Creative Things and More

Icon and background by 6yos. A bunch of random things and sometimes reblog things that remind me of my ocs (that have no storyline.)

[avaricevinegar]

obsessed with this tweet

[gabydrawsonceinabluemoon]

2020 is about feeling nostalgia for shows that you watched during middle school 

[kimmy-arts]

These are various character exploration pieces I’ve been working on lately. <3

I posted these on Instagram and lots of people have asked can they use these as references - the answer is yes but if you use them please remember to credit me and please no direct tracing. 

Also please do not re-post my art, re-blogs are always appreciated though <3

[seijohsremade]

ways to help protestors if you are unable to protest

everybody has to do their part. as a reference, this was posted on 1 june 2020. if any links are broken or direct to a place they should not, please feel free to add on with corrections. if there is new information with better knowledge, please feel free to share. thank you.

1. donate

do not donate to shaun king. he has repeatedly collected money to “support” black people, but no one knows where the money is.

BAIL FUNDS (ALPHABETICAL ORDER; NOT A COMPREHENSIVE LIST)

note: washington dc and new jersey have cashless bail systems.

bail fund google doc (also includes lawyers for protestors)

national bail fund network (directory of community bail funds)

community bail funds masterpost by @keplercryptids

resistance funds (google sheets; lists bail funds around the country)

nationwide bail funds (split a donation to the bail funds listed on the linked page with a single transaction)

atlanta bail fund

brooklyn bail fund

colorado freedom fund

columbus freedom fund

houston chapter of black lives matter

liberty fund (nyc based; focuses services on people from low-income communities)

los angeles freedom fund

louisville community fund

massachusetts bail fund

minnesota freedom fund (as of may 30, 2020, they are encouraging people to donate elsewhere since they have raised enough money; as of may 29, 2020, they do not have a venmo, as some fraudulent accounts have been claiming, source)

philadelphia bail out fund

richmond bail fund

MORE PLACES TO DONATE

note: more links are listed in the masterposts below.

northstar health collective (healthcare and medical aid for people on the front lines)

reclaim the block (aims to redistribute police funding to help the minneapolis community)

twin cities dsa (provides fresh groceries and hot meals to people in minneapolis)

2. educate yourself

it isn’t enough to sign petitions and reblog/retweet/etc. nonblack people, including people of color, owe it to black people to educate themselves and correct themselves and the people around them on anti-blackness.

note: more links are in the masterposts linked below.

resources and tools regarding racism and anti-blackness (google sheets compilation)

readings on society, racism, the prison system, etc. (twitter thread)

“where do we go after ferguson?” by michael eric dyson

official black lives matter website

3. give out supplies to protestors

people need supplies to protest safely, and even if they bring supplies with them, they can often run out. if you’re able, stock up and hand them out to people protesting. for more supplies to donate, see the “george floyd action” google docs link in section 5.

water bottles (dehydration and heatstroke are not things people should have to deal with alongside bastard cops. if the police in your area are particularly violent or known to use tear gas, get the ones with the sports cap/suction-thing/etc so people can use them as emergency eye-flushes.)

snacks (make sure to take into account that people have allergies of all sorts. foods will have a little label that says “may contain” and then list any potential allergens. write the allergens on the ziploc (or any container you use) in permanent marker, or better yet, write the snacks included in the pack.)

masks (don’t forget there’s still a pandemic going on. also it will aid in deterring facial recognition when the police try to track down protestors,  also part two, if the cops use tear gas, wearing a mask (with the combination of a scarf or bandana) will lessen the adverse effects. lessen, not stop.)

bandanas, scarves, etc. and goggles (ski goggles, swimming goggles, etc.) (see above for explanation on the scarves. same goes for the goggles. anti–tear gas and anti–facial recognition.)

clean shirts (for people who are heavily gassed. also helps deter recognition through clothing.)

wound care supplies (band-aids, packets of neosporin packets or a similar antibiotic, alcohol wipes, etc.; if you can, decant bactine into those little travel bottles.)

a sharpie or another type of marker (for writing bail numbers or emergency contacts on arms, hands, etc. it’s not enough to have your city’s bail fund number stored on your phone; the police won’t give it to you to look it up. give people a marker so they can write it down, preferably not washable so it isn’t easily removed.)

