Surfaced Self

2021(?)

Dream!

Dream baby, dream! Because these dreams are made for you. Don’t wonder about what will the future bring or What if it doesn’t sink! Just dream. And dream big. Because these dreams will become true one day. And you will be the queen (of dreams) one day!

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I know someone already mentioned Vice being labeled as unfinished taxidermy but I literally just realized you also labeled Malice as a DIY bearskin rug 😂

look is this not a bearskin rug dropped into a crumpled pile????? does this not look like the work of an amateaur taxidermist?

I saw the trailer for Uproar, which has Rhys Darby in it, and you can not tell me that Rhys's character is not just a modern day Stede Bonnet. I mean, he's got the hair, and he's a teacher with an AMATEAUR DRAMA CLUB. That's so Stede lmao

Sorry/not sorry for spam reblogging (to my angrycryptic account) but you have the most amazing taste in sapphic books!!! And your art for the characters is so perfect. I'm making a list of books I didn't recognize from your fanart tag bc I need to read them all ASAP.

Do you have a top ten list?

Hi, thank you!!! idk why I never got a notification for this but I just happened to find it in my ask box now, lmao, sorry

tbh if you want me to make a top 10 book list of anything you need to be a little more specific than that because i don't think i can narrow down 500+ sapphic books into a top 10 LMAO. also if you want book recs my book blog is @aroaessidhe!!!

but heres a random list of the first 10 good sapphic books that came to mind:

the space between worlds by micaiah johnson

sorrowland by rivers solomon

girl serpent thorn by melissa bashardoust

the unspoken name by ak larkwood

the misadventures of an amateaur naturalist

the scapegracersb y h a clarke

a half-built garden by ruthanna emrys

extasia by clare legrand

the outside by ada hoffmann

this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone

i literally do not remember if i've already sent an ask but if i haven't i would love to hear about the critrole werewolf AU pretty please! and if i have. then i would like to hear about it again anyway 👐

Check my list of current wips here and send me a title and I’ll post a bit or share some details about it.

The CritRole Werewolf au is a mighty nein werewolf au. I set it in a vaguely modern world, but... in the 90s/early 00's. I wanted it to have some Buffy/Blair Witch/Lost Boys vibes. Like, grotesque and terrifying but with moments of absurd humor and a really bitchin' soundtrack. The Brjeau's are, loosely, the main characters.

Beau and Fjord were the intro duo. They're amateaur ghost hunters touring the country's most haunted locations. They're using Beau's absent fathers' credit card to fund them sleeping in Fjord's work van and get them access to dope shit like handheld video cameras and microphones that Beau uses to prove the supernatural is real. (Fjord films/runs tech. He a) doesn't believe in the supernatural and b) is terrified of it).

They pair up with Caleb- a mysterious dude in a long duster coat with a weird accent who may or may not be a monster hunter, and Veth- who's definitely just some normal housewife who just so happens to hate werewolves and definitely isn't one. They join the team after a scary event where Fjord is lost for a few days in some weird haunted place/sacred temple to some old forgotten wolf god. Caleb and Veth want to make sure Fjord isn't cursed, Beau is thrilled to be proven right that the supernatural exists, and Fjord thinks this is all ridiculous. So what that he's been having some weird dreams? That doesn't mean anything.

(You can see where this is going).

To keep things reigned in, I tried to limit all the supernatural entities to just werewolves (save for Fjord's eventual eldritch horror wolf thing he has going on).

Yasha, Caduceus, Fjord, Veth and Jester are all werewolves. Some of them were born werewolves, some of them were turned. Some were turned willingly, some not(t). Caleb and Beau remain Team Human (though Scourgers are now werewolf hunters, and through grueling training are a weird almost "half" werewolf, so they can't be turned).

So I heard ya know about theater stuff 👁️

/cracks knucles

Boy do I know about theater. I'm techinically getting a degree in theater (the actual name of my course is 'scenic development' but we learn about both theater and some of filmmaking. My course is also techonological which means it's more practical and it's shorter) this semester and I have been participating in Drama Club theater productions since 2016 (it's very amateaur-ish but it did help me a lot and it led me to knowing my current singing teacher)

But, if the post Sky tagged me is anything to go by, I heard you want some recs.

I really love the theban trilogy by Sophocles, which is composed of three plays: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus in Colono and Antigone. Also, I really recommend Jean Anouilh's version of Antigone, it explores more the themes of family and duty.

The Mandrake by Machiavelli is a comedy but with a tone of social critique that I found really enjoyable.

