book recommendation

“Oh my god you’re a writer? Can I read your stuff?”

Being a fan of a show should not be this exhausting. We should not have to rewatch a show 10 times, tweet about it 100 times, etc. as if we're to blame when it doesn't reach some undefinable standard of "acceptable numbers." I'm so tired of shows being canceled and numbers being to blame when platforms promo a bit around release and then let the show flounder. There's no way that's a sustainable business method! You're banking on what, the rare occasion where a show becomes the latest trend? And even when people pull the data for these shows, it's not bad. That's with minimal effort put toward promo. If they put in more effort, imagine how much higher those "not bad" numbers would be. They're going quantity over quality, and even when there's quality within that pool, they don't bother to recognize the potential for success and the fact that success can grow over time. When shows would run for multiple seasons, you could get away with an okay first season as some shows take time to find their footing and audience. The average show is probably not the next stranger things. But we're losing so many good stories from talented teams by expecting every show to do the unimaginable all on its own. The binging model makes it even worse, as the unimaginable is also supposed to happen within a short amount of time (release week). It doesn't make sense to me to have teams put 1-2 years of hard work into creating something only to throw it into the crowd and give it a week to succeed. I know I'm not the only one who has said "hey, that show looks cool" and before I could even start it, the show was canceled. That encourages people to NOT watch anything new, as what's the point if it's going to be canceled? So completely missing the point of the problem at hand, platforms go and make another.

I see you little commenter, and I love you <3

not gonna say it again

this was ghost written by a disgruntled vampire

youre lying if you claim youve never done this

Both of these

I’m sorry, it had to be added

Every single discussion about a good villain/hero dynamic ALWAYS comes back to these two

casual fan? no sorry i only know how to invest my whole livelihood into something and spend every waking moment thinking about said thing

Remember in 1993 when Jurassic Park was like…the end all, be all of special effects?

not gonna lie that still looks intimately real

I’m still somewhat convinced that someone sold their soul to create the special effects in Jurassic Park because that shit is over 20 years old and it still really, really holds up, better than the stuff in a lot of current movies, even.

Fucking witchcraft, man. 

fucking look at this shit though

Literally see this post flying around with a few different responses added to the bottom each time so I’ll say it for this one myself:

THEY ACTUALLY BUILT A GIANT MASSIVELY DETAILED FUCKING ANIMATRONIC T-REX FOR ALL OF THIS THAT’S WHY THE EFFECTS ARE SO GOOD. CAUSE IT AIN’T CGI. AND IT AIN’T GUY IN A COSTUME. IT’S A BIG FUCKING ROBOT DINOSAUR. AND EVERY PART IS DESIGNED TO MOVE. IT COST LIKE HALF THE BUDGET OF THE FILM.

amazing

And they had the film it in small increments, especially in the outdoor scenes, because the rain fall kept soaking into the ‘skin’ of the rex and would slow down and mess up its movements. So they would stop filming and have a crew out there drying off this massive, fake dinosaur, and then they’d start filming again until it was too wet. Repeat until the end of the scene.

They used animatronics and detailed costumes for most if not all of the dinosaurs in the first movie.

The triceratops for instance, was also animatronic.

And the raptors were dudes in suits. I shit you not.

One of my favorite anecdotes I’ve read on tumblr is how the t-rex robot from Jurassic park would malfunction while it was drying out. How did it malfunction, you might wonder?

Motherfucker randomly started moving.

So apparently if you were on the jp set you would sometimes hear people screaming bloody murder even though they were all well aware that it was a giant animatronic puppet and wouldn’t actually, you know, eat them.

(link to said post about malfunctioning t-rex)

Did not know this, had to reblog for awesome movie history insights.

So, I knew about the animatronics bit but I did not know the raptors were guys in suits and the malfunctioning t-rex sounds terrifying.

And i just googled malfunctioning t-rex and was not disappointed. Apparently in order to put the skin on over the steel frame a guy had to crawl inside the t-rex while it was turned on and glue the skin down. And if somebody turned the t-rex off or the power went out the guy in the t-rex stood a very real chance of getting mangled and killed by the hydraulics.

So of course, the power goes out.

And this guy is still in there gluing the skin down.

Apparently the way to survive getting sheered to death by huge sheets of metal while you’re inside a giant t-rex robot is to curl into a ball and hope for the best.

And this guy hoped for the best and got it.

Some other people on stage pried open the t-rex jaws and glue guy crawled out of its mouth and was totally okay.

This is getting better and better.

I think they only had like 6 minutes of CGI

I’m just waiting for the T-Rex to come to life and leave its stand.

@spinosaurus-the-fisher is this the kind of content you love?

Realism comes at a cost, it seems.

i mean ok but why has nobody posted this:

It’s a three piece raptor suit.

Old movies had the best special effects

The thing about this that gets my special effects nerd going is the fact that EVERY single dinosaur was sculpted by artists based on the current existent archeological evidence of the time.

@jurassicparkandrecreation

@shepfax

Even better than that, this movie ADVANCED our best understanding of dinosaurs at the time.  They were blowing out a budget bigger than anything Hollywood had ever seen, and along with employing almost the last hurrah of incredible physical FX, they had a bank of those newfangled digital SFX computers.  Nobody’d ever really created convincing dinosaurs in a movie before.  It’d all been stop-motion animation, and even when the models were exquisitely crafted, you could just tell there was something OFF about them.  Spielberg wanted THE BEST DINOSAURS EVER, and he figured on using the cutting edge of digital modeling and animation technology to build them for him.

So they got hold of some of the best paleontologists they could find and said, “We want you guys to take this tech that your labs could pretty much never afford and use it to build us the most realistic, accurate dinosaur models the world has ever seen.”