IMPORTANT: KNOWING FIRST AID

tear gas: if you’re hit, get out as fast and as soon as you can. take anyone you can with you. the longer you’re in the gas, the harder it will be for you to see, and it can irritate your airways, making it hard to breathe. if you’re hit, don’t run; it’ll only make things worse on your lungs. when you leave the area, take a cold shower. don’t use hot water (it will only reactivate the agent); don’t bathe (it will only spread the CS around). (source 1) (source 2) (cdc fact sheet on tear gas)

move them to a clean and ventilated area where it’s as safe as possible.

ask them if they’re wearing contact lenses. have them remove it. if they’re wearing glasses, rinse it with water.

solution of half liquid antacid, half water. spray from the inside going out, with the head tilted back and slightly towards the side being rinsed. if they say it’s okay, open the eye slightly while doing this. (source)

bullet wounds: the most important thing is to stop the bleeding. be sure to check for an exit wound and cover that as well. treat both wounds, but treat the worse one first.

stop the bleed (youtube video by uc san diego health)

first aid in active shooting scenarios

making a tourniquet (a commercial tourniquet is best, but improvised ones can work as well if done properly; the most important things to remember is that tourniquets are for limb injuries and are not meant for the head or torso and that they have to be very tightly wound on the injury.)

how to apply pressure dressings

miscellaneous

adult cpr tutorial (youtube video by cincinnati children’s; think of “staying alive” by the beegees or “uptown funk”)

4. be a source of information

be responsible with this. people’s lives are at stake. that being said, the media is a fucking joke and the best way to get accurate information in a grassroots rebellion is amongst ourselves. record everything, but if you are going to share any information at all, be sure to blur people’s faces.

signal (encrypted messenger app; messages delete after x amount of time): app store | google play

tool for scrubbing metadata from images and selectively blurring identifiable features

tech tips to protect yourself while protesting (by rey.nbows on tiktok, via vicent_efl on twitter)

cop spotting 101 (google docs)

know your rights (by personachuu on twitter)

NUMBERS TO CALL FOR ARRESTED PROTESTORS (ALPHABETICAL ORDER; SOURCES LINKED TO THE NUMBER)

remember to keep phones OFF unless absolutely necessary. cell phone towers, stingrays, location notifs can all be used to track you and other protestors. don’t fuck around. if your phone must be on, keep it on airplane mode as often as possible and only communicate using encrypted methods. no, snapchat doesn’t count. (a twitter thread on stingrays, for those interested)

lawyers assisting protestors pro-bono (by riyakatariax on twitter)

atlanta: 404-689-1519

chicago: 773-309-1198

minneapolis: 612-444-2654

5. miscellaneous links and links for protestors

masterpost of petitions to sign, numbers to call, places to donate, and more (carrd by dehyedration on twitter)

#blacklivesmatter (google docs by ambivaIcnt on twitter; includes information on relevant events, other masterposts, lists of petitions and donation links, how to protest safely and protests to go to, and more)

george floyd action (google docs; includes information on apps to download, supplies to buy and donate, places to donate to, protest safety, resources on unlearning racial bias, and more)

how to get out of ziptie “handcuffs” (by finnianj on tiktok, via katzerax on twitter)

how can i help? by @abbiheartstaylor

how to make a signal-blocking cell phone pouch

tips for protestors by @aurora00boredealis

twitter thread for protestors (by vantaemuseum on twitter)

also, if you’re protesting, change your passcode. make it at least 11 characters long and don’t use facial/thumb recognition.

[seijohsremade]

edit 1: the minnesota freedom fund is not black-owned. please donate to the black visions collective instead.

