Maggie Stiefvater's Blog: Maggie Stiefvater, page 18

michaelallanleonard:Nyota Uhura by Brian Stelfreeze

michaelallanleonard:

Nyota Uhura by Brian Stelfreeze

vital-information:I told Miyazaki I love the “gratuitous motion” in his films; instead of every...

vital-information:

I told Miyazaki I love the “gratuitous motion” in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are.

“We have a word for that in Japanese,” he said. “It’s called ma. Emptiness. It’s there intentionally.”

Is that like the “pillow words” that separate phrases in Japanese poetry?

“I don’t think it’s like the pillow word.” He clapped his hands three or four times. “The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness, But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb.”

Which helps explain why Miyazaki’s films are more absorbing and involving than the frantic cheerful action in a lot of American animation. I asked him to explain that a little more.

“The people who make the movies are scared of silence, so they want to paper and plaster it over,” he said. “They’re worried that the audience will get bored. They might go up and get some popcorn.

But just because it’s 80 percent intense all the time doesn’t mean the kids are going to bless you with their concentration. What really matters is the underlying emotions–that you never let go of those.

— Roger Ebert in conversation with Hiyao Miyazaki

"The shock of an unexpected death, or a story-altering twist, is a magnified version of the dopamine..."

“The shock of an unexpected death, or a story-altering twist, is a magnified version of the dopamine hit that we get every time we refresh Twitter or Facebook or Instagram to see if there are new likes or faves there, or (god forbid) a spoiler. Compared to that, the excitement of seeing a different kind of blockbuster—one that is meant to stand along as a statement of one kind or another, whether it’s “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Titanic” or “Dunkirk"—can’t help but seem small in comparison, because once you’ve experienced the thing, there’s no more thing to experience. There are no teasers, no stingers, no reveals of the next installment. The thing is what it is. Or was what it was. All you have to look forward to after you’ve seen it are your own thoughts, and perhaps discussions with people who also watched it. I mean really watched it. Not half-watched it while checking Instagram.”

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Matt Zoller Seitz, “Avengers, MCU, Game Of Thrones, And The Content Endgame”, Roger Ebert

People who have been following this blog a long time (hi again, all the new people) know this quote combines two of my favorite pastimes: Scrutinizing the quickly changing landscape of modern moviemaking, and pretending not to be talking about the Marvel movies. 

The rest of it’s pretty great too though.

(via sarahbatistapereira)

blueizzy-izzyblue:Hey @maggie-stiefvater are you a Game of Thrones fan? If so, thoughts on last...

blueizzy-izzyblue:

Hey @maggie-stiefvater are you a Game of Thrones fan? If so, thoughts on last night’s episode? If not, carry on and have a lovely week!

I once watched 10 minutes of one on another person’s screen on an airplane. There was a guy wearing fur in it, I think. Are their dragons in it? For some reason I thought there was no magic in it and then all of a sudden my entire worldview was ripped from beneath me.

petermorwood:aber-flyingtiger:micdotcom:Watch: This...

petermorwood:

aber-flyingtiger:

micdotcom:

Watch: This 92-year-old World War II pilot owned the skies in her old spitfire plane 

Damned good show.

The absolutely best and slightly choked-up bit for me:

“Okay, Joy, when you’re ready - you have control…”

RIP Joy Lofthouse,
14/2/1923 – 15/11/2017, aged 94.

Also RIP Mary Ellis,
2/21917 – 24/7/2018, aged 101.

(At the end of the video, when Joy mentioned the business of radios - Air Transport Auxiliary delivered planes that were “factory-bare” with none of their service equipment in place. No radios - and no guns either, so encountering an enemy intruder aircraft would have been… Exciting.)

heart-is-all-fire:Throwback to when I found out my favorite...

heart-is-all-fire:

Throwback to when I found out my favorite author’s last name literally means “stepfather” in German. Not sure how I feel about this particular discovery. 

Thoughts @maggie-stiefvater ???

weirdly I have yet to meet a Stiefmutter

maggie-stiefvater:maggie-stiefvater:maggie-stiefvater:My...

maggie-stiefvater:

maggie-stiefvater:

maggie-stiefvater:

My daughter has read the Opal short story and now she keeps doodling Opal all over the house. 

Only she keeps giving her a tail WHICH IS NOT CANON SHE’S GROUNDED

ME: go to your room

CHILD:

guess it’s time to RT this now that the story’s out

OPAL STILL DOESN’T HAVE A TAIL THO

today is reminding me of the time I argued with my own child about canon

writing spin-off series is more intimidating than the manual suggests

writing spin-off series is more intimidating than the manual suggests

Tiny sketch with a dull pencil.I used to write tiny weekly short stories for a site called Merry...

Tiny sketch with a dull pencil.

I used to write tiny weekly short stories for a site called Merry Sisters of Fate — do y’all remember it? It was a tremendous amount of work to come up with that many new concepts and characters each week while also writing my novels, but it kept my idea-making part of my brain very sharp and I learned a lot. Doing little sketches from ref every day feels like it does the same thing for my art.

Today, Thing 1 and I did Paint Staunton, where you show up with a blank canvas or paper and draw the...

Today, Thing 1 and I did Paint Staunton, where you show up with a blank canvas or paper and draw the city for a strict 2.5 hours before turning in your painting for judging.

I always think I work fast but under a time constraint suddenly I felt like I was moving through molasses. All decisions felt like the slowest ones.