Recovering From Post PAX

This past weekend was PAX, my awesome boyfriend bought spare tickets and we went for the full 4 days.  I am still trying to recover so PAX details will come later in the week.

It is true what they say, PAX does wipe you out.

See you on the other side

Bouncing Off!

            Patience is a virtue, but when someone is wasting your time your patience wears tin and finally breaks.  That is what happened to me this weekend with the director.  In her response back to me she came off as a mom who wanted to let all her children have a turn on the swings. 

            Uhh 1)this is the real world and not everyone can get the job they want 2) the kid has already proven to be a flak and yet you want to still give him a chance to “show off his work” 3) this project is 99% done, all we need from the director is the ok.  But Miss Director you have proven your self to be contradictory, show lack of leadership, and zero interest of urgency to put your work out there to get your next project funded and going.

            That's One, Two, Three strikes and you are Out of my life miss director.  You are one bridge that I don't mind burring.

            On a lighter note, I did finish my costume for that Saturday night party.  I was a vintage 50’s creeper from minecraft.  I think I looked smashing:

            I did see The World’s End yesterday at SIFF cinema.  It was a decent film, funny, and at times made you think about humanity and society as a whole.  It was a little stretched out at parts and made you wish the robots would show up soon, defiantly not one of  Edgar Wright’s greatest films but it is still decent and one of the better blockbuster film out there this summer.

            This film did make me want to do a mile long pub crawl, so if anyone knows of a good one in Seattle or any where in the world PLEASE let me know!

            This week since I am not going to PAX, I will be trying to get a hold of friends that are coming into town to hang out after and go to some parties where badges are not required.   Also up this week is another film&music meet and greet that I will probably go to for a limited time.  Just chat with people I don’t know and hope to find someone in need of my skills.  Fingers crossed, see you on Friday.

            See you on the other side

Bitchin’ Fridays: Female Directors

           

            If you saw my tweet this afternoon, you knew this was coming.  Why I will never work with female directors again.  I’m sure you guessed it, it has to do with the pro-bono gig and yes I am going back on my work to never talk about it again.  But damn it, it is my blog and I will write what I want!

            I received an email this afternoon from the director.  Right off the bat she ask me to send the pro tools session to the kid (well thanks for buttering me up first sweet heart), then thanks me for all my hard work.  She goes on to say she has asked the kid to “some finite tweaking to the sound mix, and work with the composter on fitting the score, which we keep moving around.”  Well that is a bit of a slap to the face. 

            What I am reading out of it is that she is not happy with my work and instead of trying to work it out with me; she goes back to the kid who previously dropped the ball. I can never understand why, in my experience, a female director never confront an editor and say “I don’t like this or this; I want more of this, lose that and go!”  Instead I am usually left with “umm that sounds good” and nothing more.  No feedback whatsoever or true direction of how she wants the film to sound. 

            All I’m asking is when I ask you to listen to the mix I send you please send me some feedback on what you want changed and not wait two weeks after I send you the mix to say something or throw a wrench into the system.  I hate not hearing back from someone with in a three day period.  It really pisses me off when you respond over a week later with minimal comments.  Make me think that you just don’t give a damn to your own project, so why should I care.

            I almost want to do a real bitch move and tell her to fuck off and have the kid start from scratch like I had to.  But I just can’t seem to muster up the courage to do this.  Another option I was considering was to only send a cleaned up version of the OMF to the kid minus all of my library sounds, I really don’t want him to be using my sound for any of his future work.  One thing is for sure, I am not replying immediately to the director due to A) rudeness B) lack of communication and response time.  A little childish, yes but I don’t like being yanked around.

            To say that I will never work with another female director is partially correct.  I will only be working with a female director if all the following criteria are followed:

1) Must have multiple credits as a director

2) Must have a reputation within the filming community, wither it be local or national

3) Has won awards on the films directed or widely known and don’t have to search endless pages of the web to find it.

4) Must communicate well with the crew I post

5) Must reply to email or phone messages in a timely fashion

One might say I might be harsh towards inspiring female directors but all I have to say in response is:

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

             Think I am being harsh or irrational about female directors?  Have a suggestion on what I should do, let me in the comment section below.  See you Monday for a wrap up of my week.

See you on the other side.

Sleepy Tuesday And Fighting Off A Future Cold

            I awoke this morning with a sore throat, which can only mean one thing for me… a cold is approaching.  I have many things to accomplish this week and battling a cold is not one of them.  So today I shall rest and drink lots of tea in the heat a hope that I don’t get the cold!

            This past week was filled with movie watching, store items gathering and a new goal in life.  But first let’s talk about films.

