“There’s a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that’s all some people have? It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan.”

                   -sullivan’s Travels

This is literally what I tried to do through my entire time at college, and yet my teachers still yelled at me about not trying to ham-fist meaning into my art an animations.

I’ve watched so many Good For You ™ movies, so many that people recommended like prescriptions.

Not a single one of those, not a single one, gave me the emotional response of, say, Pacific Rim.

I don’t care what you think of that specific example, I just want to say that sometimes stupid escapist ridiculousness is exactly what the world needs.

“People don’t want the truth! They want opiates! They’re just sheep! They don’t care about my Important Meaningful Insights!”

Yeah, no, fuck off.  My life is kind of difficult, I’ve been suicidal, I’m hella poor, I’m mentally ill, things aren’t rosy.  I don’t want your fucking Saving Private Ryans.  I don’t want your Brokeback Mountains.

I want Pacific Rim.  I want The Rocketeer.  I want Enchanted.

Because my life contains enough truth.  Too much truth.

Take me away from that truth.  Don’t dice it up, garnish it, and serve it back to me.

Take me away.  That’s the real challenge.  That’s the only art I really want anymore.

I don’t remember where I saw this but someone wrote if you look at the movies being made, you get a sense of how society was fairing. In the midst of the Depression, most Hollywood movies were musicals with happy endings, etc. In the 50s, when (for white people) things were prosperous, you saw a rise in noir films. People go to movies to get something different than their lives. It’s a gross generalization of course, but it bears thinking about.

video essay on youtube: “Why do Marvel’s movies all look like muddy concrete” me: YES! ThaNK YOU!  RIP IT UP!

anyway, please watch this essay on the importance of good colour grading on genre films

ive grown so used to gif/still edits on tumblr that ive genuinely forgotten how the Actual movies look like

good lord

super interesting even if you don’t like marvel movies

It’s so weird to me that we consider it more acceptable to show violence to children if it doesn’t have consequences.

The next time you watch a PG or PG-13 action movie, notice how many “minor henchman” bad guys get shot or beaten and they just fall down with maybe a little grunt.  No blood, no real pain, no slow messy death, no awful little twitch that makes you realize oh god they’re still alive, no other henchmen rushing to their side and trying to do CPR and screaming for a henchmedic.  Murder in those movies is nothing but a quick, convenient departure from the story.

Gory violence isn’t good; it’s horribly unpleasant to watch and can be extremely upsetting or frightening for children.  But goreless violence teaches kids that shooting someone or hitting them on the head is an easy, regret-free way to remove whatever obstacle they represent.

That’s much, much scarier.

I think about this a lot.

There are so many stories where death is just a convenient way to get rid of characters. They don’t even have to be henchmen or villains, sometimes they’re just characters who have outlived their usefulness to the main character, so the writer kills them off. And it seems like it trivializes death.

I remember reading Fablehaven, where some people the main characters knew died, and the way the author treated it was so surreal and graceless. It’s like he wanted to show that their death wasn’t okay, but he couldn’t hide the fact that he didn’t actually care and just wanted the story move on. So the characters got these awkward, emotionless lines, like, “It’s sad that ___ died but we need to do something now,” and there’d be the same sort of detached attempts at portraying grieving sprinkled throughout a few times after that.

Like, if you’re not going to put in the work to show the impact death has on characters, why kill them off? It was obvious the author just wanted those characters dead and out of the way, but knew that if the characters he cared about didn’t react in some way that the readers would think they were cold and no longer believe they were the good guys. (I still ended up thinking that, though, because it’s obvious when you treat your main characters like the only human beings that matter in their universe.)

The author could have had them imprisoned, or stripped of their powers, or sent away to a different realm, or something, but he picked ‘killing them off’ and handled it so badly.

@livebloggingandreblogging this is what i complained about re: implications of death of huge amounts of people YES i didn't think about it articulated quite like that but it absolutely bothers me in this exact way death is not more okay when you don't pay attention to it

anime and cartoons do this a lot, and i just... pay attention, every time

me everytime a character in a movie has to get a few drops of their blood for some ritual bullshit  (via jtoday)

WHILE WE’RE AT IT, why do people try to cross those skinny bridges over lava/chasms/whatever by walking upright. IT’S CALLED CENTER OF GRAVITY. get on your hands and knees and crawl across that thing. HUG IT. SCOOT YOUR BUTT ACROSS. “but i look stupid!” lalalala but we’ll avoid that ~dramatic moment~ where you almost fall over and die because your damn fucking self wanted to look COOL

(via jtoday)

and stop yanking IV lines out of your arms the minute you wake up in the hospital 

(via panconkiwi)

That is a broadsword, why are you fencing with it

(via gallifrey-feels)

There is a freaking door right there. Stop smashing through windows, damn it.

