THE CONTINUOUS SHOT FROM THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT

The fifth episode of the Book of Boba Fett is my favorite, and one I keep re-watching, mostly for the continuous shot that starts at the 7:04 mark, and lasts until 9:21.

After some gorgeous shots of the ring world of Glavis, we seen Mando walking to the elevator to deliver the bounty.

This interaction says everything, without a single word being said.

The camera goes in motion to Mando’s right, and goes around the entire table. I’ve watched this several times, and it’s fun watching all the subtle movements and reactions that each person sitting around the table has.

See? The camera continued around the table to Mando’s left side, and will follow him out of the club.

The music fades, and we’re left with Mando struggling with his hurt leg.

Mando gets off the elevator, and he walks by the camera and out of frame, ending the continuous shot at the 9:21 mark, cutting to another camera angle.

I haven’t noticed any of the big episode “wrap up” articles making note of this, but I did find a small thread on Reddit talking about.

“Before he 1st goes into the elevator, the shot begins with Mando walking out from behind a arched pillar on his right & a low concrete ledge on his left leading up to the elevator. Those same set pieces are shown in the same spots each floor he enters/exits the elevator from. The CG backdrop & possibly the slight change in lighting are the only things that changes to give the impression that he is ascending & descending levels,” via Reddit

So yeah, I love it so much.

WORKING WITH HOLD TIGHT

I’ve been working with the fine folk at HOLD TIGHT since late last year, but now it’s official:

Over the last couple of years we’ve developed a variety of flexible offerings, including approaching newer media (YouTube reactionaries, Twitch streamers) and building our digital marketing wing – headed up by our legendary Darren Gosling.

The next natural step was to build email marketing into our marketing operation, so allow me to introduce the lovely Seth Werkheiser, who’s joined us as a freelance email marketing executive.

Seth might already be a known face to some of you. He’s been writing about music since 2001 and co-founded Noisecreep in 2008. He’s behind the commendable Metal Bandcamp Gift Club and – along with Hold Tight – works with MNRK Heavy (formerly eOne Heavy), and leading US PR agencies.

Read the full announcement here.

QUIET BUT STILL BUSY

While I haven’t been blogging, I’ve been doing a handful of stuff.

I set up an official site for Goodnight, Metal Friend, my “sleepy time metal music” project. I used Notion and Super, plus a theme that I bought from somewhere I can’t remember, but I love it.

https://goodnightmetalfriend.com

Since I’ve been somewhat better with my doom scrolling, I’ve had the time to source all the music for hour long mixes on a weekly basis. So it’s not that I found the time, I just used it differently.

Speaking of using time differently, I’ve started live-streaming on the Blast Radio app, which has been a lot of fun. Twice a week I get on there and make up some dark-ambient chill music in real time.

Then, since I’ve been making these hour long tracks, I trimmed them a bit and made some edits and now they’re also a release on Bandcamp.

With all that, I started a Goodnight, Metal Friend newsletter, here.

I interviewed Joan Pope for the HEAVY METAL EMAIL newsletter.

CLOSE MONDAYS sent out lots of email campaigns for MNRK Heavy, Death Row Records, and Hold Tight.

I’ve Been shifting a lot of that work from “helping busy independent music publicists” towards the DTC email marketing world by way of automation (Airtable and Zapier and Front) and delegation (moving things to Time Etc.).

Definitely shifting gears towards “I do ecommerce email marketing for heavy metal labels.” Hire me and let’s make tens of thousands of dollars a month, cool? seth@closemondays.com

ENJOYING THIS LIVE STREAMING THING

Unfortunately the only way to put a video of mine on this site is to upload it to YouTube, which seems silly, since this audio file actually expires in less than 24 hours, but just posting about it on social media ain’t the answer!

So if you read this blog – I make up these tones and sounds in real time, and stream them on Blast Radio, live to the world. To listen to you need to download the Blast Radio app, but I promise it’s pretty nice. Get it here.

On tonight’s broadcast I had four listeners, which is more than I had a week ago when I started doing this. So I’m just putting this here as a small piece of history. Not really aiming for the stars with this, after all, but I enjoy making these, so if you like them, tune in. Listen here while it’s still live.

Yes, I have downloaded archived copies of each stream, and will be putting them on Bandcamp in a bit. Stay tuned.

I’m going to do a live stream this Friday, January 14th at 9pm ET on both Blast Radio (audio only) and Mix Cloud which will have a video element – bookmark this page here.

My latest mix (#20) was live streamed last Friday. Click below to listen..

