⭐

Tim and Stephanie have kind of ended up on opposite ends of the spectrum than where they started with Ed. Steph at first distrusted him for obvious reasons, while Tim was open to the possibility of working with him. Now, Steph has developed real empathy for Ed through knowing Ellen, while as soon as Tim actually had to risk something, he was quick to turn on Ed.

directors for Saturday night, blackevans beloved <3

Ah, a woman after my own heart! I could probably talk TOO MUCH about Saturday Night’s Alright, so I’m gonna get into it a bit beneath the cut.

Saturday Night’s Alright was really a masterclass in writing for me in the way that it evolved SO MUCH as I was writing. Originally, it was just going to be Sirius’ POV. I always knew he would meet Lily and they would form this kind of understanding between them, because I’m not only in love with the Blackevans BroTP, but I LOVE the parallel between their sibling dynamics. However, even then, it was going to be all-Sirius POV until he passed out from the pain, then we’d get a little bit of Lily POV and then poof, end of fic.

But the problem is, I LOVE writing Lily, and I wanted it to engage in a little “show, don’t tell” of why she was even in London in the first place, which led to a bigger Lily section. Additionally, I knew Sirius would be in a really dark headspace and didn’t know if I wanted to be in there the WHOLE time I was writing. I’m really glad I switched the POV to come in earlier, because Sirius is so preoccupied with his home life that while yes he’s sorry about Lily and her pain, he’s not really in the headspace to be thinking complexly about it. I thought being able to work through Lily’s complex thoughts of “this guy sucks and has recently caused me pain” and also “this guy is seriously not in a good place and needs help” was a really interesting conundrum and was, again, really worried about walking that line. Not having her forgive completely, but being able to set aside grudges for someone in need. (Which we then see James do the EXACT SAME THING 😭)

And of course when I was nearly towards the end, I decided James needed a POV? I’m not exactly sure why, but god it was a breath of fresh air because yeah, he was going through it too, but his life is just not as MUCH as the other two. He brought some levity to the fic (and my mental state) that I think it needed. (Which again is insane because again, JAMES IS ALSO VERY ANGSTY).

It was not supposed to be as long as it was, but the back and forth between Lily and Sirius just kept flowing and I couldn’t get them on track. They were supposed to have like, one conversation, and they had like, four.

Again, similar to “no, i could never give you peace” it’s dealing with really heavy, really delicate subject matter than I really wanted to make sure was being treated respectfully. It’s definitely one of the ficus I’m proudest of. I think it’s a great character study on these three, and I’m so happy it evolved the way it did.

<3 Thank you, Doe!

⭐️ Would love to hear some director's commentary for The Other Half of the Sky!

And I would love to give some director’s commentary for The Other Half of the Sky, @kay-elle-cee! I am so sorry it has taken so long. I typed out a whole answer to this the other day, only for the app to delete it 😰.

This is also my first time doing a director’s commentary, so if there is some kind of etiquette I’m getting wrong, further apologies! With that all said and one, here are 6 facts about TOHOTs in honour of Chapter 6, which will come out… eventually.

Fact 1: The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad TOHOTS - This story originally started out very differently. I came up with the original plot about a year ago. Lily was still estranged from friends and close to Snape, but she became connected with the Order in a very different way. She was made Potions teacher at Hogwarts and very gradually got close to Transfiguration teacher James who was a single father to Harry after his Muggle wife was murdered. The plot was far more centred around their love story but the other main plot points were there, so I shan’t mention more about that because spoilers! However, I didn’t even start to write that original TOHOTS down. Something just wasn’t right about it. So I tucked it away until I found the missing piece…

Fact 2: I got love for you if you were around in the 80s, the 80s - The 80s culture drives a lot of my love for this fic. And I am wholeheartedly not ashamed of that. It was entirely what it needed to spark some fire into it again. Now, I absolutely do not think a fic needs to be culturally accurate to be interesting. As far as I’m concerned, as long as I’m having a good time, I don’t care how accurate it is with the language or culture. However, I am also a history and linguistics nerd, and I love reading and hearing about this era! And it has been a dream of mine for awhile to write something that really delves into it. With my own bizarre background and educational history, I’m strangely well suited to writing about the variety of people groups introduced in TOHOTS too. I love getting lost in the world of this era and feeling like I’m really there. I can only hope the readers do too. So, sorry Potions teacher Lily, I abandoned you for a Depeche Mode-listening, Mackem Mum-having, Silk Cut-smoking Lily instead and haven’t looked back. (This has also been a great chance for me to connect again with British culture too. Though a born-and-bred Brit, I don’t spend a lot of time interacting with my home country anymore and though I have… mixed feelings about it, it is still nice to connect with it from time to time.)