[seijohsremade]

edit 2: what to do if you bring your phone to a protest. steps to encrypt your data. / and a second source too.

[bluebeads-art]

hi !! i was wondering if u had any tips/tutorials on sculpting hair in 3d ?? i can never seem to get it right, but urs always looks so nice and clean !!!

First of all, thanks! :D  Second of all, I actually don’t sculpt hair, because I can’t get it right that way either, pff. People who can sculpt hair are wizards

I use a method with bevels and curves! Pancake_Manicure on YouTube has [this amazing tutorial]. It’s a bit outdated, but it can still be adapted to Blender 2.8+

To make it look more cartoony and more like my own 2D art, I use less complicated bevels and bigger ‘clumps’ of hair. To make it behave better with Blender EEVEE, I don’t have any transparency at the tips and instead just shrink the curve way the heck down. Just give it a very small but not-0 radius though, Blender hates a radius of 0 and will create weird artifacts

Side tip: Use proportional editing when scaling or twisting the curve for smooth transitions, and if you want to smooth things out more, you can select segments of your curve, right click, and use smooth curve tilt and smooth curve radius. Also don’t forget proportional editing falloff types! A sharp falloff is useful for tugging hair tips around

Tip #2: Mirror modifiers mostly work with curves too, but you might want to add a separate object of asymmetrical clumps to make it look more organic. Due to how curve tilts work, trying to mirror them manually is a nightmare, unless I’m missing some cool life hack

-----

This is the append library of bevel curves I’ve made for myself and keep slowly adding to, to give you some bevel shape ideas. That second main column with those cloud-like shapes are probably my most used. Also, I don’t know if it’s obvious or not, but the bevel object’s origin is where the hair curve would run through. Also scaling down the bevel object itself to a reasonable starting size will make your life easier

Each curve object can only have one bevel type, so if you want to vary it up, you need to split off some curves into their own object. “P” is the default hotkey to separate a selection

-----

Like in Pancake_Manicure’s tutorial, to make it look even more like hair strands, I use a normal map. Only unlike Pancake_Manicure’s procedurally generated bump map, I decided to go the hellish route of learning how to bake procedurally generated bump / displacement into normal maps. I... would not recommend trying to learn that part, so here are two I made lol. Crediting me if you use them isn’t required, but would be nice :D

[One for long clumps of hair]

and [one for short / poofier hair]

(hopefully those links work, I haven’t used Imgur in literally 5 years)

Note that that long hair one is REALLY intense, you’re probably gonna have to lower the strength of the normal map node in your hair material

-----

Sorry if this wasn’t the answer you were looking for, but I LOVE this method of hair modeling because of how smooth and flexible it is. You can even make low poly bevels (select your bevel in edit mode, right click, and set spline type to poly), convert your curves to meshs (by going through Object > Convert To > Mesh from Curve), and then model / UV unwrap / rig / etc them manually. Beveled curves can be used for all kinds of things, so it’s a good skill to have :D

Feel free to ask more questions, I’ve been super scatterbrained lately, so I have no idea what important info I might have forgot to mention, ahah...

[greenbergsays]

I'm a writer who is fine with receiving critical comments even when I didn't remember specifically say so. Some other writers don't want to receive critical comments. That's fine. No unsolicited crit is not a universal norm, so any writer who cares a lot about whether they get critical comments should say so, whether that's saying please do or please don't.

You know, I’ve got a fourteen-year-old nephew who plays the violin.

He’s been playing it since fifth grade, and he’s going to be a freshman in high school next year. He’s at that age where boys are usually fucking assholes. Worse than that, he’s a nerdy boy, who’s into a whole slew of geeky things, which means he could so very easily fall prey to the Nice Guy attitude, but he doesn’t.

He’s a good kid. But because he’s so much like me, and has been influenced heavily by me his entire life, he’s a bit of a perfectionist.

On Monday, we went to an open house for parents for the high school he’s hoping to get into this coming year, and they had their orchestra playing. After their performance, as we were walking to the next section of the tour, he reiterated a point that I’ve heard him voice a few times before.