(via intheforestofthenight)

yes, mr. action hero, I am aware that running dramatically from the baddies at breakneck speed is important, but know what else is important? NOT GETTING SHOT. RUN IN A FUCKING ZIGZAG PATTERN ON THE OFF CHANCE THAT THE MOOKS WERE NOT COACHED IN MARKSMANSHIP BY THE IMPERIAL STORMTROOPERS.

(via pterriblepterodactyls)

Oh, hey, you there, sneaky hero-type breaking into any place for any reason? WEAR SOME FUCKING GLOVES. They’re called fingerprints, dumbass. You have them and you’re putting them all over the fucking place.

(via dawnpuppet) If something really fucking huge is falling on you, don’t FUCKING RUN ALONG THE LENGTH JUST TAKE LIKE TWO FUCKING STEPS TO THE SIDE (via takshammy)

wEAR A FUCKING HELMET OBERYN YOU LITTLE SHIT

(via brigwife)

And for god’s sake, PUT PRESSURE ON THAT WOUND, DON’T SIT THERE AND WATCH THEM BLEED OUT. I’m talking to you, TV cops.

(via fixyourwritinghabits)

Check for a pulse damn it!

(via marauders4evr)

IF YOU ARE WALKING ALONG TRAINTRACKS AND SUDDENLY SEE A TRAIN SPEEDING IN FRONT OF OR BEHIND YOU, DONT TRY AND OUTRUN IT. YOU ARE SLOW. TRAIN IS FAST. YOU WILL DIE. TRAIN TRACKS ARE NOT THAT WIDE. STEP TO A DIRECTION WHERE NO TRACKS ARE. YOU WILL DIE LESS.

(via elphabaforpresidentofgallifrey)

DON’T CHECK FOR A PULSE WITH YOUR THUMBS IDIOTS!! THUMBS HAVE THEIR OWN PULSES AND WILL MAKE YOU THINK THE PERSON HAS A PULSE WHEN THEY MIGHT NOT.

OR TWO PULSES AND THAT’S JUST WEIRD.

(via gaezedkriel)

We would all make the most accurate movie in fucking history. We could all sit back at the end and sigh in relief that it was all done right.

(via enchantedtheatregeek)

I want to watch movies with Y”ALL, that shit would be EPIC

(via bead-bead)

If there is a god damn car that is running, don’t fucking try to hide in a damn shed or in the bushes, take that fucking car and drive your ass away from that fucking psycho ya dumb ass fucker! Car is typically faster than guy on legs, unless that guy on legs is some form of possessed. And don’t go up the damn stairs if the door isnt working, go to a window on the first floor- less chance of breakin those chicken legs of yours! (via kakuuzu)

okay but I recall right now a scene from a book I read, full of suspense and tension, where the guy had to cross a super small bridge - like wooden beam small - over a huge chasm, and guess what he did. he lay down and slithered along that fucker like he was roleplaying a snake and got to the other side just fine. that's why books i read are awesome and movies suck

Not just movies.

1/3 

2/3

3/3

I don't even like the movies themselves but I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THEIR PRODUCTION

especially the Christopher Lee thing... there's fantasy and then there's reality it's built upon

lilietsblog replied to your post: poetry-and-clarinet replied to your po…

……И МЕРКНЕТ СВЕТ В УГЛАХ ПАУК ПЛЕТЕТ УЗОООООООООООР ПО ТЕМНЫМ УЛИЦАМ ЛЕТИТ НОЧНОЙ ДОЗОООООООООР

I was /just/ thinking about this series when I saw your post about the shitty "А СВЕТА ВИНОВНА ВО ВСЕМ ОКАЗАЛАСЬ, НО ВСТРЕТИВ КРАСАВЦА АНТОНА ВЛЮБИЛАСЬ И РАЗРУШЕНИЕ ОСТАНОВИЛОСЬ" part of the song (translation for others: "And Sveta turned out to be the reason for all bad things, but having met the handsome Anton fell in love and the destruction stopped") like I am pretty sure her /falling in love/ with him had nothing to do with the subplot of her hating herself and cursing herself after having refused to donate a kidney )= (and if I misremember and it actually did, just +1 to the pile of "fuck Lukyanenko") also I can't remember this series without remembering the shitty anti-ukrainian stance in the latest book I bought, I didn't even finish it because of that ew И ЛЬЕТСЯ КРОВЬ ИДЕТ ВОЙНА БОБРА С ОСЛОМ