I'll say that I am a bit lacking in Shakespeare but A Midsummer's Night Dream can be a really fun read if you want something more light hearted!

I need to read more of his plays but if you are looking for something with a heavier social political undertone, I recommend Bertold Brecht's plays, like The Good Soul in Setsuan, Mother Courage and Her Children, etc. (note: even thought I haven't read a lot of his work, I really like his Epic Theater and agree with a lot of stuff that that brings, like making stuff so that the audience never reaches catharsis and makes them think)

I haven't really read this play BUT the students whose classes I accompany in my internship are staging Endgame by Samuel Beckett, and honestly, by each rehersal, more intrigued I get.

I'll be honest, there's a lot of plays that I've yet to read but I can also give you some musical theater recs, as I also love that.

Falsettos (the 2016 revival) is funny yet heartbreaking, with a story about love, family and living in the HIV/AIDS crisis (and also judaism). The songs are great, many have very uplifiting vibes but the sad ones hit HARD.

Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd (I recommend watching the OG stage versions, i think a recording of each can be easily found on youtube) are Sondheim classics and you just can't go wrong with Sondheim

Next to Normal is a musical that handles mental health and grief, with many touching moments, and the ends always leaves me as a mess.

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 is a musical pop rock opera adaptation of a portion of War and Peace and honestly, the music is just PHENOMENAL. Banger after banger.

I know everyone and their mother has talked about Hamilton, and despite it's problems, I still think the music itself is really good.

Book of Mormon and Avenue Q are really funny, acid comedies, with some really great numbers, that will make you laugh and might even make you reflect on life.

Waitress is another fave of mine, I love many of the songs and they just have this sweetness and heartfeltness to it that I just aaaaaaaaa

Phew, that was a lot, but I'm always happy to provide more!

I've now watched sandman EP 1 and it's kinda boring? Dream is a bland follow-the-rules-while-lowkey-being-a-dick-about-it protagonist and Amateaur Occultist occupying English Countryside Manor circa The Great War is like...almost a generic character type / setting since CS Lewis at least.

**spoilers for episode 1!**

Personally I think episode 1 would have been stronger without the opening voiceover from Dream - it **should** have been entirely from the perspective of the humans. Where they just have to figure out Who or What they have summoned into their circle. Then even if the plot was straightforward it would still be suspenseful and scary when the camera pans to Dream in his cage, not aging, looking eerily pretty. And the humans (and audience) would have to wonder whether he would kill them if they let him out, not knowing what he was thinking...

Also we could then have the horror of the worldwide sleeping sickness without Dream to explain what was causing it... the slowly creeping horror of Oh My God, it's OUR fault all these millions of people are dying and the world is getting worse and worse, We are the cause of this through our cowardice and greed.

Then at the end of the episode it would be a surprise twist when Dream becomes the protagonist!! It's so much more interesting!!

But they didn't make the writing clever, it's a faithful adaption of a straightforward comics plot. They didn't even fill in what was vague in the original, it's still "and then they became rich" time skip stuff. Okay but how????

The show is very pretty though. Should I keep watching?

hey just wanted to say i really love ur art and ur smt oc game :)

YOURE SO NICE IM SOOO AMATEAUR ARTIST WAAAHAHAAHUAA

I think Oliver Queen would find out Batman's secret identity mostly through vibes...

When he was ten, his parents tried to get him to strike up a friendship with Bruce Wayne because it can’t ever hurt to know the richest man in the country but Bruce is just so fucking weird and morbid. He drags Ollie into his room and starts showing him his anatomy books and taxidermy and has he seen Taxi Driver? Because Travis Bickle inspired a real attempted assassination. But also maybe he had a point? And then Bruce is taking down his books on the Zodiac Killer and explaining how he thinks he’s cracked the cipher. And Ollie is just scared out of his mind. He thinks Bruce is going to vivisect him or something.

At the end of the night, he tells his parents that he spent the whole time with Bruce but he was actually hiding under a table somewhere for like two hours.

Then after that he tries to avoid Bruce at all times. Which isn’t hard because they’re ten and they live on opposite sides of the country. Until Oliver gets an invitation to Bruce Wayne’s 18th birthday party which is supposed to be a very big, very expensive bash. He doesn’t want to go because it might turn out to be weird but all his friends are going so he goes anyway.