It’s hard for him to just sit there and listen to other people play the violin now. When he’s listening to the performance, all he can hear are the missed notes or if someone is scratchy or off-key or if they’re a beat ahead or a beat behind, etc. 

He isn’t some virtuoso by any means, he’s just a fourteen-year-old that plays the violin, yet because he studies it, he automatically mentally critiques the performance.

I think we, as writers, can all relate to that. No matter how well we write ourselves, by being in this arena, we are automatically more sensitive to the mistakes others make. In fact, you don’t even have to be a writer; those who read regularly are prone to the same thing.

The thing is, though, I didn’t have to tell my nephew not to mock the students who were performing at the open house. I didn’t have to tell him not to criticize them or make fun of them, I didn’t have to tell him to lower his voice so they wouldn’t hear, and I definitely didn’t have to stop him from going up to them to criticize their performances to their face. It was something that was automatically understood; those things are impolite, and should he engage in any of those behaviors, he’d get in trouble for them.

And here’s the really important bit. Are you ready? 

Not a single one of those amateur performers had to preface that performance by saying, “Please don’t.” 

It was just automatically understood that their audience wouldn’t, because it’s not a thing you do in polite society when you are given something for free by people who are not professionals. Especially when–this is also an important bit–you are also not a professional critic in any shape, form, or fashion.

My nephew waited until we’d walked away from the orchestra, where they weren’t in danger of hearing before he even began to discuss the very broad concept of how he critiques performances now because he’s in orchestra.

Somehow, without me having to drill it into his head countless times, this fourteen-year-old boy grasps the concept that you should not go up to someone, out of the blue, and criticize their performance just because you heard (or in the case of a writer: saw) their mistakes. He isn’t a professional, nor is he a teacher. He hasn’t been asked, he’s still learning himself, and they don’t know him from Adam. 

On a fundamental level, he seems to get how entirely unhelpful his critique would be, and how the only thing he’s succeeding in doing is hurting someone’s feelings for no good reason.

I just think it’s funny how a fourteen-year-old understands that, but somehow, you don’t.

[caroldanversenthusiast]

When Emilia Clarke wears a suit she looks like a rich CEO who would steal your wife and laugh at your inability to keep a woman.

[ihaveremadelol]

“I Enjoy Being a Girl” Mashup. 

[appleb18]

The Best Cartoon Villain in 2010′s

With the 2010s is coming to a close, they were many villains in modern cartoons that were quite interesting at first but as time passes they became not as interesting that many people thought they were While many people talk about Bill Cipher, White Diamond, Lord Dominator, Lich or Toffee being well-written antagonist but there is one villain that I believe he’s the greatest and not many talks about him and his name is Noximilian the Clockmaker 

Nox is one of the best modern cartoon villains that was written, even better than Toffee but what makes him so great? Let me explain why he is 

Before the show began, Nox was a well-gifted clockmaker/inventor, a loving father, and a loving husband however very poor do to debts but still a loving family

That was until he found the Eliacube.

 The cube has unimagined power that he thought was impossible like he learns a bit of Xelor magic which they are time mages. He studied the Eliacube which caused him to hardly eat nor sleep and spending less time with the family. 

A week passed and when he finally left his workshop, he finds a note from his wife that she took his children and moved to her sister due to him being more focus on the cube than his family.

 As he was about to find his family, the cube didn’t allow him to leave, it called him and he answered making his transformation from a loving-father to a maniac complete. 

After two months, Nox’s landlord arrives to see him and what he saw was a completely different man. Instead of asking him for his debt, he came to inform Nox that his family is dead. Ogrest chaos flooded the island that they were living in. He didn’t believe him at first but then he sees visions of the island being destroyed and that’s when his mind breaks. 