            The first film I want to discuss is the Austrian film The Wall.  Every technical aspect of this film is great but the story and pacing is boring and dull.  Basically it is about this woman who is trapped behind this invisible wall and she just accepts it.  Nothing about the wall just the whole psyche of her dealing with being alone.  All this movie is good for is back ground noise while you work and to look at some pretty scenery.

            The second film was Kick-Ass 2.  It was what you might expect from this sequel, a lot of violence and comedy.  Strong characters that make you love and/or hate, one in particular has caught my eye… Mother Russia.  I know a lot of peeps are hating on Russia for there policies on gay rights (I agree full heartily that Russia is being a total dick in this situation and seriously need to change there tune before the next Olympics), but I still like Mother Russia in Kick-Ass. 

            I really liked this character so much that I decided to make it my goal to cosplay as her by the time RTX rolls around.  I have given myself a little less than a year to accomplish getting my body into peek muscular form but I think I can do it.  Wish me luck in pumping iron!

            This week I plan on finishing up my wig and mask for a party this Saturday so pics to come from that on Monday or Tuesday.  Until then see you on Friday!

            See you on the other side

Bitchin’ Fridays: Heroes of Cosplay

            There have been a lot of discussions on the internet about SyFy’s new reality show Heroes of Cosplay.  From what I have read there seems to be 3 groups of people:

1) The ones who like it

2) The ones who didn’t care for the production and editing of the show (what I mean by this is how the SyFy produce choose how to present there show to the viewers and the viewer anger is towards the Channel it’s self)

3) The ones who hate not only the show but the people on the show as well.  Or as I like to call them the meowing cats.

            I am no way saying that the show is great and amazing, but I did find aspects of it to be enjoyable.  I liked the behind the scenes bits where they showed (briefly) how they design and the competition side of cosplaying.  I have coplayed and never entered a competition nor had the desire to.  But seeing a different side, the competition side of things I found to be interesting.  While many cosplayers may argue that it not about competition, but from a viewer stand point watching a cosplayer walk around and chat with friends at a convention is rather boring.  By having them compete and who will come out on top makes exciting television.

            Now before I move on to my anger towards the meowing cats I just want to address the decision the producers made add the drama to the show.  This show as I would label it would be more docudrama and less competition series.  In a docudrama you need a dash of reality and an explosion of drama.  Hell, look at the 20 different Real Housewives of what ever shows.  A little (or a lot) of drama is good for television, it drives the show and creates a little suspense for the view to see the out come.  If the show only consisted of how to builds and strutting around on the competition it would make the show boring as hell. 

            When was the last time you sat down and watched a DYI show on TV?  Yeah, they are boring and if you want tips on how to make certain things for cosplay there is a little thing called the internet.  Hello Youtube!

            Now on ward to the meowing cats!  These people are the trolls of the internet that just want to bring down the people who are show cased on the show and there fans.  You have seen them on tumbler, reddit, or even on your facebook wall posting really harsh negative critics about the show and the people as well.  Many people have critic that the people on the show only care about winning money and how many fans you have, totally not the case if you follow or actually watched the show and listened to what they said. 

           

            Yes YaYa addresses that it is important to her to maintain and grow her fan base.  She also said that this has become her business; she models, sells merchandise of her likeness and props, gets book for conventions, and has become a brand.  How can you expect a person or company to succeed and grow there business with out a fan base who will buy there products.  So yes, fans are important when you are growing or trying to make a business out of cosplaying. 

                       Another thing the meowing cats were mowing about was the costumes.  Many claimed they were unimpressed with the costumes featured on the show were unimpressive and poorly built.  Some took issue with the only male on the show using foot ball pads for his Fall Out 3cosplay, has anyone of these idiots ever played Fall Out? Well all I hear coming out of there mouths is “ MEOW MEOW MEOW, THEY SUCK, MEOW MEOW MEOW, I CAN MAKE A BETTER COSTUME, MEOW MEOW MEOW I WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW.” 

            What pisses me off with the meowing cats is there blatant attack towards the people on the show.  Attacking them for there looks, costumes and even the name of the show.  Imagur, Tumbler, and Reddit have been filed with “what a real hero looks like” memes in regard to not only the show but to the cosplayers as well.  Holly Conrad addressed this issue over twitter towards a member of the 501^st legion who made a comment about this matter.  Holly response, I believe, reflects what the rest of the cast feels about the criticism of the name Heroes of Cosplay.  You can view her tweet here

Remember guys the show name is a play on dressing up as a costume supper hero and not stating that these people are in fact real life heroes.

