I’ve been enjoying Noah Caldwell-Gervais’s Thorough Look series for insightful and indepth retrospectives of many story driven game series. This God of War one was especially fun because the style of gameplay bled right into Noah’s writing style. I’ve never been interested in GoW, and now I know for sure that I should never play it, but I’ve got a new appreciation for it now and am totally going to look up some long plays.
source: https://saturdayxiii.tumblr.com/post/647738137008848896
I really enjoy when insightful videos about the original Blair Witch Project are randomly recommended to me.
This one gets rather exhaustive on how imagery in the initial scenes reinforce the theme of the film. It honestly gets rather listy, and suggests that the film was much more controlled and intentional than was let on. Which I think is a valid insight, but not the extent of which is implied in this video. I really like what it means for themes and how it relates to author intention.
I believe the film creators when they say that it was a frantic week of filming. I don’t believe they had the time and energy to pay attention to every detail, especially when most of the camera work was handled by the actors themselves, who I do believe were kept in the dark about much of the film.
I think this shows how ingrained the base theme and backstory was, and how they were able to pass on this intention to the crew, allowing them to subliminally capture images that reinforced the themes. Like how they didn’t necessarily need to actually recommend that interviewees dress in black, because the theme of found footage already favored high contrast visuals. They likely didn’t need to choose and place specific Halloween decorations, because it’s a natural decision to set a creepy movie around Halloween and filming on location means many places already had decor set up. Not saying it was coincidence that they circled an interviewee with flying witches, or had a black cat appear on Heather’s shoulder, but I don’t think it was meticulously planned.
Having clear themes and intentions decided in the beginning of production allowed for creative supporting opportunities to naturally occur.
I’d be interested in taking an exhaustive look at one of the many films of the 2010 era that clearly had a poor time reinforcing theme, and see what can be gleamed of the clarity and intention put forth by their creators.
source: https://saturdayxiii.tumblr.com/post/647019646909841408
I’m happy to add Kvass to my collection of circulating fermented drinks. It’s bread soda. Flavoured with honey and mint.
I used the recipe from Domestic Dreamboat, but essentially it’s just soak plain, stale, toasted bread in hot water for a while. Filter out the bread, then add honey, sugar, mint, and a bit of sourdough starter (I’m sure you could use regular yeast from a package too). When it bubbles, strain and bottle. It’ll carbonate and get less sweet over time. If you make it again, you don’t need new yeast, just use the sediment from the bottles.
source: https://saturdayxiii.tumblr.com/post/646676325321605120
Here’s a week of progress. Drawing at least one quick portrait every day. I’ve gotten more used to my tool of choice. Now if only I could be a better artist.
I am feeling a little more controlled. Feeling more successful in small areas. I’ll keep it up and see what happens.
I really think I’m on to something with these small 20 minute projects. At least if I can actually get a sense of some consistency across them. Normally my art projects take 4-6 hours easily, but I think there’s too many elements in one piece for me to absorb much growth. Then I also do them a lot less often because they take so much effort. We’ll see if I can stick to this, and maybe I can even apply it to other creative areas I want to do more of.