He lost his family because his obsession for the cube gotten the better to him but it spoke to him that maybe it isn’t too late if he just goes back in time and erases all of his mistakes. He could even be more powerful than the Xelor god himself and all he needs is a massive amount of Wakfu (magic) to be able to do it and he spends 200 years gathering Wakfu by laying waste to multiple countries and killing people with Wakfu so he can go back in time to see his family. 

Now in present time of the show.

The story begins with Nox discovers that Grougalorgan who has a large amount of Wakfu, seemingly pushing baby Yugo who is an Elitrope, a forgotten race (the protagonist of the show) in his baby carriage.

 He challenges him but was ultimately defeated. Although he was beaten, he laughs that he finds out Grougalgorgan is a dragon disguised as a human and he vows that he’ll acquire his Wakfu one day. 

Twelve years later, Nox tracks Grougalorgan trail once again. Yugo is now twelve-years-old and is on a search for his real parents with his friends. Although Nox is absent in the first part of the story he is tracking their movement in hoping their journey will lead him to the dragon. 

He finally finds him on an island and they clash. 

In their fight, Nox was more prepared than their previous encounter by using his drones to either attack Grougalorgan

Or heal him 

Using three corpses that he killed previously as his puppet to fight for him 

And he tries his best not to use too much Wakfu 

Although he has beaten him once again he let his guard down and able to defeat him. When Nox was able to take the dragon Wakfu, Grougalorgan sees that he isn’t evil and warns him that danger he’ll do if his plan succeeds. Nox response is this 

“The end of the world? Is that really important? If I succeed, no one will care because it will all begin again! If I fail, I don’t care if the world survives or not!” 

However he fails on stealing his Wakfu by self-destructing himself and after that he appears to Yugo and his friends that what Nox will do next and they must stop him, gathering Wakfu from the Tree of Life. 

Nox launch his invasion at the Sadida Kingdom, where the Tree of Life is by sending his minions and machines against Sadida army. Yugo and his friends showed up to face off Nox for one last time but as they battle his army, Nox deploys his greatest invention, XII Raze-Time that went up against them so the path can be cleared to go to the Tree of Life.

 The machine was too much for them to handle and it even killed Sadlygrove

Yugo’s friend and that traumatized Eva, Sadlygrove love interest

and enrage Yugo in the process. 

At the end of the battle, he manages to get to his goal, draining Wakfu from the Tree of Life which caused all of the Sadida soldiers to die. 

Yugo and his dragon brother, Adamai face-off Nox. During their encounter, Yugo touches the Eliacube and transport Nox Clock Fortress to Mount Zinit. With Yugo and Nox fully powered by the Eliacube, they continued their last battle.

 Yugo being victorious by he was able to move thanks to cube but was stopped when he got distracted by Ogrest roar which Nox use that to strike and drain his Wakfu and making him the victor of the battle. 

He uses Yugo and Tree of Life Wakfu to go back in time to save his family however it didn’t truly work, instead of going back 200 years, he only managed to go back 20 minutes. Nox rants that he spends so many years of gathering Wakfu for only 20 minutes as his machines and his fortress was crumbling down before him. 

Nox proceeds ranting about the cube of how it won’t let him see his family and still think that it was talking to him.

 Yugo angrily yells at him that the Eliacube doesn’t talk and all of his crimes for the past 200 years was for naught, calling him insane. Nox breaks down, realizing that not only he can’t see his family again but the crimes he committed, he truly believed that it would work and all the lives he has taken wouldn’t matter but he failed. Although the Tree of Life is alive however Sadlygrove and every victim he attacked can’t be erased. 

 With the last remaining Wakfu he has, he uses it to teleport to his family grave and that’s when he turned to dust. 