Fact 3: Lily & Dorcas’ Infinite Playlist - There just might be a scene coming up in Heaven— I mean Elyseum, Caradoc’s club, sometime soon. Maybe. Maybe. And just maybe I’ve made a playlist of songs that will be playing in the club at the time. Maybe. And that playlist just might include maybe such songs as (randomly selected): Olivia Newton-John & The Electric Light Orchestra’s Xanadu; Bucks Fizz’ Making Your Mind Up; The Go-Gos’ We Got the Beat; and Kate Bush’s Babooshka. *Slight spoilers for next chapter* but there is also going to be an adjacent bar attached to the club that plays more alt music, so expect lots of post-punk and new wave, as well as pop!

Fact 4: Honey I Blew Up The Fic - As some people might know this fic originally started off as a The Light Come Shining length one shot. It then became a 12 chapter multi chapter fic. Now, it is currently set to be around 42 chapters long. That’s quite the growth! But honestly, I prefer it this way. This has allowed me to explore far more of Lily’s story away from James, and I personally think it is a stronger story for that. Sure, it would probably need a professional edit if it were a published piece, but we’re here to learn and have fun ne.

Fact 5: Blech - In the name of being honest, I have one thing I dislike about this fic. Most of it I love, but that first paragraph… I just don’t know what I was thinking! I think I was trying to be like the sort of writer I’m not. Perhaps I shouldn’t admit to that, but it felt like something suitable for a director’s commentary. Not everything has to be perfect for you to love it. (Might go back and edit it one day though…)

Fact 6: The Good, the Bad and the Muggle-y - Though it won’t be a huge part of the plot, I also plan to explore Muggleborn reactions to 1980s current affairs in this fic. This might not be popular with everyone, I’m aware. Fanfic is escapism. But a lot of hardships occurred in the 1980s and though TOHOTS Lily is certainly flawed, I just can’t see her ignoring them entirely, at least not forever. In many ways, I want this to contrast canon in that way. Though Harry becomes more and more concerned with the Wizarding World (as he has every right to be), Lily is older and has a different fight to live through. I cannot see a movement that is so concerned with saving Muggle lives not becoming entangled with it… at least slightly. So, do expect more of that Muggle culture to come in and make a bit of a mess as it does.

And that’s it! I hope that is along the right sort of lines for a director’s commentary! I also plan to put out a little snippet later on too, so watch out for it.

greta gerwig's director's commentary for barbie (2023): [talking about something else entirely] --oh and this is the love push-in shot between margot and america and they both have this-- they love each other.

pride & prejudice (2005)

joe wright director's commentary

2/x

the main thing I’ve gathered from the Pacific Rim director’s commentary is that, even though a lot more of PacRim was done with CGI than I had realized, it still holds up almost 10 years later because of how intentional Guillermo Del Toro was with building in details, flaws, weathering and environmental factors, and, primarily, love and respect into every single model.

He helped animate every single creature and robot by hand on his tablet, he praised the animators for every single shot and talks about how brilliant they are, how hard they worked on every detail, he treats all of them like human beings, like geniuses, just as integral to the film as himself and the actors. The animators themselves talk about how intentional and detailed his ideas were, how helpful and insightful he was when he spoke to them about changes, when he came to them with new ideas.

There’s also a hell of a lot of practical effects woven in, which add to the believability, but the CGI holds up first and foremost because he saw it as an art form to be cultivated and loved just as fiercely as everything else, not a ‘wow’ effect to be slapped in for budget cuts.

Commentary on the update? 🥺

YEAHH

i sketched this page forgetting that the SS Linebeck was gonna be visible at the dock and even went to the trouble of drawing the other side of Outset in the distance on one of the panels before i realized HAHA and then proceeded to grudgingly draw the side of the ship over and over

sorry about the lack of Ayrll lines, there just wasn't much opportunity with everything else I needed to get through this update. we'll see more of her I promise o7

i was convinced to keep the "he frow up" and "link's fuckass sword" gags in so i'm glad everyone's enjoying those HAHA

The waterfall BG in the panel of Tetra recognizing the sword is the same one as the stone Ganondorf from pt. 3. You might also notice that tiny Wake from Tetra's last memory of the sword has a bloody eye. Wonder how that happened

Everyone joking abt Linebeck rizzing Gran Gran last update I was like wait. just wait

Lots of ppl interpreted Slate introducing himself as Link as him not getting the social cue, which I think is a great way to interpret it lol. but also consider: he totally noticed and just decided not to lie anyway.