I’ve watched a lot of people get into the live streaming thing, mostly on Twitch, or Instagram Live, neither of which I enjoy. Right now Blast Radio and Mixcloud do the job, but my ultimate set up would be something I control, on my own domain name, on my own website.

But that’s a project for another evening.

ON A ROAD TO NOWHERE

Cancelled my co-working spot because, well, COVID. We’re heading towards 30,000 new cases per day. My friend’s uncle is in the ICU with COVID, and had to wait six hours for a hospital bed. Just gonna lay low a bit, I think.

Made a for-real website for Goodnight, Metal Friend using Notion and Super, and I love it. Been streaming live on Blast Radio. Been doing some live stream office hours for HEAVY METAL EMAIL. Trying to find a use for Ghost.

FIVE TOPICS I CAN TALK ABOUT FOR 30 MINUTES

  1. Email Marketing – I mean, it’s a major part of what I do for a living with CLOSE MONDAYS, and I started a newsletter called HEAVY METAL EMAIL for “metal folks who want to start an email list.” So yeah, I could talk for an hour about this.
  2. Running – though I’ve only been running nearly every other day (or so) since July of 2016, ran a bunch of races, got advice some great people, coached by the great Grayson Murphy in 2019 / 2020 for a marathon that I never ran because of COVID!
  3. Bikes – I left my Williamsburg, Brooklyn apartment in August of 2010 with a messenger bag and some clothes taped to my handle bars. Rode all the way to Rutherford, NJ. Then kept going, crashing on friend’s couches, all the way to Albuquerque, NM (via a lot of buses). Also traveled by Brompton and train from Miami, FL to Portland, ME. That’s just scratching the surface.
  4. Music blogging – I’m where I’m at in life right now because I started a music blog in 2001, so heck yeah, I can riff on writing, friendships, interviews, gossip, life before social media, all that good stuff.
  5. Growing up in the 80s – the movies, buying a Poison record at a drugstore, the bikes, the toys, the technology… my goodness, what a time to have lived.

CREATED FOR MYSELF

Found this quote from an artist today while sourcing tracks for an upcoming Goodnight, Metal Friend mix:

“These tracks were originally created as a source of inspiration for both myself and meditative purposes.”

Ran Kirlian

For myself. And meditative purposes.

As I recklessly pay for hosting and domain names and set up a newsletter for Goodnight, Metal Friend, I think that’s the biggest part.

I love my new site (see it here). It makes my eyes light up, seeing all the mixes I’ve produced over nearly two years.

The newsletter on Substack will be partly meditative, too. A log of the journey, seeing where all this goes.

Putting this out into the world doesn’t feel like obligation, like a regimented “content creation” schedule that I must adhere to. The easiest “posting schedule” or whatever is simply sharing what you make every now and again.

A lot of people won’t get it. Some people might. In the end, it’s for me.

THE MATRIX MIRRORED

I started to watch Matrix Resurrections and the Matrix at the same time, like a totally normal person. I had two windows open, and tried to sync them up, but just started skipping ahead to notable moments.

“I think we can handle one little girl.”
“No lieutenant, your men are already dead.”
During the entire scene (from the original, and watching in real time with Resurrections), these line up pretty much perfect.
“Maybe you know him by his real name… Neo.”

So then Bugs runs away from the agents, and then it cuts to the “old” Matrix code, as the camera pulls out to Thomas (bottom), staring ahead with dead eyes.

The next scene in the original Matrix (after the whole “white rabbit tattoo” thing), is DRAGULA (top)! Again, Thomas sort of staring off into space.

Original Matrix, Neo on the left.
Matrix Resurrection: Thomas on the right.

OLD – METACORTEX (what a silly name that the Matrix programmers would use) NEW – SIMULATTE (what a silly name that the Matrix programmers would use)

Next scene… Original Matrix, Thomas on the left.
Matrix Resurrection: Thomas on the right.

The look of someone who’s about to talk to someone they’ve never talked to before.
OLD: Morpheus
NEW: “Trinity”

So the next major moment (save for Thomas trying to get to the scaffolding, the Modal 101: File Purged) is… this.

Exact opposites again!

OLD: Agents entering the room, Thomas to the right and sitting.
NEW: Thomas entering the room (not sitting), Smith on the right.

This is as far as I got on a Sunday night, just sort of clicking ahead here and there. These shots don’t seem coincidental. Perhaps a play on the “mirror image” concept?

I’m sure there’s more shots down the road that are similar, like with Morpheus fighting Neo, the first stand off with Agent Smith after he’s been freed (again).