From all the modern cartoon villains, Nox is the most well-written villain that was ever created. He had an emotional backstory that made him from a hardworking loving-father to a ruthless man that cares very little actions An understandable motivation that all he wants to do he reunite with his family by going back in time which he has to amount of Wakfu of doing. He was active in the story for the first season and his endgame. He’s probably the only villain that actually defeated the main cast of characters and was about to get what he wanted but it was his plan fail that truly defeated him, making him realize what he has done 

This is how you write a villain. He wasn’t forgiven so easily nor defeated in the most anti-climatic way

Such as 

White Diamond gets defeated by getting the talk by Steven 

Toffee getting blasted by Star 

or Mina gets scott free without facing any punishment for her crimes she committed 

 like most modern cartoons are doing right now. Nox is one of the greatest modern cartoon villains that was ever created and I hope cartoon creators take note of it. 

[dkcstudies]

~acing your essay~

After over six years of intense practice, here’s the procedure I follow to write, edit, and finish essays on time! 

Calculate how much time you need

Do this as soon as the essay is assigned. My general rule of thumb is one day per page required, plus 1. So if the page requirement is 6, I give myself 7 days to do the essay. This allows me to really focus on perfecting each page and spread the work out to <hour/day instead of eight hours of frantic writing the night before. Use the last day for final edits!

Go to office hours

I can’t emphasize this one enough! Use this time to present ideas for your paper, clarify the rubric, and generally make sure you’re on the right track. Nothing’s worse that being halfway through a paper and realizing you misunderstood the prompt. Nothing.

Outline!

Your outline should include a thesis, the topic sentence for each body paragraph, and any quotes/paraphrasing you plan on using. It’s miraculous how much easier it is to write a paper when you have something concrete to start with. 

Take advantage of your resources

If your school has a writing help center, use it–and make the appointment ahead of time. Find librarians who can help you research your topic, it’s their job and they’ll be happy to help! Where are you the most productive? Find that space and do your work there. 

Finish a day early

I always mark due dates for large projects a day ahead in my calendar. Use your extra day to make final edits, format the paper, and go over the rubric to make sure you’ve hit every point. Try reading your paper aloud to find errors you might not have noticed!

Every essay should have

A strong thesis that argues a point

Specific body paragraphs that support the thesis directly with evidence

A conclusion that sums up your essay while also touching on a new, related idea

Stay on that grind! You can do this–just stay organized and listen to your body. 

[bunchofrpmemes]

Masterist of Superpowers

for original superhero characters

Acid Generation

Adoptive Muscle Memory

Air Manipulation

Animal Communication

Animal Manipulation

Animal Morphing

Animation

Aquatic Respiration

Astral Possession

Astral Projection

Aura Manipulation

Aura Sensing

Beacon Emission

Chaos Magic

Chronolock

Cloaking

Cyclone Spinning

Dehydration

Density Control

Deoxygenation

Dermal Armor

Disintegration

Dowsing

Dream Manipulation

Duplication

Earth Manipulation

Echolocation

Eidetic Memory

Elasticity

Electricity Manipulation

Elemental Tranmutation

Empathy

Energy Conversion

Energy Emission

Energy Negation

Enhanced Agility

Enhanced Dexterity

Enhanced Jumping

Enhanced Marksmanship

Enhanced Reflexes

Enhanced Senses

Fear Inducement

Fire Manipulation

Flight

Force-Field Generation

Heat Vision

Holographic Projection

Ice Manipulation

Impermeability

Induced Combustion

Induced Sedation

Infrared Vision

Innate Combat Skills

Intangibility

Invisibility

Jet Propulsion

Kinetic Energy Absorption

Knowledge Replication

Levitation

Life-Force Manipulation

Light Generation

Light Manipulation

Magnetism Manipulation

Matter Ingestion

Mediumship

Melting

Memory Manipulation

Mental Manipulation

Metal Manipulation

Microscopic Vision

Mind Reading

Muscle Manipulation

Mythological Mimicry

Necromancy

Nerve Gas Emission

Night Vision

Omnilingualism

Petrification

Pheromone Manipulation

Plant Manipulation

Poison Generation

Poison Immunity

Power Bestowal

Power Detection

Power Negation

Power Replication

Precognition

Prehensile Nails

Psychic Persuasion

Pyric Mimicry

Radiation Manipulation

Reality Warping

Regenerative Healing

Self-Detonation

Self-Molecular Manipulation

Self-Sustenance

Shadow Mimicry

Shape-Shifting

Size-Shifting

Smoke Generation

Sonic Scream

Sound Manipulation

Summoning

Super Speed

Super Strength

Telekinesis

Teleportation

Temporal Manipulation

Tracking Evasion

Transmogrification

Vibration Emission

Vitality Absorption

Wall Crawling

Water Generation

Water Manipulation

Weather Manipulation

X-Ray Vision

[deejay]

