It’s been a very busy week, so I’ve decided to drop some musings to hit my weekly quota. How lazy, I know. And I’m also spending time playing Stellar Blade all weekend so being productive is the least of my concerns. Ya gotta kick back sometime ya know? But here are some thoughts:

Photography Life

Great clients make the job feel fulfilling. I’ve very fortunate to have had an almost month long sequence of fantastic clients. Not so much the money I’ve earned, but more so how nice and appreciative they’ve been. Must be something in the water, but I’m loving this moment. I had a corporate client the other day that was so nice, I was taken aback. It made me emotional for a second. They were so accomodating, friendly, and just downright pleasant throughout the day it was refreshing. And one of the ladies comes back into the room I was shooting in and goes, “ I just wanted to tell you, these are the best pictures I’ve ever had of myself. Thank you.” I’m not crying, you’re crying.

It’s great when you work with people who appreciate what you do, are thankful for your effort, and also have the decency to be kind and patient throughout the process. As glamorous as shooting models can be, it’s often thankless work. They don’t really care as much; with an almost jaded attitude towards the outcome. Give me a nice old person who is happy they took a great picture over a young model who can’t be bothered to stop staring at her phone while in hair and makeup anyday. Thank you to my clients this week. You all have given me new life.
With all the research I’ve been doing on the current state of Hollywood and filmmaking, I admit I’m a bit undecided on which direction I’ll go in. Writing has been so enjoyable as of late, that I’m not as excited about making a film as I am about writing interesting stories. Sure I’ll make a film or two, but maybe my path is writing books versus making movies? Sometimes when I get in a flow while writing, I feel like it matches my personality and way of working better than being on set. Sitting quietly while I listen to music and write dialogue is so relaxing, almost therapeutic in a way. Who knows what the future holds?
Allow yourself time for R&R. Or a vacation. Whenever I have an abnormally busy week or month, I make sure I take the time for R&R. I remember I used to stay up till the wee hours of the morning retouching, tinkering with camera stuff, or just doing anything random thing related to photography. Now, I force myself to take a break. I don’t count things like gym as a break. But sitting back playing videogames, listening to music, going somewhere new, or just sitting outside people watching helps me recenter myself and keeps me inspired. You can get way to wound up working all the time. Disconnect and just do nothing for a bit. You’ll find that passion and excitement again.

Hollywood

The *Raimi Suit* is still the best Spiderman suit. Fight me.

They say that a hero will save us. Hollywood is really in trouble. It’s so bad that the number 2 film last weekend was Spider-Man 2! Yes, the 2004 Sam Raimi film starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. We could blame the strikes last year for the delay in big Hollywood releases, but I’d say this is also indicative of the desperation movies theaters have in order to get customers. This weekend, Alien(1979) and The Mummy (1999) are being re-released. While I love all three of the aforementioned films, it’s sad that things have declined so much where they have to roll out old classics to get people to even show up. Calling it now, but I expect a round of theater closures within the next year. The demand and customer interest just isn’t what it once was.

Great song. I don’t care, I liked Nickelback.

A few articles on the Hollywood downward spiral. Check out this one by Harpers. This one by Bill Mesce. And this one by NPR. While each goes into great detail about the demise of the business from different angles, I think they miss a crucial point on why movies are so bad and customers have tuned out: politics and social agenda over story. It’s like the dismissiveness and ignorance Democrats have when they speak about people who voted for Trump. It could only be racists, sexists, homophobic people, etc. Instead of being objective and saying, okay, maybe there are some legitimate reasons people would vote for him. We should look at those things and see if we could implement that into our platform. But no, they stubbornly ignore those things and moan when voters don’t show up or go the other way.

The “experts” are weighing in on the demise of Hollywood and but it’s all “streaming services”, “rising costs”, “greedy Hollywood executives”. Nary a mention of the political and social agendas that have been placed at the forefront of most Hollywood productions. Race swaps, gender swaps, completely ruining characters, feminism everywhere, preachy messages. Audiences don’t want THAT. And they have TOLD you they don’t want it. They want to be entertained you idiots. And you refuse to listen. So they tune out. And it’s unlikely you’ll ever get them back. Looking at you Disney.