Nah, it’s fine. I was a bit upset that you’d think about me that way, but tumblr doesn’t really provide a window in a person’s soul XD

I know that skipping scenes in a movie is a problem. It’s just that like with piracy, it’s not a choice between skipping and not skipping for me, it’s a choice between skipping scenes and not watching at all. And I’m not going to NOT start a discussion when I want to just because my anxiety prevents me from watching in full )=

I was surprised myself at the thought - previously i did not interpreted your writing on HS/Slayers/Ava this way - and decided to ask directly. I was sure i’m wrong but not sure where and how exactly. And your answer (and neighboring posts) cleared it.

About skipping, i guess, i come from the opposite side - i don’t like breaking the flow of the story, and you don’t always know what details may be buried in filler scenes. Important difference is, usually, such scenes do not grate with me so much. And when they do, it is like roadblock - any desire or interest to watch further just vanish. Your way is much more flexible in this case - with skipping you can watch things i, on your place, would have dropped =)

I think there is parallel with the preferred speed of reading, or with the way one enjoys eating food, but i lost it mid-thought.

There is absolutely a parallel to the preferred speed of reading, and it's a very important thing for me!

It's not like there aren't scenes that grate me similarly in books, y'know. There are, and wow, do they ever.

BUT when I read I have full control over the speed of reading!!! I can just kind of skim the text, catching only the key words instead of immersing myself in the scene fully, until it gets relevant / not horrible again.

I fucking HATE watching movies, compared to reading books. You just aren't given a choice as to how you want to visualize a scene or if you want to do that at all, or maybe you want to stop at that moment and explore it in detail - God knows I spent like ten minutes over the Vimes/Vetinari little fight at the end of Jingo once I caught it, just rereading the same few paragraphs, getting into characters and thinking it over.

Comics take control of /how/ to visualize things, but they are not as possessive of pacing. You absolutely can glance at panels and skip them, or study them almost with a magnifying glass.

Homestuck is fascinating this way. The first acts are immensely irritating, because skimming boring scenes is not as easy as turning a page in a book - the next page has to load, and with gifs and slow internet it slows you down A LOT from preferred pacing.

But then, when it picks up pace, it just piles all responsibility for pace on the reader. YOU have to open pesterlogs and read them, and you better reread them several times to understand fully all interplay of events and personalities. The interface doesn't insist on it; pesterlogs are hidden, and unless you know, you might actually skip them at all. There are clues and symbolism all around, and if you just try reading right through, trusting the narrative to shove your face into everything you need to know... uh, you are going to not get anything.

Flashes kind of "take control" of the pacing again, but they have a very high expectation of you! You are supposed to have caught and understood all events preceding them, and you can't divert your attention from them even for a moment. They are very fast-paced, and it is most often better to rewatch them.

The video game flash sections are the most blatant in what I'm talking about. You are going to get exactly as much information as you HUNT for. Run around, try out everything, and you'll understand much more about what's going on. The narrative doesn't insist on it! There aren't going to be overt references to what you missed that make you go back and check; the events are just going to subtly become more confusing, and you won't even know that you could have understood it better if you'd explored that one section of the map too!

Homestuck is very demanding and unforgiving to the reader. It's a challenge.

And I love it so much for not taking me and dragging me along like a confused puppy the way movies do!!!! Like... Equius' porn horse pictures and Bro Strider's entire room: imagine if it was a movie, and there was a slow pan into every detail because the creator took time to put effort into them and they are relevant to the characters. Ew? Ew! The way it is, you can either pay attention to the background and spend minutes catching details, or you can take one glance at it and quickly scroll down to narration/pesterlogs/next page link.

i cannot believe that we were robbed of this book scene

This is no joke. These are direct lines from the book.

This is not there in the movie???? not gonna watch it then (✿◡△◡)