I tried to fill gran gran's house with pictographs Wake might have taken and little gifts Wake might have brought back for her from his adventures (within reason, all these backgrounds were a lot of work HAHA). There's Wake and Ayrll on Ice Ring Isle, and Gran Gran's even got her own korok pinwheel!

that's all!! this was a fun update, I love reading everyone's comments :-)

hot guard summer

alright look i know my following is not the target audience for this kind of post but i wanna at least point something out about a scene in the Fallout show that i haven't actually heard a single person point out or comment on.

spoilers ahead.

in the scene where the ghoul is rewatching his old movie, specifically the scene where he originally protested about killing the villain.

the first layer is the obvious one: he is talking directly to himself. "you were strong, ugly, and you had dignity. i'll give you two out of those three." he remembers what happened at that shoot just as clearly as we did, and after he literally tells himself to his face "you're strong, ugly, and have no dignity" followed by him killing the man he originally wanted his character to save. this, of course, coming DIRECTLY after the person he sold into slavery earlier that day sparing him with life saving medicine while he's on the ground and telling him to his face that he only lives on because someone stuck to their humanity. very heavy! i bet he feels like shit, which he probably should because he's kind of a jerkoff! (but in a cool way that i like to watch)

the SECOND layer is the one i find way more interesting. the phrasing of his final line we didn't hear before was so dripping with importance that it felt like i was reading RPG dialogue and story relevant words were highlighted. "i hope you like the taste of lead you commie son of a bitch". as we'd already seen in episode 3, he despises vault-tec for everything he knows they are responsible for while he was their face. moreover, it's made clear that he doesn't just resent himself for being used for their image, but he resents the fact that he was the face of the propaganda which drove the war fever that caused the end of the world. the wild west ideal caricature of masculine wisdom from the movies as the spokesperson of the company who stood to profit from the purposeful decimation of the human race. he became The Ultimate Jingo.

and i really enjoyed how brief yet informative that detail was! i really enjoyed how the directors tell you what the characters are thinking intuitively and effectively through the camerawork and those little details make the whole thing a lot more fun to mull over and consider as a part of the whole of Fallout! i think it's neat.

Directors cut for no I could never give you peace? It blew. me. away. All the details please and thanks 💕

Ah, thank you Shreya! Ah, my baby, my first published fic back. I just had to reread it because I haven’t looked at it in months and Jesus Christ what was I ON? Let’s get to it.

Okay so first of all, I know I’ve said this a few times now, but even though this was the first fic I finished and published, this was NOT the idea that got me writing again. That honor goes to Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting). BUT I was stuck on SNA (both with the fight scenes and how to write Sirius, since I mostly read Jily) and was like, BOWLED over with the idea for peace while listening to folklore for the 80,000th time because it just SCREAMED Jily to me.

When I started writing peace, it was actually going to take place the night of their Order initiation. There were a lot more characters involved (Marlene, Alice, Frank, Remus) and I think I had about 5 pages written before I changed course. I thought the reality of them having seen what life after Hogwarts was like before Lily comes to this realization would really add to the gravity and the angst of it all.

I also knew it was important to not have James let Lily be sidelined quietly, because our boy would NEVER. I wrestled a lot with James’ actions (particularly how he would ever let it go, and how he’d react to Lily later asking Moody to take him out of combat behind his back) and it boiled down to Lily’s attitude about it all. Lily’s fine potioneering, she feels able to contribute, but she’s not letting the issue drop, and he sees that she’s found a workaround she can live with for the time being. And while he’s still unhappy with the situation, he knows Lily knows how to pick and choose her battles.

And then lastly, and this is definitely more to do with the lyrics of the song, but I wanted there to be a greater focus on the long-game of wizarding world ideologies as a whole, and not just focused on the war. Because as we all know, the war ended but the ideology stuck around, and having to deal with that day in and day out was probably a secondary thought to people literally on the battlefield. So to take a moment of breath between battles and have a serious conversation about the long-term exhaustion they could potentially face seemed like a painful, but ultimately beautiful moment that really made me want to write.

I’m so happy to hear it blew you away. It was a really heavy piece and I was so scared I would end up not giving it the justice or care or depth it deserved, so it’s really lovely to know it touched people in some way 💕 Looking back on it, I’m quite proud of it.

*slaps roof of movie*

early shuake v third sem shuake based on this meme:

pride & prejudice (2005)

joe wright director's commentary