Gear Talk

I bought another GFX 100 II. Yeah, yeah, I know I said I may be done with medium format, but I couldn’t stay away. I’ll keep it this time as I have a specific use case for it.
The Sony FX3 gets shutter angle. Sony is finally stepping up and giving the FX3 Cinema camera shutter angle capability. No more relying on the ol’ shutter speed being double the frame rate. Just set your shutter angle and choose whatever frame rate you want. You’d think this would be on all their cameras. Panasonic has had it for years, but better late than never I guess. But oddly, it won’t drop until September via a firmware update. It’s not so impressive that the FX3 is getting it, but the fact this feature may start becoming standard in most of Sony’s cameras going forward. I sure hope so.
Batteries with USB-C Charging built-in. After I bought my GFX 100 II, I was in the market for a set of extra batteries. The Fujifilm branded batteries are usually my choice, but I’m not above third-party options. B&H has the Watson line I love but they’re currently closed for Passover, so I went to Amazon and found these amazing batteries from SmallRig with a USB-C Port built-in! No more having to carry obnoxious chargers. Just plug your USB cable right into the battery and go. They have these available for Fuji, Sony, and Canon so find the model you need. If I weren’t already invested heavy in Sony batteries I’d snap these up for Sony as well. I think the original idea was from the company Nitecore as I saw them with them a couple of years ago, but Smallrig is a brand I trust so I went with them.

Videogames & Bombshells

Stellar Blade is out and I’m playing it all weekend. As mentioned above, the controversial South Korean action game, Stellar Blade has finally released and that will be taking up a bit of my time over the weekend. The game sparked controversy and heated debates for its sexy female protagonist which caused quite the online uproar by the usual suspects who don’t want anyone to have any fun anymore. To think a sexy drawn woman is cause for debate. Jessica Rabbit is somewhere laughing to herself. So what the character’s sexy and the costume’s are ridiculous? That’s the whole point. Either lean in to whatever makes your project unique and create something that stands out or hold back because you’re afraid of offending someone and make something average. The former usually fairs better for the creative type. And Stellar Blade is just one game in an ocean of thousands. Don’t like it, play something else. Of course the game could be terrible, but after I played the demo last month, I pre-ordered immediately. Don’t like the slick and sexy veneer fool you, this game is great.

Personally, I want to support companies that go against the grain and are willing to push back against all the ridiculous social and political nonsense that has seeped into every facet of American entertainment. From school curriculums and sports to films and videogames, certain groups have tried to position themselves as the authorities of what people should and should not like. From body types to ethnicities, they want to police what you find attractive and/or beautiful. I’m sick of it and it’s great to see companies throw up a middle finger and make what they want. It also helps when the game comes from another country where entitled America “puritans” can’t push their values and beauty standards onto them. South Korea is not beholden to the thoughts and whims of some liberal college grad in New York.

I could write a thesis on why sexy characters like Eve from Stellar Blade as well as real-life bombshells like Sydney Sweeney are important, but who has the time. Modern America hates beauty. At least in the mainstream. It makes insecure types feel uncomfortable and threatened. While Western game developers focus their time deliberately making characters ugly, outside of the American bubble, sanity still reigns. South Korea and Japan have no problem making characters that look cool, beautiful, sexy, roguishly handsome, etc. How far we’ve fallen in the name of progressivism.

It’s okay to be hot Sydney. Make the *uggies* seethe.

This song from Dragon Quest XI. After replaying and completing the game a second time, it’s officially my favorite of game all-time. The story, the themes, the characters, all the amazing, emotional moments, and the soundtrack. Chef’s kiss. I’ll leave you with this gem, With Sadness In Heart by Koichi Sugiyama.