Reblog if you need this energy

[forzamentis]

Fantastic hands references by the website Hong14cafe.

Hong14cafe: Facebook | Forum

[badass-art-tutorials]

Hand reference yessss!!

[kurodiii]

Hand refs for all your art and editing needs :)

[tittydicktea]

HANDS

[toadschooled]

I found a site that lets you make easy gifs, so I tested out on one of my favorite frog videos ever! Bushveld rain frogs, Breviceps adspersus. 

[virgoasf]

[curlsandstems]

I need this.

[poni1kenobi-deactivated20250915]

Reblogged last year, hoping it comes this year

[petrodactyl352-deactivated20201]

I need this too 😖😖😖

[reference-database]

For height-dysphoric trans men - list of shorter male celebrities.

Posted by @ TRANSFlNN on twitter

[luxtenebre]

Anyone got something like this for trans women because like…Being 6ft tall doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in this fight

[gaypitbull]

ask and you shall recieve :)

6′0 Aisha Tyler

6′0 Allison Janney

6′0 Brooke Shields

6′0 Elle Macpherson

6′0 Famke Janssen

6′0 Geena Davis

6′0 Jane Lynch

6′0 Jeanene Fox

6′0 Jennie Finch

6′0  Kristen Johnston

6′0 Margaux Hemingway

6′0 Natasha Stefanenko

6′0 Saffron Burrows

6′0 Uma Thurman

6′1 Adriana Karembeu

6′1 Ana Hickmann

6′1 Brigitte Nielsen

6′1 Faith Minton

6′1 Janet McTeer

6′1 Julie Strain

6′1 Michelle Wie

6′1 Monika Schnarre

6′1 Pam Stone

6′1 Penny Lancaster

6′1 Tara Moss

6′1 Venus Williams

6′2 Dorothy Ford

6′2  Elizabeth Debicki

6′2 Ireland Baldwin

6′2 Jodie Kidd

6′2 Karlie Kloss

6′2 Lindsay Davenport

6′2  Maria Sharapova

6′2 Natalia Bush

6′2 Suzie Plakson

6′3 Dot-Marie Jones

6′3 Gabrielle Reece

6′3 Gwendoline Christie

6′3 Judy Gold

6′3 Kerri Walsh Jennings

6′4 Candace Parker

6′4   L'Wren Scott

6′4 Rebecca Lobo

6′5 Lisa Leslie

[bigfatscience]

Size diversity in height (and weight!!) is real and does not care about gender-based stereotypes.

[assasinglasses]

this is wholesome but tbh all i can think of is how danny devito is simultaneously both taller and shorter than i imagined

[reel-em-in]

BAFTA Gurus Screenwriting Talk - Taika Waititi

For our lecture this week we were tasked with watching a BAFTA Gurus video, specifically a Screenwriting talk. After a quick look through the different speakers on offer within their videos, I decided to watch the talk by Taika Waititi. Someone who’s work is a particular favourite of mine, and thus I had a keen interest in the writing techniques of.

I managed to split the talk into 5 main parts: general information about Taika Waititi, thematic within Waititi’s work, adaptations of existing work, writing methods and tips, and the audience questions at the end of the video.

General Information on Taika Waititi

Began his career as a visual artist and actor

Most of his screenplays are written 7 years before going into production as films

He makes a point of going against conventional New Zealand comedy

Worked many jobs prior to going into the film industry, many in hospitality.