… And it turns about to be pretty cool. (It’s a very big, expensive party with a lot of really drunk, really rich teenagers but it’s cool by Oliver’s standards) But no one actually seems to see Bruce there. He doesn’t make a speech, they don’t get him a cake or sing happy birthday, he doesn’t take over for the DJ, nothing. There are no pictures of him anywhere. Nobody gets any pictures of him. No one says they saw him. It’s like he wasn’t even there. 

But everyone insists that Oliver must be wrong. Who would throw a party and then never show up? Creepy Bruce Wayne, that’s who.

For the next several years, Bruce is supposedly out of the country doing an indulgent world tour. Hotels get booked out for him but they can’t say if he actually check in. People claim to have seen him but they don’t have any proof. It’s always so-and-so told so-and-so that they saw him here. He’s kind of like this fun cryptid. The richest man in the world is somewhere in the world. The late night shows do a spoof of Carmen Sandiego about it.

But every year, Bruce supposedly shows up to his birthday bash except Oliver goes every year and never sees him. There’s photos that circulate around but Oliver’s met Bruce and these are just some random other dark haired guys. He puts together that every year the crowd unknowingly selects some random dude to be that year’s Bruce Wayne, sometimes there’s two or three or four.

One year Oliver even dyes his hair and he gets to be Bruce Wayne for the day. 

It’s fun. But the real Bruce? He’s up to something. 

When Oliver comes back from his sojourn on an island and is deciding to clean up his act and maybe start dressing up in green and shooting people with arrows, he finds out that Bruce is back in Gotham. He’s gone from a guy who nobody knew what he looked like to one of the most recognizable faces.

Every week the gossip rags have a new crazy Bruce Wayne headline. 

“Bruce Wayne accidentally schedules two dates with two models at the same time, at the same restaurant. Models proceed to fight over him and wreck the restaurant, forcing Wayne to buy it.” There’s a viral video and everything. Except it’s not hard for Oliver to find out that the “models” are actually amateaur professional wrestlers.

“Bruce Wayne trips and knocks ice sculpture onto newly elected Gotham mayor.” Nobody bothers to mention that getting absolutely clobbered by an ice sculpture is what saved the mayor from being shot by a political rival.

“Bruce Wayne lets child ward drive his car. Kid accidentally puts car in reverse instead of drive and backs into and wrecks Lex Luthor’s custom McLaren.” That one just seems intentional. The kid even looks behind him as he’s backing up.

Sure people change over the course of 18 years, Oliver has certainly changed but he just can’t square this absolute buffoon with the kid who bragged about how he was already studying calculus. And it’s just so calculated. Just like the parties, it’s like a facade of being a rich playboy, not the real thing. Oliver knows the real thing. He’s been the real thing.

Then he walks into a meeting of the new, as yet unnamed, coalition of heroes and meets Batman for the first time. The familiar wave of hibbie-jibbies runs up his spine but he’s not a kid anymore so he just smirks.

“So do you still think Travis Bickle was kind of right?”

Blog Entry 1

French New Wave (Godard, Truffaut, Varda, Rohmer, Chabrol, Resnais) 

The focus of my first blog will be on the French New Wave which was notably developed in the late 1950s in Paris. The primary people and essential factors of this movement consist of directors Jean Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Agnes Varda, and Alain Resnais. This movement was the rise of French cinema in a way that was never seen before. Many innovations such as cut scenes and hand held cameras were used to make an overall more experimental approach to creating a different type of cinema. Interestingly enough, given a brief explanation of what the French New Wave is and the time period it peaked, it is often claimed to be the “birth of modern cinema”.  This film type was developed from the influence of Italian Neorealism or better known as the Golden Age. This classification of motion pictures was based on the poor and working class and like the French New Wave, used amateaur actors that either weren’t professional or were not well known; mainly due to the reality that these directors didn’t have the finances to support proper filming standards, but the more liable answer to all this is about experimentation. Also related to how they were produced, the French New Wave typically consisted of films that held more personal values and were shot in a very different manner which could be compared to more of a documentary style in today's day in age. The main concept was that the director had a more free flowing control of the work which is where the “auteur theory” came alive which simply means that the director is the main driving force of the cinematic work and has the ability to use his creativity to implement it into the film. The complexity of these pieces varied depending on the director but overall created a more difficult concept of morals for viewers to pick up and understand. This was done purposely as it was a repetitive theme throughout the movement. There was a constant drive from each of the directors to try and challenge the viewers in some way whether it’s coming from the concept or the way the film was created. Personally, the characteristic that interested me the most and essentially the most important aspect was the idea of rejecting large studio companies in order to illuminate the ideas and constructive ways of the director to focus on their ideas specifically. This was interesting because studio productions provide the filmmakers and participants with ample resources to create the best possible film with a given budget but with this case, it was different as movies made during the French New Wave were all alike in the aspect of ways of filming and of storytelling. Because of its early success and production, the influence on various global film movements has become prominent which all began with this creative group of French directors who felt they could change the way entertainment was viewed as a whole. Although there are plenty of influencing factors from this movement in today's film industry, this wave was said to have ended in the early 1960s around the year 1964. An intriguing movement with a great deal of popularity and praise, the French New Wave has made a remarkable impact in the film industry.

