Tweak

InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "haha ur mom did it"

Sheila Blackstone has a heart on the highway. (intodarkness) wrote in paxletalelogs,
@ 2010-08-10 18:35:00

Entry tags:

fūjin, nephthys

Who: Chris and Sheila
What: Movie-night
Where: Chris’ apartment
When: Sometime during the week after this
Warnings: ~~Sean Connery in an orange loincloth~~ Swearing?

Chris’ text came while she was at work and answered immediately after. Sheila didn’t think much could be worse than a screwing with mythology or more horrifying. At least Disney’s Hercules poked some fun at its inaccuracies. Clash of the Titans had taken itself far too seriously. As a storyteller – even if words were her forte versus filmography, it had been embarrassing. Some bad movie from the 70’s couldn’t be worse, could it? Mainly she was humoring Chris and enjoying an evening that should at least have some humor More often than not, Chris provided it.

She didn’t bother changing from her work clothes, only tossing her shoulder bag into 301 before heading down the hall. She rapped on the empty doors as she went along before pausing in front of Chris’. Finding no reason to glance around, she put her hands to her mouth and hollered. “HEY, OPEN UP! IT’S SHEILA.” No point in being quiet about it.

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windbagged
2010-08-11 04:18 am UTC (link)

He nodded at her evaluation, agreeing entirely, up until she hit the last sentence, and there the argument rose - but it wasn't his usual pure anger, it was an actual sense of arguing. As far into that as Chris could go without resorting to insults and yelling the roof down, anyway.

"Oh, come on! Just because that one's a total mindfuck doesn't mean train wrecks aren't enjoyable. You can look back on them and laugh! I watch movies just because they are bad. This one ... well, I tried that with this one. It only works half the time. You need a group to do it right." He pointed the bowl at her. "Don't tell me you didn't laugh a little at some points."

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intodarkness
2010-08-11 04:28 am UTC (link)

She frowned, hands crunching the popcorn in her hands. "Maybe," she said, before jutting an elbow out to the TV. "But wouldn't it be better to watch something that gives you something? Makes you either feel better or worse, gives you some knowledge beyond orange is never anyone's color."

Pausing, she did conced - with a piece of the popcorn to her mouth. "I did laugh a little. But that's not the point."

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windbagged
2010-08-11 04:37 am UTC (link)

"This totally gives me something." Chris crunched the kernels and grimaced as he felt the little pieces lodge in his teeth, like they always did, but he just liked them, all right. "It makes me feel better in my own skills. If that piece of shit can get made with people lauding it all these years later, I've got this in the bag."

He meant, of course, his directing ability. Not that he'd made anything in over two months, what with moving and working and so on, but Chris was dead set on eventually making something great. If Zardoz could get a film audience, then he so could, no doubt. And they'd all love it, because he would hire a costume designer that didn't have five hundred bucks to their budget.

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intodarkness
2010-08-11 05:42 am UTC (link)

He got a grin about that. "Good. But don't get sloppy because this was bad. You can still do better." She glanced at the box again, picking it up with her free hand. "Much better. I demand a decent plot. And no orange allowed."

She looked up, box still in hand. "Getting over-confident is one of the worst things you can do." Never mind that she was a hypocrite in that regard. She was imparting advice, not taking her own.

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windbagged
2010-08-11 05:54 pm UTC (link)

"Damn straight I can do better! This is like the bottom of the barrel. Or a couple inches above the barrel. If I have to get down to this level, I'll just jump out the window or something. And if there's orange, it won't be in loincloths, okay. There won't be any loinclothes at all." In this, Chris was absolutely confident.

Overconfidence, though, wasn't in his dictionary, and he scowled at her when she accused him of it - or suggest he not become it.

"I'm not overconfident, I'm fucking good, all right? Other people just need to realize that." He glanced at the stacks of movies from successful (or not) directors, from the people who'd had vision and brought it to life. He'd have his own collection someday. With his name on them. Then he'd be living like he should.

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intodarkness
2010-08-11 08:14 pm UTC (link)

Her nose wrinkled slightly. "No need to kill yourself over that." Maybe. She didn't have much of an aversion to death in general; but suicide was a slightly touchy subject. One could walk into danger blindly. Killing yourself to escape something went back too far. "I think you'll be fine," she assured him.

She tossed the last of the popcorn into her mouth, chewing as he went on. "Okay. What's your next film going to be about then? Are you working on one now?"

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windbagged
2010-08-11 08:23 pm UTC (link)

"I, uh ... "

Chris fiddled with the bowl and its last few unpopped kernels, looking around at anywhere but Sheila. As much as he loved movies and insisted he knew how to direct, how to work that sort of thing, how to make a fine goddamn movie ... well, there was a reason he was living in this apartment building and working at the Tower of Terror. Not that he would ever admit it, but it was still there.

"Not really, y'know. Just sort of putzing around and trying to get things to look good. I saw Inception like six times - I wanna try something like that. That was some intense shit, right there." He looked at her critically, suddenly distracted. "Did you see it?"

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intodarkness
2010-08-11 08:29 pm UTC (link)

Sheila knew that look well enough. Maybe he wasn't a writer exactly, but when Writer's Block was around it made everything impossible. She'd had her own few bouts over the years, dealing with that sudden inability to come up with anything decent to tell or write about. Not an easy thing to talk about and she switched subjects immediately. She didn't want to be too much of a hypocrite.

"No. Should I? I've been busy with work and hanging out at the parks."

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windbagged
2010-08-11 08:39 pm UTC (link)

A perfect distraction that took away all the disappointment and a good chunk of the anger, Chris leapt on the topic of a movie and ran with it.