The paleontologists knew an opportunity when it bit them in the ass.  They plugged in everything they knew about dinosaurs, all the skeletons and their best guesses about soft tissue and all that.  And when they’d created those dinosaur models, they had the computer start moving them as they realistically would with anatomy like that.  One guy took a look at those walking t-rexes and velociraptors (really utahraptors, but whatevs, fam), and he said, “Wait a minute, I’ve seen movement like that before.”

He called up film of a chicken walking.  Everyone in the room said, “Holy shit.”

Prior to 1989, the idea that birds were descended from dinosaurs existed–we knew about archaeopteryx, we knew there was some minor connection there–but the idea that DINOSAURS LIVE IN THE MODERN WORLD AND THEY ARE CALLED BIRDS was not pre-eminent.  Jurassic Park changed our scientific understanding of dinosaurs.

That paleontologists’d be Kevin Padian. Who is awesome.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Padian

This post just gets better and better with time

shipping two characters you love equally is difficult because on one hand, you want them both to be happy, but on the other, you want one of them to be put in danger and the other one to go absolutely batshitfucking insane to get them back

this is potentially really important:

I have someone staying in my hotel tonight that made me think that this would be worth sharing here.

If you are running away/trying to hide from someone that is frightening, abusing, harassing you, and you find yourself staying in a hotel to avoid being found, there’s an extra precaution you can take.

When you check in, ask the front desk clerk to put you as “Unlisted”. They’ll know what you’re talking about. What this means is that as far as anyone other than you and the front desk clerks are concerned, you’re not there. If someone tries to call for you and your room, “I’m sorry. I don’t have anyone registered under that name.” Same thing goes for it someone shows up at the desk. “Unlisted” means you’re untouchable.

Please, please, if you find yourself in trouble and seeking refuge in a hotel, do this. It’s really quick, easy, and painless for the front desk clerk to do, and they are not going to judge you for it. 

Tip from a hotel receptionist: (I work for the Green and Blue ending in Express- hotels will vary but this is generally a Thing hotels do.)

If you tell the front desk you do not wish to be contacted, they can and will put a note to everyone else who works there that unless you SPECIFICALLY say that a certain person is allowed to call/come up to your room, they will not let ANYONE near your room- ID will be checked for that person for your safety. If someone asks for you by name that isn’t allowed to know you’re there, the staff will simply say “There is no one here by that name.” If they press, the staff will insist no one is there and they need to leave. Also, housekeeping will be informed of your desire to be left alone and will announce at the door that they are housekeeping, for your peace of mind.

A good tip is to have someone else drive you to the hotel if you’re able- that way your harasser cannot find your car and wait by it for you. Also, if you CAN, stay in a hotel where all the room are indoors- usually smaller indoor hotels do not let non-guests past the lobby, especially if they ask for someone/someone’s room number. Third floor helps, too- at my hotel, we usually put people who are hiding from abusers on the third floor at the end- since you can’t enter the side doors without a key and the elevator is in the middle of the hotel. Always check to see if the outside doors are key-access only, and make sure you know where the elevators are, and see if you can get a room closer to the more secure area! 

Also, if you know their car, or the car of anyone they know and might use, tell the receptionist, especially if you think they may come looking for you. Tell the receptionist what it looks like. If you see it, or if they see it circling the hotel or in the parking areas, they can and will call the police if you need them to. I myself have called the police to chase off an abuser who wouldn’t stop circling the hotel. 

Sadly, this is not an uncommon thing, and since I started working at a hotel, I’ve seen my hotel shelter no less than six people fleeing from abusers/stalkers etc, but everyone at the front desk was accommodating and protective- just let the staff know you’re at risk, and they’ll do everything they can to keep you safe.  

Check the condition of the side/back door(s) and look for:

All of which I’ve encountered at hotels.

Unfortunately, the more affordable a hotel is, the more issues it’s likely to have.

Just realized that the reason I love making friends on tumblr is because it’s exactly how you make friends on the playground as a six year old. No, I don’t know their name but they love mermaids too and built this awesome sand castle. No, I don’t know their age but their imaginary cheetah is friends with mine. You like this show? You like this character?? You can sing the theme song really loud??? Here is a flower crown. Here is a juice box. You can share my time and I might never see you again but part of you stays in my soul forever. In my mind we’re still on the swing set and the sky is blue and nothing will ever be wrong again.

tags from coloredcompulsion:

“Could you be the chosen one?”

“I am very much the guy who’s here.”

Back in the ps2 days I would have gotten a booklet with game instructions and lore, a booklet on how to not have a seizure while playing the system, and a coupon for a gaming magazine that doesn’t exist anymore.  

it makes me sad as hell. I use to pour over that little booklet 5 or 6 times before even starting the game. I’d look at all the little concept art and lore. I’d try to imagine what the game would be like in my head based on what the game prompted me with. I’d imagine being in the world myself and what the heck the dash button meant.

There have been a lot of reblogs insulting me about this, but nah. I stand by it. It’s not a giant sadness, but a tiny tinge of feeling like something is missing in the same way that I miss cd booklets with lyrics sheets, art, and listed credits or dvds with features. Somehow I as an adult move on with my life. Fuck, I even make my own art y’all.

For me it’s about presentation of it an an experience. Going to see a movie in a theater vs. watching it on netflix. I like the presentation. I also have a fondness for pop culture ephemera on a layer beyond that. Booklets often had lore and art that helped you get into the mindset of those creating it. It was interesting to see what they thought to be important lore, or trying to cram in stuff they couldn’t fit into the game itself. Also, less universally, it was cool to read credits. See who worked on what. The little dedications and special thanks. Credits exist in games still, but it was like a theater program for your game. it was neat and a reminder that it was people that made the things I like, not corporations or some big auteur.

perrito we need to cook