            The people on this show are taking the negative response well.  Even comments like this one I saw on a friend's facebook wall: “I just thought of the perfect rename for the show! Yaya's boobs and drama friends!”  Dumb ass was all I could think of when I saw this.  But in response to all of the criticism, the lovely cast will be doing an AMA on Reddit to discuss the show.  Check out more of the response here on Chloe’s Tumbler

            My predictions for this show is in it’s current format it will run the 6 shows they have made and will either do one of the following:

1) Become a short lived series that people will quickly forget about

2) Will get renewed but the format changes from docudrama to competition show like Face Off or Project Runway.

              Would continue watching it if it changes?  What do you like or dislike about the show?  Let me know your thoughts on the show in the comment section below.  See you Monday for a wrap up of my week.

See you on the other side.

Back From A Not So Vacation

             Ok I know that I didn’t really update at all last wee my bad.  But in my defense there wasn’t really anything to talk about other than my mom’s face peeling off from her fraxel procedure (read about it here: fraxel). 

Oh and my dad being a douche to her while she was recovering.  But enough about family life lets get back to the meat and bones, what I did this past weekend. 

Well my man and I went to Seattle tattoo expo. 

Needles to say (haha puns are punny) that the tattoo expo was kinda lame. 

We arrived about 45 minutes after they opened on Sunday and there was a main stage with some people on it showing off there tattoo.  None of which you can see, what they needed to do was to have a camera and a projector so people can see the damn thing.  There were a few booths just selling random stuff, and then there were the artisit/shop booths.  For me walking around no one at any of the booths were engaging, all the art samples from the artists all looked the same (pretty much everyone was doing old school Americana it seemed), and if you wanted to talk to an artist you couldn’t because nearly everyone was tattooing some one on the floor.

I would personally never get something pierced or tattooed at one of these things for the sole purpose of cleanliness or lack there of in these rooms.  So after a half hour and $50 wasted we left the expo very disappointed.  I would say if you are looking to get a quick tattoo then go to here, otherwise you are paying for a huge markup on items that you can buy at there stores for a much cheaper price.

Later that night we hooked up with some friends of our and saw Elysium.  My quick review: Elysium should have been called LAME-sium (there I go again with the puns).

The plot was tired, the characters were flat, and the showing the audience how Elysium differs from Earth is nonexistent.  Save your money and go see the Way Way Back.

Monday rolled around and I went to this free out door yoga class.  I have never taken a yoga class in my life and know only a few moves.  I was nervous and afraid but once I got there I had a blast.  I was stretched and pulled in ways that I thought I could never be and recovering today isn’t that bad, just some sore joints.  I loved being pulled on by the instructor, I felt things pop! 

In my mind I looked like this:

http://creativebioscience.com/blog/five-minutes-of-yoga-strong-arms/

But in reality I looked more like this:

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2010/10/yoga-made-me-fat-candice-garrett/

I will be doing this next week.  If you live in the Seattle area you should check it out in the link: SummerAtSam

  I did another video with my man for his you tube channel where we play games, it not out yet but you should still check out his channel to hear the lovely sound of my voice: MagicalNegroEntertainment

I will be doing a Friday blog so see you lovely people then!

See you on the other side

Bitch'n Fridays: Review

This week I wanted to write a review on an app that I have been addicted to recently: Zombies Ate My Friends

  The game is made by Glu and came out a few months ago.  I have only started playing this past week and am digging it for an app game.  I like the fact that you can customize your character right off the bat and it has and episodic game play.  I do not know how often they launch a new episode but when I downloaded the game on my iPad it had 8 episodes.  

 Starting off you are a survivor running away from zombies who just ate your friends.  You run into other survivors, complete missions and go on to the next chapter fleeing in a helicopter.  Eventually you gather your crack team of survivors to find a cure for the zombie out break.  

The game play isn't hard, tap on zombie and out pops a list of attacks to kill him with.  Your attacks depend on your chosen weapons, they vary from pistols to assault rifles and frying pans to a pie cutter of death!   You can only equip two weapons at a time and will have to be constantly fixing them before they break.  You will also be using energy to attack the zombies, but that run out very quickly.  You have two options to regain you energy, Waite or buy it.  This is a free download game but they will get you on buying in game cash.

When you are not killing zombies you are looting around garbage and crates for energy,xp,and cash, or finding a person to complete or gain a quest.To upgrade of sell unwanted items you sell them to merchants in safe houses that are in predetermine areas in which you have to fortify.  The whole point of safe houses is when you die you will be transported to the nearest one.  

Overall I am digging the art style and cartoonie sound effects, the music is solid and works well with the game.  Easy combat and funny story makes this an easy game to pick up in your App Store.  The down side is the pay for more money and skulls(currency) and the combat can get a little repetitive.  Go out and give it a try, it's free and I have found if you wait an hour most of your energy has come back and you can keep on playing.

See you on the other side