"It's fucking amazing," he said, the half-grin back in an instant. "It's kind of a mindfuck, but not a bad one like this, it's a good one. The end is totally out of this world. Not that I'm gonna tell you, otherwise I'd spoil it. Anyway, it's got all sorts of ridiculous stuff in it - dreams in dreams in dreams and how they all effect each other." He almost wished he had more popcorn, playing the best scenes of the movie in his head like he was. "I'm not sure if the story's actually much good, but the way it's put together? Fucking amazing."

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intodarkness
2010-08-11 09:08 pm UTC (link)

She settled back in her chair, smiling back as he went on. Half of it didn't make sense to her - though after Zardoz, she thought she really knew the difference between a good and a bad movie now. "That's always good," she said simply.

Dreams were always an interesting thing - they revealed more about a person than they'd like to admit. Subconscious and so on - she'd done a course on it in college. She filed away the subject as something to work on, glancing at her watch as she did so. "I'll make a point of seeing it. If it's still out when I'm free next."

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windbagged
2010-08-11 09:20 pm UTC (link)

"Do it. Or if you absolutely can't, then go see it when it's out on DVD. Fuck, I'll have it when it's out on DVD, just drop by and I'll show you it. It's not as effective on a screen this size, but ... " Chris sighed and shrugged a little dramatically. "Hey, better to see it small than not at all, right?"

Chris stood up and headed into the kitchen, dropping the popcorn bowl in the sink and looking into the microwave. There was some fake butter shit on the door, and a little on the sides, but he ignored it for the moment - he could clean it in a bit.

"Now you gotta share that piece of shit with the world, someday. The more people, the better. Hurt 'em good." Just a little sadistic, maybe.

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intodarkness
2010-08-12 04:47 am UTC (link)

Sheila could care less about what screen she saw it on. But she had a good idea on how much this mattered to others and she nodded, mock serious. "Definitely. You just tell me when you have it then."

That advice did spark a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean? Why would you make more people see it?" Not that this wasn't exactly a terrible time with Chris' company and criticism countering the shitty movie - but not everyone would get that. Besides, it was his movie.

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windbagged
2010-08-12 05:17 pm UTC (link)

"Because, you show that to enough people, traumatize them so they actually believe you? It's hilarious."

A small part of Chris's mind tried to ring a warning bell here, but as per usual, he ignored it.

"The more people walk out a little more thoughtful on what actually makes a bad movie, the better. Some philosophical nonsensical piece of shit like that totally outweighs what people think is awful these days." He shut the microwave door and stood aimlessly in the kitchen for a few moments, as if picturing what the world would be like if everybody shared his vision of good cinematography.

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intodarkness
2010-08-13 01:35 am UTC (link)

Her eyebrow remained raised throughout his explanation. One it didn't make sense - and he had an obvious fault in his argument. Her fingers twirled in her hair until he was done, waiting a moment before following him to the kitchen. "Not that I want bad books or movies, but if we didn't have them the bar of what is bad would go down."

She leaned against the counter, arms crossed. "If they walked out on all the bad movies, they'd stop being made. Then the good ones wouldn't be as good because the difference would be smaller. The whole scale of things would change."

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windbagged
2010-08-15 12:19 am UTC (link)

"Yeah, well, I ... "

He faltered in the face of her argument as it crystallized in his mind. It was true. If there were no bad movies, then there would, as a consequence, be no good movies. They'd have no good comparisons. Everything would be dragged down ... and what chance would he have? It was a realization he hadn't come to of late, and so Chris shook his head and pressed his hands against the counter.

"Shit. I never thought of that." He grimaced. "Does this mean that I have to put up with this kind of bullshit for the rest of my life? Ugh." Well, he didn't have to see all of them ... but the point was that he was slightly wrong, or had been. Damn.

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intodarkness
2010-08-15 05:39 am UTC (link)

Her smile widened as it dawned on him. Good. Point made. She liked that feeling a tad too much, she realized. Maybe she should work on it. Shoving the slight self-consciousness aside, Sheila crossed her arms more tightly. "You don't have to watch it all. Just rise above it, y'know?"

She shrugged, going on. "And it's just logic, when you think about it. But you could learn from the bad ones people like. What things are popular." Here her nose wrinkled. "Even if they're just fluff."

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windbagged
2010-08-16 01:18 am UTC (link)

"Obviously. I mean, what else would I do? Sink to that level? Whatever." Chris waved a hand as if he was discarding and dismissing all the awful movies, the bad craftsmanship, the godforsaken acting - like he wasn't going to even acknowledge it. Even though he planned to, at one point or another. "Hey, just because something's popular doesn't mean it's good ... or bad. Whatever I make is something everybody's gonna like for one reason or another."

Naturally, anybody who said otherwise was just doing so to look cool. Fucking hipsters, clearly. Chris tried to ignore the potential for that and folded the half-empty box of microwave popcorn shut, dropping it back in its place under the counter.

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intodarkness
2010-08-17 06:07 am UTC (link)

As he dismissed it, Sheila couldn't help but giggle. No need to worry about that from Chris. It was nice to have artistic integrity about. "I'm glad," she said honestly. And to that she nodded fervently. "But people only seem to care if it is popular, versus it's true merit."

She watched him for a moment before glancing to her watch. "When are you on for work tomorrow?"

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windbagged
2010-08-17 05:51 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, well, they can fuck off," Chris said absently. At least he knew all his friends - or the people he was acquainted with, anyway - would appreciate what he did. Popular or not, they'd see it, right? He planned to hold them to that kind of thing. That was what friends did, after all. "Early, because I got off early today. I'm there for opening and don't get off until late."

The life of a salaried Disney slave. Chris scowled and glanced up at Sheila.

"Why? What about you?"

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