He reccomends waiting and improving your craft before rushing into feature films

He draws on many of his own experiences as inspiration within the screenwriting process

Thematics

Draw on your own experiences, this allows for a personal connection to the work.

Waititi usually works with a mix of genres in his films. Usually mixing comedy with darker and more melancholy themes.

Most of his films feature a nuanced look at childhood

He feels that writing for child actors is more pure, as kids don’t overthink or over complicate roles in the way that more experienced adult actors sometimes do.

He feels a responsibility to inspire his community (Maori), but not to representing only the positives within it. He doesn’t shy away from the issues within his community.

Adaptation (In relation to Hunt For The Wilderpeople, and its inspiration Wild Pigs and Watercress)

Make it your own. Waititi’s original screenplay for this was closer to the original book, and contained little to no humour. As he revised it he added more humour, giving his own voice to the film.

“It’s okay to put ridiculous shit in movies.”

Writing Methods and Tips

When adding comedy to your work it is very important to balance the humour with the more serious undertones. In this respect Waititi believes that it is more difficult than writing something that is purely drama. Comedic timing is very important, and can be difficult to get right.

When revising projects, it is important to read back through what you have written. If at any point you feel embarrassed, that is the stuff you need to change and look at further.

It took Waititi 6 years to write What We Do In The Shadows. With a lot of the actual film being improvised to give it a more realistic documentary feel. Even though it had a script, not many of the actors were actually given the script to view in its entirety. This lead to it having 150 hours of footage, and taking 14 months to edit.

IMPROV IS PART OF THE WRITING PROCESS

Information From Audience Questions

Hunt For The Wilderpeople stuck strictly to it’s script. This was due to constraints with filming. This was because it was filmed during the winter and mostly takes place outside.

Waititi feels that pitching a screenplay is less about the idea, and more about deciding wether those you are pitching to are the sort of people you want to spend the next x amount of time working with.

When Waititi wants a specific thing to happen within his films and is worried that those funding the project may want to take it out, he has 2 tactics to increase the chances of keeping it:

Bait and switch - He doesn’t put it in the script until after he has received the funding.

Distract - He puts something extra crazy in the script that he knows they will want to take out. The thing he actually wants in goes straight after this. The crazy aspect acts as a distraction, and the part he actually wants slips by without being noticed.

Write the script without worrying about financing. Get it to what you want, then take it to financers.

Going in with just a synopsis can be dangerous as it can give away some of the control you have of the screenplay

When working as a director for hire, Waititi is often allowed to do passes on the script, allowing him to add his own voice to it. E.g Thor: Ragnarok

Waititi takes inspiration from Akira, Death of Stalin, Badlands, Get Out, Days of Heaven, and The Graduate

STICK TO YOUR VISION

It is good to listen to those with more experience than you, but it is also important to stick to your vision and do what you think is right.

Know your strengths

It is important to know as much as you can, across as many departments as possible.

When writing, consider the audiences experience. When will they get bored?

It is good to work with people you know, as then you have to worry less about hurting their feelings, etc.

Methods of inspiration - listening to a playlist when writing, using moodboards, watching other films, people watching, stolen conversations.

Waititi’s writing process - lots of notes and beats before typing, writes the beginning and end first, then writes the scenes that make up the body of the film, then glues it together with connecting scenes, then writes it properly.

Jojo Rabbit (2019) began being written in 2011

Trick for writing and revising - Write a draft and put it away for a year, then come back to it and read it a few times. After reading it, throw it away and redo it from what you can remember. This will make it shorter. Once you have the idea down to its bare bones, you can begin adding aspects of tone and humour to it.

Turn of technology for as long as possible when writing. This stops distractions.

Waititi tries to spend 3 hours a day actually typing.

Break up the workload into 20 minute blocks. Every 20 minutes cycle what you are working on.

Trust the people around you, use them during the revising process as a set of fresh eyes. Listen to what they have to say about it (constructive criticism)