Sources:

About me.

Hi!, you can call me Blue.

21 | she/her | Gemini | INFP | Bi | Mexican (English & Spanish)

→ Active Fandoms. One Piece, Spy x Family, Descendants, Harry Potter, Twilight, Marvel, DC.

→ I can be very shy when first approached, but I still love to make friends! My asks are always open if someone needs to talk!

→ I’m an amateaur writer and artist, also I’m an engineering student so I can be a bit occupied, which means updates can take a while.

I finished this one the other day, but forgot to post it here. I'm feeling a bit mixed on this one because I wasn't able to get good stem separation for some of the instruments, which makes them sound quier as a result. It'd be nice to revisit this song in the future and maybe try again.

You can download the lossless WAV file(s) from this Google Drive folder, which I'll regularly update as I finish more songs. You can get the raw volume version which has peaking but slightly better quality, or the compressed volume version which doesn't peak. I know it probably seems weird that I'm doing that, but I'm extremely amateaur with this so I'm gonna have to be weird for a bit. When the project is done, The entire album will also be posted on the Internet Archive.

The Man Who Fell in Love with the Sky - Production Design

Start of February - Research into the Titlecard

The titlecard was a big one. The director and I had gone back and forth with the idea of animating text or having a physical titlecard appear in the film but we both agreed tht the latter would prodbably set the film off to a better start!

Ivan - the director - and I both agreed that we liked the idea of a handwritten font too - almost amateaur, taking more inspiration from childrens books. With that in mind, I began selecting fonts and sent over roughly a dozen to the PD groupchat to ask for people's preferences. (I also made sure these were free for commercial use!)

After hearing peoples feedback, I then made a mockup of what the text would look like in the proposed shot type. I created 7 different mockups, four with cardboard outlines, three without, and each different colours.

I sent these over too, and it was agreed that black text on a cardboard background would look the best for our shot!

As for the sizing, I have to say I was pretty confused.

I spoke with Max - the DOP - to tryand understand how large the words had to be to fit in the frame as well as be in focus - meaning I’d need to know lens types etc.

Max told me!!! They had to be the right size to be seen from 7-8ft away as well as 7-8ft in the air.

For the life of me I could not wrap my head around this. I spent over an hour in the JKC with a measuring tape just staring at blank pieces of paper trying to figure out the ideal size.

I think it was just because I had never done this before and didn’t know that much about cinematography so found it a bit boggling.

However! I finally decided that having each letter to be the size of A4 paper should work perfectly for the sizing Max gave me.

And my planning for the titlecard was nearly complete.

What I planned to do was to print each letter out individually, stick the letters onto pieces of cardboard and cut bubble letters around the cardboard to give an outline look. To actually get them in the air, I planned to use twine and cardboard tape to create two lines - ‘THE MAN WHO FELL’ (foreshadowing!!!) and ‘IN LOVE WITH THE SKY’. Then I would just have to attach them to a C-stand and raise them into the air!

This might not sound like a lot but I knew it was going to take a lot of TIME. So I made sure to try and keep on top of this workload as much as possible.

          HEADCANON.

Siebold is not particularly interested in Showcases. However, the head pastry chef at his main restaurant, Félicité , is dazzled by the high production and cute costumes. Moreover, it was the inspiration for her desire to learn to make pokepuffs. Aspiring to someday teach showcase performers to up their game within the sweets-making competition, she sought Siebold's aid in formulating new ways of presentation that could not only be possible for amateaurs at baking and intriguing to an audience. Félicité would also practice in baking with her pokemon, to the point where they would also know the pastry recipe and method by heart. It's this dedication and sincere skill that expressed significant results on her own that moved Siebold to where he makes use of his own connections to promote her skills to the very demographic she had been aiming for. Siebold would even provide his own home as a setting for the pastry chef's pokepuff classes due to its convenience in location, size, and already being equipped for a large group of students working with ingredients.

Info dumps instead of just letting the story tell you. It’s amateaur.