”

Wilson was asked a series of hypothetical questions, such as his comfort with disseminating nuclear plans and making guns downloadable for children, each resulting in a kind of Socratic exchange regarding access, freedom, and inevitability.

“Isn’t it the purpose of government to protect its citizens?” one woman from the audience asked.

“I think the purpose of this government is to secure the liberties of those governed,” Wilson responded.

“That sounds the same to me,” the woman said.

“We can disagree,” he said.

“You have to stick to your principles,” Lough said. “Freedom of information, free speech, is so vital that in this case, no matter how ugly it sounds — and I don’t want my kids going onto the Internet printing guns, and I won’t let them — but I still think we need the right to be able to make those choices for ourselves. I’ll stand by that, and I stood by that in making this film.”

REBEL IN THE RYE: INSIDE THE LIFE OF J.D. SALINGER

The story of how mythic writer J. D. Salinger came to create The Catcher in the Rye, considered by many to be the great American novel, gets a glossy cinematic telling in Rebel in the Rye, the feature debut from Danny Strong. The director-screenwriter draws parallels between Salinger’s life and how it shaped the creation of Holden Caulfield, his iconic outspoken character who continues to cast his spell on readers to this day.

We’re introduced to Jerome David Salinger (Nicholas Hoult) as a young man at odds with his privileged life in New York City. Despite pressure from his father (Victor Garber) to go into the family business and become “the king of bacon,” his mother (Hope Davis) is more sympathetic to nurturing her son’s burgeoning writing talent. Jerry, as he’s called, enrolls in a writing program at Columbia University, where his smart mouth draws both the ire and admiration of instructor Whit Burnett (Kevin Spacey, wringing every ounce of humor, and later pathos, he can find in the character). Burnett, the editor of Story magazine, which launched many iconic 20th-century writers, becomes a mentor to Salinger and encourages him to create a novel around Holden Caulfield, a character in one of his unpublished short stories.

Before this can happen, Salinger is sent to Europe to fight during World War II. He’s deeply affect by the atrocities he witnesses there and returns to the states at the end of the war with PTSD, which makes simple social activities a challenge for the war vet. Salinger funnels all of his frustrations with life and love into the creation of Caulfield, a new protagonist for post-war America. When Catcher is published, it becomes a sensation and Salinger’s life becomes challenging.

Since Salinger became perhaps literature’s most notorious recluse, Hoult doesn’t have to compete with video memories of the author. The photogenic actor offers a compelling turn that helps anchor the movie and hold viewer interest even when the film falls prey to some biopic conventions.

During the post-screening Q&A, Hoult told the audience he didn’t know much about Salinger prior to the project. “But speaking with Danny and reading his script, I was blown away by everything he experienced and the work he created,” he shared. “Reading more about it, I was blown away by how autobiographical his work was when you line it up with his life.”

Strong said he wanted to make this film partly because he was intrigued by the fact that Salinger “created a masterpiece that changed the world” out of the most extreme trauma a person could suffer: fighting in World War II and witnessing the atrocities of the Holocaust.

If you’re a Salinger fan, take note that this film is likely as close as you’ll ever get to seeing Caulfield on screen. Salinger thought his writing was unfilmable, and he was likely correct. An early short story was turned into a teary Susan Hayward melodrama that the writer reportedly loathed.

BURNING SANDS: FRATERNITY PLEDGING COMES AT A HIGH COST

A group of students at a historically black university learn that pledging a fraternity comes at too high a cost in Burning Sands, from new director Gerard McMurray. With a producing credit on the 2013 Sundance Film Festival breakout Fruitvale Station, McMurray makes his feature directorial debut with a screenplay he co-wrote with Christine Berg, and he dives right into the vicious hazing rituals during the opening scenes.

At fictional Frederick Douglass University, freshman Zurich (charismatic newcomer Trevor Jackson) has the respect of his teachers, including Professor Hughes (Alfre Woodard, in basically a cameo), but his studies and his relationship with his girlfriend (Imani Hakim) take a hit after he pledges Lambda Phi. It’s the fraternity his father had sought to join as a student before dropping out before Hell Week, so Z’s determination to succeed is strong enough to endure an almost incapacitating injury and make it through Hell Week at any cost.

If you’ve seen other fraternity-set dramas, such as last year’s much more brutal Goat, you can likely guess where this will go. Still, McMurray’s direction builds sufficient tension and he injects welcome comedic relief, particularly with the introduction of female characters.

Speaking at the Q&A that followed the premiere, McMurray revealed he’d pledged a fraternity at an all-black university, and the idea for the film came because he wanted to explore the culture of HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) and the various subcultures within that world.

Rap artist Common, who has a producing credit on the film, was effusive in praising McMurray. “Gerard showed the diversity of who we are as black people, because each character represented different things,” he said, adding, “that brotherhood is something we don’t usually see in films.”

THE FORCE: ‘THE WIRE’ OF DOCUMENTARIES

Inspired in part by the hit series The Wire, director Peter Nicks began a series of documentaries exploring the institutions of the city of Oakland, California, back in 2012 with The Waiting Room, which tackled the issue of health care. He brought his second film in the series to the Sundance Film Festival this year, this time covering the city’s notorious police department.

Nicks and his team followed the police department for two years beginning in 2014, getting more than 250 hours of footage to make this complex vérité documentary. When they started, the Oakland force had already been under federal oversight for more than 10 years because of abuses and misconduct, and it still hadn’t fulfilled the requirements to regain full control.

At the outset of the project, the director knew that this was a topic on many people’s minds, but he had no idea how much the issue would explode across the nation over the course of filming.

“This was a really challenging project and process for myself personally and for my team, as we were jumping into maybe one of the most divisive issues of this city in quite some time. We began the project really wanting to understand who the men and women were on the front lines of an institution that was really being called to task, and start a national conversation. But we began the project before Black Lives Matter was even a hashtag. So the ground shifted significantly as we approached the film.”

Nicks wanted to show both the officers and activists as more than simple “two-dimensional portraits without context.” The film team aimed to “[frame] the city in a new way that brings people together” instead of encouraging divisiveness.

As we watch a new chief making a commitment to true reform, the audience feels hope for change. After new disheartening scandals, we watch Mayor Libby Schaaf ruthlessly oust those who have violated the public’s trust, attempting to squash out all the misconduct. But eventually we see that the problems run deep, and they’re embedded into the super-macho culture of the profession. In fact, when the film team already had an initial cut of the film, yet another scandal broke in 2016, this time allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor, and the team had to rethink what their story was going to look like.

At a screening during the Festival, the filmmakers gave some updates on what has happened since they wrapped. Most notable was the news that Oakland had hired a new police chief, the first female chief in the history of the department. With a slew of other women leading the city — including the mayor, her chief of staff, the city administrator, and the fire chief — many are looking forward to seeing whether the deep-seated macho culture of the police department can truly be reformed.

Nicks hinted at a third film in the series, and though he didn’t give any details, he revealed that we could look forward to seeing some of the same subjects from the second installment returning to the screen.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

#Al Gore #Burning Sands #Featured #Manifesto #New Radical #Sundance Film Festival

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